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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13719 ***
+
+                         BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                          Edinburgh
+
+                          MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+                          VOL. LVI.
+
+                     JULY-DECEMBER, 1844.
+
+                      [Illustration]
+
+
+                           1844.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+             No. CCCXLV. JULY, 1844. VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+                            CONTENTS.
+
+
+      CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME
+      THE HEART OF THE BRUCE
+      MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+      THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS
+      POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. I.
+      MY FIRST LOVE.--A SKETCH IN NEW YORK
+      HYDRO-BACCHUS
+      MARTIN LUTHER.--AN ODE
+      TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. NO. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR
+      PORTUGAL
+      MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XII.
+      THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                         EDINBURGH:
+
+         WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
+                 AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+      To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.
+
+       SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+        PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+            No. CCCXLV.   JULY, 1844.   VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME.
+
+
+If the past increase and present amount of crime in the British
+islands be alone considered, it must afford grounds for the most
+melancholy forebodings. When we recollect that since the year 1805,
+that is, during a period of less than forty years, in the course of
+which population has advanced about sixty-five _per cent_ in Great
+Britain and Ireland, crime in England has increased seven hundred per
+cent, in Ireland about eight hundred per cent, and in Scotland above
+_three thousand six hundred per cent_;[1] it is difficult to say what
+is destined to be the ultimate fate of a country in which the
+progress of wickedness is so much more rapid than the increase of the
+numbers of the people. Nor is the alarming nature of the prospect
+diminished by the reflection, that this astonishing increase in human
+depravity has taken place during a period of unexampled prosperity
+and unprecedented progress, during which the produce of the national
+industry had tripled, and the labours of the husbandman kept pace
+with the vast increase in the population they were to feed--in which
+the British empire carried its victorious arms into every quarter of
+the globe, and colonies sprang up on all sides with unheard-of
+rapidity--in which a hundred thousand emigrants came ultimately to
+migrate every year from the parent state into the new regions
+conquered by its arms, or discovered by its adventure. If this is the
+progress of crime during the days of its prosperity, what is it
+likely to become in those of its decline, when this prodigious vent
+for superfluous numbers has come to be in a great measure closed, and
+this unheard-of wealth and prosperity has ceased to gladden the land?
+
+[Footnote 1: See No. 343, _Blackwood's Magazine_, p. 534, Vol. lv.]
+
+To discover to what causes this extraordinary increase of crime is to
+be ascribed, we must first examine the localities in which it has
+principally arisen, and endeavour to ascertain whether it is to be
+found chiefly in the agricultural, pastoral, or manufacturing
+districts. We must then consider the condition of the labouring
+classes, and the means provided to restrain them in the quarters
+where the progress of crime has been most alarming; and inquire
+whether the existing evils are insurmountable and unavoidable, or
+have arisen from the supineness, the errors, and the selfishness of
+man. The inquiry is one of the most interesting which can occupy the
+thoughts of the far-seeing and humane; for it involves the temporal
+and eternal welfare of millions of their fellow-creatures;--it may
+well arrest the attention of the selfish, and divert for a few
+minutes the profligate from their pursuits; for on it depends whether
+the darling wealth of the former is to be preserved or destroyed, and
+the exciting enjoyments of the other arrested or suffered to
+continue.
+
+To elucidate the first of these questions, we subjoin a table,
+compiled from the Parliamentary returns, exhibiting the progress of
+serious crime in the principal counties, agricultural pastoral, and
+manufacturing, of the empire, during the last fifteen years. We are
+unwilling to load our pages with figures, and are well aware how
+distasteful they are to a large class of readers; and if those
+results were as familiar to others as they are to ourselves, we
+should be too happy to take them for granted, as they do first
+principles in the House of Commons, and proceed at once to the means
+of remedy. But the facts on this subject have been so often
+misrepresented by party or prejudice, and are in themselves so
+generally unknown, that it is indispensable to lay a foundation in
+authentic information before proceeding further in the inquiry. The
+greatest difficulty which those practically acquainted with the
+subject experience in such an investigation, is to make people
+believe their statements, even when founded on the most extensive
+practical knowledge, or the more accurate statistical inquiry. There
+is such a prodigious difference between the condition of mankind and
+the progress of corruption in the agricultural or pastoral, and
+manufacturing or densely peopled districts, that those accustomed to
+the former will not believe any statements made regarding the latter.
+They say they are incredible or exaggerated; that the persons who
+make them are _têtes montées_; that their ideas are very vague, and
+their suggestions utterly unworthy the consideration either of men of
+sense or of government. With such deplorable illusions does ignorance
+repel the suggestions of knowledge; theory, of experience;
+selfishness, of philanthropy; cowardice, of resolution. Thus nothing
+whatever is done to remedy or avert the existing evils: the districts
+not endangered unite as one man to resist any attempt to form a
+general system for the alleviation of misery or diminution of crime
+in those that are, and the preponderance of the unendangered
+districts in the legislature gives them the means of effectually
+doing so. The evils in the endangered districts are such, that it is
+universally felt they are beyond the reach of local remedy or
+alleviation. Thus, between the two, nothing whatever is done to
+arrest, or guard against, the existing or impending evils. Meanwhile,
+destitution, profligacy, sensuality, and crime, advance with
+unheard-of rapidity in the manufacturing districts, and the dangerous
+classes there massed together combine every three or four years in
+some general strike or alarming insurrection, which, while it lasts,
+excites universal terror, and is succeeded, when suppressed, by the
+same deplorable system of supineness, selfishness, and infatuation.
+
+[Footnote 2: Table showing the number of committments for serious
+crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned
+counties of Great Britain;--
+
+  I.--PASTORAL.
+
+  Names of Counties. Population    Commitments        Proportion of
+                      in 1841.   for serious crime    committments
+                                     in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Cumberland,         178,038          151             1 in  1,194
+  Derby,              272,217          277             1 in    964
+  Anglesey,            50,891           13             1 in  3,900
+  Carnarvon,           81,093           33             1 in  2,452
+  Inverness-shire,     97,799          106             1 in    915
+  Selkirkshire,         7,990            4             1 in  1,990
+  Argyleshire,         97,371           96             1 in  1,010
+
+        Total,        785,399          680             1 in  1,155
+
+
+  II.-AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Shropshire,         239,048          416             1 in    574
+  Kent,               548,337          962             1 in    569
+  Norfolk,            412,664          666             1 in    518
+  Essex,              344,979          647             1 in    533
+  Northumberland,     250,278          226             1 in  1,106
+  East Lothian,        35,886           38             1 in    994
+  Perthshire,         137,390          116             1 in  1,181
+  Aberdeenshire,      192,387           92             1 in  2,086
+
+           Total,   2,160,969        3,163             1 in    682
+
+
+  III.-MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Middlesex,        1,576,636        3,586             1 in    439
+  Lancashire,       1,667,054        3,987             1 in    418
+  Staffordshire,      510,504        1,059             1 in    482
+  Yorkshire,        1,591,480        1,895             1 in    839
+  Glamorganshire,     171,188          189             1 in    909
+  Lanarkshire,        426,972          513             1 in    832
+  Renfrewshire        155,072          505             1 in    306
+  Forfarshire,        170,520          333             1 in    512
+
+           Total,   6,269,426       12,067             1 in    476
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, 1841, 163; and _Census_ 1841.]
+
+The table in the note exhibits the number of commitments for serious
+offences, with the population of each, of eight counties--pastoral,
+agricultural, and manufacturing--in Great Britain during the year
+1841[2]. We take the returns for that year, both because it was the
+year in which the census was taken, and because the succeeding year,
+1842, being the year of the great outbreak in England, and violent
+strike in Scotland, the figures, both in that and the succeeding
+year, may be supposed to exhibit a more unfavourable result for the
+manufacturing districts than a fair average of years. From this
+table, it appears that the vast preponderance of crime is to be found
+in the manufacturing or densely-peopled districts, and that the
+proportion per cent of commitments which they exhibit, as compared
+with the population, is generally three, often five times, what
+appears in the purely agricultural and pastoral districts. The
+comparative criminality of the agricultural, manufacturing, and
+pastoral districts is not to be considered as accurately measured by
+these returns, because so many of the agricultural counties,
+especially in England, are overspread with towns and manufactories or
+collieries. Thus Kent and Shropshire are justly classed with
+agricultural counties, though part of the former is in fact a suburb
+of London, and of the latter overspread with demoralizing coal mines.
+The entire want of any police force in some of the greatest
+manufacturing counties, as Lanarkshire, by permitting
+nineteen-twentieths of the crime to go unpunished, exhibits a far
+less amount of criminality than would be brought to light under a
+more vigilant system. But still there is enough in this table to
+attract serious and instructive attention. It appears that the
+average of seven pastoral counties exhibits an average of 1
+commitment for serious offences out of 1155 souls: of eight counties,
+partly agricultural and partly manufacturing, of 1 in 682: and of
+eight manufacturing and mining, of 1 in 476! And the difference
+between individual counties is still more remarkable, especially when
+counties purely agricultural or pastoral can be compared with those
+for the most part manufacturing or mining. Thus the proportion of
+commitment for serious crime in the pastoral counties of
+
+  Anglesey, is       1 in 3900
+  Carnarvon,         1 in 2452
+  Selkirk,           1 in 1990
+  Cumberland,        1 in 1194
+
+In the purely agricultural counties of
+
+  Aberdeenshire, is  1 in 2086
+  East-Lothian,      1 in  994
+  Northumberland,    1 in 1106
+  Perthshire,        1 in 1181
+
+While in the great manufacturing or mining counties of
+
+  Lancashire, is     1 in  418
+  Staffordshire,     1 in  482
+  Middlesex,         1 in  439
+  Yorkshire,         1 in  839
+  Lanarkshire,       1 in  832[3]
+  Renfrewshire,      1 in  306
+
+[Footnote 3: Lanarkshire has no police except in Glasgow, or its
+serious crime would be about 1 in 400, or 350.]
+
+Further, the statistical returns of crime demonstrate, not only that
+such is the present state of crime in the densely peopled and
+manufacturing districts, compared to what obtains in the agricultural
+or pastoral, but that the tendency of matters is still worse;[4] and
+that, great as has been the increase of population during the last
+thirty years in the manufacturing and densely peopled districts, the
+progress of crime has been still greater and more alarming. From the
+instructive and curious tables below, constructed from the criminal
+returns given in _Porter's Parliamentary Tables_, and the returns of
+the census taken in 1821, 1831, and 1841, it appears, that while in
+some of the purely pastoral counties, such as Selkirk and Anglesey,
+crime has remained during the last twenty years nearly stationary,
+and in some of the purely agricultural, such as Perth and Aberdeen,
+it has considerably _diminished_, in the agricultural and mining or
+manufacturing, such as Shropshire and Kent, it has _doubled_ during
+the same period: and in the manufacturing and mining districts, such
+as Lancashire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Renfrewshire, more than
+_tripled_ in the same time. It appears, from the same authentic
+sources of information, that the progress of crime during the last
+twenty years has been much more rapid in the manufacturing and
+densely peopled than in the simply densely peopled districts; for in
+Middlesex, during the last twenty years, population has advanced
+about fifty per cent, and serious crime has increased in nearly the
+same proportion, having swelled from 2480 to 3514: whereas in
+Lancashire, during the same period, population has advanced also
+fifty per cent, but serious crime has considerably _more than
+doubled_, having risen from 1716 to 3987.
+
+[Footnote 4: Table, showing the comparative population, and
+committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the
+years 1821, 1831, and 1841.
+
+  I.--PASTORAL
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Cumberland,     156,124     66    169,681     74    178,038    151
+  Derby,          213,333    105    237,070    202    272,217    277
+  Anglesey,        43,325     10     48,325      8     50,891     13
+  Carnarvon,       57,358     12     66,448     36     81,893     33
+  Inverness,       90,157    ...     94,797     35     97,799    106
+  Selkirk,          6,637    ...      6,833      2      7,990      4
+  Argyle,          97,316    ...    100,973     41     97,321     96
+
+
+  II.--AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Shropshire,     266,153    159    222,938    228    239,048    416
+  Kent,           426,916    492    479,155    640    548,337    962
+  Norfolk,        344,368    356    390,054    549    412,664    666
+  Essex,          289,424    303    317,507    607    344,979    647
+  Northumberland, 198,965     70    222,912    108    250,278    226
+  East Lothian,    35,127    ...     36,145     23     35,886     38
+  Perthshire,     139,050    ...    142,894    140    137,390    116
+  Aberdeenshire,  155,387    ...    177,657    161    192,387     92
+
+
+  III.--MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                        1821.             1831.             1841.
+                     Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.
+
+  Middlesex,    1,144,531  2,480  1,358,330  3,514  1,576,636  3,586
+  Lancashire,   1,052,859  1,716  1,336,854  2,352  1,667,054  3,987
+  Staffordshire,  345,895    374    410,512    644    510,504  1,059
+  Yorkshire,      801,274    757    976,350  1,270  1,154,111  1,895
+  Glamorgan,      101,737     28    126,612    132    171,188    189
+  Lanark,         244,387    ...    316,849    470    426,972    513
+  Renfrew,        112,175    ...    133,443    205    155,072    505
+  Forfar,         113,430    ...    139,666    124    l70,520    333
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables, and Census_ 1841.]
+
+Here, then, we are at length on firm ground in point of fact. Several
+writers of the liberal school who had a partiality for manufactures,
+because their chief political supporters were to be found among that
+class of society, have laboured hard to show that manufactures are
+noways detrimental either to health or morals; and that the mortality
+and crime of the manufacturing counties were in no respect greater
+than those of the pastoral or agricultural districts. The common
+sense of mankind has uniformly revolted against this absurdity, so
+completely contrary to what experience every where tells in a
+language not to be misunderstood; but it has now been completely
+disproved by the Parliamentary returns. The criminal statistics have
+exposed this fallacy as completely, in reference to the different
+degrees of depravity in different parts of the empire, as the
+registrar-general's returns have, in regard to the different degrees
+of salubrity in employments, and mortality in rural districts and
+manufacturing places. It now distinctly appears that crime is greatly
+more prevalent in proportion to the numbers of the people in densely
+peopled than thinly inhabited localities, and that it is making far
+more rapid progress in the former situation than the latter.
+Statistics are not to be despised when they thus, at once and
+decisively, disprove errors so assiduously spread, maintained by
+writers of such respectability, and supported by such large and
+powerful bodies in the state.
+
+Nor can it be urged with the slightest degree of foundation, that
+this superior criminality of the manufacturing and densely peopled
+districts is owing to a police force being more generally established
+than in the agricultural or pastoral, and thus crime being more
+thoroughly detected in the former situation than the latter. For, in
+the first place, in several of the greatest manufacturing counties,
+particularly Lanarkshire in Scotland, there is no police at all; and
+the criminal establishment is just what it was forty years ago. In
+the next place, a police force is the _consequence_ of a previous
+vast accumulation or crime, and is never established till the risk to
+life and insecurity to property had rendered it unbearable. Being
+always established by the voluntary assessment of the inhabitants,
+nothing can be more certain than that it never can be called into
+existence but by such an increase of crime as has rendered it a
+matter of necessity.
+
+We are far, however, from having approached the whole truth, if we
+have merely ascertained, upon authentic evidence, that crime is
+greatly more prevalent in the manufacturing than the rural districts.
+That will probably be generally conceded; and the preceding details
+have been given merely to show the extent of the difference, and the
+rapid steps which it is taking. It is more material to inquire what
+are the causes of this superior profligacy of manufacturing to rural
+districts; and whether it arises unavoidably from the nature of their
+respective employments, or is in some degree within the reach of
+human amendment or prevention.
+
+It is usual for persons who are not practically acquainted with the
+subject, to represent manufacturing occupations as necessarily and
+inevitably hurtful to the human mind. The crowding together, it is
+said, young persons, of different sexes and in great numbers, in the
+hot atmosphere and damp occupations of factories or mines, is
+necessarily destructive to morality, and ruinous to regularity of
+habit. The passions are excited by proximity of situation or indecent
+exposure; infant labour early emancipates the young from parental
+control; domestic subordination, the true foundation for social
+virtue, is destroyed; the young exposed to temptation before they
+have acquired strength to resist it; and vice spreads the more
+extensively from the very magnitude of the establishments on which
+the manufacturing greatness of the country depends. Such views are
+generally entertained by writers on the social state of the country;
+and being implicitly adopted by the bulk of the community, the nation
+has abandoned itself to a sort of despair on the subject, and
+regarding manufacturing districts as the necessary and unavoidable
+hotbed of crimes, strives only to prevent the spreading of the
+contagion into the rural parts of the country.
+
+There is certain degree of truth in these observations; but they are
+much exaggerated, and it is not in these causes that the principal
+sources of the profligacy of the manufacturing districts is to be
+found.
+
+The real cause of the demoralization of manufacturing towns is to be
+found, not in the nature of the employment which the people there
+receive, so much as in the manner in which they are brought together,
+the unhappy prevalence of general strikes, and the prodigious
+multitudes who are cast down by the ordinary vicissitudes of life, or
+the profligacy of their parents, into a situation of want,
+wretchedness, and despair.
+
+Consider how, during the last half century, the people have been
+brought together in the great manufacturing districts of England and
+Scotland. So rapid has been the progress of manufacturing industry
+during that period, that it has altogether out-stripped the powers of
+population in the districts where it was going forward, and
+occasioned a prodigious influx of persons from different and distant
+quarters, who have migrated from their paternal homes, and settled in
+the manufacturing districts, never to return.[5] Authentic evidence
+proves, that not less than _two millions_ of persons have, in this
+way, been transferred to the manufacturing counties of the north of
+England within the last forty years, chiefly from the agricultural
+counties of the south of that kingdom, or from Ireland. Not less than
+three hundred and fifty thousand persons have, during the same
+period, migrated into the two manufacturing counties of Lanark and
+Renfrew alone, in Scotland, chiefly from the Scotch Highlands, or
+north of Ireland. No such astonishing migration of the human species
+in so short a time, and to settle on so small a space, is on record
+in the whole annals of the world. It is unnecessary to say that the
+increase is to be ascribed chiefly, if not entirely, to immigration;
+for it is well known that such is the unhealthiness of manufacturing
+towns, especially to young children, that, so far from being able to
+add to their numbers, they are hardly ever able, without extraneous
+addition, to maintain them.
+
+[Footnote 5: Table showing the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in
+the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.
+
+                                                       Increase in
+                       1801       1821         1841    forty years.
+
+  Lancashire,         672,731   1,052,859   1,667,054     994,323
+  Yorkshire, W.R.,    565,282     801,274   1,154,101     588,819
+  Staffordshire,      233,153     343,895     510,504     277,351
+  Nottingham,         140,350     186,873     249,910     109,560
+  Warwick,            208,190     274,322     401,715     193,155
+  Gloucester,         250,809     335,843     431,383     180,574
+
+                    2,070,515   2,995,066   4,412,667   2,343,782
+
+
+  Lanark,             146,699     244,387     434,972     288,273
+  Renfrew,             78,056     112,175     155,072      77,016
+
+                      224,755     356,562     590,044     365,289
+
+  --_Census of_ 1841. Preface, p. 8 and 9.]
+
+Various causes have combined to produce demoralization among the vast
+crowd, thus suddenly attracted, by the alluring prospect of high
+wages and steady employment, from the rural to the manufacturing
+districts. In the first place, they acquired wealth before they had
+learned how to use it, and that is, perhaps, the most general cause
+of the rapid degeneracy of mankind. High wages flowed in upon them
+before they had acquired the artificial wants in the gratification of
+which they could be innocently spent. Thence the general recourse to
+the grosser and sensual enjoyments, which are powerful alike on the
+savage and the sage. Men who, in the wilds of Ireland or the
+mountains of Scotland, were making three or four shillings a-week, or
+in Sussex ten, suddenly found themselves, as cotton-spinners,
+iron-moulders, colliers, or mechanics, in possession of from twenty
+to thirty shillings. Meanwhile, their habits and inclinations had
+undergone scarce any alteration; they had no taste for comfort in
+dress, lodging, or furniture; and as to laying by money, the thing,
+of course, was not for a moment thought of. Thus, this vast addition
+to their incomes was spent almost exclusively on eating and drinking.
+The extent to which gross sensual enjoyment was thus spread among
+these first settlers in the regions of commercial opulence, is
+incredible. It is an ascertained fact, that above a million a-year is
+annually spent in Glasgow on ardent spirits;[6] and it has recently
+been asserted by a respectable and intelligent operative in
+Manchester, that, in that city, 750,000 _more_ is annually spent on
+beer and spirits, than on the purchase of provisions. Is it
+surprising that a large part of the progeny of a generation which has
+embraced such habits, should be sunk in sensuality and profligacy,
+and afford a never-failing supply for the prisons and transport
+ships? It is the counterpart of the sudden corruption which
+invariably overtakes northern conquerors, when they settle in the
+regions of southern opulence.
+
+[Footnote 6: ALISON _on Population_, ii. Appendix A.]
+
+Another powerful cause which promotes the corruption of men, when
+thus suddenly congregated together from different quarters in the
+manufacturing districts, is, that the restraints of character,
+relationship, and vicinity are, in a great measure, lost in the
+crowd. Every body knows what powerful influence public opinion, or
+the opinion of their relations, friends, and acquaintances, exercises
+on all men in their native seats, or when living for any length of
+time in one situation. It forms, in fact, next to religion, the most
+powerful restraint on vice, and excitement to virtue, that exists in
+the world. But when several hundred thousand of the working classes
+are suddenly huddled together in densely peopled localities, this
+invaluable check is wholly lost. Nay, what is worse, it is rolled
+over to the other side; and forms an additional incentive to
+licentiousness. The poor in these situations have no neighbours who
+care for them, or even know their names; but they are surrounded by
+multitudes who are willing to accompany them in the career of
+sensuality. They are unknown alike to each other, and to any persons
+of respectability or property in their vicinity. Philanthropy seeks
+in vain for virtue amidst thousands and tens of thousands of unknown
+names; charity itself is repelled by the hopelessness of all attempts
+to relieve the stupendous mass of destitution which follows in the
+train of such enormous accumulation of numbers. Every individual or
+voluntary effort is overlooked amidst the prodigious multitude, as it
+was in the Moscow campaign of Napoleon. Thus the most powerful
+restraints on human conduct--character, relations, neighbourhood--are
+lost upon mankind at the very time when their salutary influence is
+most required to enable them to withstand the increasing temptations
+arising from density of numbers and a vast increase of wages.
+Multitudes remove responsibility without weakening passion. Isolation
+ensures concealment without adding to resolution. This is the true
+cause of the more rapid deterioration of the character of the poor
+than the rich, when placed in such dense localities. The latter have
+a neighbourhood to watch them, because their station renders them
+conspicuous--the former have none. Witness the rapid and general
+corruption of the higher ranks, when they get away from such
+restraint, amidst the profligacy of New South Wales.
+
+In the foremost rank of the causes which demoralize the urban and
+mining population, we must place the frequency of those strikes which
+unhappily have now become so common as to be of more frequent
+occurrence than a wet season, even in our humid climate. During the
+last twenty years there have been six great strikes: viz. in 1826,
+1828, 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1844. All of these have kept multitudes
+of the labouring poor idle for months together. Incalculable is the
+demoralization thus produced upon the great mass of the working
+classes. We speak not of the actual increase of commitments during
+the continuance of a great strike, though that increase is so
+considerable that it in general augments them in a single year from
+thirty to fifty per cent.[7] We allude to the far more general and
+lasting causes of demoralization which arise from the arraying of one
+portion of the community in fierce hostility against another, the
+wretchedness which is spread among multitudes by months of compulsory
+idleness, and the not less ruinous effect of depriving them of
+_occupation_ during such protracted periods. When we recollect that
+such is the vehemence of party feeling produced by these disastrous
+combinations, that it so far obliterates all sense of right and wrong
+as generally to make their members countenance contumely and insult,
+sometimes even robbery, fire-raising, and murder, committed on
+innocent persons who are only striving to earn an honest livelihood
+for themselves by hard labour, but in opposition to the strike; and
+that it induces twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit
+obedience to the commands of an unknown committee, who have power to
+force them to do what the Sultan Mahmoud, or the Committee of Public
+Safety, never ventured to attempt--to abstain from labour, and endure
+want and starvation for months together, for an object of which they
+often in secret disapprove--it may be conceived how wide-spread and
+fatal is the confusion of moral principle, and habits of idleness and
+insubordination thus produced. Their effects invariably appear for a
+course of years afterwards, in the increased roll of criminal
+commitments, and the number of young persons of both sexes, who,
+loosened by these protracted periods of idleness, never afterwards
+regain habits of regularity and industry. Nor is the evil lessened by
+the blind infatuation with which it is uniformly regarded by the
+other classes of the community, and the obstinate resistance they
+make to all measures calculated to arrest the violence of these
+combinations, in consequence of the expense with which they would
+probably be attended--a supineness which, by leaving the coast
+constantly clear to the terrors of such associations, and promising
+impunity to their crimes, operates as a continual bounty on their
+recurrence.
+
+[Footnote 7:
+
+  Commitments:--
+            Lanarkshire.   Lancashire.   Staffordshire.   Yorkshire.
+  1836         451            2,265           686           1,252
+  1837[8]      565            2,809           909           1,376
+  1841         513            3,987         1,059           1,895
+  1842[9]      696            4,497         1,485           2,598
+
+  PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, xi. 162.--_Parl. Paper of Crime_,
+  1843, p. 53.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Strike.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Strike.]
+
+Infant labour, unhappily now so frequent in all kinds of factories,
+and the great prevalence of female workers, is another evil of a very
+serious kind in the manufacturing districts. We do not propose to
+enter into the question, recently so fiercely agitated in the
+legislature, as to the practicability of substituting a compulsory
+ten-hours' bill for the twelve hours' at present in operation.
+Anxious to avoid all topics on which there is a difference of opinion
+among able and patriotic men, we merely state this prevalence and
+precocity of juvenile labour in the manufacturing and mining
+districts as _a fact_ which all must deplore, and which is attended
+with the most unhappy effects on the rising generation. The great
+majority, probably nine-tenths, of all the workers in cotton-mills or
+printfields, are females. We have heard much of the profligacy and
+licentiousness which pervade such establishments; but though that may
+be too true in some cases, it is far from being universal, or even
+general; and there are numerous instances of female virtue being as
+jealously guarded and effectually preserved in such establishments,
+as in the most secluded rural districts. The real evils--and they
+follow universally from such employment of juvenile females in great
+numbers in laborious but lucrative employment--are the emancipation
+of the young from parental control, the temptation held out to
+idleness in the parents from the possibility of living on their
+children, and the disqualifying the girls for performing all the
+domestic duties of wives and mothers in after life.
+
+These evils are real, general, and of ruinous consequence. When
+children--from the age of nine or ten in some establishments, of
+thirteen or fourteen in all--are able to earn wages varying from 3s.
+6d. to 6s. a-week, they soon become in practice independent of
+parental control. The strongest of all securities for filial
+obedience--a sense of dependence--is destroyed. The children assert
+the right of self-government, because they bear the burden of
+self-maintenance. Nature, in the ordinary case, has effectually
+guarded against this premature and fatal emancipation of the young,
+by the protracted period of weakness during childhood and
+adolescence, which precludes the possibility of serious labour being
+undertaken before the age when a certain degree of mental firmness
+has been acquired. But the steam-engine, amidst its other marvels,
+has entirely destroyed, within the sphere of its influence, this
+happy and necessary exemption of infancy from labour. Steam is the
+moving power; it exerts the strength; the human machine is required
+only to lift a web periodically, or damp a roller, or twirl a film
+round the finger, to which the hands of infancy are as adequate as
+those of mature age. Hence the general employment of children, and
+especially girls, in such employments. They are equally serviceable
+as men or women, and they are more docile, cheaper, and less given to
+strikes. But as these children earn their own subsistence, they soon
+become rebellious to parental authority, and exercise the freedom of
+middle life as soon as they feel its passions, and before they have
+acquired its self-control.
+
+If the effect of such premature emancipation of the young is hurtful
+to them, it is, if possible, still more pernicious to their parents.
+Labour is generally irksome to man; it is seldom persevered in after
+the period of its necessity has passed. When parents find that, by
+sending three or four children out to the mills or into the mines,
+they can get eighteen or twenty shillings a-week without doing any
+thing themselves, they soon come to abridge the duration and cost of
+education, in order to accelerate the arrival of the happy period
+when they may live on their offspring, not their offspring on them.
+Thus the purest and best affections of the heart are obliterated on
+the very threshold of life. That best school of disinterestedness and
+virtue, the _domestic hearth_, where generosity and self-control are
+called forth in the parents, and gratitude and affection in the
+children, from the very circumstance of the dependence of the latter
+on the former, is destroyed. It is worse than destroyed, it is made
+the parent of wickedness: it exists, but it exists only to nourish
+the selfish and debasing passions. Children come to be looked on, not
+as objects of affection, but as instruments of gain; not as forming
+the first duty of life and calling forth its highest energies, but as
+affording the first means of relaxing from labour, and permitting a
+relapse into indolence and sensuality. The children are, practically
+speaking, sold for slaves, and--oh! unutterable horror!--_the sellers
+are their own parents_! Unbounded is the demoralization produced by
+this monstrous perversion of the first principles of nature. Thence
+it is that it is generally found, that all the beneficent provisions
+of the legislature for the protection of infant labour are so
+generally evaded, as to render it doubtful whether any law, how
+stringent soever, could protect them. The reason is apparent. The
+parents of the children are the chief violators of the law; for the
+sake of profit they send them out, the instant they can work, to the
+mills or the mines. Those whom nature has made their protectors, have
+become their oppressors. The thirst for idleness, intoxication, or
+sensuality, has turned the strongest of the generous, into the most
+malignant of the selfish passions.
+
+The habits acquired by such precocious employment of young women, are
+not less destructive of their ultimate utility and respectability in
+life. Habituated from their earliest years to one undeviating
+mechanical employment, they acquire great skill in it, but grow up
+utterly ignorant of any thing else. We speak not of ignorance of
+reading or writing, but of ignorance in still more momentous
+particulars, with reference to their usefulness in life as wives and
+mothers. They can neither bake nor brew, wash nor iron, sew nor knit.
+The finest London lady is not more utterly inefficient than they are,
+for any other object but the one mechanical occupation to which they
+have been habituated. They can neither darn a stocking nor sew on a
+button. As to making porridge or washing a handkerchief, the thing is
+out of the question. Their food is cooked out of doors by persons who
+provide the lodging-houses in which they dwell--they are clothed from
+head to foot, like fine ladies, by milliners and dressmakers. This is
+not the result of fashion, caprice, or indolence, but of the entire
+concentration of their faculties, mental and corporeal, from their
+earliest years, in one limited mechanical object. They are unfit to
+be any man's wife--still more unfit to be any child's mother. We hear
+little of this from philanthropists or education-mongers; but it is,
+nevertheless, not the least, because the most generally diffused,
+evil connected with our manufacturing industry.
+
+But by far the greatest cause of the mass of crime of the
+manufacturing and mining districts of the country, is to be found in
+the prodigious number of persons, especially in infancy, who are
+reduced to a state of destitution, and precipitated into the very
+lowest stations of life, in consequence of the numerous ills to which
+all flesh--but especially all flesh in manufacturing communities--is
+heir. Our limits preclude the possibility of entering into all the
+branches of this immense subject; we shall content ourselves,
+therefore, with referring to one, which seems of itself perfectly
+sufficient to explain the increase of crime, which at first sight
+appears so alarming. This is the immense proportion of _destitute
+widows with families_, who in such circumstances find themselves
+immovably fixed in places where they can neither bring up their
+children decently, nor get away to other and less peopled localities.
+
+From the admirable statistical returns of the condition of the
+labouring poor in France, prepared for the _Bureau de l'Intérieure_,
+it appears that the number of widows in that country amounts to the
+enormous number of 1,738,000.[10] This, out of a population now of
+about 34,000,000, is as nearly as possible _one in twenty_ of the
+entire population! Population is advancing much more rapidly in Great
+Britain than France; for in the former country it is doubling in
+about 60 years, in the latter in 106. It is certain, therefore, that
+the proportion of widows must be greater in this country than in
+France, especially in the manufacturing districts, where early
+marriages, from the ready employment for young children, are so
+frequent; and early deaths, from the unhealthiness of employment or
+contagious disorders, are so common. But call the proportion the
+same: let it be taken at a twentieth part of the existing population.
+At this rate, the two millions of strangers who, during the last
+forty years, have been thrown into the four northern counties of
+Lancaster, York, Stafford, and Warwick, must contain at this moment
+_a hundred thousand widows_. The usual average of a family is two and
+a half children--call it two only. There will thus be found to be
+200,000 children belonging to these 100,000 widows. It is hardly
+necessary to say, that the great majority, probably four-fifths of
+this immense body, must be in a state of destitution. We know in what
+state the fatherless and widows are in their affliction, and who has
+commanded us to visit them. On the most moderate calculation,
+250,000, or an eighth of the whole population, must be in a state of
+poverty and privation. And in Scotland, where, during the same period
+of forty years, 350,000 strangers have been suddenly huddled together
+on the banks of the Clyde, the proportion may be presumed to be the
+same; or, in other words, _thirty thousand_ widows and orphans are
+constantly there in a state deserving of pity, and requiring support,
+hardly any of whom receive more from the parish funds than _a
+shilling a-week_, even for the maintenance of a whole family.
+
+The proportion of widows and orphans to the entire population, though
+without doubt in some degree aggravated by the early marriages and
+unhealthy employments incident to manufacturing districts, may be
+supposed to be not materially different in one age, or part of the
+country, from another. The widow and the orphan, as well as the poor,
+will be always with us; but the peculiar circumstance which renders
+their condition so deplorable in the dense and suddenly peopled
+manufacturing districts is, that the poor have been brought together
+in such prodigious numbers that all the ordinary means of providing
+for the relief of such casualties fails; while the causes of
+mortality among them are periodically so fearful, as to produce a
+vast and sudden increase of the most destitute classes altogether
+outstripping all possible means of local or voluntary relief. During
+the late typhus fever in Glasgow, in the years 1836 and 1837, above
+30,000 of the poor took the epidemic, of whom 3300 died.[11] In the
+first eight months of 1843 alone, 32,000 persons in Glasgow were
+seized with fever.[12] Out of 1000 families, at a subsequent period,
+visited by the police, in conjunction with the visitors for the
+distribution of the great fund raised by subscription in 1841, 680
+were found to be widows, who, with their families, amounted to above
+2000 persons all in the most abject state of wretchedness and
+want.[13] On so vast a scale do the causes of human destruction and
+demoralization act, when men are torn up from their native seats by
+the irresistible magnet of commercial wealth, and congregated
+together in masses, resembling rather the armies of Timour and
+Napoleon than any thing else ever witnessed in the transactions of
+men.
+
+[Footnote 10: _Statistique de la France, publiée par le
+Gouvernement_, viii. 371-4. A most splendid work.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Fever patients, Glasgow, 1836, 37.
+
+             Fever patients.    Died.
+  1836, . .    10,092        .  1187
+  1837, . .    21,800        .  2180
+               ------           ----
+               31,892           3367
+
+--COWAN'S _Vital Statistics of Glasgow_, 1388, p 8, the work of a
+most able and meritorious medical gentleman now no more.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Dr Alison on the Epidemic of 1843, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Captain Millar's Report, 1841, p. 8.]
+
+Here, then, is the great source of demoralization, destitution, and
+crime in the manufacturing districts. It arises from the sudden
+congregation of human beings in such fearful multitudes together,
+that all the usual alleviations of human suffering, or modes of
+providing for human indigence, entirely fail. We wonder at the rapid
+increase of crime in the manufacturing districts, forgetting that a
+squalid mass of two or three hundred thousand human beings are
+constantly precipitated to the bottom of society in a few counties,
+in such circumstances of destitution that recklessness and crime
+arise naturally, it may almost be said unavoidably, amongst them. And
+it is in the midst of such gigantic causes of evil--of causes arising
+from the extraordinary and unparalleled influx of mankind into the
+manufacturing districts during the last forty years, which can bear a
+comparison to nothing but the collection of the host with which
+Napoleon invaded Russia, or Timour and Genghis Khan desolated
+Asia--that we are gravely told that it is to be arrested by education
+and moral training; by infant schools and shortened hours of labour;
+by multiplication of ministers and solitary imprisonment! All these
+are very good things; each in its way is calculated to do a certain
+amount of good; and their united action upon the whole will
+doubtless, in process of time, produce some impression upon the
+aspect of society, even in the densely peopled manufacturing
+districts. As to their producing any immediate effect, or in any
+sensible degree arresting the prodigious amount of misery,
+destitution, and crime which pervades them, you might as well have
+tried, by the schoolmaster, to arrest the horrors of the Moscow
+retreat.
+
+That the causes which have now been mentioned are the true sources of
+the rapid progress of crime and general demoralization of our
+manufacturing and mining districts, must be evident to all from this
+circumstance, well known to all who are practically conversant with
+the subject, but to a great degree unattended to by the majority of
+men, and that is,--that the prodigious stream of depravity and
+corruption which prevails, is far from being equally and generally
+diffused through society, even in the densely peopled districts where
+it is most alarming, but is in a great degree confined to the _very
+lowest class_. It is from that lowest class that nine-tenths of the
+crime, and nearly all the professional crime, which is felt as so
+great an evil in society, flows. Doubtless in all classes there are
+some wicked, many selfish and inhumane men; and a beneficent Deity,
+in the final allotment of rewards and punishments, will take largely
+into account both the opportunities of doing well which the better
+classes have abused, and the almost invincible causes which so often
+chain, as it were, the destitute to recklessness and crime. But
+still, in examining the classes of society on which the greater part
+of the crime comes, it will be found that at least three-fourths,
+probably nine-tenths, comes from the very lowest and the most
+destitute. It is incorrect to say crime is common among them; in
+truth, among the young at least, a tendency to it is there all but
+universal. If we examine who it is that compose this dismal
+substratum, this hideous _black band of society_, we shall find that
+it is not made up of any one class more than another--not of factory
+workers more than labourers, carters, or miners--but is formed by an
+aggregate of the most unfortunate or improvident of _all classes_,
+who, variously struck down from better ways by disease, vice, or
+sensuality, are now of necessity huddled together by tens of
+thousands in the dens of poverty, and held by the firm bond of
+necessity in the precincts of contagion and crime. Society in such
+circumstances resembles the successive bands of which the imagination
+of Dante has framed the infernal regions, which contain one
+concentric circle of horrors and punishments within another, until,
+when you arrive at the bottom, you find one uniform mass of crime,
+blasphemy and suffering.
+
+We are persuaded there is no person practically acquainted with the
+causes of immorality and crime in the manufacturing districts, who
+will not admit that these are the true ones; and that the others,
+about which so much is said by theorists and philanthropists, though
+not without influence, are nevertheless trifling in the balance. And
+what we particularly call the public attention to is this--Suppose
+all the remedies which theoretical writers or practical legislators
+have put forth and recommended, as singly adequate to remove the
+evils of the manufacturing classes, were to be in _united_ operation,
+they would still leave these gigantic causes of evil untouched. Let
+Lord Ashley obtain from a reluctant legislature his ten-hours' bill,
+and Dr Chalmers have a clergyman established for every 700
+inhabitants; let church extension be pushed till there is a chapel in
+every village, and education till there is a school in every street;
+let the separate system be universal in prisons, and every criminal
+be entirely secluded from vicious contamination; still the great
+fountains of evil will remain unclosed; still 300,000 widows and
+orphans will exist in a few counties of England amidst a newly
+collected and strange population, steeped in misery themselves, and
+of necessity breeding up their children in habits of destitution and
+depravity; still the poor will be deprived, from the suddenness of
+their collection, and the density of their numbers, of any effective
+control, either from private character or the opinion of
+neighbourhood; still individual passion will be inflamed, and
+individual responsibility lost amidst multitudes; still strikes will
+spread their compulsory idleness amidst tens of thousands, and
+periodically array the whole working classes under the banners of
+sedition, despotism, and murder; still precocious female labour will
+at once tempt parents into idleness in middle life, and disqualify
+children, in youth, for household or domestic duties. We wish well to
+the philanthropists: we are far from undervaluing either the
+importance or the utility of their labours; but as we have hitherto
+seen no diminution of crime whatever from their efforts, so we
+anticipate a very slow and almost imperceptible improvement in
+society from their exertions.
+
+Strong, and in many respects just, pictures of the state of the
+working classes in the manufacturing districts, have been lately put
+forth, and the _Perils of the Nation_ have, with reason, been thought
+to be seriously increased by them. Those writers, however, how
+observant and benevolent soever, give a partial, and in many respects
+fallacious view, of the _general_ aspect of society. After reading
+their doleful accounts of the general wretchedness, profligacy, and
+licentiousness of the working classes, the stranger is astonished, on
+travelling through England, to behold green fields and smiling
+cottages on all sides; to see in every village signs of increasing
+comfort, in every town marks of augmented wealth, and the aspect of
+poverty almost banished from the land. Nay, what is still more
+gratifying, the returns of the sanatary condition of the whole
+population, though still exhibiting a painful difference between the
+health and chances of life in the rural and manufacturing districts,
+present unequivocal proof of a general amelioration of the chances of
+life, and, consequently, of the general wellbeing of the whole
+community.
+
+How are these opposite statements and appearances to be reconciled?
+Both are true--the reconciliation is easy. The misery, recklessness,
+and vice exist chiefly in one class--the industry, sobriety, and
+comfort in another. Each observer tells truly what he sees in his own
+circle of attention; he does not tell what, nevertheless, exists, and
+exercises a powerful influence on society, of the good which exists
+in the other classes. If the evils detailed in Lord Ashley's
+speeches, and painted with so much force in the _Perils of the
+Nation_, were universal, or even general, society could not hold
+together for a week. But though these evils are great, sometimes
+overwhelming in particular districts, they are far from being
+general. Nothing effectual has yet been done to arrest them in the
+localities or communities where they arise; but they do not spread
+much beyond them. The person engaged in the factories are stated by
+Lord Ashley to be between four and five hundred thousand: the
+population of the British islands is above 27,000,000. It is in the
+steadiness, industry, and good conduct of a large proportion of this
+immense majority that the security is to be found. Observe that
+industrious and well-doing majority; you would suppose there is no
+danger:--observe the profligate and squalid minority; you would
+suppose there is no hope.
+
+At present about 60,000 persons are annually committed, in the
+British islands, for serious offences[14] worthy of deliberate trial,
+and above double that number for summary or police offences. A
+hundred and eighty thousand persons annually fall under the lash of
+the criminal law, and are committed for longer or shorter periods to
+places of confinement for punishment. The number is prodigious--it is
+frightful. Yet it is in all only about 1 in 120 of the population;
+and from the great number who are repeatedly committed during the
+same year, the individuals punished are not 1 in 200. Such as they
+are, it may safely be affirmed that four-fifths of this 180,000 comes
+out of two or three millions of the community. We are quite sure that
+150,000 come from 3,000,000 of the lowest and most squalid of the
+empire, and not 30,000 from the remaining 24,000,000 who live in
+comparative comfort. This consideration is fitted both to encourage
+hope and awaken shame--hope, as showing from how small a class in
+society the greater part of the crime comes, and to how limited a
+sphere the remedies require to be applied; shame, as demonstrating
+how disgraceful has been the apathy, selfishness, and supineness in
+the other more numerous and better classes, around whom the evil has
+arisen, but who seldom interfere, except to RESIST all measures
+calculated for its removal.
+
+It is to this subject--the ease with which the extraordinary and
+unprecedented increase of crime in the empire might be arrested by
+proper means and the total inefficiency of all the remedies hitherto
+attempted, from the want of practical knowledge on the part of those
+at the head of affairs, and an entirely false view of human nature in
+society generally, that we shall direct the attention of our readers
+in a future Number.
+
+[Footnote 14: Viz., in round numbers--
+
+  England,    30,000
+  Ireland,    26,000
+  Scotland,    4,000
+              60,000]
+
+
+
+
+THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.
+
+A BALLAD.
+
+
+  It was upon an April morn
+    While yet the frost lay hoar,
+  We heard Lord James's bugle-horn
+    Sound by the rocky shore.
+
+  Then down we went, a hundred knights,
+    All in our dark array,
+  And flung our armour in the ships
+    That rode within the bay.
+
+  We spoke not as the shore grew less,
+    But gazed in silence back,
+  Where the long billows swept away
+    The foam behind our track.
+
+  And aye the purple hues decay'd
+    Upon the fading hill,
+  And but one heart in all that ship
+    Was tranquil, cold, and still.
+
+  The good Earl Douglas walk'd the deck,
+    And oh, his brow was wan!
+  Unlike the flush it used to wear
+    When in the battle van.--
+
+  "Come hither, come hither, my trusty knight,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee;
+  There is a freit lies near my soul
+    I fain would tell to thee.
+
+  "Thou knowest the words King Robert spoke
+    Upon his dying day,
+  How he bade me take his noble heart
+    And carry it far away:
+
+  "And lay it in the holy soil
+    Where once the Saviour trod,
+  Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,
+    Nor strike one blow for God.
+
+  "Last night as in my bed I lay,
+    I dream'd a dreary dream:--
+  Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand
+    In the moonlight's quivering beam.
+
+  "His robe was of the azure dye,
+    Snow-white his scatter'd hairs,
+  And even such a cross he bore
+    As good Saint Andrew bears.
+
+  "'Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,
+    'With spear and belted brand?
+  Why do ye take its dearest pledge
+    From this our Scottish land?
+
+  "'The sultry breeze of Galilee
+    Creeps through its groves of palm,
+  The olives on the Holy Mount
+    Stand glittering in the calm.
+
+  "'But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart
+    Shall rest by God's decree,
+  Till the great angel calls the dead
+    To rise from earth and sea!
+
+  "'Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede
+    That heart shall pass once more
+  In fiery fight against the foe,
+    As it was wont of yore.
+
+  "'And it shall pass beneath the Cross,
+    And save King Robert's vow,
+  But other hands shall bear it back,
+    Not, James of Douglas, thou!'
+
+  "Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee--
+  For truer friend had never man
+    Than thou hast been to me--
+
+  "If ne'er upon the Holy Land
+    'Tis mine in life to tread,
+  Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth
+    The relics of her dead."
+
+  The tear was in Sir Simon's eye
+    As he wrung the warrior's hand--
+  "Betide me weal, betide me woe,
+    I'll hold by thy command.
+
+  "But if in battle front, Lord James,
+    'Tis ours once more to ride,
+  Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend,
+    Shall cleave me from thy side!"
+
+  And aye we sail'd, and aye we sail'd,
+    Across the weary sea,
+  Until one morn the coast of Spain
+    Rose grimly on our lee.
+
+  And as we rounded to the port,
+    Beneath the watch-tower's wall,
+  We heard the clash of the atabals,
+    And the trumpet's wavering call.
+
+  "Why sounds yon Eastern music here
+    So wantonly and long,
+  And whose the crowd of armed men
+    That round yon standard throng?'
+
+  "The Moors have come from Africa
+    To spoil and waste and slay,
+  And Pedro, King of Arragon,
+    Must fight with them to-day."
+
+  "Now shame it were," cried good Lord James,
+    "Shall never be said of me,
+   That I and mine have turn'd aside,
+    From the Cross in jeopardie!
+
+  "Have down, have down my merry men all--
+    Have down unto the plain;
+   We'll let the Scottish lion loose
+    Within the fields of Spain!"--
+
+  "Now welcome to me, noble lord,
+    Thou and thy stalwart power;
+   Dear is the sight of a Christian knight
+    Who comes in such an hour!
+
+  "Is it for bond or faith ye come,
+    Or yet for golden fee?
+  Or bring ye France's lilies here,
+    Or the flower of Burgundie?'
+
+  "God greet thee well, thou valiant King,
+    Thee and thy belted peers--
+  Sir James of Douglas am I call'd,
+    And these are Scottish spears.
+
+  "We do not fight for bond or plight,
+    Nor yet for golden fee;
+  But for the sake of our blessed Lord,
+    That died Upon the tree.
+
+  "We bring our great King Robert's heart
+    Across the weltering wave,
+  To lay it in the holy soil
+    Hard by the Saviour's grave.
+
+  "True pilgrims we, by land or sea,
+    Where danger bars the way;
+  And therefore are we here, Lord King,
+    To ride with thee this day!"
+
+  The King has bent his stately head,
+    And the tears were in his eyne--
+  "God's blessing on thee, noble knight,
+    For this brave thought of thine!
+
+  "I know thy name full well, Lord James,
+    And honour'd may I be,
+  That those who fought beside the Bruce
+    Should fight this day for me!
+
+  "Take thou the leading of the van,
+    And charge the Moors amain;
+  There is not such a lance as thine
+    In all the host of Spain!"
+
+  The Douglas turned towards us then,
+    Oh, but his glance was high!--
+  "There is not one of all my men
+    But is as bold as I.
+
+  "There is not one of all my knights
+    But bears as true a spear--
+  Then onwards! Scottish gentlemen,
+    And think--King Robert's here!"
+
+  The trumpets blew, the cross-bolts flew,
+    The arrows flash'd like flame,
+  As spur in side, and spear in rest,
+    Against the foe we came.
+
+  And many a bearded Saracen
+    Went down, both horse and man;
+  For through their ranks we rode like corn,
+    So furiously we ran!
+
+  But in behind our path they closed,
+    Though fain to let us through,
+  For they were forty thousand men,
+    And we were wondrous few.
+
+  We might not see a lance's length,
+    So dense was their array,
+  But the long fell sweep of the Scottish blade
+    Still held them hard at bay.
+
+  "Make in! make in!" Lord Douglas cried,
+    "Make in, my brethren dear!
+  Sir William of St Clair is down,
+    We may not leave him here!"
+
+  But thicker, thicker, grew the swarm,
+    And sharper shot the rain,
+  And the horses rear'd amid the press,
+    But they would not charge again.
+
+  "Now Jesu help thee," said Lord James,
+    "Thou kind and true St Clair!
+  An' if I may not bring thee off,
+    I'll die beside thee there!"
+
+  Then in his stirrups up he stood,
+    So lionlike and bold,
+  And held the precious heart aloft
+    All in its case of gold.
+
+  He flung it from him, far ahead,
+    And never spake he more,
+  But--"Pass thee first, thou dauntless heart,
+    As thou were wont of yore!"
+
+  The roar of fight rose fiercer yet,
+    And heavier still the stour,
+  Till the spears of Spain came shivering in
+    And swept away the Moor.
+
+  "Now praised be God, the day is won!
+    They fly o'er flood and fell--
+  Why dost thou draw the rein so hard,
+    Good knight, that fought so well?"
+
+  "Oh, ride ye on, Lord King!" he said,
+    "And leave the dead to me,
+  For I must keep the dreariest watch
+    That ever I shall dree!
+
+  "There lies beside his master's heart
+    The Douglas, stark and grim;
+  And woe is me I should be here,
+    Not side by side with him!
+
+  "The world grows cold, my arm is old,
+    And thin my lyart hair,
+  And all that I loved best on earth
+    Is stretch'd before me there.
+
+  "O Bothwell banks! that bloom so bright,
+    Beneath the sun of May,
+  The heaviest cloud that ever blew
+    Is bound for you this day.
+
+  "And, Scotland, thou may'st veil thy head
+    In sorrow and in pain;
+  The sorest stroke upon thy brow
+    Hath fallen this day in Spain!
+
+  "We'll bear them back into our ship,
+    We'll bear them o'er the sea,
+  And lay them in the hallow'd earth,
+    Within our own countrie.
+
+  "And be thou strong of heart, Lord King,
+    For this I tell thee sure,
+  The sod that drank the Douglas' blood
+    Shall never bear the Moor!"
+
+  The King he lighted from his horse,
+    He flung his brand away,
+  And took the Douglas by the hand,
+    So stately as he lay.
+
+  "God give thee rest, thou valiant soul,
+    That fought so well for Spain;
+  I'd rather half my land were gone,
+    So thou wert here again!"
+
+  We bore the good Lord James away,
+    And the priceless heart he bore,
+  And heavily we steer'd our ship
+    Towards the Scottish shore.
+
+  No welcome greeted our return,
+    Nor clang of martial tread,
+  But all were dumb and hush'd as death
+    Before the mighty dead.
+
+  We laid the Earl in Douglas Kirk,
+    The heart in fair Melrose;
+  And woful men were we that day--
+    God grant their souls repose!
+                               W.E.A.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+THE MUSEUM OF PALERMO.
+
+
+The museum of Palermo is a small but very interesting collection of
+statues and other sculpture, gathered chiefly, they say, from the
+ancient temples of Sicily, with a few objects bestowed out of the
+superfluities of Pompeii. In the lower room are some good
+bas-reliefs, to which a story is attached. They were discovered
+fifteen years ago at _Selinuntium_ by some young Englishmen, the
+reward of four months' labour. Our guide, who had been also theirs,
+had warned them not to stay after the month of June, when malaria
+begins. They did stay. All (four) took the fever; one died of it in
+Palermo, and the survivors were deprived by the government--that is,
+by the king--of the spoils for which they had suffered so much and
+worked so hard. No one is permitted to excavate without royal
+license; _excavation_ is, like _Domitian's fish, res fisci_. Even Mr
+Fagan, who was consul at Palermo, having made some interesting
+underground discoveries, was deprived of them. We saw here a fine
+Esculapius, in countenance and expression exceedingly like the _Ecce
+Homo_ of Leonardo da Vinci, with all that god-like compassion which
+the great painter had imparted without any sacrifice of dignity. He
+holds a poppy-head, which we do not recollect on his statue or gems,
+and the Epidaurian snake is at his side. Up-stairs we saw specimens
+of fruits from Pompeii, barley, beans, the carob pod, pine kernels,
+as well as bread, sponge, linen: and the sponge was obviously such,
+and so was the linen. A bronze Hercules treading on the back of a
+stag, which he has overtaken and subdued, is justly considered as one
+of the most perfect bronzes discovered at Pompeii. A head of our
+Saviour, by Corregio, is exquisite in conception, and such as none
+but a person long familiar with the physiognomy of suffering could
+have accomplished. These are exceptions rather than specimens. The
+pictures, in general, are poor in interest; and a long gallery of
+_casts_ of the _chef-d'oeuvres_ of antiquity possessed by the
+capitals of Italy, Germany, England, and France, looks oddly here,
+and shows the poverty of a country which had been to the predatory
+proconsuls of Rome an inexhaustible repertory of the highest
+treasures of art. A VERRES REDIVIVUS would now find little to carry
+off but toys made of amber, lava snuff-boxes, and WODEHOUSE'S
+MARSALA--one of which he certainly would not guess the _age_ of, and
+the other of which he would not _drink_.
+
+
+LUNATIC ASYLUM.
+
+We saw nothing in this house or its arrangements to make us think it
+superior, or very different from others we had visited elsewhere. The
+making a lunatic asylum a show-place for strangers is to be censured;
+indeed, we heard Esquirol observe, that nothing was so bad as the
+admission of many persons to see the patients at all; for that,
+although some few were better for the visits of friends, it was
+injurious as a general rule to give even friends admittance, and that
+it ought to be left discretionary with the physician, _when_ to
+admit, and _whom_. Cleanliness, good fare, a garden, and the
+suppression of all violence--these have become immutable canons for
+the conduct of such institutions, and fortunately demand little more
+than ordinary good feeling and intelligence in the superintendent.
+But we could not fail to observe a sad want of suitable inducement to
+_occupation_, which was apparent throughout this asylum. That not
+above one in ten could read, may perhaps be thought a light matter,
+for few can be the resources of insanity in books; yet we saw at
+_Genoa_ a case where it had taken that turn, and as it is occupation
+to read, with how much profit it matters not. Not one woman in four,
+as usually occurs in insanity, could be induced to _dress according
+to her sex_; they figured away in men's coats and hats! The
+dining-room was hung with portraits of some merit, by one of the
+lunatics; and we noticed that every face, if indeed all are
+_portraits_, had some insanity in it. They have a dance every Sunday
+evening. What an exhibition it must be!
+
+
+MISCELLANEA
+
+That the vegetation of Palermo excels that of Naples, partly depends
+on the superior intelligence of the agriculturist, and partly upon
+soil and climate: the fruits here are not only more advanced, but
+finer in quality. We left a very meagre dessert of cherries beginning
+to ripen at Naples; the very next day, a superabundance of very fine
+and mature ones were to be had on all the stalls of Palermo. This
+must be the result of industry and care in a great measure; for on
+leaving that city, after a _séjour_ of three weeks, for Messina,
+Catania, and Syracuse, although summer was much further advanced, we
+relapsed into miserably meagre supplies of what we had eaten in
+perfection in the capital; yet Syracuse and Catania are much warmer
+than Palermo.
+
+The vegetables here are of immense growth. The fennel root (and there
+is no better test of your whereabouts in Italy) is nearly twice as
+large as at Naples, and weighs, accordingly, nearly double. The
+cauliflowers are quite colossal; and they have a blue cabbage so big
+that your arms will scarcely embrace it. We question, however,
+whether this hypertrophy of fruit or vegetables improves their
+flavour; give us _English vegetables_--ay, and _English fruit_.
+Though Smyrna's _fig_ is eaten throughout Europe, and Roman _brocoli_
+be without a rival; though the _cherry_ and the Japan _medlar_
+flourish only at Palermo, and the _cactus_ of Catania can be eaten
+nowhere else; what country town in England is not better off on the
+whole, if quality alone be considered? But we have one terrible
+drawback; for _whom_ are these fruits of the earth produced? Our
+_prices_ are enormous, and our supply scanty; could we _forget this_,
+and the artichoke, the asparagus, the peas and beans of London and
+Paris, are rarely elsewhere so fine. To our palates the _gooseberry_
+and the _black currant_ are a sufficient indemnity to Britain for the
+_grape_, merely regarded as a fruit to _eat. Pine-apples_, those
+"illustrious foreigners," are so successfully _petted_ at home, that
+they will scarcely condescend now to flourish out of England.
+_Nectarines_ refuse to ripen, and _apricots_ to have any taste
+elsewhere. Our _pears_ and _apples_ are better, and of more various
+excellence, than any in the world. And we really prefer our very
+figs, grown on a fine _prebendal_ wall in the close of _Winchester_,
+or under _Pococke's_ window in a canon's garden at _chilly Oxford_.
+Thus has the kitchen-garden refreshed our patriotism, and made us
+half ashamed of our long forgetfulness of home. But there are good
+things abroad too for poor men; the rich may live any where. An
+enormous salad, crisp, cold, white, and of delicious flavour, for a
+halfpenny; olive oil, for fourpence a pound, to dress it with; and
+wine for fourpence a gallon to make it disagree with you;[15] fuel
+for almost nothing, and bread for little, are not small advantages to
+frugal housekeepers; but, when dispensed by a despotic government,
+where one must read those revolting words _motu proprio_ at the head
+of every edict, let us go back to our carrots and potatoes, our Peels
+and our income-tax, our fogs and our frost. The country mouse came to
+a right conclusion, and did not like the fragments of the feast with
+the cat in the cupboard--
+
+  Give me again my hollow tree,
+  My crust of bread, and liberty."
+
+[Footnote 15:
+
+  ----_Lactuca_ innatat acri
+  Post vinum stomacho.--HOR.]
+
+Fish, though plentiful and various, is not fine in any part of the
+_Mediterranean_; and as to _thunny_, one surfeit would put it out of
+the bill of fare for life. On the whole, though at Palermo and Naples
+the pauper starves not in the streets, the gourmand would be sadly at
+a loss in his requisition of delicacies and variety. Inferior bread,
+at a penny a pound, is here considered palatable by the sprinkling
+over of the crust with a small rich seed (_jugulena_) which has a
+flavour like the almond; it is also strewn, like our caraway seeds in
+biscuits, _into_ the paste, and is largely cultivated for that single
+use. The _capsici_, somewhat similar in flavour to the pea, are
+detached from the radicles of a plant with a flower strikingly like
+the potatoe, and is used for a similar purpose to the jugulena.
+
+This island was the granary of Athens before it nourished Rome; and
+wheat appears to have been first raised in Europe on the plains of
+eastern Sicily. In Cicero's time it returned eightfold; and to this
+day one grain yields its eightfold of increase; which, however, is by
+a small fraction less than our own, as given by M'Culloch in his
+"Dictionary of Commerce." We plucked some _siligo_, or bearded wheat,
+near Palermo, the beard of which was eight inches long, the ear
+contained sixty grains, eight being also in this instance the average
+increase; how many grains, then, must perish in the ground!
+
+In Palermo, English gunpowder is sold by British sailors at the high
+price of from five to seven shillings per English pound; the "Polvere
+_nostrale_" of the Sicilians only fetches 1s. 8d.; yet such is the
+superiority of English gunpowder, that every one who has a passion
+for popping at sparrows, and other _Italian sports_, (complimented by
+the title of _La caccia_,) prefers the dear article. When they have
+killed off all the robins, and there is not a twitter in _the whole
+country_, they go to the river side and shoot _gudgeons_.
+
+The Palermo donkey is the most obliging animal that ever wore long
+ears, and will carry you cheerfully four or five miles an hour
+without whip or other _encouragement_. The oxen, no longer white or
+cream-coloured, as in Tuscany, were originally importations from
+Barbary, (to which country the Sicilians are likewise indebted for
+the _mulberry_ and _silk-worm_.) Their colour is brown. They rival
+the Umbrian breed in the herculean symmetry of their form, and in the
+possession of horns of more than Umbrian dimensions, rising more
+perpendicularly over the forehead than in that ancient race. The
+lizards here are such beautiful creatures, that it is worth while to
+bring one away, and, to _pervert_ a quotation, "UNIUS _Dominum sese
+fecisse_ LACERTAE." Some are all green, some mottled like a mosaic
+floor, others green and black on the upper side, and orange-coloured
+or red underneath. Of snakes, there is a _Coluber niger_ from four to
+five feet in length, with a shining coat, and an eye not pleasant to
+watch even through glass; yet the peasants here put them into their
+Phrygian bonnets, and handle them with as much _sang-froid_ as one
+would a walking-stick.
+
+The coarse earthen vessels, pitchers, urns, &c., used by the
+peasants, are of the most beautiful shapes, often that of the ancient
+_amphora_; and at every cottage door by the road-side you meet with
+this vestige of the ancient arts of the country.
+
+The plague which visited Palermo in 1624 swept away 20,000
+inhabitants; Messina, in 1743, lost 40,000. The cholera, in 1837,
+destroyed 69,253 persons. The present population of the whole island
+is 1,950,000; the female exceeds the male by about three per cent,
+which is contrary to the general rule. It is said that nearly
+one-half the children received into the foundling hospital of Palermo
+die within the first year.
+
+Formerly the barons of Sicily were rich and independent, like our
+English gentlemen; but they say that, since 1812, the king's whole
+pleasure and business, as before our _Magna Charta_ times, have been
+to lower their importance. In that year a revolt was the consequence
+of an income-tax even of two per cent, for they were yet unbroken to
+the yoke; but now that he has saddled property with a deduction,
+_said_ to be eventually equal to fifteen per cent, if not more; now
+that he doubles the impost on the native sulphur, which is therefore
+checked in its sale; now that he keeps an army of 80,000 men to play
+at soldiers with; now that he constitutes himself the only referee
+even in questions of commercial expediency, and _a fortiori_ in all
+other cases, which he settles _arbitrarily_, or does not settle at
+all; now that he sees so little the signs of the times, that he will
+not let a professor go to a science-congress at Florence or Bologna
+without an express permission, and so ignorant as to have _refused_
+that permission for fear of a political bias; now that he diverts a
+nation's wealth from works of charity or usefulness, to keep a set of
+foreigners in his pay--they no doubt here remember in their prayers,
+with becoming gratitude, "the holy alliance," or, as we would call
+it, the _mutual insurance company of the kings of Europe_, of which
+Castlereagh and Metternich were the honorary secretaries.
+
+In the midst of all the gloomy despotism, beautiful even as
+imagination can paint it, is Palermo beautiful! One eminent advantage
+it possesses over Naples itself--its vicinity presents more "drives;"
+and all the drives here might contest the name given to one of them,
+which is called "_Giro delle Grazie_," (the Ring or Mall of the
+Graces.) It has a _Marina_ of unrivaled beauty, to which the noblesse
+and the citizens repair and form a promenade of elegant equipages. A
+fine pavement for foot passengers is considerately raised three or
+four feet above the carriage road; so that the walking population
+have nothing to annoy them. The sea is immediately below both, and
+you see the little rock-encircled bays animated with groups of those
+sturdy fishermen with bare legs; which you admire in Claude and
+Salvator, throwing before them, with admirable precision, their
+_épervier_ net, whose fine wrought meshes sometimes hang, veil-like,
+between you and the ruddy sunset, or plashing, as they fall nightly
+into the smooth sea, contribute the pleasure of an agreeable sound to
+the magic of the scenery. Some take the air on donkeys, which go at a
+great rate; some are mounted on Spanish mules, all mixed together
+freely amidst handsome and numerous equipages; and the whole is
+backed by a fine row of houses opposite the sea, built after the
+fashion of our terraces and crescents at watering-places. And
+finally, that blue _æquor_, as it now deserves to be termed, studded
+over with thunny boats and coasting craft with the haze latine sail,
+that we should be sorry to trust in British hands, is walled in by
+cliffs so bold, so rugged, and standing out so beautifully in relief,
+that for a moment we cannot choose but envy the citizen of
+_Panormus_. But we may not tarry even here; _we have more things_ to
+see, and every day is getting hotter than the last.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO SEGESTE.
+
+Leaving Palermo early, we pass _Monreale_ in our way to the Doric
+columns of _Segeste_, and find ourselves, before the heat of day has
+reached its greatest intensity, at a considerable elevation above the
+plain on which the capital stands, amidst mountains which, except in
+the difference of their vegetation, remind us not a little of the
+configuration of certain wild parts of the Highlands, where Ben
+Croachin flings his dark shadow across Loch Awe. Indeed, we were
+thinking of this old and favourite fishing haunt with much
+complacency, when two men suddenly came forth from behind the bristly
+aloes and the impenetrable cactus--ill-looking fellows were they;
+but, moved by the kindest intentions for our safety, they offer to
+conduct us through the remainder of the defile. This service our
+hired attendant from Palermo declined, and we push on unmolested to
+Partenico, our halting-place during the heat of the day. It is a town
+of some extent, large enough to afford two fountains of a certain
+pretension, but execrably dirty within. Twelve thousand inhabitants
+has Partenico, and five churches. Out of its five locandas, who shall
+declare the worst? Of that in which we had first taken refuge, (as,
+in a snow-storm on the Alps, any _roof_ is Paradise,) we were obliged
+to quit the shelter, and walk at _noon_, at _midsummer_, and in
+_Sicily_, a good mile _up_ a main street, which, beginning in
+habitations of the dimensions of our almshouses, ends in a few huts
+intolerably revolting, about which troops of naked children defy
+vermin, and encrust themselves in filth. At one door we could not
+help observing that worst form of _scabies_, the _gale à grosses
+bulles;_ so we had got, it appeared, from _Scylla_ into _Charybdis_,
+and were in the very preserves of Sicilian _itch_, and we
+prognosticate it will spread before the month expires wherever human
+skin is to be found for its entertainment. Partenico lies in a
+scorching plain full of malaria. Having passed the three stifling
+hours of the day here, we proceed on our journey to _Alcamo_, a town
+of considerable size, which looks remarkably well from the plain at
+the distance of four miles--an impression immediately removed on
+passing its high rampart gate. Glad to escape the miseries with which
+it threatens the _détenu_, we pass out at the other end, and zigzag
+down a hill of great beauty, and commanding such views of sea and
+land as it would be quite absurd to write about. Already a double row
+of aloë, planted at intervals, marks what is to be your course afar
+off, and is a faithful guide till it lands you in a Sicilian plain.
+This is the highest epithet with which any plain can be qualified.
+This is indeed the month for Sicily. The goddess of flowers now wears
+a morning dress of the newest spring fashion; beautifully _made up_
+is that dress, nor has she worn it long enough for it to be sullied
+ever so little, or to require the washing of a shower. A delicate
+pink and a rich red are the colours which prevail in the tasteful
+pattern of her voluminous drapery; and as she _advances_ on you with
+a light and noiseless step, over a carpet which all the looms of
+Paris or of Persia could not imitate, scattering bouquets of colours
+the most happily contrasted, and impregnating the air with the most
+grateful fragrance, we at once acknowledge her beautiful
+impersonation in that "_monument of Grecian art_," the _Farnese
+Flora_, of which we have brought the fresh recollection from the
+museum of Naples.
+
+The _Erba Bianca_ is a plant like southernwood, presenting a curious
+hoar-frosted appearance as its leaves are stirred by the wind. The
+_Rozzolo a vento_ is an ambitious plant, which grows beyond its
+strength, snaps short upon its overburdened stalk, and is borne away
+by any zephyr, however light. Large crops of _oats_ are already cut;
+and oxen of the Barbary breed, brown and coal-black, are already
+dragging the simple aboriginal plough over the land. Some of these
+fine cattle (to whom we are strangers, as they are to us) stood
+gazing at us in the plain, their white horns glancing in the sun;
+others, recumbent and ruminating, exhibit antlers which, as we have
+said before, surpass the Umbrian cattle in their elk-like length and
+imposing majesty. Arrived at the bottom of our long hill, we pass a
+beautiful stream called _Fiume freddo_, whose source we track across
+the plain by banks crowned with _Cactus_ and _Tamarisk_. Looking back
+with regret towards _Alcamo_, we see trains of mules, which still
+transact the internal commerce of the country, with large packsaddles
+on their backs; and when a halt takes place, these animals during
+their drivers' dinner obtain their own ready-found meal, and browse
+away on three courses of vegetables and a dessert.
+
+
+SICILIAN INNS.
+
+"A beautiful place this _Segeste_ must be! One could undergo any
+thing to see it!" Such would be the probable exclamation of more than
+one reader looking over some _landscape annual_, embellished with
+perhaps _a view_ of the celebrated temple and its surrounding
+scenery; but find yourself at any of the inexpressibly horrid inns of
+_Alcamo_ or _Calatafrini_, (and these are the two principal stations
+between Palermo and Segeste--one with its 12,000, the other with its
+18,000 inhabitants;) let us walk you down the main street of either,
+and if you don't wish yourself at Cheltenham, or some other
+unclassical place which never had a Latin name, we are much mistaken!
+The "_Relievo dei Cavalli_" at Alcamo offers no _relief_ for you! The
+_Magpie_ may prate on her sign-post about _clean_ beds, for magpies
+can be made to say any thing; but pray do not construe the "_Canova
+Divina_" Divine Canova! _He_ never executed any thing for the _Red
+Lion_ of Calatafrini, whose "Canova" is a low wine-shop, full of
+wrangling Sicilian boors. Or will you place yourself under the
+_Eagle's_ wing, seduced by its _nuovi mobili e buon servizio_? Oh, we
+obtest those broken window-panes whether it be not _cruel_ to expose
+_new furniture_ to such perils! For us we put up at the "_Temple of
+Segeste_," attracted rather by its name than by any promise or decoy
+it offers. Crabbe has given to the inns at Aldborough each its
+character: here all are equal in immundicity, and all equally without
+provisions. Some yellow beans lie soaking to soften them. There is
+salt-cod from the north, moist and putrid. There is no milk; eggs are
+few. The ham at the Pizzicarolo's is always bad, and the garlicked
+sausage repulsive. Nothing is painted or white-washed, let alone
+dusted, swept, or scoured. The walls have the appearance of having
+been _pawed_ over by new relays of dirty fingers daily for ten years.
+This is a very peculiar appearance at many nasty places _out_ of
+Sicily, and we really do not know its _pathology_. You tread
+loathingly an indescribable earthen floor, and your eye, on entering
+the apartment, is arrested by a nameless production of the fictile
+art, certainly not of _Etruscan_ form, which is invariably placed on
+the _bolster_ of the truck-bed destined presently for your devoted
+head. Oh! to do justice to a Sicilian _locanda_ is plainly out of
+question, and the rest of our task may as well be sung as said, verse
+and prose being alike incapable of the hopeless reality:--
+
+    "Lodged for the night, O Muse! begin
+  To sing the true Sicilian inn,
+  Where the sad choice of six foul cells
+  The least exacting traveller quells
+  (Though crawling things, not yet in sight,
+  Are waiting for the shadowy night,
+  To issue forth when all is quiet,
+  And on your feverish pulses riot;)
+  Where one wood shutter scrapes the ground,
+  By crusts, stale-bones, and garbage bound;
+  Where unmolested spiders toil
+  Behind the mirror's mildew'd foil;
+  Where the cheap crucifix of lead
+  Hangs o'er the iron tressel'd bed;
+  Where the huge bolt will scarcely keep
+  Its promise to confiding sleep,
+  Till you have forced it to its goal
+  In the bored brick-work's crumbling hole;
+  Where, in loose flakes, the white-wash peeling
+  From the bare joints of rotten ceiling,
+  Give token sure of vermin's bower,
+  And swarms of bugs that bide their hour!
+  Though bands of fierce musquittos boom
+  Their threatening bugles round the room,
+  To bed! Ere wingless creatures crawl
+  Across your path from yonder wall,
+  And slipper'd feet unheeding tread
+  We know not what! To bed! to bed!
+  What can those horrid sounds portend?
+  Some waylaid traveller near his end,
+  From ghastly gash in mortal strife,
+  Or blow of bandit's blood-stained knife?
+  No! no! They're bawling to the _Virgin_,
+  Like victim under hands of surgeon!
+  From lamp-lit _daub_, proceeds the cry
+  Of that unearthly litany!
+  And now a train of mules goes by!
+
+    "One wretch comes whooping up the street
+  For whooping's sake! And now they beat
+  Drum after drum for market mass,
+  Each day's transactions on the _place!_
+  All things that go, or stay, or come,
+  They herald forth by tuck of drum.
+  Day dawns! a tinkling tuneless bell,
+  Whate'er it be, has news to tell.
+  Then twenty more begin to strike
+  In noisy discord, all alike;--
+  Convents and churches, chapels, shrines,
+  In quick succession break the lines.
+  Till every gong in town, at last
+  Its tongue hath loos'd, and sleep is past.
+  So much for nights! New days begin,
+  Which land you in another Inn.
+  O! he that means to see _Girgenti_
+  Or _Syracuse!_--needs patience plenty!"
+
+Crossing a rustic bridge, we pass through a garden (for it is no
+less, though man has had no spade in it) of pinks, marigolds,
+cyclamens, and heart's-ease, &c. &c.; the moist meadow land below is
+a perfect jungle of lofty grasses, all fragrant and in flower, gemmed
+with the unevaporated morning dew, and colonized with the _Aphides,
+Alticæ_, and swarms of the most beautiful butterflies clinging to
+their stalks. _Gramina læta_ after Virgil's own heart, were these.
+Their elegance and unusual variety were sufficient to throw a
+botanist into a perfect HAY fever, and our own first paroxysm only
+went off, when, after an hour's hard collecting, we came to a place
+which demanded _another_ sort of enthusiasm; for THERE stood without
+a veil the _Temple of Segeste_, with one or two glimpses of which we
+had been already astonished at a distance, in all its Dorian majesty!
+This almost unmutilated and glorious memorial of past ages here
+reigns alone--the only building far or near visible in the whole
+horizon; and what a position has its architect secured! In the midst
+of hills on a bit of table-land, apparently made such by smoothing
+down the summit of one of them, with a greensward in front, and set
+off behind by a mountain background, stands this eternal monument of
+the noblest of arts amidst the finest dispositions of nature. There
+is another antiquity of the place also to be visited at Segeste--its
+_theatre_; but we are too immediately below it to know any thing
+about it at present, and must leave it in a parenthesis. To our left,
+at the distance of eight miles, this hill country of harmonious and
+graceful undulation ends in beetling cliffs, beneath which the sea,
+now full in view, lies sparkling in the morning sunshine. We shall
+never, never forget the impressions made upon us on first getting
+sight of Segeste! _Pæstum_ we had seen, and thought that it exhausted
+all that was possible to a temple, or the site of a temple.
+Awe-stricken had we surveyed those monuments of "immemorial
+antiquity" in that baleful region of wild-eyed buffaloes and birds of
+prey--temples to death in the midst of his undisputed domains! We had
+fully adopted Forsyth's sentiment, and held Pæstum to be probably the
+most impressive monument on earth; but here at Segeste a nature less
+austere, and more RIANTE in its wildness, lent a quite different
+charm to a scene which could scarcely be represented by art, and for
+which a reader could certainly not be _prepared_ by description. We
+gave an antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
+2000 years, and of many empires--we _felt_ the vast masses of its
+time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within its precincts, its
+pink valerians; its _erba di vento_, its scented wallflower. The
+whole scene kept our admiration long tasked, but untired. A smart
+shower compelled us to seek shelter under the shoulder of one of the
+grey entablatures: it soon passed away, leaving us a legacy of the
+richest fragrance, while a number of wild birds of the hawk kind,
+called "chaoli" from their shrill note, issued from their
+hiding-places, and gave us wild music as they scudded by!
+
+A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that now
+remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for their
+city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into a belief
+of greater wealth than they possessed.
+
+Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very steep
+one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we scared two of
+those prodigious birds, the _ospreys_, who, having reconnoitred us,
+forthwith began to wheel in larger and larger sweeps, and at last
+made off for the sea. We found the interior of the theatre occupied
+by an audience ready for our arrival; it consisted of innummerable
+_hawks_, the chaoli just mentioned, which began to scream at our
+intrusion. The ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting
+our departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
+a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song would
+save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the 24th of
+May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood, we were
+sorry to return to our inn--and such an inn! We departed abruptly,
+and probably never to return; but we shall think of Segeste in Hyde
+Park, or as we pass the candlestick Corinthians of Whitehall.
+Thucydides[16] relates that a prevailing notion in his time was, that
+the _Trojans_ after losing _Troy_ went first to _Sicily_, and founded
+there Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
+_Greek_ colony was _Naxos_, also in Sicily, Greeks and Trojans
+(strange coincidence!) must have _met again_ on new ground after the
+_Iliad_ was all acted and done with, like a tale that is told.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Vide_ THUCYDIDES, Book iv. chap. 15.]
+
+On our return towards Palermo, one of our party having a touch of
+ague, we crossed the street to the apothecary, (at Calatafrini, our
+night's halt,) and smelling about his musty galenicals, amidst a
+large supply of _malvas_ which were drying on his counter, the only
+wholesome-looking thing amidst his stores, we asked if he had any
+_quinine_. "_Sicuro!_" and he presented us with a white powder having
+a slightly bitter taste, which, together with an ounce of green tea,
+to be dispensed in pinches of five grains on extraordinary occasions,
+comes, he says, from the East. On our observing that the quinine, if
+such at all, was adulterated, and that this was too bad in a country
+of malaria, where it was the poor man's only protection, he looked
+angry; but we rose in the esteem of peasants in the shop, who said to
+each other--"Ed ha ragione il Signor." Wanting a little _soda_, we
+were presented with sub-carbonate of potash as the nearest approach
+to it--a substitution which suggested to us a classical recollection
+from Theocritus; namely, that in this same Sicily, 2000 years ago, a
+Syracusan husband is rated by his dame for sending her _soda_ for her
+washing in place of potash, the very converse of what our old
+drug-vender intended to have washed our inside withal.
+
+The Roman Catholic religion patronises painting oddly here; not a
+cart but is adorned with some sacred subject. Every wretched vehicle
+that totters under an unmerciful load, with one poor donkey to draw
+six men, has its picture of _Souls in Purgatory_, who seem putting
+their hands and heads out of the flames, and vainly calling on the
+ruffians inside to _stop_. We read _Viva la Divina Providenza_, in
+flaming characters on the front board of a carriole, while the whip
+is goading the poor starved brute who drags it; for these barbarians
+in the rear of European civilization, plainly are of opinion that a
+cart with a sacred device shall not _break down_, though its owner
+commit every species of cruelty.
+
+The next day found us again installed at our old quarters in Palermo,
+where, during our brief remaining stay, we visit a conchologist,
+before which event we had no notion that Sicily was so rich in
+shells. Two sides of a moderately large room are entirely devoted to
+his collection. Here we saw a piece of wood nearly destroyed by the
+_Teredo navalis_, or sailor's bore, who seems more active and
+industrious here than elsewhere, and seldom allows himself to be
+taken whole. Out of hundreds of specimens, three or four perfect ones
+were all that this collector could ever manage to extract, the
+molluscous wood-destroyer being very soft and fragile. His length is
+about three inches, his thickness that of a small quill; he lodges in
+a shell of extreme tenuity, and the secretion which he ejects is, it
+seems, the agent which destroys the wood, and pushes on bit by bit
+the winding tunnel. But his doings are nothing to the working of
+another wafer-shelled bivalve, whose tiny habitations are so thickly
+imbedded in the body of a nodule of _flint_ as to render its exterior
+like a sieve, _diducit scopulos aceto_. What solvent can the chemist
+prepare in his laboratory comparable to one which, while it dissolves
+silex, neither harms the insect nor injures its shell. Amongst the
+_fossils_ we notice cockles as big as ostrich eggs, clam-shells twice
+the size of the largest of our Sussex coast, and those of oysters
+which rival soup-plates. We had indeed once before met with them of
+equal size in the lime-beds at _Corneto_. Judging by the _oysters_,
+there must indeed have been _giants_ in those days. But this
+collection was chiefly remarkable for its curious fossil remains of
+_animals_ from _Monte Grifone_. In this same Monte Grifone, which we
+went to visit, is one of the largest of the caves of bones of which
+so many have been discovered--bones of various kinds, some of small,
+some of very large animals, mixed together pell-mell, and
+constituting a fossil paste of scarcely any thing besides. None of
+the geologists, in attempting to explain these deposits, sufficiently
+enter into the question of the origin of the enormous _quantity_, and
+_close juxtaposition_, of such heterogeneous specimens.
+
+By eight o'clock we are on board the _Palermo_ steamer, which is to
+convey us hence to _Messina_. The baked deck, which has been
+saturated with the sun's heat all day, is now cooling to a more
+moderate warmth, and soothing would be the scene but for the noise of
+women and children. Large liquid stars twinkle here and there, like
+so many moons on a reduced scale, over the sea, and the night is
+wholly delightful! A bell rings, which diminishes our numbers, and
+somewhat clears our deck. The boats which carry off the last
+loiterers are gone, shaking phosphorus from their gills, and leaving
+a train of it in their tails; and the many-windowed Pharos of the
+harbour has all its panes lit up, and twinkles after its own fashion.
+Round the bay an interrupted crescent of flickering light is
+reflected in the water, strongest in the middle, where the town is
+thickest, and runs back; and far behind all lights comes the clear
+outline of the darkly defined mountain rising over the city. Our own
+lantern also is up, the authorities have disappeared, Monte Pelegrino
+begins to change its position, we are in motion, and a mighty light
+we are making under us, as our leviathan, turning round her head and
+_snuffing_ the sea, begins to wind out of the harbour. A few minutes
+more, and the luminous tracery of the receding town becomes more and
+more indistinct; but the sky is _all stars_, and the water, save
+where we break its smoothness, a perfect mirror. Wherever the paddles
+play, there the sea foams up into yellow light and _gerbes_ of
+amber-coloured fireballs, caught up by the wheels, and flung off in
+our track, to float past with incredible rapidity. Men are talking
+the language of Babel in the cabin; there is amateur singing and a
+guitar on deck--_Orion_ is on his dolphin--adieu, Palermo!
+
+
+APPROACH TO MESSINA.
+
+The Italian morning presents a beautiful sight on deck to eyes weary
+and sore with night, as night passes on board steamers. We pass along
+a coast obviously of singular conformation, and to a geologist, we
+suppose, full of interest. We encounter a herd of classical dolphins
+out a-pleasuring. We ask about a pretty little town perched just
+above the sea, and called _Giocosa_. By its side lies
+_Tyndaris_--classical enough if we spell it right. The snow on Etna
+is as good as an inscription, and to be read at any distance; but
+what a deception! they tell us it is thirty miles off, and it seems
+to rise immediately from behind a ridge of hills close to the shore.
+The snow cone rises in the midst of other cones, which would appear
+equally high but for the difference of colour. _Patti_ is a
+picturesque little _borgo_, on the hillside, celebrated in Sicily for
+its manufacture of hardware. In the bay of _Melazzo_ are taken by far
+the largest supplies of thunny in the whole Mediterranean. From the
+embayed town so named you have the choice of a cross-road to Messina,
+(twenty-four miles;) but who would abridge distance and miss the
+celebrated straits towards which we are rapidly approaching, or lose
+one hour on land and miss the novelties of volcanic islands, and the
+first view of Scylla and Charybdis? It is but eight o'clock, but the
+awning has been stretched over our heads an hour ago. As to
+breakfast--the meal which is associated with that particular hour of
+the four-and-twenty to all well regulated _minds_ and _stomachs_--it
+consists here of thin _veneers_ of old mahogany-coloured thunny,
+varnished with oil, and relieved by an incongruous abomination of
+capers and olives. The cold fowls are infamous. The wine were a
+disgrace to the sorriest tapster between this and the Alps, and also
+fiery, like every thing else in this district. Drink it, and doubt
+not the old result--_de conviva Corybanta videbis_. (Oh, for muffins
+and dry toast!) Never mind, we shall soon be at Messina. And now we
+approach a point from which the lofty Calabrian coast opposite, and
+the flinty wall of the formidable Scylla, first present themselves,
+but still as distant objects. In another half hour we are just
+opposite the redoubtable rock; and here we turn abruptly at right
+angles to our hitherto course, and find ourselves _within_ the
+straits, from either side of which the English and the French so
+often tried the effect of cannon upon each other. It is now what it
+used to be--fishing ground. The Romans got their finest muræna from
+the whirlpools of _Charybdis_.[17] The shark (_cane di mare_)
+abounding here, would make bathing dangerous were the water smooth;
+but the rapid whirlpools through which our steam-boat dashes on
+disdainfully, would, at the same time, make it impossible to any
+thing but a fish. A passenger assured us he had once seen a man lost
+in the Vistula, who, from being a great swimmer, trusted imprudently
+to his strength, and was sucked down by a vortex of far less
+impetuosity, he thought, than this through which we were moving. From
+this point till we arrived at Messina, as every body was ripe for
+bathing, the whole conversation turned naturally on the Messina
+shark, and his trick of snapping at people's legs carelessly left by
+the owners dangling over the boat's side. We steam up the straits to
+our anchorage in about three-fourths of an hour. The approach is
+fine, very fine. A certain Greek, (count, he called himself,) a great
+traveller, and we afterwards found not a small adventurer, increases
+the interest of the approach, by telling us that the hills before us,
+bubbling up like blisters on chalcedony, have a considerable
+resemblance, though inferior in character, to those which embellish
+the Bosphorus and the first view of Constantinople. Inferior, no
+doubt, in the imposing accessories of mosque and minaret, and of
+cypresses as big as obelisks, which, rising thickly on the heights,
+give to the city of Constantinople an altogether peculiar and
+inimitable charm. Messina is beautifully land-locked. The only
+possible winds that can affect its port are the north-west and
+south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more sea breeze than any
+other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek friend, however, says
+that Constantinople is in this respect not only superior to Messina,
+but to any other place in the seas of Europe. Pity that the fellows
+are Turks! We did not find much to interest us within the walls of
+Messina. There was, to be sure, a fine collection of Sicilian birds,
+amongst which we were surprised to see several of very exotic shape
+and plumage. One long-legged fellow, dressed in a dirty white
+Austrian uniform, with large web-feet, on which he seemed to rest
+with great complacency, particularly arrested our attention. He stood
+as high as the _Venus di Medici_, but by no means so gracefully, and
+thrust his thick carved beak unceremoniously in your face. His card
+of address was _Phoenicopterus antiquorum_. The ancients ate him, and
+he looked as if he would break your nose if you disputed with him. A
+very large finch, which we have seen for sale about the streets here
+and elsewhere in Sicily, rejoices in the imposing name of _Fringilla
+cocco thraustis_. He wears his black cravat like a bird of
+pretension, as he evidently is. The puffin (_Puffinus Anglorum_) also
+frequents these rocks, though a very long way from the Isle of Wight.
+No! Messina, though very fine, is not equal to _Palermo_, with its
+unrivaled _Marina_, compared to which Messina is poorly off indeed,
+in her straggling dirty commerce-doing quay. We went out to see a
+little garden, which contains half a dozen zare-trees and as many
+beautiful birds in cages. We are disappointed at the poverty of our
+dessert in this region of fruitfulness--a few bad oranges, some
+miserable cherries, and that abomination the green almond. We
+observe, for the first time, to-day folks eating in the streets the
+crude contents of a little oval pod, which contains one or two very
+large peas, twice the size of any others. These are the true _cicer_,
+the proper Italian pea. Little bundles of them are tied up for sale
+at all the fruit stalls, and men are seen all the day long eating
+these raw peas, and offering them to each other as sugar-plums.
+
+[Footnote 17: "Virroni muræna datur, quo maxima venit Gurgite de
+Siculo: nam dum se continet Auster, Contemnunt mediam tem eraria lina
+Charybdim." JUVENAL, _Sat._ v. 99.]
+
+In the Corso we see a kind of temporary theatre, the deal sides of
+which are gaudily lined with Catania silk, and on its stage a whole
+_dramatis personæ_ of sacred puppets. It is lighted by tapers of very
+taper dimensions, and its _stalle_ are to be let for a humble
+consideration to the faithful or the curious. It turns out to be a
+religious spectacle, supported on the voluntary system--but there is
+something for your money. A vast quantity of light framework, to
+which fireworks, chiefly of the detonating kind, are attached, are
+already going off, and folk are watching till it be completed. Then
+the evening's entertainment will begin, and a miser indeed must he
+be, or beyond measure resourceless, who refuses halfpence for such
+choice festivities. Desirous to make out the particular
+representation, we get over the fence in order to examine the figures
+of the drama on a nearer view. A smartly dressed saint in a court
+suit, but whom mitre and crosier determine to be a bishop, kneels to
+a figure in spangles, a virgin as fond of fine clothes as the Greek
+Panageia; while on the other side, with one or two priests in his
+train, is seen a crowd in civil costume. A paper cloud above,
+surrounded by glories of glass and tinsel, is supported by two solid
+cherubs equal to the occasion, and presents to the intelligent a
+representation of--we know not what! Fire-works here divide the
+public with the drum--to one or other all advertisement in Sicily is
+committed. A sale of fish and flesh, theatric entertainments,
+processions, and church invitations, are all by tuck of drum, or by
+squib and cracker. How did they get on before the invention of
+gunpowder? If a new coffeehouse is established, a couple of drums
+start it advantageously, and beat like a recruiting party up and down
+the street, to the dismay of all _Forestieri_. The drum tells you
+when the thunny is at a discount, and _fire-works_ are let off at
+_fish stalls_ when customers are slack.
+
+An old tower, five miles off, is called the telegraph. People go
+there for the panorama at the expense of three horses and two hours;
+but you are repaid by two sea views, either of which had been
+sufficient. Messina, its harbour, the straits, the opposite coast of
+Calabria, Scylla, and _Rhegium_, (famed for its bergamot,) are on the
+immediate shore, and a most striking chain of hills for the
+background, which, at a greater distance, have for their background
+the imposing range of the _Abruzzi_. The Æolian islands rise out of
+the sea in the happiest positions for effect. _Stromboli_ on the
+extreme right detaches his grey wreath of smoke, which seems as if it
+proceeded out of the water, (for Stromboli is very low,) staining for
+a moment the clear firmament, which rivals it in depth of colour.
+Some of the volcanic group are so nearly on a level with the water,
+that they look like the backs of so many leviathans at a halt. The
+sea itself lies, a waveless mirror, smooth, shining, slippery, and
+treacherous as a serpent's back--"miseri quibus intentata _nites_,"
+say we.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO TAORMINA.
+
+We left Messina under a sky which no painter would or could attempt;
+indeed, it would not have looked well on paper, or out of reality.
+There are certain unusual, yet magnificent appearances in nature,
+from which the artist conventionally abstains, not so much from the
+impotence of art, as that the nearer his approach to success the
+worse the picture. At one time the colours were like shot or clouded
+silk, or the beautiful uncertainty of the Palamida of these shores,
+or the matrix of opal; at another, the Pacific Ocean above, of which
+the continuity is often for whole months _entire_, was broken into
+gigantic continents and a Polynesia of rose-coloured islands that no
+ships might approach; while in this nether world the middle of the
+Calabro-Sicilian strait was occupied by a condensation of vapour,
+(one could never profane them by the term of _sea-mist_ or _fog_,)
+the most subtile and attenuated which ever came from the realms of
+cloud-compelling Jove. This fleecy tissue pursued its deliberate
+progress from coast to coast, like a cortege of cobwebs carrying a
+deputation from the power-looms of _Arachne_ in _Italy_ to the rival
+silk-looms at Catania. We pass the dry beds of mountain torrents at
+every half mile, ugly gashes on a smooth road; and requiring too much
+caution to leave one's attention to be engaged by many objects
+altogether new and beautiful. The rich yellow of the _Cactus_, and
+the red of the _Pomegranate_, and the most tender of all vegetable
+greens, that of the young _mulberry_, together with a sweet
+wilderness of unfamiliar plants, are not to be perfectly enjoyed on a
+fourfooted animal that stumbles, or on a road full of pitfalls. We
+shall only say that the _Cynara cardunculus_, (a singularly fine
+thistle or _wild artichoke_;) the prickly uncultivated _love-apple_,
+(a beautiful variety of the _Solanum_,) of which the decoction is not
+infrequently employed in nephritic complaints; the _Ferula_, sighing
+for occupation all along the sea-shore, and shaking its scourge as
+the wind blows; the _Rhododendron_, in full blossom, planted amongst
+the shingles; the _Thapsia gargarica_, with its silver umbel, looking
+at a short distance like mica, (an appearance caused by the shining
+white fringe of the capsule encasing its seed,) and many other
+strange and beautiful things, were the constant attendants of our
+march. We counted six or seven varieties of the spurge,
+(_Euphorbium_,) each on its milky stem, and in passing through the
+villages had _Carnations_ as large as _Dahlias_ flung at us by
+sunburnt urchins posted at their several doors. The sandy shore for
+many miles is beautifully notched in upon by tiny bays like basins,
+on which boats lie motionless and baking in the sun, or oscillate
+under a picturesque rock, immersed up to its shoulders in a green
+_hyaloid_, which reflects their forms from a depth of many fathoms.
+On more open stretches of the shore, long-drawn ripples of waves of
+tiny dimension are overrunning and treading on one another's heels
+for miles a-head, and tapping the anchored boat "with gentle blow."
+The long-horned oxen already spoken of, toil along the seaside road
+like the horses on our canal banks, and tug the heavy felucca towards
+Messina--a service, however, sometimes executed by men harnessed to
+the towing-cord, who, as they go, offend the Sicilian muses by sounds
+and by words that have little indeed of the [Greek: Dôriz aoida]. The
+gable ends of cottages often exhibit a very primitive windmill for
+sawing wood within doors. It is a large wheel, to the spokes of which
+flappers are adjusted, made of coarse matting, and so placed as to
+profit by the ordinary sea breeze; and, while the _wind_ is thus
+_sawing_ his planks for him, the carpenter, at his door, carries on
+his craft. We pass below not a few fortresses abutting over the sea,
+or perched on the mountain tops. Many of these are of English
+construction, and date from the occupation of the island during the
+French war: in a word, the whole of this Sicilian road is so
+variously lovely, that if we did not know the _cornice_ between
+_Nice_ and _Genoa_, we should say it was quite unrivaled, being at
+once in lavish possession of all the grand, and most of the milder
+elements of landscape composition. It is long since it became no
+wonder to us that the greatest and in fact the only, real pastoral
+poet should have been a Sicilian; but it is a marvel indeed, that,
+having forgotten to bring his _Eclogues_ with us, we cannot, through
+the whole of Sicily, find a copy of Theocitus for sale, though there
+is a _Sicilian_ translation of him to be had at Palermo. As he
+progresses thus delightfully, a long-wished for moment awaits the
+traveller approaching towards _Giardini_--turning round a far
+projecting neck of land, _Etna_ is at last before him! A
+disappointment, however, on the whole is Etna himself, thus
+introduced. He looks far below his stature, and seems so _near_, that
+we would have wagered to get upon his shoulders and pull his ears,
+and return to the little town to dine; the ascent also, to the eye,
+seems any thing but steep; nor can you easily be brought to believe
+that such an expedition is from Giardini a three days' affair,
+except, indeed, that yonder belt of snow in the midst of this
+roasting sunshine, has its own interpretation, and cannot be
+mistaken. Alas! In the midst of all our flowers there was, as there
+always is, the _amari aliquid_--it was occasioned here by the
+_flies_. They had tasked our _improved_ capacity for bearing
+annoyances ever since we first set foot in Sicily; but _here_ they
+are perfectly incontrollable, stinging and buzzing at us without
+mercy or truce, not to be driven off for a second, nor persuaded to
+drown themselves on any consideration. Verily, the honey-pots of
+Hybla itself seem to please these troublesome insects less than the
+_flesh_-pots of Egypt.
+
+The next day begins inauspiciously for our ascent to Taormina; but
+the attendants of the excursion are already making a great noise,
+without which nothing can be done in either of the two Sicilies. A
+supply of shabby donkeys are brought and mounted, and, once astride,
+we begin to ascend, the poor beasts tottering under our weight, and
+by their constant stumbling affording us little inclination to look
+about. It takes about three-fourths of an hour of this donkey-riding
+to reach the old notched wall of the town. Two Taorminian citizens at
+this moment issue from under its arch, in their way down, and
+guessing what we are, offer some indifferent coins which do not suit
+us, but enable us to enter into conversation. We demand and obtain a
+_cicerone_, of whom we are glad to get rid after three hours'
+infliction of his stupidity and endurance of his ignorance, without
+acquiring one idea, Greek, Roman, Norman, or Saracen, out of all his
+erudition. After going through the whole tour with such a fellow for
+a Hermes, we come at last upon the far-famed theatre, where we did
+not want him. Here, however, a very intelligent attendant, supported
+by the king of Naples on a suitable pension of five baiocchi a-day,
+takes us out of the hands of the Philistine, and with a plan of the
+ground to aid us, proceeds to give an intelligible, and, as appears
+to us, a true explanation of the different parts of the huge
+construction, in the area of which we stand delighted. He directed
+our attention to a large arched tunnel, under and at right angles to
+the pulpita, and we did not want direction to the thirty-six niches
+placed at equal distances all round the ellipse, and just over the
+lowest range of the CUNEI. All niches were, no doubt, for statues;
+but these might also have been, it pleases some to suppose, for the
+reverberation of applause; and they quote something about
+_"Resonantia Vasa"_ from Macrobius, adding, that such niches were
+once probably lined with brass. Of bolder speculatists, some believe
+the _kennel_ to have been made with a similar intention. Others hold
+that it may have been a concealed way for introducing lions and
+tigers to the arena! Now, what if it were a _drain_ for the waters,
+which, in bad weather, soon collect to a formidable height in such a
+situation? Whether for voice, or wild beasts, or drainage, or none of
+these objects, there it is. As to the first, we cannot help being
+sceptical. Did it ever occur to an audience to wish the noise they
+make _greater_, and contrive expedients for _making it so?_
+
+We are here high up amidst the mountains, where, we are to remember,
+as the ancients came not to spend, like ourselves, an idle hour, but
+to consume most of the day, _shelter_ would be wanted. Two large
+lateral spaces, or as it were, side chambers, have received this
+destination at the hands of the antiquary, and have been supposed
+lobbies for foul weather or for shade at noon. We were made to notice
+by our guide, what we should else have overlooked, how the main
+passage described above communicates with several smaller ones in its
+progress, and that a small stair was a subsequent contrivance or
+afterthought meant to relieve, on emergency, the overcharged large
+one; its workmanship and style showed it plainly to have been added
+when the edifice had already become _an antiquity_. This altogether
+peculiar and most interesting building has also suffered still later
+interpolations: a Saracenic frieze runs round the wall; so that the
+hands of three widely different nations have been busy on the
+mountain theatre, which received its _first audience_ twenty-five
+centuries ago! The view obtained from this spot has often been
+celebrated, and deserves to be. Such mountains we had often seen
+before; such a sky is the usual privilege of Sicily; these indented
+_bays_, which break so beautifully the line of the coast, had been an
+object of our daily admiration; the hoary side of the majestic Etna,
+and Naxos with its castellated isthmus, might be seen from _other_
+elevated situations; and the acuminated tops of Mola, with its
+Saracenic tower, were commanded by neighbouring sites--Taormina
+_alone_, and for its _own_ sake, was the great and paramount object
+in our eyes, and possessed us wholly! We had been following _Lyell_
+half the day in antediluvian remains; but what are the bones of
+_Ichthyosauri_ or _Megalotheria_ to this gigantic skeleton of Doric
+antiquity, round which lie scattered the sepulchres of its ancient
+audiences, Greek, Roman, and Oriental--tombs which had become already
+an object of speculation, and been rifled for arms, vases, or gold
+rings, before Great Britain had made the first steps beyond painted
+barbarism!
+
+The eruptions of Etna have all been recorded. Thucydides mentions one
+of them episodically in the Peloponesian war. From the cooled caldron
+that simmers under all that snow, has proceeded all the lava that the
+ancients worked into these their city walls. The houses of
+Taurominium were built of and upon _lava_, which it requires a
+thousand years to disintegrate. After dinner we walk to Naxos,
+saluting the statue of the patron of a London parish, _St Pancras_,
+on our way. He stands on the beach here, and claims, by inscription
+on his pedestal, to have belonged to the apostolic times, St Peter
+himself having, he says, appointed him to his bishopric. He is patron
+of Taormina, where he has possessed himself of a Greek temple; and he
+also protects the faithful of Giardini. Lucky in his _architects_ has
+been St Pancras; for many of our readers are familiar with his very
+elegant modern church in the New Road, modelled, if we have not
+forgotten, on the Erechtheum, with its _Pandrosean Vestries_, its
+upright tiles, and all the subordinate details of Athenian
+architecture. We _met_ here the subject of many an ancient _bas
+relief_ done into flesh and blood--a dozen men and boys tripping
+along the road to the music of a bagpipe, one old _Silenus_ leading
+the jocund throng, and the whole of them, as the music, such as it
+was, inspired, leaping about and gesticulating with incredible
+activity. It was a bacchanalian subject, which we had seen on many a
+sarcophagus, only that the fellows here were not _quite_ naked, and
+that we looked in vain for those nascent horns and tails by which the
+children of Pan and Faunus ought to be identified. We always look out
+for _natural history_. Walking in a narrow street, we saw a tortoise,
+awake for the season, come crawling out to peep at the poultry; his
+hybernation being over, he wants to be social, and the hens in
+astonishment chuckle round him, and his tortoiseshell highness seems
+pleased at their kind enquiries, and keeps bobbing his head in and
+out of his _testudo_ in a very sentimental manner. Women who want his
+shell for _combs_ do not frequent these parts, and so, unless a cart
+pass over him as he returns home, he is in clover.
+
+A bird frequents these parts with a blue chest, called _Passer
+solitarius;_ he abounds in the rocky crevices. The notes of one,
+which was shown to us in a cage, sounded sweetly; but, as he was
+carnivorous, the weather was too hot for us to think of taking him
+away. We saw two snakes put into the same box: the one, a viper,
+presently killed the other, and much the larger of the two. Serpents,
+then, like men, do _not_, as the _Satirist_ asserts, spare their
+kind. We are disappointed at not finding any coins, nor any other
+good _souvenirs_, to bring away with us. The height of Taormina is
+sufficient to keep it from fever, which is very prevalent at Giardini
+below. Its bay was once a great place for catching _mullet_ for the
+Roman market. It seems to have been the _Torbay_ of Sicily. Some fish
+love their ease, and rejoice not in turbulent waters. The _muræna_,
+or lamprey, on the contrary, was sought in the very whirlpools of
+_Charybdis_. The modern Roman, on his own side of Italy, has few
+turbot, but very good ones are still taken off Ancona, in the
+Adriatic, where the _spatium admirabile Rhombi_, as the reader will,
+or ought to recollect, was taken and sent to Domitian at Albano by
+_Procaccio_ or _Estafetta_. Juvenal complains that the Tyrrhene sea
+was exhausted by the demand for fish, though there was no _Lent_ in
+those times. If the Catholic clergy insist that there _was_, we beg
+to object, that the keepers thereof were probably not in a condition
+to compete with the _Apiciuses_ of the day, who bought fish for their
+_bodies'_, and not for their SOULS' SAKE.
+
+
+CATANIA.
+
+Tum Catane nimium ardenti vicina Typhæo.
+
+After a pleasant drive of twenty miles, we find ourselves at
+_Aci-Reale_, where a street, called "Galatea," reminds us
+unexpectedly of a very classical place called Dean's Yard, where we
+once had doings with _Acis_, as he figures in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_.
+We were here in luck, and, having purchased some fine coins of
+several of the tyrants of Sicily from the apothecary, proceeded on
+our way to Catania. In half an hour we reach the basaltic Isles of
+the Cyclops, and the Castle of Acis, whom the peasants hereabouts
+tell you was their king, when Sicily was under the Saracenic yoke.
+The river _Lecatia_, now lost, is supposed formerly to have issued
+hereabouts, in the port of Ulysses. Our next move placed us amidst
+the silk-slops of Catania. We have hardly been five minutes in the
+town, when offers abound to conduct us up Ætna, in whom, as so much
+national wealth, the inhabitants seem to take as much interest as in
+her useful and productive silk-looms. Standing fearless on the
+pavement of lava that buried their ancient city, they point up with
+complacency to its fountains above. The mischievous exploits of Ætna,
+in past times, are in every mouth, and children learn their Ætnean
+catechism as soon as they are breeched. Ætna here is all in all.
+Churches are constructed out of his quarried _viscera_--great men lie
+in tombs, of which the stones once ran liquid down his flames--snuff
+is taken out of lava boxes--and devotion carves the crucifix on lava,
+and numbers its beads on a lava rosary--nay, the apothecary's mortar
+was sent him down from the great mortar-battery above, and the
+village _belle_ wears fire-proof bracelets that were once too hot to
+be meddled with. Go to the museum, and you will call it a museum of
+Ætnean products. Nodulated, porous, condensed, streaked, spotted,
+clouded, granulated lava, here assumes the colour, rivals the
+compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper, of agate, and of marble;
+indeed it sometimes surpasses, in beautiful veinage, the finest and
+rarest Marmorean specimens. You would hardly distinguish some of it,
+worked into jazza or vase, from _rosso antico_ itself. A very old and
+rusty armoury may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of
+formidable shark skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very
+port of Catania, are rarities on which the _ciceroni_ like to
+prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed by
+them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if you were
+just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of bronzes has been
+made from excavations in the neighbourhood, which, indeed, must
+always promise to reward research. A figure of Mercury, two and a
+half feet high, and so exactly similar to that of John of Bologna,
+that his one seemed an absolute plagiarism, particularly attracted
+our attention on that account. The great Italian artist, however, had
+been dead one hundred and fifty years before this bronze was dug up.
+Next in importance to the bronzes, we esteem the collection of
+Sicilian, or Græco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and
+selectness to those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also
+some ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition
+is a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
+pavement, welcome you with a _utere feliciter_, (may it do you good.)
+Round the border, a circle of the personified _"months"_ is
+artistically chained together, each bearing his _Greek_ name, for
+fear of a mistake--names not half so good as Sheridan's translation
+of the Revolutionary calendar--snowy, flowy, blowy--showery, flowery,
+bowery--moppy, croppy, poppy--breezy, sneezy, freezy. In Catania, we
+find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers, who know pretty
+generally their value throughout Europe; but, in order to be quite
+sure of the price _current,_ ask double what they take from one
+another, and judge, by your abatement of it, of the state of the
+market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when they present you the most
+impudent forgeries, you are not to get into a passion; but, glancing
+from the object to the vender, quietly insinuate your want of
+_absolute_ conviction in a _"che vi pare di questa moneta."_ He now
+looks at it again, and takes a squint at _you;_ and supposing you
+smell a rat, probably replies that certainly he _bought_ it for
+_genuine;_ but you _have suggested a doubt,_ and the piece really
+begins, even to _him_, to look suspicious, _"anzi à me."_ You reply
+coolly, and put it down--"That was just what I was thinking;" and so
+the affair passes quietly off. And now you _may_, if you happen to be
+tender-hearted, say something compassionate to the poor innocent who
+has been _taken in_, and proceed to ask him about another; and when
+you see any thing you long to pocket, enquire what can he afford to
+let a _brother collector_ (give him a step in rank) have _it_ for;
+and so go on feeling your way, and never "putting your arm so far out
+that you cannot comfortably draw it back again." He will probably ask
+you if you know Mr B---- or C----, (English collectors,) with whom he
+has had dealings, calling them "_stimabili signori;_" and, of course,
+you have no doubt of it, though you never heard of them before. It is
+also always conciliative to congratulate him on the possession of
+such and such rare and "_belle cose;_" and if you thus contrive to
+get into his good graces, he will deal with you at _fair prices_, and
+perhaps amuse you with an account of such tricks as he is not ashamed
+to have practised on _blockheads_, who will buy at any cost if the
+die is fine. Indeed, it has passed into an aphorism among these
+_mezzo-galantuomini_, as their countrymen call them, that a fine coin
+is always worth _what you can get for it._
+
+We heard the celebrated organ of St Benedict, which has been praising
+God in tremendous hallelujahs ever since it was put up, and a hundred
+years have only matured the richness of its tones. Its voice was
+gushing out as we entered the church, and filling nave and aisle with
+a diapason of all that was soft and soothing, as if a choir of
+Guido's angels had broke out in harmony.
+
+A stream of fresh water issues under the old town-wall, and an
+immense mass of incumbent lava, of at least ninety feet high, impends
+just above its source, the water struggling through a mass of rock
+once liquefied by fire, in as limpid a rill as if it came from
+limestone, and so excellent in quality that no other is used in
+Catania. Women with buckets were ascending and descending to fetch
+supplies out of the lava of the dead city below, for the use of the
+living town above. Moreover, this is the only point in Catania where
+the accident of a bit of wall arresting for some time the progress of
+the lava current, has left the level of the old town to be rigidly
+ascertained.
+
+Here, as at _Aci-Reale_, balconies at windows, for the most part
+supported by brackets, terminating in human heads, give a rich,
+though rather a heavy, appearance to the street. Much amber is found
+and worked at Catania. It has been lately discovered in a fossil
+state, and in contiguity with fossil wood; but we were quite
+_electrified_ at the price of certain little scent-bottles, and other
+articles made of this production. You see it in all its possible
+varieties of colour, opacity, or transparency. The green opalized
+kind is the most prized, and four pounds was demanded for a pair of
+pendants of this colour for earrings. Besides the yellow sort, which
+is common every where, we see the ruby red, which is very rare: some
+varieties are freckled, and some of the sort which afforded subjects
+for Martial, and for more than one of the Greek anthologists, with
+insects in its matrix. _This_ kind, they say, is found exclusively on
+the coast of Catania. There are such pieces the size of a hand, but
+it is generally in much smaller bits. Amber lies under, or is formed
+_upon_ the sand, and abounds most near the _embouchure_ of a small
+river in this neighbourhood. Many beautiful shells, fossils, and
+other objects of natural history, appear in the dealers' trays; and
+polished knife-handles of Sicilian _agate_ may be had at five dollars
+a dozen.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS.
+
+DON JOHN AND THE HERETICS OF FLANDERS.
+
+
+It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors of
+Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
+knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
+ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and colour,
+the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved fatal to all.
+
+In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were kept up
+by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh, appear studied
+rather than instinctive. At all events, the gallant Sir Philip was
+the last of English knights, as he was the first of his time.
+Thenceforward, the valour of the country assumed a character more
+professional.
+
+But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable of the
+rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed, every faith
+was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became extinct; expiring
+in France with Henri IV. and the League--in Portugal with Don
+Sebastian of Braganza--and in Spain with Charles V., exterminated
+root and branch by the pen of Cervantes.
+
+One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those crumbling
+institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the person of Don
+John of Austria;--a prince who, if consecrated by legitimacy to the
+annals of the throne, would have glorified the historical page by a
+thousand heroic incidents. But the sacrament of his baptism being
+unhappily unpreceded by that of a marriage, he has bequeathed us one
+of those anomalous existences--one of those incomplete destinies,
+which embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.
+
+On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with qualifications
+to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant son was entrusted
+by Charles V. to the charge of the master of his household, Don
+Quexada, the emperor simply described him as the offspring of a lady
+of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But the Infanta Clara Eugenia
+was confidentially informed by her father Philip II., and
+confidentially informed her satellite La Cuea, that her uncle was
+"every way of imperial lineage;" and but that he was the offspring of
+a crime, Don John had doubtless been seated on one of those thrones
+to which his legitimate brother Philip imparted so little
+distinction.
+
+Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the consanguinity of
+Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard, one of the objects of
+the hateful life of the father of Don Carlos seems to have been to
+thwart the ambitious instincts of his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in
+the boiling veins of the young prince abided the whole soul of
+Charles V.,--valour, restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life
+and mysterious death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.
+
+That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
+Holyrood,--Elizabeth at Kenilworth--Carlos at the feet of his
+mother-in-law,--the Béarnais at the gates of Paris,--have engraved
+their type in the book of universal memory. But Don John escapes
+notice--a solitary star outshone by dazzling constellations.
+Commemorated by no medals, flattered by no historiographer, sung by
+no inspired "godson," anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook
+in the temple of fame is out of sight, and forgotten.
+
+Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto, brings
+chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote lost his
+hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us, we dare not
+call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he is known in
+Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular libertine! And
+thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of his name by the
+hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his honours by Cervantes, as
+by Philip II. of a throne.--
+
+Hard fate for one described by all the writers of his time as a model
+of manly grace and Christian virtue! How charming is the account
+given by the old Spanish writers of the noble youth, extricated from
+his convent to be introduced on the high-road to a princely cavalier,
+surrounded by his retinue, whom he is first desired to salute as a
+brother, and then required to worship, as the king of Spain! We are
+told of his joy on discovering his filial relationship to the great
+emperor, so long the object of his admiration. We are told of his
+deeds of prowess against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the
+Moor. We are told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should
+be rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
+revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering throne;
+nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie" was offered to
+his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his untimely death and
+glorious funeral--mourned by all the knighthood of the land! But we
+hear and forget. Some mysterious counter-charm has stripped his
+laurels of their verdure. Even the lesser incidents of the life of
+Don John are replete with the interest of romance. When appointed by
+Philip II. governor of the Netherlands, in order that he might deal
+with the heretics of the Christian faith as with the faithful of
+Mahomet, such deadly vengeance was vowed against his person by the
+Protestant party headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was
+judged necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
+Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the attendant of
+Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the very moment the
+troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight thousand citizens
+in his revolted city of Antwerp!--
+
+The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more pacific
+measures. The dispositions of Don John were humane--his manners
+frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces were exhausted by ten years
+of civil war, and that the pay of the Spanish troops he had to lead
+against them was so miserably in arrear as to compel them to acts of
+atrocious spoliation, the hero of Lepanto appears to have done his
+best to stop the effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the
+counteraction of the Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace
+and an amnesty were proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known
+by the name of the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as
+was compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
+blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
+property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or calculation.
+
+But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the people
+and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have been fully
+sensible that his head was within the jaws of the lion. The blood of
+Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the echoes of the edicts of
+Alva yet lingered in the air; and the very stones of Brussels
+appeared to rise up and testify against a brother of Philip II.!
+
+Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse was
+afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position, by an
+incident which must again be accounted among the romantic adventures
+of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating Margaret of
+Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of indisposition, was
+generally attributed to a design against the heart of the hero of
+Lepanto.
+
+A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could do no
+less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her passage
+through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of that
+stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In process of
+time, a camp was formed in the environs, and fortresses erected on
+the banks of the Meuse under the inspection of Don John; nor was it
+at first easy to determine whether his measures were actuated by
+mistrust of the Protestants, or devotion to the worst and most
+Catholic of wives of the best and most Huguenot of kings.
+
+The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
+Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our edification by
+the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don John of blindness,
+in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her, and the absolute
+liberty accorded her during her residence at Spa, where she was
+opening a road for the arrival of her brother the Duke of Alençon. It
+is admitted, indeed, that her attack upon his heart met with defeat.
+But the young governor is said to have made up in chivalrous
+courtesies for the disappointment of her tender projects; and
+Margaret, if she did not find a lover at Namur, found the most
+assiduous of knights.
+
+Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French princess were
+as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was as completely
+absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as her highness by
+the desire of converting them into the subjects of France. It was
+only those admitted into the confidence of Don John who possessed the
+clue to the mystery.
+
+Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with which he
+had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint him with the
+suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had given rise.
+
+"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said he,
+when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels have
+been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour, that I
+had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but the silken
+pastimes of a court."
+
+"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in my
+steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the trumpets of my
+camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder lines," continued he,
+(pointing from a window of the citadel, near which they were
+standing, commanding the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse,) "and my
+utmost diversion, an occasional charge against the boars in yonder
+forest of Marlagne!"
+
+"I cannot but suppose it more than _occasional_," rejoined Gonzaga;
+"for I must pay your highness the ill compliment of avowing, that you
+appear more worn by fatigue and weather at this moment, and in this
+sunless clime, than at the height of your glorious labours in the
+Mediterranean! Namur has already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow
+than Barbary or Lepanto."
+
+"Say rather in my _heart_!" cried the impetuous prince. "Since you
+quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have known nothing but
+cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing, that my position in this
+country is hateful. So long accustomed to war against a barbarous
+enemy, I could almost fancy myself as much a Moor at heart, as I
+appeared in visage, when in your service on my way to Luxembourg,
+whenever I find my sword uplifted against a Christian breast!--Civil
+war, Ottavio, is a hideous and repugnant thing!"--
+
+"The report is true, then, that your highness has become warmly
+attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded Gonzaga,
+not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain, that an
+opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the Barlaimont
+faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway of absolute
+sovereignty.
+
+"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me at my
+arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet more and
+more. Flemings or Brabançons, Hainaulters or Walloons, Catholic or
+Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and despite our best
+endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the feeling is reciprocal!"
+
+"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the Queen of
+Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,--"I can scarcely wonder at the
+hopes she is said to entertain of having won over the governor of
+Mons to the French interest, during her transit through Flanders."
+
+"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing. "It may
+indeed be so!--for never saw I a woman less scrupulous in the choice
+or use of arms to fight her battles. But, trust me, whatever her
+majesty may have accomplished, is through no aiding or abetting of
+mine."
+
+"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your highness"--
+
+"My highness made them _appear_ devoted in proportion to his
+consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
+Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards Margaret de
+Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the divinities who
+competed for our smiles at Tunis."
+
+Gonzaga shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don
+John was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
+perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.
+
+"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his misgivings--"I am
+as sincere in all this as becomes our friendship. But that God has
+gifted me with a happy temperament, I should scarcely support the
+disgusts of my present calling. It is much, my dear Gonzaga, to
+inherit as a birthright the brand of such an ignominy as mine. But as
+long as I trusted to conquer a happier destiny--to carve out for
+myself fortunes as glorious as those to which my blood all but
+entitles me--I bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent
+hope of distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle--that taught
+prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even the
+base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"--
+
+Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young viceroy thus
+bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he had been hearing
+imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of crimes, filled him
+with amazement.
+
+"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The harshness with
+which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my brother refused to
+ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my favour, convinced me
+that I have nothing to expect from Philip beyond the perpetual
+servitude of a satellite of the King of Spain."
+
+Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission of
+these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude stone
+walls to harbour an eavesdropper.
+
+"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of the
+unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me towards
+the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his nature--the
+harshness of his soul--the austerity of his bigotry--chill me to the
+marrow!--The Holy Inquisition deserves, in my estimation, a name the
+very antithesis of holy."
+
+"I _beseech_ your highness!" cried Ottavio Gonzaga--clasping his
+hands together in an irrepressible panic.
+
+"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in our camp;
+and if there _were_, both they and you must even hear me out!" cried
+Don John. "There is some comfort in discharging one's heart of
+matters that have long lain so heavy on it; and I swear to you,
+Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling surprised to find my cheeks so
+lank, and my eyes so hollow, you would rather be amazed to find an
+ounce of flesh upon my bones, did you know how careful are my days,
+and how sleepless my nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil
+war!--The haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul
+but that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
+Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons--all the varied
+tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to vie with each
+other which shall succeed best in thwarting and humiliating me. And
+for what do I bear it? What honour or profit shall I reap on my
+patience? What thanks derive for having wasted my best days and best
+energies, in bruising with my iron heel the head of the serpent of
+heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some toy of a mass neglected or an
+ave forgotten, will perchance give me over to the tender questioning
+of his grand inquisitor, as the shortest possible answer to my
+pretensions to a crown,--while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when
+roused from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
+fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified gratification--'_There_ spoke
+the blood of Charles the Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"
+
+Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
+courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the loyalty
+towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula; and that his
+services as governor of the Low Countries were fully appreciated.
+
+"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe was
+already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don John, with
+a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of my feelings and
+opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I am likely to have
+proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished a Laura as the sister
+of Henry III?"--
+
+"I confess myself disappointed," replied the crafty Italian.--"I was
+in hopes that your highness had found recreation as well as glory in
+Belgium. During my sojourn at the court of Philip, I supported with
+patience the somewhat ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the
+belief that your highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal
+enlivenments, which none more fully understand how to organize and
+adorn."
+
+"If such an expectation really availed to _enliven_ the Escurial,"
+cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must indeed possess
+miraculous properties! However, you may judge with your own eyes the
+pleasantness of my position; and every day that improves your
+acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition of this accursed
+army of the royalists, ill-paid, ill-disciplined, and
+ill-intentioned, will inspire you with stronger yearnings after our
+days of the Mediterranean, where I was master of myself and of my
+men."
+
+"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will serve to
+comfort the venomous heart of the queen mother!"--ejaculated Gonzaga,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was far too
+much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes, to take heed
+of those of my camp."
+
+"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be desirable, of
+how many things a woman's eyes are capable of doing, at one and the
+same time!"--retorted the Italian.
+
+"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of having
+occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to witness the
+friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an excursion on the
+Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne, constitute the pastimes
+you are pleased to magnify into an imperial ovation."
+
+"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a ball-room,--much in one
+poor half hour of a greenwood rendezvous!"--persisted the provoking
+Ottavio.
+
+"Ay--_much_ indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh so deep that it
+startled by its significance the attention of his brother in arms.
+"But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri the Béarnais!"
+returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I wish no worse to that
+heretic prince, than to have placed his honour in the keeping of the
+_gente Margot_."
+
+Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had taken a
+turn that promised wonders for the interest of the despatches he had
+undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in elucidation of the designs
+and sentiments of Don John,--towards whom his allegiance was as the
+kisses of Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
+assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it apparent
+that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having proposed to
+the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander, he destined the
+colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should proceed to a survey of
+the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted their horses, and, escorted
+by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish aide-de-camp of the prince,
+proceeded to the camp.
+
+The affectionate deference testified towards the young governor by
+all classes, the moment he made his appearance in public, appeared to
+Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the declarations of Don John
+that he was no favourite in Belgium. The Italian forgot that the Duke
+of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld and Barlaimont, while doffing
+their caps to the representative of the King of Spain, had as much
+right to behold in him the devoted friend of Don John of Austria, as
+_he_ to regard _them_ as the faithful vassals of his government.
+
+A fair country is the country of Namur!--The confluent streams--the
+impending rocks--the spreading forests of its environs, comprehend
+the finest features of landscape; nor could Ottavio Gonzaga feel
+surprised that his prince should find as much more pleasure in those
+breesy plains than in the narrow streets of Brussels, as he found
+security and strength.
+
+On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the town,
+stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to attain which
+by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed; and it was
+pleasant to see the Walloon peasant children run forth from the
+cottages to salute the royal train, making their heavy Flemish
+chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering cabrioles far more
+deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to which they were almost
+accustomed.
+
+As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the Meuse, they
+saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups congregated just
+then in the district, of soldiers and peasants; to which the
+attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di Zuniga, his
+aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause of the gathering.
+
+"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
+Spaniard--galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes streaming in
+the breeze;--that the Prince's train, which had halted, might resume
+its pace.
+
+"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who appreciated the
+trivialties of life very differently from those by whom he was
+surrounded.
+
+"A village grievance!--An old woman roaring her lungs out for a cow
+which has been carried off by our troopers!"--grumbled the
+aide-de-camp, with less respect than was usual to him.
+
+"And call you that a _nothing_?"--exclaimed his master. "By our lady
+of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and oppression--a thing calculated
+to make us hateful in the eyes of the village!--And many villages, my
+good Nignio, represent districts, and many districts provinces, and
+provinces a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as
+the indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
+Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!--See to it! I want no
+further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be restored
+before sunset, and the marauders punished."
+
+"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer in its
+skin?"--demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should have been
+already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"
+
+"Let her have compensation."
+
+"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness, is all
+but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
+Gonzaga,--as though they were accustomed to jest together over the
+reckless openness of heart and hand of their young chief.
+
+"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at least
+the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
+restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."
+
+"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as the
+aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with an
+imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on his
+hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal master. "It
+goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement of these
+fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and hunger, that
+eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at honesty. My
+royal brother, or those who have the distribution of his graces, is
+so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than of orders on the
+treasury of Spain, that money and rations are evermore wanting. If
+these Protestants persist in their stand against us, I shall have to
+go forth to all the Catholic cities of the empire, preaching, like
+Peter the hermit, to obtain contributions from the pious!"
+
+"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that rebels
+and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops sent to
+reduce them to submission."
+
+"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either the creed
+or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don John. "But you
+say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the instructions of my royal
+brother; whom the Almighty soften with a more Christian spirit in his
+upholding of the doctrines of Christianity!--I am bidden to regard
+myself as in a conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may
+have felt at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!--These
+people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people are
+the faithful followers of Christ."
+
+"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and your
+highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"--observed Gonzaga with
+a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I fear, indeed, that the Court of
+the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for such grievances."
+
+"Gonzaga!"--exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his horse, and
+looking his companion full in the face, "these are black and bitter
+times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles, ay, and even prelates,
+forget that they are men; or rather that there be men in the world
+beside themselves."--Then allowing his charger to resume its
+caracolling, to give time to his startled friend to recover from the
+glow of consciousness burning on his cheek,--he resumed with a less
+stern inflexion. "It is the vexation of this conviction that hath
+brought my face to the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the
+scorching sun of Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of
+swords or roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in
+contending, life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
+battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
+sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth, and
+the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the peace of
+heaven!--The petty aggravations of daily strife,--the cold-blooded
+oppressions of conquest,--the contest with the peasant for his morsel
+of bread, or with his chaste wife for her fidelity,--are so revolting
+to my conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
+moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so well
+of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal father, to some
+drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days to the snuffling of
+Capuchins!"
+
+Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
+Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this heinous
+declaration!--But he contained himself.--It was his object to work
+his way still further into the confidence of his royal companion.
+
+"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French princess
+to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it afforded from the
+contemplation of such miseries and such aggressions. I was sick at
+heart of groans and murmurs,--weary of the adjustment of grievances.
+To behold a woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping,
+was _something_!"--
+
+"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of the
+brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.
+
+"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
+exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's--her bearing a
+woman's--her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the memory of
+better days to hear the silken robes of her train rustling around me,
+instead of the customary clang of mail; and merry laughs instead of
+perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my Walloons!"
+
+An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
+Italian.--
+
+"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to see
+the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a lap-dog!--Is it not so?"
+
+"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial to your
+highness,"--replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance. "My smile was
+occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in feigning as the
+royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the attempt. There, at
+least--and there alone--is Don John of Austria certain of defeat!"
+
+"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the air of
+Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion," replied the
+Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first redoubt. The lines
+of Bouge are before you."
+
+Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
+intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of headquarters
+beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was surrounded by his
+officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his orders of the day, the
+able promptitude of one of the first commanders of his time, tempered
+by the dignified courtesy of a prince of the blood.
+
+Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical debates
+carrying on around him, to have further thought of the mysteries into
+which he was resolved to penetrate.
+
+It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his _état
+major_ returned to Namur; invitations having been frankly given by
+Don John to a score of his officers, to an entertainment in honour of
+the return of his friend.
+
+Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga entertained
+little doubt of learning the truth. The rough railleries of such men
+were not likely to respect so slight a circumvallation as the honour
+of female reputation; and the glowing vintage of the Moselle and
+Rhine would bring forth the secret among the bubbles of their flowing
+tides. And, in truth, scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the
+potations of these mailed carousers produced deep oaths and
+uproarious laughter; amid which was toasted the name of Margaret,
+with the enthusiasm due to one of the originators of the massacre of
+St Bartholomew, from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the
+Inquisition of Spain.
+
+The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in terms
+scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by such
+frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
+restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It seemed
+an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a matter of
+indifference in the ears of Don John!
+
+That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short continuance
+as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the reviewal of the
+prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek in his conjectures,
+resolved to address himself for further information to Nignio; to
+whom he had brought confidential letters from his family in Spain,
+and who was an ancient brother in arms.
+
+Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied by the
+Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the valley of
+the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his early rest with
+a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of news from Madrid.
+
+But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened his
+budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own grievances to
+confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation of having been
+employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from execrations on the name
+of the old woman, enriched with all the blasphemies of a trooper's
+vocabulary,--it was no difficult matter to glide to the general
+misdemeanours and malefactions of the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a
+man of iron,--bred in camps, with as little of the milk of human
+kindness in his nature as his royal master King Philip; and it was
+his devout conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
+leagues of any Christian encampment,--and that women were inflicted
+upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and contamination of
+the nobler sex.
+
+"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her maids of
+honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy sinner for the
+space of a calendar year!"--cried he, still harping upon the old
+woman.
+
+"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some trouble
+and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as much as is
+_apparent_ of your householding, I can scarce imagine how you managed
+to bestow so courtly a dame here in honour; or with what pastimes you
+managed to entertain her."
+
+"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not yet
+quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came down
+handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and sister-in-law of the
+Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the thick-skulled Walloons to
+respect. It was not _money_ that was wanting--it was patience. O,
+these Parisians! Make me monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast
+garden of the Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the
+honour of being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
+travels!"
+
+Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted in the
+warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my clear
+Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a knight as Don
+John of Austria, your notions are rather those of Mahound or
+Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to hear you thus
+bitter against his Dulcinea?"
+
+"_His_ Dulcinea!"--ejaculated the aide-de-camp with a air of disgust.
+"God grant it! For a princess of Valois blood, reared under the
+teaching of a Medici, had at least the recommendations of nobility
+and orthodoxy in her favour."
+
+"As was the case when Anna di Mendoça effected the conquest over his
+boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal brother!--But
+after such proof of the hereditary aspirings of Don John, it would be
+difficult to persuade me of his highness's derogation."
+
+"Would _I_ could say as much!"--exclaimed Nignio, with a groan. "But
+such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might convince the
+scepticism of St Thomas!"
+
+"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections of the
+prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would you have me
+infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a dairy wench?"--
+
+"Of _worse_! of a daughter of the Amalekites!"--cried
+Nignio--stretching out his widely booted legs, as though it were a
+relief to him to have disburthened himself of his mystery.
+
+"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
+Italian,--no further versed in Scripture history than was the
+pleasure of his almoner.
+
+"You are his highness's _friend_, Gonzaga!" resumed the Spanish
+captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his heart! I have
+therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a matter, wherein, from
+the first, I determined to seek your counteraction. Though seemingly
+but a straw thrown up into the air, I infer from it a most evil
+predilection on the part of Don John;--fatal to himself, to us, his
+friends, and to the country he represents in Belgium."
+
+"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion, delighted to
+come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere matter of a pair
+of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"
+
+"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the aide-de-camp--
+
+"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as for
+the opening of a fairy legend--'On a time their lived a king and
+queen'--"
+
+"Will _you_ tell the story, then, or shall I?"--cried Nignio,
+impatient of his interruption.
+
+"_Yourself_, my pearl of squires! granting me in the first place your
+pardon for my ill manners."--
+
+"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the best
+diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess were,
+first a _Te Deum_ in the cathedral for her safe journey; next, an
+entertainment of dancing and music at the town hall--and a gallant
+affair it was, as far as silver draperies, and garlands of roses, and
+a blaze of light that seemed to threaten the conflagration of the
+city, may be taken in praise. The queen had brought with her, as with
+_malice prepense_, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
+court of the Louvre"--
+
+"I _knew_ it!"--again interrupted Gonzaga;--and again did Nignio
+gravely enquire of him whether (since so well informed) he would be
+pleased to finish the history in his own way?
+
+"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his finger on
+his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the Meuse."
+
+"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
+princess,--this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her mother's
+cunning and cruelty in her soul,--to perceive that the Spanish
+warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first time the
+assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more struck by the
+Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of the north, (so
+antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our sunburned
+provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her pleasure-worn Parisian
+belles."--
+
+"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent pledge,) "that
+there is no greater contrast than between our wild-eyed, glowing
+Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed daughters of these
+northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine to sunshine!"
+
+"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer and
+milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that, at this
+moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp for the sake
+of the costly fragile toys called womankind, those jackasses of
+lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn of Queen Margaret in
+Belgium, only as having brought forth from their castles in the
+Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low Country, the indigenous
+divinities that I would were at this moment at the bottom of their
+muddy moats, or of the Sambre flowing under yonder window!"--
+
+"It is one of these Brabançon belles, then, who"--
+
+Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal for
+breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue in his
+own way.--Taking counsel of himself, however, he judged that the
+shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter manner, so as to set
+further molestation at defiance.
+
+"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance foreign to
+his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball, there appeared
+among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before the tent of state
+of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender years seemed to render
+the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and whose aerial figure
+appeared to make her sojourn there, or any other spot on earth a
+matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her fair hair streamed on her
+shoulders. It was one of the angels of your immortal Titian, _minus_
+the wings! Such was, at least, the description given me by Don John,
+to enable me to ascertain among the Namurrois her name and lineage,
+for the satisfaction (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been
+fascinated by her beauty."
+
+"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the grace
+and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
+morning?"--cried Gonzaga, laughing.
+
+"And nearly the same result!--My answer to the enquiry of his
+highness was _verbatim_ the same; that the matter was not worth
+asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so much as of a
+chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity that had issued
+from the shade, to fill a place in the royal Coranto, in consequence
+of the indisposition of one of the noble daughters of the house of
+Croy. Still, as in the matter of the cow-hunt, his highness had the
+malice to persist! And next day, instead of allowing me to attend him
+in his barging with the royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of
+Brabant, I was dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a
+pretty child with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly
+grandam had snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal
+fête.--Holy St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!--I did,
+as you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
+with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
+return, that the bird had fled."--
+
+"And there was an end of the matter?"--
+
+"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness is
+likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events, the
+bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal escort,
+and the payment of all that decency required us to take upon
+ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time and
+thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
+doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over the
+sufferings of Belgium,--the lawlessness of the camp--the former
+loyalty of the provinces--the tenderness of conscience of the
+heretics,--and the eligibility of forbearance and peace,--I saw as
+plain as though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of
+Satan, that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
+this snivelling humanity!'
+
+"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
+burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses and
+putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.
+
+"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to Don John
+for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks past, I
+entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at her Louvre,
+the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place; more especially
+when he one day proposed to me an exploit savouring more of his days
+of Lepanto than I had expected at his hands again. Distracted by the
+false intelligence wherewith we were perpetually misled by the
+Brabançon scouts, Don John determined on a sortie in disguise,
+towards the intrenchments of the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle.
+Rumour of the reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the
+heretics by Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms,
+rendered him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact
+cantonments of Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set
+forward before daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a
+hunting expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits
+of civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
+Sambre towards Gembloux."
+
+"A mad project!--But such were ever the delight of our
+Quixote!"--cried Gonzaga.
+
+"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country without
+obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and before noon,
+were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the undertaking seemed to
+restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity of old! He was like a
+truant schoolboy, that has cheated his pedagogue of a day's
+bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than those of the stultified
+natives of these sluggish provinces, had been puzzled to detect under
+the huge patch that blinded him of an eye, and the slashed sleeve of
+his sad-coloured suit that showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant
+host of Queen Margaret! 'My soul comes back into me with this gallop
+across the breezy plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!'
+cried the Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto!
+But two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
+Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
+allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no better
+prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king he hath
+been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with Luxembourg and
+Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the blessing of his holiness,
+the banner under which I conquered the infidel, shall, sooner or
+later, float victorious under this northern sky!'
+
+"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood, halfway
+through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me we had to
+cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the ferry-house of this
+unfrequented track, we found only two sumpter-mules tied to a tree
+near the hovel, and a boat chained to its stump beside the stream. In
+answer to our shouts, no vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold
+the boat-chain was locked, and the current too deep and strong for
+fording.
+
+"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a boatman!"
+cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he gave me to
+hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to enter the
+ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch, a young girl,
+holding her finger to her lips in token of silence, appeared on the
+threshold!"
+
+"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
+pistoles!"--cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest that made
+him so mad a truant!"
+
+"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without noticing
+the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand, with the
+deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the house was
+little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a trifle nearer the
+porch, not a syllable of their mutual explanation escaped me.
+
+"'Are you a follower of Don John?'--was the first demand of the
+damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the States?'--the next; to
+both which questions, a negative was easily returned. After listening
+to the plea, fluently set forth by the prince, that he was simply a
+Zealand burgess, travelling on his own errand, and sorely in fear of
+falling in (God wot) with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel
+appeared to hail the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing;
+acquainted him with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own,
+that she was journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of
+Brabant, where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
+companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta within;
+for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on reaching the wood, the
+ferryman had undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the
+venerable chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.
+
+"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are in
+waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'
+
+"'Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering the
+military occupation of the province, your present protection is
+somewhat of the weakest?'--
+
+"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the open-hearted
+girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who war not against
+women and almoners. A more powerful attendance were more likely to
+provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes the best security.'
+
+"'_Home_ is a woman's only security in times like these!'--cried the
+prince with animation.
+
+"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young girl,
+with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been residing
+with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having had the
+weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to Namur last
+summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to the Queen of
+Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us; and I am sent for
+home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'
+
+"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained, more
+time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could perceive
+by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats, and were
+awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the ferryman. The
+compassion of the silly child was excited by the severe accident
+which the stranger described as the origin of his fractures and
+contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive voice and
+deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a more experienced
+one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly aspect and indigent
+apparel."
+
+"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and the
+obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
+Mecklenburgers"--
+
+"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the prince;
+for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the reconnaissance into
+which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext, I was not sorry to
+ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the grounds on which he
+stood with the enemy. And you should have heard how artfully he
+contrived to lead her back to the fêtes of Namur; asking, as with the
+curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole details of the royal
+entertainments! No small mind had I to rush in and chuck the hussy
+into the torrent before me, when I heard the little fiend burst forth
+into the most genuine and enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of
+the feast,--'So young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so
+passing the kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was
+her frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
+which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
+severely visited by her father.
+
+"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may admire the
+noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native goodness
+beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This whole morning
+hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon) been giving
+scripture warrant that I have no right to importune heaven with my
+prayers for the conversion of Don John:--Yet, as my good aunt justly
+observes, the great grandson of Mary of Burgundy has his pedestal
+firm in our hearts, beyond reach of overthrow from all the
+preachments of the Reformers'"--
+
+"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in to the
+rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously assailed?"--cried
+Gonzaga.
+
+"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I had the
+comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend the want of
+dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity with strangers. To
+which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was no fault of hers if
+people wanted to convert a child into a woman!' A moment afterwards
+and the ferryman and cortège arrived together; and a more glorious
+figure of fun than the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom
+bestridden a pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
+exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the ferry,
+taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which we twain
+abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in consequence of
+the strength of the current, it was indispensable to float down some
+hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite shore.
+
+"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the precious
+freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her new and
+pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!--as every thing that is evil
+ordained it,--behold, the newly-shod palfrey of the pretty
+Brabançonne, irritated, perhaps, by the clumsy veterinaryship of a
+village smithy, began suddenly to rear and plunge, and set at
+defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was held!--The ass of a
+ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his aid, let go his oar into the
+stream; and between the awkwardness of some and the rashness of
+others, in a moment the whole party were carried round by the eddy of
+the Dyle!--The next, and Ulrica was struggling in the waters"--
+
+"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in to her
+rescue!"--
+
+"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take for
+granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the ferry-house, in
+restoring to consciousness the exhausted women, half-dead with cold
+and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of mind produced by such
+an incident, I expected indeed every moment the self-betrayal of my
+companion; but _that_ evil we escaped. And when, late in the evening,
+the party was sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably
+surprised to find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting
+the fair Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people
+were in waiting."
+
+"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"--
+
+"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn, rendered it
+expedient for us to return to Namur with only half the object of his
+highness accomplished. But the babble of the old chaplain had
+acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to know,-- namely, the number
+and disposal of the Statists, and the position taken up by the
+English auxiliaries."
+
+"And this second parting from Ulrica?"--
+
+"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been the
+laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she bade
+adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a tress of her
+silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle, which she
+entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he placed upon her
+finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of Venice, bearing the
+arms of the republic engraved on the setting; telling her that chance
+had enabled him to confer an obligation on the governor of the
+Netherlands; and that, in any strait or peril, that signet,
+dispatched in his name to Don John of Austria, would command his
+protection."
+
+"As I live, a choice romance!--almost worthy the pages of our
+matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities but that
+the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
+Dyle!--However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They will meet no
+more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his daughter under lock and
+key; and his highness has too much work cut out for him by his
+rebels, to have time for peeping through the keyhole.--So now,
+good-night.--For love-tales are apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith
+we must be a-foot by break of day."
+
+And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him, Ottavio
+Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing all he had
+learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state of mind and
+feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid open to the full
+and uncongenial investigation of his royal brother of the Escurial.
+
+
+Part II.
+
+A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of Gembloux,
+which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of Austria; and
+constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military glories which
+binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one of the obscurest of
+its countries!--Gembloux, Ramillies, Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within
+the circuit of a morning's journey, as well as within the circle of
+eternal renown.
+
+By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand men-at-arms,
+their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost to the States. The
+cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio Gonzaga, performed
+prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under that of Gaspardo Nignio,
+equally distinguished itself. But the heat of the action fell upon
+the main body of the army, which had marched from Namur under the
+command of Don John; being composed of the Italian reinforcements
+dispatched to him from Parma by desire of the Pope, under the command
+of his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese.
+
+It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals of the
+States--the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of Orange--retreated in
+dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of pursuing his advantage with
+the energy of his usual habits, seemed to derive little satisfaction
+or encouragement from his victory. It might be, that the difficulty
+of controlling the predatory habits of the German and Burgundian
+troops wearied his patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued
+some new proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
+desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
+opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness; for,
+independent of the engrossing duties of their several commands, the
+leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his nephew, Alexander
+Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in age, was almost a
+brother in affection.
+
+To him alone were confided the growing cares of his charge--the
+increasing perplexities of his mind. To both princes, the name of
+Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a sacred word; and though
+Don John had the comfort of knowing that her father, the Count de
+Cergny, was unengaged in the action of Gembloux, his highness had
+reason to fear that the regiment of Hainaulters under his command,
+constituted the garrison of one or other of the frontier fortresses
+of Brabant, to which it was now his duty to direct the conquering
+arms of his captains.
+
+The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
+Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
+according to general expectation, effected in the first instance the
+reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
+Diest,--Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next succumbed to
+their arms--Maubeuge, Chimay, Barlaimont;--and, after a severe
+struggle, the new and beautiful town of Philippeville.
+
+But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a tremendous
+carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul sickened. At Sichem,
+the indignation of the Burgundians against a body of French troops
+which, after the battle of Gembloux, had pledged itself never again
+to bear arms against Spain, caused them to have a hundred soldiers
+strangled by night, and their bodies flung into the moat at the foot
+of the citadel; after which the town was given up by Prince Alexander
+to pillage and spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and
+Leeuw hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
+while receiving day after day, and week after week, the submission of
+fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs, the anxious
+expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to his clemency
+accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again disappointed!--
+
+At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into utter
+despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken her. All
+his endeavours to ascertain the position of the Count de Cergny
+having availed him nothing, he trusted that the family must be shut
+up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange and Archduke; but when every
+night, ere he retired to a soldier's rugged pillow, and pressed his
+lips to that long fair tress which seemed to ensure the blessings of
+an angel of purity and peace, the hopes entertained by Don John of
+tidings of the gentle Ulrica became slighter and still more slight.
+
+He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and exacting
+such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as promised to
+secure protection and respect to the families of all such officers of
+the insurgent army as might, in any time or place, fall into the
+hands of the royalists.
+
+To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely less
+endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood, and who
+was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the charge was
+almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first, his orders to
+his Italian captains to pursue in all directions their enquiries
+after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it had become a matter
+of course to preface their accounts of the day's movements
+with--"_No_ intelligence, may it please your highness, of the Count
+de Cergny!"
+
+The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his attention;
+for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was pinned by the
+military science of the States. But a breach having been made in the
+walls by the Spanish artillery under the command of Nicolo di Cesi,
+the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince Alexander, and the
+Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily forced an entrance; when,
+in spite of the stanch resistance of the governor, the garrison laid
+down their arms, and the greater portion of the inhabitants took the
+oath of fealty to the king.
+
+Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most desirable;
+in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma commanded a _Te
+Deum_ to be sung in the churches, and hastened to render thanks to
+the God of Battles for an event by which further carnage was spared
+to either host.
+
+Escorted by his _état major_, he had proceeded to the cathedral to
+join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as he quitted the
+church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached, bearing
+despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful attendant of his
+household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had recently sent with
+instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general charged with the
+reduction of the frontier fortresses of Brabant.
+
+"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous ejaculation of
+the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then, turning to the
+officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in a few words, that
+the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the propositions to
+surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice of its cannon, had
+been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and its garrison put to the
+sword.
+
+"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these braggarts of
+Brabant!"--responded Nignio, who stood at the right hand of Prince
+Alexander. "The nasal twang of their chaplains seems of late to have
+overmastered, in their ears, the eloquence of the ordnance of Spain!
+Yet, i'faith, they might be expected to find somewhat more unction in
+the preachments of our musketeers than the homilies of either Luther
+or Calvin!"
+
+He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged apart
+in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had respectfully placed
+in his hands a ring of great cost and beauty.
+
+"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian republic,
+may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I judged it better
+to remit it to your royal keeping."
+
+"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a sudden
+flush of emotion.
+
+"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I took it
+from the finger of the dead!"
+
+"And when, and where?"--exclaimed the prince, drawing him still
+further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their march to
+the States' house of Limbourg.
+
+"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!" said
+Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the fewest words, know that, after seeing
+the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave and obstinate defence of
+the banner of the States floating from the walls of his citadel, I
+did my utmost to induce the Baron de Cevray, whose Burgundians
+carried the place, to proclaim quarter. For these fellows of
+Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had fought like dragons,)
+having lost their head, were powerless; and of what use hacking to
+pieces an exhausted carcass?--But our troops were too much
+exasperated by the insolent resistance and defiance they had
+experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the conduits ran blood, and
+shrieks and groans rent the air more cruelly than the previous roar
+of the artillery. In accordance, however, with the instructions I
+have ever received from your highness, I pushed my way into all
+quarters, opposing what authority I might to the brutality of the
+troopers."
+
+"Quick, quick!"--cried Prince Alexander in anxious haste--"Let me not
+suppose that the wearer of this ring fell the victim of such an
+hour?"--
+
+It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears were
+assailed with cries of female distresses:--nor could I doubt that
+even _that_ sanctuary (held sacred by our troops of Spain!) had been
+invaded by the impiety of the German or Burgundian legions!--As
+usual, the chief ladies of the town had placed themselves under the
+protection of the high altar. But there, even there, had they been
+seized by sacrilegious hands!--The fame of the rare beauty of the
+daughter of the governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two
+daring ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."
+
+"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the spot?"--demanded the
+prince, trembling with emotion. "You dealt upon them the vengeance
+due?"
+
+"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had already
+cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest! Snatched from the
+arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce arm of a German
+musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian against whom she was
+wildly but vainly defending herself; had lighted on one of the
+fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone, the blood of this
+innocent being, scarce past the age of childhood, was streaming on
+her assailants; and when, rushing in, I proclaimed, in the name of
+God and of your highness, quarter and peace, it was an insensible
+body I rescued from the grasp of pollution!"
+
+"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more unhappy
+kinsman!"
+
+"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by the
+sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved from
+their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I bore the
+insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost skill of our
+surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it been
+spared!--The dying girl was roused only to the endurance of more
+exquisite torture; and while murmuring a petition for 'mercy--mercy
+to her _father_!' that proved her still unconscious of her family
+misfortunes, she attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I
+have had the honour to deliver to your highness:--faltering with her
+last breath, 'for _his_ sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to my
+poor old father!'"--
+
+Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these mournful
+details.
+
+"She is at rest, then?"--said he, after a pause.
+
+"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."--
+
+"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince, "and
+complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of interment that
+the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the Comte de Cergny!"
+
+Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips of the
+faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to the
+discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the details of
+that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of horror--the
+youth--the beauty--the innocence--the agonies of Ulrica, had touched
+him to the heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the
+heart of Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one
+this rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
+public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with blood!--
+
+Scarcely a month had elapsed after the storming of Dalem, when a
+terrible rumour went forth in the camp of Bouge, (where Don John had
+intrenched his division of the royalist army,) that the governor of
+the Netherlands was attacked by fatal indisposition!--For some weeks
+past, indeed, his strength and spirit had been declining. When at the
+village of Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry
+of the wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English
+troops under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
+circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
+attributed to prostration of bodily strength.
+
+When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had ceded
+the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret for the
+origin of his secession superseded every other consideration.
+
+For the word had gone forth that he was to die!--In the full vigour
+of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow had reached Don
+John of Austria!--
+
+A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
+prevalent!--For his leniency towards the Protestants had engendered a
+suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II. was known to be
+remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at hand!--
+
+But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From the
+moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering on his
+wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and every time
+he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the groups of veterans
+praying on their knees for the restoration of the son of their
+emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling aloud in loyal
+affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto, tears came into his
+eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his duties. For he knew that
+their intercessions were in vain--that the hours of the sufferer were
+numbered. In a moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments
+of the church were administered to the dying prince; having received
+which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains of
+the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain, and
+fidelity to his noble successor in command.
+
+It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of Lepanto,
+and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that, towards
+evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn aside, that
+he might contemplate for the last time the creation of God!--
+
+Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered in
+hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body might be
+borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father. For his eyes
+were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and his mind upon the
+glories of the memory of one of the greatest of kings.
+
+But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason in his
+troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with fever, his
+words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused them to sound the
+trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an onset, he ranged his
+battalions for an imaginary field of battle, and disposed his
+manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against the enemy.[18] Then,
+sinking back upon his pillow, he breathed in subdued accents, "Let me
+at least avenge her innocent blood. Why, why could I not save thee,
+my Ulrica!"--
+
+[Footnote 18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.]
+
+It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his heart with
+a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to consider the murderers
+of his master) stooped down to lay his callous hand on the heart of
+the hero, the pulses of life were still!--
+
+There was but one cry throughout the camp--there was but one thought
+among his captains:--"Let the bravest knight of Christendom be laid
+nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of mail in which he had
+fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a bier, and borne forth
+from his tent on the shoulders of the officers of his household.
+Then, having been saluted by the respect of the whole army, it was
+transmitted from post to post through the camp, on those of the
+colonels of the regiments of all nations constituting the forces of
+Spain.--And which of them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the
+dead lay the love-token of a heretic?--A double line of troops,
+infantry and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the
+camp of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
+saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those iron
+soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth, the
+gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour of glory
+and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the princes of
+Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge of Venice, they
+thought upon his knightly qualities--his courtesy, generosity, and
+valour--till all memory of his illustrious parentage became effaced.
+They forgot the prince in the man,--"and behold all Israel mourned
+for Jonathan!"
+
+A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the march, till
+they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was remitted by the
+royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and La Cros, to the hands
+of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these it was bourne in state to
+the cathedral of St Alban; and during the celebration of a solemn
+mass, deposited at the foot of the high altar till the pleasure of
+Philip II. should be known concerning the fulfilment of the last
+request of Don John.
+
+It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were conveyed to
+Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated, in return, his
+permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should share the sepulture
+of Charles V., and all that now remains to Namur in memory of one of
+the last of Christian knights, the Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts,
+who expired in its service and at its gates, is an inscription placed
+on its high altar by the piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that
+it afforded a temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
+AUSTRIA.[19]
+
+[Footnote 19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
+prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the authentic
+details of the interment of one whose posthumous destinies seemed to
+share the incompleteness of his baffled life. In order to avoid the
+contestations arising from the transit of a corpse through a foreign
+state, Nignio di Zuniga (who was charged by Philip with the duty of
+conveying it to Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.)
+caused it to be _dismembered_, and the parts packed in three budgets,
+(_bougettes_,) and laid upon packhorses!--On arriving in Spain, the
+parts were _readjusted with wires!--"On remplit le corps de bourre_,"
+says the old chronicler from which these details are derived, "_et
+ainsi la structure en aiant été comme rétablie, on le revétit de ses
+armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuyé sur son bâton de
+général, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect d'un mort si
+illustre ayant excité quelques larmes, on le porta à l'Escurial dans
+l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son père_."
+
+Such is the account given in a curious old history (supplementary to
+those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of the Prince of Parma,
+published at Amsterdam early in the succeeding century. But a still
+greater insult has been offered to the memory of one of the last of
+Christian knights, in Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan
+d'Autriche," where he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!]
+
+
+
+
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.
+
+No. I.
+
+
+It may be as well to state at the outset, that we have not the most
+distant intention of laying before the public the whole mass of
+poetry that flowed from the prolific pen of Goethe, betwixt the days
+of his student life at Leipsic and those of his final courtly
+residence at Weimar. It is of no use preserving the whole wardrobe of
+the dead; we do enough if we possess ourselves of his
+valuables--articles of sterling bullion that will at any time command
+their price in the market--as to worn-out and threadbare
+personalities, the sooner they are got rid of the better. Far be it
+from us, however, to depreciate or detract from the merit of any of
+Goethe's productions. Few men have written so voluminously, and still
+fewer have written so well. But the curse of a most fluent pen, and
+of a numerous auditory, to whom his words were oracles, was upon him;
+and seventy volumes, more or less, which Cotta issued from his
+wareroom, are for the library of the Germans now, and for the
+selection of judicious editors hereafter. A long time must elapse
+after an author's death, before we can pronounce with perfect
+certainty what belongs to the trunk-maker, and what pertains to
+posterity. Happy the man--if not in his own generation, yet most
+assuredly in the time to come--whose natural hesitation or
+fastidiousness has prompted him to weigh his words maturely, before
+launching them forth into the great ocean of literature, in the midst
+of which is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power!
+
+From the minor poems, therefore, of Goethe, we propose, in the
+present series, to select such as are most esteemed by competent
+judges, including, of course, ourselves. We shall not follow the
+example of dear old Eckermann, nor preface our specimens by any
+critical remarks upon the scope and tendency of the great German's
+genius; neither shall we divide his works, as characteristic of his
+intellectual progress, into eras or into epochs; still less shall we
+attempt to institute a regular comparison between his merits and
+those of Schiller, whose finest productions (most worthily
+translated) have already enriched the pages of this Magazine. We are
+doubtless ready at all times to back our favourite against the field,
+and to maintain his intellectual superiority even against his
+greatest and most formidable rival. We know that he is the showiest,
+and we feel convinced that he is the better horse of the two; but
+talking is worse than useless when the course is cleared, and the
+start about to commence.
+
+Come forward, then, before the British public, O many-sided,
+ambidextrous Goethe, as thine own Thomas Carlyle might, or could, or
+would, or should have termed thee, and let us hear how the
+mellifluous Teutonic verse will sound when adapted to another tongue.
+And, first of all--for we yearn to know it--tell us how thy
+inspiration came? A plain answer, of course, we cannot expect--that
+were impossible from a German; but such explanation as we can draw
+from metaphor and oracular response, seems to be conveyed in that
+favourite and elaborate preface to the poems, which accordingly we
+may term the
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+  The morning came. Its footsteps scared away
+    The gentle sleep that hover'd lightly o'er me;
+  I left my quiet cot to greet the day
+    And gaily climb'd the mountain-side before me.
+  The sweet young flowers! how fresh were they and tender,
+    Brimful with dew upon the sparkling lea;
+  The young day open'd in exulting splendour,
+    And all around seem'd glad to gladden me.
+
+  And, as I mounted, o'er the meadow ground
+    A white and filmy essence 'gan to hover;
+  It sail'd and shifted till it hemm'd me round,
+    Then rose above my head, and floated over.
+  No more I saw the beauteous scene unfolded--
+    It lay beneath a melancholy shroud;
+  And soon was I, as if in vapour moulded,
+    Alone, within the twilight of the cloud.
+
+  At once, as though the sun were struggling through,
+    Within the mist a sudden radiance started;
+  Here sunk the vapour, but to rise anew,
+    There on the peak and upland forest parted.
+  O, how I panted for the first clear gleaming,
+    That after darkness must be doubly bright!
+  It came not, but a glory round me beaming,
+    And I stood blinded by the gush of light.
+
+  A moment, and I felt enforced to look,
+    By some strange impulse of the heart's emotion;
+  But more than one quick glance I scarce could brook,
+    For all was burning like a molten ocean.
+  There, in the glorious clouds that seem'd to bear her,
+    A form angelic hover'd in the air;
+  Ne'er did my eyes behold vision fairer,
+    And still she gazed upon me, floating there.
+
+  "Do'st thou not know me?" and her voice was soft
+    As truthful love, and holy calm it sounded.
+  "Know'st thou not me, who many a time and oft,
+    Pour'd balsam in thy hurts when sorest wounded?
+  Ah well thou knowest her, to whom for ever
+    Thy heart in union pants to be allied!
+  Have I not seen the tears--the wild endeavour
+    That even in boyhood brought thee to my side?"
+
+  "Yes! I have felt thy influence oft," I cried,
+    And sank on earth before her, half-adoring;
+  "Thou brought'st me rest when Passion's lava tide
+    Through my young veins like liquid fire was pouring.
+  And thou hast fann'd, as with celestial pinions,
+    In summer's heat my parch'd and fever'd brow;
+  Gav'st me the choicest gifts of earth's dominions,
+    And, save through thee, I seek no fortune now.
+
+  "I name thee not, but I have heard thee named,
+    And heard thee styled their own ere now by many;
+  All eyes believe at thee their glance is aim'd,
+    Though thine effulgence is too great for any.
+  Ah! I had many comrades whilst I wander'd--
+    I know thee now, and stand almost alone:
+  I veil thy light, too precious to be squander'd,
+    And share the inward joy I feel with none."
+
+  Smiling, she said--"Thou see'st 'twas wise from thee
+    To keep the fuller, greater revelation:
+  Scarce art thou from grotesque delusions free,
+    Scarce master of thy childish first sensation;
+  Yet deem'st thyself so far above thy brothers,
+    That thou hast won the right to scorn them! Cease.
+  Who made the yawning gulf 'twixt thee and others?
+    Know--know thyself--live with the world in peace."
+
+  "Forgive me!" I exclaim'd, "I meant no ill,
+    Else should in vain my eyes be disenchanted;
+  Within my blood there stirs a genial will--
+    I know the worth of all that thou hast granted.
+  That boon I hold in trust for others merely,
+    Nor shall I let it rust within the ground;
+  Why sought I out the pathway so sincerely,
+    If not to guide my brothers to the bound?"
+
+  And as I spoke, upon her radiant face
+    Pass'd a sweet smile, like breath across a mirror;
+  And in her eyes' bright meaning I could trace
+    What I had answer'd well and what in error,
+  She smiled, and then my heart regain'd its lightness,
+    And bounded in my breast with rapture high:
+  Then durst I pass within her zone of brightness,
+    And gaze upon her with unquailing eye.
+
+  Straightway she stretch'd her hand among the thin
+    And watery haze that round her presence hover'd;
+  Slowly it coil'd and shrunk her grasp within,
+    And lo! the landscape lay once more uncover'd--
+  Again mine eye could scan the sparkling meadow,
+    I look'd to heaven, and all was clear and bright;
+  I saw her hold a veil without a shadow,
+    That undulated round her in the light.
+
+  "I know thee!--all thy weakness, all that yet
+    Of good within thee lives and glows, I've measured;"
+  She said--her voice I never may forget--
+    "Accept the gift that long for thee was treasured.
+  Oh! happy he, thrice-bless'd in earth and heaven,
+    Who takes this gift with soul serene and true,
+  The veil of song, by Truth's own fingers given,
+    Enwoven of sunshine and the morning dew.
+
+  "Wave but this veil on high, whene'er beneath
+    The noonday fervour thou and thine are glowing,
+  And fragrance of all flowers around shall breathe,
+    And the cool winds of eve come freshly blowing.
+  Earth's cares shall cease for thee, and all its riot;
+    Where gloom'd the grave, a starry couch be seen;
+  The waves of life shall sink in halcyon quiet;
+    The days be lovely fair, the nights serene."
+
+  Come then, my friends, and whether 'neath the load
+    Of heavy griefs ye struggle on, or whether
+  Your better destiny shall strew the road
+    With flowers, and golden fruits that cannot wither,
+  United let us move, still forwards striving;
+    So while we live shall joy our days illume,
+  And in our children's hearts our love surviving
+    Shall gladden them, when we are in the tomb.
+
+This is a noble metaphysical and metaphorical poem, but purely German
+of its kind. It has been imitated, not to say travestied, at least
+fifty times, by crazy students and purblind professors--each of whom,
+in turn, has had an interview with the goddess of nature upon a
+hill-side. For our own part, we confess that we have no great
+predilection for such mysterious intercourse, and would rather draw
+our inspiration from tangible objects, than dally with a visionary
+Egeria. But the fault is both common and national.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next specimen we shall offer is the far-famed _Bride of Corinth_.
+Mrs Austin says of this poem very happily--"An awful and undefined
+horror breathes throughout it. In the slow measured rhythm of the
+verse, and the pathetic simplicity of the diction, there is a
+solemnity and a stirring spell, which chains the feelings like a deep
+mysterious strain of music." Owing to the peculiar structure and
+difficulty of the verse, this poem has hitherto been supposed
+incapable of translation. Dr Anster, who alone has rendered it into
+English, found it necessary to depart from the original structure;
+and we confess that it was not without much labour, and after
+repeated efforts, that we succeeded in vanquishing the obstacle of
+the double rhymes. If the German scholar should perceive, that in
+three stanzas some slight liberties have been taken with the
+original, we trust that he will perceive the reason, and at least
+give us credit for general fidelity and close adherence to the text.
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.
+
+  I.
+
+  A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumber'd,
+    Came from Athens: though a stranger there,
+  Soon among its townsmen to be number'd,
+    For a bride awaits him, young and fair:
+      From their childhood's years
+      They were plighted feres,
+    So contracted by their parents' care.
+
+  II.
+
+  But may not his welcome there be hinder'd?
+    Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.
+  He is still a heathen with his kindred,
+    She and her's wash'd in the Christian creed.
+      When new faiths are born,
+      Love and troth are torn
+    Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.
+
+  III.
+
+  All the house is hush'd. To rest retreated
+    Father, daughters--not the mother quite;
+  She the guest with cordial welcome greeted,
+    Led him to a room with tapers bright;
+      Wine and food she brought
+      Ere of them he thought,
+    Then departed with a fair good-night.
+
+  IV.
+
+  But he felt no hunger, and unheeded
+    Left the wine, and eager for the rest
+  Which his limbs, forspent with travel, needed,
+    On the couch he laid him, still undress'd.
+      There he sleeps--when lo!
+      Onwards gliding slow,
+    At the door appears a wondrous guest.
+
+  V.
+
+  By the waning lamp's uncertain gleaming
+    There he sees a youthful maiden stand,
+  Robed in white, of still and gentle seeming,
+    On her brow a black and golden band.
+        When she meets his eyes,
+        With a quick surprise
+    Starting, she uplifts a pallid hand.
+
+  VI.
+
+  "Is a stranger here, and nothing told me?
+    Am I then forgotten even in name?
+  Ah! 'tis thus within my cell they hold me,
+    And I now am cover'd o'er with shame!
+        Pillow still thy head
+        There upon thy bed,
+    I will leave thee quickly as I came."
+
+  VII.
+
+  "Maiden--darling! Stay, O stay!" and, leaping
+    From the couch, before her stands the boy:
+  "Ceres--Bacchus, here their gifts are heaping,
+    And thou bringest Amor's gentle joy!
+        Why with terror pale?
+        Sweet one, let us hail
+    These bright gods--their festive gifts employ."
+
+  VIII.
+
+  "Oh, no--no! Young stranger, come not nigh me;
+    Joy is not for me, nor festive cheer.
+  Ah! such bliss may ne'er be tasted by me,
+    Since my mother, in fantastic fear,
+        By long sickness bow'd,
+        To heaven's service vow'd
+    Me, and all the hopes that warm'd me here.
+
+  IX.
+
+  "They have left our hearth, and left it lonely--
+    The old gods, that bright and jocund train.
+  One, unseen, in heaven, is worshipp'd only,
+    And upon the cross a Saviour slain;
+        Sacrifice is here,
+        Not of lamb nor steer,
+    But of human woe and human pain."
+
+  X.
+
+  And he asks, and all her words cloth ponder--
+    "Can it be, that, in this silent spot,
+  I behold thee, thou surpassing wonder!
+    My sweet bride, so strangely to me brought?
+        Be mine only now--
+        See, our parents' vow
+    Heaven's good blessing hath for us besought."
+
+  XI.
+
+  "No! thou gentle heart," she cried in anguish;
+    "'Tis not mine, but 'tis my sister's place;
+  When in lonely cell I weep and languish,
+    Think, oh think of me in her embrace!
+        I think but of thee--
+        Pining drearily,
+    Soon beneath the earth to hide my face!"
+
+  XII.
+
+  "Nay! I swear by yonder flame which burneth,
+    Fann'd by Hymen, lost thou shalt not be;
+  Droop not thus, for my sweet bride returneth
+    To my father's mansion back with me!
+        Dearest! tarry here!
+        Taste the bridal cheer,
+    For our spousal spread so wondrously!"
+
+  XIII.
+
+  Then with word and sign their troth they plighted.
+    Golden was the chain she bade him wear;
+  But the cup he offer'd her she slighted,
+    Silver, wrought with cunning past compare.
+        "That is not for me;
+        All I ask of thee
+    Is one little ringlet of thy hair."
+
+  XIV.
+
+  Dully boom'd the midnight hour unhallow'd,
+    And then first her eyes began to shine;
+  Eagerly with pallid lips she swallow'd
+    Hasty draughts of purple-tinctured wine;
+        But the wheaten bread,
+        As in shuddering dread,
+    Put she always by with loathing sign.
+
+  XV.
+
+  And she gave the youth the cup: he drain'd it,
+    With impetuous haste he drain'd it dry;
+  Love was in his fever'd heart, and pain'd it,
+    Till it ached for joys she must deny.
+        But the maiden's fears
+        Stay'd him, till in tears
+    On the bed he sank, with sobbing cry.
+
+  XVI.
+
+  And she leans above him--"Dear one, still thee!
+    Ah, how sad am I to see thee so!
+  But, alas! these limbs of mine would chill thee:
+    Love, they mantle not with passion's glow;
+        Thou wouldst be afraid,
+        Didst thou find the maid
+    Thou hast chosen, cold as ice or snow."
+
+  XVII.
+
+  Round her waist his eager arms he bended,
+    Dashing from his eyes the blinding tear:
+  "Wert thou even from the grave ascended,
+    Come unto my heart, and warm thee here!"
+        Sweet the long embrace--
+        "Raise that pallid face;
+    None but thou and are watching, dear!"
+
+  XVIII.
+
+  Was it love that brought the maiden thither,
+    To the chamber of the stranger guest?
+  Love's bright fire should kindle, and not wither;
+    Love's sweet thrill should soothe, not torture, rest.
+        His impassion'd mood
+        Warms her torpid blood,
+    Yet there beats no heart within her breast.
+
+  XIX.
+
+  Meanwhile goes the mother, softly creeping,
+    Through the house, on needful cares intent,
+  Hears a murmur, and, while all are sleeping,
+    Wonders at the sounds, and what they meant.
+        Who was whispering so?--
+        Voices soft and low,
+    In mysterious converse strangely blent.
+
+  XX.
+
+  Straightway by the door herself she stations,
+    There to be assured what was amiss;
+  And she hears love's fiery protestations,
+    Words of ardour and endearing bliss:
+        "Hark, the cock! 'Tis light!
+        But to-morrow night
+    Thou wilt come again?"--and kiss on kiss.
+
+  XXI.
+
+  Quick the latch she raises, and, with features
+    Anger-flush'd, into the chamber hies.
+  "Are there in my house such shameless creatures,
+    Minions to the stranger's will?" she cries.
+        By the dying light,
+        Who is't meets her sight?
+    God! 'tis her own daughter she espies!
+
+  XXII.
+
+  And the youth in terror sought to cover,
+    With her own light veil, the maiden's head,
+  Clasp'd her close; but, gliding from her lover,
+    Back the vestment from her brow she spread,
+        And her form upright,
+        As with ghostly might,
+    Long and slowly rises from the bed.
+
+  XXIII.
+
+  "Mother! mother! wherefore thus deprive me
+    Of such joy as I this night have known?
+  Wherefore from these warm embraces drive me?
+    Was I waken'd up to meet thy frown?
+        Did it not suffice
+        That, in virgin guise,
+    To an early grave you brought me down?
+
+  XXIV.
+
+  "Fearful is the weird that forced me hither,
+    From the dark-heap'd chamber where I lay;
+  Powerless are your drowsy anthems, neither
+    Can your priests prevail, howe'er they pray.
+        Salt nor lymph can cool
+        Where the pulse is full;
+    Love must still burn on, though wrapp'd in clay.
+
+  XXV.
+
+  "To this youth my early troth was plighted,
+    Whilst yet Venus ruled within the land;
+  Mother! and that vow ye falsely slighted,
+    At your new and gloomy faith's command.
+        But no God will hear,
+        If a mother swear
+    Pure from love to keep her daughter's hand.
+
+  XXVI.
+
+  "Nightly from my narrow chamber driven,
+    Come I to fulfil my destined part,
+  Him to seek for whom my troth was given,
+    And to draw the life blood from his heart.
+        He hath served my will;
+        More I yet must kill,
+    For another prey I now depart.
+
+  XXVII.
+
+  "Fair young man! thy thread of life is broken,
+    Human skill can bring no aid to thee.
+  There thou hast my chain--a ghastly token--
+    And this lock of thine I take with me.
+        Soon must thou decay,
+        Soon wilt thou be gray,
+    Dark although to-night thy tresses be.
+
+  XXVIII.
+
+  "Mother! hear, oh hear my last entreaty!
+    Let the funeral pile arise once more;
+  Open up my wretched tomb for pity,
+    And in flames our souls to peace restore.
+        When the ashes glow,
+        When the fire-sparks flow,
+    To the ancient gods aloft we soar."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this most powerful and original ballad, let us turn to
+something more genial. The three following poems are exquisite
+specimens of the varied genius of our author; and we hardly know
+whether to prefer the plaintive beauty of the first, or the light and
+sportive brilliancy of the other twain.
+
+
+FIRST LOVE.
+
+  Oh, who will bring me back the day,
+    So beautiful, so bright!
+  Those days when love first bore my heart
+    Aloft on pinions light?
+  Oh, who will bring me but an hour
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the power
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+  I nurse my wound in solitude,
+    I sigh the livelong day,
+  And mourn the joys, in wayward mood,
+   That now are pass'd away.
+  Oh, who will bring me back the days
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the blaze
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+WHO'LL BUY A CUPID?
+
+  Of all the wares so pretty
+  That come into the city,
+  There's none are so delicious,
+  There's none are half so precious,
+  As those which we are binging.
+  O, listen to our singing!
+  Young loves to sell! young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  First look you at the oldest,
+  The wantonest, the boldest!
+  So loosely goes he hopping,
+  From tree and thicket dropping,
+  Then flies aloft as sprightly--
+  We dare but praise him lightly!
+  The fickle rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Now see this little creature--
+  How modest seems his feature!
+  He nestles so demurely,
+  You'd think him safer surely;
+  And yet for all his shyness,
+  There's danger in his slyness!
+  The cunning rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Oh come and see this lovelet,
+  This little turtle-dovelet!
+  The maidens that are neatest,
+  The tenderest and sweetest,
+  Should buy it to amuse 'em,
+  And nurse it in their bosom.
+  The little pet! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  We need not bid you buy them,
+  They're here, if you will try them.
+  They like to change their cages;
+  But for their proving sages
+  No warrant will we utter--
+  They all have wings to flutter.
+  The pretty birds! Young loves to sell!
+  Such beauties! Come and buy!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SECOND LIFE.
+
+  After life's departing sigh,
+  To the spots I loved most dearly,
+  In the sunshine and the shadow,
+  By the fountain welling clearly,
+  Through the wood and o'er the meadow,
+  Flit I like a butterfly.
+
+  There a gentle pair I spy.
+  Round the maiden's tresses flying,
+  From her chaplet I discover
+  All that I had lost in dying,
+  Still with her and with her lover.
+  Who so happy then as I?
+
+  For she smiles with laughing eye;
+  And his lips to hers he presses,
+  Vows of passion interchanging,
+  Stifling her with sweet caresses,
+  O'er her budding beauties ranging;
+  And around the twain I fly.
+
+  And she sees me fluttering nigh;
+  And beneath his ardour trembling,
+  Starts she up--then off I hover.
+  "Look there, dearest!" Thus dissembling,
+  Speaks the maiden to her lover--
+  "Come and catch that butterfly!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the days of his boyhood, and of Monk Lewis, Sir Walter Scott
+translated the Erl King, and since then it has been a kind of
+assay-piece for aspiring German students to thump and hammer at will.
+We have heard it sung so often at the piano by soft-voiced maidens,
+and hirsute musicians, before whose roaring the bull of Phalaris
+might be dumb, that we have been accustomed to associate it with
+stiff white cravats, green tea, and a superabundance of lemonade. But
+to do full justice to its unearthly fascination, one ought to hear it
+chanted by night in a lonely glade of the Schwartzwald or Spessart
+forest, with the wind moaning as an accompaniment, and the ghostly
+shadows of the branches flitting in the moonlight across the path.
+
+
+THE ERL KING.
+
+  Who rides so late through the grisly night?
+  'Tis a father and child, and he grasps him tight;
+  He wraps him close in his mantle's fold,
+  And shelters the boy from the biting cold.
+
+  "My son, why thus to my arm dost cling?"
+  "Father, dost thou not see the Erlie-king?
+  The king with his crown and long black train!"
+  "My son, 'tis a streak of the misty rain! "
+
+  "Come hither, thou darling! come, go with me!
+  Fair games know I that I'll play with thee;
+  Many bright flowers my kingdoms hold!
+  My mother has many a robe of gold!"
+
+  "O father, dear father and dost thou not hear
+  What the Erlie-king whispers so low in mine ear?"
+  "Calm thee, my boy, 'tis only the breeze
+  Rustling the dry leaves beneath the trees!"
+
+  "Wilt thou go, bonny boy! wilt thou go with me?
+  My daughters shall wait on thee daintilie;
+  My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,
+  And rock thee, and kiss thee, and sing thee to sleep!"
+
+  "O father, dear father! and dost thou not mark
+  Erlie-king's daughters move by in the dark?"
+  "I see it, my child; but it is not they,
+  'Tis the old willow nodding its head so grey!"
+
+  "I love thee! thy beauty charms me quite;
+  And if thou refusest, I'll take thee by might!"
+  "O father, dear father! he's grasping me--
+  My heart is as cold as cold can be!"
+
+  The father rides swiftly--with terror he gasps--
+  The sobbing child in his arms he clasps;
+  He reaches the castle with spurring and dread;
+  But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Who has not heard of Mignon?--sweet, delicate little Mignon?--the
+woman-child, in whose miniature, rather than portrait, it is easy to
+trace the original of fairy Fenella? We would that we could
+adequately translate the song, which in its native German is so
+exquisitely plaintive, that few can listen to it without tears. This
+poem, it is almost needless to say, is anterior in date to Byron's
+Bride of Abyos
+
+
+  MIGNON.
+
+  Know'st thou the land where the pale citron grows,
+  And the gold orange through dark foliage glows?
+  A soft wind flutters from the deep blue sky,
+  The myrtle blooms, and towers the laurel high.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my own beloved one, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the house? On pillars rest its beams,
+  Bright is its hall, in light one chamber gleams,
+  And marble statues stand, and look on me--
+  What have they done, thou hapless child, to thee?
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my loved protector, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the track that o'er the mountain goes,
+  Where the mule threads its way through mist and snows,
+  Where dwelt in caves the dragon's ancient brood,
+  Topples the crag, and o'er it roars the flood.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O come with me!
+  There lies our road--oh father, let us flee!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In order duly to appreciate the next ballad, you must fancy yourself
+(if you cannot realize it) stretched on the grass, by the margin of a
+mighty river of the south, rushing from or through an Italian lake,
+whose opposite shore you cannot descry for the thick purple haze of
+heat that hangs over its glassy surface. If you lie there for an hour
+or so, gazing into the depths of the blue unfathomable sky, till the
+fanning of the warm wind and the murmur of the water combine to throw
+you into a trance, you will be able to enjoy
+
+
+THE FISHER.
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    An angler near it lay,
+  And watch'd his quill, with tranquil eye,
+    Upon the current play.
+  And as he sits in wasteful dream,
+    He sees the flood unclose,
+  And from the middle of the stream
+    A river-maiden rose.
+
+  She sang to him with witching wile,
+    "My brood why wilt thou snare,
+  With human craft and human guile,
+    To die in scorching air?
+  Ah! didst thou know how happy we
+    Who dwell in waters clear,
+  Thou wouldst come down at once to me,
+    And rest for ever here.
+
+  "The sun and ladye-moon they lave
+    Their tresses in the main,
+  And breathing freshness from the wave,
+    Come doubly bright again.
+  The deep blue sky, so moist and clear,
+    Hath it for thee no lure?
+  Does thine own face not woo thee down
+    Unto our waters pure?"
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    It lapp'd his naked feet;
+  He thrill'd as though he felt the touch
+    Of maiden kisses sweet.
+  She spoke to him, she sang to him--
+    Resistless was her strain--
+  Half-drawn, he sank beneath the wave,
+    And ne'er was seen again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our next extract smacks of the Troubadours, and would have better
+suited good old King René of Provence than a Paladin of the days of
+Charlemagne. Goethe has neither the eye of Wouverman nor Borgognone,
+and sketches but an indifferent battle-piece. Homer was a stark
+moss-trooper, and so was Scott; but the Germans want the cry of "boot
+and saddle" consumedly. However, the following is excellent in its
+way.
+
+
+THE MINSTREL.
+
+  "What sounds are those without, along
+    The drawbridge sweetly stealing?
+  Within our hall I'd have that song,
+    That minstrel measure, pealing."
+  Then forth the little foot-page hied;
+  When he came back, the king he cried,
+    "Bring in the aged minstrel!"
+
+  "Good-even to you, lordlings all;
+    Fair ladies all, good-even.
+  Lo, star on star within this hall
+    I see a radiant heaven.
+  In hall so bright with noble light,
+  'Tis not for thee to feast thy sight,
+    Old man, look not around thee!"
+
+  He closed his eyne, he struck his lyre
+    In tones with passion laden,
+  Till every gallant's eye shot fire,
+    And down look'd every maiden.
+  The king, enraptured with his strain,
+  Held out to him a golden chain,
+    In guerdon of his harping.
+
+  "The golden chain give not to me,
+    For noble's breast its glance is,
+  Who meets and beats thy enemy
+    Amid the shock of lances.
+  Or give it to thy chancellere--
+  Let him its golden burden bear,
+    Among his other burdens.
+
+  "I sing as sings the bird, whose note
+    The leafy bough is heard on.
+  The song that falters from my throat
+    For me is ample guerdon.
+  Yet I'd ask one thing, an I might,
+  A draught of brave wine, sparkling bright
+    Within a golden beaker!"
+
+  The cup was brought. He drain'd its lees,
+    "O draught that warms me cheerly!
+  Blest is the house where gifts like these
+    Are counted trifles merely.
+  Lo, when you prosper, think on me,
+  And thank your God as heartily
+    As for this draught I thank you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We intend to close the present Number with a very graceful, though
+simple ditty, which Goethe may possibly have altered from the
+Morlachian, but which is at all events worthy of his genius.
+Previously, however, in case any of the ladies should like something
+sentimental, we beg leave to present them with as nice a little
+_chansonette_ as ever was transcribed into an album.
+
+THE VIOLET.
+
+  A violet blossom'd on the lea,
+    Half hidden from the eye,
+  As fair a flower as you might see;
+    When there came tripping by
+  A shepherd maiden fair and young,
+    Lightly, lightly o'er the lea;
+  Care she knew not, and she sung
+      Merrily!
+
+  "O were I but the fairest flower
+    That blossoms on the lea;
+  If only for one little hour,
+    That she might gather me--
+  Clasp me in her bonny breast!"
+    Thought the little flower.
+  "O that in it I might rest
+      But an hour!"
+
+  Lack-a-day! Up came the lass,
+    Heeded not the violet;
+  Trod it down into the grass;
+    Though it died, 'twas happy yet.
+  "Trodden down although I lie,
+    Yet my death is very sweet--
+  For I cannot choose but die
+      At her feet!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE DOLEFUL LAY OF THE NOBLE WIFE OF ASAN AGA.
+
+  What is yon so white beside the greenwood?
+  Is it snow, or flight of cygnets resting?
+  Were it snow, ere now it had been melted;
+  Were it swans, ere now the flock had left us.
+  Neither snow nor swans are resting yonder,
+  'Tis the glittering tents of Asan Aga.
+  Faint he lies from wounds in stormy battle;
+  There his mother and his sisters seek him,
+  But his wife hangs back for shame, and comes not.
+
+  When the anguish of his hurts was over,
+  To his faithful wife he sent this message--
+  "Longer 'neath my roof thou shalt not tarry,
+  Neither in my court nor in my household."
+
+  When the lady heard this cruel sentence,
+  'Reft of sense she stood, and rack'd with anguish:
+  In the court she heard the horses stamping,
+  And in fear that it was Asan coming,
+  Fled towards the tower, to leap and perish.
+
+  Then in terror ran her little daughters,
+  Calling after her, and weeping sorely,
+  "These are not the steeds of Father Asan;
+  'Tis thy brother Pintorovich coming!"
+
+  And the wife of Asan turn'd to meet him;
+  Sobbing, threw her arms around her brother.
+  "See the wrongs, O brother, of thy sister!
+  These five babes I bore, and must I leave them?"
+
+  Silently the brother from his girdle
+  Draws the ready deed of separation,
+  Wrapp'd within a crimson silken cover.
+  She is free to seek her mother's dwelling--
+  Free to join in wedlock with another.
+
+  When the woful lady saw the writing,
+  Kiss'd she both her boys upon the forehead,
+  Kiss'd on both the cheeks her sobbing daughters;
+  But she cannot tear herself for pity
+  From the infant smiling in the cradle!
+
+  Rudely did her brother tear her from it,
+  Deftly lifted her upon a courser,
+  And in haste, towards his father's dwelling,
+  Spurr'd he onward with the woful lady.
+
+  Short the space; seven days, but barely seven--
+  Little space I ween--by many nobles
+  Was the lady--still in weeds of mourning--
+  Was the lady courted in espousal.
+
+  Far the noblest was Imoski's cadi;
+  And the dame in tears besought her brother--
+  "I adjure thee, by the life thou bearest,
+  Give me not a second time in marriage,
+  That my heart may not be rent asunder
+  If again I see my darling children!"
+
+  Little reck'd the brother of her bidding,
+  Fix'd to wed her to Imoski's cadi.
+  But the gentle lady still entreats him--
+  "Send at least a letter, O my brother!
+  To Imoski's cadi, thus imploring--
+  I, the youthful widow, greet thee fairly,
+  And entreat thee, by this selfsame token,
+  When thou comest hither with thy bridesmen,
+  Bring a heavy veil, that I may shroud me
+  As we pass along by Asan's dwelling,
+  So I may not see my darling orphans."
+
+  Scarcely had the cadi read the letter,
+  When he call'd together all his bridesmen,
+  Boune himself to bring the lady homewards,
+  And he brought the veil as she entreated.
+
+  Jocundly they reach'd the princely mansion,
+  Jocundly they bore her thence in triumph;
+  But when they drew near to Asan's dwelling,
+  Then the children recognized their mother,
+  And they cried, "Come back unto thy chamber--
+  Share the meal this evening with thy children;"
+  And she turn'd her to the lordly bridegroom--
+  "Pray thee, let the bridesmen and their horses
+  Halt a little by the once-loved dwelling,
+  Till I give these presents to my children."
+
+  And they halted by the once-loved dwelling,
+  And she gave the weeping children presents,
+  Gave each boy a cap with gold embroider'd,
+  Gave each girl a long and costly garment,
+  And with tears she left a tiny mantle
+  For the helpless baby in the cradle.
+
+  These things mark'd the father, Asan Aga,
+  And in sorrow call'd he to his children--
+  "Turn again to me, ye poor deserted;
+  Hard as steel is now your mother's bosom;
+  Shut so fast, it cannot throb with pity!"
+
+  Thus he spoke; and when the lady heard him,
+  Pale as death she dropp'd upon the pavement,
+  And the life fled from her wretched bosom
+  As she saw her children turning from her.
+
+
+
+
+MY FIRST LOVE.
+
+A SKETCH IN NEW YORK.
+
+
+"Margaret, where are you?" cried a silver-toned voice from a passage
+outside the drawing-room in which I had just seated myself. The next
+instant a lovely face appeared at the door, its owner tripped into
+the room, made a comical curtsy, and ran up to her sister.
+
+"It is really too bad, Margaret; pa' frets and bustles about, nearly
+runs over me upon the stairs, and then goes down the street as if
+'Change were on fire. Ma' yawns, and will not hear of our going
+shopping, and grumbles about money--always money--that horrid money!
+Ah! dear Margaret, our shopping excursion is at an end for to-day!"
+
+Sister Margaret, to whom this lamentation was addressed, was
+reclining on the sofa, her left hand supporting her head, her right
+holding the third volume of a novel. She looked up with a languishing
+and die-away expression--
+
+"Poor Staunton will be in despair," said her sister. "This is at
+least his tenth turn up and down the Battery. Last night he was a
+perfect picture of misery. I could not have had the heart to refuse
+to dance with him. How could you be so cruel, Margaret?"
+
+"Alas!" replied Margaret with a deep sigh, "how could I help it?
+Mamma was behind me, and kept pushing me with her elbow. Mamma is
+sometimes very ill-bred." And another sigh burst from the overcharged
+heart of the sentimental fair one.
+
+"Well," rejoined her sister, "I don't know why she so terribly
+dislikes poor Staunton; but to say the truth, our gallopade lost
+nothing by his absence. He is as stiff as a Dutch doll when he
+dances. Even our Louisianian backwoodsman here, acquits himself much
+more creditably."
+
+And the malicious girl gave me such an arch look, that I could not be
+angry with the equivocal sort of compliment paid to myself.
+
+"That is very unkind, Arthurine," said Margaret, her checks glowing
+with anger at this attack upon the graces of her admirer.
+
+"Don't be angry, sister," cried Arthurine, running up to her,
+throwing her arms round her neck, and kissing and soothing her till
+she began to smile. They formed a pretty group. Arthurine especially,
+as she skipped up to her sister, scarce touching the carpet with her
+tiny feet, looked like a fairy or a nymph. She was certainly a lovely
+creature, slender and flexible as a reed, with a waist one could
+easily have spanned with one's ten fingers; feet and hands on the
+very smallest scale, and of the most beautiful mould; features
+exquisitely regular; a complexion of lilies and roses; a small
+graceful head, adorned with a profusion of golden hair; and then
+large round clear blue eyes, full of mischief and fascination. She
+was, as the French say, _à croquer_.
+
+"Heigho!" sighed the sentimental Margaret. "To think of this vulgar,
+selfish man intruding himself between me and such a noble creature as
+Staunton! It is really heart-breaking."
+
+"Not quite so bad as that!" said Arthurine. "Moreland, as you know,
+has a good five hundred thousand dollars; and Staunton has nothing,
+or at most a couple of thousand dollars a-year--a mere feather in the
+balance against such a golden weight."
+
+"Love despises gold," murmured Margaret.
+
+"Nonsense!" replied her sister; "I would not even despise silver, if
+it were in sufficient quantity. Only think of the balls and parties,
+the fêtes and pic-nics! Saratoga in the summer--perhaps even London
+or Paris! The mere thought of it makes my mouth water."
+
+"Talk not of such joys, to be bought at such a price!" cried
+Margaret, quoting probably from some of her favourite novels.
+
+"Well, don't make yourself unhappy now," said Arthurine. "Moreland
+will not be here till tea-time; and there are six long hours to that.
+If we had only a few new novels to pass the time! I cannot imagine
+why Cooper is so lazy. Only one book in a year! What if you were to
+begin to write, sister? I have no doubt you would succeed as well as
+Mrs Mitchell. Bulwer is so fantastical; and even Walter Scott is
+getting dull."
+
+"Alas, Howard!" sighed Margaret, looking to me for sympathy with her
+sorrows.
+
+"Patience, dear Margaret," said I. "If possible, I will help you to
+get rid of the old fellow. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Rat-tat-tat at the house door. Arthurine put up her finger to enjoin
+silence, and listened. Another loud knock. "A visit!" exclaimed she
+with sparkling eyes. "Ha! ladies; I hear the rustle of their gowns."
+And as she spoke the door opened, and the Misses Pearce came swimming
+into the room, in all the splendour of violet-coloured silks, covered
+with feathers, lace, and embroideries, and bringing with them an
+atmosphere of perfume.
+
+The man who has the good fortune to see our New York belles in their
+morning or home attire, must have a heart made of quartz or granite
+if he resists their attractions. Their graceful forms, their
+intellectual and somewhat languishing expression of countenance,
+their bright and beaming eyes, their slender figures, which make one
+inclined to seize and hold them lest the wind should blow them away,
+their beautifully delicate hands and feet, compose a sum of
+attraction perfectly irresistible. The Boston ladies are perhaps
+better informed, and their features are usually more regular; but
+they have something Yankeeish about them, which I could never fancy,
+and, moreover, they are dreadful blue-stockings. The fair
+Philadelphians are rounder, more elastic, more Hebe-like, and
+unapproachable in the article of small-talk; but it is amongst the
+beauties of New York that romance writers should seek for their
+Julias and Alices. I am certain that if Cooper had made their
+acquaintance whilst writing his books, he would have torn up his
+manuscripts, and painted his heroines after a less wooden fashion. He
+can only have seen them on the Battery or in Broadway, where they are
+so buried and enveloped in finery that it is impossible to guess what
+they are really like. The two young ladies who had just entered the
+room, were shining examples of that system of over-dressing. They
+seemed to have put on at one time the three or four dresses worn in
+the course of the day by a London or Paris fashionable.
+
+It was now all over with my _tête-à-tête_. I could only be _de trop_
+in the gossip of the four ladies, and I accordingly took my leave. As
+I passed before the parlour door on my way out, it was opened, and
+Mrs Bowsends beckoned me in. I entered, and found her husband also
+there.
+
+"Are you going away already, my dear Howard?" said the lady.
+
+"There are visitors up stairs."
+
+"Ah, Howard!" said Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"The workies[20] have carried the day," growled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 20: The slang term applied to the mechanics and labourers,
+a numerous and (at elections especially) a most important class in
+New York and Philadelphia.]
+
+"That horrid Staunton!" interrupted his better half. "Only think
+now'--
+
+"Our side lost--completely floored. But you've heard of it, I
+suppose, Mister Howard?"
+
+I turned from one to the other in astonished perplexity, not knowing
+to which I ought to listen first.
+
+"I don't know how it is," whined the lady, "but that Mr Staunton
+becomes every day more odious to me. Only think now, of his having
+the effrontery to persist in running after Margaret! Hardly two
+thousand a-year "--
+
+"Old Hickory is preparing to leave Hermitage already.[21] Bank shares
+have fallen half per cent in consequence," snarled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 21: The name of General Jackson's country-house and
+estate.]
+
+They were ringing the changes on poor Staunton and the new president.
+
+"He ought to remember the difference of our positions," said Mrs B.,
+drawing herself up with much dignity.
+
+"Certainly, certainly!" said I.
+
+"And the governor's election is also going desperate bad," said Mr
+Bowsends.
+
+"And then Margaret, to think of her infatuation! Certainly she is a
+good, gentle creature; but five hundred thousand dollars!" This was
+Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"By no means to be despised," said I.
+
+The five hundred thousand dollars touched a responsive chord in the
+heart of the papa.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," repeated he. "Yes, certainly; but what's the
+use of that? All nonsense. Those girls would ruin a Croesus."
+
+"You need not talk, I'm sure," retorted mamma. "Think of all your
+bets and electioneering."
+
+"You understand nothing about that," replied her husband angrily.
+"Interests of the country--congress--public good--must be supported.
+Who would do it if we"--
+
+"Did not bet," thought I.
+
+"You are a friend of the family," said Mrs Bowsends, "and I hope you
+will"--
+
+"Apropos," interrupted her loving husband. "How has your cotton crop
+turned out? You might consign it to me. How many bales?"
+
+"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."
+
+"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa musingly;
+"hm, hm."
+
+"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital in my
+hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred another year."
+
+"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened approvingly.
+"That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a good girl. We'll
+see, my dear Mr Howard--we'll see. Yes, yes--come here every
+evening--whenever you like. You know Arthurine is always glad to see
+you."
+
+"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.
+
+"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling graciously.
+
+I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
+nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends' last
+speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate father-in-law
+that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets with my cotton bales;
+and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at the selfishness of my
+species, and more especially at the stupid impudent egotism of
+Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him. To all such, even their
+children are nothing but so many bales of goods, to be bartered,
+bought, and sold. And this man belongs to the _haut-ton_ of New York!
+Five-and-twenty years ago he went about with a tailor's measure in
+his pocket--now a leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees
+and directorships.
+
+But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely face,
+the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and that is not
+saying a little, but the most elegant, charming--a perfect sylph! It
+was now about eleven months since I had first become acquainted with
+the bewitching creature; and, from the very first day, I had been her
+vassal, her slave, bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida.
+She had just left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by
+the by, is one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes
+itself upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
+fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
+danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected upon
+the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right well how to
+work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet; but not one out
+of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he had received a
+smile or a look more than his fellows. I was the only one who had
+perhaps obtained a sort of passive preference. I was allowed to
+escort her in her rides, walks, and drives; to be her regular partner
+when no other dancer offered, and suchlike enviable privileges. She
+flirted and fluttered about me, and hung familiarly on my arm, as she
+tripped along Broadway or the Battery by my side. In addition to all
+these little marks of preference, it fell to my share of duty to
+supply her with the newest novels, to furnish her with English
+Keepsakes and American Tokens and Souvenirs, and to provide the last
+fashionable songs and quadrilles. All this had cost me no small sum;
+but I consoled myself with the reflection, that my presents were made
+to the prettiest girl in New York, and that sooner or later she must
+reward my assiduities. Twice had fortune smiled upon me; in one
+instance, when we were standing on the bridge at Niagara, looking
+down on the foaming waters, and I was obliged to put my arm round her
+waist, for fear she should become dizzy and fall in--in doing which,
+by the by, I very nearly fell in myself. A similar thing occurred on
+a visit we made to the Trenton falls. That was all I had got for my
+pains, however, during the eleven months that I had trifled away in
+New York--months that had served to lighten my purse pretty
+considerably. It is the fashion in our southern states to choose our
+wives from amongst the beauties of the north. I had been bitten by
+the mania, and had come to New York upon this important business; but
+having been there nearly a year, it was high time to make an end of
+matters, if I did not wish to be put on the shelf as stale goods.
+
+This last reflection occurred to me very strongly as I was walking
+from the Bowsends' house towards Wall Street, when suddenly I caught
+sight of my fellow-sufferer Staunton. The Yankee's dolorous
+countenance almost made me smile. Up he came, with the double object
+of informing me that the weather was very fine, and of offering me a
+bite at his pigtail tobacco. I could not help expressing my
+astonishment that so sensitive and delicate a creature as Margaret
+should tolerate such a habit in the man of her choice.
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the simpleton. "Moreland chews also."
+
+"Yes, but he has got five hundred thousand dollars, and that sweetens
+the poison."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Staunton.
+
+"Keep up your courage, man; Bowsends is rich."
+
+The Yankee shook his head.
+
+"Two hundred thousand, they say; but to-morrow he may not have a
+farthing. You know our New Yorkers. Nothing but bets, elections,
+shares, railways, banks. His expenses are enormous; and, if he once
+got his daughters off his hands, he would perhaps fail next week."
+
+"And be so much the richer next year," replied I.
+
+"Do you think so?" said the Yankee, musingly.
+
+"Of course it would be so. Mean time you can marry the languishing
+Margaret, and do like many others of your fellow citizens; go out
+with a basket on your arm to the Greenwich market, and whilst your
+delicate wife is enjoying her morning slumber, buy the potatoes and
+salted mackerel for breakfast. In return for that, she will perhaps
+condescend to pour you out a cup of bohea. Famous thing that bohea!
+capital antidote to the dyspepsia!"
+
+"You are spiteful," said poor Staunton.
+
+"And you foolish," I retorted. "To a young barrister like you, there
+are hundreds of houses open."
+
+"And to you also."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And then I have this advantage--the girl likes me."
+
+"I am liked by the papa and the mamma, and the girl too."
+
+"Have you got five hundred thousand dollars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Poor Howard!" cried Staunton, laughing.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied I, laughing also.
+
+We had been chatting in this manner for nearly a quarter of an hour,
+when a coach drove out of Greenwich Street, in which I saw a face
+that I thought I knew. One of the Philadelphia steamers had just
+arrived. I stepped forward.
+
+"Stop!" cried a well-known voice.
+
+"Stop!" cried I, hastening to the coach door.
+
+It was Richards, my school and college friend, and my neighbour,
+after the fashion of the southern states; for he lived only about a
+hundred and seventy miles from me. I said good-by to poor simple
+Staunton, got into the coach, and we rattled off through Broadway to
+the American hotel.
+
+"For heaven's sake, George!" exclaimed my friend, as soon as we were
+installed in a room, "tell me what you are doing here. Have you quite
+forgotten house, land, and friends? You have been eleven months
+away."
+
+"True," replied I; "making love--and not a step further advanced than
+the first."
+
+"The report is true, then, that you have been harpooned by the
+Bowsends? Poor fellow! I am sorry for you. Just tell me what you mean
+to do with the dressed-up doll when you get her? A young lady who has
+not enough patience even to read her novels from beginning to end,
+and who, before she was twelve years old, had Tom Moore and Byron,
+_Don Juan_ perhaps excepted, by heart. A damsel who has geography and
+the globes, astronomy and Cuvier, Raphael's cartoons and Rossini's
+operas, at her finger-ends; but who, as true as I am alive, does not
+know whether a mutton chop is cut off a pig or a cow--who would boil
+tea and cauliflowers in the same manner, and has some vague idea that
+eggs are the principal ingredient in a gooseberry pie."
+
+"I want her for my wife, not for my cook," retorted I, rather
+nettled.
+
+"Who does not know," continued Richards, "whether dirty linen ought
+to be boiled or baked."
+
+"But she sings like St Cecilia, plays divinely, and dances like a
+fairy."
+
+"Yes, all that will do you a deal of good. I know the family; both
+father and mother are the most contemptible people breathing."
+
+"Stop there!" cried I; "they are not one iota better or worse than
+their neighbours."
+
+"You are right."
+
+"Well, then, leave them in peace. I have promised to drink tea there
+at six o'clock. If you will come, I will take you with me."
+
+"Know then already, man. I will go, on one condition; that you leave
+New York with me in three days."
+
+"If my marriage is not settled," replied I.
+
+"D----d fool!" muttered Richards between his teeth.
+
+Six o'clock struck as we entered the drawing-room of my future
+mother-in-law. The good lady almost frightened me as I went in, by
+her very extraordinary appearance in a tremendous grey gauze turban,
+fire-new, just arrived by the Henri Quatre packet-ship from Havre,
+and that gave her exactly the look of one of our Mississippi
+night-owls. Richards seemed a little startled; and Moreland, who was
+already there, could not take his eyes off this remarkable
+head-dress. Miss Margaret was costumed in pale green silk, her hair
+flattened upon each side of her forehead _a la Marguerite_, (see the
+_Journal des Modes,_) and looking like Jephtha's daughter, pale and
+resigned, but rather more lackadaisical, with a sort of
+"though-absent-not-forgot" look about her, inexpressibly sentimental
+and interesting. The contrast was certainly rather strong between old
+Moreland, who sat there, red-faced, thickset, and clumsy, and the
+airy slender Staunton, who, for fear of spoiling his figure, lived
+upon oysters and macaroon, and drank water with a rose leaf in it.
+
+I had brought the languishing beauty above described, Scott's _Tales
+of my Grandfather_, which had just appeared.
+
+"Ah! Walter Scott!" exclaimed she, in her pretty melting tones. Then,
+after a moment's pause, "The vulgar man has not a word to say for
+himself;" said she to me, in a low tone.
+
+"Wait a little," replied I; "he'll improve. It is no doubt his modest
+timidity that keeps his lips closed."
+
+Margaret gave me a furious look.
+
+"Heartless mocker!" she exclaimed.
+
+Meanwhile Richards had got into conversation with Bowsends. The
+unlucky dog, who did not know that his host was a violent Adams-ite,
+and had lost a good five thousand dollars in bets and subscriptions
+to influence the voices of the sovereign people at the recent
+election, had fallen on the sore subject. He began by informing his
+host that Old Hickory would shortly leave the Hermitage to assume his
+duties as president.
+
+"The blood-thirsty backwoodsman, half horse, half alligator"
+interrupted Mr Bowsends.
+
+"Costs you dear, his election," said Moreland laughing.
+
+"Smokes out of a tobacco pipe like a vulgar German," ejaculated Mrs
+Bowsends.
+
+"Not so very vulgar for that," said blundering Moreland; "tobacco has
+quite another taste out of a pipe."
+
+I gave him a tremendous dig in the back with my elbow.
+
+"Do you smoke out of a tobacco pipe, Mr Moreland?" enquired Margaret
+in her flute-like tones.
+
+Moreland stared; he had a vague idea that he had got himself into a
+scrape, but his straightforward honesty prevented him from
+prevaricating, and he blurted out--"Sometimes, miss."
+
+I thought the sensitive creature would have swooned away at this
+admission; and I had just laid my arm over the back of her chair to
+support her, when Arthurine entered the room. She gave a quick glance
+to me; it was too late to draw back my arm. She did not seem to
+notice any thing, saluted the company gaily and easily, tripped up to
+Moreland, wished him good evening--asked after his bets, his ships,
+his old dog Tom--chattered, in short, full ten minutes in a breath.
+Before Moreland knew what she was about, she had taken one of his
+hands in both of hers. But they were old acquaintances, and he might
+easily have been her grandfather. Meanwhile Margaret had somewhat
+recovered from the shock.
+
+"He smokes out of a pipe!" lisped she to Arthurine, in a tone of
+melancholy resignation.
+
+"Old Hickory is very popular in Pennsylvania," said Richards,
+resuming the conversation that had been interrupted, and perfectly
+unconscious, as Moreland would have said, of the shoals he was
+sailing amongst. "A Bedford County farmer has just sent him a present
+of a cask of Monongahela."
+
+"I envy him that present," cried Moreland. "A glass of genuine
+Monongahela is worth any money."
+
+This second shock was far too violent to be resisted by Margaret's
+delicate nerves. She sank back in her chair, half fainting, half
+hysterical. Her maids were called in, and with their help she managed
+to leave the room.
+
+"Have you brought her a book?" said Arthurine to me.
+
+"Yes, one of Walter Scott's."
+
+"Oh! then she will soon be well again," rejoined the affectionate
+sister, apparently by no means alarmed.
+
+Now that this nervous beauty was gone, the conversation became much
+more lively. Captain Moreland was a jovial sailor, who had made ten
+voyages to China, fifteen to Constantinople, twenty to St Petersburg,
+and innumerable ones to Liverpool and through his exertions had
+amassed the large fortune which he was now enjoying. He was a
+merry-hearted man, with excellent sound sense on all points except
+one--that one being the fair sex, with which he was about as well
+acquainted as an alligator with a camera-obscure. The attentions paid
+to him by Arthurine seemed to please the old bachelor uncommonly.
+There was a mixture of kindness, malice, and fascination in her
+manner, which was really enchanting; even the matter-of-fact Richards
+could not take his eyes off her.
+
+"That is certainly a charming girl!" whispered he to me.
+
+"Did not I tell you so?" said I. "Only observe with what sweetness
+she gives in to the old man's humours and fancies!"
+
+The hours passed like minutes. Supper was long over, and we rose to
+depart; when I shook hands with Arthurine, she pressed mine gently. I
+was in the ninety-ninth heaven.
+
+"Now, boys," cried worthy Moreland, as soon as we were in the
+streets, "it would really be a pity to part so early on so joyous an
+evening. What do you say? Will you come to my house, and knock the
+necks off half a dozen bottles?"
+
+We agreed to this proposal; and, taking the old seaman between us,
+steered in the direction of his cabin, as he called his magnificent
+and well-furnished house.
+
+"What a delightful family those Bowsends are!" exclaimed Moreland, as
+soon as we were comfortably seated beside a blazing fire, with the
+Lafitte and East India Madeira sparkling on the table beside us. "And
+what charming girls! 'You're getting oldish,' says I to myself the
+other day, 'but you're still fresh and active, sound as a dolphin.
+Better get married.' Margaret pleased me uncommonly, so I"--
+
+"Yes, my dear Moreland," interrupted I, "but are you sure that you
+please her?"
+
+"Pshaw! Five times a hundred thousand dollars! I tell you what, my
+lad, that's not to be met with every day."
+
+"Fifty years old," replied I.
+
+"Certainly, fifty years old, but stout and healthy; none of your
+spindle-shanked dandies--your Stauntons"--
+
+But Staunton smokes cigars, and not Dutch pipes."
+
+"I give that up. For Miss Margaret's sake, I'll burn my nose and
+mouth with those damned stumps of cigars."
+
+"Drinks no whisky," continued I. "He is president of a temperance
+society."
+
+"The devil fly away with him!" growled Moreland; "I wouldn't give up
+my whisky for all the girls in the world."
+
+"If you don't, she'll always be fainting away," replied I, laughing.
+
+"Ah! It's because I talked of the Monongahela that she began with her
+hystericals, and went away for all the evening! That's where the wind
+sits, is it? Well, you may depend I ain't to be done out of my grog
+at any rate."
+
+And he backed his assertion with an oath, swallowing off the contents
+of his glass by way of a clincher. We sat joking and chatting till
+past midnight during which time I flattered myself that I gave
+evidence of considerable diplomatic talents. As we were returning
+home, however, Richards doubted whether I had not driven the old boy
+rather too hard
+
+"No matter," replied I, "if I have only succeeded in ridding poor
+Margaret of him."
+
+Cool, calculating Richards shook his head.
+
+"I don't know what may come of it," said he; "but I do not think you
+are likely to find much gratitude for your interference."
+
+The next day was taken up in arranging matters of business consequent
+on the arrival of Richards. At least ten times I tried to go and see
+Arthurine, but was always prevented by something or other; and it was
+past tea-time when I at last got to the Bowsends' house. I found
+Margaret in the drawing-room, deep in a new novel.
+
+"Where is Arthurine?" I enquired.
+
+"At the theatre, with mamma and Mr Moreland," was the answer.
+
+"At the theatre!" repeated I in astonishment. They were playing Tom
+and Jerry, a favourite piece with the enlightened Kentuckians. I had
+seen the first scene or two at the New Orleans theatre, and had had
+quite enough of it.
+
+"That really _is_ sacrificing herself!" said I, considerably out of
+humour.
+
+"The noble girl!" exclaimed Margaret. "Mr Moreland came to tea, and
+urged us so much to go"--
+
+"That she could not help going, to be bored and disgusted for a
+couple of hours."
+
+"She went for my sake," said Margaret sentimentally. "Mamma would
+have one of us go."
+
+"Yes, that is it," thought I. Jealousy would have been ridiculous. He
+fifty years old, she seventeen. I left the house, and went to find
+Richards.
+
+"What! Back so early?" cried he.
+
+"She is gone to the theatre with her mamma and Moreland."
+
+Richards shook his head.
+
+"You put a wasp's nest into the old fellow's brain-pan yesterday,"
+said he. "Take care you do not get stung yourself."
+
+"I should like to see how she looks by his side," said I.
+
+"Well, I will go with you. The sooner you are cured the better. But
+only for ten minutes."
+
+There was certainly no temptation to remain longer in that atmosphere
+of whisky and tobacco fumes. It was at the Bowery theatre. The light
+swam as though seen through a thick fog; and a perfect shower of
+orange and apple peel, and even less agreeable things, rained down
+from the galleries. Tom and Jerry were in all their glory. I looked
+round the boxes, and soon saw the charming Arthurine, apparently
+perfectly comfortable, chatting with old Moreland as gravely, and
+looking as demure and self-possessed, as if she had been a married
+woman of thirty.
+
+"That is a prudent young lady," said Richards; "she has an eye to the
+dollars, and would marry Old Hickory himself, spite of whisky and
+tobacco pipe, if he had more money, and were to ask her."
+
+I said nothing.
+
+"If you weren't such an infatuated fool," continued my plain-spoken
+friend, I would say to you, let her take her own way, and the day
+after to-morrow we will leave New York."
+
+"One week more," said I, with an uneasy feeling about the heart.
+
+At seven the next evening I entered what had been my Elysium, but was
+now, little by little, becoming my Tartarus. Again I found Margaret
+alone over a romance. "And Arthurine?" enquired I, in a voice that
+might perhaps have been steadier.
+
+"She is gone with mamma and Mr Moreland to hear Miss Fanny Wright."
+
+"To hear Miss Fanny Wright! the atheist, the revolutionist! What a
+mad fancy! Who would ever have dreamed of such a thing!"
+
+This Miss Fanny Wright was a famous lecturess, of the Owenite school,
+who was shunned like a pestilence by the fashionable world of New
+York.
+
+"Mr Moreland," answered Margaret, "said so much about her eloquence
+that Arthurine's curiosity was roused."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I.
+
+"Oh! you do not know what a noble girl she is. For her sister she
+would sacrifice her life. My only hope is in her."
+
+I snatched up my hat, and hurried out of the house.
+
+The next morning I got up, restless and uneasy; and eleven o'clock
+had scarcely struck when I reached the Bowsends' house. This time
+both sisters were at home; and as I entered the drawing-room,
+Arthurine advanced to meet me with a beautiful smile upon her face.
+There was nevertheless a something in the expression of her
+countenance that made me start. I pressed her hand. She looked
+tenderly at me.
+
+"I hope you have been amusing yourself these last two days," said I
+after a moment's pause.
+
+"Novelty has a certain charm," replied Arthurine. "Yet I certainly
+never expected to become a disciple of Miss Fanny Wright," added she,
+laughing.
+
+"Really! I should have thought the transition from Tom and Jerry
+rather an easy one."
+
+"A little more respect for Tom and Jerry, whom _we_ patronize--that
+is to say, Mr Moreland and our high mightiness," replied Arthurine,
+trying, as I fancied, to conceal a certain confusion of manner under
+a laugh.
+
+"I should scarcely have thought my Arthurine would have become a
+party to such a conspiracy against good taste," replied I gravely.
+
+"_My_ Arthurine!" repeated she, laying a strong accent on the pronoun
+possessive. "Only see what rights and privileges the gentleman is
+usurping! We live in a free country, I believe?"
+
+There was a mixture of jest and earnest in her charming countenance.
+I looked enquiringly at her.
+
+"Do you know," cried she, "I have taken quite a fancy to Moreland? He
+is so good-natured, such a sterling character, and his roughness
+wears off when one knows him well."
+
+"And moreover," added I, "he has five hundred thousand dollars."
+
+"Which are by no means the least of his recommendations. Only think
+of the balls, Howard! I hope you will come to them. And then
+Saratoga; next year London and Paris. Oh! it will be delightful."
+
+"What, so far gone already?" said I, sarcastically.
+
+"And poor Margaret is saved!" added she, throwing her arms round her
+sister's neck, and kissing and caressing her. I hardly knew whether
+to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then, I suppose, I may congratulate you?" said I, forcing a laugh,
+and looking, I have no doubt, very like a fool.
+
+You may so," replied Arthurine. "This morning Mr Moreland begged
+permission to transfer his addresses from Margaret to your very
+humble servant."
+
+"And you?"--
+
+"We naturally, in consideration of the petitioner's many amiable
+qualities, have promised to take the request into our serious
+consideration. For decorum's sake, you know, one must deliberate a
+couple of days or so."
+
+"Are you in jest or earnest, Arthurine?"
+
+"Quite in earnest, Howard."
+
+"Farewell, then!"
+
+  "'Fare-thee-well! and if for ever Still for ever fare-thee-well!'"
+
+said Arthurine, in a half-laughing, half-sighing tone. The next
+instant I had left the room.
+
+On the stairs I met the beturbaned Mrs Bowsends, who led the way
+mysteriously into the parlour.
+
+"You have seen Arthurine?" said she. "What a dear, darling child!--is
+she not? Oh! that girl is our joy and consolation. And Mr
+Moreland--the charming Mr Moreland! Now that things are arranged so
+delightfully, we can let Margaret have her own way a little."
+
+"What I have heard is true, then?" said I.
+
+"Yes; as an old friend I do not mind telling you--though it must
+still remain a secret for a short time. Mr Moreland has made a formal
+proposal to Arthurine."
+
+I do not know what reply I made, before flinging myself out of the
+room and house, and running down the street as if I had just escaped
+from a lunatic asylum.
+
+"Richards," cried I to my friend, "shall we start tomorrow?"
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Richards. "So you are cured of the New York
+fever? Start! Yes, by all means, before you get a relapse. You must
+come with me to Virginia for a couple of months."
+
+"I will so," was my answer.
+
+As we were going down to the steam-boat on the following morning,
+Staunton overtook us, breathless with speed and delight.
+
+"Wish me joy!" cried he. "I am accepted!"
+
+"And I jilted!" replied I with a laugh. "But I am not such a fool as
+to make myself unhappy about a woman."
+
+Light words enough, but my heart was heavy as I spoke them. Five
+minutes later, we were on our way to Virginia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HYDRO-BACCHUS.
+
+
+  Great Homer sings how once of old
+  The Thracian women met to hold
+  To "Bacchus, ever young and fair,"
+  Mysterious rites with solemn care.
+  For now the summer's glowing face
+  Had look'd upon the hills of Thrace;
+  And laden vines foretold the pride
+  Of foaming vats at Autumn tide.
+  There, while the gladsome Evöe shout
+  Through Nysa's knolls rang wildly out,
+  While cymbal clang, and blare of horn,
+  O'er the broad Hellespont were borne;
+  The sounds, careering far and near,
+  Struck sudden on Lycurgus' ear--
+  Edonia's grim black-bearded lord,
+  Who still the Bacchic rites abhorr'd,
+  And cursed the god whose power divine
+  Lent heaven's own fire to generous wine.
+  Ere yet th' inspired devotees
+  Had half performed their mysteries,
+  Furious he rush'd amidst the band,
+  And whirled an ox-goad in his hand.
+  Full many a dame on earth lay low
+  Beneath the tyrant's savage blow;
+  The rest, far scattering in affright,
+  Sought refuge from his rage in flight.
+
+  But the fell king enjoy'd not long
+  The triumph of his impious wrong:
+  The vengeance of the god soon found him,
+  And in a rocky dungeon bound him.
+  There, sightless, chain'd, in woful tones
+  He pour'd his unavailing groans,
+  Mingled with all the blasts that shriek
+  Round Athos' thunder-riven peak.
+  O Thracian king! how vain the ire
+  That urged thee 'gainst the Bacchic choir
+  The god avenged his votaries well--
+  Stern was the doom that thee befell;
+  And on the Bacchus-hating herd
+  Still rests the curse thy guilt incurr'd.
+  For the same spells that in those days
+  Were wont the Bacchanals to craze--
+  The maniac orgies, the rash vow,
+  Have fall'n on thy disciples now.
+  Though deepest silence dwells alone,
+  Parnassus, on thy double cone;
+  To mystic cry, through fell and brake,
+  No more Cithaeron's echoes wake;
+  No longer glisten, white and fleet,
+  O'er the dark lawns of Taÿgete,
+  The Spartan virgin's bounding feet:
+  Yet Frenzy still has power to roll
+  Her portents o'er the prostrate soul.
+  Though water-nymphs must twine the spell
+  Which once the wine-god threw so well--
+  Changed are the orgies now, 'tis true,
+  Save in the madness of the crew.
+  Bacchus his votaries led of yore
+  Through woodland glades and mountains hoar;
+  While flung the Maenad to the air
+  The golden masses of her hair,
+  And floated free the skin of fawn,
+  From her bare shoulder backward borne.
+  Wild Nature, spreading all her charms,
+  Welcomed her children to her arms;
+  Laugh'd the huge oaks, and shook with glee,
+  In answer to their revelry;
+  Kind Night would cast her softest dew
+  Where'er their roving footsteps flew;
+  So bright the joyous fountains gush'd,
+  So proud the swelling rivers rush'd,
+  That mother Earth they well might deem,
+  With honey, wine, and milk, for them
+  Most bounteously had fed the stream.
+  The pale moon, wheeling overhead,
+  Her looks of love upon them shed,
+  And pouring forth her floods of light,
+  With all the landscape blest their sight.
+  Through foliage thick the moonshine fell,
+  Checker'd upon the grassy dell;
+  Beyond, it show'd the distant spires
+  Of skyish hills, the world's grey sires;
+  More brightly beam'd, where far away,
+  Around his clustering islands, lay,
+  Adown some opening vale descried,
+  The vast Aegean's waveless tide.
+  What wonder then, if Reason's power
+  Fail'd in each reeling mind that hour,
+  When their enraptured spirits woke
+  To Nature's liberty, and broke
+  The artificial chain that bound them,
+  With the broad sky above, and the free winds around them!
+  From Nature's overflowing soul,
+  That sweet delirium on them stole;
+  She held the cup, and bade them share
+  In draughts of joy too deep to bear.
+
+  Not such the scenes that to the eyes
+  Of water-Bacchanals arise;
+  Whene'er the day of festival
+  Summons the Pledged t' attend its call--
+  In long procession to appear,
+  And show the world how good they are.
+  Not theirs the wild-wood wanderings,
+  The voices of the winds and springs:
+  But seek them where the smoke-fog brown
+  Incumbent broods o'er London town;
+  'Mid Finsbury Square ruralities
+  Of mangy grass, and scrofulous trees;
+  'Mid all the sounds that consecrate
+  Thy street, melodious Bishopsgate!
+  Not by the mountain grot and pine,
+  Haunts of the Heliconian Nine:
+  But where the town-bred Muses squall
+  Love-verses in an annual;
+  Such muses as inspire the grunt
+  Of Barry Cornwall, and Leigh Hunt.
+  Their hands no ivy'd thyrsus bear,
+  No Evöe floats upon the air:
+  But flags of painted calico
+  Flutter aloft with gaudy show;
+  And round then rises, long and loud,
+  The laughter of the gibing crowd.
+
+  O sacred Temp'rance! mine were shame
+  If I could wish to brand thy name.
+  But though these dullards boast thy grace,
+  Thou in their orgies hast no place.
+  Thou still disdain'st such sorry lot,
+  As even below the soaking sot.
+  Great was high Duty's power of old
+  The empire o'er man's heart to hold;
+  To urge the soul, or check its course,
+  Obedient to her guiding force.
+  These own not her control, but draw
+  New sanction for the moral law,
+  And by a stringent compact bind
+  The independence of the mind--
+  As morals had gregarious grown,
+  And Virtue could not stand alone.
+  What need they rules against abusing?
+  They find th' offence all in the using.
+  Denounce the gifts which bounteous Heaven
+  To cheer the heart of man has given;
+  And think their foolish pledge a band
+  More potent far than God's command.
+  On this new plan they cleverly
+  Work morals by machinery;
+  Keeping men virtuous by a tether,
+  Like gangs of negroes chain'd together.
+
+  Then, Temperance, if thus it be,
+  They know no further need of thee.
+  This pledge usurps thy ancient throne--
+  Alas! thy occupation's gone!
+  From earth thou may'st unheeded rise,
+  And like Astræa--seek the skies.
+
+
+
+
+MARTIN LUTHER.
+
+AN ODE.
+
+
+  Who sits upon the Pontiff's throne?
+    On Peter's holy chair
+  Who sways the keys? At such a time
+  When dullest ears may hear the chime
+  Of coming thunders--when dark skies
+  Are writ with crimson prophecies,
+    A wise man should be there;
+  A godly man, whose life might be
+  The living logic of the sea;
+  One quick to know, and keen to feel--
+  A fervid man, and full of zeal,
+    Should sit in Peter's chair.
+
+  Alas! no fervid man is there,
+    No earnest, honest heart;
+  One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,
+  Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;
+  One who can trim the courtier's smile,
+  Or weave the diplomatic wile,
+    But knows no deeper art;
+  One who can dally with fair forms,
+  Whom a well-pointed period warms--
+  No man is he to hold the helm
+  Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm,
+    And creaking timbers start.
+
+  In vain did Julius pile sublime
+   The vast and various dome,
+  That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,
+  And the huge Flavian wonder, hide
+  Their heads in shame--these gilded stones
+  (O heaven!) were very blood and bones
+    Of those whom Christ did come
+  To save--vile grin of slaves who sold
+  Celestial rights for earthy gold,
+  Marketing grace with merchant's measure,
+  To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure
+    The pride of purple Rome.
+
+  The measure of her sins is full,
+    The scarlet-vested whore!
+  Thy murderous and lecherous race
+  Have sat too long i' the holy place;
+  The knife shall lop what no drug cures,
+  Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,
+    The monstrous mockery more.
+  Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord:
+  Mine elect warrior girds the sword--
+  A nameless man, a miner's son,
+  Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,
+    And pale the painted whore!
+
+  Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose
+    Poor fishermen before
+  To preach my gospel to the poor;
+  A pauper boy from door to door
+  That piped his hymn. By his strong word
+  The startled world shall now be stirr'd,
+    As with a lion's roar!
+  A lonely monk that loved to dwell
+  With peaceful host in silent cell;
+  This man shall shake the Pontiff's throne:
+  Him Kings and emperors shall own,
+    And stout hearts wince before
+
+  The eye profound and front sublime
+    Where speculation reigns.
+  He to the learned seats shall climb,
+  On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;
+  The arid doctrine shall inspire
+    Of wiry teachers with swift fire;
+  And, piled with cumbrous pains,
+  Proud palaces of sounding lies
+  Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise
+  Shall listen to his word; the youth
+  Shall eager seize the new-born truth
+    Where prudent age refrains.
+
+  Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds
+    From echoing town to town!
+  The clam'rous preacher and his train,
+  Organ and bell with sound inane,
+  The crimson cross, the book, the keys,
+  The flag that spreads before the breeze,
+    The triple-belted crown!
+  It wends its way; and straw is sold--
+  Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,
+  To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;
+  And though some smile, and many sneer,
+    There's none will dare to frown.
+
+  None dares but one--the race is rare--
+    One free and honest man:
+  Truth is a dangerous thing to say
+  Amid the lies that haunt the day;
+  But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!
+  From heart to heart the fire shall go,
+    Instinctive without plan;
+  Proud bishops with a lordly train,
+    Fierce cardinals with high disdain,
+  Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,
+  And wrangling doctors all shall force,
+    In vain, one honest man.
+
+  In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,
+    It is a sober thing.
+  Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,
+  Loudly to damn, and loudly save,
+  And sweep with mimic thunders' swell
+  Armies of honest souls to hell!
+    The time on whirring wing
+  Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!
+  One hour, one little hour, is given,
+  If thou could'st but repent. But no!
+  To ruin thou shalt headlong go,
+    A doom'd and blasted thing.
+
+  Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!
+    Men heed it not, thou fool!
+  Nay, from the learned city's gate,
+  In solemn show, in pomp of state,
+  The watchmen of the truth come forth,
+  The burghers old of sterling worth,
+    And students of the school:
+  And he who should have felt thy ban
+  Walks like a prophet in the van;
+  He hath a calm indignant look,
+  Beneath his arm he bears a book,
+    And in his hand the Bull.
+
+  He halts; and in the middle space
+    Bids pile a blazing fire.
+  The flame ascends with crackling glee;
+  Then, with firm step advancing, He
+  Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule
+  The false Decretals, and the Bull,
+    While thus he vents his ire:--
+  "Because the Holy One o' the Lord
+  Thou vexed hast with impious word,
+  Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  He said; and rose the echo round
+    "In everlasting fire!"
+  The hearts of men were free; one word
+  Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;
+  Erect before their God they stood
+  A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,
+    And wing'd with high desire.
+  And ever with the circling flame
+  Uprose anew the blithe acclaim:--
+  "The righteous Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  Thus the brave German men; and we
+    Shall echo back the cry;
+  The burning of that parchment scroll
+  Annull'd the bond that sold the soul
+  Of man to man; each brother now
+  Only to one great Lord will bow,
+    One Father-God on high.
+  And though with fits of lingering life
+  The wounded foe prolong the strife,
+  On Luther's deed we build our hope,
+  Our steady faith--the fond old Pope
+    Is dying, and shall die.
+
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.
+
+No. II
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+Discreet Reader!
+
+You have seen--and 'tis no longer ago than YESTERDAY!--you must well
+remember the picture--which showed you from the rough yet
+delicate--the humorous yet sympathetic and picturesque--the original
+yet insinuating pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian
+mountaineer--the aerial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating,
+enigmatical, outwardly--mirth-given, inwardly--sorrow-touched,
+congregated folk numberless--of the Fairies Proper!--showed them at
+the urgency of a rare and strange need--clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one
+fair, kind, good and happily-born Daughter of Man!--And what
+wonder?--The once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one
+fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably
+favoured!--What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages brings
+on the appointed hour, the rebellious and outcast children of heaven
+must sue--to their keen emergency--help--oh! speak up to the height
+of the want, of the succour! and call it _a lent ray of grace_, from
+the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth!--And see, where,
+in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the hallowing
+influence shines!--Auspiciously begun, the awed though aspiring Rite,
+the still, the multitudinous, the mystical, prospers!--_Gratefully_,
+as for the boon inexpressibly worth--_easily_, as of their own
+transcending power--_promptly_, as though fearing that a benefit
+received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright hair
+of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak
+benefactress--the wedded felicity of pure love!
+
+And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises again,
+discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a little
+perhaps, our actors!--Once more, attaching to the HUMAN DRAMA,
+slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of air, the same light
+and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that They, whom you lately saw
+tranquil, earnest even to pathos--"now are frolic"--enough and to
+spare!--Once more--THE FAIRIES.
+
+And see, too--where, centring in herself interest and action of the
+rapidly shifting scenery--ever again a beautiful granddaughter of Eve
+steps--free and fearless, and bouyant and bounding--our fancy-laid
+boards!--Ah! but how much unresembling the sweet maid!--_Outwardly_,
+for lofty-piled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the
+modern Amazon, Swanhilda--more unlike _within_. Instead of the clear
+truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy Innocence" of
+the poor fairy-beloved mountain child--SHE, in whose person and
+fortunes you are invited--for the next fifty minutes--to forget your
+own--harbours, fondly harbours, ill housemates of her virginal
+breast! a small, resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison
+of unwomanly faults. Pride is there!--The iron-hard and the
+iron-cold! There Scorn--edging repulse with insult!--and envenoming
+insult with despair!--leaps up, in eager answer to the beseeching
+sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent Adoration. And there is the
+indulged Insolency of a domineering--and as you will precipitately
+augur--an _indomitable_ Will! And there is exuberant SELF-POWER,
+that, from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling,
+circulating along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis!
+turns the nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous
+and blood-sprinkled joy of man--the tempestuous and terrible CHASE,
+which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the rougher lord
+of creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent! Oh, how much
+other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian valleys, the
+shade-loving Flower, the good Maud--herself looked upon with love by
+the glad eyes of men, women, children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other
+indeed! And yet, have you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of
+unamiable qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten,
+which has fastened, upon the gentle Maud's _haughty_ antithesis--the
+serviceable regard, and--the FAVOUR, even of THE FAIRIES.
+
+The FAVOUR!!
+
+Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief process. You
+are, after a fashion, informed with what studious, persevering, and
+unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and feminine pity, the
+lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the course of the last three
+or four years, turned back from her beetle-browed castle-gate, one by
+one, as they showed themselves there--a hundred, all worthily
+born--otherwise more and less meritorious--petitioners for that
+whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon this
+very morning, an embassy from the willow-wearers all--or, to speak
+indeed more germanely to the matter, of the BASKET-BEARERS[22],
+waited upon their beautiful enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in
+one, importing first a requisition to surrender; then, in case of
+refusal to capitulate, the announcement that HYMEN having found in
+CUPID an inefficient ally, he was about associating with himself, in
+league offensive, the god MARS, with intent of carrying the
+Maiden-fortress by storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants
+of the stronghold into captivity--whereunto she made answer--
+
+  ----our castle's strength
+  Will laugh a siege to scorn--
+
+herself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the sent This
+crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the first place,
+wreak and right.
+
+[Footnote 22: To German ears--to SEND A BASKET--is to REFUSE A
+PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.]
+
+But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of Elves,
+being in full council assembled in the broad light of the sun, upon
+the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not widely sitting
+diet had yet well opened its proceedings--"tramp, tramp, across the
+land," came, flying at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap
+huntress; and without other note of preparation sounded than their
+own thunder, her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage
+assembly, causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with
+devastation dire to persons and--wearing apparel.
+
+This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and right.
+
+And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which
+is--_summary_; as, from the character of the judges and executioners,
+into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would expect;
+sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their magical hand
+they turn the impoverished heiress of ill-possessed acres forth upon
+the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous manual industry, her
+livelihood; until, from the winnings of her handicraft, she is
+moreover able to make good, as far as this was liable to pecuniary
+assessment, the damage sustained under foot of her fiery barb by the
+Fairy realm; comfort with handsome presents the rejected suitors; and
+until, thoroughly tame, she yields into her softened and opened
+bosom, now rid of its intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once
+debarred and contemned visitant--LOVE.
+
+As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out this
+drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting, as a
+matter that is related merely, not presented, that misadventure under
+the oak-tree--there is, in the chamber of Swanhilda, but a Fairy
+delegation active, whilst under the Sun's hill whole Elfdom is in
+presence; in that resplendent hollow, wearing their own lovely
+shapes; within the German castle-walls, in apt masquerade. There they
+were grave. Here, we have already said, that they are merry. There
+their office was to feel and to think. Here, if there be any trust in
+apparitions, they drink, and what is more critical for an Elfin
+lip--they eat!
+
+Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred, well-dressed, and
+right courtly cavalier, who transacted between the Fairy Queen and
+the stonemason's daughter, him you shall presently see turned into a
+sort of Elfin cupbearer or court butler; not without fairy grace of
+person and of mind assuredly; not without a due innate sense of the
+beautiful, as his perfumed name (SWEETFLOWER) at the outset warns
+you; and, as the proximity of his function to her Majesty's
+person--for we do not here fall in with any thing like mention of a
+king--would suggest, independently of the delicately responsible part
+borne by him in the action, the chief stress of which you will find
+incumbent upon his capable shoulders.
+
+Such, in respect of the subject, is, thrice courteous and intelligent
+reader, the second piece of art, which we are glad to have the
+opportunity of placing before you, from our clever friend Ernst
+Willkomm's apparently right fertile easel. The second, answering to
+the first, LIKE and UNLIKE, you perceive, as two companion pictures
+should be.
+
+But it would be worse than useless to tell you that which you have
+seen and that which you will see, unless, from the juxtaposition of
+the two fables, there followed--a moral. They have, as we apprehend,
+a moral--_i.e._ one moral, and that a grave one, in common between
+them.
+
+Hitherto we have superficially compared THE FAIRIES' SABBATH and the
+FAIRY TUTOR. We now wish to develope a profounder analogy connecting
+them. We have compared them, as if ESTHETICALLY; we would now compare
+them MYTHOLOGICALLY--for, in our understanding, there lies at the
+very foundation of both tales A MYTHOLOGICAL ROOT--by whomsoever set,
+whether by Ernst Willkomm to-day, or by the population of the
+Lusatian mountains--three, six, ten centuries ago; or, in unreckoned
+antiquity, by the common Ancestors of the believers, who, in still
+unmeasured antiquity, brought the superstition of the Fairies out of
+central Asia to remote occidental Europe.
+
+This ROOT we are bold to think is--"A DEEPLY SEATED ATTRACTION,
+ALLYING THE FAIRY MIND TO THE PURITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE MORAL WILL
+IN THE MIND OF MEN." And first for the Tale which presently concerns
+us:--THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+SWEETFLOWER will beguile us into believing that the interposition of
+the Fairies in our Baroness's domestic arrangements, grows up, if one
+shall so hazardously speak, from TWO seeds, each bearing two
+branches--namely, from two wrongs, the one hitting, the other
+striking from, themselves--BOTH which wrongs they will AVENGE and
+AMEND. We take up a strenuous theory; and we deny--and we
+defy--SWEETFLOWER. Nay, more! Should our excellent friend, ERNST
+WILLKOMM, be found taking part, real or apparent, with SWEETFLOWER,
+we defy and we deny Ernst Willkomm. For in this mixed case of the
+Fairy wrong, we distinguish, first, INJURIES which shall be
+retaliated, and, as far as may be, compensated; and secondly, a
+SHREW, who is to be turned _into_ a WIFE, being previously turned
+_out of_ a shrew.
+
+We dare to believe that this last-mentioned end is the thing
+uppermost, and undermost, and middlemost in the mind of the Fairies;
+is, in fact, the true and _the sole final cause_ of all their
+proceedings.
+
+Or that the _moral heart_ of the poem--that root in the human breast
+and will, from which every true poem springs heavenward--is here the
+zeal of the spirits for _morally reforming Swanhilda_; is, therefore,
+that deep-seated attraction, which, as we have averred, essentially
+allies the inclination of the Fairies to the moral conscience in our
+own kind.
+
+One end, therefore, grounds the whole story, although two and more
+are proposed by _Sweetflower_. It is one that _satisfies_ the moral
+reason in man; for it is no less than to cleanse and heal the will,
+wounded with error, of a human creature. That other, which he
+displays, with mock emphasis, of restitution to the downtrodden
+fairyhood, is an exotic, fair and slight bud, grafted into the
+sturdier indigenous stock. For let us fix but a steady look upon the
+thing itself, and what is there before us? a whim, a trick of the
+fancy, tickling the fancy. We are amused with a quaint calamity--a
+panic of caps and cloaks. We laugh--we cannot help it--as the pigmy
+assembly flies a thousand ways at once--grave councillors and
+all--throwing terrified somersets--hiding under stones, roots--diving
+into coney-burrows--"any where--any where"--vanishing out of
+harm's--if not out of dismay's--reach. In a tale of the Fairies, THE
+FANCY rules:--and the interest of such a misfortune, definite and not
+infinite, is congenial to the spirit of the gay faculty which hovers
+over, lives upon surfaces, and which flees abysses; which thence,
+likewise, in the moral sphere, is equal to apprehending resentment of
+a personal wrong, and a judicial assessment of damages--but NOT A
+DISINTERESTED MORAL END.
+
+What is our conclusion then? plainly that the dolorous overthrow of
+the fairy divan is no better than an invention--the device of an
+esthetical artist. We hold that Ernst Willkomm has _gratuitously_
+bestowed upon us the disastrous catastrophe; that he has done this,
+knowing the obligation which lies upon Fancy within her own chosen
+domain to _create_, because--there, Fancy listens and reads. The
+adroit Fairy delineator must wile over and reconcile the most
+sportive, capricious, and self-willed spirit of our understanding, to
+accept a purpose foreign to that spirit's habitual sympathies--a
+purpose solemn and austere--THE MORAL PURPOSE OF RESCUING A
+SIN-ENTANGLED HUMAN SOUL.
+
+Or, if Ernst Willkomm shall guarantee to us, that the reminiscences
+of his people have furnished him with the materials of this tale; if
+he is, as we must needs hope, who have freely dealt with you to
+believe that he is--honest: honest both as to the general character,
+and the particular facts of his representations--if, in short, the
+Lusatian Highlanders do, sitting by the bench and the stove, aver and
+protest that the said Swanhilda did overturn both council-board and
+councillors--then we say, upon this occasion, that which we must all,
+hundreds of times, declare--namely, that _The Genius of Tradition_ is
+the foremost of artists; and further, that in this instance _an
+unwilled fiction_, determined by a necessity of the human bosom, has
+risen up _to mantle seriousness with grace_, as a free woodbine
+enclasps with her slender-gadding twines, and bedecks with her sweet
+bright blossoms, a towering giant of the grove.
+
+It will perhaps be objected, that the moral purity and goodness that
+are so powerful to draw to themselves the regard and care of the
+spiritual people, are wanting in the character of the over-bold
+Swanhilda. We have said that her _faults_ are the CALL to the Fairies
+for help and reformation: but we may likewise guess that Virtue and
+Truth first won their love. It must be recollected that the faults
+which are extirpated from the breast of our heroine, are not such as,
+in our natural understanding of humanity, dishonour or sully. Taken
+away, the character may stand clear. It is quite possible that this
+gone, there shall be left behind a kind, good, affectionate,
+generous, noble nature.
+
+We are free, or, more properly speaking, we are bound to believe,
+that thus the Fairies left Swanhilda.
+
+As for Maud, we know--for she was told--that the Fairies loved her
+for herself ere they needed her aid. Hanging as it were upon that
+wondrous power to help which dwelt within her--her simple
+goodness--may we not say that the Fairies discover an ENFORCED
+attraction, when they afterwards approach the maiden for their own
+succour and salvation; as they do, a FREE attraction, when, in the
+person of Swanhilda, they disinterestedly attach themselves to
+reforming a fault for the welfare and happiness of her whom it
+aggrieves?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will now proceed, as in our former communication, to adduce
+instances from other quarters, confirming the fairy delineations
+offered by our tale; or which may tend generally to bring out its
+mythological and literary character.
+
+Two points would suggest themselves to us in the tale of the Fairy
+Tutor, as chiefly provoking comparison. The first is:--_The affirmed
+Presidency of the Fairies over human morals_, viewed as _a Shape of
+the Interest_ which they take in the uprightness and purity of the
+human will.
+
+The second is:--
+
+_The Manner and Style of their operations_: or, THE FAIRY WAYS. In
+which we chiefly distinguish--1, The active presence of the Sprites
+in a human habitation. 2, Their masquerading. 3, Their dispatch of
+human victuals. 4, The liability of Elfin limbs to human casualties.
+5, The personality of that saucy Puck, our tiny ambassador elf.
+
+We are at once tempted and restrained by the richness of
+illustration, which presents itself under all these heads. The
+necessity of limitation is, however, imperious. This, and a wish for
+simplicity, dispose us to throw all under one more comprehensive
+title.
+
+Perhaps the reader has not entirely forgotten that in the remarks
+introductory to THE FAIRIES' SABBATH, having launched the
+question--what is a Fairy?--we offered him in the way of answer,
+_eight_ elements of the Fairy Nature. Has he quite forgotten that for
+one of these--it was the third--we represented the Spirit under
+examination, as ONE WHICH AT ONCE SEEKS AND SHUNS MANKIND?
+
+The cursory treatment of this Elfin criterion will now compendiously
+place before the reader, as much illustration of the two above-given
+heads as we dare impose upon him.
+
+The popular Traditions of entire Western Europe variously attest for
+all the kinds of the Fairies, and for some orders of Spirits
+partaking of the Fairy character, the singularly composed, and almost
+self-contradictory traits of a _seeking_ implicated and attempered
+with a _shunning_; of a shunning with a seeking. The inclination of
+our Quest will be to evidences of the _seeking_. The shunning will,
+it need not be doubted, take good care of itself.
+
+The attraction of the Fairy Species towards our own is,
+
+  1. Recognised--in their GENERIC DESIGNATIONS.
+  2. Apparent--in their GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD with us.
+  3. IN THEIR FREQUENTING AND ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES in the places of
+     our habitual occupancy and resort.
+  4. IN THEIR CALLING OR CARRYING US into the places of their Occupancy
+     and Resort; whether to return _hither_, or to remain
+     _there_.
+  5. BY THEIR ALIGHTING UPON THE PATH, worn already with some blithe or
+     some weary steps, OF A HUMAN DESTINY;--as friendly, or as unfriendly
+     Genii.
+
+We collect the proofs: and--
+
+1. Of their GENERIC APPELLATIVES, a Word!
+
+One is tempted to say that THE NATIONS, as if conscious of the kindly
+disposition inhering in the spiritual existences toward ourselves,
+have simultaneously agreed in conferring upon them titles of
+endearment and affection. The brothers Grimm write--"In Scotland they
+[The Fairies] are called _The Good People, Good Neighbours, Men of
+Peace;_ in Wales--_The Family, The Blessing of their Mothers, The
+Dear Ladies;_ in the old Norse, and to this day in the Faroe islands,
+_Huldufolk_ (_The Gracious People;_) in Norway, _Huldre_;[23] and, in
+conformity with these denominations, discover a striving to be in the
+proximity of men, and to keep up a good understanding with them."[24]
+
+[Footnote 23: May we for HULDRE read HULDREFOLK; and understand the
+_following_, or the _Folk_ of HULDRE? Huldre _means_ the Gracious
+Lady: she is a sort of Danish and Norwegian Fairy-Queen.--See GRIMM'S
+_German Mythology_, p. 168. First edition.]
+
+[Footnote 24: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales_.]
+
+2. THIS GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, to which these last words point, is
+interestingly depicted by the Traditions.
+
+In Scotland and Germany the Fairies plant their habitation
+_adjoining_ that of man--"_under the threshold_"--and in such
+attached Fairies an alliance is unfolded with us of a most
+extraordinary kind. "The closest connexion" (_id est_, of the Fairy
+species with our own) "is expressed," say the Brothers Grimm, "by the
+tradition, agreeably to which the family of the Fairies ORDERED
+ITSELF ENTIRELY AFTER THE HUMAN to which it belonged; and OF WHICH IT
+WAS AS IF A COPY. These domestic Fairies _kept their marriages upon
+the same day_ as the Human Beings; _their children were born upon the
+same day_; and _upon the same day they wailed for their dead._"[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales._]
+
+Two artlessly sweet breathings of Elfin Table, from the Helvetian
+Dales,[26] lately revived to your fancy the sinless--blissful years,
+when gods with men set fellowing steps upon one and the same fragrant
+and unpolluted sward, until transgression, exiling those to their own
+celestial abodes, left these lonely--a nearer, dearer, BARBARIAN
+Golden Age--wherein the kindly Dwarf nation stand representing the
+great deities of Olympus.
+
+[Footnote 26: See _The Dwarfs upon the Maple-Tree_, and _The Dwarfs
+upon the Crag-Stone_, in the former paper.]
+
+The healthful pure air fans restoration again to us. We lay before
+you--
+
+
+GERMAN TRADITIONS
+
+No. CXLIX _The Dwarfs' Feet_.
+
+"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about them, in
+caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, _in amity and good
+neighbourhood_ with the people, for whom they performed by night many
+a heavy labour. When the country folk, betimes in the morning, came
+with wains and implements, and wondered that all was ready done, the
+Dwarfs were hiding in the bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently
+the peasants were angry when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn
+lying reaped upon the field; but when presently after hail and storm
+came on, and they could well know that probably not a stalk should
+have escaped perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the
+provident Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin,
+fooled away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
+then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
+following:--A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
+cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that the
+tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit carried,
+and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman had use to
+keep his cherries. The people said in the village, that doth no one
+other than the honest dwarflings--they come tripping along by night,
+in long mantles, with covered feet, softly as birds, and perform
+diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been
+privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come
+and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made
+curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so
+carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than
+men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and
+the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and
+bear them into the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes,
+which he strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with
+daybreak, he hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he
+saw beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
+herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
+Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and laid
+waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their mountain. They
+harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from them their help. That
+herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs turned sickly and half-witted,
+and so continued until his dying day!"
+
+There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own hardily-nursed
+wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent hand[27] that brought home
+to us those other half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition,
+you behold a third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the
+three, young poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready
+and meet for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!--or
+fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
+nature-loving--Ellen or Margaret.
+
+[Footnote 27: Of Professor Wyes.]
+
+These old-young things--bequests, as they look to be--from the
+loving, singing childhood of the earth, may lawfully make children,
+lovers, and songsters of us all; and _will_, if we are _fond_, and
+hearken to them.
+
+In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
+chronologies,
+
+  "When the world and love were young,
+  And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"
+
+the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of _borrowing and
+lending_. Many traditions touch the matter. Here is one resting upon
+it.
+
+
+No. CLIV. _The Dwarfs near Dardesheim_.
+
+"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and Brunswick. Close
+to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest water flows, which
+is called the Smansborn,[28] and wells from a hill wherein formerly
+the Dwarfs dwelled. When the ancient inhabitants of the place needed
+a holiday dress, or any rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them
+to this Dwarf's Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice,
+told their occasion, adding--
+
+  'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,
+  At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'
+
+[Footnote 28: For LESSMANSBORN, _i.e._ LESSMANN'S WELL.]
+
+The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of the
+festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward gradually did
+bickerings interrupt the good understanding that was betwixt the
+Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the beginning for a short
+season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs departed away; because the flouts
+and gibes of many boors grew intolerable to them, as likewise their
+ingratitude for kindnesses done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth
+any Dwarfs more."
+
+In _Auvergne_, Miss Costello has just now learned, how the men and
+the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest footing, nigh one
+another: how the _knowledge_ and _commodious use_ of the _Healing
+Springs_ was owed by the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of
+yore, the powerful sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound,
+opened an _innocuous channel_ for _the torrent_, which used with its
+overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how they were
+looked upon as being, in a general sense, _the protectors_ against
+harm of the country: and, in fine, how the two orders of neighbours
+lived in long and happy communion of kind offices with one another;
+until, upon one unfortunate day, the ill-renowned freebooter,
+Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly men-at-arms, having approached,
+by stealth, from his near-lying hold, stormed the romantically seated
+rock-mansion of the bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger,
+forsook the land. Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may,
+now and then, be seen at a distance.
+
+Thus, too, the late _Brillat-Savarin_, from a sprightly, acute,
+brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest antiquary,
+lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone, flowing out
+from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when he first quitted
+it, yet hidden valley of his birth:--The FAIRIES--elderly, not
+beautiful, but benevolent unmarried ladies--kept, while time was,
+open school in THE GROTTO, which was their habitation, for the young
+girls of the vicinity, whom they taught--SEWING.
+
+
+3. We go on to exemplifying--ELFIN _Frequentation of, and Settlement
+with,_ MAN.
+
+The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men by
+manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
+celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
+purchase at the Tavern--from the Shambles, or in open Market. They
+_steal_ from oven and field. They go through a house, blessing the
+rooms, the marriage-bed--and stand beside the unconscious cradle.
+They give dreams. They take part in the evening mirth. They pray in
+the churches. They seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
+constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors. They
+dance in the churchyard.[29] They make themselves the wives and the
+paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin fixes himself, like a
+cat, in the house--once and for ever.
+
+We present traditions for illustrating some of these points, as they
+offer themselves to us.
+
+[Footnote 29:
+
+  "Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep
+  That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;
+  The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!
+  Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,
+  ENTER, IN DANCE!"
+
+WORDSWORTH.--_Sonnet upon an_ ABANDONED _Cemetery._]
+
+
+THEY HALT ON A JOURNEY.
+
+No. XXXV. _The Count of Hoia_.
+
+"There did appear once to a count of Hoia, a little mauling in the
+night, and, as the count was alarmed, said to him he should have no
+fear: he had a word to sue unto him, and begged that he should not be
+denied. The count answered, if it were a thing possible to do, and
+should be never burthensome to him and his, he will gladly do it. The
+manling said--'There be some that desire to come to thee this ensuing
+night, into thy house, and to make their stopping. Wouldst thou so
+long lend them kitchen and hall, and bid thy domestics that they go
+to bed, and none look after their ways and works, neither any know
+thereof, save only thou? They will show them, therefore, grateful.
+Thou and thy line shall have cause of joy, and in the very least
+matter shall none hurt happen unto thee, neither to any that belong
+to thee.' Whereunto the count assented. Accordingly, upon the
+following night, they came like a cavalcade, marching over the
+drawbridge to the house; one and all--tiny folk, such as they use to
+describe the hill manlings. They cooked in the kitchen, fell too, and
+rested, and nothing seemed otherwise than as if a great repast were
+in preparing. Thereafter, nigh unto morn, as they will again depart,
+comes the little manling a second time to the count, and after
+conning him thanks, handed him a _sword_, a _salamander cloth_, and a
+_golden ring_, in which was RED LION set above--advertising him,
+withal, that he and his posterity shall well keep these three pieces,
+and so long as they had them all together, should it go with fair
+accordance and well in the county; but so soon as they shall be
+parted from one another, shall it be a sign that nothing good
+impendeth for the county. Accordingly, the red lion ever after, when
+any of the stem is near the point of dying, hath been seen to wax
+wan.
+
+"Howsoever, at the time that Count Job and his brothers were minors,
+and Francis of Halle governor in the country, two of the
+pieces--viz., the Sword and the Salamander Cloth, were taken away;
+but the Ring remained with the lordship unto an end. Whither it
+afterwards went is not known."
+
+
+THEY HOLD A WEDDING.
+
+No.XXXI. _The Small People's Wedding Feast._
+
+"The small people of the Eulenberg in Saxony would once hold a
+marriage, and for this purpose slipped in, in the night, through the
+keyhole and the window-chinks into the Hall, and came leaping down
+upon the smooth floor, like peas tumbled out upon the
+threshing-floor. The old Count, who slept in the high canopy bed in
+the Hall, awoke, and marvelled at the number of tiny companions; one
+of whom, in the garb of a herald, now approached him, and in well-set
+phrase, courteously prayed him to bear part in their festivity. 'Yet
+one thing,' he added, 'we beg of you. Ye shall alone be present; none
+of your court shall be bold to gaze upon our mirth--yea, not so much
+as with a glance.' The old Count answered pleasantly--'Since ye have
+once for all waked me up, I will e'en make one among you.' Hereupon
+was a little wifikin led up to him, little torch-bearers took their
+station, and a music of crickets struck up. The Count had much ado to
+save losing his little partner in the dance; she capered about so
+nimbly, and ended with whirling him round and round, until hardly
+might he have his breath again. But, in the midst of the jocund
+measure, all stood suddenly still; the music ceased, and the whole
+throng hurried to the cracks in the doors, mouse-holes, and
+hiding-places of all sorts. The newly-married couple only, the
+heralds, and the dancers, looked upward towards an orifice that was
+in the hall ceiling, and there descried the visage of the old
+Countess, who was curiously prying down upon the mirthful doings.
+Herewith they made their obeisance to the Count; and the same which
+had bidden him, again stepping forward, thanked him for his
+hospitality. 'But,' continued he, 'because our pleasure and our
+wedding hath been in such sort interrupted, that yet another eye of
+man hath looked thereon, henceforward shall your house number never
+more than seven Eulenbergs.' Thereupon, they pressed fast forth, one
+upon another. Presently all was quiet, and the old Count once again
+alone in the dark Hall. The curse hath come true to this hour, so as
+ever one of the six living knights of Eulenberg hath died ere the
+seventh was born."
+
+
+THEY JOIN THE EVENING MIRTH.
+
+No. xxxix. _The Hill-Manling at the Dance_.
+
+"Old folks veritable declared, that some years ago, at Glass, in
+Dorf, an hour from the Wunderberg, and an hour from the town of
+Salzburg, a wedding was kept, to which, towards evening, a
+Hill-Manling came out of the Wunderberg. He exhorted all the guests
+to be in honour, gleesome, and merry, and requested leave to join the
+dancers, which was not refused him. He danced accordingly, with
+modest maidens, one and another; evermore, three dances with each,
+and that with a singular featness; insomuch that the wedding guests
+looked on with admiration and pleasure. The dance over, he made his
+thanks, and bestowed upon either of the young married people three
+pieces of money that were of an unknown coinage; whereof each was
+held to be worth four kreuzers; and therewithal _admonished them to
+dwell in peace and concord, live Christianly, and piously walking, to
+bring up their children in all goodness_. These coins they should put
+amongst their money, and constantly remember him--so should they
+seldom fall into hardship. _But they must not therewithal grow
+arrogant, but, of their superfluity, succour their neighbours_.
+
+"This Hill-Manling stayed with them into the night, and took of every
+one to drink and to eat what they proffered; but from every one only
+a little. He then paid his courtesy, and desired that one of the
+wedding guests might take him over the river Salzbach toward the
+mountain. Now, there was at the marriage a boatman, by name John
+Standl, who was presently ready, and they went down together to the
+ferry. During the passage, the ferryman asked his meed. The
+Hill-Manling tendered him, in all humility, three pennies. The
+waterman scorned at such mean hire; but the Manling gave him for
+answer--'He must not vex himself, but safely store up the three
+pennies; for, so doing, he should never suffer default of his
+having--_if only he did restrain presumptousness_--at the same time
+he gave the boatman a little pebble, saying the words--'If thou shalt
+hang this about thy neck, thou shalt not possibly perish in the
+water.' Which was proved in that same year. Finally, _he persuaded
+him to a godly and humble manner of life_, and went swiftly away."
+
+
+ANOTHER OF THE SAME.
+
+No. CCCVI. _The Three Maidens from the Mere._
+
+"At Epfenbach, nigh Sinzheim, within men's memory, three wondrously
+beautiful damsels, attired in white, visited, with every evening, the
+village spinning-room. They brought along with them ever new songs
+and tunes, and new pretty tales and games. Moreover, their distaffs
+and spindles had something peculiar, and no spinster might so finely
+and nimbly spin the thread. But upon the stroke of eleven, they
+arose; packed up their spinning gear, and for no prayers might be
+moved to delay for an instant more. None wist whence they came, nor
+whither they went. Only they called them, The Maidens from the Mere;
+or, The Sisters of the Lake. The lads were glad to see them there,
+and were taken with love of them; but most of all, the schoolmaster's
+son. He might never have enough of hearkening and talking to them,
+and nothing grieved him more than that every night they went so early
+away. The thought suddenly crossed him, and he set the village clock
+an hour back; and, in the evening, with continual talking and
+sporting, not a soul perceived the delay of the hour. When the clock
+struck eleven--but it was properly twelve--the three damsels arose,
+put up their distaffs and things, and departed. Upon the following
+morrow, certain persons went by the Mere; they heard a wailing, and
+saw three bloody spots above upon the surface of the water. Since
+that season, the sisters came never again to the room. The
+schoolmaster's son pined, and died shortly thereafter."
+
+
+AN ELFIN IS BOUND, IN UNLAWFUL CHAINS, TO A HUMAN LOVER.
+
+No. LXX. _The Bushel, the Ring, and the Goblet._
+
+"In the duchy of Lorraine, when it belonged, as it long did, to
+Germany, the last count of Orgewiler ruled betwixt Nanzig and
+Luenstadt.[30] He had no male heir of his blood, and upon his
+deathbed, shared his lands amongst his three daughters and
+sons-in-law. Simon of Bestein had married the eldest daughter, the
+lord of Crony the second, and a German Rhinegrave the youngest.
+Beside the lordships, he also distributed to his heirs three
+presents; to the eldest daughter a BUSHEL, to the middle one a
+DRINKING-CUP, and to the third a jewel, which was a RING, with an
+admonition that they and their descendants should carefully hoard up
+these pieces, so should their houses be constantly fortunate."
+
+[Footnote 30: LUNEVILLE.]
+
+The tradition, how the things came into the possession of the count,
+the Marshal of Bassenstein,[31] great-grandson of Simon, does himself
+relate thus:--[32]
+
+[Footnote 31: BASSOMPIERRE.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Mémoires du Maréchal de_ BASSOMPIERRE: Cologne, 1666.
+Vol. I. PP. 4-6. The Marshal died in 1646.]
+
+"The count was married: but he had beside a secret amour with a
+marvellous beautiful woman, which came weekly to him every Monday,
+into a summer-house in the garden. This commerce remained long
+concealed from his wife. When he withdrew from her side, he pretended
+to her, that he went, by night, into the Forest, to the Stand.
+
+"But when a few years had thus passed, the countess took a suspicion,
+and was minded to learn the right truth. One summer morning early,
+she slipped after him, and came to the summer bower. She there saw
+her husband, sleeping in the arms of a wondrous fair female; but
+because they both slept so sweetly, she would not awaken them; but
+she took her veil from her head, and spread it over the feet of both,
+where they lay asleep.
+
+"When the beautiful paramour awoke, and perceived the veil, she gave
+a loud cry, began pitifully to wail, and said:--
+
+"'Henceforwards, my beloved, we see one another never more. Now must
+I tarry at a hundred leagues' distance away, and severed from thee.'
+
+"Therewith she did 1eave the count, but presented him first with
+those afore-named three gifts for his three daughters, which they
+should never let go from them.
+
+"The House of Bassenstein, for long years, had a toll, to draw in
+fruit, from the town of Spinal,[33] whereto this Bushel was
+constantly used."
+
+[Footnote 33: EPINAL.]
+
+
+THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT DOES HOUSEHOLD SERVICE IN A MILL.
+
+No. LXXIII. _The Kobold in the Mill._
+
+"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed putting
+up for the night in a village; but for as much as there did a violent
+rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as they might no
+further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill, knocked, and
+begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the first, deaf, but
+yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty, opened the door, and
+brought them into a room. They were hungry and thirsty both; and
+because there stood upon a table a dish with food, and a mug of beer,
+they begged the miller for them, being both ready and willing to pay;
+but the miller denied them--would not give them even a morsel of
+bread, and only the hard bench for their night's bed.
+
+"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household Spirit.
+If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But else have ye no
+harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the night, be ye but
+still and sleep.'
+
+"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the space
+of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so vehemently that
+he stood up and sought after the dish. The other, a Master of Arts,
+warned him to leave to the Devil what was the Devil's due; but he
+answered, 'I have a better right than the Devil to it'--seated
+himself at the table, and ate to his heart's content, so that little
+was left of the cookery. After that, he laid hold of the can, took a
+good Pomeranian pull, and having thus somewhat appeased his desire,
+he laid himself again down to his companion; but when, after a time,
+thirst anew tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so
+hearty draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
+After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and fell
+asleep.
+
+"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well by, when
+the Kobold came banging in with so loud coil,[34] that both sleepers
+awoke in great fright. He bounced a few times to and fro about the
+room, then seated himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and
+they could plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he
+set it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
+can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
+again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs of
+the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom, the door
+diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit once more the
+dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any better this turn, but
+once more pushed both angrily away. Thereupon he proceeded in his
+labour, came to the benches, washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and
+above. When he came to the place where the two students lay, he
+passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When this was
+done, he began upon the bench a second time above their heads; and,
+for the second time likewise, passed over the visitants. But the
+third time, when he came to them, he stroked gently the one which had
+nothing tasted, over the hair and along the whole body, without any
+whit hurting him; but the other he griped by the feet, dragged him
+two or three times round the room upon the floor, till at the last he
+left him lying, and ran behind the stove, whence he laughed him
+loudly to scorn. The student crawled back to the bench; but in a
+quarter of an hour the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping,
+cleaning, wiping. The two lay there quaking with fear:--the one he
+felt quite softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung
+again upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
+into a flouting horse-laugh.
+
+[Footnote 34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of Milton--at
+_going out_, again:--
+
+               "Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."
+  He, too, is paid for his work, with
+               ----"_his_ CREAM-BOWL, duly set."
+
+"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose, and
+set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but none
+took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay themselves
+down close together upon the flat floor; but the Kobold left them not
+in peace. He began, for the third time, his game:--came and lugged
+the guilty one about, laughed, and scoffed him. He was now fairly mad
+with rage, drew his sword, thrust and cut into the corner whence the
+laugh rang, and challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He
+then sat down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
+should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained still.
+
+"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had not
+conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
+victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were worth."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the Fairies
+towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought out; and
+already the narrowness of our limits warns us--with a sigh given to
+the traditions crowding upon us from all countries, and which we
+perforce leave unused--to bring these preliminary remarks to a close.
+
+_Still_, something has been gained for illustrating our Tale. The
+Hill-Manling at the dance diligently warns against PRIDE--the rank
+ROOT evil which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our
+heroine, whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways--"THE
+ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
+itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected forms.
+
+And _still_, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly from the
+Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the habitudes of
+_various_ WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for comparison with Ernst
+Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC
+FAIRYHOOD.
+
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+"In days of yore there lived, alone in her castle, a maiden named
+Swanhilda. She was the only child of a proud father, lately deceased.
+Her mother she had lost when she was but a child; so that the
+education of the daughter had fallen wholly into the hands of the
+father.
+
+"During the lifetime even of the old knight, many suitors had offered
+themselves for Swanhilda; but she seemed to be insensible to every
+tender emotion, and dismissed with disdainful haughtiness the whole
+body of wooers. Meanwhile she hunted the stag and the board, and
+performed squire's service for her gradually declining parent. This
+manner of life was so entirely to the taste of the maiden,
+notwithstanding that in delicacy of frame, and in bewitching
+gracefulness of figure, she gave place to none of her sex, that when
+at length her father died, she took upon herself the management of
+the castle, and lived aloof in pride and independence, in the very
+fashion of an Amazon. Maugre the many refusals which Swanhilda had
+already distributed on every side, there still flocked to her loving
+knights, eager to wed; but, like their predecessors, they were all
+sent drooping home again. The young nobility could at last bear this
+treatment no longer; and they, one and all, resolved either to
+constrain the supercilious damsel to wedlock, or to make her smart
+for a refusal. An embassy was dispatched, charged with notifying this
+resolution to the mistress of the castle. Swanhilda heard the
+speakers quietly to the end; but her answer was tuned as before, or
+indeed rang harsher and more offensive than ever. Turning her back
+upon the embassy, she left them to depart, scorned and ashamed.
+
+"In the night following the day upon which this happened, Swanhilda
+was disturbed out of her sleep by a noise which seemed to her to
+ascend from her chamber floor; but let her strain her eyes as she
+might, she could for a long while discern nothing. At length she
+observed, in the middle of the room, a straying sparkle of light,
+that threw itself over and over like a tumbler, tittering, at the
+same time, like a human being. Swanhilda for a while kept herself
+quiet; but as the luminous antic ceased not practising his
+harlequinade, she peevishly exclaimed--'What buffoon is carrying on
+his fooleries here? I desire to be left in peace.' The light vanished
+instantly, and Swanhilda already had congratulated herself upon
+gaining her point, when suddenly a loud shrilly sound was heard--the
+floor of the apartment gave way, and from the gap there arose a table
+set out with the choicest viands. It rested upon a lucid body of air,
+upon which the tiny attendants skipped with great agility to and fro,
+waiting upon seated guests. At first Swanhilda was so amazed that her
+breath forsook her; but becoming by degrees somewhat collected, she
+observed, to her extreme astonishment, that an effigy of herself sat
+at the strange table, in the midst of the numerous train of suitors,
+whom she had so haughtily dismissed. The attendants presented to the
+young knights the daintiest dishes, the savour of which came
+sweetly-smelling enough to the nostrils of the proud damsel. As
+often, however, as the knights were helped to meat and drink, the
+figure of Swanhilda at the board was presented by an ill-favoured
+Dwarf, who stood as her servant behind her, with an empty basket,
+whereat the suitor's broke out into wild laughter. She also soon
+became aware, that as many courses were served up to the guests as
+she had heretofore dispensed refusals, and the amount of these was
+certainly not small.
+
+"Swanhilda, weary of the absurd phantasmagoria, was going to speak
+again; but to her horror she discovered that the power of speech had
+left her. She had for some time been struck with a kind of whispering
+and tittering about her. In order to make out whence this proceeded,
+she leaned out of her bed, and, peering between the silk curtains,
+perceived two smart diminutive cupbearers, in garments of blue, with
+green aprons, and small yellow caps. She had scarcely got sight of
+the little gentlemen when their whispering took the character of
+audible words; and the dumb Swanhilda was enabled to overhear the
+following discourse:
+
+"'But, I pri'thee, tell me, Sweetflower, how this show shall end?'
+said one of the two cupbearers,--'thou art, we know, the confidant of
+our queen, and, certes, canst disclose to me somewhat of her plans?'
+
+"'That can I, my small-witted Monsieur Silverfine,' answered
+Sweetflower. 'Know, therefore, that this sweet and lovely to behold
+brute of a girl, is now beginning to suffer the castigation due to
+her innumerable offences. Swanhilda has sinned against all maidenly
+modesty, has borne herself proud and overbearing towards honourable
+gentlemen, and, besides, has most seriously offended our queen.'
+
+"'How so?' enquired Silverfine.
+
+"'By storming on her Barbary steed, like the devil himself, through
+the thick of our States' Assembly, pounding the arms and legs of I
+don't know how many of our sapient representatives. What makes the
+matter worse is, that this happened at the very opening of the diet,
+and whilst the grand prelusive symphony of the whole hidden people
+was in full burst. We were sitting by hundreds of thousands upon
+blades, stalks, and leaves; some of us still actively busied
+arranging comfortable seats for the older people in the blue
+harebells. For this we had stripped the skins of sixty thousand red
+field spiders, and wrought them into canopies and hangings. All our
+talented performers had tuned their instruments, scraped, fluted,
+twanged, jingled, and shawmed to their hearts' content, and had
+resined their fiddlesticks upon the freshest of dewdrops. All at
+once, tearing out of the wood, with your leave, or without your
+leave, comes this monster of a girl, plump upon upper house and lower
+house together. Ah, lack-a-daisy! what a massacre it was! The first
+hoof struck a thousand of our prime orators dead upon the spot, the
+other three hoofs scattered the Imperial diet in all directions, and,
+what is worse than all, tore to pieces a multitude of our exquisite
+caps. Our queen was almost frantic at the breach of the peace--she
+stamped with her foot, and cried out, "LIGHTNING!" and what that
+means we all pretty well know. Just at this time, too, she received
+information of the maiden's arrogant behaviour towards her suitors,
+and on the instant she determined to put the sinner to her prayers.
+We began by devouring every thing clean up, giving her the pleasure
+of looking on.'
+
+"'Silly, absurd creatures!' _thought_ Swanhilda, as the little butler
+advanced to the table to put on some fresh wine. During his absence
+she had time to note how perhaps a dozen other Fairies drew up
+through the floor whole pailfuls of wine and smoking meats, which
+were conveyed immediately to the table, and there consumed as if by
+the wind. She was heartily longing for the day to dawn, that the sun
+might dissipate her dream, when the sprightly little speaker came to
+his place again.
+
+"'Now we can gossip a little longer,' said Sweetflower. 'My guests
+are provided for, and between this and cock-crow--when house and
+cellar will be emptied--there's some time yet.'
+
+"Swanhilda uttered (_mentally_) a prodigious imprecation, and turned
+herself so violently in the bed, that the little gentlemen were
+absolutely terrified.
+
+"'I verily believe we are going to have an earthquake!' said
+Silverfine.
+
+"'No such thing!' answered Sweetflower. 'The amiable young lady in
+bed there has seen the sport perhaps, and is very likely not
+altogether pleased with it.'
+
+"'Don't you think she would speak, if she saw all this wastefulness
+going on?' asked Silverfine.
+
+"'Yes, if she could!' chuckled Sweetflower. 'But our queen has been
+cruel enough to strike her dumb, whilst she looks upon this
+heartbreaking spectacle. If she once wakes, she won't be troubled
+again with sleep before cock-crow.'
+
+"'A pretty business!' _thought_ Swanhilda, once more tossing herself
+passionately about in her bed.
+
+"'Quite right!' said Sweetflower triumphantly. 'The imp of a girl has
+waked up.'
+
+"'Insolent wretches!' said Swanhilda (internally.) 'Brute and imp to
+me! Oh, if I could only speak!'
+
+"'Why, the whole fun of the thing is,' said Sweetflower, almost
+bursting with laughter, 'just that that wish won't be gratified. Does
+the fool of a woman think that she is to trample down our orchestra
+with impunity, to put our States' Assembly to flight, and to crush
+our very selves into a jelly!'
+
+"'And the unbidden guests divine my very thoughts!' _thought_
+Swanhilda. 'Upon my life, it looks as if a spice of omniscience had
+really crept under their caps!'
+
+"'Why, of course!' answered Sweetflower.
+
+"'Then will I think no more!' _resolved_ Swanhilda.
+
+"'And there, my prudent damsel, you show a good discretion,' returned
+Sweetflower, saluting her with an ironical bow.
+
+"'How will it be, then, with our caps?' enquired Silverfine. 'Are
+they to be repaired?'
+
+"'Oh, certainly,' returned Sweetflower; 'and that will cost our
+Amazon here more than all. Indeed, the conditions of her punishment
+are, to make good the caps, to pledge her troth to one of her
+despised suitors, to compensate the rest with magnificent gifts, and,
+for the future, never to mount hunter more, but to amble upon a
+gentle palfrey, as a lady should. And, till all this is done, am I to
+have the teaching of her.'
+
+"'Pretty conditions truly!' thought Swanhilda. 'I would rather die
+than keep them.'
+
+"'Just as you please, most worthy madam,' answered Sweetflower; 'but
+you'll think better of it yet, perhaps.'
+
+"'It will fall heavy enough upon her,' said Silverfine, 'seeing that
+we have it in command to seize upon all the lady's treasures.'
+
+"'Capital, capital!' shouted Sweetflower. 'That's peppering the
+punishment truly! For now must this haughty man-hating creature go
+about begging, catching and carrying fish to market, and so
+submitting herself to the scorn and laughter of all her former
+lovers, till her trade makes her rich again. Nothing but luck in
+fishing will our queen vouchsafe the audacious madam. Three years are
+allowed her. But, in the interim, she must starve and famish like a
+white mouse learning to dance.'
+
+"At this moment a monstrous burst of laughter roared from the table.
+The guests sang aloud--
+
+  "'The last flagon we end,
+  Swanhilda shall mend;
+  Huzza, knights, and drink
+  To the last dollar's chink!'
+
+"As the song ceased, the table descended, the floor closed up, and
+stillness was in the room again, as when the lady had first retired
+to her couch. The cock crew, and Swanhilda fell into a deep sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"When it left her, the sun already shone high and bright, and played
+on her silken bed-curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and seeing every
+thing about her in its usual state, she concluded that what had
+happened was nothing worse than a feverish dream. She now arose,
+began dressing herself, and would have allayed her waking thirst, but
+she could find neither glass nor water-pitcher. She called angrily to
+her waiting-woman.
+
+"'How come you to forget water, blockhead?' she exclaimed; 'get some
+quickly, and then--Breakfast!'
+
+"The attendant departed, shaking her head; for she knew well enough
+that every thing had been put in order as usual on the evening
+before. She very quickly returned, frightened out of her wits, and
+hardly able to speak.
+
+"'Oh my lady! my lady! my lady!' she stammered out.
+
+"'Well, where is the water?'
+
+"'Gone! all drained and dried up! Tub, brook, well--all empty and
+dry!'
+
+"'Is it possible?' said Swanhilda. 'Your eyes have surely deceived
+you! But never mind--bring up my breakfast. A ham and two Pomeranian
+geese-breasts.'
+
+"'Alack! gracious lady!' answered the girl, sobbing, 'every thing in
+the house is gone too! The wine-casks lie in pieces on the cellar
+floor; the stalls are empty; your favourite horse is away--hay and
+corn rotted through. It is shocking!'
+
+"Swanhilda dismissed her, and broke out at first into words wild and
+vehement. She checked them; but tears of disappointment and bitter
+rage forced their way in spite of her. A visit to her cellar,
+store-rooms, and granaries, convinced her of the horrible
+transformation which a night had effected in every thing that
+belonged to her. She found nothing every where but mould and
+sickly-smelling mildew; and was too soon aware that the hideous
+images of the night were nothing less than frightful realities. Her
+hardened heart stood proof; and since the whole region for leagues
+round was turned into a blighted brown heath, she at one resolved to
+die of hunger. Ere noon her few servants had deserted the castle, and
+Swanhilda herself hungered till her bowels growled again.
+
+"This laudable self-castigation she persevered in for three days
+long, when her hunger had increased to such a pitch that she could no
+longer remain quiet in the castle. In a state of half consciousness,
+she staggered down to the lake, known far and wide by the name of the
+Castle mere. Here, on the glassy surface, basked the liveliest
+fishes. Swanhilda for a while watched in silence the disport of the
+happy creatures, then snatched up a hazel wand lying at her feet,
+round the end of which a worm had coiled, and, half maddened by the
+joyance of the finny tribe, struck with it into the water. A greedy
+fish snapped at the switch. The famishing Swanhilda clutched
+hungeringly at it, but found in her hand a piece of offensive
+carrion, and nothing more; whilst around, from every side, there rang
+such a clatter of commingled mockery and laughter, that Swanhilda
+vented a terrible imprecation, and shed once more--a scorching tear.
+
+"'Oh! we shall soon have you tame enough!' said a voice straight
+before her, and she recognized it at once for the speaker of that
+miserable night. Looking about her, she perceived a moss-rose that
+luxuriated upon the rock. In one of the expanded buds sat a little
+kicking fellow, with green apron, sky-blue vest, and yellow bonnet.
+He was laughing right into the face of the angry miss; and, quaffing
+off one little flower-cup after another, filled them bravely again,
+and jingled with his tiny bunch of keys, as if he had been grand
+butler to the universe.
+
+"'A flavour like a nosegay!' said the malicious rogue. 'Wilt hob-nob
+with me, maiden? What do you say? Are we adepts at sacking a house?
+'Twill give thee trouble to fill thy cellars again as we found them.
+Take heart, girl. If you will come to, and take kindly to your
+angling, and do the thing that's handsome by your wooers, you shall
+have an eatable dinner yet up at the castle.'
+
+"'Infamous pigmy!' exclaimed Swanhilda, lashing with her rod, as she
+spoke, at the little rose. The small buffeteer meanwhile had leaped
+down, and, in the turning of a hand, had perched himself upon the
+lady's nose, where he drummed an animating march with his heels.
+
+"'Thy nose, I do protest, is excellently soft, thou wicked witch!'
+said the rascal. 'If thou wilt now try thy hand at fishing for the
+town market, thou shalt be entertained the while with the finest band
+of music in the world. Be good and pretty, and take up thy
+angling-rod. Trumpets and drums, flutes and clarinets, shall all
+strike up together.'
+
+"Swanhilda tried hard to shake the jocular tormentor off, but he kept
+his place on the bridge as if he had grown to it. She made a snatch
+at him, and he bit her finger.
+
+"'Hark'e, my damsel!' quoth Sweetflower; 'if you are so unmannerly,
+'tis time for a lesson. You smarted too little when you were a young
+one. We must make all that good now;' and forthwith he settled
+himself properly upon her nose, dangling a leg on either side, like a
+cavalier in saddle. 'Come, my pretty, be industrious,' continued he;
+'get to work, and follow good counsel.' And then he whistled a blithe
+and gamesome tune.
+
+"Swanhilda, not heedlessly to prolong her own vexation, dipped the
+rod into the water, and immediately saw another gleaming fish
+wriggling at its end. A basket, delicately woven of flowers, stood
+beside her, half filled with clear water. The fish dropped into it of
+themselves. The wee companion beat meanwhile with his feet upon the
+wings of the lady's nose, played ten instruments or more at once, and
+extemporized a light rambling rhyme, wherein arch gibes and playful
+derision of her present forlorn estate were not unmingled with
+auguries of a friendlier future.
+
+"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin, laughing.
+'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to the town, and
+when your fish are once sold, you may make yourself--some
+water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped into the fish-basket,
+crept out again on the other side, plucked a king-cup, took seat in
+it, and gave the word--'Forwards!' The flower, on the instant,
+displayed its petals. There appeared sail and rudder to the small and
+delicate ship, which at once took motion, and sailed gaily through
+the air.
+
+"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower, 'behave
+discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'
+
+"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She took her
+basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise herself as
+completely as possible before making for the town. But all her
+clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then, harassed by
+hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as she was, in her
+velvet riding-habit.
+
+"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity--she was in the
+market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of the
+well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue of scorn in thrall,
+and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied. Once more within her
+castle walls, she beheld a running spring in the courtyard, and near
+it an earthen pitcher. She filled--drank--and carried the remainder
+to the hall, where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a
+loaf. She submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and
+water, appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.
+
+"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She hastened
+to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner there. In their
+stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next instant she
+perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork, galloping before her
+across the courtyard, and addressing his pupil with another snatch of
+his derisive song.
+
+"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she carried her
+fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she again on her way
+to market. An amazing multitude of people were already in motion
+here, who presently thronged about the market-woman. The basket was
+nearly emptied, when two of her old suitors approached. Swanhilda was
+confounded, and a blush of deep shame inflamed her countenance.
+Curiosity and the pleasure of malice spurred them to accost her; but
+the sometime-haughty damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in
+answer tendered her fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing,
+however, ungentle gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the
+moment, caught sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy--saluting her
+with his little cap, and nodding approbation.
+
+"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought Swanhilda, and
+in the next instant the fairy was running upon her nose and cheeks,
+most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her with a little hair till
+she sneezed again.
+
+"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a profane
+swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have pepper
+growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there--is that pepper? Thou
+art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'
+
+"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf still
+tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her infliction with a
+virtuous patience. In her court and hall she found, as before, the
+spring, the bread, and the fire. As before, she satisfied hunger and
+thirst, and slept--the sweeter already for her punishment and pain.
+
+"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less severe,
+still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading, under fairy
+guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must be owned that her
+aversion to angling craft did not increase in proportion. As time ran
+on, she had encountered all her discarded knights, now singly and now
+in companies. A year and a half elapsed, and left the relation
+between suitors and maiden as at the beginning. At length a chivalric
+and gentle knight, noble in person as in birth, ventured to accost
+her, loving and reverently as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed,
+overcome with shame, the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged,
+blithe, and watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself
+upon her heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles--she made
+honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
+constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened hand.
+
+"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn the
+festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry creatures
+played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The blissful day over,
+and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing from the banquet and
+the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able little tutor hopped before
+them, and led them to the hymeneal bower with floral flute, and
+gratulatory song!"
+
+
+
+
+PORTUGAL.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: _Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal_. By J. SMITH, Esq.,
+Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two vols.]
+
+
+The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for so long
+a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and fallen so
+constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or more relaxed
+alliance with England that a knowledge of her interests, her habits,
+and her history, becomes an especial accomplishment of the English
+statesman. The two countries have an additional tie, in the
+similitude of their early pursuits, their original character for
+enterprise, and their mutual services. Portugal, like England, with a
+narrow territory, but that territory largely open to the sea, was
+maritime from her beginning; like England, her early power was
+derived from the discovery of remote countries; like England, she
+threw her force into colonization, at an era when all other nations
+of Europe were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like
+England, without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved
+her independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
+like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
+with which, after severing the link of government, she retains the
+link of a common language, policy, literature, and religion.
+
+The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed the
+prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government by Spain
+sank her into a temporary depression. But the native gallantry of the
+nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new effort commenced for
+her restoration to the place which she was entitled to maintain in
+the world. It is remarkable that, at such periods in the history of
+nations, some eminent individual comes forward, as if designated for
+the especial office of a national guide. Such an individual was the
+Marquis of Pombal, the virtual sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven
+years--a man of talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were
+the crush of faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the
+Jesuits and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
+Restorer of his Country."
+
+The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at Soure, a
+Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father, Manoel
+Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of the rank of
+_fidalgo de provincia_--a distinction which gave him the privileges
+attached to nobility, though not to the title of a grandee, that
+honour not descending below dukes, marquises, and counts. His mother
+was Theresa de Mendonca, a woman of family. He had two brothers,
+Francis and Paul. His own names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was
+added that of Mello, from his maternal ancestor.
+
+Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general, studied for
+a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the army as a
+private, according to the custom of the country, and rose to the rank
+of corporal, which he held until circumstances, and an introduction
+to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently prime-minister, induced him
+to devote himself to the study of history, politics, and law. The
+cardinal, struck with his ability, strongly advised him to persevere
+in those pursuits, appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal
+Academy of History, and shortly after, the king proposed that he
+should write the history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but
+this design was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six
+years, until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
+Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
+remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
+language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
+country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
+however, be recollected, that at this period French was the universal
+language of diplomacy, the language of the court circles, and the
+polished language of all the travelled ranks of England. The
+writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and politicians, were
+the study of every man who pretended to good-breeding, and the only
+study of most; so that, to a stranger, the acquisition of the
+vernacular tongue could be scarcely more than a matter of curiosity.
+Times, however, are changed; and the diplomatist who should now come
+to this country without a knowledge of the language, would be
+despised for his ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better
+remain at home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a
+negotiation to reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an
+ecclesiastical claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and
+it is surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
+appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
+Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun, by
+whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined to be a
+favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was above the
+middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably intellectual
+countenance; his manners graceful, and his language animated and
+elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that on a vacancy in
+the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled to take the
+portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly after, and Don
+Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the throne, appointing
+Pombal virtually his prime-minister--a rank which he held, unshaken
+and unrivaled, for the extraordinary period of twenty-seven years.
+
+The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
+minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of the
+most memorable service to his future administration. His six years'
+residence in England added practical knowledge to theoretical; and
+with the whole machinery of a free, active, and popular government in
+constant operation before his eyes, he returned to take the
+government of a dilapidated country. The power of the priesthood,
+exercised in the most fearful shape of tyranny; the power of the
+crown, at once feeble and arbitrary; the power of opinion, wholly
+extinguished; and the power of the people, perverted into the
+instrument of their own oppression--were the elements of evil with
+which the minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
+sincerely, and successfully.
+
+The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined with the
+most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for it not merely
+punished men for obeying their own consciences, but tried them in
+defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only made a law
+contradictory of every other law, but it established a tribunal
+subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be defended. It
+was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was a bold and noble
+effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits of national safety.
+By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that thenceforth no judicial
+burnings should take place without the consent and approval of the
+government, taking to itself the right of enquiry and examination,
+and confirming or reversing the sentence according to its own
+judgment. This measure decided at once the originality and the
+boldness of the minister: for it was the first effort of the kind in
+a Popish kingdom; and it was made against the whole power of Rome,
+the restless intrigues of the Jesuits, and the inveterate
+superstition of the people.
+
+Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's next
+attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He found all
+the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an annual revenue
+of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a national manufactory
+of gunpowder, it having been previously supplied by contract, and
+being of course supplied of the worst quality at the highest rate. He
+established regulations for the fisheries, he broke up iniquitous
+contracts, he attempted to establish a sugar refinery, and directed
+the attention of the people largely to the cultivation of silk. His
+next reformation was that of the police. The disorders of the late
+reign had covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a
+police so effective, and proceeded with such determined justice
+against all disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly
+safe, and the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a
+time when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
+assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as to
+be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
+country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
+immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets of
+the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for the
+various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior officers,
+made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and restored the
+revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next engaged his attention;
+he established a company to trade to the East and China, the old
+sources of Portuguese wealth. In the western dominions of Portugal,
+commerce had hitherto languished. He established a great company for
+the Brazil trade. But his still higher praise was his humanity.
+Though acting in the midst of a nation overrun with the most violent
+follies and prejudices of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses
+of the convents; and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as
+nuns the daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over
+for their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
+Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
+Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were granted
+to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among them. Of course
+those great objects were not achieved without encountering serious
+difficulties. The pride of the idle aristocracy, the sleepless
+intriguing of the Jesuits, the ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and
+the sluggish supremacy of the priests, were all up in arms against
+him. But his principle was pure, his knowledge sound, and his
+resolution decided. Above all, he had, in the person of the king, a
+man of strong mind, convinced of the necessities of change, and
+determined to sustain the minister. The reforms soon vindicated
+themselves by the public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the
+powers of a despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a
+regenerator of his country.
+
+But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the test
+at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the resources of
+Portugal.
+
+On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755, Lisbon
+was almost torn up from the foundations by the most terrible
+earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish festival, the
+population were crowding to the churches, which were lighted up in
+honour of the day. About a quarter before ten the first shock was
+felt, which lasted the extraordinary length of six or seven minutes;
+then followed an interval of about five minutes, after which the
+shock was renewed, lasting about three minutes. The concussions were
+so violent in both instances that nearly all the solid buildings were
+dashed to the ground, and the principal part of the city almost
+wholly ruined. The terror of the population, rushing through the
+falling streets, gathered in the churches, or madly attempting to
+escape into the fields, may be imagined; but the whole scene of
+horror, death, and ruin, exceeds all description. The ground split
+into chasms, into which the people were plunged in their fright.
+Crowds fled to the water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land,
+suddenly rose to an extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and
+swept away all within its reach. It was said to have risen to the
+height of five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and
+to have sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred
+four times.
+
+The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial force
+of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for while
+Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion of a
+gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
+considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said that
+many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the Tagus, and
+totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the shock on the
+river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung upon the shore.
+To complete the catastrophe, fires broke out in the ruins, which
+spread over the face of the city, burned for five or six days, and
+reduced all the goods and property of the people to ashes. For forty
+days the shocks continued with more or less violence, but they had
+now nothing left to destroy. The people were thus kept in a constant
+state of alarm, and forced to encamp in the open fields, though it
+was now winter. The royal family were encamped in the gardens of the
+palace; and, as in all the elements of society had been shaken
+together, Lisbon and its vicinity became the place of gathering for
+banditti from all quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish
+deserters made their way to the city, and robberies and murders of
+the most desperate kind were constantly perpetrated.
+
+During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell upon
+the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He adopted the
+most active measures for provisioning the city, for repressing
+plunder and violence, and for enabling the population to support
+themselves during this period of suffering. It was calculated that
+seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the damage of the city;
+and that not less than eighty thousand lives had been lost, either
+crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the waters. Some conception
+of the native mortality may be formed from that of the English: of
+the comparatively small number of whom, resident at that time in
+Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight men and fifty women were among the
+sufferers.
+
+The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this tremendous
+calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He found every
+one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed the king, as he
+entered "to meet this infliction of divine justice?" The calm and
+resolute answer of Pombal was--"Bury the dead, and feed the living."
+This sentence is still recorded, with honour, in the memory of
+Portugal.
+
+The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and returned to
+the ruins. For several days his only habitation was his carriage; and
+from it he continued to issue regulations for the public security.
+Those regulations amounted to the remarkable number of two hundred;
+and embraced all the topics of police, provisions, and the burial of
+the sufferers. Among those regulations was the singular, but
+sagacious one, of prohibiting all persons from leaving the city
+without a passport. By this, those who had robbed the people, or
+plundered the church plate, were prevented from escaping to the
+country and hiding their plunder, and consequently were obliged to
+abandon, or to restore it. But every shape of public duty was met by
+this vigorous and intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of
+the wounded, the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the
+destitute. He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of
+the capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
+of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the streets,
+buried the dead, and restored the services of the national religion.
+
+Another task subsequently awaited him--the rebuilding of the city. He
+began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty is due to the
+taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares. He did more: he
+built the more important fabric of public sewers in the new streets,
+and he laid out a public garden for the popular recreation. But he
+found, as Wren found, even in England, the infinite difficulty of
+opposing private interest, even in public objects; and Lisbon lost
+the opportunity of being the most picturesque and stately of European
+cities. One project, which would have been at once of the highest
+beauty and of the highest benefit--a terrace along the shore of the
+Tagus from Santa Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles,
+which would have formed the finest promenade in the world--he was
+either forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was
+hopeless. It was never even begun.
+
+The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to him
+among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the plunder
+of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his minister.
+They even declared the earthquake to have been a divine judgment for
+the sins of the administration. But they were rash enough, in the
+intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a repetition of the
+earthquake at the same time next year. When the destined day came,
+Pombal planted strong guards at the city gates, to prevent the panic
+of the people in rushing into the country. The earthquake did not
+fulfil the promise; and the people first laughed at themselves, and
+then at the Jesuits. The laugh had important results in time.
+
+There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history, than the
+long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose naturally from the
+commerce of the two nations--Portugal, already the most adventurous
+of nations, and England, growing in commercial enterprise. The
+advantages were mutual. In the year 1367, we have a Portuguese treaty
+stipulating for protection to the Portuguese traders in England. In
+1382, a royal order of Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador
+to bring his baggage into England free of duty--perhaps one of the
+earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
+civilization, and which has since been generally adopted throughout
+all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405, exonerates the
+Portuguese resident in England, and their ships, from being made
+responsible for the debts contracted by their ambassadors. In 1656,
+the important privilege was conceded to the English in Portugal, of
+being exempted from the native jurisdiction, and being tried by a
+judge appointed by England. This, in our days, might be an
+inadmissible privilege; but two centuries ago, in the disturbed
+condition of the Portuguese laws and general society, it might have
+been necessary for the simple protection of the strangers.
+
+The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have lately
+occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is curious to
+see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so far in advance
+of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in striking
+contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of monopoly and
+prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor the other--nature
+and necessity were too strong against him. We are, however, to
+recollect, that the language of complaint was popular in Portugal, as
+it always will be in a poor country, and that the minister who would
+be popular must adopt the language of complaint. In an eloquent and
+almost impassioned memoir by Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of
+his country, and hastily imputes it to the predominance of English
+commerce. He tells us that, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
+Portugal scarcely produced any thing towards her own support. Two
+thirds of her physical necessities were supplied from England. He
+complains that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
+Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an English
+trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers of all the
+necessaries of life throughout the country, and that the Portuguese
+had nothing to do but look on; that Cromwell, by the treaty which
+allowed the supply of Portugal with English cloths to the amount of
+two million sterling, had utterly impoverished the country; and in
+short, that the weakness and incapacity of Portugal, as an European
+state, were wholly owing, to her being destitute of trade, and that
+the destitution was wholly owing to her being overwhelmed by English
+commodities.
+
+We are not about to enter into detail upon this subject, but it is to
+be remembered, that Portugal obtained the cloth, even if she paid for
+it, cheaper from England than she could have done from any other
+country in Europe; that she had no means of making the cloth for
+herself, and that, after all, man must be clothed. Portugal, without
+flocks or fire, without coals or capital, could never have
+manufactured cloth enough to cover the tenth part of her population,
+at ten times the expense. This has occurred in later days, and in
+more opulent countries. We remember, in the reign of the Emperor
+Paul, when he was frantic enough to declare war against England, a
+pair of broadcloth pantaloons costing seven guineas in St Peterburg.
+This would have been severe work for the purse of a Portuguese
+peasant a hundred years ago. The plain fact of domestic manufactures
+being this, that no folly can be more foolish than to attempt to form
+them where the means and the country do not give them a natural
+superiority. For example, coals and iron are essential to the product
+of all works in metal. France has neither. How can she, therefore,
+contest the superiority of our hardware? She contests it simply by
+doing without it, and by putting up with the most intolerable cutlery
+that the world has ever seen. If, where manufactures are already
+established, however ineffectual, it may become a question with the
+government whether some privations must not be submitted to by the
+people in general, rather than precipitate those unlucky manufactures
+into ruin; there can be no question whatever on the subject where
+manufactures have not been hitherto established. Let the people go to
+the best market, let no attempt be made to force nature, and let no
+money be wasted on the worst article got by the worst means. One
+thing, however, is quite clear with respect to Portugal, that, by the
+English alliance, she has gained what is worth all the manufactures
+of Europe--independence. When, in 1640, she threw off the Spanish
+usurpation, and placed the Braganza family on the national throne,
+she threw herself on the protection of England; and that protection
+never has failed her to this hour. In the Spanish invasion of
+Portugal in 1762, England sent her ten thousand men, and the first
+officer of his day, Count La Lippe, who, notwithstanding his German
+name, was an Englishman born, and had commenced his service in the
+Guards. The Spaniards were beaten in all directions, and Portugal was
+included in the treaty of Fontainbleau in 1763. The deliverance of
+Portugal in the Peninsular war is too recent to be forgotten, and too
+memorable to be spoken of here as it deserves. And to understand the
+full value of this assistance, we are to recollect, that Portugal is
+one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, and at the same time the most
+exposed; that its whole land frontier is open to Spain, and its whole
+sea frontier is open to France; that its chief produce is wine and
+oranges, and that England is incomparably its best customer for both.
+
+Pombal, in his memoir, imputes a portion of the poverty of Portugal
+to her possession of the gold mines of Brazil. This is one of the
+paradoxes of the last century; but nations are only aggregates of
+men, and what makes an individual rich, cannot make a nation poor.
+The true secret is this--that while the possession of the gold mines
+induced an indolent government to rely upon them for the expenses of
+the state, that reliance led them to abandon sources of profit in the
+agriculture and commerce of the country, which were of ten times the
+value. This was equally the case in Spain. The first influx from the
+mines of Peru, enabled the government to disregard the revenues
+arising from the industry of the people. In consequence of the want
+of encouragement from the government, the agriculture and commerce of
+Spain sank rapidly into the lowest condition, whilst the government
+indolently lived on the produce of the mines. But the more gold and
+silver exist in circulation, the less becomes their value. Within
+half a century, the imports from the Spanish and Portuguese mines,
+had reduced the value of the precious metals by one half; and those
+imports thus became inadequate to the ordinary expenses of
+government. Greater efforts were then made to obtain them from the
+mines. Still, as the more that was obtained the less was the general
+value, the operation became more profitless still; and at length both
+Spain and Portugal were reduced to borrow money, which they had no
+means to pay--in other words, were bankrupt. And this is the true
+solution of the problem--why have the gold and silver mines of the
+Peninsula left them the poorest nations of Europe? Yet this was
+contrary to the operation of new wealth. The discovery of the mines
+of the New World appears to have been a part of that providential
+plan, by which a general impulse was communicated to Europe in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Europe was preparing for a new
+vigour of religion, politics, commerce, and civilization. Nothing
+stimulates national effort of every kind with so much power and
+rapidity, as a new general accession of wealth, or, as the political
+economist would pronounce it, a rise of wages, whether industrial or
+intellectual; and this rise was effected by the new influx of the
+mines. If Peru and Mexico had belonged to England, she would have
+converted their treasures into new canals and high-roads, new
+harbours, new encouragements to agriculture, new excitements to
+public education, new enterprises of commerce, or the colonization of
+new countries in the productive regions of the globe; and thus she
+would at once have increased her natural opulence, and saved herself
+from suffering under the depreciation of the precious metals, or more
+partially, by her active employment of them, have almost wholly
+prevented that depreciation. But the Peninsula, relying wholly on its
+imported wealth, and neglecting its infinitely more important
+national riches, was exactly in the condition of an individual, who
+spends the principal of his property, which is continually sinking
+until it is extinguished altogether.
+
+Another source of Peninsular poverty existed in its religion. The
+perpetual holidays of Popery made even the working portion of the
+people habitually idle. Where labour is prohibited for nearly a
+fourth of the year by the intervention of holidays, and thus idleness
+is turned into a sacred merit, the nation must prepare for beggary.
+But Popery goes further still. The establishment of huge communities
+of sanctified idlers, monks and nuns by the ten thousand, in every
+province and almost in every town, gave a sacred sanction to
+idleness--gave a means of escaping work to all who preferred the
+lounging and useless life of the convent to regular labour, and even
+provided the means of living to multitudes of vagabonds, who were
+content to eat their bread, and drink their soup, daily at the
+convent gates, rather than to make any honest decent effort to
+maintain themselves. Every country must be poor in which a large
+portion of the public property goes to the unproductive classes. The
+soldiery, the monks, the state annuitants, the crowds of domestics,
+dependent on the families of the grandees, all are necessarily
+unproductive. The money which they receive is simply consumed. It
+makes no return. Thus poverty became universal; and nothing but the
+singular fertility of the peopled districts of Spain and Portugal,
+and the fortune of having a climate which requires but few of the
+comforts essential in a severer temperature, could have saved them
+both from being the most pauperized of all nations, or even from
+perishing altogether, and leaving the land a desert behind them. It
+strangely illustrates these positions, that, in 1754, the Portuguese
+treasury was so utterly emptied, that the monarch was compelled to
+borrow 400,000 crusadoes (L.40,000) from a private company, for the
+common expenses of his court.
+
+Wholly and justly disclaiming the imputation which would pronounce
+Portugal a dependent on England, it is impossible to turn a page of
+her history without seeing the measureless importance of her English
+connexion. Every genuine source of her power and opulence has either
+originated with, or been sustained by, her great ally. Among the
+first of these has been the wine trade. In the year 1756--the year
+following that tremendous calamity which had sunk Lisbon into
+ruins--the wine-growers in the three provinces of Beira, Minho, and
+Tras-os-Montes, represented that they were on the verge of ruin. The
+adulteration of the Portuguese wines by the low traders had destroyed
+their character in Europe, and the object of the representation was
+to reinstate that character. Pombal immediately took up their cause;
+and, in the course of the same year, was formed the celebrated Oporto
+Wine Company, with a capital of £120,000. The declared principles of
+the establishment were, to preserve the quality of the wines, to
+secure the growers by fixing a regular price, and to protect them
+from the combinations of dealers. The company had the privilege of
+purchasing all the wines grown within a particular district at a
+fixed price, for a certain period after the vintage. When that period
+had expired, the growers were at liberty to sell the wines which
+remained unpurchased in whatever market they pleased. Monopolies, in
+the advanced and prosperous career of commercial countries, generally
+sink into abuse; but they are, in most instances, absolutely
+necessary to the infant growth of national traffic. All the commerce
+of Europe has commenced by companies. In the early state of European
+trade, individuals were too poor for those large enterprises which
+require a large outlay, and whose prospects, however promising, are
+distant. What one cannot do, must be done by a combination of many,
+if it is to be done at all. Though when individual capital, by the
+very action of that monopoly, becomes powerful enough for those
+enterprises, then the time is at hand when the combination may be
+dissolved with impunity. The Oporto Wine Company had no sooner come
+into existence, than its benefits were felt in every branch of
+Portuguese revenue. It restored and extended the cultivation of the
+vine, which is the staple of Portugal. It has been abolished in the
+revolutionary changes of late years. But the question, whether the
+country is yet fit to bear the abolition, is settled by the fact,
+that the wine-growers are complaining of ruin, and that the necessity
+of the case is now urging the formation of the company once more.
+
+The decision of Pombal's character was never more strongly shown than
+on this occasion. The traders into whose hands the Portuguese wines
+had fallen, and who had enjoyed an illegal monopoly for so many
+years, raised tumults, and serious insurrection was threatened. At
+Oporto, the mob plundered the director's house, and seized on the
+chief magistrate. The military were attacked, and the government was
+endangered. The minister instantly ordered fresh troops to Oporto;
+arrests took place; seventeen persons were executed; five-and-twenty
+sent to the galleys; eighty-six banished, and others subjected to
+various periods of imprisonment. The riots were extinguished. In a
+striking memoir, written by Pombal after his retirement from office,
+he gives a brief statement of the origin of this company--a topic at
+all times interesting to the English public, and which is about to
+derive a new interest from its practical revival in Portugal. We
+quote a fragment.
+
+"The unceasing and urgent works which the calamitous earthquake of
+November 1st, 1755, had rendered indispensable, were still vigorously
+pursued, when, in the following year, one Mestre Frei Joao de
+Mansilla presented himself at the Giunta at Belem, on the part of the
+principal husbandmen of Upper Douro, and of the respectable
+inhabitants of Oporto, in a state of utter consternation.
+
+"In the popular outcry of the time, the English were represented as
+making themselves the sole managers of every thing. The fact being,
+that, as they were the only men who had any money, they were almost
+the sole purchasers in the Portuguese markets. But the English here
+complained of were the low traffickers, who, in conjunction with the
+Lisbon and Oporto vintners, bought and managed the wines at their
+discretion. It was represented to the king, that, by those means, the
+price of wine had been reduced to 7200 rios a pipe, or less, until
+the expense of cultivation was more than the value of the produce;
+that those purchasers required one or two years' credit; that the
+price did not pay for the hoeing of the land, which was consequently
+deserted; that all the principal families of one district had been
+reduced to poverty, so much so as to be obliged to sell their knives
+and forks; that the poor people had not a drop of oil for their
+salad, so that they were obliged, even in Lent, to season their
+vegetables with the fat of hogs." The memoir mentions even gross vice
+as a consequence of their extreme poverty.
+
+We quote this passage to show to what extremities a people may be
+reduced by individual mismanagement, and what important changes may
+be produced by the activity of an intelligent directing power. The
+king's letters-patent of 1756, establishing the company, provided at
+once for the purity of the wine, its extended sale in England, and
+the solvency of the wine provinces. It is only one among a thousand
+instances of the hazards in which Popery involves all regular
+government, to find the Jesuits inflaming the populace against this
+most salutary and successful act of the king. At confession, they
+prompted the people to believe "that the wines of the company were
+not fit for the celebration of mass." (For the priests drink wine in
+the communion, though the people receive only the bread.) To give
+practical example to their precept, they dispersed narratives of a
+great popular insurrection which had occurred in 1661; and both
+incentives resulted in the riots in Oporto, which it required all the
+vigour of Pombal to put down.
+
+But the country and Europe was now to acknowledge the services of the
+great minister on a still higher scale. The extinction of the Jesuits
+was the work of his bold and sagacious mind. The history of this
+event is among the most memorable features of a century finishing
+with the fall of the French monarchy.
+
+The passion of Rome for territory has been always conspicuous, and
+always unsuccessful. Perpetually disturbing the Italian princes in
+the projects of usurpation, it has scarcely ever advanced beyond the
+original bounds fixed for it by Charlemagne. Its spirit of intrigue,
+transfused into its most powerful order the Jesuits, was employed for
+the similar purpose of acquiring territorial dominion. But Europe was
+already divided among powerful nations. Those nations were governed
+by jealous authorities, powerful kings for their leaders, and
+powerful armies for their defence. All was full; there was no room
+for the contention of a tribe of ecclesiastics, although the most
+daring, subtle, and unscrupulous of the countless slaves and soldiers
+of Rome. The world of America was open. There a mighty power might
+grow up unseen by the eye of Europe. A population of unlimited
+multitudes might find space in the vast plains; commerce in the
+endless rivers; defence in the chains of mountains; and wealth in the
+rocks and sands of a region teeming with the precious metals. The
+enterprise was commenced under the pretext of converting the Indians
+of Paraguay. Within a few years the Jesuits formed an independent
+republic, numbering thirty-one towns, with a population of a hundred
+thousand souls. To render their power complete, they prohibited all
+communication between the natives and the Spaniards and Portuguese,
+forbidding them to learn the language of either country, and
+implanting in the mind of the Indians an implacable hatred of both
+Spain and Portugal. At length both courts became alarmed, and orders
+were sent out to extinguish the usurpation. Negotiations were in the
+mean time opened between Spain and Portugal relative to an exchange
+of territory, and troops were ordered to effect the exchange.
+Measures of this rank were unexpected by the Jesuits. They had
+reckoned upon the proverbial tardiness of the Peninsular councils;
+but they were determined not to relinquish their prize without a
+struggle. They accordingly armed the natives, and prepared for a
+civil war.
+
+The Indians, unwarlike as they have always been, now headed by their
+Jesuit captains, outmanoeuvred the invaders. The expedition failed;
+and the baffled invasion ended in a disgraceful treaty. The
+expedition was renewed in the next year, 1755, and again baffled. The
+Portuguese government of the Brazils now made renewed efforts, and in
+1756 obtained some advantages; but they were still as far as ever
+from final success, and the war, fruitless as it was, had begun to
+drain heavily the finances of the mother country. It had already cost
+the treasury of Lisbon a sum equal to three millions sterling. But
+the minister at the head of the Portuguese government was of a
+different character from the race who had, for the last hundred
+years, wielded the ministerial sceptres of Spain and Portugal. His
+clear and daring spirit at once saw where the evil lay, and defied
+the difficulties that lay between him and its cure. He determined to
+extinguish the order of the Jesuits at a blow. The boldness of this
+determination can be estimated only by a knowledge of the time. In
+the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were the
+ecclesiastical masters of Europe. They were the confessors of the
+chief monarchs of the Continent; the heads of the chief seminaries
+for national education; the principal professors in all the
+universities;--and this influence, vast as it was by its extent and
+variety, was rendered more powerful by the strict discipline, the
+unhesitating obedience, and the systematic activity of their order.
+All the Jesuits existing acknowledged one head, the general of their
+order, whose constant residence was at Rome. But their influence,
+powerful as it was by their open operation on society, derived
+perhaps a superior power from its secret exertions. Its name was
+legion--its numbers amounted to thousands--it took every shape of
+society, from the highest to the lowest. It was the noble and the
+peasant--the man of learning and the man of trade--the lawyer and the
+monk--the soldier and the sailor--nay, it was said, that such was the
+extraordinary pliancy of its principle of disguise, the Jesuit was
+suffered to assume the tenets of Protestantism, and even to act as a
+Protestant pastor, for the purpose of more complete deception. The
+good of the church was the plea which purified all imposture; the
+power of Rome was the principle on which this tremendous system of
+artifice was constructed; and the reduction of all modes of human
+opinion to the one sullen superstition of the Vatican, was the
+triumph for which those armies of subtle enthusiasm and fraudulent
+sanctity were prepared to live and die.
+
+The first act of Pombal was to remove the king's confessor, the
+Jesuit Moreira. The education of the younger branches of the royal
+family was in the hands of Jesuits. Pombal procured a royal order
+that no Jesuit should approach the court, without obtaining the
+express permission of the king. He lost no time in repeating the
+assault. Within a month, on the 8th of October 1767, he sent
+instructions to the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, to demand a
+private audience, and lay before the pope the misdemeanours of the
+order.
+
+Those instructions charged the Jesuits with the most atrocious
+personal profligacy, with a design to master all public power, to
+gather opulence dangerous to the state, and actually to plot against
+the authority of the crowns of Europe. He announced, that the king of
+Portugal had commanded all the Jesuit confessors of the prince and
+princesses to withdraw to their own convents; and this important
+manifesto closed by soliciting the interposition of the papal see to
+prevent the ruin, by purifying an order which had given scandal to
+Christianity, by offences against the public and private peace of
+society, equally unexampled, habitual, and abominable. In 1758, the
+representation to the pope was renewed, with additional proofs that
+the order had determined to usurp every function, and thwart every
+act of the civil government; that the confessors of the royal family,
+though dismissed, continued to conspire; that they resisted the
+formation of royal institutions for the renewal of the national
+commerce; and that they excited the people to dangerous tumults, in
+defiance of the royal authority.
+
+Their intrigues comprehended every object by which influence was to
+be obtained, or money was to be made. The "Great Wine Company," on
+which the chief commerce of Portugal, and almost the existence of its
+northern provinces depended, was a peculiar object of their
+hostility, for reasons which we can scarcely apprehend, except they
+were general jealousy of all lay power, and hostility to all the
+works of Pombal. They assailed it from their pulpits; and one of
+their popular preachers made himself conspicuous by impiously
+exclaiming, "that whoever joined that company, would have no part in
+the company of Jesus Christ."
+
+The intrigues of this dangerous and powerful society had long before
+been represented to the popes, and had drawn down upon them those
+remonstrances by which the habitual dexterity of Rome at once saves
+appearances, and suffers the continuance of the delinquency. The
+Jesuits were too useful to be restrained; yet their crimes were too
+palpable to be passed over. In consequence, the complaints of the
+monarchs of Spain and Portugal were answered by bulls issued from
+time to time, equally formal and ineffective. Yet even from these
+documents may be ascertained the singularly gross, worldly, and
+illegitimate pursuits of an order, professing itself to be supremely
+religious, and the prime sustainer of the "faith of the gospel." The
+bull of Benedict the XIV., issued in 1741, prohibited from "trade and
+commerce, all worldly dominion, and the _purchase_ and _sale_ of
+converted Indians." The bull extended the prohibition generally to
+the monkish orders, to avoid branding the Jesuits especially. But a
+bull of more direct reprehension was published at the close of the
+year, expressly against the Jesuits in their missions in the east and
+west. The language of this document amounts to a catalogue of the
+most atrocious offences against society, humanity, and morals. By
+this bull, "all men, and especially _Jesuits_," are prohibited, under
+penalty of excommunication, from "making slaves of the Indians; from
+selling and bartering them; from separating them from their wives and
+children; from robbing them of their property; from transporting them
+from their native soil," &c.
+
+Nothing but the strongest necessity, and the most ample evidence,
+would ever have drawn this condemnation from Rome, whether sincere or
+insincere. But the urgencies of the case became more evident from day
+to day. In 1758, the condemnation was followed by the practical
+measure of appointing Cardinal Saldanha visitor and reformer of the
+Jesuits in Portugal, and the Portuguese settlements in the east and
+west.
+
+Within two months of this appointment the following decree was
+issued:--"For just reasons known to us, and which concern especially
+the service of God and the public welfare, we suspend from the power
+of confessing and preaching, in the whole extent of our patriarchate,
+the fathers of the Society of Jesus, from this moment, and until
+further notice." Saldanha had been just raised to the patriarchate.
+
+We have given some observations on this subject, from its peculiar
+importance to the British empire at this moment. The order of the
+Jesuits, extinguished in the middle of the last century by the
+unanimous demand of Europe, charged with every crime which could make
+a great association obnoxious to mankind, and exhibiting the most
+atrocious violations of the common rules of human morality, has,
+within this last quarter of a century, been revived by the papacy,
+with the express declaration, that its revival is for the exclusive
+purpose of giving new effect to the doctrines, the discipline, and
+the power of Rome. The law which forbids the admission of Jesuits
+into England, has shared the fate of all laws feebly administered;
+and Jesuits are active by hundreds or by thousands in every portion
+of the empire. They have restored the whole original system,
+sustained by all their habitual passion for power, and urging their
+way, with all their ancient subtlety, through all ranks of
+Protestantism.
+
+The courage and intelligence of Pombal placed him in the foremost
+rank of Europe, when the demand was the boldest and most essential
+service which a great minister could offer to his country; he broke
+the power of Jesuitism. But an order so numerous--for even within the
+life of its half-frenzied founder it amounted to 19,000--so
+vindictive, and flung from so lofty a rank of influence, could not
+perish without some desperate attempts to revenge its ruin. The life
+of Pombal was so constantly in danger, that the king actually
+assigned him a body guard. But the king himself was exposed to one of
+the most remarkable plots of regicide on record--the memorable Aveiro
+and Tavora conspiracy.
+
+On the night of the 3d of September 1758, as the king was returning
+to the palace at night in a cabriolet, attended only by his valet,
+two men on horseback, and armed with blunderbusses, rode up to the
+carriage, and leveled their weapons at the monarch. One of them
+missed fire, the other failed of its effect. The royal postilion, in
+alarm, rushed forward, when two men, similarly waiting in the road,
+galloped after the carriage, and both fired their blunderbusses into
+it behind. The cabriolet was riddled with slugs, and the king was
+wounded in several places. By an extraordinary presence of mind, Don
+Joseph, instead of ordering the postilion to gallop onward, directed
+him instantly to turn back, and, to avoid alarming the palace, carry
+him direct to the house of the court surgeon. By this fortunate
+order, he escaped the other groups of the conspirators, who were
+stationed further on the road, and under whose repeated discharges he
+would probably have fallen.
+
+The public alarm and indignation on the knowledge of this desperate
+atrocity were unbounded. There seemed to be but one man in the
+kingdom who preserved his composure, and that one was Pombal.
+Exhibiting scarcely even the natural perturbation at an event which
+had threatened almost a national convulsion, he suffered the whole to
+become a matter of doubt, and allowed the king's retirement from the
+public eye to be considered as merely the effect of accident. The
+public despatch of Mr Hay, the British envoy at Lisbon, alludes to
+it, chiefly as assigning a reason for the delay of a court
+mourning--the order for this etiquette, on the death of the Spanish
+queen, not having been put in execution. The envoy mentions that it
+had been impeded by the king's illness,--"it being the custom of the
+court to put on _gala_ when any of the royal family are blooded. When
+I went to court to enquire after his majesty's health, I was there
+informed that the king, on Sunday night the 3d instant, passing
+through a gallery to go to the queen's apartment, had the misfortune
+to fall and bruise his right arm; he had been blooded eight different
+times; and, as his majesty is a fat bulky man, to prevent any humours
+fixing there, his physicians have advised that he should not use his
+arm, but abstain from business for some time. In consequence, the
+queen was declared regent during Don Joseph's illness."
+
+This was the public version of the event. But appended to the
+despatch was a postscript, in _cipher_, stating the reality of the
+transaction. Pombal's sagacity, and his self control, perhaps a still
+rarer quality among the possessors of power, were exhibited in the
+strongest light on this occasion. For three months not a single step
+appeared to be taken to punish, or even to detect the assassins. The
+subject was allowed to die away; when, on the 9th of December, all
+Portugal was startled by a royal decree, declaring the crime, and
+offering rewards for the seizure of the assassins. Some days
+afterwards Lisbon heard, with astonishment, an order for the arrest
+of the Duke of Aveira, one of the first nobles, and master of the
+royal household; the arrest of the whole family of the Marquis of
+Tavora, himself, his two sons, his four brothers, and his two
+sons-in-law. Other nobles were also seized; and the Jesuits were
+forbidden to be seen out of their houses.
+
+The three months of Pombal's apparent inaction had been incessantly
+employed in researches into the plot. Extreme caution was evidently
+necessary, where the criminals were among the highest officials and
+nobles, seconded by the restless and formidable machinations of the
+Jesuits. When his proofs were complete, he crushed the conspirators
+at a single grasp. His singular inactivity had disarmed them; and
+nothing but the most consummate composure could have prevented their
+flying from justice. On the 12th of January 1759, they were found
+guilty; and on the 13th they were put to death, to the number of
+nine, with the Marchioness of Tavora, in the square of Belem. The
+scaffold and the bodies were burned, and the ashes thrown into the
+sea.
+
+Those were melancholy acts; the works of melancholy times. But as no
+human crime can be so fatal to the security of a state as regicide,
+no imputation can fall on the memory of a great minister, compelled
+to exercise justice in its severity, for the protection of all orders
+of the kingdom. In our more enlightened period, we must rejoice that
+those dreadful displays of judicial power have passed away; and that
+laws are capable of being administered without the tortures, or the
+waste of life, which agonize the feelings of society. Yet, while
+blood for blood continued to be the code; while the sole prevention
+of crime was sought for in the security of judgment; and while even
+the zeal of justice against guilt was measured by the terrible
+intensity of the punishment--we must charge the horror of such
+sweeping executions to the ignorance of the age, much more than to
+the vengeance of power.
+
+This tragedy was long the subject of European memory; and all the
+extravagance of popular credulity was let loose ill discovering the
+causes of the conspiracy. It was said, in the despatches of the
+English minister, that the Marquis of Tavora, who had been Portuguese
+minister in the East, was irritated by the royal attentions to his
+son's wife. Ambition was the supposed ground of the Duke of Aveira's
+perfidy. The old Marchioness of Tavora, who had been once the
+handsomest woman at court, and was singularly vein and haughty, was
+presumed to have received some personal offence, by the rejection of
+the family claim to a dukedom. All is wrapped in the obscurity
+natural to transactions in which individuals of rank are involved in
+the highest order of crime. It was the natural policy of the minister
+to avoid extending the charges by explaining the origin of the crime.
+The connexions of the traitors were still many and powerful; and
+further disclosures might have produced only further attempts at the
+assassination of the minister or the king.
+
+It was now determined to act with vigour against the Jesuits, who
+were distinctly charged with assisting, if not originating, the
+treason. A succession of decrees were issued, depriving them of their
+privileges and possessions; and finally, on the 5th of October 1759,
+the cardinal patriarch Saldanha issued the famous mandate, by which
+the whole society was expelled from the Portuguese dominions. Those
+in the country were transported to Civita Vecchia; those in the
+colonies were also conveyed to the Papal territory; and thus, by the
+intrepidity, wisdom, and civil courage of one man, the realm was
+relieved from the presence of the most powerful and most dangerous
+body which had ever disturbed the peace of society.
+
+Portugal having thus the honour of taking the lead, Rome herself at
+length followed; and, on the accession of the celebrated Ganganelli,
+Clement XIV., a resolution was adopted to suppress the Jesuits in
+every part of the world. On the 21st of July 1773, the memorable bull
+"Dominus ac Redemptor," was published, and the order was at an end.
+The announcement was received in Lisbon with natural rejoicing. _Te
+Deum_ was sung, and the popular triumph was unbounded and universal.
+
+We now hasten to the close of this distinguished minister's career.
+His frame, though naturally vigorous, began to feel the effects of
+his incessant labour, and an apoplectic tendency threatened to
+shorten a life so essential to the progress of Portugal; for that
+whole life was one of _temperate_ and _progressive_ reform. His first
+application was to the finances; he found the Portuguese exchequer on
+the verge of bankruptcy. A third of the taxes was embezzled in the
+collection. In 1761, his new system was adopted, by which the
+finances were restored; and every week a balance-sheet of the whole
+national expenditure was presented to the king. His next reform was
+the royal household, where all unnecessary expenses--and they were
+numerous--were abolished. Another curious reform will be longer
+remembered in Portugal. The nation had hitherto used _only_ the
+_knife_ at dinner! Pombal introduced the _fork_. He brought this
+novel addition to the table with him from England in 1745!
+
+The nobility were remarkably ignorant. Pombal formed the "College of
+Nobles" for their express education. There they were taught every
+thing suitable to their rank. The only prohibition being, "that they
+should _not converse in Latin_," the old pedantic custom of the
+monks. The nobles were directed to converse in English, French,
+Italian, or their native tongue; Pombal declaring, that the custom of
+speaking Latin was only "to teach them to barbarize."
+
+Another custom, though of a more private order, attracted the notice
+of this rational and almost universal improver. It had been adopted
+as a habit by the widows of the nobility, to spend the first years of
+their widowhood in the most miserable seclusion; they shut up their
+windows, retired to some gloomy chamber, slept on the floor, and,
+suffering all kinds of voluntary and absurd mortifications, forbade
+the approach of the world. As the custom was attended with danger to
+health, and often with death, besides its general melancholy
+influence on society, the minister publicly "enacted," that every
+part of it should be abolished; and, moreover, that the widows should
+always remove to another house; or, where this was not practicable,
+that they "should _not_ close the shutters, nor '_mourn_' for more
+than a week, nor remain at home for more than a month, nor sleep on
+the ground." Doubtless, tens of thousands thanked him, and thank him
+still, for this war against a popular, but most vexatious, absurdity.
+
+His next reform was the army. After the peace of 1763, he fixed it at
+30,000 men, whom he equipped effectually, and brought into practical
+discipline.
+
+A succession of laws, made for the promotion of European and colonial
+trade, next opened the resources of Portugal to an extent unknown
+before. Pombal next abolished the "Index Expurgitorius"--an
+extraordinary achievement, not merely beyond his age, but against the
+whole superstitious spirit of his age. He was not content with
+abolishing the restraint; he attempted to _restore_ the PRESS in
+Portugal. Hitherto nearly all Portuguese books had been printed in
+foreign counties. He established a "Royal Press," and gave its
+superintendence to Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been
+expatriated for printing works against the Jesuits. Such, in value
+and extent, were the acts which Portugal owed to this indefatigable
+and powerful mind, that when, in 1766, he suffered a paralytic
+stroke, the king and the people were alike thrown into consternation.
+
+At length Don Joseph, the king, and faithful friend of Pombal, died,
+after a reign of twenty-seven years of honour and usefulness. Pombal
+requested to resign, and the Donna Maria accepted the resignation,
+and conferred various marks of honour upon him. He now retired to his
+country-seat, where Wraxall saw him in 1772, and thus describes his
+appearance. "At this time he had attained his seventy-third year, but
+age seemed to have diminished neither the freshness nor the activity
+of his faculties. In his person he was very tall and slender, his
+face long, pale, and meagre, but full of intelligence."
+
+But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles; and the
+loss of his power as minister produced a succession of intrigues
+against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and doubtless
+also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always been at once
+so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was insulted by a
+trial, at which, however, the only sentence inflicted was an order to
+retire twenty leagues from the court. The Queen was, at that time,
+probably suffering under the first access of that derangement, which,
+in a few years after, utterly incapacitated her, and condemned the
+remainder of her life to melancholy and total solitude. But the last
+praise is not given to the great minister, while his personal
+disinterestedness is forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was
+to present to the throne a statement of his public income, when it
+appeared that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration,
+he had received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
+state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was rich;
+for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes were
+joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and estimation by
+the European courts, to the great age of eighty-three, dying on the
+5th of May without pain. A long inscription, yet in which the
+panegyric did not exceed the justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a
+single sentence might have established his claim to the perpetual
+gratitude of his country and mankind--
+
+  "Here lies the man who banished the
+  Jesuits from Portugal."
+
+Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much credit to
+his research and skill.
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART XII.
+
+
+  Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+  Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+  Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+  Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+  And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+  Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+  Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+
+SHAKSPEARE.
+
+Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom, but
+one--the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He evidently
+loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour of his
+existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief traders in
+France were already in prison; and yet he carried on the perilous
+game of commerce. He was known to be immensely opulent; and he must
+have regarded the day which passed over his head, without seeing his
+strong boxes put under the government seal, and himself thrown into
+some _oubliette_, as a sort of miracle. But he was now assailed by a
+new alarm. War with England began to be rumoured among the bearded
+brethren of the synagogue; and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from
+Peru to Japan. Like Shakspeare's princely merchant--
+
+  "His mind was tossing on the ocean,
+  There where his argosies with portly sail,
+  Like signiors, and rich burghers of the flood.
+  Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
+  Did overpower the petty traffickers,
+  As they flew by them with their woven wings."
+
+The first shot fired would inevitably pour out the whole naval force
+of England, and his argosies would put their helms about, and steer
+for Portsmouth, Plymouth, and every port but a French one. If this
+formidable intelligence had awakened the haughtiness of the French
+government to a sense of public peril, what effect must it not have
+in the counting-house of a man whose existence was trade? While I was
+on my pillow, luxuriating in dreams of French fêtes, Paul and
+Virginia carried off to the clouds, and Parisian _belles_ dancing
+cotillons in the bowers and pavilions of a Mahometan paradise,
+Elnathan spent the night at his desk, surrounded by his bustling
+generation of clerks, writing to correspondents at every point of the
+compass, and preparing insurances with the great London
+establishments; which I was to carry with me, though unacquainted
+with the transaction on which so many millions of francs hung
+trembling.
+
+His morning face showed me, that whatever had been his occupation
+before I met him at the breakfast-table, it had been a most uneasy
+one. His powerful and rather handsome physiognomy had shrunk to half
+the size; his lips were livid, and his hand shook to a degree which
+made me ask, whether the news from Robespierre was unfavourable. But
+his assurance that all still went on well in that delicate quarter,
+restored my tranquility, which was beginning to give way; and my only
+stipulation now was, that I should have an hour or two to spend at
+Vincennes before I took my final departure. The Jew was all
+astonishment; his long visage elongated at the very sound; he shook
+his locks, lifted up his large hands, and fixed his wide eyes on me
+with a look of mingled alarm and wonder, which would have been
+ludicrous if it had not been perfectly sincere.
+
+"In the name of common sense, do you remember in what a country, and
+in what times, we live? Oh, those Englishmen! always thinking that
+they are in England. My young friend, you are clearly not fit for
+France, and the sooner you get out of it the better."
+
+I still remonstrated. "Do you forget yesterday?" he exclaimed. "Can
+you forget the man before whom we both stood? A moment's hesitation
+on your part to set out, would breed suspicion in that most
+suspicious brain of all mankind. Life is here as uncertain as in a
+field of battle. Begone the instant your passports arrive, and never
+behind you.--For my part, I constantly feel as if my head were in the
+lion's jaws. Rejoice in your escape."
+
+But I was still unconvinced, and explained "that my only motive was,
+to relieve my friends in the fortress from the alarm which they had
+evidently felt for my fate, and to relieve myself from the charge of
+ingratitude, which would inevitably attach to me if I left Paris
+without seeing them."
+
+Never was man more perplexed with a stubborn subject. He represented
+to me the imminent hazard of straying a hair's-breadth to the right
+or left of the orders of Robespierre! "I was actually under
+surveillance, and he was responsible for me. To leave his roof; even
+for five minutes, until I left it for my journey, might forfeit the
+lives of both before evening."
+
+I still remonstrated; and pronounced the opinion, perhaps too
+flattering a one, of the dictator, that "he could not condescend to
+forbid a mere matter of civility, which still left me entirely at his
+service." The Jew at last, in despair, rushed from the room, leaving
+me to the unpleasing consciousness that I had distressed an honest
+and even a friendly man.
+
+Two hours thus elapsed, when a _chaise de poste_ drew up at the door,
+with an officer of the police in front, and from it came Varnhorst
+and the doctor, both probably expecting a summons to the scaffold;
+but the Prussian bearing his lot with the composure of a man
+accustomed to face death, and the doctor evidently in measureless
+consternation, colourless and convulsed with fear. His rapture was
+equally unbounded when Elnathan, ushering them both into the
+apartment where I sat--
+
+  Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter
+  thought"--
+
+explained, that finding me determined on my point, he had adopted the
+old proverb--of bringing Mahomet to the mountain, if he could not
+bring the mountain to Mahomet; had procured an order for their
+attendance in Paris, through his influence with the chief of the
+police, and now hoped to have the honour of their company at dinner.
+This was, certainly, a desirable exchange for the Place de Grève; and
+we sat down to a sumptuous table, where we enjoyed ourselves with the
+zest which danger escaped gives to luxurious security.
+
+All went on well. The doctor was surprised to find in the frowning
+banker, who had repulsed him so sternly from his desk, the hospitable
+entertainer; and Varhorst's honest and manly friendship was gratified
+by the approach of my release from a scene of perpetual danger.
+
+I had some remembrances to give to my friends in Prussia; and at
+length, sending away the doctor to display his connoisseurship on
+Elnathan's costly collection of pictures, Varnhorst was left to my
+questioning. My first question naturally was, "What had involved him
+in the ill-luck of the Austrians."
+
+"The soldier's temptation every where," was the answer; "having
+nothing to do at home, and expecting something to do abroad. When the
+Prussian army once crossed the Rhine, I should have had no better
+employment than to mount guard, escort the court dowagers to the
+balls, and finish the year and my life together, by dying of _ennui_.
+In this critical moment, when I was in doubt whether I should turn
+Tartar, or monk of La Trappe, Clairfait sent to offer me the command
+of a division. I closed with it at once, went to the king, obtained
+his leave, put spurs to my horse, and reached the Austrian camp
+before the courier."
+
+I could not help expressing my envy at a profession in which all the
+honours of earth lay at the feet of a successful soldier! He smiled,
+and pointed to the police-officer, who was then sulkily pacing in
+front of the house.
+
+"You see," said he, "the first specimen of my honours. Yet, from the
+moment of my arrival within the Austrian lines, I could have
+predicted our misfortune. Clairfait was, at least, as long-sighted as
+myself; and nothing could exceed his despondency but his indignation.
+His noble heart was half broken by the narrowness of his resources
+for defending the country, and the boundless folly by which the war
+council of Vienna expected to make up for the weakness of their
+battalions by the absurdity of their plans. 'I write for regiments,'
+the gallant fellow used to say; 'and they send me regulations! I tell
+them that we have not troops enough for an advanced guard; and they
+send me the plan of a pitched battle! I tell then that the French
+have raised their army in front of me to a hundred thousand strong;
+and they promise me reinforcements next year.' After all, his chief
+perplexity arose from their orders--every despatch regularly
+contradicting the one that came before.
+
+"Something in the style," said I, "of Voltaire's caricature of the
+Austrian courier in the Turkish war, with three packs strapped on his
+shoulders, inscribed, 'Orders'--'Counter-orders'--and 'Disorders.'
+
+"Just a case in point. Voltaire would have been exactly the historian
+for our campaign. What an incomparable tale he would have made of it!
+Every thing that was done was preposterous. We were actually beaten
+before we fought; we were ruined at Vienna before a shot was fired at
+Jemappes. The Netherlands were lost, not by powder and ball, but by
+pen and ink; and the consequence of our "march to Paris" is, that one
+half of the army is now scattered from Holland to the Rhine, and the
+other half is, like myself, within French walls."
+
+I enquired how Clairfait bore his change of fortune.
+
+"Like a man superior to fortune. I never saw him exhibit higher
+ability than in his dispositions for our last battle. He has become a
+magnificent tactician. But Alexander the Great himself could not
+fight without troops: and such was our exact condition.
+
+"Dumourier, at the head of a hundred thousand men, had turned short
+from the Prussian retreat, and flung himself upon the Netherlands.
+How many troops do you think the wisdom of the Aulic Council had
+provided to protect the provinces? Scarcely more than a third of the
+number, and those scattered over a frontier of a hundred miles; in a
+country, too, where every Man spoke French, where every man was half
+Republican already, where the people had actually begun a revolution,
+and where we had scarcely a friend, a fortress in repair, or
+ammunition enough for _feu de joie_. The French, of course, burst in
+like an inundation, sweeping every thing before them. I was at dinner
+with Clairfait and his staff on the day when the intelligence
+arrived. The map was laid upon the table, and we had a kind of debate
+on the course which the Frenchman would take. That evening completed
+my opinion of him as a general. He took the clearest view among all
+our conjectures, as the event proved, so far as the enemy's movements
+were concerned; though I still retain my own idea of an original
+error in the choice of our field of battle. Before the twilight fell,
+we mounted our horses, and rode to the spot where Clairfait had
+already made up his mind to meet the French. It was certainly a
+capital position for defence--a range of heights not too high for
+guns, surmounted by a central plateau; the very position for a
+battery and a brigade; but the very worst that could be taken against
+the new enemy whom we had to oppose."
+
+"Yet, what could an army of French recruits be expected to do against
+a disciplined force so strongly posted?" was my question.
+
+"My answer to that point," said Varnhorst, "must be a quotation from
+my old master of tactics. If the purpose of a general is simply to
+defend himself, let him keep his troops on heights; if his purpose is
+simply to make an artillery fight, let him keep behind his guns; but
+if it is his purpose to beat the enemy, he must leave himself able to
+follow them--and this he can do only on a plain. In the end, after
+beating the enemy in a dozen attempts to carry our batteries, but
+without the power of striking a blow in retaliation, we saw them
+carried all at once, and were totally driven from the field."
+
+"So much for bravery and discipline against bravery and enthusiasm,"
+said I. "Yet the enemy's loss must have been tremendous. Every
+assault must have torn their columns to pieces." Even this attempt at
+reconciling him to his ill fortune failed.
+
+"Yes," was the cool reply; "but they could afford it, which was more
+than we could do. Remember the maxim, my young friend, when you shall
+come to be a general, that the only security for gaining battles is,
+to have good troops, and a good many of them.--The French recruits
+fought like recruits, without knowing whether the enemy were before
+or behind them; but they fought, and when they were beaten they
+fought again. While we were fixed on our heights, they were formed
+into column once more, and marched gallantly up to the mouth of our
+guns. Then, we had but 18,000 men to the Frenchman's 60,000. Such
+odds are too great. Whether our great king would have fought at all
+with such odds against him, may be a question; but there can be none,
+whether he would have fixed himself where he could not manoeuvre. The
+Frenchman attacked us on flanks and centre, just when and where he
+pleased; there stood we, mowing down his masses from our fourteen
+redoubts, and waiting to be attacked again. To do him justice, he
+fought stoutly; and to do us justice, we fought sturdily. But still
+we were losing men; the affair looked unpromising from the first half
+hour; and I pronounced that, if Dumourier had but perseverance
+enough, he must carry the field."
+
+I made some passing remark on the singular hazard of bringing untried
+troops against the proverbial discipline of a German army, and the
+probability that the age of the wild armies of peasantry in Europe
+would be renewed, by the evidence of its success.
+
+"Right," said Varnhorst. "The thing that struck me most was, the new
+character of the whole engagement. It was Republicanism in the field;
+a bold riot, a mob battle. Nor will it be the last of its kind. Our
+whole line was once attacked by the French demi-brigades, coming to
+the charge, with a general chorus of the _Marseillaise_ hymn. The
+effect was magnificent, as we heard it pealing over the field through
+all the roar of cannon and musketry. The attack was defeated. It was
+renewed, under a chorus in honour of their general, and 'Vive
+Dumourier' was chanted by 50,000 voices, as they advanced against our
+batteries. This charge broke in upon our position, and took five of
+our fourteen redoubts. Even Clairfait now acknowledged that all was
+lost; two-thirds of our men were _hors de combat_, and orders were
+given for a retreat. My turn now came to act, and I moved forward
+with my small brigade of cavalry--but I was not more lucky than the
+rest."
+
+I pressed to hear the particulars, but his mind was still overwhelmed
+with a sense of military calamity, always the most reluctant topic to
+a brave and honest soldier; and he simply said--"the whole was a
+_mêlée_. Our rear was threatened in force by a column which had
+stormed the heights under a young _brave_, whom I had observed,
+during the day, exposing himself gallantly to all the risks of the
+field. To stop the progress of the enemy on this point was essential;
+for the safety of the whole army was compromised. We charged them,
+checked them, but found the brigade involved in a force of ten times
+our number; fought our way out again with heavy loss; and after all,
+a shot, which brought my charger to the ground, left me wounded and
+bruised in the hands of the French. I was taken up insensible, was
+carried to the tent of the young commander of the column, whom I
+found to be a Duc de Chartres, the son of the late Duke of Orleans.
+His kindness to his prisoner was equal to his gallantry in the field.
+Few and hurried as our interviews were, while his army remained in
+its position he gave me the idea of a mind of great promise, and
+destined for great things, unless the chances of war should stop his
+career. But, though a Republican soldier, to my surprise he was no
+Republican. His enquiries into the state of popular opinion in
+Europe, showed at once his sagacity, and the turn which his thoughts,
+young as he was, were already taking.--But the diadem is trampled
+under foot in France for ever; and with cannon-shot in his front
+every day of his life, and the guillotine in his rear, who can answer
+for the history of any man for twenty-four hours together?"
+
+My time in Paris had now come to a close. All my enquiries for the
+fate of Lafontaine had been fruitless; and I dreaded the still more
+anxious enquiries to which I should be subjected on my arrival; but I
+had at least the intelligence to give, that I had not left him in the
+fangs of the jailers of St Lazare. I took leave of my bold and
+open-hearted Prussian friend with a regret, which I had scarcely
+expected to feel for one with whom I had been thrown into contact
+simply by the rough chances of campaigning; but I had the
+gratification of procuring for him, through the mysterious interest
+of Elnathan, an order for his transmission to Berlin in the first
+exchange of prisoners. This promise seemed to compensate all the
+services which he had rendered to me. "I shall see the Rhine again,"
+said he, "which is much more than I ever expected since the day of
+our misfortune. "I shall see the Rhine again!--and thanks to you for
+it." He pressed my hand with honest gratitude.
+
+The carriage which was to convey me to Calais was now at the door.
+Still, one thought as uppermost in his mind; it was, that I should
+give due credit to the bravery of the Austrian general and his army.
+"If I have spoken of the engagement at all," said he, "it was merely
+to put you in possession of the facts. You return to England; you
+will of course hear the battle which lost the Netherlands discussed
+in various versions. The opinion of England decides the opinion of
+Europe. Tell, then, your countrymen, in vindication of Clairfait and
+his troops, that after holding his ground for nine hours against
+three times his force, he retreated with the steadiness of a movement
+on parade, without leaving behind him a single gun, colour, or
+prisoner. Tell them, too, that he was defeated only through the
+marvellous negligence of a government which left him to fight battles
+without brigades, defend fortresses without guns, and protect
+insurgent provinces with a fugitive army."
+
+My answer was--"You may rely upon my fighting your battles over the
+London dinner-tables, as perseveringly, if not as much against odds,
+as you fought it in the field. But the fortune of war is proverbial,
+and I hope yet to pour out a libation to you as Generalissimo
+Varnsdorf, the restorer of the Austrian laurels."
+
+"Well, Marston, may you be a true prophet! But read that letter from
+Guiscard; our long-headed friend not merely crops our German laurels,
+but threatens to root up the tree." He handed me a letter from the
+Prussian philosopher: it was a curious _catalogue raisonné_ of the
+_im_probabilities of success in the general war of Europe against the
+Republic; concluding with the words, so characteristic of his solemn
+and reflective views of man and the affairs of man--
+
+"War is the original propensity of human nature, and civilization is
+the great promoter of war. The more civilized all nations become, the
+more they fight. The most civilized continent of the world has spent
+the fourth of its modern existence in war. Every man of common sense,
+of course, abhors its waste of life, of treasure, and of time. Still
+the propensity is so strong, that it continues the most prodigal
+sacrifice of them all. I think that we are entering on a period, when
+war, more than ever, will be the business of nations. I should not be
+surprised if the mania of turning nations into beggars, and the
+population into the dust of the field, should last for half a
+century; until the whole existing generation are in their graves, and
+a new generation shall take their places, astonished at the fondness
+of their fathers for bankruptcy and bloodshed." After some sharp
+censures of the unpurposed conduct of the German cabinets, he
+finished by saying--"If the French continue to fight as they have
+just fought, Jemappes will be the beginning of a new era. In the
+history of the world, every great change of human supremacy has been
+the result of a change in the principles of war; and the nation which
+has been the first to adopt that change, has led the triumph for its
+time. France has now found out a new element in war--the force of
+multitude, the charge of the masses; and she will conquer, until the
+kings of Europe follow her example, and call their nations to the
+field. Till then she will be invincible, but then her conquests will
+vanish; and the world, exhausted by carnage, will be quiet for a
+while. But the wolfish spirit of human nature will again hunger for
+prey; some new system of havoc will be discovered by some great
+genius, who ought to be cursed to the lowest depths of human memory;
+but who will be exalted to the most rapturous heights of human
+praise. Then again, when one half of the earth is turned into a field
+of battle, and the other into a cemetery, mankind will cry out for
+peace; and again, when refreshed, will rush into still more ruinous
+war:--thus all things run in a circle. But France has found out the
+secret for this age, and--_vae victis!_--the pestilence will be tame
+to the triumph of her frenzy, her rapine, and her revenge."
+
+"Exactly what I should have expected from Guiscard," was my remark;
+"he is always making bold attempts to tear up the surface of the
+time, and look into what is growing below."
+
+"Well, well," replied my honest fellow soldier, "I never perplex my
+brain with those things. I dare say your philosophers may be right;
+at least once in a hundred years. But take my word for it, that
+musket and bayonet will be useful matters still; and that discipline
+and my old master Frederick, will be as good as Dumourier and
+desperation, when we shall have brigade for brigade."
+
+The postillions cracked their whips, the little Norman horses tore
+their way over the rough pavement; the sovereign people scattered off
+on every side, to save their lives and limbs; and the plan of St
+Denis, rich with golden corn, and tracked by lines of stately trees,
+opened far and wide before me. From the first ascent I gave a
+_parting_ glance at Paris--it was mingled of rejoicing and regret.
+What hours of interest, of novelty, and of terror, had I not passed
+within the circuit of those walls! Yet, how the eye cheats
+reality!--that city of imprisonment and frantic liberty, of royal
+sorrow and of popular exultation, now looked a vast circle of calm
+and stately beauty. How delusive is distance in every thing! Across
+that plain, luxuriant with harvest, surrounded with those soft hills,
+and glittering in the purple of this glorious evening, it looked a
+paradise. I knew it--a pendemonium!
+
+I speeded on--every thing was animated and animating in my journey.
+It was the finest season of the year; the roads were good; the
+prospects--as I swept down valley and rushed round hill, with the
+insolent speed of a government _employé_, leaving all meaner
+vehicles, travellers, and the whole workday world behind--seemed to
+be to redeem the character of French landscape. But how much of its
+colouring was my own! Was _I_ not _free?_ was I not _returning to
+England?_ was I not approaching scenes, and forms, and the realities
+of those recollections, which, even in the field of battle, and at
+the foot of the scaffold, had alternately cheered and pained,
+delighted and distressed me?--yet which, even with all their
+anxieties, were dearer than the most gilded hopes of ambition. Was I
+not about to meet the gay smile and poignant vivacity of Mariamne?
+was I not about to wander in the shades of my paternal castle? to see
+those relatives who were to shape so large a share of my future
+happiness; to meet in public life the eminent public men, with whose
+renown the courts and even the camps of Europe were already ringing:
+and last, proudest, and most profound feeling of all--was I not to
+venture near the shrine on which I had placed my idol; to offer her
+the solemn and distant homage of the heart; perhaps to hear of her
+from day to day; perhaps to see her noble beauty; perhaps even to
+_hear_ that voice, of which the simplest accents sank to my
+soul.--But I must not attempt to describe sensations which are in
+their nature indescribable; which dispose the spirit of man to
+silence; and which, in their true intensity, suffer but one faculty
+to exist, absorbing all the rest in deep sleep and delicious reverie.
+
+I drove with the haste of a courier to London; and after having
+deposited my despatches with one of the under-secretaries of the
+Foreign office, I flew to Mordecai's den in the city. London appeared
+to me more crowded than ever; the streets longer, and buildings
+dingier; and the whole, seen after the smokeless and light-coloured
+towns of the Continent, looked an enormous manufactory, where men
+wore themselves out in perpetual blackness and bustle, to make their
+bread, and die. But my heart beat quickly as I reached the door of
+that dingiest of all its dwellings, where the lord of hundreds of
+thousands of pounds burrowed himself on the eyes of mankind.
+
+I knocked, but was long unanswered; at last a meagre clerk, evidently
+of the "fallen people," and who seemed dug up from the depths of the
+dungeon, gave me the intelligence that "his master and family had
+left England." The answer was like an icebolt through my frame. This
+was the moment to which I had looked forward with, I shall not say
+what emotions. I could scarcely define them; but they had a share of
+every strong, every faithful, and every touching remembrance of my
+nature. My disappointment was a pang. My head grey dizzy, I reeled;
+and asked leave to enter the gloomy door, and rest for a moment. But
+this the guardian of the den was too cautious to allow, and I should
+have probably fainted in the street, but for the appearance of an
+ancient Rebecca, the wife of the clerk, who, feeling the compassion
+which belongs to the sex in all instances, and exerting the authority
+which is so generally claimed by the better-halves of men, pushed her
+husband back, and led the way into the old cobwebbed parlour where I
+had so often been. A glass of water, the sole hospitality of the
+house, revived me; and after some enquiries alike fruitless with the
+past, I was about to take my leave, when the clerk, in his removal of
+some papers, not to be trusted within reach of a stranger, dropped a
+letter from the bundle, on which was my name. From the variety of
+addresses it had evidently travelled far, and had been returned from
+half the post-offices of the Continent. It was two months' old, but
+its news was to me most interesting. It was from Mordecai; and after
+alluding to some pecuniary transactions with his foreign brethren,
+always the first topic, he hurried on in his usual abrupt
+strain:--"Mariamne has insisted on my leaving England for a while.
+This is perplexing; as the war must produce a new loan, and London
+is, after all, the only place where those affairs can be transacted
+without trouble.--My child is well, and yet she looks pallid from
+time to time, and sheds tears when she thinks herself unobserved. All
+this may pass away, but it makes me uneasy; and, as she has evidently
+made up her mind to travel, I have only to give way--for, with all
+her caprices, she is my child, my only child, and my beloved child!
+
+"I have heard a good deal of your proceedings from my correspondent
+and kinsman in Paris. You have acquitted yourself well, and it shall
+not be unknown in the quarter where it may be of most service to
+you.--I have been stopped by Mariamne's singing in the next room, and
+her voice has almost unmanned me; she is melancholy of late, and her
+only music now is taken from those ancestral hymns which our nation
+regard as the songs of the Captivity. Her tones at this moment are
+singularly touching, and I have been forced to lay down my pen, for
+she has melted me to tears. Yet her colour has not altogether faded
+lately, and I think sometimes that her eyes look brighter than ever!
+Heaven help me, if I should lose her. I should then be alone in the
+world.
+
+"You may rely on my intelligence--a war is _inevitable_. You may also
+rely on my conjecture--that it will be the most desperate war which
+Europe has yet seen. One that will break up _foundations_, as well as
+break down superstructures; not a war of politics but of principles;
+not a war for conquest but for ruin. All the treasuries of Europe
+will be bankrupt within a twelvemonth of its commencement; unless
+England shall become their banker. This will be the harvest of the
+men of money.--It is unfortunate that your money is all lodged for
+your commission; otherwise, in the course of a few operations, you
+might make cent per cent, which I propose to do. _Apropos_ of
+commissions. I had nearly omitted, in my own family anxieties, to
+mention the object for which I began my letter. I have _failed_ in
+arranging the affair of your commission! This was not for want of
+zeal. But the prospect of a war has deranged and inflamed every
+thing. The young nobility have actually besieged the Horse-guards.
+All the weight of the aristocracy has pressed upon the minister, and
+minor influence has been driven from the field. The spirit is too
+gallant a one to be blamed;--and yet--are there not a hundred other
+pursuits, in which an intelligent and active mind, like your own,
+might follow on the way to fortune? You have seen enough of
+campaigning to know, that it is not all a flourish of trumpets. Has
+the world but one gate, and that the Horse-guards? If my personal
+judgment were to be asked, I should feel no regret for a
+disappointment which may have come only to turn your knowledge and
+ability to purposes not less suitable to an ambitious spirit, nor
+less likely to produce a powerful impression on the world--the only
+thing, after all, worth living for! You may laugh at this language
+from a man of my country and my trade. But even _I_ have my ambition;
+and you may yet discover it to be not less bold than if I carried the
+lamp of Gideon, or wielded the sword of the Maccabee.--I must stop
+again; my poor restless child is coming into the room at this moment,
+complaining of the chill, in one of the finest days of summer. She
+says that this villa has grown sunless, airless, and comfortless.
+Finding that I am writing to you, she sends her best wishes; and bids
+me ask, what is the fashionable colour for mantles in Paris, and also
+what is become of that 'wandering creature,' Lafontaine, if you
+should happen to recollect such a personage."
+
+"P.S.--My daughter insists on our setting out from Brighton
+to-morrow, and crossing the Channel the day after. She has a whim for
+revisiting Switzerland; and in the mean time begs that if, during our
+absence, _you_ should have a whim for sea air and solitude, you may
+make of the villa any use you please.--Yours sincerely,
+
+"J.V. MORDECAI."
+
+
+After reading this strange and broken letter, I was almost glad that
+I had not seen Mariamne. Lafontaine was in her heart still, in spite
+of absence. At this I did not wonder, for the heart of woman, when
+once struck, is almost incapable of change: but the suspense was
+killing her; and I had no doubt that her loss would sink even her
+strong-headed parent to the grave. Yet, what tidings had I to give?
+Whether her young soldier was shot in the attempt to escape from St
+Lazare, or thrown into some of those hideous dungeons, where so many
+thousands were dying in misery from day to day, was entirely beyond
+my power to tell. It was better that she should be roving over the
+bright hills, and breathing the fresh breezes of Switzerland, than
+listening to my hopeless conjectures at home; trying to reconcile
+herself to all the chances which passion is so painfully ingenious in
+creating, and dying, like a flower in all its beauty, on the spot
+where it had grown.
+
+But the letter contained nothing of the _one_ name, for which my
+first glance had looked over every line with breathless anxiety.
+There was not a syllable of Clotilde! The father's cares had absorbed
+all other thoughts; and the letter was to me a blank in that
+knowledge for which I panted, as the hart pants for the fountains.
+Still, I was not dead to the calls of friendship; and that night's
+mail carried a long epistle to Mordecai, detailing my escapes, and
+the services of his kindred in France; and for Mariamne's ear, all
+that I could conceive cheering in my hopes of that "wandering
+creature, Lafontaine."
+
+But I was forced to think of sterner subjects. I had arrived in
+England at a time of the most extraordinary public excitement. Every
+man felt that some great trial of England and of Europe was at hand;
+but none could distinctly define either its nature or its cause.
+France, which had then begun to pour out her furious declamations
+against this country, was, of course, generally looked to as the
+quarter from which the storm was to come; but the higher minds
+evidently contemplated hazards nearer home. Affiliated societies,
+corresponding clubs, and all the revolutionary apparatus, from whose
+crush and clamour I had so lately emerged, met the ear and the eye on
+all occasions; and the fiery ferocity of French rebellion was nearly
+rivalled by the grave insolence of English "Rights of Man." But I am
+not about to write the history of a time of national fever. The
+republicanism, which Cicero and Plutarch instil into us all at our
+schools, had been extinguished in me by the squalid realities of
+France. I had seen the dissecting-room, and was cured of my love for
+the science. My spirit, too, required rest. I could have exclaimed
+with all the sincerity, and with all the weariness too, of the
+poet:--
+
+  Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+  Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+  Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
+  Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+  Might never reach me more!"
+
+But, perhaps fortunately for my understanding, if not for my life, I
+was not suffered to take refuge in the wilderness. London was around
+me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and busy London. I
+was floating on those waves of human being, in which the struggler
+must make for the shore, or sink. I was in the centre of that huge
+whispering gallery, where every sound of earth was echoed and
+re-echoed with new power; and where it was impossible to dream. My
+days were now spent in communication with the offices of government,
+and a large portion of my nights in carrying on those
+correspondences, which, though seldom known in the routine of Downing
+Street, form the essential part of its intercourse with the
+continental cabinets. But a period of suspense still remained.
+Parliament had been already summoned for the 13th of December. Up to
+nearly the last moment, the cabinet had been kept in uncertainty as
+to the actual intents of France. There had been declamation in
+abundance in the French legislature and the journals; but with this
+unsubstantial evidence the cabinet could not meet the country.
+Couriers were sent in all directions; boats were stationed along the
+coast to bring the first intelligence of actual hostilities suddenly;
+every conceivable expedient was adopted; but all in vain. The day of
+opening the Session was within twenty-four hours. After lingering
+hour by hour, in expectancy of the arrival of despatches from our
+ambassador at the Hague, I offered to cross the sea in the first
+fishing-boat which I could find, and ascertain the facts. My offer
+was accepted; and in the twilight of a winter's morning, and in the
+midst of a snow-storm, I was making my shivering way homeward through
+the wretched lanes which, dark as pitch and narrow as footpaths, then
+led to the centre of the diplomatic world; when, in my haste, I had
+nearly overset a meagre figure, which, half-blinded by the storm, was
+tottering towards the Foreign office. After a growl, in the most
+angry jargon, the man recognized me; he was the clerk whom I had seen
+at Mordecai's house. He had, but an hour before, received, by one of
+the private couriers of the firm, a letter, with orders to deliver it
+with all expedition. He put it into my hand: it was not from
+Mordecai, but from Elnathan, and was simply in these words:--"My
+kinsman and your friend has desired me to forward to you the first
+intelligence of hostilities. I send you a copy of the bulletin which
+will be issued at noon this day. It is yet unknown; but I have it
+from a source on which you may perfectly rely. Of this make what use
+you think advantageous. Your well-wisher."
+
+With what pangs the great money-trafficker must have consigned to my
+use a piece of intelligence which must have been a mine of wealth to
+any one who carried it first to the Stock Exchange, I could easily
+conjecture. But I saw in it the powerful pressure of Mordecai, which
+none of his tribe seemed even to have the means of resisting. My
+sensations were singular enough as I traced my way up the dark and
+lumbering staircase of the Foreign office; with the consciousness
+that, if I had chosen to turn my steps in another direction, I might
+before night be master of thousands, or of hundreds of thousands. But
+it is only due to the sense of honour which had been impressed on me,
+even in the riot and roughness of my Eton days, to say, that I did
+not hesitate for a moment Sending one of the attendants to arouse the
+chief clerk, I stood waiting his arrival with the bulletin unopened
+in my hands. The official had gone to his house in the country, and
+might not return for some hours. My perplexity increased. Every
+moment might supersede the value of my priority. At length a
+twinkling light through the chinks of one of the dilapidated doors,
+told me that there was some one within, from whom I might, at least,
+ask when and how ministers were to be approached. The door was
+opened, and, to my surprise, I found that the occupant of the chamber
+was one of the most influential members of administration. My name
+and purpose were easily given; and I was received as I believe few
+are in the habit of being received by the disposers of high things in
+high places. The fire had sunk to embers, the lamp was dull, and the
+hearer was half frozen and half asleep. Yet no sooner had he cast his
+eyes upon the mysterious paper which I gave into his grasp, than all
+his faculties were in full activity.
+
+"This," said he, "is the most important paper that has reached this
+country since the taking of the Bastile. THE SCHELDT IS OPENED! This
+involves an attack on Holland; the defence of our ally is a matter of
+treaty, and we must arm without delay. The war is begun, but where it
+shall end"--he paused, and fixing his eyes above, with a solemnity of
+expression which I had not expected in the stern and hard-lined
+countenance, "or who shall live to see its close--who shall tell?"
+
+"We have been waiting," said he, "for this intelligence from week to
+week, with the fullest expectation that it would come; and yet, when
+it has come, it strikes like a thunderclap. This is the third night
+that I have sat in this hovel, at this table, unable to go to rest,
+and looking for the despatch from hour to hour.--You see, sir, that
+our life is at least not the bed of roses for which the world is so
+apt to give us credit. It is like the life of my own hills--the
+higher the sheiling stands, the more it gets of the blast."
+
+I do not give the name of this remarkable man. He was a Scot, and
+possessed of all the best characteristics of his country. I had heard
+him in Parliament, where he was the most powerful second of the most
+powerful first that England had seen. But if all men were inferior to
+the prime minister in majesty and fulness of conception, the man to
+whom I now listened had no superior in readiness of retort, in
+aptness of illustration--that mixture of sport and satire, of easy
+jest and subtle sarcasm, which forms the happiest talent for the
+miscellaneous uses of debate. If Pitt moved forward like the armed
+man of chivalry, or rather like the main body of the battle--for
+never man was more entitled to the appellation of a "host in
+himself"--never were front, flanks, and rear of the host covered by a
+more rapid, quick-witted, and indefatigable auxiliary. He was a man
+of family, and brought with him into public life, not the manners of
+a menial of office, but the bearing of a gentleman. Birth and blood
+were in his bold and manly countenance; and I could have felt no
+difficulty in conceiving him, if his course had followed his nature,
+the chieftain on his hills, at the head of his gallant retainers,
+pursuing the wild sports of his romantic region; or in some foreign
+land, gathering the laurels which the Scotch soldier has so often and
+so proudly added to the honours of the empire.
+
+He was perfectly familiar with the great question of the time, and
+saw the full bearings of my intelligence with admirable sagacity;
+pointed out the inevitable results of suffering France to take upon
+herself the arbitration of Europe, and gave new and powerful views of
+the higher relation in which England was to stand, as the general
+protectress of the Continent. "This bulletin," said he, "announces
+the fact, that a French squadron has actually sailed up the Scheldt
+to attack Antwerp. Yet it was not ten years since France protested
+against the same act by Austria, as a violation of the rights of
+Holland. The new aggression is, therefore, not simply a solitary
+violence, but a vast fraud; not merely the breach of an individual
+treaty, but a declaration that no treaty is henceforth to be held as
+binding; it is more than an act of rapine; it is an universal
+dissolution of the principles by which society is held together. In
+what times are we about to live?"
+
+My reply was--"That it depended on the spirit of England herself,
+whether the conflict was to be followed by honour or by shame; that
+she had a glorious career before her, if she had magnanimity
+sufficient to take the part marked out for her by circumstances; and
+that, with the championship of the world in her hands, even defeat
+would be a triumph."
+
+He now turned the conversation to myself; spoke with more than
+official civility of my services, and peculiarly of the immediate
+one; and asked in what branch of diplomacy I desired advancement?
+
+My answer was prompt. "In none. I desired promotion but in one
+way--the army." I then briefly stated the accidental loss of my
+original appointment, and received, before I left the chamber, a note
+for the secretary at war, recommending me, in the strongest terms,
+for a commission in the Guards.--The world was now before me, and the
+world in the most vivid, various, and dazzling shape; in the boldest
+development of grandeur, terror, and wild vicissitude, which it
+exhibited for a thousand years--ENGLAND WAS AT WAR!
+
+There is no sight on earth more singular, or more awful, than a great
+nation going to war. I saw the scene in its highest point of view, by
+seeing it in England. Its perfect freedom, its infinite, and often
+conflicting, variety of opinion--its passionate excitement, and its
+stupendous power, gave the summons to hostilities a character of
+interest, of grandeur, and of indefinite but vast purposes,
+unexampled in any other time, or in any other country. When one of
+the old monarchies commenced war, the operation, however large and
+formidable, was simple. A monarch resolved, a council sat, less to
+guide than to echo his resolution; an army marched, invaded the
+enemy's territory, fought a battle--perhaps a dubious one--rested on
+its arms; and while _Te Deum_ was sung in both capitals alike for the
+"victory" of neither, the ministers of both were constructing an
+armistice, a negotiation, and a peace--each and all to be null and
+void on the first opportunity.
+
+But the war of England was a war of the nation--a war of wrath and
+indignation--a war of the dangers of civilized society entrusted to a
+single championship--a great effort of human nature to discharge, in
+the shape of blood, a disease which was sapping the vitals of Europe;
+or in a still higher, and therefore a more faithful view, the
+gathering of a tempest, which, after sweeping France in its fury, was
+to restore the exhausted soil and blasted vegetation of monarchy
+throughout the Continent; and in whose highest, England, serene and
+undismayed, was to
+
+  "Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."
+
+I must acknowledge, that I looked upon the coming conflict with a
+strange sense of mingled alarm and rejoicing. For the latter feeling,
+perhaps I ought to make some apology; but I was young, ardent, and
+ambitious. My place in life was unfixed; standing in that unhappy
+middle position, in which stands a man of birth too high to suffer
+his adoption of the humbler means of existence, and yet of resources
+too inadequate to sustain him without action--nay, bold and
+indefatigable exertion. I, at the moment, felt a very inferior degree
+of compunction at the crisis which offered to give me at least a
+chance of being seen, known, and understood among men. I felt like a
+man whose ship was stranded, and who saw the storm lifting the surges
+that were to lift him along with them; or like the traveller in an
+earthquake, who saw the cleft in the ground swallowing up the river
+which had hitherto presented an impassable obstacle--cities and
+mountains might sink before the concussion had done its irresistible
+will, but, at all events, it had cleared his way.
+
+In thoughts like these, rash and unconnected as they were, I spent
+many a restless day, and still more restless night. I often sprang
+from a pillow which, if I had lived in the days of witchcraft, I
+should have thought spelled to refuse me sleep; and walking for
+hours, endeavoured to reduce into shape the speculations which filled
+my mind with splendours and catastrophes worthy of oriental dreams.
+Why did I not then pursue the career in which I had begun the world?
+Why not devote myself to diplomacy, in which I had hitherto received
+honour? Why not enter into Parliament, which opened all the secrets
+of power? For this I had two reasons. The first--and, let me confess,
+the most imperious--was, that my pride had been deeply hurt by the
+loss of my commission. I felt that I had not only been deprived of a
+noble profession, accidental as was the loss; but that I had
+subjected myself to the trivial, but stinging remarks, which never
+fail to find an obnoxious cause for every failure. While this cloud
+hung over me, I was determined never to return to my father's house.
+Good-natured as the friends of my family might be, I was fully aware
+of the style in which misfortune is treated in the idleness of
+country life; and the Honourable Mr Marston's loss of his rank in his
+Majesty's guards, or his preference of a more pacific promotion, was
+too tempting a topic to lose any of its stimulants by the popular
+ignorance of the true transaction. My next reason was, that my mind
+was harassed and wearied by disappointment, until I should not have
+regreted to terminate the struggle in the first field of battle. The
+only woman whom I loved, and whom, in the strange frenzy of passion,
+I solemnly believed to be the only woman on earth deserving to be so
+loved, had wholly disappeared, and was, by this time, probably
+wedded. The only woman whom I regarded as a friend, was in another
+country, probably dying. If I could have returned to Mortimer
+Castle--which I had already determined to be impossible--I should
+have found only a callous, perhaps a contemptuous, head of the
+family, angry at my return to burden him. Even Vincent--my old and
+kind-hearted friend Vincent--had been a soldier; and though I was
+sure of never receiving a reproach from his wise and gentle lips, was
+I equally sure that I could escape the flash, or the sorrow, of his
+eye?
+
+In thoughts like these, and they were dangerous ones, I made many a
+solitary rush out into the wild winds and beating snows of the
+winter, which had set in early and been remarkably severe; walking
+bareheaded in the most lonely places of the suburbs, stripping my
+bosom to the blast, and longing for its tenfold chill to assuage the
+fever which burned within me. I had also found the old delay at the
+Horse-guards. The feelings of this period make me look with infinite
+compassion on the unhappy beings who take their lives into their own
+hands, and who extinguish all their earthly anxieties at a plunge.
+But I had imbibed principles of a firmer substance, and but upon one
+occasion, and one alone, felt tempted to an act of despair.
+
+Taking my lonely dinner in a tavern of the suburbs, the waiter handed
+me a newspaper, which he had rescued for my behoof from the hands of
+a group, eager, as all the world then was, for French intelligence.
+My eye rambled into the fashionable column; and the first paragraph,
+headed "Marriage in high life," announced that, on the morrow, were
+to be solemnized the nuptials of Clotilde, Countess de Tourville,
+with the Marquis de Montrecour, colonel of the French Mousquetaires,
+&c. The paper dropped from my hands. I rushed out of the house; and,
+scarcely knowing where I went, I hurried on, until I found myself out
+of the sight or sound of mortal. The night was pitch-dark; there was
+no lamp near; the wind roared; and it was only by the flash of the
+foam that I discovered the broad sheet of water before me. I had
+strayed into Hyde Park, and was on the bank of the Serpentine. With
+what ease might I not finish all! It was another step. Life was a
+burden--thought was a torment--the light of day a loathing. But the
+paroxysm soon gave way. Impressions of the duty and the trials of
+human nature, made in earlier years, revived within me with a
+singular freshness and force. Tears gushed from my eyes, fast and
+flowing; and, with a long-forgotten prayer for patience and humility,
+I turned from the place of temptation. As I reached the streets once
+more, I heard the trumpets of the Life Guards, and the band of a
+battalion returning to their quarters. The infantry were the
+Coldstream. They had been lining the streets for the king's
+procession to open the sitting of Parliament. This was the 13th of
+December--the memorable day to which every heart in Europe was more
+or less vibrating; yet which I had totally forgotten. What is man but
+an electrical machine after all? The sound and sight of soldiership
+restored me to the full vividness of my nature. The machine required
+only to be touched, to shoot out its latent sparks; and with a new
+spirit and a new determination kindling through every fibre, I
+hastened to be present at that debate which was to be the judgment of
+nations.
+
+My official intercourse with ministers had given me some privileges,
+and I obtained a seat under the gallery--that part of the House of
+Commons which is occasionally allotted to strangers of a certain
+rank. The House was crowded, and every countenance was pictured with
+interest and solemn anxiety. Grey, Sheridan, and other distinguished
+names of party, had already taken their seats; but the great heads of
+Government and Opposition were still absent. At length a buzz among
+the crowd who filled the floor,--and the name of Fox repeated in
+every tone of congratulation, announced the pre-eminent orator of
+England. I now saw Fox for the first time; and I was instantly struck
+with the incomparable similitude of all that I saw of him to all that
+I had conceived from his character and his style. In the broad bold
+forehead, the strong sense--in the relaxed mouth, the self-indulgent
+and reckless enjoyment--in the quick, small eye under those
+magnificent black brows, the man of sagacity, of sarcasm, and of
+humour; and in the grand contour of a countenance and head, which
+might have been sculptured to take its place among the sages and
+sovereigns of antiquity, the living proof of those extraordinary
+powers, which could have been checked in their ascent to the highest
+elevation of public life, only by prejudices and passions not less
+extraordinary. As he advanced up the House, he recognized every one
+on both sides, and spoke or smiled to nearly all. He stopped once or
+twice in his way, and was surrounded by a circle with whom, as I
+could judge from their laughter, he exchanged some pleasantry of the
+hour. When at length he arrived at the seat which had been reserved
+for him, he threw himself upon it with the easy look of comfort of a
+man who had reached home--gave nod to Windham, held out a finger to
+Grey, warmly shook hands with Sheridan; and then, opening his
+well-known blue and buff costume, threw himself back into the bench,
+and laughingly gasped for air.
+
+But another movement of the crowd at the bar announced another
+arrival, and Pitt entered the House. His look and movement were
+equally characteristic with those of his great rival. He looked to
+neither the right nor the left; replied to the salutations of his
+friends by the slightest possible bow; neither spoke nor smiled; but,
+slowly advancing, took his seat in total silence. The Speaker,
+hitherto occupied with some routine business, now read the King's
+speech, and, calling on "Mr Pitt," the minister rose. I have for that
+rising but one description--the one which filled my memory at the
+moment, from the noblest poet of the world.
+
+          "Deep on his front engraven,
+  Deliberation sat, and public care.
+                  Sage he stood,
+  With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
+  The weight of mightiest monarchies. His look
+  Drew audience and attention, still as night,
+  Or summer's noontide air."
+
+
+
+
+THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+
+The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that ever
+occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a metropolis of two
+millions of souls, the head of an empire of two hundred millions. The
+recollection runs us out of breath. Every hour was a new summons to a
+new _fête_, a new fantasy, or a new exhibition of the handsomest man
+of the forty-two millions of Russia proper. The toilettes of the
+whole _beau monde_ were in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and
+from dewy eve to waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by
+which the world was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a _dejeuner à
+la fourchette_, by which it was surprised into _dining_ at three,
+(_more majorum;_) an opera, by which those whose hour for going out
+is eleven, were forced into their carriages at nine; a concert at
+Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper at Buckingham
+palace;--all were among those brilliant perversions of the habits of
+high life which make the week one brilliant tumult; but which never
+could have been revolutionized but by an emperor in the flower of his
+age. Wherever he moved, he was followed by a host of the fair and
+fashionable. The showy equipages of the nobility were in perpetual
+motion. The parks were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The
+streets were a levy _en masse_ of the peerage. The opera-house was a
+gilded "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
+scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of either,
+gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope; and
+shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into houses
+which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of princes, had
+the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House was in a state of
+siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards, cavalcades, musterings
+of the multitude, and thundering of brass bands, seemed to be the
+focus of a national revolution. But it was within the palace that the
+grand display existed. The gilt candelabra, the gold plate, the maids
+of honour, all fresh as tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all
+Junos and Minervas, all jewelled, and none under forty-five,
+enraptured the mortal eye, to a degree unrivalled in the
+recollections of the oldest courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of
+queenly hospitality.
+
+But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet said,
+
+  "Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,
+  That longs to launch into a nobler strain."
+
+We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.
+
+During this week, but one question was asked by the universal world
+of St James's--"What was the cause of the Czar's coming?"
+
+Every one answered in his own style. The tourists--a race who cannot
+live without rambling through the same continental roads, which they
+libel for their roughness every year; the same hotels, which they
+libel for their discomforts; and the same _table-d'hotes_, which they
+libel as the perfection of bad cookery, and barefaced
+_chicane_--pronounced that the love of travel was the imperial
+impulse. The politicians of the clubs--who, having nothing to do for
+themselves, manage the affairs of all nations, and can discover high
+treason in the manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
+waltz--were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to construct an
+European league against the marriage of little Queen Isabella, or to
+beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities of Morocco. With the
+fashionable world, the decision was, that he had come to see Ascot
+races, and the Duke of Devonshire's gardens, before the sun withered,
+or St Swithin washed them away. The John Bull world--as wise at least
+as any of their betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide
+the happiest period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill
+the finest spot in creation--were convinced that his Majesty's visit
+was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
+escape from the troubles of royalty and the heaviness of home, and
+take a week's ramble among the oddities of England. "Who shall
+decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps the nearest way
+of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons together, and try
+how far they may be made to agree. What can be more probable than
+that the fineness of the finest season within memory, the occurrence
+of a moment of leisure in the life of a monarch ruling a fifth of the
+habitable globe, roused the curiosity of an intelligent mind,
+excited, like that of his great ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the
+national improvements of the great country of engineering,
+shipbuilding, and tunnelling; perhaps with Ascot races--the most
+showy exhibition of the most beautiful horses in the world--to wind
+up the display, might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active
+spirit, to gallop across Europe, and give seven brief days to
+England!
+
+An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers presumed to
+be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid journey has had
+for its distinct purpose the expression of the Imperial scorn for the
+miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of the pamphlet on the French
+navy; which has excited so much contempt in England, and so much
+boasting in France, and so much surprise and ridicule every where
+else in Europe. Nothing could be more in consonance with a manly
+character, than to show how little it shared the conceptions of a
+coxcomb; and no more direct mode could be adopted than the visit, to
+prove his willingness to be on the best terms with her government and
+her people. We readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses
+a higher character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an
+advanced spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
+pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
+capable of being conferred by kings.
+
+The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St Petersburg, as
+his stops on the road were only momentary. He reached Berlin from his
+capital with courier's speed, in four days and six hours, on Sunday
+fortnight last. His arrival was so unexpected, that the Russian
+ambassador in Prussia was taken by surprise. He travelled through
+Germany incognito, and on Thursday night, the 30th, arrived at the
+Hague. Next day, at two o'clock, he embarked at Rotterdam for
+England. Here, two steamers had been prepared for his embarkation.
+The steamers anchored for the night at Helvoetsluys. At three in the
+following morning, they continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich
+at ten. The Russian ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared
+to receive him; but on his intimating his particular wish to land in
+private, the customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after
+ten, the Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume,
+covered with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
+minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff, and
+drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was given to
+rest after his fatigue.
+
+On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
+Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
+cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the Emperor
+should remove to the apartments which were provided for him in the
+palace--an offer which was politely declined. At eleven, the Emperor
+attended divine service at the chapel of the Russian embassy in
+Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince Albert arrived to conduct
+him to the palace. He wore a scarlet uniform, with the riband and
+badge of the Garter. The Queen received the Emperor in the grand
+hall. A _dejeuner_ was soon afterwards served. The remainder of the
+day was spent in visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family.
+One visit of peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley
+House, to visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the
+hall, and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
+meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed much
+and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented him highly
+on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of his mansion.
+But even emperors are but men, and the Czar, fatigued with his round
+of driving, on his return to the embassy fell asleep, and slumbered
+till dinner-time, though his Royal Highness of Cambridge and the
+Monarch of Saxony called to visit him. At a quarter to eight o'clock,
+three of the royal carriages arrived, for the purpose of conveying
+the Emperor and his suite to Buckingham palace.
+
+On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove to
+Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for an hour,
+and is _said_ to have purchased L.5000 worth of jewellery. He then
+drove to the Zoological gardens and the Regent's park. In the course
+of the drive, he visited Sir Robert Peel, and the families of some of
+our ambassadors in Russia. At three o'clock, he gave a _dejeuner_ to
+the Duke of Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia.
+Dover Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
+to put down their names in the visiting-book.
+
+At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to escort
+him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his observing its
+arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour, for the purpose
+of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had arrived, and the
+Emperor and his suite drove off through streets crowded with
+horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the Emperor examined
+the electrical telegraph, and, entering the saloon carriage, the
+train set off, and arrived at Slough, a distance of nearly twenty
+miles, in the astonishingly brief time of twenty-five minutes.
+
+At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and conveyed to
+the castle.
+
+The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall hung with
+portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of Europe, to
+paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been sent on a special
+mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir Thomas's conception of
+form and likeness was admirable, but his colouring was cold and thin.
+His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a melancholy contrast with the depth and
+richness of the adjoining "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are
+complete. The banquet was royally splendid. The table was covered
+with gold plate and chased ornaments of remarkable beauty--the whole
+lighted by rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief noblemen of
+the household, were present at the entertainment.
+
+
+TUESDAY.
+
+This was the day of Ascot races. The road from Windsor to the course
+passes through a couple of miles of the rich quiet scenery which
+peculiarly belongs to England. The course itself is a file open
+plain, commanding an extensive view. Some rumours, doubting the visit
+of the royal party, excited a double interest in the first sight of
+the cavalcade, preceded by the royal yeomen, galloping up to the
+stand. They were received with shouts. The Emperor, the King of
+Saxony, and Prince Albert, were in the leading carriage. They were
+attired simply as private gentlemen, in blue frock-coats. The Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and the household, followed in the royal
+carriages. The view of the Stand at this period was striking, and the
+royal and noble personages were repeatedly cheered. An announcement
+was conveyed to the people, that the Emperor had determined to give
+L.500 a-year to the course. The Czarewitch had already given L.200 at
+Newmarket. The announcement was received with renewed cheering. All
+kings are fond of horses; and the monarch of the most numerous and
+active cavalry in the world, may be allowed to be a connoisseur in
+their strength, swiftness, and perseverance, by a superior right. The
+Emperor can call out 80,000 Cossacks at a sound of his trumpet. He
+exhibited an evident interest in the races. The horses were saddled
+before the race in front of the grand stand, and brought up to it
+after the race, for the purpose of weighing the jockeys. He had a
+full opportunity of inspection; but not content with this, when the
+winner of the gold vase, the mare Alice Hawthorn, was brought up to
+the stand, he descended, and examined this beautiful animal with the
+closeness and critical eye of a judge.
+
+On Wednesday, the pageant in which emperors most delight was
+exhibited--a review of the royal guards. There are so few troops in
+England, as the Prince de Joinville has "the happiness" to observe,
+that a review on the continental scale of tens of thousands, is out
+of the question. Yet, to the eye which can discern the excellence of
+soldiership, and the completeness of soldierly equipment, the few in
+line before the Emperor on this day, were enough to gratify the
+intelligent eye which this active monarch turns upon every thing. The
+infantry were--the second battalion of the grenadier guards, the
+second battalion of the Coldstream guards, the second battalion of
+the fusilier guards, and the forty-seventh regiment. The cavalry
+were--two troops of the royal horse guards, (blue,) the first
+regiment of the life guards, and the seventeenth lancers. The
+artillery were--detachments of the royal horse artillery, and the
+field artillery.
+
+A vast multitude from London by the trains, and from the adjoining
+country, formed a line parallel to the troops; and nothing could
+exceed the universal animation and cheering when the Emperor, the
+King of Saxony, and the numerous and glittering staff, entered the
+field, and came down the line.
+
+After the usual salutes, and marching past the centre, where the
+royal carriages had taken their stand, the evolutions began. They
+were few and simple, but of that order which is most effective in the
+field. The formation of the line from the sections; the general
+advance of the line; the halt, and a running fire along the whole
+front; the breaking up of the line into squares; the squares firing,
+then deploying into line, and marching to the rear. The Queen, with
+the royal children, left the ground before the firing began, The
+review was over at half-past two. The appearance of the troops was
+admirable; the manoeuvres were completely successful; and the
+fineness of the day gave all the advantages of sun and landscape to
+this most brilliant spectacle.
+
+But the most characteristic portion of the display consisted in the
+commanding-officers who attended, to give this unusual mark of
+respect to the Emperor.
+
+Wellington, the "conqueror of a hundred fights," rode at the head of
+the grenadier guards, as their colonel Lord Combermere, general of
+the cavalry in the Peninsula, rode at the head of his regiment, the
+first life guards. The Marquis of Anglesey, general of the cavalry at
+Waterloo, rode at the head of his regiment, the royal horse guards.
+Sir George Murray, quartermaster-general in the Peninsula, rode at
+the head of the artillery, as master-general of the ordnance. His
+royal highness the Duke of Cambridge rode at the head of his
+regiment, the Coldstream. His royal highness Prince Albert rode at
+the head of his regiment, the Scotch fusiliers. General Sir William
+Anson rode at the head of his regiment, the forty-seventh.
+Lieutenant-Colonel Quentin rode at the head of the seventeenth
+lancers, the colonel of the regiment, Prince George of Cambridge,
+being in the Ionian Islands. Thus, three field-marshals, and four
+generals, passed in review before the illustrious guests of her
+Majesty. The Emperor expressed himself highly gratified; as every eye
+accustomed to troops must have been, by the admirable precision of
+the movements, and the fine appearance of the men. A striking
+instance of the value of railways for military operations, was
+connected with this review. The forty-seventh regiment, quartered in
+Gosport, was brought to Windsor in the morning, and sent back in the
+evening of the review day; the journey, altogether, was about 140
+miles! Such are the miracles of machinery in our days. This was
+certainly an extraordinary performance, when we recollect that it was
+the conveyance of about 700 men; and shows what might be done in case
+of any demand for the actual services of the troops. But even this
+exploit will be eclipsed within a few days, by the opening of the
+direct line from London to Newcastle, which will convey troops, or
+any thing, 300 miles in twelve hours. The next step will be to reach
+Edinburgh in a day!
+
+The Emperor was observed to pay marked attention to the troops of the
+line, the forty-seventh and the lancers; observing, as it is said,
+"your household troops are noble fellows; but what I wished
+particularly to see, were the troops with which you gained your
+victories in India and China." A speech of this kind was worthy of
+the sagacity of a man who knew where the true strength of a national
+army lies, and who probably, besides, has often had his glance turned
+to the dashing services of our soldiery in Asia. The household troops
+of every nation are select men, and the most showy which the country
+can supply. Thus they are nearly of equal excellence. The infantry of
+ours, it is true, have been always "fighting regiments"--the first in
+every expedition, and distinguished for the gallantry of their
+conduct in every field. The cavalry, though seldomer sent on foreign
+service, exhibited pre-eminent bravery in the Peninsula, and their
+charges at Waterloo were irresistible. But it is of the marching
+regiments that the actual "army" consists, and their character forms
+the character of the national arms.
+
+In the evening the Emperor and the King of Saxony dined with her
+Majesty at Windsor.
+
+
+THURSDAY.
+
+The royal party again drove to the Ascot course, and were received
+with the usual acclamations. The Emperor and King were in plain
+clothes, without decorations of any kind; Prince Albert wore the
+Windsor uniform. The cheers were loud for Wellington.
+
+The gold cup, value three hundred guineas, was the principal prize.
+Eight horses ran, and the cup was won by a colt of Lord Albemarle's.
+His lordship is lucky, at least on the turf. He won the cup at Ascot
+last year.
+
+
+FRIDAY.
+
+The royal party came to London by the railway. The Emperor spent the
+chief part of the day in paying visits, in the Russian ambassador's
+private carriage, to his personal friends--chiefly the families of
+those noblemen who had been ambassadors to Russia.
+
+
+SATURDAY.
+
+The Emperor, the King, and Prince Albert, went to the Duke of
+Devonshire's _dejeuner_ at Chiswick. The Duke's mansion and gardens
+are proverbial as evidences of his taste, magnificence, and princely
+expenditure. All the nobility in London at this period were present.
+The royal party were received with distinguished attention by the
+noble host, and his hospitality was exhibited in a style worthy of
+his guests and himself. While the suite of _salons_ were thrown open
+for the general company, the royal party were received in a _salon_
+which had been decorated as a Turkish tent. Bands of the guards
+played in the gardens, a quadille band played in the ball-room, and
+the fineness of the weather gave the last charm to a _fête_ prepared
+with equal elegance and splendour. We doubt whether Europe can
+exhibit any open air festivity that can compete with a _dejeuner_ at
+Chiswick. The gardens of some of the continental palaces are larger,
+but they want the finish of the English garden. Their statues and
+decorations are sometimes fine; but they want the perfect and
+exquisite neatness which gives an especial charm to English
+horticulture. The verdure of the lawns, the richness and variety of
+the flowers, and the general taste displayed, in even the most minute
+and least ornamental features, render the English garden wholly
+superior, in fitness and in beauty, to the gardens of the continental
+sovereigns and nobility.
+
+In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian opera.
+The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is said that,
+in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box. But whether this
+may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would have been well worth
+paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in the pit. After all, the
+majority of the spectators were disappointed in their principal
+object, the view of the royal party. They all sat far back in the
+box, and thus, to three-fourths of the house, were completely
+invisible. In this privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and
+which it would have been so much wiser to have avoided, the audience
+were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be sung.
+At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it. A general
+response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose, and God save
+the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus broken, it was
+followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm, rich, and bold
+composition. The Emperor was said to have shed tears at the
+unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought back the
+recollection of his country at so vast a distance from home. But if
+these anthems had not been thus accidentally performed, the royal
+party would have lost a much finer display than any thing which they
+could have seen on the stage--the rising of the whole audience in the
+boxes--all the fashionable world in _gala_, in its youth, beauty, and
+ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the stage.
+
+
+SUNDAY.
+
+On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of the
+Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked at
+Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded for
+the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down the river
+under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich; the day was
+serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel as smooth as it
+was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of the sailor with as
+much ease as he had done into those of the soldier. He conversed
+good-humouredly with the officers and men, admired the discipline and
+appearance of the marines, who had been sent as his escort, was
+peculiarly obliging to Lord Hardwicke and Lieutenant Peel, (a son of
+the premier,) and ordered his dinner on deck, that he might enjoy the
+scenery on the banks of the Thames. The medals of some of the marines
+who had served in Syria, attracted his attention, and he enquired
+into the nature of their services. He next expressed a wish to see
+the manual exercise performed, which of course was done; and his
+majesty, taking a musket, went through the Russian manual exercise.
+On his arrival on the Dutch coast, the King of Holland came out to
+meet him in a steamer; and on his landing, the British crew parted
+with him with three cheers. The Imperial munificence was large to a
+degree which we regret; for it would be much more gratifying to the
+national feelings to receive those distinguished strangers, without
+suffering the cravers for subscriptions to intrude themselves into
+their presence.
+
+On the Emperor's landing in Holland, he reviewed a large body of
+Dutch troops, and had intended to proceed up the Rhine, and enjoy the
+landscape of its lovely shores at his leisure. But for him there is
+no leisure; and his project was broken up by the anxious intelligence
+of the illness of one of his daughters by a premature confinement. He
+immediately changed his route, and set off at full speed for St
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13719 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13719 ***</div>
+
+  <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+  <h1>Edinburgh</h1>
+
+  <h1>MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+  <h3>VOL. LVI.</h3>
+
+  <h3>JULY-DECEMBER, 1844.</h3>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+    <a href="images/image001.png"><img width="200" src=
+    "images/image001.png" alt="printers logo" /></a>
+  </div>
+
+  <h4>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINGURGH,</h4>
+
+  <h5>AND</h5>
+
+  <h4>22, PALL MALL, LONDON.</h4>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h4>1844.</h4>
+  <hr class="full" />
+
+  <h3>BLACKWOOD'S</h3>
+
+  <h3>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h3>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h5>No. CCCXLV.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; JULY, 1844.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+  VOL. LVI.</h5>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+  <ul>
+    <li>CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME <a href="#pg001">1</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE HEART OF THE BRUCE <a href="#pg015">15</a></li>
+
+    <li>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY <a href=
+    "#pg020">20</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS <a href="#pg036">36</a></li>
+
+    <li>POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. I. <a href=
+    "#pg054">54</a></li>
+
+    <li>MY FIRST LOVE.&mdash;A SKETCH IN NEW YORK <a href=
+    "#pg069">69</a></li>
+
+    <li>HYDRO-BACCHUS <a href="#pg077">77</a></li>
+
+    <li>MARTIN LUTHER.&mdash;AN ODE <a href="#pg080">80</a></li>
+
+    <li>TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. NO. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR
+    <a href="#pg083">83</a></li>
+
+    <li>PORTUGAL <a href="#pg100">100</a></li>
+
+    <li>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XII. <a href=
+    "#pg114">114</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR <a href="#pg127">127</a>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>EDINBURGH:</h3>
+
+      <h3>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;</h3>
+
+      <h3>AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.</h3>
+
+      <h5>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be
+      addressed.</h5>
+
+      <h5>SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.</h5>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h5>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</h5>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+      <h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>No. CCCXLV. JULY, 1844. VOL. LVI.</h3>
+      <hr class="full" />
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg001" id="pg001">001</a></span>
+
+      <h2>CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME.</h2>
+
+      <p>If the past increase and present amount of crime in the
+      British islands be alone considered, it must afford grounds for
+      the most melancholy forebodings. When we recollect that since the
+      year 1805, that is, during a period of less than forty years, in
+      the course of which population has advanced about sixty-five
+      <i>per cent</i> in Great Britain and Ireland, crime in England
+      has increased seven hundred per cent, in Ireland about eight
+      hundred per cent, and in Scotland above <i>three thousand six
+      hundred per cent</i>;<sup>1</sup> it is difficult to say what is
+      destined to be the ultimate fate of a country in which the
+      progress of wickedness is so much more rapid than the increase of
+      the numbers of the people. Nor is the alarming nature of the
+      prospect diminished by the reflection, that this astonishing
+      increase in human depravity has taken place during a period of
+      unexampled prosperity and unprecedented progress, during which
+      the produce of the national industry had tripled, and the labours
+      of the husbandman kept pace with the vast increase in the
+      population they were to feed&mdash;in which the British empire
+      carried its victorious arms into every quarter of the globe, and
+      colonies sprang up on all sides with unheard-of rapidity&mdash;in
+      which a hundred thousand emigrants came ultimately to migrate
+      every year from the parent state into the new regions conquered
+      by its arms, or discovered by its adventure. If this is the
+      progress of crime during the days of its prosperity, what is it
+      likely to become in those of its decline, when this prodigious
+      vent for superfluous numbers has come to be in a great measure
+      closed, and this unheard-of wealth and prosperity has ceased to
+      gladden the land?</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>1: See No. 343, <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, p. 534, Vol.
+        lv.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>To discover to what causes this extraordinary increase of
+      crime is to be ascribed, we must first examine the localities in
+      which it has principally arisen, and endeavour to ascertain
+      whether it is to be found chiefly in the agricultural, pastoral,
+      or manufacturing districts. We must then consider the condition
+      of the labouring classes, and the means provided to restrain them
+      in the quarters where the progress of crime has been most
+      alarming; and inquire whether the existing evils are
+      insurmountable and unavoidable, or have arisen from the
+      supineness, the errors, and the selfishness of man. The inquiry
+      is one of the most interesting which can occupy the thoughts of
+      the far-seeing and humane; for it involves the temporal and
+      eternal welfare of millions of their fellow-creatures;&mdash;it
+      may well arrest the attention of the selfish, and divert for a
+      few minutes the profligate from their pursuits; for on it depends
+      whether the darling wealth of the former is to be preserved or
+      destroyed, and the exciting enjoyments of the other arrested or
+      suffered to continue.</p>
+
+      <p>To elucidate the first of these questions, we subjoin a table,
+      compiled <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg002" id=
+      "pg002">002</a></span>from the Parliamentary returns, exhibiting
+      the progress of serious crime in the principal counties,
+      agricultural pastoral, and manufacturing, of the empire, during
+      the last fifteen years. We are unwilling to load our pages with
+      figures, and are well aware how distasteful they are to a large
+      class of readers; and if those results were as familiar to others
+      as they are to ourselves, we should be too happy to take them for
+      granted, as they do first principles in the House of Commons, and
+      proceed at once to the means of remedy. But the facts on this
+      subject have been so often misrepresented by party or prejudice,
+      and are in themselves so generally unknown, that it is
+      indispensable to lay a foundation in authentic information before
+      proceeding further in the inquiry. The greatest difficulty which
+      those practically acquainted with the subject experience in such
+      an investigation, is to make people believe their statements,
+      even when founded on the most extensive practical knowledge, or
+      the more accurate statistical inquiry. There is such a prodigious
+      difference between the condition of mankind and the progress of
+      corruption in the agricultural or pastoral, and manufacturing or
+      densely peopled districts, that those accustomed to the former
+      will not believe any statements made regarding the latter. They
+      say they are incredible or exaggerated; that the persons who make
+      them are <i>têtes montées</i>; that their ideas are very vague,
+      and their suggestions utterly unworthy the consideration either
+      of men of sense or of government. With such deplorable illusions
+      does ignorance repel the suggestions of knowledge; theory, of
+      experience; selfishness, of philanthropy; cowardice, of
+      resolution. Thus nothing whatever is done to remedy or avert the
+      existing evils: the districts not endangered unite as one man to
+      resist any attempt to form a general system for the alleviation
+      of misery or diminution of crime in those that are, and the
+      preponderance of the unendangered districts in the legislature
+      gives them the means of effectually doing so. The evils in the
+      endangered districts are such, that it is universally felt they
+      are beyond the reach of local remedy or alleviation. Thus,
+      between the two, nothing whatever is done to arrest, or guard
+      against, the existing or impending evils. Meanwhile, destitution,
+      profligacy, sensuality, and crime, advance with unheard-of
+      rapidity in the manufacturing districts, and the dangerous
+      classes there massed together combine every three or four years
+      in some general strike or alarming insurrection, which, while it
+      lasts, excites universal terror, and is succeeded, when
+      suppressed, by the same deplorable system of supineness,
+      selfishness, and infatuation.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>2: Table showing the number of committments for serious
+        crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the
+        under-mentioned counties of Great Britain;&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p>I.&mdash;PASTORAL.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Cumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">178,038</td>
+
+            <td align="right">151</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,194</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Derby,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">272,217</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 964</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Anglesey,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">50,891</td>
+
+            <td align="right">13</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 3,900</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Carnarvon,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">81,093</td>
+
+            <td align="right">33</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 2,452</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Inverness-shire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,799</td>
+
+            <td align="right">106</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 915</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Selkirkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">7,990</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,990</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Argyleshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,371</td>
+
+            <td align="right">96</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,010</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">785,399</td>
+
+            <td align="right">680</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,155</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>II.-AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Shropshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">239,048</td>
+
+            <td align="right">416</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 574</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Kent,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">548,337</td>
+
+            <td align="right">962</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 569</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Norfolk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">412,664</td>
+
+            <td align="right">666</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 518</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Essex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,979</td>
+
+            <td align="right">647</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 533</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Northumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,278</td>
+
+            <td align="right">226</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,106</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>East Lothian,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,886</td>
+
+            <td align="right">38</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 994</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Perthshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">137,390</td>
+
+            <td align="right">116</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,181</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Aberdeenshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">192,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">92</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 2,086</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,160,969</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,163</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 682</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>III.-MANUFACTURING AND MINING.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Middlesex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,576,636</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,586</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 439</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 418</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 482</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,591,480</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 839</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Glamorganshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">171,188</td>
+
+            <td align="right">189</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 909</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanarkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 832</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrewshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">505</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 306</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Forfarshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">170,520</td>
+
+            <td align="right">333</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 512</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,269,426</td>
+
+            <td align="right">12,067</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 476</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables</i>, 1841, 163; and
+        <i>Census</i> 1841.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The table in the note exhibits the number of commitments for
+      serious offences, with the population of each, of eight
+      counties&mdash;pastoral, agricultural, and manufacturing&mdash;in
+      Great Britain during the year 1841<sup>2</sup>. We take the
+      returns for that year, both because it was the year in which the
+      census was taken, and because the succeeding year, 1842, being
+      the year of the great outbreak in England, and violent strike in
+      Scotland, the figures, both in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg003" id="pg003">003</a></span>that and the succeeding year,
+      may be supposed to exhibit a more unfavourable result for the
+      manufacturing districts than a fair average of years. From this
+      table, it appears that the vast preponderance of crime is to be
+      found in the manufacturing or densely-peopled districts, and that
+      the proportion per cent of commitments which they exhibit, as
+      compared with the population, is generally three, often five
+      times, what appears in the purely agricultural and pastoral
+      districts. The comparative criminality of the agricultural,
+      manufacturing, and pastoral districts is not to be considered as
+      accurately measured by these returns, because so many of the
+      agricultural counties, especially in England, are overspread with
+      towns and manufactories or collieries. Thus Kent and Shropshire
+      are justly classed with agricultural counties, though part of the
+      former is in fact a suburb of London, and of the latter
+      overspread with demoralizing coal mines. The entire want of any
+      police force in some of the greatest manufacturing counties, as
+      Lanarkshire, by permitting nineteen-twentieths of the crime to go
+      unpunished, exhibits a far less amount of criminality than would
+      be brought to light under a more vigilant system. But still there
+      is enough in this table to attract serious and instructive
+      attention. It appears that the average of seven pastoral counties
+      exhibits an average of 1 commitment for serious offences out of
+      1155 souls: of eight counties, partly agricultural and partly
+      manufacturing, of 1 in 682: and of eight manufacturing and
+      mining, of 1 in 476! And the difference between individual
+      counties is still more remarkable, especially when counties
+      purely agricultural or pastoral can be compared with those for
+      the most part manufacturing or mining. Thus the proportion of
+      commitment for serious crime in the pastoral counties of</p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Anglesey, is</td>       <td width="40%" align="right">1 in 3900</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Carnarvon,</td>         <td align="right">1 in 2452</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Selkirk,</td>           <td align="right">1 in 1990</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Cumberland,</td>        <td align="right">1 in 1194</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <p>In the purely agricultural counties of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg004" id="pg004">004</a></span></p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Aberdeenshire, is</td>  <td width="40%" align="right">1 in 2086</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>East-Lothian,</td>      <td align="right">1 in  994</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Northumberland,</td>    <td align="right">1 in 1106</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Perthshire,</td>        <td align="right">1 in 1181</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <p>While in the great manufacturing or mining counties of</p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Lancashire, is</td>     <td width="40%" align="right">1 in  418</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Staffordshire,</td>     <td align="right">1 in  482</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Middlesex,</td>         <td align="right">1 in  439</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Yorkshire,</td>         <td align="right">1 in  839</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Lanarkshire,</td>       <td align="right">1 in  832<sup>3</sup></td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Renfrewshire,</td>      <td align="right">1 in  306</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>3: Lanarkshire has no police except in Glasgow, or its
+        serious crime would be about 1 in 400, or 350.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Further, the statistical returns of crime demonstrate, not
+      only that such is the present state of crime in the densely
+      peopled and manufacturing districts, compared to what obtains in
+      the agricultural or pastoral, but that the tendency of matters is
+      still worse;<sup>4</sup> and that, great as has been <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg005" id="pg005">005</a></span>the increase
+      of population during the last thirty years in the manufacturing
+      and densely peopled districts, the progress of crime has been
+      still greater and more alarming. From the instructive and curious
+      tables below, constructed from the criminal returns given in
+      <i>Porter's Parliamentary Tables</i>, and the returns of the
+      census taken in 1821, 1831, and 1841, it appears, that while in
+      some of the purely pastoral counties, such as Selkirk and
+      Anglesey, crime has remained during the last twenty years nearly
+      stationary, and in some of the purely agricultural, such as Perth
+      and Aberdeen, it has considerably <i>diminished</i>, in the
+      agricultural and mining or manufacturing, such as Shropshire and
+      Kent, it has <i>doubled</i> during the same period: and in the
+      manufacturing and mining districts, such as Lancashire,
+      Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Renfrewshire, more than
+      <i>tripled</i> in the same time. It appears, from the same
+      authentic sources of information, that the progress of crime
+      during the last twenty years has been much more rapid in the
+      manufacturing and densely peopled than in the simply densely
+      peopled districts; for in Middlesex, during the last twenty
+      years, population has advanced about fifty per cent, and serious
+      crime has increased in nearly the same proportion, having swelled
+      from 2480 to 3514: whereas in Lancashire, during the same period,
+      population has advanced also fifty per cent, but serious crime
+      has considerably <i>more than doubled</i>, having risen from 1716
+      to 3987.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>4: Table, showing the comparative population, and committals
+        for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the
+        years 1821, 1831, and 1841.</p>
+
+        <p>I.&mdash;PASTORAL</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Cumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">156,124</td>
+
+            <td align="right">66</td>
+
+            <td align="right">169,681</td>
+
+            <td align="right">74</td>
+
+            <td align="right">178,038</td>
+
+            <td align="right">151</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Derby,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">213,333</td>
+
+            <td align="right">105</td>
+
+            <td align="right">237,070</td>
+
+            <td align="right">202</td>
+
+            <td align="right">272,217</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Anglesey,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">43,325</td>
+
+            <td align="right">10</td>
+
+            <td align="right">48,325</td>
+
+            <td align="right">8</td>
+
+            <td align="right">50,891</td>
+
+            <td align="right">13</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Carnarvon,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">57,358</td>
+
+            <td align="right">12</td>
+
+            <td align="right">66,448</td>
+
+            <td align="right">36</td>
+
+            <td align="right">81,893</td>
+
+            <td align="right">33</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Inverness,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">90,157</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">94,797</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,799</td>
+
+            <td align="right">106</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Selkirk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,637</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,833</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2</td>
+
+            <td align="right">7,990</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Argyle,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,316</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">100,973</td>
+
+            <td align="right">41</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,321</td>
+
+            <td align="right">96</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>II.&mdash;AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Shropshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">266,153</td>
+
+            <td align="right">159</td>
+
+            <td align="right">222,938</td>
+
+            <td align="right">228</td>
+
+            <td align="right">239,048</td>
+
+            <td align="right">416</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Kent,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,916</td>
+
+            <td align="right">492</td>
+
+            <td align="right">479,155</td>
+
+            <td align="right">640</td>
+
+            <td align="right">548,337</td>
+
+            <td align="right">962</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Norfolk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,368</td>
+
+            <td align="right">356</td>
+
+            <td align="right">390,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">549</td>
+
+            <td align="right">412,664</td>
+
+            <td align="right">666</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Essex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">289,424</td>
+
+            <td align="right">303</td>
+
+            <td align="right">317,507</td>
+
+            <td align="right">607</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,979</td>
+
+            <td align="right">647</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Northumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">198,965</td>
+
+            <td align="right">70</td>
+
+            <td align="right">222,912</td>
+
+            <td align="right">108</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,278</td>
+
+            <td align="right">226</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>East Lothian,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,127</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">36,145</td>
+
+            <td align="right">23</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,886</td>
+
+            <td align="right">38</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Perthshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">139,050</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">142,894</td>
+
+            <td align="right">140</td>
+
+            <td align="right">137,390</td>
+
+            <td align="right">116</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Aberdeenshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">177,657</td>
+
+            <td align="right">161</td>
+
+            <td align="right">192,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">92</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>III.&mdash;MANUFACTURING AND MINING.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Middlesex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,144,531</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,480</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,358,330</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,514</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,576,636</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,586</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,052,859</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,716</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,336,854</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,352</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">345,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">374</td>
+
+            <td align="right">410,512</td>
+
+            <td align="right">644</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">801,274</td>
+
+            <td align="right">757</td>
+
+            <td align="right">976,350</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,270</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,154,111</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Glamorgan,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">101,737</td>
+
+            <td align="right">28</td>
+
+            <td align="right">126,612</td>
+
+            <td align="right">132</td>
+
+            <td align="right">171,188</td>
+
+            <td align="right">189</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanark,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">244,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">316,849</td>
+
+            <td align="right">470</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrew,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">112,175</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">133,443</td>
+
+            <td align="right">205</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">505</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Forfar,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">113,430</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">139,666</td>
+
+            <td align="right">124</td>
+
+            <td align="right">l70,520</td>
+
+            <td align="right">333</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables, and Census</i> 1841.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Here, then, we are at length on firm ground in point of fact.
+      Several writers of the liberal school who had a partiality for
+      manufactures, because their chief political supporters were to be
+      found among that class of society, have laboured hard to show
+      that manufactures are noways detrimental either to health or
+      morals; and that the mortality and crime of the manufacturing
+      counties were in no respect greater than those of the pastoral or
+      agricultural districts. The common sense of mankind has uniformly
+      revolted against this absurdity, so completely contrary to what
+      experience every where tells in a language not to be
+      misunderstood; but it has now been completely disproved by the
+      Parliamentary returns. The criminal statistics have exposed this
+      fallacy as completely, in reference to the different degrees of
+      depravity in different parts of the empire, as the
+      registrar-general's returns have, in regard to the different
+      degrees of salubrity in employments, and mortality in rural
+      districts and manufacturing places. It now distinctly appears
+      that crime is greatly more prevalent in proportion to the numbers
+      of the people in densely peopled than thinly inhabited
+      localities, and that it is making far more rapid progress in the
+      former situation than the latter. Statistics are not to be
+      despised when they thus, at once and decisively, disprove errors
+      so assiduously spread, maintained by writers of such
+      respectability, and supported by such large and powerful bodies
+      in the state.</p>
+
+      <p>Nor can it be urged with the slightest degree of foundation,
+      that this superior criminality of the manufacturing and densely
+      peopled districts is owing to a police force being more generally
+      established than in the agricultural or pastoral, and thus crime
+      being more thoroughly detected in the former situation than the
+      latter. For, in the first place, in several of the greatest
+      manufacturing counties, particularly Lanarkshire in Scotland,
+      there is no police at all; and the criminal establishment is just
+      what it was forty years ago. In the next place, a police force is
+      the <i>consequence</i> of a previous vast accumulation or crime,
+      and is never established till the risk to life and insecurity to
+      property had rendered it unbearable. Being always established by
+      the voluntary assessment of the inhabitants, nothing can be more
+      certain than that it never can be called into existence but by
+      such an increase of crime as has rendered it a matter of
+      necessity.</p>
+
+      <p>We are far, however, from having approached the whole truth,
+      if we have merely ascertained, upon authentic evidence, that
+      crime is greatly more prevalent in the manufacturing than the
+      rural districts. That will probably be generally conceded; and
+      the preceding details have been given merely to show the extent
+      of the difference, and the rapid steps which it is taking. It is
+      more material to inquire what are the causes of this superior
+      profligacy <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg006" id=
+      "pg006">006</a></span>of manufacturing to rural districts; and
+      whether it arises unavoidably from the nature of their respective
+      employments, or is in some degree within the reach of human
+      amendment or prevention.</p>
+
+      <p>It is usual for persons who are not practically acquainted
+      with the subject, to represent manufacturing occupations as
+      necessarily and inevitably hurtful to the human mind. The
+      crowding together, it is said, young persons, of different sexes
+      and in great numbers, in the hot atmosphere and damp occupations
+      of factories or mines, is necessarily destructive to morality,
+      and ruinous to regularity of habit. The passions are excited by
+      proximity of situation or indecent exposure; infant labour early
+      emancipates the young from parental control; domestic
+      subordination, the true foundation for social virtue, is
+      destroyed; the young exposed to temptation before they have
+      acquired strength to resist it; and vice spreads the more
+      extensively from the very magnitude of the establishments on
+      which the manufacturing greatness of the country depends. Such
+      views are generally entertained by writers on the social state of
+      the country; and being implicitly adopted by the bulk of the
+      community, the nation has abandoned itself to a sort of despair
+      on the subject, and regarding manufacturing districts as the
+      necessary and unavoidable hotbed of crimes, strives only to
+      prevent the spreading of the contagion into the rural parts of
+      the country.</p>
+
+      <p>There is certain degree of truth in these observations; but
+      they are much exaggerated, and it is not in these causes that the
+      principal sources of the profligacy of the manufacturing
+      districts is to be found.</p>
+
+      <p>The real cause of the demoralization of manufacturing towns is
+      to be found, not in the nature of the employment which the people
+      there receive, so much as in the manner in which they are brought
+      together, the unhappy prevalence of general strikes, and the
+      prodigious multitudes who are cast down by the ordinary
+      vicissitudes of life, or the profligacy of their parents, into a
+      situation of want, wretchedness, and despair.</p>
+
+      <p>Consider how, during the last half century, the people have
+      been brought together in the great manufacturing districts of
+      England and Scotland. So rapid has been the progress of
+      manufacturing industry during that period, that it has altogether
+      out-stripped the powers of population in the districts where it
+      was going forward, and occasioned a prodigious influx of persons
+      from different and distant quarters, who have migrated from their
+      paternal homes, and settled in the manufacturing districts, never
+      to return.<sup>5</sup> Authentic <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg007" id="pg007">007</a></span>evidence proves, that not less
+      than <i>two millions</i> of persons have, in this way, been
+      transferred to the manufacturing counties of the north of England
+      within the last forty years, chiefly from the agricultural
+      counties of the south of that kingdom, or from Ireland. Not less
+      than three hundred and fifty thousand persons have, during the
+      same period, migrated into the two manufacturing counties of
+      Lanark and Renfrew alone, in Scotland, chiefly from the Scotch
+      Highlands, or north of Ireland. No such astonishing migration of
+      the human species in so short a time, and to settle on so small a
+      space, is on record in the whole annals of the world. It is
+      unnecessary to say that the increase is to be ascribed chiefly,
+      if not entirely, to immigration; for it is well known that such
+      is the unhealthiness of manufacturing towns, especially to young
+      children, that, so far from being able to add to their numbers,
+      they are hardly ever able, without extraneous addition, to
+      maintain them.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>5: Table showing the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in
+        the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th>1801</th>
+
+            <th>1821</th>
+
+            <th>1841</th>
+
+            <th>Increase in forty years.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">672,731</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,052,859</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">994,323</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire, W.R.,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">565,282</td>
+
+            <td align="right">801,274</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,154,101</td>
+
+            <td align="right">588,819</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">233,153</td>
+
+            <td align="right">343,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277,351</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Nottingham,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">140,350</td>
+
+            <td align="right">186,873</td>
+
+            <td align="right">249,910</td>
+
+            <td align="right">109,560</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Warwick,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">208,190</td>
+
+            <td align="right">274,322</td>
+
+            <td align="right">401,715</td>
+
+            <td align="right">193,155</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Gloucester,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,809</td>
+
+            <td align="right">335,843</td>
+
+            <td align="right">431,383</td>
+
+            <td align="right">180,574</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>&nbsp;</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,070,515</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,995,066</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4,412,667</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,343,782</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>&nbsp;</td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanark,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">146,699</td>
+
+            <td align="right">244,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">434,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">288,273</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrew,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">78,056</td>
+
+            <td align="right">112,175</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">77,016</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td> </td>
+
+            <td align="right">224,755</td>
+
+            <td align="right">356,562</td>
+
+            <td align="right">590,044</td>
+
+            <td align="right">365,289</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;<i>Census of</i> 1841. Preface, p. 8 and 9.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Various causes have combined to produce demoralization among
+      the vast crowd, thus suddenly attracted, by the alluring prospect
+      of high wages and steady employment, from the rural to the
+      manufacturing districts. In the first place, they acquired wealth
+      before they had learned how to use it, and that is, perhaps, the
+      most general cause of the rapid degeneracy of mankind. High wages
+      flowed in upon them before they had acquired the artificial wants
+      in the gratification of which they could be innocently spent.
+      Thence the general recourse to the grosser and sensual
+      enjoyments, which are powerful alike on the savage and the sage.
+      Men who, in the wilds of Ireland or the mountains of Scotland,
+      were making three or four shillings a-week, or in Sussex ten,
+      suddenly found themselves, as cotton-spinners, iron-moulders,
+      colliers, or mechanics, in possession of from twenty to thirty
+      shillings. Meanwhile, their habits and inclinations had undergone
+      scarce any alteration; they had no taste for comfort in dress,
+      lodging, or furniture; and as to laying by money, the thing, of
+      course, was not for a moment thought of. Thus, this vast addition
+      to their incomes was spent almost exclusively on eating and
+      drinking. The extent to which gross sensual enjoyment was thus
+      spread among these first settlers in the regions of commercial
+      opulence, is incredible. It is an ascertained fact, that above a
+      million a-year is annually spent in Glasgow on ardent
+      spirits;<sup>6</sup> and it has recently been asserted by a
+      respectable and intelligent operative in Manchester, that, in
+      that city, 750,000 <i>more</i> is annually spent on beer and
+      spirits, than on the purchase of provisions. Is it surprising
+      that a large part of the progeny of a generation which has
+      embraced such habits, should be sunk in sensuality and
+      profligacy, and afford a never-failing supply for the prisons and
+      transport ships? It is the counterpart of the sudden corruption
+      which invariably overtakes northern conquerors, when they settle
+      in the regions of southern opulence.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>6: ALISON <i>on Population</i>, ii. Appendix A.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Another powerful cause which promotes the corruption of men,
+      when thus suddenly congregated together from different quarters
+      in the manufacturing districts, is, that the restraints of
+      character, relationship, and vicinity are, in a great measure,
+      lost in the crowd. Every body knows what powerful influence
+      public opinion, or the opinion of their relations, friends, and
+      acquaintances, exercises on all men in their native seats, or
+      when living for any length of time in one situation. It forms, in
+      fact, next to religion, the most powerful restraint on vice, and
+      excitement to virtue, that exists in the world. But when several
+      hundred thousand of the working classes are suddenly huddled
+      together in densely peopled localities, this invaluable check is
+      wholly lost. Nay, what is worse, it is rolled over to the other
+      side; and forms an additional incentive to licentiousness. The
+      poor in these situations have no neighbours who care for them, or
+      even know their names; but they are surrounded by multitudes who
+      are willing to accompany them in the career of sensuality. They
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg008" id=
+      "pg008">008</a></span>are unknown alike to each other, and to any
+      persons of respectability or property in their vicinity.
+      Philanthropy seeks in vain for virtue amidst thousands and tens
+      of thousands of unknown names; charity itself is repelled by the
+      hopelessness of all attempts to relieve the stupendous mass of
+      destitution which follows in the train of such enormous
+      accumulation of numbers. Every individual or voluntary effort is
+      overlooked amidst the prodigious multitude, as it was in the
+      Moscow campaign of Napoleon. Thus the most powerful restraints on
+      human conduct&mdash;character, relations, neighbourhood&mdash;are
+      lost upon mankind at the very time when their salutary influence
+      is most required to enable them to withstand the increasing
+      temptations arising from density of numbers and a vast increase
+      of wages. Multitudes remove responsibility without weakening
+      passion. Isolation ensures concealment without adding to
+      resolution. This is the true cause of the more rapid
+      deterioration of the character of the poor than the rich, when
+      placed in such dense localities. The latter have a neighbourhood
+      to watch them, because their station renders them
+      conspicuous&mdash;the former have none. Witness the rapid and
+      general corruption of the higher ranks, when they get away from
+      such restraint, amidst the profligacy of New South Wales.</p>
+
+      <p>In the foremost rank of the causes which demoralize the urban
+      and mining population, we must place the frequency of those
+      strikes which unhappily have now become so common as to be of
+      more frequent occurrence than a wet season, even in our humid
+      climate. During the last twenty years there have been six great
+      strikes: viz. in 1826, 1828, 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1844. All of
+      these have kept multitudes of the labouring poor idle for months
+      together. Incalculable is the demoralization thus produced upon
+      the great mass of the working classes. We speak not of the actual
+      increase of commitments during the continuance of a great strike,
+      though that increase is so considerable that it in general
+      augments them in a single year from thirty to fifty per
+      cent.<sup>7</sup> We allude to the far more general and lasting
+      causes of demoralization which arise from the arraying of one
+      portion of the community in fierce hostility against another, the
+      wretchedness which is spread among multitudes by months of
+      compulsory idleness, and the not less ruinous effect of depriving
+      them of <i>occupation</i> during such protracted periods. When we
+      recollect that such is the vehemence of party feeling produced by
+      these disastrous combinations, that it so far obliterates all
+      sense of right and wrong as generally to make their members
+      countenance contumely and insult, sometimes even robbery,
+      fire-raising, and murder, committed on innocent persons who are
+      only striving to earn an honest livelihood for themselves by hard
+      labour, but in opposition to the strike; and that it induces
+      twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit obedience to
+      the commands of an unknown committee, who have power to force
+      them to do what the Sultan Mahmoud, or the Committee of Public
+      Safety, never ventured to attempt&mdash;to abstain from labour,
+      and endure want and starvation for months together, for an object
+      of which they often in secret disapprove&mdash;it may be
+      conceived how wide-spread and fatal is the confusion of moral
+      principle, and habits of idleness and insubordination thus
+      produced. Their effects invariably appear for a course of years
+      afterwards, in the increased roll of criminal commitments, and
+      the number of young persons of both sexes, who, loosened by these
+      protracted periods <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg009" id=
+      "pg009">009</a></span>of idleness, never afterwards regain habits
+      of regularity and industry. Nor is the evil lessened by the blind
+      infatuation with which it is uniformly regarded by the other
+      classes of the community, and the obstinate resistance they make
+      to all measures calculated to arrest the violence of these
+      combinations, in consequence of the expense with which they would
+      probably be attended&mdash;a supineness which, by leaving the
+      coast constantly clear to the terrors of such associations, and
+      promising impunity to their crimes, operates as a continual
+      bounty on their recurrence.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>7: Commitments:&mdash;</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary="commitments to prison.">
+          <tr>
+            <th></th>
+
+            <th>Lanarkshire.</th>
+
+            <th>Lancashire.</th>
+
+            <th>Staffordshire.</th>
+
+            <th>Yorkshire.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1836</td>
+
+            <td align="right">451</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,265</td>
+
+            <td align="right">686</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,252</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1837<sup>8</sup></td>
+
+            <td align="right">565</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,809</td>
+
+            <td align="right">909</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,376</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1841</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1842<sup>9</sup></td>
+
+            <td align="right">696</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4,497</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,485</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,598</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables</i>, xi. 162.&mdash;<i>Parl. Paper
+        of Crime</i>, 1843, p. 53.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>8: Strike.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>9: Strike.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Infant labour, unhappily now so frequent in all kinds of
+      factories, and the great prevalence of female workers, is another
+      evil of a very serious kind in the manufacturing districts. We do
+      not propose to enter into the question, recently so fiercely
+      agitated in the legislature, as to the practicability of
+      substituting a compulsory ten-hours' bill for the twelve hours'
+      at present in operation. Anxious to avoid all topics on which
+      there is a difference of opinion among able and patriotic men, we
+      merely state this prevalence and precocity of juvenile labour in
+      the manufacturing and mining districts as <i>a fact</i> which all
+      must deplore, and which is attended with the most unhappy effects
+      on the rising generation. The great majority, probably
+      nine-tenths, of all the workers in cotton-mills or printfields,
+      are females. We have heard much of the profligacy and
+      licentiousness which pervade such establishments; but though that
+      may be too true in some cases, it is far from being universal, or
+      even general; and there are numerous instances of female virtue
+      being as jealously guarded and effectually preserved in such
+      establishments, as in the most secluded rural districts. The real
+      evils&mdash;and they follow universally from such employment of
+      juvenile females in great numbers in laborious but lucrative
+      employment&mdash;are the emancipation of the young from parental
+      control, the temptation held out to idleness in the parents from
+      the possibility of living on their children, and the
+      disqualifying the girls for performing all the domestic duties of
+      wives and mothers in after life.</p>
+
+      <p>These evils are real, general, and of ruinous consequence.
+      When children&mdash;from the age of nine or ten in some
+      establishments, of thirteen or fourteen in all&mdash;are able to
+      earn wages varying from 3s. 6d. to 6s. a-week, they soon become
+      in practice independent of parental control. The strongest of all
+      securities for filial obedience&mdash;a sense of
+      dependence&mdash;is destroyed. The children assert the right of
+      self-government, because they bear the burden of
+      self-maintenance. Nature, in the ordinary case, has effectually
+      guarded against this premature and fatal emancipation of the
+      young, by the protracted period of weakness during childhood and
+      adolescence, which precludes the possibility of serious labour
+      being undertaken before the age when a certain degree of mental
+      firmness has been acquired. But the steam-engine, amidst its
+      other marvels, has entirely destroyed, within the sphere of its
+      influence, this happy and necessary exemption of infancy from
+      labour. Steam is the moving power; it exerts the strength; the
+      human machine is required only to lift a web periodically, or
+      damp a roller, or twirl a film round the finger, to which the
+      hands of infancy are as adequate as those of mature age. Hence
+      the general employment of children, and especially girls, in such
+      employments. They are equally serviceable as men or women, and
+      they are more docile, cheaper, and less given to strikes. But as
+      these children earn their own subsistence, they soon become
+      rebellious to parental authority, and exercise the freedom of
+      middle life as soon as they feel its passions, and before they
+      have acquired its self-control.</p>
+
+      <p>If the effect of such premature emancipation of the young is
+      hurtful to them, it is, if possible, still more pernicious to
+      their parents. Labour is generally irksome to man; it is seldom
+      persevered in after the period of its necessity has passed. When
+      parents find that, by sending three or four children out to the
+      mills or into the mines, they can get eighteen or twenty
+      shillings a-week without doing any thing themselves, they soon
+      come to abridge the duration and cost of education, in order to
+      accelerate the arrival of the happy period when they <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg010" id="pg010">010</a></span>may live on
+      their offspring, not their offspring on them. Thus the purest and
+      best affections of the heart are obliterated on the very
+      threshold of life. That best school of disinterestedness and
+      virtue, the <i>domestic hearth</i>, where generosity and
+      self-control are called forth in the parents, and gratitude and
+      affection in the children, from the very circumstance of the
+      dependence of the latter on the former, is destroyed. It is worse
+      than destroyed, it is made the parent of wickedness: it exists,
+      but it exists only to nourish the selfish and debasing passions.
+      Children come to be looked on, not as objects of affection, but
+      as instruments of gain; not as forming the first duty of life and
+      calling forth its highest energies, but as affording the first
+      means of relaxing from labour, and permitting a relapse into
+      indolence and sensuality. The children are, practically speaking,
+      sold for slaves, and&mdash;oh! unutterable horror!&mdash;<i>the
+      sellers are their own parents</i>! Unbounded is the
+      demoralization produced by this monstrous perversion of the first
+      principles of nature. Thence it is that it is generally found,
+      that all the beneficent provisions of the legislature for the
+      protection of infant labour are so generally evaded, as to render
+      it doubtful whether any law, how stringent soever, could protect
+      them. The reason is apparent. The parents of the children are the
+      chief violators of the law; for the sake of profit they send them
+      out, the instant they can work, to the mills or the mines. Those
+      whom nature has made their protectors, have become their
+      oppressors. The thirst for idleness, intoxication, or sensuality,
+      has turned the strongest of the generous, into the most malignant
+      of the selfish passions.</p>
+
+      <p>The habits acquired by such precocious employment of young
+      women, are not less destructive of their ultimate utility and
+      respectability in life. Habituated from their earliest years to
+      one undeviating mechanical employment, they acquire great skill
+      in it, but grow up utterly ignorant of any thing else. We speak
+      not of ignorance of reading or writing, but of ignorance in still
+      more momentous particulars, with reference to their usefulness in
+      life as wives and mothers. They can neither bake nor brew, wash
+      nor iron, sew nor knit. The finest London lady is not more
+      utterly inefficient than they are, for any other object but the
+      one mechanical occupation to which they have been habituated.
+      They can neither darn a stocking nor sew on a button. As to
+      making porridge or washing a handkerchief, the thing is out of
+      the question. Their food is cooked out of doors by persons who
+      provide the lodging-houses in which they dwell&mdash;they are
+      clothed from head to foot, like fine ladies, by milliners and
+      dressmakers. This is not the result of fashion, caprice, or
+      indolence, but of the entire concentration of their faculties,
+      mental and corporeal, from their earliest years, in one limited
+      mechanical object. They are unfit to be any man's
+      wife&mdash;still more unfit to be any child's mother. We hear
+      little of this from philanthropists or education-mongers; but it
+      is, nevertheless, not the least, because the most generally
+      diffused, evil connected with our manufacturing industry.</p>
+
+      <p>But by far the greatest cause of the mass of crime of the
+      manufacturing and mining districts of the country, is to be found
+      in the prodigious number of persons, especially in infancy, who
+      are reduced to a state of destitution, and precipitated into the
+      very lowest stations of life, in consequence of the numerous ills
+      to which all flesh&mdash;but especially all flesh in
+      manufacturing communities&mdash;is heir. Our limits preclude the
+      possibility of entering into all the branches of this immense
+      subject; we shall content ourselves, therefore, with referring to
+      one, which seems of itself perfectly sufficient to explain the
+      increase of crime, which at first sight appears so alarming. This
+      is the immense proportion of <i>destitute widows with
+      families</i>, who in such circumstances find themselves immovably
+      fixed in places where they can neither bring up their children
+      decently, nor get away to other and less peopled localities.</p>
+
+      <p>From the admirable statistical returns of the condition of the
+      labouring poor in France, prepared for the <i>Bureau de
+      l'Intérieure</i>, it appears that the number of widows in that
+      country amounts to the enormous number of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg011" id=
+      "pg011">011</a></span>1,738,000.<sup>10</sup> This, out of a
+      population now of about 34,000,000, is as nearly as possible
+      <i>one in twenty</i> of the entire population! Population is
+      advancing much more rapidly in Great Britain than France; for in
+      the former country it is doubling in about 60 years, in the
+      latter in 106. It is certain, therefore, that the proportion of
+      widows must be greater in this country than in France, especially
+      in the manufacturing districts, where early marriages, from the
+      ready employment for young children, are so frequent; and early
+      deaths, from the unhealthiness of employment or contagious
+      disorders, are so common. But call the proportion the same: let
+      it be taken at a twentieth part of the existing population. At
+      this rate, the two millions of strangers who, during the last
+      forty years, have been thrown into the four northern counties of
+      Lancaster, York, Stafford, and Warwick, must contain at this
+      moment <i>a hundred thousand widows</i>. The usual average of a
+      family is two and a half children&mdash;call it two only. There
+      will thus be found to be 200,000 children belonging to these
+      100,000 widows. It is hardly necessary to say, that the great
+      majority, probably four-fifths of this immense body, must be in a
+      state of destitution. We know in what state the fatherless and
+      widows are in their affliction, and who has commanded us to visit
+      them. On the most moderate calculation, 250,000, or an eighth of
+      the whole population, must be in a state of poverty and
+      privation. And in Scotland, where, during the same period of
+      forty years, 350,000 strangers have been suddenly huddled
+      together on the banks of the Clyde, the proportion may be
+      presumed to be the same; or, in other words, <i>thirty
+      thousand</i> widows and orphans are constantly there in a state
+      deserving of pity, and requiring support, hardly any of whom
+      receive more from the parish funds than <i>a shilling a-week</i>,
+      even for the maintenance of a whole family.</p>
+
+      <p>The proportion of widows and orphans to the entire population,
+      though without doubt in some degree aggravated by the early
+      marriages and unhealthy employments incident to manufacturing
+      districts, may be supposed to be not materially different in one
+      age, or part of the country, from another. The widow and the
+      orphan, as well as the poor, will be always with us; but the
+      peculiar circumstance which renders their condition so deplorable
+      in the dense and suddenly peopled manufacturing districts is,
+      that the poor have been brought together in such prodigious
+      numbers that all the ordinary means of providing for the relief
+      of such casualties fails; while the causes of mortality among
+      them are periodically so fearful, as to produce a vast and sudden
+      increase of the most destitute classes altogether outstripping
+      all possible means of local or voluntary relief. During the late
+      typhus fever in Glasgow, in the years 1836 and 1837, above 30,000
+      of the poor took the epidemic, of whom 3300 died.<sup>11</sup> In
+      the first eight months of 1843 alone, 32,000 persons in Glasgow
+      were seized with fever.<sup>12</sup> Out of 1000 families, at a
+      subsequent period, visited by the police, in conjunction with the
+      visitors for the distribution of the great fund raised by
+      subscription in 1841, 680 were found to be widows, who, with
+      their families, amounted to above 2000 persons all in the most
+      abject state of wretchedness and want.<sup>13</sup> On so vast a
+      scale do the causes of human destruction <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg012" id="pg012">012</a></span>and
+      demoralization act, when men are torn up from their native seats
+      by the irresistible magnet of commercial wealth, and congregated
+      together in masses, resembling rather the armies of Timour and
+      Napoleon than any thing else ever witnessed in the transactions
+      of men.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>10: <i>Statistique de la France, publiée par le
+        Gouvernement</i>, viii. 371-4. A most splendid work.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>11: Fever patients, Glasgow, 1836, 37.</p>
+
+        <table width="50%" summary=
+        "Deaths among the poor from typhus.">
+          <tr>
+            <th width="40%"></th>
+
+            <th width="30%">Fever patients.</th>
+
+            <th width="30%">Died.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1836,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">10,092</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1187</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1837,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">21,800</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2180</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td> </td>
+
+            <td align="right">31,892</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3367</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;COWAN'S <i>Vital Statistics of Glasgow</i>, 1388, p
+        8, the work of a most able and meritorious medical gentleman
+        now no more.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>12: Dr Alison on the Epidemic of 1843, p. 67.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>13: Captain Millar's Report, 1841, p. 8.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Here, then, is the great source of demoralization,
+      destitution, and crime in the manufacturing districts. It arises
+      from the sudden congregation of human beings in such fearful
+      multitudes together, that all the usual alleviations of human
+      suffering, or modes of providing for human indigence, entirely
+      fail. We wonder at the rapid increase of crime in the
+      manufacturing districts, forgetting that a squalid mass of two or
+      three hundred thousand human beings are constantly precipitated
+      to the bottom of society in a few counties, in such circumstances
+      of destitution that recklessness and crime arise naturally, it
+      may almost be said unavoidably, amongst them. And it is in the
+      midst of such gigantic causes of evil&mdash;of causes arising
+      from the extraordinary and unparalleled influx of mankind into
+      the manufacturing districts during the last forty years, which
+      can bear a comparison to nothing but the collection of the host
+      with which Napoleon invaded Russia, or Timour and Genghis Khan
+      desolated Asia&mdash;that we are gravely told that it is to be
+      arrested by education and moral training; by infant schools and
+      shortened hours of labour; by multiplication of ministers and
+      solitary imprisonment! All these are very good things; each in
+      its way is calculated to do a certain amount of good; and their
+      united action upon the whole will doubtless, in process of time,
+      produce some impression upon the aspect of society, even in the
+      densely peopled manufacturing districts. As to their producing
+      any immediate effect, or in any sensible degree arresting the
+      prodigious amount of misery, destitution, and crime which
+      pervades them, you might as well have tried, by the schoolmaster,
+      to arrest the horrors of the Moscow retreat.</p>
+
+      <p>That the causes which have now been mentioned are the true
+      sources of the rapid progress of crime and general demoralization
+      of our manufacturing and mining districts, must be evident to all
+      from this circumstance, well known to all who are practically
+      conversant with the subject, but to a great degree unattended to
+      by the majority of men, and that is,&mdash;that the prodigious
+      stream of depravity and corruption which prevails, is far from
+      being equally and generally diffused through society, even in the
+      densely peopled districts where it is most alarming, but is in a
+      great degree confined to the <i>very lowest class</i>. It is from
+      that lowest class that nine-tenths of the crime, and nearly all
+      the professional crime, which is felt as so great an evil in
+      society, flows. Doubtless in all classes there are some wicked,
+      many selfish and inhumane men; and a beneficent Deity, in the
+      final allotment of rewards and punishments, will take largely
+      into account both the opportunities of doing well which the
+      better classes have abused, and the almost invincible causes
+      which so often chain, as it were, the destitute to recklessness
+      and crime. But still, in examining the classes of society on
+      which the greater part of the crime comes, it will be found that
+      at least three-fourths, probably nine-tenths, comes from the very
+      lowest and the most destitute. It is incorrect to say crime is
+      common among them; in truth, among the young at least, a tendency
+      to it is there all but universal. If we examine who it is that
+      compose this dismal substratum, this hideous <i>black band of
+      society</i>, we shall find that it is not made up of any one
+      class more than another&mdash;not of factory workers more than
+      labourers, carters, or miners&mdash;but is formed by an aggregate
+      of the most unfortunate or improvident of <i>all classes</i>,
+      who, variously struck down from better ways by disease, vice, or
+      sensuality, are now of necessity huddled together by tens of
+      thousands in the dens of poverty, and held by the firm bond of
+      necessity in the precincts of contagion and crime. Society in
+      such circumstances resembles the successive bands of which the
+      imagination of Dante has framed the infernal regions, which
+      contain one concentric circle of horrors and punishments within
+      another, until, when you arrive at the bottom, you find one
+      uniform mass of crime, blasphemy and suffering. <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg013" id="pg013">013</a></span> We are
+      persuaded there is no person practically acquainted with the
+      causes of immorality and crime in the manufacturing districts,
+      who will not admit that these are the true ones; and that the
+      others, about which so much is said by theorists and
+      philanthropists, though not without influence, are nevertheless
+      trifling in the balance. And what we particularly call the public
+      attention to is this&mdash;Suppose all the remedies which
+      theoretical writers or practical legislators have put forth and
+      recommended, as singly adequate to remove the evils of the
+      manufacturing classes, were to be in <i>united</i> operation,
+      they would still leave these gigantic causes of evil untouched.
+      Let Lord Ashley obtain from a reluctant legislature his
+      ten-hours' bill, and Dr Chalmers have a clergyman established for
+      every 700 inhabitants; let church extension be pushed till there
+      is a chapel in every village, and education till there is a
+      school in every street; let the separate system be universal in
+      prisons, and every criminal be entirely secluded from vicious
+      contamination; still the great fountains of evil will remain
+      unclosed; still 300,000 widows and orphans will exist in a few
+      counties of England amidst a newly collected and strange
+      population, steeped in misery themselves, and of necessity
+      breeding up their children in habits of destitution and
+      depravity; still the poor will be deprived, from the suddenness
+      of their collection, and the density of their numbers, of any
+      effective control, either from private character or the opinion
+      of neighbourhood; still individual passion will be inflamed, and
+      individual responsibility lost amidst multitudes; still strikes
+      will spread their compulsory idleness amidst tens of thousands,
+      and periodically array the whole working classes under the
+      banners of sedition, despotism, and murder; still precocious
+      female labour will at once tempt parents into idleness in middle
+      life, and disqualify children, in youth, for household or
+      domestic duties. We wish well to the philanthropists: we are far
+      from undervaluing either the importance or the utility of their
+      labours; but as we have hitherto seen no diminution of crime
+      whatever from their efforts, so we anticipate a very slow and
+      almost imperceptible improvement in society from their
+      exertions.</p>
+
+      <p>Strong, and in many respects just, pictures of the state of
+      the working classes in the manufacturing districts, have been
+      lately put forth, and the <i>Perils of the Nation</i> have, with
+      reason, been thought to be seriously increased by them. Those
+      writers, however, how observant and benevolent soever, give a
+      partial, and in many respects fallacious view, of the
+      <i>general</i> aspect of society. After reading their doleful
+      accounts of the general wretchedness, profligacy, and
+      licentiousness of the working classes, the stranger is
+      astonished, on travelling through England, to behold green fields
+      and smiling cottages on all sides; to see in every village signs
+      of increasing comfort, in every town marks of augmented wealth,
+      and the aspect of poverty almost banished from the land. Nay,
+      what is still more gratifying, the returns of the sanatary
+      condition of the whole population, though still exhibiting a
+      painful difference between the health and chances of life in the
+      rural and manufacturing districts, present unequivocal proof of a
+      general amelioration of the chances of life, and, consequently,
+      of the general wellbeing of the whole community.</p>
+
+      <p>How are these opposite statements and appearances to be
+      reconciled? Both are true&mdash;the reconciliation is easy. The
+      misery, recklessness, and vice exist chiefly in one
+      class&mdash;the industry, sobriety, and comfort in another. Each
+      observer tells truly what he sees in his own circle of attention;
+      he does not tell what, nevertheless, exists, and exercises a
+      powerful influence on society, of the good which exists in the
+      other classes. If the evils detailed in Lord Ashley's speeches,
+      and painted with so much force in the <i>Perils of the
+      Nation</i>, were universal, or even general, society could not
+      hold together for a week. But though these evils are great,
+      sometimes overwhelming in particular districts, they are far from
+      being general. Nothing effectual has yet been done to arrest them
+      in the localities or communities where they arise; but they do
+      not spread much beyond them. The person engaged in the
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg014" id=
+      "pg014">014</a></span>factories are stated by Lord Ashley to be
+      between four and five hundred thousand: the population of the
+      British islands is above 27,000,000. It is in the steadiness,
+      industry, and good conduct of a large proportion of this immense
+      majority that the security is to be found. Observe that
+      industrious and well-doing majority; you would suppose there is
+      no danger:&mdash;observe the profligate and squalid minority; you
+      would suppose there is no hope.</p>
+
+      <p>At present about 60,000 persons are annually committed, in the
+      British islands, for serious offences<sup>14</sup> worthy of
+      deliberate trial, and above double that number for summary or
+      police offences. A hundred and eighty thousand persons annually
+      fall under the lash of the criminal law, and are committed for
+      longer or shorter periods to places of confinement for
+      punishment. The number is prodigious&mdash;it is frightful. Yet
+      it is in all only about 1 in 120 of the population; and from the
+      great number who are repeatedly committed during the same year,
+      the individuals punished are not 1 in 200. Such as they are, it
+      may safely be affirmed that four-fifths of this 180,000 comes out
+      of two or three millions of the community. We are quite sure that
+      150,000 come from 3,000,000 of the lowest and most squalid of the
+      empire, and not 30,000 from the remaining 24,000,000 who live in
+      comparative comfort. This consideration is fitted both to
+      encourage hope and awaken shame&mdash;hope, as showing from how
+      small a class in society the greater part of the crime comes, and
+      to how limited a sphere the remedies require to be applied;
+      shame, as demonstrating how disgraceful has been the apathy,
+      selfishness, and supineness in the other more numerous and better
+      classes, around whom the evil has arisen, but who seldom
+      interfere, except to RESIST all measures calculated for its
+      removal.</p>
+
+      <p>It is to this subject&mdash;the ease with which the
+      extraordinary and unprecedented increase of crime in the empire
+      might be arrested by proper means and the total inefficiency of
+      all the remedies hitherto attempted, from the want of practical
+      knowledge on the part of those at the head of affairs, and an
+      entirely false view of human nature in society generally, that we
+      shall direct the attention of our readers in a future Number.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>14: Viz., in round numbers&mdash;</p>
+        <pre>
+  England,    30,000
+  Ireland,    26,000
+  Scotland,    4,000
+              60,000
+</pre>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg015" id=
+      "pg015">015</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>A BALLAD.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">It was upon an April morn</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">While yet the frost lay hoar,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We heard Lord James's bugle-horn</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sound by the rocky shore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">Then down we went, a hundred knights,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">All in our dark array,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And flung our armour in the ships</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That rode within the bay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We spoke not as the shore grew less,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But gazed in silence back,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where the long billows swept away</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The foam behind our track.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And aye the purple hues decay'd</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Upon the fading hill,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And but one heart in all that ship</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Was tranquil, cold, and still.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The good Earl Douglas walk'd the deck,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And oh, his brow was wan!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Unlike the flush it used to wear</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">When in the battle van.&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Come hither, come hither, my trusty
+          knight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sir Simon of the Lee;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There is a freit lies near my soul</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I fain would tell to thee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Thou knowest the words King Robert spoke</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Upon his dying day,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">How he bade me take his noble heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And carry it far away:</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And lay it in the holy soil</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Where once the Saviour trod,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor strike one blow for God.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Last night as in my bed I lay,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I dream'd a dreary dream:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In the moonlight's quivering beam.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"His robe was of the azure dye,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Snow-white his scatter'd hairs,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And even such a cross he bore</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As good Saint Andrew bears.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'With spear and belted brand?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Why do ye take its dearest pledge</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">From this our Scottish land?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg016" id=
+          "pg016">016</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"'The sultry breeze of Galilee</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Creeps through its groves of palm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The olives on the Holy Mount</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Stand glittering in the calm.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall rest by God's decree,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Till the great angel calls the dead</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To rise from earth and sea!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That heart shall pass once more</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In fiery fight against the foe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As it was wont of yore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'And it shall pass beneath the Cross,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And save King Robert's vow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But other hands shall bear it back,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Not, James of Douglas, thou!'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sir Simon of the Lee&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For truer friend had never man</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Than thou hast been to me&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"If ne'er upon the Holy Land</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'Tis mine in life to tread,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The relics of her dead."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The tear was in Sir Simon's eye</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As he wrung the warrior's hand&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Betide me weal, betide me woe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I'll hold by thy command.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"But if in battle front, Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'Tis ours once more to ride,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall cleave me from thy side!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And aye we sail'd, and aye we sail'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Across the weary sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Until one morn the coast of Spain</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Rose grimly on our lee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And as we rounded to the port,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Beneath the watch-tower's wall,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We heard the clash of the atabals,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the trumpet's wavering call.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Why sounds yon Eastern music here</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So wantonly and long,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And whose the crowd of armed men</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That round yon standard throng?'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"The Moors have come from Africa</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To spoil and waste and slay,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And Pedro, King of Arragon,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Must fight with them to-day."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg017" id=
+          "pg017">017</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Now shame it were," cried good Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Shall never be said of me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That I and mine have turn'd aside,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">From the Cross in jeopardie!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Have down, have down my merry men
+          all&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Have down unto the plain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We'll let the Scottish lion loose</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Within the fields of Spain!"&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now welcome to me, noble lord,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Thou and thy stalwart power;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Dear is the sight of a Christian knight</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Who comes in such an hour!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Is it for bond or faith ye come,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Or yet for golden fee?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Or bring ye France's lilies here,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Or the flower of Burgundie?'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"God greet thee well, thou valiant King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Thee and thy belted peers&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Sir James of Douglas am I call'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And these are Scottish spears.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We do not fight for bond or plight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor yet for golden fee;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But for the sake of our blessed Lord,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That died Upon the tree.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We bring our great King Robert's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Across the weltering wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To lay it in the holy soil</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Hard by the Saviour's grave.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"True pilgrims we, by land or sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Where danger bars the way;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And therefore are we here, Lord King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To ride with thee this day!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The King has bent his stately head,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the tears were in his eyne&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"God's blessing on thee, noble knight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">For this brave thought of thine!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"I know thy name full well, Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And honour'd may I be,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That those who fought beside the Bruce</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Should fight this day for me!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Take thou the leading of the van,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And charge the Moors amain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There is not such a lance as thine</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In all the host of Spain!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The Douglas turned towards us then,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Oh, but his glance was high!&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"There is not one of all my men</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But is as bold as I.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg018" id=
+          "pg018">018</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"There is not one of all my knights</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But bears as true a spear&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Then onwards! Scottish gentlemen,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And think&mdash;King Robert's here!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The trumpets blew, the cross-bolts flew,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The arrows flash'd like flame,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As spur in side, and spear in rest,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Against the foe we came.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And many a bearded Saracen</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Went down, both horse and man;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For through their ranks we rode like corn,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So furiously we ran!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">But in behind our path they closed,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Though fain to let us through,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For they were forty thousand men,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And we were wondrous few.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We might not see a lance's length,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So dense was their array,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But the long fell sweep of the Scottish
+          blade</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Still held them hard at bay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Make in! make in!" Lord Douglas cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Make in, my brethren dear!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Sir William of St Clair is down,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">We may not leave him here!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">But thicker, thicker, grew the swarm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And sharper shot the rain,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And the horses rear'd amid the press,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But they would not charge again.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now Jesu help thee," said Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Thou kind and true St Clair!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">An' if I may not bring thee off,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I'll die beside thee there!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">Then in his stirrups up he stood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So lionlike and bold,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And held the precious heart aloft</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">All in its case of gold.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">He flung it from him, far ahead,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And never spake he more,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But&mdash;"Pass thee first, thou dauntless
+          heart,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As thou were wont of yore!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The roar of fight rose fiercer yet,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And heavier still the stour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Till the spears of Spain came shivering in</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And swept away the Moor.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now praised be God, the day is won!</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">They fly o'er flood and fell&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Why dost thou draw the rein so hard,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Good knight, that fought so well?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg019" id=
+          "pg019">019</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Oh, ride ye on, Lord King!" he said,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"And leave the dead to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For I must keep the dreariest watch</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That ever I shall dree!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"There lies beside his master's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The Douglas, stark and grim;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And woe is me I should be here,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Not side by side with him!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"The world grows cold, my arm is old,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And thin my lyart hair,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And all that I loved best on earth</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Is stretch'd before me there.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"O Bothwell banks! that bloom so bright,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Beneath the sun of May,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The heaviest cloud that ever blew</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Is bound for you this day.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And, Scotland, thou may'st veil thy head</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In sorrow and in pain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The sorest stroke upon thy brow</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Hath fallen this day in Spain!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We'll bear them back into our ship,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">We'll bear them o'er the sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And lay them in the hallow'd earth,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Within our own countrie.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And be thou strong of heart, Lord King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">For this I tell thee sure,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The sod that drank the Douglas' blood</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall never bear the Moor!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The King he lighted from his horse,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">He flung his brand away,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And took the Douglas by the hand,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So stately as he lay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"God give thee rest, thou valiant soul,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That fought so well for Spain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I'd rather half my land were gone,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So thou wert here again!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We bore the good Lord James away,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the priceless heart he bore,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And heavily we steer'd our ship</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Towards the Scottish shore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">No welcome greeted our return,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor clang of martial tread,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But all were dumb and hush'd as death</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Before the mighty dead.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We laid the Earl in Douglas Kirk,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The heart in fair Melrose;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And woful men were we that day&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">God grant their souls repose!</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">W.E.A.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg020" id=
+      "pg020">020</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</h2>
+
+      <h3>THE MUSEUM OF PALERMO.</h3>
+
+      <p>The museum of Palermo is a small but very interesting
+      collection of statues and other sculpture, gathered chiefly, they
+      say, from the ancient temples of Sicily, with a few objects
+      bestowed out of the superfluities of Pompeii. In the lower room
+      are some good bas-reliefs, to which a story is attached. They
+      were discovered fifteen years ago at <i>Selinuntium</i> by some
+      young Englishmen, the reward of four months' labour. Our guide,
+      who had been also theirs, had warned them not to stay after the
+      month of June, when malaria begins. They did stay. All (four)
+      took the fever; one died of it in Palermo, and the survivors were
+      deprived by the government&mdash;that is, by the king&mdash;of
+      the spoils for which they had suffered so much and worked so
+      hard. No one is permitted to excavate without royal license;
+      <i>excavation</i> is, like <i>Domitian's fish, res fisci</i>.
+      Even Mr Fagan, who was consul at Palermo, having made some
+      interesting underground discoveries, was deprived of them. We saw
+      here a fine Esculapius, in countenance and expression exceedingly
+      like the <i>Ecce Homo</i> of Leonardo da Vinci, with all that
+      god-like compassion which the great painter had imparted without
+      any sacrifice of dignity. He holds a poppy-head, which we do not
+      recollect on his statue or gems, and the Epidaurian snake is at
+      his side. Up-stairs we saw specimens of fruits from Pompeii,
+      barley, beans, the carob pod, pine kernels, as well as bread,
+      sponge, linen: and the sponge was obviously such, and so was the
+      linen. A bronze Hercules treading on the back of a stag, which he
+      has overtaken and subdued, is justly considered as one of the
+      most perfect bronzes discovered at Pompeii. A head of our
+      Saviour, by Corregio, is exquisite in conception, and such as
+      none but a person long familiar with the physiognomy of suffering
+      could have accomplished. These are exceptions rather than
+      specimens. The pictures, in general, are poor in interest; and a
+      long gallery of <i>casts</i> of the <i>chef-d'oeuvres</i> of
+      antiquity possessed by the capitals of Italy, Germany, England,
+      and France, looks oddly here, and shows the poverty of a country
+      which had been to the predatory proconsuls of Rome an
+      inexhaustible repertory of the highest treasures of art. A VERRES
+      REDIVIVUS would now find little to carry off but toys made of
+      amber, lava snuff-boxes, and WODEHOUSE'S MARSALA&mdash;one of
+      which he certainly would not guess the <i>age</i> of, and the
+      other of which he would not <i>drink</i>.</p>
+
+      <h3>LUNATIC ASYLUM.</h3>
+
+      <p>We saw nothing in this house or its arrangements to make us
+      think it superior, or very different from others we had visited
+      elsewhere. The making a lunatic asylum a show-place for strangers
+      is to be censured; indeed, we heard Esquirol observe, that
+      nothing was so bad as the admission of many persons to see the
+      patients at all; for that, although some few were better for the
+      visits of friends, it was injurious as a general rule to give
+      even friends admittance, and that it ought to be left
+      discretionary with the physician, <i>when</i> to admit, and
+      <i>whom</i>. Cleanliness, good fare, a garden, and the
+      suppression of all violence&mdash;these have become immutable
+      canons for the conduct of such institutions, and fortunately
+      demand little more than ordinary good feeling and intelligence in
+      the superintendent. But we could not fail to observe a sad want
+      of suitable inducement to <i>occupation</i>, which was apparent
+      throughout this asylum. That not above one in ten could read, may
+      perhaps be thought a light matter, for few can be the resources
+      of insanity in books; yet we saw at <i>Genoa</i> a case where it
+      had taken that turn, and as it is occupation to read, with how
+      much profit it matters not. Not one woman in four, as usually
+      occurs in insanity, could be induced <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg021" id="pg021">021</a></span>to <i>dress
+      according to her sex</i>; they figured away in men's coats and
+      hats! The dining-room was hung with portraits of some merit, by
+      one of the lunatics; and we noticed that every face, if indeed
+      all are <i>portraits</i>, had some insanity in it. They have a
+      dance every Sunday evening. What an exhibition it must be!</p>
+
+      <h3>MISCELLANEA.</h3>
+
+      <p>That the vegetation of Palermo excels that of Naples, partly
+      depends on the superior intelligence of the agriculturist, and
+      partly upon soil and climate: the fruits here are not only more
+      advanced, but finer in quality. We left a very meagre dessert of
+      cherries beginning to ripen at Naples; the very next day, a
+      superabundance of very fine and mature ones were to be had on all
+      the stalls of Palermo. This must be the result of industry and
+      care in a great measure; for on leaving that city, after a
+      <i>séjour</i> of three weeks, for Messina, Catania, and Syracuse,
+      although summer was much further advanced, we relapsed into
+      miserably meagre supplies of what we had eaten in perfection in
+      the capital; yet Syracuse and Catania are much warmer than
+      Palermo.</p>
+
+      <p>The vegetables here are of immense growth. The fennel root
+      (and there is no better test of your whereabouts in Italy) is
+      nearly twice as large as at Naples, and weighs, accordingly,
+      nearly double. The cauliflowers are quite colossal; and they have
+      a blue cabbage so big that your arms will scarcely embrace it. We
+      question, however, whether this hypertrophy of fruit or
+      vegetables improves their flavour; give us <i>English
+      vegetables</i>&mdash;ay, and <i>English fruit</i>. Though
+      Smyrna's <i>fig</i> is eaten throughout Europe, and Roman
+      <i>brocoli</i> be without a rival; though the <i>cherry</i> and
+      the Japan <i>medlar</i> flourish only at Palermo, and the
+      <i>cactus</i> of Catania can be eaten nowhere else; what country
+      town in England is not better off on the whole, if quality alone
+      be considered? But we have one terrible drawback; for <i>whom</i>
+      are these fruits of the earth produced? Our <i>prices</i> are
+      enormous, and our supply scanty; could we <i>forget this</i>, and
+      the artichoke, the asparagus, the peas and beans of London and
+      Paris, are rarely elsewhere so fine. To our palates the
+      <i>gooseberry</i> and the <i>black currant</i> are a sufficient
+      indemnity to Britain for the <i>grape</i>, merely regarded as a
+      fruit to <i>eat. Pine-apples</i>, those "illustrious foreigners,"
+      are so successfully <i>petted</i> at home, that they will
+      scarcely condescend now to flourish out of England.
+      <i>Nectarines</i> refuse to ripen, and <i>apricots</i> to have
+      any taste elsewhere. Our <i>pears</i> and <i>apples</i> are
+      better, and of more various excellence, than any in the world.
+      And we really prefer our very figs, grown on a fine
+      <i>prebendal</i> wall in the close of <i>Winchester</i>, or under
+      <i>Pococke's</i> window in a canon's garden at <i>chilly
+      Oxford</i>. Thus has the kitchen-garden refreshed our patriotism,
+      and made us half ashamed of our long forgetfulness of home. But
+      there are good things abroad too for poor men; the rich may live
+      any where. An enormous salad, crisp, cold, white, and of
+      delicious flavour, for a halfpenny; olive oil, for fourpence a
+      pound, to dress it with; and wine for fourpence a gallon to make
+      it disagree with you;<sup>15</sup> fuel for almost nothing, and
+      bread for little, are not small advantages to frugal
+      housekeepers; but, when dispensed by a despotic government, where
+      one must read those revolting words <i>motu proprio</i> at the
+      head of every edict, let us go back to our carrots and potatoes,
+      our Peels and our income-tax, our fogs and our frost. The country
+      mouse came to a right conclusion, and did not like the fragments
+      of the feast with the cat in the cupboard&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Give me again my hollow tree,</p>
+
+        <p>My crust of bread, and liberty."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>15:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Lactuca</i> innatat acri</p>
+
+          <p>Post vinum stomacho.&mdash;HOR.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Fish, though plentiful and various, is not fine in any part of
+      the <i>Mediterranean</i>; and as to <i>thunny</i>, one surfeit
+      would put it out of the bill of fare for life. On the whole,
+      though at Palermo and Naples the pauper starves not in the
+      streets, the gourmand would be sadly at a loss in his requisition
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg022" id="pg022">022</a></span>of
+      delicacies and variety. Inferior bread, at a penny a pound, is
+      here considered palatable by the sprinkling over of the crust
+      with a small rich seed (<i>jugulena</i>) which has a flavour like
+      the almond; it is also strewn, like our caraway seeds in
+      biscuits, <i>into</i> the paste, and is largely cultivated for
+      that single use. The <i>capsici</i>, somewhat similar in flavour
+      to the pea, are detached from the radicles of a plant with a
+      flower strikingly like the potatoe, and is used for a similar
+      purpose to the jugulena.</p>
+
+      <p>This island was the granary of Athens before it nourished
+      Rome; and wheat appears to have been first raised in Europe on
+      the plains of eastern Sicily. In Cicero's time it returned
+      eightfold; and to this day one grain yields its eightfold of
+      increase; which, however, is by a small fraction less than our
+      own, as given by M'Culloch in his "Dictionary of Commerce." We
+      plucked some <i>siligo</i>, or bearded wheat, near Palermo, the
+      beard of which was eight inches long, the ear contained sixty
+      grains, eight being also in this instance the average increase;
+      how many grains, then, must perish in the ground!</p>
+
+      <p>In Palermo, English gunpowder is sold by British sailors at
+      the high price of from five to seven shillings per English pound;
+      the "Polvere <i>nostrale</i>" of the Sicilians only fetches 1s.
+      8d.; yet such is the superiority of English gunpowder, that every
+      one who has a passion for popping at sparrows, and other
+      <i>Italian sports</i>, (complimented by the title of <i>La
+      caccia</i>,) prefers the dear article. When they have killed off
+      all the robins, and there is not a twitter in <i>the whole
+      country</i>, they go to the river side and shoot
+      <i>gudgeons</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>The Palermo donkey is the most obliging animal that ever wore
+      long ears, and will carry you cheerfully four or five miles an
+      hour without whip or other <i>encouragement</i>. The oxen, no
+      longer white or cream-coloured, as in Tuscany, were originally
+      importations from Barbary, (to which country the Sicilians are
+      likewise indebted for the <i>mulberry</i> and <i>silk-worm</i>.)
+      Their colour is brown. They rival the Umbrian breed in the
+      herculean symmetry of their form, and in the possession of horns
+      of more than Umbrian dimensions, rising more perpendicularly over
+      the forehead than in that ancient race. The lizards here are such
+      beautiful creatures, that it is worth while to bring one away,
+      and, to <i>pervert</i> a quotation, "UNIUS <i>Dominum sese
+      fecisse</i> LACERTAE." Some are all green, some mottled like a
+      mosaic floor, others green and black on the upper side, and
+      orange-coloured or red underneath. Of snakes, there is a
+      <i>Coluber niger</i> from four to five feet in length, with a
+      shining coat, and an eye not pleasant to watch even through
+      glass; yet the peasants here put them into their Phrygian
+      bonnets, and handle them with as much <i>sang-froid</i> as one
+      would a walking-stick.</p>
+
+      <p>The coarse earthen vessels, pitchers, urns, &amp;c., used by
+      the peasants, are of the most beautiful shapes, often that of the
+      ancient <i>amphora</i>; and at every cottage door by the
+      road-side you meet with this vestige of the ancient arts of the
+      country.</p>
+
+      <p>The plague which visited Palermo in 1624 swept away 20,000
+      inhabitants; Messina, in 1743, lost 40,000. The cholera, in 1837,
+      destroyed 69,253 persons. The present population of the whole
+      island is 1,950,000; the female exceeds the male by about three
+      per cent, which is contrary to the general rule. It is said that
+      nearly one-half the children received into the foundling hospital
+      of Palermo die within the first year.</p>
+
+      <p>Formerly the barons of Sicily were rich and independent, like
+      our English gentlemen; but they say that, since 1812, the king's
+      whole pleasure and business, as before our <i>Magna Charta</i>
+      times, have been to lower their importance. In that year a revolt
+      was the consequence of an income-tax even of two per cent, for
+      they were yet unbroken to the yoke; but now that he has saddled
+      property with a deduction, <i>said</i> to be eventually equal to
+      fifteen per cent, if not more; now that he doubles the impost on
+      the native sulphur, which is therefore checked in its sale; now
+      that he keeps an army of 80,000 men to play at soldiers with; now
+      that he constitutes himself the only referee even in questions of
+      commercial expediency, and <i>a fortiori</i> in all other cases,
+      which he settles <i>arbitrarily</i>, or does not settle at all;
+      now that he sees so little the signs of the times, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg023" id="pg023">023</a></span>that he will
+      not let a professor go to a science-congress at Florence or
+      Bologna without an express permission, and so ignorant as to have
+      <i>refused</i> that permission for fear of a political bias; now
+      that he diverts a nation's wealth from works of charity or
+      usefulness, to keep a set of foreigners in his pay&mdash;they no
+      doubt here remember in their prayers, with becoming gratitude,
+      "the holy alliance," or, as we would call it, the <i>mutual
+      insurance company of the kings of Europe</i>, of which
+      Castlereagh and Metternich were the honorary secretaries.</p>
+
+      <p>In the midst of all the gloomy despotism, beautiful even as
+      imagination can paint it, is Palermo beautiful! One eminent
+      advantage it possesses over Naples itself&mdash;its vicinity
+      presents more "drives;" and all the drives here might contest the
+      name given to one of them, which is called "<i>Giro delle
+      Grazie</i>," (the Ring or Mall of the Graces.) It has a
+      <i>Marina</i> of unrivaled beauty, to which the noblesse and the
+      citizens repair and form a promenade of elegant equipages. A fine
+      pavement for foot passengers is considerately raised three or
+      four feet above the carriage road; so that the walking population
+      have nothing to annoy them. The sea is immediately below both,
+      and you see the little rock-encircled bays animated with groups
+      of those sturdy fishermen with bare legs; which you admire in
+      Claude and Salvator, throwing before them, with admirable
+      precision, their <i>épervier</i> net, whose fine wrought meshes
+      sometimes hang, veil-like, between you and the ruddy sunset, or
+      plashing, as they fall nightly into the smooth sea, contribute
+      the pleasure of an agreeable sound to the magic of the scenery.
+      Some take the air on donkeys, which go at a great rate; some are
+      mounted on Spanish mules, all mixed together freely amidst
+      handsome and numerous equipages; and the whole is backed by a
+      fine row of houses opposite the sea, built after the fashion of
+      our terraces and crescents at watering-places. And finally, that
+      blue <i>æquor</i>, as it now deserves to be termed, studded over
+      with thunny boats and coasting craft with the haze latine sail,
+      that we should be sorry to trust in British hands, is walled in
+      by cliffs so bold, so rugged, and standing out so beautifully in
+      relief, that for a moment we cannot choose but envy the citizen
+      of <i>Panormus</i>. But we may not tarry even here; <i>we have
+      more things</i> to see, and every day is getting hotter than the
+      last.</p>
+
+      <h3>JOURNEY TO SEGESTE.</h3>
+
+      <p>Leaving Palermo early, we pass <i>Monreale</i> in our way to
+      the Doric columns of <i>Segeste</i>, and find ourselves, before
+      the heat of day has reached its greatest intensity, at a
+      considerable elevation above the plain on which the capital
+      stands, amidst mountains which, except in the difference of their
+      vegetation, remind us not a little of the configuration of
+      certain wild parts of the Highlands, where Ben Croachin flings
+      his dark shadow across Loch Awe. Indeed, we were thinking of this
+      old and favourite fishing haunt with much complacency, when two
+      men suddenly came forth from behind the bristly aloes and the
+      impenetrable cactus&mdash;ill-looking fellows were they; but,
+      moved by the kindest intentions for our safety, they offer to
+      conduct us through the remainder of the defile. This service our
+      hired attendant from Palermo declined, and we push on unmolested
+      to Partenico, our halting-place during the heat of the day. It is
+      a town of some extent, large enough to afford two fountains of a
+      certain pretension, but execrably dirty within. Twelve thousand
+      inhabitants has Partenico, and five churches. Out of its five
+      locandas, who shall declare the worst? Of that in which we had
+      first taken refuge, (as, in a snow-storm on the Alps, any
+      <i>roof</i> is Paradise,) we were obliged to quit the shelter,
+      and walk at <i>noon</i>, at <i>midsummer</i>, and in
+      <i>Sicily</i>, a good mile <i>up</i> a main street, which,
+      beginning in habitations of the dimensions of our almshouses,
+      ends in a few huts intolerably revolting, about which troops of
+      naked children defy vermin, and encrust themselves in filth. At
+      one door we could not help observing that worst form of
+      <i>scabies</i>, the <i>gale à grosses bulles;</i> so we had got,
+      it appeared, from <i>Scylla</i> into <i>Charybdis</i>, and were
+      in the very preserves <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg024" id=
+      "pg024">024</a></span>of Sicilian <i>itch</i>, and we
+      prognosticate it will spread before the month expires wherever
+      human skin is to be found for its entertainment. Partenico lies
+      in a scorching plain full of malaria. Having passed the three
+      stifling hours of the day here, we proceed on our journey to
+      <i>Alcamo</i>, a town of considerable size, which looks
+      remarkably well from the plain at the distance of four
+      miles&mdash;an impression immediately removed on passing its high
+      rampart gate. Glad to escape the miseries with which it threatens
+      the <i>détenu</i>, we pass out at the other end, and zigzag down
+      a hill of great beauty, and commanding such views of sea and land
+      as it would be quite absurd to write about. Already a double row
+      of aloë, planted at intervals, marks what is to be your course
+      afar off, and is a faithful guide till it lands you in a Sicilian
+      plain. This is the highest epithet with which any plain can be
+      qualified. This is indeed the month for Sicily. The goddess of
+      flowers now wears a morning dress of the newest spring fashion;
+      beautifully <i>made up</i> is that dress, nor has she worn it
+      long enough for it to be sullied ever so little, or to require
+      the washing of a shower. A delicate pink and a rich red are the
+      colours which prevail in the tasteful pattern of her voluminous
+      drapery; and as she <i>advances</i> on you with a light and
+      noiseless step, over a carpet which all the looms of Paris or of
+      Persia could not imitate, scattering bouquets of colours the most
+      happily contrasted, and impregnating the air with the most
+      grateful fragrance, we at once acknowledge her beautiful
+      impersonation in that "<i>monument of Grecian art</i>," the
+      <i>Farnese Flora</i>, of which we have brought the fresh
+      recollection from the museum of Naples.</p>
+
+      <p>The <i>Erba Bianca</i> is a plant like southernwood,
+      presenting a curious hoar-frosted appearance as its leaves are
+      stirred by the wind. The <i>Rozzolo a vento</i> is an ambitious
+      plant, which grows beyond its strength, snaps short upon its
+      overburdened stalk, and is borne away by any zephyr, however
+      light. Large crops of <i>oats</i> are already cut; and oxen of
+      the Barbary breed, brown and coal-black, are already dragging the
+      simple aboriginal plough over the land. Some of these fine cattle
+      (to whom we are strangers, as they are to us) stood gazing at us
+      in the plain, their white horns glancing in the sun; others,
+      recumbent and ruminating, exhibit antlers which, as we have said
+      before, surpass the Umbrian cattle in their elk-like length and
+      imposing majesty. Arrived at the bottom of our long hill, we pass
+      a beautiful stream called <i>Fiume freddo</i>, whose source we
+      track across the plain by banks crowned with <i>Cactus</i> and
+      <i>Tamarisk</i>. Looking back with regret towards <i>Alcamo</i>,
+      we see trains of mules, which still transact the internal
+      commerce of the country, with large packsaddles on their backs;
+      and when a halt takes place, these animals during their drivers'
+      dinner obtain their own ready-found meal, and browse away on
+      three courses of vegetables and a dessert.</p>
+
+      <h3>SICILIAN INNS.</h3>
+
+      <p>"A beautiful place this <i>Segeste</i> must be! One could
+      undergo any thing to see it!" Such would be the probable
+      exclamation of more than one reader looking over some
+      <i>landscape annual</i>, embellished with perhaps <i>a view</i>
+      of the celebrated temple and its surrounding scenery; but find
+      yourself at any of the inexpressibly horrid inns of <i>Alcamo</i>
+      or <i>Calatafrini</i>, (and these are the two principal stations
+      between Palermo and Segeste&mdash;one with its 12,000, the other
+      with its 18,000 inhabitants;) let us walk you down the main
+      street of either, and if you don't wish yourself at Cheltenham,
+      or some other unclassical place which never had a Latin name, we
+      are much mistaken! The "<i>Relievo dei Cavalli</i>" at Alcamo
+      offers no <i>relief</i> for you! The <i>Magpie</i> may prate on
+      her sign-post about <i>clean</i> beds, for magpies can be made to
+      say any thing; but pray do not construe the "<i>Canova
+      Divina</i>" Divine Canova! <i>He</i> never executed any thing for
+      the <i>Red Lion</i> of Calatafrini, whose "Canova" is a low
+      wine-shop, full of wrangling Sicilian boors. Or will you place
+      yourself under the <i>Eagle's</i> wing, seduced by its <i>nuovi
+      mobili e buon servizio</i>? Oh, we obtest those <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg025" id="pg025">025</a></span>broken
+      window-panes whether it be not <i>cruel</i> to expose <i>new
+      furniture</i> to such perils! For us we put up at the "<i>Temple
+      of Segeste</i>," attracted rather by its name than by any promise
+      or decoy it offers. Crabbe has given to the inns at Aldborough
+      each its character: here all are equal in immundicity, and all
+      equally without provisions. Some yellow beans lie soaking to
+      soften them. There is salt-cod from the north, moist and putrid.
+      There is no milk; eggs are few. The ham at the Pizzicarolo's is
+      always bad, and the garlicked sausage repulsive. Nothing is
+      painted or white-washed, let alone dusted, swept, or scoured. The
+      walls have the appearance of having been <i>pawed</i> over by new
+      relays of dirty fingers daily for ten years. This is a very
+      peculiar appearance at many nasty places <i>out</i> of Sicily,
+      and we really do not know its <i>pathology</i>. You tread
+      loathingly an indescribable earthen floor, and your eye, on
+      entering the apartment, is arrested by a nameless production of
+      the fictile art, certainly not of <i>Etruscan</i> form, which is
+      invariably placed on the <i>bolster</i> of the truck-bed destined
+      presently for your devoted head. Oh! to do justice to a Sicilian
+      <i>locanda</i> is plainly out of question, and the rest of our
+      task may as well be sung as said, verse and prose being alike
+      incapable of the hopeless reality:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Lodged for the night, O Muse! begin</p>
+
+          <p>To sing the true Sicilian inn,</p>
+
+          <p>Where the sad choice of six foul cells</p>
+
+          <p>The least exacting traveller quells</p>
+
+          <p>(Though crawling things, not yet in sight,</p>
+
+          <p>Are waiting for the shadowy night,</p>
+
+          <p>To issue forth when all is quiet,</p>
+
+          <p>And on your feverish pulses riot;)</p>
+
+          <p>Where one wood shutter scrapes the ground,</p>
+
+          <p>By crusts, stale-bones, and garbage bound;</p>
+
+          <p>Where unmolested spiders toil</p>
+
+          <p>Behind the mirror's mildew'd foil;</p>
+
+          <p>Where the cheap crucifix of lead</p>
+
+          <p>Hangs o'er the iron tressel'd bed;</p>
+
+          <p>Where the huge bolt will scarcely keep</p>
+
+          <p>Its promise to confiding sleep,</p>
+
+          <p>Till you have forced it to its goal</p>
+
+          <p>In the bored brick-work's crumbling hole;</p>
+
+          <p>Where, in loose flakes, the white-wash peeling</p>
+
+          <p>From the bare joints of rotten ceiling,</p>
+
+          <p>Give token sure of vermin's bower,</p>
+
+          <p>And swarms of bugs that bide their hour!</p>
+
+          <p>Though bands of fierce musquittos boom</p>
+
+          <p>Their threatening bugles round the room,</p>
+
+          <p>To bed! Ere wingless creatures crawl</p>
+
+          <p>Across your path from yonder wall,</p>
+
+          <p>And slipper'd feet unheeding tread</p>
+
+          <p>We know not what! To bed! to bed!</p>
+
+          <p>What can those horrid sounds portend?</p>
+
+          <p>Some waylaid traveller near his end,</p>
+
+          <p>From ghastly gash in mortal strife,</p>
+
+          <p>Or blow of bandit's blood-stained knife?</p>
+
+          <p>No! no! They're bawling to the <i>Virgin</i>,</p>
+
+          <p>Like victim under hands of surgeon!</p>
+
+          <p>From lamp-lit <i>daub</i>, proceeds the cry</p>
+
+          <p>Of that unearthly litany!</p>
+
+          <p>And now a train of mules goes by!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"One wretch comes whooping up the street</p>
+
+          <p>For whooping's sake! And now they beat</p>
+
+          <p>Drum after drum for market mass,</p>
+
+          <p>Each day's transactions on the <i>place!</i></p>
+
+          <p>All things that go, or stay, or come,</p>
+
+          <p>They herald forth by tuck of drum.</p>
+
+          <p>Day dawns! a tinkling tuneless bell,</p>
+
+          <p>Whate'er it be, has news to tell.</p>
+
+          <p>Then twenty more begin to strike</p>
+
+          <p>In noisy discord, all alike;&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Convents and churches, chapels, shrines,</p>
+
+          <p>In quick succession break the lines.</p>
+
+          <p>Till every gong in town, at last</p>
+
+          <p>Its tongue hath loos'd, and sleep is past.</p>
+
+          <p>So much for nights! New days begin,</p>
+
+          <p>Which land you in another Inn.</p>
+
+          <p>O! he that means to see <i>Girgenti</i></p>
+
+          <p>Or <i>Syracuse!</i>&mdash;needs patience plenty!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Crossing a rustic bridge, we pass through a garden (for it is
+      no less, though man has had no spade in it) of pinks, marigolds,
+      cyclamens, and heart's-ease, &amp;c. &amp;c.; the moist meadow
+      land below is a perfect jungle of lofty grasses, all fragrant and
+      in flower, gemmed with the unevaporated morning dew, and
+      colonized with the <i>Aphides, Alticæ</i>, and swarms of the most
+      beautiful butterflies clinging to their stalks. <i>Gramina
+      læta</i> after Virgil's own heart, were these. Their elegance and
+      unusual variety were sufficient to throw a botanist into a
+      perfect HAY fever, and our own first paroxysm only went off,
+      when, after an hour's hard collecting, we came to a place which
+      demanded <i>another</i> sort of enthusiasm; for THERE stood
+      without a veil the <i>Temple of Segeste</i>, with <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg026" id="pg026">026</a></span>one or two
+      glimpses of which we had been already astonished at a distance,
+      in all its Dorian majesty! This almost unmutilated and glorious
+      memorial of past ages here reigns alone&mdash;the only building
+      far or near visible in the whole horizon; and what a position has
+      its architect secured! In the midst of hills on a bit of
+      table-land, apparently made such by smoothing down the summit of
+      one of them, with a greensward in front, and set off behind by a
+      mountain background, stands this eternal monument of the noblest
+      of arts amidst the finest dispositions of nature. There is
+      another antiquity of the place also to be visited at
+      Segeste&mdash;its <i>theatre</i>; but we are too immediately
+      below it to know any thing about it at present, and must leave it
+      in a parenthesis. To our left, at the distance of eight miles,
+      this hill country of harmonious and graceful undulation ends in
+      beetling cliffs, beneath which the sea, now full in view, lies
+      sparkling in the morning sunshine. We shall never, never forget
+      the impressions made upon us on first getting sight of Segeste!
+      <i>Pæstum</i> we had seen, and thought that it exhausted all that
+      was possible to a temple, or the site of a temple. Awe-stricken
+      had we surveyed those monuments of "immemorial antiquity" in that
+      baleful region of wild-eyed buffaloes and birds of
+      prey&mdash;temples to death in the midst of his undisputed
+      domains! We had fully adopted Forsyth's sentiment, and held
+      Pæstum to be probably the most impressive monument on earth; but
+      here at Segeste a nature less austere, and more RIANTE in its
+      wildness, lent a quite different charm to a scene which could
+      scarcely be represented by art, and for which a reader could
+      certainly not be <i>prepared</i> by description. We gave an
+      antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
+      2000 years, and of many empires&mdash;we <i>felt</i> the vast
+      masses of its time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within
+      its precincts, its pink valerians; its <i>erba di vento</i>, its
+      scented wallflower. The whole scene kept our admiration long
+      tasked, but untired. A smart shower compelled us to seek shelter
+      under the shoulder of one of the grey entablatures: it soon
+      passed away, leaving us a legacy of the richest fragrance, while
+      a number of wild birds of the hawk kind, called "chaoli" from
+      their shrill note, issued from their hiding-places, and gave us
+      wild music as they scudded by!</p>
+
+      <p>A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that
+      now remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for
+      their city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into
+      a belief of greater wealth than they possessed.</p>
+
+      <p>Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very
+      steep one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we
+      scared two of those prodigious birds, the <i>ospreys</i>, who,
+      having reconnoitred us, forthwith began to wheel in larger and
+      larger sweeps, and at last made off for the sea. We found the
+      interior of the theatre occupied by an audience ready for our
+      arrival; it consisted of innummerable <i>hawks</i>, the chaoli
+      just mentioned, which began to scream at our intrusion. The
+      ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting our
+      departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
+      a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song
+      would save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the
+      24th of May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood,
+      we were sorry to return to our inn&mdash;and such an inn! We
+      departed abruptly, and probably never to return; but we shall
+      think of Segeste in Hyde Park, or as we pass the candlestick
+      Corinthians of Whitehall. Thucydides<sup>16</sup> relates that a
+      prevailing notion in his time was, that the <i>Trojans</i> after
+      losing <i>Troy</i> went first to <i>Sicily</i>, and founded there
+      Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
+      <i>Greek</i> colony was <i>Naxos</i>, also in Sicily, Greeks and
+      Trojans (strange coincidence!) must have <i>met again</i> on new
+      ground after the <i>Iliad</i> was all acted and done with, like a
+      tale that is told.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>16: <i>Vide</i> THUCYDIDES, Book iv. chap. 15.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>On our return towards Palermo, one of our party having a touch
+      of ague, we crossed the street to the apothecary, (at
+      Calatafrini, our night's halt,) and smelling about his musty
+      galenicals, amidst a large supply of <i>malvas</i> which were
+      drying on his counter, the only wholesome-looking thing amidst
+      his stores, we asked if <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg027" id=
+      "pg027">027</a></span>he had any <i>quinine</i>. "<i>Sicuro!</i>"
+      and he presented us with a white powder having a slightly bitter
+      taste, which, together with an ounce of green tea, to be
+      dispensed in pinches of five grains on extraordinary occasions,
+      comes, he says, from the East. On our observing that the quinine,
+      if such at all, was adulterated, and that this was too bad in a
+      country of malaria, where it was the poor man's only protection,
+      he looked angry; but we rose in the esteem of peasants in the
+      shop, who said to each other&mdash;"Ed ha ragione il Signor."
+      Wanting a little <i>soda</i>, we were presented with
+      sub-carbonate of potash as the nearest approach to it&mdash;a
+      substitution which suggested to us a classical recollection from
+      Theocritus; namely, that in this same Sicily, 2000 years ago, a
+      Syracusan husband is rated by his dame for sending her
+      <i>soda</i> for her washing in place of potash, the very converse
+      of what our old drug-vender intended to have washed our inside
+      withal.</p>
+
+      <p>The Roman Catholic religion patronises painting oddly here;
+      not a cart but is adorned with some sacred subject. Every
+      wretched vehicle that totters under an unmerciful load, with one
+      poor donkey to draw six men, has its picture of <i>Souls in
+      Purgatory</i>, who seem putting their hands and heads out of the
+      flames, and vainly calling on the ruffians inside to <i>stop</i>.
+      We read <i>Viva la Divina Providenza</i>, in flaming characters
+      on the front board of a carriole, while the whip is goading the
+      poor starved brute who drags it; for these barbarians in the rear
+      of European civilization, plainly are of opinion that a cart with
+      a sacred device shall not <i>break down</i>, though its owner
+      commit every species of cruelty.</p>
+
+      <p>The next day found us again installed at our old quarters in
+      Palermo, where, during our brief remaining stay, we visit a
+      conchologist, before which event we had no notion that Sicily was
+      so rich in shells. Two sides of a moderately large room are
+      entirely devoted to his collection. Here we saw a piece of wood
+      nearly destroyed by the <i>Teredo navalis</i>, or sailor's bore,
+      who seems more active and industrious here than elsewhere, and
+      seldom allows himself to be taken whole. Out of hundreds of
+      specimens, three or four perfect ones were all that this
+      collector could ever manage to extract, the molluscous
+      wood-destroyer being very soft and fragile. His length is about
+      three inches, his thickness that of a small quill; he lodges in a
+      shell of extreme tenuity, and the secretion which he ejects is,
+      it seems, the agent which destroys the wood, and pushes on bit by
+      bit the winding tunnel. But his doings are nothing to the working
+      of another wafer-shelled bivalve, whose tiny habitations are so
+      thickly imbedded in the body of a nodule of <i>flint</i> as to
+      render its exterior like a sieve, <i>diducit scopulos aceto</i>.
+      What solvent can the chemist prepare in his laboratory comparable
+      to one which, while it dissolves silex, neither harms the insect
+      nor injures its shell. Amongst the <i>fossils</i> we notice
+      cockles as big as ostrich eggs, clam-shells twice the size of the
+      largest of our Sussex coast, and those of oysters which rival
+      soup-plates. We had indeed once before met with them of equal
+      size in the lime-beds at <i>Corneto</i>. Judging by the
+      <i>oysters</i>, there must indeed have been <i>giants</i> in
+      those days. But this collection was chiefly remarkable for its
+      curious fossil remains of <i>animals</i> from <i>Monte
+      Grifone</i>. In this same Monte Grifone, which we went to visit,
+      is one of the largest of the caves of bones of which so many have
+      been discovered&mdash;bones of various kinds, some of small, some
+      of very large animals, mixed together pell-mell, and constituting
+      a fossil paste of scarcely any thing besides. None of the
+      geologists, in attempting to explain these deposits, sufficiently
+      enter into the question of the origin of the enormous
+      <i>quantity</i>, and <i>close juxtaposition</i>, of such
+      heterogeneous specimens.</p>
+
+      <p>By eight o'clock we are on board the <i>Palermo</i> steamer,
+      which is to convey us hence to <i>Messina</i>. The baked deck,
+      which has been saturated with the sun's heat all day, is now
+      cooling to a more moderate warmth, and soothing would be the
+      scene but for the noise of women and children. Large liquid stars
+      twinkle here and there, like so many moons on a reduced scale,
+      over the sea, and the night is wholly delightful! A bell rings,
+      which diminishes our numbers, and somewhat clears our deck. The
+      boats which carry off the last loiterers are gone, shaking
+      phosphorus from <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg028" id=
+      "pg028">028</a></span>their gills, and leaving a train of it in
+      their tails; and the many-windowed Pharos of the harbour has all
+      its panes lit up, and twinkles after its own fashion. Round the
+      bay an interrupted crescent of flickering light is reflected in
+      the water, strongest in the middle, where the town is thickest,
+      and runs back; and far behind all lights comes the clear outline
+      of the darkly defined mountain rising over the city. Our own
+      lantern also is up, the authorities have disappeared, Monte
+      Pelegrino begins to change its position, we are in motion, and a
+      mighty light we are making under us, as our leviathan, turning
+      round her head and <i>snuffing</i> the sea, begins to wind out of
+      the harbour. A few minutes more, and the luminous tracery of the
+      receding town becomes more and more indistinct; but the sky is
+      <i>all stars</i>, and the water, save where we break its
+      smoothness, a perfect mirror. Wherever the paddles play, there
+      the sea foams up into yellow light and <i>gerbes</i> of
+      amber-coloured fireballs, caught up by the wheels, and flung off
+      in our track, to float past with incredible rapidity. Men are
+      talking the language of Babel in the cabin; there is amateur
+      singing and a guitar on deck&mdash;<i>Orion</i> is on his
+      dolphin&mdash;adieu, Palermo!</p>
+
+      <h3>APPROACH TO MESSINA.</h3>
+
+      <p>The Italian morning presents a beautiful sight on deck to eyes
+      weary and sore with night, as night passes on board steamers. We
+      pass along a coast obviously of singular conformation, and to a
+      geologist, we suppose, full of interest. We encounter a herd of
+      classical dolphins out a-pleasuring. We ask about a pretty little
+      town perched just above the sea, and called <i>Giocosa</i>. By
+      its side lies <i>Tyndaris</i>&mdash;classical enough if we spell
+      it right. The snow on Etna is as good as an inscription, and to
+      be read at any distance; but what a deception! they tell us it is
+      thirty miles off, and it seems to rise immediately from behind a
+      ridge of hills close to the shore. The snow cone rises in the
+      midst of other cones, which would appear equally high but for the
+      difference of colour. <i>Patti</i> is a picturesque little
+      <i>borgo</i>, on the hillside, celebrated in Sicily for its
+      manufacture of hardware. In the bay of <i>Melazzo</i> are taken
+      by far the largest supplies of thunny in the whole Mediterranean.
+      From the embayed town so named you have the choice of a
+      cross-road to Messina, (twenty-four miles;) but who would abridge
+      distance and miss the celebrated straits towards which we are
+      rapidly approaching, or lose one hour on land and miss the
+      novelties of volcanic islands, and the first view of Scylla and
+      Charybdis? It is but eight o'clock, but the awning has been
+      stretched over our heads an hour ago. As to breakfast&mdash;the
+      meal which is associated with that particular hour of the
+      four-and-twenty to all well regulated <i>minds</i> and
+      <i>stomachs</i>&mdash;it consists here of thin <i>veneers</i> of
+      old mahogany-coloured thunny, varnished with oil, and relieved by
+      an incongruous abomination of capers and olives. The cold fowls
+      are infamous. The wine were a disgrace to the sorriest tapster
+      between this and the Alps, and also fiery, like every thing else
+      in this district. Drink it, and doubt not the old
+      result&mdash;<i>de conviva Corybanta videbis</i>. (Oh, for
+      muffins and dry toast!) Never mind, we shall soon be at Messina.
+      And now we approach a point from which the lofty Calabrian coast
+      opposite, and the flinty wall of the formidable Scylla, first
+      present themselves, but still as distant objects. In another half
+      hour we are just opposite the redoubtable rock; and here we turn
+      abruptly at right angles to our hitherto course, and find
+      ourselves <i>within</i> the straits, from either side of which
+      the English and the French so often tried the effect of cannon
+      upon each other. It is now what it used to be&mdash;fishing
+      ground. The Romans got their finest muræna from the whirlpools of
+      <i>Charybdis</i>.<sup>17</sup> The shark (<i>cane di mare</i>)
+      abounding here, would make bathing dangerous were the water
+      smooth; but the rapid whirlpools through which our steam-boat
+      dashes on disdainfully, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg029" id=
+      "pg029">029</a></span>would, at the same time, make it impossible
+      to any thing but a fish. A passenger assured us he had once seen
+      a man lost in the Vistula, who, from being a great swimmer,
+      trusted imprudently to his strength, and was sucked down by a
+      vortex of far less impetuosity, he thought, than this through
+      which we were moving. From this point till we arrived at Messina,
+      as every body was ripe for bathing, the whole conversation turned
+      naturally on the Messina shark, and his trick of snapping at
+      people's legs carelessly left by the owners dangling over the
+      boat's side. We steam up the straits to our anchorage in about
+      three-fourths of an hour. The approach is fine, very fine. A
+      certain Greek, (count, he called himself,) a great traveller, and
+      we afterwards found not a small adventurer, increases the
+      interest of the approach, by telling us that the hills before us,
+      bubbling up like blisters on chalcedony, have a considerable
+      resemblance, though inferior in character, to those which
+      embellish the Bosphorus and the first view of Constantinople.
+      Inferior, no doubt, in the imposing accessories of mosque and
+      minaret, and of cypresses as big as obelisks, which, rising
+      thickly on the heights, give to the city of Constantinople an
+      altogether peculiar and inimitable charm. Messina is beautifully
+      land-locked. The only possible winds that can affect its port are
+      the north-west and south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more
+      sea breeze than any other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek
+      friend, however, says that Constantinople is in this respect not
+      only superior to Messina, but to any other place in the seas of
+      Europe. Pity that the fellows are Turks! We did not find much to
+      interest us within the walls of Messina. There was, to be sure, a
+      fine collection of Sicilian birds, amongst which we were
+      surprised to see several of very exotic shape and plumage. One
+      long-legged fellow, dressed in a dirty white Austrian uniform,
+      with large web-feet, on which he seemed to rest with great
+      complacency, particularly arrested our attention. He stood as
+      high as the <i>Venus di Medici</i>, but by no means so
+      gracefully, and thrust his thick carved beak unceremoniously in
+      your face. His card of address was <i>Phoenicopterus
+      antiquorum</i>. The ancients ate him, and he looked as if he
+      would break your nose if you disputed with him. A very large
+      finch, which we have seen for sale about the streets here and
+      elsewhere in Sicily, rejoices in the imposing name of
+      <i>Fringilla cocco thraustis</i>. He wears his black cravat like
+      a bird of pretension, as he evidently is. The puffin (<i>Puffinus
+      Anglorum</i>) also frequents these rocks, though a very long way
+      from the Isle of Wight. No! Messina, though very fine, is not
+      equal to <i>Palermo</i>, with its unrivaled <i>Marina</i>,
+      compared to which Messina is poorly off indeed, in her straggling
+      dirty commerce-doing quay. We went out to see a little garden,
+      which contains half a dozen zare-trees and as many beautiful
+      birds in cages. We are disappointed at the poverty of our dessert
+      in this region of fruitfulness&mdash;a few bad oranges, some
+      miserable cherries, and that abomination the green almond. We
+      observe, for the first time, to-day folks eating in the streets
+      the crude contents of a little oval pod, which contains one or
+      two very large peas, twice the size of any others. These are the
+      true <i>cicer</i>, the proper Italian pea. Little bundles of them
+      are tied up for sale at all the fruit stalls, and men are seen
+      all the day long eating these raw peas, and offering them to each
+      other as sugar-plums.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>17:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>"Virroni muræna datur, quo maxima venit</p>
+
+          <p>Gurgite de Siculo: nam dum se continet Auster,</p>
+
+          <p>Contemnunt mediam tem eraria lina Charybdim."</p>
+
+          <p class="i8">JUVENAL, <i>Sat.</i> v. 99.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>In the Corso we see a kind of temporary theatre, the deal
+      sides of which are gaudily lined with Catania silk, and on its
+      stage a whole <i>dramatis personæ</i> of sacred puppets. It is
+      lighted by tapers of very taper dimensions, and its <i>stalle</i>
+      are to be let for a humble consideration to the faithful or the
+      curious. It turns out to be a religious spectacle, supported on
+      the voluntary system&mdash;but there is something for your money.
+      A vast quantity of light framework, to which fireworks, chiefly
+      of the detonating kind, are attached, are already going off, and
+      folk are watching till it be completed. Then the evening's
+      entertainment will begin, and a miser indeed must he be, or
+      beyond measure resourceless, who refuses halfpence for such
+      choice festivities. Desirous to make out the particular
+      representation, we get over the fence in order to examine the
+      figures of the drama on a nearer view. A smartly dressed saint in
+      a court <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg030" id=
+      "pg030">030</a></span>suit, but whom mitre and crosier determine
+      to be a bishop, kneels to a figure in spangles, a virgin as fond
+      of fine clothes as the Greek Panageia; while on the other side,
+      with one or two priests in his train, is seen a crowd in civil
+      costume. A paper cloud above, surrounded by glories of glass and
+      tinsel, is supported by two solid cherubs equal to the occasion,
+      and presents to the intelligent a representation of&mdash;we know
+      not what! Fire-works here divide the public with the
+      drum&mdash;to one or other all advertisement in Sicily is
+      committed. A sale of fish and flesh, theatric entertainments,
+      processions, and church invitations, are all by tuck of drum, or
+      by squib and cracker. How did they get on before the invention of
+      gunpowder? If a new coffeehouse is established, a couple of drums
+      start it advantageously, and beat like a recruiting party up and
+      down the street, to the dismay of all <i>Forestieri</i>. The drum
+      tells you when the thunny is at a discount, and <i>fire-works</i>
+      are let off at <i>fish stalls</i> when customers are slack.</p>
+
+      <p>An old tower, five miles off, is called the telegraph. People
+      go there for the panorama at the expense of three horses and two
+      hours; but you are repaid by two sea views, either of which had
+      been sufficient. Messina, its harbour, the straits, the opposite
+      coast of Calabria, Scylla, and <i>Rhegium</i>, (famed for its
+      bergamot,) are on the immediate shore, and a most striking chain
+      of hills for the background, which, at a greater distance, have
+      for their background the imposing range of the <i>Abruzzi</i>.
+      The Æolian islands rise out of the sea in the happiest positions
+      for effect. <i>Stromboli</i> on the extreme right detaches his
+      grey wreath of smoke, which seems as if it proceeded out of the
+      water, (for Stromboli is very low,) staining for a moment the
+      clear firmament, which rivals it in depth of colour. Some of the
+      volcanic group are so nearly on a level with the water, that they
+      look like the backs of so many leviathans at a halt. The sea
+      itself lies, a waveless mirror, smooth, shining, slippery, and
+      treacherous as a serpent's back&mdash;"miseri quibus intentata
+      <i>nites</i>," say we.</p>
+
+      <h3>JOURNEY TO TAORMINA.</h3>
+
+      <p>We left Messina under a sky which no painter would or could
+      attempt; indeed, it would not have looked well on paper, or out
+      of reality. There are certain unusual, yet magnificent
+      appearances in nature, from which the artist conventionally
+      abstains, not so much from the impotence of art, as that the
+      nearer his approach to success the worse the picture. At one time
+      the colours were like shot or clouded silk, or the beautiful
+      uncertainty of the Palamida of these shores, or the matrix of
+      opal; at another, the Pacific Ocean above, of which the
+      continuity is often for whole months <i>entire</i>, was broken
+      into gigantic continents and a Polynesia of rose-coloured islands
+      that no ships might approach; while in this nether world the
+      middle of the Calabro-Sicilian strait was occupied by a
+      condensation of vapour, (one could never profane them by the term
+      of <i>sea-mist</i> or <i>fog</i>,) the most subtile and
+      attenuated which ever came from the realms of cloud-compelling
+      Jove. This fleecy tissue pursued its deliberate progress from
+      coast to coast, like a cortege of cobwebs carrying a deputation
+      from the power-looms of <i>Arachne</i> in <i>Italy</i> to the
+      rival silk-looms at Catania. We pass the dry beds of mountain
+      torrents at every half mile, ugly gashes on a smooth road; and
+      requiring too much caution to leave one's attention to be engaged
+      by many objects altogether new and beautiful. The rich yellow of
+      the <i>Cactus</i>, and the red of the <i>Pomegranate</i>, and the
+      most tender of all vegetable greens, that of the young
+      <i>mulberry</i>, together with a sweet wilderness of unfamiliar
+      plants, are not to be perfectly enjoyed on a fourfooted animal
+      that stumbles, or on a road full of pitfalls. We shall only say
+      that the <i>Cynara cardunculus</i>, (a singularly fine thistle or
+      <i>wild artichoke</i>;) the prickly uncultivated
+      <i>love-apple</i>, (a beautiful variety of the <i>Solanum</i>,)
+      of which the decoction is not infrequently employed in nephritic
+      complaints; the <i>Ferula</i>, sighing for occupation all along
+      the sea-shore, and shaking its scourge as the wind blows; the
+      <i>Rhododendron</i>, in full blossom, planted <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg031" id="pg031">031</a></span>amongst the
+      shingles; the <i>Thapsia gargarica</i>, with its silver umbel,
+      looking at a short distance like mica, (an appearance caused by
+      the shining white fringe of the capsule encasing its seed,) and
+      many other strange and beautiful things, were the constant
+      attendants of our march. We counted six or seven varieties of the
+      spurge, (<i>Euphorbium</i>,) each on its milky stem, and in
+      passing through the villages had <i>Carnations</i> as large as
+      <i>Dahlias</i> flung at us by sunburnt urchins posted at their
+      several doors. The sandy shore for many miles is beautifully
+      notched in upon by tiny bays like basins, on which boats lie
+      motionless and baking in the sun, or oscillate under a
+      picturesque rock, immersed up to its shoulders in a green
+      <i>hyaloid</i>, which reflects their forms from a depth of many
+      fathoms. On more open stretches of the shore, long-drawn ripples
+      of waves of tiny dimension are overrunning and treading on one
+      another's heels for miles a-head, and tapping the anchored boat
+      "with gentle blow." The long-horned oxen already spoken of, toil
+      along the seaside road like the horses on our canal banks, and
+      tug the heavy felucca towards Messina&mdash;a service, however,
+      sometimes executed by men harnessed to the towing-cord, who, as
+      they go, offend the Sicilian muses by sounds and by words that
+      have little indeed of the &Delta;&omega;&rho;&iota;&zeta;
+      &alpha;&omicron;&iota;&delta;&alpha;. The gable ends of cottages
+      often exhibit a very primitive windmill for sawing wood within
+      doors. It is a large wheel, to the spokes of which flappers are
+      adjusted, made of coarse matting, and so placed as to profit by
+      the ordinary sea breeze; and, while the <i>wind</i> is thus
+      <i>sawing</i> his planks for him, the carpenter, at his door,
+      carries on his craft. We pass below not a few fortresses abutting
+      over the sea, or perched on the mountain tops. Many of these are
+      of English construction, and date from the occupation of the
+      island during the French war: in a word, the whole of this
+      Sicilian road is so variously lovely, that if we did not know the
+      <i>cornice</i> between <i>Nice</i> and <i>Genoa</i>, we should
+      say it was quite unrivaled, being at once in lavish possession of
+      all the grand, and most of the milder elements of landscape
+      composition. It is long since it became no wonder to us that the
+      greatest and in fact the only, real pastoral poet should have
+      been a Sicilian; but it is a marvel indeed, that, having
+      forgotten to bring his <i>Eclogues</i> with us, we cannot,
+      through the whole of Sicily, find a copy of Theocitus for sale,
+      though there is a <i>Sicilian</i> translation of him to be had at
+      Palermo. As he progresses thus delightfully, a long-wished for
+      moment awaits the traveller approaching towards
+      <i>Giardini</i>&mdash;turning round a far projecting neck of
+      land, <i>Etna</i> is at last before him! A disappointment,
+      however, on the whole is Etna himself, thus introduced. He looks
+      far below his stature, and seems so <i>near</i>, that we would
+      have wagered to get upon his shoulders and pull his ears, and
+      return to the little town to dine; the ascent also, to the eye,
+      seems any thing but steep; nor can you easily be brought to
+      believe that such an expedition is from Giardini a three days'
+      affair, except, indeed, that yonder belt of snow in the midst of
+      this roasting sunshine, has its own interpretation, and cannot be
+      mistaken. Alas! In the midst of all our flowers there was, as
+      there always is, the <i>amari aliquid</i>&mdash;it was occasioned
+      here by the <i>flies</i>. They had tasked our <i>improved</i>
+      capacity for bearing annoyances ever since we first set foot in
+      Sicily; but <i>here</i> they are perfectly incontrollable,
+      stinging and buzzing at us without mercy or truce, not to be
+      driven off for a second, nor persuaded to drown themselves on any
+      consideration. Verily, the honey-pots of Hybla itself seem to
+      please these troublesome insects less than the <i>flesh</i>-pots
+      of Egypt.</p>
+
+      <p>The next day begins inauspiciously for our ascent to Taormina;
+      but the attendants of the excursion are already making a great
+      noise, without which nothing can be done in either of the two
+      Sicilies. A supply of shabby donkeys are brought and mounted,
+      and, once astride, we begin to ascend, the poor beasts tottering
+      under our weight, and by their constant stumbling affording us
+      little inclination to look about. It takes about three-fourths of
+      an hour of this donkey-riding to reach the old notched wall of
+      the town. Two Taorminian citizens at this moment issue from under
+      its arch, in their way down, and guessing what we are, offer some
+      indifferent coins which do not suit us, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg032" id="pg032">032</a></span>but enable us
+      to enter into conversation. We demand and obtain a
+      <i>cicerone</i>, of whom we are glad to get rid after three
+      hours' infliction of his stupidity and endurance of his
+      ignorance, without acquiring one idea, Greek, Roman, Norman, or
+      Saracen, out of all his erudition. After going through the whole
+      tour with such a fellow for a Hermes, we come at last upon the
+      far-famed theatre, where we did not want him. Here, however, a
+      very intelligent attendant, supported by the king of Naples on a
+      suitable pension of five baiocchi a-day, takes us out of the
+      hands of the Philistine, and with a plan of the ground to aid us,
+      proceeds to give an intelligible, and, as appears to us, a true
+      explanation of the different parts of the huge construction, in
+      the area of which we stand delighted. He directed our attention
+      to a large arched tunnel, under and at right angles to the
+      pulpita, and we did not want direction to the thirty-six niches
+      placed at equal distances all round the ellipse, and just over
+      the lowest range of the CUNEI. All niches were, no doubt, for
+      statues; but these might also have been, it pleases some to
+      suppose, for the reverberation of applause; and they quote
+      something about <i>"Resonantia Vasa"</i> from Macrobius, adding,
+      that such niches were once probably lined with brass. Of bolder
+      speculatists, some believe the <i>kennel</i> to have been made
+      with a similar intention. Others hold that it may have been a
+      concealed way for introducing lions and tigers to the arena! Now,
+      what if it were a <i>drain</i> for the waters, which, in bad
+      weather, soon collect to a formidable height in such a situation?
+      Whether for voice, or wild beasts, or drainage, or none of these
+      objects, there it is. As to the first, we cannot help being
+      sceptical. Did it ever occur to an audience to wish the noise
+      they make <i>greater</i>, and contrive expedients for <i>making
+      it so?</i></p>
+
+      <p>We are here high up amidst the mountains, where, we are to
+      remember, as the ancients came not to spend, like ourselves, an
+      idle hour, but to consume most of the day, <i>shelter</i> would
+      be wanted. Two large lateral spaces, or as it were, side
+      chambers, have received this destination at the hands of the
+      antiquary, and have been supposed lobbies for foul weather or for
+      shade at noon. We were made to notice by our guide, what we
+      should else have overlooked, how the main passage described above
+      communicates with several smaller ones in its progress, and that
+      a small stair was a subsequent contrivance or afterthought meant
+      to relieve, on emergency, the overcharged large one; its
+      workmanship and style showed it plainly to have been added when
+      the edifice had already become <i>an antiquity</i>. This
+      altogether peculiar and most interesting building has also
+      suffered still later interpolations: a Saracenic frieze runs
+      round the wall; so that the hands of three widely different
+      nations have been busy on the mountain theatre, which received
+      its <i>first audience</i> twenty-five centuries ago! The view
+      obtained from this spot has often been celebrated, and deserves
+      to be. Such mountains we had often seen before; such a sky is the
+      usual privilege of Sicily; these indented <i>bays</i>, which
+      break so beautifully the line of the coast, had been an object of
+      our daily admiration; the hoary side of the majestic Etna, and
+      Naxos with its castellated isthmus, might be seen from
+      <i>other</i> elevated situations; and the acuminated tops of
+      Mola, with its Saracenic tower, were commanded by neighbouring
+      sites&mdash;Taormina <i>alone</i>, and for its <i>own</i> sake,
+      was the great and paramount object in our eyes, and possessed us
+      wholly! We had been following <i>Lyell</i> half the day in
+      antediluvian remains; but what are the bones of
+      <i>Ichthyosauri</i> or <i>Megalotheria</i> to this gigantic
+      skeleton of Doric antiquity, round which lie scattered the
+      sepulchres of its ancient audiences, Greek, Roman, and
+      Oriental&mdash;tombs which had become already an object of
+      speculation, and been rifled for arms, vases, or gold rings,
+      before Great Britain had made the first steps beyond painted
+      barbarism!</p>
+
+      <p>The eruptions of Etna have all been recorded. Thucydides
+      mentions one of them episodically in the Peloponesian war. From
+      the cooled caldron that simmers under all that snow, has
+      proceeded all the lava that the ancients worked into these their
+      city walls. The houses of Taurominium were built of and upon
+      <i>lava</i>, which it requires a thousand years to disintegrate.
+      After dinner we walk to Naxos, saluting the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg033" id="pg033">033</a></span>statue of the
+      patron of a London parish, <i>St Pancras</i>, on our way. He
+      stands on the beach here, and claims, by inscription on his
+      pedestal, to have belonged to the apostolic times, St Peter
+      himself having, he says, appointed him to his bishopric. He is
+      patron of Taormina, where he has possessed himself of a Greek
+      temple; and he also protects the faithful of Giardini. Lucky in
+      his <i>architects</i> has been St Pancras; for many of our
+      readers are familiar with his very elegant modern church in the
+      New Road, modelled, if we have not forgotten, on the Erechtheum,
+      with its <i>Pandrosean Vestries</i>, its upright tiles, and all
+      the subordinate details of Athenian architecture. We <i>met</i>
+      here the subject of many an ancient <i>bas relief</i> done into
+      flesh and blood&mdash;a dozen men and boys tripping along the
+      road to the music of a bagpipe, one old <i>Silenus</i> leading
+      the jocund throng, and the whole of them, as the music, such as
+      it was, inspired, leaping about and gesticulating with incredible
+      activity. It was a bacchanalian subject, which we had seen on
+      many a sarcophagus, only that the fellows here were not
+      <i>quite</i> naked, and that we looked in vain for those nascent
+      horns and tails by which the children of Pan and Faunus ought to
+      be identified. We always look out for <i>natural history</i>.
+      Walking in a narrow street, we saw a tortoise, awake for the
+      season, come crawling out to peep at the poultry; his hybernation
+      being over, he wants to be social, and the hens in astonishment
+      chuckle round him, and his tortoiseshell highness seems pleased
+      at their kind enquiries, and keeps bobbing his head in and out of
+      his <i>testudo</i> in a very sentimental manner. Women who want
+      his shell for <i>combs</i> do not frequent these parts, and so,
+      unless a cart pass over him as he returns home, he is in
+      clover.</p>
+
+      <p>A bird frequents these parts with a blue chest, called
+      <i>Passer solitarius;</i> he abounds in the rocky crevices. The
+      notes of one, which was shown to us in a cage, sounded sweetly;
+      but, as he was carnivorous, the weather was too hot for us to
+      think of taking him away. We saw two snakes put into the same
+      box: the one, a viper, presently killed the other, and much the
+      larger of the two. Serpents, then, like men, do <i>not</i>, as
+      the <i>Satirist</i> asserts, spare their kind. We are
+      disappointed at not finding any coins, nor any other good
+      <i>souvenirs</i>, to bring away with us. The height of Taormina
+      is sufficient to keep it from fever, which is very prevalent at
+      Giardini below. Its bay was once a great place for catching
+      <i>mullet</i> for the Roman market. It seems to have been the
+      <i>Torbay</i> of Sicily. Some fish love their ease, and rejoice
+      not in turbulent waters. The <i>muræna</i>, or lamprey, on the
+      contrary, was sought in the very whirlpools of <i>Charybdis</i>.
+      The modern Roman, on his own side of Italy, has few turbot, but
+      very good ones are still taken off Ancona, in the Adriatic, where
+      the <i>spatium admirabile Rhombi</i>, as the reader will, or
+      ought to recollect, was taken and sent to Domitian at Albano by
+      <i>Procaccio</i> or <i>Estafetta</i>. Juvenal complains that the
+      Tyrrhene sea was exhausted by the demand for fish, though there
+      was no <i>Lent</i> in those times. If the Catholic clergy insist
+      that there <i>was</i>, we beg to object, that the keepers thereof
+      were probably not in a condition to compete with the
+      <i>Apiciuses</i> of the day, who bought fish for their
+      <i>bodies'</i>, and not for their SOULS' SAKE.</p>
+
+      <h3>CATANIA.</h3>
+
+      <p>Tum Catane nimium ardenti vicina Typhæo.</p>
+
+      <p>After a pleasant drive of twenty miles, we find ourselves at
+      <i>Aci-Reale</i>, where a street, called "Galatea," reminds us
+      unexpectedly of a very classical place called Dean's Yard, where
+      we once had doings with <i>Acis</i>, as he figures in Ovid's
+      <i>Metamorphoses</i>. We were here in luck, and, having purchased
+      some fine coins of several of the tyrants of Sicily from the
+      apothecary, proceeded on our way to Catania. In half an hour we
+      reach the basaltic Isles of the Cyclops, and the Castle of Acis,
+      whom the peasants hereabouts tell you was their king, when Sicily
+      was under the Saracenic yoke. The <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg034" id="pg034">034</a></span>river <i>Lecatia</i>, now lost,
+      is supposed formerly to have issued hereabouts, in the port of
+      Ulysses. Our next move placed us amidst the silk-slops of
+      Catania. We have hardly been five minutes in the town, when
+      offers abound to conduct us up Ætna, in whom, as so much national
+      wealth, the inhabitants seem to take as much interest as in her
+      useful and productive silk-looms. Standing fearless on the
+      pavement of lava that buried their ancient city, they point up
+      with complacency to its fountains above. The mischievous exploits
+      of Ætna, in past times, are in every mouth, and children learn
+      their Ætnean catechism as soon as they are breeched. Ætna here is
+      all in all. Churches are constructed out of his quarried
+      <i>viscera</i>&mdash;great men lie in tombs, of which the stones
+      once ran liquid down his flames&mdash;snuff is taken out of lava
+      boxes&mdash;and devotion carves the crucifix on lava, and numbers
+      its beads on a lava rosary&mdash;nay, the apothecary's mortar was
+      sent him down from the great mortar-battery above, and the
+      village <i>belle</i> wears fire-proof bracelets that were once
+      too hot to be meddled with. Go to the museum, and you will call
+      it a museum of Ætnean products. Nodulated, porous, condensed,
+      streaked, spotted, clouded, granulated lava, here assumes the
+      colour, rivals the compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper,
+      of agate, and of marble; indeed it sometimes surpasses, in
+      beautiful veinage, the finest and rarest Marmorean specimens. You
+      would hardly distinguish some of it, worked into jazza or vase,
+      from <i>rosso antico</i> itself. A very old and rusty armoury
+      may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of formidable shark
+      skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very port of
+      Catania, are rarities on which the <i>ciceroni</i> like to
+      prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed
+      by them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if
+      you were just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of
+      bronzes has been made from excavations in the neighbourhood,
+      which, indeed, must always promise to reward research. A figure
+      of Mercury, two and a half feet high, and so exactly similar to
+      that of John of Bologna, that his one seemed an absolute
+      plagiarism, particularly attracted our attention on that account.
+      The great Italian artist, however, had been dead one hundred and
+      fifty years before this bronze was dug up. Next in importance to
+      the bronzes, we esteem the collection of Sicilian, or
+      Græco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and selectness to
+      those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also some
+      ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition is
+      a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
+      pavement, welcome you with a <i>utere feliciter</i>, (may it do
+      you good.) Round the border, a circle of the personified
+      <i>"months"</i> is artistically chained together, each bearing
+      his <i>Greek</i> name, for fear of a mistake&mdash;names not half
+      so good as Sheridan's translation of the Revolutionary
+      calendar&mdash;snowy, flowy, blowy&mdash;showery, flowery,
+      bowery&mdash;moppy, croppy, poppy&mdash;breezy, sneezy, freezy.
+      In Catania, we find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers,
+      who know pretty generally their value throughout Europe; but, in
+      order to be quite sure of the price <i>current,</i> ask double
+      what they take from one another, and judge, by your abatement of
+      it, of the state of the market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when
+      they present you the most impudent forgeries, you are not to get
+      into a passion; but, glancing from the object to the vender,
+      quietly insinuate your want of <i>absolute</i> conviction in a
+      <i>"che vi pare di questa moneta."</i> He now looks at it again,
+      and takes a squint at <i>you;</i> and supposing you smell a rat,
+      probably replies that certainly he <i>bought</i> it for
+      <i>genuine;</i> but you <i>have suggested a doubt,</i> and the
+      piece really begins, even to <i>him</i>, to look suspicious,
+      <i>"anzi à me."</i> You reply coolly, and put it down&mdash;"That
+      was just what I was thinking;" and so the affair passes quietly
+      off. And now you <i>may</i>, if you happen to be tender-hearted,
+      say something compassionate to the poor innocent who has been
+      <i>taken in</i>, and proceed to ask him about another; and when
+      you see any thing you long to pocket, enquire what can he afford
+      to let a <i>brother collector</i> (give him a step in rank) have
+      <i>it</i> for; and so go on feeling your way, and never "putting
+      your arm so far out that you cannot comfortably draw it back
+      again." He will probably ask you if you know Mr B&mdash;&mdash;
+      or C&mdash;&mdash;, (English <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg035" id="pg035">035</a></span>collectors,) with whom he has
+      had dealings, calling them "<i>stimabili signori;</i>" and, of
+      course, you have no doubt of it, though you never heard of them
+      before. It is also always conciliative to congratulate him on the
+      possession of such and such rare and "<i>belle cose;</i>" and if
+      you thus contrive to get into his good graces, he will deal with
+      you at <i>fair prices</i>, and perhaps amuse you with an account
+      of such tricks as he is not ashamed to have practised on
+      <i>blockheads</i>, who will buy at any cost if the die is fine.
+      Indeed, it has passed into an aphorism among these
+      <i>mezzo-galantuomini</i>, as their countrymen call them, that a
+      fine coin is always worth <i>what you can get for it.</i></p>
+
+      <p>We heard the celebrated organ of St Benedict, which has been
+      praising God in tremendous hallelujahs ever since it was put up,
+      and a hundred years have only matured the richness of its tones.
+      Its voice was gushing out as we entered the church, and filling
+      nave and aisle with a diapason of all that was soft and soothing,
+      as if a choir of Guido's angels had broke out in harmony.</p>
+
+      <p>A stream of fresh water issues under the old town-wall, and an
+      immense mass of incumbent lava, of at least ninety feet high,
+      impends just above its source, the water struggling through a
+      mass of rock once liquefied by fire, in as limpid a rill as if it
+      came from limestone, and so excellent in quality that no other is
+      used in Catania. Women with buckets were ascending and descending
+      to fetch supplies out of the lava of the dead city below, for the
+      use of the living town above. Moreover, this is the only point in
+      Catania where the accident of a bit of wall arresting for some
+      time the progress of the lava current, has left the level of the
+      old town to be rigidly ascertained.</p>
+
+      <p>Here, as at <i>Aci-Reale</i>, balconies at windows, for the
+      most part supported by brackets, terminating in human heads, give
+      a rich, though rather a heavy, appearance to the street. Much
+      amber is found and worked at Catania. It has been lately
+      discovered in a fossil state, and in contiguity with fossil wood;
+      but we were quite <i>electrified</i> at the price of certain
+      little scent-bottles, and other articles made of this production.
+      You see it in all its possible varieties of colour, opacity, or
+      transparency. The green opalized kind is the most prized, and
+      four pounds was demanded for a pair of pendants of this colour
+      for earrings. Besides the yellow sort, which is common every
+      where, we see the ruby red, which is very rare: some varieties
+      are freckled, and some of the sort which afforded subjects for
+      Martial, and for more than one of the Greek anthologists, with
+      insects in its matrix. <i>This</i> kind, they say, is found
+      exclusively on the coast of Catania. There are such pieces the
+      size of a hand, but it is generally in much smaller bits. Amber
+      lies under, or is formed <i>upon</i> the sand, and abounds most
+      near the <i>embouchure</i> of a small river in this
+      neighbourhood. Many beautiful shells, fossils, and other objects
+      of natural history, appear in the dealers' trays; and polished
+      knife-handles of Sicilian <i>agate</i> may be had at five dollars
+      a dozen. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg036" id=
+      "pg036">036</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS.</h2>
+
+      <h3>DON JOHN AND THE HERETICS OF FLANDERS.</h3>
+
+      <p>It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors
+      of Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
+      knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
+      ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and
+      colour, the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved
+      fatal to all.</p>
+
+      <p>In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were
+      kept up by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh,
+      appear studied rather than instinctive. At all events, the
+      gallant Sir Philip was the last of English knights, as he was the
+      first of his time. Thenceforward, the valour of the country
+      assumed a character more professional.</p>
+
+      <p>But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable
+      of the rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed,
+      every faith was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became
+      extinct; expiring in France with Henri IV. and the
+      League&mdash;in Portugal with Don Sebastian of Braganza&mdash;and
+      in Spain with Charles V., exterminated root and branch by the pen
+      of Cervantes.</p>
+
+      <p>One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those
+      crumbling institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the
+      person of Don John of Austria;&mdash;a prince who, if consecrated
+      by legitimacy to the annals of the throne, would have glorified
+      the historical page by a thousand heroic incidents. But the
+      sacrament of his baptism being unhappily unpreceded by that of a
+      marriage, he has bequeathed us one of those anomalous
+      existences&mdash;one of those incomplete destinies, which
+      embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.</p>
+
+      <p>On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with
+      qualifications to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant
+      son was entrusted by Charles V. to the charge of the master of
+      his household, Don Quexada, the emperor simply described him as
+      the offspring of a lady of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But
+      the Infanta Clara Eugenia was confidentially informed by her
+      father Philip II., and confidentially informed her satellite La
+      Cuea, that her uncle was "every way of imperial lineage;" and but
+      that he was the offspring of a crime, Don John had doubtless been
+      seated on one of those thrones to which his legitimate brother
+      Philip imparted so little distinction.</p>
+
+      <p>Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the
+      consanguinity of Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard,
+      one of the objects of the hateful life of the father of Don
+      Carlos seems to have been to thwart the ambitious instincts of
+      his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in the boiling veins of the
+      young prince abided the whole soul of Charles V.,&mdash;valour,
+      restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life and mysterious
+      death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.</p>
+
+      <p>That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
+      Holyrood,&mdash;Elizabeth at Kenilworth&mdash;Carlos at the feet
+      of his mother-in-law,&mdash;the Béarnais at the gates of
+      Paris,&mdash;have engraved their type in the book of universal
+      memory. But Don John escapes notice&mdash;a solitary star
+      outshone by dazzling constellations. Commemorated by no medals,
+      flattered by no historiographer, sung by no inspired "godson,"
+      anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook in the temple of
+      fame is out of sight, and forgotten.</p>
+
+      <p>Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto,
+      brings chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote
+      lost his hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us,
+      we dare not call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he
+      is known in Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular
+      libertine! And thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of
+      his name by the hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his
+      honours by Cervantes, as by Philip II. of a throne.&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Hard fate for one described by all <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg037" id="pg037">037</a></span>the writers of
+      his time as a model of manly grace and Christian virtue! How
+      charming is the account given by the old Spanish writers of the
+      noble youth, extricated from his convent to be introduced on the
+      high-road to a princely cavalier, surrounded by his retinue, whom
+      he is first desired to salute as a brother, and then required to
+      worship, as the king of Spain! We are told of his joy on
+      discovering his filial relationship to the great emperor, so long
+      the object of his admiration. We are told of his deeds of prowess
+      against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the Moor. We are
+      told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should be
+      rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
+      revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering
+      throne; nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie"
+      was offered to his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his
+      untimely death and glorious funeral&mdash;mourned by all the
+      knighthood of the land! But we hear and forget. Some mysterious
+      counter-charm has stripped his laurels of their verdure. Even the
+      lesser incidents of the life of Don John are replete with the
+      interest of romance. When appointed by Philip II. governor of the
+      Netherlands, in order that he might deal with the heretics of the
+      Christian faith as with the faithful of Mahomet, such deadly
+      vengeance was vowed against his person by the Protestant party
+      headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was judged
+      necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
+      Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the
+      attendant of Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the
+      very moment the troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight
+      thousand citizens in his revolted city of Antwerp!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more
+      pacific measures. The dispositions of Don John were
+      humane&mdash;his manners frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces
+      were exhausted by ten years of civil war, and that the pay of the
+      Spanish troops he had to lead against them was so miserably in
+      arrear as to compel them to acts of atrocious spoliation, the
+      hero of Lepanto appears to have done his best to stop the
+      effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the counteraction of the
+      Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace and an amnesty were
+      proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known by the name of
+      the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as was
+      compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
+      blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
+      property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or
+      calculation.</p>
+
+      <p>But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the
+      people and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have
+      been fully sensible that his head was within the jaws of the
+      lion. The blood of Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the
+      echoes of the edicts of Alva yet lingered in the air; and the
+      very stones of Brussels appeared to rise up and testify against a
+      brother of Philip II.!</p>
+
+      <p>Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse
+      was afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position,
+      by an incident which must again be accounted among the romantic
+      adventures of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating
+      Margaret of Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of
+      indisposition, was generally attributed to a design against the
+      heart of the hero of Lepanto.</p>
+
+      <p>A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could
+      do no less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her
+      passage through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of
+      that stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In
+      process of time, a camp was formed in the environs, and
+      fortresses erected on the banks of the Meuse under the inspection
+      of Don John; nor was it at first easy to determine whether his
+      measures were actuated by mistrust of the Protestants, or
+      devotion to the worst and most Catholic of wives of the best and
+      most Huguenot of kings.</p>
+
+      <p>The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
+      Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our
+      edification by the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don
+      John of blindness, in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her,
+      and the absolute liberty accorded her during <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg038" id="pg038">038</a></span>her residence
+      at Spa, where she was opening a road for the arrival of her
+      brother the Duke of Alençon. It is admitted, indeed, that her
+      attack upon his heart met with defeat. But the young governor is
+      said to have made up in chivalrous courtesies for the
+      disappointment of her tender projects; and Margaret, if she did
+      not find a lover at Namur, found the most assiduous of
+      knights.</p>
+
+      <p>Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French
+      princess were as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was
+      as completely absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as
+      her highness by the desire of converting them into the subjects
+      of France. It was only those admitted into the confidence of Don
+      John who possessed the clue to the mystery.</p>
+
+      <p>Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with
+      which he had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint
+      him with the suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had
+      given rise.</p>
+
+      <p>"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said
+      he, when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels
+      have been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour,
+      that I had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but
+      the silken pastimes of a court."</p>
+
+      <p>"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in
+      my steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the
+      trumpets of my camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder
+      lines," continued he, (pointing from a window of the citadel,
+      near which they were standing, commanding the confluence of the
+      Sambre and Meuse,) "and my utmost diversion, an occasional charge
+      against the boars in yonder forest of Marlagne!"</p>
+
+      <p>"I cannot but suppose it more than <i>occasional</i>,"
+      rejoined Gonzaga; "for I must pay your highness the ill
+      compliment of avowing, that you appear more worn by fatigue and
+      weather at this moment, and in this sunless clime, than at the
+      height of your glorious labours in the Mediterranean! Namur has
+      already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow than Barbary or
+      Lepanto."</p>
+
+      <p>"Say rather in my <i>heart</i>!" cried the impetuous prince.
+      "Since you quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have
+      known nothing but cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing,
+      that my position in this country is hateful. So long accustomed
+      to war against a barbarous enemy, I could almost fancy myself as
+      much a Moor at heart, as I appeared in visage, when in your
+      service on my way to Luxembourg, whenever I find my sword
+      uplifted against a Christian breast!&mdash;Civil war, Ottavio, is
+      a hideous and repugnant thing!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"The report is true, then, that your highness has become
+      warmly attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded
+      Gonzaga, not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain,
+      that an opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the
+      Barlaimont faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway
+      of absolute sovereignty.</p>
+
+      <p>"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me
+      at my arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet
+      more and more. Flemings or Brabançons, Hainaulters or Walloons,
+      Catholic or Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and
+      despite our best endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the
+      feeling is reciprocal!"</p>
+
+      <p>"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the
+      Queen of Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,&mdash;"I can
+      scarcely wonder at the hopes she is said to entertain of having
+      won over the governor of Mons to the French interest, during her
+      transit through Flanders."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing.
+      "It may indeed be so!&mdash;for never saw I a woman less
+      scrupulous in the choice or use of arms to fight her battles.
+      But, trust me, whatever her majesty may have accomplished, is
+      through no aiding or abetting of mine."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your
+      highness"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"My highness made them <i>appear</i> devoted in proportion to
+      his consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
+      Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards
+      Margaret de Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the
+      divinities who competed for our smiles at Tunis." <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg039" id="pg039">039</a></span> Gonzaga
+      shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don John
+      was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
+      perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.</p>
+
+      <p>"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his
+      misgivings&mdash;"I am as sincere in all this as becomes our
+      friendship. But that God has gifted me with a happy temperament,
+      I should scarcely support the disgusts of my present calling. It
+      is much, my dear Gonzaga, to inherit as a birthright the brand of
+      such an ignominy as mine. But as long as I trusted to conquer a
+      happier destiny&mdash;to carve out for myself fortunes as
+      glorious as those to which my blood all but entitles me&mdash;I
+      bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent hope of
+      distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle&mdash;that
+      taught prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even
+      the base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young
+      viceroy thus bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he
+      had been hearing imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of
+      crimes, filled him with amazement.</p>
+
+      <p>"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The
+      harshness with which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my
+      brother refused to ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my
+      favour, convinced me that I have nothing to expect from Philip
+      beyond the perpetual servitude of a satellite of the King of
+      Spain."</p>
+
+      <p>Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission
+      of these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude
+      stone walls to harbour an eavesdropper.</p>
+
+      <p>"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of
+      the unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me
+      towards the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his
+      nature&mdash;the harshness of his soul&mdash;the austerity of his
+      bigotry&mdash;chill me to the marrow!&mdash;The Holy Inquisition
+      deserves, in my estimation, a name the very antithesis of
+      holy."</p>
+
+      <p>"I <i>beseech</i> your highness!" cried Ottavio
+      Gonzaga&mdash;clasping his hands together in an irrepressible
+      panic.</p>
+
+      <p>"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in
+      our camp; and if there <i>were</i>, both they and you must even
+      hear me out!" cried Don John. "There is some comfort in
+      discharging one's heart of matters that have long lain so heavy
+      on it; and I swear to you, Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling
+      surprised to find my cheeks so lank, and my eyes so hollow, you
+      would rather be amazed to find an ounce of flesh upon my bones,
+      did you know how careful are my days, and how sleepless my
+      nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil war!&mdash;The
+      haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul but
+      that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
+      Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons&mdash;all
+      the varied tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to
+      vie with each other which shall succeed best in thwarting and
+      humiliating me. And for what do I bear it? What honour or profit
+      shall I reap on my patience? What thanks derive for having wasted
+      my best days and best energies, in bruising with my iron heel the
+      head of the serpent of heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some
+      toy of a mass neglected or an ave forgotten, will perchance give
+      me over to the tender questioning of his grand inquisitor, as the
+      shortest possible answer to my pretensions to a
+      crown,&mdash;while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when roused
+      from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
+      fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified
+      gratification&mdash;'<i>There</i> spoke the blood of Charles the
+      Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"</p>
+
+      <p>Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
+      courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the
+      loyalty towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula;
+      and that his services as governor of the Low Countries were fully
+      appreciated.</p>
+
+      <p>"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe
+      was already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don
+      John, with a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of
+      my feelings and opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I
+      am likely to have proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished
+      a Laura as the sister of Henry III?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I confess myself disappointed," <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg040" id="pg040">040</a></span>replied the
+      crafty Italian.&mdash;"I was in hopes that your highness had
+      found recreation as well as glory in Belgium. During my sojourn
+      at the court of Philip, I supported with patience the somewhat
+      ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the belief that your
+      highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal enlivenments, which
+      none more fully understand how to organize and adorn."</p>
+
+      <p>"If such an expectation really availed to <i>enliven</i> the
+      Escurial," cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must
+      indeed possess miraculous properties! However, you may judge with
+      your own eyes the pleasantness of my position; and every day that
+      improves your acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition
+      of this accursed army of the royalists, ill-paid,
+      ill-disciplined, and ill-intentioned, will inspire you with
+      stronger yearnings after our days of the Mediterranean, where I
+      was master of myself and of my men."</p>
+
+      <p>"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will
+      serve to comfort the venomous heart of the queen
+      mother!"&mdash;ejaculated Gonzaga, shrugging his shoulders.</p>
+
+      <p>"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was
+      far too much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes,
+      to take heed of those of my camp."</p>
+
+      <p>"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be
+      desirable, of how many things a woman's eyes are capable of
+      doing, at one and the same time!"&mdash;retorted the Italian.</p>
+
+      <p>"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of
+      having occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to
+      witness the friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an
+      excursion on the Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne,
+      constitute the pastimes you are pleased to magnify into an
+      imperial ovation."</p>
+
+      <p>"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a
+      ball-room,&mdash;much in one poor half hour of a greenwood
+      rendezvous!"&mdash;persisted the provoking Ottavio.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ay&mdash;<i>much</i> indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh
+      so deep that it startled by its significance the attention of his
+      brother in arms. "But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri
+      the Béarnais!" returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I
+      wish no worse to that heretic prince, than to have placed his
+      honour in the keeping of the <i>gente Margot</i>."</p>
+
+      <p>Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had
+      taken a turn that promised wonders for the interest of the
+      despatches he had undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in
+      elucidation of the designs and sentiments of Don
+      John,&mdash;towards whom his allegiance was as the kisses of
+      Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
+      assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it
+      apparent that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having
+      proposed to the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander,
+      he destined the colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should
+      proceed to a survey of the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted
+      their horses, and, escorted by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish
+      aide-de-camp of the prince, proceeded to the camp.</p>
+
+      <p>The affectionate deference testified towards the young
+      governor by all classes, the moment he made his appearance in
+      public, appeared to Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the
+      declarations of Don John that he was no favourite in Belgium. The
+      Italian forgot that the Duke of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld
+      and Barlaimont, while doffing their caps to the representative of
+      the King of Spain, had as much right to behold in him the devoted
+      friend of Don John of Austria, as <i>he</i> to regard <i>them</i>
+      as the faithful vassals of his government.</p>
+
+      <p>A fair country is the country of Namur!&mdash;The confluent
+      streams&mdash;the impending rocks&mdash;the spreading forests of
+      its environs, comprehend the finest features of landscape; nor
+      could Ottavio Gonzaga feel surprised that his prince should find
+      as much more pleasure in those breesy plains than in the narrow
+      streets of Brussels, as he found security and strength.</p>
+
+      <p>On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the
+      town, stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to
+      attain which by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed;
+      and it was pleasant <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg041" id=
+      "pg041">041</a></span>to see the Walloon peasant children run
+      forth from the cottages to salute the royal train, making their
+      heavy Flemish chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering
+      cabrioles far more deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to
+      which they were almost accustomed.</p>
+
+      <p>As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the
+      Meuse, they saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups
+      congregated just then in the district, of soldiers and peasants;
+      to which the attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di
+      Zuniga, his aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause
+      of the gathering.</p>
+
+      <p>"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
+      Spaniard&mdash;galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes
+      streaming in the breeze;&mdash;that the Prince's train, which had
+      halted, might resume its pace.</p>
+
+      <p>"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who
+      appreciated the trivialties of life very differently from those
+      by whom he was surrounded.</p>
+
+      <p>"A village grievance!&mdash;An old woman roaring her lungs out
+      for a cow which has been carried off by our
+      troopers!"&mdash;grumbled the aide-de-camp, with less respect
+      than was usual to him.</p>
+
+      <p>"And call you that a <i>nothing</i>?"&mdash;exclaimed his
+      master. "By our lady of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and
+      oppression&mdash;a thing calculated to make us hateful in the
+      eyes of the village!&mdash;And many villages, my good Nignio,
+      represent districts, and many districts provinces, and provinces
+      a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as the
+      indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
+      Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!&mdash;See to it! I want
+      no further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be
+      restored before sunset, and the marauders punished."</p>
+
+      <p>"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer
+      in its skin?"&mdash;demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should
+      have been already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Let her have compensation."</p>
+
+      <p>"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness,
+      is all but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
+      Gonzaga,&mdash;as though they were accustomed to jest together
+      over the reckless openness of heart and hand of their young
+      chief.</p>
+
+      <p>"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at
+      least the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
+      restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."</p>
+
+      <p>"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as
+      the aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with
+      an imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on
+      his hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal
+      master. "It goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement
+      of these fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and
+      hunger, that eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at
+      honesty. My royal brother, or those who have the distribution of
+      his graces, is so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than
+      of orders on the treasury of Spain, that money and rations are
+      evermore wanting. If these Protestants persist in their stand
+      against us, I shall have to go forth to all the Catholic cities
+      of the empire, preaching, like Peter the hermit, to obtain
+      contributions from the pious!"</p>
+
+      <p>"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that
+      rebels and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops
+      sent to reduce them to submission."</p>
+
+      <p>"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either
+      the creed or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don
+      John. "But you say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the
+      instructions of my royal brother; whom the Almighty soften with a
+      more Christian spirit in his upholding of the doctrines of
+      Christianity!&mdash;I am bidden to regard myself as in a
+      conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may have felt
+      at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!&mdash;These
+      people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people
+      are the faithful followers of Christ."</p>
+
+      <p>"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and
+      your highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"&mdash;observed
+      Gonzaga with a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg042" id="pg042">042</a></span>fear, indeed,
+      that the Court of the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for
+      such grievances."</p>
+
+      <p>"Gonzaga!"&mdash;exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his
+      horse, and looking his companion full in the face, "these are
+      black and bitter times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles,
+      ay, and even prelates, forget that they are men; or rather that
+      there be men in the world beside themselves."&mdash;Then allowing
+      his charger to resume its caracolling, to give time to his
+      startled friend to recover from the glow of consciousness burning
+      on his cheek,&mdash;he resumed with a less stern inflexion. "It
+      is the vexation of this conviction that hath brought my face to
+      the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the scorching sun of
+      Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of swords or
+      roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in contending,
+      life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
+      battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
+      sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth,
+      and the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the
+      peace of heaven!&mdash;The petty aggravations of daily
+      strife,&mdash;the cold-blooded oppressions of conquest,&mdash;the
+      contest with the peasant for his morsel of bread, or with his
+      chaste wife for her fidelity,&mdash;are so revolting to my
+      conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
+      moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so
+      well of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal
+      father, to some drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days
+      to the snuffling of Capuchins!"</p>
+
+      <p>Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
+      Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this
+      heinous declaration!&mdash;But he contained himself.&mdash;It was
+      his object to work his way still further into the confidence of
+      his royal companion.</p>
+
+      <p>"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French
+      princess to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it
+      afforded from the contemplation of such miseries and such
+      aggressions. I was sick at heart of groans and
+      murmurs,&mdash;weary of the adjustment of grievances. To behold a
+      woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping, was
+      <i>something</i>!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of
+      the brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.</p>
+
+      <p>"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
+      exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's&mdash;her bearing a
+      woman's&mdash;her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the
+      memory of better days to hear the silken robes of her train
+      rustling around me, instead of the customary clang of mail; and
+      merry laughs instead of perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my
+      Walloons!"</p>
+
+      <p>An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
+      Italian.&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to
+      see the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a
+      lap-dog!&mdash;Is it not so?"</p>
+
+      <p>"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial
+      to your highness,"&mdash;replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance.
+      "My smile was occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in
+      feigning as the royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the
+      attempt. There, at least&mdash;and there alone&mdash;is Don John
+      of Austria certain of defeat!"</p>
+
+      <p>"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the
+      air of Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion,"
+      replied the Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first
+      redoubt. The lines of Bouge are before you."</p>
+
+      <p>Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
+      intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of
+      headquarters beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was
+      surrounded by his officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his
+      orders of the day, the able promptitude of one of the first
+      commanders of his time, tempered by the dignified courtesy of a
+      prince of the blood.</p>
+
+      <p>Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical
+      debates carrying on around him, to have further thought of the
+      mysteries into which he was resolved to penetrate.</p>
+
+      <p>It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his
+      <i>état major</i> returned to Namur; invitations having been
+      frankly given by Don John to a <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg043" id="pg043">043</a></span>score of his officers, to an
+      entertainment in honour of the return of his friend.</p>
+
+      <p>Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga
+      entertained little doubt of learning the truth. The rough
+      railleries of such men were not likely to respect so slight a
+      circumvallation as the honour of female reputation; and the
+      glowing vintage of the Moselle and Rhine would bring forth the
+      secret among the bubbles of their flowing tides. And, in truth,
+      scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the potations of these
+      mailed carousers produced deep oaths and uproarious laughter;
+      amid which was toasted the name of Margaret, with the enthusiasm
+      due to one of the originators of the massacre of St Bartholomew,
+      from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the Inquisition
+      of Spain.</p>
+
+      <p>The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in
+      terms scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by
+      such frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
+      restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It
+      seemed an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a
+      matter of indifference in the ears of Don John!</p>
+
+      <p>That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short
+      continuance as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the
+      reviewal of the prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek
+      in his conjectures, resolved to address himself for further
+      information to Nignio; to whom he had brought confidential
+      letters from his family in Spain, and who was an ancient brother
+      in arms.</p>
+
+      <p>Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied
+      by the Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the
+      valley of the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his
+      early rest with a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of
+      news from Madrid.</p>
+
+      <p>But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened
+      his budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own
+      grievances to confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation
+      of having been employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from
+      execrations on the name of the old woman, enriched with all the
+      blasphemies of a trooper's vocabulary,&mdash;it was no difficult
+      matter to glide to the general misdemeanours and malefactions of
+      the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a man of iron,&mdash;bred in
+      camps, with as little of the milk of human kindness in his nature
+      as his royal master King Philip; and it was his devout
+      conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
+      leagues of any Christian encampment,&mdash;and that women were
+      inflicted upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and
+      contamination of the nobler sex.</p>
+
+      <p>"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her
+      maids of honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy
+      sinner for the space of a calendar year!"&mdash;cried he, still
+      harping upon the old woman.</p>
+
+      <p>"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some
+      trouble and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as
+      much as is <i>apparent</i> of your householding, I can scarce
+      imagine how you managed to bestow so courtly a dame here in
+      honour; or with what pastimes you managed to entertain her."</p>
+
+      <p>"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not
+      yet quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came
+      down handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and
+      sister-in-law of the Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the
+      thick-skulled Walloons to respect. It was not <i>money</i> that
+      was wanting&mdash;it was patience. O, these Parisians! Make me
+      monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast garden of the
+      Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the honour of
+      being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
+      travels!"</p>
+
+      <p>Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted
+      in the warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my
+      clear Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a
+      knight as Don John of Austria, your notions are rather those of
+      Mahound or Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to
+      hear you thus bitter against his Dulcinea?"</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>His</i> Dulcinea!"&mdash;ejaculated the aide-de-camp with
+      a air of disgust. "God <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg044" id=
+      "pg044">044</a></span>grant it! For a princess of Valois blood,
+      reared under the teaching of a Medici, had at least the
+      recommendations of nobility and orthodoxy in her favour."</p>
+
+      <p>"As was the case when Anna di Mendoça effected the conquest
+      over his boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal
+      brother!&mdash;But after such proof of the hereditary aspirings
+      of Don John, it would be difficult to persuade me of his
+      highness's derogation."</p>
+
+      <p>"Would <i>I</i> could say as much!"&mdash;exclaimed Nignio,
+      with a groan. "But such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might
+      convince the scepticism of St Thomas!"</p>
+
+      <p>"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections
+      of the prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would
+      you have me infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a
+      dairy wench?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Of <i>worse</i>! of a daughter of the
+      Amalekites!"&mdash;cried Nignio&mdash;stretching out his widely
+      booted legs, as though it were a relief to him to have
+      disburthened himself of his mystery.</p>
+
+      <p>"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
+      Italian,&mdash;no further versed in Scripture history than was
+      the pleasure of his almoner.</p>
+
+      <p>"You are his highness's <i>friend</i>, Gonzaga!" resumed the
+      Spanish captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his
+      heart! I have therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a
+      matter, wherein, from the first, I determined to seek your
+      counteraction. Though seemingly but a straw thrown up into the
+      air, I infer from it a most evil predilection on the part of Don
+      John;&mdash;fatal to himself, to us, his friends, and to the
+      country he represents in Belgium."</p>
+
+      <p>"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion,
+      delighted to come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere
+      matter of a pair of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"</p>
+
+      <p>"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the
+      aide-de-camp&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as
+      for the opening of a fairy legend&mdash;'On a time their lived a
+      king and queen'&mdash;"</p>
+
+      <p>"Will <i>you</i> tell the story, then, or shall
+      I?"&mdash;cried Nignio, impatient of his interruption.</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>Yourself</i>, my pearl of squires! granting me in the
+      first place your pardon for my ill manners."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the
+      best diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess
+      were, first a <i>Te Deum</i> in the cathedral for her safe
+      journey; next, an entertainment of dancing and music at the town
+      hall&mdash;and a gallant affair it was, as far as silver
+      draperies, and garlands of roses, and a blaze of light that
+      seemed to threaten the conflagration of the city, may be taken in
+      praise. The queen had brought with her, as with <i>malice
+      prepense</i>, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
+      court of the Louvre"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I <i>knew</i> it!"&mdash;again interrupted Gonzaga;&mdash;and
+      again did Nignio gravely enquire of him whether (since so well
+      informed) he would be pleased to finish the history in his own
+      way?</p>
+
+      <p>"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his
+      finger on his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the
+      Meuse."</p>
+
+      <p>"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
+      princess,&mdash;this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her
+      mother's cunning and cruelty in her soul,&mdash;to perceive that
+      the Spanish warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first
+      time the assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more
+      struck by the Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of
+      the north, (so antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our
+      sunburned provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her
+      pleasure-worn Parisian belles."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent
+      pledge,) "that there is no greater contrast than between our
+      wild-eyed, glowing Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed
+      daughters of these northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine
+      to sunshine!"</p>
+
+      <p>"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer
+      and milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that,
+      at this moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp
+      for the sake of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg045" id=
+      "pg045">045</a></span>the costly fragile toys called womankind,
+      those jackasses of lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn
+      of Queen Margaret in Belgium, only as having brought forth from
+      their castles in the Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low
+      Country, the indigenous divinities that I would were at this
+      moment at the bottom of their muddy moats, or of the Sambre
+      flowing under yonder window!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"It is one of these Brabançon belles, then, who"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal
+      for breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue
+      in his own way.&mdash;Taking counsel of himself, however, he
+      judged that the shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter
+      manner, so as to set further molestation at defiance.</p>
+
+      <p>"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance
+      foreign to his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball,
+      there appeared among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before
+      the tent of state of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender
+      years seemed to render the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and
+      whose aerial figure appeared to make her sojourn there, or any
+      other spot on earth a matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her
+      fair hair streamed on her shoulders. It was one of the angels of
+      your immortal Titian, <i>minus</i> the wings! Such was, at least,
+      the description given me by Don John, to enable me to ascertain
+      among the Namurrois her name and lineage, for the satisfaction
+      (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been fascinated by
+      her beauty."</p>
+
+      <p>"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the
+      grace and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
+      morning?"&mdash;cried Gonzaga, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"And nearly the same result!&mdash;My answer to the enquiry of
+      his highness was <i>verbatim</i> the same; that the matter was
+      not worth asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so
+      much as of a chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity
+      that had issued from the shade, to fill a place in the royal
+      Coranto, in consequence of the indisposition of one of the noble
+      daughters of the house of Croy. Still, as in the matter of the
+      cow-hunt, his highness had the malice to persist! And next day,
+      instead of allowing me to attend him in his barging with the
+      royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of Brabant, I was
+      dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a pretty child
+      with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly grandam had
+      snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal fête.&mdash;Holy
+      St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!&mdash;I did, as
+      you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
+      with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
+      return, that the bird had fled."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And there was an end of the matter?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness
+      is likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events,
+      the bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal
+      escort, and the payment of all that decency required us to take
+      upon ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time
+      and thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
+      doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over
+      the sufferings of Belgium,&mdash;the lawlessness of the
+      camp&mdash;the former loyalty of the provinces&mdash;the
+      tenderness of conscience of the heretics,&mdash;and the
+      eligibility of forbearance and peace,&mdash;I saw as plain as
+      though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of Satan,
+      that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
+      this snivelling humanity!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
+      burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses
+      and putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to
+      Don John for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks
+      past, I entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at
+      her Louvre, the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place;
+      more especially when he one day proposed to me an exploit
+      savouring more of his days of Lepanto than I had expected at his
+      hands again. Distracted by the false intelligence <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg046" id="pg046">046</a></span>wherewith we
+      were perpetually misled by the Brabançon scouts, Don John
+      determined on a sortie in disguise, towards the intrenchments of
+      the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle. Rumour of the
+      reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the heretics by
+      Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms, rendered
+      him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact cantonments of
+      Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set forward before
+      daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a hunting
+      expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits of
+      civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
+      Sambre towards Gembloux."</p>
+
+      <p>"A mad project!&mdash;But such were ever the delight of our
+      Quixote!"&mdash;cried Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country
+      without obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and
+      before noon, were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the
+      undertaking seemed to restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity
+      of old! He was like a truant schoolboy, that has cheated his
+      pedagogue of a day's bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than
+      those of the stultified natives of these sluggish provinces, had
+      been puzzled to detect under the huge patch that blinded him of
+      an eye, and the slashed sleeve of his sad-coloured suit that
+      showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant host of Queen Margaret!
+      'My soul comes back into me with this gallop across the breezy
+      plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!' cried the
+      Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto! But
+      two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
+      Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
+      allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no
+      better prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king
+      he hath been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with
+      Luxembourg and Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the
+      blessing of his holiness, the banner under which I conquered the
+      infidel, shall, sooner or later, float victorious under this
+      northern sky!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood,
+      halfway through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me
+      we had to cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the
+      ferry-house of this unfrequented track, we found only two
+      sumpter-mules tied to a tree near the hovel, and a boat chained
+      to its stump beside the stream. In answer to our shouts, no
+      vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold the boat-chain was
+      locked, and the current too deep and strong for fording.</p>
+
+      <p>"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a
+      boatman!" cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he
+      gave me to hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to
+      enter the ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch,
+      a young girl, holding her finger to her lips in token of silence,
+      appeared on the threshold!"</p>
+
+      <p>"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
+      pistoles!"&mdash;cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest
+      that made him so mad a truant!"</p>
+
+      <p>"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without
+      noticing the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand,
+      with the deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the
+      house was little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a
+      trifle nearer the porch, not a syllable of their mutual
+      explanation escaped me.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Are you a follower of Don John?'&mdash;was the first demand
+      of the damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the
+      States?'&mdash;the next; to both which questions, a negative was
+      easily returned. After listening to the plea, fluently set forth
+      by the prince, that he was simply a Zealand burgess, travelling
+      on his own errand, and sorely in fear of falling in (God wot)
+      with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel appeared to hail
+      the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing; acquainted him
+      with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own, that she was
+      journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of Brabant,
+      where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
+      companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta
+      within; for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg047" id=
+      "pg047">047</a></span>reaching the wood, the ferryman had
+      undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the venerable
+      chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are
+      in waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'</p>
+
+      <p>"' Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering
+      the military occupation of the province, your present protection
+      is somewhat of the weakest?'&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the
+      open-hearted girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who
+      war not against women and almoners. A more powerful attendance
+      were more likely to provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes
+      the best security.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'<i>Home</i> is a woman's only security in times like
+      these!'&mdash;cried the prince with animation.</p>
+
+      <p>"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young
+      girl, with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been
+      residing with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having
+      had the weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to
+      Namur last summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to
+      the Queen of Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us;
+      and I am sent for home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'</p>
+
+      <p>"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained,
+      more time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could
+      perceive by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats,
+      and were awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the
+      ferryman. The compassion of the silly child was excited by the
+      severe accident which the stranger described as the origin of his
+      fractures and contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive
+      voice and deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a
+      more experienced one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly
+      aspect and indigent apparel."</p>
+
+      <p>"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and
+      the obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
+      Mecklenburgers"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the
+      prince; for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the
+      reconnaissance into which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext,
+      I was not sorry to ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the
+      grounds on which he stood with the enemy. And you should have
+      heard how artfully he contrived to lead her back to the fêtes of
+      Namur; asking, as with the curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole
+      details of the royal entertainments! No small mind had I to rush
+      in and chuck the hussy into the torrent before me, when I heard
+      the little fiend burst forth into the most genuine and
+      enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of the feast,&mdash;'So
+      young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so passing the
+      kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was her
+      frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
+      which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
+      severely visited by her father.</p>
+
+      <p>"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may
+      admire the noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native
+      goodness beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This
+      whole morning hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon)
+      been giving scripture warrant that I have no right to importune
+      heaven with my prayers for the conversion of Don John:&mdash;Yet,
+      as my good aunt justly observes, the great grandson of Mary of
+      Burgundy has his pedestal firm in our hearts, beyond reach of
+      overthrow from all the preachments of the Reformers'"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in
+      to the rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously
+      assailed?"&mdash;cried Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I
+      had the comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend
+      the want of dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity
+      with strangers. To which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was
+      no fault of hers if people wanted to convert a child into a
+      woman!' A moment afterwards and the ferryman and cortège arrived
+      together; and a more glorious figure <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg048" id="pg048">048</a></span>of fun than
+      the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom bestridden a
+      pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
+      exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the
+      ferry, taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which
+      we twain abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in
+      consequence of the strength of the current, it was indispensable
+      to float down some hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite
+      shore.</p>
+
+      <p>"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the
+      precious freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her
+      new and pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!&mdash;as every
+      thing that is evil ordained it,&mdash;behold, the newly-shod
+      palfrey of the pretty Brabançonne, irritated, perhaps, by the
+      clumsy veterinaryship of a village smithy, began suddenly to rear
+      and plunge, and set at defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was
+      held!&mdash;The ass of a ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his
+      aid, let go his oar into the stream; and between the awkwardness
+      of some and the rashness of others, in a moment the whole party
+      were carried round by the eddy of the Dyle!&mdash;The next, and
+      Ulrica was struggling in the waters"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in
+      to her rescue!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take
+      for granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the
+      ferry-house, in restoring to consciousness the exhausted women,
+      half-dead with cold and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of
+      mind produced by such an incident, I expected indeed every moment
+      the self-betrayal of my companion; but <i>that</i> evil we
+      escaped. And when, late in the evening, the party was
+      sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably surprised to
+      find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting the fair
+      Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people were
+      in waiting."</p>
+
+      <p>"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn,
+      rendered it expedient for us to return to Namur with only half
+      the object of his highness accomplished. But the babble of the
+      old chaplain had acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to
+      know,&mdash; namely, the number and disposal of the Statists, and
+      the position taken up by the English auxiliaries."</p>
+
+      <p>"And this second parting from Ulrica?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been
+      the laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she
+      bade adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a
+      tress of her silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle,
+      which she entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he
+      placed upon her finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of
+      Venice, bearing the arms of the republic engraved on the setting;
+      telling her that chance had enabled him to confer an obligation
+      on the governor of the Netherlands; and that, in any strait or
+      peril, that signet, dispatched in his name to Don John of
+      Austria, would command his protection."</p>
+
+      <p>"As I live, a choice romance!&mdash;almost worthy the pages of
+      our matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities
+      but that the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
+      Dyle!&mdash;However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They
+      will meet no more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his
+      daughter under lock and key; and his highness has too much work
+      cut out for him by his rebels, to have time for peeping through
+      the keyhole.&mdash;So now, good-night.&mdash;For love-tales are
+      apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith we must be a-foot by break
+      of day."</p>
+
+      <p>And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him,
+      Ottavio Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing
+      all he had learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state
+      of mind and feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid
+      open to the full and uncongenial investigation of his royal
+      brother of the Escurial. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg049"
+      id="pg049">049</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>Part II.</h3>
+
+      <p>A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of
+      Gembloux, which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of
+      Austria; and constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military
+      glories which binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one
+      of the obscurest of its countries!&mdash;Gembloux, Ramillies,
+      Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within the circuit of a morning's journey,
+      as well as within the circle of eternal renown.</p>
+
+      <p>By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand
+      men-at-arms, their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost
+      to the States. The cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio
+      Gonzaga, performed prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under
+      that of Gaspardo Nignio, equally distinguished itself. But the
+      heat of the action fell upon the main body of the army, which had
+      marched from Namur under the command of Don John; being composed
+      of the Italian reinforcements dispatched to him from Parma by
+      desire of the Pope, under the command of his nephew, Prince
+      Alexander Farnese.</p>
+
+      <p>It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals
+      of the States&mdash;the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of
+      Orange&mdash;retreated in dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of
+      pursuing his advantage with the energy of his usual habits,
+      seemed to derive little satisfaction or encouragement from his
+      victory. It might be, that the difficulty of controlling the
+      predatory habits of the German and Burgundian troops wearied his
+      patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued some new
+      proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
+      desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
+      opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness;
+      for, independent of the engrossing duties of their several
+      commands, the leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his
+      nephew, Alexander Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in
+      age, was almost a brother in affection.</p>
+
+      <p>To him alone were confided the growing cares of his
+      charge&mdash;the increasing perplexities of his mind. To both
+      princes, the name of Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a
+      sacred word; and though Don John had the comfort of knowing that
+      her father, the Count de Cergny, was unengaged in the action of
+      Gembloux, his highness had reason to fear that the regiment of
+      Hainaulters under his command, constituted the garrison of one or
+      other of the frontier fortresses of Brabant, to which it was now
+      his duty to direct the conquering arms of his captains.</p>
+
+      <p>The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
+      Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
+      according to general expectation, effected in the first instance
+      the reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
+      Diest,&mdash;Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next
+      succumbed to their arms&mdash;Maubeuge, Chimay,
+      Barlaimont;&mdash;and, after a severe struggle, the new and
+      beautiful town of Philippeville.</p>
+
+      <p>But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a
+      tremendous carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul
+      sickened. At Sichem, the indignation of the Burgundians against a
+      body of French troops which, after the battle of Gembloux, had
+      pledged itself never again to bear arms against Spain, caused
+      them to have a hundred soldiers strangled by night, and their
+      bodies flung into the moat at the foot of the citadel; after
+      which the town was given up by Prince Alexander to pillage and
+      spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and Leeuw
+      hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
+      while receiving day after day, and week after week, the
+      submission of fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs,
+      the anxious expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to
+      his clemency accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again
+      disappointed!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into
+      utter despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken
+      her. All <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg050" id=
+      "pg050">050</a></span>his endeavours to ascertain the position of
+      the Count de Cergny having availed him nothing, he trusted that
+      the family must be shut up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange
+      and Archduke; but when every night, ere he retired to a soldier's
+      rugged pillow, and pressed his lips to that long fair tress which
+      seemed to ensure the blessings of an angel of purity and peace,
+      the hopes entertained by Don John of tidings of the gentle Ulrica
+      became slighter and still more slight.</p>
+
+      <p>He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and
+      exacting such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as
+      promised to secure protection and respect to the families of all
+      such officers of the insurgent army as might, in any time or
+      place, fall into the hands of the royalists.</p>
+
+      <p>To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely
+      less endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood,
+      and who was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the
+      charge was almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first,
+      his orders to his Italian captains to pursue in all directions
+      their enquiries after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it
+      had become a matter of course to preface their accounts of the
+      day's movements with&mdash;"<i>No</i> intelligence, may it please
+      your highness, of the Count de Cergny!"</p>
+
+      <p>The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his
+      attention; for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was
+      pinned by the military science of the States. But a breach having
+      been made in the walls by the Spanish artillery under the command
+      of Nicolo di Cesi, the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince
+      Alexander, and the Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily
+      forced an entrance; when, in spite of the stanch resistance of
+      the governor, the garrison laid down their arms, and the greater
+      portion of the inhabitants took the oath of fealty to the
+      king.</p>
+
+      <p>Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most
+      desirable; in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma
+      commanded a <i>Te Deum</i> to be sung in the churches, and
+      hastened to render thanks to the God of Battles for an event by
+      which further carnage was spared to either host.</p>
+
+      <p>Escorted by his <i>état major</i>, he had proceeded to the
+      cathedral to join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as
+      he quitted the church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached,
+      bearing despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful
+      attendant of his household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had
+      recently sent with instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general
+      charged with the reduction of the frontier fortresses of
+      Brabant.</p>
+
+      <p>"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous
+      ejaculation of the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then,
+      turning to the officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in
+      a few words, that the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the
+      propositions to surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice
+      of its cannon, had been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and
+      its garrison put to the sword.</p>
+
+      <p>"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these
+      braggarts of Brabant!"&mdash;responded Nignio, who stood at the
+      right hand of Prince Alexander. "The nasal twang of their
+      chaplains seems of late to have overmastered, in their ears, the
+      eloquence of the ordnance of Spain! Yet, i'faith, they might be
+      expected to find somewhat more unction in the preachments of our
+      musketeers than the homilies of either Luther or Calvin!"</p>
+
+      <p>He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged
+      apart in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had
+      respectfully placed in his hands a ring of great cost and
+      beauty.</p>
+
+      <p>"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian
+      republic, may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I
+      judged it better to remit it to your royal keeping."</p>
+
+      <p>"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a
+      sudden flush of emotion.</p>
+
+      <p>"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I
+      took it from the finger of the dead!"</p>
+
+      <p>"And when, and where?"&mdash;exclaimed the prince, drawing him
+      still further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their
+      march to the States' house of Limbourg.</p>
+
+      <p>"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!"
+      said Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg051" id="pg051">051</a></span>fewest words,
+      know that, after seeing the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave
+      and obstinate defence of the banner of the States floating from
+      the walls of his citadel, I did my utmost to induce the Baron de
+      Cevray, whose Burgundians carried the place, to proclaim quarter.
+      For these fellows of Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had
+      fought like dragons,) having lost their head, were powerless; and
+      of what use hacking to pieces an exhausted carcass?&mdash;But our
+      troops were too much exasperated by the insolent resistance and
+      defiance they had experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the
+      conduits ran blood, and shrieks and groans rent the air more
+      cruelly than the previous roar of the artillery. In accordance,
+      however, with the instructions I have ever received from your
+      highness, I pushed my way into all quarters, opposing what
+      authority I might to the brutality of the troopers."</p>
+
+      <p>"Quick, quick!"&mdash;cried Prince Alexander in anxious
+      haste&mdash;"Let me not suppose that the wearer of this ring fell
+      the victim of such an hour?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears
+      were assailed with cries of female distresses:&mdash;nor could I
+      doubt that even <i>that</i> sanctuary (held sacred by our troops
+      of Spain!) had been invaded by the impiety of the German or
+      Burgundian legions!&mdash;As usual, the chief ladies of the town
+      had placed themselves under the protection of the high altar. But
+      there, even there, had they been seized by sacrilegious
+      hands!&mdash;The fame of the rare beauty of the daughter of the
+      governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two daring
+      ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."</p>
+
+      <p>"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the
+      spot?"&mdash;demanded the prince, trembling with emotion. "You
+      dealt upon them the vengeance due?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had
+      already cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest!
+      Snatched from the arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce
+      arm of a German musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian
+      against whom she was wildly but vainly defending herself; had
+      lighted on one of the fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone,
+      the blood of this innocent being, scarce past the age of
+      childhood, was streaming on her assailants; and when, rushing in,
+      I proclaimed, in the name of God and of your highness, quarter
+      and peace, it was an insensible body I rescued from the grasp of
+      pollution!"</p>
+
+      <p>"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more
+      unhappy kinsman!"</p>
+
+      <p>"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by
+      the sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved
+      from their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I
+      bore the insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost
+      skill of our surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it
+      been spared!&mdash;The dying girl was roused only to the
+      endurance of more exquisite torture; and while murmuring a
+      petition for 'mercy&mdash;mercy to her <i>father</i>!' that
+      proved her still unconscious of her family misfortunes, she
+      attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I have had the
+      honour to deliver to your highness:&mdash;faltering with her last
+      breath, 'for <i>his</i> sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to
+      my poor old father!'"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these
+      mournful details.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is at rest, then?"&mdash;said he, after a pause.</p>
+
+      <p>"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince,
+      "and complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of
+      interment that the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the
+      Comte de Cergny!"</p>
+
+      <p>Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips
+      of the faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to
+      the discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the
+      details of that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of
+      horror&mdash;the youth&mdash;the beauty&mdash;the
+      innocence&mdash;the agonies of Ulrica, had touched him to the
+      heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the heart of
+      Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one this
+      rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
+      public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with
+      blood!&mdash; <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg052" id=
+      "pg052">052</a></span> Scarcely a month had elapsed after the
+      storming of Dalem, when a terrible rumour went forth in the camp
+      of Bouge, (where Don John had intrenched his division of the
+      royalist army,) that the governor of the Netherlands was attacked
+      by fatal indisposition!&mdash;For some weeks past, indeed, his
+      strength and spirit had been declining. When at the village of
+      Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry of the
+      wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English troops
+      under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
+      circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
+      attributed to prostration of bodily strength.</p>
+
+      <p>When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had
+      ceded the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret
+      for the origin of his secession superseded every other
+      consideration.</p>
+
+      <p>For the word had gone forth that he was to die!&mdash;In the
+      full vigour of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow
+      had reached Don John of Austria!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
+      prevalent!&mdash;For his leniency towards the Protestants had
+      engendered a suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II.
+      was known to be remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at
+      hand!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From
+      the moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering
+      on his wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and
+      every time he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the
+      groups of veterans praying on their knees for the restoration of
+      the son of their emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling
+      aloud in loyal affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto,
+      tears came into his eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his
+      duties. For he knew that their intercessions were in
+      vain&mdash;that the hours of the sufferer were numbered. In a
+      moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments of the
+      church were administered to the dying prince; having received
+      which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains
+      of the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain,
+      and fidelity to his noble successor in command.</p>
+
+      <p>It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of
+      Lepanto, and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that,
+      towards evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn
+      aside, that he might contemplate for the last time the creation
+      of God!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered
+      in hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body
+      might be borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father.
+      For his eyes were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and
+      his mind upon the glories of the memory of one of the greatest of
+      kings.</p>
+
+      <p>But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason
+      in his troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with
+      fever, his words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused
+      them to sound the trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an
+      onset, he ranged his battalions for an imaginary field of battle,
+      and disposed his manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against
+      the enemy.<sup>18</sup> Then, sinking back upon his pillow, he
+      breathed in subdued accents, "Let me at least avenge her innocent
+      blood. Why, why could I not save thee, my Ulrica!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his
+      heart with a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to
+      consider the murderers of his master) stooped down to lay his
+      callous hand on the heart of the hero, the pulses of life were
+      still!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>There was but one cry throughout the camp&mdash;there was but
+      one thought among his captains:&mdash;"Let the bravest knight of
+      Christendom be laid nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of
+      mail in which he had fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a
+      bier, and borne forth from his tent on the shoulders of the
+      officers of his household. Then, having been saluted by the
+      respect of the whole army, it was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg053" id="pg053">053</a></span>transmitted from post to post
+      through the camp, on those of the colonels of the regiments of
+      all nations constituting the forces of Spain.&mdash;And which of
+      them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the dead lay the
+      love-token of a heretic?&mdash;A double line of troops, infantry
+      and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the camp
+      of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
+      saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those
+      iron soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth,
+      the gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour
+      of glory and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the
+      princes of Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge
+      of Venice, they thought upon his knightly qualities&mdash;his
+      courtesy, generosity, and valour&mdash;till all memory of his
+      illustrious parentage became effaced. They forgot the prince in
+      the man,&mdash;"and behold all Israel mourned for Jonathan!"</p>
+
+      <p>A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the
+      march, till they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was
+      remitted by the royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and
+      La Cros, to the hands of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these
+      it was bourne in state to the cathedral of St Alban; and during
+      the celebration of a solemn mass, deposited at the foot of the
+      high altar till the pleasure of Philip II. should be known
+      concerning the fulfilment of the last request of Don John.</p>
+
+      <p>It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were
+      conveyed to Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated,
+      in return, his permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should
+      share the sepulture of Charles V., and all that now remains to
+      Namur in memory of one of the last of Christian knights, the
+      Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts, who expired in its service and at
+      its gates, is an inscription placed on its high altar by the
+      piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that it afforded a
+      temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
+      AUSTRIA.<sup>19</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
+        prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the
+        authentic details of the interment of one whose posthumous
+        destinies seemed to share the incompleteness of his baffled
+        life. In order to avoid the contestations arising from the
+        transit of a corpse through a foreign state, Nignio di Zuniga
+        (who was charged by Philip with the duty of conveying it to
+        Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.) caused it
+        to be <i>dismembered</i>, and the parts packed in three
+        budgets, (<i>bougettes</i>,) and laid upon packhorses!&mdash;On
+        arriving in Spain, the parts were <i>readjusted with
+        wires!&mdash;"On remplit le corps de bourre</i>," says the old
+        chronicler from which these details are derived, "<i>et ainsi
+        la structure en aiant été comme rétablie, on le revétit de ses
+        armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuyé sur son bâton
+        de général, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect
+        d'un mort si illustre ayant excité quelques larmes, on le porta
+        à l'Escurial dans l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son
+        père</i>."</p>
+
+        <p>Such is the account given in a curious old history
+        (supplementary to those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of
+        the Prince of Parma, published at Amsterdam early in the
+        succeeding century. But a still greater insult has been offered
+        to the memory of one of the last of Christian knights, in
+        Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan d'Autriche," where
+        he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg054" id=
+      "pg054">054</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>No. I.</h3>
+
+      <p>It may be as well to state at the outset, that we have not the
+      most distant intention of laying before the public the whole mass
+      of poetry that flowed from the prolific pen of Goethe, betwixt
+      the days of his student life at Leipsic and those of his final
+      courtly residence at Weimar. It is of no use preserving the whole
+      wardrobe of the dead; we do enough if we possess ourselves of his
+      valuables&mdash;articles of sterling bullion that will at any
+      time command their price in the market&mdash;as to worn-out and
+      threadbare personalities, the sooner they are got rid of the
+      better. Far be it from us, however, to depreciate or detract from
+      the merit of any of Goethe's productions. Few men have written so
+      voluminously, and still fewer have written so well. But the curse
+      of a most fluent pen, and of a numerous auditory, to whom his
+      words were oracles, was upon him; and seventy volumes, more or
+      less, which Cotta issued from his wareroom, are for the library
+      of the Germans now, and for the selection of judicious editors
+      hereafter. A long time must elapse after an author's death,
+      before we can pronounce with perfect certainty what belongs to
+      the trunk-maker, and what pertains to posterity. Happy the
+      man&mdash;if not in his own generation, yet most assuredly in the
+      time to come&mdash;whose natural hesitation or fastidiousness has
+      prompted him to weigh his words maturely, before launching them
+      forth into the great ocean of literature, in the midst of which
+      is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power!</p>
+
+      <p>From the minor poems, therefore, of Goethe, we propose, in the
+      present series, to select such as are most esteemed by competent
+      judges, including, of course, ourselves. We shall not follow the
+      example of dear old Eckermann, nor preface our specimens by any
+      critical remarks upon the scope and tendency of the great
+      German's genius; neither shall we divide his works, as
+      characteristic of his intellectual progress, into eras or into
+      epochs; still less shall we attempt to institute a regular
+      comparison between his merits and those of Schiller, whose finest
+      productions (most worthily translated) have already enriched the
+      pages of this Magazine. We are doubtless ready at all times to
+      back our favourite against the field, and to maintain his
+      intellectual superiority even against his greatest and most
+      formidable rival. We know that he is the showiest, and we feel
+      convinced that he is the better horse of the two; but talking is
+      worse than useless when the course is cleared, and the start
+      about to commence.</p>
+
+      <p>Come forward, then, before the British public, O many-sided,
+      ambidextrous Goethe, as thine own Thomas Carlyle might, or could,
+      or would, or should have termed thee, and let us hear how the
+      mellifluous Teutonic verse will sound when adapted to another
+      tongue. And, first of all&mdash;for we yearn to know
+      it&mdash;tell us how thy inspiration came? A plain answer, of
+      course, we cannot expect&mdash;that were impossible from a
+      German; but such explanation as we can draw from metaphor and
+      oracular response, seems to be conveyed in that favourite and
+      elaborate preface to the poems, which accordingly we may term
+      the</p>
+
+      <h3>INTRODUCTION.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The morning came. Its footsteps scared away</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The gentle sleep that hover'd lightly o'er
+          me;</p>
+
+          <p>I left my quiet cot to greet the day</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And gaily climb'd the mountain-side before
+          me.</p>
+
+          <p>The sweet young flowers! how fresh were they and
+          tender,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Brimful with dew upon the sparkling lea;</p>
+
+          <p>The young day open'd in exulting splendour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And all around seem'd glad to gladden me.
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg055" id=
+          "pg055">055</a></span></p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And, as I mounted, o'er the meadow ground</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A white and filmy essence 'gan to hover;</p>
+
+          <p>It sail'd and shifted till it hemm'd me round,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Then rose above my head, and floated over.</p>
+
+          <p>No more I saw the beauteous scene unfolded&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It lay beneath a melancholy shroud;</p>
+
+          <p>And soon was I, as if in vapour moulded,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Alone, within the twilight of the cloud.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>At once, as though the sun were struggling through,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Within the mist a sudden radiance started;</p>
+
+          <p>Here sunk the vapour, but to rise anew,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There on the peak and upland forest parted.</p>
+
+          <p>O, how I panted for the first clear gleaming,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That after darkness must be doubly bright!</p>
+
+          <p>It came not, but a glory round me beaming,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And I stood blinded by the gush of light.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>A moment, and I felt enforced to look,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">By some strange impulse of the heart's
+          emotion;</p>
+
+          <p>But more than one quick glance I scarce could brook,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For all was burning like a molten ocean.</p>
+
+          <p>There, in the glorious clouds that seem'd to bear her,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A form angelic hover'd in the air;</p>
+
+          <p>Ne'er did my eyes behold vision fairer,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And still she gazed upon me, floating
+          there.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Do'st thou not know me?" and her voice was soft</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As truthful love, and holy calm it sounded.</p>
+
+          <p>"Know'st thou not me, who many a time and oft,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Pour'd balsam in thy hurts when sorest
+          wounded?</p>
+
+          <p>Ah well thou knowest her, to whom for ever</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Thy heart in union pants to be allied!</p>
+
+          <p>Have I not seen the tears&mdash;the wild endeavour</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That even in boyhood brought thee to my
+          side?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Yes! I have felt thy influence oft," I cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And sank on earth before her, half-adoring;</p>
+
+          <p>"Thou brought'st me rest when Passion's lava tide</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Through my young veins like liquid fire was
+          pouring.</p>
+
+          <p>And thou hast fann'd, as with celestial pinions,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In summer's heat my parch'd and fever'd
+          brow;</p>
+
+          <p>Gav'st me the choicest gifts of earth's dominions,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And, save through thee, I seek no fortune
+          now.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I name thee not, but I have heard thee named,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And heard thee styled their own ere now by
+          many;</p>
+
+          <p>All eyes believe at thee their glance is aim'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Though thine effulgence is too great for
+          any.</p>
+
+          <p>Ah! I had many comrades whilst I wander'd&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I know thee now, and stand almost alone:</p>
+
+          <p>I veil thy light, too precious to be squander'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And share the inward joy I feel with none."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Smiling, she said&mdash;"Thou see'st 'twas wise from
+          thee</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To keep the fuller, greater revelation:</p>
+
+          <p>Scarce art thou from grotesque delusions free,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Scarce master of thy childish first
+          sensation;</p>
+
+          <p>Yet deem'st thyself so far above thy brothers,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That thou hast won the right to scorn them!
+          Cease. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg056" id=
+          "pg056">056</a></span></p>
+
+          <p>Who made the yawning gulf 'twixt thee and others?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Know&mdash;know thyself&mdash;live with the
+          world in peace."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Forgive me!" I exclaim'd, "I meant no ill,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Else should in vain my eyes be
+          disenchanted;</p>
+
+          <p>Within my blood there stirs a genial will&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I know the worth of all that thou hast
+          granted.</p>
+
+          <p>That boon I hold in trust for others merely,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Nor shall I let it rust within the ground;</p>
+
+          <p>Why sought I out the pathway so sincerely,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">If not to guide my brothers to the bound?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And as I spoke, upon her radiant face</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Pass'd a sweet smile, like breath across a
+          mirror;</p>
+
+          <p>And in her eyes' bright meaning I could trace</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">What I had answer'd well and what in error,</p>
+
+          <p>She smiled, and then my heart regain'd its lightness,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And bounded in my breast with rapture high:</p>
+
+          <p>Then durst I pass within her zone of brightness,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And gaze upon her with unquailing eye.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Straightway she stretch'd her hand among the thin</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And watery haze that round her presence
+          hover'd;</p>
+
+          <p>Slowly it coil'd and shrunk her grasp within,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And lo! the landscape lay once more
+          uncover'd&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Again mine eye could scan the sparkling meadow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I look'd to heaven, and all was clear and
+          bright;</p>
+
+          <p>I saw her hold a veil without a shadow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That undulated round her in the light.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I know thee!&mdash;all thy weakness, all that yet</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of good within thee lives and glows, I've
+          measured;"</p>
+
+          <p>She said&mdash;her voice I never may forget&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Accept the gift that long for thee was
+          treasured.</p>
+
+          <p>Oh! happy he, thrice-bless'd in earth and heaven,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Who takes this gift with soul serene and
+          true,</p>
+
+          <p>The veil of song, by Truth's own fingers given,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Enwoven of sunshine and the morning dew.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Wave but this veil on high, whene'er beneath</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The noonday fervour thou and thine are
+          glowing,</p>
+
+          <p>And fragrance of all flowers around shall breathe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And the cool winds of eve come freshly
+          blowing.</p>
+
+          <p>Earth's cares shall cease for thee, and all its riot;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where gloom'd the grave, a starry couch be
+          seen;</p>
+
+          <p>The waves of life shall sink in halcyon quiet;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The days be lovely fair, the nights
+          serene."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Come then, my friends, and whether 'neath the load</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of heavy griefs ye struggle on, or whether</p>
+
+          <p>Your better destiny shall strew the road</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">With flowers, and golden fruits that cannot
+          wither,</p>
+
+          <p>United let us move, still forwards striving;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">So while we live shall joy our days illume,</p>
+
+          <p>And in our children's hearts our love surviving</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Shall gladden them, when we are in the
+          tomb.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>This is a noble metaphysical and metaphorical poem, but purely
+      German of its kind. It has been imitated, not to say travestied,
+      at least fifty times, by crazy students and purblind
+      professors&mdash;each of whom, in turn, has had an <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg057" id="pg057">057</a></span>interview with
+      the goddess of nature upon a hill-side. For our own part, we
+      confess that we have no great predilection for such mysterious
+      intercourse, and would rather draw our inspiration from tangible
+      objects, than dally with a visionary Egeria. But the fault is
+      both common and national.</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>The next specimen we shall offer is the far-famed <i>Bride of
+      Corinth</i>. Mrs Austin says of this poem very happily&mdash;"An
+      awful and undefined horror breathes throughout it. In the slow
+      measured rhythm of the verse, and the pathetic simplicity of the
+      diction, there is a solemnity and a stirring spell, which chains
+      the feelings like a deep mysterious strain of music." Owing to
+      the peculiar structure and difficulty of the verse, this poem has
+      hitherto been supposed incapable of translation. Dr Anster, who
+      alone has rendered it into English, found it necessary to depart
+      from the original structure; and we confess that it was not
+      without much labour, and after repeated efforts, that we
+      succeeded in vanquishing the obstacle of the double rhymes. If
+      the German scholar should perceive, that in three stanzas some
+      slight liberties have been taken with the original, we trust that
+      he will perceive the reason, and at least give us credit for
+      general fidelity and close adherence to the text.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.</h3>
+
+      <h4>I.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumber'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Came from Athens: though a stranger there,</p>
+
+        <p>Soon among its townsmen to be number'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For a bride awaits him, young and fair:</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">From their childhood's years</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">They were plighted feres,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">So contracted by their parents' care.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>II.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>But may not his welcome there be hinder'd?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.</p>
+
+        <p>He is still a heathen with his kindred,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">She and her's wash'd in the Christian creed.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When new faiths are born,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Love and troth are torn</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>III.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>All the house is hush'd. To rest retreated</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Father, daughters&mdash;not the mother quite;</p>
+
+        <p>She the guest with cordial welcome greeted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Led him to a room with tapers bright;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Wine and food she brought</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Ere of them he thought,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Then departed with a fair good-night.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>IV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>But he felt no hunger, and unheeded</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Left the wine, and eager for the rest</p>
+
+        <p>Which his limbs, forspent with travel, needed,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On the couch he laid him, still undress'd.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">There he sleeps&mdash;when lo!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Onwards gliding slow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">At the door appears a wondrous guest.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg058" id=
+      "pg058">058</a></span>
+
+      <h4>V.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>By the waning lamp's uncertain gleaming</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">There he sees a youthful maiden stand,</p>
+
+        <p>Robed in white, of still and gentle seeming,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On her brow a black and golden band.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When she meets his eyes,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">With a quick surprise</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Starting, she uplifts a pallid hand.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Is a stranger here, and nothing told me?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Am I then forgotten even in name?</p>
+
+        <p>Ah! 'tis thus within my cell they hold me,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And I now am cover'd o'er with shame!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Pillow still thy head</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">There upon thy bed,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">I will leave thee quickly as I came."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Maiden&mdash;darling! Stay, O stay!" and, leaping</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">From the couch, before her stands the boy:</p>
+
+        <p>"Ceres&mdash;Bacchus, here their gifts are heaping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And thou bringest Amor's gentle joy!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Why with terror pale?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sweet one, let us hail</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">These bright gods&mdash;their festive gifts
+        employ."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Oh, no&mdash;no! Young stranger, come not nigh me;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Joy is not for me, nor festive cheer.</p>
+
+        <p>Ah! such bliss may ne'er be tasted by me,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Since my mother, in fantastic fear,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">By long sickness bow'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">To heaven's service vow'd</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Me, and all the hopes that warm'd me here.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>IX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"They have left our hearth, and left it lonely&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">The old gods, that bright and jocund train.</p>
+
+        <p>One, unseen, in heaven, is worshipp'd only,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And upon the cross a Saviour slain;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sacrifice is here,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Not of lamb nor steer,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">But of human woe and human pain."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>X.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And he asks, and all her words cloth ponder&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">"Can it be, that, in this silent spot,</p>
+
+        <p>I behold thee, thou surpassing wonder!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">My sweet bride, so strangely to me brought?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Be mine only now&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">See, our parents' vow</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Heaven's good blessing hath for us besought."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"No! thou gentle heart," she cried in anguish;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">"'Tis not mine, but 'tis my sister's place;</p>
+
+        <p>When in lonely cell I weep and languish,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Think, oh think of me in her embrace!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">I think but of thee&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Pining drearily,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Soon beneath the earth to hide my face!"</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg059" id=
+      "pg059">059</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Nay! I swear by yonder flame which burneth,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Fann'd by Hymen, lost thou shalt not be;</p>
+
+        <p>Droop not thus, for my sweet bride returneth</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To my father's mansion back with me!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Dearest! tarry here!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Taste the bridal cheer,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For our spousal spread so wondrously!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Then with word and sign their troth they plighted.</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Golden was the chain she bade him wear;</p>
+
+        <p>But the cup he offer'd her she slighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Silver, wrought with cunning past compare.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"That is not for me;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">All I ask of thee</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Is one little ringlet of thy hair."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XIV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Dully boom'd the midnight hour unhallow'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And then first her eyes began to shine;</p>
+
+        <p>Eagerly with pallid lips she swallow'd</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Hasty draughts of purple-tinctured wine;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But the wheaten bread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">As in shuddering dread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Put she always by with loathing sign.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And she gave the youth the cup: he drain'd it,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">With impetuous haste he drain'd it dry;</p>
+
+        <p>Love was in his fever'd heart, and pain'd it,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Till it ached for joys she must deny.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But the maiden's fears</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Stay'd him, till in tears</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On the bed he sank, with sobbing cry.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And she leans above him&mdash;"Dear one, still thee!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Ah, how sad am I to see thee so!</p>
+
+        <p>But, alas! these limbs of mine would chill thee:</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love, they mantle not with passion's glow;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Thou wouldst be afraid,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Didst thou find the maid</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Thou hast chosen, cold as ice or snow."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Round her waist his eager arms he bended,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dashing from his eyes the blinding tear:</p>
+
+        <p>"Wert thou even from the grave ascended,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Come unto my heart, and warm thee here!"</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sweet the long embrace&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"Raise that pallid face;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">None but thou and are watching, dear!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Was it love that brought the maiden thither,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To the chamber of the stranger guest?</p>
+
+        <p>Love's bright fire should kindle, and not wither;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love's sweet thrill should soothe, not torture,
+        rest.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">His impassion'd mood</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Warms her torpid blood,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Yet there beats no heart within her breast.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg060" id=
+      "pg060">060</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XIX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Meanwhile goes the mother, softly creeping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Through the house, on needful cares intent,</p>
+
+        <p>Hears a murmur, and, while all are sleeping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Wonders at the sounds, and what they meant.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Who was whispering so?&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Voices soft and low,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">In mysterious converse strangely blent.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Straightway by the door herself she stations,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">There to be assured what was amiss;</p>
+
+        <p>And she hears love's fiery protestations,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Words of ardour and endearing bliss:</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"Hark, the cock! 'Tis light!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But to-morrow night</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Thou wilt come again?"&mdash;and kiss on
+        kiss.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Quick the latch she raises, and, with features</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Anger-flush'd, into the chamber hies.</p>
+
+        <p>"Are there in my house such shameless creatures,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Minions to the stranger's will?" she cries.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">By the dying light,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Who is't meets her sight?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">God! 'tis her own daughter she espies!</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And the youth in terror sought to cover,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">With her own light veil, the maiden's head,</p>
+
+        <p>Clasp'd her close; but, gliding from her lover,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Back the vestment from her brow she spread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">And her form upright,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">As with ghostly might,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Long and slowly rises from the bed.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Mother! mother! wherefore thus deprive me</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Of such joy as I this night have known?</p>
+
+        <p>Wherefore from these warm embraces drive me?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Was I waken'd up to meet thy frown?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Did it not suffice</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">That, in virgin guise,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To an early grave you brought me down?</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXIV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Fearful is the weird that forced me hither,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">From the dark-heap'd chamber where I lay;</p>
+
+        <p>Powerless are your drowsy anthems, neither</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Can your priests prevail, howe'er they pray.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Salt nor lymph can cool</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Where the pulse is full;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love must still burn on, though wrapp'd in
+        clay.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"To this youth my early troth was plighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Whilst yet Venus ruled within the land;</p>
+
+        <p>Mother! and that vow ye falsely slighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">At your new and gloomy faith's command.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But no God will hear,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">If a mother swear</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Pure from love to keep her daughter's hand.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg061" id=
+      "pg061">061</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XXVI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Nightly from my narrow chamber driven,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Come I to fulfil my destined part,</p>
+
+        <p>Him to seek for whom my troth was given,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And to draw the life blood from his heart.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">He hath served my will;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">More I yet must kill,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For another prey I now depart.</p>
+
+        <h4>XXVII.</h4>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Fair young man! thy thread of life is broken,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Human skill can bring no aid to thee.</p>
+
+        <p>There thou hast my chain&mdash;a ghastly token&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And this lock of thine I take with me.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Soon must thou decay,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Soon wilt thou be gray,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dark although to-night thy tresses be.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXVIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Mother! hear, oh hear my last entreaty!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Let the funeral pile arise once more;</p>
+
+        <p>Open up my wretched tomb for pity,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And in flames our souls to peace restore.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When the ashes glow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When the fire-sparks flow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To the ancient gods aloft we soar."</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>After this most powerful and original ballad, let us turn to
+      something more genial. The three following poems are exquisite
+      specimens of the varied genius of our author; and we hardly know
+      whether to prefer the plaintive beauty of the first, or the light
+      and sportive brilliancy of the other twain.</p>
+
+      <h3>FIRST LOVE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me back the day,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">So beautiful, so bright!</p>
+
+          <p>Those days when love first bore my heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Aloft on pinions light?</p>
+
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me but an hour</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of that delightful time,</p>
+
+          <p>And wake in me again the power</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That fired my golden prime?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>I nurse my wound in solitude,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I sigh the livelong day,</p>
+
+          <p>And mourn the joys, in wayward mood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That now are pass'd away.</p>
+
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me back the days</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of that delightful time,</p>
+
+          <p>And wake in me again the blaze</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That fired my golden prime?</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg062" id=
+      "pg062">062</a></span>
+
+      <h3>WHO'LL BUY A CUPID?</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Of all the wares so pretty</p>
+
+          <p>That come into the city,</p>
+
+          <p>There's none are so delicious,</p>
+
+          <p>There's none are half so precious,</p>
+
+          <p>As those which we are binging.</p>
+
+          <p>O, listen to our singing!</p>
+
+          <p>Young loves to sell! young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>First look you at the oldest,</p>
+
+          <p>The wantonest, the boldest!</p>
+
+          <p>So loosely goes he hopping,</p>
+
+          <p>From tree and thicket dropping,</p>
+
+          <p>Then flies aloft as sprightly&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>We dare but praise him lightly!</p>
+
+          <p>The fickle rogue! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Now see this little creature&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>How modest seems his feature!</p>
+
+          <p>He nestles so demurely,</p>
+
+          <p>You'd think him safer surely;</p>
+
+          <p>And yet for all his shyness,</p>
+
+          <p>There's danger in his slyness!</p>
+
+          <p>The cunning rogue! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Oh come and see this lovelet,</p>
+
+          <p>This little turtle-dovelet!</p>
+
+          <p>The maidens that are neatest,</p>
+
+          <p>The tenderest and sweetest,</p>
+
+          <p>Should buy it to amuse 'em,</p>
+
+          <p>And nurse it in their bosom.</p>
+
+          <p>The little pet! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>We need not bid you buy them,</p>
+
+          <p>They're here, if you will try them.</p>
+
+          <p>They like to change their cages;</p>
+
+          <p>But for their proving sages</p>
+
+          <p>No warrant will we utter&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>They all have wings to flutter.</p>
+
+          <p>The pretty birds! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>Such beauties! Come and buy!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>SECOND LIFE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>After life's departing sigh,</p>
+
+          <p>To the spots I loved most dearly,</p>
+
+          <p>In the sunshine and the shadow,</p>
+
+          <p>By the fountain welling clearly,</p>
+
+          <p>Through the wood and o'er the meadow,</p>
+
+          <p>Flit I like a butterfly.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name=
+          "pg063" id="pg063">063</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>There a gentle pair I spy.</p>
+
+          <p>Round the maiden's tresses flying,</p>
+
+          <p>From her chaplet I discover</p>
+
+          <p>All that I had lost in dying,</p>
+
+          <p>Still with her and with her lover.</p>
+
+          <p>Who so happy then as I?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>For she smiles with laughing eye;</p>
+
+          <p>And his lips to hers he presses,</p>
+
+          <p>Vows of passion interchanging,</p>
+
+          <p>Stifling her with sweet caresses,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er her budding beauties ranging;</p>
+
+          <p>And around the twain I fly.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And she sees me fluttering nigh;</p>
+
+          <p>And beneath his ardour trembling,</p>
+
+          <p>Starts she up&mdash;then off I hover.</p>
+
+          <p>"Look there, dearest!" Thus dissembling,</p>
+
+          <p>Speaks the maiden to her lover&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Come and catch that butterfly!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>In the days of his boyhood, and of Monk Lewis, Sir Walter
+      Scott translated the Erl King, and since then it has been a kind
+      of assay-piece for aspiring German students to thump and hammer
+      at will. We have heard it sung so often at the piano by
+      soft-voiced maidens, and hirsute musicians, before whose roaring
+      the bull of Phalaris might be dumb, that we have been accustomed
+      to associate it with stiff white cravats, green tea, and a
+      superabundance of lemonade. But to do full justice to its
+      unearthly fascination, one ought to hear it chanted by night in a
+      lonely glade of the Schwartzwald or Spessart forest, with the
+      wind moaning as an accompaniment, and the ghostly shadows of the
+      branches flitting in the moonlight across the path.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE ERL KING.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Who rides so late through the grisly night?</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis a father and child, and he grasps him tight;</p>
+
+          <p>He wraps him close in his mantle's fold,</p>
+
+          <p>And shelters the boy from the biting cold.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"My son, why thus to my arm dost cling?"</p>
+
+          <p>"Father, dost thou not see the Erlie-king?</p>
+
+          <p>The king with his crown and long black train!"</p>
+
+          <p>"My son, 'tis a streak of the misty rain! "</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Come hither, thou darling! come, go with me!</p>
+
+          <p>Fair games know I that I'll play with thee;</p>
+
+          <p>Many bright flowers my kingdoms hold!</p>
+
+          <p>My mother has many a robe of gold!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O father, dear father and dost thou not hear</p>
+
+          <p>What the Erlie-king whispers so low in mine ear?"</p>
+
+          <p>"Calm thee, my boy, 'tis only the breeze</p>
+
+          <p>Rustling the dry leaves beneath the trees!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Wilt thou go, bonny boy! wilt thou go with me?</p>
+
+          <p>My daughters shall wait on thee daintilie;</p>
+
+          <p>My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,</p>
+
+          <p>And rock thee, and kiss thee, and sing thee to
+          sleep!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg064" id=
+          "pg064">064</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O father, dear father! and dost thou not mark</p>
+
+          <p>Erlie-king's daughters move by in the dark?"</p>
+
+          <p>"I see it, my child; but it is not they,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis the old willow nodding its head so grey!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I love thee! thy beauty charms me quite;</p>
+
+          <p>And if thou refusest, I'll take thee by might!"</p>
+
+          <p>"O father, dear father! he's grasping me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>My heart is as cold as cold can be!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The father rides swiftly&mdash;with terror he
+          gasps&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>The sobbing child in his arms he clasps;</p>
+
+          <p>He reaches the castle with spurring and dread;</p>
+
+          <p>But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Who has not heard of Mignon?&mdash;sweet, delicate little
+      Mignon?&mdash;the woman-child, in whose miniature, rather than
+      portrait, it is easy to trace the original of fairy Fenella? We
+      would that we could adequately translate the song, which in its
+      native German is so exquisitely plaintive, that few can listen to
+      it without tears. This poem, it is almost needless to say, is
+      anterior in date to Byron's Bride of Abyos</p>
+
+      <h3>MIGNON.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the land where the pale citron grows,</p>
+
+          <p>And the gold orange through dark foliage glows?</p>
+
+          <p>A soft wind flutters from the deep blue sky,</p>
+
+          <p>The myrtle blooms, and towers the laurel high.</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O there with thee!</p>
+
+          <p>O that I might, my own beloved one, flee!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the house? On pillars rest its beams,</p>
+
+          <p>Bright is its hall, in light one chamber gleams,</p>
+
+          <p>And marble statues stand, and look on me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>What have they done, thou hapless child, to thee?</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O there with thee!</p>
+
+          <p>O that I might, my loved protector, flee!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the track that o'er the mountain goes,</p>
+
+          <p>Where the mule threads its way through mist and snows,</p>
+
+          <p>Where dwelt in caves the dragon's ancient brood,</p>
+
+          <p>Topples the crag, and o'er it roars the flood.</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O come with me!</p>
+
+          <p>There lies our road&mdash;oh father, let us flee!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>In order duly to appreciate the next ballad, you must fancy
+      yourself (if you cannot realize it) stretched on the grass, by
+      the margin of a mighty river of the south, rushing from or
+      through an Italian lake, whose opposite shore you cannot descry
+      for the thick purple haze of heat that hangs over its glassy
+      surface. If you lie there for an hour or so, gazing into the
+      depths of the blue unfathomable sky, till the fanning of the warm
+      wind and the murmur of the water combine to throw you into a
+      trance, you will be able to enjoy <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg065" id="pg065">065</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>THE FISHER.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The water rush'd and bubbled by&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">An angler near it lay,</p>
+
+          <p>And watch'd his quill, with tranquil eye,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Upon the current play.</p>
+
+          <p>And as he sits in wasteful dream,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">He sees the flood unclose,</p>
+
+          <p>And from the middle of the stream</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A river-maiden rose.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>She sang to him with witching wile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"My brood why wilt thou snare,</p>
+
+          <p>With human craft and human guile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To die in scorching air?</p>
+
+          <p>Ah! didst thou know how happy we</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Who dwell in waters clear,</p>
+
+          <p>Thou wouldst come down at once to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And rest for ever here.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"The sun and ladye-moon they lave</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Their tresses in the main,</p>
+
+          <p>And breathing freshness from the wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Come doubly bright again.</p>
+
+          <p>The deep blue sky, so moist and clear,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Hath it for thee no lure?</p>
+
+          <p>Does thine own face not woo thee down</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Unto our waters pure?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The water rush'd and bubbled by&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It lapp'd his naked feet;</p>
+
+          <p>He thrill'd as though he felt the touch</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of maiden kisses sweet.</p>
+
+          <p>She spoke to him, she sang to him&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Resistless was her strain&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Half-drawn, he sank beneath the wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And ne'er was seen again.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Our next extract smacks of the Troubadours, and would have
+      better suited good old King René of Provence than a Paladin of
+      the days of Charlemagne. Goethe has neither the eye of Wouverman
+      nor Borgognone, and sketches but an indifferent battle-piece.
+      Homer was a stark moss-trooper, and so was Scott; but the Germans
+      want the cry of "boot and saddle" consumedly. However, the
+      following is excellent in its way.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE MINSTREL.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"What sounds are those without, along</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The drawbridge sweetly stealing?</p>
+
+          <p>Within our hall I'd have that song,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That minstrel measure, pealing."</p>
+
+          <p>Then forth the little foot-page hied;</p>
+
+          <p>When he came back, the king he cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Bring in the aged minstrel!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Good-even to you, lordlings all;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Fair ladies all, good-even.</p>
+
+          <p>Lo, star on star within this hall</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I see a radiant heaven.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg066" id="pg066">066</a></span>
+
+          <p>In hall so bright with noble light,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis not for thee to feast thy sight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Old man, look not around thee!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He closed his eyne, he struck his lyre</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In tones with passion laden,</p>
+
+          <p>Till every gallant's eye shot fire,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And down look'd every maiden.</p>
+
+          <p>The king, enraptured with his strain,</p>
+
+          <p>Held out to him a golden chain,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In guerdon of his harping.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"The golden chain give not to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For noble's breast its glance is,</p>
+
+          <p>Who meets and beats thy enemy</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Amid the shock of lances.</p>
+
+          <p>Or give it to thy chancellere&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Let him its golden burden bear,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Among his other burdens.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I sing as sings the bird, whose note</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The leafy bough is heard on.</p>
+
+          <p>The song that falters from my throat</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For me is ample guerdon.</p>
+
+          <p>Yet I'd ask one thing, an I might,</p>
+
+          <p>A draught of brave wine, sparkling bright</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Within a golden beaker!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The cup was brought. He drain'd its lees,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"O draught that warms me cheerly!</p>
+
+          <p>Blest is the house where gifts like these</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Are counted trifles merely.</p>
+
+          <p>Lo, when you prosper, think on me,</p>
+
+          <p>And thank your God as heartily</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As for this draught I thank you!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>We intend to close the present Number with a very graceful,
+      though simple ditty, which Goethe may possibly have altered from
+      the Morlachian, but which is at all events worthy of his genius.
+      Previously, however, in case any of the ladies should like
+      something sentimental, we beg leave to present them with as nice
+      a little <i>chansonette</i> as ever was transcribed into an
+      album.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE VIOLET.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>A violet blossom'd on the lea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Half hidden from the eye,</p>
+
+          <p>As fair a flower as you might see;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">When there came tripping by</p>
+
+          <p>A shepherd maiden fair and young,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Lightly, lightly o'er the lea;</p>
+
+          <p>Care she knew not, and she sung</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Merrily!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O were I but the fairest flower</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That blossoms on the lea;</p>
+
+          <p>If only for one little hour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That she might gather me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Clasp me in her bonny breast!"</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Thought the little flower.</p>
+
+          <p>"O that in it I might rest</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But an hour!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name=
+          "pg067" id="pg067">067</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Lack-a-day! Up came the lass,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Heeded not the violet;</p>
+
+          <p>Trod it down into the grass;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Though it died, 'twas happy yet.</p>
+
+          <p>"Trodden down although I lie,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Yet my death is very sweet&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>For I cannot choose but die</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">At her feet!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>THE DOLEFUL LAY OF THE NOBLE WIFE OF ASAN AGA.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>What is yon so white beside the greenwood?</p>
+
+          <p>Is it snow, or flight of cygnets resting?</p>
+
+          <p>Were it snow, ere now it had been melted;</p>
+
+          <p>Were it swans, ere now the flock had left us.</p>
+
+          <p>Neither snow nor swans are resting yonder,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis the glittering tents of Asan Aga.</p>
+
+          <p>Faint he lies from wounds in stormy battle;</p>
+
+          <p>There his mother and his sisters seek him,</p>
+
+          <p>But his wife hangs back for shame, and comes not.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the anguish of his hurts was over,</p>
+
+          <p>To his faithful wife he sent this message&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Longer 'neath my roof thou shalt not tarry,</p>
+
+          <p>Neither in my court nor in my household."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the lady heard this cruel sentence,</p>
+
+          <p>'Reft of sense she stood, and rack'd with anguish:</p>
+
+          <p>In the court she heard the horses stamping,</p>
+
+          <p>And in fear that it was Asan coming,</p>
+
+          <p>Fled towards the tower, to leap and perish.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Then in terror ran her little daughters,</p>
+
+          <p>Calling after her, and weeping sorely,</p>
+
+          <p>"These are not the steeds of Father Asan;</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis thy brother Pintorovich coming!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And the wife of Asan turn'd to meet him;</p>
+
+          <p>Sobbing, threw her arms around her brother.</p>
+
+          <p>"See the wrongs, O brother, of thy sister!</p>
+
+          <p>These five babes I bore, and must I leave them?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Silently the brother from his girdle</p>
+
+          <p>Draws the ready deed of separation,</p>
+
+          <p>Wrapp'd within a crimson silken cover.</p>
+
+          <p>She is free to seek her mother's dwelling&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Free to join in wedlock with another.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the woful lady saw the writing,</p>
+
+          <p>Kiss'd she both her boys upon the forehead,</p>
+
+          <p>Kiss'd on both the cheeks her sobbing daughters;</p>
+
+          <p>But she cannot tear herself for pity</p>
+
+          <p>From the infant smiling in the cradle!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Rudely did her brother tear her from it,</p>
+
+          <p>Deftly lifted her upon a courser,</p>
+
+          <p>And in haste, towards his father's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Spurr'd he onward with the woful lady.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Short the space; seven days, but barely seven&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Little space I ween&mdash;by many nobles</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg068" id="pg068">068</a></span>
+
+          <p>Was the lady&mdash;still in weeds of mourning&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Was the lady courted in espousal.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Far the noblest was Imoski's cadi;</p>
+
+          <p>And the dame in tears besought her brother&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"I adjure thee, by the life thou bearest,</p>
+
+          <p>Give me not a second time in marriage,</p>
+
+          <p>That my heart may not be rent asunder</p>
+
+          <p>If again I see my darling children!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Little reck'd the brother of her bidding,</p>
+
+          <p>Fix'd to wed her to Imoski's cadi.</p>
+
+          <p>But the gentle lady still entreats him&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Send at least a letter, O my brother!</p>
+
+          <p>To Imoski's cadi, thus imploring&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>I, the youthful widow, greet thee fairly,</p>
+
+          <p>And entreat thee, by this selfsame token,</p>
+
+          <p>When thou comest hither with thy bridesmen,</p>
+
+          <p>Bring a heavy veil, that I may shroud me</p>
+
+          <p>As we pass along by Asan's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>So I may not see my darling orphans."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Scarcely had the cadi read the letter,</p>
+
+          <p>When he call'd together all his bridesmen,</p>
+
+          <p>Boune himself to bring the lady homewards,</p>
+
+          <p>And he brought the veil as she entreated.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Jocundly they reach'd the princely mansion,</p>
+
+          <p>Jocundly they bore her thence in triumph;</p>
+
+          <p>But when they drew near to Asan's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Then the children recognized their mother,</p>
+
+          <p>And they cried, "Come back unto thy chamber&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Share the meal this evening with thy children;"</p>
+
+          <p>And she turn'd her to the lordly bridegroom&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Pray thee, let the bridesmen and their horses</p>
+
+          <p>Halt a little by the once-loved dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Till I give these presents to my children."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And they halted by the once-loved dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>And she gave the weeping children presents,</p>
+
+          <p>Gave each boy a cap with gold embroider'd,</p>
+
+          <p>Gave each girl a long and costly garment,</p>
+
+          <p>And with tears she left a tiny mantle</p>
+
+          <p>For the helpless baby in the cradle.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>These things mark'd the father, Asan Aga,</p>
+
+          <p>And in sorrow call'd he to his children&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Turn again to me, ye poor deserted;</p>
+
+          <p>Hard as steel is now your mother's bosom;</p>
+
+          <p>Shut so fast, it cannot throb with pity!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thus he spoke; and when the lady heard him,</p>
+
+          <p>Pale as death she dropp'd upon the pavement,</p>
+
+          <p>And the life fled from her wretched bosom</p>
+
+          <p>As she saw her children turning from her.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg069" id=
+      "pg069">069</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MY FIRST LOVE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>A SKETCH IN NEW YORK.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Margaret, where are you?" cried a silver-toned voice from a
+      passage outside the drawing-room in which I had just seated
+      myself. The next instant a lovely face appeared at the door, its
+      owner tripped into the room, made a comical curtsy, and ran up to
+      her sister.</p>
+
+      <p>"It is really too bad, Margaret; pa' frets and bustles about,
+      nearly runs over me upon the stairs, and then goes down the
+      street as if 'Change were on fire. Ma' yawns, and will not hear
+      of our going shopping, and grumbles about money&mdash;always
+      money&mdash;that horrid money! Ah! dear Margaret, our shopping
+      excursion is at an end for to-day!"</p>
+
+      <p>Sister Margaret, to whom this lamentation was addressed, was
+      reclining on the sofa, her left hand supporting her head, her
+      right holding the third volume of a novel. She looked up with a
+      languishing and die-away expression&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Poor Staunton will be in despair," said her sister. "This is
+      at least his tenth turn up and down the Battery. Last night he
+      was a perfect picture of misery. I could not have had the heart
+      to refuse to dance with him. How could you be so cruel,
+      Margaret?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas!" replied Margaret with a deep sigh, "how could I help
+      it? Mamma was behind me, and kept pushing me with her elbow.
+      Mamma is sometimes very ill-bred." And another sigh burst from
+      the overcharged heart of the sentimental fair one.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well," rejoined her sister, "I don't know why she so terribly
+      dislikes poor Staunton; but to say the truth, our gallopade lost
+      nothing by his absence. He is as stiff as a Dutch doll when he
+      dances. Even our Louisianian backwoodsman here, acquits himself
+      much more creditably."</p>
+
+      <p>And the malicious girl gave me such an arch look, that I could
+      not be angry with the equivocal sort of compliment paid to
+      myself.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is very unkind, Arthurine," said Margaret, her checks
+      glowing with anger at this attack upon the graces of her
+      admirer.</p>
+
+      <p>"Don't be angry, sister," cried Arthurine, running up to her,
+      throwing her arms round her neck, and kissing and soothing her
+      till she began to smile. They formed a pretty group. Arthurine
+      especially, as she skipped up to her sister, scarce touching the
+      carpet with her tiny feet, looked like a fairy or a nymph. She
+      was certainly a lovely creature, slender and flexible as a reed,
+      with a waist one could easily have spanned with one's ten
+      fingers; feet and hands on the very smallest scale, and of the
+      most beautiful mould; features exquisitely regular; a complexion
+      of lilies and roses; a small graceful head, adorned with a
+      profusion of golden hair; and then large round clear blue eyes,
+      full of mischief and fascination. She was, as the French say,
+      <i>à croquer</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>"Heigho!" sighed the sentimental Margaret. "To think of this
+      vulgar, selfish man intruding himself between me and such a noble
+      creature as Staunton! It is really heart-breaking."</p>
+
+      <p>"Not quite so bad as that!" said Arthurine. "Moreland, as you
+      know, has a good five hundred thousand dollars; and Staunton has
+      nothing, or at most a couple of thousand dollars a-year&mdash;a
+      mere feather in the balance against such a golden weight."</p>
+
+      <p>"Love despises gold," murmured Margaret.</p>
+
+      <p>"Nonsense!" replied her sister; "I would not even despise
+      silver, if it were in sufficient quantity. Only think of the
+      balls and parties, the fêtes and pic-nics! Saratoga in the
+      summer&mdash;perhaps even London or Paris! The mere thought of it
+      makes my mouth water."</p>
+
+      <p>"Talk not of such joys, to be bought at such a price!" cried
+      Margaret, quoting probably from some of her favourite novels.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, don't make yourself unhappy now," said Arthurine.
+      "Moreland will not be here till tea-time; and there are six long
+      hours to that. If we had only a few new novels to <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg070" id="pg070">070</a></span>pass the time!
+      I cannot imagine why Cooper is so lazy. Only one book in a year!
+      What if you were to begin to write, sister? I have no doubt you
+      would succeed as well as Mrs Mitchell. Bulwer is so fantastical;
+      and even Walter Scott is getting dull."</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas, Howard!" sighed Margaret, looking to me for sympathy
+      with her sorrows.</p>
+
+      <p>"Patience, dear Margaret," said I. "If possible, I will help
+      you to get rid of the old fellow. At any rate, I will try."</p>
+
+      <p>Rat-tat-tat at the house door. Arthurine put up her finger to
+      enjoin silence, and listened. Another loud knock. "A visit!"
+      exclaimed she with sparkling eyes. "Ha! ladies; I hear the rustle
+      of their gowns." And as she spoke the door opened, and the Misses
+      Pearce came swimming into the room, in all the splendour of
+      violet-coloured silks, covered with feathers, lace, and
+      embroideries, and bringing with them an atmosphere of
+      perfume.</p>
+
+      <p>The man who has the good fortune to see our New York belles in
+      their morning or home attire, must have a heart made of quartz or
+      granite if he resists their attractions. Their graceful forms,
+      their intellectual and somewhat languishing expression of
+      countenance, their bright and beaming eyes, their slender
+      figures, which make one inclined to seize and hold them lest the
+      wind should blow them away, their beautifully delicate hands and
+      feet, compose a sum of attraction perfectly irresistible. The
+      Boston ladies are perhaps better informed, and their features are
+      usually more regular; but they have something Yankeeish about
+      them, which I could never fancy, and, moreover, they are dreadful
+      blue-stockings. The fair Philadelphians are rounder, more
+      elastic, more Hebe-like, and unapproachable in the article of
+      small-talk; but it is amongst the beauties of New York that
+      romance writers should seek for their Julias and Alices. I am
+      certain that if Cooper had made their acquaintance whilst writing
+      his books, he would have torn up his manuscripts, and painted his
+      heroines after a less wooden fashion. He can only have seen them
+      on the Battery or in Broadway, where they are so buried and
+      enveloped in finery that it is impossible to guess what they are
+      really like. The two young ladies who had just entered the room,
+      were shining examples of that system of over-dressing. They
+      seemed to have put on at one time the three or four dresses worn
+      in the course of the day by a London or Paris fashionable.</p>
+
+      <p>It was now all over with my <i>tête-à-tête</i>. I could only
+      be <i>de trop</i> in the gossip of the four ladies, and I
+      accordingly took my leave. As I passed before the parlour door on
+      my way out, it was opened, and Mrs Bowsends beckoned me in. I
+      entered, and found her husband also there.</p>
+
+      <p>"Are you going away already, my dear Howard?" said the
+      lady.</p>
+
+      <p>"There are visitors up stairs."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah, Howard!" said Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"The workies<sup>20</sup> have carried the day," growled her
+      husband.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>20: The slang term applied to the mechanics and labourers, a
+        numerous and (at elections especially) a most important class
+        in New York and Philadelphia.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"That horrid Staunton!" interrupted his better half. "Only
+      think now'&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Our side lost&mdash;completely floored. But you've heard of
+      it, I suppose, Mister Howard?"</p>
+
+      <p>I turned from one to the other in astonished perplexity, not
+      knowing to which I ought to listen first.</p>
+
+      <p>"I don't know how it is," whined the lady, "but that Mr
+      Staunton becomes every day more odious to me. Only think now, of
+      his having the effrontery to persist in running after Margaret!
+      Hardly two thousand a-year "&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Old Hickory is preparing to leave Hermitage
+      already.<sup>21</sup> Bank shares have fallen half per cent in
+      consequence," snarled her husband.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>21: The name of General Jackson's country-house and
+        estate.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>They were ringing the changes on poor Staunton and the new
+      president.</p>
+
+      <p>"He ought to remember the difference of our positions," said
+      Mrs B., drawing herself up with much dignity.</p>
+
+      <p>"Certainly, certainly!" said I. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg071" id="pg071">071</a></span>"And the governor's election is
+      also going desperate bad," said Mr Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"And then Margaret, to think of her infatuation! Certainly she
+      is a good, gentle creature; but five hundred thousand dollars!"
+      This was Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"By no means to be despised," said I.</p>
+
+      <p>The five hundred thousand dollars touched a responsive chord
+      in the heart of the papa.</p>
+
+      <p>"Five hundred thousand," repeated he. "Yes, certainly; but
+      what's the use of that? All nonsense. Those girls would ruin a
+      Croesus."</p>
+
+      <p>"You need not talk, I'm sure," retorted mamma. "Think of all
+      your bets and electioneering."</p>
+
+      <p>"You understand nothing about that," replied her husband
+      angrily. "Interests of the country&mdash;congress&mdash;public
+      good&mdash;must be supported. Who would do it if we"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Did not bet," thought I.</p>
+
+      <p>"You are a friend of the family," said Mrs Bowsends, "and I
+      hope you will"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Apropos," interrupted her loving husband. "How has your
+      cotton crop turned out? You might consign it to me. How many
+      bales?"</p>
+
+      <p>"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."</p>
+
+      <p>"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa
+      musingly; "hm, hm."</p>
+
+      <p>"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital
+      in my hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred
+      another year."</p>
+
+      <p>"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened
+      approvingly. "That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a
+      good girl. We'll see, my dear Mr Howard&mdash;we'll see. Yes,
+      yes&mdash;come here every evening&mdash;whenever you like. You
+      know Arthurine is always glad to see you."</p>
+
+      <p>"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling
+      graciously.</p>
+
+      <p>I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
+      nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends'
+      last speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate
+      father-in-law that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets
+      with my cotton bales; and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at
+      the selfishness of my species, and more especially at the stupid
+      impudent egotism of Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him.
+      To all such, even their children are nothing but so many bales of
+      goods, to be bartered, bought, and sold. And this man belongs to
+      the <i>haut-ton</i> of New York! Five-and-twenty years ago he
+      went about with a tailor's measure in his pocket&mdash;now a
+      leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees and
+      directorships.</p>
+
+      <p>But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely
+      face, the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and
+      that is not saying a little, but the most elegant,
+      charming&mdash;a perfect sylph! It was now about eleven months
+      since I had first become acquainted with the bewitching creature;
+      and, from the very first day, I had been her vassal, her slave,
+      bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida. She had just
+      left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by the by, is
+      one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes itself
+      upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
+      fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
+      danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected
+      upon the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right
+      well how to work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet;
+      but not one out of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he
+      had received a smile or a look more than his fellows. I was the
+      only one who had perhaps obtained a sort of passive preference. I
+      was allowed to escort her in her rides, walks, and drives; to be
+      her regular partner when no other dancer offered, and suchlike
+      enviable privileges. She flirted and fluttered about me, and hung
+      familiarly on my arm, as she tripped along Broadway or the
+      Battery by my side. In addition to all these little marks of
+      preference, it fell to my share of duty to supply her with the
+      newest novels, to furnish her with English Keepsakes and American
+      Tokens and Souvenirs, and to provide the last fashionable songs
+      and quadrilles. All this had cost me no small sum; but I consoled
+      myself with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg072" id=
+      "pg072">072</a></span>the reflection, that my presents were made
+      to the prettiest girl in New York, and that sooner or later she
+      must reward my assiduities. Twice had fortune smiled upon me; in
+      one instance, when we were standing on the bridge at Niagara,
+      looking down on the foaming waters, and I was obliged to put my
+      arm round her waist, for fear she should become dizzy and fall
+      in&mdash;in doing which, by the by, I very nearly fell in myself.
+      A similar thing occurred on a visit we made to the Trenton falls.
+      That was all I had got for my pains, however, during the eleven
+      months that I had trifled away in New York&mdash;months that had
+      served to lighten my purse pretty considerably. It is the fashion
+      in our southern states to choose our wives from amongst the
+      beauties of the north. I had been bitten by the mania, and had
+      come to New York upon this important business; but having been
+      there nearly a year, it was high time to make an end of matters,
+      if I did not wish to be put on the shelf as stale goods.</p>
+
+      <p>This last reflection occurred to me very strongly as I was
+      walking from the Bowsends' house towards Wall Street, when
+      suddenly I caught sight of my fellow-sufferer Staunton. The
+      Yankee's dolorous countenance almost made me smile. Up he came,
+      with the double object of informing me that the weather was very
+      fine, and of offering me a bite at his pigtail tobacco. I could
+      not help expressing my astonishment that so sensitive and
+      delicate a creature as Margaret should tolerate such a habit in
+      the man of her choice.</p>
+
+      <p>"Pshaw!" replied the simpleton. "Moreland chews also."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, but he has got five hundred thousand dollars, and that
+      sweetens the poison."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah!" sighed Staunton.</p>
+
+      <p>"Keep up your courage, man; Bowsends is rich."</p>
+
+      <p>The Yankee shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"Two hundred thousand, they say; but to-morrow he may not have
+      a farthing. You know our New Yorkers. Nothing but bets,
+      elections, shares, railways, banks. His expenses are enormous;
+      and, if he once got his daughters off his hands, he would perhaps
+      fail next week."</p>
+
+      <p>"And be so much the richer next year," replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Do you think so?" said the Yankee, musingly.</p>
+
+      <p>"Of course it would be so. Mean time you can marry the
+      languishing Margaret, and do like many others of your fellow
+      citizens; go out with a basket on your arm to the Greenwich
+      market, and whilst your delicate wife is enjoying her morning
+      slumber, buy the potatoes and salted mackerel for breakfast. In
+      return for that, she will perhaps condescend to pour you out a
+      cup of bohea. Famous thing that bohea! capital antidote to the
+      dyspepsia!"</p>
+
+      <p>"You are spiteful," said poor Staunton.</p>
+
+      <p>"And you foolish," I retorted. "To a young barrister like you,
+      there are hundreds of houses open."</p>
+
+      <p>"And to you also."</p>
+
+      <p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+      <p>"And then I have this advantage&mdash;the girl likes me."</p>
+
+      <p>"I am liked by the papa and the mamma, and the girl too."</p>
+
+      <p>"Have you got five hundred thousand dollars?"</p>
+
+      <p>"No."</p>
+
+      <p>"Poor Howard!" cried Staunton, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Go to the devil!" replied I, laughing also.</p>
+
+      <p>We had been chatting in this manner for nearly a quarter of an
+      hour, when a coach drove out of Greenwich Street, in which I saw
+      a face that I thought I knew. One of the Philadelphia steamers
+      had just arrived. I stepped forward.</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop!" cried a well-known voice.</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop!" cried I, hastening to the coach door.</p>
+
+      <p>It was Richards, my school and college friend, and my
+      neighbour, after the fashion of the southern states; for he lived
+      only about a hundred and seventy miles from me. I said good-by to
+      poor simple Staunton, got into the coach, and we rattled off
+      through Broadway to the American hotel.</p>
+
+      <p>"For heaven's sake, George!" exclaimed my friend, as soon as
+      we were installed in a room, "tell me what you are doing here.
+      Have you quite forgotten house, land, and <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg073" id="pg073">073</a></span>friends? You
+      have been eleven months away."</p>
+
+      <p>"True," replied I; "making love&mdash;and not a step further
+      advanced than the first."</p>
+
+      <p>"The report is true, then, that you have been harpooned by the
+      Bowsends? Poor fellow! I am sorry for you. Just tell me what you
+      mean to do with the dressed-up doll when you get her? A young
+      lady who has not enough patience even to read her novels from
+      beginning to end, and who, before she was twelve years old, had
+      Tom Moore and Byron, <i>Don Juan</i> perhaps excepted, by heart.
+      A damsel who has geography and the globes, astronomy and Cuvier,
+      Raphael's cartoons and Rossini's operas, at her finger-ends; but
+      who, as true as I am alive, does not know whether a mutton chop
+      is cut off a pig or a cow&mdash;who would boil tea and
+      cauliflowers in the same manner, and has some vague idea that
+      eggs are the principal ingredient in a gooseberry pie."</p>
+
+      <p>"I want her for my wife, not for my cook," retorted I, rather
+      nettled.</p>
+
+      <p>"Who does not know," continued Richards, "whether dirty linen
+      ought to be boiled or baked."</p>
+
+      <p>"But she sings like St Cecilia, plays divinely, and dances
+      like a fairy."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, all that will do you a deal of good. I know the family;
+      both father and mother are the most contemptible people
+      breathing."</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop there!" cried I; "they are not one iota better or worse
+      than their neighbours."</p>
+
+      <p>"You are right."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, then, leave them in peace. I have promised to drink tea
+      there at six o'clock. If you will come, I will take you with
+      me."</p>
+
+      <p>"Know then already, man. I will go, on one condition; that you
+      leave New York with me in three days."</p>
+
+      <p>"If my marriage is not settled," replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;d fool!" muttered Richards between his
+      teeth.</p>
+
+      <p>Six o'clock struck as we entered the drawing-room of my future
+      mother-in-law. The good lady almost frightened me as I went in,
+      by her very extraordinary appearance in a tremendous grey gauze
+      turban, fire-new, just arrived by the Henri Quatre packet-ship
+      from Havre, and that gave her exactly the look of one of our
+      Mississippi night-owls. Richards seemed a little startled; and
+      Moreland, who was already there, could not take his eyes off this
+      remarkable head-dress. Miss Margaret was costumed in pale green
+      silk, her hair flattened upon each side of her forehead <i>a la
+      Marguerite</i>, (see the <i>Journal des Modes,</i>) and looking
+      like Jephtha's daughter, pale and resigned, but rather more
+      lackadaisical, with a sort of "though-absent-not-forgot" look
+      about her, inexpressibly sentimental and interesting. The
+      contrast was certainly rather strong between old Moreland, who
+      sat there, red-faced, thickset, and clumsy, and the airy slender
+      Staunton, who, for fear of spoiling his figure, lived upon
+      oysters and macaroon, and drank water with a rose leaf in it.</p>
+
+      <p>I had brought the languishing beauty above described, Scott's
+      <i>Tales of my Grandfather</i>, which had just appeared.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah! Walter Scott!" exclaimed she, in her pretty melting
+      tones. Then, after a moment's pause, "The vulgar man has not a
+      word to say for himself;" said she to me, in a low tone.</p>
+
+      <p>"Wait a little," replied I; "he'll improve. It is no doubt his
+      modest timidity that keeps his lips closed."</p>
+
+      <p>Margaret gave me a furious look.</p>
+
+      <p>"Heartless mocker!" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+      <p>Meanwhile Richards had got into conversation with Bowsends.
+      The unlucky dog, who did not know that his host was a violent
+      Adams-ite, and had lost a good five thousand dollars in bets and
+      subscriptions to influence the voices of the sovereign people at
+      the recent election, had fallen on the sore subject. He began by
+      informing his host that Old Hickory would shortly leave the
+      Hermitage to assume his duties as president.</p>
+
+      <p>"The blood-thirsty backwoodsman, half horse, half alligator"
+      interrupted Mr Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"Costs you dear, his election," said Moreland laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Smokes out of a tobacco pipe like a vulgar German,"
+      ejaculated Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"Not so very vulgar for that," said blundering Moreland;
+      "tobacco has quite another taste out of a pipe."</p>
+
+      <p>I gave him a tremendous dig in the back with my elbow.
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg074" id="pg074">074</a></span>
+      "Do you smoke out of a tobacco pipe, Mr Moreland?" enquired
+      Margaret in her flute-like tones.</p>
+
+      <p>Moreland stared; he had a vague idea that he had got himself
+      into a scrape, but his straightforward honesty prevented him from
+      prevaricating, and he blurted out&mdash;"Sometimes, miss."</p>
+
+      <p>I thought the sensitive creature would have swooned away at
+      this admission; and I had just laid my arm over the back of her
+      chair to support her, when Arthurine entered the room. She gave a
+      quick glance to me; it was too late to draw back my arm. She did
+      not seem to notice any thing, saluted the company gaily and
+      easily, tripped up to Moreland, wished him good
+      evening&mdash;asked after his bets, his ships, his old dog
+      Tom&mdash;chattered, in short, full ten minutes in a breath.
+      Before Moreland knew what she was about, she had taken one of his
+      hands in both of hers. But they were old acquaintances, and he
+      might easily have been her grandfather. Meanwhile Margaret had
+      somewhat recovered from the shock.</p>
+
+      <p>"He smokes out of a pipe!" lisped she to Arthurine, in a tone
+      of melancholy resignation.</p>
+
+      <p>"Old Hickory is very popular in Pennsylvania," said Richards,
+      resuming the conversation that had been interrupted, and
+      perfectly unconscious, as Moreland would have said, of the shoals
+      he was sailing amongst. "A Bedford County farmer has just sent
+      him a present of a cask of Monongahela."</p>
+
+      <p>"I envy him that present," cried Moreland. "A glass of genuine
+      Monongahela is worth any money."</p>
+
+      <p>This second shock was far too violent to be resisted by
+      Margaret's delicate nerves. She sank back in her chair, half
+      fainting, half hysterical. Her maids were called in, and with
+      their help she managed to leave the room.</p>
+
+      <p>"Have you brought her a book?" said Arthurine to me.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, one of Walter Scott's."</p>
+
+      <p>"Oh! then she will soon be well again," rejoined the
+      affectionate sister, apparently by no means alarmed.</p>
+
+      <p>Now that this nervous beauty was gone, the conversation became
+      much more lively. Captain Moreland was a jovial sailor, who had
+      made ten voyages to China, fifteen to Constantinople, twenty to
+      St Petersburg, and innumerable ones to Liverpool and through his
+      exertions had amassed the large fortune which he was now
+      enjoying. He was a merry-hearted man, with excellent sound sense
+      on all points except one&mdash;that one being the fair sex, with
+      which he was about as well acquainted as an alligator with a
+      camera-obscure. The attentions paid to him by Arthurine seemed to
+      please the old bachelor uncommonly. There was a mixture of
+      kindness, malice, and fascination in her manner, which was really
+      enchanting; even the matter-of-fact Richards could not take his
+      eyes off her.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is certainly a charming girl!" whispered he to me.</p>
+
+      <p>"Did not I tell you so?" said I. "Only observe with what
+      sweetness she gives in to the old man's humours and fancies!"</p>
+
+      <p>The hours passed like minutes. Supper was long over, and we
+      rose to depart; when I shook hands with Arthurine, she pressed
+      mine gently. I was in the ninety-ninth heaven.</p>
+
+      <p>"Now, boys," cried worthy Moreland, as soon as we were in the
+      streets, "it would really be a pity to part so early on so joyous
+      an evening. What do you say? Will you come to my house, and knock
+      the necks off half a dozen bottles?"</p>
+
+      <p>We agreed to this proposal; and, taking the old seaman between
+      us, steered in the direction of his cabin, as he called his
+      magnificent and well-furnished house.</p>
+
+      <p>"What a delightful family those Bowsends are!" exclaimed
+      Moreland, as soon as we were comfortably seated beside a blazing
+      fire, with the Lafitte and East India Madeira sparkling on the
+      table beside us. "And what charming girls! 'You're getting
+      oldish,' says I to myself the other day, 'but you're still fresh
+      and active, sound as a dolphin. Better get married.' Margaret
+      pleased me uncommonly, so I"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, my dear Moreland," interrupted I, "but are you sure that
+      you please her?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Pshaw! Five times a hundred thousand dollars! I tell you
+      what, my lad, that's not to be met with every day."</p>
+
+      <p>"Fifty years old," replied I. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg075" id="pg075">075</a></span> "Certainly, fifty years old,
+      but stout and healthy; none of your spindle-shanked
+      dandies&mdash;your Stauntons"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>But Staunton smokes cigars, and not Dutch pipes."</p>
+
+      <p>"I give that up. For Miss Margaret's sake, I'll burn my nose
+      and mouth with those damned stumps of cigars."</p>
+
+      <p>"Drinks no whisky," continued I. "He is president of a
+      temperance society."</p>
+
+      <p>"The devil fly away with him!" growled Moreland; "I wouldn't
+      give up my whisky for all the girls in the world."</p>
+
+      <p>"If you don't, she'll always be fainting away," replied I,
+      laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah! It's because I talked of the Monongahela that she began
+      with her hystericals, and went away for all the evening! That's
+      where the wind sits, is it? Well, you may depend I ain't to be
+      done out of my grog at any rate."</p>
+
+      <p>And he backed his assertion with an oath, swallowing off the
+      contents of his glass by way of a clincher. We sat joking and
+      chatting till past midnight during which time I flattered myself
+      that I gave evidence of considerable diplomatic talents. As we
+      were returning home, however, Richards doubted whether I had not
+      driven the old boy rather too hard</p>
+
+      <p>"No matter," replied I, "if I have only succeeded in ridding
+      poor Margaret of him."</p>
+
+      <p>Cool, calculating Richards shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"I don't know what may come of it," said he; "but I do not
+      think you are likely to find much gratitude for your
+      interference."</p>
+
+      <p>The next day was taken up in arranging matters of business
+      consequent on the arrival of Richards. At least ten times I tried
+      to go and see Arthurine, but was always prevented by something or
+      other; and it was past tea-time when I at last got to the
+      Bowsends' house. I found Margaret in the drawing-room, deep in a
+      new novel.</p>
+
+      <p>"Where is Arthurine?" I enquired.</p>
+
+      <p>"At the theatre, with mamma and Mr Moreland," was the
+      answer.</p>
+
+      <p>"At the theatre!" repeated I in astonishment. They were
+      playing Tom and Jerry, a favourite piece with the enlightened
+      Kentuckians. I had seen the first scene or two at the New Orleans
+      theatre, and had had quite enough of it.</p>
+
+      <p>"That really <i>is</i> sacrificing herself!" said I,
+      considerably out of humour.</p>
+
+      <p>"The noble girl!" exclaimed Margaret. "Mr Moreland came to
+      tea, and urged us so much to go"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"That she could not help going, to be bored and disgusted for
+      a couple of hours."</p>
+
+      <p>"She went for my sake," said Margaret sentimentally. "Mamma
+      would have one of us go."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, that is it," thought I. Jealousy would have been
+      ridiculous. He fifty years old, she seventeen. I left the house,
+      and went to find Richards.</p>
+
+      <p>"What! Back so early?" cried he.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is gone to the theatre with her mamma and Moreland."</p>
+
+      <p>Richards shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"You put a wasp's nest into the old fellow's brain-pan
+      yesterday," said he. "Take care you do not get stung
+      yourself."</p>
+
+      <p>"I should like to see how she looks by his side," said I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, I will go with you. The sooner you are cured the
+      better. But only for ten minutes."</p>
+
+      <p>There was certainly no temptation to remain longer in that
+      atmosphere of whisky and tobacco fumes. It was at the Bowery
+      theatre. The light swam as though seen through a thick fog; and a
+      perfect shower of orange and apple peel, and even less agreeable
+      things, rained down from the galleries. Tom and Jerry were in all
+      their glory. I looked round the boxes, and soon saw the charming
+      Arthurine, apparently perfectly comfortable, chatting with old
+      Moreland as gravely, and looking as demure and self-possessed, as
+      if she had been a married woman of thirty.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is a prudent young lady," said Richards; "she has an eye
+      to the dollars, and would marry Old Hickory himself, spite of
+      whisky and tobacco pipe, if he had more money, and were to ask
+      her."</p>
+
+      <p>I said nothing.</p>
+
+      <p>"If you weren't such an infatuated fool," continued my
+      plain-spoken friend, I would say to you, let her take her own
+      way, and the day after to-morrow we will leave New York."</p>
+
+      <p>"One week more," said I, with an uneasy feeling about the
+      heart. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg076" id=
+      "pg076">076</a></span> At seven the next evening I entered what
+      had been my Elysium, but was now, little by little, becoming my
+      Tartarus. Again I found Margaret alone over a romance. "And
+      Arthurine?" enquired I, in a voice that might perhaps have been
+      steadier.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is gone with mamma and Mr Moreland to hear Miss Fanny
+      Wright."</p>
+
+      <p>"To hear Miss Fanny Wright! the atheist, the revolutionist!
+      What a mad fancy! Who would ever have dreamed of such a
+      thing!"</p>
+
+      <p>This Miss Fanny Wright was a famous lecturess, of the Owenite
+      school, who was shunned like a pestilence by the fashionable
+      world of New York.</p>
+
+      <p>"Mr Moreland," answered Margaret, "said so much about her
+      eloquence that Arthurine's curiosity was roused."</p>
+
+      <p>"Indeed!" replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Oh! you do not know what a noble girl she is. For her sister
+      she would sacrifice her life. My only hope is in her."</p>
+
+      <p>I snatched up my hat, and hurried out of the house.</p>
+
+      <p>The next morning I got up, restless and uneasy; and eleven
+      o'clock had scarcely struck when I reached the Bowsends' house.
+      This time both sisters were at home; and as I entered the
+      drawing-room, Arthurine advanced to meet me with a beautiful
+      smile upon her face. There was nevertheless a something in the
+      expression of her countenance that made me start. I pressed her
+      hand. She looked tenderly at me.</p>
+
+      <p>"I hope you have been amusing yourself these last two days,"
+      said I after a moment's pause.</p>
+
+      <p>"Novelty has a certain charm," replied Arthurine. "Yet I
+      certainly never expected to become a disciple of Miss Fanny
+      Wright," added she, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Really! I should have thought the transition from Tom and
+      Jerry rather an easy one."</p>
+
+      <p>"A little more respect for Tom and Jerry, whom <i>we</i>
+      patronize&mdash;that is to say, Mr Moreland and our high
+      mightiness," replied Arthurine, trying, as I fancied, to conceal
+      a certain confusion of manner under a laugh.</p>
+
+      <p>"I should scarcely have thought my Arthurine would have become
+      a party to such a conspiracy against good taste," replied I
+      gravely.</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>My</i> Arthurine!" repeated she, laying a strong accent on
+      the pronoun possessive. "Only see what rights and privileges the
+      gentleman is usurping! We live in a free country, I believe?"</p>
+
+      <p>There was a mixture of jest and earnest in her charming
+      countenance. I looked enquiringly at her.</p>
+
+      <p>"Do you know," cried she, "I have taken quite a fancy to
+      Moreland? He is so good-natured, such a sterling character, and
+      his roughness wears off when one knows him well."</p>
+
+      <p>"And moreover," added I, "he has five hundred thousand
+      dollars."</p>
+
+      <p>"Which are by no means the least of his recommendations. Only
+      think of the balls, Howard! I hope you will come to them. And
+      then Saratoga; next year London and Paris. Oh! it will be
+      delightful."</p>
+
+      <p>"What, so far gone already?" said I, sarcastically.</p>
+
+      <p>"And poor Margaret is saved!" added she, throwing her arms
+      round her sister's neck, and kissing and caressing her. I hardly
+      knew whether to laugh or to cry.</p>
+
+      <p>"Then, I suppose, I may congratulate you?" said I, forcing a
+      laugh, and looking, I have no doubt, very like a fool.</p>
+
+      <p>You may so," replied Arthurine. "This morning Mr Moreland
+      begged permission to transfer his addresses from Margaret to your
+      very humble servant."</p>
+
+      <p>"And you?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"We naturally, in consideration of the petitioner's many
+      amiable qualities, have promised to take the request into our
+      serious consideration. For decorum's sake, you know, one must
+      deliberate a couple of days or so."</p>
+
+      <p>"Are you in jest or earnest, Arthurine?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Quite in earnest, Howard."</p>
+
+      <p>"Farewell, then!"</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"'Fare-thee-well! and if for ever</p>
+
+        <p>Still for ever fare-thee-well!'"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>said Arthurine, in a half-laughing, half-sighing tone. The
+      next instant I had left the room.</p>
+
+      <p>On the stairs I met the beturbaned Mrs Bowsends, who led the
+      way mysteriously into the parlour.</p>
+
+      <p>"You have seen Arthurine?" said <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg077" id="pg077">077</a></span>she. "What a dear, darling
+      child!&mdash;is she not? Oh! that girl is our joy and
+      consolation. And Mr Moreland&mdash;the charming Mr Moreland! Now
+      that things are arranged so delightfully, we can let Margaret
+      have her own way a little."</p>
+
+      <p>"What I have heard is true, then?" said I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes; as an old friend I do not mind telling you&mdash;though
+      it must still remain a secret for a short time. Mr Moreland has
+      made a formal proposal to Arthurine."</p>
+
+      <p>I do not know what reply I made, before flinging myself out of
+      the room and house, and running down the street as if I had just
+      escaped from a lunatic asylum.</p>
+
+      <p>"Richards," cried I to my friend, "shall we start
+      tomorrow?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Thank God!" exclaimed Richards. "So you are cured of the New
+      York fever? Start! Yes, by all means, before you get a relapse.
+      You must come with me to Virginia for a couple of months."</p>
+
+      <p>"I will so," was my answer.</p>
+
+      <p>As we were going down to the steam-boat on the following
+      morning, Staunton overtook us, breathless with speed and
+      delight.</p>
+
+      <p>"Wish me joy!" cried he. "I am accepted!"</p>
+
+      <p>"And I jilted!" replied I with a laugh. "But I am not such a
+      fool as to make myself unhappy about a woman."</p>
+
+      <p>Light words enough, but my heart was heavy as I spoke them.
+      Five minutes later, we were on our way to Virginia.</p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>HYDRO-BACCHUS.</h2>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Great Homer sings how once of old</p>
+
+          <p>The Thracian women met to hold</p>
+
+          <p>To "Bacchus, ever young and fair,"</p>
+
+          <p>Mysterious rites with solemn care.</p>
+
+          <p>For now the summer's glowing face</p>
+
+          <p>Had look'd upon the hills of Thrace;</p>
+
+          <p>And laden vines foretold the pride</p>
+
+          <p>Of foaming vats at Autumn tide.</p>
+
+          <p>There, while the gladsome Evöe shout</p>
+
+          <p>Through Nysa's knolls rang wildly out,</p>
+
+          <p>While cymbal clang, and blare of horn,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er the broad Hellespont were borne;</p>
+
+          <p>The sounds, careering far and near,</p>
+
+          <p>Struck sudden on Lycurgus' ear&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Edonia's grim black-bearded lord,</p>
+
+          <p>Who still the Bacchic rites abhorr'd,</p>
+
+          <p>And cursed the god whose power divine</p>
+
+          <p>Lent heaven's own fire to generous wine.</p>
+
+          <p>Ere yet th' inspired devotees</p>
+
+          <p>Had half performed their mysteries,</p>
+
+          <p>Furious he rush'd amidst the band,</p>
+
+          <p>And whirled an ox-goad in his hand.</p>
+
+          <p>Full many a dame on earth lay low</p>
+
+          <p>Beneath the tyrant's savage blow;</p>
+
+          <p>The rest, far scattering in affright,</p>
+
+          <p>Sought refuge from his rage in flight.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>But the fell king enjoy'd not long</p>
+
+          <p>The triumph of his impious wrong:</p>
+
+          <p>The vengeance of the god soon found him,</p>
+
+          <p>And in a rocky dungeon bound him.</p>
+
+          <p>There, sightless, chain'd, in woful tones</p>
+
+          <p>He pour'd his unavailing groans,</p>
+
+          <p>Mingled with all the blasts that shriek</p>
+
+          <p>Round Athos' thunder-riven peak.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg078" id="pg078">078</a></span>
+
+          <p>O Thracian king! how vain the ire</p>
+
+          <p>That urged thee 'gainst the Bacchic choir</p>
+
+          <p>The god avenged his votaries well&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Stern was the doom that thee befell;</p>
+
+          <p>And on the Bacchus-hating herd</p>
+
+          <p>Still rests the curse thy guilt incurr'd.</p>
+
+          <p>For the same spells that in those days</p>
+
+          <p>Were wont the Bacchanals to craze&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>The maniac orgies, the rash vow,</p>
+
+          <p>Have fall'n on thy disciples now.</p>
+
+          <p>Though deepest silence dwells alone,</p>
+
+          <p>Parnassus, on thy double cone;</p>
+
+          <p>To mystic cry, through fell and brake,</p>
+
+          <p>No more Cithaeron's echoes wake;</p>
+
+          <p>No longer glisten, white and fleet,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er the dark lawns of Taÿgete,</p>
+
+          <p>The Spartan virgin's bounding feet:</p>
+
+          <p>Yet Frenzy still has power to roll</p>
+
+          <p>Her portents o'er the prostrate soul.</p>
+
+          <p>Though water-nymphs must twine the spell</p>
+
+          <p>Which once the wine-god threw so well&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Changed are the orgies now, 'tis true,</p>
+
+          <p>Save in the madness of the crew.</p>
+
+          <p>Bacchus his votaries led of yore</p>
+
+          <p>Through woodland glades and mountains hoar;</p>
+
+          <p>While flung the Maenad to the air</p>
+
+          <p>The golden masses of her hair,</p>
+
+          <p>And floated free the skin of fawn,</p>
+
+          <p>From her bare shoulder backward borne.</p>
+
+          <p>Wild Nature, spreading all her charms,</p>
+
+          <p>Welcomed her children to her arms;</p>
+
+          <p>Laugh'd the huge oaks, and shook with glee,</p>
+
+          <p>In answer to their revelry;</p>
+
+          <p>Kind Night would cast her softest dew</p>
+
+          <p>Where'er their roving footsteps flew;</p>
+
+          <p>So bright the joyous fountains gush'd,</p>
+
+          <p>So proud the swelling rivers rush'd,</p>
+
+          <p>That mother Earth they well might deem,</p>
+
+          <p>With honey, wine, and milk, for them</p>
+
+          <p>Most bounteously had fed the stream.</p>
+
+          <p>The pale moon, wheeling overhead,</p>
+
+          <p>Her looks of love upon them shed,</p>
+
+          <p>And pouring forth her floods of light,</p>
+
+          <p>With all the landscape blest their sight.</p>
+
+          <p>Through foliage thick the moonshine fell,</p>
+
+          <p>Checker'd upon the grassy dell;</p>
+
+          <p>Beyond, it show'd the distant spires</p>
+
+          <p>Of skyish hills, the world's grey sires;</p>
+
+          <p>More brightly beam'd, where far away,</p>
+
+          <p>Around his clustering islands, lay,</p>
+
+          <p>Adown some opening vale descried,</p>
+
+          <p>The vast Aegean's waveless tide.</p>
+
+          <p>What wonder then, if Reason's power</p>
+
+          <p>Fail'd in each reeling mind that hour,</p>
+
+          <p>When their enraptured spirits woke</p>
+
+          <p>To Nature's liberty, and broke</p>
+
+          <p>The artificial chain that bound them,</p>
+
+          <p>With the broad sky above, and the free winds around
+          them!</p>
+
+          <p>From Nature's overflowing soul,</p>
+
+          <p>That sweet delirium on them stole;</p>
+
+          <p>She held the cup, and bade them share</p>
+
+          <p>In draughts of joy too deep to bear.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg079" id="pg079">079</a></span>
+
+          <p>Not such the scenes that to the eyes</p>
+
+          <p>Of water-Bacchanals arise;</p>
+
+          <p>Whene'er the day of festival</p>
+
+          <p>Summons the Pledged t' attend its call&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>In long procession to appear,</p>
+
+          <p>And show the world how good they are.</p>
+
+          <p>Not theirs the wild-wood wanderings,</p>
+
+          <p>The voices of the winds and springs:</p>
+
+          <p>But seek them where the smoke-fog brown</p>
+
+          <p>Incumbent broods o'er London town;</p>
+
+          <p>'Mid Finsbury Square ruralities</p>
+
+          <p>Of mangy grass, and scrofulous trees;</p>
+
+          <p>'Mid all the sounds that consecrate</p>
+
+          <p>Thy street, melodious Bishopsgate!</p>
+
+          <p>Not by the mountain grot and pine,</p>
+
+          <p>Haunts of the Heliconian Nine:</p>
+
+          <p>But where the town-bred Muses squall</p>
+
+          <p>Love-verses in an annual;</p>
+
+          <p>Such muses as inspire the grunt</p>
+
+          <p>Of Barry Cornwall, and Leigh Hunt.</p>
+
+          <p>Their hands no ivy'd thyrsus bear,</p>
+
+          <p>No Evöe floats upon the air:</p>
+
+          <p>But flags of painted calico</p>
+
+          <p>Flutter aloft with gaudy show;</p>
+
+          <p>And round then rises, long and loud,</p>
+
+          <p>The laughter of the gibing crowd.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>O sacred Temp'rance! mine were shame</p>
+
+          <p>If I could wish to brand thy name.</p>
+
+          <p>But though these dullards boast thy grace,</p>
+
+          <p>Thou in their orgies hast no place.</p>
+
+          <p>Thou still disdain'st such sorry lot,</p>
+
+          <p>As even below the soaking sot.</p>
+
+          <p>Great was high Duty's power of old</p>
+
+          <p>The empire o'er man's heart to hold;</p>
+
+          <p>To urge the soul, or check its course,</p>
+
+          <p>Obedient to her guiding force.</p>
+
+          <p>These own not her control, but draw</p>
+
+          <p>New sanction for the moral law,</p>
+
+          <p>And by a stringent compact bind</p>
+
+          <p>The independence of the mind&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>As morals had gregarious grown,</p>
+
+          <p>And Virtue could not stand alone.</p>
+
+          <p>What need they rules against abusing?</p>
+
+          <p>They find th' offence all in the using.</p>
+
+          <p>Denounce the gifts which bounteous Heaven</p>
+
+          <p>To cheer the heart of man has given;</p>
+
+          <p>And think their foolish pledge a band</p>
+
+          <p>More potent far than God's command.</p>
+
+          <p>On this new plan they cleverly</p>
+
+          <p>Work morals by machinery;</p>
+
+          <p>Keeping men virtuous by a tether,</p>
+
+          <p>Like gangs of negroes chain'd together.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Then, Temperance, if thus it be,</p>
+
+          <p>They know no further need of thee.</p>
+
+          <p>This pledge usurps thy ancient throne&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Alas! thy occupation's gone!</p>
+
+          <p>From earth thou may'st unheeded rise,</p>
+
+          <p>And like Astræa&mdash;seek the skies.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg080" id=
+      "pg080">080</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MARTIN LUTHER.</h2>
+
+      <h3>AN ODE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Who sits upon the Pontiff's throne?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">On Peter's holy chair</p>
+
+          <p>Who sways the keys? At such a time</p>
+
+          <p>When dullest ears may hear the chime</p>
+
+          <p>Of coming thunders&mdash;when dark skies</p>
+
+          <p>Are writ with crimson prophecies,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A wise man should be there;</p>
+
+          <p>A godly man, whose life might be</p>
+
+          <p>The living logic of the sea;</p>
+
+          <p>One quick to know, and keen to feel&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>A fervid man, and full of zeal,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Should sit in Peter's chair.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Alas! no fervid man is there,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">No earnest, honest heart;</p>
+
+          <p>One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,</p>
+
+          <p>Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;</p>
+
+          <p>One who can trim the courtier's smile,</p>
+
+          <p>Or weave the diplomatic wile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But knows no deeper art;</p>
+
+          <p>One who can dally with fair forms,</p>
+
+          <p>Whom a well-pointed period warms&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>No man is he to hold the helm</p>
+
+          <p>Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And creaking timbers start.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>In vain did Julius pile sublime</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The vast and various dome,</p>
+
+          <p>That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,</p>
+
+          <p>And the huge Flavian wonder, hide</p>
+
+          <p>Their heads in shame&mdash;these gilded stones</p>
+
+          <p>(O heaven!) were very blood and bones</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of those whom Christ did come</p>
+
+          <p>To save&mdash;vile grin of slaves who sold</p>
+
+          <p>Celestial rights for earthy gold,</p>
+
+          <p>Marketing grace with merchant's measure,</p>
+
+          <p>To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The pride of purple Rome.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The measure of her sins is full,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The scarlet-vested whore!</p>
+
+          <p>Thy murderous and lecherous race</p>
+
+          <p>Have sat too long i' the holy place;</p>
+
+          <p>The knife shall lop what no drug cures,</p>
+
+          <p>Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The monstrous mockery more.</p>
+
+          <p>Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord:</p>
+
+          <p>Mine elect warrior girds the sword&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>A nameless man, a miner's son,</p>
+
+          <p>Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And pale the painted whore!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Poor fishermen before</p>
+
+          <p>To preach my gospel to the poor;</p>
+
+          <p>A pauper boy from door to door</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg081" id="pg081">081</a></span>
+
+          <p>That piped his hymn. By his strong word</p>
+
+          <p>The startled world shall now be stirr'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As with a lion's roar!</p>
+
+          <p>A lonely monk that loved to dwell</p>
+
+          <p>With peaceful host in silent cell;</p>
+
+          <p>This man shall shake the Pontiff's throne:</p>
+
+          <p>Him Kings and emperors shall own,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And stout hearts wince before</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The eye profound and front sublime</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where speculation reigns.</p>
+
+          <p>He to the learned seats shall climb,</p>
+
+          <p>On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;</p>
+
+          <p>The arid doctrine shall inspire</p>
+
+          <p>Of wiry teachers with swift fire;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And, piled with cumbrous pains,</p>
+
+          <p>Proud palaces of sounding lies</p>
+
+          <p>Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise</p>
+
+          <p>Shall listen to his word; the youth</p>
+
+          <p>Shall eager seize the new-born truth</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where prudent age refrains.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">From echoing town to town!</p>
+
+          <p>The clam'rous preacher and his train,</p>
+
+          <p>Organ and bell with sound inane,</p>
+
+          <p>The crimson cross, the book, the keys,</p>
+
+          <p>The flag that spreads before the breeze,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The triple-belted crown!</p>
+
+          <p>It wends its way; and straw is sold&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,</p>
+
+          <p>To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;</p>
+
+          <p>And though some smile, and many sneer,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There's none will dare to frown.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>None dares but one&mdash;the race is rare&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">One free and honest man:</p>
+
+          <p>Truth is a dangerous thing to say</p>
+
+          <p>Amid the lies that haunt the day;</p>
+
+          <p>But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!</p>
+
+          <p>From heart to heart the fire shall go,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Instinctive without plan;</p>
+
+          <p>Proud bishops with a lordly train,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Fierce cardinals with high disdain,</p>
+
+          <p>Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,</p>
+
+          <p>And wrangling doctors all shall force,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In vain, one honest man.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It is a sober thing.</p>
+
+          <p>Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,</p>
+
+          <p>Loudly to damn, and loudly save,</p>
+
+          <p>And sweep with mimic thunders' swell</p>
+
+          <p>Armies of honest souls to hell!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The time on whirring wing</p>
+
+          <p>Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!</p>
+
+          <p>One hour, one little hour, is given,</p>
+
+          <p>If thou could'st but repent. But no!</p>
+
+          <p>To ruin thou shalt headlong go,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A doom'd and blasted thing.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg082" id="pg082">082</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Men heed it not, thou fool!</p>
+
+          <p>Nay, from the learned city's gate,</p>
+
+          <p>In solemn show, in pomp of state,</p>
+
+          <p>The watchmen of the truth come forth,</p>
+
+          <p>The burghers old of sterling worth,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And students of the school:</p>
+
+          <p>And he who should have felt thy ban</p>
+
+          <p>Walks like a prophet in the van;</p>
+
+          <p>He hath a calm indignant look,</p>
+
+          <p>Beneath his arm he bears a book,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And in his hand the Bull.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He halts; and in the middle space</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Bids pile a blazing fire.</p>
+
+          <p>The flame ascends with crackling glee;</p>
+
+          <p>Then, with firm step advancing, He</p>
+
+          <p>Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule</p>
+
+          <p>The false Decretals, and the Bull,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">While thus he vents his ire:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Because the Holy One o' the Lord</p>
+
+          <p>Thou vexed hast with impious word,</p>
+
+          <p>Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,</p>
+
+          <p>And thou shalt share the Devil's doom</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In everlasting fire!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He said; and rose the echo round</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"In everlasting fire!"</p>
+
+          <p>The hearts of men were free; one word</p>
+
+          <p>Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;</p>
+
+          <p>Erect before their God they stood</p>
+
+          <p>A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And wing'd with high desire.</p>
+
+          <p>And ever with the circling flame</p>
+
+          <p>Uprose anew the blithe acclaim:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"The righteous Lord shall thee consume,</p>
+
+          <p>And thou shalt share the Devil's doom</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In everlasting fire!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thus the brave German men; and we</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Shall echo back the cry;</p>
+
+          <p>The burning of that parchment scroll</p>
+
+          <p>Annull'd the bond that sold the soul</p>
+
+          <p>Of man to man; each brother now</p>
+
+          <p>Only to one great Lord will bow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">One Father-God on high.</p>
+
+          <p>And though with fits of lingering life</p>
+
+          <p>The wounded foe prolong the strife,</p>
+
+          <p>On Luther's deed we build our hope,</p>
+
+          <p>Our steady faith&mdash;the fond old Pope</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Is dying, and shall die.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg083" id=
+      "pg083">083</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.</h2>
+
+      <h3>No. II</h3>
+
+      <h3>THE FAIRY TUTOR.</h3>
+
+      <p>Discreet Reader!</p>
+
+      <p>You have seen&mdash;and 'tis no longer ago than
+      YESTERDAY!&mdash;you must well remember the picture&mdash;which
+      showed you from the rough yet delicate&mdash;the humorous yet
+      sympathetic and picturesque&mdash;the original yet insinuating
+      pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian mountaineer&mdash;the
+      aerial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating, enigmatical,
+      outwardly&mdash;mirth-given, inwardly&mdash;sorrow-touched,
+      congregated folk numberless&mdash;of the Fairies
+      Proper!&mdash;showed them at the urgency of a rare and strange
+      need&mdash;clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one fair, kind, good and
+      happily-born Daughter of Man!&mdash;And what wonder?&mdash;The
+      once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one
+      fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably
+      favoured!&mdash;What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages
+      brings on the appointed hour, the rebellious and outcast children
+      of heaven must sue&mdash;to their keen
+      emergency&mdash;help&mdash;oh! speak up to the height of the
+      want, of the succour! and call it <i>a lent ray of grace</i>,
+      from the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth!&mdash;And
+      see, where, in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the
+      hallowing influence shines!&mdash;Auspiciously begun, the awed
+      though aspiring Rite, the still, the multitudinous, the mystical,
+      prospers!&mdash;<i>Gratefully</i>, as for the boon inexpressibly
+      worth&mdash;<i>easily</i>, as of their own transcending
+      power&mdash;<i>promptly</i>, as though fearing that a benefit
+      received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright
+      hair of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak
+      benefactress&mdash;the wedded felicity of pure love!</p>
+
+      <p>And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises
+      again, discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a
+      little perhaps, our actors!&mdash;Once more, attaching to the
+      HUMAN DRAMA, slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of
+      air, the same light and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that
+      They, whom you lately saw tranquil, earnest even to
+      pathos&mdash;"now are frolic"&mdash;enough and to
+      spare!&mdash;Once more&mdash;THE FAIRIES.</p>
+
+      <p>And see, too&mdash;where, centring in herself interest and
+      action of the rapidly shifting scenery&mdash;ever again a
+      beautiful granddaughter of Eve steps&mdash;free and fearless, and
+      bouyant and bounding&mdash;our fancy-laid boards!&mdash;Ah! but
+      how much unresembling the sweet maid!&mdash;<i>Outwardly</i>, for
+      lofty-piled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the
+      modern Amazon, Swanhilda&mdash;more unlike <i>within</i>. Instead
+      of the clear truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy
+      Innocence" of the poor fairy-beloved mountain child&mdash;SHE, in
+      whose person and fortunes you are invited&mdash;for the next
+      fifty minutes&mdash;to forget your own&mdash;harbours, fondly
+      harbours, ill housemates of her virginal breast! a small,
+      resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison of unwomanly
+      faults. Pride is there!&mdash;The iron-hard and the iron-cold!
+      There Scorn&mdash;edging repulse with insult!&mdash;and
+      envenoming insult with despair!&mdash;leaps up, in eager answer
+      to the beseeching sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent
+      Adoration. And there is the indulged Insolency of a
+      domineering&mdash;and as you will precipitately augur&mdash;an
+      <i>indomitable</i> Will! And there is exuberant SELF-POWER, that,
+      from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling, circulating
+      along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis! turns the
+      nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous and
+      blood-sprinkled joy of man&mdash;the tempestuous and terrible
+      CHASE, which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the
+      rougher lord of creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent!
+      Oh, how much other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian
+      valleys, the shade-loving Flower, the good Maud&mdash;herself
+      looked upon with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg084" id=
+      "pg084">084</a></span>love by the glad eyes of men, women,
+      children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other indeed! And yet, have
+      you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of unamiable
+      qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten, which has
+      fastened, upon the gentle Maud's <i>haughty</i>
+      antithesis&mdash;the serviceable regard, and&mdash;the FAVOUR,
+      even of THE FAIRIES.</p>
+
+      <p>The FAVOUR!!</p>
+
+      <p>Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief
+      process. You are, after a fashion, informed with what studious,
+      persevering, and unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and
+      feminine pity, the lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the
+      course of the last three or four years, turned back from her
+      beetle-browed castle-gate, one by one, as they showed themselves
+      there&mdash;a hundred, all worthily born&mdash;otherwise more and
+      less meritorious&mdash;petitioners for that
+      whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon
+      this very morning, an embassy from the willow-wearers
+      all&mdash;or, to speak indeed more germanely to the matter, of
+      the BASKET-BEARERS<sup>22</sup>, waited upon their beautiful
+      enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in one, importing first a
+      requisition to surrender; then, in case of refusal to capitulate,
+      the announcement that HYMEN having found in CUPID an inefficient
+      ally, he was about associating with himself, in league offensive,
+      the god MARS, with intent of carrying the Maiden-fortress by
+      storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants of the
+      stronghold into captivity&mdash;whereunto she made
+      answer&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>&mdash;&mdash;our castle's strength</p>
+
+        <p>Will laugh a siege to scorn&mdash;</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>herself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the
+      sent This crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the
+      first place, wreak and right.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>22: To German ears&mdash;to SEND A BASKET&mdash;is to REFUSE
+        A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of
+      Elves, being in full council assembled in the broad light of the
+      sun, upon the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not
+      widely sitting diet had yet well opened its
+      proceedings&mdash;"tramp, tramp, across the land," came, flying
+      at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap huntress; and
+      without other note of preparation sounded than their own thunder,
+      her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage assembly,
+      causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with devastation dire
+      to persons and&mdash;wearing apparel.</p>
+
+      <p>This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and
+      right.</p>
+
+      <p>And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which
+      is&mdash;<i>summary</i>; as, from the character of the judges and
+      executioners, into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would
+      expect; sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their
+      magical hand they turn the impoverished heiress of ill-possessed
+      acres forth upon the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous
+      manual industry, her livelihood; until, from the winnings of her
+      handicraft, she is moreover able to make good, as far as this was
+      liable to pecuniary assessment, the damage sustained under foot
+      of her fiery barb by the Fairy realm; comfort with handsome
+      presents the rejected suitors; and until, thoroughly tame, she
+      yields into her softened and opened bosom, now rid of its
+      intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once debarred and
+      contemned visitant&mdash;LOVE.</p>
+
+      <p>As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out
+      this drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting,
+      as a matter that is related merely, not presented, that
+      misadventure under the oak-tree&mdash;there is, in the chamber of
+      Swanhilda, but a Fairy delegation active, whilst under the Sun's
+      hill whole Elfdom is in presence; in that resplendent hollow,
+      wearing their own lovely shapes; within the German castle-walls,
+      in apt masquerade. There they were grave. Here, we have already
+      said, that they are merry. There their office was to feel and to
+      think. Here, if there be any trust in apparitions, they drink,
+      and what is more critical for an Elfin lip&mdash;they eat!</p>
+
+      <p>Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred,
+      well-dressed, and right courtly cavalier, who transacted between
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg085" id=
+      "pg085">085</a></span>the Fairy Queen and the stonemason's
+      daughter, him you shall presently see turned into a sort of Elfin
+      cupbearer or court butler; not without fairy grace of person and
+      of mind assuredly; not without a due innate sense of the
+      beautiful, as his perfumed name (SWEETFLOWER) at the outset warns
+      you; and, as the proximity of his function to her Majesty's
+      person&mdash;for we do not here fall in with any thing like
+      mention of a king&mdash;would suggest, independently of the
+      delicately responsible part borne by him in the action, the chief
+      stress of which you will find incumbent upon his capable
+      shoulders.</p>
+
+      <p>Such, in respect of the subject, is, thrice courteous and
+      intelligent reader, the second piece of art, which we are glad to
+      have the opportunity of placing before you, from our clever
+      friend Ernst Willkomm's apparently right fertile easel. The
+      second, answering to the first, LIKE and UNLIKE, you perceive, as
+      two companion pictures should be.</p>
+
+      <p>But it would be worse than useless to tell you that which you
+      have seen and that which you will see, unless, from the
+      juxtaposition of the two fables, there followed&mdash;a moral.
+      They have, as we apprehend, a moral&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> one moral,
+      and that a grave one, in common between them.</p>
+
+      <p>Hitherto we have superficially compared THE FAIRIES' SABBATH
+      and the FAIRY TUTOR. We now wish to develope a profounder analogy
+      connecting them. We have compared them, as if ESTHETICALLY; we
+      would now compare them MYTHOLOGICALLY&mdash;for, in our
+      understanding, there lies at the very foundation of both tales A
+      MYTHOLOGICAL ROOT&mdash;by whomsoever set, whether by Ernst
+      Willkomm to-day, or by the population of the Lusatian
+      mountains&mdash;three, six, ten centuries ago; or, in unreckoned
+      antiquity, by the common Ancestors of the believers, who, in
+      still unmeasured antiquity, brought the superstition of the
+      Fairies out of central Asia to remote occidental Europe.</p>
+
+      <p>This ROOT we are bold to think is&mdash;"A DEEPLY SEATED
+      ATTRACTION, ALLYING THE FAIRY MIND TO THE PURITY AND INTEGRITY OF
+      THE MORAL WILL IN THE MIND OF MEN." And first for the Tale which
+      presently concerns us:&mdash;THE FAIRY TUTOR.</p>
+
+      <p>SWEETFLOWER will beguile us into believing that the
+      interposition of the Fairies in our Baroness's domestic
+      arrangements, grows up, if one shall so hazardously speak, from
+      TWO seeds, each bearing two branches&mdash;namely, from two
+      wrongs, the one hitting, the other striking from,
+      themselves&mdash;BOTH which wrongs they will AVENGE and AMEND. We
+      take up a strenuous theory; and we deny&mdash;and we
+      defy&mdash;SWEETFLOWER. Nay, more! Should our excellent friend,
+      ERNST WILLKOMM, be found taking part, real or apparent, with
+      SWEETFLOWER, we defy and we deny Ernst Willkomm. For in this
+      mixed case of the Fairy wrong, we distinguish, first, INJURIES
+      which shall be retaliated, and, as far as may be, compensated;
+      and secondly, a SHREW, who is to be turned <i>into</i> a WIFE,
+      being previously turned <i>out of</i> a shrew.</p>
+
+      <p>We dare to believe that this last-mentioned end is the thing
+      uppermost, and undermost, and middlemost in the mind of the
+      Fairies; is, in fact, the true and <i>the sole final cause</i> of
+      all their proceedings.</p>
+
+      <p>Or that the <i>moral heart</i> of the poem&mdash;that root in
+      the human breast and will, from which every true poem springs
+      heavenward&mdash;is here the zeal of the spirits for <i>morally
+      reforming Swanhilda</i>; is, therefore, that deep-seated
+      attraction, which, as we have averred, essentially allies the
+      inclination of the Fairies to the moral conscience in our own
+      kind.</p>
+
+      <p>One end, therefore, grounds the whole story, although two and
+      more are proposed by <i>Sweetflower</i>. It is one that
+      <i>satisfies</i> the moral reason in man; for it is no less than
+      to cleanse and heal the will, wounded with error, of a human
+      creature. That other, which he displays, with mock emphasis, of
+      restitution to the downtrodden fairyhood, is an exotic, fair and
+      slight bud, grafted into the sturdier indigenous stock. For let
+      us fix but a steady look upon the thing itself, and what is there
+      before us? a whim, a trick of the fancy, tickling the fancy. We
+      are amused with a quaint calamity&mdash;a panic of caps and
+      cloaks. We laugh&mdash;we cannot help it&mdash;as the pigmy
+      assembly flies a thousand ways at once&mdash;grave councillors
+      and all&mdash;throwing terrified somersets&mdash;hiding
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg086" id=
+      "pg086">086</a></span>under stones, roots&mdash;diving into
+      coney-burrows&mdash;"any where&mdash;any where"&mdash;vanishing
+      out of harm's&mdash;if not out of dismay's&mdash;reach. In a tale
+      of the Fairies, THE FANCY rules:&mdash;and the interest of such a
+      misfortune, definite and not infinite, is congenial to the spirit
+      of the gay faculty which hovers over, lives upon surfaces, and
+      which flees abysses; which thence, likewise, in the moral sphere,
+      is equal to apprehending resentment of a personal wrong, and a
+      judicial assessment of damages&mdash;but NOT A DISINTERESTED
+      MORAL END.</p>
+
+      <p>What is our conclusion then? plainly that the dolorous
+      overthrow of the fairy divan is no better than an
+      invention&mdash;the device of an esthetical artist. We hold that
+      Ernst Willkomm has <i>gratuitously</i> bestowed upon us the
+      disastrous catastrophe; that he has done this, knowing the
+      obligation which lies upon Fancy within her own chosen domain to
+      <i>create</i>, because&mdash;there, Fancy listens and reads. The
+      adroit Fairy delineator must wile over and reconcile the most
+      sportive, capricious, and self-willed spirit of our
+      understanding, to accept a purpose foreign to that spirit's
+      habitual sympathies&mdash;a purpose solemn and austere&mdash;THE
+      MORAL PURPOSE OF RESCUING A SIN-ENTANGLED HUMAN SOUL.</p>
+
+      <p>Or, if Ernst Willkomm shall guarantee to us, that the
+      reminiscences of his people have furnished him with the materials
+      of this tale; if he is, as we must needs hope, who have freely
+      dealt with you to believe that he is&mdash;honest: honest both as
+      to the general character, and the particular facts of his
+      representations&mdash;if, in short, the Lusatian Highlanders do,
+      sitting by the bench and the stove, aver and protest that the
+      said Swanhilda did overturn both council-board and
+      councillors&mdash;then we say, upon this occasion, that which we
+      must all, hundreds of times, declare&mdash;namely, that <i>The
+      Genius of Tradition</i> is the foremost of artists; and further,
+      that in this instance <i>an unwilled fiction</i>, determined by a
+      necessity of the human bosom, has risen up <i>to mantle
+      seriousness with grace</i>, as a free woodbine enclasps with her
+      slender-gadding twines, and bedecks with her sweet bright
+      blossoms, a towering giant of the grove.</p>
+
+      <p>It will perhaps be objected, that the moral purity and
+      goodness that are so powerful to draw to themselves the regard
+      and care of the spiritual people, are wanting in the character of
+      the over-bold Swanhilda. We have said that her <i>faults</i> are
+      the CALL to the Fairies for help and reformation: but we may
+      likewise guess that Virtue and Truth first won their love. It
+      must be recollected that the faults which are extirpated from the
+      breast of our heroine, are not such as, in our natural
+      understanding of humanity, dishonour or sully. Taken away, the
+      character may stand clear. It is quite possible that this gone,
+      there shall be left behind a kind, good, affectionate, generous,
+      noble nature.</p>
+
+      <p>We are free, or, more properly speaking, we are bound to
+      believe, that thus the Fairies left Swanhilda.</p>
+
+      <p>As for Maud, we know&mdash;for she was told&mdash;that the
+      Fairies loved her for herself ere they needed her aid. Hanging as
+      it were upon that wondrous power to help which dwelt within
+      her&mdash;her simple goodness&mdash;may we not say that the
+      Fairies discover an ENFORCED attraction, when they afterwards
+      approach the maiden for their own succour and salvation; as they
+      do, a FREE attraction, when, in the person of Swanhilda, they
+      disinterestedly attach themselves to reforming a fault for the
+      welfare and happiness of her whom it aggrieves?</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>We will now proceed, as in our former communication, to adduce
+      instances from other quarters, confirming the fairy delineations
+      offered by our tale; or which may tend generally to bring out its
+      mythological and literary character.</p>
+
+      <p>Two points would suggest themselves to us in the tale of the
+      Fairy Tutor, as chiefly provoking comparison. The first
+      is:&mdash;<i>The affirmed Presidency of the Fairies over human
+      morals</i>, viewed as <i>a Shape of the Interest</i> which they
+      take in the uprightness and purity of the human will.</p>
+
+      <p>The second is:&mdash; <i>The Manner and Style of their
+      operations</i>: or, THE FAIRY WAYS. In which we chiefly
+      distinguish&mdash;1, The active presence of the Sprites in a
+      human habitation. 2, Their masquerading. 3, Their dispatch of
+      human victuals. 4, The liability of Elfin <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg087" id="pg087">087</a></span>limbs to human
+      casualties. 5, The personality of that saucy Puck, our tiny
+      ambassador elf.</p>
+
+      <p>We are at once tempted and restrained by the richness of
+      illustration, which presents itself under all these heads. The
+      necessity of limitation is, however, imperious. This, and a wish
+      for simplicity, dispose us to throw all under one more
+      comprehensive title.</p>
+
+      <p>Perhaps the reader has not entirely forgotten that in the
+      remarks introductory to THE FAIRIES' SABBATH, having launched the
+      question&mdash;what is a Fairy?&mdash;we offered him in the way
+      of answer, <i>eight</i> elements of the Fairy Nature. Has he
+      quite forgotten that for one of these&mdash;it was the
+      third&mdash;we represented the Spirit under examination, as ONE
+      WHICH AT ONCE SEEKS AND SHUNS MANKIND?</p>
+
+      <p>The cursory treatment of this Elfin criterion will now
+      compendiously place before the reader, as much illustration of
+      the two above-given heads as we dare impose upon him.</p>
+
+      <p>The popular Traditions of entire Western Europe variously
+      attest for all the kinds of the Fairies, and for some orders of
+      Spirits partaking of the Fairy character, the singularly
+      composed, and almost self-contradictory traits of a
+      <i>seeking</i> implicated and attempered with a <i>shunning</i>;
+      of a shunning with a seeking. The inclination of our Quest will
+      be to evidences of the <i>seeking</i>. The shunning will, it need
+      not be doubted, take good care of itself.</p>
+
+      <p>The attraction of the Fairy Species towards our own is,</p>
+
+      <p>1. Recognised&mdash;in their GENERIC DESIGNATIONS.
+      <br />
+      2. Apparent&mdash;in their GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD with us.
+      <br />
+      3. IN THEIR FREQUENTING AND ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES in the places
+      of our habitual occupancy and resort.
+      <br />
+      4. IN THEIR CALLING OR CARRYING US into the places of their
+      Occupancy and Resort; whether to return <i>hither</i>, or to
+      remain <i>there</i>.
+      <br />
+      5. BY THEIR ALIGHTING UPON THE PATH, worn already with some
+      blithe or some weary steps, OF A HUMAN DESTINY;&mdash;as
+      friendly, or as unfriendly Genii.
+      <br />
+      We collect the proofs: and&mdash;</p>
+
+      <h4>1. Of their GENERIC APPELLATIVES, a Word!</h4>
+
+      <p>One is tempted to say that THE NATIONS, as if conscious of the
+      kindly disposition inhering in the spiritual existences toward
+      ourselves, have simultaneously agreed in conferring upon them
+      titles of endearment and affection. The brothers Grimm
+      write&mdash;"In Scotland they [The Fairies] are called <i>The
+      Good People, Good Neighbours, Men of Peace;</i> in
+      Wales&mdash;<i>The Family, The Blessing of their Mothers, The
+      Dear Ladies;</i> in the old Norse, and to this day in the Faroe
+      islands, <i>Huldufolk</i> (<i>The Gracious People;</i>) in
+      Norway, <i>Huldre</i>;<sup>23</sup> and, in conformity with these
+      denominations, discover a striving to be in the proximity of men,
+      and to keep up a good understanding with them."<sup>24</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>23: May we for HULDRE read HULDREFOLK; and understand the
+        <i>following</i>, or the <i>Folk</i> of HULDRE? Huldre
+        <i>means</i> the Gracious Lady: she is a sort of Danish and
+        Norwegian Fairy-Queen.&mdash;See GRIMM'S <i>German
+        Mythology</i>, p. 168. First edition.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>24: The Brothers GRIMM: <i>Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+        Tales</i>.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>2. THIS GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, to which these last words point,
+      is interestingly depicted by the Traditions.</h4>
+
+      <p>In Scotland and Germany the Fairies plant their habitation
+      <i>adjoining</i> that of man&mdash;"<i>under the
+      threshold</i>"&mdash;and in such attached Fairies an alliance is
+      unfolded with us of a most extraordinary kind. "The closest
+      connexion" (<i>id est</i>, of the Fairy species with our own) "is
+      expressed," say the Brothers Grimm, "by the tradition, agreeably
+      to which the family of the Fairies ORDERED ITSELF ENTIRELY AFTER
+      THE HUMAN to which it belonged; and OF WHICH IT WAS AS IF A COPY.
+      These domestic Fairies <i>kept their marriages upon the same
+      day</i> as the Human Beings; <i>their children were born
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg088" id=
+      "pg088">088</a></span>upon the same day</i>; and <i>upon the same
+      day they wailed for their dead.</i>"<sup>25</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>25: The Brothers GRIMM: <i>Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+        Tales.</i></p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Two artlessly sweet breathings of Elfin Table, from the
+      Helvetian Dales,<sup>26</sup> lately revived to your fancy the
+      sinless&mdash;blissful years, when gods with men set fellowing
+      steps upon one and the same fragrant and unpolluted sward, until
+      transgression, exiling those to their own celestial abodes, left
+      these lonely&mdash;a nearer, dearer, BARBARIAN Golden
+      Age&mdash;wherein the kindly Dwarf nation stand representing the
+      great deities of Olympus.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>26: See <i>The Dwarfs upon the Maple-Tree</i>, and <i>The
+        Dwarfs upon the Crag-Stone</i>, in the former paper.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The healthful pure air fans restoration again to us. We lay
+      before you&mdash;</p>
+
+      <h3>GERMAN TRADITIONS</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. CXLIX <i>The Dwarfs' Feet</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about
+      them, in caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, <i>in amity
+      and good neighbourhood</i> with the people, for whom they
+      performed by night many a heavy labour. When the country folk,
+      betimes in the morning, came with wains and implements, and
+      wondered that all was ready done, the Dwarfs were hiding in the
+      bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently the peasants were angry
+      when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn lying reaped upon the
+      field; but when presently after hail and storm came on, and they
+      could well know that probably not a stalk should have escaped
+      perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the provident
+      Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin, fooled
+      away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
+      then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
+      following:&mdash;A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
+      cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that
+      the tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit
+      carried, and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman
+      had use to keep his cherries. The people said in the village,
+      that doth no one other than the honest dwarflings&mdash;they come
+      tripping along by night, in long mantles, with covered feet,
+      softly as birds, and perform diligently for men the work of the
+      day. Already often have they been privily watched, but one may
+      not interrupt them, only let them, come and go at their listing.
+      By such speeches was the herdsman made curious, and would fain
+      have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so carefully their feet, and
+      whether these were otherwise shapen than men's feet. When,
+      therefore, the next year, summer again came, and the season that
+      the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and bear them into
+      the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes, which he
+      strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with daybreak, he
+      hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he saw
+      beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
+      herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
+      Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and
+      laid waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their
+      mountain. They harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from
+      them their help. That herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs
+      turned sickly and half-witted, and so continued until his dying
+      day!"</p>
+
+      <p>There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own
+      hardily-nursed wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent
+      hand<sup>27</sup> that brought home to us those other
+      half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition, you behold a
+      third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the three, young
+      poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready and meet
+      for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!&mdash;or
+      fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
+      nature-loving&mdash;Ellen or Margaret.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>27: Of Professor Wyes.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>These old-young things&mdash;bequests, as they look to
+      be&mdash;from the loving, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg089"
+      id="pg089">089</a></span>singing childhood of the earth, may
+      lawfully make children, lovers, and songsters of us all; and
+      <i>will</i>, if we are <i>fond</i>, and hearken to them.</p>
+
+      <p>In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
+      chronologies,</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"When the world and love were young,</p>
+
+        <p>And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of
+      <i>borrowing and lending</i>. Many traditions touch the matter.
+      Here is one resting upon it.</p>
+
+      <h3>No. CLIV. <i>The Dwarfs near Dardesheim</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and
+      Brunswick. Close to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest
+      water flows, which is called the Smansborn,<sup>28</sup> and
+      wells from a hill wherein formerly the Dwarfs dwelled. When the
+      ancient inhabitants of the place needed a holiday dress, or any
+      rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them to this Dwarf's
+      Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice, told their
+      occasion, adding&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,</p>
+
+        <p>At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>28: For LESSMANSBORN, <i>i.e.</i> LESSMANN'S WELL.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of
+      the festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward
+      gradually did bickerings interrupt the good understanding that
+      was betwixt the Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the
+      beginning for a short season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs
+      departed away; because the flouts and gibes of many boors grew
+      intolerable to them, as likewise their ingratitude for kindnesses
+      done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth any Dwarfs more."</p>
+
+      <p>In <i>Auvergne</i>, Miss Costello has just now learned, how
+      the men and the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest
+      footing, nigh one another: how the <i>knowledge</i> and
+      <i>commodious use</i> of the <i>Healing Springs</i> was owed by
+      the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of yore, the powerful
+      sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound, opened an
+      <i>innocuous channel</i> for <i>the torrent</i>, which used with
+      its overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how
+      they were looked upon as being, in a general sense, <i>the
+      protectors</i> against harm of the country: and, in fine, how the
+      two orders of neighbours lived in long and happy communion of
+      kind offices with one another; until, upon one unfortunate day,
+      the ill-renowned freebooter, Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly
+      men-at-arms, having approached, by stealth, from his near-lying
+      hold, stormed the romantically seated rock-mansion of the
+      bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger, forsook the land.
+      Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may, now and then,
+      be seen at a distance.</p>
+
+      <p>Thus, too, the late <i>Brillat-Savarin</i>, from a sprightly,
+      acute, brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest
+      antiquary, lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone,
+      flowing out from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when
+      he first quitted it, yet hidden valley of his birth:&mdash;The
+      FAIRIES&mdash;elderly, not beautiful, but benevolent unmarried
+      ladies&mdash;kept, while time was, open school in THE GROTTO,
+      which was their habitation, for the young girls of the vicinity,
+      whom they taught&mdash;SEWING.</p>
+
+      <h4>3. We go on to exemplifying&mdash;ELFIN <i>Frequentation of,
+      and Settlement with,</i> MAN.</h4>
+
+      <p>The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men
+      by manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
+      celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
+      purchase at the Tavern&mdash;from the Shambles, or in open
+      Market. They <i>steal</i> from oven and field. They go through a
+      house, blessing the rooms, the marriage-bed&mdash;and stand
+      beside the unconscious cradle. They give dreams. They take part
+      in the evening mirth. They pray in the churches. They
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg090" id=
+      "pg090">090</a></span>seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
+      constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors.
+      They dance in the churchyard.<sup>29</sup> They make themselves
+      the wives and the paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin
+      fixes himself, like a cat, in the house&mdash;once and for
+      ever.</p>
+
+      <p>We present traditions for illustrating some of these points,
+      as they offer themselves to us.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>29:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>"Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep</p>
+
+          <p>That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;</p>
+
+          <p>The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!</p>
+
+          <p>Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,</p>
+
+          <p>ENTER, IN DANCE!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <p>WORDSWORTH.&mdash;<i>Sonnet upon an</i> ABANDONED
+        <i>Cemetery.</i></p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>THEY HALT ON A JOURNEY.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. XXXV. <i>The Count of Hoia</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"There did appear once to a count of Hoia, a little mauling in
+      the night, and, as the count was alarmed, said to him he should
+      have no fear: he had a word to sue unto him, and begged that he
+      should not be denied. The count answered, if it were a thing
+      possible to do, and should be never burthensome to him and his,
+      he will gladly do it. The manling said&mdash;'There be some that
+      desire to come to thee this ensuing night, into thy house, and to
+      make their stopping. Wouldst thou so long lend them kitchen and
+      hall, and bid thy domestics that they go to bed, and none look
+      after their ways and works, neither any know thereof, save only
+      thou? They will show them, therefore, grateful. Thou and thy line
+      shall have cause of joy, and in the very least matter shall none
+      hurt happen unto thee, neither to any that belong to thee.'
+      Whereunto the count assented. Accordingly, upon the following
+      night, they came like a cavalcade, marching over the drawbridge
+      to the house; one and all&mdash;tiny folk, such as they use to
+      describe the hill manlings. They cooked in the kitchen, fell too,
+      and rested, and nothing seemed otherwise than as if a great
+      repast were in preparing. Thereafter, nigh unto morn, as they
+      will again depart, comes the little manling a second time to the
+      count, and after conning him thanks, handed him a <i>sword</i>, a
+      <i>salamander cloth</i>, and a <i>golden ring</i>, in which was
+      RED LION set above&mdash;advertising him, withal, that he and his
+      posterity shall well keep these three pieces, and so long as they
+      had them all together, should it go with fair accordance and well
+      in the county; but so soon as they shall be parted from one
+      another, shall it be a sign that nothing good impendeth for the
+      county. Accordingly, the red lion ever after, when any of the
+      stem is near the point of dying, hath been seen to wax wan.</p>
+
+      <p>"Howsoever, at the time that Count Job and his brothers were
+      minors, and Francis of Halle governor in the country, two of the
+      pieces&mdash;viz., the Sword and the Salamander Cloth, were taken
+      away; but the Ring remained with the lordship unto an end.
+      Whither it afterwards went is not known."</p>
+
+      <h3>THEY HOLD A WEDDING.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No.XXXI. <i>The Small People's Wedding Feast.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"The small people of the Eulenberg in Saxony would once hold a
+      marriage, and for this purpose slipped in, in the night, through
+      the keyhole and the window-chinks into the Hall, and came leaping
+      down upon the smooth floor, like peas tumbled out upon the
+      threshing-floor. The old Count, who slept in the high canopy bed
+      in the Hall, awoke, and marvelled at the number of tiny
+      companions; one of whom, in the garb of a herald, now approached
+      him, and in well-set <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg091" id=
+      "pg091">091</a></span>phrase, courteously prayed him to bear part
+      in their festivity. 'Yet one thing,' he added, 'we beg of you. Ye
+      shall alone be present; none of your court shall be bold to gaze
+      upon our mirth&mdash;yea, not so much as with a glance.' The old
+      Count answered pleasantly&mdash;'Since ye have once for all waked
+      me up, I will e'en make one among you.' Hereupon was a little
+      wifikin led up to him, little torch-bearers took their station,
+      and a music of crickets struck up. The Count had much ado to save
+      losing his little partner in the dance; she capered about so
+      nimbly, and ended with whirling him round and round, until hardly
+      might he have his breath again. But, in the midst of the jocund
+      measure, all stood suddenly still; the music ceased, and the
+      whole throng hurried to the cracks in the doors, mouse-holes, and
+      hiding-places of all sorts. The newly-married couple only, the
+      heralds, and the dancers, looked upward towards an orifice that
+      was in the hall ceiling, and there descried the visage of the old
+      Countess, who was curiously prying down upon the mirthful doings.
+      Herewith they made their obeisance to the Count; and the same
+      which had bidden him, again stepping forward, thanked him for his
+      hospitality. 'But,' continued he, 'because our pleasure and our
+      wedding hath been in such sort interrupted, that yet another eye
+      of man hath looked thereon, henceforward shall your house number
+      never more than seven Eulenbergs.' Thereupon, they pressed fast
+      forth, one upon another. Presently all was quiet, and the old
+      Count once again alone in the dark Hall. The curse hath come true
+      to this hour, so as ever one of the six living knights of
+      Eulenberg hath died ere the seventh was born."</p>
+
+      <h3>THEY JOIN THE EVENING MIRTH.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. xxxix. <i>The Hill-Manling at the Dance</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Old folks veritable declared, that some years ago, at Glass,
+      in Dorf, an hour from the Wunderberg, and an hour from the town
+      of Salzburg, a wedding was kept, to which, towards evening, a
+      Hill-Manling came out of the Wunderberg. He exhorted all the
+      guests to be in honour, gleesome, and merry, and requested leave
+      to join the dancers, which was not refused him. He danced
+      accordingly, with modest maidens, one and another; evermore,
+      three dances with each, and that with a singular featness;
+      insomuch that the wedding guests looked on with admiration and
+      pleasure. The dance over, he made his thanks, and bestowed upon
+      either of the young married people three pieces of money that
+      were of an unknown coinage; whereof each was held to be worth
+      four kreuzers; and therewithal <i>admonished them to dwell in
+      peace and concord, live Christianly, and piously walking, to
+      bring up their children in all goodness</i>. These coins they
+      should put amongst their money, and constantly remember
+      him&mdash;so should they seldom fall into hardship. <i>But they
+      must not therewithal grow arrogant, but, of their superfluity,
+      succour their neighbours</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>"This Hill-Manling stayed with them into the night, and took
+      of every one to drink and to eat what they proffered; but from
+      every one only a little. He then paid his courtesy, and desired
+      that one of the wedding guests might take him over the river
+      Salzbach toward the mountain. Now, there was at the marriage a
+      boatman, by name John Standl, who was presently ready, and they
+      went down together to the ferry. During the passage, the ferryman
+      asked his meed. The Hill-Manling tendered him, in all humility,
+      three pennies. The waterman scorned at such mean hire; but the
+      Manling gave him for answer&mdash;'He must not vex himself, but
+      safely store up the three pennies; for, so doing, he should never
+      suffer default of his having&mdash;<i>if only he did restrain
+      presumptousness</i>&mdash;at the same time he gave the boatman a
+      little pebble, saying the words&mdash;'If thou shalt hang this
+      about thy neck, thou shalt not possibly perish in the water.'
+      Which was proved in that same year. Finally, <i>he persuaded him
+      to a godly and humble manner of life</i>, and went swiftly away."
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg092" id=
+      "pg092">092</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>ANOTHER OF THE SAME.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. CCCVI. <i>The Three Maidens from the Mere.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"At Epfenbach, nigh Sinzheim, within men's memory, three
+      wondrously beautiful damsels, attired in white, visited, with
+      every evening, the village spinning-room. They brought along with
+      them ever new songs and tunes, and new pretty tales and games.
+      Moreover, their distaffs and spindles had something peculiar, and
+      no spinster might so finely and nimbly spin the thread. But upon
+      the stroke of eleven, they arose; packed up their spinning gear,
+      and for no prayers might be moved to delay for an instant more.
+      None wist whence they came, nor whither they went. Only they
+      called them, The Maidens from the Mere; or, The Sisters of the
+      Lake. The lads were glad to see them there, and were taken with
+      love of them; but most of all, the schoolmaster's son. He might
+      never have enough of hearkening and talking to them, and nothing
+      grieved him more than that every night they went so early away.
+      The thought suddenly crossed him, and he set the village clock an
+      hour back; and, in the evening, with continual talking and
+      sporting, not a soul perceived the delay of the hour. When the
+      clock struck eleven&mdash;but it was properly twelve&mdash;the
+      three damsels arose, put up their distaffs and things, and
+      departed. Upon the following morrow, certain persons went by the
+      Mere; they heard a wailing, and saw three bloody spots above upon
+      the surface of the water. Since that season, the sisters came
+      never again to the room. The schoolmaster's son pined, and died
+      shortly thereafter."</p>
+
+      <h3>AN ELFIN IS BOUND, IN UNLAWFUL CHAINS, TO A HUMAN LOVER.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. LXX. <i>The Bushel, the Ring, and the Goblet.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"In the duchy of Lorraine, when it belonged, as it long did,
+      to Germany, the last count of Orgewiler ruled betwixt Nanzig and
+      Luenstadt.<sup>30</sup> He had no male heir of his blood, and
+      upon his deathbed, shared his lands amongst his three daughters
+      and sons-in-law. Simon of Bestein had married the eldest
+      daughter, the lord of Crony the second, and a German Rhinegrave
+      the youngest. Beside the lordships, he also distributed to his
+      heirs three presents; to the eldest daughter a BUSHEL, to the
+      middle one a DRINKING-CUP, and to the third a jewel, which was a
+      RING, with an admonition that they and their descendants should
+      carefully hoard up these pieces, so should their houses be
+      constantly fortunate."</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>30: LUNEVILLE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The tradition, how the things came into the possession of the
+      count, the Marshal of Bassenstein,<sup>31</sup> great-grandson of
+      Simon, does himself relate thus:&mdash;<sup>32</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>31: BASSOMPIERRE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>32: <i>Mémoires du Maréchal de</i> BASSOMPIERRE: Cologne,
+        1666. Vol. I. PP. 4-6. The Marshal died in 1646.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"The count was married: but he had beside a secret amour with
+      a marvellous beautiful woman, which came weekly to him every
+      Monday, into a summer-house in the garden. This commerce remained
+      long concealed from his wife. When he withdrew from her side, he
+      pretended to her, that he went, by night, into the Forest, to the
+      Stand.</p>
+
+      <p>"But when a few years had thus passed, the countess took a
+      suspicion, and was minded to learn the right truth. One summer
+      morning early, she slipped after him, and came to the summer
+      bower. She there saw her husband, sleeping in the arms of a
+      wondrous fair female; but because they both slept so sweetly, she
+      would not awaken them; but she took her veil <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg093" id="pg093">093</a></span>from her head,
+      and spread it over the feet of both, where they lay asleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"When the beautiful paramour awoke, and perceived the veil,
+      she gave a loud cry, began pitifully to wail, and
+      said:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"'Henceforwards, my beloved, we see one another never more.
+      Now must I tarry at a hundred leagues' distance away, and severed
+      from thee.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Therewith she did 1eave the count, but presented him first
+      with those afore-named three gifts for his three daughters, which
+      they should never let go from them.</p>
+
+      <p>"The House of Bassenstein, for long years, had a toll, to draw
+      in fruit, from the town of Spinal,<sup>33</sup> whereto this
+      Bushel was constantly used."</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>33: EPINAL.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT DOES HOUSEHOLD SERVICE IN A MILL.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. LXXIII. <i>The Kobold in the Mill.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed
+      putting up for the night in a village; but for as much as there
+      did a violent rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as
+      they might no further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill,
+      knocked, and begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the
+      first, deaf, but yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty,
+      opened the door, and brought them into a room. They were hungry
+      and thirsty both; and because there stood upon a table a dish
+      with food, and a mug of beer, they begged the miller for them,
+      being both ready and willing to pay; but the miller denied
+      them&mdash;would not give them even a morsel of bread, and only
+      the hard bench for their night's bed.</p>
+
+      <p>"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household
+      Spirit. If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But
+      else have ye no harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the
+      night, be ye but still and sleep.'</p>
+
+      <p>"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the
+      space of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so
+      vehemently that he stood up and sought after the dish. The other,
+      a Master of Arts, warned him to leave to the Devil what was the
+      Devil's due; but he answered, 'I have a better right than the
+      Devil to it'&mdash;seated himself at the table, and ate to his
+      heart's content, so that little was left of the cookery. After
+      that, he laid hold of the can, took a good Pomeranian pull, and
+      having thus somewhat appeased his desire, he laid himself again
+      down to his companion; but when, after a time, thirst anew
+      tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so hearty
+      draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
+      After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and
+      fell asleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well
+      by, when the Kobold came banging in with so loud
+      coil,<sup>34</sup> that both sleepers awoke in great fright. He
+      bounced a few times to and fro about the room, then seated
+      himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and they could
+      plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he set
+      it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
+      can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
+      again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs
+      of the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom,
+      the door diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit
+      once more the dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any
+      better this turn, but once more pushed both angrily away.
+      Thereupon he proceeded in his labour, came to the benches,
+      washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and above. When he
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg094" id=
+      "pg094">094</a></span>came to the place where the two students
+      lay, he passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When
+      this was done, he began upon the bench a second time above their
+      heads; and, for the second time likewise, passed over the
+      visitants. But the third time, when he came to them, he stroked
+      gently the one which had nothing tasted, over the hair and along
+      the whole body, without any whit hurting him; but the other he
+      griped by the feet, dragged him two or three times round the room
+      upon the floor, till at the last he left him lying, and ran
+      behind the stove, whence he laughed him loudly to scorn. The
+      student crawled back to the bench; but in a quarter of an hour
+      the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping, cleaning, wiping. The
+      two lay there quaking with fear:&mdash;the one he felt quite
+      softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung again
+      upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
+      into a flouting horse-laugh.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of
+        Milton&mdash;at <i>going out</i>, again:&mdash;</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p class="i8">"Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."</p>
+
+          <p>He, too, is paid for his work, with</p>
+
+          <p class="i8">&mdash;&mdash;"<i>his</i> CREAM-BOWL, duly
+          set."</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose,
+      and set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but
+      none took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay
+      themselves down close together upon the flat floor; but the
+      Kobold left them not in peace. He began, for the third time, his
+      game:&mdash;came and lugged the guilty one about, laughed, and
+      scoffed him. He was now fairly mad with rage, drew his sword,
+      thrust and cut into the corner whence the laugh rang, and
+      challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He then sat
+      down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
+      should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained
+      still.</p>
+
+      <p>"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had
+      not conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
+      victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were
+      worth."</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the
+      Fairies towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought
+      out; and already the narrowness of our limits warns us&mdash;with
+      a sigh given to the traditions crowding upon us from all
+      countries, and which we perforce leave unused&mdash;to bring
+      these preliminary remarks to a close. <i>Still</i>, something has
+      been gained for illustrating our Tale. The Hill-Manling at the
+      dance diligently warns against PRIDE&mdash;the rank ROOT evil
+      which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our heroine,
+      whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways&mdash;"THE
+      ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
+      itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected
+      forms.</p>
+
+      <p>And <i>still</i>, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly
+      from the Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the
+      habitudes of <i>various</i> WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for
+      comparison with Ernst Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA
+      Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC FAIRYHOOD.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE FAIRY TUTOR.</h3>
+
+      <p>"In days of yore there lived, alone in her castle, a maiden
+      named Swanhilda. She was the only child of a proud father, lately
+      deceased. Her mother she had lost when she was but a child; so
+      that the education of the daughter had fallen wholly into the
+      hands of the father.</p>
+
+      <p>"During the lifetime even of the old knight, many suitors had
+      offered themselves for Swanhilda; but she seemed to be insensible
+      to every tender emotion, and dismissed with disdainful
+      haughtiness the whole body of wooers. Meanwhile she hunted the
+      stag and the board, and performed squire's service for her
+      gradually declining parent. This manner of life was so entirely
+      to the taste of the maiden, notwithstanding that in delicacy of
+      frame, and in bewitching gracefulness of figure, she gave place
+      to none of her sex, that when at length her father died, she took
+      upon herself the management of the castle, and lived aloof in
+      pride and independence, in the very fashion of an Amazon. Maugre
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg095" id=
+      "pg095">095</a></span>the many refusals which Swanhilda had
+      already distributed on every side, there still flocked to her
+      loving knights, eager to wed; but, like their predecessors, they
+      were all sent drooping home again. The young nobility could at
+      last bear this treatment no longer; and they, one and all,
+      resolved either to constrain the supercilious damsel to wedlock,
+      or to make her smart for a refusal. An embassy was dispatched,
+      charged with notifying this resolution to the mistress of the
+      castle. Swanhilda heard the speakers quietly to the end; but her
+      answer was tuned as before, or indeed rang harsher and more
+      offensive than ever. Turning her back upon the embassy, she left
+      them to depart, scorned and ashamed.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the night following the day upon which this happened,
+      Swanhilda was disturbed out of her sleep by a noise which seemed
+      to her to ascend from her chamber floor; but let her strain her
+      eyes as she might, she could for a long while discern nothing. At
+      length she observed, in the middle of the room, a straying
+      sparkle of light, that threw itself over and over like a tumbler,
+      tittering, at the same time, like a human being. Swanhilda for a
+      while kept herself quiet; but as the luminous antic ceased not
+      practising his harlequinade, she peevishly exclaimed&mdash;'What
+      buffoon is carrying on his fooleries here? I desire to be left in
+      peace.' The light vanished instantly, and Swanhilda already had
+      congratulated herself upon gaining her point, when suddenly a
+      loud shrilly sound was heard&mdash;the floor of the apartment
+      gave way, and from the gap there arose a table set out with the
+      choicest viands. It rested upon a lucid body of air, upon which
+      the tiny attendants skipped with great agility to and fro,
+      waiting upon seated guests. At first Swanhilda was so amazed that
+      her breath forsook her; but becoming by degrees somewhat
+      collected, she observed, to her extreme astonishment, that an
+      effigy of herself sat at the strange table, in the midst of the
+      numerous train of suitors, whom she had so haughtily dismissed.
+      The attendants presented to the young knights the daintiest
+      dishes, the savour of which came sweetly-smelling enough to the
+      nostrils of the proud damsel. As often, however, as the knights
+      were helped to meat and drink, the figure of Swanhilda at the
+      board was presented by an ill-favoured Dwarf, who stood as her
+      servant behind her, with an empty basket, whereat the suitor's
+      broke out into wild laughter. She also soon became aware, that as
+      many courses were served up to the guests as she had heretofore
+      dispensed refusals, and the amount of these was certainly not
+      small.</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, weary of the absurd phantasmagoria, was going to
+      speak again; but to her horror she discovered that the power of
+      speech had left her. She had for some time been struck with a
+      kind of whispering and tittering about her. In order to make out
+      whence this proceeded, she leaned out of her bed, and, peering
+      between the silk curtains, perceived two smart diminutive
+      cupbearers, in garments of blue, with green aprons, and small
+      yellow caps. She had scarcely got sight of the little gentlemen
+      when their whispering took the character of audible words; and
+      the dumb Swanhilda was enabled to overhear the following
+      discourse:</p>
+
+      <p>"'But, I pri'thee, tell me, Sweetflower, how this show shall
+      end?' said one of the two cupbearers,&mdash;'thou art, we know,
+      the confidant of our queen, and, certes, canst disclose to me
+      somewhat of her plans?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'That can I, my small-witted Monsieur Silverfine,' answered
+      Sweetflower. 'Know, therefore, that this sweet and lovely to
+      behold brute of a girl, is now beginning to suffer the
+      castigation due to her innumerable offences. Swanhilda has sinned
+      against all maidenly modesty, has borne herself proud and
+      overbearing towards honourable gentlemen, and, besides, has most
+      seriously offended our queen.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'How so?' enquired Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'By storming on her Barbary steed, like the devil himself,
+      through the thick of our States' Assembly, pounding the arms and
+      legs of I don't know how many of our sapient representatives.
+      What makes the matter worse is, that this happened at the very
+      opening of the diet, and whilst the grand prelusive symphony of
+      the whole hidden people was in full burst. We were sitting by
+      hundreds of thousands <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg096" id=
+      "pg096">096</a></span>upon blades, stalks, and leaves; some of us
+      still actively busied arranging comfortable seats for the older
+      people in the blue harebells. For this we had stripped the skins
+      of sixty thousand red field spiders, and wrought them into
+      canopies and hangings. All our talented performers had tuned
+      their instruments, scraped, fluted, twanged, jingled, and shawmed
+      to their hearts' content, and had resined their fiddlesticks upon
+      the freshest of dewdrops. All at once, tearing out of the wood,
+      with your leave, or without your leave, comes this monster of a
+      girl, plump upon upper house and lower house together. Ah,
+      lack-a-daisy! what a massacre it was! The first hoof struck a
+      thousand of our prime orators dead upon the spot, the other three
+      hoofs scattered the Imperial diet in all directions, and, what is
+      worse than all, tore to pieces a multitude of our exquisite caps.
+      Our queen was almost frantic at the breach of the peace&mdash;she
+      stamped with her foot, and cried out, "LIGHTNING!" and what that
+      means we all pretty well know. Just at this time, too, she
+      received information of the maiden's arrogant behaviour towards
+      her suitors, and on the instant she determined to put the sinner
+      to her prayers. We began by devouring every thing clean up,
+      giving her the pleasure of looking on.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Silly, absurd creatures!' <i>thought</i> Swanhilda, as the
+      little butler advanced to the table to put on some fresh wine.
+      During his absence she had time to note how perhaps a dozen other
+      Fairies drew up through the floor whole pailfuls of wine and
+      smoking meats, which were conveyed immediately to the table, and
+      there consumed as if by the wind. She was heartily longing for
+      the day to dawn, that the sun might dissipate her dream, when the
+      sprightly little speaker came to his place again.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Now we can gossip a little longer,' said Sweetflower. 'My
+      guests are provided for, and between this and
+      cock-crow&mdash;when house and cellar will be
+      emptied&mdash;there's some time yet.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda uttered (<i>mentally</i>) a prodigious imprecation,
+      and turned herself so violently in the bed, that the little
+      gentlemen were absolutely terrified.</p>
+
+      <p>"'I verily believe we are going to have an earthquake!' said
+      Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'No such thing!' answered Sweetflower. 'The amiable young
+      lady in bed there has seen the sport perhaps, and is very likely
+      not altogether pleased with it.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Don't you think she would speak, if she saw all this
+      wastefulness going on?' asked Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Yes, if she could!' chuckled Sweetflower. 'But our queen has
+      been cruel enough to strike her dumb, whilst she looks upon this
+      heartbreaking spectacle. If she once wakes, she won't be troubled
+      again with sleep before cock-crow.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'A pretty business!' <i>thought</i> Swanhilda, once more
+      tossing herself passionately about in her bed.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Quite right!' said Sweetflower triumphantly. 'The imp of a
+      girl has waked up.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Insolent wretches!' said Swanhilda (internally.) 'Brute and
+      imp to me! Oh, if I could only speak!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Why, the whole fun of the thing is,' said Sweetflower,
+      almost bursting with laughter, 'just that that wish won't be
+      gratified. Does the fool of a woman think that she is to trample
+      down our orchestra with impunity, to put our States' Assembly to
+      flight, and to crush our very selves into a jelly!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'And the unbidden guests divine my very thoughts!'
+      <i>thought</i> Swanhilda. 'Upon my life, it looks as if a spice
+      of omniscience had really crept under their caps!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Why, of course!' answered Sweetflower.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Then will I think no more!' <i>resolved</i> Swanhilda.</p>
+
+      <p>"'And there, my prudent damsel, you show a good discretion,'
+      returned Sweetflower, saluting her with an ironical bow.</p>
+
+      <p>"'How will it be, then, with our caps?' enquired Silverfine.
+      'Are they to be repaired?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh, certainly,' returned Sweetflower; 'and that will cost
+      our Amazon here more than all. Indeed, the conditions of her
+      punishment are, to make good the caps, to pledge her troth to one
+      of her despised suitors, to compensate the rest with magnificent
+      gifts, and, for the future, never to mount hunter more, but to
+      amble upon a gentle palfrey, as a lady should. <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg097" id="pg097">097</a></span>And, till all
+      this is done, am I to have the teaching of her.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Pretty conditions truly!' thought Swanhilda. 'I would rather
+      die than keep them.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Just as you please, most worthy madam,' answered
+      Sweetflower; 'but you'll think better of it yet, perhaps.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'It will fall heavy enough upon her,' said Silverfine,
+      'seeing that we have it in command to seize upon all the lady's
+      treasures.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Capital, capital!' shouted Sweetflower. 'That's peppering
+      the punishment truly! For now must this haughty man-hating
+      creature go about begging, catching and carrying fish to market,
+      and so submitting herself to the scorn and laughter of all her
+      former lovers, till her trade makes her rich again. Nothing but
+      luck in fishing will our queen vouchsafe the audacious madam.
+      Three years are allowed her. But, in the interim, she must starve
+      and famish like a white mouse learning to dance.'</p>
+
+      <p>"At this moment a monstrous burst of laughter roared from the
+      table. The guests sang aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"'The last flagon we end,</p>
+
+        <p>Swanhilda shall mend;</p>
+
+        <p>Huzza, knights, and drink</p>
+
+        <p>To the last dollar's chink!'</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"As the song ceased, the table descended, the floor closed up,
+      and stillness was in the room again, as when the lady had first
+      retired to her couch. The cock crew, and Swanhilda fell into a
+      deep sleep.</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>"When it left her, the sun already shone high and bright, and
+      played on her silken bed-curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and
+      seeing every thing about her in its usual state, she concluded
+      that what had happened was nothing worse than a feverish dream.
+      She now arose, began dressing herself, and would have allayed her
+      waking thirst, but she could find neither glass nor
+      water-pitcher. She called angrily to her waiting-woman.</p>
+
+      <p>"'How come you to forget water, blockhead?' she exclaimed;
+      'get some quickly, and then&mdash;Breakfast!'</p>
+
+      <p>"The attendant departed, shaking her head; for she knew well
+      enough that every thing had been put in order as usual on the
+      evening before. She very quickly returned, frightened out of her
+      wits, and hardly able to speak.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh my lady! my lady! my lady!' she stammered out.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Well, where is the water?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Gone! all drained and dried up! Tub, brook, well&mdash;all
+      empty and dry!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Is it possible?' said Swanhilda. 'Your eyes have surely
+      deceived you! But never mind&mdash;bring up my breakfast. A ham
+      and two Pomeranian geese-breasts.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Alack! gracious lady!' answered the girl, sobbing, 'every
+      thing in the house is gone too! The wine-casks lie in pieces on
+      the cellar floor; the stalls are empty; your favourite horse is
+      away&mdash;hay and corn rotted through. It is shocking!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda dismissed her, and broke out at first into words
+      wild and vehement. She checked them; but tears of disappointment
+      and bitter rage forced their way in spite of her. A visit to her
+      cellar, store-rooms, and granaries, convinced her of the horrible
+      transformation which a night had effected in every thing that
+      belonged to her. She found nothing every where but mould and
+      sickly-smelling mildew; and was too soon aware that the hideous
+      images of the night were nothing less than frightful realities.
+      Her hardened heart stood proof; and since the whole region for
+      leagues round was turned into a blighted brown heath, she at one
+      resolved to die of hunger. Ere noon her few servants had deserted
+      the castle, and Swanhilda herself hungered till her bowels
+      growled again.</p>
+
+      <p>"This laudable self-castigation she persevered in for three
+      days long, when her hunger had increased to such a pitch that she
+      could no longer remain quiet in the castle. In a state of half
+      consciousness, she staggered down to the lake, known far and wide
+      by the name of the Castle mere. Here, on the glassy surface,
+      basked the liveliest fishes. Swanhilda for a while watched in
+      silence the disport of the happy creatures, then snatched up a
+      hazel wand lying at her feet, round the end of which a worm had
+      coiled, and, half maddened by the joyance of the finny tribe,
+      struck with it into the water. A greedy fish snapped at the
+      switch. The famishing Swanhilda clutched <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg098" id="pg098">098</a></span>hungeringly at
+      it, but found in her hand a piece of offensive carrion, and
+      nothing more; whilst around, from every side, there rang such a
+      clatter of commingled mockery and laughter, that Swanhilda vented
+      a terrible imprecation, and shed once more&mdash;a scorching
+      tear.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh! we shall soon have you tame enough!' said a voice
+      straight before her, and she recognized it at once for the
+      speaker of that miserable night. Looking about her, she perceived
+      a moss-rose that luxuriated upon the rock. In one of the expanded
+      buds sat a little kicking fellow, with green apron, sky-blue
+      vest, and yellow bonnet. He was laughing right into the face of
+      the angry miss; and, quaffing off one little flower-cup after
+      another, filled them bravely again, and jingled with his tiny
+      bunch of keys, as if he had been grand butler to the
+      universe.</p>
+
+      <p>"'A flavour like a nosegay!' said the malicious rogue. 'Wilt
+      hob-nob with me, maiden? What do you say? Are we adepts at
+      sacking a house? 'Twill give thee trouble to fill thy cellars
+      again as we found them. Take heart, girl. If you will come to,
+      and take kindly to your angling, and do the thing that's handsome
+      by your wooers, you shall have an eatable dinner yet up at the
+      castle.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Infamous pigmy!' exclaimed Swanhilda, lashing with her rod,
+      as she spoke, at the little rose. The small buffeteer meanwhile
+      had leaped down, and, in the turning of a hand, had perched
+      himself upon the lady's nose, where he drummed an animating march
+      with his heels.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Thy nose, I do protest, is excellently soft, thou wicked
+      witch!' said the rascal. 'If thou wilt now try thy hand at
+      fishing for the town market, thou shalt be entertained the while
+      with the finest band of music in the world. Be good and pretty,
+      and take up thy angling-rod. Trumpets and drums, flutes and
+      clarinets, shall all strike up together.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda tried hard to shake the jocular tormentor off, but
+      he kept his place on the bridge as if he had grown to it. She
+      made a snatch at him, and he bit her finger.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Hark'e, my damsel!' quoth Sweetflower; 'if you are so
+      unmannerly, 'tis time for a lesson. You smarted too little when
+      you were a young one. We must make all that good now;' and
+      forthwith he settled himself properly upon her nose, dangling a
+      leg on either side, like a cavalier in saddle. 'Come, my pretty,
+      be industrious,' continued he; 'get to work, and follow good
+      counsel.' And then he whistled a blithe and gamesome tune.</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, not heedlessly to prolong her own vexation, dipped
+      the rod into the water, and immediately saw another gleaming fish
+      wriggling at its end. A basket, delicately woven of flowers,
+      stood beside her, half filled with clear water. The fish dropped
+      into it of themselves. The wee companion beat meanwhile with his
+      feet upon the wings of the lady's nose, played ten instruments or
+      more at once, and extemporized a light rambling rhyme, wherein
+      arch gibes and playful derision of her present forlorn estate
+      were not unmingled with auguries of a friendlier future.</p>
+
+      <p>"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin,
+      laughing. 'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to
+      the town, and when your fish are once sold, you may make
+      yourself&mdash;some water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped
+      into the fish-basket, crept out again on the other side, plucked
+      a king-cup, took seat in it, and gave the word&mdash;'Forwards!'
+      The flower, on the instant, displayed its petals. There appeared
+      sail and rudder to the small and delicate ship, which at once
+      took motion, and sailed gaily through the air.</p>
+
+      <p>"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower,
+      'behave discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She
+      took her basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise
+      herself as completely as possible before making for the town. But
+      all her clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then,
+      harassed by hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as
+      she was, in her velvet riding-habit.</p>
+
+      <p>"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity&mdash;she was in
+      the market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of
+      the well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg099" id="pg099">099</a></span>of
+      scorn in thrall, and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied.
+      Once more within her castle walls, she beheld a running spring in
+      the courtyard, and near it an earthen pitcher. She
+      filled&mdash;drank&mdash;and carried the remainder to the hall,
+      where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a loaf. She
+      submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and water,
+      appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She
+      hastened to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner
+      there. In their stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next
+      instant she perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork,
+      galloping before her across the courtyard, and addressing his
+      pupil with another snatch of his derisive song.</p>
+
+      <p>"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she
+      carried her fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she
+      again on her way to market. An amazing multitude of people were
+      already in motion here, who presently thronged about the
+      market-woman. The basket was nearly emptied, when two of her old
+      suitors approached. Swanhilda was confounded, and a blush of deep
+      shame inflamed her countenance. Curiosity and the pleasure of
+      malice spurred them to accost her; but the sometime-haughty
+      damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in answer tendered her
+      fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing, however, ungentle
+      gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the moment, caught
+      sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy&mdash;saluting her with
+      his little cap, and nodding approbation.</p>
+
+      <p>"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought
+      Swanhilda, and in the next instant the fairy was running upon her
+      nose and cheeks, most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her
+      with a little hair till she sneezed again.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a
+      profane swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have
+      pepper growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there&mdash;is
+      that pepper? Thou art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf
+      still tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her
+      infliction with a virtuous patience. In her court and hall she
+      found, as before, the spring, the bread, and the fire. As before,
+      she satisfied hunger and thirst, and slept&mdash;the sweeter
+      already for her punishment and pain.</p>
+
+      <p>"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less
+      severe, still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading,
+      under fairy guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must
+      be owned that her aversion to angling craft did not increase in
+      proportion. As time ran on, she had encountered all her discarded
+      knights, now singly and now in companies. A year and a half
+      elapsed, and left the relation between suitors and maiden as at
+      the beginning. At length a chivalric and gentle knight, noble in
+      person as in birth, ventured to accost her, loving and reverently
+      as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed, overcome with shame,
+      the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged, blithe, and
+      watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself upon her
+      heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles&mdash;she made
+      honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
+      constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened
+      hand.</p>
+
+      <p>"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn
+      the festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry
+      creatures played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The
+      blissful day over, and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing
+      from the banquet and the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able
+      little tutor hopped before them, and led them to the hymeneal
+      bower with floral flute, and gratulatory song!" <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg100" id="pg100">100</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>PORTUGAL.<sup>35</sup></h2>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>35: <i>Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal</i>. By J. SMITH,
+        Esq., Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two
+        vols.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for
+      so long a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and
+      fallen so constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or
+      more relaxed alliance with England that a knowledge of her
+      interests, her habits, and her history, becomes an especial
+      accomplishment of the English statesman. The two countries have
+      an additional tie, in the similitude of their early pursuits,
+      their original character for enterprise, and their mutual
+      services. Portugal, like England, with a narrow territory, but
+      that territory largely open to the sea, was maritime from her
+      beginning; like England, her early power was derived from the
+      discovery of remote countries; like England, she threw her force
+      into colonization, at an era when all other nations of Europe
+      were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like England,
+      without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved her
+      independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
+      like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
+      with which, after severing the link of government, she retains
+      the link of a common language, policy, literature, and
+      religion.</p>
+
+      <p>The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed
+      the prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government
+      by Spain sank her into a temporary depression. But the native
+      gallantry of the nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new
+      effort commenced for her restoration to the place which she was
+      entitled to maintain in the world. It is remarkable that, at such
+      periods in the history of nations, some eminent individual comes
+      forward, as if designated for the especial office of a national
+      guide. Such an individual was the Marquis of Pombal, the virtual
+      sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven years&mdash;a man of
+      talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were the crush of
+      faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the Jesuits
+      and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
+      Restorer of his Country."</p>
+
+      <p>The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at
+      Soure, a Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father,
+      Manoel Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of
+      the rank of <i>fidalgo de provincia</i>&mdash;a distinction which
+      gave him the privileges attached to nobility, though not to the
+      title of a grandee, that honour not descending below dukes,
+      marquises, and counts. His mother was Theresa de Mendonca, a
+      woman of family. He had two brothers, Francis and Paul. His own
+      names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was added that of Mello,
+      from his maternal ancestor.</p>
+
+      <p>Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general,
+      studied for a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the
+      army as a private, according to the custom of the country, and
+      rose to the rank of corporal, which he held until circumstances,
+      and an introduction to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently
+      prime-minister, induced him to devote himself to the study of
+      history, politics, and law. The cardinal, struck with his
+      ability, strongly advised him to persevere in those pursuits,
+      appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal Academy of History,
+      and shortly after, the king proposed that he should write the
+      history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but this design
+      was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six years,
+      until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
+      Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
+      remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
+      language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
+      country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
+      however, be recollected, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg101"
+      id="pg101">101</a></span>that at this period French was the
+      universal language of diplomacy, the language of the court
+      circles, and the polished language of all the travelled ranks of
+      England. The writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and
+      politicians, were the study of every man who pretended to
+      good-breeding, and the only study of most; so that, to a
+      stranger, the acquisition of the vernacular tongue could be
+      scarcely more than a matter of curiosity. Times, however, are
+      changed; and the diplomatist who should now come to this country
+      without a knowledge of the language, would be despised for his
+      ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better remain at
+      home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a negotiation to
+      reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an ecclesiastical
+      claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and it is
+      surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
+      appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
+      Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun,
+      by whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined
+      to be a favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was
+      above the middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably
+      intellectual countenance; his manners graceful, and his language
+      animated and elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that
+      on a vacancy in the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled
+      to take the portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly
+      after, and Don Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the
+      throne, appointing Pombal virtually his prime-minister&mdash;a
+      rank which he held, unshaken and unrivaled, for the extraordinary
+      period of twenty-seven years.</p>
+
+      <p>The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
+      minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of
+      the most memorable service to his future administration. His six
+      years' residence in England added practical knowledge to
+      theoretical; and with the whole machinery of a free, active, and
+      popular government in constant operation before his eyes, he
+      returned to take the government of a dilapidated country. The
+      power of the priesthood, exercised in the most fearful shape of
+      tyranny; the power of the crown, at once feeble and arbitrary;
+      the power of opinion, wholly extinguished; and the power of the
+      people, perverted into the instrument of their own
+      oppression&mdash;were the elements of evil with which the
+      minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
+      sincerely, and successfully.</p>
+
+      <p>The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined
+      with the most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for
+      it not merely punished men for obeying their own consciences, but
+      tried them in defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only
+      made a law contradictory of every other law, but it established a
+      tribunal subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be
+      defended. It was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was
+      a bold and noble effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits
+      of national safety. By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that
+      thenceforth no judicial burnings should take place without the
+      consent and approval of the government, taking to itself the
+      right of enquiry and examination, and confirming or reversing the
+      sentence according to its own judgment. This measure decided at
+      once the originality and the boldness of the minister: for it was
+      the first effort of the kind in a Popish kingdom; and it was made
+      against the whole power of Rome, the restless intrigues of the
+      Jesuits, and the inveterate superstition of the people.</p>
+
+      <p>Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's
+      next attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He
+      found all the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an
+      annual revenue of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a
+      national manufactory of gunpowder, it having been previously
+      supplied by contract, and being of course supplied of the worst
+      quality at the highest rate. He established regulations for the
+      fisheries, he broke up iniquitous contracts, he attempted to
+      establish a sugar refinery, and directed the attention of the
+      people largely to the cultivation of silk. His next reformation
+      was that of the police. The disorders of the late reign had
+      covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a police so
+      effective, and proceeded <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg102"
+      id="pg102">102</a></span>with such determined justice against all
+      disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly safe, and
+      the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a time
+      when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
+      assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as
+      to be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
+      country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
+      immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets
+      of the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for
+      the various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior
+      officers, made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and
+      restored the revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next
+      engaged his attention; he established a company to trade to the
+      East and China, the old sources of Portuguese wealth. In the
+      western dominions of Portugal, commerce had hitherto languished.
+      He established a great company for the Brazil trade. But his
+      still higher praise was his humanity. Though acting in the midst
+      of a nation overrun with the most violent follies and prejudices
+      of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses of the convents;
+      and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as nuns the
+      daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over for
+      their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
+      Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
+      Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were
+      granted to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among
+      them. Of course those great objects were not achieved without
+      encountering serious difficulties. The pride of the idle
+      aristocracy, the sleepless intriguing of the Jesuits, the
+      ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and the sluggish supremacy of
+      the priests, were all up in arms against him. But his principle
+      was pure, his knowledge sound, and his resolution decided. Above
+      all, he had, in the person of the king, a man of strong mind,
+      convinced of the necessities of change, and determined to sustain
+      the minister. The reforms soon vindicated themselves by the
+      public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the powers of a
+      despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a regenerator of
+      his country.</p>
+
+      <p>But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the
+      test at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the
+      resources of Portugal.</p>
+
+      <p>On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755,
+      Lisbon was almost torn up from the foundations by the most
+      terrible earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish
+      festival, the population were crowding to the churches, which
+      were lighted up in honour of the day. About a quarter before ten
+      the first shock was felt, which lasted the extraordinary length
+      of six or seven minutes; then followed an interval of about five
+      minutes, after which the shock was renewed, lasting about three
+      minutes. The concussions were so violent in both instances that
+      nearly all the solid buildings were dashed to the ground, and the
+      principal part of the city almost wholly ruined. The terror of
+      the population, rushing through the falling streets, gathered in
+      the churches, or madly attempting to escape into the fields, may
+      be imagined; but the whole scene of horror, death, and ruin,
+      exceeds all description. The ground split into chasms, into which
+      the people were plunged in their fright. Crowds fled to the
+      water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land, suddenly rose to an
+      extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and swept away all
+      within its reach. It was said to have risen to the height of
+      five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and to have
+      sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred four
+      times.</p>
+
+      <p>The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial
+      force of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for
+      while Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion
+      of a gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
+      considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said
+      that many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the
+      Tagus, and totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the
+      shock on the river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung
+      upon the shore. To <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg103" id=
+      "pg103">103</a></span>complete the catastrophe, fires broke out
+      in the ruins, which spread over the face of the city, burned for
+      five or six days, and reduced all the goods and property of the
+      people to ashes. For forty days the shocks continued with more or
+      less violence, but they had now nothing left to destroy. The
+      people were thus kept in a constant state of alarm, and forced to
+      encamp in the open fields, though it was now winter. The royal
+      family were encamped in the gardens of the palace; and, as in all
+      the elements of society had been shaken together, Lisbon and its
+      vicinity became the place of gathering for banditti from all
+      quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish deserters made their
+      way to the city, and robberies and murders of the most desperate
+      kind were constantly perpetrated.</p>
+
+      <p>During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell
+      upon the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He
+      adopted the most active measures for provisioning the city, for
+      repressing plunder and violence, and for enabling the population
+      to support themselves during this period of suffering. It was
+      calculated that seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the
+      damage of the city; and that not less than eighty thousand lives
+      had been lost, either crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the
+      waters. Some conception of the native mortality may be formed
+      from that of the English: of the comparatively small number of
+      whom, resident at that time in Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight
+      men and fifty women were among the sufferers.</p>
+
+      <p>The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this
+      tremendous calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He
+      found every one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed
+      the king, as he entered "to meet this infliction of divine
+      justice?" The calm and resolute answer of Pombal was&mdash;"Bury
+      the dead, and feed the living." This sentence is still recorded,
+      with honour, in the memory of Portugal.</p>
+
+      <p>The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and
+      returned to the ruins. For several days his only habitation was
+      his carriage; and from it he continued to issue regulations for
+      the public security. Those regulations amounted to the remarkable
+      number of two hundred; and embraced all the topics of police,
+      provisions, and the burial of the sufferers. Among those
+      regulations was the singular, but sagacious one, of prohibiting
+      all persons from leaving the city without a passport. By this,
+      those who had robbed the people, or plundered the church plate,
+      were prevented from escaping to the country and hiding their
+      plunder, and consequently were obliged to abandon, or to restore
+      it. But every shape of public duty was met by this vigorous and
+      intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of the wounded,
+      the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the destitute.
+      He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of the
+      capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
+      of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the
+      streets, buried the dead, and restored the services of the
+      national religion.</p>
+
+      <p>Another task subsequently awaited him&mdash;the rebuilding of
+      the city. He began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty
+      is due to the taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares.
+      He did more: he built the more important fabric of public sewers
+      in the new streets, and he laid out a public garden for the
+      popular recreation. But he found, as Wren found, even in England,
+      the infinite difficulty of opposing private interest, even in
+      public objects; and Lisbon lost the opportunity of being the most
+      picturesque and stately of European cities. One project, which
+      would have been at once of the highest beauty and of the highest
+      benefit&mdash;a terrace along the shore of the Tagus from Santa
+      Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles, which would
+      have formed the finest promenade in the world&mdash;he was either
+      forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was hopeless.
+      It was never even begun.</p>
+
+      <p>The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to
+      him among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the
+      plunder of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his
+      minister. They even declared the earthquake to have <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg104" id="pg104">104</a></span>been a divine
+      judgment for the sins of the administration. But they were rash
+      enough, in the intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a
+      repetition of the earthquake at the same time next year. When the
+      destined day came, Pombal planted strong guards at the city
+      gates, to prevent the panic of the people in rushing into the
+      country. The earthquake did not fulfil the promise; and the
+      people first laughed at themselves, and then at the Jesuits. The
+      laugh had important results in time.</p>
+
+      <p>There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history,
+      than the long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose
+      naturally from the commerce of the two nations&mdash;Portugal,
+      already the most adventurous of nations, and England, growing in
+      commercial enterprise. The advantages were mutual. In the year
+      1367, we have a Portuguese treaty stipulating for protection to
+      the Portuguese traders in England. In 1382, a royal order of
+      Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador to bring his
+      baggage into England free of duty&mdash;perhaps one of the
+      earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
+      civilization, and which has since been generally adopted
+      throughout all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405,
+      exonerates the Portuguese resident in England, and their ships,
+      from being made responsible for the debts contracted by their
+      ambassadors. In 1656, the important privilege was conceded to the
+      English in Portugal, of being exempted from the native
+      jurisdiction, and being tried by a judge appointed by England.
+      This, in our days, might be an inadmissible privilege; but two
+      centuries ago, in the disturbed condition of the Portuguese laws
+      and general society, it might have been necessary for the simple
+      protection of the strangers.</p>
+
+      <p>The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have
+      lately occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is
+      curious to see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so
+      far in advance of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in
+      striking contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of
+      monopoly and prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor
+      the other&mdash;nature and necessity were too strong against him.
+      We are, however, to recollect, that the language of complaint was
+      popular in Portugal, as it always will be in a poor country, and
+      that the minister who would be popular must adopt the language of
+      complaint. In an eloquent and almost impassioned memoir by
+      Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of his country, and hastily
+      imputes it to the predominance of English commerce. He tells us
+      that, in the middle of the eighteenth century, Portugal scarcely
+      produced any thing towards her own support. Two thirds of her
+      physical necessities were supplied from England. He complains
+      that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
+      Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an
+      English trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers
+      of all the necessaries of life throughout the country, and that
+      the Portuguese had nothing to do but look on; that Cromwell, by
+      the treaty which allowed the supply of Portugal with English
+      cloths to the amount of two million sterling, had utterly
+      impoverished the country; and in short, that the weakness and
+      incapacity of Portugal, as an European state, were wholly owing,
+      to her being destitute of trade, and that the destitution was
+      wholly owing to her being overwhelmed by English commodities.</p>
+
+      <p>We are not about to enter into detail upon this subject, but
+      it is to be remembered, that Portugal obtained the cloth, even if
+      she paid for it, cheaper from England than she could have done
+      from any other country in Europe; that she had no means of making
+      the cloth for herself, and that, after all, man must be clothed.
+      Portugal, without flocks or fire, without coals or capital, could
+      never have manufactured cloth enough to cover the tenth part of
+      her population, at ten times the expense. This has occurred in
+      later days, and in more opulent countries. We remember, in the
+      reign of the Emperor Paul, when he was frantic enough to declare
+      war against England, a pair of broadcloth pantaloons costing
+      seven guineas in St Peterburg. This would have been severe work
+      for the purse of a Portuguese peasant a hundred years ago. The
+      plain fact of domestic manufactures being this, that no folly can
+      be <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg105" id=
+      "pg105">105</a></span>more foolish than to attempt to form them
+      where the means and the country do not give them a natural
+      superiority. For example, coals and iron are essential to the
+      product of all works in metal. France has neither. How can she,
+      therefore, contest the superiority of our hardware? She contests
+      it simply by doing without it, and by putting up with the most
+      intolerable cutlery that the world has ever seen. If, where
+      manufactures are already established, however ineffectual, it may
+      become a question with the government whether some privations
+      must not be submitted to by the people in general, rather than
+      precipitate those unlucky manufactures into ruin; there can be no
+      question whatever on the subject where manufactures have not been
+      hitherto established. Let the people go to the best market, let
+      no attempt be made to force nature, and let no money be wasted on
+      the worst article got by the worst means. One thing, however, is
+      quite clear with respect to Portugal, that, by the English
+      alliance, she has gained what is worth all the manufactures of
+      Europe&mdash;independence. When, in 1640, she threw off the
+      Spanish usurpation, and placed the Braganza family on the
+      national throne, she threw herself on the protection of England;
+      and that protection never has failed her to this hour. In the
+      Spanish invasion of Portugal in 1762, England sent her ten
+      thousand men, and the first officer of his day, Count La Lippe,
+      who, notwithstanding his German name, was an Englishman born, and
+      had commenced his service in the Guards. The Spaniards were
+      beaten in all directions, and Portugal was included in the treaty
+      of Fontainbleau in 1763. The deliverance of Portugal in the
+      Peninsular war is too recent to be forgotten, and too memorable
+      to be spoken of here as it deserves. And to understand the full
+      value of this assistance, we are to recollect, that Portugal is
+      one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, and at the same time the
+      most exposed; that its whole land frontier is open to Spain, and
+      its whole sea frontier is open to France; that its chief produce
+      is wine and oranges, and that England is incomparably its best
+      customer for both.</p>
+
+      <p>Pombal, in his memoir, imputes a portion of the poverty of
+      Portugal to her possession of the gold mines of Brazil. This is
+      one of the paradoxes of the last century; but nations are only
+      aggregates of men, and what makes an individual rich, cannot make
+      a nation poor. The true secret is this&mdash;that while the
+      possession of the gold mines induced an indolent government to
+      rely upon them for the expenses of the state, that reliance led
+      them to abandon sources of profit in the agriculture and commerce
+      of the country, which were of ten times the value. This was
+      equally the case in Spain. The first influx from the mines of
+      Peru, enabled the government to disregard the revenues arising
+      from the industry of the people. In consequence of the want of
+      encouragement from the government, the agriculture and commerce
+      of Spain sank rapidly into the lowest condition, whilst the
+      government indolently lived on the produce of the mines. But the
+      more gold and silver exist in circulation, the less becomes their
+      value. Within half a century, the imports from the Spanish and
+      Portuguese mines, had reduced the value of the precious metals by
+      one half; and those imports thus became inadequate to the
+      ordinary expenses of government. Greater efforts were then made
+      to obtain them from the mines. Still, as the more that was
+      obtained the less was the general value, the operation became
+      more profitless still; and at length both Spain and Portugal were
+      reduced to borrow money, which they had no means to pay&mdash;in
+      other words, were bankrupt. And this is the true solution of the
+      problem&mdash;why have the gold and silver mines of the Peninsula
+      left them the poorest nations of Europe? Yet this was contrary to
+      the operation of new wealth. The discovery of the mines of the
+      New World appears to have been a part of that providential plan,
+      by which a general impulse was communicated to Europe in the
+      fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Europe was preparing for a new
+      vigour of religion, politics, commerce, and civilization. Nothing
+      stimulates national effort of every kind with so much power and
+      rapidity, as a new general accession of wealth, or, as the
+      political economist would pronounce it, a rise of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg106" id="pg106">106</a></span>wages, whether
+      industrial or intellectual; and this rise was effected by the new
+      influx of the mines. If Peru and Mexico had belonged to England,
+      she would have converted their treasures into new canals and
+      high-roads, new harbours, new encouragements to agriculture, new
+      excitements to public education, new enterprises of commerce, or
+      the colonization of new countries in the productive regions of
+      the globe; and thus she would at once have increased her natural
+      opulence, and saved herself from suffering under the depreciation
+      of the precious metals, or more partially, by her active
+      employment of them, have almost wholly prevented that
+      depreciation. But the Peninsula, relying wholly on its imported
+      wealth, and neglecting its infinitely more important national
+      riches, was exactly in the condition of an individual, who spends
+      the principal of his property, which is continually sinking until
+      it is extinguished altogether.</p>
+
+      <p>Another source of Peninsular poverty existed in its religion.
+      The perpetual holidays of Popery made even the working portion of
+      the people habitually idle. Where labour is prohibited for nearly
+      a fourth of the year by the intervention of holidays, and thus
+      idleness is turned into a sacred merit, the nation must prepare
+      for beggary. But Popery goes further still. The establishment of
+      huge communities of sanctified idlers, monks and nuns by the ten
+      thousand, in every province and almost in every town, gave a
+      sacred sanction to idleness&mdash;gave a means of escaping work
+      to all who preferred the lounging and useless life of the convent
+      to regular labour, and even provided the means of living to
+      multitudes of vagabonds, who were content to eat their bread, and
+      drink their soup, daily at the convent gates, rather than to make
+      any honest decent effort to maintain themselves. Every country
+      must be poor in which a large portion of the public property goes
+      to the unproductive classes. The soldiery, the monks, the state
+      annuitants, the crowds of domestics, dependent on the families of
+      the grandees, all are necessarily unproductive. The money which
+      they receive is simply consumed. It makes no return. Thus poverty
+      became universal; and nothing but the singular fertility of the
+      peopled districts of Spain and Portugal, and the fortune of
+      having a climate which requires but few of the comforts essential
+      in a severer temperature, could have saved them both from being
+      the most pauperized of all nations, or even from perishing
+      altogether, and leaving the land a desert behind them. It
+      strangely illustrates these positions, that, in 1754, the
+      Portuguese treasury was so utterly emptied, that the monarch was
+      compelled to borrow 400,000 crusadoes (L.40,000) from a private
+      company, for the common expenses of his court.</p>
+
+      <p>Wholly and justly disclaiming the imputation which would
+      pronounce Portugal a dependent on England, it is impossible to
+      turn a page of her history without seeing the measureless
+      importance of her English connexion. Every genuine source of her
+      power and opulence has either originated with, or been sustained
+      by, her great ally. Among the first of these has been the wine
+      trade. In the year 1756&mdash;the year following that tremendous
+      calamity which had sunk Lisbon into ruins&mdash;the wine-growers
+      in the three provinces of Beira, Minho, and Tras-os-Montes,
+      represented that they were on the verge of ruin. The adulteration
+      of the Portuguese wines by the low traders had destroyed their
+      character in Europe, and the object of the representation was to
+      reinstate that character. Pombal immediately took up their cause;
+      and, in the course of the same year, was formed the celebrated
+      Oporto Wine Company, with a capital of £120,000. The declared
+      principles of the establishment were, to preserve the quality of
+      the wines, to secure the growers by fixing a regular price, and
+      to protect them from the combinations of dealers. The company had
+      the privilege of purchasing all the wines grown within a
+      particular district at a fixed price, for a certain period after
+      the vintage. When that period had expired, the growers were at
+      liberty to sell the wines which remained unpurchased in whatever
+      market they pleased. Monopolies, in the advanced and prosperous
+      career of commercial countries, generally sink into abuse; but
+      they are, in most instances, absolutely <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg107" id="pg107">107</a></span>necessary to
+      the infant growth of national traffic. All the commerce of Europe
+      has commenced by companies. In the early state of European trade,
+      individuals were too poor for those large enterprises which
+      require a large outlay, and whose prospects, however promising,
+      are distant. What one cannot do, must be done by a combination of
+      many, if it is to be done at all. Though when individual capital,
+      by the very action of that monopoly, becomes powerful enough for
+      those enterprises, then the time is at hand when the combination
+      may be dissolved with impunity. The Oporto Wine Company had no
+      sooner come into existence, than its benefits were felt in every
+      branch of Portuguese revenue. It restored and extended the
+      cultivation of the vine, which is the staple of Portugal. It has
+      been abolished in the revolutionary changes of late years. But
+      the question, whether the country is yet fit to bear the
+      abolition, is settled by the fact, that the wine-growers are
+      complaining of ruin, and that the necessity of the case is now
+      urging the formation of the company once more.</p>
+
+      <p>The decision of Pombal's character was never more strongly
+      shown than on this occasion. The traders into whose hands the
+      Portuguese wines had fallen, and who had enjoyed an illegal
+      monopoly for so many years, raised tumults, and serious
+      insurrection was threatened. At Oporto, the mob plundered the
+      director's house, and seized on the chief magistrate. The
+      military were attacked, and the government was endangered. The
+      minister instantly ordered fresh troops to Oporto; arrests took
+      place; seventeen persons were executed; five-and-twenty sent to
+      the galleys; eighty-six banished, and others subjected to various
+      periods of imprisonment. The riots were extinguished. In a
+      striking memoir, written by Pombal after his retirement from
+      office, he gives a brief statement of the origin of this
+      company&mdash;a topic at all times interesting to the English
+      public, and which is about to derive a new interest from its
+      practical revival in Portugal. We quote a fragment.</p>
+
+      <p>"The unceasing and urgent works which the calamitous
+      earthquake of November 1st, 1755, had rendered indispensable,
+      were still vigorously pursued, when, in the following year, one
+      Mestre Frei Joao de Mansilla presented himself at the Giunta at
+      Belem, on the part of the principal husbandmen of Upper Douro,
+      and of the respectable inhabitants of Oporto, in a state of utter
+      consternation.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the popular outcry of the time, the English were
+      represented as making themselves the sole managers of every
+      thing. The fact being, that, as they were the only men who had
+      any money, they were almost the sole purchasers in the Portuguese
+      markets. But the English here complained of were the low
+      traffickers, who, in conjunction with the Lisbon and Oporto
+      vintners, bought and managed the wines at their discretion. It
+      was represented to the king, that, by those means, the price of
+      wine had been reduced to 7200 rios a pipe, or less, until the
+      expense of cultivation was more than the value of the produce;
+      that those purchasers required one or two years' credit; that the
+      price did not pay for the hoeing of the land, which was
+      consequently deserted; that all the principal families of one
+      district had been reduced to poverty, so much so as to be obliged
+      to sell their knives and forks; that the poor people had not a
+      drop of oil for their salad, so that they were obliged, even in
+      Lent, to season their vegetables with the fat of hogs." The
+      memoir mentions even gross vice as a consequence of their extreme
+      poverty.</p>
+
+      <p>We quote this passage to show to what extremities a people may
+      be reduced by individual mismanagement, and what important
+      changes may be produced by the activity of an intelligent
+      directing power. The king's letters-patent of 1756, establishing
+      the company, provided at once for the purity of the wine, its
+      extended sale in England, and the solvency of the wine provinces.
+      It is only one among a thousand instances of the hazards in which
+      Popery involves all regular government, to find the Jesuits
+      inflaming the populace against this most salutary and successful
+      act of the king. At confession, they prompted the people to
+      believe "that the wines of the company were not fit for the
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg108" id=
+      "pg108">108</a></span>celebration of mass." (For the priests
+      drink wine in the communion, though the people receive only the
+      bread.) To give practical example to their precept, they
+      dispersed narratives of a great popular insurrection which had
+      occurred in 1661; and both incentives resulted in the riots in
+      Oporto, which it required all the vigour of Pombal to put
+      down.</p>
+
+      <p>But the country and Europe was now to acknowledge the services
+      of the great minister on a still higher scale. The extinction of
+      the Jesuits was the work of his bold and sagacious mind. The
+      history of this event is among the most memorable features of a
+      century finishing with the fall of the French monarchy.</p>
+
+      <p>The passion of Rome for territory has been always conspicuous,
+      and always unsuccessful. Perpetually disturbing the Italian
+      princes in the projects of usurpation, it has scarcely ever
+      advanced beyond the original bounds fixed for it by Charlemagne.
+      Its spirit of intrigue, transfused into its most powerful order
+      the Jesuits, was employed for the similar purpose of acquiring
+      territorial dominion. But Europe was already divided among
+      powerful nations. Those nations were governed by jealous
+      authorities, powerful kings for their leaders, and powerful
+      armies for their defence. All was full; there was no room for the
+      contention of a tribe of ecclesiastics, although the most daring,
+      subtle, and unscrupulous of the countless slaves and soldiers of
+      Rome. The world of America was open. There a mighty power might
+      grow up unseen by the eye of Europe. A population of unlimited
+      multitudes might find space in the vast plains; commerce in the
+      endless rivers; defence in the chains of mountains; and wealth in
+      the rocks and sands of a region teeming with the precious metals.
+      The enterprise was commenced under the pretext of converting the
+      Indians of Paraguay. Within a few years the Jesuits formed an
+      independent republic, numbering thirty-one towns, with a
+      population of a hundred thousand souls. To render their power
+      complete, they prohibited all communication between the natives
+      and the Spaniards and Portuguese, forbidding them to learn the
+      language of either country, and implanting in the mind of the
+      Indians an implacable hatred of both Spain and Portugal. At
+      length both courts became alarmed, and orders were sent out to
+      extinguish the usurpation. Negotiations were in the mean time
+      opened between Spain and Portugal relative to an exchange of
+      territory, and troops were ordered to effect the exchange.
+      Measures of this rank were unexpected by the Jesuits. They had
+      reckoned upon the proverbial tardiness of the Peninsular
+      councils; but they were determined not to relinquish their prize
+      without a struggle. They accordingly armed the natives, and
+      prepared for a civil war.</p>
+
+      <p>The Indians, unwarlike as they have always been, now headed by
+      their Jesuit captains, outmanoeuvred the invaders. The expedition
+      failed; and the baffled invasion ended in a disgraceful treaty.
+      The expedition was renewed in the next year, 1755, and again
+      baffled. The Portuguese government of the Brazils now made
+      renewed efforts, and in 1756 obtained some advantages; but they
+      were still as far as ever from final success, and the war,
+      fruitless as it was, had begun to drain heavily the finances of
+      the mother country. It had already cost the treasury of Lisbon a
+      sum equal to three millions sterling. But the minister at the
+      head of the Portuguese government was of a different character
+      from the race who had, for the last hundred years, wielded the
+      ministerial sceptres of Spain and Portugal. His clear and daring
+      spirit at once saw where the evil lay, and defied the
+      difficulties that lay between him and its cure. He determined to
+      extinguish the order of the Jesuits at a blow. The boldness of
+      this determination can be estimated only by a knowledge of the
+      time. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were
+      the ecclesiastical masters of Europe. They were the confessors of
+      the chief monarchs of the Continent; the heads of the chief
+      seminaries for national education; the principal professors in
+      all the universities;&mdash;and this influence, vast as it was by
+      its extent and variety, was rendered more powerful by the strict
+      discipline, the unhesitating obedience, and the systematic
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg109" id=
+      "pg109">109</a></span>activity of their order. All the Jesuits
+      existing acknowledged one head, the general of their order, whose
+      constant residence was at Rome. But their influence, powerful as
+      it was by their open operation on society, derived perhaps a
+      superior power from its secret exertions. Its name was
+      legion&mdash;its numbers amounted to thousands&mdash;it took
+      every shape of society, from the highest to the lowest. It was
+      the noble and the peasant&mdash;the man of learning and the man
+      of trade&mdash;the lawyer and the monk&mdash;the soldier and the
+      sailor&mdash;nay, it was said, that such was the extraordinary
+      pliancy of its principle of disguise, the Jesuit was suffered to
+      assume the tenets of Protestantism, and even to act as a
+      Protestant pastor, for the purpose of more complete deception.
+      The good of the church was the plea which purified all imposture;
+      the power of Rome was the principle on which this tremendous
+      system of artifice was constructed; and the reduction of all
+      modes of human opinion to the one sullen superstition of the
+      Vatican, was the triumph for which those armies of subtle
+      enthusiasm and fraudulent sanctity were prepared to live and
+      die.</p>
+
+      <p>The first act of Pombal was to remove the king's confessor,
+      the Jesuit Moreira. The education of the younger branches of the
+      royal family was in the hands of Jesuits. Pombal procured a royal
+      order that no Jesuit should approach the court, without obtaining
+      the express permission of the king. He lost no time in repeating
+      the assault. Within a month, on the 8th of October 1767, he sent
+      instructions to the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, to demand a
+      private audience, and lay before the pope the misdemeanours of
+      the order.</p>
+
+      <p>Those instructions charged the Jesuits with the most atrocious
+      personal profligacy, with a design to master all public power, to
+      gather opulence dangerous to the state, and actually to plot
+      against the authority of the crowns of Europe. He announced, that
+      the king of Portugal had commanded all the Jesuit confessors of
+      the prince and princesses to withdraw to their own convents; and
+      this important manifesto closed by soliciting the interposition
+      of the papal see to prevent the ruin, by purifying an order which
+      had given scandal to Christianity, by offences against the public
+      and private peace of society, equally unexampled, habitual, and
+      abominable. In 1758, the representation to the pope was renewed,
+      with additional proofs that the order had determined to usurp
+      every function, and thwart every act of the civil government;
+      that the confessors of the royal family, though dismissed,
+      continued to conspire; that they resisted the formation of royal
+      institutions for the renewal of the national commerce; and that
+      they excited the people to dangerous tumults, in defiance of the
+      royal authority.</p>
+
+      <p>Their intrigues comprehended every object by which influence
+      was to be obtained, or money was to be made. The "Great Wine
+      Company," on which the chief commerce of Portugal, and almost the
+      existence of its northern provinces depended, was a peculiar
+      object of their hostility, for reasons which we can scarcely
+      apprehend, except they were general jealousy of all lay power,
+      and hostility to all the works of Pombal. They assailed it from
+      their pulpits; and one of their popular preachers made himself
+      conspicuous by impiously exclaiming, "that whoever joined that
+      company, would have no part in the company of Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+      <p>The intrigues of this dangerous and powerful society had long
+      before been represented to the popes, and had drawn down upon
+      them those remonstrances by which the habitual dexterity of Rome
+      at once saves appearances, and suffers the continuance of the
+      delinquency. The Jesuits were too useful to be restrained; yet
+      their crimes were too palpable to be passed over. In consequence,
+      the complaints of the monarchs of Spain and Portugal were
+      answered by bulls issued from time to time, equally formal and
+      ineffective. Yet even from these documents may be ascertained the
+      singularly gross, worldly, and illegitimate pursuits of an order,
+      professing itself to be supremely religious, and the prime
+      sustainer of the "faith of the gospel." The bull of Benedict the
+      XIV., issued in 1741, prohibited from "trade and commerce, all
+      worldly dominion, and the <i>purchase</i> and <i>sale</i>
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg110" id="pg110">110</a></span>of
+      converted Indians." The bull extended the prohibition generally
+      to the monkish orders, to avoid branding the Jesuits especially.
+      But a bull of more direct reprehension was published at the close
+      of the year, expressly against the Jesuits in their missions in
+      the east and west. The language of this document amounts to a
+      catalogue of the most atrocious offences against society,
+      humanity, and morals. By this bull, "all men, and especially
+      <i>Jesuits</i>," are prohibited, under penalty of
+      excommunication, from "making slaves of the Indians; from selling
+      and bartering them; from separating them from their wives and
+      children; from robbing them of their property; from transporting
+      them from their native soil," &amp;c.</p>
+
+      <p>Nothing but the strongest necessity, and the most ample
+      evidence, would ever have drawn this condemnation from Rome,
+      whether sincere or insincere. But the urgencies of the case
+      became more evident from day to day. In 1758, the condemnation
+      was followed by the practical measure of appointing Cardinal
+      Saldanha visitor and reformer of the Jesuits in Portugal, and the
+      Portuguese settlements in the east and west.</p>
+
+      <p>Within two months of this appointment the following decree was
+      issued:&mdash;"For just reasons known to us, and which concern
+      especially the service of God and the public welfare, we suspend
+      from the power of confessing and preaching, in the whole extent
+      of our patriarchate, the fathers of the Society of Jesus, from
+      this moment, and until further notice." Saldanha had been just
+      raised to the patriarchate.</p>
+
+      <p>We have given some observations on this subject, from its
+      peculiar importance to the British empire at this moment. The
+      order of the Jesuits, extinguished in the middle of the last
+      century by the unanimous demand of Europe, charged with every
+      crime which could make a great association obnoxious to mankind,
+      and exhibiting the most atrocious violations of the common rules
+      of human morality, has, within this last quarter of a century,
+      been revived by the papacy, with the express declaration, that
+      its revival is for the exclusive purpose of giving new effect to
+      the doctrines, the discipline, and the power of Rome. The law
+      which forbids the admission of Jesuits into England, has shared
+      the fate of all laws feebly administered; and Jesuits are active
+      by hundreds or by thousands in every portion of the empire. They
+      have restored the whole original system, sustained by all their
+      habitual passion for power, and urging their way, with all their
+      ancient subtlety, through all ranks of Protestantism.</p>
+
+      <p>The courage and intelligence of Pombal placed him in the
+      foremost rank of Europe, when the demand was the boldest and most
+      essential service which a great minister could offer to his
+      country; he broke the power of Jesuitism. But an order so
+      numerous&mdash;for even within the life of its half-frenzied
+      founder it amounted to 19,000&mdash;so vindictive, and flung from
+      so lofty a rank of influence, could not perish without some
+      desperate attempts to revenge its ruin. The life of Pombal was so
+      constantly in danger, that the king actually assigned him a body
+      guard. But the king himself was exposed to one of the most
+      remarkable plots of regicide on record&mdash;the memorable Aveiro
+      and Tavora conspiracy.</p>
+
+      <p>On the night of the 3d of September 1758, as the king was
+      returning to the palace at night in a cabriolet, attended only by
+      his valet, two men on horseback, and armed with blunderbusses,
+      rode up to the carriage, and leveled their weapons at the
+      monarch. One of them missed fire, the other failed of its effect.
+      The royal postilion, in alarm, rushed forward, when two men,
+      similarly waiting in the road, galloped after the carriage, and
+      both fired their blunderbusses into it behind. The cabriolet was
+      riddled with slugs, and the king was wounded in several places.
+      By an extraordinary presence of mind, Don Joseph, instead of
+      ordering the postilion to gallop onward, directed him instantly
+      to turn back, and, to avoid alarming the palace, carry him direct
+      to the house of the court surgeon. By this fortunate order, he
+      escaped the other groups of the conspirators, who were stationed
+      further on the road, and under whose repeated discharges he would
+      probably have fallen. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg111" id=
+      "pg111">111</a></span> The public alarm and indignation on the
+      knowledge of this desperate atrocity were unbounded. There seemed
+      to be but one man in the kingdom who preserved his composure, and
+      that one was Pombal. Exhibiting scarcely even the natural
+      perturbation at an event which had threatened almost a national
+      convulsion, he suffered the whole to become a matter of doubt,
+      and allowed the king's retirement from the public eye to be
+      considered as merely the effect of accident. The public despatch
+      of Mr Hay, the British envoy at Lisbon, alludes to it, chiefly as
+      assigning a reason for the delay of a court mourning&mdash;the
+      order for this etiquette, on the death of the Spanish queen, not
+      having been put in execution. The envoy mentions that it had been
+      impeded by the king's illness,&mdash;"it being the custom of the
+      court to put on <i>gala</i> when any of the royal family are
+      blooded. When I went to court to enquire after his majesty's
+      health, I was there informed that the king, on Sunday night the
+      3d instant, passing through a gallery to go to the queen's
+      apartment, had the misfortune to fall and bruise his right arm;
+      he had been blooded eight different times; and, as his majesty is
+      a fat bulky man, to prevent any humours fixing there, his
+      physicians have advised that he should not use his arm, but
+      abstain from business for some time. In consequence, the queen
+      was declared regent during Don Joseph's illness."</p>
+
+      <p>This was the public version of the event. But appended to the
+      despatch was a postscript, in <i>cipher</i>, stating the reality
+      of the transaction. Pombal's sagacity, and his self control,
+      perhaps a still rarer quality among the possessors of power, were
+      exhibited in the strongest light on this occasion. For three
+      months not a single step appeared to be taken to punish, or even
+      to detect the assassins. The subject was allowed to die away;
+      when, on the 9th of December, all Portugal was startled by a
+      royal decree, declaring the crime, and offering rewards for the
+      seizure of the assassins. Some days afterwards Lisbon heard, with
+      astonishment, an order for the arrest of the Duke of Aveira, one
+      of the first nobles, and master of the royal household; the
+      arrest of the whole family of the Marquis of Tavora, himself, his
+      two sons, his four brothers, and his two sons-in-law. Other
+      nobles were also seized; and the Jesuits were forbidden to be
+      seen out of their houses.</p>
+
+      <p>The three months of Pombal's apparent inaction had been
+      incessantly employed in researches into the plot. Extreme caution
+      was evidently necessary, where the criminals were among the
+      highest officials and nobles, seconded by the restless and
+      formidable machinations of the Jesuits. When his proofs were
+      complete, he crushed the conspirators at a single grasp. His
+      singular inactivity had disarmed them; and nothing but the most
+      consummate composure could have prevented their flying from
+      justice. On the 12th of January 1759, they were found guilty; and
+      on the 13th they were put to death, to the number of nine, with
+      the Marchioness of Tavora, in the square of Belem. The scaffold
+      and the bodies were burned, and the ashes thrown into the
+      sea.</p>
+
+      <p>Those were melancholy acts; the works of melancholy times. But
+      as no human crime can be so fatal to the security of a state as
+      regicide, no imputation can fall on the memory of a great
+      minister, compelled to exercise justice in its severity, for the
+      protection of all orders of the kingdom. In our more enlightened
+      period, we must rejoice that those dreadful displays of judicial
+      power have passed away; and that laws are capable of being
+      administered without the tortures, or the waste of life, which
+      agonize the feelings of society. Yet, while blood for blood
+      continued to be the code; while the sole prevention of crime was
+      sought for in the security of judgment; and while even the zeal
+      of justice against guilt was measured by the terrible intensity
+      of the punishment&mdash;we must charge the horror of such
+      sweeping executions to the ignorance of the age, much more than
+      to the vengeance of power.</p>
+
+      <p>This tragedy was long the subject of European memory; and all
+      the extravagance of popular credulity was let loose ill
+      discovering the causes of the conspiracy. It was said, in the
+      despatches of the English minister, that the Marquis of Tavora,
+      who had been Portuguese minister in the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg112" id="pg112">112</a></span>East, was
+      irritated by the royal attentions to his son's wife. Ambition was
+      the supposed ground of the Duke of Aveira's perfidy. The old
+      Marchioness of Tavora, who had been once the handsomest woman at
+      court, and was singularly vein and haughty, was presumed to have
+      received some personal offence, by the rejection of the family
+      claim to a dukedom. All is wrapped in the obscurity natural to
+      transactions in which individuals of rank are involved in the
+      highest order of crime. It was the natural policy of the minister
+      to avoid extending the charges by explaining the origin of the
+      crime. The connexions of the traitors were still many and
+      powerful; and further disclosures might have produced only
+      further attempts at the assassination of the minister or the
+      king.</p>
+
+      <p>It was now determined to act with vigour against the Jesuits,
+      who were distinctly charged with assisting, if not originating,
+      the treason. A succession of decrees were issued, depriving them
+      of their privileges and possessions; and finally, on the 5th of
+      October 1759, the cardinal patriarch Saldanha issued the famous
+      mandate, by which the whole society was expelled from the
+      Portuguese dominions. Those in the country were transported to
+      Civita Vecchia; those in the colonies were also conveyed to the
+      Papal territory; and thus, by the intrepidity, wisdom, and civil
+      courage of one man, the realm was relieved from the presence of
+      the most powerful and most dangerous body which had ever
+      disturbed the peace of society.</p>
+
+      <p>Portugal having thus the honour of taking the lead, Rome
+      herself at length followed; and, on the accession of the
+      celebrated Ganganelli, Clement XIV., a resolution was adopted to
+      suppress the Jesuits in every part of the world. On the 21st of
+      July 1773, the memorable bull "Dominus ac Redemptor," was
+      published, and the order was at an end. The announcement was
+      received in Lisbon with natural rejoicing. <i>Te Deum</i> was
+      sung, and the popular triumph was unbounded and universal.</p>
+
+      <p>We now hasten to the close of this distinguished minister's
+      career. His frame, though naturally vigorous, began to feel the
+      effects of his incessant labour, and an apoplectic tendency
+      threatened to shorten a life so essential to the progress of
+      Portugal; for that whole life was one of <i>temperate</i> and
+      <i>progressive</i> reform. His first application was to the
+      finances; he found the Portuguese exchequer on the verge of
+      bankruptcy. A third of the taxes was embezzled in the collection.
+      In 1761, his new system was adopted, by which the finances were
+      restored; and every week a balance-sheet of the whole national
+      expenditure was presented to the king. His next reform was the
+      royal household, where all unnecessary expenses&mdash;and they
+      were numerous&mdash;were abolished. Another curious reform will
+      be longer remembered in Portugal. The nation had hitherto used
+      <i>only</i> the <i>knife</i> at dinner! Pombal introduced the
+      <i>fork</i>. He brought this novel addition to the table with him
+      from England in 1745!</p>
+
+      <p>The nobility were remarkably ignorant. Pombal formed the
+      "College of Nobles" for their express education. There they were
+      taught every thing suitable to their rank. The only prohibition
+      being, "that they should <i>not converse in Latin</i>," the old
+      pedantic custom of the monks. The nobles were directed to
+      converse in English, French, Italian, or their native tongue;
+      Pombal declaring, that the custom of speaking Latin was only "to
+      teach them to barbarize."</p>
+
+      <p>Another custom, though of a more private order, attracted the
+      notice of this rational and almost universal improver. It had
+      been adopted as a habit by the widows of the nobility, to spend
+      the first years of their widowhood in the most miserable
+      seclusion; they shut up their windows, retired to some gloomy
+      chamber, slept on the floor, and, suffering all kinds of
+      voluntary and absurd mortifications, forbade the approach of the
+      world. As the custom was attended with danger to health, and
+      often with death, besides its general melancholy influence on
+      society, the minister publicly "enacted," that every part of it
+      should be abolished; and, moreover, that the widows should always
+      remove to another house; or, where this was not practicable, that
+      they "should <i>not</i> close the shutters, nor '<i>mourn</i>'
+      for more than a week, nor remain at home for more than a month,
+      nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg113" id=
+      "pg113">113</a></span>sleep on the ground." Doubtless, tens of
+      thousands thanked him, and thank him still, for this war against
+      a popular, but most vexatious, absurdity.</p>
+
+      <p>His next reform was the army. After the peace of 1763, he
+      fixed it at 30,000 men, whom he equipped effectually, and brought
+      into practical discipline.</p>
+
+      <p>A succession of laws, made for the promotion of European and
+      colonial trade, next opened the resources of Portugal to an
+      extent unknown before. Pombal next abolished the "Index
+      Expurgitorius"&mdash;an extraordinary achievement, not merely
+      beyond his age, but against the whole superstitious spirit of his
+      age. He was not content with abolishing the restraint; he
+      attempted to <i>restore</i> the PRESS in Portugal. Hitherto
+      nearly all Portuguese books had been printed in foreign counties.
+      He established a "Royal Press," and gave its superintendence to
+      Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been expatriated for
+      printing works against the Jesuits. Such, in value and extent,
+      were the acts which Portugal owed to this indefatigable and
+      powerful mind, that when, in 1766, he suffered a paralytic
+      stroke, the king and the people were alike thrown into
+      consternation.</p>
+
+      <p>At length Don Joseph, the king, and faithful friend of Pombal,
+      died, after a reign of twenty-seven years of honour and
+      usefulness. Pombal requested to resign, and the Donna Maria
+      accepted the resignation, and conferred various marks of honour
+      upon him. He now retired to his country-seat, where Wraxall saw
+      him in 1772, and thus describes his appearance. "At this time he
+      had attained his seventy-third year, but age seemed to have
+      diminished neither the freshness nor the activity of his
+      faculties. In his person he was very tall and slender, his face
+      long, pale, and meagre, but full of intelligence."</p>
+
+      <p>But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles;
+      and the loss of his power as minister produced a succession of
+      intrigues against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and
+      doubtless also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always
+      been at once so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was
+      insulted by a trial, at which, however, the only sentence
+      inflicted was an order to retire twenty leagues from the court.
+      The Queen was, at that time, probably suffering under the first
+      access of that derangement, which, in a few years after, utterly
+      incapacitated her, and condemned the remainder of her life to
+      melancholy and total solitude. But the last praise is not given
+      to the great minister, while his personal disinterestedness is
+      forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was to present to
+      the throne a statement of his public income, when it appeared
+      that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration, he had
+      received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
+      state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was
+      rich; for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes
+      were joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and
+      estimation by the European courts, to the great age of
+      eighty-three, dying on the 5th of May without pain. A long
+      inscription, yet in which the panegyric did not exceed the
+      justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a single sentence might have
+      established his claim to the perpetual gratitude of his country
+      and mankind&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Here lies the man who banished the</p>
+
+        <p>Jesuits from Portugal."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much
+      credit to his research and skill. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg114" id="pg114">114</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+      <h3>PART XII.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+
+        <p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+
+        <p>And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+
+        <p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>SHAKSPEARE.</h3>
+
+      <p>Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom,
+      but one&mdash;the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He
+      evidently loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour
+      of his existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief
+      traders in France were already in prison; and yet he carried on
+      the perilous game of commerce. He was known to be immensely
+      opulent; and he must have regarded the day which passed over his
+      head, without seeing his strong boxes put under the government
+      seal, and himself thrown into some <i>oubliette</i>, as a sort of
+      miracle. But he was now assailed by a new alarm. War with England
+      began to be rumoured among the bearded brethren of the synagogue;
+      and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from Peru to Japan. Like
+      Shakspeare's princely merchant&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"His mind was tossing on the ocean,</p>
+
+        <p>There where his argosies with portly sail,</p>
+
+        <p>Like signiors, and rich burghers of the flood.</p>
+
+        <p>Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,</p>
+
+        <p>Did overpower the petty traffickers,</p>
+
+        <p>As they flew by them with their woven wings."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The first shot fired would inevitably pour out the whole naval
+      force of England, and his argosies would put their helms about,
+      and steer for Portsmouth, Plymouth, and every port but a French
+      one. If this formidable intelligence had awakened the haughtiness
+      of the French government to a sense of public peril, what effect
+      must it not have in the counting-house of a man whose existence
+      was trade? While I was on my pillow, luxuriating in dreams of
+      French fêtes, Paul and Virginia carried off to the clouds, and
+      Parisian <i>belles</i> dancing cotillons in the bowers and
+      pavilions of a Mahometan paradise, Elnathan spent the night at
+      his desk, surrounded by his bustling generation of clerks,
+      writing to correspondents at every point of the compass, and
+      preparing insurances with the great London establishments; which
+      I was to carry with me, though unacquainted with the transaction
+      on which so many millions of francs hung trembling.</p>
+
+      <p>His morning face showed me, that whatever had been his
+      occupation before I met him at the breakfast-table, it had been a
+      most uneasy one. His powerful and rather handsome physiognomy had
+      shrunk to half the size; his lips were livid, and his hand shook
+      to a degree which made me ask, whether the news from Robespierre
+      was unfavourable. But his assurance that all still went on well
+      in that delicate quarter, restored my tranquility, which was
+      beginning to give way; and my only stipulation now was, that I
+      should have an hour or two to spend at Vincennes before I took my
+      final departure. The Jew was all astonishment; his long visage
+      elongated at the very sound; he shook his locks, lifted up his
+      large hands, and fixed his wide eyes on me with a look of mingled
+      alarm and wonder, which would have been ludicrous if it had not
+      been perfectly sincere.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the name of common sense, do you remember in what a
+      country, and in what times, we live? Oh, those Englishmen! always
+      thinking that they are in England. My young friend, you are
+      clearly not fit for France, and the sooner you get out of it the
+      better."</p>
+
+      <p>I still remonstrated. "Do you forget yesterday?" he exclaimed.
+      "Can you forget the man before whom we both stood? A moment's
+      hesitation <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg115" id=
+      "pg115">115</a></span>on your part to set out, would breed
+      suspicion in that most suspicious brain of all mankind. Life is
+      here as uncertain as in a field of battle. Begone the instant
+      your passports arrive, and never behind you.&mdash;For my part, I
+      constantly feel as if my head were in the lion's jaws. Rejoice in
+      your escape."</p>
+
+      <p>But I was still unconvinced, and explained "that my only
+      motive was, to relieve my friends in the fortress from the alarm
+      which they had evidently felt for my fate, and to relieve myself
+      from the charge of ingratitude, which would inevitably attach to
+      me if I left Paris without seeing them."</p>
+
+      <p>Never was man more perplexed with a stubborn subject. He
+      represented to me the imminent hazard of straying a
+      hair's-breadth to the right or left of the orders of Robespierre!
+      "I was actually under surveillance, and he was responsible for
+      me. To leave his roof; even for five minutes, until I left it for
+      my journey, might forfeit the lives of both before evening."</p>
+
+      <p>I still remonstrated; and pronounced the opinion, perhaps too
+      flattering a one, of the dictator, that "he could not condescend
+      to forbid a mere matter of civility, which still left me entirely
+      at his service." The Jew at last, in despair, rushed from the
+      room, leaving me to the unpleasing consciousness that I had
+      distressed an honest and even a friendly man.</p>
+
+      <p>Two hours thus elapsed, when a <i>chaise de poste</i> drew up
+      at the door, with an officer of the police in front, and from it
+      came Varnhorst and the doctor, both probably expecting a summons
+      to the scaffold; but the Prussian bearing his lot with the
+      composure of a man accustomed to face death, and the doctor
+      evidently in measureless consternation, colourless and convulsed
+      with fear. His rapture was equally unbounded when Elnathan,
+      ushering them both into the apartment where I sat&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter</p>
+
+        <p>thought"&mdash;</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>explained, that finding me determined on my point, he had
+      adopted the old proverb&mdash;of bringing Mahomet to the
+      mountain, if he could not bring the mountain to Mahomet; had
+      procured an order for their attendance in Paris, through his
+      influence with the chief of the police, and now hoped to have the
+      honour of their company at dinner. This was, certainly, a
+      desirable exchange for the Place de Grève; and we sat down to a
+      sumptuous table, where we enjoyed ourselves with the zest which
+      danger escaped gives to luxurious security.</p>
+
+      <p>All went on well. The doctor was surprised to find in the
+      frowning banker, who had repulsed him so sternly from his desk,
+      the hospitable entertainer; and Varhorst's honest and manly
+      friendship was gratified by the approach of my release from a
+      scene of perpetual danger.</p>
+
+      <p>I had some remembrances to give to my friends in Prussia; and
+      at length, sending away the doctor to display his connoisseurship
+      on Elnathan's costly collection of pictures, Varnhorst was left
+      to my questioning. My first question naturally was, "What had
+      involved him in the ill-luck of the Austrians."</p>
+
+      <p>"The soldier's temptation every where," was the answer;
+      "having nothing to do at home, and expecting something to do
+      abroad. When the Prussian army once crossed the Rhine, I should
+      have had no better employment than to mount guard, escort the
+      court dowagers to the balls, and finish the year and my life
+      together, by dying of <i>ennui</i>. In this critical moment, when
+      I was in doubt whether I should turn Tartar, or monk of La
+      Trappe, Clairfait sent to offer me the command of a division. I
+      closed with it at once, went to the king, obtained his leave, put
+      spurs to my horse, and reached the Austrian camp before the
+      courier."</p>
+
+      <p>I could not help expressing my envy at a profession in which
+      all the honours of earth lay at the feet of a successful soldier!
+      He smiled, and pointed to the police-officer, who was then
+      sulkily pacing in front of the house.</p>
+
+      <p>"You see," said he, "the first specimen of my honours. Yet,
+      from the moment of my arrival within the Austrian lines, I could
+      have predicted our misfortune. Clairfait was, at least, as
+      long-sighted as myself; and nothing could exceed his despondency
+      but his indignation. His noble heart <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg116" id="pg116">116</a></span>was half
+      broken by the narrowness of his resources for defending the
+      country, and the boundless folly by which the war council of
+      Vienna expected to make up for the weakness of their battalions
+      by the absurdity of their plans. 'I write for regiments,' the
+      gallant fellow used to say; 'and they send me regulations! I tell
+      them that we have not troops enough for an advanced guard; and
+      they send me the plan of a pitched battle! I tell then that the
+      French have raised their army in front of me to a hundred
+      thousand strong; and they promise me reinforcements next year.'
+      After all, his chief perplexity arose from their
+      orders&mdash;every despatch regularly contradicting the one that
+      came before.</p>
+
+      <p>"Something in the style," said I, "of Voltaire's caricature of
+      the Austrian courier in the Turkish war, with three packs
+      strapped on his shoulders, inscribed,
+      'Orders'&mdash;'Counter-orders'&mdash;and 'Disorders.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Just a case in point. Voltaire would have been exactly the
+      historian for our campaign. What an incomparable tale he would
+      have made of it! Every thing that was done was preposterous. We
+      were actually beaten before we fought; we were ruined at Vienna
+      before a shot was fired at Jemappes. The Netherlands were lost,
+      not by powder and ball, but by pen and ink; and the consequence
+      of our "march to Paris" is, that one half of the army is now
+      scattered from Holland to the Rhine, and the other half is, like
+      myself, within French walls."</p>
+
+      <p>I enquired how Clairfait bore his change of fortune.</p>
+
+      <p>"Like a man superior to fortune. I never saw him exhibit
+      higher ability than in his dispositions for our last battle. He
+      has become a magnificent tactician. But Alexander the Great
+      himself could not fight without troops: and such was our exact
+      condition.</p>
+
+      <p>"Dumourier, at the head of a hundred thousand men, had turned
+      short from the Prussian retreat, and flung himself upon the
+      Netherlands. How many troops do you think the wisdom of the Aulic
+      Council had provided to protect the provinces? Scarcely more than
+      a third of the number, and those scattered over a frontier of a
+      hundred miles; in a country, too, where every Man spoke French,
+      where every man was half Republican already, where the people had
+      actually begun a revolution, and where we had scarcely a friend,
+      a fortress in repair, or ammunition enough for <i>feu de
+      joie</i>. The French, of course, burst in like an inundation,
+      sweeping every thing before them. I was at dinner with Clairfait
+      and his staff on the day when the intelligence arrived. The map
+      was laid upon the table, and we had a kind of debate on the
+      course which the Frenchman would take. That evening completed my
+      opinion of him as a general. He took the clearest view among all
+      our conjectures, as the event proved, so far as the enemy's
+      movements were concerned; though I still retain my own idea of an
+      original error in the choice of our field of battle. Before the
+      twilight fell, we mounted our horses, and rode to the spot where
+      Clairfait had already made up his mind to meet the French. It was
+      certainly a capital position for defence&mdash;a range of heights
+      not too high for guns, surmounted by a central plateau; the very
+      position for a battery and a brigade; but the very worst that
+      could be taken against the new enemy whom we had to oppose."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yet, what could an army of French recruits be expected to do
+      against a disciplined force so strongly posted?" was my
+      question.</p>
+
+      <p>"My answer to that point," said Varnhorst, "must be a
+      quotation from my old master of tactics. If the purpose of a
+      general is simply to defend himself, let him keep his troops on
+      heights; if his purpose is simply to make an artillery fight, let
+      him keep behind his guns; but if it is his purpose to beat the
+      enemy, he must leave himself able to follow them&mdash;and this
+      he can do only on a plain. In the end, after beating the enemy in
+      a dozen attempts to carry our batteries, but without the power of
+      striking a blow in retaliation, we saw them carried all at once,
+      and were totally driven from the field."</p>
+
+      <p>"So much for bravery and discipline against bravery and
+      enthusiasm," said I. "Yet the enemy's loss must have been
+      tremendous. Every assault must have torn their columns to
+      pieces." Even this attempt at reconciling him to his ill fortune
+      failed.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes," was the cool reply; "but <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg117" id="pg117">117</a></span>they could afford it, which was
+      more than we could do. Remember the maxim, my young friend, when
+      you shall come to be a general, that the only security for
+      gaining battles is, to have good troops, and a good many of
+      them.&mdash;The French recruits fought like recruits, without
+      knowing whether the enemy were before or behind them; but they
+      fought, and when they were beaten they fought again. While we
+      were fixed on our heights, they were formed into column once
+      more, and marched gallantly up to the mouth of our guns. Then, we
+      had but 18,000 men to the Frenchman's 60,000. Such odds are too
+      great. Whether our great king would have fought at all with such
+      odds against him, may be a question; but there can be none,
+      whether he would have fixed himself where he could not manoeuvre.
+      The Frenchman attacked us on flanks and centre, just when and
+      where he pleased; there stood we, mowing down his masses from our
+      fourteen redoubts, and waiting to be attacked again. To do him
+      justice, he fought stoutly; and to do us justice, we fought
+      sturdily. But still we were losing men; the affair looked
+      unpromising from the first half hour; and I pronounced that, if
+      Dumourier had but perseverance enough, he must carry the
+      field."</p>
+
+      <p>I made some passing remark on the singular hazard of bringing
+      untried troops against the proverbial discipline of a German
+      army, and the probability that the age of the wild armies of
+      peasantry in Europe would be renewed, by the evidence of its
+      success.</p>
+
+      <p>"Right," said Varnhorst. "The thing that struck me most was,
+      the new character of the whole engagement. It was Republicanism
+      in the field; a bold riot, a mob battle. Nor will it be the last
+      of its kind. Our whole line was once attacked by the French
+      demi-brigades, coming to the charge, with a general chorus of the
+      <i>Marseillaise</i> hymn. The effect was magnificent, as we heard
+      it pealing over the field through all the roar of cannon and
+      musketry. The attack was defeated. It was renewed, under a chorus
+      in honour of their general, and 'Vive Dumourier' was chanted by
+      50,000 voices, as they advanced against our batteries. This
+      charge broke in upon our position, and took five of our fourteen
+      redoubts. Even Clairfait now acknowledged that all was lost;
+      two-thirds of our men were <i>hors de combat</i>, and orders were
+      given for a retreat. My turn now came to act, and I moved forward
+      with my small brigade of cavalry&mdash;but I was not more lucky
+      than the rest."</p>
+
+      <p>I pressed to hear the particulars, but his mind was still
+      overwhelmed with a sense of military calamity, always the most
+      reluctant topic to a brave and honest soldier; and he simply
+      said&mdash;"the whole was a <i>mêlée</i>. Our rear was threatened
+      in force by a column which had stormed the heights under a young
+      <i>brave</i>, whom I had observed, during the day, exposing
+      himself gallantly to all the risks of the field. To stop the
+      progress of the enemy on this point was essential; for the safety
+      of the whole army was compromised. We charged them, checked them,
+      but found the brigade involved in a force of ten times our
+      number; fought our way out again with heavy loss; and after all,
+      a shot, which brought my charger to the ground, left me wounded
+      and bruised in the hands of the French. I was taken up
+      insensible, was carried to the tent of the young commander of the
+      column, whom I found to be a Duc de Chartres, the son of the late
+      Duke of Orleans. His kindness to his prisoner was equal to his
+      gallantry in the field. Few and hurried as our interviews were,
+      while his army remained in its position he gave me the idea of a
+      mind of great promise, and destined for great things, unless the
+      chances of war should stop his career. But, though a Republican
+      soldier, to my surprise he was no Republican. His enquiries into
+      the state of popular opinion in Europe, showed at once his
+      sagacity, and the turn which his thoughts, young as he was, were
+      already taking.&mdash;But the diadem is trampled under foot in
+      France for ever; and with cannon-shot in his front every day of
+      his life, and the guillotine in his rear, who can answer for the
+      history of any man for twenty-four hours together?"</p>
+
+      <p>My time in Paris had now come to a close. All my enquiries for
+      the fate of Lafontaine had been fruitless; and I dreaded the
+      still more anxious <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg118" id=
+      "pg118">118</a></span>enquiries to which I should be subjected on
+      my arrival; but I had at least the intelligence to give, that I
+      had not left him in the fangs of the jailers of St Lazare. I took
+      leave of my bold and open-hearted Prussian friend with a regret,
+      which I had scarcely expected to feel for one with whom I had
+      been thrown into contact simply by the rough chances of
+      campaigning; but I had the gratification of procuring for him,
+      through the mysterious interest of Elnathan, an order for his
+      transmission to Berlin in the first exchange of prisoners. This
+      promise seemed to compensate all the services which he had
+      rendered to me. "I shall see the Rhine again," said he, "which is
+      much more than I ever expected since the day of our misfortune.
+      "I shall see the Rhine again!&mdash;and thanks to you for it." He
+      pressed my hand with honest gratitude.</p>
+
+      <p>The carriage which was to convey me to Calais was now at the
+      door. Still, one thought as uppermost in his mind; it was, that I
+      should give due credit to the bravery of the Austrian general and
+      his army. "If I have spoken of the engagement at all," said he,
+      "it was merely to put you in possession of the facts. You return
+      to England; you will of course hear the battle which lost the
+      Netherlands discussed in various versions. The opinion of England
+      decides the opinion of Europe. Tell, then, your countrymen, in
+      vindication of Clairfait and his troops, that after holding his
+      ground for nine hours against three times his force, he retreated
+      with the steadiness of a movement on parade, without leaving
+      behind him a single gun, colour, or prisoner. Tell them, too,
+      that he was defeated only through the marvellous negligence of a
+      government which left him to fight battles without brigades,
+      defend fortresses without guns, and protect insurgent provinces
+      with a fugitive army."</p>
+
+      <p>My answer was&mdash;"You may rely upon my fighting your
+      battles over the London dinner-tables, as perseveringly, if not
+      as much against odds, as you fought it in the field. But the
+      fortune of war is proverbial, and I hope yet to pour out a
+      libation to you as Generalissimo Varnsdorf, the restorer of the
+      Austrian laurels."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, Marston, may you be a true prophet! But read that
+      letter from Guiscard; our long-headed friend not merely crops our
+      German laurels, but threatens to root up the tree." He handed me
+      a letter from the Prussian philosopher: it was a curious
+      <i>catalogue raisonné</i> of the <i>im</i>probabilities of
+      success in the general war of Europe against the Republic;
+      concluding with the words, so characteristic of his solemn and
+      reflective views of man and the affairs of man&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"War is the original propensity of human nature, and
+      civilization is the great promoter of war. The more civilized all
+      nations become, the more they fight. The most civilized continent
+      of the world has spent the fourth of its modern existence in war.
+      Every man of common sense, of course, abhors its waste of life,
+      of treasure, and of time. Still the propensity is so strong, that
+      it continues the most prodigal sacrifice of them all. I think
+      that we are entering on a period, when war, more than ever, will
+      be the business of nations. I should not be surprised if the
+      mania of turning nations into beggars, and the population into
+      the dust of the field, should last for half a century; until the
+      whole existing generation are in their graves, and a new
+      generation shall take their places, astonished at the fondness of
+      their fathers for bankruptcy and bloodshed." After some sharp
+      censures of the unpurposed conduct of the German cabinets, he
+      finished by saying&mdash;"If the French continue to fight as they
+      have just fought, Jemappes will be the beginning of a new era. In
+      the history of the world, every great change of human supremacy
+      has been the result of a change in the principles of war; and the
+      nation which has been the first to adopt that change, has led the
+      triumph for its time. France has now found out a new element in
+      war&mdash;the force of multitude, the charge of the masses; and
+      she will conquer, until the kings of Europe follow her example,
+      and call their nations to the field. Till then she will be
+      invincible, but then her conquests will vanish; and the world,
+      exhausted by carnage, will be quiet for a while. But the wolfish
+      spirit of human nature will again hunger for prey; some new
+      system of havoc will be discovered by some great genius,
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg119" id=
+      "pg119">119</a></span>who ought to be cursed to the lowest depths
+      of human memory; but who will be exalted to the most rapturous
+      heights of human praise. Then again, when one half of the earth
+      is turned into a field of battle, and the other into a cemetery,
+      mankind will cry out for peace; and again, when refreshed, will
+      rush into still more ruinous war:&mdash;thus all things run in a
+      circle. But France has found out the secret for this age,
+      and&mdash;<i>vae victis!</i>&mdash;the pestilence will be tame to
+      the triumph of her frenzy, her rapine, and her revenge."</p>
+
+      <p>"Exactly what I should have expected from Guiscard," was my
+      remark; "he is always making bold attempts to tear up the surface
+      of the time, and look into what is growing below."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, well," replied my honest fellow soldier, "I never
+      perplex my brain with those things. I dare say your philosophers
+      may be right; at least once in a hundred years. But take my word
+      for it, that musket and bayonet will be useful matters still; and
+      that discipline and my old master Frederick, will be as good as
+      Dumourier and desperation, when we shall have brigade for
+      brigade."</p>
+
+      <p>The postillions cracked their whips, the little Norman horses
+      tore their way over the rough pavement; the sovereign people
+      scattered off on every side, to save their lives and limbs; and
+      the plan of St Denis, rich with golden corn, and tracked by lines
+      of stately trees, opened far and wide before me. From the first
+      ascent I gave a <i>parting</i> glance at Paris&mdash;it was
+      mingled of rejoicing and regret. What hours of interest, of
+      novelty, and of terror, had I not passed within the circuit of
+      those walls! Yet, how the eye cheats reality!&mdash;that city of
+      imprisonment and frantic liberty, of royal sorrow and of popular
+      exultation, now looked a vast circle of calm and stately beauty.
+      How delusive is distance in every thing! Across that plain,
+      luxuriant with harvest, surrounded with those soft hills, and
+      glittering in the purple of this glorious evening, it looked a
+      paradise. I knew it&mdash;a pendemonium!</p>
+
+      <p>I speeded on&mdash;every thing was animated and animating in
+      my journey. It was the finest season of the year; the roads were
+      good; the prospects&mdash;as I swept down valley and rushed round
+      hill, with the insolent speed of a government <i>employé</i>,
+      leaving all meaner vehicles, travellers, and the whole workday
+      world behind&mdash;seemed to be to redeem the character of French
+      landscape. But how much of its colouring was my own! Was <i>I</i>
+      not <i>free?</i> was I not <i>returning to England?</i> was I not
+      approaching scenes, and forms, and the realities of those
+      recollections, which, even in the field of battle, and at the
+      foot of the scaffold, had alternately cheered and pained,
+      delighted and distressed me?&mdash;yet which, even with all their
+      anxieties, were dearer than the most gilded hopes of ambition.
+      Was I not about to meet the gay smile and poignant vivacity of
+      Mariamne? was I not about to wander in the shades of my paternal
+      castle? to see those relatives who were to shape so large a share
+      of my future happiness; to meet in public life the eminent public
+      men, with whose renown the courts and even the camps of Europe
+      were already ringing: and last, proudest, and most profound
+      feeling of all&mdash;was I not to venture near the shrine on
+      which I had placed my idol; to offer her the solemn and distant
+      homage of the heart; perhaps to hear of her from day to day;
+      perhaps to see her noble beauty; perhaps even to <i>hear</i> that
+      voice, of which the simplest accents sank to my soul.&mdash;But I
+      must not attempt to describe sensations which are in their nature
+      indescribable; which dispose the spirit of man to silence; and
+      which, in their true intensity, suffer but one faculty to exist,
+      absorbing all the rest in deep sleep and delicious reverie.</p>
+
+      <p>I drove with the haste of a courier to London; and after
+      having deposited my despatches with one of the under-secretaries
+      of the Foreign office, I flew to Mordecai's den in the city.
+      London appeared to me more crowded than ever; the streets longer,
+      and buildings dingier; and the whole, seen after the smokeless
+      and light-coloured towns of the Continent, looked an enormous
+      manufactory, where men wore themselves out in perpetual blackness
+      and bustle, to make their bread, and die. But my heart beat
+      quickly as I reached the door of that dingiest of all its
+      dwellings, where the lord of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg120" id="pg120">120</a></span>hundreds of thousands of pounds
+      burrowed himself on the eyes of mankind.</p>
+
+      <p>I knocked, but was long unanswered; at last a meagre clerk,
+      evidently of the "fallen people," and who seemed dug up from the
+      depths of the dungeon, gave me the intelligence that "his master
+      and family had left England." The answer was like an icebolt
+      through my frame. This was the moment to which I had looked
+      forward with, I shall not say what emotions. I could scarcely
+      define them; but they had a share of every strong, every
+      faithful, and every touching remembrance of my nature. My
+      disappointment was a pang. My head grey dizzy, I reeled; and
+      asked leave to enter the gloomy door, and rest for a moment. But
+      this the guardian of the den was too cautious to allow, and I
+      should have probably fainted in the street, but for the
+      appearance of an ancient Rebecca, the wife of the clerk, who,
+      feeling the compassion which belongs to the sex in all instances,
+      and exerting the authority which is so generally claimed by the
+      better-halves of men, pushed her husband back, and led the way
+      into the old cobwebbed parlour where I had so often been. A glass
+      of water, the sole hospitality of the house, revived me; and
+      after some enquiries alike fruitless with the past, I was about
+      to take my leave, when the clerk, in his removal of some papers,
+      not to be trusted within reach of a stranger, dropped a letter
+      from the bundle, on which was my name. From the variety of
+      addresses it had evidently travelled far, and had been returned
+      from half the post-offices of the Continent. It was two months'
+      old, but its news was to me most interesting. It was from
+      Mordecai; and after alluding to some pecuniary transactions with
+      his foreign brethren, always the first topic, he hurried on in
+      his usual abrupt strain:&mdash;"Mariamne has insisted on my
+      leaving England for a while. This is perplexing; as the war must
+      produce a new loan, and London is, after all, the only place
+      where those affairs can be transacted without trouble.&mdash;My
+      child is well, and yet she looks pallid from time to time, and
+      sheds tears when she thinks herself unobserved. All this may pass
+      away, but it makes me uneasy; and, as she has evidently made up
+      her mind to travel, I have only to give way&mdash;for, with all
+      her caprices, she is my child, my only child, and my beloved
+      child!</p>
+
+      <p>"I have heard a good deal of your proceedings from my
+      correspondent and kinsman in Paris. You have acquitted yourself
+      well, and it shall not be unknown in the quarter where it may be
+      of most service to you.&mdash;I have been stopped by Mariamne's
+      singing in the next room, and her voice has almost unmanned me;
+      she is melancholy of late, and her only music now is taken from
+      those ancestral hymns which our nation regard as the songs of the
+      Captivity. Her tones at this moment are singularly touching, and
+      I have been forced to lay down my pen, for she has melted me to
+      tears. Yet her colour has not altogether faded lately, and I
+      think sometimes that her eyes look brighter than ever! Heaven
+      help me, if I should lose her. I should then be alone in the
+      world.</p>
+
+      <p>"You may rely on my intelligence&mdash;a war is
+      <i>inevitable</i>. You may also rely on my conjecture&mdash;that
+      it will be the most desperate war which Europe has yet seen. One
+      that will break up <i>foundations</i>, as well as break down
+      superstructures; not a war of politics but of principles; not a
+      war for conquest but for ruin. All the treasuries of Europe will
+      be bankrupt within a twelvemonth of its commencement; unless
+      England shall become their banker. This will be the harvest of
+      the men of money.&mdash;It is unfortunate that your money is all
+      lodged for your commission; otherwise, in the course of a few
+      operations, you might make cent per cent, which I propose to do.
+      <i>Apropos</i> of commissions. I had nearly omitted, in my own
+      family anxieties, to mention the object for which I began my
+      letter. I have <i>failed</i> in arranging the affair of your
+      commission! This was not for want of zeal. But the prospect of a
+      war has deranged and inflamed every thing. The young nobility
+      have actually besieged the Horse-guards. All the weight of the
+      aristocracy has pressed upon the minister, and minor influence
+      has been driven from the field. The spirit is too gallant a one
+      to be blamed;&mdash;and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg121" id=
+      "pg121">121</a></span>yet&mdash;are there not a hundred other
+      pursuits, in which an intelligent and active mind, like your own,
+      might follow on the way to fortune? You have seen enough of
+      campaigning to know, that it is not all a flourish of trumpets.
+      Has the world but one gate, and that the Horse-guards? If my
+      personal judgment were to be asked, I should feel no regret for a
+      disappointment which may have come only to turn your knowledge
+      and ability to purposes not less suitable to an ambitious spirit,
+      nor less likely to produce a powerful impression on the
+      world&mdash;the only thing, after all, worth living for! You may
+      laugh at this language from a man of my country and my trade. But
+      even <i>I</i> have my ambition; and you may yet discover it to be
+      not less bold than if I carried the lamp of Gideon, or wielded
+      the sword of the Maccabee.&mdash;I must stop again; my poor
+      restless child is coming into the room at this moment,
+      complaining of the chill, in one of the finest days of summer.
+      She says that this villa has grown sunless, airless, and
+      comfortless. Finding that I am writing to you, she sends her best
+      wishes; and bids me ask, what is the fashionable colour for
+      mantles in Paris, and also what is become of that 'wandering
+      creature,' Lafontaine, if you should happen to recollect such a
+      personage."</p>
+
+      <p>"P.S.&mdash;My daughter insists on our setting out from
+      Brighton to-morrow, and crossing the Channel the day after. She
+      has a whim for revisiting Switzerland; and in the mean time begs
+      that if, during our absence, <i>you</i> should have a whim for
+      sea air and solitude, you may make of the villa any use you
+      please.&mdash;Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+      <p>"J.V. MORDECAI."</p>
+
+      <p>After reading this strange and broken letter, I was almost
+      glad that I had not seen Mariamne. Lafontaine was in her heart
+      still, in spite of absence. At this I did not wonder, for the
+      heart of woman, when once struck, is almost incapable of change:
+      but the suspense was killing her; and I had no doubt that her
+      loss would sink even her strong-headed parent to the grave. Yet,
+      what tidings had I to give? Whether her young soldier was shot in
+      the attempt to escape from St Lazare, or thrown into some of
+      those hideous dungeons, where so many thousands were dying in
+      misery from day to day, was entirely beyond my power to tell. It
+      was better that she should be roving over the bright hills, and
+      breathing the fresh breezes of Switzerland, than listening to my
+      hopeless conjectures at home; trying to reconcile herself to all
+      the chances which passion is so painfully ingenious in creating,
+      and dying, like a flower in all its beauty, on the spot where it
+      had grown.</p>
+
+      <p>But the letter contained nothing of the <i>one</i> name, for
+      which my first glance had looked over every line with breathless
+      anxiety. There was not a syllable of Clotilde! The father's cares
+      had absorbed all other thoughts; and the letter was to me a blank
+      in that knowledge for which I panted, as the hart pants for the
+      fountains. Still, I was not dead to the calls of friendship; and
+      that night's mail carried a long epistle to Mordecai, detailing
+      my escapes, and the services of his kindred in France; and for
+      Mariamne's ear, all that I could conceive cheering in my hopes of
+      that "wandering creature, Lafontaine."</p>
+
+      <p>But I was forced to think of sterner subjects. I had arrived
+      in England at a time of the most extraordinary public excitement.
+      Every man felt that some great trial of England and of Europe was
+      at hand; but none could distinctly define either its nature or
+      its cause. France, which had then begun to pour out her furious
+      declamations against this country, was, of course, generally
+      looked to as the quarter from which the storm was to come; but
+      the higher minds evidently contemplated hazards nearer home.
+      Affiliated societies, corresponding clubs, and all the
+      revolutionary apparatus, from whose crush and clamour I had so
+      lately emerged, met the ear and the eye on all occasions; and the
+      fiery ferocity of French rebellion was nearly rivalled by the
+      grave insolence of English "Rights of Man." But I am not about to
+      write the history of a time of national fever. The republicanism,
+      which Cicero and Plutarch instil into us all at our schools, had
+      been extinguished in me by the squalid realities of France. I had
+      seen the dissecting-room, and was cured of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg122" id="pg122">122</a></span>my love for
+      the science. My spirit, too, required rest. I could have
+      exclaimed with all the sincerity, and with all the weariness too,
+      of the poet:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,</p>
+
+        <p>Some boundless contiguity of shade,</p>
+
+        <p>Where rumour of oppression and deceit,</p>
+
+        <p>Of unsuccessful or successful war,</p>
+
+        <p>Might never reach me more!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>But, perhaps fortunately for my understanding, if not for my
+      life, I was not suffered to take refuge in the wilderness. London
+      was around me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and
+      busy London. I was floating on those waves of human being, in
+      which the struggler must make for the shore, or sink. I was in
+      the centre of that huge whispering gallery, where every sound of
+      earth was echoed and re-echoed with new power; and where it was
+      impossible to dream. My days were now spent in communication with
+      the offices of government, and a large portion of my nights in
+      carrying on those correspondences, which, though seldom known in
+      the routine of Downing Street, form the essential part of its
+      intercourse with the continental cabinets. But a period of
+      suspense still remained. Parliament had been already summoned for
+      the 13th of December. Up to nearly the last moment, the cabinet
+      had been kept in uncertainty as to the actual intents of France.
+      There had been declamation in abundance in the French legislature
+      and the journals; but with this unsubstantial evidence the
+      cabinet could not meet the country. Couriers were sent in all
+      directions; boats were stationed along the coast to bring the
+      first intelligence of actual hostilities suddenly; every
+      conceivable expedient was adopted; but all in vain. The day of
+      opening the Session was within twenty-four hours. After lingering
+      hour by hour, in expectancy of the arrival of despatches from our
+      ambassador at the Hague, I offered to cross the sea in the first
+      fishing-boat which I could find, and ascertain the facts. My
+      offer was accepted; and in the twilight of a winter's morning,
+      and in the midst of a snow-storm, I was making my shivering way
+      homeward through the wretched lanes which, dark as pitch and
+      narrow as footpaths, then led to the centre of the diplomatic
+      world; when, in my haste, I had nearly overset a meagre figure,
+      which, half-blinded by the storm, was tottering towards the
+      Foreign office. After a growl, in the most angry jargon, the man
+      recognized me; he was the clerk whom I had seen at Mordecai's
+      house. He had, but an hour before, received, by one of the
+      private couriers of the firm, a letter, with orders to deliver it
+      with all expedition. He put it into my hand: it was not from
+      Mordecai, but from Elnathan, and was simply in these
+      words:&mdash;"My kinsman and your friend has desired me to
+      forward to you the first intelligence of hostilities. I send you
+      a copy of the bulletin which will be issued at noon this day. It
+      is yet unknown; but I have it from a source on which you may
+      perfectly rely. Of this make what use you think advantageous.
+      Your well-wisher."</p>
+
+      <p>With what pangs the great money-trafficker must have consigned
+      to my use a piece of intelligence which must have been a mine of
+      wealth to any one who carried it first to the Stock Exchange, I
+      could easily conjecture. But I saw in it the powerful pressure of
+      Mordecai, which none of his tribe seemed even to have the means
+      of resisting. My sensations were singular enough as I traced my
+      way up the dark and lumbering staircase of the Foreign office;
+      with the consciousness that, if I had chosen to turn my steps in
+      another direction, I might before night be master of thousands,
+      or of hundreds of thousands. But it is only due to the sense of
+      honour which had been impressed on me, even in the riot and
+      roughness of my Eton days, to say, that I did not hesitate for a
+      moment Sending one of the attendants to arouse the chief clerk, I
+      stood waiting his arrival with the bulletin unopened in my hands.
+      The official had gone to his house in the country, and might not
+      return for some hours. My perplexity increased. Every moment
+      might supersede the value of my priority. At length a twinkling
+      light through the chinks of one of the dilapidated doors, told me
+      that there was some one within, from whom I might, at least, ask
+      when and how ministers <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg123" id=
+      "pg123">123</a></span>were to be approached. The door was opened,
+      and, to my surprise, I found that the occupant of the chamber was
+      one of the most influential members of administration. My name
+      and purpose were easily given; and I was received as I believe
+      few are in the habit of being received by the disposers of high
+      things in high places. The fire had sunk to embers, the lamp was
+      dull, and the hearer was half frozen and half asleep. Yet no
+      sooner had he cast his eyes upon the mysterious paper which I
+      gave into his grasp, than all his faculties were in full
+      activity.</p>
+
+      <p>"This," said he, "is the most important paper that has reached
+      this country since the taking of the Bastile. THE SCHELDT IS
+      OPENED! This involves an attack on Holland; the defence of our
+      ally is a matter of treaty, and we must arm without delay. The
+      war is begun, but where it shall end"&mdash;he paused, and fixing
+      his eyes above, with a solemnity of expression which I had not
+      expected in the stern and hard-lined countenance, "or who shall
+      live to see its close&mdash;who shall tell?"</p>
+
+      <p>"We have been waiting," said he, "for this intelligence from
+      week to week, with the fullest expectation that it would come;
+      and yet, when it has come, it strikes like a thunderclap. This is
+      the third night that I have sat in this hovel, at this table,
+      unable to go to rest, and looking for the despatch from hour to
+      hour.&mdash;You see, sir, that our life is at least not the bed
+      of roses for which the world is so apt to give us credit. It is
+      like the life of my own hills&mdash;the higher the sheiling
+      stands, the more it gets of the blast."</p>
+
+      <p>I do not give the name of this remarkable man. He was a Scot,
+      and possessed of all the best characteristics of his country. I
+      had heard him in Parliament, where he was the most powerful
+      second of the most powerful first that England had seen. But if
+      all men were inferior to the prime minister in majesty and
+      fulness of conception, the man to whom I now listened had no
+      superior in readiness of retort, in aptness of
+      illustration&mdash;that mixture of sport and satire, of easy jest
+      and subtle sarcasm, which forms the happiest talent for the
+      miscellaneous uses of debate. If Pitt moved forward like the
+      armed man of chivalry, or rather like the main body of the
+      battle&mdash;for never man was more entitled to the appellation
+      of a "host in himself"&mdash;never were front, flanks, and rear
+      of the host covered by a more rapid, quick-witted, and
+      indefatigable auxiliary. He was a man of family, and brought with
+      him into public life, not the manners of a menial of office, but
+      the bearing of a gentleman. Birth and blood were in his bold and
+      manly countenance; and I could have felt no difficulty in
+      conceiving him, if his course had followed his nature, the
+      chieftain on his hills, at the head of his gallant retainers,
+      pursuing the wild sports of his romantic region; or in some
+      foreign land, gathering the laurels which the Scotch soldier has
+      so often and so proudly added to the honours of the empire.</p>
+
+      <p>He was perfectly familiar with the great question of the time,
+      and saw the full bearings of my intelligence with admirable
+      sagacity; pointed out the inevitable results of suffering France
+      to take upon herself the arbitration of Europe, and gave new and
+      powerful views of the higher relation in which England was to
+      stand, as the general protectress of the Continent. "This
+      bulletin," said he, "announces the fact, that a French squadron
+      has actually sailed up the Scheldt to attack Antwerp. Yet it was
+      not ten years since France protested against the same act by
+      Austria, as a violation of the rights of Holland. The new
+      aggression is, therefore, not simply a solitary violence, but a
+      vast fraud; not merely the breach of an individual treaty, but a
+      declaration that no treaty is henceforth to be held as binding;
+      it is more than an act of rapine; it is an universal dissolution
+      of the principles by which society is held together. In what
+      times are we about to live?"</p>
+
+      <p>My reply was&mdash;"That it depended on the spirit of England
+      herself, whether the conflict was to be followed by honour or by
+      shame; that she had a glorious career before her, if she had
+      magnanimity sufficient to take the part marked out for her by
+      circumstances; and that, with the championship of the world in
+      her hands, even defeat would be a triumph."</p>
+
+      <p>He now turned the conversation to <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg124" id="pg124">124</a></span>myself; spoke
+      with more than official civility of my services, and peculiarly
+      of the immediate one; and asked in what branch of diplomacy I
+      desired advancement?</p>
+
+      <p>My answer was prompt. "In none. I desired promotion but in one
+      way&mdash;the army." I then briefly stated the accidental loss of
+      my original appointment, and received, before I left the chamber,
+      a note for the secretary at war, recommending me, in the
+      strongest terms, for a commission in the Guards.&mdash;The world
+      was now before me, and the world in the most vivid, various, and
+      dazzling shape; in the boldest development of grandeur, terror,
+      and wild vicissitude, which it exhibited for a thousand
+      years&mdash;ENGLAND WAS AT WAR!</p>
+
+      <p>There is no sight on earth more singular, or more awful, than
+      a great nation going to war. I saw the scene in its highest point
+      of view, by seeing it in England. Its perfect freedom, its
+      infinite, and often conflicting, variety of opinion&mdash;its
+      passionate excitement, and its stupendous power, gave the summons
+      to hostilities a character of interest, of grandeur, and of
+      indefinite but vast purposes, unexampled in any other time, or in
+      any other country. When one of the old monarchies commenced war,
+      the operation, however large and formidable, was simple. A
+      monarch resolved, a council sat, less to guide than to echo his
+      resolution; an army marched, invaded the enemy's territory,
+      fought a battle&mdash;perhaps a dubious one&mdash;rested on its
+      arms; and while <i>Te Deum</i> was sung in both capitals alike
+      for the "victory" of neither, the ministers of both were
+      constructing an armistice, a negotiation, and a peace&mdash;each
+      and all to be null and void on the first opportunity.</p>
+
+      <p>But the war of England was a war of the nation&mdash;a war of
+      wrath and indignation&mdash;a war of the dangers of civilized
+      society entrusted to a single championship&mdash;a great effort
+      of human nature to discharge, in the shape of blood, a disease
+      which was sapping the vitals of Europe; or in a still higher, and
+      therefore a more faithful view, the gathering of a tempest,
+      which, after sweeping France in its fury, was to restore the
+      exhausted soil and blasted vegetation of monarchy throughout the
+      Continent; and in whose highest, England, serene and undismayed,
+      was to</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>I must acknowledge, that I looked upon the coming conflict
+      with a strange sense of mingled alarm and rejoicing. For the
+      latter feeling, perhaps I ought to make some apology; but I was
+      young, ardent, and ambitious. My place in life was unfixed;
+      standing in that unhappy middle position, in which stands a man
+      of birth too high to suffer his adoption of the humbler means of
+      existence, and yet of resources too inadequate to sustain him
+      without action&mdash;nay, bold and indefatigable exertion. I, at
+      the moment, felt a very inferior degree of compunction at the
+      crisis which offered to give me at least a chance of being seen,
+      known, and understood among men. I felt like a man whose ship was
+      stranded, and who saw the storm lifting the surges that were to
+      lift him along with them; or like the traveller in an earthquake,
+      who saw the cleft in the ground swallowing up the river which had
+      hitherto presented an impassable obstacle&mdash;cities and
+      mountains might sink before the concussion had done its
+      irresistible will, but, at all events, it had cleared his
+      way.</p>
+
+      <p>In thoughts like these, rash and unconnected as they were, I
+      spent many a restless day, and still more restless night. I often
+      sprang from a pillow which, if I had lived in the days of
+      witchcraft, I should have thought spelled to refuse me sleep; and
+      walking for hours, endeavoured to reduce into shape the
+      speculations which filled my mind with splendours and
+      catastrophes worthy of oriental dreams. Why did I not then pursue
+      the career in which I had begun the world? Why not devote myself
+      to diplomacy, in which I had hitherto received honour? Why not
+      enter into Parliament, which opened all the secrets of power? For
+      this I had two reasons. The first&mdash;and, let me confess, the
+      most imperious&mdash;was, that my pride had been deeply hurt by
+      the loss of my commission. I felt that I had not only been
+      deprived of a noble profession, accidental as was the loss; but
+      that I had subjected myself to the trivial, but stinging remarks,
+      which never <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg125" id=
+      "pg125">125</a></span>fail to find an obnoxious cause for every
+      failure. While this cloud hung over me, I was determined never to
+      return to my father's house. Good-natured as the friends of my
+      family might be, I was fully aware of the style in which
+      misfortune is treated in the idleness of country life; and the
+      Honourable Mr Marston's loss of his rank in his Majesty's guards,
+      or his preference of a more pacific promotion, was too tempting a
+      topic to lose any of its stimulants by the popular ignorance of
+      the true transaction. My next reason was, that my mind was
+      harassed and wearied by disappointment, until I should not have
+      regreted to terminate the struggle in the first field of battle.
+      The only woman whom I loved, and whom, in the strange frenzy of
+      passion, I solemnly believed to be the only woman on earth
+      deserving to be so loved, had wholly disappeared, and was, by
+      this time, probably wedded. The only woman whom I regarded as a
+      friend, was in another country, probably dying. If I could have
+      returned to Mortimer Castle&mdash;which I had already determined
+      to be impossible&mdash;I should have found only a callous,
+      perhaps a contemptuous, head of the family, angry at my return to
+      burden him. Even Vincent&mdash;my old and kind-hearted friend
+      Vincent&mdash;had been a soldier; and though I was sure of never
+      receiving a reproach from his wise and gentle lips, was I equally
+      sure that I could escape the flash, or the sorrow, of his
+      eye?</p>
+
+      <p>In thoughts like these, and they were dangerous ones, I made
+      many a solitary rush out into the wild winds and beating snows of
+      the winter, which had set in early and been remarkably severe;
+      walking bareheaded in the most lonely places of the suburbs,
+      stripping my bosom to the blast, and longing for its tenfold
+      chill to assuage the fever which burned within me. I had also
+      found the old delay at the Horse-guards. The feelings of this
+      period make me look with infinite compassion on the unhappy
+      beings who take their lives into their own hands, and who
+      extinguish all their earthly anxieties at a plunge. But I had
+      imbibed principles of a firmer substance, and but upon one
+      occasion, and one alone, felt tempted to an act of despair.</p>
+
+      <p>Taking my lonely dinner in a tavern of the suburbs, the waiter
+      handed me a newspaper, which he had rescued for my behoof from
+      the hands of a group, eager, as all the world then was, for
+      French intelligence. My eye rambled into the fashionable column;
+      and the first paragraph, headed "Marriage in high life,"
+      announced that, on the morrow, were to be solemnized the nuptials
+      of Clotilde, Countess de Tourville, with the Marquis de
+      Montrecour, colonel of the French Mousquetaires, &amp;c. The
+      paper dropped from my hands. I rushed out of the house; and,
+      scarcely knowing where I went, I hurried on, until I found myself
+      out of the sight or sound of mortal. The night was pitch-dark;
+      there was no lamp near; the wind roared; and it was only by the
+      flash of the foam that I discovered the broad sheet of water
+      before me. I had strayed into Hyde Park, and was on the bank of
+      the Serpentine. With what ease might I not finish all! It was
+      another step. Life was a burden&mdash;thought was a
+      torment&mdash;the light of day a loathing. But the paroxysm soon
+      gave way. Impressions of the duty and the trials of human nature,
+      made in earlier years, revived within me with a singular
+      freshness and force. Tears gushed from my eyes, fast and flowing;
+      and, with a long-forgotten prayer for patience and humility, I
+      turned from the place of temptation. As I reached the streets
+      once more, I heard the trumpets of the Life Guards, and the band
+      of a battalion returning to their quarters. The infantry were the
+      Coldstream. They had been lining the streets for the king's
+      procession to open the sitting of Parliament. This was the 13th
+      of December&mdash;the memorable day to which every heart in
+      Europe was more or less vibrating; yet which I had totally
+      forgotten. What is man but an electrical machine after all? The
+      sound and sight of soldiership restored me to the full vividness
+      of my nature. The machine required only to be touched, to shoot
+      out its latent sparks; and with a new spirit and a new
+      determination kindling through every fibre, I hastened to be
+      present at that debate which was to be the judgment of
+      nations.</p>
+
+      <p>My official intercourse with ministers <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg126" id="pg126">126</a></span>had given me
+      some privileges, and I obtained a seat under the
+      gallery&mdash;that part of the House of Commons which is
+      occasionally allotted to strangers of a certain rank. The House
+      was crowded, and every countenance was pictured with interest and
+      solemn anxiety. Grey, Sheridan, and other distinguished names of
+      party, had already taken their seats; but the great heads of
+      Government and Opposition were still absent. At length a buzz
+      among the crowd who filled the floor,&mdash;and the name of Fox
+      repeated in every tone of congratulation, announced the
+      pre-eminent orator of England. I now saw Fox for the first time;
+      and I was instantly struck with the incomparable similitude of
+      all that I saw of him to all that I had conceived from his
+      character and his style. In the broad bold forehead, the strong
+      sense&mdash;in the relaxed mouth, the self-indulgent and reckless
+      enjoyment&mdash;in the quick, small eye under those magnificent
+      black brows, the man of sagacity, of sarcasm, and of humour; and
+      in the grand contour of a countenance and head, which might have
+      been sculptured to take its place among the sages and sovereigns
+      of antiquity, the living proof of those extraordinary powers,
+      which could have been checked in their ascent to the highest
+      elevation of public life, only by prejudices and passions not
+      less extraordinary. As he advanced up the House, he recognized
+      every one on both sides, and spoke or smiled to nearly all. He
+      stopped once or twice in his way, and was surrounded by a circle
+      with whom, as I could judge from their laughter, he exchanged
+      some pleasantry of the hour. When at length he arrived at the
+      seat which had been reserved for him, he threw himself upon it
+      with the easy look of comfort of a man who had reached
+      home&mdash;gave nod to Windham, held out a finger to Grey, warmly
+      shook hands with Sheridan; and then, opening his well-known blue
+      and buff costume, threw himself back into the bench, and
+      laughingly gasped for air.</p>
+
+      <p>But another movement of the crowd at the bar announced another
+      arrival, and Pitt entered the House. His look and movement were
+      equally characteristic with those of his great rival. He looked
+      to neither the right nor the left; replied to the salutations of
+      his friends by the slightest possible bow; neither spoke nor
+      smiled; but, slowly advancing, took his seat in total silence.
+      The Speaker, hitherto occupied with some routine business, now
+      read the King's speech, and, calling on "Mr Pitt," the minister
+      rose. I have for that rising but one description&mdash;the one
+      which filled my memory at the moment, from the noblest poet of
+      the world.</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p class="i4">"Deep on his front engraven,</p>
+
+        <p>Deliberation sat, and public care.</p>
+
+        <p class="i8">Sage he stood,</p>
+
+        <p>With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear</p>
+
+        <p>The weight of mightiest monarchies. His look</p>
+
+        <p>Drew audience and attention, still as night,</p>
+
+        <p>Or summer's noontide air."</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg127" id=
+      "pg127">127</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR.</h2>
+
+      <p>The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that
+      ever occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a
+      metropolis of two millions of souls, the head of an empire of two
+      hundred millions. The recollection runs us out of breath. Every
+      hour was a new summons to a new <i>fête</i>, a new fantasy, or a
+      new exhibition of the handsomest man of the forty-two millions of
+      Russia proper. The toilettes of the whole <i>beau monde</i> were
+      in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and from dewy eve to
+      waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by which the world
+      was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a <i>dejeuner à la
+      fourchette</i>, by which it was surprised into <i>dining</i> at
+      three, (<i>more majorum;</i>) an opera, by which those whose hour
+      for going out is eleven, were forced into their carriages at
+      nine; a concert at Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper
+      at Buckingham palace;&mdash;all were among those brilliant
+      perversions of the habits of high life which make the week one
+      brilliant tumult; but which never could have been revolutionized
+      but by an emperor in the flower of his age. Wherever he moved, he
+      was followed by a host of the fair and fashionable. The showy
+      equipages of the nobility were in perpetual motion. The parks
+      were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The streets were a
+      levy <i>en masse</i> of the peerage. The opera-house was a gilded
+      "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
+      scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of
+      either, gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope;
+      and shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into
+      houses which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of
+      princes, had the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House
+      was in a state of siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards,
+      cavalcades, musterings of the multitude, and thundering of brass
+      bands, seemed to be the focus of a national revolution. But it
+      was within the palace that the grand display existed. The gilt
+      candelabra, the gold plate, the maids of honour, all fresh as
+      tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all Junos and Minervas,
+      all jewelled, and none under forty-five, enraptured the mortal
+      eye, to a degree unrivalled in the recollections of the oldest
+      courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of queenly
+      hospitality.</p>
+
+      <p>But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet
+      said,</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,</p>
+
+        <p>That longs to launch into a nobler strain."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.</p>
+
+      <p>During this week, but one question was asked by the universal
+      world of St James's&mdash;"What was the cause of the Czar's
+      coming?"</p>
+
+      <p>Every one answered in his own style. The tourists&mdash;a race
+      who cannot live without rambling through the same continental
+      roads, which they libel for their roughness every year; the same
+      hotels, which they libel for their discomforts; and the same
+      <i>table-d'hotes</i>, which they libel as the perfection of bad
+      cookery, and barefaced <i>chicane</i>&mdash;pronounced that the
+      love of travel was the imperial impulse. The politicians of the
+      clubs&mdash;who, having nothing to do for themselves, manage the
+      affairs of all nations, and can discover high treason in the
+      manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
+      waltz&mdash;were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to
+      construct an European league against the marriage of little Queen
+      Isabella, or to beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities
+      of Morocco. With the fashionable world, the decision was, that he
+      had come to see Ascot races, and the Duke of Devonshire's
+      gardens, before the sun withered, or St Swithin washed them away.
+      The John Bull world&mdash;as wise at least as any of their
+      betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide the happiest
+      period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill the finest
+      spot in creation&mdash;were convinced that his Majesty's visit
+      was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
+      escape from <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg128" id=
+      "pg128">128</a></span>the troubles of royalty and the heaviness
+      of home, and take a week's ramble among the oddities of England.
+      "Who shall decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps
+      the nearest way of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons
+      together, and try how far they may be made to agree. What can be
+      more probable than that the fineness of the finest season within
+      memory, the occurrence of a moment of leisure in the life of a
+      monarch ruling a fifth of the habitable globe, roused the
+      curiosity of an intelligent mind, excited, like that of his great
+      ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the national improvements of the
+      great country of engineering, shipbuilding, and tunnelling;
+      perhaps with Ascot races&mdash;the most showy exhibition of the
+      most beautiful horses in the world&mdash;to wind up the display,
+      might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active spirit, to gallop
+      across Europe, and give seven brief days to England!</p>
+
+      <p>An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers
+      presumed to be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid
+      journey has had for its distinct purpose the expression of the
+      Imperial scorn for the miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of
+      the pamphlet on the French navy; which has excited so much
+      contempt in England, and so much boasting in France, and so much
+      surprise and ridicule every where else in Europe. Nothing could
+      be more in consonance with a manly character, than to show how
+      little it shared the conceptions of a coxcomb; and no more direct
+      mode could be adopted than the visit, to prove his willingness to
+      be on the best terms with her government and her people. We
+      readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses a higher
+      character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an advanced
+      spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
+      pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
+      capable of being conferred by kings.</p>
+
+      <p>The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St
+      Petersburg, as his stops on the road were only momentary. He
+      reached Berlin from his capital with courier's speed, in four
+      days and six hours, on Sunday fortnight last. His arrival was so
+      unexpected, that the Russian ambassador in Prussia was taken by
+      surprise. He travelled through Germany incognito, and on Thursday
+      night, the 30th, arrived at the Hague. Next day, at two o'clock,
+      he embarked at Rotterdam for England. Here, two steamers had been
+      prepared for his embarkation. The steamers anchored for the night
+      at Helvoetsluys. At three in the following morning, they
+      continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich at ten. The Russian
+      ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared to receive him;
+      but on his intimating his particular wish to land in private, the
+      customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after ten, the
+      Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume, covered
+      with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
+      minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff,
+      and drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was
+      given to rest after his fatigue.</p>
+
+      <p>On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
+      Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
+      cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the
+      Emperor should remove to the apartments which were provided for
+      him in the palace&mdash;an offer which was politely declined. At
+      eleven, the Emperor attended divine service at the chapel of the
+      Russian embassy in Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince
+      Albert arrived to conduct him to the palace. He wore a scarlet
+      uniform, with the riband and badge of the Garter. The Queen
+      received the Emperor in the grand hall. A <i>dejeuner</i> was
+      soon afterwards served. The remainder of the day was spent in
+      visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family. One visit of
+      peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley House, to
+      visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the hall,
+      and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
+      meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed
+      much and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented
+      him highly on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of
+      his mansion. But even <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg129" id=
+      "pg129">129</a></span>emperors are but men, and the Czar,
+      fatigued with his round of driving, on his return to the embassy
+      fell asleep, and slumbered till dinner-time, though his Royal
+      Highness of Cambridge and the Monarch of Saxony called to visit
+      him. At a quarter to eight o'clock, three of the royal carriages
+      arrived, for the purpose of conveying the Emperor and his suite
+      to Buckingham palace.</p>
+
+      <p>On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove
+      to Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for
+      an hour, and is <i>said</i> to have purchased L.5000 worth of
+      jewellery. He then drove to the Zoological gardens and the
+      Regent's park. In the course of the drive, he visited Sir Robert
+      Peel, and the families of some of our ambassadors in Russia. At
+      three o'clock, he gave a <i>dejeuner</i> to the Duke of
+      Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia. Dover
+      Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
+      to put down their names in the visiting-book.</p>
+
+      <p>At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to
+      escort him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his
+      observing its arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour,
+      for the purpose of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had
+      arrived, and the Emperor and his suite drove off through streets
+      crowded with horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the
+      Emperor examined the electrical telegraph, and, entering the
+      saloon carriage, the train set off, and arrived at Slough, a
+      distance of nearly twenty miles, in the astonishingly brief time
+      of twenty-five minutes.</p>
+
+      <p>At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and
+      conveyed to the castle.</p>
+
+      <p>The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall
+      hung with portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of
+      Europe, to paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been
+      sent on a special mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir
+      Thomas's conception of form and likeness was admirable, but his
+      colouring was cold and thin. His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a
+      melancholy contrast with the depth and richness of the adjoining
+      "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are complete. The banquet
+      was royally splendid. The table was covered with gold plate and
+      chased ornaments of remarkable beauty&mdash;the whole lighted by
+      rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
+      Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief
+      noblemen of the household, were present at the entertainment.</p>
+
+      <h3>TUESDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>This was the day of Ascot races. The road from Windsor to the
+      course passes through a couple of miles of the rich quiet scenery
+      which peculiarly belongs to England. The course itself is a file
+      open plain, commanding an extensive view. Some rumours, doubting
+      the visit of the royal party, excited a double interest in the
+      first sight of the cavalcade, preceded by the royal yeomen,
+      galloping up to the stand. They were received with shouts. The
+      Emperor, the King of Saxony, and Prince Albert, were in the
+      leading carriage. They were attired simply as private gentlemen,
+      in blue frock-coats. The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and
+      the household, followed in the royal carriages. The view of the
+      Stand at this period was striking, and the royal and noble
+      personages were repeatedly cheered. An announcement was conveyed
+      to the people, that the Emperor had determined to give L.500
+      a-year to the course. The Czarewitch had already given L.200 at
+      Newmarket. The announcement was received with renewed cheering.
+      All kings are fond of horses; and the monarch of the most
+      numerous and active cavalry in the world, may be allowed to be a
+      connoisseur in their strength, swiftness, and perseverance, by a
+      superior right. The Emperor can call out 80,000 Cossacks at a
+      sound of his trumpet. He exhibited an evident interest in the
+      races. The horses were saddled before the race in front of the
+      grand stand, and brought up to it after the race, for the purpose
+      of weighing the jockeys. He had a full opportunity of inspection;
+      but not content with this, when the winner of the gold vase, the
+      mare Alice Hawthorn, was brought up to the stand, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg130" id="pg130">130</a></span>he descended,
+      and examined this beautiful animal with the closeness and
+      critical eye of a judge.</p>
+
+      <p>On Wednesday, the pageant in which emperors most delight was
+      exhibited&mdash;a review of the royal guards. There are so few
+      troops in England, as the Prince de Joinville has "the happiness"
+      to observe, that a review on the continental scale of tens of
+      thousands, is out of the question. Yet, to the eye which can
+      discern the excellence of soldiership, and the completeness of
+      soldierly equipment, the few in line before the Emperor on this
+      day, were enough to gratify the intelligent eye which this active
+      monarch turns upon every thing. The infantry were&mdash;the
+      second battalion of the grenadier guards, the second battalion of
+      the Coldstream guards, the second battalion of the fusilier
+      guards, and the forty-seventh regiment. The cavalry
+      were&mdash;two troops of the royal horse guards, (blue,) the
+      first regiment of the life guards, and the seventeenth lancers.
+      The artillery were&mdash;detachments of the royal horse
+      artillery, and the field artillery.</p>
+
+      <p>A vast multitude from London by the trains, and from the
+      adjoining country, formed a line parallel to the troops; and
+      nothing could exceed the universal animation and cheering when
+      the Emperor, the King of Saxony, and the numerous and glittering
+      staff, entered the field, and came down the line.</p>
+
+      <p>After the usual salutes, and marching past the centre, where
+      the royal carriages had taken their stand, the evolutions began.
+      They were few and simple, but of that order which is most
+      effective in the field. The formation of the line from the
+      sections; the general advance of the line; the halt, and a
+      running fire along the whole front; the breaking up of the line
+      into squares; the squares firing, then deploying into line, and
+      marching to the rear. The Queen, with the royal children, left
+      the ground before the firing began, The review was over at
+      half-past two. The appearance of the troops was admirable; the
+      manoeuvres were completely successful; and the fineness of the
+      day gave all the advantages of sun and landscape to this most
+      brilliant spectacle.</p>
+
+      <p>But the most characteristic portion of the display consisted
+      in the commanding-officers who attended, to give this unusual
+      mark of respect to the Emperor.</p>
+
+      <p>Wellington, the "conqueror of a hundred fights," rode at the
+      head of the grenadier guards, as their colonel Lord Combermere,
+      general of the cavalry in the Peninsula, rode at the head of his
+      regiment, the first life guards. The Marquis of Anglesey, general
+      of the cavalry at Waterloo, rode at the head of his regiment, the
+      royal horse guards. Sir George Murray, quartermaster-general in
+      the Peninsula, rode at the head of the artillery, as
+      master-general of the ordnance. His royal highness the Duke of
+      Cambridge rode at the head of his regiment, the Coldstream. His
+      royal highness Prince Albert rode at the head of his regiment,
+      the Scotch fusiliers. General Sir William Anson rode at the head
+      of his regiment, the forty-seventh. Lieutenant-Colonel Quentin
+      rode at the head of the seventeenth lancers, the colonel of the
+      regiment, Prince George of Cambridge, being in the Ionian
+      Islands. Thus, three field-marshals, and four generals, passed in
+      review before the illustrious guests of her Majesty. The Emperor
+      expressed himself highly gratified; as every eye accustomed to
+      troops must have been, by the admirable precision of the
+      movements, and the fine appearance of the men. A striking
+      instance of the value of railways for military operations, was
+      connected with this review. The forty-seventh regiment, quartered
+      in Gosport, was brought to Windsor in the morning, and sent back
+      in the evening of the review day; the journey, altogether, was
+      about 140 miles! Such are the miracles of machinery in our days.
+      This was certainly an extraordinary performance, when we
+      recollect that it was the conveyance of about 700 men; and shows
+      what might be done in case of any demand for the actual services
+      of the troops. But even this exploit will be eclipsed within a
+      few days, by the opening of the direct line from London to
+      Newcastle, which will convey troops, or any thing, 300 miles in
+      twelve hours. The next step will be to reach Edinburgh in a day!
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg131" id="pg131">131</a></span>
+      The Emperor was observed to pay marked attention to the troops of
+      the line, the forty-seventh and the lancers; observing, as it is
+      said, "your household troops are noble fellows; but what I wished
+      particularly to see, were the troops with which you gained your
+      victories in India and China." A speech of this kind was worthy
+      of the sagacity of a man who knew where the true strength of a
+      national army lies, and who probably, besides, has often had his
+      glance turned to the dashing services of our soldiery in Asia.
+      The household troops of every nation are select men, and the most
+      showy which the country can supply. Thus they are nearly of equal
+      excellence. The infantry of ours, it is true, have been always
+      "fighting regiments"&mdash;the first in every expedition, and
+      distinguished for the gallantry of their conduct in every field.
+      The cavalry, though seldomer sent on foreign service, exhibited
+      pre-eminent bravery in the Peninsula, and their charges at
+      Waterloo were irresistible. But it is of the marching regiments
+      that the actual "army" consists, and their character forms the
+      character of the national arms.</p>
+
+      <p>In the evening the Emperor and the King of Saxony dined with
+      her Majesty at Windsor.</p>
+
+      <h3>THURSDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The royal party again drove to the Ascot course, and were
+      received with the usual acclamations. The Emperor and King were
+      in plain clothes, without decorations of any kind; Prince Albert
+      wore the Windsor uniform. The cheers were loud for
+      Wellington.</p>
+
+      <p>The gold cup, value three hundred guineas, was the principal
+      prize. Eight horses ran, and the cup was won by a colt of Lord
+      Albemarle's. His lordship is lucky, at least on the turf. He won
+      the cup at Ascot last year.</p>
+
+      <h3>FRIDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The royal party came to London by the railway. The Emperor
+      spent the chief part of the day in paying visits, in the Russian
+      ambassador's private carriage, to his personal
+      friends&mdash;chiefly the families of those noblemen who had been
+      ambassadors to Russia.</p>
+
+      <h3>SATURDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The Emperor, the King, and Prince Albert, went to the Duke of
+      Devonshire's <i>dejeuner</i> at Chiswick. The Duke's mansion and
+      gardens are proverbial as evidences of his taste, magnificence,
+      and princely expenditure. All the nobility in London at this
+      period were present. The royal party were received with
+      distinguished attention by the noble host, and his hospitality
+      was exhibited in a style worthy of his guests and himself. While
+      the suite of <i>salons</i> were thrown open for the general
+      company, the royal party were received in a <i>salon</i> which
+      had been decorated as a Turkish tent. Bands of the guards played
+      in the gardens, a quadille band played in the ball-room, and the
+      fineness of the weather gave the last charm to a <i>fête</i>
+      prepared with equal elegance and splendour. We doubt whether
+      Europe can exhibit any open air festivity that can compete with a
+      <i>dejeuner</i> at Chiswick. The gardens of some of the
+      continental palaces are larger, but they want the finish of the
+      English garden. Their statues and decorations are sometimes fine;
+      but they want the perfect and exquisite neatness which gives an
+      especial charm to English horticulture. The verdure of the lawns,
+      the richness and variety of the flowers, and the general taste
+      displayed, in even the most minute and least ornamental features,
+      render the English garden wholly superior, in fitness and in
+      beauty, to the gardens of the continental sovereigns and
+      nobility.</p>
+
+      <p>In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian
+      opera. The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is
+      said that, in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box.
+      But whether this may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would
+      have been well worth paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in
+      the pit. After all, the majority of the spectators were
+      disappointed in their principal object, the view of the royal
+      party. They all sat far back in the box, and thus, to
+      three-fourths of the house, were completely invisible. In this
+      privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and which it would
+      have been so much wiser to have avoided, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg132" id="pg132">132</a></span>the audience
+      were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be
+      sung. At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it.
+      A general response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose,
+      and God save the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus
+      broken, it was followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm,
+      rich, and bold composition. The Emperor was said to have shed
+      tears at the unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought
+      back the recollection of his country at so vast a distance from
+      home. But if these anthems had not been thus accidentally
+      performed, the royal party would have lost a much finer display
+      than any thing which they could have seen on the stage&mdash;the
+      rising of the whole audience in the boxes&mdash;all the
+      fashionable world in <i>gala</i>, in its youth, beauty, and
+      ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the
+      stage.</p>
+
+      <h3>SUNDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of
+      the Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked
+      at Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded
+      for the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down
+      the river under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich;
+      the day was serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel
+      as smooth as it was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of
+      the sailor with as much ease as he had done into those of the
+      soldier. He conversed good-humouredly with the officers and men,
+      admired the discipline and appearance of the marines, who had
+      been sent as his escort, was peculiarly obliging to Lord
+      Hardwicke and Lieutenant Peel, (a son of the premier,) and
+      ordered his dinner on deck, that he might enjoy the scenery on
+      the banks of the Thames. The medals of some of the marines who
+      had served in Syria, attracted his attention, and he enquired
+      into the nature of their services. He next expressed a wish to
+      see the manual exercise performed, which of course was done; and
+      his majesty, taking a musket, went through the Russian manual
+      exercise. On his arrival on the Dutch coast, the King of Holland
+      came out to meet him in a steamer; and on his landing, the
+      British crew parted with him with three cheers. The Imperial
+      munificence was large to a degree which we regret; for it would
+      be much more gratifying to the national feelings to receive those
+      distinguished strangers, without suffering the cravers for
+      subscriptions to intrude themselves into their presence.</p>
+
+      <p>On the Emperor's landing in Holland, he reviewed a large body
+      of Dutch troops, and had intended to proceed up the Rhine, and
+      enjoy the landscape of its lovely shores at his leisure. But for
+      him there is no leisure; and his project was broken up by the
+      anxious intelligence of the illness of one of his daughters by a
+      premature confinement. He immediately changed his route, and set
+      off at full speed for St Petersburg.</p>
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13719 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13719 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13719)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV.
+July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2004 [EBook #13719]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
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+Produced by Jon Ingram, Leonard Johnson, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team and The Internet Library of Early Journals;
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+
+                         BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                          Edinburgh
+
+                          MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+                          VOL. LVI.
+
+                     JULY-DECEMBER, 1844.
+
+                      [Illustration]
+
+
+                           1844.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+             No. CCCXLV. JULY, 1844. VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+                            CONTENTS.
+
+
+      CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME
+      THE HEART OF THE BRUCE
+      MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+      THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS
+      POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. I.
+      MY FIRST LOVE.--A SKETCH IN NEW YORK
+      HYDRO-BACCHUS
+      MARTIN LUTHER.--AN ODE
+      TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. NO. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR
+      PORTUGAL
+      MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XII.
+      THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                         EDINBURGH:
+
+         WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
+                 AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+      To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.
+
+       SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+        PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+            No. CCCXLV.   JULY, 1844.   VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME.
+
+
+If the past increase and present amount of crime in the British
+islands be alone considered, it must afford grounds for the most
+melancholy forebodings. When we recollect that since the year 1805,
+that is, during a period of less than forty years, in the course of
+which population has advanced about sixty-five _per cent_ in Great
+Britain and Ireland, crime in England has increased seven hundred per
+cent, in Ireland about eight hundred per cent, and in Scotland above
+_three thousand six hundred per cent_;[1] it is difficult to say what
+is destined to be the ultimate fate of a country in which the
+progress of wickedness is so much more rapid than the increase of the
+numbers of the people. Nor is the alarming nature of the prospect
+diminished by the reflection, that this astonishing increase in human
+depravity has taken place during a period of unexampled prosperity
+and unprecedented progress, during which the produce of the national
+industry had tripled, and the labours of the husbandman kept pace
+with the vast increase in the population they were to feed--in which
+the British empire carried its victorious arms into every quarter of
+the globe, and colonies sprang up on all sides with unheard-of
+rapidity--in which a hundred thousand emigrants came ultimately to
+migrate every year from the parent state into the new regions
+conquered by its arms, or discovered by its adventure. If this is the
+progress of crime during the days of its prosperity, what is it
+likely to become in those of its decline, when this prodigious vent
+for superfluous numbers has come to be in a great measure closed, and
+this unheard-of wealth and prosperity has ceased to gladden the land?
+
+[Footnote 1: See No. 343, _Blackwood's Magazine_, p. 534, Vol. lv.]
+
+To discover to what causes this extraordinary increase of crime is to
+be ascribed, we must first examine the localities in which it has
+principally arisen, and endeavour to ascertain whether it is to be
+found chiefly in the agricultural, pastoral, or manufacturing
+districts. We must then consider the condition of the labouring
+classes, and the means provided to restrain them in the quarters
+where the progress of crime has been most alarming; and inquire
+whether the existing evils are insurmountable and unavoidable, or
+have arisen from the supineness, the errors, and the selfishness of
+man. The inquiry is one of the most interesting which can occupy the
+thoughts of the far-seeing and humane; for it involves the temporal
+and eternal welfare of millions of their fellow-creatures;--it may
+well arrest the attention of the selfish, and divert for a few
+minutes the profligate from their pursuits; for on it depends whether
+the darling wealth of the former is to be preserved or destroyed, and
+the exciting enjoyments of the other arrested or suffered to
+continue.
+
+To elucidate the first of these questions, we subjoin a table,
+compiled from the Parliamentary returns, exhibiting the progress of
+serious crime in the principal counties, agricultural pastoral, and
+manufacturing, of the empire, during the last fifteen years. We are
+unwilling to load our pages with figures, and are well aware how
+distasteful they are to a large class of readers; and if those
+results were as familiar to others as they are to ourselves, we
+should be too happy to take them for granted, as they do first
+principles in the House of Commons, and proceed at once to the means
+of remedy. But the facts on this subject have been so often
+misrepresented by party or prejudice, and are in themselves so
+generally unknown, that it is indispensable to lay a foundation in
+authentic information before proceeding further in the inquiry. The
+greatest difficulty which those practically acquainted with the
+subject experience in such an investigation, is to make people
+believe their statements, even when founded on the most extensive
+practical knowledge, or the more accurate statistical inquiry. There
+is such a prodigious difference between the condition of mankind and
+the progress of corruption in the agricultural or pastoral, and
+manufacturing or densely peopled districts, that those accustomed to
+the former will not believe any statements made regarding the latter.
+They say they are incredible or exaggerated; that the persons who
+make them are _têtes montées_; that their ideas are very vague, and
+their suggestions utterly unworthy the consideration either of men of
+sense or of government. With such deplorable illusions does ignorance
+repel the suggestions of knowledge; theory, of experience;
+selfishness, of philanthropy; cowardice, of resolution. Thus nothing
+whatever is done to remedy or avert the existing evils: the districts
+not endangered unite as one man to resist any attempt to form a
+general system for the alleviation of misery or diminution of crime
+in those that are, and the preponderance of the unendangered
+districts in the legislature gives them the means of effectually
+doing so. The evils in the endangered districts are such, that it is
+universally felt they are beyond the reach of local remedy or
+alleviation. Thus, between the two, nothing whatever is done to
+arrest, or guard against, the existing or impending evils. Meanwhile,
+destitution, profligacy, sensuality, and crime, advance with
+unheard-of rapidity in the manufacturing districts, and the dangerous
+classes there massed together combine every three or four years in
+some general strike or alarming insurrection, which, while it lasts,
+excites universal terror, and is succeeded, when suppressed, by the
+same deplorable system of supineness, selfishness, and infatuation.
+
+[Footnote 2: Table showing the number of committments for serious
+crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned
+counties of Great Britain;--
+
+  I.--PASTORAL.
+
+  Names of Counties. Population    Commitments        Proportion of
+                      in 1841.   for serious crime    committments
+                                     in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Cumberland,         178,038          151             1 in  1,194
+  Derby,              272,217          277             1 in    964
+  Anglesey,            50,891           13             1 in  3,900
+  Carnarvon,           81,093           33             1 in  2,452
+  Inverness-shire,     97,799          106             1 in    915
+  Selkirkshire,         7,990            4             1 in  1,990
+  Argyleshire,         97,371           96             1 in  1,010
+
+        Total,        785,399          680             1 in  1,155
+
+
+  II.-AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Shropshire,         239,048          416             1 in    574
+  Kent,               548,337          962             1 in    569
+  Norfolk,            412,664          666             1 in    518
+  Essex,              344,979          647             1 in    533
+  Northumberland,     250,278          226             1 in  1,106
+  East Lothian,        35,886           38             1 in    994
+  Perthshire,         137,390          116             1 in  1,181
+  Aberdeenshire,      192,387           92             1 in  2,086
+
+           Total,   2,160,969        3,163             1 in    682
+
+
+  III.-MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Middlesex,        1,576,636        3,586             1 in    439
+  Lancashire,       1,667,054        3,987             1 in    418
+  Staffordshire,      510,504        1,059             1 in    482
+  Yorkshire,        1,591,480        1,895             1 in    839
+  Glamorganshire,     171,188          189             1 in    909
+  Lanarkshire,        426,972          513             1 in    832
+  Renfrewshire        155,072          505             1 in    306
+  Forfarshire,        170,520          333             1 in    512
+
+           Total,   6,269,426       12,067             1 in    476
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, 1841, 163; and _Census_ 1841.]
+
+The table in the note exhibits the number of commitments for serious
+offences, with the population of each, of eight counties--pastoral,
+agricultural, and manufacturing--in Great Britain during the year
+1841[2]. We take the returns for that year, both because it was the
+year in which the census was taken, and because the succeeding year,
+1842, being the year of the great outbreak in England, and violent
+strike in Scotland, the figures, both in that and the succeeding
+year, may be supposed to exhibit a more unfavourable result for the
+manufacturing districts than a fair average of years. From this
+table, it appears that the vast preponderance of crime is to be found
+in the manufacturing or densely-peopled districts, and that the
+proportion per cent of commitments which they exhibit, as compared
+with the population, is generally three, often five times, what
+appears in the purely agricultural and pastoral districts. The
+comparative criminality of the agricultural, manufacturing, and
+pastoral districts is not to be considered as accurately measured by
+these returns, because so many of the agricultural counties,
+especially in England, are overspread with towns and manufactories or
+collieries. Thus Kent and Shropshire are justly classed with
+agricultural counties, though part of the former is in fact a suburb
+of London, and of the latter overspread with demoralizing coal mines.
+The entire want of any police force in some of the greatest
+manufacturing counties, as Lanarkshire, by permitting
+nineteen-twentieths of the crime to go unpunished, exhibits a far
+less amount of criminality than would be brought to light under a
+more vigilant system. But still there is enough in this table to
+attract serious and instructive attention. It appears that the
+average of seven pastoral counties exhibits an average of 1
+commitment for serious offences out of 1155 souls: of eight counties,
+partly agricultural and partly manufacturing, of 1 in 682: and of
+eight manufacturing and mining, of 1 in 476! And the difference
+between individual counties is still more remarkable, especially when
+counties purely agricultural or pastoral can be compared with those
+for the most part manufacturing or mining. Thus the proportion of
+commitment for serious crime in the pastoral counties of
+
+  Anglesey, is       1 in 3900
+  Carnarvon,         1 in 2452
+  Selkirk,           1 in 1990
+  Cumberland,        1 in 1194
+
+In the purely agricultural counties of
+
+  Aberdeenshire, is  1 in 2086
+  East-Lothian,      1 in  994
+  Northumberland,    1 in 1106
+  Perthshire,        1 in 1181
+
+While in the great manufacturing or mining counties of
+
+  Lancashire, is     1 in  418
+  Staffordshire,     1 in  482
+  Middlesex,         1 in  439
+  Yorkshire,         1 in  839
+  Lanarkshire,       1 in  832[3]
+  Renfrewshire,      1 in  306
+
+[Footnote 3: Lanarkshire has no police except in Glasgow, or its
+serious crime would be about 1 in 400, or 350.]
+
+Further, the statistical returns of crime demonstrate, not only that
+such is the present state of crime in the densely peopled and
+manufacturing districts, compared to what obtains in the agricultural
+or pastoral, but that the tendency of matters is still worse;[4] and
+that, great as has been the increase of population during the last
+thirty years in the manufacturing and densely peopled districts, the
+progress of crime has been still greater and more alarming. From the
+instructive and curious tables below, constructed from the criminal
+returns given in _Porter's Parliamentary Tables_, and the returns of
+the census taken in 1821, 1831, and 1841, it appears, that while in
+some of the purely pastoral counties, such as Selkirk and Anglesey,
+crime has remained during the last twenty years nearly stationary,
+and in some of the purely agricultural, such as Perth and Aberdeen,
+it has considerably _diminished_, in the agricultural and mining or
+manufacturing, such as Shropshire and Kent, it has _doubled_ during
+the same period: and in the manufacturing and mining districts, such
+as Lancashire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Renfrewshire, more than
+_tripled_ in the same time. It appears, from the same authentic
+sources of information, that the progress of crime during the last
+twenty years has been much more rapid in the manufacturing and
+densely peopled than in the simply densely peopled districts; for in
+Middlesex, during the last twenty years, population has advanced
+about fifty per cent, and serious crime has increased in nearly the
+same proportion, having swelled from 2480 to 3514: whereas in
+Lancashire, during the same period, population has advanced also
+fifty per cent, but serious crime has considerably _more than
+doubled_, having risen from 1716 to 3987.
+
+[Footnote 4: Table, showing the comparative population, and
+committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the
+years 1821, 1831, and 1841.
+
+  I.--PASTORAL
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Cumberland,     156,124     66    169,681     74    178,038    151
+  Derby,          213,333    105    237,070    202    272,217    277
+  Anglesey,        43,325     10     48,325      8     50,891     13
+  Carnarvon,       57,358     12     66,448     36     81,893     33
+  Inverness,       90,157    ...     94,797     35     97,799    106
+  Selkirk,          6,637    ...      6,833      2      7,990      4
+  Argyle,          97,316    ...    100,973     41     97,321     96
+
+
+  II.--AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Shropshire,     266,153    159    222,938    228    239,048    416
+  Kent,           426,916    492    479,155    640    548,337    962
+  Norfolk,        344,368    356    390,054    549    412,664    666
+  Essex,          289,424    303    317,507    607    344,979    647
+  Northumberland, 198,965     70    222,912    108    250,278    226
+  East Lothian,    35,127    ...     36,145     23     35,886     38
+  Perthshire,     139,050    ...    142,894    140    137,390    116
+  Aberdeenshire,  155,387    ...    177,657    161    192,387     92
+
+
+  III.--MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                        1821.             1831.             1841.
+                     Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.
+
+  Middlesex,    1,144,531  2,480  1,358,330  3,514  1,576,636  3,586
+  Lancashire,   1,052,859  1,716  1,336,854  2,352  1,667,054  3,987
+  Staffordshire,  345,895    374    410,512    644    510,504  1,059
+  Yorkshire,      801,274    757    976,350  1,270  1,154,111  1,895
+  Glamorgan,      101,737     28    126,612    132    171,188    189
+  Lanark,         244,387    ...    316,849    470    426,972    513
+  Renfrew,        112,175    ...    133,443    205    155,072    505
+  Forfar,         113,430    ...    139,666    124    l70,520    333
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables, and Census_ 1841.]
+
+Here, then, we are at length on firm ground in point of fact. Several
+writers of the liberal school who had a partiality for manufactures,
+because their chief political supporters were to be found among that
+class of society, have laboured hard to show that manufactures are
+noways detrimental either to health or morals; and that the mortality
+and crime of the manufacturing counties were in no respect greater
+than those of the pastoral or agricultural districts. The common
+sense of mankind has uniformly revolted against this absurdity, so
+completely contrary to what experience every where tells in a
+language not to be misunderstood; but it has now been completely
+disproved by the Parliamentary returns. The criminal statistics have
+exposed this fallacy as completely, in reference to the different
+degrees of depravity in different parts of the empire, as the
+registrar-general's returns have, in regard to the different degrees
+of salubrity in employments, and mortality in rural districts and
+manufacturing places. It now distinctly appears that crime is greatly
+more prevalent in proportion to the numbers of the people in densely
+peopled than thinly inhabited localities, and that it is making far
+more rapid progress in the former situation than the latter.
+Statistics are not to be despised when they thus, at once and
+decisively, disprove errors so assiduously spread, maintained by
+writers of such respectability, and supported by such large and
+powerful bodies in the state.
+
+Nor can it be urged with the slightest degree of foundation, that
+this superior criminality of the manufacturing and densely peopled
+districts is owing to a police force being more generally established
+than in the agricultural or pastoral, and thus crime being more
+thoroughly detected in the former situation than the latter. For, in
+the first place, in several of the greatest manufacturing counties,
+particularly Lanarkshire in Scotland, there is no police at all; and
+the criminal establishment is just what it was forty years ago. In
+the next place, a police force is the _consequence_ of a previous
+vast accumulation or crime, and is never established till the risk to
+life and insecurity to property had rendered it unbearable. Being
+always established by the voluntary assessment of the inhabitants,
+nothing can be more certain than that it never can be called into
+existence but by such an increase of crime as has rendered it a
+matter of necessity.
+
+We are far, however, from having approached the whole truth, if we
+have merely ascertained, upon authentic evidence, that crime is
+greatly more prevalent in the manufacturing than the rural districts.
+That will probably be generally conceded; and the preceding details
+have been given merely to show the extent of the difference, and the
+rapid steps which it is taking. It is more material to inquire what
+are the causes of this superior profligacy of manufacturing to rural
+districts; and whether it arises unavoidably from the nature of their
+respective employments, or is in some degree within the reach of
+human amendment or prevention.
+
+It is usual for persons who are not practically acquainted with the
+subject, to represent manufacturing occupations as necessarily and
+inevitably hurtful to the human mind. The crowding together, it is
+said, young persons, of different sexes and in great numbers, in the
+hot atmosphere and damp occupations of factories or mines, is
+necessarily destructive to morality, and ruinous to regularity of
+habit. The passions are excited by proximity of situation or indecent
+exposure; infant labour early emancipates the young from parental
+control; domestic subordination, the true foundation for social
+virtue, is destroyed; the young exposed to temptation before they
+have acquired strength to resist it; and vice spreads the more
+extensively from the very magnitude of the establishments on which
+the manufacturing greatness of the country depends. Such views are
+generally entertained by writers on the social state of the country;
+and being implicitly adopted by the bulk of the community, the nation
+has abandoned itself to a sort of despair on the subject, and
+regarding manufacturing districts as the necessary and unavoidable
+hotbed of crimes, strives only to prevent the spreading of the
+contagion into the rural parts of the country.
+
+There is certain degree of truth in these observations; but they are
+much exaggerated, and it is not in these causes that the principal
+sources of the profligacy of the manufacturing districts is to be
+found.
+
+The real cause of the demoralization of manufacturing towns is to be
+found, not in the nature of the employment which the people there
+receive, so much as in the manner in which they are brought together,
+the unhappy prevalence of general strikes, and the prodigious
+multitudes who are cast down by the ordinary vicissitudes of life, or
+the profligacy of their parents, into a situation of want,
+wretchedness, and despair.
+
+Consider how, during the last half century, the people have been
+brought together in the great manufacturing districts of England and
+Scotland. So rapid has been the progress of manufacturing industry
+during that period, that it has altogether out-stripped the powers of
+population in the districts where it was going forward, and
+occasioned a prodigious influx of persons from different and distant
+quarters, who have migrated from their paternal homes, and settled in
+the manufacturing districts, never to return.[5] Authentic evidence
+proves, that not less than _two millions_ of persons have, in this
+way, been transferred to the manufacturing counties of the north of
+England within the last forty years, chiefly from the agricultural
+counties of the south of that kingdom, or from Ireland. Not less than
+three hundred and fifty thousand persons have, during the same
+period, migrated into the two manufacturing counties of Lanark and
+Renfrew alone, in Scotland, chiefly from the Scotch Highlands, or
+north of Ireland. No such astonishing migration of the human species
+in so short a time, and to settle on so small a space, is on record
+in the whole annals of the world. It is unnecessary to say that the
+increase is to be ascribed chiefly, if not entirely, to immigration;
+for it is well known that such is the unhealthiness of manufacturing
+towns, especially to young children, that, so far from being able to
+add to their numbers, they are hardly ever able, without extraneous
+addition, to maintain them.
+
+[Footnote 5: Table showing the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in
+the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.
+
+                                                       Increase in
+                       1801       1821         1841    forty years.
+
+  Lancashire,         672,731   1,052,859   1,667,054     994,323
+  Yorkshire, W.R.,    565,282     801,274   1,154,101     588,819
+  Staffordshire,      233,153     343,895     510,504     277,351
+  Nottingham,         140,350     186,873     249,910     109,560
+  Warwick,            208,190     274,322     401,715     193,155
+  Gloucester,         250,809     335,843     431,383     180,574
+
+                    2,070,515   2,995,066   4,412,667   2,343,782
+
+
+  Lanark,             146,699     244,387     434,972     288,273
+  Renfrew,             78,056     112,175     155,072      77,016
+
+                      224,755     356,562     590,044     365,289
+
+  --_Census of_ 1841. Preface, p. 8 and 9.]
+
+Various causes have combined to produce demoralization among the vast
+crowd, thus suddenly attracted, by the alluring prospect of high
+wages and steady employment, from the rural to the manufacturing
+districts. In the first place, they acquired wealth before they had
+learned how to use it, and that is, perhaps, the most general cause
+of the rapid degeneracy of mankind. High wages flowed in upon them
+before they had acquired the artificial wants in the gratification of
+which they could be innocently spent. Thence the general recourse to
+the grosser and sensual enjoyments, which are powerful alike on the
+savage and the sage. Men who, in the wilds of Ireland or the
+mountains of Scotland, were making three or four shillings a-week, or
+in Sussex ten, suddenly found themselves, as cotton-spinners,
+iron-moulders, colliers, or mechanics, in possession of from twenty
+to thirty shillings. Meanwhile, their habits and inclinations had
+undergone scarce any alteration; they had no taste for comfort in
+dress, lodging, or furniture; and as to laying by money, the thing,
+of course, was not for a moment thought of. Thus, this vast addition
+to their incomes was spent almost exclusively on eating and drinking.
+The extent to which gross sensual enjoyment was thus spread among
+these first settlers in the regions of commercial opulence, is
+incredible. It is an ascertained fact, that above a million a-year is
+annually spent in Glasgow on ardent spirits;[6] and it has recently
+been asserted by a respectable and intelligent operative in
+Manchester, that, in that city, 750,000 _more_ is annually spent on
+beer and spirits, than on the purchase of provisions. Is it
+surprising that a large part of the progeny of a generation which has
+embraced such habits, should be sunk in sensuality and profligacy,
+and afford a never-failing supply for the prisons and transport
+ships? It is the counterpart of the sudden corruption which
+invariably overtakes northern conquerors, when they settle in the
+regions of southern opulence.
+
+[Footnote 6: ALISON _on Population_, ii. Appendix A.]
+
+Another powerful cause which promotes the corruption of men, when
+thus suddenly congregated together from different quarters in the
+manufacturing districts, is, that the restraints of character,
+relationship, and vicinity are, in a great measure, lost in the
+crowd. Every body knows what powerful influence public opinion, or
+the opinion of their relations, friends, and acquaintances, exercises
+on all men in their native seats, or when living for any length of
+time in one situation. It forms, in fact, next to religion, the most
+powerful restraint on vice, and excitement to virtue, that exists in
+the world. But when several hundred thousand of the working classes
+are suddenly huddled together in densely peopled localities, this
+invaluable check is wholly lost. Nay, what is worse, it is rolled
+over to the other side; and forms an additional incentive to
+licentiousness. The poor in these situations have no neighbours who
+care for them, or even know their names; but they are surrounded by
+multitudes who are willing to accompany them in the career of
+sensuality. They are unknown alike to each other, and to any persons
+of respectability or property in their vicinity. Philanthropy seeks
+in vain for virtue amidst thousands and tens of thousands of unknown
+names; charity itself is repelled by the hopelessness of all attempts
+to relieve the stupendous mass of destitution which follows in the
+train of such enormous accumulation of numbers. Every individual or
+voluntary effort is overlooked amidst the prodigious multitude, as it
+was in the Moscow campaign of Napoleon. Thus the most powerful
+restraints on human conduct--character, relations, neighbourhood--are
+lost upon mankind at the very time when their salutary influence is
+most required to enable them to withstand the increasing temptations
+arising from density of numbers and a vast increase of wages.
+Multitudes remove responsibility without weakening passion. Isolation
+ensures concealment without adding to resolution. This is the true
+cause of the more rapid deterioration of the character of the poor
+than the rich, when placed in such dense localities. The latter have
+a neighbourhood to watch them, because their station renders them
+conspicuous--the former have none. Witness the rapid and general
+corruption of the higher ranks, when they get away from such
+restraint, amidst the profligacy of New South Wales.
+
+In the foremost rank of the causes which demoralize the urban and
+mining population, we must place the frequency of those strikes which
+unhappily have now become so common as to be of more frequent
+occurrence than a wet season, even in our humid climate. During the
+last twenty years there have been six great strikes: viz. in 1826,
+1828, 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1844. All of these have kept multitudes
+of the labouring poor idle for months together. Incalculable is the
+demoralization thus produced upon the great mass of the working
+classes. We speak not of the actual increase of commitments during
+the continuance of a great strike, though that increase is so
+considerable that it in general augments them in a single year from
+thirty to fifty per cent.[7] We allude to the far more general and
+lasting causes of demoralization which arise from the arraying of one
+portion of the community in fierce hostility against another, the
+wretchedness which is spread among multitudes by months of compulsory
+idleness, and the not less ruinous effect of depriving them of
+_occupation_ during such protracted periods. When we recollect that
+such is the vehemence of party feeling produced by these disastrous
+combinations, that it so far obliterates all sense of right and wrong
+as generally to make their members countenance contumely and insult,
+sometimes even robbery, fire-raising, and murder, committed on
+innocent persons who are only striving to earn an honest livelihood
+for themselves by hard labour, but in opposition to the strike; and
+that it induces twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit
+obedience to the commands of an unknown committee, who have power to
+force them to do what the Sultan Mahmoud, or the Committee of Public
+Safety, never ventured to attempt--to abstain from labour, and endure
+want and starvation for months together, for an object of which they
+often in secret disapprove--it may be conceived how wide-spread and
+fatal is the confusion of moral principle, and habits of idleness and
+insubordination thus produced. Their effects invariably appear for a
+course of years afterwards, in the increased roll of criminal
+commitments, and the number of young persons of both sexes, who,
+loosened by these protracted periods of idleness, never afterwards
+regain habits of regularity and industry. Nor is the evil lessened by
+the blind infatuation with which it is uniformly regarded by the
+other classes of the community, and the obstinate resistance they
+make to all measures calculated to arrest the violence of these
+combinations, in consequence of the expense with which they would
+probably be attended--a supineness which, by leaving the coast
+constantly clear to the terrors of such associations, and promising
+impunity to their crimes, operates as a continual bounty on their
+recurrence.
+
+[Footnote 7:
+
+  Commitments:--
+            Lanarkshire.   Lancashire.   Staffordshire.   Yorkshire.
+  1836         451            2,265           686           1,252
+  1837[8]      565            2,809           909           1,376
+  1841         513            3,987         1,059           1,895
+  1842[9]      696            4,497         1,485           2,598
+
+  PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, xi. 162.--_Parl. Paper of Crime_,
+  1843, p. 53.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Strike.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Strike.]
+
+Infant labour, unhappily now so frequent in all kinds of factories,
+and the great prevalence of female workers, is another evil of a very
+serious kind in the manufacturing districts. We do not propose to
+enter into the question, recently so fiercely agitated in the
+legislature, as to the practicability of substituting a compulsory
+ten-hours' bill for the twelve hours' at present in operation.
+Anxious to avoid all topics on which there is a difference of opinion
+among able and patriotic men, we merely state this prevalence and
+precocity of juvenile labour in the manufacturing and mining
+districts as _a fact_ which all must deplore, and which is attended
+with the most unhappy effects on the rising generation. The great
+majority, probably nine-tenths, of all the workers in cotton-mills or
+printfields, are females. We have heard much of the profligacy and
+licentiousness which pervade such establishments; but though that may
+be too true in some cases, it is far from being universal, or even
+general; and there are numerous instances of female virtue being as
+jealously guarded and effectually preserved in such establishments,
+as in the most secluded rural districts. The real evils--and they
+follow universally from such employment of juvenile females in great
+numbers in laborious but lucrative employment--are the emancipation
+of the young from parental control, the temptation held out to
+idleness in the parents from the possibility of living on their
+children, and the disqualifying the girls for performing all the
+domestic duties of wives and mothers in after life.
+
+These evils are real, general, and of ruinous consequence. When
+children--from the age of nine or ten in some establishments, of
+thirteen or fourteen in all--are able to earn wages varying from 3s.
+6d. to 6s. a-week, they soon become in practice independent of
+parental control. The strongest of all securities for filial
+obedience--a sense of dependence--is destroyed. The children assert
+the right of self-government, because they bear the burden of
+self-maintenance. Nature, in the ordinary case, has effectually
+guarded against this premature and fatal emancipation of the young,
+by the protracted period of weakness during childhood and
+adolescence, which precludes the possibility of serious labour being
+undertaken before the age when a certain degree of mental firmness
+has been acquired. But the steam-engine, amidst its other marvels,
+has entirely destroyed, within the sphere of its influence, this
+happy and necessary exemption of infancy from labour. Steam is the
+moving power; it exerts the strength; the human machine is required
+only to lift a web periodically, or damp a roller, or twirl a film
+round the finger, to which the hands of infancy are as adequate as
+those of mature age. Hence the general employment of children, and
+especially girls, in such employments. They are equally serviceable
+as men or women, and they are more docile, cheaper, and less given to
+strikes. But as these children earn their own subsistence, they soon
+become rebellious to parental authority, and exercise the freedom of
+middle life as soon as they feel its passions, and before they have
+acquired its self-control.
+
+If the effect of such premature emancipation of the young is hurtful
+to them, it is, if possible, still more pernicious to their parents.
+Labour is generally irksome to man; it is seldom persevered in after
+the period of its necessity has passed. When parents find that, by
+sending three or four children out to the mills or into the mines,
+they can get eighteen or twenty shillings a-week without doing any
+thing themselves, they soon come to abridge the duration and cost of
+education, in order to accelerate the arrival of the happy period
+when they may live on their offspring, not their offspring on them.
+Thus the purest and best affections of the heart are obliterated on
+the very threshold of life. That best school of disinterestedness and
+virtue, the _domestic hearth_, where generosity and self-control are
+called forth in the parents, and gratitude and affection in the
+children, from the very circumstance of the dependence of the latter
+on the former, is destroyed. It is worse than destroyed, it is made
+the parent of wickedness: it exists, but it exists only to nourish
+the selfish and debasing passions. Children come to be looked on, not
+as objects of affection, but as instruments of gain; not as forming
+the first duty of life and calling forth its highest energies, but as
+affording the first means of relaxing from labour, and permitting a
+relapse into indolence and sensuality. The children are, practically
+speaking, sold for slaves, and--oh! unutterable horror!--_the sellers
+are their own parents_! Unbounded is the demoralization produced by
+this monstrous perversion of the first principles of nature. Thence
+it is that it is generally found, that all the beneficent provisions
+of the legislature for the protection of infant labour are so
+generally evaded, as to render it doubtful whether any law, how
+stringent soever, could protect them. The reason is apparent. The
+parents of the children are the chief violators of the law; for the
+sake of profit they send them out, the instant they can work, to the
+mills or the mines. Those whom nature has made their protectors, have
+become their oppressors. The thirst for idleness, intoxication, or
+sensuality, has turned the strongest of the generous, into the most
+malignant of the selfish passions.
+
+The habits acquired by such precocious employment of young women, are
+not less destructive of their ultimate utility and respectability in
+life. Habituated from their earliest years to one undeviating
+mechanical employment, they acquire great skill in it, but grow up
+utterly ignorant of any thing else. We speak not of ignorance of
+reading or writing, but of ignorance in still more momentous
+particulars, with reference to their usefulness in life as wives and
+mothers. They can neither bake nor brew, wash nor iron, sew nor knit.
+The finest London lady is not more utterly inefficient than they are,
+for any other object but the one mechanical occupation to which they
+have been habituated. They can neither darn a stocking nor sew on a
+button. As to making porridge or washing a handkerchief, the thing is
+out of the question. Their food is cooked out of doors by persons who
+provide the lodging-houses in which they dwell--they are clothed from
+head to foot, like fine ladies, by milliners and dressmakers. This is
+not the result of fashion, caprice, or indolence, but of the entire
+concentration of their faculties, mental and corporeal, from their
+earliest years, in one limited mechanical object. They are unfit to
+be any man's wife--still more unfit to be any child's mother. We hear
+little of this from philanthropists or education-mongers; but it is,
+nevertheless, not the least, because the most generally diffused,
+evil connected with our manufacturing industry.
+
+But by far the greatest cause of the mass of crime of the
+manufacturing and mining districts of the country, is to be found in
+the prodigious number of persons, especially in infancy, who are
+reduced to a state of destitution, and precipitated into the very
+lowest stations of life, in consequence of the numerous ills to which
+all flesh--but especially all flesh in manufacturing communities--is
+heir. Our limits preclude the possibility of entering into all the
+branches of this immense subject; we shall content ourselves,
+therefore, with referring to one, which seems of itself perfectly
+sufficient to explain the increase of crime, which at first sight
+appears so alarming. This is the immense proportion of _destitute
+widows with families_, who in such circumstances find themselves
+immovably fixed in places where they can neither bring up their
+children decently, nor get away to other and less peopled localities.
+
+From the admirable statistical returns of the condition of the
+labouring poor in France, prepared for the _Bureau de l'Intérieure_,
+it appears that the number of widows in that country amounts to the
+enormous number of 1,738,000.[10] This, out of a population now of
+about 34,000,000, is as nearly as possible _one in twenty_ of the
+entire population! Population is advancing much more rapidly in Great
+Britain than France; for in the former country it is doubling in
+about 60 years, in the latter in 106. It is certain, therefore, that
+the proportion of widows must be greater in this country than in
+France, especially in the manufacturing districts, where early
+marriages, from the ready employment for young children, are so
+frequent; and early deaths, from the unhealthiness of employment or
+contagious disorders, are so common. But call the proportion the
+same: let it be taken at a twentieth part of the existing population.
+At this rate, the two millions of strangers who, during the last
+forty years, have been thrown into the four northern counties of
+Lancaster, York, Stafford, and Warwick, must contain at this moment
+_a hundred thousand widows_. The usual average of a family is two and
+a half children--call it two only. There will thus be found to be
+200,000 children belonging to these 100,000 widows. It is hardly
+necessary to say, that the great majority, probably four-fifths of
+this immense body, must be in a state of destitution. We know in what
+state the fatherless and widows are in their affliction, and who has
+commanded us to visit them. On the most moderate calculation,
+250,000, or an eighth of the whole population, must be in a state of
+poverty and privation. And in Scotland, where, during the same period
+of forty years, 350,000 strangers have been suddenly huddled together
+on the banks of the Clyde, the proportion may be presumed to be the
+same; or, in other words, _thirty thousand_ widows and orphans are
+constantly there in a state deserving of pity, and requiring support,
+hardly any of whom receive more from the parish funds than _a
+shilling a-week_, even for the maintenance of a whole family.
+
+The proportion of widows and orphans to the entire population, though
+without doubt in some degree aggravated by the early marriages and
+unhealthy employments incident to manufacturing districts, may be
+supposed to be not materially different in one age, or part of the
+country, from another. The widow and the orphan, as well as the poor,
+will be always with us; but the peculiar circumstance which renders
+their condition so deplorable in the dense and suddenly peopled
+manufacturing districts is, that the poor have been brought together
+in such prodigious numbers that all the ordinary means of providing
+for the relief of such casualties fails; while the causes of
+mortality among them are periodically so fearful, as to produce a
+vast and sudden increase of the most destitute classes altogether
+outstripping all possible means of local or voluntary relief. During
+the late typhus fever in Glasgow, in the years 1836 and 1837, above
+30,000 of the poor took the epidemic, of whom 3300 died.[11] In the
+first eight months of 1843 alone, 32,000 persons in Glasgow were
+seized with fever.[12] Out of 1000 families, at a subsequent period,
+visited by the police, in conjunction with the visitors for the
+distribution of the great fund raised by subscription in 1841, 680
+were found to be widows, who, with their families, amounted to above
+2000 persons all in the most abject state of wretchedness and
+want.[13] On so vast a scale do the causes of human destruction and
+demoralization act, when men are torn up from their native seats by
+the irresistible magnet of commercial wealth, and congregated
+together in masses, resembling rather the armies of Timour and
+Napoleon than any thing else ever witnessed in the transactions of
+men.
+
+[Footnote 10: _Statistique de la France, publiée par le
+Gouvernement_, viii. 371-4. A most splendid work.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Fever patients, Glasgow, 1836, 37.
+
+             Fever patients.    Died.
+  1836, . .    10,092        .  1187
+  1837, . .    21,800        .  2180
+               ------           ----
+               31,892           3367
+
+--COWAN'S _Vital Statistics of Glasgow_, 1388, p 8, the work of a
+most able and meritorious medical gentleman now no more.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Dr Alison on the Epidemic of 1843, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Captain Millar's Report, 1841, p. 8.]
+
+Here, then, is the great source of demoralization, destitution, and
+crime in the manufacturing districts. It arises from the sudden
+congregation of human beings in such fearful multitudes together,
+that all the usual alleviations of human suffering, or modes of
+providing for human indigence, entirely fail. We wonder at the rapid
+increase of crime in the manufacturing districts, forgetting that a
+squalid mass of two or three hundred thousand human beings are
+constantly precipitated to the bottom of society in a few counties,
+in such circumstances of destitution that recklessness and crime
+arise naturally, it may almost be said unavoidably, amongst them. And
+it is in the midst of such gigantic causes of evil--of causes arising
+from the extraordinary and unparalleled influx of mankind into the
+manufacturing districts during the last forty years, which can bear a
+comparison to nothing but the collection of the host with which
+Napoleon invaded Russia, or Timour and Genghis Khan desolated
+Asia--that we are gravely told that it is to be arrested by education
+and moral training; by infant schools and shortened hours of labour;
+by multiplication of ministers and solitary imprisonment! All these
+are very good things; each in its way is calculated to do a certain
+amount of good; and their united action upon the whole will
+doubtless, in process of time, produce some impression upon the
+aspect of society, even in the densely peopled manufacturing
+districts. As to their producing any immediate effect, or in any
+sensible degree arresting the prodigious amount of misery,
+destitution, and crime which pervades them, you might as well have
+tried, by the schoolmaster, to arrest the horrors of the Moscow
+retreat.
+
+That the causes which have now been mentioned are the true sources of
+the rapid progress of crime and general demoralization of our
+manufacturing and mining districts, must be evident to all from this
+circumstance, well known to all who are practically conversant with
+the subject, but to a great degree unattended to by the majority of
+men, and that is,--that the prodigious stream of depravity and
+corruption which prevails, is far from being equally and generally
+diffused through society, even in the densely peopled districts where
+it is most alarming, but is in a great degree confined to the _very
+lowest class_. It is from that lowest class that nine-tenths of the
+crime, and nearly all the professional crime, which is felt as so
+great an evil in society, flows. Doubtless in all classes there are
+some wicked, many selfish and inhumane men; and a beneficent Deity,
+in the final allotment of rewards and punishments, will take largely
+into account both the opportunities of doing well which the better
+classes have abused, and the almost invincible causes which so often
+chain, as it were, the destitute to recklessness and crime. But
+still, in examining the classes of society on which the greater part
+of the crime comes, it will be found that at least three-fourths,
+probably nine-tenths, comes from the very lowest and the most
+destitute. It is incorrect to say crime is common among them; in
+truth, among the young at least, a tendency to it is there all but
+universal. If we examine who it is that compose this dismal
+substratum, this hideous _black band of society_, we shall find that
+it is not made up of any one class more than another--not of factory
+workers more than labourers, carters, or miners--but is formed by an
+aggregate of the most unfortunate or improvident of _all classes_,
+who, variously struck down from better ways by disease, vice, or
+sensuality, are now of necessity huddled together by tens of
+thousands in the dens of poverty, and held by the firm bond of
+necessity in the precincts of contagion and crime. Society in such
+circumstances resembles the successive bands of which the imagination
+of Dante has framed the infernal regions, which contain one
+concentric circle of horrors and punishments within another, until,
+when you arrive at the bottom, you find one uniform mass of crime,
+blasphemy and suffering.
+
+We are persuaded there is no person practically acquainted with the
+causes of immorality and crime in the manufacturing districts, who
+will not admit that these are the true ones; and that the others,
+about which so much is said by theorists and philanthropists, though
+not without influence, are nevertheless trifling in the balance. And
+what we particularly call the public attention to is this--Suppose
+all the remedies which theoretical writers or practical legislators
+have put forth and recommended, as singly adequate to remove the
+evils of the manufacturing classes, were to be in _united_ operation,
+they would still leave these gigantic causes of evil untouched. Let
+Lord Ashley obtain from a reluctant legislature his ten-hours' bill,
+and Dr Chalmers have a clergyman established for every 700
+inhabitants; let church extension be pushed till there is a chapel in
+every village, and education till there is a school in every street;
+let the separate system be universal in prisons, and every criminal
+be entirely secluded from vicious contamination; still the great
+fountains of evil will remain unclosed; still 300,000 widows and
+orphans will exist in a few counties of England amidst a newly
+collected and strange population, steeped in misery themselves, and
+of necessity breeding up their children in habits of destitution and
+depravity; still the poor will be deprived, from the suddenness of
+their collection, and the density of their numbers, of any effective
+control, either from private character or the opinion of
+neighbourhood; still individual passion will be inflamed, and
+individual responsibility lost amidst multitudes; still strikes will
+spread their compulsory idleness amidst tens of thousands, and
+periodically array the whole working classes under the banners of
+sedition, despotism, and murder; still precocious female labour will
+at once tempt parents into idleness in middle life, and disqualify
+children, in youth, for household or domestic duties. We wish well to
+the philanthropists: we are far from undervaluing either the
+importance or the utility of their labours; but as we have hitherto
+seen no diminution of crime whatever from their efforts, so we
+anticipate a very slow and almost imperceptible improvement in
+society from their exertions.
+
+Strong, and in many respects just, pictures of the state of the
+working classes in the manufacturing districts, have been lately put
+forth, and the _Perils of the Nation_ have, with reason, been thought
+to be seriously increased by them. Those writers, however, how
+observant and benevolent soever, give a partial, and in many respects
+fallacious view, of the _general_ aspect of society. After reading
+their doleful accounts of the general wretchedness, profligacy, and
+licentiousness of the working classes, the stranger is astonished, on
+travelling through England, to behold green fields and smiling
+cottages on all sides; to see in every village signs of increasing
+comfort, in every town marks of augmented wealth, and the aspect of
+poverty almost banished from the land. Nay, what is still more
+gratifying, the returns of the sanatary condition of the whole
+population, though still exhibiting a painful difference between the
+health and chances of life in the rural and manufacturing districts,
+present unequivocal proof of a general amelioration of the chances of
+life, and, consequently, of the general wellbeing of the whole
+community.
+
+How are these opposite statements and appearances to be reconciled?
+Both are true--the reconciliation is easy. The misery, recklessness,
+and vice exist chiefly in one class--the industry, sobriety, and
+comfort in another. Each observer tells truly what he sees in his own
+circle of attention; he does not tell what, nevertheless, exists, and
+exercises a powerful influence on society, of the good which exists
+in the other classes. If the evils detailed in Lord Ashley's
+speeches, and painted with so much force in the _Perils of the
+Nation_, were universal, or even general, society could not hold
+together for a week. But though these evils are great, sometimes
+overwhelming in particular districts, they are far from being
+general. Nothing effectual has yet been done to arrest them in the
+localities or communities where they arise; but they do not spread
+much beyond them. The person engaged in the factories are stated by
+Lord Ashley to be between four and five hundred thousand: the
+population of the British islands is above 27,000,000. It is in the
+steadiness, industry, and good conduct of a large proportion of this
+immense majority that the security is to be found. Observe that
+industrious and well-doing majority; you would suppose there is no
+danger:--observe the profligate and squalid minority; you would
+suppose there is no hope.
+
+At present about 60,000 persons are annually committed, in the
+British islands, for serious offences[14] worthy of deliberate trial,
+and above double that number for summary or police offences. A
+hundred and eighty thousand persons annually fall under the lash of
+the criminal law, and are committed for longer or shorter periods to
+places of confinement for punishment. The number is prodigious--it is
+frightful. Yet it is in all only about 1 in 120 of the population;
+and from the great number who are repeatedly committed during the
+same year, the individuals punished are not 1 in 200. Such as they
+are, it may safely be affirmed that four-fifths of this 180,000 comes
+out of two or three millions of the community. We are quite sure that
+150,000 come from 3,000,000 of the lowest and most squalid of the
+empire, and not 30,000 from the remaining 24,000,000 who live in
+comparative comfort. This consideration is fitted both to encourage
+hope and awaken shame--hope, as showing from how small a class in
+society the greater part of the crime comes, and to how limited a
+sphere the remedies require to be applied; shame, as demonstrating
+how disgraceful has been the apathy, selfishness, and supineness in
+the other more numerous and better classes, around whom the evil has
+arisen, but who seldom interfere, except to RESIST all measures
+calculated for its removal.
+
+It is to this subject--the ease with which the extraordinary and
+unprecedented increase of crime in the empire might be arrested by
+proper means and the total inefficiency of all the remedies hitherto
+attempted, from the want of practical knowledge on the part of those
+at the head of affairs, and an entirely false view of human nature in
+society generally, that we shall direct the attention of our readers
+in a future Number.
+
+[Footnote 14: Viz., in round numbers--
+
+  England,    30,000
+  Ireland,    26,000
+  Scotland,    4,000
+              60,000]
+
+
+
+
+THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.
+
+A BALLAD.
+
+
+  It was upon an April morn
+    While yet the frost lay hoar,
+  We heard Lord James's bugle-horn
+    Sound by the rocky shore.
+
+  Then down we went, a hundred knights,
+    All in our dark array,
+  And flung our armour in the ships
+    That rode within the bay.
+
+  We spoke not as the shore grew less,
+    But gazed in silence back,
+  Where the long billows swept away
+    The foam behind our track.
+
+  And aye the purple hues decay'd
+    Upon the fading hill,
+  And but one heart in all that ship
+    Was tranquil, cold, and still.
+
+  The good Earl Douglas walk'd the deck,
+    And oh, his brow was wan!
+  Unlike the flush it used to wear
+    When in the battle van.--
+
+  "Come hither, come hither, my trusty knight,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee;
+  There is a freit lies near my soul
+    I fain would tell to thee.
+
+  "Thou knowest the words King Robert spoke
+    Upon his dying day,
+  How he bade me take his noble heart
+    And carry it far away:
+
+  "And lay it in the holy soil
+    Where once the Saviour trod,
+  Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,
+    Nor strike one blow for God.
+
+  "Last night as in my bed I lay,
+    I dream'd a dreary dream:--
+  Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand
+    In the moonlight's quivering beam.
+
+  "His robe was of the azure dye,
+    Snow-white his scatter'd hairs,
+  And even such a cross he bore
+    As good Saint Andrew bears.
+
+  "'Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,
+    'With spear and belted brand?
+  Why do ye take its dearest pledge
+    From this our Scottish land?
+
+  "'The sultry breeze of Galilee
+    Creeps through its groves of palm,
+  The olives on the Holy Mount
+    Stand glittering in the calm.
+
+  "'But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart
+    Shall rest by God's decree,
+  Till the great angel calls the dead
+    To rise from earth and sea!
+
+  "'Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede
+    That heart shall pass once more
+  In fiery fight against the foe,
+    As it was wont of yore.
+
+  "'And it shall pass beneath the Cross,
+    And save King Robert's vow,
+  But other hands shall bear it back,
+    Not, James of Douglas, thou!'
+
+  "Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee--
+  For truer friend had never man
+    Than thou hast been to me--
+
+  "If ne'er upon the Holy Land
+    'Tis mine in life to tread,
+  Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth
+    The relics of her dead."
+
+  The tear was in Sir Simon's eye
+    As he wrung the warrior's hand--
+  "Betide me weal, betide me woe,
+    I'll hold by thy command.
+
+  "But if in battle front, Lord James,
+    'Tis ours once more to ride,
+  Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend,
+    Shall cleave me from thy side!"
+
+  And aye we sail'd, and aye we sail'd,
+    Across the weary sea,
+  Until one morn the coast of Spain
+    Rose grimly on our lee.
+
+  And as we rounded to the port,
+    Beneath the watch-tower's wall,
+  We heard the clash of the atabals,
+    And the trumpet's wavering call.
+
+  "Why sounds yon Eastern music here
+    So wantonly and long,
+  And whose the crowd of armed men
+    That round yon standard throng?'
+
+  "The Moors have come from Africa
+    To spoil and waste and slay,
+  And Pedro, King of Arragon,
+    Must fight with them to-day."
+
+  "Now shame it were," cried good Lord James,
+    "Shall never be said of me,
+   That I and mine have turn'd aside,
+    From the Cross in jeopardie!
+
+  "Have down, have down my merry men all--
+    Have down unto the plain;
+   We'll let the Scottish lion loose
+    Within the fields of Spain!"--
+
+  "Now welcome to me, noble lord,
+    Thou and thy stalwart power;
+   Dear is the sight of a Christian knight
+    Who comes in such an hour!
+
+  "Is it for bond or faith ye come,
+    Or yet for golden fee?
+  Or bring ye France's lilies here,
+    Or the flower of Burgundie?'
+
+  "God greet thee well, thou valiant King,
+    Thee and thy belted peers--
+  Sir James of Douglas am I call'd,
+    And these are Scottish spears.
+
+  "We do not fight for bond or plight,
+    Nor yet for golden fee;
+  But for the sake of our blessed Lord,
+    That died Upon the tree.
+
+  "We bring our great King Robert's heart
+    Across the weltering wave,
+  To lay it in the holy soil
+    Hard by the Saviour's grave.
+
+  "True pilgrims we, by land or sea,
+    Where danger bars the way;
+  And therefore are we here, Lord King,
+    To ride with thee this day!"
+
+  The King has bent his stately head,
+    And the tears were in his eyne--
+  "God's blessing on thee, noble knight,
+    For this brave thought of thine!
+
+  "I know thy name full well, Lord James,
+    And honour'd may I be,
+  That those who fought beside the Bruce
+    Should fight this day for me!
+
+  "Take thou the leading of the van,
+    And charge the Moors amain;
+  There is not such a lance as thine
+    In all the host of Spain!"
+
+  The Douglas turned towards us then,
+    Oh, but his glance was high!--
+  "There is not one of all my men
+    But is as bold as I.
+
+  "There is not one of all my knights
+    But bears as true a spear--
+  Then onwards! Scottish gentlemen,
+    And think--King Robert's here!"
+
+  The trumpets blew, the cross-bolts flew,
+    The arrows flash'd like flame,
+  As spur in side, and spear in rest,
+    Against the foe we came.
+
+  And many a bearded Saracen
+    Went down, both horse and man;
+  For through their ranks we rode like corn,
+    So furiously we ran!
+
+  But in behind our path they closed,
+    Though fain to let us through,
+  For they were forty thousand men,
+    And we were wondrous few.
+
+  We might not see a lance's length,
+    So dense was their array,
+  But the long fell sweep of the Scottish blade
+    Still held them hard at bay.
+
+  "Make in! make in!" Lord Douglas cried,
+    "Make in, my brethren dear!
+  Sir William of St Clair is down,
+    We may not leave him here!"
+
+  But thicker, thicker, grew the swarm,
+    And sharper shot the rain,
+  And the horses rear'd amid the press,
+    But they would not charge again.
+
+  "Now Jesu help thee," said Lord James,
+    "Thou kind and true St Clair!
+  An' if I may not bring thee off,
+    I'll die beside thee there!"
+
+  Then in his stirrups up he stood,
+    So lionlike and bold,
+  And held the precious heart aloft
+    All in its case of gold.
+
+  He flung it from him, far ahead,
+    And never spake he more,
+  But--"Pass thee first, thou dauntless heart,
+    As thou were wont of yore!"
+
+  The roar of fight rose fiercer yet,
+    And heavier still the stour,
+  Till the spears of Spain came shivering in
+    And swept away the Moor.
+
+  "Now praised be God, the day is won!
+    They fly o'er flood and fell--
+  Why dost thou draw the rein so hard,
+    Good knight, that fought so well?"
+
+  "Oh, ride ye on, Lord King!" he said,
+    "And leave the dead to me,
+  For I must keep the dreariest watch
+    That ever I shall dree!
+
+  "There lies beside his master's heart
+    The Douglas, stark and grim;
+  And woe is me I should be here,
+    Not side by side with him!
+
+  "The world grows cold, my arm is old,
+    And thin my lyart hair,
+  And all that I loved best on earth
+    Is stretch'd before me there.
+
+  "O Bothwell banks! that bloom so bright,
+    Beneath the sun of May,
+  The heaviest cloud that ever blew
+    Is bound for you this day.
+
+  "And, Scotland, thou may'st veil thy head
+    In sorrow and in pain;
+  The sorest stroke upon thy brow
+    Hath fallen this day in Spain!
+
+  "We'll bear them back into our ship,
+    We'll bear them o'er the sea,
+  And lay them in the hallow'd earth,
+    Within our own countrie.
+
+  "And be thou strong of heart, Lord King,
+    For this I tell thee sure,
+  The sod that drank the Douglas' blood
+    Shall never bear the Moor!"
+
+  The King he lighted from his horse,
+    He flung his brand away,
+  And took the Douglas by the hand,
+    So stately as he lay.
+
+  "God give thee rest, thou valiant soul,
+    That fought so well for Spain;
+  I'd rather half my land were gone,
+    So thou wert here again!"
+
+  We bore the good Lord James away,
+    And the priceless heart he bore,
+  And heavily we steer'd our ship
+    Towards the Scottish shore.
+
+  No welcome greeted our return,
+    Nor clang of martial tread,
+  But all were dumb and hush'd as death
+    Before the mighty dead.
+
+  We laid the Earl in Douglas Kirk,
+    The heart in fair Melrose;
+  And woful men were we that day--
+    God grant their souls repose!
+                               W.E.A.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+THE MUSEUM OF PALERMO.
+
+
+The museum of Palermo is a small but very interesting collection of
+statues and other sculpture, gathered chiefly, they say, from the
+ancient temples of Sicily, with a few objects bestowed out of the
+superfluities of Pompeii. In the lower room are some good
+bas-reliefs, to which a story is attached. They were discovered
+fifteen years ago at _Selinuntium_ by some young Englishmen, the
+reward of four months' labour. Our guide, who had been also theirs,
+had warned them not to stay after the month of June, when malaria
+begins. They did stay. All (four) took the fever; one died of it in
+Palermo, and the survivors were deprived by the government--that is,
+by the king--of the spoils for which they had suffered so much and
+worked so hard. No one is permitted to excavate without royal
+license; _excavation_ is, like _Domitian's fish, res fisci_. Even Mr
+Fagan, who was consul at Palermo, having made some interesting
+underground discoveries, was deprived of them. We saw here a fine
+Esculapius, in countenance and expression exceedingly like the _Ecce
+Homo_ of Leonardo da Vinci, with all that god-like compassion which
+the great painter had imparted without any sacrifice of dignity. He
+holds a poppy-head, which we do not recollect on his statue or gems,
+and the Epidaurian snake is at his side. Up-stairs we saw specimens
+of fruits from Pompeii, barley, beans, the carob pod, pine kernels,
+as well as bread, sponge, linen: and the sponge was obviously such,
+and so was the linen. A bronze Hercules treading on the back of a
+stag, which he has overtaken and subdued, is justly considered as one
+of the most perfect bronzes discovered at Pompeii. A head of our
+Saviour, by Corregio, is exquisite in conception, and such as none
+but a person long familiar with the physiognomy of suffering could
+have accomplished. These are exceptions rather than specimens. The
+pictures, in general, are poor in interest; and a long gallery of
+_casts_ of the _chef-d'oeuvres_ of antiquity possessed by the
+capitals of Italy, Germany, England, and France, looks oddly here,
+and shows the poverty of a country which had been to the predatory
+proconsuls of Rome an inexhaustible repertory of the highest
+treasures of art. A VERRES REDIVIVUS would now find little to carry
+off but toys made of amber, lava snuff-boxes, and WODEHOUSE'S
+MARSALA--one of which he certainly would not guess the _age_ of, and
+the other of which he would not _drink_.
+
+
+LUNATIC ASYLUM.
+
+We saw nothing in this house or its arrangements to make us think it
+superior, or very different from others we had visited elsewhere. The
+making a lunatic asylum a show-place for strangers is to be censured;
+indeed, we heard Esquirol observe, that nothing was so bad as the
+admission of many persons to see the patients at all; for that,
+although some few were better for the visits of friends, it was
+injurious as a general rule to give even friends admittance, and that
+it ought to be left discretionary with the physician, _when_ to
+admit, and _whom_. Cleanliness, good fare, a garden, and the
+suppression of all violence--these have become immutable canons for
+the conduct of such institutions, and fortunately demand little more
+than ordinary good feeling and intelligence in the superintendent.
+But we could not fail to observe a sad want of suitable inducement to
+_occupation_, which was apparent throughout this asylum. That not
+above one in ten could read, may perhaps be thought a light matter,
+for few can be the resources of insanity in books; yet we saw at
+_Genoa_ a case where it had taken that turn, and as it is occupation
+to read, with how much profit it matters not. Not one woman in four,
+as usually occurs in insanity, could be induced to _dress according
+to her sex_; they figured away in men's coats and hats! The
+dining-room was hung with portraits of some merit, by one of the
+lunatics; and we noticed that every face, if indeed all are
+_portraits_, had some insanity in it. They have a dance every Sunday
+evening. What an exhibition it must be!
+
+
+MISCELLANEA
+
+That the vegetation of Palermo excels that of Naples, partly depends
+on the superior intelligence of the agriculturist, and partly upon
+soil and climate: the fruits here are not only more advanced, but
+finer in quality. We left a very meagre dessert of cherries beginning
+to ripen at Naples; the very next day, a superabundance of very fine
+and mature ones were to be had on all the stalls of Palermo. This
+must be the result of industry and care in a great measure; for on
+leaving that city, after a _séjour_ of three weeks, for Messina,
+Catania, and Syracuse, although summer was much further advanced, we
+relapsed into miserably meagre supplies of what we had eaten in
+perfection in the capital; yet Syracuse and Catania are much warmer
+than Palermo.
+
+The vegetables here are of immense growth. The fennel root (and there
+is no better test of your whereabouts in Italy) is nearly twice as
+large as at Naples, and weighs, accordingly, nearly double. The
+cauliflowers are quite colossal; and they have a blue cabbage so big
+that your arms will scarcely embrace it. We question, however,
+whether this hypertrophy of fruit or vegetables improves their
+flavour; give us _English vegetables_--ay, and _English fruit_.
+Though Smyrna's _fig_ is eaten throughout Europe, and Roman _brocoli_
+be without a rival; though the _cherry_ and the Japan _medlar_
+flourish only at Palermo, and the _cactus_ of Catania can be eaten
+nowhere else; what country town in England is not better off on the
+whole, if quality alone be considered? But we have one terrible
+drawback; for _whom_ are these fruits of the earth produced? Our
+_prices_ are enormous, and our supply scanty; could we _forget this_,
+and the artichoke, the asparagus, the peas and beans of London and
+Paris, are rarely elsewhere so fine. To our palates the _gooseberry_
+and the _black currant_ are a sufficient indemnity to Britain for the
+_grape_, merely regarded as a fruit to _eat. Pine-apples_, those
+"illustrious foreigners," are so successfully _petted_ at home, that
+they will scarcely condescend now to flourish out of England.
+_Nectarines_ refuse to ripen, and _apricots_ to have any taste
+elsewhere. Our _pears_ and _apples_ are better, and of more various
+excellence, than any in the world. And we really prefer our very
+figs, grown on a fine _prebendal_ wall in the close of _Winchester_,
+or under _Pococke's_ window in a canon's garden at _chilly Oxford_.
+Thus has the kitchen-garden refreshed our patriotism, and made us
+half ashamed of our long forgetfulness of home. But there are good
+things abroad too for poor men; the rich may live any where. An
+enormous salad, crisp, cold, white, and of delicious flavour, for a
+halfpenny; olive oil, for fourpence a pound, to dress it with; and
+wine for fourpence a gallon to make it disagree with you;[15] fuel
+for almost nothing, and bread for little, are not small advantages to
+frugal housekeepers; but, when dispensed by a despotic government,
+where one must read those revolting words _motu proprio_ at the head
+of every edict, let us go back to our carrots and potatoes, our Peels
+and our income-tax, our fogs and our frost. The country mouse came to
+a right conclusion, and did not like the fragments of the feast with
+the cat in the cupboard--
+
+  Give me again my hollow tree,
+  My crust of bread, and liberty."
+
+[Footnote 15:
+
+  ----_Lactuca_ innatat acri
+  Post vinum stomacho.--HOR.]
+
+Fish, though plentiful and various, is not fine in any part of the
+_Mediterranean_; and as to _thunny_, one surfeit would put it out of
+the bill of fare for life. On the whole, though at Palermo and Naples
+the pauper starves not in the streets, the gourmand would be sadly at
+a loss in his requisition of delicacies and variety. Inferior bread,
+at a penny a pound, is here considered palatable by the sprinkling
+over of the crust with a small rich seed (_jugulena_) which has a
+flavour like the almond; it is also strewn, like our caraway seeds in
+biscuits, _into_ the paste, and is largely cultivated for that single
+use. The _capsici_, somewhat similar in flavour to the pea, are
+detached from the radicles of a plant with a flower strikingly like
+the potatoe, and is used for a similar purpose to the jugulena.
+
+This island was the granary of Athens before it nourished Rome; and
+wheat appears to have been first raised in Europe on the plains of
+eastern Sicily. In Cicero's time it returned eightfold; and to this
+day one grain yields its eightfold of increase; which, however, is by
+a small fraction less than our own, as given by M'Culloch in his
+"Dictionary of Commerce." We plucked some _siligo_, or bearded wheat,
+near Palermo, the beard of which was eight inches long, the ear
+contained sixty grains, eight being also in this instance the average
+increase; how many grains, then, must perish in the ground!
+
+In Palermo, English gunpowder is sold by British sailors at the high
+price of from five to seven shillings per English pound; the "Polvere
+_nostrale_" of the Sicilians only fetches 1s. 8d.; yet such is the
+superiority of English gunpowder, that every one who has a passion
+for popping at sparrows, and other _Italian sports_, (complimented by
+the title of _La caccia_,) prefers the dear article. When they have
+killed off all the robins, and there is not a twitter in _the whole
+country_, they go to the river side and shoot _gudgeons_.
+
+The Palermo donkey is the most obliging animal that ever wore long
+ears, and will carry you cheerfully four or five miles an hour
+without whip or other _encouragement_. The oxen, no longer white or
+cream-coloured, as in Tuscany, were originally importations from
+Barbary, (to which country the Sicilians are likewise indebted for
+the _mulberry_ and _silk-worm_.) Their colour is brown. They rival
+the Umbrian breed in the herculean symmetry of their form, and in the
+possession of horns of more than Umbrian dimensions, rising more
+perpendicularly over the forehead than in that ancient race. The
+lizards here are such beautiful creatures, that it is worth while to
+bring one away, and, to _pervert_ a quotation, "UNIUS _Dominum sese
+fecisse_ LACERTAE." Some are all green, some mottled like a mosaic
+floor, others green and black on the upper side, and orange-coloured
+or red underneath. Of snakes, there is a _Coluber niger_ from four to
+five feet in length, with a shining coat, and an eye not pleasant to
+watch even through glass; yet the peasants here put them into their
+Phrygian bonnets, and handle them with as much _sang-froid_ as one
+would a walking-stick.
+
+The coarse earthen vessels, pitchers, urns, &c., used by the
+peasants, are of the most beautiful shapes, often that of the ancient
+_amphora_; and at every cottage door by the road-side you meet with
+this vestige of the ancient arts of the country.
+
+The plague which visited Palermo in 1624 swept away 20,000
+inhabitants; Messina, in 1743, lost 40,000. The cholera, in 1837,
+destroyed 69,253 persons. The present population of the whole island
+is 1,950,000; the female exceeds the male by about three per cent,
+which is contrary to the general rule. It is said that nearly
+one-half the children received into the foundling hospital of Palermo
+die within the first year.
+
+Formerly the barons of Sicily were rich and independent, like our
+English gentlemen; but they say that, since 1812, the king's whole
+pleasure and business, as before our _Magna Charta_ times, have been
+to lower their importance. In that year a revolt was the consequence
+of an income-tax even of two per cent, for they were yet unbroken to
+the yoke; but now that he has saddled property with a deduction,
+_said_ to be eventually equal to fifteen per cent, if not more; now
+that he doubles the impost on the native sulphur, which is therefore
+checked in its sale; now that he keeps an army of 80,000 men to play
+at soldiers with; now that he constitutes himself the only referee
+even in questions of commercial expediency, and _a fortiori_ in all
+other cases, which he settles _arbitrarily_, or does not settle at
+all; now that he sees so little the signs of the times, that he will
+not let a professor go to a science-congress at Florence or Bologna
+without an express permission, and so ignorant as to have _refused_
+that permission for fear of a political bias; now that he diverts a
+nation's wealth from works of charity or usefulness, to keep a set of
+foreigners in his pay--they no doubt here remember in their prayers,
+with becoming gratitude, "the holy alliance," or, as we would call
+it, the _mutual insurance company of the kings of Europe_, of which
+Castlereagh and Metternich were the honorary secretaries.
+
+In the midst of all the gloomy despotism, beautiful even as
+imagination can paint it, is Palermo beautiful! One eminent advantage
+it possesses over Naples itself--its vicinity presents more "drives;"
+and all the drives here might contest the name given to one of them,
+which is called "_Giro delle Grazie_," (the Ring or Mall of the
+Graces.) It has a _Marina_ of unrivaled beauty, to which the noblesse
+and the citizens repair and form a promenade of elegant equipages. A
+fine pavement for foot passengers is considerately raised three or
+four feet above the carriage road; so that the walking population
+have nothing to annoy them. The sea is immediately below both, and
+you see the little rock-encircled bays animated with groups of those
+sturdy fishermen with bare legs; which you admire in Claude and
+Salvator, throwing before them, with admirable precision, their
+_épervier_ net, whose fine wrought meshes sometimes hang, veil-like,
+between you and the ruddy sunset, or plashing, as they fall nightly
+into the smooth sea, contribute the pleasure of an agreeable sound to
+the magic of the scenery. Some take the air on donkeys, which go at a
+great rate; some are mounted on Spanish mules, all mixed together
+freely amidst handsome and numerous equipages; and the whole is
+backed by a fine row of houses opposite the sea, built after the
+fashion of our terraces and crescents at watering-places. And
+finally, that blue _æquor_, as it now deserves to be termed, studded
+over with thunny boats and coasting craft with the haze latine sail,
+that we should be sorry to trust in British hands, is walled in by
+cliffs so bold, so rugged, and standing out so beautifully in relief,
+that for a moment we cannot choose but envy the citizen of
+_Panormus_. But we may not tarry even here; _we have more things_ to
+see, and every day is getting hotter than the last.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO SEGESTE.
+
+Leaving Palermo early, we pass _Monreale_ in our way to the Doric
+columns of _Segeste_, and find ourselves, before the heat of day has
+reached its greatest intensity, at a considerable elevation above the
+plain on which the capital stands, amidst mountains which, except in
+the difference of their vegetation, remind us not a little of the
+configuration of certain wild parts of the Highlands, where Ben
+Croachin flings his dark shadow across Loch Awe. Indeed, we were
+thinking of this old and favourite fishing haunt with much
+complacency, when two men suddenly came forth from behind the bristly
+aloes and the impenetrable cactus--ill-looking fellows were they;
+but, moved by the kindest intentions for our safety, they offer to
+conduct us through the remainder of the defile. This service our
+hired attendant from Palermo declined, and we push on unmolested to
+Partenico, our halting-place during the heat of the day. It is a town
+of some extent, large enough to afford two fountains of a certain
+pretension, but execrably dirty within. Twelve thousand inhabitants
+has Partenico, and five churches. Out of its five locandas, who shall
+declare the worst? Of that in which we had first taken refuge, (as,
+in a snow-storm on the Alps, any _roof_ is Paradise,) we were obliged
+to quit the shelter, and walk at _noon_, at _midsummer_, and in
+_Sicily_, a good mile _up_ a main street, which, beginning in
+habitations of the dimensions of our almshouses, ends in a few huts
+intolerably revolting, about which troops of naked children defy
+vermin, and encrust themselves in filth. At one door we could not
+help observing that worst form of _scabies_, the _gale à grosses
+bulles;_ so we had got, it appeared, from _Scylla_ into _Charybdis_,
+and were in the very preserves of Sicilian _itch_, and we
+prognosticate it will spread before the month expires wherever human
+skin is to be found for its entertainment. Partenico lies in a
+scorching plain full of malaria. Having passed the three stifling
+hours of the day here, we proceed on our journey to _Alcamo_, a town
+of considerable size, which looks remarkably well from the plain at
+the distance of four miles--an impression immediately removed on
+passing its high rampart gate. Glad to escape the miseries with which
+it threatens the _détenu_, we pass out at the other end, and zigzag
+down a hill of great beauty, and commanding such views of sea and
+land as it would be quite absurd to write about. Already a double row
+of aloë, planted at intervals, marks what is to be your course afar
+off, and is a faithful guide till it lands you in a Sicilian plain.
+This is the highest epithet with which any plain can be qualified.
+This is indeed the month for Sicily. The goddess of flowers now wears
+a morning dress of the newest spring fashion; beautifully _made up_
+is that dress, nor has she worn it long enough for it to be sullied
+ever so little, or to require the washing of a shower. A delicate
+pink and a rich red are the colours which prevail in the tasteful
+pattern of her voluminous drapery; and as she _advances_ on you with
+a light and noiseless step, over a carpet which all the looms of
+Paris or of Persia could not imitate, scattering bouquets of colours
+the most happily contrasted, and impregnating the air with the most
+grateful fragrance, we at once acknowledge her beautiful
+impersonation in that "_monument of Grecian art_," the _Farnese
+Flora_, of which we have brought the fresh recollection from the
+museum of Naples.
+
+The _Erba Bianca_ is a plant like southernwood, presenting a curious
+hoar-frosted appearance as its leaves are stirred by the wind. The
+_Rozzolo a vento_ is an ambitious plant, which grows beyond its
+strength, snaps short upon its overburdened stalk, and is borne away
+by any zephyr, however light. Large crops of _oats_ are already cut;
+and oxen of the Barbary breed, brown and coal-black, are already
+dragging the simple aboriginal plough over the land. Some of these
+fine cattle (to whom we are strangers, as they are to us) stood
+gazing at us in the plain, their white horns glancing in the sun;
+others, recumbent and ruminating, exhibit antlers which, as we have
+said before, surpass the Umbrian cattle in their elk-like length and
+imposing majesty. Arrived at the bottom of our long hill, we pass a
+beautiful stream called _Fiume freddo_, whose source we track across
+the plain by banks crowned with _Cactus_ and _Tamarisk_. Looking back
+with regret towards _Alcamo_, we see trains of mules, which still
+transact the internal commerce of the country, with large packsaddles
+on their backs; and when a halt takes place, these animals during
+their drivers' dinner obtain their own ready-found meal, and browse
+away on three courses of vegetables and a dessert.
+
+
+SICILIAN INNS.
+
+"A beautiful place this _Segeste_ must be! One could undergo any
+thing to see it!" Such would be the probable exclamation of more than
+one reader looking over some _landscape annual_, embellished with
+perhaps _a view_ of the celebrated temple and its surrounding
+scenery; but find yourself at any of the inexpressibly horrid inns of
+_Alcamo_ or _Calatafrini_, (and these are the two principal stations
+between Palermo and Segeste--one with its 12,000, the other with its
+18,000 inhabitants;) let us walk you down the main street of either,
+and if you don't wish yourself at Cheltenham, or some other
+unclassical place which never had a Latin name, we are much mistaken!
+The "_Relievo dei Cavalli_" at Alcamo offers no _relief_ for you! The
+_Magpie_ may prate on her sign-post about _clean_ beds, for magpies
+can be made to say any thing; but pray do not construe the "_Canova
+Divina_" Divine Canova! _He_ never executed any thing for the _Red
+Lion_ of Calatafrini, whose "Canova" is a low wine-shop, full of
+wrangling Sicilian boors. Or will you place yourself under the
+_Eagle's_ wing, seduced by its _nuovi mobili e buon servizio_? Oh, we
+obtest those broken window-panes whether it be not _cruel_ to expose
+_new furniture_ to such perils! For us we put up at the "_Temple of
+Segeste_," attracted rather by its name than by any promise or decoy
+it offers. Crabbe has given to the inns at Aldborough each its
+character: here all are equal in immundicity, and all equally without
+provisions. Some yellow beans lie soaking to soften them. There is
+salt-cod from the north, moist and putrid. There is no milk; eggs are
+few. The ham at the Pizzicarolo's is always bad, and the garlicked
+sausage repulsive. Nothing is painted or white-washed, let alone
+dusted, swept, or scoured. The walls have the appearance of having
+been _pawed_ over by new relays of dirty fingers daily for ten years.
+This is a very peculiar appearance at many nasty places _out_ of
+Sicily, and we really do not know its _pathology_. You tread
+loathingly an indescribable earthen floor, and your eye, on entering
+the apartment, is arrested by a nameless production of the fictile
+art, certainly not of _Etruscan_ form, which is invariably placed on
+the _bolster_ of the truck-bed destined presently for your devoted
+head. Oh! to do justice to a Sicilian _locanda_ is plainly out of
+question, and the rest of our task may as well be sung as said, verse
+and prose being alike incapable of the hopeless reality:--
+
+    "Lodged for the night, O Muse! begin
+  To sing the true Sicilian inn,
+  Where the sad choice of six foul cells
+  The least exacting traveller quells
+  (Though crawling things, not yet in sight,
+  Are waiting for the shadowy night,
+  To issue forth when all is quiet,
+  And on your feverish pulses riot;)
+  Where one wood shutter scrapes the ground,
+  By crusts, stale-bones, and garbage bound;
+  Where unmolested spiders toil
+  Behind the mirror's mildew'd foil;
+  Where the cheap crucifix of lead
+  Hangs o'er the iron tressel'd bed;
+  Where the huge bolt will scarcely keep
+  Its promise to confiding sleep,
+  Till you have forced it to its goal
+  In the bored brick-work's crumbling hole;
+  Where, in loose flakes, the white-wash peeling
+  From the bare joints of rotten ceiling,
+  Give token sure of vermin's bower,
+  And swarms of bugs that bide their hour!
+  Though bands of fierce musquittos boom
+  Their threatening bugles round the room,
+  To bed! Ere wingless creatures crawl
+  Across your path from yonder wall,
+  And slipper'd feet unheeding tread
+  We know not what! To bed! to bed!
+  What can those horrid sounds portend?
+  Some waylaid traveller near his end,
+  From ghastly gash in mortal strife,
+  Or blow of bandit's blood-stained knife?
+  No! no! They're bawling to the _Virgin_,
+  Like victim under hands of surgeon!
+  From lamp-lit _daub_, proceeds the cry
+  Of that unearthly litany!
+  And now a train of mules goes by!
+
+    "One wretch comes whooping up the street
+  For whooping's sake! And now they beat
+  Drum after drum for market mass,
+  Each day's transactions on the _place!_
+  All things that go, or stay, or come,
+  They herald forth by tuck of drum.
+  Day dawns! a tinkling tuneless bell,
+  Whate'er it be, has news to tell.
+  Then twenty more begin to strike
+  In noisy discord, all alike;--
+  Convents and churches, chapels, shrines,
+  In quick succession break the lines.
+  Till every gong in town, at last
+  Its tongue hath loos'd, and sleep is past.
+  So much for nights! New days begin,
+  Which land you in another Inn.
+  O! he that means to see _Girgenti_
+  Or _Syracuse!_--needs patience plenty!"
+
+Crossing a rustic bridge, we pass through a garden (for it is no
+less, though man has had no spade in it) of pinks, marigolds,
+cyclamens, and heart's-ease, &c. &c.; the moist meadow land below is
+a perfect jungle of lofty grasses, all fragrant and in flower, gemmed
+with the unevaporated morning dew, and colonized with the _Aphides,
+Alticæ_, and swarms of the most beautiful butterflies clinging to
+their stalks. _Gramina læta_ after Virgil's own heart, were these.
+Their elegance and unusual variety were sufficient to throw a
+botanist into a perfect HAY fever, and our own first paroxysm only
+went off, when, after an hour's hard collecting, we came to a place
+which demanded _another_ sort of enthusiasm; for THERE stood without
+a veil the _Temple of Segeste_, with one or two glimpses of which we
+had been already astonished at a distance, in all its Dorian majesty!
+This almost unmutilated and glorious memorial of past ages here
+reigns alone--the only building far or near visible in the whole
+horizon; and what a position has its architect secured! In the midst
+of hills on a bit of table-land, apparently made such by smoothing
+down the summit of one of them, with a greensward in front, and set
+off behind by a mountain background, stands this eternal monument of
+the noblest of arts amidst the finest dispositions of nature. There
+is another antiquity of the place also to be visited at Segeste--its
+_theatre_; but we are too immediately below it to know any thing
+about it at present, and must leave it in a parenthesis. To our left,
+at the distance of eight miles, this hill country of harmonious and
+graceful undulation ends in beetling cliffs, beneath which the sea,
+now full in view, lies sparkling in the morning sunshine. We shall
+never, never forget the impressions made upon us on first getting
+sight of Segeste! _Pæstum_ we had seen, and thought that it exhausted
+all that was possible to a temple, or the site of a temple.
+Awe-stricken had we surveyed those monuments of "immemorial
+antiquity" in that baleful region of wild-eyed buffaloes and birds of
+prey--temples to death in the midst of his undisputed domains! We had
+fully adopted Forsyth's sentiment, and held Pæstum to be probably the
+most impressive monument on earth; but here at Segeste a nature less
+austere, and more RIANTE in its wildness, lent a quite different
+charm to a scene which could scarcely be represented by art, and for
+which a reader could certainly not be _prepared_ by description. We
+gave an antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
+2000 years, and of many empires--we _felt_ the vast masses of its
+time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within its precincts, its
+pink valerians; its _erba di vento_, its scented wallflower. The
+whole scene kept our admiration long tasked, but untired. A smart
+shower compelled us to seek shelter under the shoulder of one of the
+grey entablatures: it soon passed away, leaving us a legacy of the
+richest fragrance, while a number of wild birds of the hawk kind,
+called "chaoli" from their shrill note, issued from their
+hiding-places, and gave us wild music as they scudded by!
+
+A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that now
+remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for their
+city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into a belief
+of greater wealth than they possessed.
+
+Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very steep
+one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we scared two of
+those prodigious birds, the _ospreys_, who, having reconnoitred us,
+forthwith began to wheel in larger and larger sweeps, and at last
+made off for the sea. We found the interior of the theatre occupied
+by an audience ready for our arrival; it consisted of innummerable
+_hawks_, the chaoli just mentioned, which began to scream at our
+intrusion. The ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting
+our departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
+a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song would
+save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the 24th of
+May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood, we were
+sorry to return to our inn--and such an inn! We departed abruptly,
+and probably never to return; but we shall think of Segeste in Hyde
+Park, or as we pass the candlestick Corinthians of Whitehall.
+Thucydides[16] relates that a prevailing notion in his time was, that
+the _Trojans_ after losing _Troy_ went first to _Sicily_, and founded
+there Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
+_Greek_ colony was _Naxos_, also in Sicily, Greeks and Trojans
+(strange coincidence!) must have _met again_ on new ground after the
+_Iliad_ was all acted and done with, like a tale that is told.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Vide_ THUCYDIDES, Book iv. chap. 15.]
+
+On our return towards Palermo, one of our party having a touch of
+ague, we crossed the street to the apothecary, (at Calatafrini, our
+night's halt,) and smelling about his musty galenicals, amidst a
+large supply of _malvas_ which were drying on his counter, the only
+wholesome-looking thing amidst his stores, we asked if he had any
+_quinine_. "_Sicuro!_" and he presented us with a white powder having
+a slightly bitter taste, which, together with an ounce of green tea,
+to be dispensed in pinches of five grains on extraordinary occasions,
+comes, he says, from the East. On our observing that the quinine, if
+such at all, was adulterated, and that this was too bad in a country
+of malaria, where it was the poor man's only protection, he looked
+angry; but we rose in the esteem of peasants in the shop, who said to
+each other--"Ed ha ragione il Signor." Wanting a little _soda_, we
+were presented with sub-carbonate of potash as the nearest approach
+to it--a substitution which suggested to us a classical recollection
+from Theocritus; namely, that in this same Sicily, 2000 years ago, a
+Syracusan husband is rated by his dame for sending her _soda_ for her
+washing in place of potash, the very converse of what our old
+drug-vender intended to have washed our inside withal.
+
+The Roman Catholic religion patronises painting oddly here; not a
+cart but is adorned with some sacred subject. Every wretched vehicle
+that totters under an unmerciful load, with one poor donkey to draw
+six men, has its picture of _Souls in Purgatory_, who seem putting
+their hands and heads out of the flames, and vainly calling on the
+ruffians inside to _stop_. We read _Viva la Divina Providenza_, in
+flaming characters on the front board of a carriole, while the whip
+is goading the poor starved brute who drags it; for these barbarians
+in the rear of European civilization, plainly are of opinion that a
+cart with a sacred device shall not _break down_, though its owner
+commit every species of cruelty.
+
+The next day found us again installed at our old quarters in Palermo,
+where, during our brief remaining stay, we visit a conchologist,
+before which event we had no notion that Sicily was so rich in
+shells. Two sides of a moderately large room are entirely devoted to
+his collection. Here we saw a piece of wood nearly destroyed by the
+_Teredo navalis_, or sailor's bore, who seems more active and
+industrious here than elsewhere, and seldom allows himself to be
+taken whole. Out of hundreds of specimens, three or four perfect ones
+were all that this collector could ever manage to extract, the
+molluscous wood-destroyer being very soft and fragile. His length is
+about three inches, his thickness that of a small quill; he lodges in
+a shell of extreme tenuity, and the secretion which he ejects is, it
+seems, the agent which destroys the wood, and pushes on bit by bit
+the winding tunnel. But his doings are nothing to the working of
+another wafer-shelled bivalve, whose tiny habitations are so thickly
+imbedded in the body of a nodule of _flint_ as to render its exterior
+like a sieve, _diducit scopulos aceto_. What solvent can the chemist
+prepare in his laboratory comparable to one which, while it dissolves
+silex, neither harms the insect nor injures its shell. Amongst the
+_fossils_ we notice cockles as big as ostrich eggs, clam-shells twice
+the size of the largest of our Sussex coast, and those of oysters
+which rival soup-plates. We had indeed once before met with them of
+equal size in the lime-beds at _Corneto_. Judging by the _oysters_,
+there must indeed have been _giants_ in those days. But this
+collection was chiefly remarkable for its curious fossil remains of
+_animals_ from _Monte Grifone_. In this same Monte Grifone, which we
+went to visit, is one of the largest of the caves of bones of which
+so many have been discovered--bones of various kinds, some of small,
+some of very large animals, mixed together pell-mell, and
+constituting a fossil paste of scarcely any thing besides. None of
+the geologists, in attempting to explain these deposits, sufficiently
+enter into the question of the origin of the enormous _quantity_, and
+_close juxtaposition_, of such heterogeneous specimens.
+
+By eight o'clock we are on board the _Palermo_ steamer, which is to
+convey us hence to _Messina_. The baked deck, which has been
+saturated with the sun's heat all day, is now cooling to a more
+moderate warmth, and soothing would be the scene but for the noise of
+women and children. Large liquid stars twinkle here and there, like
+so many moons on a reduced scale, over the sea, and the night is
+wholly delightful! A bell rings, which diminishes our numbers, and
+somewhat clears our deck. The boats which carry off the last
+loiterers are gone, shaking phosphorus from their gills, and leaving
+a train of it in their tails; and the many-windowed Pharos of the
+harbour has all its panes lit up, and twinkles after its own fashion.
+Round the bay an interrupted crescent of flickering light is
+reflected in the water, strongest in the middle, where the town is
+thickest, and runs back; and far behind all lights comes the clear
+outline of the darkly defined mountain rising over the city. Our own
+lantern also is up, the authorities have disappeared, Monte Pelegrino
+begins to change its position, we are in motion, and a mighty light
+we are making under us, as our leviathan, turning round her head and
+_snuffing_ the sea, begins to wind out of the harbour. A few minutes
+more, and the luminous tracery of the receding town becomes more and
+more indistinct; but the sky is _all stars_, and the water, save
+where we break its smoothness, a perfect mirror. Wherever the paddles
+play, there the sea foams up into yellow light and _gerbes_ of
+amber-coloured fireballs, caught up by the wheels, and flung off in
+our track, to float past with incredible rapidity. Men are talking
+the language of Babel in the cabin; there is amateur singing and a
+guitar on deck--_Orion_ is on his dolphin--adieu, Palermo!
+
+
+APPROACH TO MESSINA.
+
+The Italian morning presents a beautiful sight on deck to eyes weary
+and sore with night, as night passes on board steamers. We pass along
+a coast obviously of singular conformation, and to a geologist, we
+suppose, full of interest. We encounter a herd of classical dolphins
+out a-pleasuring. We ask about a pretty little town perched just
+above the sea, and called _Giocosa_. By its side lies
+_Tyndaris_--classical enough if we spell it right. The snow on Etna
+is as good as an inscription, and to be read at any distance; but
+what a deception! they tell us it is thirty miles off, and it seems
+to rise immediately from behind a ridge of hills close to the shore.
+The snow cone rises in the midst of other cones, which would appear
+equally high but for the difference of colour. _Patti_ is a
+picturesque little _borgo_, on the hillside, celebrated in Sicily for
+its manufacture of hardware. In the bay of _Melazzo_ are taken by far
+the largest supplies of thunny in the whole Mediterranean. From the
+embayed town so named you have the choice of a cross-road to Messina,
+(twenty-four miles;) but who would abridge distance and miss the
+celebrated straits towards which we are rapidly approaching, or lose
+one hour on land and miss the novelties of volcanic islands, and the
+first view of Scylla and Charybdis? It is but eight o'clock, but the
+awning has been stretched over our heads an hour ago. As to
+breakfast--the meal which is associated with that particular hour of
+the four-and-twenty to all well regulated _minds_ and _stomachs_--it
+consists here of thin _veneers_ of old mahogany-coloured thunny,
+varnished with oil, and relieved by an incongruous abomination of
+capers and olives. The cold fowls are infamous. The wine were a
+disgrace to the sorriest tapster between this and the Alps, and also
+fiery, like every thing else in this district. Drink it, and doubt
+not the old result--_de conviva Corybanta videbis_. (Oh, for muffins
+and dry toast!) Never mind, we shall soon be at Messina. And now we
+approach a point from which the lofty Calabrian coast opposite, and
+the flinty wall of the formidable Scylla, first present themselves,
+but still as distant objects. In another half hour we are just
+opposite the redoubtable rock; and here we turn abruptly at right
+angles to our hitherto course, and find ourselves _within_ the
+straits, from either side of which the English and the French so
+often tried the effect of cannon upon each other. It is now what it
+used to be--fishing ground. The Romans got their finest muræna from
+the whirlpools of _Charybdis_.[17] The shark (_cane di mare_)
+abounding here, would make bathing dangerous were the water smooth;
+but the rapid whirlpools through which our steam-boat dashes on
+disdainfully, would, at the same time, make it impossible to any
+thing but a fish. A passenger assured us he had once seen a man lost
+in the Vistula, who, from being a great swimmer, trusted imprudently
+to his strength, and was sucked down by a vortex of far less
+impetuosity, he thought, than this through which we were moving. From
+this point till we arrived at Messina, as every body was ripe for
+bathing, the whole conversation turned naturally on the Messina
+shark, and his trick of snapping at people's legs carelessly left by
+the owners dangling over the boat's side. We steam up the straits to
+our anchorage in about three-fourths of an hour. The approach is
+fine, very fine. A certain Greek, (count, he called himself,) a great
+traveller, and we afterwards found not a small adventurer, increases
+the interest of the approach, by telling us that the hills before us,
+bubbling up like blisters on chalcedony, have a considerable
+resemblance, though inferior in character, to those which embellish
+the Bosphorus and the first view of Constantinople. Inferior, no
+doubt, in the imposing accessories of mosque and minaret, and of
+cypresses as big as obelisks, which, rising thickly on the heights,
+give to the city of Constantinople an altogether peculiar and
+inimitable charm. Messina is beautifully land-locked. The only
+possible winds that can affect its port are the north-west and
+south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more sea breeze than any
+other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek friend, however, says
+that Constantinople is in this respect not only superior to Messina,
+but to any other place in the seas of Europe. Pity that the fellows
+are Turks! We did not find much to interest us within the walls of
+Messina. There was, to be sure, a fine collection of Sicilian birds,
+amongst which we were surprised to see several of very exotic shape
+and plumage. One long-legged fellow, dressed in a dirty white
+Austrian uniform, with large web-feet, on which he seemed to rest
+with great complacency, particularly arrested our attention. He stood
+as high as the _Venus di Medici_, but by no means so gracefully, and
+thrust his thick carved beak unceremoniously in your face. His card
+of address was _Phoenicopterus antiquorum_. The ancients ate him, and
+he looked as if he would break your nose if you disputed with him. A
+very large finch, which we have seen for sale about the streets here
+and elsewhere in Sicily, rejoices in the imposing name of _Fringilla
+cocco thraustis_. He wears his black cravat like a bird of
+pretension, as he evidently is. The puffin (_Puffinus Anglorum_) also
+frequents these rocks, though a very long way from the Isle of Wight.
+No! Messina, though very fine, is not equal to _Palermo_, with its
+unrivaled _Marina_, compared to which Messina is poorly off indeed,
+in her straggling dirty commerce-doing quay. We went out to see a
+little garden, which contains half a dozen zare-trees and as many
+beautiful birds in cages. We are disappointed at the poverty of our
+dessert in this region of fruitfulness--a few bad oranges, some
+miserable cherries, and that abomination the green almond. We
+observe, for the first time, to-day folks eating in the streets the
+crude contents of a little oval pod, which contains one or two very
+large peas, twice the size of any others. These are the true _cicer_,
+the proper Italian pea. Little bundles of them are tied up for sale
+at all the fruit stalls, and men are seen all the day long eating
+these raw peas, and offering them to each other as sugar-plums.
+
+[Footnote 17: "Virroni muræna datur, quo maxima venit Gurgite de
+Siculo: nam dum se continet Auster, Contemnunt mediam tem eraria lina
+Charybdim." JUVENAL, _Sat._ v. 99.]
+
+In the Corso we see a kind of temporary theatre, the deal sides of
+which are gaudily lined with Catania silk, and on its stage a whole
+_dramatis personæ_ of sacred puppets. It is lighted by tapers of very
+taper dimensions, and its _stalle_ are to be let for a humble
+consideration to the faithful or the curious. It turns out to be a
+religious spectacle, supported on the voluntary system--but there is
+something for your money. A vast quantity of light framework, to
+which fireworks, chiefly of the detonating kind, are attached, are
+already going off, and folk are watching till it be completed. Then
+the evening's entertainment will begin, and a miser indeed must he
+be, or beyond measure resourceless, who refuses halfpence for such
+choice festivities. Desirous to make out the particular
+representation, we get over the fence in order to examine the figures
+of the drama on a nearer view. A smartly dressed saint in a court
+suit, but whom mitre and crosier determine to be a bishop, kneels to
+a figure in spangles, a virgin as fond of fine clothes as the Greek
+Panageia; while on the other side, with one or two priests in his
+train, is seen a crowd in civil costume. A paper cloud above,
+surrounded by glories of glass and tinsel, is supported by two solid
+cherubs equal to the occasion, and presents to the intelligent a
+representation of--we know not what! Fire-works here divide the
+public with the drum--to one or other all advertisement in Sicily is
+committed. A sale of fish and flesh, theatric entertainments,
+processions, and church invitations, are all by tuck of drum, or by
+squib and cracker. How did they get on before the invention of
+gunpowder? If a new coffeehouse is established, a couple of drums
+start it advantageously, and beat like a recruiting party up and down
+the street, to the dismay of all _Forestieri_. The drum tells you
+when the thunny is at a discount, and _fire-works_ are let off at
+_fish stalls_ when customers are slack.
+
+An old tower, five miles off, is called the telegraph. People go
+there for the panorama at the expense of three horses and two hours;
+but you are repaid by two sea views, either of which had been
+sufficient. Messina, its harbour, the straits, the opposite coast of
+Calabria, Scylla, and _Rhegium_, (famed for its bergamot,) are on the
+immediate shore, and a most striking chain of hills for the
+background, which, at a greater distance, have for their background
+the imposing range of the _Abruzzi_. The Æolian islands rise out of
+the sea in the happiest positions for effect. _Stromboli_ on the
+extreme right detaches his grey wreath of smoke, which seems as if it
+proceeded out of the water, (for Stromboli is very low,) staining for
+a moment the clear firmament, which rivals it in depth of colour.
+Some of the volcanic group are so nearly on a level with the water,
+that they look like the backs of so many leviathans at a halt. The
+sea itself lies, a waveless mirror, smooth, shining, slippery, and
+treacherous as a serpent's back--"miseri quibus intentata _nites_,"
+say we.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO TAORMINA.
+
+We left Messina under a sky which no painter would or could attempt;
+indeed, it would not have looked well on paper, or out of reality.
+There are certain unusual, yet magnificent appearances in nature,
+from which the artist conventionally abstains, not so much from the
+impotence of art, as that the nearer his approach to success the
+worse the picture. At one time the colours were like shot or clouded
+silk, or the beautiful uncertainty of the Palamida of these shores,
+or the matrix of opal; at another, the Pacific Ocean above, of which
+the continuity is often for whole months _entire_, was broken into
+gigantic continents and a Polynesia of rose-coloured islands that no
+ships might approach; while in this nether world the middle of the
+Calabro-Sicilian strait was occupied by a condensation of vapour,
+(one could never profane them by the term of _sea-mist_ or _fog_,)
+the most subtile and attenuated which ever came from the realms of
+cloud-compelling Jove. This fleecy tissue pursued its deliberate
+progress from coast to coast, like a cortege of cobwebs carrying a
+deputation from the power-looms of _Arachne_ in _Italy_ to the rival
+silk-looms at Catania. We pass the dry beds of mountain torrents at
+every half mile, ugly gashes on a smooth road; and requiring too much
+caution to leave one's attention to be engaged by many objects
+altogether new and beautiful. The rich yellow of the _Cactus_, and
+the red of the _Pomegranate_, and the most tender of all vegetable
+greens, that of the young _mulberry_, together with a sweet
+wilderness of unfamiliar plants, are not to be perfectly enjoyed on a
+fourfooted animal that stumbles, or on a road full of pitfalls. We
+shall only say that the _Cynara cardunculus_, (a singularly fine
+thistle or _wild artichoke_;) the prickly uncultivated _love-apple_,
+(a beautiful variety of the _Solanum_,) of which the decoction is not
+infrequently employed in nephritic complaints; the _Ferula_, sighing
+for occupation all along the sea-shore, and shaking its scourge as
+the wind blows; the _Rhododendron_, in full blossom, planted amongst
+the shingles; the _Thapsia gargarica_, with its silver umbel, looking
+at a short distance like mica, (an appearance caused by the shining
+white fringe of the capsule encasing its seed,) and many other
+strange and beautiful things, were the constant attendants of our
+march. We counted six or seven varieties of the spurge,
+(_Euphorbium_,) each on its milky stem, and in passing through the
+villages had _Carnations_ as large as _Dahlias_ flung at us by
+sunburnt urchins posted at their several doors. The sandy shore for
+many miles is beautifully notched in upon by tiny bays like basins,
+on which boats lie motionless and baking in the sun, or oscillate
+under a picturesque rock, immersed up to its shoulders in a green
+_hyaloid_, which reflects their forms from a depth of many fathoms.
+On more open stretches of the shore, long-drawn ripples of waves of
+tiny dimension are overrunning and treading on one another's heels
+for miles a-head, and tapping the anchored boat "with gentle blow."
+The long-horned oxen already spoken of, toil along the seaside road
+like the horses on our canal banks, and tug the heavy felucca towards
+Messina--a service, however, sometimes executed by men harnessed to
+the towing-cord, who, as they go, offend the Sicilian muses by sounds
+and by words that have little indeed of the [Greek: Dôriz aoida]. The
+gable ends of cottages often exhibit a very primitive windmill for
+sawing wood within doors. It is a large wheel, to the spokes of which
+flappers are adjusted, made of coarse matting, and so placed as to
+profit by the ordinary sea breeze; and, while the _wind_ is thus
+_sawing_ his planks for him, the carpenter, at his door, carries on
+his craft. We pass below not a few fortresses abutting over the sea,
+or perched on the mountain tops. Many of these are of English
+construction, and date from the occupation of the island during the
+French war: in a word, the whole of this Sicilian road is so
+variously lovely, that if we did not know the _cornice_ between
+_Nice_ and _Genoa_, we should say it was quite unrivaled, being at
+once in lavish possession of all the grand, and most of the milder
+elements of landscape composition. It is long since it became no
+wonder to us that the greatest and in fact the only, real pastoral
+poet should have been a Sicilian; but it is a marvel indeed, that,
+having forgotten to bring his _Eclogues_ with us, we cannot, through
+the whole of Sicily, find a copy of Theocitus for sale, though there
+is a _Sicilian_ translation of him to be had at Palermo. As he
+progresses thus delightfully, a long-wished for moment awaits the
+traveller approaching towards _Giardini_--turning round a far
+projecting neck of land, _Etna_ is at last before him! A
+disappointment, however, on the whole is Etna himself, thus
+introduced. He looks far below his stature, and seems so _near_, that
+we would have wagered to get upon his shoulders and pull his ears,
+and return to the little town to dine; the ascent also, to the eye,
+seems any thing but steep; nor can you easily be brought to believe
+that such an expedition is from Giardini a three days' affair,
+except, indeed, that yonder belt of snow in the midst of this
+roasting sunshine, has its own interpretation, and cannot be
+mistaken. Alas! In the midst of all our flowers there was, as there
+always is, the _amari aliquid_--it was occasioned here by the
+_flies_. They had tasked our _improved_ capacity for bearing
+annoyances ever since we first set foot in Sicily; but _here_ they
+are perfectly incontrollable, stinging and buzzing at us without
+mercy or truce, not to be driven off for a second, nor persuaded to
+drown themselves on any consideration. Verily, the honey-pots of
+Hybla itself seem to please these troublesome insects less than the
+_flesh_-pots of Egypt.
+
+The next day begins inauspiciously for our ascent to Taormina; but
+the attendants of the excursion are already making a great noise,
+without which nothing can be done in either of the two Sicilies. A
+supply of shabby donkeys are brought and mounted, and, once astride,
+we begin to ascend, the poor beasts tottering under our weight, and
+by their constant stumbling affording us little inclination to look
+about. It takes about three-fourths of an hour of this donkey-riding
+to reach the old notched wall of the town. Two Taorminian citizens at
+this moment issue from under its arch, in their way down, and
+guessing what we are, offer some indifferent coins which do not suit
+us, but enable us to enter into conversation. We demand and obtain a
+_cicerone_, of whom we are glad to get rid after three hours'
+infliction of his stupidity and endurance of his ignorance, without
+acquiring one idea, Greek, Roman, Norman, or Saracen, out of all his
+erudition. After going through the whole tour with such a fellow for
+a Hermes, we come at last upon the far-famed theatre, where we did
+not want him. Here, however, a very intelligent attendant, supported
+by the king of Naples on a suitable pension of five baiocchi a-day,
+takes us out of the hands of the Philistine, and with a plan of the
+ground to aid us, proceeds to give an intelligible, and, as appears
+to us, a true explanation of the different parts of the huge
+construction, in the area of which we stand delighted. He directed
+our attention to a large arched tunnel, under and at right angles to
+the pulpita, and we did not want direction to the thirty-six niches
+placed at equal distances all round the ellipse, and just over the
+lowest range of the CUNEI. All niches were, no doubt, for statues;
+but these might also have been, it pleases some to suppose, for the
+reverberation of applause; and they quote something about
+_"Resonantia Vasa"_ from Macrobius, adding, that such niches were
+once probably lined with brass. Of bolder speculatists, some believe
+the _kennel_ to have been made with a similar intention. Others hold
+that it may have been a concealed way for introducing lions and
+tigers to the arena! Now, what if it were a _drain_ for the waters,
+which, in bad weather, soon collect to a formidable height in such a
+situation? Whether for voice, or wild beasts, or drainage, or none of
+these objects, there it is. As to the first, we cannot help being
+sceptical. Did it ever occur to an audience to wish the noise they
+make _greater_, and contrive expedients for _making it so?_
+
+We are here high up amidst the mountains, where, we are to remember,
+as the ancients came not to spend, like ourselves, an idle hour, but
+to consume most of the day, _shelter_ would be wanted. Two large
+lateral spaces, or as it were, side chambers, have received this
+destination at the hands of the antiquary, and have been supposed
+lobbies for foul weather or for shade at noon. We were made to notice
+by our guide, what we should else have overlooked, how the main
+passage described above communicates with several smaller ones in its
+progress, and that a small stair was a subsequent contrivance or
+afterthought meant to relieve, on emergency, the overcharged large
+one; its workmanship and style showed it plainly to have been added
+when the edifice had already become _an antiquity_. This altogether
+peculiar and most interesting building has also suffered still later
+interpolations: a Saracenic frieze runs round the wall; so that the
+hands of three widely different nations have been busy on the
+mountain theatre, which received its _first audience_ twenty-five
+centuries ago! The view obtained from this spot has often been
+celebrated, and deserves to be. Such mountains we had often seen
+before; such a sky is the usual privilege of Sicily; these indented
+_bays_, which break so beautifully the line of the coast, had been an
+object of our daily admiration; the hoary side of the majestic Etna,
+and Naxos with its castellated isthmus, might be seen from _other_
+elevated situations; and the acuminated tops of Mola, with its
+Saracenic tower, were commanded by neighbouring sites--Taormina
+_alone_, and for its _own_ sake, was the great and paramount object
+in our eyes, and possessed us wholly! We had been following _Lyell_
+half the day in antediluvian remains; but what are the bones of
+_Ichthyosauri_ or _Megalotheria_ to this gigantic skeleton of Doric
+antiquity, round which lie scattered the sepulchres of its ancient
+audiences, Greek, Roman, and Oriental--tombs which had become already
+an object of speculation, and been rifled for arms, vases, or gold
+rings, before Great Britain had made the first steps beyond painted
+barbarism!
+
+The eruptions of Etna have all been recorded. Thucydides mentions one
+of them episodically in the Peloponesian war. From the cooled caldron
+that simmers under all that snow, has proceeded all the lava that the
+ancients worked into these their city walls. The houses of
+Taurominium were built of and upon _lava_, which it requires a
+thousand years to disintegrate. After dinner we walk to Naxos,
+saluting the statue of the patron of a London parish, _St Pancras_,
+on our way. He stands on the beach here, and claims, by inscription
+on his pedestal, to have belonged to the apostolic times, St Peter
+himself having, he says, appointed him to his bishopric. He is patron
+of Taormina, where he has possessed himself of a Greek temple; and he
+also protects the faithful of Giardini. Lucky in his _architects_ has
+been St Pancras; for many of our readers are familiar with his very
+elegant modern church in the New Road, modelled, if we have not
+forgotten, on the Erechtheum, with its _Pandrosean Vestries_, its
+upright tiles, and all the subordinate details of Athenian
+architecture. We _met_ here the subject of many an ancient _bas
+relief_ done into flesh and blood--a dozen men and boys tripping
+along the road to the music of a bagpipe, one old _Silenus_ leading
+the jocund throng, and the whole of them, as the music, such as it
+was, inspired, leaping about and gesticulating with incredible
+activity. It was a bacchanalian subject, which we had seen on many a
+sarcophagus, only that the fellows here were not _quite_ naked, and
+that we looked in vain for those nascent horns and tails by which the
+children of Pan and Faunus ought to be identified. We always look out
+for _natural history_. Walking in a narrow street, we saw a tortoise,
+awake for the season, come crawling out to peep at the poultry; his
+hybernation being over, he wants to be social, and the hens in
+astonishment chuckle round him, and his tortoiseshell highness seems
+pleased at their kind enquiries, and keeps bobbing his head in and
+out of his _testudo_ in a very sentimental manner. Women who want his
+shell for _combs_ do not frequent these parts, and so, unless a cart
+pass over him as he returns home, he is in clover.
+
+A bird frequents these parts with a blue chest, called _Passer
+solitarius;_ he abounds in the rocky crevices. The notes of one,
+which was shown to us in a cage, sounded sweetly; but, as he was
+carnivorous, the weather was too hot for us to think of taking him
+away. We saw two snakes put into the same box: the one, a viper,
+presently killed the other, and much the larger of the two. Serpents,
+then, like men, do _not_, as the _Satirist_ asserts, spare their
+kind. We are disappointed at not finding any coins, nor any other
+good _souvenirs_, to bring away with us. The height of Taormina is
+sufficient to keep it from fever, which is very prevalent at Giardini
+below. Its bay was once a great place for catching _mullet_ for the
+Roman market. It seems to have been the _Torbay_ of Sicily. Some fish
+love their ease, and rejoice not in turbulent waters. The _muræna_,
+or lamprey, on the contrary, was sought in the very whirlpools of
+_Charybdis_. The modern Roman, on his own side of Italy, has few
+turbot, but very good ones are still taken off Ancona, in the
+Adriatic, where the _spatium admirabile Rhombi_, as the reader will,
+or ought to recollect, was taken and sent to Domitian at Albano by
+_Procaccio_ or _Estafetta_. Juvenal complains that the Tyrrhene sea
+was exhausted by the demand for fish, though there was no _Lent_ in
+those times. If the Catholic clergy insist that there _was_, we beg
+to object, that the keepers thereof were probably not in a condition
+to compete with the _Apiciuses_ of the day, who bought fish for their
+_bodies'_, and not for their SOULS' SAKE.
+
+
+CATANIA.
+
+Tum Catane nimium ardenti vicina Typhæo.
+
+After a pleasant drive of twenty miles, we find ourselves at
+_Aci-Reale_, where a street, called "Galatea," reminds us
+unexpectedly of a very classical place called Dean's Yard, where we
+once had doings with _Acis_, as he figures in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_.
+We were here in luck, and, having purchased some fine coins of
+several of the tyrants of Sicily from the apothecary, proceeded on
+our way to Catania. In half an hour we reach the basaltic Isles of
+the Cyclops, and the Castle of Acis, whom the peasants hereabouts
+tell you was their king, when Sicily was under the Saracenic yoke.
+The river _Lecatia_, now lost, is supposed formerly to have issued
+hereabouts, in the port of Ulysses. Our next move placed us amidst
+the silk-slops of Catania. We have hardly been five minutes in the
+town, when offers abound to conduct us up Ætna, in whom, as so much
+national wealth, the inhabitants seem to take as much interest as in
+her useful and productive silk-looms. Standing fearless on the
+pavement of lava that buried their ancient city, they point up with
+complacency to its fountains above. The mischievous exploits of Ætna,
+in past times, are in every mouth, and children learn their Ætnean
+catechism as soon as they are breeched. Ætna here is all in all.
+Churches are constructed out of his quarried _viscera_--great men lie
+in tombs, of which the stones once ran liquid down his flames--snuff
+is taken out of lava boxes--and devotion carves the crucifix on lava,
+and numbers its beads on a lava rosary--nay, the apothecary's mortar
+was sent him down from the great mortar-battery above, and the
+village _belle_ wears fire-proof bracelets that were once too hot to
+be meddled with. Go to the museum, and you will call it a museum of
+Ætnean products. Nodulated, porous, condensed, streaked, spotted,
+clouded, granulated lava, here assumes the colour, rivals the
+compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper, of agate, and of marble;
+indeed it sometimes surpasses, in beautiful veinage, the finest and
+rarest Marmorean specimens. You would hardly distinguish some of it,
+worked into jazza or vase, from _rosso antico_ itself. A very old and
+rusty armoury may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of
+formidable shark skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very
+port of Catania, are rarities on which the _ciceroni_ like to
+prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed by
+them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if you were
+just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of bronzes has been
+made from excavations in the neighbourhood, which, indeed, must
+always promise to reward research. A figure of Mercury, two and a
+half feet high, and so exactly similar to that of John of Bologna,
+that his one seemed an absolute plagiarism, particularly attracted
+our attention on that account. The great Italian artist, however, had
+been dead one hundred and fifty years before this bronze was dug up.
+Next in importance to the bronzes, we esteem the collection of
+Sicilian, or Græco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and
+selectness to those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also
+some ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition
+is a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
+pavement, welcome you with a _utere feliciter_, (may it do you good.)
+Round the border, a circle of the personified _"months"_ is
+artistically chained together, each bearing his _Greek_ name, for
+fear of a mistake--names not half so good as Sheridan's translation
+of the Revolutionary calendar--snowy, flowy, blowy--showery, flowery,
+bowery--moppy, croppy, poppy--breezy, sneezy, freezy. In Catania, we
+find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers, who know pretty
+generally their value throughout Europe; but, in order to be quite
+sure of the price _current,_ ask double what they take from one
+another, and judge, by your abatement of it, of the state of the
+market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when they present you the most
+impudent forgeries, you are not to get into a passion; but, glancing
+from the object to the vender, quietly insinuate your want of
+_absolute_ conviction in a _"che vi pare di questa moneta."_ He now
+looks at it again, and takes a squint at _you;_ and supposing you
+smell a rat, probably replies that certainly he _bought_ it for
+_genuine;_ but you _have suggested a doubt,_ and the piece really
+begins, even to _him_, to look suspicious, _"anzi à me."_ You reply
+coolly, and put it down--"That was just what I was thinking;" and so
+the affair passes quietly off. And now you _may_, if you happen to be
+tender-hearted, say something compassionate to the poor innocent who
+has been _taken in_, and proceed to ask him about another; and when
+you see any thing you long to pocket, enquire what can he afford to
+let a _brother collector_ (give him a step in rank) have _it_ for;
+and so go on feeling your way, and never "putting your arm so far out
+that you cannot comfortably draw it back again." He will probably ask
+you if you know Mr B---- or C----, (English collectors,) with whom he
+has had dealings, calling them "_stimabili signori;_" and, of course,
+you have no doubt of it, though you never heard of them before. It is
+also always conciliative to congratulate him on the possession of
+such and such rare and "_belle cose;_" and if you thus contrive to
+get into his good graces, he will deal with you at _fair prices_, and
+perhaps amuse you with an account of such tricks as he is not ashamed
+to have practised on _blockheads_, who will buy at any cost if the
+die is fine. Indeed, it has passed into an aphorism among these
+_mezzo-galantuomini_, as their countrymen call them, that a fine coin
+is always worth _what you can get for it._
+
+We heard the celebrated organ of St Benedict, which has been praising
+God in tremendous hallelujahs ever since it was put up, and a hundred
+years have only matured the richness of its tones. Its voice was
+gushing out as we entered the church, and filling nave and aisle with
+a diapason of all that was soft and soothing, as if a choir of
+Guido's angels had broke out in harmony.
+
+A stream of fresh water issues under the old town-wall, and an
+immense mass of incumbent lava, of at least ninety feet high, impends
+just above its source, the water struggling through a mass of rock
+once liquefied by fire, in as limpid a rill as if it came from
+limestone, and so excellent in quality that no other is used in
+Catania. Women with buckets were ascending and descending to fetch
+supplies out of the lava of the dead city below, for the use of the
+living town above. Moreover, this is the only point in Catania where
+the accident of a bit of wall arresting for some time the progress of
+the lava current, has left the level of the old town to be rigidly
+ascertained.
+
+Here, as at _Aci-Reale_, balconies at windows, for the most part
+supported by brackets, terminating in human heads, give a rich,
+though rather a heavy, appearance to the street. Much amber is found
+and worked at Catania. It has been lately discovered in a fossil
+state, and in contiguity with fossil wood; but we were quite
+_electrified_ at the price of certain little scent-bottles, and other
+articles made of this production. You see it in all its possible
+varieties of colour, opacity, or transparency. The green opalized
+kind is the most prized, and four pounds was demanded for a pair of
+pendants of this colour for earrings. Besides the yellow sort, which
+is common every where, we see the ruby red, which is very rare: some
+varieties are freckled, and some of the sort which afforded subjects
+for Martial, and for more than one of the Greek anthologists, with
+insects in its matrix. _This_ kind, they say, is found exclusively on
+the coast of Catania. There are such pieces the size of a hand, but
+it is generally in much smaller bits. Amber lies under, or is formed
+_upon_ the sand, and abounds most near the _embouchure_ of a small
+river in this neighbourhood. Many beautiful shells, fossils, and
+other objects of natural history, appear in the dealers' trays; and
+polished knife-handles of Sicilian _agate_ may be had at five dollars
+a dozen.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS.
+
+DON JOHN AND THE HERETICS OF FLANDERS.
+
+
+It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors of
+Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
+knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
+ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and colour,
+the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved fatal to all.
+
+In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were kept up
+by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh, appear studied
+rather than instinctive. At all events, the gallant Sir Philip was
+the last of English knights, as he was the first of his time.
+Thenceforward, the valour of the country assumed a character more
+professional.
+
+But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable of the
+rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed, every faith
+was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became extinct; expiring
+in France with Henri IV. and the League--in Portugal with Don
+Sebastian of Braganza--and in Spain with Charles V., exterminated
+root and branch by the pen of Cervantes.
+
+One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those crumbling
+institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the person of Don
+John of Austria;--a prince who, if consecrated by legitimacy to the
+annals of the throne, would have glorified the historical page by a
+thousand heroic incidents. But the sacrament of his baptism being
+unhappily unpreceded by that of a marriage, he has bequeathed us one
+of those anomalous existences--one of those incomplete destinies,
+which embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.
+
+On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with qualifications
+to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant son was entrusted
+by Charles V. to the charge of the master of his household, Don
+Quexada, the emperor simply described him as the offspring of a lady
+of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But the Infanta Clara Eugenia
+was confidentially informed by her father Philip II., and
+confidentially informed her satellite La Cuea, that her uncle was
+"every way of imperial lineage;" and but that he was the offspring of
+a crime, Don John had doubtless been seated on one of those thrones
+to which his legitimate brother Philip imparted so little
+distinction.
+
+Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the consanguinity of
+Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard, one of the objects of
+the hateful life of the father of Don Carlos seems to have been to
+thwart the ambitious instincts of his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in
+the boiling veins of the young prince abided the whole soul of
+Charles V.,--valour, restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life
+and mysterious death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.
+
+That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
+Holyrood,--Elizabeth at Kenilworth--Carlos at the feet of his
+mother-in-law,--the Béarnais at the gates of Paris,--have engraved
+their type in the book of universal memory. But Don John escapes
+notice--a solitary star outshone by dazzling constellations.
+Commemorated by no medals, flattered by no historiographer, sung by
+no inspired "godson," anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook
+in the temple of fame is out of sight, and forgotten.
+
+Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto, brings
+chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote lost his
+hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us, we dare not
+call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he is known in
+Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular libertine! And
+thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of his name by the
+hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his honours by Cervantes, as
+by Philip II. of a throne.--
+
+Hard fate for one described by all the writers of his time as a model
+of manly grace and Christian virtue! How charming is the account
+given by the old Spanish writers of the noble youth, extricated from
+his convent to be introduced on the high-road to a princely cavalier,
+surrounded by his retinue, whom he is first desired to salute as a
+brother, and then required to worship, as the king of Spain! We are
+told of his joy on discovering his filial relationship to the great
+emperor, so long the object of his admiration. We are told of his
+deeds of prowess against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the
+Moor. We are told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should
+be rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
+revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering throne;
+nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie" was offered to
+his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his untimely death and
+glorious funeral--mourned by all the knighthood of the land! But we
+hear and forget. Some mysterious counter-charm has stripped his
+laurels of their verdure. Even the lesser incidents of the life of
+Don John are replete with the interest of romance. When appointed by
+Philip II. governor of the Netherlands, in order that he might deal
+with the heretics of the Christian faith as with the faithful of
+Mahomet, such deadly vengeance was vowed against his person by the
+Protestant party headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was
+judged necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
+Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the attendant of
+Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the very moment the
+troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight thousand citizens
+in his revolted city of Antwerp!--
+
+The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more pacific
+measures. The dispositions of Don John were humane--his manners
+frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces were exhausted by ten years
+of civil war, and that the pay of the Spanish troops he had to lead
+against them was so miserably in arrear as to compel them to acts of
+atrocious spoliation, the hero of Lepanto appears to have done his
+best to stop the effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the
+counteraction of the Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace
+and an amnesty were proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known
+by the name of the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as
+was compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
+blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
+property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or calculation.
+
+But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the people
+and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have been fully
+sensible that his head was within the jaws of the lion. The blood of
+Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the echoes of the edicts of
+Alva yet lingered in the air; and the very stones of Brussels
+appeared to rise up and testify against a brother of Philip II.!
+
+Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse was
+afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position, by an
+incident which must again be accounted among the romantic adventures
+of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating Margaret of
+Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of indisposition, was
+generally attributed to a design against the heart of the hero of
+Lepanto.
+
+A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could do no
+less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her passage
+through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of that
+stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In process of
+time, a camp was formed in the environs, and fortresses erected on
+the banks of the Meuse under the inspection of Don John; nor was it
+at first easy to determine whether his measures were actuated by
+mistrust of the Protestants, or devotion to the worst and most
+Catholic of wives of the best and most Huguenot of kings.
+
+The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
+Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our edification by
+the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don John of blindness,
+in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her, and the absolute
+liberty accorded her during her residence at Spa, where she was
+opening a road for the arrival of her brother the Duke of Alençon. It
+is admitted, indeed, that her attack upon his heart met with defeat.
+But the young governor is said to have made up in chivalrous
+courtesies for the disappointment of her tender projects; and
+Margaret, if she did not find a lover at Namur, found the most
+assiduous of knights.
+
+Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French princess were
+as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was as completely
+absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as her highness by
+the desire of converting them into the subjects of France. It was
+only those admitted into the confidence of Don John who possessed the
+clue to the mystery.
+
+Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with which he
+had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint him with the
+suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had given rise.
+
+"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said he,
+when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels have
+been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour, that I
+had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but the silken
+pastimes of a court."
+
+"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in my
+steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the trumpets of my
+camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder lines," continued he,
+(pointing from a window of the citadel, near which they were
+standing, commanding the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse,) "and my
+utmost diversion, an occasional charge against the boars in yonder
+forest of Marlagne!"
+
+"I cannot but suppose it more than _occasional_," rejoined Gonzaga;
+"for I must pay your highness the ill compliment of avowing, that you
+appear more worn by fatigue and weather at this moment, and in this
+sunless clime, than at the height of your glorious labours in the
+Mediterranean! Namur has already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow
+than Barbary or Lepanto."
+
+"Say rather in my _heart_!" cried the impetuous prince. "Since you
+quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have known nothing but
+cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing, that my position in this
+country is hateful. So long accustomed to war against a barbarous
+enemy, I could almost fancy myself as much a Moor at heart, as I
+appeared in visage, when in your service on my way to Luxembourg,
+whenever I find my sword uplifted against a Christian breast!--Civil
+war, Ottavio, is a hideous and repugnant thing!"--
+
+"The report is true, then, that your highness has become warmly
+attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded Gonzaga,
+not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain, that an
+opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the Barlaimont
+faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway of absolute
+sovereignty.
+
+"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me at my
+arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet more and
+more. Flemings or Brabançons, Hainaulters or Walloons, Catholic or
+Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and despite our best
+endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the feeling is reciprocal!"
+
+"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the Queen of
+Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,--"I can scarcely wonder at the
+hopes she is said to entertain of having won over the governor of
+Mons to the French interest, during her transit through Flanders."
+
+"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing. "It may
+indeed be so!--for never saw I a woman less scrupulous in the choice
+or use of arms to fight her battles. But, trust me, whatever her
+majesty may have accomplished, is through no aiding or abetting of
+mine."
+
+"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your highness"--
+
+"My highness made them _appear_ devoted in proportion to his
+consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
+Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards Margaret de
+Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the divinities who
+competed for our smiles at Tunis."
+
+Gonzaga shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don
+John was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
+perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.
+
+"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his misgivings--"I am
+as sincere in all this as becomes our friendship. But that God has
+gifted me with a happy temperament, I should scarcely support the
+disgusts of my present calling. It is much, my dear Gonzaga, to
+inherit as a birthright the brand of such an ignominy as mine. But as
+long as I trusted to conquer a happier destiny--to carve out for
+myself fortunes as glorious as those to which my blood all but
+entitles me--I bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent
+hope of distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle--that taught
+prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even the
+base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"--
+
+Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young viceroy thus
+bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he had been hearing
+imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of crimes, filled him
+with amazement.
+
+"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The harshness with
+which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my brother refused to
+ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my favour, convinced me
+that I have nothing to expect from Philip beyond the perpetual
+servitude of a satellite of the King of Spain."
+
+Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission of
+these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude stone
+walls to harbour an eavesdropper.
+
+"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of the
+unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me towards
+the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his nature--the
+harshness of his soul--the austerity of his bigotry--chill me to the
+marrow!--The Holy Inquisition deserves, in my estimation, a name the
+very antithesis of holy."
+
+"I _beseech_ your highness!" cried Ottavio Gonzaga--clasping his
+hands together in an irrepressible panic.
+
+"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in our camp;
+and if there _were_, both they and you must even hear me out!" cried
+Don John. "There is some comfort in discharging one's heart of
+matters that have long lain so heavy on it; and I swear to you,
+Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling surprised to find my cheeks so
+lank, and my eyes so hollow, you would rather be amazed to find an
+ounce of flesh upon my bones, did you know how careful are my days,
+and how sleepless my nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil
+war!--The haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul
+but that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
+Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons--all the varied
+tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to vie with each
+other which shall succeed best in thwarting and humiliating me. And
+for what do I bear it? What honour or profit shall I reap on my
+patience? What thanks derive for having wasted my best days and best
+energies, in bruising with my iron heel the head of the serpent of
+heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some toy of a mass neglected or an
+ave forgotten, will perchance give me over to the tender questioning
+of his grand inquisitor, as the shortest possible answer to my
+pretensions to a crown,--while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when
+roused from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
+fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified gratification--'_There_ spoke
+the blood of Charles the Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"
+
+Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
+courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the loyalty
+towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula; and that his
+services as governor of the Low Countries were fully appreciated.
+
+"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe was
+already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don John, with
+a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of my feelings and
+opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I am likely to have
+proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished a Laura as the sister
+of Henry III?"--
+
+"I confess myself disappointed," replied the crafty Italian.--"I was
+in hopes that your highness had found recreation as well as glory in
+Belgium. During my sojourn at the court of Philip, I supported with
+patience the somewhat ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the
+belief that your highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal
+enlivenments, which none more fully understand how to organize and
+adorn."
+
+"If such an expectation really availed to _enliven_ the Escurial,"
+cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must indeed possess
+miraculous properties! However, you may judge with your own eyes the
+pleasantness of my position; and every day that improves your
+acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition of this accursed
+army of the royalists, ill-paid, ill-disciplined, and
+ill-intentioned, will inspire you with stronger yearnings after our
+days of the Mediterranean, where I was master of myself and of my
+men."
+
+"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will serve to
+comfort the venomous heart of the queen mother!"--ejaculated Gonzaga,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was far too
+much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes, to take heed
+of those of my camp."
+
+"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be desirable, of
+how many things a woman's eyes are capable of doing, at one and the
+same time!"--retorted the Italian.
+
+"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of having
+occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to witness the
+friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an excursion on the
+Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne, constitute the pastimes
+you are pleased to magnify into an imperial ovation."
+
+"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a ball-room,--much in one
+poor half hour of a greenwood rendezvous!"--persisted the provoking
+Ottavio.
+
+"Ay--_much_ indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh so deep that it
+startled by its significance the attention of his brother in arms.
+"But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri the Béarnais!"
+returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I wish no worse to that
+heretic prince, than to have placed his honour in the keeping of the
+_gente Margot_."
+
+Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had taken a
+turn that promised wonders for the interest of the despatches he had
+undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in elucidation of the designs
+and sentiments of Don John,--towards whom his allegiance was as the
+kisses of Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
+assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it apparent
+that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having proposed to
+the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander, he destined the
+colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should proceed to a survey of
+the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted their horses, and, escorted
+by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish aide-de-camp of the prince,
+proceeded to the camp.
+
+The affectionate deference testified towards the young governor by
+all classes, the moment he made his appearance in public, appeared to
+Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the declarations of Don John
+that he was no favourite in Belgium. The Italian forgot that the Duke
+of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld and Barlaimont, while doffing
+their caps to the representative of the King of Spain, had as much
+right to behold in him the devoted friend of Don John of Austria, as
+_he_ to regard _them_ as the faithful vassals of his government.
+
+A fair country is the country of Namur!--The confluent streams--the
+impending rocks--the spreading forests of its environs, comprehend
+the finest features of landscape; nor could Ottavio Gonzaga feel
+surprised that his prince should find as much more pleasure in those
+breesy plains than in the narrow streets of Brussels, as he found
+security and strength.
+
+On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the town,
+stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to attain which
+by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed; and it was
+pleasant to see the Walloon peasant children run forth from the
+cottages to salute the royal train, making their heavy Flemish
+chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering cabrioles far more
+deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to which they were almost
+accustomed.
+
+As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the Meuse, they
+saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups congregated just
+then in the district, of soldiers and peasants; to which the
+attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di Zuniga, his
+aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause of the gathering.
+
+"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
+Spaniard--galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes streaming in
+the breeze;--that the Prince's train, which had halted, might resume
+its pace.
+
+"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who appreciated the
+trivialties of life very differently from those by whom he was
+surrounded.
+
+"A village grievance!--An old woman roaring her lungs out for a cow
+which has been carried off by our troopers!"--grumbled the
+aide-de-camp, with less respect than was usual to him.
+
+"And call you that a _nothing_?"--exclaimed his master. "By our lady
+of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and oppression--a thing calculated
+to make us hateful in the eyes of the village!--And many villages, my
+good Nignio, represent districts, and many districts provinces, and
+provinces a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as
+the indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
+Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!--See to it! I want no
+further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be restored
+before sunset, and the marauders punished."
+
+"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer in its
+skin?"--demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should have been
+already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"
+
+"Let her have compensation."
+
+"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness, is all
+but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
+Gonzaga,--as though they were accustomed to jest together over the
+reckless openness of heart and hand of their young chief.
+
+"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at least
+the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
+restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."
+
+"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as the
+aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with an
+imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on his
+hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal master. "It
+goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement of these
+fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and hunger, that
+eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at honesty. My
+royal brother, or those who have the distribution of his graces, is
+so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than of orders on the
+treasury of Spain, that money and rations are evermore wanting. If
+these Protestants persist in their stand against us, I shall have to
+go forth to all the Catholic cities of the empire, preaching, like
+Peter the hermit, to obtain contributions from the pious!"
+
+"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that rebels
+and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops sent to
+reduce them to submission."
+
+"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either the creed
+or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don John. "But you
+say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the instructions of my royal
+brother; whom the Almighty soften with a more Christian spirit in his
+upholding of the doctrines of Christianity!--I am bidden to regard
+myself as in a conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may
+have felt at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!--These
+people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people are
+the faithful followers of Christ."
+
+"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and your
+highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"--observed Gonzaga with
+a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I fear, indeed, that the Court of
+the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for such grievances."
+
+"Gonzaga!"--exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his horse, and
+looking his companion full in the face, "these are black and bitter
+times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles, ay, and even prelates,
+forget that they are men; or rather that there be men in the world
+beside themselves."--Then allowing his charger to resume its
+caracolling, to give time to his startled friend to recover from the
+glow of consciousness burning on his cheek,--he resumed with a less
+stern inflexion. "It is the vexation of this conviction that hath
+brought my face to the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the
+scorching sun of Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of
+swords or roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in
+contending, life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
+battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
+sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth, and
+the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the peace of
+heaven!--The petty aggravations of daily strife,--the cold-blooded
+oppressions of conquest,--the contest with the peasant for his morsel
+of bread, or with his chaste wife for her fidelity,--are so revolting
+to my conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
+moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so well
+of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal father, to some
+drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days to the snuffling of
+Capuchins!"
+
+Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
+Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this heinous
+declaration!--But he contained himself.--It was his object to work
+his way still further into the confidence of his royal companion.
+
+"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French princess
+to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it afforded from the
+contemplation of such miseries and such aggressions. I was sick at
+heart of groans and murmurs,--weary of the adjustment of grievances.
+To behold a woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping,
+was _something_!"--
+
+"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of the
+brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.
+
+"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
+exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's--her bearing a
+woman's--her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the memory of
+better days to hear the silken robes of her train rustling around me,
+instead of the customary clang of mail; and merry laughs instead of
+perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my Walloons!"
+
+An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
+Italian.--
+
+"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to see
+the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a lap-dog!--Is it not so?"
+
+"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial to your
+highness,"--replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance. "My smile was
+occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in feigning as the
+royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the attempt. There, at
+least--and there alone--is Don John of Austria certain of defeat!"
+
+"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the air of
+Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion," replied the
+Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first redoubt. The lines
+of Bouge are before you."
+
+Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
+intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of headquarters
+beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was surrounded by his
+officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his orders of the day, the
+able promptitude of one of the first commanders of his time, tempered
+by the dignified courtesy of a prince of the blood.
+
+Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical debates
+carrying on around him, to have further thought of the mysteries into
+which he was resolved to penetrate.
+
+It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his _état
+major_ returned to Namur; invitations having been frankly given by
+Don John to a score of his officers, to an entertainment in honour of
+the return of his friend.
+
+Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga entertained
+little doubt of learning the truth. The rough railleries of such men
+were not likely to respect so slight a circumvallation as the honour
+of female reputation; and the glowing vintage of the Moselle and
+Rhine would bring forth the secret among the bubbles of their flowing
+tides. And, in truth, scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the
+potations of these mailed carousers produced deep oaths and
+uproarious laughter; amid which was toasted the name of Margaret,
+with the enthusiasm due to one of the originators of the massacre of
+St Bartholomew, from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the
+Inquisition of Spain.
+
+The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in terms
+scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by such
+frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
+restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It seemed
+an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a matter of
+indifference in the ears of Don John!
+
+That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short continuance
+as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the reviewal of the
+prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek in his conjectures,
+resolved to address himself for further information to Nignio; to
+whom he had brought confidential letters from his family in Spain,
+and who was an ancient brother in arms.
+
+Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied by the
+Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the valley of
+the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his early rest with
+a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of news from Madrid.
+
+But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened his
+budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own grievances to
+confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation of having been
+employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from execrations on the name
+of the old woman, enriched with all the blasphemies of a trooper's
+vocabulary,--it was no difficult matter to glide to the general
+misdemeanours and malefactions of the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a
+man of iron,--bred in camps, with as little of the milk of human
+kindness in his nature as his royal master King Philip; and it was
+his devout conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
+leagues of any Christian encampment,--and that women were inflicted
+upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and contamination of
+the nobler sex.
+
+"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her maids of
+honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy sinner for the
+space of a calendar year!"--cried he, still harping upon the old
+woman.
+
+"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some trouble
+and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as much as is
+_apparent_ of your householding, I can scarce imagine how you managed
+to bestow so courtly a dame here in honour; or with what pastimes you
+managed to entertain her."
+
+"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not yet
+quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came down
+handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and sister-in-law of the
+Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the thick-skulled Walloons to
+respect. It was not _money_ that was wanting--it was patience. O,
+these Parisians! Make me monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast
+garden of the Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the
+honour of being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
+travels!"
+
+Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted in the
+warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my clear
+Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a knight as Don
+John of Austria, your notions are rather those of Mahound or
+Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to hear you thus
+bitter against his Dulcinea?"
+
+"_His_ Dulcinea!"--ejaculated the aide-de-camp with a air of disgust.
+"God grant it! For a princess of Valois blood, reared under the
+teaching of a Medici, had at least the recommendations of nobility
+and orthodoxy in her favour."
+
+"As was the case when Anna di Mendoça effected the conquest over his
+boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal brother!--But
+after such proof of the hereditary aspirings of Don John, it would be
+difficult to persuade me of his highness's derogation."
+
+"Would _I_ could say as much!"--exclaimed Nignio, with a groan. "But
+such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might convince the
+scepticism of St Thomas!"
+
+"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections of the
+prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would you have me
+infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a dairy wench?"--
+
+"Of _worse_! of a daughter of the Amalekites!"--cried
+Nignio--stretching out his widely booted legs, as though it were a
+relief to him to have disburthened himself of his mystery.
+
+"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
+Italian,--no further versed in Scripture history than was the
+pleasure of his almoner.
+
+"You are his highness's _friend_, Gonzaga!" resumed the Spanish
+captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his heart! I have
+therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a matter, wherein, from
+the first, I determined to seek your counteraction. Though seemingly
+but a straw thrown up into the air, I infer from it a most evil
+predilection on the part of Don John;--fatal to himself, to us, his
+friends, and to the country he represents in Belgium."
+
+"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion, delighted to
+come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere matter of a pair
+of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"
+
+"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the aide-de-camp--
+
+"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as for
+the opening of a fairy legend--'On a time their lived a king and
+queen'--"
+
+"Will _you_ tell the story, then, or shall I?"--cried Nignio,
+impatient of his interruption.
+
+"_Yourself_, my pearl of squires! granting me in the first place your
+pardon for my ill manners."--
+
+"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the best
+diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess were,
+first a _Te Deum_ in the cathedral for her safe journey; next, an
+entertainment of dancing and music at the town hall--and a gallant
+affair it was, as far as silver draperies, and garlands of roses, and
+a blaze of light that seemed to threaten the conflagration of the
+city, may be taken in praise. The queen had brought with her, as with
+_malice prepense_, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
+court of the Louvre"--
+
+"I _knew_ it!"--again interrupted Gonzaga;--and again did Nignio
+gravely enquire of him whether (since so well informed) he would be
+pleased to finish the history in his own way?
+
+"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his finger on
+his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the Meuse."
+
+"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
+princess,--this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her mother's
+cunning and cruelty in her soul,--to perceive that the Spanish
+warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first time the
+assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more struck by the
+Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of the north, (so
+antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our sunburned
+provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her pleasure-worn Parisian
+belles."--
+
+"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent pledge,) "that
+there is no greater contrast than between our wild-eyed, glowing
+Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed daughters of these
+northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine to sunshine!"
+
+"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer and
+milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that, at this
+moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp for the sake
+of the costly fragile toys called womankind, those jackasses of
+lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn of Queen Margaret in
+Belgium, only as having brought forth from their castles in the
+Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low Country, the indigenous
+divinities that I would were at this moment at the bottom of their
+muddy moats, or of the Sambre flowing under yonder window!"--
+
+"It is one of these Brabançon belles, then, who"--
+
+Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal for
+breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue in his
+own way.--Taking counsel of himself, however, he judged that the
+shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter manner, so as to set
+further molestation at defiance.
+
+"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance foreign to
+his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball, there appeared
+among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before the tent of state
+of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender years seemed to render
+the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and whose aerial figure
+appeared to make her sojourn there, or any other spot on earth a
+matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her fair hair streamed on her
+shoulders. It was one of the angels of your immortal Titian, _minus_
+the wings! Such was, at least, the description given me by Don John,
+to enable me to ascertain among the Namurrois her name and lineage,
+for the satisfaction (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been
+fascinated by her beauty."
+
+"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the grace
+and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
+morning?"--cried Gonzaga, laughing.
+
+"And nearly the same result!--My answer to the enquiry of his
+highness was _verbatim_ the same; that the matter was not worth
+asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so much as of a
+chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity that had issued
+from the shade, to fill a place in the royal Coranto, in consequence
+of the indisposition of one of the noble daughters of the house of
+Croy. Still, as in the matter of the cow-hunt, his highness had the
+malice to persist! And next day, instead of allowing me to attend him
+in his barging with the royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of
+Brabant, I was dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a
+pretty child with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly
+grandam had snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal
+fête.--Holy St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!--I did,
+as you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
+with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
+return, that the bird had fled."--
+
+"And there was an end of the matter?"--
+
+"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness is
+likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events, the
+bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal escort,
+and the payment of all that decency required us to take upon
+ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time and
+thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
+doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over the
+sufferings of Belgium,--the lawlessness of the camp--the former
+loyalty of the provinces--the tenderness of conscience of the
+heretics,--and the eligibility of forbearance and peace,--I saw as
+plain as though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of
+Satan, that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
+this snivelling humanity!'
+
+"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
+burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses and
+putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.
+
+"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to Don John
+for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks past, I
+entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at her Louvre,
+the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place; more especially
+when he one day proposed to me an exploit savouring more of his days
+of Lepanto than I had expected at his hands again. Distracted by the
+false intelligence wherewith we were perpetually misled by the
+Brabançon scouts, Don John determined on a sortie in disguise,
+towards the intrenchments of the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle.
+Rumour of the reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the
+heretics by Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms,
+rendered him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact
+cantonments of Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set
+forward before daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a
+hunting expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits
+of civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
+Sambre towards Gembloux."
+
+"A mad project!--But such were ever the delight of our
+Quixote!"--cried Gonzaga.
+
+"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country without
+obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and before noon,
+were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the undertaking seemed to
+restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity of old! He was like a
+truant schoolboy, that has cheated his pedagogue of a day's
+bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than those of the stultified
+natives of these sluggish provinces, had been puzzled to detect under
+the huge patch that blinded him of an eye, and the slashed sleeve of
+his sad-coloured suit that showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant
+host of Queen Margaret! 'My soul comes back into me with this gallop
+across the breezy plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!'
+cried the Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto!
+But two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
+Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
+allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no better
+prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king he hath
+been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with Luxembourg and
+Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the blessing of his holiness,
+the banner under which I conquered the infidel, shall, sooner or
+later, float victorious under this northern sky!'
+
+"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood, halfway
+through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me we had to
+cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the ferry-house of this
+unfrequented track, we found only two sumpter-mules tied to a tree
+near the hovel, and a boat chained to its stump beside the stream. In
+answer to our shouts, no vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold
+the boat-chain was locked, and the current too deep and strong for
+fording.
+
+"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a boatman!"
+cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he gave me to
+hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to enter the
+ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch, a young girl,
+holding her finger to her lips in token of silence, appeared on the
+threshold!"
+
+"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
+pistoles!"--cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest that made
+him so mad a truant!"
+
+"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without noticing
+the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand, with the
+deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the house was
+little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a trifle nearer the
+porch, not a syllable of their mutual explanation escaped me.
+
+"'Are you a follower of Don John?'--was the first demand of the
+damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the States?'--the next; to
+both which questions, a negative was easily returned. After listening
+to the plea, fluently set forth by the prince, that he was simply a
+Zealand burgess, travelling on his own errand, and sorely in fear of
+falling in (God wot) with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel
+appeared to hail the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing;
+acquainted him with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own,
+that she was journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of
+Brabant, where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
+companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta within;
+for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on reaching the wood, the
+ferryman had undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the
+venerable chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.
+
+"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are in
+waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'
+
+"'Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering the
+military occupation of the province, your present protection is
+somewhat of the weakest?'--
+
+"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the open-hearted
+girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who war not against
+women and almoners. A more powerful attendance were more likely to
+provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes the best security.'
+
+"'_Home_ is a woman's only security in times like these!'--cried the
+prince with animation.
+
+"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young girl,
+with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been residing
+with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having had the
+weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to Namur last
+summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to the Queen of
+Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us; and I am sent for
+home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'
+
+"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained, more
+time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could perceive
+by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats, and were
+awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the ferryman. The
+compassion of the silly child was excited by the severe accident
+which the stranger described as the origin of his fractures and
+contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive voice and
+deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a more experienced
+one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly aspect and indigent
+apparel."
+
+"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and the
+obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
+Mecklenburgers"--
+
+"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the prince;
+for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the reconnaissance into
+which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext, I was not sorry to
+ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the grounds on which he
+stood with the enemy. And you should have heard how artfully he
+contrived to lead her back to the fêtes of Namur; asking, as with the
+curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole details of the royal
+entertainments! No small mind had I to rush in and chuck the hussy
+into the torrent before me, when I heard the little fiend burst forth
+into the most genuine and enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of
+the feast,--'So young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so
+passing the kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was
+her frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
+which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
+severely visited by her father.
+
+"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may admire the
+noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native goodness
+beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This whole morning
+hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon) been giving
+scripture warrant that I have no right to importune heaven with my
+prayers for the conversion of Don John:--Yet, as my good aunt justly
+observes, the great grandson of Mary of Burgundy has his pedestal
+firm in our hearts, beyond reach of overthrow from all the
+preachments of the Reformers'"--
+
+"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in to the
+rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously assailed?"--cried
+Gonzaga.
+
+"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I had the
+comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend the want of
+dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity with strangers. To
+which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was no fault of hers if
+people wanted to convert a child into a woman!' A moment afterwards
+and the ferryman and cortège arrived together; and a more glorious
+figure of fun than the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom
+bestridden a pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
+exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the ferry,
+taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which we twain
+abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in consequence of
+the strength of the current, it was indispensable to float down some
+hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite shore.
+
+"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the precious
+freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her new and
+pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!--as every thing that is evil
+ordained it,--behold, the newly-shod palfrey of the pretty
+Brabançonne, irritated, perhaps, by the clumsy veterinaryship of a
+village smithy, began suddenly to rear and plunge, and set at
+defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was held!--The ass of a
+ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his aid, let go his oar into the
+stream; and between the awkwardness of some and the rashness of
+others, in a moment the whole party were carried round by the eddy of
+the Dyle!--The next, and Ulrica was struggling in the waters"--
+
+"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in to her
+rescue!"--
+
+"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take for
+granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the ferry-house, in
+restoring to consciousness the exhausted women, half-dead with cold
+and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of mind produced by such
+an incident, I expected indeed every moment the self-betrayal of my
+companion; but _that_ evil we escaped. And when, late in the evening,
+the party was sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably
+surprised to find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting
+the fair Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people
+were in waiting."
+
+"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"--
+
+"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn, rendered it
+expedient for us to return to Namur with only half the object of his
+highness accomplished. But the babble of the old chaplain had
+acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to know,-- namely, the number
+and disposal of the Statists, and the position taken up by the
+English auxiliaries."
+
+"And this second parting from Ulrica?"--
+
+"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been the
+laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she bade
+adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a tress of her
+silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle, which she
+entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he placed upon her
+finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of Venice, bearing the
+arms of the republic engraved on the setting; telling her that chance
+had enabled him to confer an obligation on the governor of the
+Netherlands; and that, in any strait or peril, that signet,
+dispatched in his name to Don John of Austria, would command his
+protection."
+
+"As I live, a choice romance!--almost worthy the pages of our
+matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities but that
+the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
+Dyle!--However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They will meet no
+more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his daughter under lock and
+key; and his highness has too much work cut out for him by his
+rebels, to have time for peeping through the keyhole.--So now,
+good-night.--For love-tales are apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith
+we must be a-foot by break of day."
+
+And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him, Ottavio
+Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing all he had
+learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state of mind and
+feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid open to the full
+and uncongenial investigation of his royal brother of the Escurial.
+
+
+Part II.
+
+A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of Gembloux,
+which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of Austria; and
+constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military glories which
+binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one of the obscurest of
+its countries!--Gembloux, Ramillies, Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within
+the circuit of a morning's journey, as well as within the circle of
+eternal renown.
+
+By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand men-at-arms,
+their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost to the States. The
+cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio Gonzaga, performed
+prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under that of Gaspardo Nignio,
+equally distinguished itself. But the heat of the action fell upon
+the main body of the army, which had marched from Namur under the
+command of Don John; being composed of the Italian reinforcements
+dispatched to him from Parma by desire of the Pope, under the command
+of his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese.
+
+It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals of the
+States--the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of Orange--retreated in
+dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of pursuing his advantage with
+the energy of his usual habits, seemed to derive little satisfaction
+or encouragement from his victory. It might be, that the difficulty
+of controlling the predatory habits of the German and Burgundian
+troops wearied his patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued
+some new proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
+desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
+opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness; for,
+independent of the engrossing duties of their several commands, the
+leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his nephew, Alexander
+Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in age, was almost a
+brother in affection.
+
+To him alone were confided the growing cares of his charge--the
+increasing perplexities of his mind. To both princes, the name of
+Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a sacred word; and though
+Don John had the comfort of knowing that her father, the Count de
+Cergny, was unengaged in the action of Gembloux, his highness had
+reason to fear that the regiment of Hainaulters under his command,
+constituted the garrison of one or other of the frontier fortresses
+of Brabant, to which it was now his duty to direct the conquering
+arms of his captains.
+
+The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
+Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
+according to general expectation, effected in the first instance the
+reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
+Diest,--Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next succumbed to
+their arms--Maubeuge, Chimay, Barlaimont;--and, after a severe
+struggle, the new and beautiful town of Philippeville.
+
+But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a tremendous
+carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul sickened. At Sichem,
+the indignation of the Burgundians against a body of French troops
+which, after the battle of Gembloux, had pledged itself never again
+to bear arms against Spain, caused them to have a hundred soldiers
+strangled by night, and their bodies flung into the moat at the foot
+of the citadel; after which the town was given up by Prince Alexander
+to pillage and spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and
+Leeuw hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
+while receiving day after day, and week after week, the submission of
+fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs, the anxious
+expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to his clemency
+accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again disappointed!--
+
+At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into utter
+despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken her. All
+his endeavours to ascertain the position of the Count de Cergny
+having availed him nothing, he trusted that the family must be shut
+up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange and Archduke; but when every
+night, ere he retired to a soldier's rugged pillow, and pressed his
+lips to that long fair tress which seemed to ensure the blessings of
+an angel of purity and peace, the hopes entertained by Don John of
+tidings of the gentle Ulrica became slighter and still more slight.
+
+He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and exacting
+such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as promised to
+secure protection and respect to the families of all such officers of
+the insurgent army as might, in any time or place, fall into the
+hands of the royalists.
+
+To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely less
+endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood, and who
+was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the charge was
+almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first, his orders to
+his Italian captains to pursue in all directions their enquiries
+after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it had become a matter
+of course to preface their accounts of the day's movements
+with--"_No_ intelligence, may it please your highness, of the Count
+de Cergny!"
+
+The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his attention;
+for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was pinned by the
+military science of the States. But a breach having been made in the
+walls by the Spanish artillery under the command of Nicolo di Cesi,
+the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince Alexander, and the
+Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily forced an entrance; when,
+in spite of the stanch resistance of the governor, the garrison laid
+down their arms, and the greater portion of the inhabitants took the
+oath of fealty to the king.
+
+Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most desirable;
+in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma commanded a _Te
+Deum_ to be sung in the churches, and hastened to render thanks to
+the God of Battles for an event by which further carnage was spared
+to either host.
+
+Escorted by his _état major_, he had proceeded to the cathedral to
+join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as he quitted the
+church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached, bearing
+despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful attendant of his
+household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had recently sent with
+instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general charged with the
+reduction of the frontier fortresses of Brabant.
+
+"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous ejaculation of
+the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then, turning to the
+officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in a few words, that
+the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the propositions to
+surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice of its cannon, had
+been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and its garrison put to the
+sword.
+
+"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these braggarts of
+Brabant!"--responded Nignio, who stood at the right hand of Prince
+Alexander. "The nasal twang of their chaplains seems of late to have
+overmastered, in their ears, the eloquence of the ordnance of Spain!
+Yet, i'faith, they might be expected to find somewhat more unction in
+the preachments of our musketeers than the homilies of either Luther
+or Calvin!"
+
+He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged apart
+in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had respectfully placed
+in his hands a ring of great cost and beauty.
+
+"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian republic,
+may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I judged it better
+to remit it to your royal keeping."
+
+"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a sudden
+flush of emotion.
+
+"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I took it
+from the finger of the dead!"
+
+"And when, and where?"--exclaimed the prince, drawing him still
+further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their march to
+the States' house of Limbourg.
+
+"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!" said
+Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the fewest words, know that, after seeing
+the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave and obstinate defence of
+the banner of the States floating from the walls of his citadel, I
+did my utmost to induce the Baron de Cevray, whose Burgundians
+carried the place, to proclaim quarter. For these fellows of
+Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had fought like dragons,)
+having lost their head, were powerless; and of what use hacking to
+pieces an exhausted carcass?--But our troops were too much
+exasperated by the insolent resistance and defiance they had
+experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the conduits ran blood, and
+shrieks and groans rent the air more cruelly than the previous roar
+of the artillery. In accordance, however, with the instructions I
+have ever received from your highness, I pushed my way into all
+quarters, opposing what authority I might to the brutality of the
+troopers."
+
+"Quick, quick!"--cried Prince Alexander in anxious haste--"Let me not
+suppose that the wearer of this ring fell the victim of such an
+hour?"--
+
+It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears were
+assailed with cries of female distresses:--nor could I doubt that
+even _that_ sanctuary (held sacred by our troops of Spain!) had been
+invaded by the impiety of the German or Burgundian legions!--As
+usual, the chief ladies of the town had placed themselves under the
+protection of the high altar. But there, even there, had they been
+seized by sacrilegious hands!--The fame of the rare beauty of the
+daughter of the governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two
+daring ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."
+
+"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the spot?"--demanded the
+prince, trembling with emotion. "You dealt upon them the vengeance
+due?"
+
+"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had already
+cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest! Snatched from the
+arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce arm of a German
+musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian against whom she was
+wildly but vainly defending herself; had lighted on one of the
+fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone, the blood of this
+innocent being, scarce past the age of childhood, was streaming on
+her assailants; and when, rushing in, I proclaimed, in the name of
+God and of your highness, quarter and peace, it was an insensible
+body I rescued from the grasp of pollution!"
+
+"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more unhappy
+kinsman!"
+
+"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by the
+sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved from
+their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I bore the
+insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost skill of our
+surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it been
+spared!--The dying girl was roused only to the endurance of more
+exquisite torture; and while murmuring a petition for 'mercy--mercy
+to her _father_!' that proved her still unconscious of her family
+misfortunes, she attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I
+have had the honour to deliver to your highness:--faltering with her
+last breath, 'for _his_ sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to my
+poor old father!'"--
+
+Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these mournful
+details.
+
+"She is at rest, then?"--said he, after a pause.
+
+"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."--
+
+"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince, "and
+complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of interment that
+the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the Comte de Cergny!"
+
+Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips of the
+faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to the
+discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the details of
+that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of horror--the
+youth--the beauty--the innocence--the agonies of Ulrica, had touched
+him to the heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the
+heart of Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one
+this rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
+public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with blood!--
+
+Scarcely a month had elapsed after the storming of Dalem, when a
+terrible rumour went forth in the camp of Bouge, (where Don John had
+intrenched his division of the royalist army,) that the governor of
+the Netherlands was attacked by fatal indisposition!--For some weeks
+past, indeed, his strength and spirit had been declining. When at the
+village of Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry
+of the wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English
+troops under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
+circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
+attributed to prostration of bodily strength.
+
+When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had ceded
+the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret for the
+origin of his secession superseded every other consideration.
+
+For the word had gone forth that he was to die!--In the full vigour
+of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow had reached Don
+John of Austria!--
+
+A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
+prevalent!--For his leniency towards the Protestants had engendered a
+suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II. was known to be
+remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at hand!--
+
+But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From the
+moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering on his
+wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and every time
+he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the groups of veterans
+praying on their knees for the restoration of the son of their
+emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling aloud in loyal
+affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto, tears came into his
+eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his duties. For he knew that
+their intercessions were in vain--that the hours of the sufferer were
+numbered. In a moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments
+of the church were administered to the dying prince; having received
+which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains of
+the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain, and
+fidelity to his noble successor in command.
+
+It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of Lepanto,
+and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that, towards
+evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn aside, that
+he might contemplate for the last time the creation of God!--
+
+Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered in
+hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body might be
+borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father. For his eyes
+were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and his mind upon the
+glories of the memory of one of the greatest of kings.
+
+But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason in his
+troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with fever, his
+words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused them to sound the
+trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an onset, he ranged his
+battalions for an imaginary field of battle, and disposed his
+manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against the enemy.[18] Then,
+sinking back upon his pillow, he breathed in subdued accents, "Let me
+at least avenge her innocent blood. Why, why could I not save thee,
+my Ulrica!"--
+
+[Footnote 18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.]
+
+It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his heart with
+a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to consider the murderers
+of his master) stooped down to lay his callous hand on the heart of
+the hero, the pulses of life were still!--
+
+There was but one cry throughout the camp--there was but one thought
+among his captains:--"Let the bravest knight of Christendom be laid
+nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of mail in which he had
+fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a bier, and borne forth
+from his tent on the shoulders of the officers of his household.
+Then, having been saluted by the respect of the whole army, it was
+transmitted from post to post through the camp, on those of the
+colonels of the regiments of all nations constituting the forces of
+Spain.--And which of them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the
+dead lay the love-token of a heretic?--A double line of troops,
+infantry and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the
+camp of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
+saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those iron
+soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth, the
+gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour of glory
+and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the princes of
+Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge of Venice, they
+thought upon his knightly qualities--his courtesy, generosity, and
+valour--till all memory of his illustrious parentage became effaced.
+They forgot the prince in the man,--"and behold all Israel mourned
+for Jonathan!"
+
+A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the march, till
+they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was remitted by the
+royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and La Cros, to the hands
+of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these it was bourne in state to
+the cathedral of St Alban; and during the celebration of a solemn
+mass, deposited at the foot of the high altar till the pleasure of
+Philip II. should be known concerning the fulfilment of the last
+request of Don John.
+
+It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were conveyed to
+Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated, in return, his
+permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should share the sepulture
+of Charles V., and all that now remains to Namur in memory of one of
+the last of Christian knights, the Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts,
+who expired in its service and at its gates, is an inscription placed
+on its high altar by the piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that
+it afforded a temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
+AUSTRIA.[19]
+
+[Footnote 19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
+prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the authentic
+details of the interment of one whose posthumous destinies seemed to
+share the incompleteness of his baffled life. In order to avoid the
+contestations arising from the transit of a corpse through a foreign
+state, Nignio di Zuniga (who was charged by Philip with the duty of
+conveying it to Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.)
+caused it to be _dismembered_, and the parts packed in three budgets,
+(_bougettes_,) and laid upon packhorses!--On arriving in Spain, the
+parts were _readjusted with wires!--"On remplit le corps de bourre_,"
+says the old chronicler from which these details are derived, "_et
+ainsi la structure en aiant été comme rétablie, on le revétit de ses
+armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuyé sur son bâton de
+général, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect d'un mort si
+illustre ayant excité quelques larmes, on le porta à l'Escurial dans
+l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son père_."
+
+Such is the account given in a curious old history (supplementary to
+those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of the Prince of Parma,
+published at Amsterdam early in the succeeding century. But a still
+greater insult has been offered to the memory of one of the last of
+Christian knights, in Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan
+d'Autriche," where he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!]
+
+
+
+
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.
+
+No. I.
+
+
+It may be as well to state at the outset, that we have not the most
+distant intention of laying before the public the whole mass of
+poetry that flowed from the prolific pen of Goethe, betwixt the days
+of his student life at Leipsic and those of his final courtly
+residence at Weimar. It is of no use preserving the whole wardrobe of
+the dead; we do enough if we possess ourselves of his
+valuables--articles of sterling bullion that will at any time command
+their price in the market--as to worn-out and threadbare
+personalities, the sooner they are got rid of the better. Far be it
+from us, however, to depreciate or detract from the merit of any of
+Goethe's productions. Few men have written so voluminously, and still
+fewer have written so well. But the curse of a most fluent pen, and
+of a numerous auditory, to whom his words were oracles, was upon him;
+and seventy volumes, more or less, which Cotta issued from his
+wareroom, are for the library of the Germans now, and for the
+selection of judicious editors hereafter. A long time must elapse
+after an author's death, before we can pronounce with perfect
+certainty what belongs to the trunk-maker, and what pertains to
+posterity. Happy the man--if not in his own generation, yet most
+assuredly in the time to come--whose natural hesitation or
+fastidiousness has prompted him to weigh his words maturely, before
+launching them forth into the great ocean of literature, in the midst
+of which is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power!
+
+From the minor poems, therefore, of Goethe, we propose, in the
+present series, to select such as are most esteemed by competent
+judges, including, of course, ourselves. We shall not follow the
+example of dear old Eckermann, nor preface our specimens by any
+critical remarks upon the scope and tendency of the great German's
+genius; neither shall we divide his works, as characteristic of his
+intellectual progress, into eras or into epochs; still less shall we
+attempt to institute a regular comparison between his merits and
+those of Schiller, whose finest productions (most worthily
+translated) have already enriched the pages of this Magazine. We are
+doubtless ready at all times to back our favourite against the field,
+and to maintain his intellectual superiority even against his
+greatest and most formidable rival. We know that he is the showiest,
+and we feel convinced that he is the better horse of the two; but
+talking is worse than useless when the course is cleared, and the
+start about to commence.
+
+Come forward, then, before the British public, O many-sided,
+ambidextrous Goethe, as thine own Thomas Carlyle might, or could, or
+would, or should have termed thee, and let us hear how the
+mellifluous Teutonic verse will sound when adapted to another tongue.
+And, first of all--for we yearn to know it--tell us how thy
+inspiration came? A plain answer, of course, we cannot expect--that
+were impossible from a German; but such explanation as we can draw
+from metaphor and oracular response, seems to be conveyed in that
+favourite and elaborate preface to the poems, which accordingly we
+may term the
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+  The morning came. Its footsteps scared away
+    The gentle sleep that hover'd lightly o'er me;
+  I left my quiet cot to greet the day
+    And gaily climb'd the mountain-side before me.
+  The sweet young flowers! how fresh were they and tender,
+    Brimful with dew upon the sparkling lea;
+  The young day open'd in exulting splendour,
+    And all around seem'd glad to gladden me.
+
+  And, as I mounted, o'er the meadow ground
+    A white and filmy essence 'gan to hover;
+  It sail'd and shifted till it hemm'd me round,
+    Then rose above my head, and floated over.
+  No more I saw the beauteous scene unfolded--
+    It lay beneath a melancholy shroud;
+  And soon was I, as if in vapour moulded,
+    Alone, within the twilight of the cloud.
+
+  At once, as though the sun were struggling through,
+    Within the mist a sudden radiance started;
+  Here sunk the vapour, but to rise anew,
+    There on the peak and upland forest parted.
+  O, how I panted for the first clear gleaming,
+    That after darkness must be doubly bright!
+  It came not, but a glory round me beaming,
+    And I stood blinded by the gush of light.
+
+  A moment, and I felt enforced to look,
+    By some strange impulse of the heart's emotion;
+  But more than one quick glance I scarce could brook,
+    For all was burning like a molten ocean.
+  There, in the glorious clouds that seem'd to bear her,
+    A form angelic hover'd in the air;
+  Ne'er did my eyes behold vision fairer,
+    And still she gazed upon me, floating there.
+
+  "Do'st thou not know me?" and her voice was soft
+    As truthful love, and holy calm it sounded.
+  "Know'st thou not me, who many a time and oft,
+    Pour'd balsam in thy hurts when sorest wounded?
+  Ah well thou knowest her, to whom for ever
+    Thy heart in union pants to be allied!
+  Have I not seen the tears--the wild endeavour
+    That even in boyhood brought thee to my side?"
+
+  "Yes! I have felt thy influence oft," I cried,
+    And sank on earth before her, half-adoring;
+  "Thou brought'st me rest when Passion's lava tide
+    Through my young veins like liquid fire was pouring.
+  And thou hast fann'd, as with celestial pinions,
+    In summer's heat my parch'd and fever'd brow;
+  Gav'st me the choicest gifts of earth's dominions,
+    And, save through thee, I seek no fortune now.
+
+  "I name thee not, but I have heard thee named,
+    And heard thee styled their own ere now by many;
+  All eyes believe at thee their glance is aim'd,
+    Though thine effulgence is too great for any.
+  Ah! I had many comrades whilst I wander'd--
+    I know thee now, and stand almost alone:
+  I veil thy light, too precious to be squander'd,
+    And share the inward joy I feel with none."
+
+  Smiling, she said--"Thou see'st 'twas wise from thee
+    To keep the fuller, greater revelation:
+  Scarce art thou from grotesque delusions free,
+    Scarce master of thy childish first sensation;
+  Yet deem'st thyself so far above thy brothers,
+    That thou hast won the right to scorn them! Cease.
+  Who made the yawning gulf 'twixt thee and others?
+    Know--know thyself--live with the world in peace."
+
+  "Forgive me!" I exclaim'd, "I meant no ill,
+    Else should in vain my eyes be disenchanted;
+  Within my blood there stirs a genial will--
+    I know the worth of all that thou hast granted.
+  That boon I hold in trust for others merely,
+    Nor shall I let it rust within the ground;
+  Why sought I out the pathway so sincerely,
+    If not to guide my brothers to the bound?"
+
+  And as I spoke, upon her radiant face
+    Pass'd a sweet smile, like breath across a mirror;
+  And in her eyes' bright meaning I could trace
+    What I had answer'd well and what in error,
+  She smiled, and then my heart regain'd its lightness,
+    And bounded in my breast with rapture high:
+  Then durst I pass within her zone of brightness,
+    And gaze upon her with unquailing eye.
+
+  Straightway she stretch'd her hand among the thin
+    And watery haze that round her presence hover'd;
+  Slowly it coil'd and shrunk her grasp within,
+    And lo! the landscape lay once more uncover'd--
+  Again mine eye could scan the sparkling meadow,
+    I look'd to heaven, and all was clear and bright;
+  I saw her hold a veil without a shadow,
+    That undulated round her in the light.
+
+  "I know thee!--all thy weakness, all that yet
+    Of good within thee lives and glows, I've measured;"
+  She said--her voice I never may forget--
+    "Accept the gift that long for thee was treasured.
+  Oh! happy he, thrice-bless'd in earth and heaven,
+    Who takes this gift with soul serene and true,
+  The veil of song, by Truth's own fingers given,
+    Enwoven of sunshine and the morning dew.
+
+  "Wave but this veil on high, whene'er beneath
+    The noonday fervour thou and thine are glowing,
+  And fragrance of all flowers around shall breathe,
+    And the cool winds of eve come freshly blowing.
+  Earth's cares shall cease for thee, and all its riot;
+    Where gloom'd the grave, a starry couch be seen;
+  The waves of life shall sink in halcyon quiet;
+    The days be lovely fair, the nights serene."
+
+  Come then, my friends, and whether 'neath the load
+    Of heavy griefs ye struggle on, or whether
+  Your better destiny shall strew the road
+    With flowers, and golden fruits that cannot wither,
+  United let us move, still forwards striving;
+    So while we live shall joy our days illume,
+  And in our children's hearts our love surviving
+    Shall gladden them, when we are in the tomb.
+
+This is a noble metaphysical and metaphorical poem, but purely German
+of its kind. It has been imitated, not to say travestied, at least
+fifty times, by crazy students and purblind professors--each of whom,
+in turn, has had an interview with the goddess of nature upon a
+hill-side. For our own part, we confess that we have no great
+predilection for such mysterious intercourse, and would rather draw
+our inspiration from tangible objects, than dally with a visionary
+Egeria. But the fault is both common and national.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next specimen we shall offer is the far-famed _Bride of Corinth_.
+Mrs Austin says of this poem very happily--"An awful and undefined
+horror breathes throughout it. In the slow measured rhythm of the
+verse, and the pathetic simplicity of the diction, there is a
+solemnity and a stirring spell, which chains the feelings like a deep
+mysterious strain of music." Owing to the peculiar structure and
+difficulty of the verse, this poem has hitherto been supposed
+incapable of translation. Dr Anster, who alone has rendered it into
+English, found it necessary to depart from the original structure;
+and we confess that it was not without much labour, and after
+repeated efforts, that we succeeded in vanquishing the obstacle of
+the double rhymes. If the German scholar should perceive, that in
+three stanzas some slight liberties have been taken with the
+original, we trust that he will perceive the reason, and at least
+give us credit for general fidelity and close adherence to the text.
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.
+
+  I.
+
+  A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumber'd,
+    Came from Athens: though a stranger there,
+  Soon among its townsmen to be number'd,
+    For a bride awaits him, young and fair:
+      From their childhood's years
+      They were plighted feres,
+    So contracted by their parents' care.
+
+  II.
+
+  But may not his welcome there be hinder'd?
+    Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.
+  He is still a heathen with his kindred,
+    She and her's wash'd in the Christian creed.
+      When new faiths are born,
+      Love and troth are torn
+    Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.
+
+  III.
+
+  All the house is hush'd. To rest retreated
+    Father, daughters--not the mother quite;
+  She the guest with cordial welcome greeted,
+    Led him to a room with tapers bright;
+      Wine and food she brought
+      Ere of them he thought,
+    Then departed with a fair good-night.
+
+  IV.
+
+  But he felt no hunger, and unheeded
+    Left the wine, and eager for the rest
+  Which his limbs, forspent with travel, needed,
+    On the couch he laid him, still undress'd.
+      There he sleeps--when lo!
+      Onwards gliding slow,
+    At the door appears a wondrous guest.
+
+  V.
+
+  By the waning lamp's uncertain gleaming
+    There he sees a youthful maiden stand,
+  Robed in white, of still and gentle seeming,
+    On her brow a black and golden band.
+        When she meets his eyes,
+        With a quick surprise
+    Starting, she uplifts a pallid hand.
+
+  VI.
+
+  "Is a stranger here, and nothing told me?
+    Am I then forgotten even in name?
+  Ah! 'tis thus within my cell they hold me,
+    And I now am cover'd o'er with shame!
+        Pillow still thy head
+        There upon thy bed,
+    I will leave thee quickly as I came."
+
+  VII.
+
+  "Maiden--darling! Stay, O stay!" and, leaping
+    From the couch, before her stands the boy:
+  "Ceres--Bacchus, here their gifts are heaping,
+    And thou bringest Amor's gentle joy!
+        Why with terror pale?
+        Sweet one, let us hail
+    These bright gods--their festive gifts employ."
+
+  VIII.
+
+  "Oh, no--no! Young stranger, come not nigh me;
+    Joy is not for me, nor festive cheer.
+  Ah! such bliss may ne'er be tasted by me,
+    Since my mother, in fantastic fear,
+        By long sickness bow'd,
+        To heaven's service vow'd
+    Me, and all the hopes that warm'd me here.
+
+  IX.
+
+  "They have left our hearth, and left it lonely--
+    The old gods, that bright and jocund train.
+  One, unseen, in heaven, is worshipp'd only,
+    And upon the cross a Saviour slain;
+        Sacrifice is here,
+        Not of lamb nor steer,
+    But of human woe and human pain."
+
+  X.
+
+  And he asks, and all her words cloth ponder--
+    "Can it be, that, in this silent spot,
+  I behold thee, thou surpassing wonder!
+    My sweet bride, so strangely to me brought?
+        Be mine only now--
+        See, our parents' vow
+    Heaven's good blessing hath for us besought."
+
+  XI.
+
+  "No! thou gentle heart," she cried in anguish;
+    "'Tis not mine, but 'tis my sister's place;
+  When in lonely cell I weep and languish,
+    Think, oh think of me in her embrace!
+        I think but of thee--
+        Pining drearily,
+    Soon beneath the earth to hide my face!"
+
+  XII.
+
+  "Nay! I swear by yonder flame which burneth,
+    Fann'd by Hymen, lost thou shalt not be;
+  Droop not thus, for my sweet bride returneth
+    To my father's mansion back with me!
+        Dearest! tarry here!
+        Taste the bridal cheer,
+    For our spousal spread so wondrously!"
+
+  XIII.
+
+  Then with word and sign their troth they plighted.
+    Golden was the chain she bade him wear;
+  But the cup he offer'd her she slighted,
+    Silver, wrought with cunning past compare.
+        "That is not for me;
+        All I ask of thee
+    Is one little ringlet of thy hair."
+
+  XIV.
+
+  Dully boom'd the midnight hour unhallow'd,
+    And then first her eyes began to shine;
+  Eagerly with pallid lips she swallow'd
+    Hasty draughts of purple-tinctured wine;
+        But the wheaten bread,
+        As in shuddering dread,
+    Put she always by with loathing sign.
+
+  XV.
+
+  And she gave the youth the cup: he drain'd it,
+    With impetuous haste he drain'd it dry;
+  Love was in his fever'd heart, and pain'd it,
+    Till it ached for joys she must deny.
+        But the maiden's fears
+        Stay'd him, till in tears
+    On the bed he sank, with sobbing cry.
+
+  XVI.
+
+  And she leans above him--"Dear one, still thee!
+    Ah, how sad am I to see thee so!
+  But, alas! these limbs of mine would chill thee:
+    Love, they mantle not with passion's glow;
+        Thou wouldst be afraid,
+        Didst thou find the maid
+    Thou hast chosen, cold as ice or snow."
+
+  XVII.
+
+  Round her waist his eager arms he bended,
+    Dashing from his eyes the blinding tear:
+  "Wert thou even from the grave ascended,
+    Come unto my heart, and warm thee here!"
+        Sweet the long embrace--
+        "Raise that pallid face;
+    None but thou and are watching, dear!"
+
+  XVIII.
+
+  Was it love that brought the maiden thither,
+    To the chamber of the stranger guest?
+  Love's bright fire should kindle, and not wither;
+    Love's sweet thrill should soothe, not torture, rest.
+        His impassion'd mood
+        Warms her torpid blood,
+    Yet there beats no heart within her breast.
+
+  XIX.
+
+  Meanwhile goes the mother, softly creeping,
+    Through the house, on needful cares intent,
+  Hears a murmur, and, while all are sleeping,
+    Wonders at the sounds, and what they meant.
+        Who was whispering so?--
+        Voices soft and low,
+    In mysterious converse strangely blent.
+
+  XX.
+
+  Straightway by the door herself she stations,
+    There to be assured what was amiss;
+  And she hears love's fiery protestations,
+    Words of ardour and endearing bliss:
+        "Hark, the cock! 'Tis light!
+        But to-morrow night
+    Thou wilt come again?"--and kiss on kiss.
+
+  XXI.
+
+  Quick the latch she raises, and, with features
+    Anger-flush'd, into the chamber hies.
+  "Are there in my house such shameless creatures,
+    Minions to the stranger's will?" she cries.
+        By the dying light,
+        Who is't meets her sight?
+    God! 'tis her own daughter she espies!
+
+  XXII.
+
+  And the youth in terror sought to cover,
+    With her own light veil, the maiden's head,
+  Clasp'd her close; but, gliding from her lover,
+    Back the vestment from her brow she spread,
+        And her form upright,
+        As with ghostly might,
+    Long and slowly rises from the bed.
+
+  XXIII.
+
+  "Mother! mother! wherefore thus deprive me
+    Of such joy as I this night have known?
+  Wherefore from these warm embraces drive me?
+    Was I waken'd up to meet thy frown?
+        Did it not suffice
+        That, in virgin guise,
+    To an early grave you brought me down?
+
+  XXIV.
+
+  "Fearful is the weird that forced me hither,
+    From the dark-heap'd chamber where I lay;
+  Powerless are your drowsy anthems, neither
+    Can your priests prevail, howe'er they pray.
+        Salt nor lymph can cool
+        Where the pulse is full;
+    Love must still burn on, though wrapp'd in clay.
+
+  XXV.
+
+  "To this youth my early troth was plighted,
+    Whilst yet Venus ruled within the land;
+  Mother! and that vow ye falsely slighted,
+    At your new and gloomy faith's command.
+        But no God will hear,
+        If a mother swear
+    Pure from love to keep her daughter's hand.
+
+  XXVI.
+
+  "Nightly from my narrow chamber driven,
+    Come I to fulfil my destined part,
+  Him to seek for whom my troth was given,
+    And to draw the life blood from his heart.
+        He hath served my will;
+        More I yet must kill,
+    For another prey I now depart.
+
+  XXVII.
+
+  "Fair young man! thy thread of life is broken,
+    Human skill can bring no aid to thee.
+  There thou hast my chain--a ghastly token--
+    And this lock of thine I take with me.
+        Soon must thou decay,
+        Soon wilt thou be gray,
+    Dark although to-night thy tresses be.
+
+  XXVIII.
+
+  "Mother! hear, oh hear my last entreaty!
+    Let the funeral pile arise once more;
+  Open up my wretched tomb for pity,
+    And in flames our souls to peace restore.
+        When the ashes glow,
+        When the fire-sparks flow,
+    To the ancient gods aloft we soar."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this most powerful and original ballad, let us turn to
+something more genial. The three following poems are exquisite
+specimens of the varied genius of our author; and we hardly know
+whether to prefer the plaintive beauty of the first, or the light and
+sportive brilliancy of the other twain.
+
+
+FIRST LOVE.
+
+  Oh, who will bring me back the day,
+    So beautiful, so bright!
+  Those days when love first bore my heart
+    Aloft on pinions light?
+  Oh, who will bring me but an hour
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the power
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+  I nurse my wound in solitude,
+    I sigh the livelong day,
+  And mourn the joys, in wayward mood,
+   That now are pass'd away.
+  Oh, who will bring me back the days
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the blaze
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+WHO'LL BUY A CUPID?
+
+  Of all the wares so pretty
+  That come into the city,
+  There's none are so delicious,
+  There's none are half so precious,
+  As those which we are binging.
+  O, listen to our singing!
+  Young loves to sell! young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  First look you at the oldest,
+  The wantonest, the boldest!
+  So loosely goes he hopping,
+  From tree and thicket dropping,
+  Then flies aloft as sprightly--
+  We dare but praise him lightly!
+  The fickle rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Now see this little creature--
+  How modest seems his feature!
+  He nestles so demurely,
+  You'd think him safer surely;
+  And yet for all his shyness,
+  There's danger in his slyness!
+  The cunning rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Oh come and see this lovelet,
+  This little turtle-dovelet!
+  The maidens that are neatest,
+  The tenderest and sweetest,
+  Should buy it to amuse 'em,
+  And nurse it in their bosom.
+  The little pet! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  We need not bid you buy them,
+  They're here, if you will try them.
+  They like to change their cages;
+  But for their proving sages
+  No warrant will we utter--
+  They all have wings to flutter.
+  The pretty birds! Young loves to sell!
+  Such beauties! Come and buy!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SECOND LIFE.
+
+  After life's departing sigh,
+  To the spots I loved most dearly,
+  In the sunshine and the shadow,
+  By the fountain welling clearly,
+  Through the wood and o'er the meadow,
+  Flit I like a butterfly.
+
+  There a gentle pair I spy.
+  Round the maiden's tresses flying,
+  From her chaplet I discover
+  All that I had lost in dying,
+  Still with her and with her lover.
+  Who so happy then as I?
+
+  For she smiles with laughing eye;
+  And his lips to hers he presses,
+  Vows of passion interchanging,
+  Stifling her with sweet caresses,
+  O'er her budding beauties ranging;
+  And around the twain I fly.
+
+  And she sees me fluttering nigh;
+  And beneath his ardour trembling,
+  Starts she up--then off I hover.
+  "Look there, dearest!" Thus dissembling,
+  Speaks the maiden to her lover--
+  "Come and catch that butterfly!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the days of his boyhood, and of Monk Lewis, Sir Walter Scott
+translated the Erl King, and since then it has been a kind of
+assay-piece for aspiring German students to thump and hammer at will.
+We have heard it sung so often at the piano by soft-voiced maidens,
+and hirsute musicians, before whose roaring the bull of Phalaris
+might be dumb, that we have been accustomed to associate it with
+stiff white cravats, green tea, and a superabundance of lemonade. But
+to do full justice to its unearthly fascination, one ought to hear it
+chanted by night in a lonely glade of the Schwartzwald or Spessart
+forest, with the wind moaning as an accompaniment, and the ghostly
+shadows of the branches flitting in the moonlight across the path.
+
+
+THE ERL KING.
+
+  Who rides so late through the grisly night?
+  'Tis a father and child, and he grasps him tight;
+  He wraps him close in his mantle's fold,
+  And shelters the boy from the biting cold.
+
+  "My son, why thus to my arm dost cling?"
+  "Father, dost thou not see the Erlie-king?
+  The king with his crown and long black train!"
+  "My son, 'tis a streak of the misty rain! "
+
+  "Come hither, thou darling! come, go with me!
+  Fair games know I that I'll play with thee;
+  Many bright flowers my kingdoms hold!
+  My mother has many a robe of gold!"
+
+  "O father, dear father and dost thou not hear
+  What the Erlie-king whispers so low in mine ear?"
+  "Calm thee, my boy, 'tis only the breeze
+  Rustling the dry leaves beneath the trees!"
+
+  "Wilt thou go, bonny boy! wilt thou go with me?
+  My daughters shall wait on thee daintilie;
+  My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,
+  And rock thee, and kiss thee, and sing thee to sleep!"
+
+  "O father, dear father! and dost thou not mark
+  Erlie-king's daughters move by in the dark?"
+  "I see it, my child; but it is not they,
+  'Tis the old willow nodding its head so grey!"
+
+  "I love thee! thy beauty charms me quite;
+  And if thou refusest, I'll take thee by might!"
+  "O father, dear father! he's grasping me--
+  My heart is as cold as cold can be!"
+
+  The father rides swiftly--with terror he gasps--
+  The sobbing child in his arms he clasps;
+  He reaches the castle with spurring and dread;
+  But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Who has not heard of Mignon?--sweet, delicate little Mignon?--the
+woman-child, in whose miniature, rather than portrait, it is easy to
+trace the original of fairy Fenella? We would that we could
+adequately translate the song, which in its native German is so
+exquisitely plaintive, that few can listen to it without tears. This
+poem, it is almost needless to say, is anterior in date to Byron's
+Bride of Abyos
+
+
+  MIGNON.
+
+  Know'st thou the land where the pale citron grows,
+  And the gold orange through dark foliage glows?
+  A soft wind flutters from the deep blue sky,
+  The myrtle blooms, and towers the laurel high.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my own beloved one, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the house? On pillars rest its beams,
+  Bright is its hall, in light one chamber gleams,
+  And marble statues stand, and look on me--
+  What have they done, thou hapless child, to thee?
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my loved protector, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the track that o'er the mountain goes,
+  Where the mule threads its way through mist and snows,
+  Where dwelt in caves the dragon's ancient brood,
+  Topples the crag, and o'er it roars the flood.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O come with me!
+  There lies our road--oh father, let us flee!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In order duly to appreciate the next ballad, you must fancy yourself
+(if you cannot realize it) stretched on the grass, by the margin of a
+mighty river of the south, rushing from or through an Italian lake,
+whose opposite shore you cannot descry for the thick purple haze of
+heat that hangs over its glassy surface. If you lie there for an hour
+or so, gazing into the depths of the blue unfathomable sky, till the
+fanning of the warm wind and the murmur of the water combine to throw
+you into a trance, you will be able to enjoy
+
+
+THE FISHER.
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    An angler near it lay,
+  And watch'd his quill, with tranquil eye,
+    Upon the current play.
+  And as he sits in wasteful dream,
+    He sees the flood unclose,
+  And from the middle of the stream
+    A river-maiden rose.
+
+  She sang to him with witching wile,
+    "My brood why wilt thou snare,
+  With human craft and human guile,
+    To die in scorching air?
+  Ah! didst thou know how happy we
+    Who dwell in waters clear,
+  Thou wouldst come down at once to me,
+    And rest for ever here.
+
+  "The sun and ladye-moon they lave
+    Their tresses in the main,
+  And breathing freshness from the wave,
+    Come doubly bright again.
+  The deep blue sky, so moist and clear,
+    Hath it for thee no lure?
+  Does thine own face not woo thee down
+    Unto our waters pure?"
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    It lapp'd his naked feet;
+  He thrill'd as though he felt the touch
+    Of maiden kisses sweet.
+  She spoke to him, she sang to him--
+    Resistless was her strain--
+  Half-drawn, he sank beneath the wave,
+    And ne'er was seen again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our next extract smacks of the Troubadours, and would have better
+suited good old King René of Provence than a Paladin of the days of
+Charlemagne. Goethe has neither the eye of Wouverman nor Borgognone,
+and sketches but an indifferent battle-piece. Homer was a stark
+moss-trooper, and so was Scott; but the Germans want the cry of "boot
+and saddle" consumedly. However, the following is excellent in its
+way.
+
+
+THE MINSTREL.
+
+  "What sounds are those without, along
+    The drawbridge sweetly stealing?
+  Within our hall I'd have that song,
+    That minstrel measure, pealing."
+  Then forth the little foot-page hied;
+  When he came back, the king he cried,
+    "Bring in the aged minstrel!"
+
+  "Good-even to you, lordlings all;
+    Fair ladies all, good-even.
+  Lo, star on star within this hall
+    I see a radiant heaven.
+  In hall so bright with noble light,
+  'Tis not for thee to feast thy sight,
+    Old man, look not around thee!"
+
+  He closed his eyne, he struck his lyre
+    In tones with passion laden,
+  Till every gallant's eye shot fire,
+    And down look'd every maiden.
+  The king, enraptured with his strain,
+  Held out to him a golden chain,
+    In guerdon of his harping.
+
+  "The golden chain give not to me,
+    For noble's breast its glance is,
+  Who meets and beats thy enemy
+    Amid the shock of lances.
+  Or give it to thy chancellere--
+  Let him its golden burden bear,
+    Among his other burdens.
+
+  "I sing as sings the bird, whose note
+    The leafy bough is heard on.
+  The song that falters from my throat
+    For me is ample guerdon.
+  Yet I'd ask one thing, an I might,
+  A draught of brave wine, sparkling bright
+    Within a golden beaker!"
+
+  The cup was brought. He drain'd its lees,
+    "O draught that warms me cheerly!
+  Blest is the house where gifts like these
+    Are counted trifles merely.
+  Lo, when you prosper, think on me,
+  And thank your God as heartily
+    As for this draught I thank you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We intend to close the present Number with a very graceful, though
+simple ditty, which Goethe may possibly have altered from the
+Morlachian, but which is at all events worthy of his genius.
+Previously, however, in case any of the ladies should like something
+sentimental, we beg leave to present them with as nice a little
+_chansonette_ as ever was transcribed into an album.
+
+THE VIOLET.
+
+  A violet blossom'd on the lea,
+    Half hidden from the eye,
+  As fair a flower as you might see;
+    When there came tripping by
+  A shepherd maiden fair and young,
+    Lightly, lightly o'er the lea;
+  Care she knew not, and she sung
+      Merrily!
+
+  "O were I but the fairest flower
+    That blossoms on the lea;
+  If only for one little hour,
+    That she might gather me--
+  Clasp me in her bonny breast!"
+    Thought the little flower.
+  "O that in it I might rest
+      But an hour!"
+
+  Lack-a-day! Up came the lass,
+    Heeded not the violet;
+  Trod it down into the grass;
+    Though it died, 'twas happy yet.
+  "Trodden down although I lie,
+    Yet my death is very sweet--
+  For I cannot choose but die
+      At her feet!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE DOLEFUL LAY OF THE NOBLE WIFE OF ASAN AGA.
+
+  What is yon so white beside the greenwood?
+  Is it snow, or flight of cygnets resting?
+  Were it snow, ere now it had been melted;
+  Were it swans, ere now the flock had left us.
+  Neither snow nor swans are resting yonder,
+  'Tis the glittering tents of Asan Aga.
+  Faint he lies from wounds in stormy battle;
+  There his mother and his sisters seek him,
+  But his wife hangs back for shame, and comes not.
+
+  When the anguish of his hurts was over,
+  To his faithful wife he sent this message--
+  "Longer 'neath my roof thou shalt not tarry,
+  Neither in my court nor in my household."
+
+  When the lady heard this cruel sentence,
+  'Reft of sense she stood, and rack'd with anguish:
+  In the court she heard the horses stamping,
+  And in fear that it was Asan coming,
+  Fled towards the tower, to leap and perish.
+
+  Then in terror ran her little daughters,
+  Calling after her, and weeping sorely,
+  "These are not the steeds of Father Asan;
+  'Tis thy brother Pintorovich coming!"
+
+  And the wife of Asan turn'd to meet him;
+  Sobbing, threw her arms around her brother.
+  "See the wrongs, O brother, of thy sister!
+  These five babes I bore, and must I leave them?"
+
+  Silently the brother from his girdle
+  Draws the ready deed of separation,
+  Wrapp'd within a crimson silken cover.
+  She is free to seek her mother's dwelling--
+  Free to join in wedlock with another.
+
+  When the woful lady saw the writing,
+  Kiss'd she both her boys upon the forehead,
+  Kiss'd on both the cheeks her sobbing daughters;
+  But she cannot tear herself for pity
+  From the infant smiling in the cradle!
+
+  Rudely did her brother tear her from it,
+  Deftly lifted her upon a courser,
+  And in haste, towards his father's dwelling,
+  Spurr'd he onward with the woful lady.
+
+  Short the space; seven days, but barely seven--
+  Little space I ween--by many nobles
+  Was the lady--still in weeds of mourning--
+  Was the lady courted in espousal.
+
+  Far the noblest was Imoski's cadi;
+  And the dame in tears besought her brother--
+  "I adjure thee, by the life thou bearest,
+  Give me not a second time in marriage,
+  That my heart may not be rent asunder
+  If again I see my darling children!"
+
+  Little reck'd the brother of her bidding,
+  Fix'd to wed her to Imoski's cadi.
+  But the gentle lady still entreats him--
+  "Send at least a letter, O my brother!
+  To Imoski's cadi, thus imploring--
+  I, the youthful widow, greet thee fairly,
+  And entreat thee, by this selfsame token,
+  When thou comest hither with thy bridesmen,
+  Bring a heavy veil, that I may shroud me
+  As we pass along by Asan's dwelling,
+  So I may not see my darling orphans."
+
+  Scarcely had the cadi read the letter,
+  When he call'd together all his bridesmen,
+  Boune himself to bring the lady homewards,
+  And he brought the veil as she entreated.
+
+  Jocundly they reach'd the princely mansion,
+  Jocundly they bore her thence in triumph;
+  But when they drew near to Asan's dwelling,
+  Then the children recognized their mother,
+  And they cried, "Come back unto thy chamber--
+  Share the meal this evening with thy children;"
+  And she turn'd her to the lordly bridegroom--
+  "Pray thee, let the bridesmen and their horses
+  Halt a little by the once-loved dwelling,
+  Till I give these presents to my children."
+
+  And they halted by the once-loved dwelling,
+  And she gave the weeping children presents,
+  Gave each boy a cap with gold embroider'd,
+  Gave each girl a long and costly garment,
+  And with tears she left a tiny mantle
+  For the helpless baby in the cradle.
+
+  These things mark'd the father, Asan Aga,
+  And in sorrow call'd he to his children--
+  "Turn again to me, ye poor deserted;
+  Hard as steel is now your mother's bosom;
+  Shut so fast, it cannot throb with pity!"
+
+  Thus he spoke; and when the lady heard him,
+  Pale as death she dropp'd upon the pavement,
+  And the life fled from her wretched bosom
+  As she saw her children turning from her.
+
+
+
+
+MY FIRST LOVE.
+
+A SKETCH IN NEW YORK.
+
+
+"Margaret, where are you?" cried a silver-toned voice from a passage
+outside the drawing-room in which I had just seated myself. The next
+instant a lovely face appeared at the door, its owner tripped into
+the room, made a comical curtsy, and ran up to her sister.
+
+"It is really too bad, Margaret; pa' frets and bustles about, nearly
+runs over me upon the stairs, and then goes down the street as if
+'Change were on fire. Ma' yawns, and will not hear of our going
+shopping, and grumbles about money--always money--that horrid money!
+Ah! dear Margaret, our shopping excursion is at an end for to-day!"
+
+Sister Margaret, to whom this lamentation was addressed, was
+reclining on the sofa, her left hand supporting her head, her right
+holding the third volume of a novel. She looked up with a languishing
+and die-away expression--
+
+"Poor Staunton will be in despair," said her sister. "This is at
+least his tenth turn up and down the Battery. Last night he was a
+perfect picture of misery. I could not have had the heart to refuse
+to dance with him. How could you be so cruel, Margaret?"
+
+"Alas!" replied Margaret with a deep sigh, "how could I help it?
+Mamma was behind me, and kept pushing me with her elbow. Mamma is
+sometimes very ill-bred." And another sigh burst from the overcharged
+heart of the sentimental fair one.
+
+"Well," rejoined her sister, "I don't know why she so terribly
+dislikes poor Staunton; but to say the truth, our gallopade lost
+nothing by his absence. He is as stiff as a Dutch doll when he
+dances. Even our Louisianian backwoodsman here, acquits himself much
+more creditably."
+
+And the malicious girl gave me such an arch look, that I could not be
+angry with the equivocal sort of compliment paid to myself.
+
+"That is very unkind, Arthurine," said Margaret, her checks glowing
+with anger at this attack upon the graces of her admirer.
+
+"Don't be angry, sister," cried Arthurine, running up to her,
+throwing her arms round her neck, and kissing and soothing her till
+she began to smile. They formed a pretty group. Arthurine especially,
+as she skipped up to her sister, scarce touching the carpet with her
+tiny feet, looked like a fairy or a nymph. She was certainly a lovely
+creature, slender and flexible as a reed, with a waist one could
+easily have spanned with one's ten fingers; feet and hands on the
+very smallest scale, and of the most beautiful mould; features
+exquisitely regular; a complexion of lilies and roses; a small
+graceful head, adorned with a profusion of golden hair; and then
+large round clear blue eyes, full of mischief and fascination. She
+was, as the French say, _à croquer_.
+
+"Heigho!" sighed the sentimental Margaret. "To think of this vulgar,
+selfish man intruding himself between me and such a noble creature as
+Staunton! It is really heart-breaking."
+
+"Not quite so bad as that!" said Arthurine. "Moreland, as you know,
+has a good five hundred thousand dollars; and Staunton has nothing,
+or at most a couple of thousand dollars a-year--a mere feather in the
+balance against such a golden weight."
+
+"Love despises gold," murmured Margaret.
+
+"Nonsense!" replied her sister; "I would not even despise silver, if
+it were in sufficient quantity. Only think of the balls and parties,
+the fêtes and pic-nics! Saratoga in the summer--perhaps even London
+or Paris! The mere thought of it makes my mouth water."
+
+"Talk not of such joys, to be bought at such a price!" cried
+Margaret, quoting probably from some of her favourite novels.
+
+"Well, don't make yourself unhappy now," said Arthurine. "Moreland
+will not be here till tea-time; and there are six long hours to that.
+If we had only a few new novels to pass the time! I cannot imagine
+why Cooper is so lazy. Only one book in a year! What if you were to
+begin to write, sister? I have no doubt you would succeed as well as
+Mrs Mitchell. Bulwer is so fantastical; and even Walter Scott is
+getting dull."
+
+"Alas, Howard!" sighed Margaret, looking to me for sympathy with her
+sorrows.
+
+"Patience, dear Margaret," said I. "If possible, I will help you to
+get rid of the old fellow. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Rat-tat-tat at the house door. Arthurine put up her finger to enjoin
+silence, and listened. Another loud knock. "A visit!" exclaimed she
+with sparkling eyes. "Ha! ladies; I hear the rustle of their gowns."
+And as she spoke the door opened, and the Misses Pearce came swimming
+into the room, in all the splendour of violet-coloured silks, covered
+with feathers, lace, and embroideries, and bringing with them an
+atmosphere of perfume.
+
+The man who has the good fortune to see our New York belles in their
+morning or home attire, must have a heart made of quartz or granite
+if he resists their attractions. Their graceful forms, their
+intellectual and somewhat languishing expression of countenance,
+their bright and beaming eyes, their slender figures, which make one
+inclined to seize and hold them lest the wind should blow them away,
+their beautifully delicate hands and feet, compose a sum of
+attraction perfectly irresistible. The Boston ladies are perhaps
+better informed, and their features are usually more regular; but
+they have something Yankeeish about them, which I could never fancy,
+and, moreover, they are dreadful blue-stockings. The fair
+Philadelphians are rounder, more elastic, more Hebe-like, and
+unapproachable in the article of small-talk; but it is amongst the
+beauties of New York that romance writers should seek for their
+Julias and Alices. I am certain that if Cooper had made their
+acquaintance whilst writing his books, he would have torn up his
+manuscripts, and painted his heroines after a less wooden fashion. He
+can only have seen them on the Battery or in Broadway, where they are
+so buried and enveloped in finery that it is impossible to guess what
+they are really like. The two young ladies who had just entered the
+room, were shining examples of that system of over-dressing. They
+seemed to have put on at one time the three or four dresses worn in
+the course of the day by a London or Paris fashionable.
+
+It was now all over with my _tête-à-tête_. I could only be _de trop_
+in the gossip of the four ladies, and I accordingly took my leave. As
+I passed before the parlour door on my way out, it was opened, and
+Mrs Bowsends beckoned me in. I entered, and found her husband also
+there.
+
+"Are you going away already, my dear Howard?" said the lady.
+
+"There are visitors up stairs."
+
+"Ah, Howard!" said Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"The workies[20] have carried the day," growled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 20: The slang term applied to the mechanics and labourers,
+a numerous and (at elections especially) a most important class in
+New York and Philadelphia.]
+
+"That horrid Staunton!" interrupted his better half. "Only think
+now'--
+
+"Our side lost--completely floored. But you've heard of it, I
+suppose, Mister Howard?"
+
+I turned from one to the other in astonished perplexity, not knowing
+to which I ought to listen first.
+
+"I don't know how it is," whined the lady, "but that Mr Staunton
+becomes every day more odious to me. Only think now, of his having
+the effrontery to persist in running after Margaret! Hardly two
+thousand a-year "--
+
+"Old Hickory is preparing to leave Hermitage already.[21] Bank shares
+have fallen half per cent in consequence," snarled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 21: The name of General Jackson's country-house and
+estate.]
+
+They were ringing the changes on poor Staunton and the new president.
+
+"He ought to remember the difference of our positions," said Mrs B.,
+drawing herself up with much dignity.
+
+"Certainly, certainly!" said I.
+
+"And the governor's election is also going desperate bad," said Mr
+Bowsends.
+
+"And then Margaret, to think of her infatuation! Certainly she is a
+good, gentle creature; but five hundred thousand dollars!" This was
+Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"By no means to be despised," said I.
+
+The five hundred thousand dollars touched a responsive chord in the
+heart of the papa.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," repeated he. "Yes, certainly; but what's the
+use of that? All nonsense. Those girls would ruin a Croesus."
+
+"You need not talk, I'm sure," retorted mamma. "Think of all your
+bets and electioneering."
+
+"You understand nothing about that," replied her husband angrily.
+"Interests of the country--congress--public good--must be supported.
+Who would do it if we"--
+
+"Did not bet," thought I.
+
+"You are a friend of the family," said Mrs Bowsends, "and I hope you
+will"--
+
+"Apropos," interrupted her loving husband. "How has your cotton crop
+turned out? You might consign it to me. How many bales?"
+
+"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."
+
+"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa musingly;
+"hm, hm."
+
+"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital in my
+hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred another year."
+
+"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened approvingly.
+"That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a good girl. We'll
+see, my dear Mr Howard--we'll see. Yes, yes--come here every
+evening--whenever you like. You know Arthurine is always glad to see
+you."
+
+"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.
+
+"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling graciously.
+
+I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
+nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends' last
+speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate father-in-law
+that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets with my cotton bales;
+and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at the selfishness of my
+species, and more especially at the stupid impudent egotism of
+Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him. To all such, even their
+children are nothing but so many bales of goods, to be bartered,
+bought, and sold. And this man belongs to the _haut-ton_ of New York!
+Five-and-twenty years ago he went about with a tailor's measure in
+his pocket--now a leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees
+and directorships.
+
+But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely face,
+the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and that is not
+saying a little, but the most elegant, charming--a perfect sylph! It
+was now about eleven months since I had first become acquainted with
+the bewitching creature; and, from the very first day, I had been her
+vassal, her slave, bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida.
+She had just left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by
+the by, is one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes
+itself upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
+fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
+danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected upon
+the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right well how to
+work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet; but not one out
+of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he had received a
+smile or a look more than his fellows. I was the only one who had
+perhaps obtained a sort of passive preference. I was allowed to
+escort her in her rides, walks, and drives; to be her regular partner
+when no other dancer offered, and suchlike enviable privileges. She
+flirted and fluttered about me, and hung familiarly on my arm, as she
+tripped along Broadway or the Battery by my side. In addition to all
+these little marks of preference, it fell to my share of duty to
+supply her with the newest novels, to furnish her with English
+Keepsakes and American Tokens and Souvenirs, and to provide the last
+fashionable songs and quadrilles. All this had cost me no small sum;
+but I consoled myself with the reflection, that my presents were made
+to the prettiest girl in New York, and that sooner or later she must
+reward my assiduities. Twice had fortune smiled upon me; in one
+instance, when we were standing on the bridge at Niagara, looking
+down on the foaming waters, and I was obliged to put my arm round her
+waist, for fear she should become dizzy and fall in--in doing which,
+by the by, I very nearly fell in myself. A similar thing occurred on
+a visit we made to the Trenton falls. That was all I had got for my
+pains, however, during the eleven months that I had trifled away in
+New York--months that had served to lighten my purse pretty
+considerably. It is the fashion in our southern states to choose our
+wives from amongst the beauties of the north. I had been bitten by
+the mania, and had come to New York upon this important business; but
+having been there nearly a year, it was high time to make an end of
+matters, if I did not wish to be put on the shelf as stale goods.
+
+This last reflection occurred to me very strongly as I was walking
+from the Bowsends' house towards Wall Street, when suddenly I caught
+sight of my fellow-sufferer Staunton. The Yankee's dolorous
+countenance almost made me smile. Up he came, with the double object
+of informing me that the weather was very fine, and of offering me a
+bite at his pigtail tobacco. I could not help expressing my
+astonishment that so sensitive and delicate a creature as Margaret
+should tolerate such a habit in the man of her choice.
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the simpleton. "Moreland chews also."
+
+"Yes, but he has got five hundred thousand dollars, and that sweetens
+the poison."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Staunton.
+
+"Keep up your courage, man; Bowsends is rich."
+
+The Yankee shook his head.
+
+"Two hundred thousand, they say; but to-morrow he may not have a
+farthing. You know our New Yorkers. Nothing but bets, elections,
+shares, railways, banks. His expenses are enormous; and, if he once
+got his daughters off his hands, he would perhaps fail next week."
+
+"And be so much the richer next year," replied I.
+
+"Do you think so?" said the Yankee, musingly.
+
+"Of course it would be so. Mean time you can marry the languishing
+Margaret, and do like many others of your fellow citizens; go out
+with a basket on your arm to the Greenwich market, and whilst your
+delicate wife is enjoying her morning slumber, buy the potatoes and
+salted mackerel for breakfast. In return for that, she will perhaps
+condescend to pour you out a cup of bohea. Famous thing that bohea!
+capital antidote to the dyspepsia!"
+
+"You are spiteful," said poor Staunton.
+
+"And you foolish," I retorted. "To a young barrister like you, there
+are hundreds of houses open."
+
+"And to you also."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And then I have this advantage--the girl likes me."
+
+"I am liked by the papa and the mamma, and the girl too."
+
+"Have you got five hundred thousand dollars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Poor Howard!" cried Staunton, laughing.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied I, laughing also.
+
+We had been chatting in this manner for nearly a quarter of an hour,
+when a coach drove out of Greenwich Street, in which I saw a face
+that I thought I knew. One of the Philadelphia steamers had just
+arrived. I stepped forward.
+
+"Stop!" cried a well-known voice.
+
+"Stop!" cried I, hastening to the coach door.
+
+It was Richards, my school and college friend, and my neighbour,
+after the fashion of the southern states; for he lived only about a
+hundred and seventy miles from me. I said good-by to poor simple
+Staunton, got into the coach, and we rattled off through Broadway to
+the American hotel.
+
+"For heaven's sake, George!" exclaimed my friend, as soon as we were
+installed in a room, "tell me what you are doing here. Have you quite
+forgotten house, land, and friends? You have been eleven months
+away."
+
+"True," replied I; "making love--and not a step further advanced than
+the first."
+
+"The report is true, then, that you have been harpooned by the
+Bowsends? Poor fellow! I am sorry for you. Just tell me what you mean
+to do with the dressed-up doll when you get her? A young lady who has
+not enough patience even to read her novels from beginning to end,
+and who, before she was twelve years old, had Tom Moore and Byron,
+_Don Juan_ perhaps excepted, by heart. A damsel who has geography and
+the globes, astronomy and Cuvier, Raphael's cartoons and Rossini's
+operas, at her finger-ends; but who, as true as I am alive, does not
+know whether a mutton chop is cut off a pig or a cow--who would boil
+tea and cauliflowers in the same manner, and has some vague idea that
+eggs are the principal ingredient in a gooseberry pie."
+
+"I want her for my wife, not for my cook," retorted I, rather
+nettled.
+
+"Who does not know," continued Richards, "whether dirty linen ought
+to be boiled or baked."
+
+"But she sings like St Cecilia, plays divinely, and dances like a
+fairy."
+
+"Yes, all that will do you a deal of good. I know the family; both
+father and mother are the most contemptible people breathing."
+
+"Stop there!" cried I; "they are not one iota better or worse than
+their neighbours."
+
+"You are right."
+
+"Well, then, leave them in peace. I have promised to drink tea there
+at six o'clock. If you will come, I will take you with me."
+
+"Know then already, man. I will go, on one condition; that you leave
+New York with me in three days."
+
+"If my marriage is not settled," replied I.
+
+"D----d fool!" muttered Richards between his teeth.
+
+Six o'clock struck as we entered the drawing-room of my future
+mother-in-law. The good lady almost frightened me as I went in, by
+her very extraordinary appearance in a tremendous grey gauze turban,
+fire-new, just arrived by the Henri Quatre packet-ship from Havre,
+and that gave her exactly the look of one of our Mississippi
+night-owls. Richards seemed a little startled; and Moreland, who was
+already there, could not take his eyes off this remarkable
+head-dress. Miss Margaret was costumed in pale green silk, her hair
+flattened upon each side of her forehead _a la Marguerite_, (see the
+_Journal des Modes,_) and looking like Jephtha's daughter, pale and
+resigned, but rather more lackadaisical, with a sort of
+"though-absent-not-forgot" look about her, inexpressibly sentimental
+and interesting. The contrast was certainly rather strong between old
+Moreland, who sat there, red-faced, thickset, and clumsy, and the
+airy slender Staunton, who, for fear of spoiling his figure, lived
+upon oysters and macaroon, and drank water with a rose leaf in it.
+
+I had brought the languishing beauty above described, Scott's _Tales
+of my Grandfather_, which had just appeared.
+
+"Ah! Walter Scott!" exclaimed she, in her pretty melting tones. Then,
+after a moment's pause, "The vulgar man has not a word to say for
+himself;" said she to me, in a low tone.
+
+"Wait a little," replied I; "he'll improve. It is no doubt his modest
+timidity that keeps his lips closed."
+
+Margaret gave me a furious look.
+
+"Heartless mocker!" she exclaimed.
+
+Meanwhile Richards had got into conversation with Bowsends. The
+unlucky dog, who did not know that his host was a violent Adams-ite,
+and had lost a good five thousand dollars in bets and subscriptions
+to influence the voices of the sovereign people at the recent
+election, had fallen on the sore subject. He began by informing his
+host that Old Hickory would shortly leave the Hermitage to assume his
+duties as president.
+
+"The blood-thirsty backwoodsman, half horse, half alligator"
+interrupted Mr Bowsends.
+
+"Costs you dear, his election," said Moreland laughing.
+
+"Smokes out of a tobacco pipe like a vulgar German," ejaculated Mrs
+Bowsends.
+
+"Not so very vulgar for that," said blundering Moreland; "tobacco has
+quite another taste out of a pipe."
+
+I gave him a tremendous dig in the back with my elbow.
+
+"Do you smoke out of a tobacco pipe, Mr Moreland?" enquired Margaret
+in her flute-like tones.
+
+Moreland stared; he had a vague idea that he had got himself into a
+scrape, but his straightforward honesty prevented him from
+prevaricating, and he blurted out--"Sometimes, miss."
+
+I thought the sensitive creature would have swooned away at this
+admission; and I had just laid my arm over the back of her chair to
+support her, when Arthurine entered the room. She gave a quick glance
+to me; it was too late to draw back my arm. She did not seem to
+notice any thing, saluted the company gaily and easily, tripped up to
+Moreland, wished him good evening--asked after his bets, his ships,
+his old dog Tom--chattered, in short, full ten minutes in a breath.
+Before Moreland knew what she was about, she had taken one of his
+hands in both of hers. But they were old acquaintances, and he might
+easily have been her grandfather. Meanwhile Margaret had somewhat
+recovered from the shock.
+
+"He smokes out of a pipe!" lisped she to Arthurine, in a tone of
+melancholy resignation.
+
+"Old Hickory is very popular in Pennsylvania," said Richards,
+resuming the conversation that had been interrupted, and perfectly
+unconscious, as Moreland would have said, of the shoals he was
+sailing amongst. "A Bedford County farmer has just sent him a present
+of a cask of Monongahela."
+
+"I envy him that present," cried Moreland. "A glass of genuine
+Monongahela is worth any money."
+
+This second shock was far too violent to be resisted by Margaret's
+delicate nerves. She sank back in her chair, half fainting, half
+hysterical. Her maids were called in, and with their help she managed
+to leave the room.
+
+"Have you brought her a book?" said Arthurine to me.
+
+"Yes, one of Walter Scott's."
+
+"Oh! then she will soon be well again," rejoined the affectionate
+sister, apparently by no means alarmed.
+
+Now that this nervous beauty was gone, the conversation became much
+more lively. Captain Moreland was a jovial sailor, who had made ten
+voyages to China, fifteen to Constantinople, twenty to St Petersburg,
+and innumerable ones to Liverpool and through his exertions had
+amassed the large fortune which he was now enjoying. He was a
+merry-hearted man, with excellent sound sense on all points except
+one--that one being the fair sex, with which he was about as well
+acquainted as an alligator with a camera-obscure. The attentions paid
+to him by Arthurine seemed to please the old bachelor uncommonly.
+There was a mixture of kindness, malice, and fascination in her
+manner, which was really enchanting; even the matter-of-fact Richards
+could not take his eyes off her.
+
+"That is certainly a charming girl!" whispered he to me.
+
+"Did not I tell you so?" said I. "Only observe with what sweetness
+she gives in to the old man's humours and fancies!"
+
+The hours passed like minutes. Supper was long over, and we rose to
+depart; when I shook hands with Arthurine, she pressed mine gently. I
+was in the ninety-ninth heaven.
+
+"Now, boys," cried worthy Moreland, as soon as we were in the
+streets, "it would really be a pity to part so early on so joyous an
+evening. What do you say? Will you come to my house, and knock the
+necks off half a dozen bottles?"
+
+We agreed to this proposal; and, taking the old seaman between us,
+steered in the direction of his cabin, as he called his magnificent
+and well-furnished house.
+
+"What a delightful family those Bowsends are!" exclaimed Moreland, as
+soon as we were comfortably seated beside a blazing fire, with the
+Lafitte and East India Madeira sparkling on the table beside us. "And
+what charming girls! 'You're getting oldish,' says I to myself the
+other day, 'but you're still fresh and active, sound as a dolphin.
+Better get married.' Margaret pleased me uncommonly, so I"--
+
+"Yes, my dear Moreland," interrupted I, "but are you sure that you
+please her?"
+
+"Pshaw! Five times a hundred thousand dollars! I tell you what, my
+lad, that's not to be met with every day."
+
+"Fifty years old," replied I.
+
+"Certainly, fifty years old, but stout and healthy; none of your
+spindle-shanked dandies--your Stauntons"--
+
+But Staunton smokes cigars, and not Dutch pipes."
+
+"I give that up. For Miss Margaret's sake, I'll burn my nose and
+mouth with those damned stumps of cigars."
+
+"Drinks no whisky," continued I. "He is president of a temperance
+society."
+
+"The devil fly away with him!" growled Moreland; "I wouldn't give up
+my whisky for all the girls in the world."
+
+"If you don't, she'll always be fainting away," replied I, laughing.
+
+"Ah! It's because I talked of the Monongahela that she began with her
+hystericals, and went away for all the evening! That's where the wind
+sits, is it? Well, you may depend I ain't to be done out of my grog
+at any rate."
+
+And he backed his assertion with an oath, swallowing off the contents
+of his glass by way of a clincher. We sat joking and chatting till
+past midnight during which time I flattered myself that I gave
+evidence of considerable diplomatic talents. As we were returning
+home, however, Richards doubted whether I had not driven the old boy
+rather too hard
+
+"No matter," replied I, "if I have only succeeded in ridding poor
+Margaret of him."
+
+Cool, calculating Richards shook his head.
+
+"I don't know what may come of it," said he; "but I do not think you
+are likely to find much gratitude for your interference."
+
+The next day was taken up in arranging matters of business consequent
+on the arrival of Richards. At least ten times I tried to go and see
+Arthurine, but was always prevented by something or other; and it was
+past tea-time when I at last got to the Bowsends' house. I found
+Margaret in the drawing-room, deep in a new novel.
+
+"Where is Arthurine?" I enquired.
+
+"At the theatre, with mamma and Mr Moreland," was the answer.
+
+"At the theatre!" repeated I in astonishment. They were playing Tom
+and Jerry, a favourite piece with the enlightened Kentuckians. I had
+seen the first scene or two at the New Orleans theatre, and had had
+quite enough of it.
+
+"That really _is_ sacrificing herself!" said I, considerably out of
+humour.
+
+"The noble girl!" exclaimed Margaret. "Mr Moreland came to tea, and
+urged us so much to go"--
+
+"That she could not help going, to be bored and disgusted for a
+couple of hours."
+
+"She went for my sake," said Margaret sentimentally. "Mamma would
+have one of us go."
+
+"Yes, that is it," thought I. Jealousy would have been ridiculous. He
+fifty years old, she seventeen. I left the house, and went to find
+Richards.
+
+"What! Back so early?" cried he.
+
+"She is gone to the theatre with her mamma and Moreland."
+
+Richards shook his head.
+
+"You put a wasp's nest into the old fellow's brain-pan yesterday,"
+said he. "Take care you do not get stung yourself."
+
+"I should like to see how she looks by his side," said I.
+
+"Well, I will go with you. The sooner you are cured the better. But
+only for ten minutes."
+
+There was certainly no temptation to remain longer in that atmosphere
+of whisky and tobacco fumes. It was at the Bowery theatre. The light
+swam as though seen through a thick fog; and a perfect shower of
+orange and apple peel, and even less agreeable things, rained down
+from the galleries. Tom and Jerry were in all their glory. I looked
+round the boxes, and soon saw the charming Arthurine, apparently
+perfectly comfortable, chatting with old Moreland as gravely, and
+looking as demure and self-possessed, as if she had been a married
+woman of thirty.
+
+"That is a prudent young lady," said Richards; "she has an eye to the
+dollars, and would marry Old Hickory himself, spite of whisky and
+tobacco pipe, if he had more money, and were to ask her."
+
+I said nothing.
+
+"If you weren't such an infatuated fool," continued my plain-spoken
+friend, I would say to you, let her take her own way, and the day
+after to-morrow we will leave New York."
+
+"One week more," said I, with an uneasy feeling about the heart.
+
+At seven the next evening I entered what had been my Elysium, but was
+now, little by little, becoming my Tartarus. Again I found Margaret
+alone over a romance. "And Arthurine?" enquired I, in a voice that
+might perhaps have been steadier.
+
+"She is gone with mamma and Mr Moreland to hear Miss Fanny Wright."
+
+"To hear Miss Fanny Wright! the atheist, the revolutionist! What a
+mad fancy! Who would ever have dreamed of such a thing!"
+
+This Miss Fanny Wright was a famous lecturess, of the Owenite school,
+who was shunned like a pestilence by the fashionable world of New
+York.
+
+"Mr Moreland," answered Margaret, "said so much about her eloquence
+that Arthurine's curiosity was roused."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I.
+
+"Oh! you do not know what a noble girl she is. For her sister she
+would sacrifice her life. My only hope is in her."
+
+I snatched up my hat, and hurried out of the house.
+
+The next morning I got up, restless and uneasy; and eleven o'clock
+had scarcely struck when I reached the Bowsends' house. This time
+both sisters were at home; and as I entered the drawing-room,
+Arthurine advanced to meet me with a beautiful smile upon her face.
+There was nevertheless a something in the expression of her
+countenance that made me start. I pressed her hand. She looked
+tenderly at me.
+
+"I hope you have been amusing yourself these last two days," said I
+after a moment's pause.
+
+"Novelty has a certain charm," replied Arthurine. "Yet I certainly
+never expected to become a disciple of Miss Fanny Wright," added she,
+laughing.
+
+"Really! I should have thought the transition from Tom and Jerry
+rather an easy one."
+
+"A little more respect for Tom and Jerry, whom _we_ patronize--that
+is to say, Mr Moreland and our high mightiness," replied Arthurine,
+trying, as I fancied, to conceal a certain confusion of manner under
+a laugh.
+
+"I should scarcely have thought my Arthurine would have become a
+party to such a conspiracy against good taste," replied I gravely.
+
+"_My_ Arthurine!" repeated she, laying a strong accent on the pronoun
+possessive. "Only see what rights and privileges the gentleman is
+usurping! We live in a free country, I believe?"
+
+There was a mixture of jest and earnest in her charming countenance.
+I looked enquiringly at her.
+
+"Do you know," cried she, "I have taken quite a fancy to Moreland? He
+is so good-natured, such a sterling character, and his roughness
+wears off when one knows him well."
+
+"And moreover," added I, "he has five hundred thousand dollars."
+
+"Which are by no means the least of his recommendations. Only think
+of the balls, Howard! I hope you will come to them. And then
+Saratoga; next year London and Paris. Oh! it will be delightful."
+
+"What, so far gone already?" said I, sarcastically.
+
+"And poor Margaret is saved!" added she, throwing her arms round her
+sister's neck, and kissing and caressing her. I hardly knew whether
+to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then, I suppose, I may congratulate you?" said I, forcing a laugh,
+and looking, I have no doubt, very like a fool.
+
+You may so," replied Arthurine. "This morning Mr Moreland begged
+permission to transfer his addresses from Margaret to your very
+humble servant."
+
+"And you?"--
+
+"We naturally, in consideration of the petitioner's many amiable
+qualities, have promised to take the request into our serious
+consideration. For decorum's sake, you know, one must deliberate a
+couple of days or so."
+
+"Are you in jest or earnest, Arthurine?"
+
+"Quite in earnest, Howard."
+
+"Farewell, then!"
+
+  "'Fare-thee-well! and if for ever Still for ever fare-thee-well!'"
+
+said Arthurine, in a half-laughing, half-sighing tone. The next
+instant I had left the room.
+
+On the stairs I met the beturbaned Mrs Bowsends, who led the way
+mysteriously into the parlour.
+
+"You have seen Arthurine?" said she. "What a dear, darling child!--is
+she not? Oh! that girl is our joy and consolation. And Mr
+Moreland--the charming Mr Moreland! Now that things are arranged so
+delightfully, we can let Margaret have her own way a little."
+
+"What I have heard is true, then?" said I.
+
+"Yes; as an old friend I do not mind telling you--though it must
+still remain a secret for a short time. Mr Moreland has made a formal
+proposal to Arthurine."
+
+I do not know what reply I made, before flinging myself out of the
+room and house, and running down the street as if I had just escaped
+from a lunatic asylum.
+
+"Richards," cried I to my friend, "shall we start tomorrow?"
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Richards. "So you are cured of the New York
+fever? Start! Yes, by all means, before you get a relapse. You must
+come with me to Virginia for a couple of months."
+
+"I will so," was my answer.
+
+As we were going down to the steam-boat on the following morning,
+Staunton overtook us, breathless with speed and delight.
+
+"Wish me joy!" cried he. "I am accepted!"
+
+"And I jilted!" replied I with a laugh. "But I am not such a fool as
+to make myself unhappy about a woman."
+
+Light words enough, but my heart was heavy as I spoke them. Five
+minutes later, we were on our way to Virginia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HYDRO-BACCHUS.
+
+
+  Great Homer sings how once of old
+  The Thracian women met to hold
+  To "Bacchus, ever young and fair,"
+  Mysterious rites with solemn care.
+  For now the summer's glowing face
+  Had look'd upon the hills of Thrace;
+  And laden vines foretold the pride
+  Of foaming vats at Autumn tide.
+  There, while the gladsome Evöe shout
+  Through Nysa's knolls rang wildly out,
+  While cymbal clang, and blare of horn,
+  O'er the broad Hellespont were borne;
+  The sounds, careering far and near,
+  Struck sudden on Lycurgus' ear--
+  Edonia's grim black-bearded lord,
+  Who still the Bacchic rites abhorr'd,
+  And cursed the god whose power divine
+  Lent heaven's own fire to generous wine.
+  Ere yet th' inspired devotees
+  Had half performed their mysteries,
+  Furious he rush'd amidst the band,
+  And whirled an ox-goad in his hand.
+  Full many a dame on earth lay low
+  Beneath the tyrant's savage blow;
+  The rest, far scattering in affright,
+  Sought refuge from his rage in flight.
+
+  But the fell king enjoy'd not long
+  The triumph of his impious wrong:
+  The vengeance of the god soon found him,
+  And in a rocky dungeon bound him.
+  There, sightless, chain'd, in woful tones
+  He pour'd his unavailing groans,
+  Mingled with all the blasts that shriek
+  Round Athos' thunder-riven peak.
+  O Thracian king! how vain the ire
+  That urged thee 'gainst the Bacchic choir
+  The god avenged his votaries well--
+  Stern was the doom that thee befell;
+  And on the Bacchus-hating herd
+  Still rests the curse thy guilt incurr'd.
+  For the same spells that in those days
+  Were wont the Bacchanals to craze--
+  The maniac orgies, the rash vow,
+  Have fall'n on thy disciples now.
+  Though deepest silence dwells alone,
+  Parnassus, on thy double cone;
+  To mystic cry, through fell and brake,
+  No more Cithaeron's echoes wake;
+  No longer glisten, white and fleet,
+  O'er the dark lawns of Taÿgete,
+  The Spartan virgin's bounding feet:
+  Yet Frenzy still has power to roll
+  Her portents o'er the prostrate soul.
+  Though water-nymphs must twine the spell
+  Which once the wine-god threw so well--
+  Changed are the orgies now, 'tis true,
+  Save in the madness of the crew.
+  Bacchus his votaries led of yore
+  Through woodland glades and mountains hoar;
+  While flung the Maenad to the air
+  The golden masses of her hair,
+  And floated free the skin of fawn,
+  From her bare shoulder backward borne.
+  Wild Nature, spreading all her charms,
+  Welcomed her children to her arms;
+  Laugh'd the huge oaks, and shook with glee,
+  In answer to their revelry;
+  Kind Night would cast her softest dew
+  Where'er their roving footsteps flew;
+  So bright the joyous fountains gush'd,
+  So proud the swelling rivers rush'd,
+  That mother Earth they well might deem,
+  With honey, wine, and milk, for them
+  Most bounteously had fed the stream.
+  The pale moon, wheeling overhead,
+  Her looks of love upon them shed,
+  And pouring forth her floods of light,
+  With all the landscape blest their sight.
+  Through foliage thick the moonshine fell,
+  Checker'd upon the grassy dell;
+  Beyond, it show'd the distant spires
+  Of skyish hills, the world's grey sires;
+  More brightly beam'd, where far away,
+  Around his clustering islands, lay,
+  Adown some opening vale descried,
+  The vast Aegean's waveless tide.
+  What wonder then, if Reason's power
+  Fail'd in each reeling mind that hour,
+  When their enraptured spirits woke
+  To Nature's liberty, and broke
+  The artificial chain that bound them,
+  With the broad sky above, and the free winds around them!
+  From Nature's overflowing soul,
+  That sweet delirium on them stole;
+  She held the cup, and bade them share
+  In draughts of joy too deep to bear.
+
+  Not such the scenes that to the eyes
+  Of water-Bacchanals arise;
+  Whene'er the day of festival
+  Summons the Pledged t' attend its call--
+  In long procession to appear,
+  And show the world how good they are.
+  Not theirs the wild-wood wanderings,
+  The voices of the winds and springs:
+  But seek them where the smoke-fog brown
+  Incumbent broods o'er London town;
+  'Mid Finsbury Square ruralities
+  Of mangy grass, and scrofulous trees;
+  'Mid all the sounds that consecrate
+  Thy street, melodious Bishopsgate!
+  Not by the mountain grot and pine,
+  Haunts of the Heliconian Nine:
+  But where the town-bred Muses squall
+  Love-verses in an annual;
+  Such muses as inspire the grunt
+  Of Barry Cornwall, and Leigh Hunt.
+  Their hands no ivy'd thyrsus bear,
+  No Evöe floats upon the air:
+  But flags of painted calico
+  Flutter aloft with gaudy show;
+  And round then rises, long and loud,
+  The laughter of the gibing crowd.
+
+  O sacred Temp'rance! mine were shame
+  If I could wish to brand thy name.
+  But though these dullards boast thy grace,
+  Thou in their orgies hast no place.
+  Thou still disdain'st such sorry lot,
+  As even below the soaking sot.
+  Great was high Duty's power of old
+  The empire o'er man's heart to hold;
+  To urge the soul, or check its course,
+  Obedient to her guiding force.
+  These own not her control, but draw
+  New sanction for the moral law,
+  And by a stringent compact bind
+  The independence of the mind--
+  As morals had gregarious grown,
+  And Virtue could not stand alone.
+  What need they rules against abusing?
+  They find th' offence all in the using.
+  Denounce the gifts which bounteous Heaven
+  To cheer the heart of man has given;
+  And think their foolish pledge a band
+  More potent far than God's command.
+  On this new plan they cleverly
+  Work morals by machinery;
+  Keeping men virtuous by a tether,
+  Like gangs of negroes chain'd together.
+
+  Then, Temperance, if thus it be,
+  They know no further need of thee.
+  This pledge usurps thy ancient throne--
+  Alas! thy occupation's gone!
+  From earth thou may'st unheeded rise,
+  And like Astræa--seek the skies.
+
+
+
+
+MARTIN LUTHER.
+
+AN ODE.
+
+
+  Who sits upon the Pontiff's throne?
+    On Peter's holy chair
+  Who sways the keys? At such a time
+  When dullest ears may hear the chime
+  Of coming thunders--when dark skies
+  Are writ with crimson prophecies,
+    A wise man should be there;
+  A godly man, whose life might be
+  The living logic of the sea;
+  One quick to know, and keen to feel--
+  A fervid man, and full of zeal,
+    Should sit in Peter's chair.
+
+  Alas! no fervid man is there,
+    No earnest, honest heart;
+  One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,
+  Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;
+  One who can trim the courtier's smile,
+  Or weave the diplomatic wile,
+    But knows no deeper art;
+  One who can dally with fair forms,
+  Whom a well-pointed period warms--
+  No man is he to hold the helm
+  Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm,
+    And creaking timbers start.
+
+  In vain did Julius pile sublime
+   The vast and various dome,
+  That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,
+  And the huge Flavian wonder, hide
+  Their heads in shame--these gilded stones
+  (O heaven!) were very blood and bones
+    Of those whom Christ did come
+  To save--vile grin of slaves who sold
+  Celestial rights for earthy gold,
+  Marketing grace with merchant's measure,
+  To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure
+    The pride of purple Rome.
+
+  The measure of her sins is full,
+    The scarlet-vested whore!
+  Thy murderous and lecherous race
+  Have sat too long i' the holy place;
+  The knife shall lop what no drug cures,
+  Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,
+    The monstrous mockery more.
+  Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord:
+  Mine elect warrior girds the sword--
+  A nameless man, a miner's son,
+  Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,
+    And pale the painted whore!
+
+  Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose
+    Poor fishermen before
+  To preach my gospel to the poor;
+  A pauper boy from door to door
+  That piped his hymn. By his strong word
+  The startled world shall now be stirr'd,
+    As with a lion's roar!
+  A lonely monk that loved to dwell
+  With peaceful host in silent cell;
+  This man shall shake the Pontiff's throne:
+  Him Kings and emperors shall own,
+    And stout hearts wince before
+
+  The eye profound and front sublime
+    Where speculation reigns.
+  He to the learned seats shall climb,
+  On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;
+  The arid doctrine shall inspire
+    Of wiry teachers with swift fire;
+  And, piled with cumbrous pains,
+  Proud palaces of sounding lies
+  Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise
+  Shall listen to his word; the youth
+  Shall eager seize the new-born truth
+    Where prudent age refrains.
+
+  Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds
+    From echoing town to town!
+  The clam'rous preacher and his train,
+  Organ and bell with sound inane,
+  The crimson cross, the book, the keys,
+  The flag that spreads before the breeze,
+    The triple-belted crown!
+  It wends its way; and straw is sold--
+  Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,
+  To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;
+  And though some smile, and many sneer,
+    There's none will dare to frown.
+
+  None dares but one--the race is rare--
+    One free and honest man:
+  Truth is a dangerous thing to say
+  Amid the lies that haunt the day;
+  But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!
+  From heart to heart the fire shall go,
+    Instinctive without plan;
+  Proud bishops with a lordly train,
+    Fierce cardinals with high disdain,
+  Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,
+  And wrangling doctors all shall force,
+    In vain, one honest man.
+
+  In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,
+    It is a sober thing.
+  Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,
+  Loudly to damn, and loudly save,
+  And sweep with mimic thunders' swell
+  Armies of honest souls to hell!
+    The time on whirring wing
+  Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!
+  One hour, one little hour, is given,
+  If thou could'st but repent. But no!
+  To ruin thou shalt headlong go,
+    A doom'd and blasted thing.
+
+  Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!
+    Men heed it not, thou fool!
+  Nay, from the learned city's gate,
+  In solemn show, in pomp of state,
+  The watchmen of the truth come forth,
+  The burghers old of sterling worth,
+    And students of the school:
+  And he who should have felt thy ban
+  Walks like a prophet in the van;
+  He hath a calm indignant look,
+  Beneath his arm he bears a book,
+    And in his hand the Bull.
+
+  He halts; and in the middle space
+    Bids pile a blazing fire.
+  The flame ascends with crackling glee;
+  Then, with firm step advancing, He
+  Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule
+  The false Decretals, and the Bull,
+    While thus he vents his ire:--
+  "Because the Holy One o' the Lord
+  Thou vexed hast with impious word,
+  Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  He said; and rose the echo round
+    "In everlasting fire!"
+  The hearts of men were free; one word
+  Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;
+  Erect before their God they stood
+  A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,
+    And wing'd with high desire.
+  And ever with the circling flame
+  Uprose anew the blithe acclaim:--
+  "The righteous Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  Thus the brave German men; and we
+    Shall echo back the cry;
+  The burning of that parchment scroll
+  Annull'd the bond that sold the soul
+  Of man to man; each brother now
+  Only to one great Lord will bow,
+    One Father-God on high.
+  And though with fits of lingering life
+  The wounded foe prolong the strife,
+  On Luther's deed we build our hope,
+  Our steady faith--the fond old Pope
+    Is dying, and shall die.
+
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.
+
+No. II
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+Discreet Reader!
+
+You have seen--and 'tis no longer ago than YESTERDAY!--you must well
+remember the picture--which showed you from the rough yet
+delicate--the humorous yet sympathetic and picturesque--the original
+yet insinuating pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian
+mountaineer--the aerial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating,
+enigmatical, outwardly--mirth-given, inwardly--sorrow-touched,
+congregated folk numberless--of the Fairies Proper!--showed them at
+the urgency of a rare and strange need--clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one
+fair, kind, good and happily-born Daughter of Man!--And what
+wonder?--The once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one
+fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably
+favoured!--What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages brings
+on the appointed hour, the rebellious and outcast children of heaven
+must sue--to their keen emergency--help--oh! speak up to the height
+of the want, of the succour! and call it _a lent ray of grace_, from
+the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth!--And see, where,
+in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the hallowing
+influence shines!--Auspiciously begun, the awed though aspiring Rite,
+the still, the multitudinous, the mystical, prospers!--_Gratefully_,
+as for the boon inexpressibly worth--_easily_, as of their own
+transcending power--_promptly_, as though fearing that a benefit
+received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright hair
+of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak
+benefactress--the wedded felicity of pure love!
+
+And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises again,
+discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a little
+perhaps, our actors!--Once more, attaching to the HUMAN DRAMA,
+slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of air, the same light
+and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that They, whom you lately saw
+tranquil, earnest even to pathos--"now are frolic"--enough and to
+spare!--Once more--THE FAIRIES.
+
+And see, too--where, centring in herself interest and action of the
+rapidly shifting scenery--ever again a beautiful granddaughter of Eve
+steps--free and fearless, and bouyant and bounding--our fancy-laid
+boards!--Ah! but how much unresembling the sweet maid!--_Outwardly_,
+for lofty-piled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the
+modern Amazon, Swanhilda--more unlike _within_. Instead of the clear
+truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy Innocence" of
+the poor fairy-beloved mountain child--SHE, in whose person and
+fortunes you are invited--for the next fifty minutes--to forget your
+own--harbours, fondly harbours, ill housemates of her virginal
+breast! a small, resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison
+of unwomanly faults. Pride is there!--The iron-hard and the
+iron-cold! There Scorn--edging repulse with insult!--and envenoming
+insult with despair!--leaps up, in eager answer to the beseeching
+sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent Adoration. And there is the
+indulged Insolency of a domineering--and as you will precipitately
+augur--an _indomitable_ Will! And there is exuberant SELF-POWER,
+that, from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling,
+circulating along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis!
+turns the nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous
+and blood-sprinkled joy of man--the tempestuous and terrible CHASE,
+which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the rougher lord
+of creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent! Oh, how much
+other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian valleys, the
+shade-loving Flower, the good Maud--herself looked upon with love by
+the glad eyes of men, women, children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other
+indeed! And yet, have you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of
+unamiable qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten,
+which has fastened, upon the gentle Maud's _haughty_ antithesis--the
+serviceable regard, and--the FAVOUR, even of THE FAIRIES.
+
+The FAVOUR!!
+
+Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief process. You
+are, after a fashion, informed with what studious, persevering, and
+unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and feminine pity, the
+lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the course of the last three
+or four years, turned back from her beetle-browed castle-gate, one by
+one, as they showed themselves there--a hundred, all worthily
+born--otherwise more and less meritorious--petitioners for that
+whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon this
+very morning, an embassy from the willow-wearers all--or, to speak
+indeed more germanely to the matter, of the BASKET-BEARERS[22],
+waited upon their beautiful enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in
+one, importing first a requisition to surrender; then, in case of
+refusal to capitulate, the announcement that HYMEN having found in
+CUPID an inefficient ally, he was about associating with himself, in
+league offensive, the god MARS, with intent of carrying the
+Maiden-fortress by storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants
+of the stronghold into captivity--whereunto she made answer--
+
+  ----our castle's strength
+  Will laugh a siege to scorn--
+
+herself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the sent This
+crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the first place,
+wreak and right.
+
+[Footnote 22: To German ears--to SEND A BASKET--is to REFUSE A
+PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.]
+
+But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of Elves,
+being in full council assembled in the broad light of the sun, upon
+the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not widely sitting
+diet had yet well opened its proceedings--"tramp, tramp, across the
+land," came, flying at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap
+huntress; and without other note of preparation sounded than their
+own thunder, her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage
+assembly, causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with
+devastation dire to persons and--wearing apparel.
+
+This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and right.
+
+And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which
+is--_summary_; as, from the character of the judges and executioners,
+into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would expect;
+sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their magical hand
+they turn the impoverished heiress of ill-possessed acres forth upon
+the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous manual industry, her
+livelihood; until, from the winnings of her handicraft, she is
+moreover able to make good, as far as this was liable to pecuniary
+assessment, the damage sustained under foot of her fiery barb by the
+Fairy realm; comfort with handsome presents the rejected suitors; and
+until, thoroughly tame, she yields into her softened and opened
+bosom, now rid of its intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once
+debarred and contemned visitant--LOVE.
+
+As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out this
+drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting, as a
+matter that is related merely, not presented, that misadventure under
+the oak-tree--there is, in the chamber of Swanhilda, but a Fairy
+delegation active, whilst under the Sun's hill whole Elfdom is in
+presence; in that resplendent hollow, wearing their own lovely
+shapes; within the German castle-walls, in apt masquerade. There they
+were grave. Here, we have already said, that they are merry. There
+their office was to feel and to think. Here, if there be any trust in
+apparitions, they drink, and what is more critical for an Elfin
+lip--they eat!
+
+Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred, well-dressed, and
+right courtly cavalier, who transacted between the Fairy Queen and
+the stonemason's daughter, him you shall presently see turned into a
+sort of Elfin cupbearer or court butler; not without fairy grace of
+person and of mind assuredly; not without a due innate sense of the
+beautiful, as his perfumed name (SWEETFLOWER) at the outset warns
+you; and, as the proximity of his function to her Majesty's
+person--for we do not here fall in with any thing like mention of a
+king--would suggest, independently of the delicately responsible part
+borne by him in the action, the chief stress of which you will find
+incumbent upon his capable shoulders.
+
+Such, in respect of the subject, is, thrice courteous and intelligent
+reader, the second piece of art, which we are glad to have the
+opportunity of placing before you, from our clever friend Ernst
+Willkomm's apparently right fertile easel. The second, answering to
+the first, LIKE and UNLIKE, you perceive, as two companion pictures
+should be.
+
+But it would be worse than useless to tell you that which you have
+seen and that which you will see, unless, from the juxtaposition of
+the two fables, there followed--a moral. They have, as we apprehend,
+a moral--_i.e._ one moral, and that a grave one, in common between
+them.
+
+Hitherto we have superficially compared THE FAIRIES' SABBATH and the
+FAIRY TUTOR. We now wish to develope a profounder analogy connecting
+them. We have compared them, as if ESTHETICALLY; we would now compare
+them MYTHOLOGICALLY--for, in our understanding, there lies at the
+very foundation of both tales A MYTHOLOGICAL ROOT--by whomsoever set,
+whether by Ernst Willkomm to-day, or by the population of the
+Lusatian mountains--three, six, ten centuries ago; or, in unreckoned
+antiquity, by the common Ancestors of the believers, who, in still
+unmeasured antiquity, brought the superstition of the Fairies out of
+central Asia to remote occidental Europe.
+
+This ROOT we are bold to think is--"A DEEPLY SEATED ATTRACTION,
+ALLYING THE FAIRY MIND TO THE PURITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE MORAL WILL
+IN THE MIND OF MEN." And first for the Tale which presently concerns
+us:--THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+SWEETFLOWER will beguile us into believing that the interposition of
+the Fairies in our Baroness's domestic arrangements, grows up, if one
+shall so hazardously speak, from TWO seeds, each bearing two
+branches--namely, from two wrongs, the one hitting, the other
+striking from, themselves--BOTH which wrongs they will AVENGE and
+AMEND. We take up a strenuous theory; and we deny--and we
+defy--SWEETFLOWER. Nay, more! Should our excellent friend, ERNST
+WILLKOMM, be found taking part, real or apparent, with SWEETFLOWER,
+we defy and we deny Ernst Willkomm. For in this mixed case of the
+Fairy wrong, we distinguish, first, INJURIES which shall be
+retaliated, and, as far as may be, compensated; and secondly, a
+SHREW, who is to be turned _into_ a WIFE, being previously turned
+_out of_ a shrew.
+
+We dare to believe that this last-mentioned end is the thing
+uppermost, and undermost, and middlemost in the mind of the Fairies;
+is, in fact, the true and _the sole final cause_ of all their
+proceedings.
+
+Or that the _moral heart_ of the poem--that root in the human breast
+and will, from which every true poem springs heavenward--is here the
+zeal of the spirits for _morally reforming Swanhilda_; is, therefore,
+that deep-seated attraction, which, as we have averred, essentially
+allies the inclination of the Fairies to the moral conscience in our
+own kind.
+
+One end, therefore, grounds the whole story, although two and more
+are proposed by _Sweetflower_. It is one that _satisfies_ the moral
+reason in man; for it is no less than to cleanse and heal the will,
+wounded with error, of a human creature. That other, which he
+displays, with mock emphasis, of restitution to the downtrodden
+fairyhood, is an exotic, fair and slight bud, grafted into the
+sturdier indigenous stock. For let us fix but a steady look upon the
+thing itself, and what is there before us? a whim, a trick of the
+fancy, tickling the fancy. We are amused with a quaint calamity--a
+panic of caps and cloaks. We laugh--we cannot help it--as the pigmy
+assembly flies a thousand ways at once--grave councillors and
+all--throwing terrified somersets--hiding under stones, roots--diving
+into coney-burrows--"any where--any where"--vanishing out of
+harm's--if not out of dismay's--reach. In a tale of the Fairies, THE
+FANCY rules:--and the interest of such a misfortune, definite and not
+infinite, is congenial to the spirit of the gay faculty which hovers
+over, lives upon surfaces, and which flees abysses; which thence,
+likewise, in the moral sphere, is equal to apprehending resentment of
+a personal wrong, and a judicial assessment of damages--but NOT A
+DISINTERESTED MORAL END.
+
+What is our conclusion then? plainly that the dolorous overthrow of
+the fairy divan is no better than an invention--the device of an
+esthetical artist. We hold that Ernst Willkomm has _gratuitously_
+bestowed upon us the disastrous catastrophe; that he has done this,
+knowing the obligation which lies upon Fancy within her own chosen
+domain to _create_, because--there, Fancy listens and reads. The
+adroit Fairy delineator must wile over and reconcile the most
+sportive, capricious, and self-willed spirit of our understanding, to
+accept a purpose foreign to that spirit's habitual sympathies--a
+purpose solemn and austere--THE MORAL PURPOSE OF RESCUING A
+SIN-ENTANGLED HUMAN SOUL.
+
+Or, if Ernst Willkomm shall guarantee to us, that the reminiscences
+of his people have furnished him with the materials of this tale; if
+he is, as we must needs hope, who have freely dealt with you to
+believe that he is--honest: honest both as to the general character,
+and the particular facts of his representations--if, in short, the
+Lusatian Highlanders do, sitting by the bench and the stove, aver and
+protest that the said Swanhilda did overturn both council-board and
+councillors--then we say, upon this occasion, that which we must all,
+hundreds of times, declare--namely, that _The Genius of Tradition_ is
+the foremost of artists; and further, that in this instance _an
+unwilled fiction_, determined by a necessity of the human bosom, has
+risen up _to mantle seriousness with grace_, as a free woodbine
+enclasps with her slender-gadding twines, and bedecks with her sweet
+bright blossoms, a towering giant of the grove.
+
+It will perhaps be objected, that the moral purity and goodness that
+are so powerful to draw to themselves the regard and care of the
+spiritual people, are wanting in the character of the over-bold
+Swanhilda. We have said that her _faults_ are the CALL to the Fairies
+for help and reformation: but we may likewise guess that Virtue and
+Truth first won their love. It must be recollected that the faults
+which are extirpated from the breast of our heroine, are not such as,
+in our natural understanding of humanity, dishonour or sully. Taken
+away, the character may stand clear. It is quite possible that this
+gone, there shall be left behind a kind, good, affectionate,
+generous, noble nature.
+
+We are free, or, more properly speaking, we are bound to believe,
+that thus the Fairies left Swanhilda.
+
+As for Maud, we know--for she was told--that the Fairies loved her
+for herself ere they needed her aid. Hanging as it were upon that
+wondrous power to help which dwelt within her--her simple
+goodness--may we not say that the Fairies discover an ENFORCED
+attraction, when they afterwards approach the maiden for their own
+succour and salvation; as they do, a FREE attraction, when, in the
+person of Swanhilda, they disinterestedly attach themselves to
+reforming a fault for the welfare and happiness of her whom it
+aggrieves?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will now proceed, as in our former communication, to adduce
+instances from other quarters, confirming the fairy delineations
+offered by our tale; or which may tend generally to bring out its
+mythological and literary character.
+
+Two points would suggest themselves to us in the tale of the Fairy
+Tutor, as chiefly provoking comparison. The first is:--_The affirmed
+Presidency of the Fairies over human morals_, viewed as _a Shape of
+the Interest_ which they take in the uprightness and purity of the
+human will.
+
+The second is:--
+
+_The Manner and Style of their operations_: or, THE FAIRY WAYS. In
+which we chiefly distinguish--1, The active presence of the Sprites
+in a human habitation. 2, Their masquerading. 3, Their dispatch of
+human victuals. 4, The liability of Elfin limbs to human casualties.
+5, The personality of that saucy Puck, our tiny ambassador elf.
+
+We are at once tempted and restrained by the richness of
+illustration, which presents itself under all these heads. The
+necessity of limitation is, however, imperious. This, and a wish for
+simplicity, dispose us to throw all under one more comprehensive
+title.
+
+Perhaps the reader has not entirely forgotten that in the remarks
+introductory to THE FAIRIES' SABBATH, having launched the
+question--what is a Fairy?--we offered him in the way of answer,
+_eight_ elements of the Fairy Nature. Has he quite forgotten that for
+one of these--it was the third--we represented the Spirit under
+examination, as ONE WHICH AT ONCE SEEKS AND SHUNS MANKIND?
+
+The cursory treatment of this Elfin criterion will now compendiously
+place before the reader, as much illustration of the two above-given
+heads as we dare impose upon him.
+
+The popular Traditions of entire Western Europe variously attest for
+all the kinds of the Fairies, and for some orders of Spirits
+partaking of the Fairy character, the singularly composed, and almost
+self-contradictory traits of a _seeking_ implicated and attempered
+with a _shunning_; of a shunning with a seeking. The inclination of
+our Quest will be to evidences of the _seeking_. The shunning will,
+it need not be doubted, take good care of itself.
+
+The attraction of the Fairy Species towards our own is,
+
+  1. Recognised--in their GENERIC DESIGNATIONS.
+  2. Apparent--in their GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD with us.
+  3. IN THEIR FREQUENTING AND ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES in the places of
+     our habitual occupancy and resort.
+  4. IN THEIR CALLING OR CARRYING US into the places of their Occupancy
+     and Resort; whether to return _hither_, or to remain
+     _there_.
+  5. BY THEIR ALIGHTING UPON THE PATH, worn already with some blithe or
+     some weary steps, OF A HUMAN DESTINY;--as friendly, or as unfriendly
+     Genii.
+
+We collect the proofs: and--
+
+1. Of their GENERIC APPELLATIVES, a Word!
+
+One is tempted to say that THE NATIONS, as if conscious of the kindly
+disposition inhering in the spiritual existences toward ourselves,
+have simultaneously agreed in conferring upon them titles of
+endearment and affection. The brothers Grimm write--"In Scotland they
+[The Fairies] are called _The Good People, Good Neighbours, Men of
+Peace;_ in Wales--_The Family, The Blessing of their Mothers, The
+Dear Ladies;_ in the old Norse, and to this day in the Faroe islands,
+_Huldufolk_ (_The Gracious People;_) in Norway, _Huldre_;[23] and, in
+conformity with these denominations, discover a striving to be in the
+proximity of men, and to keep up a good understanding with them."[24]
+
+[Footnote 23: May we for HULDRE read HULDREFOLK; and understand the
+_following_, or the _Folk_ of HULDRE? Huldre _means_ the Gracious
+Lady: she is a sort of Danish and Norwegian Fairy-Queen.--See GRIMM'S
+_German Mythology_, p. 168. First edition.]
+
+[Footnote 24: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales_.]
+
+2. THIS GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, to which these last words point, is
+interestingly depicted by the Traditions.
+
+In Scotland and Germany the Fairies plant their habitation
+_adjoining_ that of man--"_under the threshold_"--and in such
+attached Fairies an alliance is unfolded with us of a most
+extraordinary kind. "The closest connexion" (_id est_, of the Fairy
+species with our own) "is expressed," say the Brothers Grimm, "by the
+tradition, agreeably to which the family of the Fairies ORDERED
+ITSELF ENTIRELY AFTER THE HUMAN to which it belonged; and OF WHICH IT
+WAS AS IF A COPY. These domestic Fairies _kept their marriages upon
+the same day_ as the Human Beings; _their children were born upon the
+same day_; and _upon the same day they wailed for their dead._"[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales._]
+
+Two artlessly sweet breathings of Elfin Table, from the Helvetian
+Dales,[26] lately revived to your fancy the sinless--blissful years,
+when gods with men set fellowing steps upon one and the same fragrant
+and unpolluted sward, until transgression, exiling those to their own
+celestial abodes, left these lonely--a nearer, dearer, BARBARIAN
+Golden Age--wherein the kindly Dwarf nation stand representing the
+great deities of Olympus.
+
+[Footnote 26: See _The Dwarfs upon the Maple-Tree_, and _The Dwarfs
+upon the Crag-Stone_, in the former paper.]
+
+The healthful pure air fans restoration again to us. We lay before
+you--
+
+
+GERMAN TRADITIONS
+
+No. CXLIX _The Dwarfs' Feet_.
+
+"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about them, in
+caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, _in amity and good
+neighbourhood_ with the people, for whom they performed by night many
+a heavy labour. When the country folk, betimes in the morning, came
+with wains and implements, and wondered that all was ready done, the
+Dwarfs were hiding in the bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently
+the peasants were angry when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn
+lying reaped upon the field; but when presently after hail and storm
+came on, and they could well know that probably not a stalk should
+have escaped perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the
+provident Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin,
+fooled away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
+then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
+following:--A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
+cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that the
+tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit carried,
+and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman had use to
+keep his cherries. The people said in the village, that doth no one
+other than the honest dwarflings--they come tripping along by night,
+in long mantles, with covered feet, softly as birds, and perform
+diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been
+privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come
+and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made
+curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so
+carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than
+men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and
+the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and
+bear them into the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes,
+which he strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with
+daybreak, he hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he
+saw beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
+herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
+Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and laid
+waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their mountain. They
+harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from them their help. That
+herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs turned sickly and half-witted,
+and so continued until his dying day!"
+
+There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own hardily-nursed
+wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent hand[27] that brought home
+to us those other half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition,
+you behold a third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the
+three, young poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready
+and meet for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!--or
+fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
+nature-loving--Ellen or Margaret.
+
+[Footnote 27: Of Professor Wyes.]
+
+These old-young things--bequests, as they look to be--from the
+loving, singing childhood of the earth, may lawfully make children,
+lovers, and songsters of us all; and _will_, if we are _fond_, and
+hearken to them.
+
+In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
+chronologies,
+
+  "When the world and love were young,
+  And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"
+
+the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of _borrowing and
+lending_. Many traditions touch the matter. Here is one resting upon
+it.
+
+
+No. CLIV. _The Dwarfs near Dardesheim_.
+
+"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and Brunswick. Close
+to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest water flows, which
+is called the Smansborn,[28] and wells from a hill wherein formerly
+the Dwarfs dwelled. When the ancient inhabitants of the place needed
+a holiday dress, or any rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them
+to this Dwarf's Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice,
+told their occasion, adding--
+
+  'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,
+  At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'
+
+[Footnote 28: For LESSMANSBORN, _i.e._ LESSMANN'S WELL.]
+
+The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of the
+festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward gradually did
+bickerings interrupt the good understanding that was betwixt the
+Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the beginning for a short
+season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs departed away; because the flouts
+and gibes of many boors grew intolerable to them, as likewise their
+ingratitude for kindnesses done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth
+any Dwarfs more."
+
+In _Auvergne_, Miss Costello has just now learned, how the men and
+the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest footing, nigh one
+another: how the _knowledge_ and _commodious use_ of the _Healing
+Springs_ was owed by the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of
+yore, the powerful sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound,
+opened an _innocuous channel_ for _the torrent_, which used with its
+overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how they were
+looked upon as being, in a general sense, _the protectors_ against
+harm of the country: and, in fine, how the two orders of neighbours
+lived in long and happy communion of kind offices with one another;
+until, upon one unfortunate day, the ill-renowned freebooter,
+Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly men-at-arms, having approached,
+by stealth, from his near-lying hold, stormed the romantically seated
+rock-mansion of the bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger,
+forsook the land. Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may,
+now and then, be seen at a distance.
+
+Thus, too, the late _Brillat-Savarin_, from a sprightly, acute,
+brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest antiquary,
+lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone, flowing out
+from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when he first quitted
+it, yet hidden valley of his birth:--The FAIRIES--elderly, not
+beautiful, but benevolent unmarried ladies--kept, while time was,
+open school in THE GROTTO, which was their habitation, for the young
+girls of the vicinity, whom they taught--SEWING.
+
+
+3. We go on to exemplifying--ELFIN _Frequentation of, and Settlement
+with,_ MAN.
+
+The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men by
+manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
+celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
+purchase at the Tavern--from the Shambles, or in open Market. They
+_steal_ from oven and field. They go through a house, blessing the
+rooms, the marriage-bed--and stand beside the unconscious cradle.
+They give dreams. They take part in the evening mirth. They pray in
+the churches. They seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
+constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors. They
+dance in the churchyard.[29] They make themselves the wives and the
+paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin fixes himself, like a
+cat, in the house--once and for ever.
+
+We present traditions for illustrating some of these points, as they
+offer themselves to us.
+
+[Footnote 29:
+
+  "Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep
+  That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;
+  The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!
+  Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,
+  ENTER, IN DANCE!"
+
+WORDSWORTH.--_Sonnet upon an_ ABANDONED _Cemetery._]
+
+
+THEY HALT ON A JOURNEY.
+
+No. XXXV. _The Count of Hoia_.
+
+"There did appear once to a count of Hoia, a little mauling in the
+night, and, as the count was alarmed, said to him he should have no
+fear: he had a word to sue unto him, and begged that he should not be
+denied. The count answered, if it were a thing possible to do, and
+should be never burthensome to him and his, he will gladly do it. The
+manling said--'There be some that desire to come to thee this ensuing
+night, into thy house, and to make their stopping. Wouldst thou so
+long lend them kitchen and hall, and bid thy domestics that they go
+to bed, and none look after their ways and works, neither any know
+thereof, save only thou? They will show them, therefore, grateful.
+Thou and thy line shall have cause of joy, and in the very least
+matter shall none hurt happen unto thee, neither to any that belong
+to thee.' Whereunto the count assented. Accordingly, upon the
+following night, they came like a cavalcade, marching over the
+drawbridge to the house; one and all--tiny folk, such as they use to
+describe the hill manlings. They cooked in the kitchen, fell too, and
+rested, and nothing seemed otherwise than as if a great repast were
+in preparing. Thereafter, nigh unto morn, as they will again depart,
+comes the little manling a second time to the count, and after
+conning him thanks, handed him a _sword_, a _salamander cloth_, and a
+_golden ring_, in which was RED LION set above--advertising him,
+withal, that he and his posterity shall well keep these three pieces,
+and so long as they had them all together, should it go with fair
+accordance and well in the county; but so soon as they shall be
+parted from one another, shall it be a sign that nothing good
+impendeth for the county. Accordingly, the red lion ever after, when
+any of the stem is near the point of dying, hath been seen to wax
+wan.
+
+"Howsoever, at the time that Count Job and his brothers were minors,
+and Francis of Halle governor in the country, two of the
+pieces--viz., the Sword and the Salamander Cloth, were taken away;
+but the Ring remained with the lordship unto an end. Whither it
+afterwards went is not known."
+
+
+THEY HOLD A WEDDING.
+
+No.XXXI. _The Small People's Wedding Feast._
+
+"The small people of the Eulenberg in Saxony would once hold a
+marriage, and for this purpose slipped in, in the night, through the
+keyhole and the window-chinks into the Hall, and came leaping down
+upon the smooth floor, like peas tumbled out upon the
+threshing-floor. The old Count, who slept in the high canopy bed in
+the Hall, awoke, and marvelled at the number of tiny companions; one
+of whom, in the garb of a herald, now approached him, and in well-set
+phrase, courteously prayed him to bear part in their festivity. 'Yet
+one thing,' he added, 'we beg of you. Ye shall alone be present; none
+of your court shall be bold to gaze upon our mirth--yea, not so much
+as with a glance.' The old Count answered pleasantly--'Since ye have
+once for all waked me up, I will e'en make one among you.' Hereupon
+was a little wifikin led up to him, little torch-bearers took their
+station, and a music of crickets struck up. The Count had much ado to
+save losing his little partner in the dance; she capered about so
+nimbly, and ended with whirling him round and round, until hardly
+might he have his breath again. But, in the midst of the jocund
+measure, all stood suddenly still; the music ceased, and the whole
+throng hurried to the cracks in the doors, mouse-holes, and
+hiding-places of all sorts. The newly-married couple only, the
+heralds, and the dancers, looked upward towards an orifice that was
+in the hall ceiling, and there descried the visage of the old
+Countess, who was curiously prying down upon the mirthful doings.
+Herewith they made their obeisance to the Count; and the same which
+had bidden him, again stepping forward, thanked him for his
+hospitality. 'But,' continued he, 'because our pleasure and our
+wedding hath been in such sort interrupted, that yet another eye of
+man hath looked thereon, henceforward shall your house number never
+more than seven Eulenbergs.' Thereupon, they pressed fast forth, one
+upon another. Presently all was quiet, and the old Count once again
+alone in the dark Hall. The curse hath come true to this hour, so as
+ever one of the six living knights of Eulenberg hath died ere the
+seventh was born."
+
+
+THEY JOIN THE EVENING MIRTH.
+
+No. xxxix. _The Hill-Manling at the Dance_.
+
+"Old folks veritable declared, that some years ago, at Glass, in
+Dorf, an hour from the Wunderberg, and an hour from the town of
+Salzburg, a wedding was kept, to which, towards evening, a
+Hill-Manling came out of the Wunderberg. He exhorted all the guests
+to be in honour, gleesome, and merry, and requested leave to join the
+dancers, which was not refused him. He danced accordingly, with
+modest maidens, one and another; evermore, three dances with each,
+and that with a singular featness; insomuch that the wedding guests
+looked on with admiration and pleasure. The dance over, he made his
+thanks, and bestowed upon either of the young married people three
+pieces of money that were of an unknown coinage; whereof each was
+held to be worth four kreuzers; and therewithal _admonished them to
+dwell in peace and concord, live Christianly, and piously walking, to
+bring up their children in all goodness_. These coins they should put
+amongst their money, and constantly remember him--so should they
+seldom fall into hardship. _But they must not therewithal grow
+arrogant, but, of their superfluity, succour their neighbours_.
+
+"This Hill-Manling stayed with them into the night, and took of every
+one to drink and to eat what they proffered; but from every one only
+a little. He then paid his courtesy, and desired that one of the
+wedding guests might take him over the river Salzbach toward the
+mountain. Now, there was at the marriage a boatman, by name John
+Standl, who was presently ready, and they went down together to the
+ferry. During the passage, the ferryman asked his meed. The
+Hill-Manling tendered him, in all humility, three pennies. The
+waterman scorned at such mean hire; but the Manling gave him for
+answer--'He must not vex himself, but safely store up the three
+pennies; for, so doing, he should never suffer default of his
+having--_if only he did restrain presumptousness_--at the same time
+he gave the boatman a little pebble, saying the words--'If thou shalt
+hang this about thy neck, thou shalt not possibly perish in the
+water.' Which was proved in that same year. Finally, _he persuaded
+him to a godly and humble manner of life_, and went swiftly away."
+
+
+ANOTHER OF THE SAME.
+
+No. CCCVI. _The Three Maidens from the Mere._
+
+"At Epfenbach, nigh Sinzheim, within men's memory, three wondrously
+beautiful damsels, attired in white, visited, with every evening, the
+village spinning-room. They brought along with them ever new songs
+and tunes, and new pretty tales and games. Moreover, their distaffs
+and spindles had something peculiar, and no spinster might so finely
+and nimbly spin the thread. But upon the stroke of eleven, they
+arose; packed up their spinning gear, and for no prayers might be
+moved to delay for an instant more. None wist whence they came, nor
+whither they went. Only they called them, The Maidens from the Mere;
+or, The Sisters of the Lake. The lads were glad to see them there,
+and were taken with love of them; but most of all, the schoolmaster's
+son. He might never have enough of hearkening and talking to them,
+and nothing grieved him more than that every night they went so early
+away. The thought suddenly crossed him, and he set the village clock
+an hour back; and, in the evening, with continual talking and
+sporting, not a soul perceived the delay of the hour. When the clock
+struck eleven--but it was properly twelve--the three damsels arose,
+put up their distaffs and things, and departed. Upon the following
+morrow, certain persons went by the Mere; they heard a wailing, and
+saw three bloody spots above upon the surface of the water. Since
+that season, the sisters came never again to the room. The
+schoolmaster's son pined, and died shortly thereafter."
+
+
+AN ELFIN IS BOUND, IN UNLAWFUL CHAINS, TO A HUMAN LOVER.
+
+No. LXX. _The Bushel, the Ring, and the Goblet._
+
+"In the duchy of Lorraine, when it belonged, as it long did, to
+Germany, the last count of Orgewiler ruled betwixt Nanzig and
+Luenstadt.[30] He had no male heir of his blood, and upon his
+deathbed, shared his lands amongst his three daughters and
+sons-in-law. Simon of Bestein had married the eldest daughter, the
+lord of Crony the second, and a German Rhinegrave the youngest.
+Beside the lordships, he also distributed to his heirs three
+presents; to the eldest daughter a BUSHEL, to the middle one a
+DRINKING-CUP, and to the third a jewel, which was a RING, with an
+admonition that they and their descendants should carefully hoard up
+these pieces, so should their houses be constantly fortunate."
+
+[Footnote 30: LUNEVILLE.]
+
+The tradition, how the things came into the possession of the count,
+the Marshal of Bassenstein,[31] great-grandson of Simon, does himself
+relate thus:--[32]
+
+[Footnote 31: BASSOMPIERRE.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Mémoires du Maréchal de_ BASSOMPIERRE: Cologne, 1666.
+Vol. I. PP. 4-6. The Marshal died in 1646.]
+
+"The count was married: but he had beside a secret amour with a
+marvellous beautiful woman, which came weekly to him every Monday,
+into a summer-house in the garden. This commerce remained long
+concealed from his wife. When he withdrew from her side, he pretended
+to her, that he went, by night, into the Forest, to the Stand.
+
+"But when a few years had thus passed, the countess took a suspicion,
+and was minded to learn the right truth. One summer morning early,
+she slipped after him, and came to the summer bower. She there saw
+her husband, sleeping in the arms of a wondrous fair female; but
+because they both slept so sweetly, she would not awaken them; but
+she took her veil from her head, and spread it over the feet of both,
+where they lay asleep.
+
+"When the beautiful paramour awoke, and perceived the veil, she gave
+a loud cry, began pitifully to wail, and said:--
+
+"'Henceforwards, my beloved, we see one another never more. Now must
+I tarry at a hundred leagues' distance away, and severed from thee.'
+
+"Therewith she did 1eave the count, but presented him first with
+those afore-named three gifts for his three daughters, which they
+should never let go from them.
+
+"The House of Bassenstein, for long years, had a toll, to draw in
+fruit, from the town of Spinal,[33] whereto this Bushel was
+constantly used."
+
+[Footnote 33: EPINAL.]
+
+
+THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT DOES HOUSEHOLD SERVICE IN A MILL.
+
+No. LXXIII. _The Kobold in the Mill._
+
+"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed putting
+up for the night in a village; but for as much as there did a violent
+rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as they might no
+further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill, knocked, and
+begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the first, deaf, but
+yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty, opened the door, and
+brought them into a room. They were hungry and thirsty both; and
+because there stood upon a table a dish with food, and a mug of beer,
+they begged the miller for them, being both ready and willing to pay;
+but the miller denied them--would not give them even a morsel of
+bread, and only the hard bench for their night's bed.
+
+"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household Spirit.
+If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But else have ye no
+harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the night, be ye but
+still and sleep.'
+
+"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the space
+of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so vehemently that
+he stood up and sought after the dish. The other, a Master of Arts,
+warned him to leave to the Devil what was the Devil's due; but he
+answered, 'I have a better right than the Devil to it'--seated
+himself at the table, and ate to his heart's content, so that little
+was left of the cookery. After that, he laid hold of the can, took a
+good Pomeranian pull, and having thus somewhat appeased his desire,
+he laid himself again down to his companion; but when, after a time,
+thirst anew tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so
+hearty draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
+After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and fell
+asleep.
+
+"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well by, when
+the Kobold came banging in with so loud coil,[34] that both sleepers
+awoke in great fright. He bounced a few times to and fro about the
+room, then seated himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and
+they could plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he
+set it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
+can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
+again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs of
+the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom, the door
+diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit once more the
+dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any better this turn, but
+once more pushed both angrily away. Thereupon he proceeded in his
+labour, came to the benches, washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and
+above. When he came to the place where the two students lay, he
+passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When this was
+done, he began upon the bench a second time above their heads; and,
+for the second time likewise, passed over the visitants. But the
+third time, when he came to them, he stroked gently the one which had
+nothing tasted, over the hair and along the whole body, without any
+whit hurting him; but the other he griped by the feet, dragged him
+two or three times round the room upon the floor, till at the last he
+left him lying, and ran behind the stove, whence he laughed him
+loudly to scorn. The student crawled back to the bench; but in a
+quarter of an hour the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping,
+cleaning, wiping. The two lay there quaking with fear:--the one he
+felt quite softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung
+again upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
+into a flouting horse-laugh.
+
+[Footnote 34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of Milton--at
+_going out_, again:--
+
+               "Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."
+  He, too, is paid for his work, with
+               ----"_his_ CREAM-BOWL, duly set."
+
+"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose, and
+set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but none
+took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay themselves
+down close together upon the flat floor; but the Kobold left them not
+in peace. He began, for the third time, his game:--came and lugged
+the guilty one about, laughed, and scoffed him. He was now fairly mad
+with rage, drew his sword, thrust and cut into the corner whence the
+laugh rang, and challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He
+then sat down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
+should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained still.
+
+"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had not
+conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
+victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were worth."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the Fairies
+towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought out; and
+already the narrowness of our limits warns us--with a sigh given to
+the traditions crowding upon us from all countries, and which we
+perforce leave unused--to bring these preliminary remarks to a close.
+
+_Still_, something has been gained for illustrating our Tale. The
+Hill-Manling at the dance diligently warns against PRIDE--the rank
+ROOT evil which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our
+heroine, whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways--"THE
+ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
+itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected forms.
+
+And _still_, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly from the
+Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the habitudes of
+_various_ WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for comparison with Ernst
+Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC
+FAIRYHOOD.
+
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+"In days of yore there lived, alone in her castle, a maiden named
+Swanhilda. She was the only child of a proud father, lately deceased.
+Her mother she had lost when she was but a child; so that the
+education of the daughter had fallen wholly into the hands of the
+father.
+
+"During the lifetime even of the old knight, many suitors had offered
+themselves for Swanhilda; but she seemed to be insensible to every
+tender emotion, and dismissed with disdainful haughtiness the whole
+body of wooers. Meanwhile she hunted the stag and the board, and
+performed squire's service for her gradually declining parent. This
+manner of life was so entirely to the taste of the maiden,
+notwithstanding that in delicacy of frame, and in bewitching
+gracefulness of figure, she gave place to none of her sex, that when
+at length her father died, she took upon herself the management of
+the castle, and lived aloof in pride and independence, in the very
+fashion of an Amazon. Maugre the many refusals which Swanhilda had
+already distributed on every side, there still flocked to her loving
+knights, eager to wed; but, like their predecessors, they were all
+sent drooping home again. The young nobility could at last bear this
+treatment no longer; and they, one and all, resolved either to
+constrain the supercilious damsel to wedlock, or to make her smart
+for a refusal. An embassy was dispatched, charged with notifying this
+resolution to the mistress of the castle. Swanhilda heard the
+speakers quietly to the end; but her answer was tuned as before, or
+indeed rang harsher and more offensive than ever. Turning her back
+upon the embassy, she left them to depart, scorned and ashamed.
+
+"In the night following the day upon which this happened, Swanhilda
+was disturbed out of her sleep by a noise which seemed to her to
+ascend from her chamber floor; but let her strain her eyes as she
+might, she could for a long while discern nothing. At length she
+observed, in the middle of the room, a straying sparkle of light,
+that threw itself over and over like a tumbler, tittering, at the
+same time, like a human being. Swanhilda for a while kept herself
+quiet; but as the luminous antic ceased not practising his
+harlequinade, she peevishly exclaimed--'What buffoon is carrying on
+his fooleries here? I desire to be left in peace.' The light vanished
+instantly, and Swanhilda already had congratulated herself upon
+gaining her point, when suddenly a loud shrilly sound was heard--the
+floor of the apartment gave way, and from the gap there arose a table
+set out with the choicest viands. It rested upon a lucid body of air,
+upon which the tiny attendants skipped with great agility to and fro,
+waiting upon seated guests. At first Swanhilda was so amazed that her
+breath forsook her; but becoming by degrees somewhat collected, she
+observed, to her extreme astonishment, that an effigy of herself sat
+at the strange table, in the midst of the numerous train of suitors,
+whom she had so haughtily dismissed. The attendants presented to the
+young knights the daintiest dishes, the savour of which came
+sweetly-smelling enough to the nostrils of the proud damsel. As
+often, however, as the knights were helped to meat and drink, the
+figure of Swanhilda at the board was presented by an ill-favoured
+Dwarf, who stood as her servant behind her, with an empty basket,
+whereat the suitor's broke out into wild laughter. She also soon
+became aware, that as many courses were served up to the guests as
+she had heretofore dispensed refusals, and the amount of these was
+certainly not small.
+
+"Swanhilda, weary of the absurd phantasmagoria, was going to speak
+again; but to her horror she discovered that the power of speech had
+left her. She had for some time been struck with a kind of whispering
+and tittering about her. In order to make out whence this proceeded,
+she leaned out of her bed, and, peering between the silk curtains,
+perceived two smart diminutive cupbearers, in garments of blue, with
+green aprons, and small yellow caps. She had scarcely got sight of
+the little gentlemen when their whispering took the character of
+audible words; and the dumb Swanhilda was enabled to overhear the
+following discourse:
+
+"'But, I pri'thee, tell me, Sweetflower, how this show shall end?'
+said one of the two cupbearers,--'thou art, we know, the confidant of
+our queen, and, certes, canst disclose to me somewhat of her plans?'
+
+"'That can I, my small-witted Monsieur Silverfine,' answered
+Sweetflower. 'Know, therefore, that this sweet and lovely to behold
+brute of a girl, is now beginning to suffer the castigation due to
+her innumerable offences. Swanhilda has sinned against all maidenly
+modesty, has borne herself proud and overbearing towards honourable
+gentlemen, and, besides, has most seriously offended our queen.'
+
+"'How so?' enquired Silverfine.
+
+"'By storming on her Barbary steed, like the devil himself, through
+the thick of our States' Assembly, pounding the arms and legs of I
+don't know how many of our sapient representatives. What makes the
+matter worse is, that this happened at the very opening of the diet,
+and whilst the grand prelusive symphony of the whole hidden people
+was in full burst. We were sitting by hundreds of thousands upon
+blades, stalks, and leaves; some of us still actively busied
+arranging comfortable seats for the older people in the blue
+harebells. For this we had stripped the skins of sixty thousand red
+field spiders, and wrought them into canopies and hangings. All our
+talented performers had tuned their instruments, scraped, fluted,
+twanged, jingled, and shawmed to their hearts' content, and had
+resined their fiddlesticks upon the freshest of dewdrops. All at
+once, tearing out of the wood, with your leave, or without your
+leave, comes this monster of a girl, plump upon upper house and lower
+house together. Ah, lack-a-daisy! what a massacre it was! The first
+hoof struck a thousand of our prime orators dead upon the spot, the
+other three hoofs scattered the Imperial diet in all directions, and,
+what is worse than all, tore to pieces a multitude of our exquisite
+caps. Our queen was almost frantic at the breach of the peace--she
+stamped with her foot, and cried out, "LIGHTNING!" and what that
+means we all pretty well know. Just at this time, too, she received
+information of the maiden's arrogant behaviour towards her suitors,
+and on the instant she determined to put the sinner to her prayers.
+We began by devouring every thing clean up, giving her the pleasure
+of looking on.'
+
+"'Silly, absurd creatures!' _thought_ Swanhilda, as the little butler
+advanced to the table to put on some fresh wine. During his absence
+she had time to note how perhaps a dozen other Fairies drew up
+through the floor whole pailfuls of wine and smoking meats, which
+were conveyed immediately to the table, and there consumed as if by
+the wind. She was heartily longing for the day to dawn, that the sun
+might dissipate her dream, when the sprightly little speaker came to
+his place again.
+
+"'Now we can gossip a little longer,' said Sweetflower. 'My guests
+are provided for, and between this and cock-crow--when house and
+cellar will be emptied--there's some time yet.'
+
+"Swanhilda uttered (_mentally_) a prodigious imprecation, and turned
+herself so violently in the bed, that the little gentlemen were
+absolutely terrified.
+
+"'I verily believe we are going to have an earthquake!' said
+Silverfine.
+
+"'No such thing!' answered Sweetflower. 'The amiable young lady in
+bed there has seen the sport perhaps, and is very likely not
+altogether pleased with it.'
+
+"'Don't you think she would speak, if she saw all this wastefulness
+going on?' asked Silverfine.
+
+"'Yes, if she could!' chuckled Sweetflower. 'But our queen has been
+cruel enough to strike her dumb, whilst she looks upon this
+heartbreaking spectacle. If she once wakes, she won't be troubled
+again with sleep before cock-crow.'
+
+"'A pretty business!' _thought_ Swanhilda, once more tossing herself
+passionately about in her bed.
+
+"'Quite right!' said Sweetflower triumphantly. 'The imp of a girl has
+waked up.'
+
+"'Insolent wretches!' said Swanhilda (internally.) 'Brute and imp to
+me! Oh, if I could only speak!'
+
+"'Why, the whole fun of the thing is,' said Sweetflower, almost
+bursting with laughter, 'just that that wish won't be gratified. Does
+the fool of a woman think that she is to trample down our orchestra
+with impunity, to put our States' Assembly to flight, and to crush
+our very selves into a jelly!'
+
+"'And the unbidden guests divine my very thoughts!' _thought_
+Swanhilda. 'Upon my life, it looks as if a spice of omniscience had
+really crept under their caps!'
+
+"'Why, of course!' answered Sweetflower.
+
+"'Then will I think no more!' _resolved_ Swanhilda.
+
+"'And there, my prudent damsel, you show a good discretion,' returned
+Sweetflower, saluting her with an ironical bow.
+
+"'How will it be, then, with our caps?' enquired Silverfine. 'Are
+they to be repaired?'
+
+"'Oh, certainly,' returned Sweetflower; 'and that will cost our
+Amazon here more than all. Indeed, the conditions of her punishment
+are, to make good the caps, to pledge her troth to one of her
+despised suitors, to compensate the rest with magnificent gifts, and,
+for the future, never to mount hunter more, but to amble upon a
+gentle palfrey, as a lady should. And, till all this is done, am I to
+have the teaching of her.'
+
+"'Pretty conditions truly!' thought Swanhilda. 'I would rather die
+than keep them.'
+
+"'Just as you please, most worthy madam,' answered Sweetflower; 'but
+you'll think better of it yet, perhaps.'
+
+"'It will fall heavy enough upon her,' said Silverfine, 'seeing that
+we have it in command to seize upon all the lady's treasures.'
+
+"'Capital, capital!' shouted Sweetflower. 'That's peppering the
+punishment truly! For now must this haughty man-hating creature go
+about begging, catching and carrying fish to market, and so
+submitting herself to the scorn and laughter of all her former
+lovers, till her trade makes her rich again. Nothing but luck in
+fishing will our queen vouchsafe the audacious madam. Three years are
+allowed her. But, in the interim, she must starve and famish like a
+white mouse learning to dance.'
+
+"At this moment a monstrous burst of laughter roared from the table.
+The guests sang aloud--
+
+  "'The last flagon we end,
+  Swanhilda shall mend;
+  Huzza, knights, and drink
+  To the last dollar's chink!'
+
+"As the song ceased, the table descended, the floor closed up, and
+stillness was in the room again, as when the lady had first retired
+to her couch. The cock crew, and Swanhilda fell into a deep sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"When it left her, the sun already shone high and bright, and played
+on her silken bed-curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and seeing every
+thing about her in its usual state, she concluded that what had
+happened was nothing worse than a feverish dream. She now arose,
+began dressing herself, and would have allayed her waking thirst, but
+she could find neither glass nor water-pitcher. She called angrily to
+her waiting-woman.
+
+"'How come you to forget water, blockhead?' she exclaimed; 'get some
+quickly, and then--Breakfast!'
+
+"The attendant departed, shaking her head; for she knew well enough
+that every thing had been put in order as usual on the evening
+before. She very quickly returned, frightened out of her wits, and
+hardly able to speak.
+
+"'Oh my lady! my lady! my lady!' she stammered out.
+
+"'Well, where is the water?'
+
+"'Gone! all drained and dried up! Tub, brook, well--all empty and
+dry!'
+
+"'Is it possible?' said Swanhilda. 'Your eyes have surely deceived
+you! But never mind--bring up my breakfast. A ham and two Pomeranian
+geese-breasts.'
+
+"'Alack! gracious lady!' answered the girl, sobbing, 'every thing in
+the house is gone too! The wine-casks lie in pieces on the cellar
+floor; the stalls are empty; your favourite horse is away--hay and
+corn rotted through. It is shocking!'
+
+"Swanhilda dismissed her, and broke out at first into words wild and
+vehement. She checked them; but tears of disappointment and bitter
+rage forced their way in spite of her. A visit to her cellar,
+store-rooms, and granaries, convinced her of the horrible
+transformation which a night had effected in every thing that
+belonged to her. She found nothing every where but mould and
+sickly-smelling mildew; and was too soon aware that the hideous
+images of the night were nothing less than frightful realities. Her
+hardened heart stood proof; and since the whole region for leagues
+round was turned into a blighted brown heath, she at one resolved to
+die of hunger. Ere noon her few servants had deserted the castle, and
+Swanhilda herself hungered till her bowels growled again.
+
+"This laudable self-castigation she persevered in for three days
+long, when her hunger had increased to such a pitch that she could no
+longer remain quiet in the castle. In a state of half consciousness,
+she staggered down to the lake, known far and wide by the name of the
+Castle mere. Here, on the glassy surface, basked the liveliest
+fishes. Swanhilda for a while watched in silence the disport of the
+happy creatures, then snatched up a hazel wand lying at her feet,
+round the end of which a worm had coiled, and, half maddened by the
+joyance of the finny tribe, struck with it into the water. A greedy
+fish snapped at the switch. The famishing Swanhilda clutched
+hungeringly at it, but found in her hand a piece of offensive
+carrion, and nothing more; whilst around, from every side, there rang
+such a clatter of commingled mockery and laughter, that Swanhilda
+vented a terrible imprecation, and shed once more--a scorching tear.
+
+"'Oh! we shall soon have you tame enough!' said a voice straight
+before her, and she recognized it at once for the speaker of that
+miserable night. Looking about her, she perceived a moss-rose that
+luxuriated upon the rock. In one of the expanded buds sat a little
+kicking fellow, with green apron, sky-blue vest, and yellow bonnet.
+He was laughing right into the face of the angry miss; and, quaffing
+off one little flower-cup after another, filled them bravely again,
+and jingled with his tiny bunch of keys, as if he had been grand
+butler to the universe.
+
+"'A flavour like a nosegay!' said the malicious rogue. 'Wilt hob-nob
+with me, maiden? What do you say? Are we adepts at sacking a house?
+'Twill give thee trouble to fill thy cellars again as we found them.
+Take heart, girl. If you will come to, and take kindly to your
+angling, and do the thing that's handsome by your wooers, you shall
+have an eatable dinner yet up at the castle.'
+
+"'Infamous pigmy!' exclaimed Swanhilda, lashing with her rod, as she
+spoke, at the little rose. The small buffeteer meanwhile had leaped
+down, and, in the turning of a hand, had perched himself upon the
+lady's nose, where he drummed an animating march with his heels.
+
+"'Thy nose, I do protest, is excellently soft, thou wicked witch!'
+said the rascal. 'If thou wilt now try thy hand at fishing for the
+town market, thou shalt be entertained the while with the finest band
+of music in the world. Be good and pretty, and take up thy
+angling-rod. Trumpets and drums, flutes and clarinets, shall all
+strike up together.'
+
+"Swanhilda tried hard to shake the jocular tormentor off, but he kept
+his place on the bridge as if he had grown to it. She made a snatch
+at him, and he bit her finger.
+
+"'Hark'e, my damsel!' quoth Sweetflower; 'if you are so unmannerly,
+'tis time for a lesson. You smarted too little when you were a young
+one. We must make all that good now;' and forthwith he settled
+himself properly upon her nose, dangling a leg on either side, like a
+cavalier in saddle. 'Come, my pretty, be industrious,' continued he;
+'get to work, and follow good counsel.' And then he whistled a blithe
+and gamesome tune.
+
+"Swanhilda, not heedlessly to prolong her own vexation, dipped the
+rod into the water, and immediately saw another gleaming fish
+wriggling at its end. A basket, delicately woven of flowers, stood
+beside her, half filled with clear water. The fish dropped into it of
+themselves. The wee companion beat meanwhile with his feet upon the
+wings of the lady's nose, played ten instruments or more at once, and
+extemporized a light rambling rhyme, wherein arch gibes and playful
+derision of her present forlorn estate were not unmingled with
+auguries of a friendlier future.
+
+"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin, laughing.
+'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to the town, and
+when your fish are once sold, you may make yourself--some
+water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped into the fish-basket,
+crept out again on the other side, plucked a king-cup, took seat in
+it, and gave the word--'Forwards!' The flower, on the instant,
+displayed its petals. There appeared sail and rudder to the small and
+delicate ship, which at once took motion, and sailed gaily through
+the air.
+
+"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower, 'behave
+discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'
+
+"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She took her
+basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise herself as
+completely as possible before making for the town. But all her
+clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then, harassed by
+hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as she was, in her
+velvet riding-habit.
+
+"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity--she was in the
+market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of the
+well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue of scorn in thrall,
+and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied. Once more within her
+castle walls, she beheld a running spring in the courtyard, and near
+it an earthen pitcher. She filled--drank--and carried the remainder
+to the hall, where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a
+loaf. She submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and
+water, appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.
+
+"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She hastened
+to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner there. In their
+stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next instant she
+perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork, galloping before her
+across the courtyard, and addressing his pupil with another snatch of
+his derisive song.
+
+"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she carried her
+fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she again on her way
+to market. An amazing multitude of people were already in motion
+here, who presently thronged about the market-woman. The basket was
+nearly emptied, when two of her old suitors approached. Swanhilda was
+confounded, and a blush of deep shame inflamed her countenance.
+Curiosity and the pleasure of malice spurred them to accost her; but
+the sometime-haughty damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in
+answer tendered her fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing,
+however, ungentle gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the
+moment, caught sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy--saluting her
+with his little cap, and nodding approbation.
+
+"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought Swanhilda, and
+in the next instant the fairy was running upon her nose and cheeks,
+most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her with a little hair till
+she sneezed again.
+
+"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a profane
+swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have pepper
+growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there--is that pepper? Thou
+art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'
+
+"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf still
+tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her infliction with a
+virtuous patience. In her court and hall she found, as before, the
+spring, the bread, and the fire. As before, she satisfied hunger and
+thirst, and slept--the sweeter already for her punishment and pain.
+
+"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less severe,
+still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading, under fairy
+guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must be owned that her
+aversion to angling craft did not increase in proportion. As time ran
+on, she had encountered all her discarded knights, now singly and now
+in companies. A year and a half elapsed, and left the relation
+between suitors and maiden as at the beginning. At length a chivalric
+and gentle knight, noble in person as in birth, ventured to accost
+her, loving and reverently as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed,
+overcome with shame, the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged,
+blithe, and watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself
+upon her heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles--she made
+honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
+constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened hand.
+
+"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn the
+festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry creatures
+played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The blissful day over,
+and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing from the banquet and
+the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able little tutor hopped before
+them, and led them to the hymeneal bower with floral flute, and
+gratulatory song!"
+
+
+
+
+PORTUGAL.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: _Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal_. By J. SMITH, Esq.,
+Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two vols.]
+
+
+The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for so long
+a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and fallen so
+constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or more relaxed
+alliance with England that a knowledge of her interests, her habits,
+and her history, becomes an especial accomplishment of the English
+statesman. The two countries have an additional tie, in the
+similitude of their early pursuits, their original character for
+enterprise, and their mutual services. Portugal, like England, with a
+narrow territory, but that territory largely open to the sea, was
+maritime from her beginning; like England, her early power was
+derived from the discovery of remote countries; like England, she
+threw her force into colonization, at an era when all other nations
+of Europe were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like
+England, without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved
+her independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
+like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
+with which, after severing the link of government, she retains the
+link of a common language, policy, literature, and religion.
+
+The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed the
+prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government by Spain
+sank her into a temporary depression. But the native gallantry of the
+nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new effort commenced for
+her restoration to the place which she was entitled to maintain in
+the world. It is remarkable that, at such periods in the history of
+nations, some eminent individual comes forward, as if designated for
+the especial office of a national guide. Such an individual was the
+Marquis of Pombal, the virtual sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven
+years--a man of talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were
+the crush of faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the
+Jesuits and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
+Restorer of his Country."
+
+The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at Soure, a
+Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father, Manoel
+Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of the rank of
+_fidalgo de provincia_--a distinction which gave him the privileges
+attached to nobility, though not to the title of a grandee, that
+honour not descending below dukes, marquises, and counts. His mother
+was Theresa de Mendonca, a woman of family. He had two brothers,
+Francis and Paul. His own names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was
+added that of Mello, from his maternal ancestor.
+
+Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general, studied for
+a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the army as a
+private, according to the custom of the country, and rose to the rank
+of corporal, which he held until circumstances, and an introduction
+to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently prime-minister, induced him
+to devote himself to the study of history, politics, and law. The
+cardinal, struck with his ability, strongly advised him to persevere
+in those pursuits, appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal
+Academy of History, and shortly after, the king proposed that he
+should write the history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but
+this design was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six
+years, until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
+Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
+remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
+language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
+country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
+however, be recollected, that at this period French was the universal
+language of diplomacy, the language of the court circles, and the
+polished language of all the travelled ranks of England. The
+writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and politicians, were
+the study of every man who pretended to good-breeding, and the only
+study of most; so that, to a stranger, the acquisition of the
+vernacular tongue could be scarcely more than a matter of curiosity.
+Times, however, are changed; and the diplomatist who should now come
+to this country without a knowledge of the language, would be
+despised for his ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better
+remain at home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a
+negotiation to reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an
+ecclesiastical claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and
+it is surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
+appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
+Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun, by
+whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined to be a
+favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was above the
+middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably intellectual
+countenance; his manners graceful, and his language animated and
+elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that on a vacancy in
+the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled to take the
+portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly after, and Don
+Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the throne, appointing
+Pombal virtually his prime-minister--a rank which he held, unshaken
+and unrivaled, for the extraordinary period of twenty-seven years.
+
+The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
+minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of the
+most memorable service to his future administration. His six years'
+residence in England added practical knowledge to theoretical; and
+with the whole machinery of a free, active, and popular government in
+constant operation before his eyes, he returned to take the
+government of a dilapidated country. The power of the priesthood,
+exercised in the most fearful shape of tyranny; the power of the
+crown, at once feeble and arbitrary; the power of opinion, wholly
+extinguished; and the power of the people, perverted into the
+instrument of their own oppression--were the elements of evil with
+which the minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
+sincerely, and successfully.
+
+The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined with the
+most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for it not merely
+punished men for obeying their own consciences, but tried them in
+defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only made a law
+contradictory of every other law, but it established a tribunal
+subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be defended. It
+was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was a bold and noble
+effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits of national safety.
+By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that thenceforth no judicial
+burnings should take place without the consent and approval of the
+government, taking to itself the right of enquiry and examination,
+and confirming or reversing the sentence according to its own
+judgment. This measure decided at once the originality and the
+boldness of the minister: for it was the first effort of the kind in
+a Popish kingdom; and it was made against the whole power of Rome,
+the restless intrigues of the Jesuits, and the inveterate
+superstition of the people.
+
+Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's next
+attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He found all
+the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an annual revenue
+of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a national manufactory
+of gunpowder, it having been previously supplied by contract, and
+being of course supplied of the worst quality at the highest rate. He
+established regulations for the fisheries, he broke up iniquitous
+contracts, he attempted to establish a sugar refinery, and directed
+the attention of the people largely to the cultivation of silk. His
+next reformation was that of the police. The disorders of the late
+reign had covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a
+police so effective, and proceeded with such determined justice
+against all disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly
+safe, and the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a
+time when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
+assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as to
+be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
+country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
+immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets of
+the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for the
+various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior officers,
+made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and restored the
+revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next engaged his attention;
+he established a company to trade to the East and China, the old
+sources of Portuguese wealth. In the western dominions of Portugal,
+commerce had hitherto languished. He established a great company for
+the Brazil trade. But his still higher praise was his humanity.
+Though acting in the midst of a nation overrun with the most violent
+follies and prejudices of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses
+of the convents; and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as
+nuns the daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over
+for their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
+Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
+Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were granted
+to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among them. Of course
+those great objects were not achieved without encountering serious
+difficulties. The pride of the idle aristocracy, the sleepless
+intriguing of the Jesuits, the ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and
+the sluggish supremacy of the priests, were all up in arms against
+him. But his principle was pure, his knowledge sound, and his
+resolution decided. Above all, he had, in the person of the king, a
+man of strong mind, convinced of the necessities of change, and
+determined to sustain the minister. The reforms soon vindicated
+themselves by the public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the
+powers of a despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a
+regenerator of his country.
+
+But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the test
+at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the resources of
+Portugal.
+
+On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755, Lisbon
+was almost torn up from the foundations by the most terrible
+earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish festival, the
+population were crowding to the churches, which were lighted up in
+honour of the day. About a quarter before ten the first shock was
+felt, which lasted the extraordinary length of six or seven minutes;
+then followed an interval of about five minutes, after which the
+shock was renewed, lasting about three minutes. The concussions were
+so violent in both instances that nearly all the solid buildings were
+dashed to the ground, and the principal part of the city almost
+wholly ruined. The terror of the population, rushing through the
+falling streets, gathered in the churches, or madly attempting to
+escape into the fields, may be imagined; but the whole scene of
+horror, death, and ruin, exceeds all description. The ground split
+into chasms, into which the people were plunged in their fright.
+Crowds fled to the water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land,
+suddenly rose to an extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and
+swept away all within its reach. It was said to have risen to the
+height of five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and
+to have sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred
+four times.
+
+The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial force
+of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for while
+Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion of a
+gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
+considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said that
+many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the Tagus, and
+totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the shock on the
+river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung upon the shore.
+To complete the catastrophe, fires broke out in the ruins, which
+spread over the face of the city, burned for five or six days, and
+reduced all the goods and property of the people to ashes. For forty
+days the shocks continued with more or less violence, but they had
+now nothing left to destroy. The people were thus kept in a constant
+state of alarm, and forced to encamp in the open fields, though it
+was now winter. The royal family were encamped in the gardens of the
+palace; and, as in all the elements of society had been shaken
+together, Lisbon and its vicinity became the place of gathering for
+banditti from all quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish
+deserters made their way to the city, and robberies and murders of
+the most desperate kind were constantly perpetrated.
+
+During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell upon
+the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He adopted the
+most active measures for provisioning the city, for repressing
+plunder and violence, and for enabling the population to support
+themselves during this period of suffering. It was calculated that
+seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the damage of the city;
+and that not less than eighty thousand lives had been lost, either
+crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the waters. Some conception
+of the native mortality may be formed from that of the English: of
+the comparatively small number of whom, resident at that time in
+Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight men and fifty women were among the
+sufferers.
+
+The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this tremendous
+calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He found every
+one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed the king, as he
+entered "to meet this infliction of divine justice?" The calm and
+resolute answer of Pombal was--"Bury the dead, and feed the living."
+This sentence is still recorded, with honour, in the memory of
+Portugal.
+
+The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and returned to
+the ruins. For several days his only habitation was his carriage; and
+from it he continued to issue regulations for the public security.
+Those regulations amounted to the remarkable number of two hundred;
+and embraced all the topics of police, provisions, and the burial of
+the sufferers. Among those regulations was the singular, but
+sagacious one, of prohibiting all persons from leaving the city
+without a passport. By this, those who had robbed the people, or
+plundered the church plate, were prevented from escaping to the
+country and hiding their plunder, and consequently were obliged to
+abandon, or to restore it. But every shape of public duty was met by
+this vigorous and intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of
+the wounded, the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the
+destitute. He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of
+the capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
+of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the streets,
+buried the dead, and restored the services of the national religion.
+
+Another task subsequently awaited him--the rebuilding of the city. He
+began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty is due to the
+taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares. He did more: he
+built the more important fabric of public sewers in the new streets,
+and he laid out a public garden for the popular recreation. But he
+found, as Wren found, even in England, the infinite difficulty of
+opposing private interest, even in public objects; and Lisbon lost
+the opportunity of being the most picturesque and stately of European
+cities. One project, which would have been at once of the highest
+beauty and of the highest benefit--a terrace along the shore of the
+Tagus from Santa Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles,
+which would have formed the finest promenade in the world--he was
+either forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was
+hopeless. It was never even begun.
+
+The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to him
+among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the plunder
+of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his minister.
+They even declared the earthquake to have been a divine judgment for
+the sins of the administration. But they were rash enough, in the
+intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a repetition of the
+earthquake at the same time next year. When the destined day came,
+Pombal planted strong guards at the city gates, to prevent the panic
+of the people in rushing into the country. The earthquake did not
+fulfil the promise; and the people first laughed at themselves, and
+then at the Jesuits. The laugh had important results in time.
+
+There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history, than the
+long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose naturally from the
+commerce of the two nations--Portugal, already the most adventurous
+of nations, and England, growing in commercial enterprise. The
+advantages were mutual. In the year 1367, we have a Portuguese treaty
+stipulating for protection to the Portuguese traders in England. In
+1382, a royal order of Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador
+to bring his baggage into England free of duty--perhaps one of the
+earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
+civilization, and which has since been generally adopted throughout
+all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405, exonerates the
+Portuguese resident in England, and their ships, from being made
+responsible for the debts contracted by their ambassadors. In 1656,
+the important privilege was conceded to the English in Portugal, of
+being exempted from the native jurisdiction, and being tried by a
+judge appointed by England. This, in our days, might be an
+inadmissible privilege; but two centuries ago, in the disturbed
+condition of the Portuguese laws and general society, it might have
+been necessary for the simple protection of the strangers.
+
+The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have lately
+occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is curious to
+see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so far in advance
+of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in striking
+contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of monopoly and
+prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor the other--nature
+and necessity were too strong against him. We are, however, to
+recollect, that the language of complaint was popular in Portugal, as
+it always will be in a poor country, and that the minister who would
+be popular must adopt the language of complaint. In an eloquent and
+almost impassioned memoir by Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of
+his country, and hastily imputes it to the predominance of English
+commerce. He tells us that, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
+Portugal scarcely produced any thing towards her own support. Two
+thirds of her physical necessities were supplied from England. He
+complains that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
+Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an English
+trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers of all the
+necessaries of life throughout the country, and that the Portuguese
+had nothing to do but look on; that Cromwell, by the treaty which
+allowed the supply of Portugal with English cloths to the amount of
+two million sterling, had utterly impoverished the country; and in
+short, that the weakness and incapacity of Portugal, as an European
+state, were wholly owing, to her being destitute of trade, and that
+the destitution was wholly owing to her being overwhelmed by English
+commodities.
+
+We are not about to enter into detail upon this subject, but it is to
+be remembered, that Portugal obtained the cloth, even if she paid for
+it, cheaper from England than she could have done from any other
+country in Europe; that she had no means of making the cloth for
+herself, and that, after all, man must be clothed. Portugal, without
+flocks or fire, without coals or capital, could never have
+manufactured cloth enough to cover the tenth part of her population,
+at ten times the expense. This has occurred in later days, and in
+more opulent countries. We remember, in the reign of the Emperor
+Paul, when he was frantic enough to declare war against England, a
+pair of broadcloth pantaloons costing seven guineas in St Peterburg.
+This would have been severe work for the purse of a Portuguese
+peasant a hundred years ago. The plain fact of domestic manufactures
+being this, that no folly can be more foolish than to attempt to form
+them where the means and the country do not give them a natural
+superiority. For example, coals and iron are essential to the product
+of all works in metal. France has neither. How can she, therefore,
+contest the superiority of our hardware? She contests it simply by
+doing without it, and by putting up with the most intolerable cutlery
+that the world has ever seen. If, where manufactures are already
+established, however ineffectual, it may become a question with the
+government whether some privations must not be submitted to by the
+people in general, rather than precipitate those unlucky manufactures
+into ruin; there can be no question whatever on the subject where
+manufactures have not been hitherto established. Let the people go to
+the best market, let no attempt be made to force nature, and let no
+money be wasted on the worst article got by the worst means. One
+thing, however, is quite clear with respect to Portugal, that, by the
+English alliance, she has gained what is worth all the manufactures
+of Europe--independence. When, in 1640, she threw off the Spanish
+usurpation, and placed the Braganza family on the national throne,
+she threw herself on the protection of England; and that protection
+never has failed her to this hour. In the Spanish invasion of
+Portugal in 1762, England sent her ten thousand men, and the first
+officer of his day, Count La Lippe, who, notwithstanding his German
+name, was an Englishman born, and had commenced his service in the
+Guards. The Spaniards were beaten in all directions, and Portugal was
+included in the treaty of Fontainbleau in 1763. The deliverance of
+Portugal in the Peninsular war is too recent to be forgotten, and too
+memorable to be spoken of here as it deserves. And to understand the
+full value of this assistance, we are to recollect, that Portugal is
+one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, and at the same time the most
+exposed; that its whole land frontier is open to Spain, and its whole
+sea frontier is open to France; that its chief produce is wine and
+oranges, and that England is incomparably its best customer for both.
+
+Pombal, in his memoir, imputes a portion of the poverty of Portugal
+to her possession of the gold mines of Brazil. This is one of the
+paradoxes of the last century; but nations are only aggregates of
+men, and what makes an individual rich, cannot make a nation poor.
+The true secret is this--that while the possession of the gold mines
+induced an indolent government to rely upon them for the expenses of
+the state, that reliance led them to abandon sources of profit in the
+agriculture and commerce of the country, which were of ten times the
+value. This was equally the case in Spain. The first influx from the
+mines of Peru, enabled the government to disregard the revenues
+arising from the industry of the people. In consequence of the want
+of encouragement from the government, the agriculture and commerce of
+Spain sank rapidly into the lowest condition, whilst the government
+indolently lived on the produce of the mines. But the more gold and
+silver exist in circulation, the less becomes their value. Within
+half a century, the imports from the Spanish and Portuguese mines,
+had reduced the value of the precious metals by one half; and those
+imports thus became inadequate to the ordinary expenses of
+government. Greater efforts were then made to obtain them from the
+mines. Still, as the more that was obtained the less was the general
+value, the operation became more profitless still; and at length both
+Spain and Portugal were reduced to borrow money, which they had no
+means to pay--in other words, were bankrupt. And this is the true
+solution of the problem--why have the gold and silver mines of the
+Peninsula left them the poorest nations of Europe? Yet this was
+contrary to the operation of new wealth. The discovery of the mines
+of the New World appears to have been a part of that providential
+plan, by which a general impulse was communicated to Europe in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Europe was preparing for a new
+vigour of religion, politics, commerce, and civilization. Nothing
+stimulates national effort of every kind with so much power and
+rapidity, as a new general accession of wealth, or, as the political
+economist would pronounce it, a rise of wages, whether industrial or
+intellectual; and this rise was effected by the new influx of the
+mines. If Peru and Mexico had belonged to England, she would have
+converted their treasures into new canals and high-roads, new
+harbours, new encouragements to agriculture, new excitements to
+public education, new enterprises of commerce, or the colonization of
+new countries in the productive regions of the globe; and thus she
+would at once have increased her natural opulence, and saved herself
+from suffering under the depreciation of the precious metals, or more
+partially, by her active employment of them, have almost wholly
+prevented that depreciation. But the Peninsula, relying wholly on its
+imported wealth, and neglecting its infinitely more important
+national riches, was exactly in the condition of an individual, who
+spends the principal of his property, which is continually sinking
+until it is extinguished altogether.
+
+Another source of Peninsular poverty existed in its religion. The
+perpetual holidays of Popery made even the working portion of the
+people habitually idle. Where labour is prohibited for nearly a
+fourth of the year by the intervention of holidays, and thus idleness
+is turned into a sacred merit, the nation must prepare for beggary.
+But Popery goes further still. The establishment of huge communities
+of sanctified idlers, monks and nuns by the ten thousand, in every
+province and almost in every town, gave a sacred sanction to
+idleness--gave a means of escaping work to all who preferred the
+lounging and useless life of the convent to regular labour, and even
+provided the means of living to multitudes of vagabonds, who were
+content to eat their bread, and drink their soup, daily at the
+convent gates, rather than to make any honest decent effort to
+maintain themselves. Every country must be poor in which a large
+portion of the public property goes to the unproductive classes. The
+soldiery, the monks, the state annuitants, the crowds of domestics,
+dependent on the families of the grandees, all are necessarily
+unproductive. The money which they receive is simply consumed. It
+makes no return. Thus poverty became universal; and nothing but the
+singular fertility of the peopled districts of Spain and Portugal,
+and the fortune of having a climate which requires but few of the
+comforts essential in a severer temperature, could have saved them
+both from being the most pauperized of all nations, or even from
+perishing altogether, and leaving the land a desert behind them. It
+strangely illustrates these positions, that, in 1754, the Portuguese
+treasury was so utterly emptied, that the monarch was compelled to
+borrow 400,000 crusadoes (L.40,000) from a private company, for the
+common expenses of his court.
+
+Wholly and justly disclaiming the imputation which would pronounce
+Portugal a dependent on England, it is impossible to turn a page of
+her history without seeing the measureless importance of her English
+connexion. Every genuine source of her power and opulence has either
+originated with, or been sustained by, her great ally. Among the
+first of these has been the wine trade. In the year 1756--the year
+following that tremendous calamity which had sunk Lisbon into
+ruins--the wine-growers in the three provinces of Beira, Minho, and
+Tras-os-Montes, represented that they were on the verge of ruin. The
+adulteration of the Portuguese wines by the low traders had destroyed
+their character in Europe, and the object of the representation was
+to reinstate that character. Pombal immediately took up their cause;
+and, in the course of the same year, was formed the celebrated Oporto
+Wine Company, with a capital of £120,000. The declared principles of
+the establishment were, to preserve the quality of the wines, to
+secure the growers by fixing a regular price, and to protect them
+from the combinations of dealers. The company had the privilege of
+purchasing all the wines grown within a particular district at a
+fixed price, for a certain period after the vintage. When that period
+had expired, the growers were at liberty to sell the wines which
+remained unpurchased in whatever market they pleased. Monopolies, in
+the advanced and prosperous career of commercial countries, generally
+sink into abuse; but they are, in most instances, absolutely
+necessary to the infant growth of national traffic. All the commerce
+of Europe has commenced by companies. In the early state of European
+trade, individuals were too poor for those large enterprises which
+require a large outlay, and whose prospects, however promising, are
+distant. What one cannot do, must be done by a combination of many,
+if it is to be done at all. Though when individual capital, by the
+very action of that monopoly, becomes powerful enough for those
+enterprises, then the time is at hand when the combination may be
+dissolved with impunity. The Oporto Wine Company had no sooner come
+into existence, than its benefits were felt in every branch of
+Portuguese revenue. It restored and extended the cultivation of the
+vine, which is the staple of Portugal. It has been abolished in the
+revolutionary changes of late years. But the question, whether the
+country is yet fit to bear the abolition, is settled by the fact,
+that the wine-growers are complaining of ruin, and that the necessity
+of the case is now urging the formation of the company once more.
+
+The decision of Pombal's character was never more strongly shown than
+on this occasion. The traders into whose hands the Portuguese wines
+had fallen, and who had enjoyed an illegal monopoly for so many
+years, raised tumults, and serious insurrection was threatened. At
+Oporto, the mob plundered the director's house, and seized on the
+chief magistrate. The military were attacked, and the government was
+endangered. The minister instantly ordered fresh troops to Oporto;
+arrests took place; seventeen persons were executed; five-and-twenty
+sent to the galleys; eighty-six banished, and others subjected to
+various periods of imprisonment. The riots were extinguished. In a
+striking memoir, written by Pombal after his retirement from office,
+he gives a brief statement of the origin of this company--a topic at
+all times interesting to the English public, and which is about to
+derive a new interest from its practical revival in Portugal. We
+quote a fragment.
+
+"The unceasing and urgent works which the calamitous earthquake of
+November 1st, 1755, had rendered indispensable, were still vigorously
+pursued, when, in the following year, one Mestre Frei Joao de
+Mansilla presented himself at the Giunta at Belem, on the part of the
+principal husbandmen of Upper Douro, and of the respectable
+inhabitants of Oporto, in a state of utter consternation.
+
+"In the popular outcry of the time, the English were represented as
+making themselves the sole managers of every thing. The fact being,
+that, as they were the only men who had any money, they were almost
+the sole purchasers in the Portuguese markets. But the English here
+complained of were the low traffickers, who, in conjunction with the
+Lisbon and Oporto vintners, bought and managed the wines at their
+discretion. It was represented to the king, that, by those means, the
+price of wine had been reduced to 7200 rios a pipe, or less, until
+the expense of cultivation was more than the value of the produce;
+that those purchasers required one or two years' credit; that the
+price did not pay for the hoeing of the land, which was consequently
+deserted; that all the principal families of one district had been
+reduced to poverty, so much so as to be obliged to sell their knives
+and forks; that the poor people had not a drop of oil for their
+salad, so that they were obliged, even in Lent, to season their
+vegetables with the fat of hogs." The memoir mentions even gross vice
+as a consequence of their extreme poverty.
+
+We quote this passage to show to what extremities a people may be
+reduced by individual mismanagement, and what important changes may
+be produced by the activity of an intelligent directing power. The
+king's letters-patent of 1756, establishing the company, provided at
+once for the purity of the wine, its extended sale in England, and
+the solvency of the wine provinces. It is only one among a thousand
+instances of the hazards in which Popery involves all regular
+government, to find the Jesuits inflaming the populace against this
+most salutary and successful act of the king. At confession, they
+prompted the people to believe "that the wines of the company were
+not fit for the celebration of mass." (For the priests drink wine in
+the communion, though the people receive only the bread.) To give
+practical example to their precept, they dispersed narratives of a
+great popular insurrection which had occurred in 1661; and both
+incentives resulted in the riots in Oporto, which it required all the
+vigour of Pombal to put down.
+
+But the country and Europe was now to acknowledge the services of the
+great minister on a still higher scale. The extinction of the Jesuits
+was the work of his bold and sagacious mind. The history of this
+event is among the most memorable features of a century finishing
+with the fall of the French monarchy.
+
+The passion of Rome for territory has been always conspicuous, and
+always unsuccessful. Perpetually disturbing the Italian princes in
+the projects of usurpation, it has scarcely ever advanced beyond the
+original bounds fixed for it by Charlemagne. Its spirit of intrigue,
+transfused into its most powerful order the Jesuits, was employed for
+the similar purpose of acquiring territorial dominion. But Europe was
+already divided among powerful nations. Those nations were governed
+by jealous authorities, powerful kings for their leaders, and
+powerful armies for their defence. All was full; there was no room
+for the contention of a tribe of ecclesiastics, although the most
+daring, subtle, and unscrupulous of the countless slaves and soldiers
+of Rome. The world of America was open. There a mighty power might
+grow up unseen by the eye of Europe. A population of unlimited
+multitudes might find space in the vast plains; commerce in the
+endless rivers; defence in the chains of mountains; and wealth in the
+rocks and sands of a region teeming with the precious metals. The
+enterprise was commenced under the pretext of converting the Indians
+of Paraguay. Within a few years the Jesuits formed an independent
+republic, numbering thirty-one towns, with a population of a hundred
+thousand souls. To render their power complete, they prohibited all
+communication between the natives and the Spaniards and Portuguese,
+forbidding them to learn the language of either country, and
+implanting in the mind of the Indians an implacable hatred of both
+Spain and Portugal. At length both courts became alarmed, and orders
+were sent out to extinguish the usurpation. Negotiations were in the
+mean time opened between Spain and Portugal relative to an exchange
+of territory, and troops were ordered to effect the exchange.
+Measures of this rank were unexpected by the Jesuits. They had
+reckoned upon the proverbial tardiness of the Peninsular councils;
+but they were determined not to relinquish their prize without a
+struggle. They accordingly armed the natives, and prepared for a
+civil war.
+
+The Indians, unwarlike as they have always been, now headed by their
+Jesuit captains, outmanoeuvred the invaders. The expedition failed;
+and the baffled invasion ended in a disgraceful treaty. The
+expedition was renewed in the next year, 1755, and again baffled. The
+Portuguese government of the Brazils now made renewed efforts, and in
+1756 obtained some advantages; but they were still as far as ever
+from final success, and the war, fruitless as it was, had begun to
+drain heavily the finances of the mother country. It had already cost
+the treasury of Lisbon a sum equal to three millions sterling. But
+the minister at the head of the Portuguese government was of a
+different character from the race who had, for the last hundred
+years, wielded the ministerial sceptres of Spain and Portugal. His
+clear and daring spirit at once saw where the evil lay, and defied
+the difficulties that lay between him and its cure. He determined to
+extinguish the order of the Jesuits at a blow. The boldness of this
+determination can be estimated only by a knowledge of the time. In
+the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were the
+ecclesiastical masters of Europe. They were the confessors of the
+chief monarchs of the Continent; the heads of the chief seminaries
+for national education; the principal professors in all the
+universities;--and this influence, vast as it was by its extent and
+variety, was rendered more powerful by the strict discipline, the
+unhesitating obedience, and the systematic activity of their order.
+All the Jesuits existing acknowledged one head, the general of their
+order, whose constant residence was at Rome. But their influence,
+powerful as it was by their open operation on society, derived
+perhaps a superior power from its secret exertions. Its name was
+legion--its numbers amounted to thousands--it took every shape of
+society, from the highest to the lowest. It was the noble and the
+peasant--the man of learning and the man of trade--the lawyer and the
+monk--the soldier and the sailor--nay, it was said, that such was the
+extraordinary pliancy of its principle of disguise, the Jesuit was
+suffered to assume the tenets of Protestantism, and even to act as a
+Protestant pastor, for the purpose of more complete deception. The
+good of the church was the plea which purified all imposture; the
+power of Rome was the principle on which this tremendous system of
+artifice was constructed; and the reduction of all modes of human
+opinion to the one sullen superstition of the Vatican, was the
+triumph for which those armies of subtle enthusiasm and fraudulent
+sanctity were prepared to live and die.
+
+The first act of Pombal was to remove the king's confessor, the
+Jesuit Moreira. The education of the younger branches of the royal
+family was in the hands of Jesuits. Pombal procured a royal order
+that no Jesuit should approach the court, without obtaining the
+express permission of the king. He lost no time in repeating the
+assault. Within a month, on the 8th of October 1767, he sent
+instructions to the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, to demand a
+private audience, and lay before the pope the misdemeanours of the
+order.
+
+Those instructions charged the Jesuits with the most atrocious
+personal profligacy, with a design to master all public power, to
+gather opulence dangerous to the state, and actually to plot against
+the authority of the crowns of Europe. He announced, that the king of
+Portugal had commanded all the Jesuit confessors of the prince and
+princesses to withdraw to their own convents; and this important
+manifesto closed by soliciting the interposition of the papal see to
+prevent the ruin, by purifying an order which had given scandal to
+Christianity, by offences against the public and private peace of
+society, equally unexampled, habitual, and abominable. In 1758, the
+representation to the pope was renewed, with additional proofs that
+the order had determined to usurp every function, and thwart every
+act of the civil government; that the confessors of the royal family,
+though dismissed, continued to conspire; that they resisted the
+formation of royal institutions for the renewal of the national
+commerce; and that they excited the people to dangerous tumults, in
+defiance of the royal authority.
+
+Their intrigues comprehended every object by which influence was to
+be obtained, or money was to be made. The "Great Wine Company," on
+which the chief commerce of Portugal, and almost the existence of its
+northern provinces depended, was a peculiar object of their
+hostility, for reasons which we can scarcely apprehend, except they
+were general jealousy of all lay power, and hostility to all the
+works of Pombal. They assailed it from their pulpits; and one of
+their popular preachers made himself conspicuous by impiously
+exclaiming, "that whoever joined that company, would have no part in
+the company of Jesus Christ."
+
+The intrigues of this dangerous and powerful society had long before
+been represented to the popes, and had drawn down upon them those
+remonstrances by which the habitual dexterity of Rome at once saves
+appearances, and suffers the continuance of the delinquency. The
+Jesuits were too useful to be restrained; yet their crimes were too
+palpable to be passed over. In consequence, the complaints of the
+monarchs of Spain and Portugal were answered by bulls issued from
+time to time, equally formal and ineffective. Yet even from these
+documents may be ascertained the singularly gross, worldly, and
+illegitimate pursuits of an order, professing itself to be supremely
+religious, and the prime sustainer of the "faith of the gospel." The
+bull of Benedict the XIV., issued in 1741, prohibited from "trade and
+commerce, all worldly dominion, and the _purchase_ and _sale_ of
+converted Indians." The bull extended the prohibition generally to
+the monkish orders, to avoid branding the Jesuits especially. But a
+bull of more direct reprehension was published at the close of the
+year, expressly against the Jesuits in their missions in the east and
+west. The language of this document amounts to a catalogue of the
+most atrocious offences against society, humanity, and morals. By
+this bull, "all men, and especially _Jesuits_," are prohibited, under
+penalty of excommunication, from "making slaves of the Indians; from
+selling and bartering them; from separating them from their wives and
+children; from robbing them of their property; from transporting them
+from their native soil," &c.
+
+Nothing but the strongest necessity, and the most ample evidence,
+would ever have drawn this condemnation from Rome, whether sincere or
+insincere. But the urgencies of the case became more evident from day
+to day. In 1758, the condemnation was followed by the practical
+measure of appointing Cardinal Saldanha visitor and reformer of the
+Jesuits in Portugal, and the Portuguese settlements in the east and
+west.
+
+Within two months of this appointment the following decree was
+issued:--"For just reasons known to us, and which concern especially
+the service of God and the public welfare, we suspend from the power
+of confessing and preaching, in the whole extent of our patriarchate,
+the fathers of the Society of Jesus, from this moment, and until
+further notice." Saldanha had been just raised to the patriarchate.
+
+We have given some observations on this subject, from its peculiar
+importance to the British empire at this moment. The order of the
+Jesuits, extinguished in the middle of the last century by the
+unanimous demand of Europe, charged with every crime which could make
+a great association obnoxious to mankind, and exhibiting the most
+atrocious violations of the common rules of human morality, has,
+within this last quarter of a century, been revived by the papacy,
+with the express declaration, that its revival is for the exclusive
+purpose of giving new effect to the doctrines, the discipline, and
+the power of Rome. The law which forbids the admission of Jesuits
+into England, has shared the fate of all laws feebly administered;
+and Jesuits are active by hundreds or by thousands in every portion
+of the empire. They have restored the whole original system,
+sustained by all their habitual passion for power, and urging their
+way, with all their ancient subtlety, through all ranks of
+Protestantism.
+
+The courage and intelligence of Pombal placed him in the foremost
+rank of Europe, when the demand was the boldest and most essential
+service which a great minister could offer to his country; he broke
+the power of Jesuitism. But an order so numerous--for even within the
+life of its half-frenzied founder it amounted to 19,000--so
+vindictive, and flung from so lofty a rank of influence, could not
+perish without some desperate attempts to revenge its ruin. The life
+of Pombal was so constantly in danger, that the king actually
+assigned him a body guard. But the king himself was exposed to one of
+the most remarkable plots of regicide on record--the memorable Aveiro
+and Tavora conspiracy.
+
+On the night of the 3d of September 1758, as the king was returning
+to the palace at night in a cabriolet, attended only by his valet,
+two men on horseback, and armed with blunderbusses, rode up to the
+carriage, and leveled their weapons at the monarch. One of them
+missed fire, the other failed of its effect. The royal postilion, in
+alarm, rushed forward, when two men, similarly waiting in the road,
+galloped after the carriage, and both fired their blunderbusses into
+it behind. The cabriolet was riddled with slugs, and the king was
+wounded in several places. By an extraordinary presence of mind, Don
+Joseph, instead of ordering the postilion to gallop onward, directed
+him instantly to turn back, and, to avoid alarming the palace, carry
+him direct to the house of the court surgeon. By this fortunate
+order, he escaped the other groups of the conspirators, who were
+stationed further on the road, and under whose repeated discharges he
+would probably have fallen.
+
+The public alarm and indignation on the knowledge of this desperate
+atrocity were unbounded. There seemed to be but one man in the
+kingdom who preserved his composure, and that one was Pombal.
+Exhibiting scarcely even the natural perturbation at an event which
+had threatened almost a national convulsion, he suffered the whole to
+become a matter of doubt, and allowed the king's retirement from the
+public eye to be considered as merely the effect of accident. The
+public despatch of Mr Hay, the British envoy at Lisbon, alludes to
+it, chiefly as assigning a reason for the delay of a court
+mourning--the order for this etiquette, on the death of the Spanish
+queen, not having been put in execution. The envoy mentions that it
+had been impeded by the king's illness,--"it being the custom of the
+court to put on _gala_ when any of the royal family are blooded. When
+I went to court to enquire after his majesty's health, I was there
+informed that the king, on Sunday night the 3d instant, passing
+through a gallery to go to the queen's apartment, had the misfortune
+to fall and bruise his right arm; he had been blooded eight different
+times; and, as his majesty is a fat bulky man, to prevent any humours
+fixing there, his physicians have advised that he should not use his
+arm, but abstain from business for some time. In consequence, the
+queen was declared regent during Don Joseph's illness."
+
+This was the public version of the event. But appended to the
+despatch was a postscript, in _cipher_, stating the reality of the
+transaction. Pombal's sagacity, and his self control, perhaps a still
+rarer quality among the possessors of power, were exhibited in the
+strongest light on this occasion. For three months not a single step
+appeared to be taken to punish, or even to detect the assassins. The
+subject was allowed to die away; when, on the 9th of December, all
+Portugal was startled by a royal decree, declaring the crime, and
+offering rewards for the seizure of the assassins. Some days
+afterwards Lisbon heard, with astonishment, an order for the arrest
+of the Duke of Aveira, one of the first nobles, and master of the
+royal household; the arrest of the whole family of the Marquis of
+Tavora, himself, his two sons, his four brothers, and his two
+sons-in-law. Other nobles were also seized; and the Jesuits were
+forbidden to be seen out of their houses.
+
+The three months of Pombal's apparent inaction had been incessantly
+employed in researches into the plot. Extreme caution was evidently
+necessary, where the criminals were among the highest officials and
+nobles, seconded by the restless and formidable machinations of the
+Jesuits. When his proofs were complete, he crushed the conspirators
+at a single grasp. His singular inactivity had disarmed them; and
+nothing but the most consummate composure could have prevented their
+flying from justice. On the 12th of January 1759, they were found
+guilty; and on the 13th they were put to death, to the number of
+nine, with the Marchioness of Tavora, in the square of Belem. The
+scaffold and the bodies were burned, and the ashes thrown into the
+sea.
+
+Those were melancholy acts; the works of melancholy times. But as no
+human crime can be so fatal to the security of a state as regicide,
+no imputation can fall on the memory of a great minister, compelled
+to exercise justice in its severity, for the protection of all orders
+of the kingdom. In our more enlightened period, we must rejoice that
+those dreadful displays of judicial power have passed away; and that
+laws are capable of being administered without the tortures, or the
+waste of life, which agonize the feelings of society. Yet, while
+blood for blood continued to be the code; while the sole prevention
+of crime was sought for in the security of judgment; and while even
+the zeal of justice against guilt was measured by the terrible
+intensity of the punishment--we must charge the horror of such
+sweeping executions to the ignorance of the age, much more than to
+the vengeance of power.
+
+This tragedy was long the subject of European memory; and all the
+extravagance of popular credulity was let loose ill discovering the
+causes of the conspiracy. It was said, in the despatches of the
+English minister, that the Marquis of Tavora, who had been Portuguese
+minister in the East, was irritated by the royal attentions to his
+son's wife. Ambition was the supposed ground of the Duke of Aveira's
+perfidy. The old Marchioness of Tavora, who had been once the
+handsomest woman at court, and was singularly vein and haughty, was
+presumed to have received some personal offence, by the rejection of
+the family claim to a dukedom. All is wrapped in the obscurity
+natural to transactions in which individuals of rank are involved in
+the highest order of crime. It was the natural policy of the minister
+to avoid extending the charges by explaining the origin of the crime.
+The connexions of the traitors were still many and powerful; and
+further disclosures might have produced only further attempts at the
+assassination of the minister or the king.
+
+It was now determined to act with vigour against the Jesuits, who
+were distinctly charged with assisting, if not originating, the
+treason. A succession of decrees were issued, depriving them of their
+privileges and possessions; and finally, on the 5th of October 1759,
+the cardinal patriarch Saldanha issued the famous mandate, by which
+the whole society was expelled from the Portuguese dominions. Those
+in the country were transported to Civita Vecchia; those in the
+colonies were also conveyed to the Papal territory; and thus, by the
+intrepidity, wisdom, and civil courage of one man, the realm was
+relieved from the presence of the most powerful and most dangerous
+body which had ever disturbed the peace of society.
+
+Portugal having thus the honour of taking the lead, Rome herself at
+length followed; and, on the accession of the celebrated Ganganelli,
+Clement XIV., a resolution was adopted to suppress the Jesuits in
+every part of the world. On the 21st of July 1773, the memorable bull
+"Dominus ac Redemptor," was published, and the order was at an end.
+The announcement was received in Lisbon with natural rejoicing. _Te
+Deum_ was sung, and the popular triumph was unbounded and universal.
+
+We now hasten to the close of this distinguished minister's career.
+His frame, though naturally vigorous, began to feel the effects of
+his incessant labour, and an apoplectic tendency threatened to
+shorten a life so essential to the progress of Portugal; for that
+whole life was one of _temperate_ and _progressive_ reform. His first
+application was to the finances; he found the Portuguese exchequer on
+the verge of bankruptcy. A third of the taxes was embezzled in the
+collection. In 1761, his new system was adopted, by which the
+finances were restored; and every week a balance-sheet of the whole
+national expenditure was presented to the king. His next reform was
+the royal household, where all unnecessary expenses--and they were
+numerous--were abolished. Another curious reform will be longer
+remembered in Portugal. The nation had hitherto used _only_ the
+_knife_ at dinner! Pombal introduced the _fork_. He brought this
+novel addition to the table with him from England in 1745!
+
+The nobility were remarkably ignorant. Pombal formed the "College of
+Nobles" for their express education. There they were taught every
+thing suitable to their rank. The only prohibition being, "that they
+should _not converse in Latin_," the old pedantic custom of the
+monks. The nobles were directed to converse in English, French,
+Italian, or their native tongue; Pombal declaring, that the custom of
+speaking Latin was only "to teach them to barbarize."
+
+Another custom, though of a more private order, attracted the notice
+of this rational and almost universal improver. It had been adopted
+as a habit by the widows of the nobility, to spend the first years of
+their widowhood in the most miserable seclusion; they shut up their
+windows, retired to some gloomy chamber, slept on the floor, and,
+suffering all kinds of voluntary and absurd mortifications, forbade
+the approach of the world. As the custom was attended with danger to
+health, and often with death, besides its general melancholy
+influence on society, the minister publicly "enacted," that every
+part of it should be abolished; and, moreover, that the widows should
+always remove to another house; or, where this was not practicable,
+that they "should _not_ close the shutters, nor '_mourn_' for more
+than a week, nor remain at home for more than a month, nor sleep on
+the ground." Doubtless, tens of thousands thanked him, and thank him
+still, for this war against a popular, but most vexatious, absurdity.
+
+His next reform was the army. After the peace of 1763, he fixed it at
+30,000 men, whom he equipped effectually, and brought into practical
+discipline.
+
+A succession of laws, made for the promotion of European and colonial
+trade, next opened the resources of Portugal to an extent unknown
+before. Pombal next abolished the "Index Expurgitorius"--an
+extraordinary achievement, not merely beyond his age, but against the
+whole superstitious spirit of his age. He was not content with
+abolishing the restraint; he attempted to _restore_ the PRESS in
+Portugal. Hitherto nearly all Portuguese books had been printed in
+foreign counties. He established a "Royal Press," and gave its
+superintendence to Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been
+expatriated for printing works against the Jesuits. Such, in value
+and extent, were the acts which Portugal owed to this indefatigable
+and powerful mind, that when, in 1766, he suffered a paralytic
+stroke, the king and the people were alike thrown into consternation.
+
+At length Don Joseph, the king, and faithful friend of Pombal, died,
+after a reign of twenty-seven years of honour and usefulness. Pombal
+requested to resign, and the Donna Maria accepted the resignation,
+and conferred various marks of honour upon him. He now retired to his
+country-seat, where Wraxall saw him in 1772, and thus describes his
+appearance. "At this time he had attained his seventy-third year, but
+age seemed to have diminished neither the freshness nor the activity
+of his faculties. In his person he was very tall and slender, his
+face long, pale, and meagre, but full of intelligence."
+
+But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles; and the
+loss of his power as minister produced a succession of intrigues
+against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and doubtless
+also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always been at once
+so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was insulted by a
+trial, at which, however, the only sentence inflicted was an order to
+retire twenty leagues from the court. The Queen was, at that time,
+probably suffering under the first access of that derangement, which,
+in a few years after, utterly incapacitated her, and condemned the
+remainder of her life to melancholy and total solitude. But the last
+praise is not given to the great minister, while his personal
+disinterestedness is forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was
+to present to the throne a statement of his public income, when it
+appeared that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration,
+he had received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
+state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was rich;
+for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes were
+joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and estimation by
+the European courts, to the great age of eighty-three, dying on the
+5th of May without pain. A long inscription, yet in which the
+panegyric did not exceed the justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a
+single sentence might have established his claim to the perpetual
+gratitude of his country and mankind--
+
+  "Here lies the man who banished the
+  Jesuits from Portugal."
+
+Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much credit to
+his research and skill.
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART XII.
+
+
+  Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+  Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+  Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+  Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+  And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+  Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+  Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+
+SHAKSPEARE.
+
+Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom, but
+one--the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He evidently
+loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour of his
+existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief traders in
+France were already in prison; and yet he carried on the perilous
+game of commerce. He was known to be immensely opulent; and he must
+have regarded the day which passed over his head, without seeing his
+strong boxes put under the government seal, and himself thrown into
+some _oubliette_, as a sort of miracle. But he was now assailed by a
+new alarm. War with England began to be rumoured among the bearded
+brethren of the synagogue; and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from
+Peru to Japan. Like Shakspeare's princely merchant--
+
+  "His mind was tossing on the ocean,
+  There where his argosies with portly sail,
+  Like signiors, and rich burghers of the flood.
+  Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
+  Did overpower the petty traffickers,
+  As they flew by them with their woven wings."
+
+The first shot fired would inevitably pour out the whole naval force
+of England, and his argosies would put their helms about, and steer
+for Portsmouth, Plymouth, and every port but a French one. If this
+formidable intelligence had awakened the haughtiness of the French
+government to a sense of public peril, what effect must it not have
+in the counting-house of a man whose existence was trade? While I was
+on my pillow, luxuriating in dreams of French fêtes, Paul and
+Virginia carried off to the clouds, and Parisian _belles_ dancing
+cotillons in the bowers and pavilions of a Mahometan paradise,
+Elnathan spent the night at his desk, surrounded by his bustling
+generation of clerks, writing to correspondents at every point of the
+compass, and preparing insurances with the great London
+establishments; which I was to carry with me, though unacquainted
+with the transaction on which so many millions of francs hung
+trembling.
+
+His morning face showed me, that whatever had been his occupation
+before I met him at the breakfast-table, it had been a most uneasy
+one. His powerful and rather handsome physiognomy had shrunk to half
+the size; his lips were livid, and his hand shook to a degree which
+made me ask, whether the news from Robespierre was unfavourable. But
+his assurance that all still went on well in that delicate quarter,
+restored my tranquility, which was beginning to give way; and my only
+stipulation now was, that I should have an hour or two to spend at
+Vincennes before I took my final departure. The Jew was all
+astonishment; his long visage elongated at the very sound; he shook
+his locks, lifted up his large hands, and fixed his wide eyes on me
+with a look of mingled alarm and wonder, which would have been
+ludicrous if it had not been perfectly sincere.
+
+"In the name of common sense, do you remember in what a country, and
+in what times, we live? Oh, those Englishmen! always thinking that
+they are in England. My young friend, you are clearly not fit for
+France, and the sooner you get out of it the better."
+
+I still remonstrated. "Do you forget yesterday?" he exclaimed. "Can
+you forget the man before whom we both stood? A moment's hesitation
+on your part to set out, would breed suspicion in that most
+suspicious brain of all mankind. Life is here as uncertain as in a
+field of battle. Begone the instant your passports arrive, and never
+behind you.--For my part, I constantly feel as if my head were in the
+lion's jaws. Rejoice in your escape."
+
+But I was still unconvinced, and explained "that my only motive was,
+to relieve my friends in the fortress from the alarm which they had
+evidently felt for my fate, and to relieve myself from the charge of
+ingratitude, which would inevitably attach to me if I left Paris
+without seeing them."
+
+Never was man more perplexed with a stubborn subject. He represented
+to me the imminent hazard of straying a hair's-breadth to the right
+or left of the orders of Robespierre! "I was actually under
+surveillance, and he was responsible for me. To leave his roof; even
+for five minutes, until I left it for my journey, might forfeit the
+lives of both before evening."
+
+I still remonstrated; and pronounced the opinion, perhaps too
+flattering a one, of the dictator, that "he could not condescend to
+forbid a mere matter of civility, which still left me entirely at his
+service." The Jew at last, in despair, rushed from the room, leaving
+me to the unpleasing consciousness that I had distressed an honest
+and even a friendly man.
+
+Two hours thus elapsed, when a _chaise de poste_ drew up at the door,
+with an officer of the police in front, and from it came Varnhorst
+and the doctor, both probably expecting a summons to the scaffold;
+but the Prussian bearing his lot with the composure of a man
+accustomed to face death, and the doctor evidently in measureless
+consternation, colourless and convulsed with fear. His rapture was
+equally unbounded when Elnathan, ushering them both into the
+apartment where I sat--
+
+  Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter
+  thought"--
+
+explained, that finding me determined on my point, he had adopted the
+old proverb--of bringing Mahomet to the mountain, if he could not
+bring the mountain to Mahomet; had procured an order for their
+attendance in Paris, through his influence with the chief of the
+police, and now hoped to have the honour of their company at dinner.
+This was, certainly, a desirable exchange for the Place de Grève; and
+we sat down to a sumptuous table, where we enjoyed ourselves with the
+zest which danger escaped gives to luxurious security.
+
+All went on well. The doctor was surprised to find in the frowning
+banker, who had repulsed him so sternly from his desk, the hospitable
+entertainer; and Varhorst's honest and manly friendship was gratified
+by the approach of my release from a scene of perpetual danger.
+
+I had some remembrances to give to my friends in Prussia; and at
+length, sending away the doctor to display his connoisseurship on
+Elnathan's costly collection of pictures, Varnhorst was left to my
+questioning. My first question naturally was, "What had involved him
+in the ill-luck of the Austrians."
+
+"The soldier's temptation every where," was the answer; "having
+nothing to do at home, and expecting something to do abroad. When the
+Prussian army once crossed the Rhine, I should have had no better
+employment than to mount guard, escort the court dowagers to the
+balls, and finish the year and my life together, by dying of _ennui_.
+In this critical moment, when I was in doubt whether I should turn
+Tartar, or monk of La Trappe, Clairfait sent to offer me the command
+of a division. I closed with it at once, went to the king, obtained
+his leave, put spurs to my horse, and reached the Austrian camp
+before the courier."
+
+I could not help expressing my envy at a profession in which all the
+honours of earth lay at the feet of a successful soldier! He smiled,
+and pointed to the police-officer, who was then sulkily pacing in
+front of the house.
+
+"You see," said he, "the first specimen of my honours. Yet, from the
+moment of my arrival within the Austrian lines, I could have
+predicted our misfortune. Clairfait was, at least, as long-sighted as
+myself; and nothing could exceed his despondency but his indignation.
+His noble heart was half broken by the narrowness of his resources
+for defending the country, and the boundless folly by which the war
+council of Vienna expected to make up for the weakness of their
+battalions by the absurdity of their plans. 'I write for regiments,'
+the gallant fellow used to say; 'and they send me regulations! I tell
+them that we have not troops enough for an advanced guard; and they
+send me the plan of a pitched battle! I tell then that the French
+have raised their army in front of me to a hundred thousand strong;
+and they promise me reinforcements next year.' After all, his chief
+perplexity arose from their orders--every despatch regularly
+contradicting the one that came before.
+
+"Something in the style," said I, "of Voltaire's caricature of the
+Austrian courier in the Turkish war, with three packs strapped on his
+shoulders, inscribed, 'Orders'--'Counter-orders'--and 'Disorders.'
+
+"Just a case in point. Voltaire would have been exactly the historian
+for our campaign. What an incomparable tale he would have made of it!
+Every thing that was done was preposterous. We were actually beaten
+before we fought; we were ruined at Vienna before a shot was fired at
+Jemappes. The Netherlands were lost, not by powder and ball, but by
+pen and ink; and the consequence of our "march to Paris" is, that one
+half of the army is now scattered from Holland to the Rhine, and the
+other half is, like myself, within French walls."
+
+I enquired how Clairfait bore his change of fortune.
+
+"Like a man superior to fortune. I never saw him exhibit higher
+ability than in his dispositions for our last battle. He has become a
+magnificent tactician. But Alexander the Great himself could not
+fight without troops: and such was our exact condition.
+
+"Dumourier, at the head of a hundred thousand men, had turned short
+from the Prussian retreat, and flung himself upon the Netherlands.
+How many troops do you think the wisdom of the Aulic Council had
+provided to protect the provinces? Scarcely more than a third of the
+number, and those scattered over a frontier of a hundred miles; in a
+country, too, where every Man spoke French, where every man was half
+Republican already, where the people had actually begun a revolution,
+and where we had scarcely a friend, a fortress in repair, or
+ammunition enough for _feu de joie_. The French, of course, burst in
+like an inundation, sweeping every thing before them. I was at dinner
+with Clairfait and his staff on the day when the intelligence
+arrived. The map was laid upon the table, and we had a kind of debate
+on the course which the Frenchman would take. That evening completed
+my opinion of him as a general. He took the clearest view among all
+our conjectures, as the event proved, so far as the enemy's movements
+were concerned; though I still retain my own idea of an original
+error in the choice of our field of battle. Before the twilight fell,
+we mounted our horses, and rode to the spot where Clairfait had
+already made up his mind to meet the French. It was certainly a
+capital position for defence--a range of heights not too high for
+guns, surmounted by a central plateau; the very position for a
+battery and a brigade; but the very worst that could be taken against
+the new enemy whom we had to oppose."
+
+"Yet, what could an army of French recruits be expected to do against
+a disciplined force so strongly posted?" was my question.
+
+"My answer to that point," said Varnhorst, "must be a quotation from
+my old master of tactics. If the purpose of a general is simply to
+defend himself, let him keep his troops on heights; if his purpose is
+simply to make an artillery fight, let him keep behind his guns; but
+if it is his purpose to beat the enemy, he must leave himself able to
+follow them--and this he can do only on a plain. In the end, after
+beating the enemy in a dozen attempts to carry our batteries, but
+without the power of striking a blow in retaliation, we saw them
+carried all at once, and were totally driven from the field."
+
+"So much for bravery and discipline against bravery and enthusiasm,"
+said I. "Yet the enemy's loss must have been tremendous. Every
+assault must have torn their columns to pieces." Even this attempt at
+reconciling him to his ill fortune failed.
+
+"Yes," was the cool reply; "but they could afford it, which was more
+than we could do. Remember the maxim, my young friend, when you shall
+come to be a general, that the only security for gaining battles is,
+to have good troops, and a good many of them.--The French recruits
+fought like recruits, without knowing whether the enemy were before
+or behind them; but they fought, and when they were beaten they
+fought again. While we were fixed on our heights, they were formed
+into column once more, and marched gallantly up to the mouth of our
+guns. Then, we had but 18,000 men to the Frenchman's 60,000. Such
+odds are too great. Whether our great king would have fought at all
+with such odds against him, may be a question; but there can be none,
+whether he would have fixed himself where he could not manoeuvre. The
+Frenchman attacked us on flanks and centre, just when and where he
+pleased; there stood we, mowing down his masses from our fourteen
+redoubts, and waiting to be attacked again. To do him justice, he
+fought stoutly; and to do us justice, we fought sturdily. But still
+we were losing men; the affair looked unpromising from the first half
+hour; and I pronounced that, if Dumourier had but perseverance
+enough, he must carry the field."
+
+I made some passing remark on the singular hazard of bringing untried
+troops against the proverbial discipline of a German army, and the
+probability that the age of the wild armies of peasantry in Europe
+would be renewed, by the evidence of its success.
+
+"Right," said Varnhorst. "The thing that struck me most was, the new
+character of the whole engagement. It was Republicanism in the field;
+a bold riot, a mob battle. Nor will it be the last of its kind. Our
+whole line was once attacked by the French demi-brigades, coming to
+the charge, with a general chorus of the _Marseillaise_ hymn. The
+effect was magnificent, as we heard it pealing over the field through
+all the roar of cannon and musketry. The attack was defeated. It was
+renewed, under a chorus in honour of their general, and 'Vive
+Dumourier' was chanted by 50,000 voices, as they advanced against our
+batteries. This charge broke in upon our position, and took five of
+our fourteen redoubts. Even Clairfait now acknowledged that all was
+lost; two-thirds of our men were _hors de combat_, and orders were
+given for a retreat. My turn now came to act, and I moved forward
+with my small brigade of cavalry--but I was not more lucky than the
+rest."
+
+I pressed to hear the particulars, but his mind was still overwhelmed
+with a sense of military calamity, always the most reluctant topic to
+a brave and honest soldier; and he simply said--"the whole was a
+_mêlée_. Our rear was threatened in force by a column which had
+stormed the heights under a young _brave_, whom I had observed,
+during the day, exposing himself gallantly to all the risks of the
+field. To stop the progress of the enemy on this point was essential;
+for the safety of the whole army was compromised. We charged them,
+checked them, but found the brigade involved in a force of ten times
+our number; fought our way out again with heavy loss; and after all,
+a shot, which brought my charger to the ground, left me wounded and
+bruised in the hands of the French. I was taken up insensible, was
+carried to the tent of the young commander of the column, whom I
+found to be a Duc de Chartres, the son of the late Duke of Orleans.
+His kindness to his prisoner was equal to his gallantry in the field.
+Few and hurried as our interviews were, while his army remained in
+its position he gave me the idea of a mind of great promise, and
+destined for great things, unless the chances of war should stop his
+career. But, though a Republican soldier, to my surprise he was no
+Republican. His enquiries into the state of popular opinion in
+Europe, showed at once his sagacity, and the turn which his thoughts,
+young as he was, were already taking.--But the diadem is trampled
+under foot in France for ever; and with cannon-shot in his front
+every day of his life, and the guillotine in his rear, who can answer
+for the history of any man for twenty-four hours together?"
+
+My time in Paris had now come to a close. All my enquiries for the
+fate of Lafontaine had been fruitless; and I dreaded the still more
+anxious enquiries to which I should be subjected on my arrival; but I
+had at least the intelligence to give, that I had not left him in the
+fangs of the jailers of St Lazare. I took leave of my bold and
+open-hearted Prussian friend with a regret, which I had scarcely
+expected to feel for one with whom I had been thrown into contact
+simply by the rough chances of campaigning; but I had the
+gratification of procuring for him, through the mysterious interest
+of Elnathan, an order for his transmission to Berlin in the first
+exchange of prisoners. This promise seemed to compensate all the
+services which he had rendered to me. "I shall see the Rhine again,"
+said he, "which is much more than I ever expected since the day of
+our misfortune. "I shall see the Rhine again!--and thanks to you for
+it." He pressed my hand with honest gratitude.
+
+The carriage which was to convey me to Calais was now at the door.
+Still, one thought as uppermost in his mind; it was, that I should
+give due credit to the bravery of the Austrian general and his army.
+"If I have spoken of the engagement at all," said he, "it was merely
+to put you in possession of the facts. You return to England; you
+will of course hear the battle which lost the Netherlands discussed
+in various versions. The opinion of England decides the opinion of
+Europe. Tell, then, your countrymen, in vindication of Clairfait and
+his troops, that after holding his ground for nine hours against
+three times his force, he retreated with the steadiness of a movement
+on parade, without leaving behind him a single gun, colour, or
+prisoner. Tell them, too, that he was defeated only through the
+marvellous negligence of a government which left him to fight battles
+without brigades, defend fortresses without guns, and protect
+insurgent provinces with a fugitive army."
+
+My answer was--"You may rely upon my fighting your battles over the
+London dinner-tables, as perseveringly, if not as much against odds,
+as you fought it in the field. But the fortune of war is proverbial,
+and I hope yet to pour out a libation to you as Generalissimo
+Varnsdorf, the restorer of the Austrian laurels."
+
+"Well, Marston, may you be a true prophet! But read that letter from
+Guiscard; our long-headed friend not merely crops our German laurels,
+but threatens to root up the tree." He handed me a letter from the
+Prussian philosopher: it was a curious _catalogue raisonné_ of the
+_im_probabilities of success in the general war of Europe against the
+Republic; concluding with the words, so characteristic of his solemn
+and reflective views of man and the affairs of man--
+
+"War is the original propensity of human nature, and civilization is
+the great promoter of war. The more civilized all nations become, the
+more they fight. The most civilized continent of the world has spent
+the fourth of its modern existence in war. Every man of common sense,
+of course, abhors its waste of life, of treasure, and of time. Still
+the propensity is so strong, that it continues the most prodigal
+sacrifice of them all. I think that we are entering on a period, when
+war, more than ever, will be the business of nations. I should not be
+surprised if the mania of turning nations into beggars, and the
+population into the dust of the field, should last for half a
+century; until the whole existing generation are in their graves, and
+a new generation shall take their places, astonished at the fondness
+of their fathers for bankruptcy and bloodshed." After some sharp
+censures of the unpurposed conduct of the German cabinets, he
+finished by saying--"If the French continue to fight as they have
+just fought, Jemappes will be the beginning of a new era. In the
+history of the world, every great change of human supremacy has been
+the result of a change in the principles of war; and the nation which
+has been the first to adopt that change, has led the triumph for its
+time. France has now found out a new element in war--the force of
+multitude, the charge of the masses; and she will conquer, until the
+kings of Europe follow her example, and call their nations to the
+field. Till then she will be invincible, but then her conquests will
+vanish; and the world, exhausted by carnage, will be quiet for a
+while. But the wolfish spirit of human nature will again hunger for
+prey; some new system of havoc will be discovered by some great
+genius, who ought to be cursed to the lowest depths of human memory;
+but who will be exalted to the most rapturous heights of human
+praise. Then again, when one half of the earth is turned into a field
+of battle, and the other into a cemetery, mankind will cry out for
+peace; and again, when refreshed, will rush into still more ruinous
+war:--thus all things run in a circle. But France has found out the
+secret for this age, and--_vae victis!_--the pestilence will be tame
+to the triumph of her frenzy, her rapine, and her revenge."
+
+"Exactly what I should have expected from Guiscard," was my remark;
+"he is always making bold attempts to tear up the surface of the
+time, and look into what is growing below."
+
+"Well, well," replied my honest fellow soldier, "I never perplex my
+brain with those things. I dare say your philosophers may be right;
+at least once in a hundred years. But take my word for it, that
+musket and bayonet will be useful matters still; and that discipline
+and my old master Frederick, will be as good as Dumourier and
+desperation, when we shall have brigade for brigade."
+
+The postillions cracked their whips, the little Norman horses tore
+their way over the rough pavement; the sovereign people scattered off
+on every side, to save their lives and limbs; and the plan of St
+Denis, rich with golden corn, and tracked by lines of stately trees,
+opened far and wide before me. From the first ascent I gave a
+_parting_ glance at Paris--it was mingled of rejoicing and regret.
+What hours of interest, of novelty, and of terror, had I not passed
+within the circuit of those walls! Yet, how the eye cheats
+reality!--that city of imprisonment and frantic liberty, of royal
+sorrow and of popular exultation, now looked a vast circle of calm
+and stately beauty. How delusive is distance in every thing! Across
+that plain, luxuriant with harvest, surrounded with those soft hills,
+and glittering in the purple of this glorious evening, it looked a
+paradise. I knew it--a pendemonium!
+
+I speeded on--every thing was animated and animating in my journey.
+It was the finest season of the year; the roads were good; the
+prospects--as I swept down valley and rushed round hill, with the
+insolent speed of a government _employé_, leaving all meaner
+vehicles, travellers, and the whole workday world behind--seemed to
+be to redeem the character of French landscape. But how much of its
+colouring was my own! Was _I_ not _free?_ was I not _returning to
+England?_ was I not approaching scenes, and forms, and the realities
+of those recollections, which, even in the field of battle, and at
+the foot of the scaffold, had alternately cheered and pained,
+delighted and distressed me?--yet which, even with all their
+anxieties, were dearer than the most gilded hopes of ambition. Was I
+not about to meet the gay smile and poignant vivacity of Mariamne?
+was I not about to wander in the shades of my paternal castle? to see
+those relatives who were to shape so large a share of my future
+happiness; to meet in public life the eminent public men, with whose
+renown the courts and even the camps of Europe were already ringing:
+and last, proudest, and most profound feeling of all--was I not to
+venture near the shrine on which I had placed my idol; to offer her
+the solemn and distant homage of the heart; perhaps to hear of her
+from day to day; perhaps to see her noble beauty; perhaps even to
+_hear_ that voice, of which the simplest accents sank to my
+soul.--But I must not attempt to describe sensations which are in
+their nature indescribable; which dispose the spirit of man to
+silence; and which, in their true intensity, suffer but one faculty
+to exist, absorbing all the rest in deep sleep and delicious reverie.
+
+I drove with the haste of a courier to London; and after having
+deposited my despatches with one of the under-secretaries of the
+Foreign office, I flew to Mordecai's den in the city. London appeared
+to me more crowded than ever; the streets longer, and buildings
+dingier; and the whole, seen after the smokeless and light-coloured
+towns of the Continent, looked an enormous manufactory, where men
+wore themselves out in perpetual blackness and bustle, to make their
+bread, and die. But my heart beat quickly as I reached the door of
+that dingiest of all its dwellings, where the lord of hundreds of
+thousands of pounds burrowed himself on the eyes of mankind.
+
+I knocked, but was long unanswered; at last a meagre clerk, evidently
+of the "fallen people," and who seemed dug up from the depths of the
+dungeon, gave me the intelligence that "his master and family had
+left England." The answer was like an icebolt through my frame. This
+was the moment to which I had looked forward with, I shall not say
+what emotions. I could scarcely define them; but they had a share of
+every strong, every faithful, and every touching remembrance of my
+nature. My disappointment was a pang. My head grey dizzy, I reeled;
+and asked leave to enter the gloomy door, and rest for a moment. But
+this the guardian of the den was too cautious to allow, and I should
+have probably fainted in the street, but for the appearance of an
+ancient Rebecca, the wife of the clerk, who, feeling the compassion
+which belongs to the sex in all instances, and exerting the authority
+which is so generally claimed by the better-halves of men, pushed her
+husband back, and led the way into the old cobwebbed parlour where I
+had so often been. A glass of water, the sole hospitality of the
+house, revived me; and after some enquiries alike fruitless with the
+past, I was about to take my leave, when the clerk, in his removal of
+some papers, not to be trusted within reach of a stranger, dropped a
+letter from the bundle, on which was my name. From the variety of
+addresses it had evidently travelled far, and had been returned from
+half the post-offices of the Continent. It was two months' old, but
+its news was to me most interesting. It was from Mordecai; and after
+alluding to some pecuniary transactions with his foreign brethren,
+always the first topic, he hurried on in his usual abrupt
+strain:--"Mariamne has insisted on my leaving England for a while.
+This is perplexing; as the war must produce a new loan, and London
+is, after all, the only place where those affairs can be transacted
+without trouble.--My child is well, and yet she looks pallid from
+time to time, and sheds tears when she thinks herself unobserved. All
+this may pass away, but it makes me uneasy; and, as she has evidently
+made up her mind to travel, I have only to give way--for, with all
+her caprices, she is my child, my only child, and my beloved child!
+
+"I have heard a good deal of your proceedings from my correspondent
+and kinsman in Paris. You have acquitted yourself well, and it shall
+not be unknown in the quarter where it may be of most service to
+you.--I have been stopped by Mariamne's singing in the next room, and
+her voice has almost unmanned me; she is melancholy of late, and her
+only music now is taken from those ancestral hymns which our nation
+regard as the songs of the Captivity. Her tones at this moment are
+singularly touching, and I have been forced to lay down my pen, for
+she has melted me to tears. Yet her colour has not altogether faded
+lately, and I think sometimes that her eyes look brighter than ever!
+Heaven help me, if I should lose her. I should then be alone in the
+world.
+
+"You may rely on my intelligence--a war is _inevitable_. You may also
+rely on my conjecture--that it will be the most desperate war which
+Europe has yet seen. One that will break up _foundations_, as well as
+break down superstructures; not a war of politics but of principles;
+not a war for conquest but for ruin. All the treasuries of Europe
+will be bankrupt within a twelvemonth of its commencement; unless
+England shall become their banker. This will be the harvest of the
+men of money.--It is unfortunate that your money is all lodged for
+your commission; otherwise, in the course of a few operations, you
+might make cent per cent, which I propose to do. _Apropos_ of
+commissions. I had nearly omitted, in my own family anxieties, to
+mention the object for which I began my letter. I have _failed_ in
+arranging the affair of your commission! This was not for want of
+zeal. But the prospect of a war has deranged and inflamed every
+thing. The young nobility have actually besieged the Horse-guards.
+All the weight of the aristocracy has pressed upon the minister, and
+minor influence has been driven from the field. The spirit is too
+gallant a one to be blamed;--and yet--are there not a hundred other
+pursuits, in which an intelligent and active mind, like your own,
+might follow on the way to fortune? You have seen enough of
+campaigning to know, that it is not all a flourish of trumpets. Has
+the world but one gate, and that the Horse-guards? If my personal
+judgment were to be asked, I should feel no regret for a
+disappointment which may have come only to turn your knowledge and
+ability to purposes not less suitable to an ambitious spirit, nor
+less likely to produce a powerful impression on the world--the only
+thing, after all, worth living for! You may laugh at this language
+from a man of my country and my trade. But even _I_ have my ambition;
+and you may yet discover it to be not less bold than if I carried the
+lamp of Gideon, or wielded the sword of the Maccabee.--I must stop
+again; my poor restless child is coming into the room at this moment,
+complaining of the chill, in one of the finest days of summer. She
+says that this villa has grown sunless, airless, and comfortless.
+Finding that I am writing to you, she sends her best wishes; and bids
+me ask, what is the fashionable colour for mantles in Paris, and also
+what is become of that 'wandering creature,' Lafontaine, if you
+should happen to recollect such a personage."
+
+"P.S.--My daughter insists on our setting out from Brighton
+to-morrow, and crossing the Channel the day after. She has a whim for
+revisiting Switzerland; and in the mean time begs that if, during our
+absence, _you_ should have a whim for sea air and solitude, you may
+make of the villa any use you please.--Yours sincerely,
+
+"J.V. MORDECAI."
+
+
+After reading this strange and broken letter, I was almost glad that
+I had not seen Mariamne. Lafontaine was in her heart still, in spite
+of absence. At this I did not wonder, for the heart of woman, when
+once struck, is almost incapable of change: but the suspense was
+killing her; and I had no doubt that her loss would sink even her
+strong-headed parent to the grave. Yet, what tidings had I to give?
+Whether her young soldier was shot in the attempt to escape from St
+Lazare, or thrown into some of those hideous dungeons, where so many
+thousands were dying in misery from day to day, was entirely beyond
+my power to tell. It was better that she should be roving over the
+bright hills, and breathing the fresh breezes of Switzerland, than
+listening to my hopeless conjectures at home; trying to reconcile
+herself to all the chances which passion is so painfully ingenious in
+creating, and dying, like a flower in all its beauty, on the spot
+where it had grown.
+
+But the letter contained nothing of the _one_ name, for which my
+first glance had looked over every line with breathless anxiety.
+There was not a syllable of Clotilde! The father's cares had absorbed
+all other thoughts; and the letter was to me a blank in that
+knowledge for which I panted, as the hart pants for the fountains.
+Still, I was not dead to the calls of friendship; and that night's
+mail carried a long epistle to Mordecai, detailing my escapes, and
+the services of his kindred in France; and for Mariamne's ear, all
+that I could conceive cheering in my hopes of that "wandering
+creature, Lafontaine."
+
+But I was forced to think of sterner subjects. I had arrived in
+England at a time of the most extraordinary public excitement. Every
+man felt that some great trial of England and of Europe was at hand;
+but none could distinctly define either its nature or its cause.
+France, which had then begun to pour out her furious declamations
+against this country, was, of course, generally looked to as the
+quarter from which the storm was to come; but the higher minds
+evidently contemplated hazards nearer home. Affiliated societies,
+corresponding clubs, and all the revolutionary apparatus, from whose
+crush and clamour I had so lately emerged, met the ear and the eye on
+all occasions; and the fiery ferocity of French rebellion was nearly
+rivalled by the grave insolence of English "Rights of Man." But I am
+not about to write the history of a time of national fever. The
+republicanism, which Cicero and Plutarch instil into us all at our
+schools, had been extinguished in me by the squalid realities of
+France. I had seen the dissecting-room, and was cured of my love for
+the science. My spirit, too, required rest. I could have exclaimed
+with all the sincerity, and with all the weariness too, of the
+poet:--
+
+  Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+  Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+  Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
+  Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+  Might never reach me more!"
+
+But, perhaps fortunately for my understanding, if not for my life, I
+was not suffered to take refuge in the wilderness. London was around
+me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and busy London. I
+was floating on those waves of human being, in which the struggler
+must make for the shore, or sink. I was in the centre of that huge
+whispering gallery, where every sound of earth was echoed and
+re-echoed with new power; and where it was impossible to dream. My
+days were now spent in communication with the offices of government,
+and a large portion of my nights in carrying on those
+correspondences, which, though seldom known in the routine of Downing
+Street, form the essential part of its intercourse with the
+continental cabinets. But a period of suspense still remained.
+Parliament had been already summoned for the 13th of December. Up to
+nearly the last moment, the cabinet had been kept in uncertainty as
+to the actual intents of France. There had been declamation in
+abundance in the French legislature and the journals; but with this
+unsubstantial evidence the cabinet could not meet the country.
+Couriers were sent in all directions; boats were stationed along the
+coast to bring the first intelligence of actual hostilities suddenly;
+every conceivable expedient was adopted; but all in vain. The day of
+opening the Session was within twenty-four hours. After lingering
+hour by hour, in expectancy of the arrival of despatches from our
+ambassador at the Hague, I offered to cross the sea in the first
+fishing-boat which I could find, and ascertain the facts. My offer
+was accepted; and in the twilight of a winter's morning, and in the
+midst of a snow-storm, I was making my shivering way homeward through
+the wretched lanes which, dark as pitch and narrow as footpaths, then
+led to the centre of the diplomatic world; when, in my haste, I had
+nearly overset a meagre figure, which, half-blinded by the storm, was
+tottering towards the Foreign office. After a growl, in the most
+angry jargon, the man recognized me; he was the clerk whom I had seen
+at Mordecai's house. He had, but an hour before, received, by one of
+the private couriers of the firm, a letter, with orders to deliver it
+with all expedition. He put it into my hand: it was not from
+Mordecai, but from Elnathan, and was simply in these words:--"My
+kinsman and your friend has desired me to forward to you the first
+intelligence of hostilities. I send you a copy of the bulletin which
+will be issued at noon this day. It is yet unknown; but I have it
+from a source on which you may perfectly rely. Of this make what use
+you think advantageous. Your well-wisher."
+
+With what pangs the great money-trafficker must have consigned to my
+use a piece of intelligence which must have been a mine of wealth to
+any one who carried it first to the Stock Exchange, I could easily
+conjecture. But I saw in it the powerful pressure of Mordecai, which
+none of his tribe seemed even to have the means of resisting. My
+sensations were singular enough as I traced my way up the dark and
+lumbering staircase of the Foreign office; with the consciousness
+that, if I had chosen to turn my steps in another direction, I might
+before night be master of thousands, or of hundreds of thousands. But
+it is only due to the sense of honour which had been impressed on me,
+even in the riot and roughness of my Eton days, to say, that I did
+not hesitate for a moment Sending one of the attendants to arouse the
+chief clerk, I stood waiting his arrival with the bulletin unopened
+in my hands. The official had gone to his house in the country, and
+might not return for some hours. My perplexity increased. Every
+moment might supersede the value of my priority. At length a
+twinkling light through the chinks of one of the dilapidated doors,
+told me that there was some one within, from whom I might, at least,
+ask when and how ministers were to be approached. The door was
+opened, and, to my surprise, I found that the occupant of the chamber
+was one of the most influential members of administration. My name
+and purpose were easily given; and I was received as I believe few
+are in the habit of being received by the disposers of high things in
+high places. The fire had sunk to embers, the lamp was dull, and the
+hearer was half frozen and half asleep. Yet no sooner had he cast his
+eyes upon the mysterious paper which I gave into his grasp, than all
+his faculties were in full activity.
+
+"This," said he, "is the most important paper that has reached this
+country since the taking of the Bastile. THE SCHELDT IS OPENED! This
+involves an attack on Holland; the defence of our ally is a matter of
+treaty, and we must arm without delay. The war is begun, but where it
+shall end"--he paused, and fixing his eyes above, with a solemnity of
+expression which I had not expected in the stern and hard-lined
+countenance, "or who shall live to see its close--who shall tell?"
+
+"We have been waiting," said he, "for this intelligence from week to
+week, with the fullest expectation that it would come; and yet, when
+it has come, it strikes like a thunderclap. This is the third night
+that I have sat in this hovel, at this table, unable to go to rest,
+and looking for the despatch from hour to hour.--You see, sir, that
+our life is at least not the bed of roses for which the world is so
+apt to give us credit. It is like the life of my own hills--the
+higher the sheiling stands, the more it gets of the blast."
+
+I do not give the name of this remarkable man. He was a Scot, and
+possessed of all the best characteristics of his country. I had heard
+him in Parliament, where he was the most powerful second of the most
+powerful first that England had seen. But if all men were inferior to
+the prime minister in majesty and fulness of conception, the man to
+whom I now listened had no superior in readiness of retort, in
+aptness of illustration--that mixture of sport and satire, of easy
+jest and subtle sarcasm, which forms the happiest talent for the
+miscellaneous uses of debate. If Pitt moved forward like the armed
+man of chivalry, or rather like the main body of the battle--for
+never man was more entitled to the appellation of a "host in
+himself"--never were front, flanks, and rear of the host covered by a
+more rapid, quick-witted, and indefatigable auxiliary. He was a man
+of family, and brought with him into public life, not the manners of
+a menial of office, but the bearing of a gentleman. Birth and blood
+were in his bold and manly countenance; and I could have felt no
+difficulty in conceiving him, if his course had followed his nature,
+the chieftain on his hills, at the head of his gallant retainers,
+pursuing the wild sports of his romantic region; or in some foreign
+land, gathering the laurels which the Scotch soldier has so often and
+so proudly added to the honours of the empire.
+
+He was perfectly familiar with the great question of the time, and
+saw the full bearings of my intelligence with admirable sagacity;
+pointed out the inevitable results of suffering France to take upon
+herself the arbitration of Europe, and gave new and powerful views of
+the higher relation in which England was to stand, as the general
+protectress of the Continent. "This bulletin," said he, "announces
+the fact, that a French squadron has actually sailed up the Scheldt
+to attack Antwerp. Yet it was not ten years since France protested
+against the same act by Austria, as a violation of the rights of
+Holland. The new aggression is, therefore, not simply a solitary
+violence, but a vast fraud; not merely the breach of an individual
+treaty, but a declaration that no treaty is henceforth to be held as
+binding; it is more than an act of rapine; it is an universal
+dissolution of the principles by which society is held together. In
+what times are we about to live?"
+
+My reply was--"That it depended on the spirit of England herself,
+whether the conflict was to be followed by honour or by shame; that
+she had a glorious career before her, if she had magnanimity
+sufficient to take the part marked out for her by circumstances; and
+that, with the championship of the world in her hands, even defeat
+would be a triumph."
+
+He now turned the conversation to myself; spoke with more than
+official civility of my services, and peculiarly of the immediate
+one; and asked in what branch of diplomacy I desired advancement?
+
+My answer was prompt. "In none. I desired promotion but in one
+way--the army." I then briefly stated the accidental loss of my
+original appointment, and received, before I left the chamber, a note
+for the secretary at war, recommending me, in the strongest terms,
+for a commission in the Guards.--The world was now before me, and the
+world in the most vivid, various, and dazzling shape; in the boldest
+development of grandeur, terror, and wild vicissitude, which it
+exhibited for a thousand years--ENGLAND WAS AT WAR!
+
+There is no sight on earth more singular, or more awful, than a great
+nation going to war. I saw the scene in its highest point of view, by
+seeing it in England. Its perfect freedom, its infinite, and often
+conflicting, variety of opinion--its passionate excitement, and its
+stupendous power, gave the summons to hostilities a character of
+interest, of grandeur, and of indefinite but vast purposes,
+unexampled in any other time, or in any other country. When one of
+the old monarchies commenced war, the operation, however large and
+formidable, was simple. A monarch resolved, a council sat, less to
+guide than to echo his resolution; an army marched, invaded the
+enemy's territory, fought a battle--perhaps a dubious one--rested on
+its arms; and while _Te Deum_ was sung in both capitals alike for the
+"victory" of neither, the ministers of both were constructing an
+armistice, a negotiation, and a peace--each and all to be null and
+void on the first opportunity.
+
+But the war of England was a war of the nation--a war of wrath and
+indignation--a war of the dangers of civilized society entrusted to a
+single championship--a great effort of human nature to discharge, in
+the shape of blood, a disease which was sapping the vitals of Europe;
+or in a still higher, and therefore a more faithful view, the
+gathering of a tempest, which, after sweeping France in its fury, was
+to restore the exhausted soil and blasted vegetation of monarchy
+throughout the Continent; and in whose highest, England, serene and
+undismayed, was to
+
+  "Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."
+
+I must acknowledge, that I looked upon the coming conflict with a
+strange sense of mingled alarm and rejoicing. For the latter feeling,
+perhaps I ought to make some apology; but I was young, ardent, and
+ambitious. My place in life was unfixed; standing in that unhappy
+middle position, in which stands a man of birth too high to suffer
+his adoption of the humbler means of existence, and yet of resources
+too inadequate to sustain him without action--nay, bold and
+indefatigable exertion. I, at the moment, felt a very inferior degree
+of compunction at the crisis which offered to give me at least a
+chance of being seen, known, and understood among men. I felt like a
+man whose ship was stranded, and who saw the storm lifting the surges
+that were to lift him along with them; or like the traveller in an
+earthquake, who saw the cleft in the ground swallowing up the river
+which had hitherto presented an impassable obstacle--cities and
+mountains might sink before the concussion had done its irresistible
+will, but, at all events, it had cleared his way.
+
+In thoughts like these, rash and unconnected as they were, I spent
+many a restless day, and still more restless night. I often sprang
+from a pillow which, if I had lived in the days of witchcraft, I
+should have thought spelled to refuse me sleep; and walking for
+hours, endeavoured to reduce into shape the speculations which filled
+my mind with splendours and catastrophes worthy of oriental dreams.
+Why did I not then pursue the career in which I had begun the world?
+Why not devote myself to diplomacy, in which I had hitherto received
+honour? Why not enter into Parliament, which opened all the secrets
+of power? For this I had two reasons. The first--and, let me confess,
+the most imperious--was, that my pride had been deeply hurt by the
+loss of my commission. I felt that I had not only been deprived of a
+noble profession, accidental as was the loss; but that I had
+subjected myself to the trivial, but stinging remarks, which never
+fail to find an obnoxious cause for every failure. While this cloud
+hung over me, I was determined never to return to my father's house.
+Good-natured as the friends of my family might be, I was fully aware
+of the style in which misfortune is treated in the idleness of
+country life; and the Honourable Mr Marston's loss of his rank in his
+Majesty's guards, or his preference of a more pacific promotion, was
+too tempting a topic to lose any of its stimulants by the popular
+ignorance of the true transaction. My next reason was, that my mind
+was harassed and wearied by disappointment, until I should not have
+regreted to terminate the struggle in the first field of battle. The
+only woman whom I loved, and whom, in the strange frenzy of passion,
+I solemnly believed to be the only woman on earth deserving to be so
+loved, had wholly disappeared, and was, by this time, probably
+wedded. The only woman whom I regarded as a friend, was in another
+country, probably dying. If I could have returned to Mortimer
+Castle--which I had already determined to be impossible--I should
+have found only a callous, perhaps a contemptuous, head of the
+family, angry at my return to burden him. Even Vincent--my old and
+kind-hearted friend Vincent--had been a soldier; and though I was
+sure of never receiving a reproach from his wise and gentle lips, was
+I equally sure that I could escape the flash, or the sorrow, of his
+eye?
+
+In thoughts like these, and they were dangerous ones, I made many a
+solitary rush out into the wild winds and beating snows of the
+winter, which had set in early and been remarkably severe; walking
+bareheaded in the most lonely places of the suburbs, stripping my
+bosom to the blast, and longing for its tenfold chill to assuage the
+fever which burned within me. I had also found the old delay at the
+Horse-guards. The feelings of this period make me look with infinite
+compassion on the unhappy beings who take their lives into their own
+hands, and who extinguish all their earthly anxieties at a plunge.
+But I had imbibed principles of a firmer substance, and but upon one
+occasion, and one alone, felt tempted to an act of despair.
+
+Taking my lonely dinner in a tavern of the suburbs, the waiter handed
+me a newspaper, which he had rescued for my behoof from the hands of
+a group, eager, as all the world then was, for French intelligence.
+My eye rambled into the fashionable column; and the first paragraph,
+headed "Marriage in high life," announced that, on the morrow, were
+to be solemnized the nuptials of Clotilde, Countess de Tourville,
+with the Marquis de Montrecour, colonel of the French Mousquetaires,
+&c. The paper dropped from my hands. I rushed out of the house; and,
+scarcely knowing where I went, I hurried on, until I found myself out
+of the sight or sound of mortal. The night was pitch-dark; there was
+no lamp near; the wind roared; and it was only by the flash of the
+foam that I discovered the broad sheet of water before me. I had
+strayed into Hyde Park, and was on the bank of the Serpentine. With
+what ease might I not finish all! It was another step. Life was a
+burden--thought was a torment--the light of day a loathing. But the
+paroxysm soon gave way. Impressions of the duty and the trials of
+human nature, made in earlier years, revived within me with a
+singular freshness and force. Tears gushed from my eyes, fast and
+flowing; and, with a long-forgotten prayer for patience and humility,
+I turned from the place of temptation. As I reached the streets once
+more, I heard the trumpets of the Life Guards, and the band of a
+battalion returning to their quarters. The infantry were the
+Coldstream. They had been lining the streets for the king's
+procession to open the sitting of Parliament. This was the 13th of
+December--the memorable day to which every heart in Europe was more
+or less vibrating; yet which I had totally forgotten. What is man but
+an electrical machine after all? The sound and sight of soldiership
+restored me to the full vividness of my nature. The machine required
+only to be touched, to shoot out its latent sparks; and with a new
+spirit and a new determination kindling through every fibre, I
+hastened to be present at that debate which was to be the judgment of
+nations.
+
+My official intercourse with ministers had given me some privileges,
+and I obtained a seat under the gallery--that part of the House of
+Commons which is occasionally allotted to strangers of a certain
+rank. The House was crowded, and every countenance was pictured with
+interest and solemn anxiety. Grey, Sheridan, and other distinguished
+names of party, had already taken their seats; but the great heads of
+Government and Opposition were still absent. At length a buzz among
+the crowd who filled the floor,--and the name of Fox repeated in
+every tone of congratulation, announced the pre-eminent orator of
+England. I now saw Fox for the first time; and I was instantly struck
+with the incomparable similitude of all that I saw of him to all that
+I had conceived from his character and his style. In the broad bold
+forehead, the strong sense--in the relaxed mouth, the self-indulgent
+and reckless enjoyment--in the quick, small eye under those
+magnificent black brows, the man of sagacity, of sarcasm, and of
+humour; and in the grand contour of a countenance and head, which
+might have been sculptured to take its place among the sages and
+sovereigns of antiquity, the living proof of those extraordinary
+powers, which could have been checked in their ascent to the highest
+elevation of public life, only by prejudices and passions not less
+extraordinary. As he advanced up the House, he recognized every one
+on both sides, and spoke or smiled to nearly all. He stopped once or
+twice in his way, and was surrounded by a circle with whom, as I
+could judge from their laughter, he exchanged some pleasantry of the
+hour. When at length he arrived at the seat which had been reserved
+for him, he threw himself upon it with the easy look of comfort of a
+man who had reached home--gave nod to Windham, held out a finger to
+Grey, warmly shook hands with Sheridan; and then, opening his
+well-known blue and buff costume, threw himself back into the bench,
+and laughingly gasped for air.
+
+But another movement of the crowd at the bar announced another
+arrival, and Pitt entered the House. His look and movement were
+equally characteristic with those of his great rival. He looked to
+neither the right nor the left; replied to the salutations of his
+friends by the slightest possible bow; neither spoke nor smiled; but,
+slowly advancing, took his seat in total silence. The Speaker,
+hitherto occupied with some routine business, now read the King's
+speech, and, calling on "Mr Pitt," the minister rose. I have for that
+rising but one description--the one which filled my memory at the
+moment, from the noblest poet of the world.
+
+          "Deep on his front engraven,
+  Deliberation sat, and public care.
+                  Sage he stood,
+  With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
+  The weight of mightiest monarchies. His look
+  Drew audience and attention, still as night,
+  Or summer's noontide air."
+
+
+
+
+THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+
+The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that ever
+occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a metropolis of two
+millions of souls, the head of an empire of two hundred millions. The
+recollection runs us out of breath. Every hour was a new summons to a
+new _fête_, a new fantasy, or a new exhibition of the handsomest man
+of the forty-two millions of Russia proper. The toilettes of the
+whole _beau monde_ were in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and
+from dewy eve to waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by
+which the world was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a _dejeuner à
+la fourchette_, by which it was surprised into _dining_ at three,
+(_more majorum;_) an opera, by which those whose hour for going out
+is eleven, were forced into their carriages at nine; a concert at
+Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper at Buckingham
+palace;--all were among those brilliant perversions of the habits of
+high life which make the week one brilliant tumult; but which never
+could have been revolutionized but by an emperor in the flower of his
+age. Wherever he moved, he was followed by a host of the fair and
+fashionable. The showy equipages of the nobility were in perpetual
+motion. The parks were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The
+streets were a levy _en masse_ of the peerage. The opera-house was a
+gilded "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
+scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of either,
+gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope; and
+shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into houses
+which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of princes, had
+the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House was in a state of
+siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards, cavalcades, musterings
+of the multitude, and thundering of brass bands, seemed to be the
+focus of a national revolution. But it was within the palace that the
+grand display existed. The gilt candelabra, the gold plate, the maids
+of honour, all fresh as tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all
+Junos and Minervas, all jewelled, and none under forty-five,
+enraptured the mortal eye, to a degree unrivalled in the
+recollections of the oldest courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of
+queenly hospitality.
+
+But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet said,
+
+  "Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,
+  That longs to launch into a nobler strain."
+
+We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.
+
+During this week, but one question was asked by the universal world
+of St James's--"What was the cause of the Czar's coming?"
+
+Every one answered in his own style. The tourists--a race who cannot
+live without rambling through the same continental roads, which they
+libel for their roughness every year; the same hotels, which they
+libel for their discomforts; and the same _table-d'hotes_, which they
+libel as the perfection of bad cookery, and barefaced
+_chicane_--pronounced that the love of travel was the imperial
+impulse. The politicians of the clubs--who, having nothing to do for
+themselves, manage the affairs of all nations, and can discover high
+treason in the manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
+waltz--were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to construct an
+European league against the marriage of little Queen Isabella, or to
+beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities of Morocco. With the
+fashionable world, the decision was, that he had come to see Ascot
+races, and the Duke of Devonshire's gardens, before the sun withered,
+or St Swithin washed them away. The John Bull world--as wise at least
+as any of their betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide
+the happiest period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill
+the finest spot in creation--were convinced that his Majesty's visit
+was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
+escape from the troubles of royalty and the heaviness of home, and
+take a week's ramble among the oddities of England. "Who shall
+decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps the nearest way
+of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons together, and try
+how far they may be made to agree. What can be more probable than
+that the fineness of the finest season within memory, the occurrence
+of a moment of leisure in the life of a monarch ruling a fifth of the
+habitable globe, roused the curiosity of an intelligent mind,
+excited, like that of his great ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the
+national improvements of the great country of engineering,
+shipbuilding, and tunnelling; perhaps with Ascot races--the most
+showy exhibition of the most beautiful horses in the world--to wind
+up the display, might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active
+spirit, to gallop across Europe, and give seven brief days to
+England!
+
+An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers presumed to
+be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid journey has had
+for its distinct purpose the expression of the Imperial scorn for the
+miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of the pamphlet on the French
+navy; which has excited so much contempt in England, and so much
+boasting in France, and so much surprise and ridicule every where
+else in Europe. Nothing could be more in consonance with a manly
+character, than to show how little it shared the conceptions of a
+coxcomb; and no more direct mode could be adopted than the visit, to
+prove his willingness to be on the best terms with her government and
+her people. We readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses
+a higher character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an
+advanced spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
+pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
+capable of being conferred by kings.
+
+The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St Petersburg, as
+his stops on the road were only momentary. He reached Berlin from his
+capital with courier's speed, in four days and six hours, on Sunday
+fortnight last. His arrival was so unexpected, that the Russian
+ambassador in Prussia was taken by surprise. He travelled through
+Germany incognito, and on Thursday night, the 30th, arrived at the
+Hague. Next day, at two o'clock, he embarked at Rotterdam for
+England. Here, two steamers had been prepared for his embarkation.
+The steamers anchored for the night at Helvoetsluys. At three in the
+following morning, they continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich
+at ten. The Russian ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared
+to receive him; but on his intimating his particular wish to land in
+private, the customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after
+ten, the Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume,
+covered with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
+minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff, and
+drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was given to
+rest after his fatigue.
+
+On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
+Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
+cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the Emperor
+should remove to the apartments which were provided for him in the
+palace--an offer which was politely declined. At eleven, the Emperor
+attended divine service at the chapel of the Russian embassy in
+Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince Albert arrived to conduct
+him to the palace. He wore a scarlet uniform, with the riband and
+badge of the Garter. The Queen received the Emperor in the grand
+hall. A _dejeuner_ was soon afterwards served. The remainder of the
+day was spent in visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family.
+One visit of peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley
+House, to visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the
+hall, and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
+meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed much
+and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented him highly
+on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of his mansion.
+But even emperors are but men, and the Czar, fatigued with his round
+of driving, on his return to the embassy fell asleep, and slumbered
+till dinner-time, though his Royal Highness of Cambridge and the
+Monarch of Saxony called to visit him. At a quarter to eight o'clock,
+three of the royal carriages arrived, for the purpose of conveying
+the Emperor and his suite to Buckingham palace.
+
+On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove to
+Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for an hour,
+and is _said_ to have purchased L.5000 worth of jewellery. He then
+drove to the Zoological gardens and the Regent's park. In the course
+of the drive, he visited Sir Robert Peel, and the families of some of
+our ambassadors in Russia. At three o'clock, he gave a _dejeuner_ to
+the Duke of Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia.
+Dover Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
+to put down their names in the visiting-book.
+
+At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to escort
+him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his observing its
+arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour, for the purpose
+of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had arrived, and the
+Emperor and his suite drove off through streets crowded with
+horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the Emperor examined
+the electrical telegraph, and, entering the saloon carriage, the
+train set off, and arrived at Slough, a distance of nearly twenty
+miles, in the astonishingly brief time of twenty-five minutes.
+
+At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and conveyed to
+the castle.
+
+The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall hung with
+portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of Europe, to
+paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been sent on a special
+mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir Thomas's conception of
+form and likeness was admirable, but his colouring was cold and thin.
+His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a melancholy contrast with the depth and
+richness of the adjoining "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are
+complete. The banquet was royally splendid. The table was covered
+with gold plate and chased ornaments of remarkable beauty--the whole
+lighted by rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief noblemen of
+the household, were present at the entertainment.
+
+
+TUESDAY.
+
+This was the day of Ascot races. The road from Windsor to the course
+passes through a couple of miles of the rich quiet scenery which
+peculiarly belongs to England. The course itself is a file open
+plain, commanding an extensive view. Some rumours, doubting the visit
+of the royal party, excited a double interest in the first sight of
+the cavalcade, preceded by the royal yeomen, galloping up to the
+stand. They were received with shouts. The Emperor, the King of
+Saxony, and Prince Albert, were in the leading carriage. They were
+attired simply as private gentlemen, in blue frock-coats. The Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and the household, followed in the royal
+carriages. The view of the Stand at this period was striking, and the
+royal and noble personages were repeatedly cheered. An announcement
+was conveyed to the people, that the Emperor had determined to give
+L.500 a-year to the course. The Czarewitch had already given L.200 at
+Newmarket. The announcement was received with renewed cheering. All
+kings are fond of horses; and the monarch of the most numerous and
+active cavalry in the world, may be allowed to be a connoisseur in
+their strength, swiftness, and perseverance, by a superior right. The
+Emperor can call out 80,000 Cossacks at a sound of his trumpet. He
+exhibited an evident interest in the races. The horses were saddled
+before the race in front of the grand stand, and brought up to it
+after the race, for the purpose of weighing the jockeys. He had a
+full opportunity of inspection; but not content with this, when the
+winner of the gold vase, the mare Alice Hawthorn, was brought up to
+the stand, he descended, and examined this beautiful animal with the
+closeness and critical eye of a judge.
+
+On Wednesday, the pageant in which emperors most delight was
+exhibited--a review of the royal guards. There are so few troops in
+England, as the Prince de Joinville has "the happiness" to observe,
+that a review on the continental scale of tens of thousands, is out
+of the question. Yet, to the eye which can discern the excellence of
+soldiership, and the completeness of soldierly equipment, the few in
+line before the Emperor on this day, were enough to gratify the
+intelligent eye which this active monarch turns upon every thing. The
+infantry were--the second battalion of the grenadier guards, the
+second battalion of the Coldstream guards, the second battalion of
+the fusilier guards, and the forty-seventh regiment. The cavalry
+were--two troops of the royal horse guards, (blue,) the first
+regiment of the life guards, and the seventeenth lancers. The
+artillery were--detachments of the royal horse artillery, and the
+field artillery.
+
+A vast multitude from London by the trains, and from the adjoining
+country, formed a line parallel to the troops; and nothing could
+exceed the universal animation and cheering when the Emperor, the
+King of Saxony, and the numerous and glittering staff, entered the
+field, and came down the line.
+
+After the usual salutes, and marching past the centre, where the
+royal carriages had taken their stand, the evolutions began. They
+were few and simple, but of that order which is most effective in the
+field. The formation of the line from the sections; the general
+advance of the line; the halt, and a running fire along the whole
+front; the breaking up of the line into squares; the squares firing,
+then deploying into line, and marching to the rear. The Queen, with
+the royal children, left the ground before the firing began, The
+review was over at half-past two. The appearance of the troops was
+admirable; the manoeuvres were completely successful; and the
+fineness of the day gave all the advantages of sun and landscape to
+this most brilliant spectacle.
+
+But the most characteristic portion of the display consisted in the
+commanding-officers who attended, to give this unusual mark of
+respect to the Emperor.
+
+Wellington, the "conqueror of a hundred fights," rode at the head of
+the grenadier guards, as their colonel Lord Combermere, general of
+the cavalry in the Peninsula, rode at the head of his regiment, the
+first life guards. The Marquis of Anglesey, general of the cavalry at
+Waterloo, rode at the head of his regiment, the royal horse guards.
+Sir George Murray, quartermaster-general in the Peninsula, rode at
+the head of the artillery, as master-general of the ordnance. His
+royal highness the Duke of Cambridge rode at the head of his
+regiment, the Coldstream. His royal highness Prince Albert rode at
+the head of his regiment, the Scotch fusiliers. General Sir William
+Anson rode at the head of his regiment, the forty-seventh.
+Lieutenant-Colonel Quentin rode at the head of the seventeenth
+lancers, the colonel of the regiment, Prince George of Cambridge,
+being in the Ionian Islands. Thus, three field-marshals, and four
+generals, passed in review before the illustrious guests of her
+Majesty. The Emperor expressed himself highly gratified; as every eye
+accustomed to troops must have been, by the admirable precision of
+the movements, and the fine appearance of the men. A striking
+instance of the value of railways for military operations, was
+connected with this review. The forty-seventh regiment, quartered in
+Gosport, was brought to Windsor in the morning, and sent back in the
+evening of the review day; the journey, altogether, was about 140
+miles! Such are the miracles of machinery in our days. This was
+certainly an extraordinary performance, when we recollect that it was
+the conveyance of about 700 men; and shows what might be done in case
+of any demand for the actual services of the troops. But even this
+exploit will be eclipsed within a few days, by the opening of the
+direct line from London to Newcastle, which will convey troops, or
+any thing, 300 miles in twelve hours. The next step will be to reach
+Edinburgh in a day!
+
+The Emperor was observed to pay marked attention to the troops of the
+line, the forty-seventh and the lancers; observing, as it is said,
+"your household troops are noble fellows; but what I wished
+particularly to see, were the troops with which you gained your
+victories in India and China." A speech of this kind was worthy of
+the sagacity of a man who knew where the true strength of a national
+army lies, and who probably, besides, has often had his glance turned
+to the dashing services of our soldiery in Asia. The household troops
+of every nation are select men, and the most showy which the country
+can supply. Thus they are nearly of equal excellence. The infantry of
+ours, it is true, have been always "fighting regiments"--the first in
+every expedition, and distinguished for the gallantry of their
+conduct in every field. The cavalry, though seldomer sent on foreign
+service, exhibited pre-eminent bravery in the Peninsula, and their
+charges at Waterloo were irresistible. But it is of the marching
+regiments that the actual "army" consists, and their character forms
+the character of the national arms.
+
+In the evening the Emperor and the King of Saxony dined with her
+Majesty at Windsor.
+
+
+THURSDAY.
+
+The royal party again drove to the Ascot course, and were received
+with the usual acclamations. The Emperor and King were in plain
+clothes, without decorations of any kind; Prince Albert wore the
+Windsor uniform. The cheers were loud for Wellington.
+
+The gold cup, value three hundred guineas, was the principal prize.
+Eight horses ran, and the cup was won by a colt of Lord Albemarle's.
+His lordship is lucky, at least on the turf. He won the cup at Ascot
+last year.
+
+
+FRIDAY.
+
+The royal party came to London by the railway. The Emperor spent the
+chief part of the day in paying visits, in the Russian ambassador's
+private carriage, to his personal friends--chiefly the families of
+those noblemen who had been ambassadors to Russia.
+
+
+SATURDAY.
+
+The Emperor, the King, and Prince Albert, went to the Duke of
+Devonshire's _dejeuner_ at Chiswick. The Duke's mansion and gardens
+are proverbial as evidences of his taste, magnificence, and princely
+expenditure. All the nobility in London at this period were present.
+The royal party were received with distinguished attention by the
+noble host, and his hospitality was exhibited in a style worthy of
+his guests and himself. While the suite of _salons_ were thrown open
+for the general company, the royal party were received in a _salon_
+which had been decorated as a Turkish tent. Bands of the guards
+played in the gardens, a quadille band played in the ball-room, and
+the fineness of the weather gave the last charm to a _fête_ prepared
+with equal elegance and splendour. We doubt whether Europe can
+exhibit any open air festivity that can compete with a _dejeuner_ at
+Chiswick. The gardens of some of the continental palaces are larger,
+but they want the finish of the English garden. Their statues and
+decorations are sometimes fine; but they want the perfect and
+exquisite neatness which gives an especial charm to English
+horticulture. The verdure of the lawns, the richness and variety of
+the flowers, and the general taste displayed, in even the most minute
+and least ornamental features, render the English garden wholly
+superior, in fitness and in beauty, to the gardens of the continental
+sovereigns and nobility.
+
+In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian opera.
+The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is said that,
+in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box. But whether this
+may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would have been well worth
+paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in the pit. After all, the
+majority of the spectators were disappointed in their principal
+object, the view of the royal party. They all sat far back in the
+box, and thus, to three-fourths of the house, were completely
+invisible. In this privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and
+which it would have been so much wiser to have avoided, the audience
+were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be sung.
+At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it. A general
+response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose, and God save
+the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus broken, it was
+followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm, rich, and bold
+composition. The Emperor was said to have shed tears at the
+unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought back the
+recollection of his country at so vast a distance from home. But if
+these anthems had not been thus accidentally performed, the royal
+party would have lost a much finer display than any thing which they
+could have seen on the stage--the rising of the whole audience in the
+boxes--all the fashionable world in _gala_, in its youth, beauty, and
+ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the stage.
+
+
+SUNDAY.
+
+On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of the
+Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked at
+Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded for
+the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down the river
+under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich; the day was
+serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel as smooth as it
+was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of the sailor with as
+much ease as he had done into those of the soldier. He conversed
+good-humouredly with the officers and men, admired the discipline and
+appearance of the marines, who had been sent as his escort, was
+peculiarly obliging to Lord Hardwicke and Lieutenant Peel, (a son of
+the premier,) and ordered his dinner on deck, that he might enjoy the
+scenery on the banks of the Thames. The medals of some of the marines
+who had served in Syria, attracted his attention, and he enquired
+into the nature of their services. He next expressed a wish to see
+the manual exercise performed, which of course was done; and his
+majesty, taking a musket, went through the Russian manual exercise.
+On his arrival on the Dutch coast, the King of Holland came out to
+meet him in a steamer; and on his landing, the British crew parted
+with him with three cheers. The Imperial munificence was large to a
+degree which we regret; for it would be much more gratifying to the
+national feelings to receive those distinguished strangers, without
+suffering the cravers for subscriptions to intrude themselves into
+their presence.
+
+On the Emperor's landing in Holland, he reviewed a large body of
+Dutch troops, and had intended to proceed up the Rhine, and enjoy the
+landscape of its lovely shores at his leisure. But for him there is
+no leisure; and his project was broken up by the anxious intelligence
+of the illness of one of his daughters by a premature confinement. He
+immediately changed his route, and set off at full speed for St
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
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+  <title>Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Vol. LVI.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV.
+July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2004 [EBook #13719]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Leonard Johnson, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team and The Internet Library of Early Journals;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+  <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+  <h1>Edinburgh</h1>
+
+  <h1>MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+  <h3>VOL. LVI.</h3>
+
+  <h3>JULY-DECEMBER, 1844.</h3>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+    <a href="images/image001.png"><img width="200" src=
+    "images/image001.png" alt="printers logo" /></a>
+  </div>
+
+  <h4>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINGURGH,</h4>
+
+  <h5>AND</h5>
+
+  <h4>22, PALL MALL, LONDON.</h4>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h4>1844.</h4>
+  <hr class="full" />
+
+  <h3>BLACKWOOD'S</h3>
+
+  <h3>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h3>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h5>No. CCCXLV.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; JULY, 1844.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+  VOL. LVI.</h5>
+  <hr />
+
+  <h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+  <ul>
+    <li>CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME <a href="#pg001">1</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE HEART OF THE BRUCE <a href="#pg015">15</a></li>
+
+    <li>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY <a href=
+    "#pg020">20</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS <a href="#pg036">36</a></li>
+
+    <li>POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. I. <a href=
+    "#pg054">54</a></li>
+
+    <li>MY FIRST LOVE.&mdash;A SKETCH IN NEW YORK <a href=
+    "#pg069">69</a></li>
+
+    <li>HYDRO-BACCHUS <a href="#pg077">77</a></li>
+
+    <li>MARTIN LUTHER.&mdash;AN ODE <a href="#pg080">80</a></li>
+
+    <li>TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. NO. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR
+    <a href="#pg083">83</a></li>
+
+    <li>PORTUGAL <a href="#pg100">100</a></li>
+
+    <li>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XII. <a href=
+    "#pg114">114</a></li>
+
+    <li>THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR <a href="#pg127">127</a>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>EDINBURGH:</h3>
+
+      <h3>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;</h3>
+
+      <h3>AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.</h3>
+
+      <h5>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be
+      addressed.</h5>
+
+      <h5>SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.</h5>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h5>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</h5>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+      <h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>No. CCCXLV. JULY, 1844. VOL. LVI.</h3>
+      <hr class="full" />
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg001" id="pg001">001</a></span>
+
+      <h2>CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME.</h2>
+
+      <p>If the past increase and present amount of crime in the
+      British islands be alone considered, it must afford grounds for
+      the most melancholy forebodings. When we recollect that since the
+      year 1805, that is, during a period of less than forty years, in
+      the course of which population has advanced about sixty-five
+      <i>per cent</i> in Great Britain and Ireland, crime in England
+      has increased seven hundred per cent, in Ireland about eight
+      hundred per cent, and in Scotland above <i>three thousand six
+      hundred per cent</i>;<sup>1</sup> it is difficult to say what is
+      destined to be the ultimate fate of a country in which the
+      progress of wickedness is so much more rapid than the increase of
+      the numbers of the people. Nor is the alarming nature of the
+      prospect diminished by the reflection, that this astonishing
+      increase in human depravity has taken place during a period of
+      unexampled prosperity and unprecedented progress, during which
+      the produce of the national industry had tripled, and the labours
+      of the husbandman kept pace with the vast increase in the
+      population they were to feed&mdash;in which the British empire
+      carried its victorious arms into every quarter of the globe, and
+      colonies sprang up on all sides with unheard-of rapidity&mdash;in
+      which a hundred thousand emigrants came ultimately to migrate
+      every year from the parent state into the new regions conquered
+      by its arms, or discovered by its adventure. If this is the
+      progress of crime during the days of its prosperity, what is it
+      likely to become in those of its decline, when this prodigious
+      vent for superfluous numbers has come to be in a great measure
+      closed, and this unheard-of wealth and prosperity has ceased to
+      gladden the land?</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>1: See No. 343, <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, p. 534, Vol.
+        lv.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>To discover to what causes this extraordinary increase of
+      crime is to be ascribed, we must first examine the localities in
+      which it has principally arisen, and endeavour to ascertain
+      whether it is to be found chiefly in the agricultural, pastoral,
+      or manufacturing districts. We must then consider the condition
+      of the labouring classes, and the means provided to restrain them
+      in the quarters where the progress of crime has been most
+      alarming; and inquire whether the existing evils are
+      insurmountable and unavoidable, or have arisen from the
+      supineness, the errors, and the selfishness of man. The inquiry
+      is one of the most interesting which can occupy the thoughts of
+      the far-seeing and humane; for it involves the temporal and
+      eternal welfare of millions of their fellow-creatures;&mdash;it
+      may well arrest the attention of the selfish, and divert for a
+      few minutes the profligate from their pursuits; for on it depends
+      whether the darling wealth of the former is to be preserved or
+      destroyed, and the exciting enjoyments of the other arrested or
+      suffered to continue.</p>
+
+      <p>To elucidate the first of these questions, we subjoin a table,
+      compiled <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg002" id=
+      "pg002">002</a></span>from the Parliamentary returns, exhibiting
+      the progress of serious crime in the principal counties,
+      agricultural pastoral, and manufacturing, of the empire, during
+      the last fifteen years. We are unwilling to load our pages with
+      figures, and are well aware how distasteful they are to a large
+      class of readers; and if those results were as familiar to others
+      as they are to ourselves, we should be too happy to take them for
+      granted, as they do first principles in the House of Commons, and
+      proceed at once to the means of remedy. But the facts on this
+      subject have been so often misrepresented by party or prejudice,
+      and are in themselves so generally unknown, that it is
+      indispensable to lay a foundation in authentic information before
+      proceeding further in the inquiry. The greatest difficulty which
+      those practically acquainted with the subject experience in such
+      an investigation, is to make people believe their statements,
+      even when founded on the most extensive practical knowledge, or
+      the more accurate statistical inquiry. There is such a prodigious
+      difference between the condition of mankind and the progress of
+      corruption in the agricultural or pastoral, and manufacturing or
+      densely peopled districts, that those accustomed to the former
+      will not believe any statements made regarding the latter. They
+      say they are incredible or exaggerated; that the persons who make
+      them are <i>têtes montées</i>; that their ideas are very vague,
+      and their suggestions utterly unworthy the consideration either
+      of men of sense or of government. With such deplorable illusions
+      does ignorance repel the suggestions of knowledge; theory, of
+      experience; selfishness, of philanthropy; cowardice, of
+      resolution. Thus nothing whatever is done to remedy or avert the
+      existing evils: the districts not endangered unite as one man to
+      resist any attempt to form a general system for the alleviation
+      of misery or diminution of crime in those that are, and the
+      preponderance of the unendangered districts in the legislature
+      gives them the means of effectually doing so. The evils in the
+      endangered districts are such, that it is universally felt they
+      are beyond the reach of local remedy or alleviation. Thus,
+      between the two, nothing whatever is done to arrest, or guard
+      against, the existing or impending evils. Meanwhile, destitution,
+      profligacy, sensuality, and crime, advance with unheard-of
+      rapidity in the manufacturing districts, and the dangerous
+      classes there massed together combine every three or four years
+      in some general strike or alarming insurrection, which, while it
+      lasts, excites universal terror, and is succeeded, when
+      suppressed, by the same deplorable system of supineness,
+      selfishness, and infatuation.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>2: Table showing the number of committments for serious
+        crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the
+        under-mentioned counties of Great Britain;&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p>I.&mdash;PASTORAL.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Cumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">178,038</td>
+
+            <td align="right">151</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,194</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Derby,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">272,217</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 964</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Anglesey,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">50,891</td>
+
+            <td align="right">13</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 3,900</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Carnarvon,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">81,093</td>
+
+            <td align="right">33</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 2,452</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Inverness-shire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,799</td>
+
+            <td align="right">106</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 915</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Selkirkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">7,990</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,990</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Argyleshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,371</td>
+
+            <td align="right">96</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,010</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">785,399</td>
+
+            <td align="right">680</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,155</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>II.-AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Shropshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">239,048</td>
+
+            <td align="right">416</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 574</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Kent,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">548,337</td>
+
+            <td align="right">962</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 569</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Norfolk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">412,664</td>
+
+            <td align="right">666</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 518</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Essex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,979</td>
+
+            <td align="right">647</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 533</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Northumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,278</td>
+
+            <td align="right">226</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,106</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>East Lothian,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,886</td>
+
+            <td align="right">38</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 994</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Perthshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">137,390</td>
+
+            <td align="right">116</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 1,181</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Aberdeenshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">192,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">92</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 2,086</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,160,969</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,163</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 682</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>III.-MANUFACTURING AND MINING.</p>
+
+        <table summary=
+        "shows the number of committments for serious crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain">
+        <tr>
+            <th>Names of Counties.</th>
+
+            <th>Population in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Commitments for serious crime in 1841.</th>
+
+            <th>Proportion of committments to population.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Middlesex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,576,636</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,586</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 439</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 418</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 482</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,591,480</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 839</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Glamorganshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">171,188</td>
+
+            <td align="right">189</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 909</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanarkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 832</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrewshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">505</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 306</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Forfarshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">170,520</td>
+
+            <td align="right">333</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 512</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Total,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,269,426</td>
+
+            <td align="right">12,067</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1 in 476</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables</i>, 1841, 163; and
+        <i>Census</i> 1841.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The table in the note exhibits the number of commitments for
+      serious offences, with the population of each, of eight
+      counties&mdash;pastoral, agricultural, and manufacturing&mdash;in
+      Great Britain during the year 1841<sup>2</sup>. We take the
+      returns for that year, both because it was the year in which the
+      census was taken, and because the succeeding year, 1842, being
+      the year of the great outbreak in England, and violent strike in
+      Scotland, the figures, both in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg003" id="pg003">003</a></span>that and the succeeding year,
+      may be supposed to exhibit a more unfavourable result for the
+      manufacturing districts than a fair average of years. From this
+      table, it appears that the vast preponderance of crime is to be
+      found in the manufacturing or densely-peopled districts, and that
+      the proportion per cent of commitments which they exhibit, as
+      compared with the population, is generally three, often five
+      times, what appears in the purely agricultural and pastoral
+      districts. The comparative criminality of the agricultural,
+      manufacturing, and pastoral districts is not to be considered as
+      accurately measured by these returns, because so many of the
+      agricultural counties, especially in England, are overspread with
+      towns and manufactories or collieries. Thus Kent and Shropshire
+      are justly classed with agricultural counties, though part of the
+      former is in fact a suburb of London, and of the latter
+      overspread with demoralizing coal mines. The entire want of any
+      police force in some of the greatest manufacturing counties, as
+      Lanarkshire, by permitting nineteen-twentieths of the crime to go
+      unpunished, exhibits a far less amount of criminality than would
+      be brought to light under a more vigilant system. But still there
+      is enough in this table to attract serious and instructive
+      attention. It appears that the average of seven pastoral counties
+      exhibits an average of 1 commitment for serious offences out of
+      1155 souls: of eight counties, partly agricultural and partly
+      manufacturing, of 1 in 682: and of eight manufacturing and
+      mining, of 1 in 476! And the difference between individual
+      counties is still more remarkable, especially when counties
+      purely agricultural or pastoral can be compared with those for
+      the most part manufacturing or mining. Thus the proportion of
+      commitment for serious crime in the pastoral counties of</p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Anglesey, is</td>       <td width="40%" align="right">1 in 3900</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Carnarvon,</td>         <td align="right">1 in 2452</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Selkirk,</td>           <td align="right">1 in 1990</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Cumberland,</td>        <td align="right">1 in 1194</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <p>In the purely agricultural counties of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg004" id="pg004">004</a></span></p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Aberdeenshire, is</td>  <td width="40%" align="right">1 in 2086</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>East-Lothian,</td>      <td align="right">1 in  994</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Northumberland,</td>    <td align="right">1 in 1106</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Perthshire,</td>        <td align="right">1 in 1181</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <p>While in the great manufacturing or mining counties of</p>
+      <table width="40%">
+  <tr><td>Lancashire, is</td>     <td width="40%" align="right">1 in  418</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Staffordshire,</td>     <td align="right">1 in  482</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Middlesex,</td>         <td align="right">1 in  439</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Yorkshire,</td>         <td align="right">1 in  839</td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Lanarkshire,</td>       <td align="right">1 in  832<sup>3</sup></td></tr>
+  <tr><td>Renfrewshire,</td>      <td align="right">1 in  306</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>3: Lanarkshire has no police except in Glasgow, or its
+        serious crime would be about 1 in 400, or 350.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Further, the statistical returns of crime demonstrate, not
+      only that such is the present state of crime in the densely
+      peopled and manufacturing districts, compared to what obtains in
+      the agricultural or pastoral, but that the tendency of matters is
+      still worse;<sup>4</sup> and that, great as has been <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg005" id="pg005">005</a></span>the increase
+      of population during the last thirty years in the manufacturing
+      and densely peopled districts, the progress of crime has been
+      still greater and more alarming. From the instructive and curious
+      tables below, constructed from the criminal returns given in
+      <i>Porter's Parliamentary Tables</i>, and the returns of the
+      census taken in 1821, 1831, and 1841, it appears, that while in
+      some of the purely pastoral counties, such as Selkirk and
+      Anglesey, crime has remained during the last twenty years nearly
+      stationary, and in some of the purely agricultural, such as Perth
+      and Aberdeen, it has considerably <i>diminished</i>, in the
+      agricultural and mining or manufacturing, such as Shropshire and
+      Kent, it has <i>doubled</i> during the same period: and in the
+      manufacturing and mining districts, such as Lancashire,
+      Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Renfrewshire, more than
+      <i>tripled</i> in the same time. It appears, from the same
+      authentic sources of information, that the progress of crime
+      during the last twenty years has been much more rapid in the
+      manufacturing and densely peopled than in the simply densely
+      peopled districts; for in Middlesex, during the last twenty
+      years, population has advanced about fifty per cent, and serious
+      crime has increased in nearly the same proportion, having swelled
+      from 2480 to 3514: whereas in Lancashire, during the same period,
+      population has advanced also fifty per cent, but serious crime
+      has considerably <i>more than doubled</i>, having risen from 1716
+      to 3987.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>4: Table, showing the comparative population, and committals
+        for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the
+        years 1821, 1831, and 1841.</p>
+
+        <p>I.&mdash;PASTORAL</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Cumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">156,124</td>
+
+            <td align="right">66</td>
+
+            <td align="right">169,681</td>
+
+            <td align="right">74</td>
+
+            <td align="right">178,038</td>
+
+            <td align="right">151</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Derby,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">213,333</td>
+
+            <td align="right">105</td>
+
+            <td align="right">237,070</td>
+
+            <td align="right">202</td>
+
+            <td align="right">272,217</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Anglesey,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">43,325</td>
+
+            <td align="right">10</td>
+
+            <td align="right">48,325</td>
+
+            <td align="right">8</td>
+
+            <td align="right">50,891</td>
+
+            <td align="right">13</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Carnarvon,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">57,358</td>
+
+            <td align="right">12</td>
+
+            <td align="right">66,448</td>
+
+            <td align="right">36</td>
+
+            <td align="right">81,893</td>
+
+            <td align="right">33</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Inverness,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">90,157</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">94,797</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,799</td>
+
+            <td align="right">106</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Selkirk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,637</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">6,833</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2</td>
+
+            <td align="right">7,990</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Argyle,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,316</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">100,973</td>
+
+            <td align="right">41</td>
+
+            <td align="right">97,321</td>
+
+            <td align="right">96</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>II.&mdash;AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Shropshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">266,153</td>
+
+            <td align="right">159</td>
+
+            <td align="right">222,938</td>
+
+            <td align="right">228</td>
+
+            <td align="right">239,048</td>
+
+            <td align="right">416</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Kent,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,916</td>
+
+            <td align="right">492</td>
+
+            <td align="right">479,155</td>
+
+            <td align="right">640</td>
+
+            <td align="right">548,337</td>
+
+            <td align="right">962</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Norfolk,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,368</td>
+
+            <td align="right">356</td>
+
+            <td align="right">390,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">549</td>
+
+            <td align="right">412,664</td>
+
+            <td align="right">666</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Essex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">289,424</td>
+
+            <td align="right">303</td>
+
+            <td align="right">317,507</td>
+
+            <td align="right">607</td>
+
+            <td align="right">344,979</td>
+
+            <td align="right">647</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Northumberland,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">198,965</td>
+
+            <td align="right">70</td>
+
+            <td align="right">222,912</td>
+
+            <td align="right">108</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,278</td>
+
+            <td align="right">226</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>East Lothian,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,127</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">36,145</td>
+
+            <td align="right">23</td>
+
+            <td align="right">35,886</td>
+
+            <td align="right">38</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Perthshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">139,050</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">142,894</td>
+
+            <td align="right">140</td>
+
+            <td align="right">137,390</td>
+
+            <td align="right">116</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Aberdeenshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">177,657</td>
+
+            <td align="right">161</td>
+
+            <td align="right">192,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">92</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>III.&mdash;MANUFACTURING AND MINING.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the comparative population, and committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the years 1821, 1831, and 1841">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1821.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1831.</th>
+
+            <th colspan="2">1841.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <th width="25%"> </th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+
+            <th width="15%">Pop.</th>
+
+            <th width="10%">Com.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Middlesex,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,144,531</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,480</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,358,330</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,514</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,576,636</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,586</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,052,859</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,716</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,336,854</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,352</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">345,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">374</td>
+
+            <td align="right">410,512</td>
+
+            <td align="right">644</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">801,274</td>
+
+            <td align="right">757</td>
+
+            <td align="right">976,350</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,270</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,154,111</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Glamorgan,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">101,737</td>
+
+            <td align="right">28</td>
+
+            <td align="right">126,612</td>
+
+            <td align="right">132</td>
+
+            <td align="right">171,188</td>
+
+            <td align="right">189</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanark,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">244,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">316,849</td>
+
+            <td align="right">470</td>
+
+            <td align="right">426,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrew,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">112,175</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">133,443</td>
+
+            <td align="right">205</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">505</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Forfar,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">113,430</td>
+
+            <td align="right">...</td>
+
+            <td align="right">139,666</td>
+
+            <td align="right">124</td>
+
+            <td align="right">l70,520</td>
+
+            <td align="right">333</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables, and Census</i> 1841.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Here, then, we are at length on firm ground in point of fact.
+      Several writers of the liberal school who had a partiality for
+      manufactures, because their chief political supporters were to be
+      found among that class of society, have laboured hard to show
+      that manufactures are noways detrimental either to health or
+      morals; and that the mortality and crime of the manufacturing
+      counties were in no respect greater than those of the pastoral or
+      agricultural districts. The common sense of mankind has uniformly
+      revolted against this absurdity, so completely contrary to what
+      experience every where tells in a language not to be
+      misunderstood; but it has now been completely disproved by the
+      Parliamentary returns. The criminal statistics have exposed this
+      fallacy as completely, in reference to the different degrees of
+      depravity in different parts of the empire, as the
+      registrar-general's returns have, in regard to the different
+      degrees of salubrity in employments, and mortality in rural
+      districts and manufacturing places. It now distinctly appears
+      that crime is greatly more prevalent in proportion to the numbers
+      of the people in densely peopled than thinly inhabited
+      localities, and that it is making far more rapid progress in the
+      former situation than the latter. Statistics are not to be
+      despised when they thus, at once and decisively, disprove errors
+      so assiduously spread, maintained by writers of such
+      respectability, and supported by such large and powerful bodies
+      in the state.</p>
+
+      <p>Nor can it be urged with the slightest degree of foundation,
+      that this superior criminality of the manufacturing and densely
+      peopled districts is owing to a police force being more generally
+      established than in the agricultural or pastoral, and thus crime
+      being more thoroughly detected in the former situation than the
+      latter. For, in the first place, in several of the greatest
+      manufacturing counties, particularly Lanarkshire in Scotland,
+      there is no police at all; and the criminal establishment is just
+      what it was forty years ago. In the next place, a police force is
+      the <i>consequence</i> of a previous vast accumulation or crime,
+      and is never established till the risk to life and insecurity to
+      property had rendered it unbearable. Being always established by
+      the voluntary assessment of the inhabitants, nothing can be more
+      certain than that it never can be called into existence but by
+      such an increase of crime as has rendered it a matter of
+      necessity.</p>
+
+      <p>We are far, however, from having approached the whole truth,
+      if we have merely ascertained, upon authentic evidence, that
+      crime is greatly more prevalent in the manufacturing than the
+      rural districts. That will probably be generally conceded; and
+      the preceding details have been given merely to show the extent
+      of the difference, and the rapid steps which it is taking. It is
+      more material to inquire what are the causes of this superior
+      profligacy <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg006" id=
+      "pg006">006</a></span>of manufacturing to rural districts; and
+      whether it arises unavoidably from the nature of their respective
+      employments, or is in some degree within the reach of human
+      amendment or prevention.</p>
+
+      <p>It is usual for persons who are not practically acquainted
+      with the subject, to represent manufacturing occupations as
+      necessarily and inevitably hurtful to the human mind. The
+      crowding together, it is said, young persons, of different sexes
+      and in great numbers, in the hot atmosphere and damp occupations
+      of factories or mines, is necessarily destructive to morality,
+      and ruinous to regularity of habit. The passions are excited by
+      proximity of situation or indecent exposure; infant labour early
+      emancipates the young from parental control; domestic
+      subordination, the true foundation for social virtue, is
+      destroyed; the young exposed to temptation before they have
+      acquired strength to resist it; and vice spreads the more
+      extensively from the very magnitude of the establishments on
+      which the manufacturing greatness of the country depends. Such
+      views are generally entertained by writers on the social state of
+      the country; and being implicitly adopted by the bulk of the
+      community, the nation has abandoned itself to a sort of despair
+      on the subject, and regarding manufacturing districts as the
+      necessary and unavoidable hotbed of crimes, strives only to
+      prevent the spreading of the contagion into the rural parts of
+      the country.</p>
+
+      <p>There is certain degree of truth in these observations; but
+      they are much exaggerated, and it is not in these causes that the
+      principal sources of the profligacy of the manufacturing
+      districts is to be found.</p>
+
+      <p>The real cause of the demoralization of manufacturing towns is
+      to be found, not in the nature of the employment which the people
+      there receive, so much as in the manner in which they are brought
+      together, the unhappy prevalence of general strikes, and the
+      prodigious multitudes who are cast down by the ordinary
+      vicissitudes of life, or the profligacy of their parents, into a
+      situation of want, wretchedness, and despair.</p>
+
+      <p>Consider how, during the last half century, the people have
+      been brought together in the great manufacturing districts of
+      England and Scotland. So rapid has been the progress of
+      manufacturing industry during that period, that it has altogether
+      out-stripped the powers of population in the districts where it
+      was going forward, and occasioned a prodigious influx of persons
+      from different and distant quarters, who have migrated from their
+      paternal homes, and settled in the manufacturing districts, never
+      to return.<sup>5</sup> Authentic <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg007" id="pg007">007</a></span>evidence proves, that not less
+      than <i>two millions</i> of persons have, in this way, been
+      transferred to the manufacturing counties of the north of England
+      within the last forty years, chiefly from the agricultural
+      counties of the south of that kingdom, or from Ireland. Not less
+      than three hundred and fifty thousand persons have, during the
+      same period, migrated into the two manufacturing counties of
+      Lanark and Renfrew alone, in Scotland, chiefly from the Scotch
+      Highlands, or north of Ireland. No such astonishing migration of
+      the human species in so short a time, and to settle on so small a
+      space, is on record in the whole annals of the world. It is
+      unnecessary to say that the increase is to be ascribed chiefly,
+      if not entirely, to immigration; for it is well known that such
+      is the unhealthiness of manufacturing towns, especially to young
+      children, that, so far from being able to add to their numbers,
+      they are hardly ever able, without extraneous addition, to
+      maintain them.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>5: Table showing the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in
+        the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary=
+        "shows the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.">
+        <tr>
+            <th> </th>
+
+            <th>1801</th>
+
+            <th>1821</th>
+
+            <th>1841</th>
+
+            <th>Increase in forty years.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lancashire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">672,731</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,052,859</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,667,054</td>
+
+            <td align="right">994,323</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Yorkshire, W.R.,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">565,282</td>
+
+            <td align="right">801,274</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,154,101</td>
+
+            <td align="right">588,819</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Staffordshire,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">233,153</td>
+
+            <td align="right">343,895</td>
+
+            <td align="right">510,504</td>
+
+            <td align="right">277,351</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Nottingham,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">140,350</td>
+
+            <td align="right">186,873</td>
+
+            <td align="right">249,910</td>
+
+            <td align="right">109,560</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Warwick,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">208,190</td>
+
+            <td align="right">274,322</td>
+
+            <td align="right">401,715</td>
+
+            <td align="right">193,155</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Gloucester,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">250,809</td>
+
+            <td align="right">335,843</td>
+
+            <td align="right">431,383</td>
+
+            <td align="right">180,574</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>&nbsp;</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,070,515</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,995,066</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4,412,667</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,343,782</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>&nbsp;</td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td></td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Lanark,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">146,699</td>
+
+            <td align="right">244,387</td>
+
+            <td align="right">434,972</td>
+
+            <td align="right">288,273</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>Renfrew,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">78,056</td>
+
+            <td align="right">112,175</td>
+
+            <td align="right">155,072</td>
+
+            <td align="right">77,016</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td> </td>
+
+            <td align="right">224,755</td>
+
+            <td align="right">356,562</td>
+
+            <td align="right">590,044</td>
+
+            <td align="right">365,289</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;<i>Census of</i> 1841. Preface, p. 8 and 9.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Various causes have combined to produce demoralization among
+      the vast crowd, thus suddenly attracted, by the alluring prospect
+      of high wages and steady employment, from the rural to the
+      manufacturing districts. In the first place, they acquired wealth
+      before they had learned how to use it, and that is, perhaps, the
+      most general cause of the rapid degeneracy of mankind. High wages
+      flowed in upon them before they had acquired the artificial wants
+      in the gratification of which they could be innocently spent.
+      Thence the general recourse to the grosser and sensual
+      enjoyments, which are powerful alike on the savage and the sage.
+      Men who, in the wilds of Ireland or the mountains of Scotland,
+      were making three or four shillings a-week, or in Sussex ten,
+      suddenly found themselves, as cotton-spinners, iron-moulders,
+      colliers, or mechanics, in possession of from twenty to thirty
+      shillings. Meanwhile, their habits and inclinations had undergone
+      scarce any alteration; they had no taste for comfort in dress,
+      lodging, or furniture; and as to laying by money, the thing, of
+      course, was not for a moment thought of. Thus, this vast addition
+      to their incomes was spent almost exclusively on eating and
+      drinking. The extent to which gross sensual enjoyment was thus
+      spread among these first settlers in the regions of commercial
+      opulence, is incredible. It is an ascertained fact, that above a
+      million a-year is annually spent in Glasgow on ardent
+      spirits;<sup>6</sup> and it has recently been asserted by a
+      respectable and intelligent operative in Manchester, that, in
+      that city, 750,000 <i>more</i> is annually spent on beer and
+      spirits, than on the purchase of provisions. Is it surprising
+      that a large part of the progeny of a generation which has
+      embraced such habits, should be sunk in sensuality and
+      profligacy, and afford a never-failing supply for the prisons and
+      transport ships? It is the counterpart of the sudden corruption
+      which invariably overtakes northern conquerors, when they settle
+      in the regions of southern opulence.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>6: ALISON <i>on Population</i>, ii. Appendix A.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Another powerful cause which promotes the corruption of men,
+      when thus suddenly congregated together from different quarters
+      in the manufacturing districts, is, that the restraints of
+      character, relationship, and vicinity are, in a great measure,
+      lost in the crowd. Every body knows what powerful influence
+      public opinion, or the opinion of their relations, friends, and
+      acquaintances, exercises on all men in their native seats, or
+      when living for any length of time in one situation. It forms, in
+      fact, next to religion, the most powerful restraint on vice, and
+      excitement to virtue, that exists in the world. But when several
+      hundred thousand of the working classes are suddenly huddled
+      together in densely peopled localities, this invaluable check is
+      wholly lost. Nay, what is worse, it is rolled over to the other
+      side; and forms an additional incentive to licentiousness. The
+      poor in these situations have no neighbours who care for them, or
+      even know their names; but they are surrounded by multitudes who
+      are willing to accompany them in the career of sensuality. They
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg008" id=
+      "pg008">008</a></span>are unknown alike to each other, and to any
+      persons of respectability or property in their vicinity.
+      Philanthropy seeks in vain for virtue amidst thousands and tens
+      of thousands of unknown names; charity itself is repelled by the
+      hopelessness of all attempts to relieve the stupendous mass of
+      destitution which follows in the train of such enormous
+      accumulation of numbers. Every individual or voluntary effort is
+      overlooked amidst the prodigious multitude, as it was in the
+      Moscow campaign of Napoleon. Thus the most powerful restraints on
+      human conduct&mdash;character, relations, neighbourhood&mdash;are
+      lost upon mankind at the very time when their salutary influence
+      is most required to enable them to withstand the increasing
+      temptations arising from density of numbers and a vast increase
+      of wages. Multitudes remove responsibility without weakening
+      passion. Isolation ensures concealment without adding to
+      resolution. This is the true cause of the more rapid
+      deterioration of the character of the poor than the rich, when
+      placed in such dense localities. The latter have a neighbourhood
+      to watch them, because their station renders them
+      conspicuous&mdash;the former have none. Witness the rapid and
+      general corruption of the higher ranks, when they get away from
+      such restraint, amidst the profligacy of New South Wales.</p>
+
+      <p>In the foremost rank of the causes which demoralize the urban
+      and mining population, we must place the frequency of those
+      strikes which unhappily have now become so common as to be of
+      more frequent occurrence than a wet season, even in our humid
+      climate. During the last twenty years there have been six great
+      strikes: viz. in 1826, 1828, 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1844. All of
+      these have kept multitudes of the labouring poor idle for months
+      together. Incalculable is the demoralization thus produced upon
+      the great mass of the working classes. We speak not of the actual
+      increase of commitments during the continuance of a great strike,
+      though that increase is so considerable that it in general
+      augments them in a single year from thirty to fifty per
+      cent.<sup>7</sup> We allude to the far more general and lasting
+      causes of demoralization which arise from the arraying of one
+      portion of the community in fierce hostility against another, the
+      wretchedness which is spread among multitudes by months of
+      compulsory idleness, and the not less ruinous effect of depriving
+      them of <i>occupation</i> during such protracted periods. When we
+      recollect that such is the vehemence of party feeling produced by
+      these disastrous combinations, that it so far obliterates all
+      sense of right and wrong as generally to make their members
+      countenance contumely and insult, sometimes even robbery,
+      fire-raising, and murder, committed on innocent persons who are
+      only striving to earn an honest livelihood for themselves by hard
+      labour, but in opposition to the strike; and that it induces
+      twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit obedience to
+      the commands of an unknown committee, who have power to force
+      them to do what the Sultan Mahmoud, or the Committee of Public
+      Safety, never ventured to attempt&mdash;to abstain from labour,
+      and endure want and starvation for months together, for an object
+      of which they often in secret disapprove&mdash;it may be
+      conceived how wide-spread and fatal is the confusion of moral
+      principle, and habits of idleness and insubordination thus
+      produced. Their effects invariably appear for a course of years
+      afterwards, in the increased roll of criminal commitments, and
+      the number of young persons of both sexes, who, loosened by these
+      protracted periods <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg009" id=
+      "pg009">009</a></span>of idleness, never afterwards regain habits
+      of regularity and industry. Nor is the evil lessened by the blind
+      infatuation with which it is uniformly regarded by the other
+      classes of the community, and the obstinate resistance they make
+      to all measures calculated to arrest the violence of these
+      combinations, in consequence of the expense with which they would
+      probably be attended&mdash;a supineness which, by leaving the
+      coast constantly clear to the terrors of such associations, and
+      promising impunity to their crimes, operates as a continual
+      bounty on their recurrence.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>7: Commitments:&mdash;</p>
+
+        <table width="100%" summary="commitments to prison.">
+          <tr>
+            <th></th>
+
+            <th>Lanarkshire.</th>
+
+            <th>Lancashire.</th>
+
+            <th>Staffordshire.</th>
+
+            <th>Yorkshire.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1836</td>
+
+            <td align="right">451</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,265</td>
+
+            <td align="right">686</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,252</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1837<sup>8</sup></td>
+
+            <td align="right">565</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,809</td>
+
+            <td align="right">909</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,376</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1841</td>
+
+            <td align="right">513</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3,987</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,059</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,895</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1842<sup>9</sup></td>
+
+            <td align="right">696</td>
+
+            <td align="right">4,497</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1,485</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2,598</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>PORTER'S <i>Parl. Tables</i>, xi. 162.&mdash;<i>Parl. Paper
+        of Crime</i>, 1843, p. 53.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>8: Strike.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>9: Strike.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Infant labour, unhappily now so frequent in all kinds of
+      factories, and the great prevalence of female workers, is another
+      evil of a very serious kind in the manufacturing districts. We do
+      not propose to enter into the question, recently so fiercely
+      agitated in the legislature, as to the practicability of
+      substituting a compulsory ten-hours' bill for the twelve hours'
+      at present in operation. Anxious to avoid all topics on which
+      there is a difference of opinion among able and patriotic men, we
+      merely state this prevalence and precocity of juvenile labour in
+      the manufacturing and mining districts as <i>a fact</i> which all
+      must deplore, and which is attended with the most unhappy effects
+      on the rising generation. The great majority, probably
+      nine-tenths, of all the workers in cotton-mills or printfields,
+      are females. We have heard much of the profligacy and
+      licentiousness which pervade such establishments; but though that
+      may be too true in some cases, it is far from being universal, or
+      even general; and there are numerous instances of female virtue
+      being as jealously guarded and effectually preserved in such
+      establishments, as in the most secluded rural districts. The real
+      evils&mdash;and they follow universally from such employment of
+      juvenile females in great numbers in laborious but lucrative
+      employment&mdash;are the emancipation of the young from parental
+      control, the temptation held out to idleness in the parents from
+      the possibility of living on their children, and the
+      disqualifying the girls for performing all the domestic duties of
+      wives and mothers in after life.</p>
+
+      <p>These evils are real, general, and of ruinous consequence.
+      When children&mdash;from the age of nine or ten in some
+      establishments, of thirteen or fourteen in all&mdash;are able to
+      earn wages varying from 3s. 6d. to 6s. a-week, they soon become
+      in practice independent of parental control. The strongest of all
+      securities for filial obedience&mdash;a sense of
+      dependence&mdash;is destroyed. The children assert the right of
+      self-government, because they bear the burden of
+      self-maintenance. Nature, in the ordinary case, has effectually
+      guarded against this premature and fatal emancipation of the
+      young, by the protracted period of weakness during childhood and
+      adolescence, which precludes the possibility of serious labour
+      being undertaken before the age when a certain degree of mental
+      firmness has been acquired. But the steam-engine, amidst its
+      other marvels, has entirely destroyed, within the sphere of its
+      influence, this happy and necessary exemption of infancy from
+      labour. Steam is the moving power; it exerts the strength; the
+      human machine is required only to lift a web periodically, or
+      damp a roller, or twirl a film round the finger, to which the
+      hands of infancy are as adequate as those of mature age. Hence
+      the general employment of children, and especially girls, in such
+      employments. They are equally serviceable as men or women, and
+      they are more docile, cheaper, and less given to strikes. But as
+      these children earn their own subsistence, they soon become
+      rebellious to parental authority, and exercise the freedom of
+      middle life as soon as they feel its passions, and before they
+      have acquired its self-control.</p>
+
+      <p>If the effect of such premature emancipation of the young is
+      hurtful to them, it is, if possible, still more pernicious to
+      their parents. Labour is generally irksome to man; it is seldom
+      persevered in after the period of its necessity has passed. When
+      parents find that, by sending three or four children out to the
+      mills or into the mines, they can get eighteen or twenty
+      shillings a-week without doing any thing themselves, they soon
+      come to abridge the duration and cost of education, in order to
+      accelerate the arrival of the happy period when they <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg010" id="pg010">010</a></span>may live on
+      their offspring, not their offspring on them. Thus the purest and
+      best affections of the heart are obliterated on the very
+      threshold of life. That best school of disinterestedness and
+      virtue, the <i>domestic hearth</i>, where generosity and
+      self-control are called forth in the parents, and gratitude and
+      affection in the children, from the very circumstance of the
+      dependence of the latter on the former, is destroyed. It is worse
+      than destroyed, it is made the parent of wickedness: it exists,
+      but it exists only to nourish the selfish and debasing passions.
+      Children come to be looked on, not as objects of affection, but
+      as instruments of gain; not as forming the first duty of life and
+      calling forth its highest energies, but as affording the first
+      means of relaxing from labour, and permitting a relapse into
+      indolence and sensuality. The children are, practically speaking,
+      sold for slaves, and&mdash;oh! unutterable horror!&mdash;<i>the
+      sellers are their own parents</i>! Unbounded is the
+      demoralization produced by this monstrous perversion of the first
+      principles of nature. Thence it is that it is generally found,
+      that all the beneficent provisions of the legislature for the
+      protection of infant labour are so generally evaded, as to render
+      it doubtful whether any law, how stringent soever, could protect
+      them. The reason is apparent. The parents of the children are the
+      chief violators of the law; for the sake of profit they send them
+      out, the instant they can work, to the mills or the mines. Those
+      whom nature has made their protectors, have become their
+      oppressors. The thirst for idleness, intoxication, or sensuality,
+      has turned the strongest of the generous, into the most malignant
+      of the selfish passions.</p>
+
+      <p>The habits acquired by such precocious employment of young
+      women, are not less destructive of their ultimate utility and
+      respectability in life. Habituated from their earliest years to
+      one undeviating mechanical employment, they acquire great skill
+      in it, but grow up utterly ignorant of any thing else. We speak
+      not of ignorance of reading or writing, but of ignorance in still
+      more momentous particulars, with reference to their usefulness in
+      life as wives and mothers. They can neither bake nor brew, wash
+      nor iron, sew nor knit. The finest London lady is not more
+      utterly inefficient than they are, for any other object but the
+      one mechanical occupation to which they have been habituated.
+      They can neither darn a stocking nor sew on a button. As to
+      making porridge or washing a handkerchief, the thing is out of
+      the question. Their food is cooked out of doors by persons who
+      provide the lodging-houses in which they dwell&mdash;they are
+      clothed from head to foot, like fine ladies, by milliners and
+      dressmakers. This is not the result of fashion, caprice, or
+      indolence, but of the entire concentration of their faculties,
+      mental and corporeal, from their earliest years, in one limited
+      mechanical object. They are unfit to be any man's
+      wife&mdash;still more unfit to be any child's mother. We hear
+      little of this from philanthropists or education-mongers; but it
+      is, nevertheless, not the least, because the most generally
+      diffused, evil connected with our manufacturing industry.</p>
+
+      <p>But by far the greatest cause of the mass of crime of the
+      manufacturing and mining districts of the country, is to be found
+      in the prodigious number of persons, especially in infancy, who
+      are reduced to a state of destitution, and precipitated into the
+      very lowest stations of life, in consequence of the numerous ills
+      to which all flesh&mdash;but especially all flesh in
+      manufacturing communities&mdash;is heir. Our limits preclude the
+      possibility of entering into all the branches of this immense
+      subject; we shall content ourselves, therefore, with referring to
+      one, which seems of itself perfectly sufficient to explain the
+      increase of crime, which at first sight appears so alarming. This
+      is the immense proportion of <i>destitute widows with
+      families</i>, who in such circumstances find themselves immovably
+      fixed in places where they can neither bring up their children
+      decently, nor get away to other and less peopled localities.</p>
+
+      <p>From the admirable statistical returns of the condition of the
+      labouring poor in France, prepared for the <i>Bureau de
+      l'Intérieure</i>, it appears that the number of widows in that
+      country amounts to the enormous number of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg011" id=
+      "pg011">011</a></span>1,738,000.<sup>10</sup> This, out of a
+      population now of about 34,000,000, is as nearly as possible
+      <i>one in twenty</i> of the entire population! Population is
+      advancing much more rapidly in Great Britain than France; for in
+      the former country it is doubling in about 60 years, in the
+      latter in 106. It is certain, therefore, that the proportion of
+      widows must be greater in this country than in France, especially
+      in the manufacturing districts, where early marriages, from the
+      ready employment for young children, are so frequent; and early
+      deaths, from the unhealthiness of employment or contagious
+      disorders, are so common. But call the proportion the same: let
+      it be taken at a twentieth part of the existing population. At
+      this rate, the two millions of strangers who, during the last
+      forty years, have been thrown into the four northern counties of
+      Lancaster, York, Stafford, and Warwick, must contain at this
+      moment <i>a hundred thousand widows</i>. The usual average of a
+      family is two and a half children&mdash;call it two only. There
+      will thus be found to be 200,000 children belonging to these
+      100,000 widows. It is hardly necessary to say, that the great
+      majority, probably four-fifths of this immense body, must be in a
+      state of destitution. We know in what state the fatherless and
+      widows are in their affliction, and who has commanded us to visit
+      them. On the most moderate calculation, 250,000, or an eighth of
+      the whole population, must be in a state of poverty and
+      privation. And in Scotland, where, during the same period of
+      forty years, 350,000 strangers have been suddenly huddled
+      together on the banks of the Clyde, the proportion may be
+      presumed to be the same; or, in other words, <i>thirty
+      thousand</i> widows and orphans are constantly there in a state
+      deserving of pity, and requiring support, hardly any of whom
+      receive more from the parish funds than <i>a shilling a-week</i>,
+      even for the maintenance of a whole family.</p>
+
+      <p>The proportion of widows and orphans to the entire population,
+      though without doubt in some degree aggravated by the early
+      marriages and unhealthy employments incident to manufacturing
+      districts, may be supposed to be not materially different in one
+      age, or part of the country, from another. The widow and the
+      orphan, as well as the poor, will be always with us; but the
+      peculiar circumstance which renders their condition so deplorable
+      in the dense and suddenly peopled manufacturing districts is,
+      that the poor have been brought together in such prodigious
+      numbers that all the ordinary means of providing for the relief
+      of such casualties fails; while the causes of mortality among
+      them are periodically so fearful, as to produce a vast and sudden
+      increase of the most destitute classes altogether outstripping
+      all possible means of local or voluntary relief. During the late
+      typhus fever in Glasgow, in the years 1836 and 1837, above 30,000
+      of the poor took the epidemic, of whom 3300 died.<sup>11</sup> In
+      the first eight months of 1843 alone, 32,000 persons in Glasgow
+      were seized with fever.<sup>12</sup> Out of 1000 families, at a
+      subsequent period, visited by the police, in conjunction with the
+      visitors for the distribution of the great fund raised by
+      subscription in 1841, 680 were found to be widows, who, with
+      their families, amounted to above 2000 persons all in the most
+      abject state of wretchedness and want.<sup>13</sup> On so vast a
+      scale do the causes of human destruction <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg012" id="pg012">012</a></span>and
+      demoralization act, when men are torn up from their native seats
+      by the irresistible magnet of commercial wealth, and congregated
+      together in masses, resembling rather the armies of Timour and
+      Napoleon than any thing else ever witnessed in the transactions
+      of men.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>10: <i>Statistique de la France, publiée par le
+        Gouvernement</i>, viii. 371-4. A most splendid work.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>11: Fever patients, Glasgow, 1836, 37.</p>
+
+        <table width="50%" summary=
+        "Deaths among the poor from typhus.">
+          <tr>
+            <th width="40%"></th>
+
+            <th width="30%">Fever patients.</th>
+
+            <th width="30%">Died.</th>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1836,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">10,092</td>
+
+            <td align="right">1187</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td>1837,</td>
+
+            <td align="right">21,800</td>
+
+            <td align="right">2180</td>
+          </tr>
+
+          <tr>
+            <td> </td>
+
+            <td align="right">31,892</td>
+
+            <td align="right">3367</td>
+          </tr>
+        </table>
+
+        <p>&mdash;COWAN'S <i>Vital Statistics of Glasgow</i>, 1388, p
+        8, the work of a most able and meritorious medical gentleman
+        now no more.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>12: Dr Alison on the Epidemic of 1843, p. 67.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>13: Captain Millar's Report, 1841, p. 8.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Here, then, is the great source of demoralization,
+      destitution, and crime in the manufacturing districts. It arises
+      from the sudden congregation of human beings in such fearful
+      multitudes together, that all the usual alleviations of human
+      suffering, or modes of providing for human indigence, entirely
+      fail. We wonder at the rapid increase of crime in the
+      manufacturing districts, forgetting that a squalid mass of two or
+      three hundred thousand human beings are constantly precipitated
+      to the bottom of society in a few counties, in such circumstances
+      of destitution that recklessness and crime arise naturally, it
+      may almost be said unavoidably, amongst them. And it is in the
+      midst of such gigantic causes of evil&mdash;of causes arising
+      from the extraordinary and unparalleled influx of mankind into
+      the manufacturing districts during the last forty years, which
+      can bear a comparison to nothing but the collection of the host
+      with which Napoleon invaded Russia, or Timour and Genghis Khan
+      desolated Asia&mdash;that we are gravely told that it is to be
+      arrested by education and moral training; by infant schools and
+      shortened hours of labour; by multiplication of ministers and
+      solitary imprisonment! All these are very good things; each in
+      its way is calculated to do a certain amount of good; and their
+      united action upon the whole will doubtless, in process of time,
+      produce some impression upon the aspect of society, even in the
+      densely peopled manufacturing districts. As to their producing
+      any immediate effect, or in any sensible degree arresting the
+      prodigious amount of misery, destitution, and crime which
+      pervades them, you might as well have tried, by the schoolmaster,
+      to arrest the horrors of the Moscow retreat.</p>
+
+      <p>That the causes which have now been mentioned are the true
+      sources of the rapid progress of crime and general demoralization
+      of our manufacturing and mining districts, must be evident to all
+      from this circumstance, well known to all who are practically
+      conversant with the subject, but to a great degree unattended to
+      by the majority of men, and that is,&mdash;that the prodigious
+      stream of depravity and corruption which prevails, is far from
+      being equally and generally diffused through society, even in the
+      densely peopled districts where it is most alarming, but is in a
+      great degree confined to the <i>very lowest class</i>. It is from
+      that lowest class that nine-tenths of the crime, and nearly all
+      the professional crime, which is felt as so great an evil in
+      society, flows. Doubtless in all classes there are some wicked,
+      many selfish and inhumane men; and a beneficent Deity, in the
+      final allotment of rewards and punishments, will take largely
+      into account both the opportunities of doing well which the
+      better classes have abused, and the almost invincible causes
+      which so often chain, as it were, the destitute to recklessness
+      and crime. But still, in examining the classes of society on
+      which the greater part of the crime comes, it will be found that
+      at least three-fourths, probably nine-tenths, comes from the very
+      lowest and the most destitute. It is incorrect to say crime is
+      common among them; in truth, among the young at least, a tendency
+      to it is there all but universal. If we examine who it is that
+      compose this dismal substratum, this hideous <i>black band of
+      society</i>, we shall find that it is not made up of any one
+      class more than another&mdash;not of factory workers more than
+      labourers, carters, or miners&mdash;but is formed by an aggregate
+      of the most unfortunate or improvident of <i>all classes</i>,
+      who, variously struck down from better ways by disease, vice, or
+      sensuality, are now of necessity huddled together by tens of
+      thousands in the dens of poverty, and held by the firm bond of
+      necessity in the precincts of contagion and crime. Society in
+      such circumstances resembles the successive bands of which the
+      imagination of Dante has framed the infernal regions, which
+      contain one concentric circle of horrors and punishments within
+      another, until, when you arrive at the bottom, you find one
+      uniform mass of crime, blasphemy and suffering. <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg013" id="pg013">013</a></span> We are
+      persuaded there is no person practically acquainted with the
+      causes of immorality and crime in the manufacturing districts,
+      who will not admit that these are the true ones; and that the
+      others, about which so much is said by theorists and
+      philanthropists, though not without influence, are nevertheless
+      trifling in the balance. And what we particularly call the public
+      attention to is this&mdash;Suppose all the remedies which
+      theoretical writers or practical legislators have put forth and
+      recommended, as singly adequate to remove the evils of the
+      manufacturing classes, were to be in <i>united</i> operation,
+      they would still leave these gigantic causes of evil untouched.
+      Let Lord Ashley obtain from a reluctant legislature his
+      ten-hours' bill, and Dr Chalmers have a clergyman established for
+      every 700 inhabitants; let church extension be pushed till there
+      is a chapel in every village, and education till there is a
+      school in every street; let the separate system be universal in
+      prisons, and every criminal be entirely secluded from vicious
+      contamination; still the great fountains of evil will remain
+      unclosed; still 300,000 widows and orphans will exist in a few
+      counties of England amidst a newly collected and strange
+      population, steeped in misery themselves, and of necessity
+      breeding up their children in habits of destitution and
+      depravity; still the poor will be deprived, from the suddenness
+      of their collection, and the density of their numbers, of any
+      effective control, either from private character or the opinion
+      of neighbourhood; still individual passion will be inflamed, and
+      individual responsibility lost amidst multitudes; still strikes
+      will spread their compulsory idleness amidst tens of thousands,
+      and periodically array the whole working classes under the
+      banners of sedition, despotism, and murder; still precocious
+      female labour will at once tempt parents into idleness in middle
+      life, and disqualify children, in youth, for household or
+      domestic duties. We wish well to the philanthropists: we are far
+      from undervaluing either the importance or the utility of their
+      labours; but as we have hitherto seen no diminution of crime
+      whatever from their efforts, so we anticipate a very slow and
+      almost imperceptible improvement in society from their
+      exertions.</p>
+
+      <p>Strong, and in many respects just, pictures of the state of
+      the working classes in the manufacturing districts, have been
+      lately put forth, and the <i>Perils of the Nation</i> have, with
+      reason, been thought to be seriously increased by them. Those
+      writers, however, how observant and benevolent soever, give a
+      partial, and in many respects fallacious view, of the
+      <i>general</i> aspect of society. After reading their doleful
+      accounts of the general wretchedness, profligacy, and
+      licentiousness of the working classes, the stranger is
+      astonished, on travelling through England, to behold green fields
+      and smiling cottages on all sides; to see in every village signs
+      of increasing comfort, in every town marks of augmented wealth,
+      and the aspect of poverty almost banished from the land. Nay,
+      what is still more gratifying, the returns of the sanatary
+      condition of the whole population, though still exhibiting a
+      painful difference between the health and chances of life in the
+      rural and manufacturing districts, present unequivocal proof of a
+      general amelioration of the chances of life, and, consequently,
+      of the general wellbeing of the whole community.</p>
+
+      <p>How are these opposite statements and appearances to be
+      reconciled? Both are true&mdash;the reconciliation is easy. The
+      misery, recklessness, and vice exist chiefly in one
+      class&mdash;the industry, sobriety, and comfort in another. Each
+      observer tells truly what he sees in his own circle of attention;
+      he does not tell what, nevertheless, exists, and exercises a
+      powerful influence on society, of the good which exists in the
+      other classes. If the evils detailed in Lord Ashley's speeches,
+      and painted with so much force in the <i>Perils of the
+      Nation</i>, were universal, or even general, society could not
+      hold together for a week. But though these evils are great,
+      sometimes overwhelming in particular districts, they are far from
+      being general. Nothing effectual has yet been done to arrest them
+      in the localities or communities where they arise; but they do
+      not spread much beyond them. The person engaged in the
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg014" id=
+      "pg014">014</a></span>factories are stated by Lord Ashley to be
+      between four and five hundred thousand: the population of the
+      British islands is above 27,000,000. It is in the steadiness,
+      industry, and good conduct of a large proportion of this immense
+      majority that the security is to be found. Observe that
+      industrious and well-doing majority; you would suppose there is
+      no danger:&mdash;observe the profligate and squalid minority; you
+      would suppose there is no hope.</p>
+
+      <p>At present about 60,000 persons are annually committed, in the
+      British islands, for serious offences<sup>14</sup> worthy of
+      deliberate trial, and above double that number for summary or
+      police offences. A hundred and eighty thousand persons annually
+      fall under the lash of the criminal law, and are committed for
+      longer or shorter periods to places of confinement for
+      punishment. The number is prodigious&mdash;it is frightful. Yet
+      it is in all only about 1 in 120 of the population; and from the
+      great number who are repeatedly committed during the same year,
+      the individuals punished are not 1 in 200. Such as they are, it
+      may safely be affirmed that four-fifths of this 180,000 comes out
+      of two or three millions of the community. We are quite sure that
+      150,000 come from 3,000,000 of the lowest and most squalid of the
+      empire, and not 30,000 from the remaining 24,000,000 who live in
+      comparative comfort. This consideration is fitted both to
+      encourage hope and awaken shame&mdash;hope, as showing from how
+      small a class in society the greater part of the crime comes, and
+      to how limited a sphere the remedies require to be applied;
+      shame, as demonstrating how disgraceful has been the apathy,
+      selfishness, and supineness in the other more numerous and better
+      classes, around whom the evil has arisen, but who seldom
+      interfere, except to RESIST all measures calculated for its
+      removal.</p>
+
+      <p>It is to this subject&mdash;the ease with which the
+      extraordinary and unprecedented increase of crime in the empire
+      might be arrested by proper means and the total inefficiency of
+      all the remedies hitherto attempted, from the want of practical
+      knowledge on the part of those at the head of affairs, and an
+      entirely false view of human nature in society generally, that we
+      shall direct the attention of our readers in a future Number.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>14: Viz., in round numbers&mdash;</p>
+        <pre>
+  England,    30,000
+  Ireland,    26,000
+  Scotland,    4,000
+              60,000
+</pre>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg015" id=
+      "pg015">015</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>A BALLAD.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">It was upon an April morn</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">While yet the frost lay hoar,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We heard Lord James's bugle-horn</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sound by the rocky shore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">Then down we went, a hundred knights,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">All in our dark array,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And flung our armour in the ships</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That rode within the bay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We spoke not as the shore grew less,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But gazed in silence back,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where the long billows swept away</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The foam behind our track.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And aye the purple hues decay'd</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Upon the fading hill,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And but one heart in all that ship</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Was tranquil, cold, and still.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The good Earl Douglas walk'd the deck,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And oh, his brow was wan!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Unlike the flush it used to wear</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">When in the battle van.&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Come hither, come hither, my trusty
+          knight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sir Simon of the Lee;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There is a freit lies near my soul</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I fain would tell to thee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Thou knowest the words King Robert spoke</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Upon his dying day,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">How he bade me take his noble heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And carry it far away:</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And lay it in the holy soil</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Where once the Saviour trod,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor strike one blow for God.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Last night as in my bed I lay,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I dream'd a dreary dream:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In the moonlight's quivering beam.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"His robe was of the azure dye,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Snow-white his scatter'd hairs,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And even such a cross he bore</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As good Saint Andrew bears.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'With spear and belted brand?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Why do ye take its dearest pledge</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">From this our Scottish land?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg016" id=
+          "pg016">016</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"'The sultry breeze of Galilee</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Creeps through its groves of palm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The olives on the Holy Mount</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Stand glittering in the calm.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall rest by God's decree,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Till the great angel calls the dead</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To rise from earth and sea!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That heart shall pass once more</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In fiery fight against the foe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As it was wont of yore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"'And it shall pass beneath the Cross,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And save King Robert's vow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But other hands shall bear it back,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Not, James of Douglas, thou!'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Sir Simon of the Lee&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For truer friend had never man</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Than thou hast been to me&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"If ne'er upon the Holy Land</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'Tis mine in life to tread,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The relics of her dead."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The tear was in Sir Simon's eye</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As he wrung the warrior's hand&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Betide me weal, betide me woe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I'll hold by thy command.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"But if in battle front, Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">'Tis ours once more to ride,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall cleave me from thy side!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And aye we sail'd, and aye we sail'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Across the weary sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Until one morn the coast of Spain</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Rose grimly on our lee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And as we rounded to the port,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Beneath the watch-tower's wall,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We heard the clash of the atabals,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the trumpet's wavering call.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Why sounds yon Eastern music here</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So wantonly and long,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And whose the crowd of armed men</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That round yon standard throng?'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"The Moors have come from Africa</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To spoil and waste and slay,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And Pedro, King of Arragon,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Must fight with them to-day."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg017" id=
+          "pg017">017</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Now shame it were," cried good Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Shall never be said of me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That I and mine have turn'd aside,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">From the Cross in jeopardie!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Have down, have down my merry men
+          all&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Have down unto the plain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">We'll let the Scottish lion loose</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Within the fields of Spain!"&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now welcome to me, noble lord,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Thou and thy stalwart power;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Dear is the sight of a Christian knight</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Who comes in such an hour!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Is it for bond or faith ye come,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Or yet for golden fee?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Or bring ye France's lilies here,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Or the flower of Burgundie?'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"God greet thee well, thou valiant King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Thee and thy belted peers&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Sir James of Douglas am I call'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And these are Scottish spears.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We do not fight for bond or plight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor yet for golden fee;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But for the sake of our blessed Lord,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That died Upon the tree.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We bring our great King Robert's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Across the weltering wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To lay it in the holy soil</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Hard by the Saviour's grave.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"True pilgrims we, by land or sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Where danger bars the way;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And therefore are we here, Lord King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">To ride with thee this day!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The King has bent his stately head,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the tears were in his eyne&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"God's blessing on thee, noble knight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">For this brave thought of thine!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"I know thy name full well, Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And honour'd may I be,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That those who fought beside the Bruce</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Should fight this day for me!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Take thou the leading of the van,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And charge the Moors amain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There is not such a lance as thine</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In all the host of Spain!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The Douglas turned towards us then,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Oh, but his glance was high!&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"There is not one of all my men</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But is as bold as I.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg018" id=
+          "pg018">018</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"There is not one of all my knights</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But bears as true a spear&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Then onwards! Scottish gentlemen,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And think&mdash;King Robert's here!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The trumpets blew, the cross-bolts flew,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The arrows flash'd like flame,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As spur in side, and spear in rest,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Against the foe we came.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">And many a bearded Saracen</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Went down, both horse and man;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For through their ranks we rode like corn,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So furiously we ran!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">But in behind our path they closed,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Though fain to let us through,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For they were forty thousand men,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And we were wondrous few.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We might not see a lance's length,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So dense was their array,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But the long fell sweep of the Scottish
+          blade</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Still held them hard at bay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Make in! make in!" Lord Douglas cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Make in, my brethren dear!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Sir William of St Clair is down,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">We may not leave him here!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">But thicker, thicker, grew the swarm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And sharper shot the rain,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And the horses rear'd amid the press,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">But they would not charge again.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now Jesu help thee," said Lord James,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"Thou kind and true St Clair!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">An' if I may not bring thee off,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">I'll die beside thee there!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">Then in his stirrups up he stood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So lionlike and bold,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And held the precious heart aloft</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">All in its case of gold.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">He flung it from him, far ahead,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And never spake he more,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But&mdash;"Pass thee first, thou dauntless
+          heart,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">As thou were wont of yore!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The roar of fight rose fiercer yet,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And heavier still the stour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Till the spears of Spain came shivering in</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And swept away the Moor.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Now praised be God, the day is won!</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">They fly o'er flood and fell&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Why dost thou draw the rein so hard,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Good knight, that fought so well?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg019" id=
+          "pg019">019</a></span>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Oh, ride ye on, Lord King!" he said,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">"And leave the dead to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For I must keep the dreariest watch</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That ever I shall dree!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"There lies beside his master's heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The Douglas, stark and grim;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And woe is me I should be here,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Not side by side with him!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"The world grows cold, my arm is old,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And thin my lyart hair,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And all that I loved best on earth</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Is stretch'd before me there.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"O Bothwell banks! that bloom so bright,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Beneath the sun of May,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The heaviest cloud that ever blew</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Is bound for you this day.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And, Scotland, thou may'st veil thy head</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">In sorrow and in pain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The sorest stroke upon thy brow</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Hath fallen this day in Spain!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"We'll bear them back into our ship,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">We'll bear them o'er the sea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And lay them in the hallow'd earth,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Within our own countrie.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"And be thou strong of heart, Lord King,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">For this I tell thee sure,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The sod that drank the Douglas' blood</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Shall never bear the Moor!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">The King he lighted from his horse,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">He flung his brand away,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And took the Douglas by the hand,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So stately as he lay.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"God give thee rest, thou valiant soul,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">That fought so well for Spain;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I'd rather half my land were gone,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">So thou wert here again!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We bore the good Lord James away,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">And the priceless heart he bore,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And heavily we steer'd our ship</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Towards the Scottish shore.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">No welcome greeted our return,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Nor clang of martial tread,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But all were dumb and hush'd as death</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">Before the mighty dead.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">We laid the Earl in Douglas Kirk,</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">The heart in fair Melrose;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And woful men were we that day&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i4">God grant their souls repose!</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">W.E.A.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg020" id=
+      "pg020">020</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</h2>
+
+      <h3>THE MUSEUM OF PALERMO.</h3>
+
+      <p>The museum of Palermo is a small but very interesting
+      collection of statues and other sculpture, gathered chiefly, they
+      say, from the ancient temples of Sicily, with a few objects
+      bestowed out of the superfluities of Pompeii. In the lower room
+      are some good bas-reliefs, to which a story is attached. They
+      were discovered fifteen years ago at <i>Selinuntium</i> by some
+      young Englishmen, the reward of four months' labour. Our guide,
+      who had been also theirs, had warned them not to stay after the
+      month of June, when malaria begins. They did stay. All (four)
+      took the fever; one died of it in Palermo, and the survivors were
+      deprived by the government&mdash;that is, by the king&mdash;of
+      the spoils for which they had suffered so much and worked so
+      hard. No one is permitted to excavate without royal license;
+      <i>excavation</i> is, like <i>Domitian's fish, res fisci</i>.
+      Even Mr Fagan, who was consul at Palermo, having made some
+      interesting underground discoveries, was deprived of them. We saw
+      here a fine Esculapius, in countenance and expression exceedingly
+      like the <i>Ecce Homo</i> of Leonardo da Vinci, with all that
+      god-like compassion which the great painter had imparted without
+      any sacrifice of dignity. He holds a poppy-head, which we do not
+      recollect on his statue or gems, and the Epidaurian snake is at
+      his side. Up-stairs we saw specimens of fruits from Pompeii,
+      barley, beans, the carob pod, pine kernels, as well as bread,
+      sponge, linen: and the sponge was obviously such, and so was the
+      linen. A bronze Hercules treading on the back of a stag, which he
+      has overtaken and subdued, is justly considered as one of the
+      most perfect bronzes discovered at Pompeii. A head of our
+      Saviour, by Corregio, is exquisite in conception, and such as
+      none but a person long familiar with the physiognomy of suffering
+      could have accomplished. These are exceptions rather than
+      specimens. The pictures, in general, are poor in interest; and a
+      long gallery of <i>casts</i> of the <i>chef-d'oeuvres</i> of
+      antiquity possessed by the capitals of Italy, Germany, England,
+      and France, looks oddly here, and shows the poverty of a country
+      which had been to the predatory proconsuls of Rome an
+      inexhaustible repertory of the highest treasures of art. A VERRES
+      REDIVIVUS would now find little to carry off but toys made of
+      amber, lava snuff-boxes, and WODEHOUSE'S MARSALA&mdash;one of
+      which he certainly would not guess the <i>age</i> of, and the
+      other of which he would not <i>drink</i>.</p>
+
+      <h3>LUNATIC ASYLUM.</h3>
+
+      <p>We saw nothing in this house or its arrangements to make us
+      think it superior, or very different from others we had visited
+      elsewhere. The making a lunatic asylum a show-place for strangers
+      is to be censured; indeed, we heard Esquirol observe, that
+      nothing was so bad as the admission of many persons to see the
+      patients at all; for that, although some few were better for the
+      visits of friends, it was injurious as a general rule to give
+      even friends admittance, and that it ought to be left
+      discretionary with the physician, <i>when</i> to admit, and
+      <i>whom</i>. Cleanliness, good fare, a garden, and the
+      suppression of all violence&mdash;these have become immutable
+      canons for the conduct of such institutions, and fortunately
+      demand little more than ordinary good feeling and intelligence in
+      the superintendent. But we could not fail to observe a sad want
+      of suitable inducement to <i>occupation</i>, which was apparent
+      throughout this asylum. That not above one in ten could read, may
+      perhaps be thought a light matter, for few can be the resources
+      of insanity in books; yet we saw at <i>Genoa</i> a case where it
+      had taken that turn, and as it is occupation to read, with how
+      much profit it matters not. Not one woman in four, as usually
+      occurs in insanity, could be induced <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg021" id="pg021">021</a></span>to <i>dress
+      according to her sex</i>; they figured away in men's coats and
+      hats! The dining-room was hung with portraits of some merit, by
+      one of the lunatics; and we noticed that every face, if indeed
+      all are <i>portraits</i>, had some insanity in it. They have a
+      dance every Sunday evening. What an exhibition it must be!</p>
+
+      <h3>MISCELLANEA.</h3>
+
+      <p>That the vegetation of Palermo excels that of Naples, partly
+      depends on the superior intelligence of the agriculturist, and
+      partly upon soil and climate: the fruits here are not only more
+      advanced, but finer in quality. We left a very meagre dessert of
+      cherries beginning to ripen at Naples; the very next day, a
+      superabundance of very fine and mature ones were to be had on all
+      the stalls of Palermo. This must be the result of industry and
+      care in a great measure; for on leaving that city, after a
+      <i>séjour</i> of three weeks, for Messina, Catania, and Syracuse,
+      although summer was much further advanced, we relapsed into
+      miserably meagre supplies of what we had eaten in perfection in
+      the capital; yet Syracuse and Catania are much warmer than
+      Palermo.</p>
+
+      <p>The vegetables here are of immense growth. The fennel root
+      (and there is no better test of your whereabouts in Italy) is
+      nearly twice as large as at Naples, and weighs, accordingly,
+      nearly double. The cauliflowers are quite colossal; and they have
+      a blue cabbage so big that your arms will scarcely embrace it. We
+      question, however, whether this hypertrophy of fruit or
+      vegetables improves their flavour; give us <i>English
+      vegetables</i>&mdash;ay, and <i>English fruit</i>. Though
+      Smyrna's <i>fig</i> is eaten throughout Europe, and Roman
+      <i>brocoli</i> be without a rival; though the <i>cherry</i> and
+      the Japan <i>medlar</i> flourish only at Palermo, and the
+      <i>cactus</i> of Catania can be eaten nowhere else; what country
+      town in England is not better off on the whole, if quality alone
+      be considered? But we have one terrible drawback; for <i>whom</i>
+      are these fruits of the earth produced? Our <i>prices</i> are
+      enormous, and our supply scanty; could we <i>forget this</i>, and
+      the artichoke, the asparagus, the peas and beans of London and
+      Paris, are rarely elsewhere so fine. To our palates the
+      <i>gooseberry</i> and the <i>black currant</i> are a sufficient
+      indemnity to Britain for the <i>grape</i>, merely regarded as a
+      fruit to <i>eat. Pine-apples</i>, those "illustrious foreigners,"
+      are so successfully <i>petted</i> at home, that they will
+      scarcely condescend now to flourish out of England.
+      <i>Nectarines</i> refuse to ripen, and <i>apricots</i> to have
+      any taste elsewhere. Our <i>pears</i> and <i>apples</i> are
+      better, and of more various excellence, than any in the world.
+      And we really prefer our very figs, grown on a fine
+      <i>prebendal</i> wall in the close of <i>Winchester</i>, or under
+      <i>Pococke's</i> window in a canon's garden at <i>chilly
+      Oxford</i>. Thus has the kitchen-garden refreshed our patriotism,
+      and made us half ashamed of our long forgetfulness of home. But
+      there are good things abroad too for poor men; the rich may live
+      any where. An enormous salad, crisp, cold, white, and of
+      delicious flavour, for a halfpenny; olive oil, for fourpence a
+      pound, to dress it with; and wine for fourpence a gallon to make
+      it disagree with you;<sup>15</sup> fuel for almost nothing, and
+      bread for little, are not small advantages to frugal
+      housekeepers; but, when dispensed by a despotic government, where
+      one must read those revolting words <i>motu proprio</i> at the
+      head of every edict, let us go back to our carrots and potatoes,
+      our Peels and our income-tax, our fogs and our frost. The country
+      mouse came to a right conclusion, and did not like the fragments
+      of the feast with the cat in the cupboard&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Give me again my hollow tree,</p>
+
+        <p>My crust of bread, and liberty."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>15:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Lactuca</i> innatat acri</p>
+
+          <p>Post vinum stomacho.&mdash;HOR.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Fish, though plentiful and various, is not fine in any part of
+      the <i>Mediterranean</i>; and as to <i>thunny</i>, one surfeit
+      would put it out of the bill of fare for life. On the whole,
+      though at Palermo and Naples the pauper starves not in the
+      streets, the gourmand would be sadly at a loss in his requisition
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg022" id="pg022">022</a></span>of
+      delicacies and variety. Inferior bread, at a penny a pound, is
+      here considered palatable by the sprinkling over of the crust
+      with a small rich seed (<i>jugulena</i>) which has a flavour like
+      the almond; it is also strewn, like our caraway seeds in
+      biscuits, <i>into</i> the paste, and is largely cultivated for
+      that single use. The <i>capsici</i>, somewhat similar in flavour
+      to the pea, are detached from the radicles of a plant with a
+      flower strikingly like the potatoe, and is used for a similar
+      purpose to the jugulena.</p>
+
+      <p>This island was the granary of Athens before it nourished
+      Rome; and wheat appears to have been first raised in Europe on
+      the plains of eastern Sicily. In Cicero's time it returned
+      eightfold; and to this day one grain yields its eightfold of
+      increase; which, however, is by a small fraction less than our
+      own, as given by M'Culloch in his "Dictionary of Commerce." We
+      plucked some <i>siligo</i>, or bearded wheat, near Palermo, the
+      beard of which was eight inches long, the ear contained sixty
+      grains, eight being also in this instance the average increase;
+      how many grains, then, must perish in the ground!</p>
+
+      <p>In Palermo, English gunpowder is sold by British sailors at
+      the high price of from five to seven shillings per English pound;
+      the "Polvere <i>nostrale</i>" of the Sicilians only fetches 1s.
+      8d.; yet such is the superiority of English gunpowder, that every
+      one who has a passion for popping at sparrows, and other
+      <i>Italian sports</i>, (complimented by the title of <i>La
+      caccia</i>,) prefers the dear article. When they have killed off
+      all the robins, and there is not a twitter in <i>the whole
+      country</i>, they go to the river side and shoot
+      <i>gudgeons</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>The Palermo donkey is the most obliging animal that ever wore
+      long ears, and will carry you cheerfully four or five miles an
+      hour without whip or other <i>encouragement</i>. The oxen, no
+      longer white or cream-coloured, as in Tuscany, were originally
+      importations from Barbary, (to which country the Sicilians are
+      likewise indebted for the <i>mulberry</i> and <i>silk-worm</i>.)
+      Their colour is brown. They rival the Umbrian breed in the
+      herculean symmetry of their form, and in the possession of horns
+      of more than Umbrian dimensions, rising more perpendicularly over
+      the forehead than in that ancient race. The lizards here are such
+      beautiful creatures, that it is worth while to bring one away,
+      and, to <i>pervert</i> a quotation, "UNIUS <i>Dominum sese
+      fecisse</i> LACERTAE." Some are all green, some mottled like a
+      mosaic floor, others green and black on the upper side, and
+      orange-coloured or red underneath. Of snakes, there is a
+      <i>Coluber niger</i> from four to five feet in length, with a
+      shining coat, and an eye not pleasant to watch even through
+      glass; yet the peasants here put them into their Phrygian
+      bonnets, and handle them with as much <i>sang-froid</i> as one
+      would a walking-stick.</p>
+
+      <p>The coarse earthen vessels, pitchers, urns, &amp;c., used by
+      the peasants, are of the most beautiful shapes, often that of the
+      ancient <i>amphora</i>; and at every cottage door by the
+      road-side you meet with this vestige of the ancient arts of the
+      country.</p>
+
+      <p>The plague which visited Palermo in 1624 swept away 20,000
+      inhabitants; Messina, in 1743, lost 40,000. The cholera, in 1837,
+      destroyed 69,253 persons. The present population of the whole
+      island is 1,950,000; the female exceeds the male by about three
+      per cent, which is contrary to the general rule. It is said that
+      nearly one-half the children received into the foundling hospital
+      of Palermo die within the first year.</p>
+
+      <p>Formerly the barons of Sicily were rich and independent, like
+      our English gentlemen; but they say that, since 1812, the king's
+      whole pleasure and business, as before our <i>Magna Charta</i>
+      times, have been to lower their importance. In that year a revolt
+      was the consequence of an income-tax even of two per cent, for
+      they were yet unbroken to the yoke; but now that he has saddled
+      property with a deduction, <i>said</i> to be eventually equal to
+      fifteen per cent, if not more; now that he doubles the impost on
+      the native sulphur, which is therefore checked in its sale; now
+      that he keeps an army of 80,000 men to play at soldiers with; now
+      that he constitutes himself the only referee even in questions of
+      commercial expediency, and <i>a fortiori</i> in all other cases,
+      which he settles <i>arbitrarily</i>, or does not settle at all;
+      now that he sees so little the signs of the times, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg023" id="pg023">023</a></span>that he will
+      not let a professor go to a science-congress at Florence or
+      Bologna without an express permission, and so ignorant as to have
+      <i>refused</i> that permission for fear of a political bias; now
+      that he diverts a nation's wealth from works of charity or
+      usefulness, to keep a set of foreigners in his pay&mdash;they no
+      doubt here remember in their prayers, with becoming gratitude,
+      "the holy alliance," or, as we would call it, the <i>mutual
+      insurance company of the kings of Europe</i>, of which
+      Castlereagh and Metternich were the honorary secretaries.</p>
+
+      <p>In the midst of all the gloomy despotism, beautiful even as
+      imagination can paint it, is Palermo beautiful! One eminent
+      advantage it possesses over Naples itself&mdash;its vicinity
+      presents more "drives;" and all the drives here might contest the
+      name given to one of them, which is called "<i>Giro delle
+      Grazie</i>," (the Ring or Mall of the Graces.) It has a
+      <i>Marina</i> of unrivaled beauty, to which the noblesse and the
+      citizens repair and form a promenade of elegant equipages. A fine
+      pavement for foot passengers is considerately raised three or
+      four feet above the carriage road; so that the walking population
+      have nothing to annoy them. The sea is immediately below both,
+      and you see the little rock-encircled bays animated with groups
+      of those sturdy fishermen with bare legs; which you admire in
+      Claude and Salvator, throwing before them, with admirable
+      precision, their <i>épervier</i> net, whose fine wrought meshes
+      sometimes hang, veil-like, between you and the ruddy sunset, or
+      plashing, as they fall nightly into the smooth sea, contribute
+      the pleasure of an agreeable sound to the magic of the scenery.
+      Some take the air on donkeys, which go at a great rate; some are
+      mounted on Spanish mules, all mixed together freely amidst
+      handsome and numerous equipages; and the whole is backed by a
+      fine row of houses opposite the sea, built after the fashion of
+      our terraces and crescents at watering-places. And finally, that
+      blue <i>æquor</i>, as it now deserves to be termed, studded over
+      with thunny boats and coasting craft with the haze latine sail,
+      that we should be sorry to trust in British hands, is walled in
+      by cliffs so bold, so rugged, and standing out so beautifully in
+      relief, that for a moment we cannot choose but envy the citizen
+      of <i>Panormus</i>. But we may not tarry even here; <i>we have
+      more things</i> to see, and every day is getting hotter than the
+      last.</p>
+
+      <h3>JOURNEY TO SEGESTE.</h3>
+
+      <p>Leaving Palermo early, we pass <i>Monreale</i> in our way to
+      the Doric columns of <i>Segeste</i>, and find ourselves, before
+      the heat of day has reached its greatest intensity, at a
+      considerable elevation above the plain on which the capital
+      stands, amidst mountains which, except in the difference of their
+      vegetation, remind us not a little of the configuration of
+      certain wild parts of the Highlands, where Ben Croachin flings
+      his dark shadow across Loch Awe. Indeed, we were thinking of this
+      old and favourite fishing haunt with much complacency, when two
+      men suddenly came forth from behind the bristly aloes and the
+      impenetrable cactus&mdash;ill-looking fellows were they; but,
+      moved by the kindest intentions for our safety, they offer to
+      conduct us through the remainder of the defile. This service our
+      hired attendant from Palermo declined, and we push on unmolested
+      to Partenico, our halting-place during the heat of the day. It is
+      a town of some extent, large enough to afford two fountains of a
+      certain pretension, but execrably dirty within. Twelve thousand
+      inhabitants has Partenico, and five churches. Out of its five
+      locandas, who shall declare the worst? Of that in which we had
+      first taken refuge, (as, in a snow-storm on the Alps, any
+      <i>roof</i> is Paradise,) we were obliged to quit the shelter,
+      and walk at <i>noon</i>, at <i>midsummer</i>, and in
+      <i>Sicily</i>, a good mile <i>up</i> a main street, which,
+      beginning in habitations of the dimensions of our almshouses,
+      ends in a few huts intolerably revolting, about which troops of
+      naked children defy vermin, and encrust themselves in filth. At
+      one door we could not help observing that worst form of
+      <i>scabies</i>, the <i>gale à grosses bulles;</i> so we had got,
+      it appeared, from <i>Scylla</i> into <i>Charybdis</i>, and were
+      in the very preserves <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg024" id=
+      "pg024">024</a></span>of Sicilian <i>itch</i>, and we
+      prognosticate it will spread before the month expires wherever
+      human skin is to be found for its entertainment. Partenico lies
+      in a scorching plain full of malaria. Having passed the three
+      stifling hours of the day here, we proceed on our journey to
+      <i>Alcamo</i>, a town of considerable size, which looks
+      remarkably well from the plain at the distance of four
+      miles&mdash;an impression immediately removed on passing its high
+      rampart gate. Glad to escape the miseries with which it threatens
+      the <i>détenu</i>, we pass out at the other end, and zigzag down
+      a hill of great beauty, and commanding such views of sea and land
+      as it would be quite absurd to write about. Already a double row
+      of aloë, planted at intervals, marks what is to be your course
+      afar off, and is a faithful guide till it lands you in a Sicilian
+      plain. This is the highest epithet with which any plain can be
+      qualified. This is indeed the month for Sicily. The goddess of
+      flowers now wears a morning dress of the newest spring fashion;
+      beautifully <i>made up</i> is that dress, nor has she worn it
+      long enough for it to be sullied ever so little, or to require
+      the washing of a shower. A delicate pink and a rich red are the
+      colours which prevail in the tasteful pattern of her voluminous
+      drapery; and as she <i>advances</i> on you with a light and
+      noiseless step, over a carpet which all the looms of Paris or of
+      Persia could not imitate, scattering bouquets of colours the most
+      happily contrasted, and impregnating the air with the most
+      grateful fragrance, we at once acknowledge her beautiful
+      impersonation in that "<i>monument of Grecian art</i>," the
+      <i>Farnese Flora</i>, of which we have brought the fresh
+      recollection from the museum of Naples.</p>
+
+      <p>The <i>Erba Bianca</i> is a plant like southernwood,
+      presenting a curious hoar-frosted appearance as its leaves are
+      stirred by the wind. The <i>Rozzolo a vento</i> is an ambitious
+      plant, which grows beyond its strength, snaps short upon its
+      overburdened stalk, and is borne away by any zephyr, however
+      light. Large crops of <i>oats</i> are already cut; and oxen of
+      the Barbary breed, brown and coal-black, are already dragging the
+      simple aboriginal plough over the land. Some of these fine cattle
+      (to whom we are strangers, as they are to us) stood gazing at us
+      in the plain, their white horns glancing in the sun; others,
+      recumbent and ruminating, exhibit antlers which, as we have said
+      before, surpass the Umbrian cattle in their elk-like length and
+      imposing majesty. Arrived at the bottom of our long hill, we pass
+      a beautiful stream called <i>Fiume freddo</i>, whose source we
+      track across the plain by banks crowned with <i>Cactus</i> and
+      <i>Tamarisk</i>. Looking back with regret towards <i>Alcamo</i>,
+      we see trains of mules, which still transact the internal
+      commerce of the country, with large packsaddles on their backs;
+      and when a halt takes place, these animals during their drivers'
+      dinner obtain their own ready-found meal, and browse away on
+      three courses of vegetables and a dessert.</p>
+
+      <h3>SICILIAN INNS.</h3>
+
+      <p>"A beautiful place this <i>Segeste</i> must be! One could
+      undergo any thing to see it!" Such would be the probable
+      exclamation of more than one reader looking over some
+      <i>landscape annual</i>, embellished with perhaps <i>a view</i>
+      of the celebrated temple and its surrounding scenery; but find
+      yourself at any of the inexpressibly horrid inns of <i>Alcamo</i>
+      or <i>Calatafrini</i>, (and these are the two principal stations
+      between Palermo and Segeste&mdash;one with its 12,000, the other
+      with its 18,000 inhabitants;) let us walk you down the main
+      street of either, and if you don't wish yourself at Cheltenham,
+      or some other unclassical place which never had a Latin name, we
+      are much mistaken! The "<i>Relievo dei Cavalli</i>" at Alcamo
+      offers no <i>relief</i> for you! The <i>Magpie</i> may prate on
+      her sign-post about <i>clean</i> beds, for magpies can be made to
+      say any thing; but pray do not construe the "<i>Canova
+      Divina</i>" Divine Canova! <i>He</i> never executed any thing for
+      the <i>Red Lion</i> of Calatafrini, whose "Canova" is a low
+      wine-shop, full of wrangling Sicilian boors. Or will you place
+      yourself under the <i>Eagle's</i> wing, seduced by its <i>nuovi
+      mobili e buon servizio</i>? Oh, we obtest those <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg025" id="pg025">025</a></span>broken
+      window-panes whether it be not <i>cruel</i> to expose <i>new
+      furniture</i> to such perils! For us we put up at the "<i>Temple
+      of Segeste</i>," attracted rather by its name than by any promise
+      or decoy it offers. Crabbe has given to the inns at Aldborough
+      each its character: here all are equal in immundicity, and all
+      equally without provisions. Some yellow beans lie soaking to
+      soften them. There is salt-cod from the north, moist and putrid.
+      There is no milk; eggs are few. The ham at the Pizzicarolo's is
+      always bad, and the garlicked sausage repulsive. Nothing is
+      painted or white-washed, let alone dusted, swept, or scoured. The
+      walls have the appearance of having been <i>pawed</i> over by new
+      relays of dirty fingers daily for ten years. This is a very
+      peculiar appearance at many nasty places <i>out</i> of Sicily,
+      and we really do not know its <i>pathology</i>. You tread
+      loathingly an indescribable earthen floor, and your eye, on
+      entering the apartment, is arrested by a nameless production of
+      the fictile art, certainly not of <i>Etruscan</i> form, which is
+      invariably placed on the <i>bolster</i> of the truck-bed destined
+      presently for your devoted head. Oh! to do justice to a Sicilian
+      <i>locanda</i> is plainly out of question, and the rest of our
+      task may as well be sung as said, verse and prose being alike
+      incapable of the hopeless reality:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"Lodged for the night, O Muse! begin</p>
+
+          <p>To sing the true Sicilian inn,</p>
+
+          <p>Where the sad choice of six foul cells</p>
+
+          <p>The least exacting traveller quells</p>
+
+          <p>(Though crawling things, not yet in sight,</p>
+
+          <p>Are waiting for the shadowy night,</p>
+
+          <p>To issue forth when all is quiet,</p>
+
+          <p>And on your feverish pulses riot;)</p>
+
+          <p>Where one wood shutter scrapes the ground,</p>
+
+          <p>By crusts, stale-bones, and garbage bound;</p>
+
+          <p>Where unmolested spiders toil</p>
+
+          <p>Behind the mirror's mildew'd foil;</p>
+
+          <p>Where the cheap crucifix of lead</p>
+
+          <p>Hangs o'er the iron tressel'd bed;</p>
+
+          <p>Where the huge bolt will scarcely keep</p>
+
+          <p>Its promise to confiding sleep,</p>
+
+          <p>Till you have forced it to its goal</p>
+
+          <p>In the bored brick-work's crumbling hole;</p>
+
+          <p>Where, in loose flakes, the white-wash peeling</p>
+
+          <p>From the bare joints of rotten ceiling,</p>
+
+          <p>Give token sure of vermin's bower,</p>
+
+          <p>And swarms of bugs that bide their hour!</p>
+
+          <p>Though bands of fierce musquittos boom</p>
+
+          <p>Their threatening bugles round the room,</p>
+
+          <p>To bed! Ere wingless creatures crawl</p>
+
+          <p>Across your path from yonder wall,</p>
+
+          <p>And slipper'd feet unheeding tread</p>
+
+          <p>We know not what! To bed! to bed!</p>
+
+          <p>What can those horrid sounds portend?</p>
+
+          <p>Some waylaid traveller near his end,</p>
+
+          <p>From ghastly gash in mortal strife,</p>
+
+          <p>Or blow of bandit's blood-stained knife?</p>
+
+          <p>No! no! They're bawling to the <i>Virgin</i>,</p>
+
+          <p>Like victim under hands of surgeon!</p>
+
+          <p>From lamp-lit <i>daub</i>, proceeds the cry</p>
+
+          <p>Of that unearthly litany!</p>
+
+          <p>And now a train of mules goes by!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p class="i2">"One wretch comes whooping up the street</p>
+
+          <p>For whooping's sake! And now they beat</p>
+
+          <p>Drum after drum for market mass,</p>
+
+          <p>Each day's transactions on the <i>place!</i></p>
+
+          <p>All things that go, or stay, or come,</p>
+
+          <p>They herald forth by tuck of drum.</p>
+
+          <p>Day dawns! a tinkling tuneless bell,</p>
+
+          <p>Whate'er it be, has news to tell.</p>
+
+          <p>Then twenty more begin to strike</p>
+
+          <p>In noisy discord, all alike;&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Convents and churches, chapels, shrines,</p>
+
+          <p>In quick succession break the lines.</p>
+
+          <p>Till every gong in town, at last</p>
+
+          <p>Its tongue hath loos'd, and sleep is past.</p>
+
+          <p>So much for nights! New days begin,</p>
+
+          <p>Which land you in another Inn.</p>
+
+          <p>O! he that means to see <i>Girgenti</i></p>
+
+          <p>Or <i>Syracuse!</i>&mdash;needs patience plenty!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Crossing a rustic bridge, we pass through a garden (for it is
+      no less, though man has had no spade in it) of pinks, marigolds,
+      cyclamens, and heart's-ease, &amp;c. &amp;c.; the moist meadow
+      land below is a perfect jungle of lofty grasses, all fragrant and
+      in flower, gemmed with the unevaporated morning dew, and
+      colonized with the <i>Aphides, Alticæ</i>, and swarms of the most
+      beautiful butterflies clinging to their stalks. <i>Gramina
+      læta</i> after Virgil's own heart, were these. Their elegance and
+      unusual variety were sufficient to throw a botanist into a
+      perfect HAY fever, and our own first paroxysm only went off,
+      when, after an hour's hard collecting, we came to a place which
+      demanded <i>another</i> sort of enthusiasm; for THERE stood
+      without a veil the <i>Temple of Segeste</i>, with <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg026" id="pg026">026</a></span>one or two
+      glimpses of which we had been already astonished at a distance,
+      in all its Dorian majesty! This almost unmutilated and glorious
+      memorial of past ages here reigns alone&mdash;the only building
+      far or near visible in the whole horizon; and what a position has
+      its architect secured! In the midst of hills on a bit of
+      table-land, apparently made such by smoothing down the summit of
+      one of them, with a greensward in front, and set off behind by a
+      mountain background, stands this eternal monument of the noblest
+      of arts amidst the finest dispositions of nature. There is
+      another antiquity of the place also to be visited at
+      Segeste&mdash;its <i>theatre</i>; but we are too immediately
+      below it to know any thing about it at present, and must leave it
+      in a parenthesis. To our left, at the distance of eight miles,
+      this hill country of harmonious and graceful undulation ends in
+      beetling cliffs, beneath which the sea, now full in view, lies
+      sparkling in the morning sunshine. We shall never, never forget
+      the impressions made upon us on first getting sight of Segeste!
+      <i>Pæstum</i> we had seen, and thought that it exhausted all that
+      was possible to a temple, or the site of a temple. Awe-stricken
+      had we surveyed those monuments of "immemorial antiquity" in that
+      baleful region of wild-eyed buffaloes and birds of
+      prey&mdash;temples to death in the midst of his undisputed
+      domains! We had fully adopted Forsyth's sentiment, and held
+      Pæstum to be probably the most impressive monument on earth; but
+      here at Segeste a nature less austere, and more RIANTE in its
+      wildness, lent a quite different charm to a scene which could
+      scarcely be represented by art, and for which a reader could
+      certainly not be <i>prepared</i> by description. We gave an
+      antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
+      2000 years, and of many empires&mdash;we <i>felt</i> the vast
+      masses of its time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within
+      its precincts, its pink valerians; its <i>erba di vento</i>, its
+      scented wallflower. The whole scene kept our admiration long
+      tasked, but untired. A smart shower compelled us to seek shelter
+      under the shoulder of one of the grey entablatures: it soon
+      passed away, leaving us a legacy of the richest fragrance, while
+      a number of wild birds of the hawk kind, called "chaoli" from
+      their shrill note, issued from their hiding-places, and gave us
+      wild music as they scudded by!</p>
+
+      <p>A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that
+      now remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for
+      their city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into
+      a belief of greater wealth than they possessed.</p>
+
+      <p>Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very
+      steep one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we
+      scared two of those prodigious birds, the <i>ospreys</i>, who,
+      having reconnoitred us, forthwith began to wheel in larger and
+      larger sweeps, and at last made off for the sea. We found the
+      interior of the theatre occupied by an audience ready for our
+      arrival; it consisted of innummerable <i>hawks</i>, the chaoli
+      just mentioned, which began to scream at our intrusion. The
+      ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting our
+      departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
+      a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song
+      would save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the
+      24th of May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood,
+      we were sorry to return to our inn&mdash;and such an inn! We
+      departed abruptly, and probably never to return; but we shall
+      think of Segeste in Hyde Park, or as we pass the candlestick
+      Corinthians of Whitehall. Thucydides<sup>16</sup> relates that a
+      prevailing notion in his time was, that the <i>Trojans</i> after
+      losing <i>Troy</i> went first to <i>Sicily</i>, and founded there
+      Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
+      <i>Greek</i> colony was <i>Naxos</i>, also in Sicily, Greeks and
+      Trojans (strange coincidence!) must have <i>met again</i> on new
+      ground after the <i>Iliad</i> was all acted and done with, like a
+      tale that is told.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>16: <i>Vide</i> THUCYDIDES, Book iv. chap. 15.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>On our return towards Palermo, one of our party having a touch
+      of ague, we crossed the street to the apothecary, (at
+      Calatafrini, our night's halt,) and smelling about his musty
+      galenicals, amidst a large supply of <i>malvas</i> which were
+      drying on his counter, the only wholesome-looking thing amidst
+      his stores, we asked if <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg027" id=
+      "pg027">027</a></span>he had any <i>quinine</i>. "<i>Sicuro!</i>"
+      and he presented us with a white powder having a slightly bitter
+      taste, which, together with an ounce of green tea, to be
+      dispensed in pinches of five grains on extraordinary occasions,
+      comes, he says, from the East. On our observing that the quinine,
+      if such at all, was adulterated, and that this was too bad in a
+      country of malaria, where it was the poor man's only protection,
+      he looked angry; but we rose in the esteem of peasants in the
+      shop, who said to each other&mdash;"Ed ha ragione il Signor."
+      Wanting a little <i>soda</i>, we were presented with
+      sub-carbonate of potash as the nearest approach to it&mdash;a
+      substitution which suggested to us a classical recollection from
+      Theocritus; namely, that in this same Sicily, 2000 years ago, a
+      Syracusan husband is rated by his dame for sending her
+      <i>soda</i> for her washing in place of potash, the very converse
+      of what our old drug-vender intended to have washed our inside
+      withal.</p>
+
+      <p>The Roman Catholic religion patronises painting oddly here;
+      not a cart but is adorned with some sacred subject. Every
+      wretched vehicle that totters under an unmerciful load, with one
+      poor donkey to draw six men, has its picture of <i>Souls in
+      Purgatory</i>, who seem putting their hands and heads out of the
+      flames, and vainly calling on the ruffians inside to <i>stop</i>.
+      We read <i>Viva la Divina Providenza</i>, in flaming characters
+      on the front board of a carriole, while the whip is goading the
+      poor starved brute who drags it; for these barbarians in the rear
+      of European civilization, plainly are of opinion that a cart with
+      a sacred device shall not <i>break down</i>, though its owner
+      commit every species of cruelty.</p>
+
+      <p>The next day found us again installed at our old quarters in
+      Palermo, where, during our brief remaining stay, we visit a
+      conchologist, before which event we had no notion that Sicily was
+      so rich in shells. Two sides of a moderately large room are
+      entirely devoted to his collection. Here we saw a piece of wood
+      nearly destroyed by the <i>Teredo navalis</i>, or sailor's bore,
+      who seems more active and industrious here than elsewhere, and
+      seldom allows himself to be taken whole. Out of hundreds of
+      specimens, three or four perfect ones were all that this
+      collector could ever manage to extract, the molluscous
+      wood-destroyer being very soft and fragile. His length is about
+      three inches, his thickness that of a small quill; he lodges in a
+      shell of extreme tenuity, and the secretion which he ejects is,
+      it seems, the agent which destroys the wood, and pushes on bit by
+      bit the winding tunnel. But his doings are nothing to the working
+      of another wafer-shelled bivalve, whose tiny habitations are so
+      thickly imbedded in the body of a nodule of <i>flint</i> as to
+      render its exterior like a sieve, <i>diducit scopulos aceto</i>.
+      What solvent can the chemist prepare in his laboratory comparable
+      to one which, while it dissolves silex, neither harms the insect
+      nor injures its shell. Amongst the <i>fossils</i> we notice
+      cockles as big as ostrich eggs, clam-shells twice the size of the
+      largest of our Sussex coast, and those of oysters which rival
+      soup-plates. We had indeed once before met with them of equal
+      size in the lime-beds at <i>Corneto</i>. Judging by the
+      <i>oysters</i>, there must indeed have been <i>giants</i> in
+      those days. But this collection was chiefly remarkable for its
+      curious fossil remains of <i>animals</i> from <i>Monte
+      Grifone</i>. In this same Monte Grifone, which we went to visit,
+      is one of the largest of the caves of bones of which so many have
+      been discovered&mdash;bones of various kinds, some of small, some
+      of very large animals, mixed together pell-mell, and constituting
+      a fossil paste of scarcely any thing besides. None of the
+      geologists, in attempting to explain these deposits, sufficiently
+      enter into the question of the origin of the enormous
+      <i>quantity</i>, and <i>close juxtaposition</i>, of such
+      heterogeneous specimens.</p>
+
+      <p>By eight o'clock we are on board the <i>Palermo</i> steamer,
+      which is to convey us hence to <i>Messina</i>. The baked deck,
+      which has been saturated with the sun's heat all day, is now
+      cooling to a more moderate warmth, and soothing would be the
+      scene but for the noise of women and children. Large liquid stars
+      twinkle here and there, like so many moons on a reduced scale,
+      over the sea, and the night is wholly delightful! A bell rings,
+      which diminishes our numbers, and somewhat clears our deck. The
+      boats which carry off the last loiterers are gone, shaking
+      phosphorus from <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg028" id=
+      "pg028">028</a></span>their gills, and leaving a train of it in
+      their tails; and the many-windowed Pharos of the harbour has all
+      its panes lit up, and twinkles after its own fashion. Round the
+      bay an interrupted crescent of flickering light is reflected in
+      the water, strongest in the middle, where the town is thickest,
+      and runs back; and far behind all lights comes the clear outline
+      of the darkly defined mountain rising over the city. Our own
+      lantern also is up, the authorities have disappeared, Monte
+      Pelegrino begins to change its position, we are in motion, and a
+      mighty light we are making under us, as our leviathan, turning
+      round her head and <i>snuffing</i> the sea, begins to wind out of
+      the harbour. A few minutes more, and the luminous tracery of the
+      receding town becomes more and more indistinct; but the sky is
+      <i>all stars</i>, and the water, save where we break its
+      smoothness, a perfect mirror. Wherever the paddles play, there
+      the sea foams up into yellow light and <i>gerbes</i> of
+      amber-coloured fireballs, caught up by the wheels, and flung off
+      in our track, to float past with incredible rapidity. Men are
+      talking the language of Babel in the cabin; there is amateur
+      singing and a guitar on deck&mdash;<i>Orion</i> is on his
+      dolphin&mdash;adieu, Palermo!</p>
+
+      <h3>APPROACH TO MESSINA.</h3>
+
+      <p>The Italian morning presents a beautiful sight on deck to eyes
+      weary and sore with night, as night passes on board steamers. We
+      pass along a coast obviously of singular conformation, and to a
+      geologist, we suppose, full of interest. We encounter a herd of
+      classical dolphins out a-pleasuring. We ask about a pretty little
+      town perched just above the sea, and called <i>Giocosa</i>. By
+      its side lies <i>Tyndaris</i>&mdash;classical enough if we spell
+      it right. The snow on Etna is as good as an inscription, and to
+      be read at any distance; but what a deception! they tell us it is
+      thirty miles off, and it seems to rise immediately from behind a
+      ridge of hills close to the shore. The snow cone rises in the
+      midst of other cones, which would appear equally high but for the
+      difference of colour. <i>Patti</i> is a picturesque little
+      <i>borgo</i>, on the hillside, celebrated in Sicily for its
+      manufacture of hardware. In the bay of <i>Melazzo</i> are taken
+      by far the largest supplies of thunny in the whole Mediterranean.
+      From the embayed town so named you have the choice of a
+      cross-road to Messina, (twenty-four miles;) but who would abridge
+      distance and miss the celebrated straits towards which we are
+      rapidly approaching, or lose one hour on land and miss the
+      novelties of volcanic islands, and the first view of Scylla and
+      Charybdis? It is but eight o'clock, but the awning has been
+      stretched over our heads an hour ago. As to breakfast&mdash;the
+      meal which is associated with that particular hour of the
+      four-and-twenty to all well regulated <i>minds</i> and
+      <i>stomachs</i>&mdash;it consists here of thin <i>veneers</i> of
+      old mahogany-coloured thunny, varnished with oil, and relieved by
+      an incongruous abomination of capers and olives. The cold fowls
+      are infamous. The wine were a disgrace to the sorriest tapster
+      between this and the Alps, and also fiery, like every thing else
+      in this district. Drink it, and doubt not the old
+      result&mdash;<i>de conviva Corybanta videbis</i>. (Oh, for
+      muffins and dry toast!) Never mind, we shall soon be at Messina.
+      And now we approach a point from which the lofty Calabrian coast
+      opposite, and the flinty wall of the formidable Scylla, first
+      present themselves, but still as distant objects. In another half
+      hour we are just opposite the redoubtable rock; and here we turn
+      abruptly at right angles to our hitherto course, and find
+      ourselves <i>within</i> the straits, from either side of which
+      the English and the French so often tried the effect of cannon
+      upon each other. It is now what it used to be&mdash;fishing
+      ground. The Romans got their finest muræna from the whirlpools of
+      <i>Charybdis</i>.<sup>17</sup> The shark (<i>cane di mare</i>)
+      abounding here, would make bathing dangerous were the water
+      smooth; but the rapid whirlpools through which our steam-boat
+      dashes on disdainfully, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg029" id=
+      "pg029">029</a></span>would, at the same time, make it impossible
+      to any thing but a fish. A passenger assured us he had once seen
+      a man lost in the Vistula, who, from being a great swimmer,
+      trusted imprudently to his strength, and was sucked down by a
+      vortex of far less impetuosity, he thought, than this through
+      which we were moving. From this point till we arrived at Messina,
+      as every body was ripe for bathing, the whole conversation turned
+      naturally on the Messina shark, and his trick of snapping at
+      people's legs carelessly left by the owners dangling over the
+      boat's side. We steam up the straits to our anchorage in about
+      three-fourths of an hour. The approach is fine, very fine. A
+      certain Greek, (count, he called himself,) a great traveller, and
+      we afterwards found not a small adventurer, increases the
+      interest of the approach, by telling us that the hills before us,
+      bubbling up like blisters on chalcedony, have a considerable
+      resemblance, though inferior in character, to those which
+      embellish the Bosphorus and the first view of Constantinople.
+      Inferior, no doubt, in the imposing accessories of mosque and
+      minaret, and of cypresses as big as obelisks, which, rising
+      thickly on the heights, give to the city of Constantinople an
+      altogether peculiar and inimitable charm. Messina is beautifully
+      land-locked. The only possible winds that can affect its port are
+      the north-west and south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more
+      sea breeze than any other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek
+      friend, however, says that Constantinople is in this respect not
+      only superior to Messina, but to any other place in the seas of
+      Europe. Pity that the fellows are Turks! We did not find much to
+      interest us within the walls of Messina. There was, to be sure, a
+      fine collection of Sicilian birds, amongst which we were
+      surprised to see several of very exotic shape and plumage. One
+      long-legged fellow, dressed in a dirty white Austrian uniform,
+      with large web-feet, on which he seemed to rest with great
+      complacency, particularly arrested our attention. He stood as
+      high as the <i>Venus di Medici</i>, but by no means so
+      gracefully, and thrust his thick carved beak unceremoniously in
+      your face. His card of address was <i>Phoenicopterus
+      antiquorum</i>. The ancients ate him, and he looked as if he
+      would break your nose if you disputed with him. A very large
+      finch, which we have seen for sale about the streets here and
+      elsewhere in Sicily, rejoices in the imposing name of
+      <i>Fringilla cocco thraustis</i>. He wears his black cravat like
+      a bird of pretension, as he evidently is. The puffin (<i>Puffinus
+      Anglorum</i>) also frequents these rocks, though a very long way
+      from the Isle of Wight. No! Messina, though very fine, is not
+      equal to <i>Palermo</i>, with its unrivaled <i>Marina</i>,
+      compared to which Messina is poorly off indeed, in her straggling
+      dirty commerce-doing quay. We went out to see a little garden,
+      which contains half a dozen zare-trees and as many beautiful
+      birds in cages. We are disappointed at the poverty of our dessert
+      in this region of fruitfulness&mdash;a few bad oranges, some
+      miserable cherries, and that abomination the green almond. We
+      observe, for the first time, to-day folks eating in the streets
+      the crude contents of a little oval pod, which contains one or
+      two very large peas, twice the size of any others. These are the
+      true <i>cicer</i>, the proper Italian pea. Little bundles of them
+      are tied up for sale at all the fruit stalls, and men are seen
+      all the day long eating these raw peas, and offering them to each
+      other as sugar-plums.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>17:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>"Virroni muræna datur, quo maxima venit</p>
+
+          <p>Gurgite de Siculo: nam dum se continet Auster,</p>
+
+          <p>Contemnunt mediam tem eraria lina Charybdim."</p>
+
+          <p class="i8">JUVENAL, <i>Sat.</i> v. 99.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>In the Corso we see a kind of temporary theatre, the deal
+      sides of which are gaudily lined with Catania silk, and on its
+      stage a whole <i>dramatis personæ</i> of sacred puppets. It is
+      lighted by tapers of very taper dimensions, and its <i>stalle</i>
+      are to be let for a humble consideration to the faithful or the
+      curious. It turns out to be a religious spectacle, supported on
+      the voluntary system&mdash;but there is something for your money.
+      A vast quantity of light framework, to which fireworks, chiefly
+      of the detonating kind, are attached, are already going off, and
+      folk are watching till it be completed. Then the evening's
+      entertainment will begin, and a miser indeed must he be, or
+      beyond measure resourceless, who refuses halfpence for such
+      choice festivities. Desirous to make out the particular
+      representation, we get over the fence in order to examine the
+      figures of the drama on a nearer view. A smartly dressed saint in
+      a court <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg030" id=
+      "pg030">030</a></span>suit, but whom mitre and crosier determine
+      to be a bishop, kneels to a figure in spangles, a virgin as fond
+      of fine clothes as the Greek Panageia; while on the other side,
+      with one or two priests in his train, is seen a crowd in civil
+      costume. A paper cloud above, surrounded by glories of glass and
+      tinsel, is supported by two solid cherubs equal to the occasion,
+      and presents to the intelligent a representation of&mdash;we know
+      not what! Fire-works here divide the public with the
+      drum&mdash;to one or other all advertisement in Sicily is
+      committed. A sale of fish and flesh, theatric entertainments,
+      processions, and church invitations, are all by tuck of drum, or
+      by squib and cracker. How did they get on before the invention of
+      gunpowder? If a new coffeehouse is established, a couple of drums
+      start it advantageously, and beat like a recruiting party up and
+      down the street, to the dismay of all <i>Forestieri</i>. The drum
+      tells you when the thunny is at a discount, and <i>fire-works</i>
+      are let off at <i>fish stalls</i> when customers are slack.</p>
+
+      <p>An old tower, five miles off, is called the telegraph. People
+      go there for the panorama at the expense of three horses and two
+      hours; but you are repaid by two sea views, either of which had
+      been sufficient. Messina, its harbour, the straits, the opposite
+      coast of Calabria, Scylla, and <i>Rhegium</i>, (famed for its
+      bergamot,) are on the immediate shore, and a most striking chain
+      of hills for the background, which, at a greater distance, have
+      for their background the imposing range of the <i>Abruzzi</i>.
+      The Æolian islands rise out of the sea in the happiest positions
+      for effect. <i>Stromboli</i> on the extreme right detaches his
+      grey wreath of smoke, which seems as if it proceeded out of the
+      water, (for Stromboli is very low,) staining for a moment the
+      clear firmament, which rivals it in depth of colour. Some of the
+      volcanic group are so nearly on a level with the water, that they
+      look like the backs of so many leviathans at a halt. The sea
+      itself lies, a waveless mirror, smooth, shining, slippery, and
+      treacherous as a serpent's back&mdash;"miseri quibus intentata
+      <i>nites</i>," say we.</p>
+
+      <h3>JOURNEY TO TAORMINA.</h3>
+
+      <p>We left Messina under a sky which no painter would or could
+      attempt; indeed, it would not have looked well on paper, or out
+      of reality. There are certain unusual, yet magnificent
+      appearances in nature, from which the artist conventionally
+      abstains, not so much from the impotence of art, as that the
+      nearer his approach to success the worse the picture. At one time
+      the colours were like shot or clouded silk, or the beautiful
+      uncertainty of the Palamida of these shores, or the matrix of
+      opal; at another, the Pacific Ocean above, of which the
+      continuity is often for whole months <i>entire</i>, was broken
+      into gigantic continents and a Polynesia of rose-coloured islands
+      that no ships might approach; while in this nether world the
+      middle of the Calabro-Sicilian strait was occupied by a
+      condensation of vapour, (one could never profane them by the term
+      of <i>sea-mist</i> or <i>fog</i>,) the most subtile and
+      attenuated which ever came from the realms of cloud-compelling
+      Jove. This fleecy tissue pursued its deliberate progress from
+      coast to coast, like a cortege of cobwebs carrying a deputation
+      from the power-looms of <i>Arachne</i> in <i>Italy</i> to the
+      rival silk-looms at Catania. We pass the dry beds of mountain
+      torrents at every half mile, ugly gashes on a smooth road; and
+      requiring too much caution to leave one's attention to be engaged
+      by many objects altogether new and beautiful. The rich yellow of
+      the <i>Cactus</i>, and the red of the <i>Pomegranate</i>, and the
+      most tender of all vegetable greens, that of the young
+      <i>mulberry</i>, together with a sweet wilderness of unfamiliar
+      plants, are not to be perfectly enjoyed on a fourfooted animal
+      that stumbles, or on a road full of pitfalls. We shall only say
+      that the <i>Cynara cardunculus</i>, (a singularly fine thistle or
+      <i>wild artichoke</i>;) the prickly uncultivated
+      <i>love-apple</i>, (a beautiful variety of the <i>Solanum</i>,)
+      of which the decoction is not infrequently employed in nephritic
+      complaints; the <i>Ferula</i>, sighing for occupation all along
+      the sea-shore, and shaking its scourge as the wind blows; the
+      <i>Rhododendron</i>, in full blossom, planted <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg031" id="pg031">031</a></span>amongst the
+      shingles; the <i>Thapsia gargarica</i>, with its silver umbel,
+      looking at a short distance like mica, (an appearance caused by
+      the shining white fringe of the capsule encasing its seed,) and
+      many other strange and beautiful things, were the constant
+      attendants of our march. We counted six or seven varieties of the
+      spurge, (<i>Euphorbium</i>,) each on its milky stem, and in
+      passing through the villages had <i>Carnations</i> as large as
+      <i>Dahlias</i> flung at us by sunburnt urchins posted at their
+      several doors. The sandy shore for many miles is beautifully
+      notched in upon by tiny bays like basins, on which boats lie
+      motionless and baking in the sun, or oscillate under a
+      picturesque rock, immersed up to its shoulders in a green
+      <i>hyaloid</i>, which reflects their forms from a depth of many
+      fathoms. On more open stretches of the shore, long-drawn ripples
+      of waves of tiny dimension are overrunning and treading on one
+      another's heels for miles a-head, and tapping the anchored boat
+      "with gentle blow." The long-horned oxen already spoken of, toil
+      along the seaside road like the horses on our canal banks, and
+      tug the heavy felucca towards Messina&mdash;a service, however,
+      sometimes executed by men harnessed to the towing-cord, who, as
+      they go, offend the Sicilian muses by sounds and by words that
+      have little indeed of the &Delta;&omega;&rho;&iota;&zeta;
+      &alpha;&omicron;&iota;&delta;&alpha;. The gable ends of cottages
+      often exhibit a very primitive windmill for sawing wood within
+      doors. It is a large wheel, to the spokes of which flappers are
+      adjusted, made of coarse matting, and so placed as to profit by
+      the ordinary sea breeze; and, while the <i>wind</i> is thus
+      <i>sawing</i> his planks for him, the carpenter, at his door,
+      carries on his craft. We pass below not a few fortresses abutting
+      over the sea, or perched on the mountain tops. Many of these are
+      of English construction, and date from the occupation of the
+      island during the French war: in a word, the whole of this
+      Sicilian road is so variously lovely, that if we did not know the
+      <i>cornice</i> between <i>Nice</i> and <i>Genoa</i>, we should
+      say it was quite unrivaled, being at once in lavish possession of
+      all the grand, and most of the milder elements of landscape
+      composition. It is long since it became no wonder to us that the
+      greatest and in fact the only, real pastoral poet should have
+      been a Sicilian; but it is a marvel indeed, that, having
+      forgotten to bring his <i>Eclogues</i> with us, we cannot,
+      through the whole of Sicily, find a copy of Theocitus for sale,
+      though there is a <i>Sicilian</i> translation of him to be had at
+      Palermo. As he progresses thus delightfully, a long-wished for
+      moment awaits the traveller approaching towards
+      <i>Giardini</i>&mdash;turning round a far projecting neck of
+      land, <i>Etna</i> is at last before him! A disappointment,
+      however, on the whole is Etna himself, thus introduced. He looks
+      far below his stature, and seems so <i>near</i>, that we would
+      have wagered to get upon his shoulders and pull his ears, and
+      return to the little town to dine; the ascent also, to the eye,
+      seems any thing but steep; nor can you easily be brought to
+      believe that such an expedition is from Giardini a three days'
+      affair, except, indeed, that yonder belt of snow in the midst of
+      this roasting sunshine, has its own interpretation, and cannot be
+      mistaken. Alas! In the midst of all our flowers there was, as
+      there always is, the <i>amari aliquid</i>&mdash;it was occasioned
+      here by the <i>flies</i>. They had tasked our <i>improved</i>
+      capacity for bearing annoyances ever since we first set foot in
+      Sicily; but <i>here</i> they are perfectly incontrollable,
+      stinging and buzzing at us without mercy or truce, not to be
+      driven off for a second, nor persuaded to drown themselves on any
+      consideration. Verily, the honey-pots of Hybla itself seem to
+      please these troublesome insects less than the <i>flesh</i>-pots
+      of Egypt.</p>
+
+      <p>The next day begins inauspiciously for our ascent to Taormina;
+      but the attendants of the excursion are already making a great
+      noise, without which nothing can be done in either of the two
+      Sicilies. A supply of shabby donkeys are brought and mounted,
+      and, once astride, we begin to ascend, the poor beasts tottering
+      under our weight, and by their constant stumbling affording us
+      little inclination to look about. It takes about three-fourths of
+      an hour of this donkey-riding to reach the old notched wall of
+      the town. Two Taorminian citizens at this moment issue from under
+      its arch, in their way down, and guessing what we are, offer some
+      indifferent coins which do not suit us, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg032" id="pg032">032</a></span>but enable us
+      to enter into conversation. We demand and obtain a
+      <i>cicerone</i>, of whom we are glad to get rid after three
+      hours' infliction of his stupidity and endurance of his
+      ignorance, without acquiring one idea, Greek, Roman, Norman, or
+      Saracen, out of all his erudition. After going through the whole
+      tour with such a fellow for a Hermes, we come at last upon the
+      far-famed theatre, where we did not want him. Here, however, a
+      very intelligent attendant, supported by the king of Naples on a
+      suitable pension of five baiocchi a-day, takes us out of the
+      hands of the Philistine, and with a plan of the ground to aid us,
+      proceeds to give an intelligible, and, as appears to us, a true
+      explanation of the different parts of the huge construction, in
+      the area of which we stand delighted. He directed our attention
+      to a large arched tunnel, under and at right angles to the
+      pulpita, and we did not want direction to the thirty-six niches
+      placed at equal distances all round the ellipse, and just over
+      the lowest range of the CUNEI. All niches were, no doubt, for
+      statues; but these might also have been, it pleases some to
+      suppose, for the reverberation of applause; and they quote
+      something about <i>"Resonantia Vasa"</i> from Macrobius, adding,
+      that such niches were once probably lined with brass. Of bolder
+      speculatists, some believe the <i>kennel</i> to have been made
+      with a similar intention. Others hold that it may have been a
+      concealed way for introducing lions and tigers to the arena! Now,
+      what if it were a <i>drain</i> for the waters, which, in bad
+      weather, soon collect to a formidable height in such a situation?
+      Whether for voice, or wild beasts, or drainage, or none of these
+      objects, there it is. As to the first, we cannot help being
+      sceptical. Did it ever occur to an audience to wish the noise
+      they make <i>greater</i>, and contrive expedients for <i>making
+      it so?</i></p>
+
+      <p>We are here high up amidst the mountains, where, we are to
+      remember, as the ancients came not to spend, like ourselves, an
+      idle hour, but to consume most of the day, <i>shelter</i> would
+      be wanted. Two large lateral spaces, or as it were, side
+      chambers, have received this destination at the hands of the
+      antiquary, and have been supposed lobbies for foul weather or for
+      shade at noon. We were made to notice by our guide, what we
+      should else have overlooked, how the main passage described above
+      communicates with several smaller ones in its progress, and that
+      a small stair was a subsequent contrivance or afterthought meant
+      to relieve, on emergency, the overcharged large one; its
+      workmanship and style showed it plainly to have been added when
+      the edifice had already become <i>an antiquity</i>. This
+      altogether peculiar and most interesting building has also
+      suffered still later interpolations: a Saracenic frieze runs
+      round the wall; so that the hands of three widely different
+      nations have been busy on the mountain theatre, which received
+      its <i>first audience</i> twenty-five centuries ago! The view
+      obtained from this spot has often been celebrated, and deserves
+      to be. Such mountains we had often seen before; such a sky is the
+      usual privilege of Sicily; these indented <i>bays</i>, which
+      break so beautifully the line of the coast, had been an object of
+      our daily admiration; the hoary side of the majestic Etna, and
+      Naxos with its castellated isthmus, might be seen from
+      <i>other</i> elevated situations; and the acuminated tops of
+      Mola, with its Saracenic tower, were commanded by neighbouring
+      sites&mdash;Taormina <i>alone</i>, and for its <i>own</i> sake,
+      was the great and paramount object in our eyes, and possessed us
+      wholly! We had been following <i>Lyell</i> half the day in
+      antediluvian remains; but what are the bones of
+      <i>Ichthyosauri</i> or <i>Megalotheria</i> to this gigantic
+      skeleton of Doric antiquity, round which lie scattered the
+      sepulchres of its ancient audiences, Greek, Roman, and
+      Oriental&mdash;tombs which had become already an object of
+      speculation, and been rifled for arms, vases, or gold rings,
+      before Great Britain had made the first steps beyond painted
+      barbarism!</p>
+
+      <p>The eruptions of Etna have all been recorded. Thucydides
+      mentions one of them episodically in the Peloponesian war. From
+      the cooled caldron that simmers under all that snow, has
+      proceeded all the lava that the ancients worked into these their
+      city walls. The houses of Taurominium were built of and upon
+      <i>lava</i>, which it requires a thousand years to disintegrate.
+      After dinner we walk to Naxos, saluting the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg033" id="pg033">033</a></span>statue of the
+      patron of a London parish, <i>St Pancras</i>, on our way. He
+      stands on the beach here, and claims, by inscription on his
+      pedestal, to have belonged to the apostolic times, St Peter
+      himself having, he says, appointed him to his bishopric. He is
+      patron of Taormina, where he has possessed himself of a Greek
+      temple; and he also protects the faithful of Giardini. Lucky in
+      his <i>architects</i> has been St Pancras; for many of our
+      readers are familiar with his very elegant modern church in the
+      New Road, modelled, if we have not forgotten, on the Erechtheum,
+      with its <i>Pandrosean Vestries</i>, its upright tiles, and all
+      the subordinate details of Athenian architecture. We <i>met</i>
+      here the subject of many an ancient <i>bas relief</i> done into
+      flesh and blood&mdash;a dozen men and boys tripping along the
+      road to the music of a bagpipe, one old <i>Silenus</i> leading
+      the jocund throng, and the whole of them, as the music, such as
+      it was, inspired, leaping about and gesticulating with incredible
+      activity. It was a bacchanalian subject, which we had seen on
+      many a sarcophagus, only that the fellows here were not
+      <i>quite</i> naked, and that we looked in vain for those nascent
+      horns and tails by which the children of Pan and Faunus ought to
+      be identified. We always look out for <i>natural history</i>.
+      Walking in a narrow street, we saw a tortoise, awake for the
+      season, come crawling out to peep at the poultry; his hybernation
+      being over, he wants to be social, and the hens in astonishment
+      chuckle round him, and his tortoiseshell highness seems pleased
+      at their kind enquiries, and keeps bobbing his head in and out of
+      his <i>testudo</i> in a very sentimental manner. Women who want
+      his shell for <i>combs</i> do not frequent these parts, and so,
+      unless a cart pass over him as he returns home, he is in
+      clover.</p>
+
+      <p>A bird frequents these parts with a blue chest, called
+      <i>Passer solitarius;</i> he abounds in the rocky crevices. The
+      notes of one, which was shown to us in a cage, sounded sweetly;
+      but, as he was carnivorous, the weather was too hot for us to
+      think of taking him away. We saw two snakes put into the same
+      box: the one, a viper, presently killed the other, and much the
+      larger of the two. Serpents, then, like men, do <i>not</i>, as
+      the <i>Satirist</i> asserts, spare their kind. We are
+      disappointed at not finding any coins, nor any other good
+      <i>souvenirs</i>, to bring away with us. The height of Taormina
+      is sufficient to keep it from fever, which is very prevalent at
+      Giardini below. Its bay was once a great place for catching
+      <i>mullet</i> for the Roman market. It seems to have been the
+      <i>Torbay</i> of Sicily. Some fish love their ease, and rejoice
+      not in turbulent waters. The <i>muræna</i>, or lamprey, on the
+      contrary, was sought in the very whirlpools of <i>Charybdis</i>.
+      The modern Roman, on his own side of Italy, has few turbot, but
+      very good ones are still taken off Ancona, in the Adriatic, where
+      the <i>spatium admirabile Rhombi</i>, as the reader will, or
+      ought to recollect, was taken and sent to Domitian at Albano by
+      <i>Procaccio</i> or <i>Estafetta</i>. Juvenal complains that the
+      Tyrrhene sea was exhausted by the demand for fish, though there
+      was no <i>Lent</i> in those times. If the Catholic clergy insist
+      that there <i>was</i>, we beg to object, that the keepers thereof
+      were probably not in a condition to compete with the
+      <i>Apiciuses</i> of the day, who bought fish for their
+      <i>bodies'</i>, and not for their SOULS' SAKE.</p>
+
+      <h3>CATANIA.</h3>
+
+      <p>Tum Catane nimium ardenti vicina Typhæo.</p>
+
+      <p>After a pleasant drive of twenty miles, we find ourselves at
+      <i>Aci-Reale</i>, where a street, called "Galatea," reminds us
+      unexpectedly of a very classical place called Dean's Yard, where
+      we once had doings with <i>Acis</i>, as he figures in Ovid's
+      <i>Metamorphoses</i>. We were here in luck, and, having purchased
+      some fine coins of several of the tyrants of Sicily from the
+      apothecary, proceeded on our way to Catania. In half an hour we
+      reach the basaltic Isles of the Cyclops, and the Castle of Acis,
+      whom the peasants hereabouts tell you was their king, when Sicily
+      was under the Saracenic yoke. The <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg034" id="pg034">034</a></span>river <i>Lecatia</i>, now lost,
+      is supposed formerly to have issued hereabouts, in the port of
+      Ulysses. Our next move placed us amidst the silk-slops of
+      Catania. We have hardly been five minutes in the town, when
+      offers abound to conduct us up Ætna, in whom, as so much national
+      wealth, the inhabitants seem to take as much interest as in her
+      useful and productive silk-looms. Standing fearless on the
+      pavement of lava that buried their ancient city, they point up
+      with complacency to its fountains above. The mischievous exploits
+      of Ætna, in past times, are in every mouth, and children learn
+      their Ætnean catechism as soon as they are breeched. Ætna here is
+      all in all. Churches are constructed out of his quarried
+      <i>viscera</i>&mdash;great men lie in tombs, of which the stones
+      once ran liquid down his flames&mdash;snuff is taken out of lava
+      boxes&mdash;and devotion carves the crucifix on lava, and numbers
+      its beads on a lava rosary&mdash;nay, the apothecary's mortar was
+      sent him down from the great mortar-battery above, and the
+      village <i>belle</i> wears fire-proof bracelets that were once
+      too hot to be meddled with. Go to the museum, and you will call
+      it a museum of Ætnean products. Nodulated, porous, condensed,
+      streaked, spotted, clouded, granulated lava, here assumes the
+      colour, rivals the compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper,
+      of agate, and of marble; indeed it sometimes surpasses, in
+      beautiful veinage, the finest and rarest Marmorean specimens. You
+      would hardly distinguish some of it, worked into jazza or vase,
+      from <i>rosso antico</i> itself. A very old and rusty armoury
+      may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of formidable shark
+      skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very port of
+      Catania, are rarities on which the <i>ciceroni</i> like to
+      prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed
+      by them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if
+      you were just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of
+      bronzes has been made from excavations in the neighbourhood,
+      which, indeed, must always promise to reward research. A figure
+      of Mercury, two and a half feet high, and so exactly similar to
+      that of John of Bologna, that his one seemed an absolute
+      plagiarism, particularly attracted our attention on that account.
+      The great Italian artist, however, had been dead one hundred and
+      fifty years before this bronze was dug up. Next in importance to
+      the bronzes, we esteem the collection of Sicilian, or
+      Græco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and selectness to
+      those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also some
+      ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition is
+      a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
+      pavement, welcome you with a <i>utere feliciter</i>, (may it do
+      you good.) Round the border, a circle of the personified
+      <i>"months"</i> is artistically chained together, each bearing
+      his <i>Greek</i> name, for fear of a mistake&mdash;names not half
+      so good as Sheridan's translation of the Revolutionary
+      calendar&mdash;snowy, flowy, blowy&mdash;showery, flowery,
+      bowery&mdash;moppy, croppy, poppy&mdash;breezy, sneezy, freezy.
+      In Catania, we find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers,
+      who know pretty generally their value throughout Europe; but, in
+      order to be quite sure of the price <i>current,</i> ask double
+      what they take from one another, and judge, by your abatement of
+      it, of the state of the market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when
+      they present you the most impudent forgeries, you are not to get
+      into a passion; but, glancing from the object to the vender,
+      quietly insinuate your want of <i>absolute</i> conviction in a
+      <i>"che vi pare di questa moneta."</i> He now looks at it again,
+      and takes a squint at <i>you;</i> and supposing you smell a rat,
+      probably replies that certainly he <i>bought</i> it for
+      <i>genuine;</i> but you <i>have suggested a doubt,</i> and the
+      piece really begins, even to <i>him</i>, to look suspicious,
+      <i>"anzi à me."</i> You reply coolly, and put it down&mdash;"That
+      was just what I was thinking;" and so the affair passes quietly
+      off. And now you <i>may</i>, if you happen to be tender-hearted,
+      say something compassionate to the poor innocent who has been
+      <i>taken in</i>, and proceed to ask him about another; and when
+      you see any thing you long to pocket, enquire what can he afford
+      to let a <i>brother collector</i> (give him a step in rank) have
+      <i>it</i> for; and so go on feeling your way, and never "putting
+      your arm so far out that you cannot comfortably draw it back
+      again." He will probably ask you if you know Mr B&mdash;&mdash;
+      or C&mdash;&mdash;, (English <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg035" id="pg035">035</a></span>collectors,) with whom he has
+      had dealings, calling them "<i>stimabili signori;</i>" and, of
+      course, you have no doubt of it, though you never heard of them
+      before. It is also always conciliative to congratulate him on the
+      possession of such and such rare and "<i>belle cose;</i>" and if
+      you thus contrive to get into his good graces, he will deal with
+      you at <i>fair prices</i>, and perhaps amuse you with an account
+      of such tricks as he is not ashamed to have practised on
+      <i>blockheads</i>, who will buy at any cost if the die is fine.
+      Indeed, it has passed into an aphorism among these
+      <i>mezzo-galantuomini</i>, as their countrymen call them, that a
+      fine coin is always worth <i>what you can get for it.</i></p>
+
+      <p>We heard the celebrated organ of St Benedict, which has been
+      praising God in tremendous hallelujahs ever since it was put up,
+      and a hundred years have only matured the richness of its tones.
+      Its voice was gushing out as we entered the church, and filling
+      nave and aisle with a diapason of all that was soft and soothing,
+      as if a choir of Guido's angels had broke out in harmony.</p>
+
+      <p>A stream of fresh water issues under the old town-wall, and an
+      immense mass of incumbent lava, of at least ninety feet high,
+      impends just above its source, the water struggling through a
+      mass of rock once liquefied by fire, in as limpid a rill as if it
+      came from limestone, and so excellent in quality that no other is
+      used in Catania. Women with buckets were ascending and descending
+      to fetch supplies out of the lava of the dead city below, for the
+      use of the living town above. Moreover, this is the only point in
+      Catania where the accident of a bit of wall arresting for some
+      time the progress of the lava current, has left the level of the
+      old town to be rigidly ascertained.</p>
+
+      <p>Here, as at <i>Aci-Reale</i>, balconies at windows, for the
+      most part supported by brackets, terminating in human heads, give
+      a rich, though rather a heavy, appearance to the street. Much
+      amber is found and worked at Catania. It has been lately
+      discovered in a fossil state, and in contiguity with fossil wood;
+      but we were quite <i>electrified</i> at the price of certain
+      little scent-bottles, and other articles made of this production.
+      You see it in all its possible varieties of colour, opacity, or
+      transparency. The green opalized kind is the most prized, and
+      four pounds was demanded for a pair of pendants of this colour
+      for earrings. Besides the yellow sort, which is common every
+      where, we see the ruby red, which is very rare: some varieties
+      are freckled, and some of the sort which afforded subjects for
+      Martial, and for more than one of the Greek anthologists, with
+      insects in its matrix. <i>This</i> kind, they say, is found
+      exclusively on the coast of Catania. There are such pieces the
+      size of a hand, but it is generally in much smaller bits. Amber
+      lies under, or is formed <i>upon</i> the sand, and abounds most
+      near the <i>embouchure</i> of a small river in this
+      neighbourhood. Many beautiful shells, fossils, and other objects
+      of natural history, appear in the dealers' trays; and polished
+      knife-handles of Sicilian <i>agate</i> may be had at five dollars
+      a dozen. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg036" id=
+      "pg036">036</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS.</h2>
+
+      <h3>DON JOHN AND THE HERETICS OF FLANDERS.</h3>
+
+      <p>It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors
+      of Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
+      knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
+      ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and
+      colour, the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved
+      fatal to all.</p>
+
+      <p>In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were
+      kept up by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh,
+      appear studied rather than instinctive. At all events, the
+      gallant Sir Philip was the last of English knights, as he was the
+      first of his time. Thenceforward, the valour of the country
+      assumed a character more professional.</p>
+
+      <p>But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable
+      of the rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed,
+      every faith was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became
+      extinct; expiring in France with Henri IV. and the
+      League&mdash;in Portugal with Don Sebastian of Braganza&mdash;and
+      in Spain with Charles V., exterminated root and branch by the pen
+      of Cervantes.</p>
+
+      <p>One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those
+      crumbling institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the
+      person of Don John of Austria;&mdash;a prince who, if consecrated
+      by legitimacy to the annals of the throne, would have glorified
+      the historical page by a thousand heroic incidents. But the
+      sacrament of his baptism being unhappily unpreceded by that of a
+      marriage, he has bequeathed us one of those anomalous
+      existences&mdash;one of those incomplete destinies, which
+      embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.</p>
+
+      <p>On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with
+      qualifications to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant
+      son was entrusted by Charles V. to the charge of the master of
+      his household, Don Quexada, the emperor simply described him as
+      the offspring of a lady of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But
+      the Infanta Clara Eugenia was confidentially informed by her
+      father Philip II., and confidentially informed her satellite La
+      Cuea, that her uncle was "every way of imperial lineage;" and but
+      that he was the offspring of a crime, Don John had doubtless been
+      seated on one of those thrones to which his legitimate brother
+      Philip imparted so little distinction.</p>
+
+      <p>Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the
+      consanguinity of Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard,
+      one of the objects of the hateful life of the father of Don
+      Carlos seems to have been to thwart the ambitious instincts of
+      his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in the boiling veins of the
+      young prince abided the whole soul of Charles V.,&mdash;valour,
+      restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life and mysterious
+      death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.</p>
+
+      <p>That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
+      Holyrood,&mdash;Elizabeth at Kenilworth&mdash;Carlos at the feet
+      of his mother-in-law,&mdash;the Béarnais at the gates of
+      Paris,&mdash;have engraved their type in the book of universal
+      memory. But Don John escapes notice&mdash;a solitary star
+      outshone by dazzling constellations. Commemorated by no medals,
+      flattered by no historiographer, sung by no inspired "godson,"
+      anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook in the temple of
+      fame is out of sight, and forgotten.</p>
+
+      <p>Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto,
+      brings chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote
+      lost his hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us,
+      we dare not call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he
+      is known in Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular
+      libertine! And thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of
+      his name by the hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his
+      honours by Cervantes, as by Philip II. of a throne.&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Hard fate for one described by all <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg037" id="pg037">037</a></span>the writers of
+      his time as a model of manly grace and Christian virtue! How
+      charming is the account given by the old Spanish writers of the
+      noble youth, extricated from his convent to be introduced on the
+      high-road to a princely cavalier, surrounded by his retinue, whom
+      he is first desired to salute as a brother, and then required to
+      worship, as the king of Spain! We are told of his joy on
+      discovering his filial relationship to the great emperor, so long
+      the object of his admiration. We are told of his deeds of prowess
+      against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the Moor. We are
+      told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should be
+      rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
+      revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering
+      throne; nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie"
+      was offered to his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his
+      untimely death and glorious funeral&mdash;mourned by all the
+      knighthood of the land! But we hear and forget. Some mysterious
+      counter-charm has stripped his laurels of their verdure. Even the
+      lesser incidents of the life of Don John are replete with the
+      interest of romance. When appointed by Philip II. governor of the
+      Netherlands, in order that he might deal with the heretics of the
+      Christian faith as with the faithful of Mahomet, such deadly
+      vengeance was vowed against his person by the Protestant party
+      headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was judged
+      necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
+      Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the
+      attendant of Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the
+      very moment the troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight
+      thousand citizens in his revolted city of Antwerp!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more
+      pacific measures. The dispositions of Don John were
+      humane&mdash;his manners frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces
+      were exhausted by ten years of civil war, and that the pay of the
+      Spanish troops he had to lead against them was so miserably in
+      arrear as to compel them to acts of atrocious spoliation, the
+      hero of Lepanto appears to have done his best to stop the
+      effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the counteraction of the
+      Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace and an amnesty were
+      proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known by the name of
+      the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as was
+      compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
+      blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
+      property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or
+      calculation.</p>
+
+      <p>But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the
+      people and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have
+      been fully sensible that his head was within the jaws of the
+      lion. The blood of Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the
+      echoes of the edicts of Alva yet lingered in the air; and the
+      very stones of Brussels appeared to rise up and testify against a
+      brother of Philip II.!</p>
+
+      <p>Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse
+      was afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position,
+      by an incident which must again be accounted among the romantic
+      adventures of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating
+      Margaret of Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of
+      indisposition, was generally attributed to a design against the
+      heart of the hero of Lepanto.</p>
+
+      <p>A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could
+      do no less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her
+      passage through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of
+      that stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In
+      process of time, a camp was formed in the environs, and
+      fortresses erected on the banks of the Meuse under the inspection
+      of Don John; nor was it at first easy to determine whether his
+      measures were actuated by mistrust of the Protestants, or
+      devotion to the worst and most Catholic of wives of the best and
+      most Huguenot of kings.</p>
+
+      <p>The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
+      Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our
+      edification by the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don
+      John of blindness, in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her,
+      and the absolute liberty accorded her during <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg038" id="pg038">038</a></span>her residence
+      at Spa, where she was opening a road for the arrival of her
+      brother the Duke of Alençon. It is admitted, indeed, that her
+      attack upon his heart met with defeat. But the young governor is
+      said to have made up in chivalrous courtesies for the
+      disappointment of her tender projects; and Margaret, if she did
+      not find a lover at Namur, found the most assiduous of
+      knights.</p>
+
+      <p>Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French
+      princess were as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was
+      as completely absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as
+      her highness by the desire of converting them into the subjects
+      of France. It was only those admitted into the confidence of Don
+      John who possessed the clue to the mystery.</p>
+
+      <p>Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with
+      which he had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint
+      him with the suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had
+      given rise.</p>
+
+      <p>"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said
+      he, when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels
+      have been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour,
+      that I had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but
+      the silken pastimes of a court."</p>
+
+      <p>"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in
+      my steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the
+      trumpets of my camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder
+      lines," continued he, (pointing from a window of the citadel,
+      near which they were standing, commanding the confluence of the
+      Sambre and Meuse,) "and my utmost diversion, an occasional charge
+      against the boars in yonder forest of Marlagne!"</p>
+
+      <p>"I cannot but suppose it more than <i>occasional</i>,"
+      rejoined Gonzaga; "for I must pay your highness the ill
+      compliment of avowing, that you appear more worn by fatigue and
+      weather at this moment, and in this sunless clime, than at the
+      height of your glorious labours in the Mediterranean! Namur has
+      already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow than Barbary or
+      Lepanto."</p>
+
+      <p>"Say rather in my <i>heart</i>!" cried the impetuous prince.
+      "Since you quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have
+      known nothing but cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing,
+      that my position in this country is hateful. So long accustomed
+      to war against a barbarous enemy, I could almost fancy myself as
+      much a Moor at heart, as I appeared in visage, when in your
+      service on my way to Luxembourg, whenever I find my sword
+      uplifted against a Christian breast!&mdash;Civil war, Ottavio, is
+      a hideous and repugnant thing!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"The report is true, then, that your highness has become
+      warmly attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded
+      Gonzaga, not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain,
+      that an opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the
+      Barlaimont faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway
+      of absolute sovereignty.</p>
+
+      <p>"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me
+      at my arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet
+      more and more. Flemings or Brabançons, Hainaulters or Walloons,
+      Catholic or Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and
+      despite our best endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the
+      feeling is reciprocal!"</p>
+
+      <p>"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the
+      Queen of Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,&mdash;"I can
+      scarcely wonder at the hopes she is said to entertain of having
+      won over the governor of Mons to the French interest, during her
+      transit through Flanders."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing.
+      "It may indeed be so!&mdash;for never saw I a woman less
+      scrupulous in the choice or use of arms to fight her battles.
+      But, trust me, whatever her majesty may have accomplished, is
+      through no aiding or abetting of mine."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your
+      highness"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"My highness made them <i>appear</i> devoted in proportion to
+      his consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
+      Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards
+      Margaret de Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the
+      divinities who competed for our smiles at Tunis." <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg039" id="pg039">039</a></span> Gonzaga
+      shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don John
+      was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
+      perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.</p>
+
+      <p>"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his
+      misgivings&mdash;"I am as sincere in all this as becomes our
+      friendship. But that God has gifted me with a happy temperament,
+      I should scarcely support the disgusts of my present calling. It
+      is much, my dear Gonzaga, to inherit as a birthright the brand of
+      such an ignominy as mine. But as long as I trusted to conquer a
+      happier destiny&mdash;to carve out for myself fortunes as
+      glorious as those to which my blood all but entitles me&mdash;I
+      bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent hope of
+      distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle&mdash;that
+      taught prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even
+      the base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young
+      viceroy thus bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he
+      had been hearing imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of
+      crimes, filled him with amazement.</p>
+
+      <p>"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The
+      harshness with which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my
+      brother refused to ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my
+      favour, convinced me that I have nothing to expect from Philip
+      beyond the perpetual servitude of a satellite of the King of
+      Spain."</p>
+
+      <p>Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission
+      of these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude
+      stone walls to harbour an eavesdropper.</p>
+
+      <p>"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of
+      the unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me
+      towards the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his
+      nature&mdash;the harshness of his soul&mdash;the austerity of his
+      bigotry&mdash;chill me to the marrow!&mdash;The Holy Inquisition
+      deserves, in my estimation, a name the very antithesis of
+      holy."</p>
+
+      <p>"I <i>beseech</i> your highness!" cried Ottavio
+      Gonzaga&mdash;clasping his hands together in an irrepressible
+      panic.</p>
+
+      <p>"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in
+      our camp; and if there <i>were</i>, both they and you must even
+      hear me out!" cried Don John. "There is some comfort in
+      discharging one's heart of matters that have long lain so heavy
+      on it; and I swear to you, Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling
+      surprised to find my cheeks so lank, and my eyes so hollow, you
+      would rather be amazed to find an ounce of flesh upon my bones,
+      did you know how careful are my days, and how sleepless my
+      nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil war!&mdash;The
+      haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul but
+      that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
+      Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons&mdash;all
+      the varied tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to
+      vie with each other which shall succeed best in thwarting and
+      humiliating me. And for what do I bear it? What honour or profit
+      shall I reap on my patience? What thanks derive for having wasted
+      my best days and best energies, in bruising with my iron heel the
+      head of the serpent of heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some
+      toy of a mass neglected or an ave forgotten, will perchance give
+      me over to the tender questioning of his grand inquisitor, as the
+      shortest possible answer to my pretensions to a
+      crown,&mdash;while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when roused
+      from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
+      fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified
+      gratification&mdash;'<i>There</i> spoke the blood of Charles the
+      Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"</p>
+
+      <p>Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
+      courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the
+      loyalty towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula;
+      and that his services as governor of the Low Countries were fully
+      appreciated.</p>
+
+      <p>"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe
+      was already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don
+      John, with a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of
+      my feelings and opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I
+      am likely to have proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished
+      a Laura as the sister of Henry III?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I confess myself disappointed," <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg040" id="pg040">040</a></span>replied the
+      crafty Italian.&mdash;"I was in hopes that your highness had
+      found recreation as well as glory in Belgium. During my sojourn
+      at the court of Philip, I supported with patience the somewhat
+      ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the belief that your
+      highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal enlivenments, which
+      none more fully understand how to organize and adorn."</p>
+
+      <p>"If such an expectation really availed to <i>enliven</i> the
+      Escurial," cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must
+      indeed possess miraculous properties! However, you may judge with
+      your own eyes the pleasantness of my position; and every day that
+      improves your acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition
+      of this accursed army of the royalists, ill-paid,
+      ill-disciplined, and ill-intentioned, will inspire you with
+      stronger yearnings after our days of the Mediterranean, where I
+      was master of myself and of my men."</p>
+
+      <p>"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will
+      serve to comfort the venomous heart of the queen
+      mother!"&mdash;ejaculated Gonzaga, shrugging his shoulders.</p>
+
+      <p>"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was
+      far too much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes,
+      to take heed of those of my camp."</p>
+
+      <p>"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be
+      desirable, of how many things a woman's eyes are capable of
+      doing, at one and the same time!"&mdash;retorted the Italian.</p>
+
+      <p>"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of
+      having occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to
+      witness the friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an
+      excursion on the Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne,
+      constitute the pastimes you are pleased to magnify into an
+      imperial ovation."</p>
+
+      <p>"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a
+      ball-room,&mdash;much in one poor half hour of a greenwood
+      rendezvous!"&mdash;persisted the provoking Ottavio.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ay&mdash;<i>much</i> indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh
+      so deep that it startled by its significance the attention of his
+      brother in arms. "But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri
+      the Béarnais!" returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I
+      wish no worse to that heretic prince, than to have placed his
+      honour in the keeping of the <i>gente Margot</i>."</p>
+
+      <p>Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had
+      taken a turn that promised wonders for the interest of the
+      despatches he had undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in
+      elucidation of the designs and sentiments of Don
+      John,&mdash;towards whom his allegiance was as the kisses of
+      Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
+      assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it
+      apparent that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having
+      proposed to the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander,
+      he destined the colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should
+      proceed to a survey of the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted
+      their horses, and, escorted by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish
+      aide-de-camp of the prince, proceeded to the camp.</p>
+
+      <p>The affectionate deference testified towards the young
+      governor by all classes, the moment he made his appearance in
+      public, appeared to Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the
+      declarations of Don John that he was no favourite in Belgium. The
+      Italian forgot that the Duke of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld
+      and Barlaimont, while doffing their caps to the representative of
+      the King of Spain, had as much right to behold in him the devoted
+      friend of Don John of Austria, as <i>he</i> to regard <i>them</i>
+      as the faithful vassals of his government.</p>
+
+      <p>A fair country is the country of Namur!&mdash;The confluent
+      streams&mdash;the impending rocks&mdash;the spreading forests of
+      its environs, comprehend the finest features of landscape; nor
+      could Ottavio Gonzaga feel surprised that his prince should find
+      as much more pleasure in those breesy plains than in the narrow
+      streets of Brussels, as he found security and strength.</p>
+
+      <p>On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the
+      town, stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to
+      attain which by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed;
+      and it was pleasant <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg041" id=
+      "pg041">041</a></span>to see the Walloon peasant children run
+      forth from the cottages to salute the royal train, making their
+      heavy Flemish chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering
+      cabrioles far more deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to
+      which they were almost accustomed.</p>
+
+      <p>As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the
+      Meuse, they saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups
+      congregated just then in the district, of soldiers and peasants;
+      to which the attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di
+      Zuniga, his aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause
+      of the gathering.</p>
+
+      <p>"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
+      Spaniard&mdash;galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes
+      streaming in the breeze;&mdash;that the Prince's train, which had
+      halted, might resume its pace.</p>
+
+      <p>"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who
+      appreciated the trivialties of life very differently from those
+      by whom he was surrounded.</p>
+
+      <p>"A village grievance!&mdash;An old woman roaring her lungs out
+      for a cow which has been carried off by our
+      troopers!"&mdash;grumbled the aide-de-camp, with less respect
+      than was usual to him.</p>
+
+      <p>"And call you that a <i>nothing</i>?"&mdash;exclaimed his
+      master. "By our lady of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and
+      oppression&mdash;a thing calculated to make us hateful in the
+      eyes of the village!&mdash;And many villages, my good Nignio,
+      represent districts, and many districts provinces, and provinces
+      a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as the
+      indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
+      Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!&mdash;See to it! I want
+      no further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be
+      restored before sunset, and the marauders punished."</p>
+
+      <p>"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer
+      in its skin?"&mdash;demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should
+      have been already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Let her have compensation."</p>
+
+      <p>"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness,
+      is all but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
+      Gonzaga,&mdash;as though they were accustomed to jest together
+      over the reckless openness of heart and hand of their young
+      chief.</p>
+
+      <p>"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at
+      least the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
+      restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."</p>
+
+      <p>"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as
+      the aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with
+      an imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on
+      his hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal
+      master. "It goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement
+      of these fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and
+      hunger, that eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at
+      honesty. My royal brother, or those who have the distribution of
+      his graces, is so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than
+      of orders on the treasury of Spain, that money and rations are
+      evermore wanting. If these Protestants persist in their stand
+      against us, I shall have to go forth to all the Catholic cities
+      of the empire, preaching, like Peter the hermit, to obtain
+      contributions from the pious!"</p>
+
+      <p>"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that
+      rebels and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops
+      sent to reduce them to submission."</p>
+
+      <p>"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either
+      the creed or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don
+      John. "But you say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the
+      instructions of my royal brother; whom the Almighty soften with a
+      more Christian spirit in his upholding of the doctrines of
+      Christianity!&mdash;I am bidden to regard myself as in a
+      conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may have felt
+      at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!&mdash;These
+      people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people
+      are the faithful followers of Christ."</p>
+
+      <p>"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and
+      your highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"&mdash;observed
+      Gonzaga with a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg042" id="pg042">042</a></span>fear, indeed,
+      that the Court of the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for
+      such grievances."</p>
+
+      <p>"Gonzaga!"&mdash;exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his
+      horse, and looking his companion full in the face, "these are
+      black and bitter times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles,
+      ay, and even prelates, forget that they are men; or rather that
+      there be men in the world beside themselves."&mdash;Then allowing
+      his charger to resume its caracolling, to give time to his
+      startled friend to recover from the glow of consciousness burning
+      on his cheek,&mdash;he resumed with a less stern inflexion. "It
+      is the vexation of this conviction that hath brought my face to
+      the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the scorching sun of
+      Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of swords or
+      roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in contending,
+      life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
+      battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
+      sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth,
+      and the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the
+      peace of heaven!&mdash;The petty aggravations of daily
+      strife,&mdash;the cold-blooded oppressions of conquest,&mdash;the
+      contest with the peasant for his morsel of bread, or with his
+      chaste wife for her fidelity,&mdash;are so revolting to my
+      conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
+      moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so
+      well of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal
+      father, to some drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days
+      to the snuffling of Capuchins!"</p>
+
+      <p>Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
+      Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this
+      heinous declaration!&mdash;But he contained himself.&mdash;It was
+      his object to work his way still further into the confidence of
+      his royal companion.</p>
+
+      <p>"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French
+      princess to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it
+      afforded from the contemplation of such miseries and such
+      aggressions. I was sick at heart of groans and
+      murmurs,&mdash;weary of the adjustment of grievances. To behold a
+      woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping, was
+      <i>something</i>!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of
+      the brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.</p>
+
+      <p>"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
+      exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's&mdash;her bearing a
+      woman's&mdash;her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the
+      memory of better days to hear the silken robes of her train
+      rustling around me, instead of the customary clang of mail; and
+      merry laughs instead of perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my
+      Walloons!"</p>
+
+      <p>An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
+      Italian.&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to
+      see the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a
+      lap-dog!&mdash;Is it not so?"</p>
+
+      <p>"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial
+      to your highness,"&mdash;replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance.
+      "My smile was occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in
+      feigning as the royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the
+      attempt. There, at least&mdash;and there alone&mdash;is Don John
+      of Austria certain of defeat!"</p>
+
+      <p>"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the
+      air of Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion,"
+      replied the Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first
+      redoubt. The lines of Bouge are before you."</p>
+
+      <p>Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
+      intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of
+      headquarters beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was
+      surrounded by his officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his
+      orders of the day, the able promptitude of one of the first
+      commanders of his time, tempered by the dignified courtesy of a
+      prince of the blood.</p>
+
+      <p>Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical
+      debates carrying on around him, to have further thought of the
+      mysteries into which he was resolved to penetrate.</p>
+
+      <p>It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his
+      <i>état major</i> returned to Namur; invitations having been
+      frankly given by Don John to a <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg043" id="pg043">043</a></span>score of his officers, to an
+      entertainment in honour of the return of his friend.</p>
+
+      <p>Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga
+      entertained little doubt of learning the truth. The rough
+      railleries of such men were not likely to respect so slight a
+      circumvallation as the honour of female reputation; and the
+      glowing vintage of the Moselle and Rhine would bring forth the
+      secret among the bubbles of their flowing tides. And, in truth,
+      scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the potations of these
+      mailed carousers produced deep oaths and uproarious laughter;
+      amid which was toasted the name of Margaret, with the enthusiasm
+      due to one of the originators of the massacre of St Bartholomew,
+      from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the Inquisition
+      of Spain.</p>
+
+      <p>The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in
+      terms scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by
+      such frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
+      restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It
+      seemed an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a
+      matter of indifference in the ears of Don John!</p>
+
+      <p>That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short
+      continuance as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the
+      reviewal of the prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek
+      in his conjectures, resolved to address himself for further
+      information to Nignio; to whom he had brought confidential
+      letters from his family in Spain, and who was an ancient brother
+      in arms.</p>
+
+      <p>Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied
+      by the Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the
+      valley of the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his
+      early rest with a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of
+      news from Madrid.</p>
+
+      <p>But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened
+      his budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own
+      grievances to confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation
+      of having been employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from
+      execrations on the name of the old woman, enriched with all the
+      blasphemies of a trooper's vocabulary,&mdash;it was no difficult
+      matter to glide to the general misdemeanours and malefactions of
+      the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a man of iron,&mdash;bred in
+      camps, with as little of the milk of human kindness in his nature
+      as his royal master King Philip; and it was his devout
+      conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
+      leagues of any Christian encampment,&mdash;and that women were
+      inflicted upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and
+      contamination of the nobler sex.</p>
+
+      <p>"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her
+      maids of honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy
+      sinner for the space of a calendar year!"&mdash;cried he, still
+      harping upon the old woman.</p>
+
+      <p>"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some
+      trouble and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as
+      much as is <i>apparent</i> of your householding, I can scarce
+      imagine how you managed to bestow so courtly a dame here in
+      honour; or with what pastimes you managed to entertain her."</p>
+
+      <p>"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not
+      yet quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came
+      down handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and
+      sister-in-law of the Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the
+      thick-skulled Walloons to respect. It was not <i>money</i> that
+      was wanting&mdash;it was patience. O, these Parisians! Make me
+      monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast garden of the
+      Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the honour of
+      being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
+      travels!"</p>
+
+      <p>Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted
+      in the warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my
+      clear Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a
+      knight as Don John of Austria, your notions are rather those of
+      Mahound or Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to
+      hear you thus bitter against his Dulcinea?"</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>His</i> Dulcinea!"&mdash;ejaculated the aide-de-camp with
+      a air of disgust. "God <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg044" id=
+      "pg044">044</a></span>grant it! For a princess of Valois blood,
+      reared under the teaching of a Medici, had at least the
+      recommendations of nobility and orthodoxy in her favour."</p>
+
+      <p>"As was the case when Anna di Mendoça effected the conquest
+      over his boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal
+      brother!&mdash;But after such proof of the hereditary aspirings
+      of Don John, it would be difficult to persuade me of his
+      highness's derogation."</p>
+
+      <p>"Would <i>I</i> could say as much!"&mdash;exclaimed Nignio,
+      with a groan. "But such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might
+      convince the scepticism of St Thomas!"</p>
+
+      <p>"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections
+      of the prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would
+      you have me infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a
+      dairy wench?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Of <i>worse</i>! of a daughter of the
+      Amalekites!"&mdash;cried Nignio&mdash;stretching out his widely
+      booted legs, as though it were a relief to him to have
+      disburthened himself of his mystery.</p>
+
+      <p>"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
+      Italian,&mdash;no further versed in Scripture history than was
+      the pleasure of his almoner.</p>
+
+      <p>"You are his highness's <i>friend</i>, Gonzaga!" resumed the
+      Spanish captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his
+      heart! I have therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a
+      matter, wherein, from the first, I determined to seek your
+      counteraction. Though seemingly but a straw thrown up into the
+      air, I infer from it a most evil predilection on the part of Don
+      John;&mdash;fatal to himself, to us, his friends, and to the
+      country he represents in Belgium."</p>
+
+      <p>"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion,
+      delighted to come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere
+      matter of a pair of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"</p>
+
+      <p>"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the
+      aide-de-camp&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as
+      for the opening of a fairy legend&mdash;'On a time their lived a
+      king and queen'&mdash;"</p>
+
+      <p>"Will <i>you</i> tell the story, then, or shall
+      I?"&mdash;cried Nignio, impatient of his interruption.</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>Yourself</i>, my pearl of squires! granting me in the
+      first place your pardon for my ill manners."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the
+      best diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess
+      were, first a <i>Te Deum</i> in the cathedral for her safe
+      journey; next, an entertainment of dancing and music at the town
+      hall&mdash;and a gallant affair it was, as far as silver
+      draperies, and garlands of roses, and a blaze of light that
+      seemed to threaten the conflagration of the city, may be taken in
+      praise. The queen had brought with her, as with <i>malice
+      prepense</i>, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
+      court of the Louvre"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I <i>knew</i> it!"&mdash;again interrupted Gonzaga;&mdash;and
+      again did Nignio gravely enquire of him whether (since so well
+      informed) he would be pleased to finish the history in his own
+      way?</p>
+
+      <p>"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his
+      finger on his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the
+      Meuse."</p>
+
+      <p>"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
+      princess,&mdash;this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her
+      mother's cunning and cruelty in her soul,&mdash;to perceive that
+      the Spanish warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first
+      time the assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more
+      struck by the Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of
+      the north, (so antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our
+      sunburned provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her
+      pleasure-worn Parisian belles."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent
+      pledge,) "that there is no greater contrast than between our
+      wild-eyed, glowing Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed
+      daughters of these northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine
+      to sunshine!"</p>
+
+      <p>"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer
+      and milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that,
+      at this moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp
+      for the sake of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg045" id=
+      "pg045">045</a></span>the costly fragile toys called womankind,
+      those jackasses of lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn
+      of Queen Margaret in Belgium, only as having brought forth from
+      their castles in the Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low
+      Country, the indigenous divinities that I would were at this
+      moment at the bottom of their muddy moats, or of the Sambre
+      flowing under yonder window!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"It is one of these Brabançon belles, then, who"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal
+      for breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue
+      in his own way.&mdash;Taking counsel of himself, however, he
+      judged that the shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter
+      manner, so as to set further molestation at defiance.</p>
+
+      <p>"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance
+      foreign to his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball,
+      there appeared among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before
+      the tent of state of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender
+      years seemed to render the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and
+      whose aerial figure appeared to make her sojourn there, or any
+      other spot on earth a matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her
+      fair hair streamed on her shoulders. It was one of the angels of
+      your immortal Titian, <i>minus</i> the wings! Such was, at least,
+      the description given me by Don John, to enable me to ascertain
+      among the Namurrois her name and lineage, for the satisfaction
+      (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been fascinated by
+      her beauty."</p>
+
+      <p>"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the
+      grace and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
+      morning?"&mdash;cried Gonzaga, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"And nearly the same result!&mdash;My answer to the enquiry of
+      his highness was <i>verbatim</i> the same; that the matter was
+      not worth asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so
+      much as of a chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity
+      that had issued from the shade, to fill a place in the royal
+      Coranto, in consequence of the indisposition of one of the noble
+      daughters of the house of Croy. Still, as in the matter of the
+      cow-hunt, his highness had the malice to persist! And next day,
+      instead of allowing me to attend him in his barging with the
+      royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of Brabant, I was
+      dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a pretty child
+      with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly grandam had
+      snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal fête.&mdash;Holy
+      St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!&mdash;I did, as
+      you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
+      with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
+      return, that the bird had fled."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And there was an end of the matter?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness
+      is likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events,
+      the bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal
+      escort, and the payment of all that decency required us to take
+      upon ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time
+      and thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
+      doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over
+      the sufferings of Belgium,&mdash;the lawlessness of the
+      camp&mdash;the former loyalty of the provinces&mdash;the
+      tenderness of conscience of the heretics,&mdash;and the
+      eligibility of forbearance and peace,&mdash;I saw as plain as
+      though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of Satan,
+      that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
+      this snivelling humanity!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
+      burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses
+      and putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to
+      Don John for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks
+      past, I entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at
+      her Louvre, the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place;
+      more especially when he one day proposed to me an exploit
+      savouring more of his days of Lepanto than I had expected at his
+      hands again. Distracted by the false intelligence <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg046" id="pg046">046</a></span>wherewith we
+      were perpetually misled by the Brabançon scouts, Don John
+      determined on a sortie in disguise, towards the intrenchments of
+      the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle. Rumour of the
+      reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the heretics by
+      Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms, rendered
+      him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact cantonments of
+      Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set forward before
+      daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a hunting
+      expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits of
+      civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
+      Sambre towards Gembloux."</p>
+
+      <p>"A mad project!&mdash;But such were ever the delight of our
+      Quixote!"&mdash;cried Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country
+      without obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and
+      before noon, were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the
+      undertaking seemed to restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity
+      of old! He was like a truant schoolboy, that has cheated his
+      pedagogue of a day's bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than
+      those of the stultified natives of these sluggish provinces, had
+      been puzzled to detect under the huge patch that blinded him of
+      an eye, and the slashed sleeve of his sad-coloured suit that
+      showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant host of Queen Margaret!
+      'My soul comes back into me with this gallop across the breezy
+      plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!' cried the
+      Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto! But
+      two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
+      Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
+      allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no
+      better prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king
+      he hath been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with
+      Luxembourg and Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the
+      blessing of his holiness, the banner under which I conquered the
+      infidel, shall, sooner or later, float victorious under this
+      northern sky!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood,
+      halfway through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me
+      we had to cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the
+      ferry-house of this unfrequented track, we found only two
+      sumpter-mules tied to a tree near the hovel, and a boat chained
+      to its stump beside the stream. In answer to our shouts, no
+      vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold the boat-chain was
+      locked, and the current too deep and strong for fording.</p>
+
+      <p>"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a
+      boatman!" cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he
+      gave me to hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to
+      enter the ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch,
+      a young girl, holding her finger to her lips in token of silence,
+      appeared on the threshold!"</p>
+
+      <p>"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
+      pistoles!"&mdash;cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest
+      that made him so mad a truant!"</p>
+
+      <p>"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without
+      noticing the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand,
+      with the deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the
+      house was little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a
+      trifle nearer the porch, not a syllable of their mutual
+      explanation escaped me.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Are you a follower of Don John?'&mdash;was the first demand
+      of the damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the
+      States?'&mdash;the next; to both which questions, a negative was
+      easily returned. After listening to the plea, fluently set forth
+      by the prince, that he was simply a Zealand burgess, travelling
+      on his own errand, and sorely in fear of falling in (God wot)
+      with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel appeared to hail
+      the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing; acquainted him
+      with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own, that she was
+      journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of Brabant,
+      where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
+      companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta
+      within; for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg047" id=
+      "pg047">047</a></span>reaching the wood, the ferryman had
+      undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the venerable
+      chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are
+      in waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'</p>
+
+      <p>"' Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering
+      the military occupation of the province, your present protection
+      is somewhat of the weakest?'&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the
+      open-hearted girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who
+      war not against women and almoners. A more powerful attendance
+      were more likely to provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes
+      the best security.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'<i>Home</i> is a woman's only security in times like
+      these!'&mdash;cried the prince with animation.</p>
+
+      <p>"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young
+      girl, with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been
+      residing with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having
+      had the weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to
+      Namur last summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to
+      the Queen of Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us;
+      and I am sent for home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'</p>
+
+      <p>"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained,
+      more time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could
+      perceive by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats,
+      and were awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the
+      ferryman. The compassion of the silly child was excited by the
+      severe accident which the stranger described as the origin of his
+      fractures and contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive
+      voice and deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a
+      more experienced one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly
+      aspect and indigent apparel."</p>
+
+      <p>"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and
+      the obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
+      Mecklenburgers"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the
+      prince; for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the
+      reconnaissance into which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext,
+      I was not sorry to ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the
+      grounds on which he stood with the enemy. And you should have
+      heard how artfully he contrived to lead her back to the fêtes of
+      Namur; asking, as with the curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole
+      details of the royal entertainments! No small mind had I to rush
+      in and chuck the hussy into the torrent before me, when I heard
+      the little fiend burst forth into the most genuine and
+      enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of the feast,&mdash;'So
+      young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so passing the
+      kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was her
+      frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
+      which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
+      severely visited by her father.</p>
+
+      <p>"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may
+      admire the noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native
+      goodness beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This
+      whole morning hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon)
+      been giving scripture warrant that I have no right to importune
+      heaven with my prayers for the conversion of Don John:&mdash;Yet,
+      as my good aunt justly observes, the great grandson of Mary of
+      Burgundy has his pedestal firm in our hearts, beyond reach of
+      overthrow from all the preachments of the Reformers'"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in
+      to the rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously
+      assailed?"&mdash;cried Gonzaga.</p>
+
+      <p>"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I
+      had the comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend
+      the want of dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity
+      with strangers. To which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was
+      no fault of hers if people wanted to convert a child into a
+      woman!' A moment afterwards and the ferryman and cortège arrived
+      together; and a more glorious figure <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg048" id="pg048">048</a></span>of fun than
+      the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom bestridden a
+      pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
+      exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the
+      ferry, taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which
+      we twain abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in
+      consequence of the strength of the current, it was indispensable
+      to float down some hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite
+      shore.</p>
+
+      <p>"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the
+      precious freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her
+      new and pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!&mdash;as every
+      thing that is evil ordained it,&mdash;behold, the newly-shod
+      palfrey of the pretty Brabançonne, irritated, perhaps, by the
+      clumsy veterinaryship of a village smithy, began suddenly to rear
+      and plunge, and set at defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was
+      held!&mdash;The ass of a ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his
+      aid, let go his oar into the stream; and between the awkwardness
+      of some and the rashness of others, in a moment the whole party
+      were carried round by the eddy of the Dyle!&mdash;The next, and
+      Ulrica was struggling in the waters"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in
+      to her rescue!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take
+      for granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the
+      ferry-house, in restoring to consciousness the exhausted women,
+      half-dead with cold and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of
+      mind produced by such an incident, I expected indeed every moment
+      the self-betrayal of my companion; but <i>that</i> evil we
+      escaped. And when, late in the evening, the party was
+      sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably surprised to
+      find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting the fair
+      Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people were
+      in waiting."</p>
+
+      <p>"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn,
+      rendered it expedient for us to return to Namur with only half
+      the object of his highness accomplished. But the babble of the
+      old chaplain had acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to
+      know,&mdash; namely, the number and disposal of the Statists, and
+      the position taken up by the English auxiliaries."</p>
+
+      <p>"And this second parting from Ulrica?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been
+      the laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she
+      bade adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a
+      tress of her silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle,
+      which she entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he
+      placed upon her finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of
+      Venice, bearing the arms of the republic engraved on the setting;
+      telling her that chance had enabled him to confer an obligation
+      on the governor of the Netherlands; and that, in any strait or
+      peril, that signet, dispatched in his name to Don John of
+      Austria, would command his protection."</p>
+
+      <p>"As I live, a choice romance!&mdash;almost worthy the pages of
+      our matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities
+      but that the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
+      Dyle!&mdash;However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They
+      will meet no more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his
+      daughter under lock and key; and his highness has too much work
+      cut out for him by his rebels, to have time for peeping through
+      the keyhole.&mdash;So now, good-night.&mdash;For love-tales are
+      apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith we must be a-foot by break
+      of day."</p>
+
+      <p>And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him,
+      Ottavio Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing
+      all he had learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state
+      of mind and feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid
+      open to the full and uncongenial investigation of his royal
+      brother of the Escurial. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg049"
+      id="pg049">049</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>Part II.</h3>
+
+      <p>A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of
+      Gembloux, which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of
+      Austria; and constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military
+      glories which binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one
+      of the obscurest of its countries!&mdash;Gembloux, Ramillies,
+      Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within the circuit of a morning's journey,
+      as well as within the circle of eternal renown.</p>
+
+      <p>By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand
+      men-at-arms, their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost
+      to the States. The cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio
+      Gonzaga, performed prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under
+      that of Gaspardo Nignio, equally distinguished itself. But the
+      heat of the action fell upon the main body of the army, which had
+      marched from Namur under the command of Don John; being composed
+      of the Italian reinforcements dispatched to him from Parma by
+      desire of the Pope, under the command of his nephew, Prince
+      Alexander Farnese.</p>
+
+      <p>It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals
+      of the States&mdash;the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of
+      Orange&mdash;retreated in dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of
+      pursuing his advantage with the energy of his usual habits,
+      seemed to derive little satisfaction or encouragement from his
+      victory. It might be, that the difficulty of controlling the
+      predatory habits of the German and Burgundian troops wearied his
+      patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued some new
+      proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
+      desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
+      opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness;
+      for, independent of the engrossing duties of their several
+      commands, the leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his
+      nephew, Alexander Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in
+      age, was almost a brother in affection.</p>
+
+      <p>To him alone were confided the growing cares of his
+      charge&mdash;the increasing perplexities of his mind. To both
+      princes, the name of Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a
+      sacred word; and though Don John had the comfort of knowing that
+      her father, the Count de Cergny, was unengaged in the action of
+      Gembloux, his highness had reason to fear that the regiment of
+      Hainaulters under his command, constituted the garrison of one or
+      other of the frontier fortresses of Brabant, to which it was now
+      his duty to direct the conquering arms of his captains.</p>
+
+      <p>The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
+      Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
+      according to general expectation, effected in the first instance
+      the reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
+      Diest,&mdash;Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next
+      succumbed to their arms&mdash;Maubeuge, Chimay,
+      Barlaimont;&mdash;and, after a severe struggle, the new and
+      beautiful town of Philippeville.</p>
+
+      <p>But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a
+      tremendous carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul
+      sickened. At Sichem, the indignation of the Burgundians against a
+      body of French troops which, after the battle of Gembloux, had
+      pledged itself never again to bear arms against Spain, caused
+      them to have a hundred soldiers strangled by night, and their
+      bodies flung into the moat at the foot of the citadel; after
+      which the town was given up by Prince Alexander to pillage and
+      spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and Leeuw
+      hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
+      while receiving day after day, and week after week, the
+      submission of fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs,
+      the anxious expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to
+      his clemency accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again
+      disappointed!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into
+      utter despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken
+      her. All <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg050" id=
+      "pg050">050</a></span>his endeavours to ascertain the position of
+      the Count de Cergny having availed him nothing, he trusted that
+      the family must be shut up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange
+      and Archduke; but when every night, ere he retired to a soldier's
+      rugged pillow, and pressed his lips to that long fair tress which
+      seemed to ensure the blessings of an angel of purity and peace,
+      the hopes entertained by Don John of tidings of the gentle Ulrica
+      became slighter and still more slight.</p>
+
+      <p>He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and
+      exacting such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as
+      promised to secure protection and respect to the families of all
+      such officers of the insurgent army as might, in any time or
+      place, fall into the hands of the royalists.</p>
+
+      <p>To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely
+      less endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood,
+      and who was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the
+      charge was almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first,
+      his orders to his Italian captains to pursue in all directions
+      their enquiries after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it
+      had become a matter of course to preface their accounts of the
+      day's movements with&mdash;"<i>No</i> intelligence, may it please
+      your highness, of the Count de Cergny!"</p>
+
+      <p>The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his
+      attention; for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was
+      pinned by the military science of the States. But a breach having
+      been made in the walls by the Spanish artillery under the command
+      of Nicolo di Cesi, the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince
+      Alexander, and the Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily
+      forced an entrance; when, in spite of the stanch resistance of
+      the governor, the garrison laid down their arms, and the greater
+      portion of the inhabitants took the oath of fealty to the
+      king.</p>
+
+      <p>Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most
+      desirable; in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma
+      commanded a <i>Te Deum</i> to be sung in the churches, and
+      hastened to render thanks to the God of Battles for an event by
+      which further carnage was spared to either host.</p>
+
+      <p>Escorted by his <i>état major</i>, he had proceeded to the
+      cathedral to join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as
+      he quitted the church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached,
+      bearing despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful
+      attendant of his household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had
+      recently sent with instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general
+      charged with the reduction of the frontier fortresses of
+      Brabant.</p>
+
+      <p>"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous
+      ejaculation of the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then,
+      turning to the officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in
+      a few words, that the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the
+      propositions to surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice
+      of its cannon, had been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and
+      its garrison put to the sword.</p>
+
+      <p>"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these
+      braggarts of Brabant!"&mdash;responded Nignio, who stood at the
+      right hand of Prince Alexander. "The nasal twang of their
+      chaplains seems of late to have overmastered, in their ears, the
+      eloquence of the ordnance of Spain! Yet, i'faith, they might be
+      expected to find somewhat more unction in the preachments of our
+      musketeers than the homilies of either Luther or Calvin!"</p>
+
+      <p>He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged
+      apart in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had
+      respectfully placed in his hands a ring of great cost and
+      beauty.</p>
+
+      <p>"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian
+      republic, may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I
+      judged it better to remit it to your royal keeping."</p>
+
+      <p>"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a
+      sudden flush of emotion.</p>
+
+      <p>"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I
+      took it from the finger of the dead!"</p>
+
+      <p>"And when, and where?"&mdash;exclaimed the prince, drawing him
+      still further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their
+      march to the States' house of Limbourg.</p>
+
+      <p>"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!"
+      said Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg051" id="pg051">051</a></span>fewest words,
+      know that, after seeing the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave
+      and obstinate defence of the banner of the States floating from
+      the walls of his citadel, I did my utmost to induce the Baron de
+      Cevray, whose Burgundians carried the place, to proclaim quarter.
+      For these fellows of Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had
+      fought like dragons,) having lost their head, were powerless; and
+      of what use hacking to pieces an exhausted carcass?&mdash;But our
+      troops were too much exasperated by the insolent resistance and
+      defiance they had experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the
+      conduits ran blood, and shrieks and groans rent the air more
+      cruelly than the previous roar of the artillery. In accordance,
+      however, with the instructions I have ever received from your
+      highness, I pushed my way into all quarters, opposing what
+      authority I might to the brutality of the troopers."</p>
+
+      <p>"Quick, quick!"&mdash;cried Prince Alexander in anxious
+      haste&mdash;"Let me not suppose that the wearer of this ring fell
+      the victim of such an hour?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears
+      were assailed with cries of female distresses:&mdash;nor could I
+      doubt that even <i>that</i> sanctuary (held sacred by our troops
+      of Spain!) had been invaded by the impiety of the German or
+      Burgundian legions!&mdash;As usual, the chief ladies of the town
+      had placed themselves under the protection of the high altar. But
+      there, even there, had they been seized by sacrilegious
+      hands!&mdash;The fame of the rare beauty of the daughter of the
+      governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two daring
+      ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."</p>
+
+      <p>"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the
+      spot?"&mdash;demanded the prince, trembling with emotion. "You
+      dealt upon them the vengeance due?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had
+      already cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest!
+      Snatched from the arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce
+      arm of a German musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian
+      against whom she was wildly but vainly defending herself; had
+      lighted on one of the fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone,
+      the blood of this innocent being, scarce past the age of
+      childhood, was streaming on her assailants; and when, rushing in,
+      I proclaimed, in the name of God and of your highness, quarter
+      and peace, it was an insensible body I rescued from the grasp of
+      pollution!"</p>
+
+      <p>"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more
+      unhappy kinsman!"</p>
+
+      <p>"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by
+      the sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved
+      from their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I
+      bore the insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost
+      skill of our surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it
+      been spared!&mdash;The dying girl was roused only to the
+      endurance of more exquisite torture; and while murmuring a
+      petition for 'mercy&mdash;mercy to her <i>father</i>!' that
+      proved her still unconscious of her family misfortunes, she
+      attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I have had the
+      honour to deliver to your highness:&mdash;faltering with her last
+      breath, 'for <i>his</i> sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to
+      my poor old father!'"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these
+      mournful details.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is at rest, then?"&mdash;said he, after a pause.</p>
+
+      <p>"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince,
+      "and complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of
+      interment that the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the
+      Comte de Cergny!"</p>
+
+      <p>Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips
+      of the faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to
+      the discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the
+      details of that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of
+      horror&mdash;the youth&mdash;the beauty&mdash;the
+      innocence&mdash;the agonies of Ulrica, had touched him to the
+      heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the heart of
+      Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one this
+      rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
+      public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with
+      blood!&mdash; <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg052" id=
+      "pg052">052</a></span> Scarcely a month had elapsed after the
+      storming of Dalem, when a terrible rumour went forth in the camp
+      of Bouge, (where Don John had intrenched his division of the
+      royalist army,) that the governor of the Netherlands was attacked
+      by fatal indisposition!&mdash;For some weeks past, indeed, his
+      strength and spirit had been declining. When at the village of
+      Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry of the
+      wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English troops
+      under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
+      circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
+      attributed to prostration of bodily strength.</p>
+
+      <p>When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had
+      ceded the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret
+      for the origin of his secession superseded every other
+      consideration.</p>
+
+      <p>For the word had gone forth that he was to die!&mdash;In the
+      full vigour of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow
+      had reached Don John of Austria!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
+      prevalent!&mdash;For his leniency towards the Protestants had
+      engendered a suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II.
+      was known to be remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at
+      hand!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From
+      the moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering
+      on his wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and
+      every time he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the
+      groups of veterans praying on their knees for the restoration of
+      the son of their emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling
+      aloud in loyal affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto,
+      tears came into his eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his
+      duties. For he knew that their intercessions were in
+      vain&mdash;that the hours of the sufferer were numbered. In a
+      moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments of the
+      church were administered to the dying prince; having received
+      which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains
+      of the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain,
+      and fidelity to his noble successor in command.</p>
+
+      <p>It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of
+      Lepanto, and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that,
+      towards evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn
+      aside, that he might contemplate for the last time the creation
+      of God!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered
+      in hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body
+      might be borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father.
+      For his eyes were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and
+      his mind upon the glories of the memory of one of the greatest of
+      kings.</p>
+
+      <p>But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason
+      in his troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with
+      fever, his words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused
+      them to sound the trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an
+      onset, he ranged his battalions for an imaginary field of battle,
+      and disposed his manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against
+      the enemy.<sup>18</sup> Then, sinking back upon his pillow, he
+      breathed in subdued accents, "Let me at least avenge her innocent
+      blood. Why, why could I not save thee, my Ulrica!"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his
+      heart with a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to
+      consider the murderers of his master) stooped down to lay his
+      callous hand on the heart of the hero, the pulses of life were
+      still!&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>There was but one cry throughout the camp&mdash;there was but
+      one thought among his captains:&mdash;"Let the bravest knight of
+      Christendom be laid nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of
+      mail in which he had fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a
+      bier, and borne forth from his tent on the shoulders of the
+      officers of his household. Then, having been saluted by the
+      respect of the whole army, it was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg053" id="pg053">053</a></span>transmitted from post to post
+      through the camp, on those of the colonels of the regiments of
+      all nations constituting the forces of Spain.&mdash;And which of
+      them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the dead lay the
+      love-token of a heretic?&mdash;A double line of troops, infantry
+      and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the camp
+      of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
+      saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those
+      iron soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth,
+      the gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour
+      of glory and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the
+      princes of Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge
+      of Venice, they thought upon his knightly qualities&mdash;his
+      courtesy, generosity, and valour&mdash;till all memory of his
+      illustrious parentage became effaced. They forgot the prince in
+      the man,&mdash;"and behold all Israel mourned for Jonathan!"</p>
+
+      <p>A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the
+      march, till they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was
+      remitted by the royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and
+      La Cros, to the hands of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these
+      it was bourne in state to the cathedral of St Alban; and during
+      the celebration of a solemn mass, deposited at the foot of the
+      high altar till the pleasure of Philip II. should be known
+      concerning the fulfilment of the last request of Don John.</p>
+
+      <p>It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were
+      conveyed to Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated,
+      in return, his permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should
+      share the sepulture of Charles V., and all that now remains to
+      Namur in memory of one of the last of Christian knights, the
+      Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts, who expired in its service and at
+      its gates, is an inscription placed on its high altar by the
+      piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that it afforded a
+      temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
+      AUSTRIA.<sup>19</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
+        prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the
+        authentic details of the interment of one whose posthumous
+        destinies seemed to share the incompleteness of his baffled
+        life. In order to avoid the contestations arising from the
+        transit of a corpse through a foreign state, Nignio di Zuniga
+        (who was charged by Philip with the duty of conveying it to
+        Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.) caused it
+        to be <i>dismembered</i>, and the parts packed in three
+        budgets, (<i>bougettes</i>,) and laid upon packhorses!&mdash;On
+        arriving in Spain, the parts were <i>readjusted with
+        wires!&mdash;"On remplit le corps de bourre</i>," says the old
+        chronicler from which these details are derived, "<i>et ainsi
+        la structure en aiant été comme rétablie, on le revétit de ses
+        armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuyé sur son bâton
+        de général, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect
+        d'un mort si illustre ayant excité quelques larmes, on le porta
+        à l'Escurial dans l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son
+        père</i>."</p>
+
+        <p>Such is the account given in a curious old history
+        (supplementary to those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of
+        the Prince of Parma, published at Amsterdam early in the
+        succeeding century. But a still greater insult has been offered
+        to the memory of one of the last of Christian knights, in
+        Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan d'Autriche," where
+        he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg054" id=
+      "pg054">054</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>No. I.</h3>
+
+      <p>It may be as well to state at the outset, that we have not the
+      most distant intention of laying before the public the whole mass
+      of poetry that flowed from the prolific pen of Goethe, betwixt
+      the days of his student life at Leipsic and those of his final
+      courtly residence at Weimar. It is of no use preserving the whole
+      wardrobe of the dead; we do enough if we possess ourselves of his
+      valuables&mdash;articles of sterling bullion that will at any
+      time command their price in the market&mdash;as to worn-out and
+      threadbare personalities, the sooner they are got rid of the
+      better. Far be it from us, however, to depreciate or detract from
+      the merit of any of Goethe's productions. Few men have written so
+      voluminously, and still fewer have written so well. But the curse
+      of a most fluent pen, and of a numerous auditory, to whom his
+      words were oracles, was upon him; and seventy volumes, more or
+      less, which Cotta issued from his wareroom, are for the library
+      of the Germans now, and for the selection of judicious editors
+      hereafter. A long time must elapse after an author's death,
+      before we can pronounce with perfect certainty what belongs to
+      the trunk-maker, and what pertains to posterity. Happy the
+      man&mdash;if not in his own generation, yet most assuredly in the
+      time to come&mdash;whose natural hesitation or fastidiousness has
+      prompted him to weigh his words maturely, before launching them
+      forth into the great ocean of literature, in the midst of which
+      is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power!</p>
+
+      <p>From the minor poems, therefore, of Goethe, we propose, in the
+      present series, to select such as are most esteemed by competent
+      judges, including, of course, ourselves. We shall not follow the
+      example of dear old Eckermann, nor preface our specimens by any
+      critical remarks upon the scope and tendency of the great
+      German's genius; neither shall we divide his works, as
+      characteristic of his intellectual progress, into eras or into
+      epochs; still less shall we attempt to institute a regular
+      comparison between his merits and those of Schiller, whose finest
+      productions (most worthily translated) have already enriched the
+      pages of this Magazine. We are doubtless ready at all times to
+      back our favourite against the field, and to maintain his
+      intellectual superiority even against his greatest and most
+      formidable rival. We know that he is the showiest, and we feel
+      convinced that he is the better horse of the two; but talking is
+      worse than useless when the course is cleared, and the start
+      about to commence.</p>
+
+      <p>Come forward, then, before the British public, O many-sided,
+      ambidextrous Goethe, as thine own Thomas Carlyle might, or could,
+      or would, or should have termed thee, and let us hear how the
+      mellifluous Teutonic verse will sound when adapted to another
+      tongue. And, first of all&mdash;for we yearn to know
+      it&mdash;tell us how thy inspiration came? A plain answer, of
+      course, we cannot expect&mdash;that were impossible from a
+      German; but such explanation as we can draw from metaphor and
+      oracular response, seems to be conveyed in that favourite and
+      elaborate preface to the poems, which accordingly we may term
+      the</p>
+
+      <h3>INTRODUCTION.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The morning came. Its footsteps scared away</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The gentle sleep that hover'd lightly o'er
+          me;</p>
+
+          <p>I left my quiet cot to greet the day</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And gaily climb'd the mountain-side before
+          me.</p>
+
+          <p>The sweet young flowers! how fresh were they and
+          tender,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Brimful with dew upon the sparkling lea;</p>
+
+          <p>The young day open'd in exulting splendour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And all around seem'd glad to gladden me.
+          <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg055" id=
+          "pg055">055</a></span></p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And, as I mounted, o'er the meadow ground</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A white and filmy essence 'gan to hover;</p>
+
+          <p>It sail'd and shifted till it hemm'd me round,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Then rose above my head, and floated over.</p>
+
+          <p>No more I saw the beauteous scene unfolded&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It lay beneath a melancholy shroud;</p>
+
+          <p>And soon was I, as if in vapour moulded,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Alone, within the twilight of the cloud.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>At once, as though the sun were struggling through,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Within the mist a sudden radiance started;</p>
+
+          <p>Here sunk the vapour, but to rise anew,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There on the peak and upland forest parted.</p>
+
+          <p>O, how I panted for the first clear gleaming,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That after darkness must be doubly bright!</p>
+
+          <p>It came not, but a glory round me beaming,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And I stood blinded by the gush of light.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>A moment, and I felt enforced to look,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">By some strange impulse of the heart's
+          emotion;</p>
+
+          <p>But more than one quick glance I scarce could brook,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For all was burning like a molten ocean.</p>
+
+          <p>There, in the glorious clouds that seem'd to bear her,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A form angelic hover'd in the air;</p>
+
+          <p>Ne'er did my eyes behold vision fairer,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And still she gazed upon me, floating
+          there.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Do'st thou not know me?" and her voice was soft</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As truthful love, and holy calm it sounded.</p>
+
+          <p>"Know'st thou not me, who many a time and oft,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Pour'd balsam in thy hurts when sorest
+          wounded?</p>
+
+          <p>Ah well thou knowest her, to whom for ever</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Thy heart in union pants to be allied!</p>
+
+          <p>Have I not seen the tears&mdash;the wild endeavour</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That even in boyhood brought thee to my
+          side?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Yes! I have felt thy influence oft," I cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And sank on earth before her, half-adoring;</p>
+
+          <p>"Thou brought'st me rest when Passion's lava tide</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Through my young veins like liquid fire was
+          pouring.</p>
+
+          <p>And thou hast fann'd, as with celestial pinions,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In summer's heat my parch'd and fever'd
+          brow;</p>
+
+          <p>Gav'st me the choicest gifts of earth's dominions,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And, save through thee, I seek no fortune
+          now.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I name thee not, but I have heard thee named,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And heard thee styled their own ere now by
+          many;</p>
+
+          <p>All eyes believe at thee their glance is aim'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Though thine effulgence is too great for
+          any.</p>
+
+          <p>Ah! I had many comrades whilst I wander'd&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I know thee now, and stand almost alone:</p>
+
+          <p>I veil thy light, too precious to be squander'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And share the inward joy I feel with none."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Smiling, she said&mdash;"Thou see'st 'twas wise from
+          thee</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To keep the fuller, greater revelation:</p>
+
+          <p>Scarce art thou from grotesque delusions free,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Scarce master of thy childish first
+          sensation;</p>
+
+          <p>Yet deem'st thyself so far above thy brothers,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That thou hast won the right to scorn them!
+          Cease. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg056" id=
+          "pg056">056</a></span></p>
+
+          <p>Who made the yawning gulf 'twixt thee and others?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Know&mdash;know thyself&mdash;live with the
+          world in peace."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Forgive me!" I exclaim'd, "I meant no ill,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Else should in vain my eyes be
+          disenchanted;</p>
+
+          <p>Within my blood there stirs a genial will&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I know the worth of all that thou hast
+          granted.</p>
+
+          <p>That boon I hold in trust for others merely,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Nor shall I let it rust within the ground;</p>
+
+          <p>Why sought I out the pathway so sincerely,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">If not to guide my brothers to the bound?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And as I spoke, upon her radiant face</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Pass'd a sweet smile, like breath across a
+          mirror;</p>
+
+          <p>And in her eyes' bright meaning I could trace</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">What I had answer'd well and what in error,</p>
+
+          <p>She smiled, and then my heart regain'd its lightness,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And bounded in my breast with rapture high:</p>
+
+          <p>Then durst I pass within her zone of brightness,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And gaze upon her with unquailing eye.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Straightway she stretch'd her hand among the thin</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And watery haze that round her presence
+          hover'd;</p>
+
+          <p>Slowly it coil'd and shrunk her grasp within,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And lo! the landscape lay once more
+          uncover'd&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Again mine eye could scan the sparkling meadow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I look'd to heaven, and all was clear and
+          bright;</p>
+
+          <p>I saw her hold a veil without a shadow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That undulated round her in the light.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I know thee!&mdash;all thy weakness, all that yet</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of good within thee lives and glows, I've
+          measured;"</p>
+
+          <p>She said&mdash;her voice I never may forget&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Accept the gift that long for thee was
+          treasured.</p>
+
+          <p>Oh! happy he, thrice-bless'd in earth and heaven,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Who takes this gift with soul serene and
+          true,</p>
+
+          <p>The veil of song, by Truth's own fingers given,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Enwoven of sunshine and the morning dew.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Wave but this veil on high, whene'er beneath</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The noonday fervour thou and thine are
+          glowing,</p>
+
+          <p>And fragrance of all flowers around shall breathe,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And the cool winds of eve come freshly
+          blowing.</p>
+
+          <p>Earth's cares shall cease for thee, and all its riot;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where gloom'd the grave, a starry couch be
+          seen;</p>
+
+          <p>The waves of life shall sink in halcyon quiet;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The days be lovely fair, the nights
+          serene."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Come then, my friends, and whether 'neath the load</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of heavy griefs ye struggle on, or whether</p>
+
+          <p>Your better destiny shall strew the road</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">With flowers, and golden fruits that cannot
+          wither,</p>
+
+          <p>United let us move, still forwards striving;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">So while we live shall joy our days illume,</p>
+
+          <p>And in our children's hearts our love surviving</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Shall gladden them, when we are in the
+          tomb.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>This is a noble metaphysical and metaphorical poem, but purely
+      German of its kind. It has been imitated, not to say travestied,
+      at least fifty times, by crazy students and purblind
+      professors&mdash;each of whom, in turn, has had an <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg057" id="pg057">057</a></span>interview with
+      the goddess of nature upon a hill-side. For our own part, we
+      confess that we have no great predilection for such mysterious
+      intercourse, and would rather draw our inspiration from tangible
+      objects, than dally with a visionary Egeria. But the fault is
+      both common and national.</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>The next specimen we shall offer is the far-famed <i>Bride of
+      Corinth</i>. Mrs Austin says of this poem very happily&mdash;"An
+      awful and undefined horror breathes throughout it. In the slow
+      measured rhythm of the verse, and the pathetic simplicity of the
+      diction, there is a solemnity and a stirring spell, which chains
+      the feelings like a deep mysterious strain of music." Owing to
+      the peculiar structure and difficulty of the verse, this poem has
+      hitherto been supposed incapable of translation. Dr Anster, who
+      alone has rendered it into English, found it necessary to depart
+      from the original structure; and we confess that it was not
+      without much labour, and after repeated efforts, that we
+      succeeded in vanquishing the obstacle of the double rhymes. If
+      the German scholar should perceive, that in three stanzas some
+      slight liberties have been taken with the original, we trust that
+      he will perceive the reason, and at least give us credit for
+      general fidelity and close adherence to the text.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.</h3>
+
+      <h4>I.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumber'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Came from Athens: though a stranger there,</p>
+
+        <p>Soon among its townsmen to be number'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For a bride awaits him, young and fair:</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">From their childhood's years</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">They were plighted feres,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">So contracted by their parents' care.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>II.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>But may not his welcome there be hinder'd?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.</p>
+
+        <p>He is still a heathen with his kindred,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">She and her's wash'd in the Christian creed.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When new faiths are born,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Love and troth are torn</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>III.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>All the house is hush'd. To rest retreated</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Father, daughters&mdash;not the mother quite;</p>
+
+        <p>She the guest with cordial welcome greeted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Led him to a room with tapers bright;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Wine and food she brought</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Ere of them he thought,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Then departed with a fair good-night.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>IV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>But he felt no hunger, and unheeded</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Left the wine, and eager for the rest</p>
+
+        <p>Which his limbs, forspent with travel, needed,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On the couch he laid him, still undress'd.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">There he sleeps&mdash;when lo!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Onwards gliding slow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">At the door appears a wondrous guest.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg058" id=
+      "pg058">058</a></span>
+
+      <h4>V.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>By the waning lamp's uncertain gleaming</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">There he sees a youthful maiden stand,</p>
+
+        <p>Robed in white, of still and gentle seeming,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On her brow a black and golden band.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When she meets his eyes,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">With a quick surprise</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Starting, she uplifts a pallid hand.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Is a stranger here, and nothing told me?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Am I then forgotten even in name?</p>
+
+        <p>Ah! 'tis thus within my cell they hold me,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And I now am cover'd o'er with shame!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Pillow still thy head</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">There upon thy bed,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">I will leave thee quickly as I came."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Maiden&mdash;darling! Stay, O stay!" and, leaping</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">From the couch, before her stands the boy:</p>
+
+        <p>"Ceres&mdash;Bacchus, here their gifts are heaping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And thou bringest Amor's gentle joy!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Why with terror pale?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sweet one, let us hail</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">These bright gods&mdash;their festive gifts
+        employ."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>VIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Oh, no&mdash;no! Young stranger, come not nigh me;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Joy is not for me, nor festive cheer.</p>
+
+        <p>Ah! such bliss may ne'er be tasted by me,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Since my mother, in fantastic fear,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">By long sickness bow'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">To heaven's service vow'd</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Me, and all the hopes that warm'd me here.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>IX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"They have left our hearth, and left it lonely&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">The old gods, that bright and jocund train.</p>
+
+        <p>One, unseen, in heaven, is worshipp'd only,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And upon the cross a Saviour slain;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sacrifice is here,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Not of lamb nor steer,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">But of human woe and human pain."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>X.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And he asks, and all her words cloth ponder&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">"Can it be, that, in this silent spot,</p>
+
+        <p>I behold thee, thou surpassing wonder!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">My sweet bride, so strangely to me brought?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Be mine only now&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">See, our parents' vow</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Heaven's good blessing hath for us besought."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"No! thou gentle heart," she cried in anguish;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">"'Tis not mine, but 'tis my sister's place;</p>
+
+        <p>When in lonely cell I weep and languish,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Think, oh think of me in her embrace!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">I think but of thee&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Pining drearily,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Soon beneath the earth to hide my face!"</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg059" id=
+      "pg059">059</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Nay! I swear by yonder flame which burneth,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Fann'd by Hymen, lost thou shalt not be;</p>
+
+        <p>Droop not thus, for my sweet bride returneth</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To my father's mansion back with me!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Dearest! tarry here!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Taste the bridal cheer,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For our spousal spread so wondrously!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Then with word and sign their troth they plighted.</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Golden was the chain she bade him wear;</p>
+
+        <p>But the cup he offer'd her she slighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Silver, wrought with cunning past compare.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"That is not for me;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">All I ask of thee</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Is one little ringlet of thy hair."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XIV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Dully boom'd the midnight hour unhallow'd,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And then first her eyes began to shine;</p>
+
+        <p>Eagerly with pallid lips she swallow'd</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Hasty draughts of purple-tinctured wine;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But the wheaten bread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">As in shuddering dread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Put she always by with loathing sign.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And she gave the youth the cup: he drain'd it,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">With impetuous haste he drain'd it dry;</p>
+
+        <p>Love was in his fever'd heart, and pain'd it,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Till it ached for joys she must deny.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But the maiden's fears</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Stay'd him, till in tears</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">On the bed he sank, with sobbing cry.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And she leans above him&mdash;"Dear one, still thee!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Ah, how sad am I to see thee so!</p>
+
+        <p>But, alas! these limbs of mine would chill thee:</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love, they mantle not with passion's glow;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Thou wouldst be afraid,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Didst thou find the maid</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Thou hast chosen, cold as ice or snow."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Round her waist his eager arms he bended,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dashing from his eyes the blinding tear:</p>
+
+        <p>"Wert thou even from the grave ascended,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Come unto my heart, and warm thee here!"</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Sweet the long embrace&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"Raise that pallid face;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">None but thou and are watching, dear!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XVIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Was it love that brought the maiden thither,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To the chamber of the stranger guest?</p>
+
+        <p>Love's bright fire should kindle, and not wither;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love's sweet thrill should soothe, not torture,
+        rest.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">His impassion'd mood</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Warms her torpid blood,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Yet there beats no heart within her breast.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg060" id=
+      "pg060">060</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XIX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Meanwhile goes the mother, softly creeping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Through the house, on needful cares intent,</p>
+
+        <p>Hears a murmur, and, while all are sleeping,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Wonders at the sounds, and what they meant.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Who was whispering so?&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Voices soft and low,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">In mysterious converse strangely blent.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XX.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Straightway by the door herself she stations,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">There to be assured what was amiss;</p>
+
+        <p>And she hears love's fiery protestations,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Words of ardour and endearing bliss:</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">"Hark, the cock! 'Tis light!</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But to-morrow night</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Thou wilt come again?"&mdash;and kiss on
+        kiss.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Quick the latch she raises, and, with features</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Anger-flush'd, into the chamber hies.</p>
+
+        <p>"Are there in my house such shameless creatures,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Minions to the stranger's will?" she cries.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">By the dying light,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Who is't meets her sight?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">God! 'tis her own daughter she espies!</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>And the youth in terror sought to cover,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">With her own light veil, the maiden's head,</p>
+
+        <p>Clasp'd her close; but, gliding from her lover,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Back the vestment from her brow she spread,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">And her form upright,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">As with ghostly might,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Long and slowly rises from the bed.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Mother! mother! wherefore thus deprive me</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Of such joy as I this night have known?</p>
+
+        <p>Wherefore from these warm embraces drive me?</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Was I waken'd up to meet thy frown?</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Did it not suffice</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">That, in virgin guise,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To an early grave you brought me down?</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXIV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Fearful is the weird that forced me hither,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">From the dark-heap'd chamber where I lay;</p>
+
+        <p>Powerless are your drowsy anthems, neither</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Can your priests prevail, howe'er they pray.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Salt nor lymph can cool</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Where the pulse is full;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Love must still burn on, though wrapp'd in
+        clay.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXV.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"To this youth my early troth was plighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Whilst yet Venus ruled within the land;</p>
+
+        <p>Mother! and that vow ye falsely slighted,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">At your new and gloomy faith's command.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">But no God will hear,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">If a mother swear</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Pure from love to keep her daughter's hand.</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg061" id=
+      "pg061">061</a></span>
+
+      <h4>XXVI.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Nightly from my narrow chamber driven,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Come I to fulfil my destined part,</p>
+
+        <p>Him to seek for whom my troth was given,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And to draw the life blood from his heart.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">He hath served my will;</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">More I yet must kill,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">For another prey I now depart.</p>
+
+        <h4>XXVII.</h4>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Fair young man! thy thread of life is broken,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Human skill can bring no aid to thee.</p>
+
+        <p>There thou hast my chain&mdash;a ghastly token&mdash;</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And this lock of thine I take with me.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Soon must thou decay,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">Soon wilt thou be gray,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Dark although to-night thy tresses be.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>XXVIII.</h4>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Mother! hear, oh hear my last entreaty!</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">Let the funeral pile arise once more;</p>
+
+        <p>Open up my wretched tomb for pity,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">And in flames our souls to peace restore.</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When the ashes glow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i4">When the fire-sparks flow,</p>
+
+        <p class="i2">To the ancient gods aloft we soar."</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>After this most powerful and original ballad, let us turn to
+      something more genial. The three following poems are exquisite
+      specimens of the varied genius of our author; and we hardly know
+      whether to prefer the plaintive beauty of the first, or the light
+      and sportive brilliancy of the other twain.</p>
+
+      <h3>FIRST LOVE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me back the day,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">So beautiful, so bright!</p>
+
+          <p>Those days when love first bore my heart</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Aloft on pinions light?</p>
+
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me but an hour</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of that delightful time,</p>
+
+          <p>And wake in me again the power</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That fired my golden prime?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>I nurse my wound in solitude,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I sigh the livelong day,</p>
+
+          <p>And mourn the joys, in wayward mood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That now are pass'd away.</p>
+
+          <p>Oh, who will bring me back the days</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of that delightful time,</p>
+
+          <p>And wake in me again the blaze</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That fired my golden prime?</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg062" id=
+      "pg062">062</a></span>
+
+      <h3>WHO'LL BUY A CUPID?</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Of all the wares so pretty</p>
+
+          <p>That come into the city,</p>
+
+          <p>There's none are so delicious,</p>
+
+          <p>There's none are half so precious,</p>
+
+          <p>As those which we are binging.</p>
+
+          <p>O, listen to our singing!</p>
+
+          <p>Young loves to sell! young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>First look you at the oldest,</p>
+
+          <p>The wantonest, the boldest!</p>
+
+          <p>So loosely goes he hopping,</p>
+
+          <p>From tree and thicket dropping,</p>
+
+          <p>Then flies aloft as sprightly&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>We dare but praise him lightly!</p>
+
+          <p>The fickle rogue! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Now see this little creature&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>How modest seems his feature!</p>
+
+          <p>He nestles so demurely,</p>
+
+          <p>You'd think him safer surely;</p>
+
+          <p>And yet for all his shyness,</p>
+
+          <p>There's danger in his slyness!</p>
+
+          <p>The cunning rogue! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Oh come and see this lovelet,</p>
+
+          <p>This little turtle-dovelet!</p>
+
+          <p>The maidens that are neatest,</p>
+
+          <p>The tenderest and sweetest,</p>
+
+          <p>Should buy it to amuse 'em,</p>
+
+          <p>And nurse it in their bosom.</p>
+
+          <p>The little pet! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>My pretty loves who'll buy?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>We need not bid you buy them,</p>
+
+          <p>They're here, if you will try them.</p>
+
+          <p>They like to change their cages;</p>
+
+          <p>But for their proving sages</p>
+
+          <p>No warrant will we utter&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>They all have wings to flutter.</p>
+
+          <p>The pretty birds! Young loves to sell!</p>
+
+          <p>Such beauties! Come and buy!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>SECOND LIFE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>After life's departing sigh,</p>
+
+          <p>To the spots I loved most dearly,</p>
+
+          <p>In the sunshine and the shadow,</p>
+
+          <p>By the fountain welling clearly,</p>
+
+          <p>Through the wood and o'er the meadow,</p>
+
+          <p>Flit I like a butterfly.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name=
+          "pg063" id="pg063">063</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>There a gentle pair I spy.</p>
+
+          <p>Round the maiden's tresses flying,</p>
+
+          <p>From her chaplet I discover</p>
+
+          <p>All that I had lost in dying,</p>
+
+          <p>Still with her and with her lover.</p>
+
+          <p>Who so happy then as I?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>For she smiles with laughing eye;</p>
+
+          <p>And his lips to hers he presses,</p>
+
+          <p>Vows of passion interchanging,</p>
+
+          <p>Stifling her with sweet caresses,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er her budding beauties ranging;</p>
+
+          <p>And around the twain I fly.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And she sees me fluttering nigh;</p>
+
+          <p>And beneath his ardour trembling,</p>
+
+          <p>Starts she up&mdash;then off I hover.</p>
+
+          <p>"Look there, dearest!" Thus dissembling,</p>
+
+          <p>Speaks the maiden to her lover&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Come and catch that butterfly!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>In the days of his boyhood, and of Monk Lewis, Sir Walter
+      Scott translated the Erl King, and since then it has been a kind
+      of assay-piece for aspiring German students to thump and hammer
+      at will. We have heard it sung so often at the piano by
+      soft-voiced maidens, and hirsute musicians, before whose roaring
+      the bull of Phalaris might be dumb, that we have been accustomed
+      to associate it with stiff white cravats, green tea, and a
+      superabundance of lemonade. But to do full justice to its
+      unearthly fascination, one ought to hear it chanted by night in a
+      lonely glade of the Schwartzwald or Spessart forest, with the
+      wind moaning as an accompaniment, and the ghostly shadows of the
+      branches flitting in the moonlight across the path.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE ERL KING.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Who rides so late through the grisly night?</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis a father and child, and he grasps him tight;</p>
+
+          <p>He wraps him close in his mantle's fold,</p>
+
+          <p>And shelters the boy from the biting cold.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"My son, why thus to my arm dost cling?"</p>
+
+          <p>"Father, dost thou not see the Erlie-king?</p>
+
+          <p>The king with his crown and long black train!"</p>
+
+          <p>"My son, 'tis a streak of the misty rain! "</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Come hither, thou darling! come, go with me!</p>
+
+          <p>Fair games know I that I'll play with thee;</p>
+
+          <p>Many bright flowers my kingdoms hold!</p>
+
+          <p>My mother has many a robe of gold!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O father, dear father and dost thou not hear</p>
+
+          <p>What the Erlie-king whispers so low in mine ear?"</p>
+
+          <p>"Calm thee, my boy, 'tis only the breeze</p>
+
+          <p>Rustling the dry leaves beneath the trees!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Wilt thou go, bonny boy! wilt thou go with me?</p>
+
+          <p>My daughters shall wait on thee daintilie;</p>
+
+          <p>My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,</p>
+
+          <p>And rock thee, and kiss thee, and sing thee to
+          sleep!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg064" id=
+          "pg064">064</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O father, dear father! and dost thou not mark</p>
+
+          <p>Erlie-king's daughters move by in the dark?"</p>
+
+          <p>"I see it, my child; but it is not they,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis the old willow nodding its head so grey!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I love thee! thy beauty charms me quite;</p>
+
+          <p>And if thou refusest, I'll take thee by might!"</p>
+
+          <p>"O father, dear father! he's grasping me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>My heart is as cold as cold can be!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The father rides swiftly&mdash;with terror he
+          gasps&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>The sobbing child in his arms he clasps;</p>
+
+          <p>He reaches the castle with spurring and dread;</p>
+
+          <p>But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Who has not heard of Mignon?&mdash;sweet, delicate little
+      Mignon?&mdash;the woman-child, in whose miniature, rather than
+      portrait, it is easy to trace the original of fairy Fenella? We
+      would that we could adequately translate the song, which in its
+      native German is so exquisitely plaintive, that few can listen to
+      it without tears. This poem, it is almost needless to say, is
+      anterior in date to Byron's Bride of Abyos</p>
+
+      <h3>MIGNON.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the land where the pale citron grows,</p>
+
+          <p>And the gold orange through dark foliage glows?</p>
+
+          <p>A soft wind flutters from the deep blue sky,</p>
+
+          <p>The myrtle blooms, and towers the laurel high.</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O there with thee!</p>
+
+          <p>O that I might, my own beloved one, flee!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the house? On pillars rest its beams,</p>
+
+          <p>Bright is its hall, in light one chamber gleams,</p>
+
+          <p>And marble statues stand, and look on me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>What have they done, thou hapless child, to thee?</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O there with thee!</p>
+
+          <p>O that I might, my loved protector, flee!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Know'st thou the track that o'er the mountain goes,</p>
+
+          <p>Where the mule threads its way through mist and snows,</p>
+
+          <p>Where dwelt in caves the dragon's ancient brood,</p>
+
+          <p>Topples the crag, and o'er it roars the flood.</p>
+
+          <p>Know'st thou it well?</p>
+
+          <p class="i10">O come with me!</p>
+
+          <p>There lies our road&mdash;oh father, let us flee!</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>In order duly to appreciate the next ballad, you must fancy
+      yourself (if you cannot realize it) stretched on the grass, by
+      the margin of a mighty river of the south, rushing from or
+      through an Italian lake, whose opposite shore you cannot descry
+      for the thick purple haze of heat that hangs over its glassy
+      surface. If you lie there for an hour or so, gazing into the
+      depths of the blue unfathomable sky, till the fanning of the warm
+      wind and the murmur of the water combine to throw you into a
+      trance, you will be able to enjoy <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg065" id="pg065">065</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>THE FISHER.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The water rush'd and bubbled by&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">An angler near it lay,</p>
+
+          <p>And watch'd his quill, with tranquil eye,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Upon the current play.</p>
+
+          <p>And as he sits in wasteful dream,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">He sees the flood unclose,</p>
+
+          <p>And from the middle of the stream</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A river-maiden rose.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>She sang to him with witching wile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"My brood why wilt thou snare,</p>
+
+          <p>With human craft and human guile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">To die in scorching air?</p>
+
+          <p>Ah! didst thou know how happy we</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Who dwell in waters clear,</p>
+
+          <p>Thou wouldst come down at once to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And rest for ever here.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"The sun and ladye-moon they lave</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Their tresses in the main,</p>
+
+          <p>And breathing freshness from the wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Come doubly bright again.</p>
+
+          <p>The deep blue sky, so moist and clear,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Hath it for thee no lure?</p>
+
+          <p>Does thine own face not woo thee down</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Unto our waters pure?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The water rush'd and bubbled by&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It lapp'd his naked feet;</p>
+
+          <p>He thrill'd as though he felt the touch</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of maiden kisses sweet.</p>
+
+          <p>She spoke to him, she sang to him&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Resistless was her strain&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Half-drawn, he sank beneath the wave,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And ne'er was seen again.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Our next extract smacks of the Troubadours, and would have
+      better suited good old King René of Provence than a Paladin of
+      the days of Charlemagne. Goethe has neither the eye of Wouverman
+      nor Borgognone, and sketches but an indifferent battle-piece.
+      Homer was a stark moss-trooper, and so was Scott; but the Germans
+      want the cry of "boot and saddle" consumedly. However, the
+      following is excellent in its way.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE MINSTREL.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"What sounds are those without, along</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The drawbridge sweetly stealing?</p>
+
+          <p>Within our hall I'd have that song,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That minstrel measure, pealing."</p>
+
+          <p>Then forth the little foot-page hied;</p>
+
+          <p>When he came back, the king he cried,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"Bring in the aged minstrel!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"Good-even to you, lordlings all;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Fair ladies all, good-even.</p>
+
+          <p>Lo, star on star within this hall</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">I see a radiant heaven.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg066" id="pg066">066</a></span>
+
+          <p>In hall so bright with noble light,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis not for thee to feast thy sight,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Old man, look not around thee!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He closed his eyne, he struck his lyre</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In tones with passion laden,</p>
+
+          <p>Till every gallant's eye shot fire,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And down look'd every maiden.</p>
+
+          <p>The king, enraptured with his strain,</p>
+
+          <p>Held out to him a golden chain,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In guerdon of his harping.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"The golden chain give not to me,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For noble's breast its glance is,</p>
+
+          <p>Who meets and beats thy enemy</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Amid the shock of lances.</p>
+
+          <p>Or give it to thy chancellere&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Let him its golden burden bear,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Among his other burdens.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"I sing as sings the bird, whose note</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The leafy bough is heard on.</p>
+
+          <p>The song that falters from my throat</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">For me is ample guerdon.</p>
+
+          <p>Yet I'd ask one thing, an I might,</p>
+
+          <p>A draught of brave wine, sparkling bright</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Within a golden beaker!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The cup was brought. He drain'd its lees,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"O draught that warms me cheerly!</p>
+
+          <p>Blest is the house where gifts like these</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Are counted trifles merely.</p>
+
+          <p>Lo, when you prosper, think on me,</p>
+
+          <p>And thank your God as heartily</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As for this draught I thank you!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>We intend to close the present Number with a very graceful,
+      though simple ditty, which Goethe may possibly have altered from
+      the Morlachian, but which is at all events worthy of his genius.
+      Previously, however, in case any of the ladies should like
+      something sentimental, we beg leave to present them with as nice
+      a little <i>chansonette</i> as ever was transcribed into an
+      album.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE VIOLET.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>A violet blossom'd on the lea,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Half hidden from the eye,</p>
+
+          <p>As fair a flower as you might see;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">When there came tripping by</p>
+
+          <p>A shepherd maiden fair and young,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Lightly, lightly o'er the lea;</p>
+
+          <p>Care she knew not, and she sung</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Merrily!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>"O were I but the fairest flower</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That blossoms on the lea;</p>
+
+          <p>If only for one little hour,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">That she might gather me&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Clasp me in her bonny breast!"</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Thought the little flower.</p>
+
+          <p>"O that in it I might rest</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But an hour!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name=
+          "pg067" id="pg067">067</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Lack-a-day! Up came the lass,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Heeded not the violet;</p>
+
+          <p>Trod it down into the grass;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Though it died, 'twas happy yet.</p>
+
+          <p>"Trodden down although I lie,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Yet my death is very sweet&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>For I cannot choose but die</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">At her feet!"</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr />
+
+      <h3>THE DOLEFUL LAY OF THE NOBLE WIFE OF ASAN AGA.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>What is yon so white beside the greenwood?</p>
+
+          <p>Is it snow, or flight of cygnets resting?</p>
+
+          <p>Were it snow, ere now it had been melted;</p>
+
+          <p>Were it swans, ere now the flock had left us.</p>
+
+          <p>Neither snow nor swans are resting yonder,</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis the glittering tents of Asan Aga.</p>
+
+          <p>Faint he lies from wounds in stormy battle;</p>
+
+          <p>There his mother and his sisters seek him,</p>
+
+          <p>But his wife hangs back for shame, and comes not.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the anguish of his hurts was over,</p>
+
+          <p>To his faithful wife he sent this message&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Longer 'neath my roof thou shalt not tarry,</p>
+
+          <p>Neither in my court nor in my household."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the lady heard this cruel sentence,</p>
+
+          <p>'Reft of sense she stood, and rack'd with anguish:</p>
+
+          <p>In the court she heard the horses stamping,</p>
+
+          <p>And in fear that it was Asan coming,</p>
+
+          <p>Fled towards the tower, to leap and perish.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Then in terror ran her little daughters,</p>
+
+          <p>Calling after her, and weeping sorely,</p>
+
+          <p>"These are not the steeds of Father Asan;</p>
+
+          <p>'Tis thy brother Pintorovich coming!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And the wife of Asan turn'd to meet him;</p>
+
+          <p>Sobbing, threw her arms around her brother.</p>
+
+          <p>"See the wrongs, O brother, of thy sister!</p>
+
+          <p>These five babes I bore, and must I leave them?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Silently the brother from his girdle</p>
+
+          <p>Draws the ready deed of separation,</p>
+
+          <p>Wrapp'd within a crimson silken cover.</p>
+
+          <p>She is free to seek her mother's dwelling&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Free to join in wedlock with another.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>When the woful lady saw the writing,</p>
+
+          <p>Kiss'd she both her boys upon the forehead,</p>
+
+          <p>Kiss'd on both the cheeks her sobbing daughters;</p>
+
+          <p>But she cannot tear herself for pity</p>
+
+          <p>From the infant smiling in the cradle!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Rudely did her brother tear her from it,</p>
+
+          <p>Deftly lifted her upon a courser,</p>
+
+          <p>And in haste, towards his father's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Spurr'd he onward with the woful lady.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Short the space; seven days, but barely seven&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Little space I ween&mdash;by many nobles</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg068" id="pg068">068</a></span>
+
+          <p>Was the lady&mdash;still in weeds of mourning&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Was the lady courted in espousal.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Far the noblest was Imoski's cadi;</p>
+
+          <p>And the dame in tears besought her brother&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"I adjure thee, by the life thou bearest,</p>
+
+          <p>Give me not a second time in marriage,</p>
+
+          <p>That my heart may not be rent asunder</p>
+
+          <p>If again I see my darling children!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Little reck'd the brother of her bidding,</p>
+
+          <p>Fix'd to wed her to Imoski's cadi.</p>
+
+          <p>But the gentle lady still entreats him&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Send at least a letter, O my brother!</p>
+
+          <p>To Imoski's cadi, thus imploring&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>I, the youthful widow, greet thee fairly,</p>
+
+          <p>And entreat thee, by this selfsame token,</p>
+
+          <p>When thou comest hither with thy bridesmen,</p>
+
+          <p>Bring a heavy veil, that I may shroud me</p>
+
+          <p>As we pass along by Asan's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>So I may not see my darling orphans."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Scarcely had the cadi read the letter,</p>
+
+          <p>When he call'd together all his bridesmen,</p>
+
+          <p>Boune himself to bring the lady homewards,</p>
+
+          <p>And he brought the veil as she entreated.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Jocundly they reach'd the princely mansion,</p>
+
+          <p>Jocundly they bore her thence in triumph;</p>
+
+          <p>But when they drew near to Asan's dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Then the children recognized their mother,</p>
+
+          <p>And they cried, "Come back unto thy chamber&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Share the meal this evening with thy children;"</p>
+
+          <p>And she turn'd her to the lordly bridegroom&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Pray thee, let the bridesmen and their horses</p>
+
+          <p>Halt a little by the once-loved dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>Till I give these presents to my children."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>And they halted by the once-loved dwelling,</p>
+
+          <p>And she gave the weeping children presents,</p>
+
+          <p>Gave each boy a cap with gold embroider'd,</p>
+
+          <p>Gave each girl a long and costly garment,</p>
+
+          <p>And with tears she left a tiny mantle</p>
+
+          <p>For the helpless baby in the cradle.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>These things mark'd the father, Asan Aga,</p>
+
+          <p>And in sorrow call'd he to his children&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Turn again to me, ye poor deserted;</p>
+
+          <p>Hard as steel is now your mother's bosom;</p>
+
+          <p>Shut so fast, it cannot throb with pity!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thus he spoke; and when the lady heard him,</p>
+
+          <p>Pale as death she dropp'd upon the pavement,</p>
+
+          <p>And the life fled from her wretched bosom</p>
+
+          <p>As she saw her children turning from her.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg069" id=
+      "pg069">069</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MY FIRST LOVE.</h2>
+
+      <h3>A SKETCH IN NEW YORK.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Margaret, where are you?" cried a silver-toned voice from a
+      passage outside the drawing-room in which I had just seated
+      myself. The next instant a lovely face appeared at the door, its
+      owner tripped into the room, made a comical curtsy, and ran up to
+      her sister.</p>
+
+      <p>"It is really too bad, Margaret; pa' frets and bustles about,
+      nearly runs over me upon the stairs, and then goes down the
+      street as if 'Change were on fire. Ma' yawns, and will not hear
+      of our going shopping, and grumbles about money&mdash;always
+      money&mdash;that horrid money! Ah! dear Margaret, our shopping
+      excursion is at an end for to-day!"</p>
+
+      <p>Sister Margaret, to whom this lamentation was addressed, was
+      reclining on the sofa, her left hand supporting her head, her
+      right holding the third volume of a novel. She looked up with a
+      languishing and die-away expression&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Poor Staunton will be in despair," said her sister. "This is
+      at least his tenth turn up and down the Battery. Last night he
+      was a perfect picture of misery. I could not have had the heart
+      to refuse to dance with him. How could you be so cruel,
+      Margaret?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas!" replied Margaret with a deep sigh, "how could I help
+      it? Mamma was behind me, and kept pushing me with her elbow.
+      Mamma is sometimes very ill-bred." And another sigh burst from
+      the overcharged heart of the sentimental fair one.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well," rejoined her sister, "I don't know why she so terribly
+      dislikes poor Staunton; but to say the truth, our gallopade lost
+      nothing by his absence. He is as stiff as a Dutch doll when he
+      dances. Even our Louisianian backwoodsman here, acquits himself
+      much more creditably."</p>
+
+      <p>And the malicious girl gave me such an arch look, that I could
+      not be angry with the equivocal sort of compliment paid to
+      myself.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is very unkind, Arthurine," said Margaret, her checks
+      glowing with anger at this attack upon the graces of her
+      admirer.</p>
+
+      <p>"Don't be angry, sister," cried Arthurine, running up to her,
+      throwing her arms round her neck, and kissing and soothing her
+      till she began to smile. They formed a pretty group. Arthurine
+      especially, as she skipped up to her sister, scarce touching the
+      carpet with her tiny feet, looked like a fairy or a nymph. She
+      was certainly a lovely creature, slender and flexible as a reed,
+      with a waist one could easily have spanned with one's ten
+      fingers; feet and hands on the very smallest scale, and of the
+      most beautiful mould; features exquisitely regular; a complexion
+      of lilies and roses; a small graceful head, adorned with a
+      profusion of golden hair; and then large round clear blue eyes,
+      full of mischief and fascination. She was, as the French say,
+      <i>à croquer</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>"Heigho!" sighed the sentimental Margaret. "To think of this
+      vulgar, selfish man intruding himself between me and such a noble
+      creature as Staunton! It is really heart-breaking."</p>
+
+      <p>"Not quite so bad as that!" said Arthurine. "Moreland, as you
+      know, has a good five hundred thousand dollars; and Staunton has
+      nothing, or at most a couple of thousand dollars a-year&mdash;a
+      mere feather in the balance against such a golden weight."</p>
+
+      <p>"Love despises gold," murmured Margaret.</p>
+
+      <p>"Nonsense!" replied her sister; "I would not even despise
+      silver, if it were in sufficient quantity. Only think of the
+      balls and parties, the fêtes and pic-nics! Saratoga in the
+      summer&mdash;perhaps even London or Paris! The mere thought of it
+      makes my mouth water."</p>
+
+      <p>"Talk not of such joys, to be bought at such a price!" cried
+      Margaret, quoting probably from some of her favourite novels.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, don't make yourself unhappy now," said Arthurine.
+      "Moreland will not be here till tea-time; and there are six long
+      hours to that. If we had only a few new novels to <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg070" id="pg070">070</a></span>pass the time!
+      I cannot imagine why Cooper is so lazy. Only one book in a year!
+      What if you were to begin to write, sister? I have no doubt you
+      would succeed as well as Mrs Mitchell. Bulwer is so fantastical;
+      and even Walter Scott is getting dull."</p>
+
+      <p>"Alas, Howard!" sighed Margaret, looking to me for sympathy
+      with her sorrows.</p>
+
+      <p>"Patience, dear Margaret," said I. "If possible, I will help
+      you to get rid of the old fellow. At any rate, I will try."</p>
+
+      <p>Rat-tat-tat at the house door. Arthurine put up her finger to
+      enjoin silence, and listened. Another loud knock. "A visit!"
+      exclaimed she with sparkling eyes. "Ha! ladies; I hear the rustle
+      of their gowns." And as she spoke the door opened, and the Misses
+      Pearce came swimming into the room, in all the splendour of
+      violet-coloured silks, covered with feathers, lace, and
+      embroideries, and bringing with them an atmosphere of
+      perfume.</p>
+
+      <p>The man who has the good fortune to see our New York belles in
+      their morning or home attire, must have a heart made of quartz or
+      granite if he resists their attractions. Their graceful forms,
+      their intellectual and somewhat languishing expression of
+      countenance, their bright and beaming eyes, their slender
+      figures, which make one inclined to seize and hold them lest the
+      wind should blow them away, their beautifully delicate hands and
+      feet, compose a sum of attraction perfectly irresistible. The
+      Boston ladies are perhaps better informed, and their features are
+      usually more regular; but they have something Yankeeish about
+      them, which I could never fancy, and, moreover, they are dreadful
+      blue-stockings. The fair Philadelphians are rounder, more
+      elastic, more Hebe-like, and unapproachable in the article of
+      small-talk; but it is amongst the beauties of New York that
+      romance writers should seek for their Julias and Alices. I am
+      certain that if Cooper had made their acquaintance whilst writing
+      his books, he would have torn up his manuscripts, and painted his
+      heroines after a less wooden fashion. He can only have seen them
+      on the Battery or in Broadway, where they are so buried and
+      enveloped in finery that it is impossible to guess what they are
+      really like. The two young ladies who had just entered the room,
+      were shining examples of that system of over-dressing. They
+      seemed to have put on at one time the three or four dresses worn
+      in the course of the day by a London or Paris fashionable.</p>
+
+      <p>It was now all over with my <i>tête-à-tête</i>. I could only
+      be <i>de trop</i> in the gossip of the four ladies, and I
+      accordingly took my leave. As I passed before the parlour door on
+      my way out, it was opened, and Mrs Bowsends beckoned me in. I
+      entered, and found her husband also there.</p>
+
+      <p>"Are you going away already, my dear Howard?" said the
+      lady.</p>
+
+      <p>"There are visitors up stairs."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah, Howard!" said Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"The workies<sup>20</sup> have carried the day," growled her
+      husband.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>20: The slang term applied to the mechanics and labourers, a
+        numerous and (at elections especially) a most important class
+        in New York and Philadelphia.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"That horrid Staunton!" interrupted his better half. "Only
+      think now'&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Our side lost&mdash;completely floored. But you've heard of
+      it, I suppose, Mister Howard?"</p>
+
+      <p>I turned from one to the other in astonished perplexity, not
+      knowing to which I ought to listen first.</p>
+
+      <p>"I don't know how it is," whined the lady, "but that Mr
+      Staunton becomes every day more odious to me. Only think now, of
+      his having the effrontery to persist in running after Margaret!
+      Hardly two thousand a-year "&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Old Hickory is preparing to leave Hermitage
+      already.<sup>21</sup> Bank shares have fallen half per cent in
+      consequence," snarled her husband.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>21: The name of General Jackson's country-house and
+        estate.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>They were ringing the changes on poor Staunton and the new
+      president.</p>
+
+      <p>"He ought to remember the difference of our positions," said
+      Mrs B., drawing herself up with much dignity.</p>
+
+      <p>"Certainly, certainly!" said I. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg071" id="pg071">071</a></span>"And the governor's election is
+      also going desperate bad," said Mr Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"And then Margaret, to think of her infatuation! Certainly she
+      is a good, gentle creature; but five hundred thousand dollars!"
+      This was Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"By no means to be despised," said I.</p>
+
+      <p>The five hundred thousand dollars touched a responsive chord
+      in the heart of the papa.</p>
+
+      <p>"Five hundred thousand," repeated he. "Yes, certainly; but
+      what's the use of that? All nonsense. Those girls would ruin a
+      Croesus."</p>
+
+      <p>"You need not talk, I'm sure," retorted mamma. "Think of all
+      your bets and electioneering."</p>
+
+      <p>"You understand nothing about that," replied her husband
+      angrily. "Interests of the country&mdash;congress&mdash;public
+      good&mdash;must be supported. Who would do it if we"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Did not bet," thought I.</p>
+
+      <p>"You are a friend of the family," said Mrs Bowsends, "and I
+      hope you will"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Apropos," interrupted her loving husband. "How has your
+      cotton crop turned out? You might consign it to me. How many
+      bales?"</p>
+
+      <p>"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."</p>
+
+      <p>"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa
+      musingly; "hm, hm."</p>
+
+      <p>"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital
+      in my hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred
+      another year."</p>
+
+      <p>"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened
+      approvingly. "That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a
+      good girl. We'll see, my dear Mr Howard&mdash;we'll see. Yes,
+      yes&mdash;come here every evening&mdash;whenever you like. You
+      know Arthurine is always glad to see you."</p>
+
+      <p>"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling
+      graciously.</p>
+
+      <p>I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
+      nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends'
+      last speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate
+      father-in-law that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets
+      with my cotton bales; and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at
+      the selfishness of my species, and more especially at the stupid
+      impudent egotism of Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him.
+      To all such, even their children are nothing but so many bales of
+      goods, to be bartered, bought, and sold. And this man belongs to
+      the <i>haut-ton</i> of New York! Five-and-twenty years ago he
+      went about with a tailor's measure in his pocket&mdash;now a
+      leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees and
+      directorships.</p>
+
+      <p>But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely
+      face, the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and
+      that is not saying a little, but the most elegant,
+      charming&mdash;a perfect sylph! It was now about eleven months
+      since I had first become acquainted with the bewitching creature;
+      and, from the very first day, I had been her vassal, her slave,
+      bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida. She had just
+      left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by the by, is
+      one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes itself
+      upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
+      fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
+      danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected
+      upon the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right
+      well how to work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet;
+      but not one out of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he
+      had received a smile or a look more than his fellows. I was the
+      only one who had perhaps obtained a sort of passive preference. I
+      was allowed to escort her in her rides, walks, and drives; to be
+      her regular partner when no other dancer offered, and suchlike
+      enviable privileges. She flirted and fluttered about me, and hung
+      familiarly on my arm, as she tripped along Broadway or the
+      Battery by my side. In addition to all these little marks of
+      preference, it fell to my share of duty to supply her with the
+      newest novels, to furnish her with English Keepsakes and American
+      Tokens and Souvenirs, and to provide the last fashionable songs
+      and quadrilles. All this had cost me no small sum; but I consoled
+      myself with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg072" id=
+      "pg072">072</a></span>the reflection, that my presents were made
+      to the prettiest girl in New York, and that sooner or later she
+      must reward my assiduities. Twice had fortune smiled upon me; in
+      one instance, when we were standing on the bridge at Niagara,
+      looking down on the foaming waters, and I was obliged to put my
+      arm round her waist, for fear she should become dizzy and fall
+      in&mdash;in doing which, by the by, I very nearly fell in myself.
+      A similar thing occurred on a visit we made to the Trenton falls.
+      That was all I had got for my pains, however, during the eleven
+      months that I had trifled away in New York&mdash;months that had
+      served to lighten my purse pretty considerably. It is the fashion
+      in our southern states to choose our wives from amongst the
+      beauties of the north. I had been bitten by the mania, and had
+      come to New York upon this important business; but having been
+      there nearly a year, it was high time to make an end of matters,
+      if I did not wish to be put on the shelf as stale goods.</p>
+
+      <p>This last reflection occurred to me very strongly as I was
+      walking from the Bowsends' house towards Wall Street, when
+      suddenly I caught sight of my fellow-sufferer Staunton. The
+      Yankee's dolorous countenance almost made me smile. Up he came,
+      with the double object of informing me that the weather was very
+      fine, and of offering me a bite at his pigtail tobacco. I could
+      not help expressing my astonishment that so sensitive and
+      delicate a creature as Margaret should tolerate such a habit in
+      the man of her choice.</p>
+
+      <p>"Pshaw!" replied the simpleton. "Moreland chews also."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, but he has got five hundred thousand dollars, and that
+      sweetens the poison."</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah!" sighed Staunton.</p>
+
+      <p>"Keep up your courage, man; Bowsends is rich."</p>
+
+      <p>The Yankee shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"Two hundred thousand, they say; but to-morrow he may not have
+      a farthing. You know our New Yorkers. Nothing but bets,
+      elections, shares, railways, banks. His expenses are enormous;
+      and, if he once got his daughters off his hands, he would perhaps
+      fail next week."</p>
+
+      <p>"And be so much the richer next year," replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Do you think so?" said the Yankee, musingly.</p>
+
+      <p>"Of course it would be so. Mean time you can marry the
+      languishing Margaret, and do like many others of your fellow
+      citizens; go out with a basket on your arm to the Greenwich
+      market, and whilst your delicate wife is enjoying her morning
+      slumber, buy the potatoes and salted mackerel for breakfast. In
+      return for that, she will perhaps condescend to pour you out a
+      cup of bohea. Famous thing that bohea! capital antidote to the
+      dyspepsia!"</p>
+
+      <p>"You are spiteful," said poor Staunton.</p>
+
+      <p>"And you foolish," I retorted. "To a young barrister like you,
+      there are hundreds of houses open."</p>
+
+      <p>"And to you also."</p>
+
+      <p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+      <p>"And then I have this advantage&mdash;the girl likes me."</p>
+
+      <p>"I am liked by the papa and the mamma, and the girl too."</p>
+
+      <p>"Have you got five hundred thousand dollars?"</p>
+
+      <p>"No."</p>
+
+      <p>"Poor Howard!" cried Staunton, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Go to the devil!" replied I, laughing also.</p>
+
+      <p>We had been chatting in this manner for nearly a quarter of an
+      hour, when a coach drove out of Greenwich Street, in which I saw
+      a face that I thought I knew. One of the Philadelphia steamers
+      had just arrived. I stepped forward.</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop!" cried a well-known voice.</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop!" cried I, hastening to the coach door.</p>
+
+      <p>It was Richards, my school and college friend, and my
+      neighbour, after the fashion of the southern states; for he lived
+      only about a hundred and seventy miles from me. I said good-by to
+      poor simple Staunton, got into the coach, and we rattled off
+      through Broadway to the American hotel.</p>
+
+      <p>"For heaven's sake, George!" exclaimed my friend, as soon as
+      we were installed in a room, "tell me what you are doing here.
+      Have you quite forgotten house, land, and <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg073" id="pg073">073</a></span>friends? You
+      have been eleven months away."</p>
+
+      <p>"True," replied I; "making love&mdash;and not a step further
+      advanced than the first."</p>
+
+      <p>"The report is true, then, that you have been harpooned by the
+      Bowsends? Poor fellow! I am sorry for you. Just tell me what you
+      mean to do with the dressed-up doll when you get her? A young
+      lady who has not enough patience even to read her novels from
+      beginning to end, and who, before she was twelve years old, had
+      Tom Moore and Byron, <i>Don Juan</i> perhaps excepted, by heart.
+      A damsel who has geography and the globes, astronomy and Cuvier,
+      Raphael's cartoons and Rossini's operas, at her finger-ends; but
+      who, as true as I am alive, does not know whether a mutton chop
+      is cut off a pig or a cow&mdash;who would boil tea and
+      cauliflowers in the same manner, and has some vague idea that
+      eggs are the principal ingredient in a gooseberry pie."</p>
+
+      <p>"I want her for my wife, not for my cook," retorted I, rather
+      nettled.</p>
+
+      <p>"Who does not know," continued Richards, "whether dirty linen
+      ought to be boiled or baked."</p>
+
+      <p>"But she sings like St Cecilia, plays divinely, and dances
+      like a fairy."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, all that will do you a deal of good. I know the family;
+      both father and mother are the most contemptible people
+      breathing."</p>
+
+      <p>"Stop there!" cried I; "they are not one iota better or worse
+      than their neighbours."</p>
+
+      <p>"You are right."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, then, leave them in peace. I have promised to drink tea
+      there at six o'clock. If you will come, I will take you with
+      me."</p>
+
+      <p>"Know then already, man. I will go, on one condition; that you
+      leave New York with me in three days."</p>
+
+      <p>"If my marriage is not settled," replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;d fool!" muttered Richards between his
+      teeth.</p>
+
+      <p>Six o'clock struck as we entered the drawing-room of my future
+      mother-in-law. The good lady almost frightened me as I went in,
+      by her very extraordinary appearance in a tremendous grey gauze
+      turban, fire-new, just arrived by the Henri Quatre packet-ship
+      from Havre, and that gave her exactly the look of one of our
+      Mississippi night-owls. Richards seemed a little startled; and
+      Moreland, who was already there, could not take his eyes off this
+      remarkable head-dress. Miss Margaret was costumed in pale green
+      silk, her hair flattened upon each side of her forehead <i>a la
+      Marguerite</i>, (see the <i>Journal des Modes,</i>) and looking
+      like Jephtha's daughter, pale and resigned, but rather more
+      lackadaisical, with a sort of "though-absent-not-forgot" look
+      about her, inexpressibly sentimental and interesting. The
+      contrast was certainly rather strong between old Moreland, who
+      sat there, red-faced, thickset, and clumsy, and the airy slender
+      Staunton, who, for fear of spoiling his figure, lived upon
+      oysters and macaroon, and drank water with a rose leaf in it.</p>
+
+      <p>I had brought the languishing beauty above described, Scott's
+      <i>Tales of my Grandfather</i>, which had just appeared.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah! Walter Scott!" exclaimed she, in her pretty melting
+      tones. Then, after a moment's pause, "The vulgar man has not a
+      word to say for himself;" said she to me, in a low tone.</p>
+
+      <p>"Wait a little," replied I; "he'll improve. It is no doubt his
+      modest timidity that keeps his lips closed."</p>
+
+      <p>Margaret gave me a furious look.</p>
+
+      <p>"Heartless mocker!" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+      <p>Meanwhile Richards had got into conversation with Bowsends.
+      The unlucky dog, who did not know that his host was a violent
+      Adams-ite, and had lost a good five thousand dollars in bets and
+      subscriptions to influence the voices of the sovereign people at
+      the recent election, had fallen on the sore subject. He began by
+      informing his host that Old Hickory would shortly leave the
+      Hermitage to assume his duties as president.</p>
+
+      <p>"The blood-thirsty backwoodsman, half horse, half alligator"
+      interrupted Mr Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"Costs you dear, his election," said Moreland laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Smokes out of a tobacco pipe like a vulgar German,"
+      ejaculated Mrs Bowsends.</p>
+
+      <p>"Not so very vulgar for that," said blundering Moreland;
+      "tobacco has quite another taste out of a pipe."</p>
+
+      <p>I gave him a tremendous dig in the back with my elbow.
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg074" id="pg074">074</a></span>
+      "Do you smoke out of a tobacco pipe, Mr Moreland?" enquired
+      Margaret in her flute-like tones.</p>
+
+      <p>Moreland stared; he had a vague idea that he had got himself
+      into a scrape, but his straightforward honesty prevented him from
+      prevaricating, and he blurted out&mdash;"Sometimes, miss."</p>
+
+      <p>I thought the sensitive creature would have swooned away at
+      this admission; and I had just laid my arm over the back of her
+      chair to support her, when Arthurine entered the room. She gave a
+      quick glance to me; it was too late to draw back my arm. She did
+      not seem to notice any thing, saluted the company gaily and
+      easily, tripped up to Moreland, wished him good
+      evening&mdash;asked after his bets, his ships, his old dog
+      Tom&mdash;chattered, in short, full ten minutes in a breath.
+      Before Moreland knew what she was about, she had taken one of his
+      hands in both of hers. But they were old acquaintances, and he
+      might easily have been her grandfather. Meanwhile Margaret had
+      somewhat recovered from the shock.</p>
+
+      <p>"He smokes out of a pipe!" lisped she to Arthurine, in a tone
+      of melancholy resignation.</p>
+
+      <p>"Old Hickory is very popular in Pennsylvania," said Richards,
+      resuming the conversation that had been interrupted, and
+      perfectly unconscious, as Moreland would have said, of the shoals
+      he was sailing amongst. "A Bedford County farmer has just sent
+      him a present of a cask of Monongahela."</p>
+
+      <p>"I envy him that present," cried Moreland. "A glass of genuine
+      Monongahela is worth any money."</p>
+
+      <p>This second shock was far too violent to be resisted by
+      Margaret's delicate nerves. She sank back in her chair, half
+      fainting, half hysterical. Her maids were called in, and with
+      their help she managed to leave the room.</p>
+
+      <p>"Have you brought her a book?" said Arthurine to me.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, one of Walter Scott's."</p>
+
+      <p>"Oh! then she will soon be well again," rejoined the
+      affectionate sister, apparently by no means alarmed.</p>
+
+      <p>Now that this nervous beauty was gone, the conversation became
+      much more lively. Captain Moreland was a jovial sailor, who had
+      made ten voyages to China, fifteen to Constantinople, twenty to
+      St Petersburg, and innumerable ones to Liverpool and through his
+      exertions had amassed the large fortune which he was now
+      enjoying. He was a merry-hearted man, with excellent sound sense
+      on all points except one&mdash;that one being the fair sex, with
+      which he was about as well acquainted as an alligator with a
+      camera-obscure. The attentions paid to him by Arthurine seemed to
+      please the old bachelor uncommonly. There was a mixture of
+      kindness, malice, and fascination in her manner, which was really
+      enchanting; even the matter-of-fact Richards could not take his
+      eyes off her.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is certainly a charming girl!" whispered he to me.</p>
+
+      <p>"Did not I tell you so?" said I. "Only observe with what
+      sweetness she gives in to the old man's humours and fancies!"</p>
+
+      <p>The hours passed like minutes. Supper was long over, and we
+      rose to depart; when I shook hands with Arthurine, she pressed
+      mine gently. I was in the ninety-ninth heaven.</p>
+
+      <p>"Now, boys," cried worthy Moreland, as soon as we were in the
+      streets, "it would really be a pity to part so early on so joyous
+      an evening. What do you say? Will you come to my house, and knock
+      the necks off half a dozen bottles?"</p>
+
+      <p>We agreed to this proposal; and, taking the old seaman between
+      us, steered in the direction of his cabin, as he called his
+      magnificent and well-furnished house.</p>
+
+      <p>"What a delightful family those Bowsends are!" exclaimed
+      Moreland, as soon as we were comfortably seated beside a blazing
+      fire, with the Lafitte and East India Madeira sparkling on the
+      table beside us. "And what charming girls! 'You're getting
+      oldish,' says I to myself the other day, 'but you're still fresh
+      and active, sound as a dolphin. Better get married.' Margaret
+      pleased me uncommonly, so I"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, my dear Moreland," interrupted I, "but are you sure that
+      you please her?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Pshaw! Five times a hundred thousand dollars! I tell you
+      what, my lad, that's not to be met with every day."</p>
+
+      <p>"Fifty years old," replied I. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg075" id="pg075">075</a></span> "Certainly, fifty years old,
+      but stout and healthy; none of your spindle-shanked
+      dandies&mdash;your Stauntons"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>But Staunton smokes cigars, and not Dutch pipes."</p>
+
+      <p>"I give that up. For Miss Margaret's sake, I'll burn my nose
+      and mouth with those damned stumps of cigars."</p>
+
+      <p>"Drinks no whisky," continued I. "He is president of a
+      temperance society."</p>
+
+      <p>"The devil fly away with him!" growled Moreland; "I wouldn't
+      give up my whisky for all the girls in the world."</p>
+
+      <p>"If you don't, she'll always be fainting away," replied I,
+      laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Ah! It's because I talked of the Monongahela that she began
+      with her hystericals, and went away for all the evening! That's
+      where the wind sits, is it? Well, you may depend I ain't to be
+      done out of my grog at any rate."</p>
+
+      <p>And he backed his assertion with an oath, swallowing off the
+      contents of his glass by way of a clincher. We sat joking and
+      chatting till past midnight during which time I flattered myself
+      that I gave evidence of considerable diplomatic talents. As we
+      were returning home, however, Richards doubted whether I had not
+      driven the old boy rather too hard</p>
+
+      <p>"No matter," replied I, "if I have only succeeded in ridding
+      poor Margaret of him."</p>
+
+      <p>Cool, calculating Richards shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"I don't know what may come of it," said he; "but I do not
+      think you are likely to find much gratitude for your
+      interference."</p>
+
+      <p>The next day was taken up in arranging matters of business
+      consequent on the arrival of Richards. At least ten times I tried
+      to go and see Arthurine, but was always prevented by something or
+      other; and it was past tea-time when I at last got to the
+      Bowsends' house. I found Margaret in the drawing-room, deep in a
+      new novel.</p>
+
+      <p>"Where is Arthurine?" I enquired.</p>
+
+      <p>"At the theatre, with mamma and Mr Moreland," was the
+      answer.</p>
+
+      <p>"At the theatre!" repeated I in astonishment. They were
+      playing Tom and Jerry, a favourite piece with the enlightened
+      Kentuckians. I had seen the first scene or two at the New Orleans
+      theatre, and had had quite enough of it.</p>
+
+      <p>"That really <i>is</i> sacrificing herself!" said I,
+      considerably out of humour.</p>
+
+      <p>"The noble girl!" exclaimed Margaret. "Mr Moreland came to
+      tea, and urged us so much to go"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"That she could not help going, to be bored and disgusted for
+      a couple of hours."</p>
+
+      <p>"She went for my sake," said Margaret sentimentally. "Mamma
+      would have one of us go."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes, that is it," thought I. Jealousy would have been
+      ridiculous. He fifty years old, she seventeen. I left the house,
+      and went to find Richards.</p>
+
+      <p>"What! Back so early?" cried he.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is gone to the theatre with her mamma and Moreland."</p>
+
+      <p>Richards shook his head.</p>
+
+      <p>"You put a wasp's nest into the old fellow's brain-pan
+      yesterday," said he. "Take care you do not get stung
+      yourself."</p>
+
+      <p>"I should like to see how she looks by his side," said I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, I will go with you. The sooner you are cured the
+      better. But only for ten minutes."</p>
+
+      <p>There was certainly no temptation to remain longer in that
+      atmosphere of whisky and tobacco fumes. It was at the Bowery
+      theatre. The light swam as though seen through a thick fog; and a
+      perfect shower of orange and apple peel, and even less agreeable
+      things, rained down from the galleries. Tom and Jerry were in all
+      their glory. I looked round the boxes, and soon saw the charming
+      Arthurine, apparently perfectly comfortable, chatting with old
+      Moreland as gravely, and looking as demure and self-possessed, as
+      if she had been a married woman of thirty.</p>
+
+      <p>"That is a prudent young lady," said Richards; "she has an eye
+      to the dollars, and would marry Old Hickory himself, spite of
+      whisky and tobacco pipe, if he had more money, and were to ask
+      her."</p>
+
+      <p>I said nothing.</p>
+
+      <p>"If you weren't such an infatuated fool," continued my
+      plain-spoken friend, I would say to you, let her take her own
+      way, and the day after to-morrow we will leave New York."</p>
+
+      <p>"One week more," said I, with an uneasy feeling about the
+      heart. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg076" id=
+      "pg076">076</a></span> At seven the next evening I entered what
+      had been my Elysium, but was now, little by little, becoming my
+      Tartarus. Again I found Margaret alone over a romance. "And
+      Arthurine?" enquired I, in a voice that might perhaps have been
+      steadier.</p>
+
+      <p>"She is gone with mamma and Mr Moreland to hear Miss Fanny
+      Wright."</p>
+
+      <p>"To hear Miss Fanny Wright! the atheist, the revolutionist!
+      What a mad fancy! Who would ever have dreamed of such a
+      thing!"</p>
+
+      <p>This Miss Fanny Wright was a famous lecturess, of the Owenite
+      school, who was shunned like a pestilence by the fashionable
+      world of New York.</p>
+
+      <p>"Mr Moreland," answered Margaret, "said so much about her
+      eloquence that Arthurine's curiosity was roused."</p>
+
+      <p>"Indeed!" replied I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Oh! you do not know what a noble girl she is. For her sister
+      she would sacrifice her life. My only hope is in her."</p>
+
+      <p>I snatched up my hat, and hurried out of the house.</p>
+
+      <p>The next morning I got up, restless and uneasy; and eleven
+      o'clock had scarcely struck when I reached the Bowsends' house.
+      This time both sisters were at home; and as I entered the
+      drawing-room, Arthurine advanced to meet me with a beautiful
+      smile upon her face. There was nevertheless a something in the
+      expression of her countenance that made me start. I pressed her
+      hand. She looked tenderly at me.</p>
+
+      <p>"I hope you have been amusing yourself these last two days,"
+      said I after a moment's pause.</p>
+
+      <p>"Novelty has a certain charm," replied Arthurine. "Yet I
+      certainly never expected to become a disciple of Miss Fanny
+      Wright," added she, laughing.</p>
+
+      <p>"Really! I should have thought the transition from Tom and
+      Jerry rather an easy one."</p>
+
+      <p>"A little more respect for Tom and Jerry, whom <i>we</i>
+      patronize&mdash;that is to say, Mr Moreland and our high
+      mightiness," replied Arthurine, trying, as I fancied, to conceal
+      a certain confusion of manner under a laugh.</p>
+
+      <p>"I should scarcely have thought my Arthurine would have become
+      a party to such a conspiracy against good taste," replied I
+      gravely.</p>
+
+      <p>"<i>My</i> Arthurine!" repeated she, laying a strong accent on
+      the pronoun possessive. "Only see what rights and privileges the
+      gentleman is usurping! We live in a free country, I believe?"</p>
+
+      <p>There was a mixture of jest and earnest in her charming
+      countenance. I looked enquiringly at her.</p>
+
+      <p>"Do you know," cried she, "I have taken quite a fancy to
+      Moreland? He is so good-natured, such a sterling character, and
+      his roughness wears off when one knows him well."</p>
+
+      <p>"And moreover," added I, "he has five hundred thousand
+      dollars."</p>
+
+      <p>"Which are by no means the least of his recommendations. Only
+      think of the balls, Howard! I hope you will come to them. And
+      then Saratoga; next year London and Paris. Oh! it will be
+      delightful."</p>
+
+      <p>"What, so far gone already?" said I, sarcastically.</p>
+
+      <p>"And poor Margaret is saved!" added she, throwing her arms
+      round her sister's neck, and kissing and caressing her. I hardly
+      knew whether to laugh or to cry.</p>
+
+      <p>"Then, I suppose, I may congratulate you?" said I, forcing a
+      laugh, and looking, I have no doubt, very like a fool.</p>
+
+      <p>You may so," replied Arthurine. "This morning Mr Moreland
+      begged permission to transfer his addresses from Margaret to your
+      very humble servant."</p>
+
+      <p>"And you?"&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"We naturally, in consideration of the petitioner's many
+      amiable qualities, have promised to take the request into our
+      serious consideration. For decorum's sake, you know, one must
+      deliberate a couple of days or so."</p>
+
+      <p>"Are you in jest or earnest, Arthurine?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Quite in earnest, Howard."</p>
+
+      <p>"Farewell, then!"</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"'Fare-thee-well! and if for ever</p>
+
+        <p>Still for ever fare-thee-well!'"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>said Arthurine, in a half-laughing, half-sighing tone. The
+      next instant I had left the room.</p>
+
+      <p>On the stairs I met the beturbaned Mrs Bowsends, who led the
+      way mysteriously into the parlour.</p>
+
+      <p>"You have seen Arthurine?" said <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg077" id="pg077">077</a></span>she. "What a dear, darling
+      child!&mdash;is she not? Oh! that girl is our joy and
+      consolation. And Mr Moreland&mdash;the charming Mr Moreland! Now
+      that things are arranged so delightfully, we can let Margaret
+      have her own way a little."</p>
+
+      <p>"What I have heard is true, then?" said I.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes; as an old friend I do not mind telling you&mdash;though
+      it must still remain a secret for a short time. Mr Moreland has
+      made a formal proposal to Arthurine."</p>
+
+      <p>I do not know what reply I made, before flinging myself out of
+      the room and house, and running down the street as if I had just
+      escaped from a lunatic asylum.</p>
+
+      <p>"Richards," cried I to my friend, "shall we start
+      tomorrow?"</p>
+
+      <p>"Thank God!" exclaimed Richards. "So you are cured of the New
+      York fever? Start! Yes, by all means, before you get a relapse.
+      You must come with me to Virginia for a couple of months."</p>
+
+      <p>"I will so," was my answer.</p>
+
+      <p>As we were going down to the steam-boat on the following
+      morning, Staunton overtook us, breathless with speed and
+      delight.</p>
+
+      <p>"Wish me joy!" cried he. "I am accepted!"</p>
+
+      <p>"And I jilted!" replied I with a laugh. "But I am not such a
+      fool as to make myself unhappy about a woman."</p>
+
+      <p>Light words enough, but my heart was heavy as I spoke them.
+      Five minutes later, we were on our way to Virginia.</p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>HYDRO-BACCHUS.</h2>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Great Homer sings how once of old</p>
+
+          <p>The Thracian women met to hold</p>
+
+          <p>To "Bacchus, ever young and fair,"</p>
+
+          <p>Mysterious rites with solemn care.</p>
+
+          <p>For now the summer's glowing face</p>
+
+          <p>Had look'd upon the hills of Thrace;</p>
+
+          <p>And laden vines foretold the pride</p>
+
+          <p>Of foaming vats at Autumn tide.</p>
+
+          <p>There, while the gladsome Evöe shout</p>
+
+          <p>Through Nysa's knolls rang wildly out,</p>
+
+          <p>While cymbal clang, and blare of horn,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er the broad Hellespont were borne;</p>
+
+          <p>The sounds, careering far and near,</p>
+
+          <p>Struck sudden on Lycurgus' ear&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Edonia's grim black-bearded lord,</p>
+
+          <p>Who still the Bacchic rites abhorr'd,</p>
+
+          <p>And cursed the god whose power divine</p>
+
+          <p>Lent heaven's own fire to generous wine.</p>
+
+          <p>Ere yet th' inspired devotees</p>
+
+          <p>Had half performed their mysteries,</p>
+
+          <p>Furious he rush'd amidst the band,</p>
+
+          <p>And whirled an ox-goad in his hand.</p>
+
+          <p>Full many a dame on earth lay low</p>
+
+          <p>Beneath the tyrant's savage blow;</p>
+
+          <p>The rest, far scattering in affright,</p>
+
+          <p>Sought refuge from his rage in flight.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>But the fell king enjoy'd not long</p>
+
+          <p>The triumph of his impious wrong:</p>
+
+          <p>The vengeance of the god soon found him,</p>
+
+          <p>And in a rocky dungeon bound him.</p>
+
+          <p>There, sightless, chain'd, in woful tones</p>
+
+          <p>He pour'd his unavailing groans,</p>
+
+          <p>Mingled with all the blasts that shriek</p>
+
+          <p>Round Athos' thunder-riven peak.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg078" id="pg078">078</a></span>
+
+          <p>O Thracian king! how vain the ire</p>
+
+          <p>That urged thee 'gainst the Bacchic choir</p>
+
+          <p>The god avenged his votaries well&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Stern was the doom that thee befell;</p>
+
+          <p>And on the Bacchus-hating herd</p>
+
+          <p>Still rests the curse thy guilt incurr'd.</p>
+
+          <p>For the same spells that in those days</p>
+
+          <p>Were wont the Bacchanals to craze&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>The maniac orgies, the rash vow,</p>
+
+          <p>Have fall'n on thy disciples now.</p>
+
+          <p>Though deepest silence dwells alone,</p>
+
+          <p>Parnassus, on thy double cone;</p>
+
+          <p>To mystic cry, through fell and brake,</p>
+
+          <p>No more Cithaeron's echoes wake;</p>
+
+          <p>No longer glisten, white and fleet,</p>
+
+          <p>O'er the dark lawns of Taÿgete,</p>
+
+          <p>The Spartan virgin's bounding feet:</p>
+
+          <p>Yet Frenzy still has power to roll</p>
+
+          <p>Her portents o'er the prostrate soul.</p>
+
+          <p>Though water-nymphs must twine the spell</p>
+
+          <p>Which once the wine-god threw so well&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Changed are the orgies now, 'tis true,</p>
+
+          <p>Save in the madness of the crew.</p>
+
+          <p>Bacchus his votaries led of yore</p>
+
+          <p>Through woodland glades and mountains hoar;</p>
+
+          <p>While flung the Maenad to the air</p>
+
+          <p>The golden masses of her hair,</p>
+
+          <p>And floated free the skin of fawn,</p>
+
+          <p>From her bare shoulder backward borne.</p>
+
+          <p>Wild Nature, spreading all her charms,</p>
+
+          <p>Welcomed her children to her arms;</p>
+
+          <p>Laugh'd the huge oaks, and shook with glee,</p>
+
+          <p>In answer to their revelry;</p>
+
+          <p>Kind Night would cast her softest dew</p>
+
+          <p>Where'er their roving footsteps flew;</p>
+
+          <p>So bright the joyous fountains gush'd,</p>
+
+          <p>So proud the swelling rivers rush'd,</p>
+
+          <p>That mother Earth they well might deem,</p>
+
+          <p>With honey, wine, and milk, for them</p>
+
+          <p>Most bounteously had fed the stream.</p>
+
+          <p>The pale moon, wheeling overhead,</p>
+
+          <p>Her looks of love upon them shed,</p>
+
+          <p>And pouring forth her floods of light,</p>
+
+          <p>With all the landscape blest their sight.</p>
+
+          <p>Through foliage thick the moonshine fell,</p>
+
+          <p>Checker'd upon the grassy dell;</p>
+
+          <p>Beyond, it show'd the distant spires</p>
+
+          <p>Of skyish hills, the world's grey sires;</p>
+
+          <p>More brightly beam'd, where far away,</p>
+
+          <p>Around his clustering islands, lay,</p>
+
+          <p>Adown some opening vale descried,</p>
+
+          <p>The vast Aegean's waveless tide.</p>
+
+          <p>What wonder then, if Reason's power</p>
+
+          <p>Fail'd in each reeling mind that hour,</p>
+
+          <p>When their enraptured spirits woke</p>
+
+          <p>To Nature's liberty, and broke</p>
+
+          <p>The artificial chain that bound them,</p>
+
+          <p>With the broad sky above, and the free winds around
+          them!</p>
+
+          <p>From Nature's overflowing soul,</p>
+
+          <p>That sweet delirium on them stole;</p>
+
+          <p>She held the cup, and bade them share</p>
+
+          <p>In draughts of joy too deep to bear.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg079" id="pg079">079</a></span>
+
+          <p>Not such the scenes that to the eyes</p>
+
+          <p>Of water-Bacchanals arise;</p>
+
+          <p>Whene'er the day of festival</p>
+
+          <p>Summons the Pledged t' attend its call&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>In long procession to appear,</p>
+
+          <p>And show the world how good they are.</p>
+
+          <p>Not theirs the wild-wood wanderings,</p>
+
+          <p>The voices of the winds and springs:</p>
+
+          <p>But seek them where the smoke-fog brown</p>
+
+          <p>Incumbent broods o'er London town;</p>
+
+          <p>'Mid Finsbury Square ruralities</p>
+
+          <p>Of mangy grass, and scrofulous trees;</p>
+
+          <p>'Mid all the sounds that consecrate</p>
+
+          <p>Thy street, melodious Bishopsgate!</p>
+
+          <p>Not by the mountain grot and pine,</p>
+
+          <p>Haunts of the Heliconian Nine:</p>
+
+          <p>But where the town-bred Muses squall</p>
+
+          <p>Love-verses in an annual;</p>
+
+          <p>Such muses as inspire the grunt</p>
+
+          <p>Of Barry Cornwall, and Leigh Hunt.</p>
+
+          <p>Their hands no ivy'd thyrsus bear,</p>
+
+          <p>No Evöe floats upon the air:</p>
+
+          <p>But flags of painted calico</p>
+
+          <p>Flutter aloft with gaudy show;</p>
+
+          <p>And round then rises, long and loud,</p>
+
+          <p>The laughter of the gibing crowd.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>O sacred Temp'rance! mine were shame</p>
+
+          <p>If I could wish to brand thy name.</p>
+
+          <p>But though these dullards boast thy grace,</p>
+
+          <p>Thou in their orgies hast no place.</p>
+
+          <p>Thou still disdain'st such sorry lot,</p>
+
+          <p>As even below the soaking sot.</p>
+
+          <p>Great was high Duty's power of old</p>
+
+          <p>The empire o'er man's heart to hold;</p>
+
+          <p>To urge the soul, or check its course,</p>
+
+          <p>Obedient to her guiding force.</p>
+
+          <p>These own not her control, but draw</p>
+
+          <p>New sanction for the moral law,</p>
+
+          <p>And by a stringent compact bind</p>
+
+          <p>The independence of the mind&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>As morals had gregarious grown,</p>
+
+          <p>And Virtue could not stand alone.</p>
+
+          <p>What need they rules against abusing?</p>
+
+          <p>They find th' offence all in the using.</p>
+
+          <p>Denounce the gifts which bounteous Heaven</p>
+
+          <p>To cheer the heart of man has given;</p>
+
+          <p>And think their foolish pledge a band</p>
+
+          <p>More potent far than God's command.</p>
+
+          <p>On this new plan they cleverly</p>
+
+          <p>Work morals by machinery;</p>
+
+          <p>Keeping men virtuous by a tether,</p>
+
+          <p>Like gangs of negroes chain'd together.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Then, Temperance, if thus it be,</p>
+
+          <p>They know no further need of thee.</p>
+
+          <p>This pledge usurps thy ancient throne&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Alas! thy occupation's gone!</p>
+
+          <p>From earth thou may'st unheeded rise,</p>
+
+          <p>And like Astræa&mdash;seek the skies.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg080" id=
+      "pg080">080</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MARTIN LUTHER.</h2>
+
+      <h3>AN ODE.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Who sits upon the Pontiff's throne?</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">On Peter's holy chair</p>
+
+          <p>Who sways the keys? At such a time</p>
+
+          <p>When dullest ears may hear the chime</p>
+
+          <p>Of coming thunders&mdash;when dark skies</p>
+
+          <p>Are writ with crimson prophecies,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A wise man should be there;</p>
+
+          <p>A godly man, whose life might be</p>
+
+          <p>The living logic of the sea;</p>
+
+          <p>One quick to know, and keen to feel&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>A fervid man, and full of zeal,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Should sit in Peter's chair.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Alas! no fervid man is there,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">No earnest, honest heart;</p>
+
+          <p>One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,</p>
+
+          <p>Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;</p>
+
+          <p>One who can trim the courtier's smile,</p>
+
+          <p>Or weave the diplomatic wile,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">But knows no deeper art;</p>
+
+          <p>One who can dally with fair forms,</p>
+
+          <p>Whom a well-pointed period warms&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>No man is he to hold the helm</p>
+
+          <p>Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And creaking timbers start.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>In vain did Julius pile sublime</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The vast and various dome,</p>
+
+          <p>That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,</p>
+
+          <p>And the huge Flavian wonder, hide</p>
+
+          <p>Their heads in shame&mdash;these gilded stones</p>
+
+          <p>(O heaven!) were very blood and bones</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Of those whom Christ did come</p>
+
+          <p>To save&mdash;vile grin of slaves who sold</p>
+
+          <p>Celestial rights for earthy gold,</p>
+
+          <p>Marketing grace with merchant's measure,</p>
+
+          <p>To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The pride of purple Rome.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The measure of her sins is full,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The scarlet-vested whore!</p>
+
+          <p>Thy murderous and lecherous race</p>
+
+          <p>Have sat too long i' the holy place;</p>
+
+          <p>The knife shall lop what no drug cures,</p>
+
+          <p>Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The monstrous mockery more.</p>
+
+          <p>Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord:</p>
+
+          <p>Mine elect warrior girds the sword&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>A nameless man, a miner's son,</p>
+
+          <p>Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And pale the painted whore!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Poor fishermen before</p>
+
+          <p>To preach my gospel to the poor;</p>
+
+          <p>A pauper boy from door to door</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg081" id="pg081">081</a></span>
+
+          <p>That piped his hymn. By his strong word</p>
+
+          <p>The startled world shall now be stirr'd,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">As with a lion's roar!</p>
+
+          <p>A lonely monk that loved to dwell</p>
+
+          <p>With peaceful host in silent cell;</p>
+
+          <p>This man shall shake the Pontiff's throne:</p>
+
+          <p>Him Kings and emperors shall own,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And stout hearts wince before</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>The eye profound and front sublime</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where speculation reigns.</p>
+
+          <p>He to the learned seats shall climb,</p>
+
+          <p>On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;</p>
+
+          <p>The arid doctrine shall inspire</p>
+
+          <p>Of wiry teachers with swift fire;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And, piled with cumbrous pains,</p>
+
+          <p>Proud palaces of sounding lies</p>
+
+          <p>Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise</p>
+
+          <p>Shall listen to his word; the youth</p>
+
+          <p>Shall eager seize the new-born truth</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Where prudent age refrains.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">From echoing town to town!</p>
+
+          <p>The clam'rous preacher and his train,</p>
+
+          <p>Organ and bell with sound inane,</p>
+
+          <p>The crimson cross, the book, the keys,</p>
+
+          <p>The flag that spreads before the breeze,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The triple-belted crown!</p>
+
+          <p>It wends its way; and straw is sold&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,</p>
+
+          <p>To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;</p>
+
+          <p>And though some smile, and many sneer,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">There's none will dare to frown.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>None dares but one&mdash;the race is rare&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">One free and honest man:</p>
+
+          <p>Truth is a dangerous thing to say</p>
+
+          <p>Amid the lies that haunt the day;</p>
+
+          <p>But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!</p>
+
+          <p>From heart to heart the fire shall go,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Instinctive without plan;</p>
+
+          <p>Proud bishops with a lordly train,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Fierce cardinals with high disdain,</p>
+
+          <p>Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,</p>
+
+          <p>And wrangling doctors all shall force,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In vain, one honest man.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">It is a sober thing.</p>
+
+          <p>Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,</p>
+
+          <p>Loudly to damn, and loudly save,</p>
+
+          <p>And sweep with mimic thunders' swell</p>
+
+          <p>Armies of honest souls to hell!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">The time on whirring wing</p>
+
+          <p>Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!</p>
+
+          <p>One hour, one little hour, is given,</p>
+
+          <p>If thou could'st but repent. But no!</p>
+
+          <p>To ruin thou shalt headlong go,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">A doom'd and blasted thing.</p><span class=
+          "pagenum"><a name="pg082" id="pg082">082</a></span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Men heed it not, thou fool!</p>
+
+          <p>Nay, from the learned city's gate,</p>
+
+          <p>In solemn show, in pomp of state,</p>
+
+          <p>The watchmen of the truth come forth,</p>
+
+          <p>The burghers old of sterling worth,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And students of the school:</p>
+
+          <p>And he who should have felt thy ban</p>
+
+          <p>Walks like a prophet in the van;</p>
+
+          <p>He hath a calm indignant look,</p>
+
+          <p>Beneath his arm he bears a book,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And in his hand the Bull.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He halts; and in the middle space</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Bids pile a blazing fire.</p>
+
+          <p>The flame ascends with crackling glee;</p>
+
+          <p>Then, with firm step advancing, He</p>
+
+          <p>Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule</p>
+
+          <p>The false Decretals, and the Bull,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">While thus he vents his ire:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"Because the Holy One o' the Lord</p>
+
+          <p>Thou vexed hast with impious word,</p>
+
+          <p>Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,</p>
+
+          <p>And thou shalt share the Devil's doom</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In everlasting fire!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>He said; and rose the echo round</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">"In everlasting fire!"</p>
+
+          <p>The hearts of men were free; one word</p>
+
+          <p>Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;</p>
+
+          <p>Erect before their God they stood</p>
+
+          <p>A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">And wing'd with high desire.</p>
+
+          <p>And ever with the circling flame</p>
+
+          <p>Uprose anew the blithe acclaim:&mdash;</p>
+
+          <p>"The righteous Lord shall thee consume,</p>
+
+          <p>And thou shalt share the Devil's doom</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">In everlasting fire!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+          <p>Thus the brave German men; and we</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Shall echo back the cry;</p>
+
+          <p>The burning of that parchment scroll</p>
+
+          <p>Annull'd the bond that sold the soul</p>
+
+          <p>Of man to man; each brother now</p>
+
+          <p>Only to one great Lord will bow,</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">One Father-God on high.</p>
+
+          <p>And though with fits of lingering life</p>
+
+          <p>The wounded foe prolong the strife,</p>
+
+          <p>On Luther's deed we build our hope,</p>
+
+          <p>Our steady faith&mdash;the fond old Pope</p>
+
+          <p class="i2">Is dying, and shall die.</p>
+        </div>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg083" id=
+      "pg083">083</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.</h2>
+
+      <h3>No. II</h3>
+
+      <h3>THE FAIRY TUTOR.</h3>
+
+      <p>Discreet Reader!</p>
+
+      <p>You have seen&mdash;and 'tis no longer ago than
+      YESTERDAY!&mdash;you must well remember the picture&mdash;which
+      showed you from the rough yet delicate&mdash;the humorous yet
+      sympathetic and picturesque&mdash;the original yet insinuating
+      pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian mountaineer&mdash;the
+      aerial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating, enigmatical,
+      outwardly&mdash;mirth-given, inwardly&mdash;sorrow-touched,
+      congregated folk numberless&mdash;of the Fairies
+      Proper!&mdash;showed them at the urgency of a rare and strange
+      need&mdash;clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one fair, kind, good and
+      happily-born Daughter of Man!&mdash;And what wonder?&mdash;The
+      once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one
+      fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably
+      favoured!&mdash;What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages
+      brings on the appointed hour, the rebellious and outcast children
+      of heaven must sue&mdash;to their keen
+      emergency&mdash;help&mdash;oh! speak up to the height of the
+      want, of the succour! and call it <i>a lent ray of grace</i>,
+      from the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth!&mdash;And
+      see, where, in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the
+      hallowing influence shines!&mdash;Auspiciously begun, the awed
+      though aspiring Rite, the still, the multitudinous, the mystical,
+      prospers!&mdash;<i>Gratefully</i>, as for the boon inexpressibly
+      worth&mdash;<i>easily</i>, as of their own transcending
+      power&mdash;<i>promptly</i>, as though fearing that a benefit
+      received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright
+      hair of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak
+      benefactress&mdash;the wedded felicity of pure love!</p>
+
+      <p>And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises
+      again, discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a
+      little perhaps, our actors!&mdash;Once more, attaching to the
+      HUMAN DRAMA, slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of
+      air, the same light and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that
+      They, whom you lately saw tranquil, earnest even to
+      pathos&mdash;"now are frolic"&mdash;enough and to
+      spare!&mdash;Once more&mdash;THE FAIRIES.</p>
+
+      <p>And see, too&mdash;where, centring in herself interest and
+      action of the rapidly shifting scenery&mdash;ever again a
+      beautiful granddaughter of Eve steps&mdash;free and fearless, and
+      bouyant and bounding&mdash;our fancy-laid boards!&mdash;Ah! but
+      how much unresembling the sweet maid!&mdash;<i>Outwardly</i>, for
+      lofty-piled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the
+      modern Amazon, Swanhilda&mdash;more unlike <i>within</i>. Instead
+      of the clear truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy
+      Innocence" of the poor fairy-beloved mountain child&mdash;SHE, in
+      whose person and fortunes you are invited&mdash;for the next
+      fifty minutes&mdash;to forget your own&mdash;harbours, fondly
+      harbours, ill housemates of her virginal breast! a small,
+      resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison of unwomanly
+      faults. Pride is there!&mdash;The iron-hard and the iron-cold!
+      There Scorn&mdash;edging repulse with insult!&mdash;and
+      envenoming insult with despair!&mdash;leaps up, in eager answer
+      to the beseeching sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent
+      Adoration. And there is the indulged Insolency of a
+      domineering&mdash;and as you will precipitately augur&mdash;an
+      <i>indomitable</i> Will! And there is exuberant SELF-POWER, that,
+      from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling, circulating
+      along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis! turns the
+      nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous and
+      blood-sprinkled joy of man&mdash;the tempestuous and terrible
+      CHASE, which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the
+      rougher lord of creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent!
+      Oh, how much other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian
+      valleys, the shade-loving Flower, the good Maud&mdash;herself
+      looked upon with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg084" id=
+      "pg084">084</a></span>love by the glad eyes of men, women,
+      children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other indeed! And yet, have
+      you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of unamiable
+      qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten, which has
+      fastened, upon the gentle Maud's <i>haughty</i>
+      antithesis&mdash;the serviceable regard, and&mdash;the FAVOUR,
+      even of THE FAIRIES.</p>
+
+      <p>The FAVOUR!!</p>
+
+      <p>Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief
+      process. You are, after a fashion, informed with what studious,
+      persevering, and unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and
+      feminine pity, the lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the
+      course of the last three or four years, turned back from her
+      beetle-browed castle-gate, one by one, as they showed themselves
+      there&mdash;a hundred, all worthily born&mdash;otherwise more and
+      less meritorious&mdash;petitioners for that
+      whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon
+      this very morning, an embassy from the willow-wearers
+      all&mdash;or, to speak indeed more germanely to the matter, of
+      the BASKET-BEARERS<sup>22</sup>, waited upon their beautiful
+      enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in one, importing first a
+      requisition to surrender; then, in case of refusal to capitulate,
+      the announcement that HYMEN having found in CUPID an inefficient
+      ally, he was about associating with himself, in league offensive,
+      the god MARS, with intent of carrying the Maiden-fortress by
+      storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants of the
+      stronghold into captivity&mdash;whereunto she made
+      answer&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>&mdash;&mdash;our castle's strength</p>
+
+        <p>Will laugh a siege to scorn&mdash;</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>herself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the
+      sent This crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the
+      first place, wreak and right.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>22: To German ears&mdash;to SEND A BASKET&mdash;is to REFUSE
+        A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of
+      Elves, being in full council assembled in the broad light of the
+      sun, upon the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not
+      widely sitting diet had yet well opened its
+      proceedings&mdash;"tramp, tramp, across the land," came, flying
+      at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap huntress; and
+      without other note of preparation sounded than their own thunder,
+      her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage assembly,
+      causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with devastation dire
+      to persons and&mdash;wearing apparel.</p>
+
+      <p>This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and
+      right.</p>
+
+      <p>And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which
+      is&mdash;<i>summary</i>; as, from the character of the judges and
+      executioners, into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would
+      expect; sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their
+      magical hand they turn the impoverished heiress of ill-possessed
+      acres forth upon the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous
+      manual industry, her livelihood; until, from the winnings of her
+      handicraft, she is moreover able to make good, as far as this was
+      liable to pecuniary assessment, the damage sustained under foot
+      of her fiery barb by the Fairy realm; comfort with handsome
+      presents the rejected suitors; and until, thoroughly tame, she
+      yields into her softened and opened bosom, now rid of its
+      intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once debarred and
+      contemned visitant&mdash;LOVE.</p>
+
+      <p>As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out
+      this drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting,
+      as a matter that is related merely, not presented, that
+      misadventure under the oak-tree&mdash;there is, in the chamber of
+      Swanhilda, but a Fairy delegation active, whilst under the Sun's
+      hill whole Elfdom is in presence; in that resplendent hollow,
+      wearing their own lovely shapes; within the German castle-walls,
+      in apt masquerade. There they were grave. Here, we have already
+      said, that they are merry. There their office was to feel and to
+      think. Here, if there be any trust in apparitions, they drink,
+      and what is more critical for an Elfin lip&mdash;they eat!</p>
+
+      <p>Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred,
+      well-dressed, and right courtly cavalier, who transacted between
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg085" id=
+      "pg085">085</a></span>the Fairy Queen and the stonemason's
+      daughter, him you shall presently see turned into a sort of Elfin
+      cupbearer or court butler; not without fairy grace of person and
+      of mind assuredly; not without a due innate sense of the
+      beautiful, as his perfumed name (SWEETFLOWER) at the outset warns
+      you; and, as the proximity of his function to her Majesty's
+      person&mdash;for we do not here fall in with any thing like
+      mention of a king&mdash;would suggest, independently of the
+      delicately responsible part borne by him in the action, the chief
+      stress of which you will find incumbent upon his capable
+      shoulders.</p>
+
+      <p>Such, in respect of the subject, is, thrice courteous and
+      intelligent reader, the second piece of art, which we are glad to
+      have the opportunity of placing before you, from our clever
+      friend Ernst Willkomm's apparently right fertile easel. The
+      second, answering to the first, LIKE and UNLIKE, you perceive, as
+      two companion pictures should be.</p>
+
+      <p>But it would be worse than useless to tell you that which you
+      have seen and that which you will see, unless, from the
+      juxtaposition of the two fables, there followed&mdash;a moral.
+      They have, as we apprehend, a moral&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> one moral,
+      and that a grave one, in common between them.</p>
+
+      <p>Hitherto we have superficially compared THE FAIRIES' SABBATH
+      and the FAIRY TUTOR. We now wish to develope a profounder analogy
+      connecting them. We have compared them, as if ESTHETICALLY; we
+      would now compare them MYTHOLOGICALLY&mdash;for, in our
+      understanding, there lies at the very foundation of both tales A
+      MYTHOLOGICAL ROOT&mdash;by whomsoever set, whether by Ernst
+      Willkomm to-day, or by the population of the Lusatian
+      mountains&mdash;three, six, ten centuries ago; or, in unreckoned
+      antiquity, by the common Ancestors of the believers, who, in
+      still unmeasured antiquity, brought the superstition of the
+      Fairies out of central Asia to remote occidental Europe.</p>
+
+      <p>This ROOT we are bold to think is&mdash;"A DEEPLY SEATED
+      ATTRACTION, ALLYING THE FAIRY MIND TO THE PURITY AND INTEGRITY OF
+      THE MORAL WILL IN THE MIND OF MEN." And first for the Tale which
+      presently concerns us:&mdash;THE FAIRY TUTOR.</p>
+
+      <p>SWEETFLOWER will beguile us into believing that the
+      interposition of the Fairies in our Baroness's domestic
+      arrangements, grows up, if one shall so hazardously speak, from
+      TWO seeds, each bearing two branches&mdash;namely, from two
+      wrongs, the one hitting, the other striking from,
+      themselves&mdash;BOTH which wrongs they will AVENGE and AMEND. We
+      take up a strenuous theory; and we deny&mdash;and we
+      defy&mdash;SWEETFLOWER. Nay, more! Should our excellent friend,
+      ERNST WILLKOMM, be found taking part, real or apparent, with
+      SWEETFLOWER, we defy and we deny Ernst Willkomm. For in this
+      mixed case of the Fairy wrong, we distinguish, first, INJURIES
+      which shall be retaliated, and, as far as may be, compensated;
+      and secondly, a SHREW, who is to be turned <i>into</i> a WIFE,
+      being previously turned <i>out of</i> a shrew.</p>
+
+      <p>We dare to believe that this last-mentioned end is the thing
+      uppermost, and undermost, and middlemost in the mind of the
+      Fairies; is, in fact, the true and <i>the sole final cause</i> of
+      all their proceedings.</p>
+
+      <p>Or that the <i>moral heart</i> of the poem&mdash;that root in
+      the human breast and will, from which every true poem springs
+      heavenward&mdash;is here the zeal of the spirits for <i>morally
+      reforming Swanhilda</i>; is, therefore, that deep-seated
+      attraction, which, as we have averred, essentially allies the
+      inclination of the Fairies to the moral conscience in our own
+      kind.</p>
+
+      <p>One end, therefore, grounds the whole story, although two and
+      more are proposed by <i>Sweetflower</i>. It is one that
+      <i>satisfies</i> the moral reason in man; for it is no less than
+      to cleanse and heal the will, wounded with error, of a human
+      creature. That other, which he displays, with mock emphasis, of
+      restitution to the downtrodden fairyhood, is an exotic, fair and
+      slight bud, grafted into the sturdier indigenous stock. For let
+      us fix but a steady look upon the thing itself, and what is there
+      before us? a whim, a trick of the fancy, tickling the fancy. We
+      are amused with a quaint calamity&mdash;a panic of caps and
+      cloaks. We laugh&mdash;we cannot help it&mdash;as the pigmy
+      assembly flies a thousand ways at once&mdash;grave councillors
+      and all&mdash;throwing terrified somersets&mdash;hiding
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg086" id=
+      "pg086">086</a></span>under stones, roots&mdash;diving into
+      coney-burrows&mdash;"any where&mdash;any where"&mdash;vanishing
+      out of harm's&mdash;if not out of dismay's&mdash;reach. In a tale
+      of the Fairies, THE FANCY rules:&mdash;and the interest of such a
+      misfortune, definite and not infinite, is congenial to the spirit
+      of the gay faculty which hovers over, lives upon surfaces, and
+      which flees abysses; which thence, likewise, in the moral sphere,
+      is equal to apprehending resentment of a personal wrong, and a
+      judicial assessment of damages&mdash;but NOT A DISINTERESTED
+      MORAL END.</p>
+
+      <p>What is our conclusion then? plainly that the dolorous
+      overthrow of the fairy divan is no better than an
+      invention&mdash;the device of an esthetical artist. We hold that
+      Ernst Willkomm has <i>gratuitously</i> bestowed upon us the
+      disastrous catastrophe; that he has done this, knowing the
+      obligation which lies upon Fancy within her own chosen domain to
+      <i>create</i>, because&mdash;there, Fancy listens and reads. The
+      adroit Fairy delineator must wile over and reconcile the most
+      sportive, capricious, and self-willed spirit of our
+      understanding, to accept a purpose foreign to that spirit's
+      habitual sympathies&mdash;a purpose solemn and austere&mdash;THE
+      MORAL PURPOSE OF RESCUING A SIN-ENTANGLED HUMAN SOUL.</p>
+
+      <p>Or, if Ernst Willkomm shall guarantee to us, that the
+      reminiscences of his people have furnished him with the materials
+      of this tale; if he is, as we must needs hope, who have freely
+      dealt with you to believe that he is&mdash;honest: honest both as
+      to the general character, and the particular facts of his
+      representations&mdash;if, in short, the Lusatian Highlanders do,
+      sitting by the bench and the stove, aver and protest that the
+      said Swanhilda did overturn both council-board and
+      councillors&mdash;then we say, upon this occasion, that which we
+      must all, hundreds of times, declare&mdash;namely, that <i>The
+      Genius of Tradition</i> is the foremost of artists; and further,
+      that in this instance <i>an unwilled fiction</i>, determined by a
+      necessity of the human bosom, has risen up <i>to mantle
+      seriousness with grace</i>, as a free woodbine enclasps with her
+      slender-gadding twines, and bedecks with her sweet bright
+      blossoms, a towering giant of the grove.</p>
+
+      <p>It will perhaps be objected, that the moral purity and
+      goodness that are so powerful to draw to themselves the regard
+      and care of the spiritual people, are wanting in the character of
+      the over-bold Swanhilda. We have said that her <i>faults</i> are
+      the CALL to the Fairies for help and reformation: but we may
+      likewise guess that Virtue and Truth first won their love. It
+      must be recollected that the faults which are extirpated from the
+      breast of our heroine, are not such as, in our natural
+      understanding of humanity, dishonour or sully. Taken away, the
+      character may stand clear. It is quite possible that this gone,
+      there shall be left behind a kind, good, affectionate, generous,
+      noble nature.</p>
+
+      <p>We are free, or, more properly speaking, we are bound to
+      believe, that thus the Fairies left Swanhilda.</p>
+
+      <p>As for Maud, we know&mdash;for she was told&mdash;that the
+      Fairies loved her for herself ere they needed her aid. Hanging as
+      it were upon that wondrous power to help which dwelt within
+      her&mdash;her simple goodness&mdash;may we not say that the
+      Fairies discover an ENFORCED attraction, when they afterwards
+      approach the maiden for their own succour and salvation; as they
+      do, a FREE attraction, when, in the person of Swanhilda, they
+      disinterestedly attach themselves to reforming a fault for the
+      welfare and happiness of her whom it aggrieves?</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>We will now proceed, as in our former communication, to adduce
+      instances from other quarters, confirming the fairy delineations
+      offered by our tale; or which may tend generally to bring out its
+      mythological and literary character.</p>
+
+      <p>Two points would suggest themselves to us in the tale of the
+      Fairy Tutor, as chiefly provoking comparison. The first
+      is:&mdash;<i>The affirmed Presidency of the Fairies over human
+      morals</i>, viewed as <i>a Shape of the Interest</i> which they
+      take in the uprightness and purity of the human will.</p>
+
+      <p>The second is:&mdash; <i>The Manner and Style of their
+      operations</i>: or, THE FAIRY WAYS. In which we chiefly
+      distinguish&mdash;1, The active presence of the Sprites in a
+      human habitation. 2, Their masquerading. 3, Their dispatch of
+      human victuals. 4, The liability of Elfin <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg087" id="pg087">087</a></span>limbs to human
+      casualties. 5, The personality of that saucy Puck, our tiny
+      ambassador elf.</p>
+
+      <p>We are at once tempted and restrained by the richness of
+      illustration, which presents itself under all these heads. The
+      necessity of limitation is, however, imperious. This, and a wish
+      for simplicity, dispose us to throw all under one more
+      comprehensive title.</p>
+
+      <p>Perhaps the reader has not entirely forgotten that in the
+      remarks introductory to THE FAIRIES' SABBATH, having launched the
+      question&mdash;what is a Fairy?&mdash;we offered him in the way
+      of answer, <i>eight</i> elements of the Fairy Nature. Has he
+      quite forgotten that for one of these&mdash;it was the
+      third&mdash;we represented the Spirit under examination, as ONE
+      WHICH AT ONCE SEEKS AND SHUNS MANKIND?</p>
+
+      <p>The cursory treatment of this Elfin criterion will now
+      compendiously place before the reader, as much illustration of
+      the two above-given heads as we dare impose upon him.</p>
+
+      <p>The popular Traditions of entire Western Europe variously
+      attest for all the kinds of the Fairies, and for some orders of
+      Spirits partaking of the Fairy character, the singularly
+      composed, and almost self-contradictory traits of a
+      <i>seeking</i> implicated and attempered with a <i>shunning</i>;
+      of a shunning with a seeking. The inclination of our Quest will
+      be to evidences of the <i>seeking</i>. The shunning will, it need
+      not be doubted, take good care of itself.</p>
+
+      <p>The attraction of the Fairy Species towards our own is,</p>
+
+      <p>1. Recognised&mdash;in their GENERIC DESIGNATIONS.
+      <br />
+      2. Apparent&mdash;in their GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD with us.
+      <br />
+      3. IN THEIR FREQUENTING AND ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES in the places
+      of our habitual occupancy and resort.
+      <br />
+      4. IN THEIR CALLING OR CARRYING US into the places of their
+      Occupancy and Resort; whether to return <i>hither</i>, or to
+      remain <i>there</i>.
+      <br />
+      5. BY THEIR ALIGHTING UPON THE PATH, worn already with some
+      blithe or some weary steps, OF A HUMAN DESTINY;&mdash;as
+      friendly, or as unfriendly Genii.
+      <br />
+      We collect the proofs: and&mdash;</p>
+
+      <h4>1. Of their GENERIC APPELLATIVES, a Word!</h4>
+
+      <p>One is tempted to say that THE NATIONS, as if conscious of the
+      kindly disposition inhering in the spiritual existences toward
+      ourselves, have simultaneously agreed in conferring upon them
+      titles of endearment and affection. The brothers Grimm
+      write&mdash;"In Scotland they [The Fairies] are called <i>The
+      Good People, Good Neighbours, Men of Peace;</i> in
+      Wales&mdash;<i>The Family, The Blessing of their Mothers, The
+      Dear Ladies;</i> in the old Norse, and to this day in the Faroe
+      islands, <i>Huldufolk</i> (<i>The Gracious People;</i>) in
+      Norway, <i>Huldre</i>;<sup>23</sup> and, in conformity with these
+      denominations, discover a striving to be in the proximity of men,
+      and to keep up a good understanding with them."<sup>24</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>23: May we for HULDRE read HULDREFOLK; and understand the
+        <i>following</i>, or the <i>Folk</i> of HULDRE? Huldre
+        <i>means</i> the Gracious Lady: she is a sort of Danish and
+        Norwegian Fairy-Queen.&mdash;See GRIMM'S <i>German
+        Mythology</i>, p. 168. First edition.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>24: The Brothers GRIMM: <i>Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+        Tales</i>.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h4>2. THIS GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, to which these last words point,
+      is interestingly depicted by the Traditions.</h4>
+
+      <p>In Scotland and Germany the Fairies plant their habitation
+      <i>adjoining</i> that of man&mdash;"<i>under the
+      threshold</i>"&mdash;and in such attached Fairies an alliance is
+      unfolded with us of a most extraordinary kind. "The closest
+      connexion" (<i>id est</i>, of the Fairy species with our own) "is
+      expressed," say the Brothers Grimm, "by the tradition, agreeably
+      to which the family of the Fairies ORDERED ITSELF ENTIRELY AFTER
+      THE HUMAN to which it belonged; and OF WHICH IT WAS AS IF A COPY.
+      These domestic Fairies <i>kept their marriages upon the same
+      day</i> as the Human Beings; <i>their children were born
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg088" id=
+      "pg088">088</a></span>upon the same day</i>; and <i>upon the same
+      day they wailed for their dead.</i>"<sup>25</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>25: The Brothers GRIMM: <i>Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+        Tales.</i></p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Two artlessly sweet breathings of Elfin Table, from the
+      Helvetian Dales,<sup>26</sup> lately revived to your fancy the
+      sinless&mdash;blissful years, when gods with men set fellowing
+      steps upon one and the same fragrant and unpolluted sward, until
+      transgression, exiling those to their own celestial abodes, left
+      these lonely&mdash;a nearer, dearer, BARBARIAN Golden
+      Age&mdash;wherein the kindly Dwarf nation stand representing the
+      great deities of Olympus.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>26: See <i>The Dwarfs upon the Maple-Tree</i>, and <i>The
+        Dwarfs upon the Crag-Stone</i>, in the former paper.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The healthful pure air fans restoration again to us. We lay
+      before you&mdash;</p>
+
+      <h3>GERMAN TRADITIONS</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. CXLIX <i>The Dwarfs' Feet</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about
+      them, in caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, <i>in amity
+      and good neighbourhood</i> with the people, for whom they
+      performed by night many a heavy labour. When the country folk,
+      betimes in the morning, came with wains and implements, and
+      wondered that all was ready done, the Dwarfs were hiding in the
+      bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently the peasants were angry
+      when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn lying reaped upon the
+      field; but when presently after hail and storm came on, and they
+      could well know that probably not a stalk should have escaped
+      perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the provident
+      Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin, fooled
+      away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
+      then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
+      following:&mdash;A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
+      cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that
+      the tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit
+      carried, and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman
+      had use to keep his cherries. The people said in the village,
+      that doth no one other than the honest dwarflings&mdash;they come
+      tripping along by night, in long mantles, with covered feet,
+      softly as birds, and perform diligently for men the work of the
+      day. Already often have they been privily watched, but one may
+      not interrupt them, only let them, come and go at their listing.
+      By such speeches was the herdsman made curious, and would fain
+      have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so carefully their feet, and
+      whether these were otherwise shapen than men's feet. When,
+      therefore, the next year, summer again came, and the season that
+      the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and bear them into
+      the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes, which he
+      strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with daybreak, he
+      hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he saw
+      beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
+      herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
+      Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and
+      laid waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their
+      mountain. They harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from
+      them their help. That herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs
+      turned sickly and half-witted, and so continued until his dying
+      day!"</p>
+
+      <p>There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own
+      hardily-nursed wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent
+      hand<sup>27</sup> that brought home to us those other
+      half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition, you behold a
+      third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the three, young
+      poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready and meet
+      for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!&mdash;or
+      fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
+      nature-loving&mdash;Ellen or Margaret.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>27: Of Professor Wyes.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>These old-young things&mdash;bequests, as they look to
+      be&mdash;from the loving, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg089"
+      id="pg089">089</a></span>singing childhood of the earth, may
+      lawfully make children, lovers, and songsters of us all; and
+      <i>will</i>, if we are <i>fond</i>, and hearken to them.</p>
+
+      <p>In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
+      chronologies,</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"When the world and love were young,</p>
+
+        <p>And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of
+      <i>borrowing and lending</i>. Many traditions touch the matter.
+      Here is one resting upon it.</p>
+
+      <h3>No. CLIV. <i>The Dwarfs near Dardesheim</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and
+      Brunswick. Close to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest
+      water flows, which is called the Smansborn,<sup>28</sup> and
+      wells from a hill wherein formerly the Dwarfs dwelled. When the
+      ancient inhabitants of the place needed a holiday dress, or any
+      rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them to this Dwarf's
+      Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice, told their
+      occasion, adding&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,</p>
+
+        <p>At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>28: For LESSMANSBORN, <i>i.e.</i> LESSMANN'S WELL.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of
+      the festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward
+      gradually did bickerings interrupt the good understanding that
+      was betwixt the Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the
+      beginning for a short season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs
+      departed away; because the flouts and gibes of many boors grew
+      intolerable to them, as likewise their ingratitude for kindnesses
+      done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth any Dwarfs more."</p>
+
+      <p>In <i>Auvergne</i>, Miss Costello has just now learned, how
+      the men and the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest
+      footing, nigh one another: how the <i>knowledge</i> and
+      <i>commodious use</i> of the <i>Healing Springs</i> was owed by
+      the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of yore, the powerful
+      sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound, opened an
+      <i>innocuous channel</i> for <i>the torrent</i>, which used with
+      its overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how
+      they were looked upon as being, in a general sense, <i>the
+      protectors</i> against harm of the country: and, in fine, how the
+      two orders of neighbours lived in long and happy communion of
+      kind offices with one another; until, upon one unfortunate day,
+      the ill-renowned freebooter, Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly
+      men-at-arms, having approached, by stealth, from his near-lying
+      hold, stormed the romantically seated rock-mansion of the
+      bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger, forsook the land.
+      Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may, now and then,
+      be seen at a distance.</p>
+
+      <p>Thus, too, the late <i>Brillat-Savarin</i>, from a sprightly,
+      acute, brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest
+      antiquary, lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone,
+      flowing out from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when
+      he first quitted it, yet hidden valley of his birth:&mdash;The
+      FAIRIES&mdash;elderly, not beautiful, but benevolent unmarried
+      ladies&mdash;kept, while time was, open school in THE GROTTO,
+      which was their habitation, for the young girls of the vicinity,
+      whom they taught&mdash;SEWING.</p>
+
+      <h4>3. We go on to exemplifying&mdash;ELFIN <i>Frequentation of,
+      and Settlement with,</i> MAN.</h4>
+
+      <p>The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men
+      by manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
+      celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
+      purchase at the Tavern&mdash;from the Shambles, or in open
+      Market. They <i>steal</i> from oven and field. They go through a
+      house, blessing the rooms, the marriage-bed&mdash;and stand
+      beside the unconscious cradle. They give dreams. They take part
+      in the evening mirth. They pray in the churches. They
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg090" id=
+      "pg090">090</a></span>seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
+      constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors.
+      They dance in the churchyard.<sup>29</sup> They make themselves
+      the wives and the paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin
+      fixes himself, like a cat, in the house&mdash;once and for
+      ever.</p>
+
+      <p>We present traditions for illustrating some of these points,
+      as they offer themselves to us.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>29:</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p>"Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep</p>
+
+          <p>That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;</p>
+
+          <p>The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!</p>
+
+          <p>Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,</p>
+
+          <p>ENTER, IN DANCE!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <p>WORDSWORTH.&mdash;<i>Sonnet upon an</i> ABANDONED
+        <i>Cemetery.</i></p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>THEY HALT ON A JOURNEY.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. XXXV. <i>The Count of Hoia</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"There did appear once to a count of Hoia, a little mauling in
+      the night, and, as the count was alarmed, said to him he should
+      have no fear: he had a word to sue unto him, and begged that he
+      should not be denied. The count answered, if it were a thing
+      possible to do, and should be never burthensome to him and his,
+      he will gladly do it. The manling said&mdash;'There be some that
+      desire to come to thee this ensuing night, into thy house, and to
+      make their stopping. Wouldst thou so long lend them kitchen and
+      hall, and bid thy domestics that they go to bed, and none look
+      after their ways and works, neither any know thereof, save only
+      thou? They will show them, therefore, grateful. Thou and thy line
+      shall have cause of joy, and in the very least matter shall none
+      hurt happen unto thee, neither to any that belong to thee.'
+      Whereunto the count assented. Accordingly, upon the following
+      night, they came like a cavalcade, marching over the drawbridge
+      to the house; one and all&mdash;tiny folk, such as they use to
+      describe the hill manlings. They cooked in the kitchen, fell too,
+      and rested, and nothing seemed otherwise than as if a great
+      repast were in preparing. Thereafter, nigh unto morn, as they
+      will again depart, comes the little manling a second time to the
+      count, and after conning him thanks, handed him a <i>sword</i>, a
+      <i>salamander cloth</i>, and a <i>golden ring</i>, in which was
+      RED LION set above&mdash;advertising him, withal, that he and his
+      posterity shall well keep these three pieces, and so long as they
+      had them all together, should it go with fair accordance and well
+      in the county; but so soon as they shall be parted from one
+      another, shall it be a sign that nothing good impendeth for the
+      county. Accordingly, the red lion ever after, when any of the
+      stem is near the point of dying, hath been seen to wax wan.</p>
+
+      <p>"Howsoever, at the time that Count Job and his brothers were
+      minors, and Francis of Halle governor in the country, two of the
+      pieces&mdash;viz., the Sword and the Salamander Cloth, were taken
+      away; but the Ring remained with the lordship unto an end.
+      Whither it afterwards went is not known."</p>
+
+      <h3>THEY HOLD A WEDDING.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No.XXXI. <i>The Small People's Wedding Feast.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"The small people of the Eulenberg in Saxony would once hold a
+      marriage, and for this purpose slipped in, in the night, through
+      the keyhole and the window-chinks into the Hall, and came leaping
+      down upon the smooth floor, like peas tumbled out upon the
+      threshing-floor. The old Count, who slept in the high canopy bed
+      in the Hall, awoke, and marvelled at the number of tiny
+      companions; one of whom, in the garb of a herald, now approached
+      him, and in well-set <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg091" id=
+      "pg091">091</a></span>phrase, courteously prayed him to bear part
+      in their festivity. 'Yet one thing,' he added, 'we beg of you. Ye
+      shall alone be present; none of your court shall be bold to gaze
+      upon our mirth&mdash;yea, not so much as with a glance.' The old
+      Count answered pleasantly&mdash;'Since ye have once for all waked
+      me up, I will e'en make one among you.' Hereupon was a little
+      wifikin led up to him, little torch-bearers took their station,
+      and a music of crickets struck up. The Count had much ado to save
+      losing his little partner in the dance; she capered about so
+      nimbly, and ended with whirling him round and round, until hardly
+      might he have his breath again. But, in the midst of the jocund
+      measure, all stood suddenly still; the music ceased, and the
+      whole throng hurried to the cracks in the doors, mouse-holes, and
+      hiding-places of all sorts. The newly-married couple only, the
+      heralds, and the dancers, looked upward towards an orifice that
+      was in the hall ceiling, and there descried the visage of the old
+      Countess, who was curiously prying down upon the mirthful doings.
+      Herewith they made their obeisance to the Count; and the same
+      which had bidden him, again stepping forward, thanked him for his
+      hospitality. 'But,' continued he, 'because our pleasure and our
+      wedding hath been in such sort interrupted, that yet another eye
+      of man hath looked thereon, henceforward shall your house number
+      never more than seven Eulenbergs.' Thereupon, they pressed fast
+      forth, one upon another. Presently all was quiet, and the old
+      Count once again alone in the dark Hall. The curse hath come true
+      to this hour, so as ever one of the six living knights of
+      Eulenberg hath died ere the seventh was born."</p>
+
+      <h3>THEY JOIN THE EVENING MIRTH.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. xxxix. <i>The Hill-Manling at the Dance</i>.</h3>
+
+      <p>"Old folks veritable declared, that some years ago, at Glass,
+      in Dorf, an hour from the Wunderberg, and an hour from the town
+      of Salzburg, a wedding was kept, to which, towards evening, a
+      Hill-Manling came out of the Wunderberg. He exhorted all the
+      guests to be in honour, gleesome, and merry, and requested leave
+      to join the dancers, which was not refused him. He danced
+      accordingly, with modest maidens, one and another; evermore,
+      three dances with each, and that with a singular featness;
+      insomuch that the wedding guests looked on with admiration and
+      pleasure. The dance over, he made his thanks, and bestowed upon
+      either of the young married people three pieces of money that
+      were of an unknown coinage; whereof each was held to be worth
+      four kreuzers; and therewithal <i>admonished them to dwell in
+      peace and concord, live Christianly, and piously walking, to
+      bring up their children in all goodness</i>. These coins they
+      should put amongst their money, and constantly remember
+      him&mdash;so should they seldom fall into hardship. <i>But they
+      must not therewithal grow arrogant, but, of their superfluity,
+      succour their neighbours</i>.</p>
+
+      <p>"This Hill-Manling stayed with them into the night, and took
+      of every one to drink and to eat what they proffered; but from
+      every one only a little. He then paid his courtesy, and desired
+      that one of the wedding guests might take him over the river
+      Salzbach toward the mountain. Now, there was at the marriage a
+      boatman, by name John Standl, who was presently ready, and they
+      went down together to the ferry. During the passage, the ferryman
+      asked his meed. The Hill-Manling tendered him, in all humility,
+      three pennies. The waterman scorned at such mean hire; but the
+      Manling gave him for answer&mdash;'He must not vex himself, but
+      safely store up the three pennies; for, so doing, he should never
+      suffer default of his having&mdash;<i>if only he did restrain
+      presumptousness</i>&mdash;at the same time he gave the boatman a
+      little pebble, saying the words&mdash;'If thou shalt hang this
+      about thy neck, thou shalt not possibly perish in the water.'
+      Which was proved in that same year. Finally, <i>he persuaded him
+      to a godly and humble manner of life</i>, and went swiftly away."
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg092" id=
+      "pg092">092</a></span></p>
+
+      <h3>ANOTHER OF THE SAME.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. CCCVI. <i>The Three Maidens from the Mere.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"At Epfenbach, nigh Sinzheim, within men's memory, three
+      wondrously beautiful damsels, attired in white, visited, with
+      every evening, the village spinning-room. They brought along with
+      them ever new songs and tunes, and new pretty tales and games.
+      Moreover, their distaffs and spindles had something peculiar, and
+      no spinster might so finely and nimbly spin the thread. But upon
+      the stroke of eleven, they arose; packed up their spinning gear,
+      and for no prayers might be moved to delay for an instant more.
+      None wist whence they came, nor whither they went. Only they
+      called them, The Maidens from the Mere; or, The Sisters of the
+      Lake. The lads were glad to see them there, and were taken with
+      love of them; but most of all, the schoolmaster's son. He might
+      never have enough of hearkening and talking to them, and nothing
+      grieved him more than that every night they went so early away.
+      The thought suddenly crossed him, and he set the village clock an
+      hour back; and, in the evening, with continual talking and
+      sporting, not a soul perceived the delay of the hour. When the
+      clock struck eleven&mdash;but it was properly twelve&mdash;the
+      three damsels arose, put up their distaffs and things, and
+      departed. Upon the following morrow, certain persons went by the
+      Mere; they heard a wailing, and saw three bloody spots above upon
+      the surface of the water. Since that season, the sisters came
+      never again to the room. The schoolmaster's son pined, and died
+      shortly thereafter."</p>
+
+      <h3>AN ELFIN IS BOUND, IN UNLAWFUL CHAINS, TO A HUMAN LOVER.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. LXX. <i>The Bushel, the Ring, and the Goblet.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"In the duchy of Lorraine, when it belonged, as it long did,
+      to Germany, the last count of Orgewiler ruled betwixt Nanzig and
+      Luenstadt.<sup>30</sup> He had no male heir of his blood, and
+      upon his deathbed, shared his lands amongst his three daughters
+      and sons-in-law. Simon of Bestein had married the eldest
+      daughter, the lord of Crony the second, and a German Rhinegrave
+      the youngest. Beside the lordships, he also distributed to his
+      heirs three presents; to the eldest daughter a BUSHEL, to the
+      middle one a DRINKING-CUP, and to the third a jewel, which was a
+      RING, with an admonition that they and their descendants should
+      carefully hoard up these pieces, so should their houses be
+      constantly fortunate."</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>30: LUNEVILLE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The tradition, how the things came into the possession of the
+      count, the Marshal of Bassenstein,<sup>31</sup> great-grandson of
+      Simon, does himself relate thus:&mdash;<sup>32</sup></p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>31: BASSOMPIERRE.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>32: <i>Mémoires du Maréchal de</i> BASSOMPIERRE: Cologne,
+        1666. Vol. I. PP. 4-6. The Marshal died in 1646.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"The count was married: but he had beside a secret amour with
+      a marvellous beautiful woman, which came weekly to him every
+      Monday, into a summer-house in the garden. This commerce remained
+      long concealed from his wife. When he withdrew from her side, he
+      pretended to her, that he went, by night, into the Forest, to the
+      Stand.</p>
+
+      <p>"But when a few years had thus passed, the countess took a
+      suspicion, and was minded to learn the right truth. One summer
+      morning early, she slipped after him, and came to the summer
+      bower. She there saw her husband, sleeping in the arms of a
+      wondrous fair female; but because they both slept so sweetly, she
+      would not awaken them; but she took her veil <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg093" id="pg093">093</a></span>from her head,
+      and spread it over the feet of both, where they lay asleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"When the beautiful paramour awoke, and perceived the veil,
+      she gave a loud cry, began pitifully to wail, and
+      said:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"'Henceforwards, my beloved, we see one another never more.
+      Now must I tarry at a hundred leagues' distance away, and severed
+      from thee.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Therewith she did 1eave the count, but presented him first
+      with those afore-named three gifts for his three daughters, which
+      they should never let go from them.</p>
+
+      <p>"The House of Bassenstein, for long years, had a toll, to draw
+      in fruit, from the town of Spinal,<sup>33</sup> whereto this
+      Bushel was constantly used."</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>33: EPINAL.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT DOES HOUSEHOLD SERVICE IN A MILL.</h3>
+
+      <h3>No. LXXIII. <i>The Kobold in the Mill.</i></h3>
+
+      <p>"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed
+      putting up for the night in a village; but for as much as there
+      did a violent rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as
+      they might no further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill,
+      knocked, and begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the
+      first, deaf, but yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty,
+      opened the door, and brought them into a room. They were hungry
+      and thirsty both; and because there stood upon a table a dish
+      with food, and a mug of beer, they begged the miller for them,
+      being both ready and willing to pay; but the miller denied
+      them&mdash;would not give them even a morsel of bread, and only
+      the hard bench for their night's bed.</p>
+
+      <p>"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household
+      Spirit. If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But
+      else have ye no harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the
+      night, be ye but still and sleep.'</p>
+
+      <p>"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the
+      space of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so
+      vehemently that he stood up and sought after the dish. The other,
+      a Master of Arts, warned him to leave to the Devil what was the
+      Devil's due; but he answered, 'I have a better right than the
+      Devil to it'&mdash;seated himself at the table, and ate to his
+      heart's content, so that little was left of the cookery. After
+      that, he laid hold of the can, took a good Pomeranian pull, and
+      having thus somewhat appeased his desire, he laid himself again
+      down to his companion; but when, after a time, thirst anew
+      tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so hearty
+      draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
+      After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and
+      fell asleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well
+      by, when the Kobold came banging in with so loud
+      coil,<sup>34</sup> that both sleepers awoke in great fright. He
+      bounced a few times to and fro about the room, then seated
+      himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and they could
+      plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he set
+      it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
+      can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
+      again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs
+      of the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom,
+      the door diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit
+      once more the dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any
+      better this turn, but once more pushed both angrily away.
+      Thereupon he proceeded in his labour, came to the benches,
+      washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and above. When he
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg094" id=
+      "pg094">094</a></span>came to the place where the two students
+      lay, he passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When
+      this was done, he began upon the bench a second time above their
+      heads; and, for the second time likewise, passed over the
+      visitants. But the third time, when he came to them, he stroked
+      gently the one which had nothing tasted, over the hair and along
+      the whole body, without any whit hurting him; but the other he
+      griped by the feet, dragged him two or three times round the room
+      upon the floor, till at the last he left him lying, and ran
+      behind the stove, whence he laughed him loudly to scorn. The
+      student crawled back to the bench; but in a quarter of an hour
+      the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping, cleaning, wiping. The
+      two lay there quaking with fear:&mdash;the one he felt quite
+      softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung again
+      upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
+      into a flouting horse-laugh.</p>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of
+        Milton&mdash;at <i>going out</i>, again:&mdash;</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+          <p class="i8">"Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."</p>
+
+          <p>He, too, is paid for his work, with</p>
+
+          <p class="i8">&mdash;&mdash;"<i>his</i> CREAM-BOWL, duly
+          set."</p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose,
+      and set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but
+      none took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay
+      themselves down close together upon the flat floor; but the
+      Kobold left them not in peace. He began, for the third time, his
+      game:&mdash;came and lugged the guilty one about, laughed, and
+      scoffed him. He was now fairly mad with rage, drew his sword,
+      thrust and cut into the corner whence the laugh rang, and
+      challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He then sat
+      down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
+      should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained
+      still.</p>
+
+      <p>"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had
+      not conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
+      victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were
+      worth."</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the
+      Fairies towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought
+      out; and already the narrowness of our limits warns us&mdash;with
+      a sigh given to the traditions crowding upon us from all
+      countries, and which we perforce leave unused&mdash;to bring
+      these preliminary remarks to a close. <i>Still</i>, something has
+      been gained for illustrating our Tale. The Hill-Manling at the
+      dance diligently warns against PRIDE&mdash;the rank ROOT evil
+      which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our heroine,
+      whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways&mdash;"THE
+      ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
+      itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected
+      forms.</p>
+
+      <p>And <i>still</i>, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly
+      from the Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the
+      habitudes of <i>various</i> WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for
+      comparison with Ernst Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA
+      Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC FAIRYHOOD.</p>
+
+      <h3>THE FAIRY TUTOR.</h3>
+
+      <p>"In days of yore there lived, alone in her castle, a maiden
+      named Swanhilda. She was the only child of a proud father, lately
+      deceased. Her mother she had lost when she was but a child; so
+      that the education of the daughter had fallen wholly into the
+      hands of the father.</p>
+
+      <p>"During the lifetime even of the old knight, many suitors had
+      offered themselves for Swanhilda; but she seemed to be insensible
+      to every tender emotion, and dismissed with disdainful
+      haughtiness the whole body of wooers. Meanwhile she hunted the
+      stag and the board, and performed squire's service for her
+      gradually declining parent. This manner of life was so entirely
+      to the taste of the maiden, notwithstanding that in delicacy of
+      frame, and in bewitching gracefulness of figure, she gave place
+      to none of her sex, that when at length her father died, she took
+      upon herself the management of the castle, and lived aloof in
+      pride and independence, in the very fashion of an Amazon. Maugre
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg095" id=
+      "pg095">095</a></span>the many refusals which Swanhilda had
+      already distributed on every side, there still flocked to her
+      loving knights, eager to wed; but, like their predecessors, they
+      were all sent drooping home again. The young nobility could at
+      last bear this treatment no longer; and they, one and all,
+      resolved either to constrain the supercilious damsel to wedlock,
+      or to make her smart for a refusal. An embassy was dispatched,
+      charged with notifying this resolution to the mistress of the
+      castle. Swanhilda heard the speakers quietly to the end; but her
+      answer was tuned as before, or indeed rang harsher and more
+      offensive than ever. Turning her back upon the embassy, she left
+      them to depart, scorned and ashamed.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the night following the day upon which this happened,
+      Swanhilda was disturbed out of her sleep by a noise which seemed
+      to her to ascend from her chamber floor; but let her strain her
+      eyes as she might, she could for a long while discern nothing. At
+      length she observed, in the middle of the room, a straying
+      sparkle of light, that threw itself over and over like a tumbler,
+      tittering, at the same time, like a human being. Swanhilda for a
+      while kept herself quiet; but as the luminous antic ceased not
+      practising his harlequinade, she peevishly exclaimed&mdash;'What
+      buffoon is carrying on his fooleries here? I desire to be left in
+      peace.' The light vanished instantly, and Swanhilda already had
+      congratulated herself upon gaining her point, when suddenly a
+      loud shrilly sound was heard&mdash;the floor of the apartment
+      gave way, and from the gap there arose a table set out with the
+      choicest viands. It rested upon a lucid body of air, upon which
+      the tiny attendants skipped with great agility to and fro,
+      waiting upon seated guests. At first Swanhilda was so amazed that
+      her breath forsook her; but becoming by degrees somewhat
+      collected, she observed, to her extreme astonishment, that an
+      effigy of herself sat at the strange table, in the midst of the
+      numerous train of suitors, whom she had so haughtily dismissed.
+      The attendants presented to the young knights the daintiest
+      dishes, the savour of which came sweetly-smelling enough to the
+      nostrils of the proud damsel. As often, however, as the knights
+      were helped to meat and drink, the figure of Swanhilda at the
+      board was presented by an ill-favoured Dwarf, who stood as her
+      servant behind her, with an empty basket, whereat the suitor's
+      broke out into wild laughter. She also soon became aware, that as
+      many courses were served up to the guests as she had heretofore
+      dispensed refusals, and the amount of these was certainly not
+      small.</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, weary of the absurd phantasmagoria, was going to
+      speak again; but to her horror she discovered that the power of
+      speech had left her. She had for some time been struck with a
+      kind of whispering and tittering about her. In order to make out
+      whence this proceeded, she leaned out of her bed, and, peering
+      between the silk curtains, perceived two smart diminutive
+      cupbearers, in garments of blue, with green aprons, and small
+      yellow caps. She had scarcely got sight of the little gentlemen
+      when their whispering took the character of audible words; and
+      the dumb Swanhilda was enabled to overhear the following
+      discourse:</p>
+
+      <p>"'But, I pri'thee, tell me, Sweetflower, how this show shall
+      end?' said one of the two cupbearers,&mdash;'thou art, we know,
+      the confidant of our queen, and, certes, canst disclose to me
+      somewhat of her plans?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'That can I, my small-witted Monsieur Silverfine,' answered
+      Sweetflower. 'Know, therefore, that this sweet and lovely to
+      behold brute of a girl, is now beginning to suffer the
+      castigation due to her innumerable offences. Swanhilda has sinned
+      against all maidenly modesty, has borne herself proud and
+      overbearing towards honourable gentlemen, and, besides, has most
+      seriously offended our queen.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'How so?' enquired Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'By storming on her Barbary steed, like the devil himself,
+      through the thick of our States' Assembly, pounding the arms and
+      legs of I don't know how many of our sapient representatives.
+      What makes the matter worse is, that this happened at the very
+      opening of the diet, and whilst the grand prelusive symphony of
+      the whole hidden people was in full burst. We were sitting by
+      hundreds of thousands <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg096" id=
+      "pg096">096</a></span>upon blades, stalks, and leaves; some of us
+      still actively busied arranging comfortable seats for the older
+      people in the blue harebells. For this we had stripped the skins
+      of sixty thousand red field spiders, and wrought them into
+      canopies and hangings. All our talented performers had tuned
+      their instruments, scraped, fluted, twanged, jingled, and shawmed
+      to their hearts' content, and had resined their fiddlesticks upon
+      the freshest of dewdrops. All at once, tearing out of the wood,
+      with your leave, or without your leave, comes this monster of a
+      girl, plump upon upper house and lower house together. Ah,
+      lack-a-daisy! what a massacre it was! The first hoof struck a
+      thousand of our prime orators dead upon the spot, the other three
+      hoofs scattered the Imperial diet in all directions, and, what is
+      worse than all, tore to pieces a multitude of our exquisite caps.
+      Our queen was almost frantic at the breach of the peace&mdash;she
+      stamped with her foot, and cried out, "LIGHTNING!" and what that
+      means we all pretty well know. Just at this time, too, she
+      received information of the maiden's arrogant behaviour towards
+      her suitors, and on the instant she determined to put the sinner
+      to her prayers. We began by devouring every thing clean up,
+      giving her the pleasure of looking on.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Silly, absurd creatures!' <i>thought</i> Swanhilda, as the
+      little butler advanced to the table to put on some fresh wine.
+      During his absence she had time to note how perhaps a dozen other
+      Fairies drew up through the floor whole pailfuls of wine and
+      smoking meats, which were conveyed immediately to the table, and
+      there consumed as if by the wind. She was heartily longing for
+      the day to dawn, that the sun might dissipate her dream, when the
+      sprightly little speaker came to his place again.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Now we can gossip a little longer,' said Sweetflower. 'My
+      guests are provided for, and between this and
+      cock-crow&mdash;when house and cellar will be
+      emptied&mdash;there's some time yet.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda uttered (<i>mentally</i>) a prodigious imprecation,
+      and turned herself so violently in the bed, that the little
+      gentlemen were absolutely terrified.</p>
+
+      <p>"'I verily believe we are going to have an earthquake!' said
+      Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'No such thing!' answered Sweetflower. 'The amiable young
+      lady in bed there has seen the sport perhaps, and is very likely
+      not altogether pleased with it.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Don't you think she would speak, if she saw all this
+      wastefulness going on?' asked Silverfine.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Yes, if she could!' chuckled Sweetflower. 'But our queen has
+      been cruel enough to strike her dumb, whilst she looks upon this
+      heartbreaking spectacle. If she once wakes, she won't be troubled
+      again with sleep before cock-crow.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'A pretty business!' <i>thought</i> Swanhilda, once more
+      tossing herself passionately about in her bed.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Quite right!' said Sweetflower triumphantly. 'The imp of a
+      girl has waked up.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Insolent wretches!' said Swanhilda (internally.) 'Brute and
+      imp to me! Oh, if I could only speak!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Why, the whole fun of the thing is,' said Sweetflower,
+      almost bursting with laughter, 'just that that wish won't be
+      gratified. Does the fool of a woman think that she is to trample
+      down our orchestra with impunity, to put our States' Assembly to
+      flight, and to crush our very selves into a jelly!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'And the unbidden guests divine my very thoughts!'
+      <i>thought</i> Swanhilda. 'Upon my life, it looks as if a spice
+      of omniscience had really crept under their caps!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Why, of course!' answered Sweetflower.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Then will I think no more!' <i>resolved</i> Swanhilda.</p>
+
+      <p>"'And there, my prudent damsel, you show a good discretion,'
+      returned Sweetflower, saluting her with an ironical bow.</p>
+
+      <p>"'How will it be, then, with our caps?' enquired Silverfine.
+      'Are they to be repaired?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh, certainly,' returned Sweetflower; 'and that will cost
+      our Amazon here more than all. Indeed, the conditions of her
+      punishment are, to make good the caps, to pledge her troth to one
+      of her despised suitors, to compensate the rest with magnificent
+      gifts, and, for the future, never to mount hunter more, but to
+      amble upon a gentle palfrey, as a lady should. <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg097" id="pg097">097</a></span>And, till all
+      this is done, am I to have the teaching of her.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Pretty conditions truly!' thought Swanhilda. 'I would rather
+      die than keep them.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Just as you please, most worthy madam,' answered
+      Sweetflower; 'but you'll think better of it yet, perhaps.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'It will fall heavy enough upon her,' said Silverfine,
+      'seeing that we have it in command to seize upon all the lady's
+      treasures.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Capital, capital!' shouted Sweetflower. 'That's peppering
+      the punishment truly! For now must this haughty man-hating
+      creature go about begging, catching and carrying fish to market,
+      and so submitting herself to the scorn and laughter of all her
+      former lovers, till her trade makes her rich again. Nothing but
+      luck in fishing will our queen vouchsafe the audacious madam.
+      Three years are allowed her. But, in the interim, she must starve
+      and famish like a white mouse learning to dance.'</p>
+
+      <p>"At this moment a monstrous burst of laughter roared from the
+      table. The guests sang aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"'The last flagon we end,</p>
+
+        <p>Swanhilda shall mend;</p>
+
+        <p>Huzza, knights, and drink</p>
+
+        <p>To the last dollar's chink!'</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>"As the song ceased, the table descended, the floor closed up,
+      and stillness was in the room again, as when the lady had first
+      retired to her couch. The cock crew, and Swanhilda fell into a
+      deep sleep.</p>
+      <hr />
+
+      <p>"When it left her, the sun already shone high and bright, and
+      played on her silken bed-curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and
+      seeing every thing about her in its usual state, she concluded
+      that what had happened was nothing worse than a feverish dream.
+      She now arose, began dressing herself, and would have allayed her
+      waking thirst, but she could find neither glass nor
+      water-pitcher. She called angrily to her waiting-woman.</p>
+
+      <p>"'How come you to forget water, blockhead?' she exclaimed;
+      'get some quickly, and then&mdash;Breakfast!'</p>
+
+      <p>"The attendant departed, shaking her head; for she knew well
+      enough that every thing had been put in order as usual on the
+      evening before. She very quickly returned, frightened out of her
+      wits, and hardly able to speak.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh my lady! my lady! my lady!' she stammered out.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Well, where is the water?'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Gone! all drained and dried up! Tub, brook, well&mdash;all
+      empty and dry!'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Is it possible?' said Swanhilda. 'Your eyes have surely
+      deceived you! But never mind&mdash;bring up my breakfast. A ham
+      and two Pomeranian geese-breasts.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Alack! gracious lady!' answered the girl, sobbing, 'every
+      thing in the house is gone too! The wine-casks lie in pieces on
+      the cellar floor; the stalls are empty; your favourite horse is
+      away&mdash;hay and corn rotted through. It is shocking!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda dismissed her, and broke out at first into words
+      wild and vehement. She checked them; but tears of disappointment
+      and bitter rage forced their way in spite of her. A visit to her
+      cellar, store-rooms, and granaries, convinced her of the horrible
+      transformation which a night had effected in every thing that
+      belonged to her. She found nothing every where but mould and
+      sickly-smelling mildew; and was too soon aware that the hideous
+      images of the night were nothing less than frightful realities.
+      Her hardened heart stood proof; and since the whole region for
+      leagues round was turned into a blighted brown heath, she at one
+      resolved to die of hunger. Ere noon her few servants had deserted
+      the castle, and Swanhilda herself hungered till her bowels
+      growled again.</p>
+
+      <p>"This laudable self-castigation she persevered in for three
+      days long, when her hunger had increased to such a pitch that she
+      could no longer remain quiet in the castle. In a state of half
+      consciousness, she staggered down to the lake, known far and wide
+      by the name of the Castle mere. Here, on the glassy surface,
+      basked the liveliest fishes. Swanhilda for a while watched in
+      silence the disport of the happy creatures, then snatched up a
+      hazel wand lying at her feet, round the end of which a worm had
+      coiled, and, half maddened by the joyance of the finny tribe,
+      struck with it into the water. A greedy fish snapped at the
+      switch. The famishing Swanhilda clutched <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg098" id="pg098">098</a></span>hungeringly at
+      it, but found in her hand a piece of offensive carrion, and
+      nothing more; whilst around, from every side, there rang such a
+      clatter of commingled mockery and laughter, that Swanhilda vented
+      a terrible imprecation, and shed once more&mdash;a scorching
+      tear.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Oh! we shall soon have you tame enough!' said a voice
+      straight before her, and she recognized it at once for the
+      speaker of that miserable night. Looking about her, she perceived
+      a moss-rose that luxuriated upon the rock. In one of the expanded
+      buds sat a little kicking fellow, with green apron, sky-blue
+      vest, and yellow bonnet. He was laughing right into the face of
+      the angry miss; and, quaffing off one little flower-cup after
+      another, filled them bravely again, and jingled with his tiny
+      bunch of keys, as if he had been grand butler to the
+      universe.</p>
+
+      <p>"'A flavour like a nosegay!' said the malicious rogue. 'Wilt
+      hob-nob with me, maiden? What do you say? Are we adepts at
+      sacking a house? 'Twill give thee trouble to fill thy cellars
+      again as we found them. Take heart, girl. If you will come to,
+      and take kindly to your angling, and do the thing that's handsome
+      by your wooers, you shall have an eatable dinner yet up at the
+      castle.'</p>
+
+      <p>"'Infamous pigmy!' exclaimed Swanhilda, lashing with her rod,
+      as she spoke, at the little rose. The small buffeteer meanwhile
+      had leaped down, and, in the turning of a hand, had perched
+      himself upon the lady's nose, where he drummed an animating march
+      with his heels.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Thy nose, I do protest, is excellently soft, thou wicked
+      witch!' said the rascal. 'If thou wilt now try thy hand at
+      fishing for the town market, thou shalt be entertained the while
+      with the finest band of music in the world. Be good and pretty,
+      and take up thy angling-rod. Trumpets and drums, flutes and
+      clarinets, shall all strike up together.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda tried hard to shake the jocular tormentor off, but
+      he kept his place on the bridge as if he had grown to it. She
+      made a snatch at him, and he bit her finger.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Hark'e, my damsel!' quoth Sweetflower; 'if you are so
+      unmannerly, 'tis time for a lesson. You smarted too little when
+      you were a young one. We must make all that good now;' and
+      forthwith he settled himself properly upon her nose, dangling a
+      leg on either side, like a cavalier in saddle. 'Come, my pretty,
+      be industrious,' continued he; 'get to work, and follow good
+      counsel.' And then he whistled a blithe and gamesome tune.</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, not heedlessly to prolong her own vexation, dipped
+      the rod into the water, and immediately saw another gleaming fish
+      wriggling at its end. A basket, delicately woven of flowers,
+      stood beside her, half filled with clear water. The fish dropped
+      into it of themselves. The wee companion beat meanwhile with his
+      feet upon the wings of the lady's nose, played ten instruments or
+      more at once, and extemporized a light rambling rhyme, wherein
+      arch gibes and playful derision of her present forlorn estate
+      were not unmingled with auguries of a friendlier future.</p>
+
+      <p>"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin,
+      laughing. 'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to
+      the town, and when your fish are once sold, you may make
+      yourself&mdash;some water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped
+      into the fish-basket, crept out again on the other side, plucked
+      a king-cup, took seat in it, and gave the word&mdash;'Forwards!'
+      The flower, on the instant, displayed its petals. There appeared
+      sail and rudder to the small and delicate ship, which at once
+      took motion, and sailed gaily through the air.</p>
+
+      <p>"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower,
+      'behave discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She
+      took her basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise
+      herself as completely as possible before making for the town. But
+      all her clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then,
+      harassed by hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as
+      she was, in her velvet riding-habit.</p>
+
+      <p>"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity&mdash;she was in
+      the market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of
+      the well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg099" id="pg099">099</a></span>of
+      scorn in thrall, and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied.
+      Once more within her castle walls, she beheld a running spring in
+      the courtyard, and near it an earthen pitcher. She
+      filled&mdash;drank&mdash;and carried the remainder to the hall,
+      where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a loaf. She
+      submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and water,
+      appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.</p>
+
+      <p>"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She
+      hastened to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner
+      there. In their stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next
+      instant she perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork,
+      galloping before her across the courtyard, and addressing his
+      pupil with another snatch of his derisive song.</p>
+
+      <p>"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she
+      carried her fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she
+      again on her way to market. An amazing multitude of people were
+      already in motion here, who presently thronged about the
+      market-woman. The basket was nearly emptied, when two of her old
+      suitors approached. Swanhilda was confounded, and a blush of deep
+      shame inflamed her countenance. Curiosity and the pleasure of
+      malice spurred them to accost her; but the sometime-haughty
+      damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in answer tendered her
+      fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing, however, ungentle
+      gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the moment, caught
+      sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy&mdash;saluting her with
+      his little cap, and nodding approbation.</p>
+
+      <p>"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought
+      Swanhilda, and in the next instant the fairy was running upon her
+      nose and cheeks, most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her
+      with a little hair till she sneezed again.</p>
+
+      <p>"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a
+      profane swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have
+      pepper growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there&mdash;is
+      that pepper? Thou art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'</p>
+
+      <p>"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf
+      still tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her
+      infliction with a virtuous patience. In her court and hall she
+      found, as before, the spring, the bread, and the fire. As before,
+      she satisfied hunger and thirst, and slept&mdash;the sweeter
+      already for her punishment and pain.</p>
+
+      <p>"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less
+      severe, still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading,
+      under fairy guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must
+      be owned that her aversion to angling craft did not increase in
+      proportion. As time ran on, she had encountered all her discarded
+      knights, now singly and now in companies. A year and a half
+      elapsed, and left the relation between suitors and maiden as at
+      the beginning. At length a chivalric and gentle knight, noble in
+      person as in birth, ventured to accost her, loving and reverently
+      as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed, overcome with shame,
+      the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged, blithe, and
+      watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself upon her
+      heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles&mdash;she made
+      honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
+      constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened
+      hand.</p>
+
+      <p>"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn
+      the festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry
+      creatures played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The
+      blissful day over, and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing
+      from the banquet and the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able
+      little tutor hopped before them, and led them to the hymeneal
+      bower with floral flute, and gratulatory song!" <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg100" id="pg100">100</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>PORTUGAL.<sup>35</sup></h2>
+
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p>35: <i>Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal</i>. By J. SMITH,
+        Esq., Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two
+        vols.</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for
+      so long a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and
+      fallen so constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or
+      more relaxed alliance with England that a knowledge of her
+      interests, her habits, and her history, becomes an especial
+      accomplishment of the English statesman. The two countries have
+      an additional tie, in the similitude of their early pursuits,
+      their original character for enterprise, and their mutual
+      services. Portugal, like England, with a narrow territory, but
+      that territory largely open to the sea, was maritime from her
+      beginning; like England, her early power was derived from the
+      discovery of remote countries; like England, she threw her force
+      into colonization, at an era when all other nations of Europe
+      were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like England,
+      without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved her
+      independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
+      like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
+      with which, after severing the link of government, she retains
+      the link of a common language, policy, literature, and
+      religion.</p>
+
+      <p>The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed
+      the prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government
+      by Spain sank her into a temporary depression. But the native
+      gallantry of the nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new
+      effort commenced for her restoration to the place which she was
+      entitled to maintain in the world. It is remarkable that, at such
+      periods in the history of nations, some eminent individual comes
+      forward, as if designated for the especial office of a national
+      guide. Such an individual was the Marquis of Pombal, the virtual
+      sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven years&mdash;a man of
+      talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were the crush of
+      faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the Jesuits
+      and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
+      Restorer of his Country."</p>
+
+      <p>The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at
+      Soure, a Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father,
+      Manoel Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of
+      the rank of <i>fidalgo de provincia</i>&mdash;a distinction which
+      gave him the privileges attached to nobility, though not to the
+      title of a grandee, that honour not descending below dukes,
+      marquises, and counts. His mother was Theresa de Mendonca, a
+      woman of family. He had two brothers, Francis and Paul. His own
+      names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was added that of Mello,
+      from his maternal ancestor.</p>
+
+      <p>Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general,
+      studied for a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the
+      army as a private, according to the custom of the country, and
+      rose to the rank of corporal, which he held until circumstances,
+      and an introduction to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently
+      prime-minister, induced him to devote himself to the study of
+      history, politics, and law. The cardinal, struck with his
+      ability, strongly advised him to persevere in those pursuits,
+      appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal Academy of History,
+      and shortly after, the king proposed that he should write the
+      history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but this design
+      was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six years,
+      until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
+      Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
+      remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
+      language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
+      country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
+      however, be recollected, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg101"
+      id="pg101">101</a></span>that at this period French was the
+      universal language of diplomacy, the language of the court
+      circles, and the polished language of all the travelled ranks of
+      England. The writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and
+      politicians, were the study of every man who pretended to
+      good-breeding, and the only study of most; so that, to a
+      stranger, the acquisition of the vernacular tongue could be
+      scarcely more than a matter of curiosity. Times, however, are
+      changed; and the diplomatist who should now come to this country
+      without a knowledge of the language, would be despised for his
+      ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better remain at
+      home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a negotiation to
+      reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an ecclesiastical
+      claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and it is
+      surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
+      appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
+      Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun,
+      by whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined
+      to be a favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was
+      above the middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably
+      intellectual countenance; his manners graceful, and his language
+      animated and elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that
+      on a vacancy in the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled
+      to take the portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly
+      after, and Don Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the
+      throne, appointing Pombal virtually his prime-minister&mdash;a
+      rank which he held, unshaken and unrivaled, for the extraordinary
+      period of twenty-seven years.</p>
+
+      <p>The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
+      minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of
+      the most memorable service to his future administration. His six
+      years' residence in England added practical knowledge to
+      theoretical; and with the whole machinery of a free, active, and
+      popular government in constant operation before his eyes, he
+      returned to take the government of a dilapidated country. The
+      power of the priesthood, exercised in the most fearful shape of
+      tyranny; the power of the crown, at once feeble and arbitrary;
+      the power of opinion, wholly extinguished; and the power of the
+      people, perverted into the instrument of their own
+      oppression&mdash;were the elements of evil with which the
+      minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
+      sincerely, and successfully.</p>
+
+      <p>The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined
+      with the most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for
+      it not merely punished men for obeying their own consciences, but
+      tried them in defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only
+      made a law contradictory of every other law, but it established a
+      tribunal subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be
+      defended. It was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was
+      a bold and noble effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits
+      of national safety. By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that
+      thenceforth no judicial burnings should take place without the
+      consent and approval of the government, taking to itself the
+      right of enquiry and examination, and confirming or reversing the
+      sentence according to its own judgment. This measure decided at
+      once the originality and the boldness of the minister: for it was
+      the first effort of the kind in a Popish kingdom; and it was made
+      against the whole power of Rome, the restless intrigues of the
+      Jesuits, and the inveterate superstition of the people.</p>
+
+      <p>Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's
+      next attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He
+      found all the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an
+      annual revenue of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a
+      national manufactory of gunpowder, it having been previously
+      supplied by contract, and being of course supplied of the worst
+      quality at the highest rate. He established regulations for the
+      fisheries, he broke up iniquitous contracts, he attempted to
+      establish a sugar refinery, and directed the attention of the
+      people largely to the cultivation of silk. His next reformation
+      was that of the police. The disorders of the late reign had
+      covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a police so
+      effective, and proceeded <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg102"
+      id="pg102">102</a></span>with such determined justice against all
+      disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly safe, and
+      the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a time
+      when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
+      assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as
+      to be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
+      country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
+      immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets
+      of the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for
+      the various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior
+      officers, made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and
+      restored the revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next
+      engaged his attention; he established a company to trade to the
+      East and China, the old sources of Portuguese wealth. In the
+      western dominions of Portugal, commerce had hitherto languished.
+      He established a great company for the Brazil trade. But his
+      still higher praise was his humanity. Though acting in the midst
+      of a nation overrun with the most violent follies and prejudices
+      of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses of the convents;
+      and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as nuns the
+      daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over for
+      their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
+      Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
+      Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were
+      granted to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among
+      them. Of course those great objects were not achieved without
+      encountering serious difficulties. The pride of the idle
+      aristocracy, the sleepless intriguing of the Jesuits, the
+      ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and the sluggish supremacy of
+      the priests, were all up in arms against him. But his principle
+      was pure, his knowledge sound, and his resolution decided. Above
+      all, he had, in the person of the king, a man of strong mind,
+      convinced of the necessities of change, and determined to sustain
+      the minister. The reforms soon vindicated themselves by the
+      public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the powers of a
+      despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a regenerator of
+      his country.</p>
+
+      <p>But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the
+      test at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the
+      resources of Portugal.</p>
+
+      <p>On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755,
+      Lisbon was almost torn up from the foundations by the most
+      terrible earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish
+      festival, the population were crowding to the churches, which
+      were lighted up in honour of the day. About a quarter before ten
+      the first shock was felt, which lasted the extraordinary length
+      of six or seven minutes; then followed an interval of about five
+      minutes, after which the shock was renewed, lasting about three
+      minutes. The concussions were so violent in both instances that
+      nearly all the solid buildings were dashed to the ground, and the
+      principal part of the city almost wholly ruined. The terror of
+      the population, rushing through the falling streets, gathered in
+      the churches, or madly attempting to escape into the fields, may
+      be imagined; but the whole scene of horror, death, and ruin,
+      exceeds all description. The ground split into chasms, into which
+      the people were plunged in their fright. Crowds fled to the
+      water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land, suddenly rose to an
+      extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and swept away all
+      within its reach. It was said to have risen to the height of
+      five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and to have
+      sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred four
+      times.</p>
+
+      <p>The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial
+      force of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for
+      while Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion
+      of a gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
+      considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said
+      that many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the
+      Tagus, and totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the
+      shock on the river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung
+      upon the shore. To <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg103" id=
+      "pg103">103</a></span>complete the catastrophe, fires broke out
+      in the ruins, which spread over the face of the city, burned for
+      five or six days, and reduced all the goods and property of the
+      people to ashes. For forty days the shocks continued with more or
+      less violence, but they had now nothing left to destroy. The
+      people were thus kept in a constant state of alarm, and forced to
+      encamp in the open fields, though it was now winter. The royal
+      family were encamped in the gardens of the palace; and, as in all
+      the elements of society had been shaken together, Lisbon and its
+      vicinity became the place of gathering for banditti from all
+      quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish deserters made their
+      way to the city, and robberies and murders of the most desperate
+      kind were constantly perpetrated.</p>
+
+      <p>During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell
+      upon the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He
+      adopted the most active measures for provisioning the city, for
+      repressing plunder and violence, and for enabling the population
+      to support themselves during this period of suffering. It was
+      calculated that seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the
+      damage of the city; and that not less than eighty thousand lives
+      had been lost, either crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the
+      waters. Some conception of the native mortality may be formed
+      from that of the English: of the comparatively small number of
+      whom, resident at that time in Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight
+      men and fifty women were among the sufferers.</p>
+
+      <p>The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this
+      tremendous calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He
+      found every one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed
+      the king, as he entered "to meet this infliction of divine
+      justice?" The calm and resolute answer of Pombal was&mdash;"Bury
+      the dead, and feed the living." This sentence is still recorded,
+      with honour, in the memory of Portugal.</p>
+
+      <p>The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and
+      returned to the ruins. For several days his only habitation was
+      his carriage; and from it he continued to issue regulations for
+      the public security. Those regulations amounted to the remarkable
+      number of two hundred; and embraced all the topics of police,
+      provisions, and the burial of the sufferers. Among those
+      regulations was the singular, but sagacious one, of prohibiting
+      all persons from leaving the city without a passport. By this,
+      those who had robbed the people, or plundered the church plate,
+      were prevented from escaping to the country and hiding their
+      plunder, and consequently were obliged to abandon, or to restore
+      it. But every shape of public duty was met by this vigorous and
+      intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of the wounded,
+      the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the destitute.
+      He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of the
+      capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
+      of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the
+      streets, buried the dead, and restored the services of the
+      national religion.</p>
+
+      <p>Another task subsequently awaited him&mdash;the rebuilding of
+      the city. He began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty
+      is due to the taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares.
+      He did more: he built the more important fabric of public sewers
+      in the new streets, and he laid out a public garden for the
+      popular recreation. But he found, as Wren found, even in England,
+      the infinite difficulty of opposing private interest, even in
+      public objects; and Lisbon lost the opportunity of being the most
+      picturesque and stately of European cities. One project, which
+      would have been at once of the highest beauty and of the highest
+      benefit&mdash;a terrace along the shore of the Tagus from Santa
+      Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles, which would
+      have formed the finest promenade in the world&mdash;he was either
+      forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was hopeless.
+      It was never even begun.</p>
+
+      <p>The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to
+      him among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the
+      plunder of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his
+      minister. They even declared the earthquake to have <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg104" id="pg104">104</a></span>been a divine
+      judgment for the sins of the administration. But they were rash
+      enough, in the intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a
+      repetition of the earthquake at the same time next year. When the
+      destined day came, Pombal planted strong guards at the city
+      gates, to prevent the panic of the people in rushing into the
+      country. The earthquake did not fulfil the promise; and the
+      people first laughed at themselves, and then at the Jesuits. The
+      laugh had important results in time.</p>
+
+      <p>There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history,
+      than the long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose
+      naturally from the commerce of the two nations&mdash;Portugal,
+      already the most adventurous of nations, and England, growing in
+      commercial enterprise. The advantages were mutual. In the year
+      1367, we have a Portuguese treaty stipulating for protection to
+      the Portuguese traders in England. In 1382, a royal order of
+      Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador to bring his
+      baggage into England free of duty&mdash;perhaps one of the
+      earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
+      civilization, and which has since been generally adopted
+      throughout all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405,
+      exonerates the Portuguese resident in England, and their ships,
+      from being made responsible for the debts contracted by their
+      ambassadors. In 1656, the important privilege was conceded to the
+      English in Portugal, of being exempted from the native
+      jurisdiction, and being tried by a judge appointed by England.
+      This, in our days, might be an inadmissible privilege; but two
+      centuries ago, in the disturbed condition of the Portuguese laws
+      and general society, it might have been necessary for the simple
+      protection of the strangers.</p>
+
+      <p>The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have
+      lately occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is
+      curious to see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so
+      far in advance of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in
+      striking contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of
+      monopoly and prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor
+      the other&mdash;nature and necessity were too strong against him.
+      We are, however, to recollect, that the language of complaint was
+      popular in Portugal, as it always will be in a poor country, and
+      that the minister who would be popular must adopt the language of
+      complaint. In an eloquent and almost impassioned memoir by
+      Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of his country, and hastily
+      imputes it to the predominance of English commerce. He tells us
+      that, in the middle of the eighteenth century, Portugal scarcely
+      produced any thing towards her own support. Two thirds of her
+      physical necessities were supplied from England. He complains
+      that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
+      Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an
+      English trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers
+      of all the necessaries of life throughout the country, and that
+      the Portuguese had nothing to do but look on; that Cromwell, by
+      the treaty which allowed the supply of Portugal with English
+      cloths to the amount of two million sterling, had utterly
+      impoverished the country; and in short, that the weakness and
+      incapacity of Portugal, as an European state, were wholly owing,
+      to her being destitute of trade, and that the destitution was
+      wholly owing to her being overwhelmed by English commodities.</p>
+
+      <p>We are not about to enter into detail upon this subject, but
+      it is to be remembered, that Portugal obtained the cloth, even if
+      she paid for it, cheaper from England than she could have done
+      from any other country in Europe; that she had no means of making
+      the cloth for herself, and that, after all, man must be clothed.
+      Portugal, without flocks or fire, without coals or capital, could
+      never have manufactured cloth enough to cover the tenth part of
+      her population, at ten times the expense. This has occurred in
+      later days, and in more opulent countries. We remember, in the
+      reign of the Emperor Paul, when he was frantic enough to declare
+      war against England, a pair of broadcloth pantaloons costing
+      seven guineas in St Peterburg. This would have been severe work
+      for the purse of a Portuguese peasant a hundred years ago. The
+      plain fact of domestic manufactures being this, that no folly can
+      be <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg105" id=
+      "pg105">105</a></span>more foolish than to attempt to form them
+      where the means and the country do not give them a natural
+      superiority. For example, coals and iron are essential to the
+      product of all works in metal. France has neither. How can she,
+      therefore, contest the superiority of our hardware? She contests
+      it simply by doing without it, and by putting up with the most
+      intolerable cutlery that the world has ever seen. If, where
+      manufactures are already established, however ineffectual, it may
+      become a question with the government whether some privations
+      must not be submitted to by the people in general, rather than
+      precipitate those unlucky manufactures into ruin; there can be no
+      question whatever on the subject where manufactures have not been
+      hitherto established. Let the people go to the best market, let
+      no attempt be made to force nature, and let no money be wasted on
+      the worst article got by the worst means. One thing, however, is
+      quite clear with respect to Portugal, that, by the English
+      alliance, she has gained what is worth all the manufactures of
+      Europe&mdash;independence. When, in 1640, she threw off the
+      Spanish usurpation, and placed the Braganza family on the
+      national throne, she threw herself on the protection of England;
+      and that protection never has failed her to this hour. In the
+      Spanish invasion of Portugal in 1762, England sent her ten
+      thousand men, and the first officer of his day, Count La Lippe,
+      who, notwithstanding his German name, was an Englishman born, and
+      had commenced his service in the Guards. The Spaniards were
+      beaten in all directions, and Portugal was included in the treaty
+      of Fontainbleau in 1763. The deliverance of Portugal in the
+      Peninsular war is too recent to be forgotten, and too memorable
+      to be spoken of here as it deserves. And to understand the full
+      value of this assistance, we are to recollect, that Portugal is
+      one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, and at the same time the
+      most exposed; that its whole land frontier is open to Spain, and
+      its whole sea frontier is open to France; that its chief produce
+      is wine and oranges, and that England is incomparably its best
+      customer for both.</p>
+
+      <p>Pombal, in his memoir, imputes a portion of the poverty of
+      Portugal to her possession of the gold mines of Brazil. This is
+      one of the paradoxes of the last century; but nations are only
+      aggregates of men, and what makes an individual rich, cannot make
+      a nation poor. The true secret is this&mdash;that while the
+      possession of the gold mines induced an indolent government to
+      rely upon them for the expenses of the state, that reliance led
+      them to abandon sources of profit in the agriculture and commerce
+      of the country, which were of ten times the value. This was
+      equally the case in Spain. The first influx from the mines of
+      Peru, enabled the government to disregard the revenues arising
+      from the industry of the people. In consequence of the want of
+      encouragement from the government, the agriculture and commerce
+      of Spain sank rapidly into the lowest condition, whilst the
+      government indolently lived on the produce of the mines. But the
+      more gold and silver exist in circulation, the less becomes their
+      value. Within half a century, the imports from the Spanish and
+      Portuguese mines, had reduced the value of the precious metals by
+      one half; and those imports thus became inadequate to the
+      ordinary expenses of government. Greater efforts were then made
+      to obtain them from the mines. Still, as the more that was
+      obtained the less was the general value, the operation became
+      more profitless still; and at length both Spain and Portugal were
+      reduced to borrow money, which they had no means to pay&mdash;in
+      other words, were bankrupt. And this is the true solution of the
+      problem&mdash;why have the gold and silver mines of the Peninsula
+      left them the poorest nations of Europe? Yet this was contrary to
+      the operation of new wealth. The discovery of the mines of the
+      New World appears to have been a part of that providential plan,
+      by which a general impulse was communicated to Europe in the
+      fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Europe was preparing for a new
+      vigour of religion, politics, commerce, and civilization. Nothing
+      stimulates national effort of every kind with so much power and
+      rapidity, as a new general accession of wealth, or, as the
+      political economist would pronounce it, a rise of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg106" id="pg106">106</a></span>wages, whether
+      industrial or intellectual; and this rise was effected by the new
+      influx of the mines. If Peru and Mexico had belonged to England,
+      she would have converted their treasures into new canals and
+      high-roads, new harbours, new encouragements to agriculture, new
+      excitements to public education, new enterprises of commerce, or
+      the colonization of new countries in the productive regions of
+      the globe; and thus she would at once have increased her natural
+      opulence, and saved herself from suffering under the depreciation
+      of the precious metals, or more partially, by her active
+      employment of them, have almost wholly prevented that
+      depreciation. But the Peninsula, relying wholly on its imported
+      wealth, and neglecting its infinitely more important national
+      riches, was exactly in the condition of an individual, who spends
+      the principal of his property, which is continually sinking until
+      it is extinguished altogether.</p>
+
+      <p>Another source of Peninsular poverty existed in its religion.
+      The perpetual holidays of Popery made even the working portion of
+      the people habitually idle. Where labour is prohibited for nearly
+      a fourth of the year by the intervention of holidays, and thus
+      idleness is turned into a sacred merit, the nation must prepare
+      for beggary. But Popery goes further still. The establishment of
+      huge communities of sanctified idlers, monks and nuns by the ten
+      thousand, in every province and almost in every town, gave a
+      sacred sanction to idleness&mdash;gave a means of escaping work
+      to all who preferred the lounging and useless life of the convent
+      to regular labour, and even provided the means of living to
+      multitudes of vagabonds, who were content to eat their bread, and
+      drink their soup, daily at the convent gates, rather than to make
+      any honest decent effort to maintain themselves. Every country
+      must be poor in which a large portion of the public property goes
+      to the unproductive classes. The soldiery, the monks, the state
+      annuitants, the crowds of domestics, dependent on the families of
+      the grandees, all are necessarily unproductive. The money which
+      they receive is simply consumed. It makes no return. Thus poverty
+      became universal; and nothing but the singular fertility of the
+      peopled districts of Spain and Portugal, and the fortune of
+      having a climate which requires but few of the comforts essential
+      in a severer temperature, could have saved them both from being
+      the most pauperized of all nations, or even from perishing
+      altogether, and leaving the land a desert behind them. It
+      strangely illustrates these positions, that, in 1754, the
+      Portuguese treasury was so utterly emptied, that the monarch was
+      compelled to borrow 400,000 crusadoes (L.40,000) from a private
+      company, for the common expenses of his court.</p>
+
+      <p>Wholly and justly disclaiming the imputation which would
+      pronounce Portugal a dependent on England, it is impossible to
+      turn a page of her history without seeing the measureless
+      importance of her English connexion. Every genuine source of her
+      power and opulence has either originated with, or been sustained
+      by, her great ally. Among the first of these has been the wine
+      trade. In the year 1756&mdash;the year following that tremendous
+      calamity which had sunk Lisbon into ruins&mdash;the wine-growers
+      in the three provinces of Beira, Minho, and Tras-os-Montes,
+      represented that they were on the verge of ruin. The adulteration
+      of the Portuguese wines by the low traders had destroyed their
+      character in Europe, and the object of the representation was to
+      reinstate that character. Pombal immediately took up their cause;
+      and, in the course of the same year, was formed the celebrated
+      Oporto Wine Company, with a capital of £120,000. The declared
+      principles of the establishment were, to preserve the quality of
+      the wines, to secure the growers by fixing a regular price, and
+      to protect them from the combinations of dealers. The company had
+      the privilege of purchasing all the wines grown within a
+      particular district at a fixed price, for a certain period after
+      the vintage. When that period had expired, the growers were at
+      liberty to sell the wines which remained unpurchased in whatever
+      market they pleased. Monopolies, in the advanced and prosperous
+      career of commercial countries, generally sink into abuse; but
+      they are, in most instances, absolutely <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg107" id="pg107">107</a></span>necessary to
+      the infant growth of national traffic. All the commerce of Europe
+      has commenced by companies. In the early state of European trade,
+      individuals were too poor for those large enterprises which
+      require a large outlay, and whose prospects, however promising,
+      are distant. What one cannot do, must be done by a combination of
+      many, if it is to be done at all. Though when individual capital,
+      by the very action of that monopoly, becomes powerful enough for
+      those enterprises, then the time is at hand when the combination
+      may be dissolved with impunity. The Oporto Wine Company had no
+      sooner come into existence, than its benefits were felt in every
+      branch of Portuguese revenue. It restored and extended the
+      cultivation of the vine, which is the staple of Portugal. It has
+      been abolished in the revolutionary changes of late years. But
+      the question, whether the country is yet fit to bear the
+      abolition, is settled by the fact, that the wine-growers are
+      complaining of ruin, and that the necessity of the case is now
+      urging the formation of the company once more.</p>
+
+      <p>The decision of Pombal's character was never more strongly
+      shown than on this occasion. The traders into whose hands the
+      Portuguese wines had fallen, and who had enjoyed an illegal
+      monopoly for so many years, raised tumults, and serious
+      insurrection was threatened. At Oporto, the mob plundered the
+      director's house, and seized on the chief magistrate. The
+      military were attacked, and the government was endangered. The
+      minister instantly ordered fresh troops to Oporto; arrests took
+      place; seventeen persons were executed; five-and-twenty sent to
+      the galleys; eighty-six banished, and others subjected to various
+      periods of imprisonment. The riots were extinguished. In a
+      striking memoir, written by Pombal after his retirement from
+      office, he gives a brief statement of the origin of this
+      company&mdash;a topic at all times interesting to the English
+      public, and which is about to derive a new interest from its
+      practical revival in Portugal. We quote a fragment.</p>
+
+      <p>"The unceasing and urgent works which the calamitous
+      earthquake of November 1st, 1755, had rendered indispensable,
+      were still vigorously pursued, when, in the following year, one
+      Mestre Frei Joao de Mansilla presented himself at the Giunta at
+      Belem, on the part of the principal husbandmen of Upper Douro,
+      and of the respectable inhabitants of Oporto, in a state of utter
+      consternation.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the popular outcry of the time, the English were
+      represented as making themselves the sole managers of every
+      thing. The fact being, that, as they were the only men who had
+      any money, they were almost the sole purchasers in the Portuguese
+      markets. But the English here complained of were the low
+      traffickers, who, in conjunction with the Lisbon and Oporto
+      vintners, bought and managed the wines at their discretion. It
+      was represented to the king, that, by those means, the price of
+      wine had been reduced to 7200 rios a pipe, or less, until the
+      expense of cultivation was more than the value of the produce;
+      that those purchasers required one or two years' credit; that the
+      price did not pay for the hoeing of the land, which was
+      consequently deserted; that all the principal families of one
+      district had been reduced to poverty, so much so as to be obliged
+      to sell their knives and forks; that the poor people had not a
+      drop of oil for their salad, so that they were obliged, even in
+      Lent, to season their vegetables with the fat of hogs." The
+      memoir mentions even gross vice as a consequence of their extreme
+      poverty.</p>
+
+      <p>We quote this passage to show to what extremities a people may
+      be reduced by individual mismanagement, and what important
+      changes may be produced by the activity of an intelligent
+      directing power. The king's letters-patent of 1756, establishing
+      the company, provided at once for the purity of the wine, its
+      extended sale in England, and the solvency of the wine provinces.
+      It is only one among a thousand instances of the hazards in which
+      Popery involves all regular government, to find the Jesuits
+      inflaming the populace against this most salutary and successful
+      act of the king. At confession, they prompted the people to
+      believe "that the wines of the company were not fit for the
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg108" id=
+      "pg108">108</a></span>celebration of mass." (For the priests
+      drink wine in the communion, though the people receive only the
+      bread.) To give practical example to their precept, they
+      dispersed narratives of a great popular insurrection which had
+      occurred in 1661; and both incentives resulted in the riots in
+      Oporto, which it required all the vigour of Pombal to put
+      down.</p>
+
+      <p>But the country and Europe was now to acknowledge the services
+      of the great minister on a still higher scale. The extinction of
+      the Jesuits was the work of his bold and sagacious mind. The
+      history of this event is among the most memorable features of a
+      century finishing with the fall of the French monarchy.</p>
+
+      <p>The passion of Rome for territory has been always conspicuous,
+      and always unsuccessful. Perpetually disturbing the Italian
+      princes in the projects of usurpation, it has scarcely ever
+      advanced beyond the original bounds fixed for it by Charlemagne.
+      Its spirit of intrigue, transfused into its most powerful order
+      the Jesuits, was employed for the similar purpose of acquiring
+      territorial dominion. But Europe was already divided among
+      powerful nations. Those nations were governed by jealous
+      authorities, powerful kings for their leaders, and powerful
+      armies for their defence. All was full; there was no room for the
+      contention of a tribe of ecclesiastics, although the most daring,
+      subtle, and unscrupulous of the countless slaves and soldiers of
+      Rome. The world of America was open. There a mighty power might
+      grow up unseen by the eye of Europe. A population of unlimited
+      multitudes might find space in the vast plains; commerce in the
+      endless rivers; defence in the chains of mountains; and wealth in
+      the rocks and sands of a region teeming with the precious metals.
+      The enterprise was commenced under the pretext of converting the
+      Indians of Paraguay. Within a few years the Jesuits formed an
+      independent republic, numbering thirty-one towns, with a
+      population of a hundred thousand souls. To render their power
+      complete, they prohibited all communication between the natives
+      and the Spaniards and Portuguese, forbidding them to learn the
+      language of either country, and implanting in the mind of the
+      Indians an implacable hatred of both Spain and Portugal. At
+      length both courts became alarmed, and orders were sent out to
+      extinguish the usurpation. Negotiations were in the mean time
+      opened between Spain and Portugal relative to an exchange of
+      territory, and troops were ordered to effect the exchange.
+      Measures of this rank were unexpected by the Jesuits. They had
+      reckoned upon the proverbial tardiness of the Peninsular
+      councils; but they were determined not to relinquish their prize
+      without a struggle. They accordingly armed the natives, and
+      prepared for a civil war.</p>
+
+      <p>The Indians, unwarlike as they have always been, now headed by
+      their Jesuit captains, outmanoeuvred the invaders. The expedition
+      failed; and the baffled invasion ended in a disgraceful treaty.
+      The expedition was renewed in the next year, 1755, and again
+      baffled. The Portuguese government of the Brazils now made
+      renewed efforts, and in 1756 obtained some advantages; but they
+      were still as far as ever from final success, and the war,
+      fruitless as it was, had begun to drain heavily the finances of
+      the mother country. It had already cost the treasury of Lisbon a
+      sum equal to three millions sterling. But the minister at the
+      head of the Portuguese government was of a different character
+      from the race who had, for the last hundred years, wielded the
+      ministerial sceptres of Spain and Portugal. His clear and daring
+      spirit at once saw where the evil lay, and defied the
+      difficulties that lay between him and its cure. He determined to
+      extinguish the order of the Jesuits at a blow. The boldness of
+      this determination can be estimated only by a knowledge of the
+      time. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were
+      the ecclesiastical masters of Europe. They were the confessors of
+      the chief monarchs of the Continent; the heads of the chief
+      seminaries for national education; the principal professors in
+      all the universities;&mdash;and this influence, vast as it was by
+      its extent and variety, was rendered more powerful by the strict
+      discipline, the unhesitating obedience, and the systematic
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg109" id=
+      "pg109">109</a></span>activity of their order. All the Jesuits
+      existing acknowledged one head, the general of their order, whose
+      constant residence was at Rome. But their influence, powerful as
+      it was by their open operation on society, derived perhaps a
+      superior power from its secret exertions. Its name was
+      legion&mdash;its numbers amounted to thousands&mdash;it took
+      every shape of society, from the highest to the lowest. It was
+      the noble and the peasant&mdash;the man of learning and the man
+      of trade&mdash;the lawyer and the monk&mdash;the soldier and the
+      sailor&mdash;nay, it was said, that such was the extraordinary
+      pliancy of its principle of disguise, the Jesuit was suffered to
+      assume the tenets of Protestantism, and even to act as a
+      Protestant pastor, for the purpose of more complete deception.
+      The good of the church was the plea which purified all imposture;
+      the power of Rome was the principle on which this tremendous
+      system of artifice was constructed; and the reduction of all
+      modes of human opinion to the one sullen superstition of the
+      Vatican, was the triumph for which those armies of subtle
+      enthusiasm and fraudulent sanctity were prepared to live and
+      die.</p>
+
+      <p>The first act of Pombal was to remove the king's confessor,
+      the Jesuit Moreira. The education of the younger branches of the
+      royal family was in the hands of Jesuits. Pombal procured a royal
+      order that no Jesuit should approach the court, without obtaining
+      the express permission of the king. He lost no time in repeating
+      the assault. Within a month, on the 8th of October 1767, he sent
+      instructions to the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, to demand a
+      private audience, and lay before the pope the misdemeanours of
+      the order.</p>
+
+      <p>Those instructions charged the Jesuits with the most atrocious
+      personal profligacy, with a design to master all public power, to
+      gather opulence dangerous to the state, and actually to plot
+      against the authority of the crowns of Europe. He announced, that
+      the king of Portugal had commanded all the Jesuit confessors of
+      the prince and princesses to withdraw to their own convents; and
+      this important manifesto closed by soliciting the interposition
+      of the papal see to prevent the ruin, by purifying an order which
+      had given scandal to Christianity, by offences against the public
+      and private peace of society, equally unexampled, habitual, and
+      abominable. In 1758, the representation to the pope was renewed,
+      with additional proofs that the order had determined to usurp
+      every function, and thwart every act of the civil government;
+      that the confessors of the royal family, though dismissed,
+      continued to conspire; that they resisted the formation of royal
+      institutions for the renewal of the national commerce; and that
+      they excited the people to dangerous tumults, in defiance of the
+      royal authority.</p>
+
+      <p>Their intrigues comprehended every object by which influence
+      was to be obtained, or money was to be made. The "Great Wine
+      Company," on which the chief commerce of Portugal, and almost the
+      existence of its northern provinces depended, was a peculiar
+      object of their hostility, for reasons which we can scarcely
+      apprehend, except they were general jealousy of all lay power,
+      and hostility to all the works of Pombal. They assailed it from
+      their pulpits; and one of their popular preachers made himself
+      conspicuous by impiously exclaiming, "that whoever joined that
+      company, would have no part in the company of Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+      <p>The intrigues of this dangerous and powerful society had long
+      before been represented to the popes, and had drawn down upon
+      them those remonstrances by which the habitual dexterity of Rome
+      at once saves appearances, and suffers the continuance of the
+      delinquency. The Jesuits were too useful to be restrained; yet
+      their crimes were too palpable to be passed over. In consequence,
+      the complaints of the monarchs of Spain and Portugal were
+      answered by bulls issued from time to time, equally formal and
+      ineffective. Yet even from these documents may be ascertained the
+      singularly gross, worldly, and illegitimate pursuits of an order,
+      professing itself to be supremely religious, and the prime
+      sustainer of the "faith of the gospel." The bull of Benedict the
+      XIV., issued in 1741, prohibited from "trade and commerce, all
+      worldly dominion, and the <i>purchase</i> and <i>sale</i>
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg110" id="pg110">110</a></span>of
+      converted Indians." The bull extended the prohibition generally
+      to the monkish orders, to avoid branding the Jesuits especially.
+      But a bull of more direct reprehension was published at the close
+      of the year, expressly against the Jesuits in their missions in
+      the east and west. The language of this document amounts to a
+      catalogue of the most atrocious offences against society,
+      humanity, and morals. By this bull, "all men, and especially
+      <i>Jesuits</i>," are prohibited, under penalty of
+      excommunication, from "making slaves of the Indians; from selling
+      and bartering them; from separating them from their wives and
+      children; from robbing them of their property; from transporting
+      them from their native soil," &amp;c.</p>
+
+      <p>Nothing but the strongest necessity, and the most ample
+      evidence, would ever have drawn this condemnation from Rome,
+      whether sincere or insincere. But the urgencies of the case
+      became more evident from day to day. In 1758, the condemnation
+      was followed by the practical measure of appointing Cardinal
+      Saldanha visitor and reformer of the Jesuits in Portugal, and the
+      Portuguese settlements in the east and west.</p>
+
+      <p>Within two months of this appointment the following decree was
+      issued:&mdash;"For just reasons known to us, and which concern
+      especially the service of God and the public welfare, we suspend
+      from the power of confessing and preaching, in the whole extent
+      of our patriarchate, the fathers of the Society of Jesus, from
+      this moment, and until further notice." Saldanha had been just
+      raised to the patriarchate.</p>
+
+      <p>We have given some observations on this subject, from its
+      peculiar importance to the British empire at this moment. The
+      order of the Jesuits, extinguished in the middle of the last
+      century by the unanimous demand of Europe, charged with every
+      crime which could make a great association obnoxious to mankind,
+      and exhibiting the most atrocious violations of the common rules
+      of human morality, has, within this last quarter of a century,
+      been revived by the papacy, with the express declaration, that
+      its revival is for the exclusive purpose of giving new effect to
+      the doctrines, the discipline, and the power of Rome. The law
+      which forbids the admission of Jesuits into England, has shared
+      the fate of all laws feebly administered; and Jesuits are active
+      by hundreds or by thousands in every portion of the empire. They
+      have restored the whole original system, sustained by all their
+      habitual passion for power, and urging their way, with all their
+      ancient subtlety, through all ranks of Protestantism.</p>
+
+      <p>The courage and intelligence of Pombal placed him in the
+      foremost rank of Europe, when the demand was the boldest and most
+      essential service which a great minister could offer to his
+      country; he broke the power of Jesuitism. But an order so
+      numerous&mdash;for even within the life of its half-frenzied
+      founder it amounted to 19,000&mdash;so vindictive, and flung from
+      so lofty a rank of influence, could not perish without some
+      desperate attempts to revenge its ruin. The life of Pombal was so
+      constantly in danger, that the king actually assigned him a body
+      guard. But the king himself was exposed to one of the most
+      remarkable plots of regicide on record&mdash;the memorable Aveiro
+      and Tavora conspiracy.</p>
+
+      <p>On the night of the 3d of September 1758, as the king was
+      returning to the palace at night in a cabriolet, attended only by
+      his valet, two men on horseback, and armed with blunderbusses,
+      rode up to the carriage, and leveled their weapons at the
+      monarch. One of them missed fire, the other failed of its effect.
+      The royal postilion, in alarm, rushed forward, when two men,
+      similarly waiting in the road, galloped after the carriage, and
+      both fired their blunderbusses into it behind. The cabriolet was
+      riddled with slugs, and the king was wounded in several places.
+      By an extraordinary presence of mind, Don Joseph, instead of
+      ordering the postilion to gallop onward, directed him instantly
+      to turn back, and, to avoid alarming the palace, carry him direct
+      to the house of the court surgeon. By this fortunate order, he
+      escaped the other groups of the conspirators, who were stationed
+      further on the road, and under whose repeated discharges he would
+      probably have fallen. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg111" id=
+      "pg111">111</a></span> The public alarm and indignation on the
+      knowledge of this desperate atrocity were unbounded. There seemed
+      to be but one man in the kingdom who preserved his composure, and
+      that one was Pombal. Exhibiting scarcely even the natural
+      perturbation at an event which had threatened almost a national
+      convulsion, he suffered the whole to become a matter of doubt,
+      and allowed the king's retirement from the public eye to be
+      considered as merely the effect of accident. The public despatch
+      of Mr Hay, the British envoy at Lisbon, alludes to it, chiefly as
+      assigning a reason for the delay of a court mourning&mdash;the
+      order for this etiquette, on the death of the Spanish queen, not
+      having been put in execution. The envoy mentions that it had been
+      impeded by the king's illness,&mdash;"it being the custom of the
+      court to put on <i>gala</i> when any of the royal family are
+      blooded. When I went to court to enquire after his majesty's
+      health, I was there informed that the king, on Sunday night the
+      3d instant, passing through a gallery to go to the queen's
+      apartment, had the misfortune to fall and bruise his right arm;
+      he had been blooded eight different times; and, as his majesty is
+      a fat bulky man, to prevent any humours fixing there, his
+      physicians have advised that he should not use his arm, but
+      abstain from business for some time. In consequence, the queen
+      was declared regent during Don Joseph's illness."</p>
+
+      <p>This was the public version of the event. But appended to the
+      despatch was a postscript, in <i>cipher</i>, stating the reality
+      of the transaction. Pombal's sagacity, and his self control,
+      perhaps a still rarer quality among the possessors of power, were
+      exhibited in the strongest light on this occasion. For three
+      months not a single step appeared to be taken to punish, or even
+      to detect the assassins. The subject was allowed to die away;
+      when, on the 9th of December, all Portugal was startled by a
+      royal decree, declaring the crime, and offering rewards for the
+      seizure of the assassins. Some days afterwards Lisbon heard, with
+      astonishment, an order for the arrest of the Duke of Aveira, one
+      of the first nobles, and master of the royal household; the
+      arrest of the whole family of the Marquis of Tavora, himself, his
+      two sons, his four brothers, and his two sons-in-law. Other
+      nobles were also seized; and the Jesuits were forbidden to be
+      seen out of their houses.</p>
+
+      <p>The three months of Pombal's apparent inaction had been
+      incessantly employed in researches into the plot. Extreme caution
+      was evidently necessary, where the criminals were among the
+      highest officials and nobles, seconded by the restless and
+      formidable machinations of the Jesuits. When his proofs were
+      complete, he crushed the conspirators at a single grasp. His
+      singular inactivity had disarmed them; and nothing but the most
+      consummate composure could have prevented their flying from
+      justice. On the 12th of January 1759, they were found guilty; and
+      on the 13th they were put to death, to the number of nine, with
+      the Marchioness of Tavora, in the square of Belem. The scaffold
+      and the bodies were burned, and the ashes thrown into the
+      sea.</p>
+
+      <p>Those were melancholy acts; the works of melancholy times. But
+      as no human crime can be so fatal to the security of a state as
+      regicide, no imputation can fall on the memory of a great
+      minister, compelled to exercise justice in its severity, for the
+      protection of all orders of the kingdom. In our more enlightened
+      period, we must rejoice that those dreadful displays of judicial
+      power have passed away; and that laws are capable of being
+      administered without the tortures, or the waste of life, which
+      agonize the feelings of society. Yet, while blood for blood
+      continued to be the code; while the sole prevention of crime was
+      sought for in the security of judgment; and while even the zeal
+      of justice against guilt was measured by the terrible intensity
+      of the punishment&mdash;we must charge the horror of such
+      sweeping executions to the ignorance of the age, much more than
+      to the vengeance of power.</p>
+
+      <p>This tragedy was long the subject of European memory; and all
+      the extravagance of popular credulity was let loose ill
+      discovering the causes of the conspiracy. It was said, in the
+      despatches of the English minister, that the Marquis of Tavora,
+      who had been Portuguese minister in the <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg112" id="pg112">112</a></span>East, was
+      irritated by the royal attentions to his son's wife. Ambition was
+      the supposed ground of the Duke of Aveira's perfidy. The old
+      Marchioness of Tavora, who had been once the handsomest woman at
+      court, and was singularly vein and haughty, was presumed to have
+      received some personal offence, by the rejection of the family
+      claim to a dukedom. All is wrapped in the obscurity natural to
+      transactions in which individuals of rank are involved in the
+      highest order of crime. It was the natural policy of the minister
+      to avoid extending the charges by explaining the origin of the
+      crime. The connexions of the traitors were still many and
+      powerful; and further disclosures might have produced only
+      further attempts at the assassination of the minister or the
+      king.</p>
+
+      <p>It was now determined to act with vigour against the Jesuits,
+      who were distinctly charged with assisting, if not originating,
+      the treason. A succession of decrees were issued, depriving them
+      of their privileges and possessions; and finally, on the 5th of
+      October 1759, the cardinal patriarch Saldanha issued the famous
+      mandate, by which the whole society was expelled from the
+      Portuguese dominions. Those in the country were transported to
+      Civita Vecchia; those in the colonies were also conveyed to the
+      Papal territory; and thus, by the intrepidity, wisdom, and civil
+      courage of one man, the realm was relieved from the presence of
+      the most powerful and most dangerous body which had ever
+      disturbed the peace of society.</p>
+
+      <p>Portugal having thus the honour of taking the lead, Rome
+      herself at length followed; and, on the accession of the
+      celebrated Ganganelli, Clement XIV., a resolution was adopted to
+      suppress the Jesuits in every part of the world. On the 21st of
+      July 1773, the memorable bull "Dominus ac Redemptor," was
+      published, and the order was at an end. The announcement was
+      received in Lisbon with natural rejoicing. <i>Te Deum</i> was
+      sung, and the popular triumph was unbounded and universal.</p>
+
+      <p>We now hasten to the close of this distinguished minister's
+      career. His frame, though naturally vigorous, began to feel the
+      effects of his incessant labour, and an apoplectic tendency
+      threatened to shorten a life so essential to the progress of
+      Portugal; for that whole life was one of <i>temperate</i> and
+      <i>progressive</i> reform. His first application was to the
+      finances; he found the Portuguese exchequer on the verge of
+      bankruptcy. A third of the taxes was embezzled in the collection.
+      In 1761, his new system was adopted, by which the finances were
+      restored; and every week a balance-sheet of the whole national
+      expenditure was presented to the king. His next reform was the
+      royal household, where all unnecessary expenses&mdash;and they
+      were numerous&mdash;were abolished. Another curious reform will
+      be longer remembered in Portugal. The nation had hitherto used
+      <i>only</i> the <i>knife</i> at dinner! Pombal introduced the
+      <i>fork</i>. He brought this novel addition to the table with him
+      from England in 1745!</p>
+
+      <p>The nobility were remarkably ignorant. Pombal formed the
+      "College of Nobles" for their express education. There they were
+      taught every thing suitable to their rank. The only prohibition
+      being, "that they should <i>not converse in Latin</i>," the old
+      pedantic custom of the monks. The nobles were directed to
+      converse in English, French, Italian, or their native tongue;
+      Pombal declaring, that the custom of speaking Latin was only "to
+      teach them to barbarize."</p>
+
+      <p>Another custom, though of a more private order, attracted the
+      notice of this rational and almost universal improver. It had
+      been adopted as a habit by the widows of the nobility, to spend
+      the first years of their widowhood in the most miserable
+      seclusion; they shut up their windows, retired to some gloomy
+      chamber, slept on the floor, and, suffering all kinds of
+      voluntary and absurd mortifications, forbade the approach of the
+      world. As the custom was attended with danger to health, and
+      often with death, besides its general melancholy influence on
+      society, the minister publicly "enacted," that every part of it
+      should be abolished; and, moreover, that the widows should always
+      remove to another house; or, where this was not practicable, that
+      they "should <i>not</i> close the shutters, nor '<i>mourn</i>'
+      for more than a week, nor remain at home for more than a month,
+      nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg113" id=
+      "pg113">113</a></span>sleep on the ground." Doubtless, tens of
+      thousands thanked him, and thank him still, for this war against
+      a popular, but most vexatious, absurdity.</p>
+
+      <p>His next reform was the army. After the peace of 1763, he
+      fixed it at 30,000 men, whom he equipped effectually, and brought
+      into practical discipline.</p>
+
+      <p>A succession of laws, made for the promotion of European and
+      colonial trade, next opened the resources of Portugal to an
+      extent unknown before. Pombal next abolished the "Index
+      Expurgitorius"&mdash;an extraordinary achievement, not merely
+      beyond his age, but against the whole superstitious spirit of his
+      age. He was not content with abolishing the restraint; he
+      attempted to <i>restore</i> the PRESS in Portugal. Hitherto
+      nearly all Portuguese books had been printed in foreign counties.
+      He established a "Royal Press," and gave its superintendence to
+      Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been expatriated for
+      printing works against the Jesuits. Such, in value and extent,
+      were the acts which Portugal owed to this indefatigable and
+      powerful mind, that when, in 1766, he suffered a paralytic
+      stroke, the king and the people were alike thrown into
+      consternation.</p>
+
+      <p>At length Don Joseph, the king, and faithful friend of Pombal,
+      died, after a reign of twenty-seven years of honour and
+      usefulness. Pombal requested to resign, and the Donna Maria
+      accepted the resignation, and conferred various marks of honour
+      upon him. He now retired to his country-seat, where Wraxall saw
+      him in 1772, and thus describes his appearance. "At this time he
+      had attained his seventy-third year, but age seemed to have
+      diminished neither the freshness nor the activity of his
+      faculties. In his person he was very tall and slender, his face
+      long, pale, and meagre, but full of intelligence."</p>
+
+      <p>But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles;
+      and the loss of his power as minister produced a succession of
+      intrigues against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and
+      doubtless also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always
+      been at once so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was
+      insulted by a trial, at which, however, the only sentence
+      inflicted was an order to retire twenty leagues from the court.
+      The Queen was, at that time, probably suffering under the first
+      access of that derangement, which, in a few years after, utterly
+      incapacitated her, and condemned the remainder of her life to
+      melancholy and total solitude. But the last praise is not given
+      to the great minister, while his personal disinterestedness is
+      forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was to present to
+      the throne a statement of his public income, when it appeared
+      that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration, he had
+      received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
+      state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was
+      rich; for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes
+      were joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and
+      estimation by the European courts, to the great age of
+      eighty-three, dying on the 5th of May without pain. A long
+      inscription, yet in which the panegyric did not exceed the
+      justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a single sentence might have
+      established his claim to the perpetual gratitude of his country
+      and mankind&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Here lies the man who banished the</p>
+
+        <p>Jesuits from Portugal."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much
+      credit to his research and skill. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg114" id="pg114">114</a></span></p>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+      <h3>PART XII.</h3>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+
+        <p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+
+        <p>And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+
+        <p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+
+        <p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <h3>SHAKSPEARE.</h3>
+
+      <p>Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom,
+      but one&mdash;the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He
+      evidently loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour
+      of his existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief
+      traders in France were already in prison; and yet he carried on
+      the perilous game of commerce. He was known to be immensely
+      opulent; and he must have regarded the day which passed over his
+      head, without seeing his strong boxes put under the government
+      seal, and himself thrown into some <i>oubliette</i>, as a sort of
+      miracle. But he was now assailed by a new alarm. War with England
+      began to be rumoured among the bearded brethren of the synagogue;
+      and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from Peru to Japan. Like
+      Shakspeare's princely merchant&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"His mind was tossing on the ocean,</p>
+
+        <p>There where his argosies with portly sail,</p>
+
+        <p>Like signiors, and rich burghers of the flood.</p>
+
+        <p>Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,</p>
+
+        <p>Did overpower the petty traffickers,</p>
+
+        <p>As they flew by them with their woven wings."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>The first shot fired would inevitably pour out the whole naval
+      force of England, and his argosies would put their helms about,
+      and steer for Portsmouth, Plymouth, and every port but a French
+      one. If this formidable intelligence had awakened the haughtiness
+      of the French government to a sense of public peril, what effect
+      must it not have in the counting-house of a man whose existence
+      was trade? While I was on my pillow, luxuriating in dreams of
+      French fêtes, Paul and Virginia carried off to the clouds, and
+      Parisian <i>belles</i> dancing cotillons in the bowers and
+      pavilions of a Mahometan paradise, Elnathan spent the night at
+      his desk, surrounded by his bustling generation of clerks,
+      writing to correspondents at every point of the compass, and
+      preparing insurances with the great London establishments; which
+      I was to carry with me, though unacquainted with the transaction
+      on which so many millions of francs hung trembling.</p>
+
+      <p>His morning face showed me, that whatever had been his
+      occupation before I met him at the breakfast-table, it had been a
+      most uneasy one. His powerful and rather handsome physiognomy had
+      shrunk to half the size; his lips were livid, and his hand shook
+      to a degree which made me ask, whether the news from Robespierre
+      was unfavourable. But his assurance that all still went on well
+      in that delicate quarter, restored my tranquility, which was
+      beginning to give way; and my only stipulation now was, that I
+      should have an hour or two to spend at Vincennes before I took my
+      final departure. The Jew was all astonishment; his long visage
+      elongated at the very sound; he shook his locks, lifted up his
+      large hands, and fixed his wide eyes on me with a look of mingled
+      alarm and wonder, which would have been ludicrous if it had not
+      been perfectly sincere.</p>
+
+      <p>"In the name of common sense, do you remember in what a
+      country, and in what times, we live? Oh, those Englishmen! always
+      thinking that they are in England. My young friend, you are
+      clearly not fit for France, and the sooner you get out of it the
+      better."</p>
+
+      <p>I still remonstrated. "Do you forget yesterday?" he exclaimed.
+      "Can you forget the man before whom we both stood? A moment's
+      hesitation <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg115" id=
+      "pg115">115</a></span>on your part to set out, would breed
+      suspicion in that most suspicious brain of all mankind. Life is
+      here as uncertain as in a field of battle. Begone the instant
+      your passports arrive, and never behind you.&mdash;For my part, I
+      constantly feel as if my head were in the lion's jaws. Rejoice in
+      your escape."</p>
+
+      <p>But I was still unconvinced, and explained "that my only
+      motive was, to relieve my friends in the fortress from the alarm
+      which they had evidently felt for my fate, and to relieve myself
+      from the charge of ingratitude, which would inevitably attach to
+      me if I left Paris without seeing them."</p>
+
+      <p>Never was man more perplexed with a stubborn subject. He
+      represented to me the imminent hazard of straying a
+      hair's-breadth to the right or left of the orders of Robespierre!
+      "I was actually under surveillance, and he was responsible for
+      me. To leave his roof; even for five minutes, until I left it for
+      my journey, might forfeit the lives of both before evening."</p>
+
+      <p>I still remonstrated; and pronounced the opinion, perhaps too
+      flattering a one, of the dictator, that "he could not condescend
+      to forbid a mere matter of civility, which still left me entirely
+      at his service." The Jew at last, in despair, rushed from the
+      room, leaving me to the unpleasing consciousness that I had
+      distressed an honest and even a friendly man.</p>
+
+      <p>Two hours thus elapsed, when a <i>chaise de poste</i> drew up
+      at the door, with an officer of the police in front, and from it
+      came Varnhorst and the doctor, both probably expecting a summons
+      to the scaffold; but the Prussian bearing his lot with the
+      composure of a man accustomed to face death, and the doctor
+      evidently in measureless consternation, colourless and convulsed
+      with fear. His rapture was equally unbounded when Elnathan,
+      ushering them both into the apartment where I sat&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter</p>
+
+        <p>thought"&mdash;</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>explained, that finding me determined on my point, he had
+      adopted the old proverb&mdash;of bringing Mahomet to the
+      mountain, if he could not bring the mountain to Mahomet; had
+      procured an order for their attendance in Paris, through his
+      influence with the chief of the police, and now hoped to have the
+      honour of their company at dinner. This was, certainly, a
+      desirable exchange for the Place de Grève; and we sat down to a
+      sumptuous table, where we enjoyed ourselves with the zest which
+      danger escaped gives to luxurious security.</p>
+
+      <p>All went on well. The doctor was surprised to find in the
+      frowning banker, who had repulsed him so sternly from his desk,
+      the hospitable entertainer; and Varhorst's honest and manly
+      friendship was gratified by the approach of my release from a
+      scene of perpetual danger.</p>
+
+      <p>I had some remembrances to give to my friends in Prussia; and
+      at length, sending away the doctor to display his connoisseurship
+      on Elnathan's costly collection of pictures, Varnhorst was left
+      to my questioning. My first question naturally was, "What had
+      involved him in the ill-luck of the Austrians."</p>
+
+      <p>"The soldier's temptation every where," was the answer;
+      "having nothing to do at home, and expecting something to do
+      abroad. When the Prussian army once crossed the Rhine, I should
+      have had no better employment than to mount guard, escort the
+      court dowagers to the balls, and finish the year and my life
+      together, by dying of <i>ennui</i>. In this critical moment, when
+      I was in doubt whether I should turn Tartar, or monk of La
+      Trappe, Clairfait sent to offer me the command of a division. I
+      closed with it at once, went to the king, obtained his leave, put
+      spurs to my horse, and reached the Austrian camp before the
+      courier."</p>
+
+      <p>I could not help expressing my envy at a profession in which
+      all the honours of earth lay at the feet of a successful soldier!
+      He smiled, and pointed to the police-officer, who was then
+      sulkily pacing in front of the house.</p>
+
+      <p>"You see," said he, "the first specimen of my honours. Yet,
+      from the moment of my arrival within the Austrian lines, I could
+      have predicted our misfortune. Clairfait was, at least, as
+      long-sighted as myself; and nothing could exceed his despondency
+      but his indignation. His noble heart <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg116" id="pg116">116</a></span>was half
+      broken by the narrowness of his resources for defending the
+      country, and the boundless folly by which the war council of
+      Vienna expected to make up for the weakness of their battalions
+      by the absurdity of their plans. 'I write for regiments,' the
+      gallant fellow used to say; 'and they send me regulations! I tell
+      them that we have not troops enough for an advanced guard; and
+      they send me the plan of a pitched battle! I tell then that the
+      French have raised their army in front of me to a hundred
+      thousand strong; and they promise me reinforcements next year.'
+      After all, his chief perplexity arose from their
+      orders&mdash;every despatch regularly contradicting the one that
+      came before.</p>
+
+      <p>"Something in the style," said I, "of Voltaire's caricature of
+      the Austrian courier in the Turkish war, with three packs
+      strapped on his shoulders, inscribed,
+      'Orders'&mdash;'Counter-orders'&mdash;and 'Disorders.'</p>
+
+      <p>"Just a case in point. Voltaire would have been exactly the
+      historian for our campaign. What an incomparable tale he would
+      have made of it! Every thing that was done was preposterous. We
+      were actually beaten before we fought; we were ruined at Vienna
+      before a shot was fired at Jemappes. The Netherlands were lost,
+      not by powder and ball, but by pen and ink; and the consequence
+      of our "march to Paris" is, that one half of the army is now
+      scattered from Holland to the Rhine, and the other half is, like
+      myself, within French walls."</p>
+
+      <p>I enquired how Clairfait bore his change of fortune.</p>
+
+      <p>"Like a man superior to fortune. I never saw him exhibit
+      higher ability than in his dispositions for our last battle. He
+      has become a magnificent tactician. But Alexander the Great
+      himself could not fight without troops: and such was our exact
+      condition.</p>
+
+      <p>"Dumourier, at the head of a hundred thousand men, had turned
+      short from the Prussian retreat, and flung himself upon the
+      Netherlands. How many troops do you think the wisdom of the Aulic
+      Council had provided to protect the provinces? Scarcely more than
+      a third of the number, and those scattered over a frontier of a
+      hundred miles; in a country, too, where every Man spoke French,
+      where every man was half Republican already, where the people had
+      actually begun a revolution, and where we had scarcely a friend,
+      a fortress in repair, or ammunition enough for <i>feu de
+      joie</i>. The French, of course, burst in like an inundation,
+      sweeping every thing before them. I was at dinner with Clairfait
+      and his staff on the day when the intelligence arrived. The map
+      was laid upon the table, and we had a kind of debate on the
+      course which the Frenchman would take. That evening completed my
+      opinion of him as a general. He took the clearest view among all
+      our conjectures, as the event proved, so far as the enemy's
+      movements were concerned; though I still retain my own idea of an
+      original error in the choice of our field of battle. Before the
+      twilight fell, we mounted our horses, and rode to the spot where
+      Clairfait had already made up his mind to meet the French. It was
+      certainly a capital position for defence&mdash;a range of heights
+      not too high for guns, surmounted by a central plateau; the very
+      position for a battery and a brigade; but the very worst that
+      could be taken against the new enemy whom we had to oppose."</p>
+
+      <p>"Yet, what could an army of French recruits be expected to do
+      against a disciplined force so strongly posted?" was my
+      question.</p>
+
+      <p>"My answer to that point," said Varnhorst, "must be a
+      quotation from my old master of tactics. If the purpose of a
+      general is simply to defend himself, let him keep his troops on
+      heights; if his purpose is simply to make an artillery fight, let
+      him keep behind his guns; but if it is his purpose to beat the
+      enemy, he must leave himself able to follow them&mdash;and this
+      he can do only on a plain. In the end, after beating the enemy in
+      a dozen attempts to carry our batteries, but without the power of
+      striking a blow in retaliation, we saw them carried all at once,
+      and were totally driven from the field."</p>
+
+      <p>"So much for bravery and discipline against bravery and
+      enthusiasm," said I. "Yet the enemy's loss must have been
+      tremendous. Every assault must have torn their columns to
+      pieces." Even this attempt at reconciling him to his ill fortune
+      failed.</p>
+
+      <p>"Yes," was the cool reply; "but <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg117" id="pg117">117</a></span>they could afford it, which was
+      more than we could do. Remember the maxim, my young friend, when
+      you shall come to be a general, that the only security for
+      gaining battles is, to have good troops, and a good many of
+      them.&mdash;The French recruits fought like recruits, without
+      knowing whether the enemy were before or behind them; but they
+      fought, and when they were beaten they fought again. While we
+      were fixed on our heights, they were formed into column once
+      more, and marched gallantly up to the mouth of our guns. Then, we
+      had but 18,000 men to the Frenchman's 60,000. Such odds are too
+      great. Whether our great king would have fought at all with such
+      odds against him, may be a question; but there can be none,
+      whether he would have fixed himself where he could not manoeuvre.
+      The Frenchman attacked us on flanks and centre, just when and
+      where he pleased; there stood we, mowing down his masses from our
+      fourteen redoubts, and waiting to be attacked again. To do him
+      justice, he fought stoutly; and to do us justice, we fought
+      sturdily. But still we were losing men; the affair looked
+      unpromising from the first half hour; and I pronounced that, if
+      Dumourier had but perseverance enough, he must carry the
+      field."</p>
+
+      <p>I made some passing remark on the singular hazard of bringing
+      untried troops against the proverbial discipline of a German
+      army, and the probability that the age of the wild armies of
+      peasantry in Europe would be renewed, by the evidence of its
+      success.</p>
+
+      <p>"Right," said Varnhorst. "The thing that struck me most was,
+      the new character of the whole engagement. It was Republicanism
+      in the field; a bold riot, a mob battle. Nor will it be the last
+      of its kind. Our whole line was once attacked by the French
+      demi-brigades, coming to the charge, with a general chorus of the
+      <i>Marseillaise</i> hymn. The effect was magnificent, as we heard
+      it pealing over the field through all the roar of cannon and
+      musketry. The attack was defeated. It was renewed, under a chorus
+      in honour of their general, and 'Vive Dumourier' was chanted by
+      50,000 voices, as they advanced against our batteries. This
+      charge broke in upon our position, and took five of our fourteen
+      redoubts. Even Clairfait now acknowledged that all was lost;
+      two-thirds of our men were <i>hors de combat</i>, and orders were
+      given for a retreat. My turn now came to act, and I moved forward
+      with my small brigade of cavalry&mdash;but I was not more lucky
+      than the rest."</p>
+
+      <p>I pressed to hear the particulars, but his mind was still
+      overwhelmed with a sense of military calamity, always the most
+      reluctant topic to a brave and honest soldier; and he simply
+      said&mdash;"the whole was a <i>mêlée</i>. Our rear was threatened
+      in force by a column which had stormed the heights under a young
+      <i>brave</i>, whom I had observed, during the day, exposing
+      himself gallantly to all the risks of the field. To stop the
+      progress of the enemy on this point was essential; for the safety
+      of the whole army was compromised. We charged them, checked them,
+      but found the brigade involved in a force of ten times our
+      number; fought our way out again with heavy loss; and after all,
+      a shot, which brought my charger to the ground, left me wounded
+      and bruised in the hands of the French. I was taken up
+      insensible, was carried to the tent of the young commander of the
+      column, whom I found to be a Duc de Chartres, the son of the late
+      Duke of Orleans. His kindness to his prisoner was equal to his
+      gallantry in the field. Few and hurried as our interviews were,
+      while his army remained in its position he gave me the idea of a
+      mind of great promise, and destined for great things, unless the
+      chances of war should stop his career. But, though a Republican
+      soldier, to my surprise he was no Republican. His enquiries into
+      the state of popular opinion in Europe, showed at once his
+      sagacity, and the turn which his thoughts, young as he was, were
+      already taking.&mdash;But the diadem is trampled under foot in
+      France for ever; and with cannon-shot in his front every day of
+      his life, and the guillotine in his rear, who can answer for the
+      history of any man for twenty-four hours together?"</p>
+
+      <p>My time in Paris had now come to a close. All my enquiries for
+      the fate of Lafontaine had been fruitless; and I dreaded the
+      still more anxious <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg118" id=
+      "pg118">118</a></span>enquiries to which I should be subjected on
+      my arrival; but I had at least the intelligence to give, that I
+      had not left him in the fangs of the jailers of St Lazare. I took
+      leave of my bold and open-hearted Prussian friend with a regret,
+      which I had scarcely expected to feel for one with whom I had
+      been thrown into contact simply by the rough chances of
+      campaigning; but I had the gratification of procuring for him,
+      through the mysterious interest of Elnathan, an order for his
+      transmission to Berlin in the first exchange of prisoners. This
+      promise seemed to compensate all the services which he had
+      rendered to me. "I shall see the Rhine again," said he, "which is
+      much more than I ever expected since the day of our misfortune.
+      "I shall see the Rhine again!&mdash;and thanks to you for it." He
+      pressed my hand with honest gratitude.</p>
+
+      <p>The carriage which was to convey me to Calais was now at the
+      door. Still, one thought as uppermost in his mind; it was, that I
+      should give due credit to the bravery of the Austrian general and
+      his army. "If I have spoken of the engagement at all," said he,
+      "it was merely to put you in possession of the facts. You return
+      to England; you will of course hear the battle which lost the
+      Netherlands discussed in various versions. The opinion of England
+      decides the opinion of Europe. Tell, then, your countrymen, in
+      vindication of Clairfait and his troops, that after holding his
+      ground for nine hours against three times his force, he retreated
+      with the steadiness of a movement on parade, without leaving
+      behind him a single gun, colour, or prisoner. Tell them, too,
+      that he was defeated only through the marvellous negligence of a
+      government which left him to fight battles without brigades,
+      defend fortresses without guns, and protect insurgent provinces
+      with a fugitive army."</p>
+
+      <p>My answer was&mdash;"You may rely upon my fighting your
+      battles over the London dinner-tables, as perseveringly, if not
+      as much against odds, as you fought it in the field. But the
+      fortune of war is proverbial, and I hope yet to pour out a
+      libation to you as Generalissimo Varnsdorf, the restorer of the
+      Austrian laurels."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, Marston, may you be a true prophet! But read that
+      letter from Guiscard; our long-headed friend not merely crops our
+      German laurels, but threatens to root up the tree." He handed me
+      a letter from the Prussian philosopher: it was a curious
+      <i>catalogue raisonné</i> of the <i>im</i>probabilities of
+      success in the general war of Europe against the Republic;
+      concluding with the words, so characteristic of his solemn and
+      reflective views of man and the affairs of man&mdash;</p>
+
+      <p>"War is the original propensity of human nature, and
+      civilization is the great promoter of war. The more civilized all
+      nations become, the more they fight. The most civilized continent
+      of the world has spent the fourth of its modern existence in war.
+      Every man of common sense, of course, abhors its waste of life,
+      of treasure, and of time. Still the propensity is so strong, that
+      it continues the most prodigal sacrifice of them all. I think
+      that we are entering on a period, when war, more than ever, will
+      be the business of nations. I should not be surprised if the
+      mania of turning nations into beggars, and the population into
+      the dust of the field, should last for half a century; until the
+      whole existing generation are in their graves, and a new
+      generation shall take their places, astonished at the fondness of
+      their fathers for bankruptcy and bloodshed." After some sharp
+      censures of the unpurposed conduct of the German cabinets, he
+      finished by saying&mdash;"If the French continue to fight as they
+      have just fought, Jemappes will be the beginning of a new era. In
+      the history of the world, every great change of human supremacy
+      has been the result of a change in the principles of war; and the
+      nation which has been the first to adopt that change, has led the
+      triumph for its time. France has now found out a new element in
+      war&mdash;the force of multitude, the charge of the masses; and
+      she will conquer, until the kings of Europe follow her example,
+      and call their nations to the field. Till then she will be
+      invincible, but then her conquests will vanish; and the world,
+      exhausted by carnage, will be quiet for a while. But the wolfish
+      spirit of human nature will again hunger for prey; some new
+      system of havoc will be discovered by some great genius,
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg119" id=
+      "pg119">119</a></span>who ought to be cursed to the lowest depths
+      of human memory; but who will be exalted to the most rapturous
+      heights of human praise. Then again, when one half of the earth
+      is turned into a field of battle, and the other into a cemetery,
+      mankind will cry out for peace; and again, when refreshed, will
+      rush into still more ruinous war:&mdash;thus all things run in a
+      circle. But France has found out the secret for this age,
+      and&mdash;<i>vae victis!</i>&mdash;the pestilence will be tame to
+      the triumph of her frenzy, her rapine, and her revenge."</p>
+
+      <p>"Exactly what I should have expected from Guiscard," was my
+      remark; "he is always making bold attempts to tear up the surface
+      of the time, and look into what is growing below."</p>
+
+      <p>"Well, well," replied my honest fellow soldier, "I never
+      perplex my brain with those things. I dare say your philosophers
+      may be right; at least once in a hundred years. But take my word
+      for it, that musket and bayonet will be useful matters still; and
+      that discipline and my old master Frederick, will be as good as
+      Dumourier and desperation, when we shall have brigade for
+      brigade."</p>
+
+      <p>The postillions cracked their whips, the little Norman horses
+      tore their way over the rough pavement; the sovereign people
+      scattered off on every side, to save their lives and limbs; and
+      the plan of St Denis, rich with golden corn, and tracked by lines
+      of stately trees, opened far and wide before me. From the first
+      ascent I gave a <i>parting</i> glance at Paris&mdash;it was
+      mingled of rejoicing and regret. What hours of interest, of
+      novelty, and of terror, had I not passed within the circuit of
+      those walls! Yet, how the eye cheats reality!&mdash;that city of
+      imprisonment and frantic liberty, of royal sorrow and of popular
+      exultation, now looked a vast circle of calm and stately beauty.
+      How delusive is distance in every thing! Across that plain,
+      luxuriant with harvest, surrounded with those soft hills, and
+      glittering in the purple of this glorious evening, it looked a
+      paradise. I knew it&mdash;a pendemonium!</p>
+
+      <p>I speeded on&mdash;every thing was animated and animating in
+      my journey. It was the finest season of the year; the roads were
+      good; the prospects&mdash;as I swept down valley and rushed round
+      hill, with the insolent speed of a government <i>employé</i>,
+      leaving all meaner vehicles, travellers, and the whole workday
+      world behind&mdash;seemed to be to redeem the character of French
+      landscape. But how much of its colouring was my own! Was <i>I</i>
+      not <i>free?</i> was I not <i>returning to England?</i> was I not
+      approaching scenes, and forms, and the realities of those
+      recollections, which, even in the field of battle, and at the
+      foot of the scaffold, had alternately cheered and pained,
+      delighted and distressed me?&mdash;yet which, even with all their
+      anxieties, were dearer than the most gilded hopes of ambition.
+      Was I not about to meet the gay smile and poignant vivacity of
+      Mariamne? was I not about to wander in the shades of my paternal
+      castle? to see those relatives who were to shape so large a share
+      of my future happiness; to meet in public life the eminent public
+      men, with whose renown the courts and even the camps of Europe
+      were already ringing: and last, proudest, and most profound
+      feeling of all&mdash;was I not to venture near the shrine on
+      which I had placed my idol; to offer her the solemn and distant
+      homage of the heart; perhaps to hear of her from day to day;
+      perhaps to see her noble beauty; perhaps even to <i>hear</i> that
+      voice, of which the simplest accents sank to my soul.&mdash;But I
+      must not attempt to describe sensations which are in their nature
+      indescribable; which dispose the spirit of man to silence; and
+      which, in their true intensity, suffer but one faculty to exist,
+      absorbing all the rest in deep sleep and delicious reverie.</p>
+
+      <p>I drove with the haste of a courier to London; and after
+      having deposited my despatches with one of the under-secretaries
+      of the Foreign office, I flew to Mordecai's den in the city.
+      London appeared to me more crowded than ever; the streets longer,
+      and buildings dingier; and the whole, seen after the smokeless
+      and light-coloured towns of the Continent, looked an enormous
+      manufactory, where men wore themselves out in perpetual blackness
+      and bustle, to make their bread, and die. But my heart beat
+      quickly as I reached the door of that dingiest of all its
+      dwellings, where the lord of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+      "pg120" id="pg120">120</a></span>hundreds of thousands of pounds
+      burrowed himself on the eyes of mankind.</p>
+
+      <p>I knocked, but was long unanswered; at last a meagre clerk,
+      evidently of the "fallen people," and who seemed dug up from the
+      depths of the dungeon, gave me the intelligence that "his master
+      and family had left England." The answer was like an icebolt
+      through my frame. This was the moment to which I had looked
+      forward with, I shall not say what emotions. I could scarcely
+      define them; but they had a share of every strong, every
+      faithful, and every touching remembrance of my nature. My
+      disappointment was a pang. My head grey dizzy, I reeled; and
+      asked leave to enter the gloomy door, and rest for a moment. But
+      this the guardian of the den was too cautious to allow, and I
+      should have probably fainted in the street, but for the
+      appearance of an ancient Rebecca, the wife of the clerk, who,
+      feeling the compassion which belongs to the sex in all instances,
+      and exerting the authority which is so generally claimed by the
+      better-halves of men, pushed her husband back, and led the way
+      into the old cobwebbed parlour where I had so often been. A glass
+      of water, the sole hospitality of the house, revived me; and
+      after some enquiries alike fruitless with the past, I was about
+      to take my leave, when the clerk, in his removal of some papers,
+      not to be trusted within reach of a stranger, dropped a letter
+      from the bundle, on which was my name. From the variety of
+      addresses it had evidently travelled far, and had been returned
+      from half the post-offices of the Continent. It was two months'
+      old, but its news was to me most interesting. It was from
+      Mordecai; and after alluding to some pecuniary transactions with
+      his foreign brethren, always the first topic, he hurried on in
+      his usual abrupt strain:&mdash;"Mariamne has insisted on my
+      leaving England for a while. This is perplexing; as the war must
+      produce a new loan, and London is, after all, the only place
+      where those affairs can be transacted without trouble.&mdash;My
+      child is well, and yet she looks pallid from time to time, and
+      sheds tears when she thinks herself unobserved. All this may pass
+      away, but it makes me uneasy; and, as she has evidently made up
+      her mind to travel, I have only to give way&mdash;for, with all
+      her caprices, she is my child, my only child, and my beloved
+      child!</p>
+
+      <p>"I have heard a good deal of your proceedings from my
+      correspondent and kinsman in Paris. You have acquitted yourself
+      well, and it shall not be unknown in the quarter where it may be
+      of most service to you.&mdash;I have been stopped by Mariamne's
+      singing in the next room, and her voice has almost unmanned me;
+      she is melancholy of late, and her only music now is taken from
+      those ancestral hymns which our nation regard as the songs of the
+      Captivity. Her tones at this moment are singularly touching, and
+      I have been forced to lay down my pen, for she has melted me to
+      tears. Yet her colour has not altogether faded lately, and I
+      think sometimes that her eyes look brighter than ever! Heaven
+      help me, if I should lose her. I should then be alone in the
+      world.</p>
+
+      <p>"You may rely on my intelligence&mdash;a war is
+      <i>inevitable</i>. You may also rely on my conjecture&mdash;that
+      it will be the most desperate war which Europe has yet seen. One
+      that will break up <i>foundations</i>, as well as break down
+      superstructures; not a war of politics but of principles; not a
+      war for conquest but for ruin. All the treasuries of Europe will
+      be bankrupt within a twelvemonth of its commencement; unless
+      England shall become their banker. This will be the harvest of
+      the men of money.&mdash;It is unfortunate that your money is all
+      lodged for your commission; otherwise, in the course of a few
+      operations, you might make cent per cent, which I propose to do.
+      <i>Apropos</i> of commissions. I had nearly omitted, in my own
+      family anxieties, to mention the object for which I began my
+      letter. I have <i>failed</i> in arranging the affair of your
+      commission! This was not for want of zeal. But the prospect of a
+      war has deranged and inflamed every thing. The young nobility
+      have actually besieged the Horse-guards. All the weight of the
+      aristocracy has pressed upon the minister, and minor influence
+      has been driven from the field. The spirit is too gallant a one
+      to be blamed;&mdash;and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg121" id=
+      "pg121">121</a></span>yet&mdash;are there not a hundred other
+      pursuits, in which an intelligent and active mind, like your own,
+      might follow on the way to fortune? You have seen enough of
+      campaigning to know, that it is not all a flourish of trumpets.
+      Has the world but one gate, and that the Horse-guards? If my
+      personal judgment were to be asked, I should feel no regret for a
+      disappointment which may have come only to turn your knowledge
+      and ability to purposes not less suitable to an ambitious spirit,
+      nor less likely to produce a powerful impression on the
+      world&mdash;the only thing, after all, worth living for! You may
+      laugh at this language from a man of my country and my trade. But
+      even <i>I</i> have my ambition; and you may yet discover it to be
+      not less bold than if I carried the lamp of Gideon, or wielded
+      the sword of the Maccabee.&mdash;I must stop again; my poor
+      restless child is coming into the room at this moment,
+      complaining of the chill, in one of the finest days of summer.
+      She says that this villa has grown sunless, airless, and
+      comfortless. Finding that I am writing to you, she sends her best
+      wishes; and bids me ask, what is the fashionable colour for
+      mantles in Paris, and also what is become of that 'wandering
+      creature,' Lafontaine, if you should happen to recollect such a
+      personage."</p>
+
+      <p>"P.S.&mdash;My daughter insists on our setting out from
+      Brighton to-morrow, and crossing the Channel the day after. She
+      has a whim for revisiting Switzerland; and in the mean time begs
+      that if, during our absence, <i>you</i> should have a whim for
+      sea air and solitude, you may make of the villa any use you
+      please.&mdash;Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+      <p>"J.V. MORDECAI."</p>
+
+      <p>After reading this strange and broken letter, I was almost
+      glad that I had not seen Mariamne. Lafontaine was in her heart
+      still, in spite of absence. At this I did not wonder, for the
+      heart of woman, when once struck, is almost incapable of change:
+      but the suspense was killing her; and I had no doubt that her
+      loss would sink even her strong-headed parent to the grave. Yet,
+      what tidings had I to give? Whether her young soldier was shot in
+      the attempt to escape from St Lazare, or thrown into some of
+      those hideous dungeons, where so many thousands were dying in
+      misery from day to day, was entirely beyond my power to tell. It
+      was better that she should be roving over the bright hills, and
+      breathing the fresh breezes of Switzerland, than listening to my
+      hopeless conjectures at home; trying to reconcile herself to all
+      the chances which passion is so painfully ingenious in creating,
+      and dying, like a flower in all its beauty, on the spot where it
+      had grown.</p>
+
+      <p>But the letter contained nothing of the <i>one</i> name, for
+      which my first glance had looked over every line with breathless
+      anxiety. There was not a syllable of Clotilde! The father's cares
+      had absorbed all other thoughts; and the letter was to me a blank
+      in that knowledge for which I panted, as the hart pants for the
+      fountains. Still, I was not dead to the calls of friendship; and
+      that night's mail carried a long epistle to Mordecai, detailing
+      my escapes, and the services of his kindred in France; and for
+      Mariamne's ear, all that I could conceive cheering in my hopes of
+      that "wandering creature, Lafontaine."</p>
+
+      <p>But I was forced to think of sterner subjects. I had arrived
+      in England at a time of the most extraordinary public excitement.
+      Every man felt that some great trial of England and of Europe was
+      at hand; but none could distinctly define either its nature or
+      its cause. France, which had then begun to pour out her furious
+      declamations against this country, was, of course, generally
+      looked to as the quarter from which the storm was to come; but
+      the higher minds evidently contemplated hazards nearer home.
+      Affiliated societies, corresponding clubs, and all the
+      revolutionary apparatus, from whose crush and clamour I had so
+      lately emerged, met the ear and the eye on all occasions; and the
+      fiery ferocity of French rebellion was nearly rivalled by the
+      grave insolence of English "Rights of Man." But I am not about to
+      write the history of a time of national fever. The republicanism,
+      which Cicero and Plutarch instil into us all at our schools, had
+      been extinguished in me by the squalid realities of France. I had
+      seen the dissecting-room, and was cured of <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg122" id="pg122">122</a></span>my love for
+      the science. My spirit, too, required rest. I could have
+      exclaimed with all the sincerity, and with all the weariness too,
+      of the poet:&mdash;</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,</p>
+
+        <p>Some boundless contiguity of shade,</p>
+
+        <p>Where rumour of oppression and deceit,</p>
+
+        <p>Of unsuccessful or successful war,</p>
+
+        <p>Might never reach me more!"</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>But, perhaps fortunately for my understanding, if not for my
+      life, I was not suffered to take refuge in the wilderness. London
+      was around me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and
+      busy London. I was floating on those waves of human being, in
+      which the struggler must make for the shore, or sink. I was in
+      the centre of that huge whispering gallery, where every sound of
+      earth was echoed and re-echoed with new power; and where it was
+      impossible to dream. My days were now spent in communication with
+      the offices of government, and a large portion of my nights in
+      carrying on those correspondences, which, though seldom known in
+      the routine of Downing Street, form the essential part of its
+      intercourse with the continental cabinets. But a period of
+      suspense still remained. Parliament had been already summoned for
+      the 13th of December. Up to nearly the last moment, the cabinet
+      had been kept in uncertainty as to the actual intents of France.
+      There had been declamation in abundance in the French legislature
+      and the journals; but with this unsubstantial evidence the
+      cabinet could not meet the country. Couriers were sent in all
+      directions; boats were stationed along the coast to bring the
+      first intelligence of actual hostilities suddenly; every
+      conceivable expedient was adopted; but all in vain. The day of
+      opening the Session was within twenty-four hours. After lingering
+      hour by hour, in expectancy of the arrival of despatches from our
+      ambassador at the Hague, I offered to cross the sea in the first
+      fishing-boat which I could find, and ascertain the facts. My
+      offer was accepted; and in the twilight of a winter's morning,
+      and in the midst of a snow-storm, I was making my shivering way
+      homeward through the wretched lanes which, dark as pitch and
+      narrow as footpaths, then led to the centre of the diplomatic
+      world; when, in my haste, I had nearly overset a meagre figure,
+      which, half-blinded by the storm, was tottering towards the
+      Foreign office. After a growl, in the most angry jargon, the man
+      recognized me; he was the clerk whom I had seen at Mordecai's
+      house. He had, but an hour before, received, by one of the
+      private couriers of the firm, a letter, with orders to deliver it
+      with all expedition. He put it into my hand: it was not from
+      Mordecai, but from Elnathan, and was simply in these
+      words:&mdash;"My kinsman and your friend has desired me to
+      forward to you the first intelligence of hostilities. I send you
+      a copy of the bulletin which will be issued at noon this day. It
+      is yet unknown; but I have it from a source on which you may
+      perfectly rely. Of this make what use you think advantageous.
+      Your well-wisher."</p>
+
+      <p>With what pangs the great money-trafficker must have consigned
+      to my use a piece of intelligence which must have been a mine of
+      wealth to any one who carried it first to the Stock Exchange, I
+      could easily conjecture. But I saw in it the powerful pressure of
+      Mordecai, which none of his tribe seemed even to have the means
+      of resisting. My sensations were singular enough as I traced my
+      way up the dark and lumbering staircase of the Foreign office;
+      with the consciousness that, if I had chosen to turn my steps in
+      another direction, I might before night be master of thousands,
+      or of hundreds of thousands. But it is only due to the sense of
+      honour which had been impressed on me, even in the riot and
+      roughness of my Eton days, to say, that I did not hesitate for a
+      moment Sending one of the attendants to arouse the chief clerk, I
+      stood waiting his arrival with the bulletin unopened in my hands.
+      The official had gone to his house in the country, and might not
+      return for some hours. My perplexity increased. Every moment
+      might supersede the value of my priority. At length a twinkling
+      light through the chinks of one of the dilapidated doors, told me
+      that there was some one within, from whom I might, at least, ask
+      when and how ministers <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg123" id=
+      "pg123">123</a></span>were to be approached. The door was opened,
+      and, to my surprise, I found that the occupant of the chamber was
+      one of the most influential members of administration. My name
+      and purpose were easily given; and I was received as I believe
+      few are in the habit of being received by the disposers of high
+      things in high places. The fire had sunk to embers, the lamp was
+      dull, and the hearer was half frozen and half asleep. Yet no
+      sooner had he cast his eyes upon the mysterious paper which I
+      gave into his grasp, than all his faculties were in full
+      activity.</p>
+
+      <p>"This," said he, "is the most important paper that has reached
+      this country since the taking of the Bastile. THE SCHELDT IS
+      OPENED! This involves an attack on Holland; the defence of our
+      ally is a matter of treaty, and we must arm without delay. The
+      war is begun, but where it shall end"&mdash;he paused, and fixing
+      his eyes above, with a solemnity of expression which I had not
+      expected in the stern and hard-lined countenance, "or who shall
+      live to see its close&mdash;who shall tell?"</p>
+
+      <p>"We have been waiting," said he, "for this intelligence from
+      week to week, with the fullest expectation that it would come;
+      and yet, when it has come, it strikes like a thunderclap. This is
+      the third night that I have sat in this hovel, at this table,
+      unable to go to rest, and looking for the despatch from hour to
+      hour.&mdash;You see, sir, that our life is at least not the bed
+      of roses for which the world is so apt to give us credit. It is
+      like the life of my own hills&mdash;the higher the sheiling
+      stands, the more it gets of the blast."</p>
+
+      <p>I do not give the name of this remarkable man. He was a Scot,
+      and possessed of all the best characteristics of his country. I
+      had heard him in Parliament, where he was the most powerful
+      second of the most powerful first that England had seen. But if
+      all men were inferior to the prime minister in majesty and
+      fulness of conception, the man to whom I now listened had no
+      superior in readiness of retort, in aptness of
+      illustration&mdash;that mixture of sport and satire, of easy jest
+      and subtle sarcasm, which forms the happiest talent for the
+      miscellaneous uses of debate. If Pitt moved forward like the
+      armed man of chivalry, or rather like the main body of the
+      battle&mdash;for never man was more entitled to the appellation
+      of a "host in himself"&mdash;never were front, flanks, and rear
+      of the host covered by a more rapid, quick-witted, and
+      indefatigable auxiliary. He was a man of family, and brought with
+      him into public life, not the manners of a menial of office, but
+      the bearing of a gentleman. Birth and blood were in his bold and
+      manly countenance; and I could have felt no difficulty in
+      conceiving him, if his course had followed his nature, the
+      chieftain on his hills, at the head of his gallant retainers,
+      pursuing the wild sports of his romantic region; or in some
+      foreign land, gathering the laurels which the Scotch soldier has
+      so often and so proudly added to the honours of the empire.</p>
+
+      <p>He was perfectly familiar with the great question of the time,
+      and saw the full bearings of my intelligence with admirable
+      sagacity; pointed out the inevitable results of suffering France
+      to take upon herself the arbitration of Europe, and gave new and
+      powerful views of the higher relation in which England was to
+      stand, as the general protectress of the Continent. "This
+      bulletin," said he, "announces the fact, that a French squadron
+      has actually sailed up the Scheldt to attack Antwerp. Yet it was
+      not ten years since France protested against the same act by
+      Austria, as a violation of the rights of Holland. The new
+      aggression is, therefore, not simply a solitary violence, but a
+      vast fraud; not merely the breach of an individual treaty, but a
+      declaration that no treaty is henceforth to be held as binding;
+      it is more than an act of rapine; it is an universal dissolution
+      of the principles by which society is held together. In what
+      times are we about to live?"</p>
+
+      <p>My reply was&mdash;"That it depended on the spirit of England
+      herself, whether the conflict was to be followed by honour or by
+      shame; that she had a glorious career before her, if she had
+      magnanimity sufficient to take the part marked out for her by
+      circumstances; and that, with the championship of the world in
+      her hands, even defeat would be a triumph."</p>
+
+      <p>He now turned the conversation to <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg124" id="pg124">124</a></span>myself; spoke
+      with more than official civility of my services, and peculiarly
+      of the immediate one; and asked in what branch of diplomacy I
+      desired advancement?</p>
+
+      <p>My answer was prompt. "In none. I desired promotion but in one
+      way&mdash;the army." I then briefly stated the accidental loss of
+      my original appointment, and received, before I left the chamber,
+      a note for the secretary at war, recommending me, in the
+      strongest terms, for a commission in the Guards.&mdash;The world
+      was now before me, and the world in the most vivid, various, and
+      dazzling shape; in the boldest development of grandeur, terror,
+      and wild vicissitude, which it exhibited for a thousand
+      years&mdash;ENGLAND WAS AT WAR!</p>
+
+      <p>There is no sight on earth more singular, or more awful, than
+      a great nation going to war. I saw the scene in its highest point
+      of view, by seeing it in England. Its perfect freedom, its
+      infinite, and often conflicting, variety of opinion&mdash;its
+      passionate excitement, and its stupendous power, gave the summons
+      to hostilities a character of interest, of grandeur, and of
+      indefinite but vast purposes, unexampled in any other time, or in
+      any other country. When one of the old monarchies commenced war,
+      the operation, however large and formidable, was simple. A
+      monarch resolved, a council sat, less to guide than to echo his
+      resolution; an army marched, invaded the enemy's territory,
+      fought a battle&mdash;perhaps a dubious one&mdash;rested on its
+      arms; and while <i>Te Deum</i> was sung in both capitals alike
+      for the "victory" of neither, the ministers of both were
+      constructing an armistice, a negotiation, and a peace&mdash;each
+      and all to be null and void on the first opportunity.</p>
+
+      <p>But the war of England was a war of the nation&mdash;a war of
+      wrath and indignation&mdash;a war of the dangers of civilized
+      society entrusted to a single championship&mdash;a great effort
+      of human nature to discharge, in the shape of blood, a disease
+      which was sapping the vitals of Europe; or in a still higher, and
+      therefore a more faithful view, the gathering of a tempest,
+      which, after sweeping France in its fury, was to restore the
+      exhausted soil and blasted vegetation of monarchy throughout the
+      Continent; and in whose highest, England, serene and undismayed,
+      was to</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>I must acknowledge, that I looked upon the coming conflict
+      with a strange sense of mingled alarm and rejoicing. For the
+      latter feeling, perhaps I ought to make some apology; but I was
+      young, ardent, and ambitious. My place in life was unfixed;
+      standing in that unhappy middle position, in which stands a man
+      of birth too high to suffer his adoption of the humbler means of
+      existence, and yet of resources too inadequate to sustain him
+      without action&mdash;nay, bold and indefatigable exertion. I, at
+      the moment, felt a very inferior degree of compunction at the
+      crisis which offered to give me at least a chance of being seen,
+      known, and understood among men. I felt like a man whose ship was
+      stranded, and who saw the storm lifting the surges that were to
+      lift him along with them; or like the traveller in an earthquake,
+      who saw the cleft in the ground swallowing up the river which had
+      hitherto presented an impassable obstacle&mdash;cities and
+      mountains might sink before the concussion had done its
+      irresistible will, but, at all events, it had cleared his
+      way.</p>
+
+      <p>In thoughts like these, rash and unconnected as they were, I
+      spent many a restless day, and still more restless night. I often
+      sprang from a pillow which, if I had lived in the days of
+      witchcraft, I should have thought spelled to refuse me sleep; and
+      walking for hours, endeavoured to reduce into shape the
+      speculations which filled my mind with splendours and
+      catastrophes worthy of oriental dreams. Why did I not then pursue
+      the career in which I had begun the world? Why not devote myself
+      to diplomacy, in which I had hitherto received honour? Why not
+      enter into Parliament, which opened all the secrets of power? For
+      this I had two reasons. The first&mdash;and, let me confess, the
+      most imperious&mdash;was, that my pride had been deeply hurt by
+      the loss of my commission. I felt that I had not only been
+      deprived of a noble profession, accidental as was the loss; but
+      that I had subjected myself to the trivial, but stinging remarks,
+      which never <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg125" id=
+      "pg125">125</a></span>fail to find an obnoxious cause for every
+      failure. While this cloud hung over me, I was determined never to
+      return to my father's house. Good-natured as the friends of my
+      family might be, I was fully aware of the style in which
+      misfortune is treated in the idleness of country life; and the
+      Honourable Mr Marston's loss of his rank in his Majesty's guards,
+      or his preference of a more pacific promotion, was too tempting a
+      topic to lose any of its stimulants by the popular ignorance of
+      the true transaction. My next reason was, that my mind was
+      harassed and wearied by disappointment, until I should not have
+      regreted to terminate the struggle in the first field of battle.
+      The only woman whom I loved, and whom, in the strange frenzy of
+      passion, I solemnly believed to be the only woman on earth
+      deserving to be so loved, had wholly disappeared, and was, by
+      this time, probably wedded. The only woman whom I regarded as a
+      friend, was in another country, probably dying. If I could have
+      returned to Mortimer Castle&mdash;which I had already determined
+      to be impossible&mdash;I should have found only a callous,
+      perhaps a contemptuous, head of the family, angry at my return to
+      burden him. Even Vincent&mdash;my old and kind-hearted friend
+      Vincent&mdash;had been a soldier; and though I was sure of never
+      receiving a reproach from his wise and gentle lips, was I equally
+      sure that I could escape the flash, or the sorrow, of his
+      eye?</p>
+
+      <p>In thoughts like these, and they were dangerous ones, I made
+      many a solitary rush out into the wild winds and beating snows of
+      the winter, which had set in early and been remarkably severe;
+      walking bareheaded in the most lonely places of the suburbs,
+      stripping my bosom to the blast, and longing for its tenfold
+      chill to assuage the fever which burned within me. I had also
+      found the old delay at the Horse-guards. The feelings of this
+      period make me look with infinite compassion on the unhappy
+      beings who take their lives into their own hands, and who
+      extinguish all their earthly anxieties at a plunge. But I had
+      imbibed principles of a firmer substance, and but upon one
+      occasion, and one alone, felt tempted to an act of despair.</p>
+
+      <p>Taking my lonely dinner in a tavern of the suburbs, the waiter
+      handed me a newspaper, which he had rescued for my behoof from
+      the hands of a group, eager, as all the world then was, for
+      French intelligence. My eye rambled into the fashionable column;
+      and the first paragraph, headed "Marriage in high life,"
+      announced that, on the morrow, were to be solemnized the nuptials
+      of Clotilde, Countess de Tourville, with the Marquis de
+      Montrecour, colonel of the French Mousquetaires, &amp;c. The
+      paper dropped from my hands. I rushed out of the house; and,
+      scarcely knowing where I went, I hurried on, until I found myself
+      out of the sight or sound of mortal. The night was pitch-dark;
+      there was no lamp near; the wind roared; and it was only by the
+      flash of the foam that I discovered the broad sheet of water
+      before me. I had strayed into Hyde Park, and was on the bank of
+      the Serpentine. With what ease might I not finish all! It was
+      another step. Life was a burden&mdash;thought was a
+      torment&mdash;the light of day a loathing. But the paroxysm soon
+      gave way. Impressions of the duty and the trials of human nature,
+      made in earlier years, revived within me with a singular
+      freshness and force. Tears gushed from my eyes, fast and flowing;
+      and, with a long-forgotten prayer for patience and humility, I
+      turned from the place of temptation. As I reached the streets
+      once more, I heard the trumpets of the Life Guards, and the band
+      of a battalion returning to their quarters. The infantry were the
+      Coldstream. They had been lining the streets for the king's
+      procession to open the sitting of Parliament. This was the 13th
+      of December&mdash;the memorable day to which every heart in
+      Europe was more or less vibrating; yet which I had totally
+      forgotten. What is man but an electrical machine after all? The
+      sound and sight of soldiership restored me to the full vividness
+      of my nature. The machine required only to be touched, to shoot
+      out its latent sparks; and with a new spirit and a new
+      determination kindling through every fibre, I hastened to be
+      present at that debate which was to be the judgment of
+      nations.</p>
+
+      <p>My official intercourse with ministers <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg126" id="pg126">126</a></span>had given me
+      some privileges, and I obtained a seat under the
+      gallery&mdash;that part of the House of Commons which is
+      occasionally allotted to strangers of a certain rank. The House
+      was crowded, and every countenance was pictured with interest and
+      solemn anxiety. Grey, Sheridan, and other distinguished names of
+      party, had already taken their seats; but the great heads of
+      Government and Opposition were still absent. At length a buzz
+      among the crowd who filled the floor,&mdash;and the name of Fox
+      repeated in every tone of congratulation, announced the
+      pre-eminent orator of England. I now saw Fox for the first time;
+      and I was instantly struck with the incomparable similitude of
+      all that I saw of him to all that I had conceived from his
+      character and his style. In the broad bold forehead, the strong
+      sense&mdash;in the relaxed mouth, the self-indulgent and reckless
+      enjoyment&mdash;in the quick, small eye under those magnificent
+      black brows, the man of sagacity, of sarcasm, and of humour; and
+      in the grand contour of a countenance and head, which might have
+      been sculptured to take its place among the sages and sovereigns
+      of antiquity, the living proof of those extraordinary powers,
+      which could have been checked in their ascent to the highest
+      elevation of public life, only by prejudices and passions not
+      less extraordinary. As he advanced up the House, he recognized
+      every one on both sides, and spoke or smiled to nearly all. He
+      stopped once or twice in his way, and was surrounded by a circle
+      with whom, as I could judge from their laughter, he exchanged
+      some pleasantry of the hour. When at length he arrived at the
+      seat which had been reserved for him, he threw himself upon it
+      with the easy look of comfort of a man who had reached
+      home&mdash;gave nod to Windham, held out a finger to Grey, warmly
+      shook hands with Sheridan; and then, opening his well-known blue
+      and buff costume, threw himself back into the bench, and
+      laughingly gasped for air.</p>
+
+      <p>But another movement of the crowd at the bar announced another
+      arrival, and Pitt entered the House. His look and movement were
+      equally characteristic with those of his great rival. He looked
+      to neither the right nor the left; replied to the salutations of
+      his friends by the slightest possible bow; neither spoke nor
+      smiled; but, slowly advancing, took his seat in total silence.
+      The Speaker, hitherto occupied with some routine business, now
+      read the King's speech, and, calling on "Mr Pitt," the minister
+      rose. I have for that rising but one description&mdash;the one
+      which filled my memory at the moment, from the noblest poet of
+      the world.</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p class="i4">"Deep on his front engraven,</p>
+
+        <p>Deliberation sat, and public care.</p>
+
+        <p class="i8">Sage he stood,</p>
+
+        <p>With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear</p>
+
+        <p>The weight of mightiest monarchies. His look</p>
+
+        <p>Drew audience and attention, still as night,</p>
+
+        <p>Or summer's noontide air."</p>
+      </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg127" id=
+      "pg127">127</a></span>
+      <hr class="full" />
+
+      <h2>THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR.</h2>
+
+      <p>The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that
+      ever occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a
+      metropolis of two millions of souls, the head of an empire of two
+      hundred millions. The recollection runs us out of breath. Every
+      hour was a new summons to a new <i>fête</i>, a new fantasy, or a
+      new exhibition of the handsomest man of the forty-two millions of
+      Russia proper. The toilettes of the whole <i>beau monde</i> were
+      in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and from dewy eve to
+      waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by which the world
+      was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a <i>dejeuner à la
+      fourchette</i>, by which it was surprised into <i>dining</i> at
+      three, (<i>more majorum;</i>) an opera, by which those whose hour
+      for going out is eleven, were forced into their carriages at
+      nine; a concert at Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper
+      at Buckingham palace;&mdash;all were among those brilliant
+      perversions of the habits of high life which make the week one
+      brilliant tumult; but which never could have been revolutionized
+      but by an emperor in the flower of his age. Wherever he moved, he
+      was followed by a host of the fair and fashionable. The showy
+      equipages of the nobility were in perpetual motion. The parks
+      were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The streets were a
+      levy <i>en masse</i> of the peerage. The opera-house was a gilded
+      "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
+      scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of
+      either, gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope;
+      and shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into
+      houses which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of
+      princes, had the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House
+      was in a state of siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards,
+      cavalcades, musterings of the multitude, and thundering of brass
+      bands, seemed to be the focus of a national revolution. But it
+      was within the palace that the grand display existed. The gilt
+      candelabra, the gold plate, the maids of honour, all fresh as
+      tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all Junos and Minervas,
+      all jewelled, and none under forty-five, enraptured the mortal
+      eye, to a degree unrivalled in the recollections of the oldest
+      courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of queenly
+      hospitality.</p>
+
+      <p>But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet
+      said,</p>
+
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>"Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,</p>
+
+        <p>That longs to launch into a nobler strain."</p>
+      </div>
+
+      <p>We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.</p>
+
+      <p>During this week, but one question was asked by the universal
+      world of St James's&mdash;"What was the cause of the Czar's
+      coming?"</p>
+
+      <p>Every one answered in his own style. The tourists&mdash;a race
+      who cannot live without rambling through the same continental
+      roads, which they libel for their roughness every year; the same
+      hotels, which they libel for their discomforts; and the same
+      <i>table-d'hotes</i>, which they libel as the perfection of bad
+      cookery, and barefaced <i>chicane</i>&mdash;pronounced that the
+      love of travel was the imperial impulse. The politicians of the
+      clubs&mdash;who, having nothing to do for themselves, manage the
+      affairs of all nations, and can discover high treason in the
+      manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
+      waltz&mdash;were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to
+      construct an European league against the marriage of little Queen
+      Isabella, or to beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities
+      of Morocco. With the fashionable world, the decision was, that he
+      had come to see Ascot races, and the Duke of Devonshire's
+      gardens, before the sun withered, or St Swithin washed them away.
+      The John Bull world&mdash;as wise at least as any of their
+      betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide the happiest
+      period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill the finest
+      spot in creation&mdash;were convinced that his Majesty's visit
+      was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
+      escape from <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg128" id=
+      "pg128">128</a></span>the troubles of royalty and the heaviness
+      of home, and take a week's ramble among the oddities of England.
+      "Who shall decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps
+      the nearest way of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons
+      together, and try how far they may be made to agree. What can be
+      more probable than that the fineness of the finest season within
+      memory, the occurrence of a moment of leisure in the life of a
+      monarch ruling a fifth of the habitable globe, roused the
+      curiosity of an intelligent mind, excited, like that of his great
+      ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the national improvements of the
+      great country of engineering, shipbuilding, and tunnelling;
+      perhaps with Ascot races&mdash;the most showy exhibition of the
+      most beautiful horses in the world&mdash;to wind up the display,
+      might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active spirit, to gallop
+      across Europe, and give seven brief days to England!</p>
+
+      <p>An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers
+      presumed to be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid
+      journey has had for its distinct purpose the expression of the
+      Imperial scorn for the miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of
+      the pamphlet on the French navy; which has excited so much
+      contempt in England, and so much boasting in France, and so much
+      surprise and ridicule every where else in Europe. Nothing could
+      be more in consonance with a manly character, than to show how
+      little it shared the conceptions of a coxcomb; and no more direct
+      mode could be adopted than the visit, to prove his willingness to
+      be on the best terms with her government and her people. We
+      readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses a higher
+      character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an advanced
+      spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
+      pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
+      capable of being conferred by kings.</p>
+
+      <p>The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St
+      Petersburg, as his stops on the road were only momentary. He
+      reached Berlin from his capital with courier's speed, in four
+      days and six hours, on Sunday fortnight last. His arrival was so
+      unexpected, that the Russian ambassador in Prussia was taken by
+      surprise. He travelled through Germany incognito, and on Thursday
+      night, the 30th, arrived at the Hague. Next day, at two o'clock,
+      he embarked at Rotterdam for England. Here, two steamers had been
+      prepared for his embarkation. The steamers anchored for the night
+      at Helvoetsluys. At three in the following morning, they
+      continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich at ten. The Russian
+      ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared to receive him;
+      but on his intimating his particular wish to land in private, the
+      customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after ten, the
+      Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume, covered
+      with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
+      minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff,
+      and drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was
+      given to rest after his fatigue.</p>
+
+      <p>On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
+      Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
+      cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the
+      Emperor should remove to the apartments which were provided for
+      him in the palace&mdash;an offer which was politely declined. At
+      eleven, the Emperor attended divine service at the chapel of the
+      Russian embassy in Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince
+      Albert arrived to conduct him to the palace. He wore a scarlet
+      uniform, with the riband and badge of the Garter. The Queen
+      received the Emperor in the grand hall. A <i>dejeuner</i> was
+      soon afterwards served. The remainder of the day was spent in
+      visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family. One visit of
+      peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley House, to
+      visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the hall,
+      and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
+      meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed
+      much and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented
+      him highly on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of
+      his mansion. But even <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg129" id=
+      "pg129">129</a></span>emperors are but men, and the Czar,
+      fatigued with his round of driving, on his return to the embassy
+      fell asleep, and slumbered till dinner-time, though his Royal
+      Highness of Cambridge and the Monarch of Saxony called to visit
+      him. At a quarter to eight o'clock, three of the royal carriages
+      arrived, for the purpose of conveying the Emperor and his suite
+      to Buckingham palace.</p>
+
+      <p>On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove
+      to Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for
+      an hour, and is <i>said</i> to have purchased L.5000 worth of
+      jewellery. He then drove to the Zoological gardens and the
+      Regent's park. In the course of the drive, he visited Sir Robert
+      Peel, and the families of some of our ambassadors in Russia. At
+      three o'clock, he gave a <i>dejeuner</i> to the Duke of
+      Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia. Dover
+      Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
+      to put down their names in the visiting-book.</p>
+
+      <p>At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to
+      escort him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his
+      observing its arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour,
+      for the purpose of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had
+      arrived, and the Emperor and his suite drove off through streets
+      crowded with horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the
+      Emperor examined the electrical telegraph, and, entering the
+      saloon carriage, the train set off, and arrived at Slough, a
+      distance of nearly twenty miles, in the astonishingly brief time
+      of twenty-five minutes.</p>
+
+      <p>At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and
+      conveyed to the castle.</p>
+
+      <p>The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall
+      hung with portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of
+      Europe, to paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been
+      sent on a special mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir
+      Thomas's conception of form and likeness was admirable, but his
+      colouring was cold and thin. His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a
+      melancholy contrast with the depth and richness of the adjoining
+      "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are complete. The banquet
+      was royally splendid. The table was covered with gold plate and
+      chased ornaments of remarkable beauty&mdash;the whole lighted by
+      rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
+      Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief
+      noblemen of the household, were present at the entertainment.</p>
+
+      <h3>TUESDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>This was the day of Ascot races. The road from Windsor to the
+      course passes through a couple of miles of the rich quiet scenery
+      which peculiarly belongs to England. The course itself is a file
+      open plain, commanding an extensive view. Some rumours, doubting
+      the visit of the royal party, excited a double interest in the
+      first sight of the cavalcade, preceded by the royal yeomen,
+      galloping up to the stand. They were received with shouts. The
+      Emperor, the King of Saxony, and Prince Albert, were in the
+      leading carriage. They were attired simply as private gentlemen,
+      in blue frock-coats. The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and
+      the household, followed in the royal carriages. The view of the
+      Stand at this period was striking, and the royal and noble
+      personages were repeatedly cheered. An announcement was conveyed
+      to the people, that the Emperor had determined to give L.500
+      a-year to the course. The Czarewitch had already given L.200 at
+      Newmarket. The announcement was received with renewed cheering.
+      All kings are fond of horses; and the monarch of the most
+      numerous and active cavalry in the world, may be allowed to be a
+      connoisseur in their strength, swiftness, and perseverance, by a
+      superior right. The Emperor can call out 80,000 Cossacks at a
+      sound of his trumpet. He exhibited an evident interest in the
+      races. The horses were saddled before the race in front of the
+      grand stand, and brought up to it after the race, for the purpose
+      of weighing the jockeys. He had a full opportunity of inspection;
+      but not content with this, when the winner of the gold vase, the
+      mare Alice Hawthorn, was brought up to the stand, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg130" id="pg130">130</a></span>he descended,
+      and examined this beautiful animal with the closeness and
+      critical eye of a judge.</p>
+
+      <p>On Wednesday, the pageant in which emperors most delight was
+      exhibited&mdash;a review of the royal guards. There are so few
+      troops in England, as the Prince de Joinville has "the happiness"
+      to observe, that a review on the continental scale of tens of
+      thousands, is out of the question. Yet, to the eye which can
+      discern the excellence of soldiership, and the completeness of
+      soldierly equipment, the few in line before the Emperor on this
+      day, were enough to gratify the intelligent eye which this active
+      monarch turns upon every thing. The infantry were&mdash;the
+      second battalion of the grenadier guards, the second battalion of
+      the Coldstream guards, the second battalion of the fusilier
+      guards, and the forty-seventh regiment. The cavalry
+      were&mdash;two troops of the royal horse guards, (blue,) the
+      first regiment of the life guards, and the seventeenth lancers.
+      The artillery were&mdash;detachments of the royal horse
+      artillery, and the field artillery.</p>
+
+      <p>A vast multitude from London by the trains, and from the
+      adjoining country, formed a line parallel to the troops; and
+      nothing could exceed the universal animation and cheering when
+      the Emperor, the King of Saxony, and the numerous and glittering
+      staff, entered the field, and came down the line.</p>
+
+      <p>After the usual salutes, and marching past the centre, where
+      the royal carriages had taken their stand, the evolutions began.
+      They were few and simple, but of that order which is most
+      effective in the field. The formation of the line from the
+      sections; the general advance of the line; the halt, and a
+      running fire along the whole front; the breaking up of the line
+      into squares; the squares firing, then deploying into line, and
+      marching to the rear. The Queen, with the royal children, left
+      the ground before the firing began, The review was over at
+      half-past two. The appearance of the troops was admirable; the
+      manoeuvres were completely successful; and the fineness of the
+      day gave all the advantages of sun and landscape to this most
+      brilliant spectacle.</p>
+
+      <p>But the most characteristic portion of the display consisted
+      in the commanding-officers who attended, to give this unusual
+      mark of respect to the Emperor.</p>
+
+      <p>Wellington, the "conqueror of a hundred fights," rode at the
+      head of the grenadier guards, as their colonel Lord Combermere,
+      general of the cavalry in the Peninsula, rode at the head of his
+      regiment, the first life guards. The Marquis of Anglesey, general
+      of the cavalry at Waterloo, rode at the head of his regiment, the
+      royal horse guards. Sir George Murray, quartermaster-general in
+      the Peninsula, rode at the head of the artillery, as
+      master-general of the ordnance. His royal highness the Duke of
+      Cambridge rode at the head of his regiment, the Coldstream. His
+      royal highness Prince Albert rode at the head of his regiment,
+      the Scotch fusiliers. General Sir William Anson rode at the head
+      of his regiment, the forty-seventh. Lieutenant-Colonel Quentin
+      rode at the head of the seventeenth lancers, the colonel of the
+      regiment, Prince George of Cambridge, being in the Ionian
+      Islands. Thus, three field-marshals, and four generals, passed in
+      review before the illustrious guests of her Majesty. The Emperor
+      expressed himself highly gratified; as every eye accustomed to
+      troops must have been, by the admirable precision of the
+      movements, and the fine appearance of the men. A striking
+      instance of the value of railways for military operations, was
+      connected with this review. The forty-seventh regiment, quartered
+      in Gosport, was brought to Windsor in the morning, and sent back
+      in the evening of the review day; the journey, altogether, was
+      about 140 miles! Such are the miracles of machinery in our days.
+      This was certainly an extraordinary performance, when we
+      recollect that it was the conveyance of about 700 men; and shows
+      what might be done in case of any demand for the actual services
+      of the troops. But even this exploit will be eclipsed within a
+      few days, by the opening of the direct line from London to
+      Newcastle, which will convey troops, or any thing, 300 miles in
+      twelve hours. The next step will be to reach Edinburgh in a day!
+      <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg131" id="pg131">131</a></span>
+      The Emperor was observed to pay marked attention to the troops of
+      the line, the forty-seventh and the lancers; observing, as it is
+      said, "your household troops are noble fellows; but what I wished
+      particularly to see, were the troops with which you gained your
+      victories in India and China." A speech of this kind was worthy
+      of the sagacity of a man who knew where the true strength of a
+      national army lies, and who probably, besides, has often had his
+      glance turned to the dashing services of our soldiery in Asia.
+      The household troops of every nation are select men, and the most
+      showy which the country can supply. Thus they are nearly of equal
+      excellence. The infantry of ours, it is true, have been always
+      "fighting regiments"&mdash;the first in every expedition, and
+      distinguished for the gallantry of their conduct in every field.
+      The cavalry, though seldomer sent on foreign service, exhibited
+      pre-eminent bravery in the Peninsula, and their charges at
+      Waterloo were irresistible. But it is of the marching regiments
+      that the actual "army" consists, and their character forms the
+      character of the national arms.</p>
+
+      <p>In the evening the Emperor and the King of Saxony dined with
+      her Majesty at Windsor.</p>
+
+      <h3>THURSDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The royal party again drove to the Ascot course, and were
+      received with the usual acclamations. The Emperor and King were
+      in plain clothes, without decorations of any kind; Prince Albert
+      wore the Windsor uniform. The cheers were loud for
+      Wellington.</p>
+
+      <p>The gold cup, value three hundred guineas, was the principal
+      prize. Eight horses ran, and the cup was won by a colt of Lord
+      Albemarle's. His lordship is lucky, at least on the turf. He won
+      the cup at Ascot last year.</p>
+
+      <h3>FRIDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The royal party came to London by the railway. The Emperor
+      spent the chief part of the day in paying visits, in the Russian
+      ambassador's private carriage, to his personal
+      friends&mdash;chiefly the families of those noblemen who had been
+      ambassadors to Russia.</p>
+
+      <h3>SATURDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>The Emperor, the King, and Prince Albert, went to the Duke of
+      Devonshire's <i>dejeuner</i> at Chiswick. The Duke's mansion and
+      gardens are proverbial as evidences of his taste, magnificence,
+      and princely expenditure. All the nobility in London at this
+      period were present. The royal party were received with
+      distinguished attention by the noble host, and his hospitality
+      was exhibited in a style worthy of his guests and himself. While
+      the suite of <i>salons</i> were thrown open for the general
+      company, the royal party were received in a <i>salon</i> which
+      had been decorated as a Turkish tent. Bands of the guards played
+      in the gardens, a quadille band played in the ball-room, and the
+      fineness of the weather gave the last charm to a <i>fête</i>
+      prepared with equal elegance and splendour. We doubt whether
+      Europe can exhibit any open air festivity that can compete with a
+      <i>dejeuner</i> at Chiswick. The gardens of some of the
+      continental palaces are larger, but they want the finish of the
+      English garden. Their statues and decorations are sometimes fine;
+      but they want the perfect and exquisite neatness which gives an
+      especial charm to English horticulture. The verdure of the lawns,
+      the richness and variety of the flowers, and the general taste
+      displayed, in even the most minute and least ornamental features,
+      render the English garden wholly superior, in fitness and in
+      beauty, to the gardens of the continental sovereigns and
+      nobility.</p>
+
+      <p>In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian
+      opera. The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is
+      said that, in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box.
+      But whether this may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would
+      have been well worth paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in
+      the pit. After all, the majority of the spectators were
+      disappointed in their principal object, the view of the royal
+      party. They all sat far back in the box, and thus, to
+      three-fourths of the house, were completely invisible. In this
+      privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and which it would
+      have been so much wiser to have avoided, <span class=
+      "pagenum"><a name="pg132" id="pg132">132</a></span>the audience
+      were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be
+      sung. At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it.
+      A general response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose,
+      and God save the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus
+      broken, it was followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm,
+      rich, and bold composition. The Emperor was said to have shed
+      tears at the unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought
+      back the recollection of his country at so vast a distance from
+      home. But if these anthems had not been thus accidentally
+      performed, the royal party would have lost a much finer display
+      than any thing which they could have seen on the stage&mdash;the
+      rising of the whole audience in the boxes&mdash;all the
+      fashionable world in <i>gala</i>, in its youth, beauty, and
+      ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the
+      stage.</p>
+
+      <h3>SUNDAY.</h3>
+
+      <p>On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of
+      the Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked
+      at Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded
+      for the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down
+      the river under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich;
+      the day was serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel
+      as smooth as it was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of
+      the sailor with as much ease as he had done into those of the
+      soldier. He conversed good-humouredly with the officers and men,
+      admired the discipline and appearance of the marines, who had
+      been sent as his escort, was peculiarly obliging to Lord
+      Hardwicke and Lieutenant Peel, (a son of the premier,) and
+      ordered his dinner on deck, that he might enjoy the scenery on
+      the banks of the Thames. The medals of some of the marines who
+      had served in Syria, attracted his attention, and he enquired
+      into the nature of their services. He next expressed a wish to
+      see the manual exercise performed, which of course was done; and
+      his majesty, taking a musket, went through the Russian manual
+      exercise. On his arrival on the Dutch coast, the King of Holland
+      came out to meet him in a steamer; and on his landing, the
+      British crew parted with him with three cheers. The Imperial
+      munificence was large to a degree which we regret; for it would
+      be much more gratifying to the national feelings to receive those
+      distinguished strangers, without suffering the cravers for
+      subscriptions to intrude themselves into their presence.</p>
+
+      <p>On the Emperor's landing in Holland, he reviewed a large body
+      of Dutch troops, and had intended to proceed up the Rhine, and
+      enjoy the landscape of its lovely shores at his leisure. But for
+      him there is no leisure; and his project was broken up by the
+      anxious intelligence of the illness of one of his daughters by a
+      premature confinement. He immediately changed his route, and set
+      off at full speed for St Petersburg.</p>
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV.
+July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2004 [EBook #13719]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Leonard Johnson, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team and The Internet Library of Early Journals;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                          Edinburgh
+
+                          MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+                          VOL. LVI.
+
+                     JULY-DECEMBER, 1844.
+
+                      [Illustration]
+
+
+                           1844.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+             No. CCCXLV. JULY, 1844. VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+                            CONTENTS.
+
+
+      CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME
+      THE HEART OF THE BRUCE
+      MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+      THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS
+      POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. I.
+      MY FIRST LOVE.--A SKETCH IN NEW YORK
+      HYDRO-BACCHUS
+      MARTIN LUTHER.--AN ODE
+      TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. NO. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR
+      PORTUGAL
+      MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XII.
+      THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                         EDINBURGH:
+
+         WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
+                 AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+      To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.
+
+       SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+        PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                        BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                      EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+            No. CCCXLV.   JULY, 1844.   VOL. LVI.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF CRIME.
+
+
+If the past increase and present amount of crime in the British
+islands be alone considered, it must afford grounds for the most
+melancholy forebodings. When we recollect that since the year 1805,
+that is, during a period of less than forty years, in the course of
+which population has advanced about sixty-five _per cent_ in Great
+Britain and Ireland, crime in England has increased seven hundred per
+cent, in Ireland about eight hundred per cent, and in Scotland above
+_three thousand six hundred per cent_;[1] it is difficult to say what
+is destined to be the ultimate fate of a country in which the
+progress of wickedness is so much more rapid than the increase of the
+numbers of the people. Nor is the alarming nature of the prospect
+diminished by the reflection, that this astonishing increase in human
+depravity has taken place during a period of unexampled prosperity
+and unprecedented progress, during which the produce of the national
+industry had tripled, and the labours of the husbandman kept pace
+with the vast increase in the population they were to feed--in which
+the British empire carried its victorious arms into every quarter of
+the globe, and colonies sprang up on all sides with unheard-of
+rapidity--in which a hundred thousand emigrants came ultimately to
+migrate every year from the parent state into the new regions
+conquered by its arms, or discovered by its adventure. If this is the
+progress of crime during the days of its prosperity, what is it
+likely to become in those of its decline, when this prodigious vent
+for superfluous numbers has come to be in a great measure closed, and
+this unheard-of wealth and prosperity has ceased to gladden the land?
+
+[Footnote 1: See No. 343, _Blackwood's Magazine_, p. 534, Vol. lv.]
+
+To discover to what causes this extraordinary increase of crime is to
+be ascribed, we must first examine the localities in which it has
+principally arisen, and endeavour to ascertain whether it is to be
+found chiefly in the agricultural, pastoral, or manufacturing
+districts. We must then consider the condition of the labouring
+classes, and the means provided to restrain them in the quarters
+where the progress of crime has been most alarming; and inquire
+whether the existing evils are insurmountable and unavoidable, or
+have arisen from the supineness, the errors, and the selfishness of
+man. The inquiry is one of the most interesting which can occupy the
+thoughts of the far-seeing and humane; for it involves the temporal
+and eternal welfare of millions of their fellow-creatures;--it may
+well arrest the attention of the selfish, and divert for a few
+minutes the profligate from their pursuits; for on it depends whether
+the darling wealth of the former is to be preserved or destroyed, and
+the exciting enjoyments of the other arrested or suffered to
+continue.
+
+To elucidate the first of these questions, we subjoin a table,
+compiled from the Parliamentary returns, exhibiting the progress of
+serious crime in the principal counties, agricultural pastoral, and
+manufacturing, of the empire, during the last fifteen years. We are
+unwilling to load our pages with figures, and are well aware how
+distasteful they are to a large class of readers; and if those
+results were as familiar to others as they are to ourselves, we
+should be too happy to take them for granted, as they do first
+principles in the House of Commons, and proceed at once to the means
+of remedy. But the facts on this subject have been so often
+misrepresented by party or prejudice, and are in themselves so
+generally unknown, that it is indispensable to lay a foundation in
+authentic information before proceeding further in the inquiry. The
+greatest difficulty which those practically acquainted with the
+subject experience in such an investigation, is to make people
+believe their statements, even when founded on the most extensive
+practical knowledge, or the more accurate statistical inquiry. There
+is such a prodigious difference between the condition of mankind and
+the progress of corruption in the agricultural or pastoral, and
+manufacturing or densely peopled districts, that those accustomed to
+the former will not believe any statements made regarding the latter.
+They say they are incredible or exaggerated; that the persons who
+make them are _tetes montees_; that their ideas are very vague, and
+their suggestions utterly unworthy the consideration either of men of
+sense or of government. With such deplorable illusions does ignorance
+repel the suggestions of knowledge; theory, of experience;
+selfishness, of philanthropy; cowardice, of resolution. Thus nothing
+whatever is done to remedy or avert the existing evils: the districts
+not endangered unite as one man to resist any attempt to form a
+general system for the alleviation of misery or diminution of crime
+in those that are, and the preponderance of the unendangered
+districts in the legislature gives them the means of effectually
+doing so. The evils in the endangered districts are such, that it is
+universally felt they are beyond the reach of local remedy or
+alleviation. Thus, between the two, nothing whatever is done to
+arrest, or guard against, the existing or impending evils. Meanwhile,
+destitution, profligacy, sensuality, and crime, advance with
+unheard-of rapidity in the manufacturing districts, and the dangerous
+classes there massed together combine every three or four years in
+some general strike or alarming insurrection, which, while it lasts,
+excites universal terror, and is succeeded, when suppressed, by the
+same deplorable system of supineness, selfishness, and infatuation.
+
+[Footnote 2: Table showing the number of committments for serious
+crimes, and population, in the year 1841, in the under-mentioned
+counties of Great Britain;--
+
+  I.--PASTORAL.
+
+  Names of Counties. Population    Commitments        Proportion of
+                      in 1841.   for serious crime    committments
+                                     in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Cumberland,         178,038          151             1 in  1,194
+  Derby,              272,217          277             1 in    964
+  Anglesey,            50,891           13             1 in  3,900
+  Carnarvon,           81,093           33             1 in  2,452
+  Inverness-shire,     97,799          106             1 in    915
+  Selkirkshire,         7,990            4             1 in  1,990
+  Argyleshire,         97,371           96             1 in  1,010
+
+        Total,        785,399          680             1 in  1,155
+
+
+  II.-AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Shropshire,         239,048          416             1 in    574
+  Kent,               548,337          962             1 in    569
+  Norfolk,            412,664          666             1 in    518
+  Essex,              344,979          647             1 in    533
+  Northumberland,     250,278          226             1 in  1,106
+  East Lothian,        35,886           38             1 in    994
+  Perthshire,         137,390          116             1 in  1,181
+  Aberdeenshire,      192,387           92             1 in  2,086
+
+           Total,   2,160,969        3,163             1 in    682
+
+
+  III.-MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                                   Commitments        Proportion of
+                     Population  for serious crime    commitments
+  Names of Counties.  in 1841.       in 1841.         to population.
+
+  Middlesex,        1,576,636        3,586             1 in    439
+  Lancashire,       1,667,054        3,987             1 in    418
+  Staffordshire,      510,504        1,059             1 in    482
+  Yorkshire,        1,591,480        1,895             1 in    839
+  Glamorganshire,     171,188          189             1 in    909
+  Lanarkshire,        426,972          513             1 in    832
+  Renfrewshire        155,072          505             1 in    306
+  Forfarshire,        170,520          333             1 in    512
+
+           Total,   6,269,426       12,067             1 in    476
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, 1841, 163; and _Census_ 1841.]
+
+The table in the note exhibits the number of commitments for serious
+offences, with the population of each, of eight counties--pastoral,
+agricultural, and manufacturing--in Great Britain during the year
+1841[2]. We take the returns for that year, both because it was the
+year in which the census was taken, and because the succeeding year,
+1842, being the year of the great outbreak in England, and violent
+strike in Scotland, the figures, both in that and the succeeding
+year, may be supposed to exhibit a more unfavourable result for the
+manufacturing districts than a fair average of years. From this
+table, it appears that the vast preponderance of crime is to be found
+in the manufacturing or densely-peopled districts, and that the
+proportion per cent of commitments which they exhibit, as compared
+with the population, is generally three, often five times, what
+appears in the purely agricultural and pastoral districts. The
+comparative criminality of the agricultural, manufacturing, and
+pastoral districts is not to be considered as accurately measured by
+these returns, because so many of the agricultural counties,
+especially in England, are overspread with towns and manufactories or
+collieries. Thus Kent and Shropshire are justly classed with
+agricultural counties, though part of the former is in fact a suburb
+of London, and of the latter overspread with demoralizing coal mines.
+The entire want of any police force in some of the greatest
+manufacturing counties, as Lanarkshire, by permitting
+nineteen-twentieths of the crime to go unpunished, exhibits a far
+less amount of criminality than would be brought to light under a
+more vigilant system. But still there is enough in this table to
+attract serious and instructive attention. It appears that the
+average of seven pastoral counties exhibits an average of 1
+commitment for serious offences out of 1155 souls: of eight counties,
+partly agricultural and partly manufacturing, of 1 in 682: and of
+eight manufacturing and mining, of 1 in 476! And the difference
+between individual counties is still more remarkable, especially when
+counties purely agricultural or pastoral can be compared with those
+for the most part manufacturing or mining. Thus the proportion of
+commitment for serious crime in the pastoral counties of
+
+  Anglesey, is       1 in 3900
+  Carnarvon,         1 in 2452
+  Selkirk,           1 in 1990
+  Cumberland,        1 in 1194
+
+In the purely agricultural counties of
+
+  Aberdeenshire, is  1 in 2086
+  East-Lothian,      1 in  994
+  Northumberland,    1 in 1106
+  Perthshire,        1 in 1181
+
+While in the great manufacturing or mining counties of
+
+  Lancashire, is     1 in  418
+  Staffordshire,     1 in  482
+  Middlesex,         1 in  439
+  Yorkshire,         1 in  839
+  Lanarkshire,       1 in  832[3]
+  Renfrewshire,      1 in  306
+
+[Footnote 3: Lanarkshire has no police except in Glasgow, or its
+serious crime would be about 1 in 400, or 350.]
+
+Further, the statistical returns of crime demonstrate, not only that
+such is the present state of crime in the densely peopled and
+manufacturing districts, compared to what obtains in the agricultural
+or pastoral, but that the tendency of matters is still worse;[4] and
+that, great as has been the increase of population during the last
+thirty years in the manufacturing and densely peopled districts, the
+progress of crime has been still greater and more alarming. From the
+instructive and curious tables below, constructed from the criminal
+returns given in _Porter's Parliamentary Tables_, and the returns of
+the census taken in 1821, 1831, and 1841, it appears, that while in
+some of the purely pastoral counties, such as Selkirk and Anglesey,
+crime has remained during the last twenty years nearly stationary,
+and in some of the purely agricultural, such as Perth and Aberdeen,
+it has considerably _diminished_, in the agricultural and mining or
+manufacturing, such as Shropshire and Kent, it has _doubled_ during
+the same period: and in the manufacturing and mining districts, such
+as Lancashire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Renfrewshire, more than
+_tripled_ in the same time. It appears, from the same authentic
+sources of information, that the progress of crime during the last
+twenty years has been much more rapid in the manufacturing and
+densely peopled than in the simply densely peopled districts; for in
+Middlesex, during the last twenty years, population has advanced
+about fifty per cent, and serious crime has increased in nearly the
+same proportion, having swelled from 2480 to 3514: whereas in
+Lancashire, during the same period, population has advanced also
+fifty per cent, but serious crime has considerably _more than
+doubled_, having risen from 1716 to 3987.
+
+[Footnote 4: Table, showing the comparative population, and
+committals for serious crime, in the under-mentioned counties, in the
+years 1821, 1831, and 1841.
+
+  I.--PASTORAL
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Cumberland,     156,124     66    169,681     74    178,038    151
+  Derby,          213,333    105    237,070    202    272,217    277
+  Anglesey,        43,325     10     48,325      8     50,891     13
+  Carnarvon,       57,358     12     66,448     36     81,893     33
+  Inverness,       90,157    ...     94,797     35     97,799    106
+  Selkirk,          6,637    ...      6,833      2      7,990      4
+  Argyle,          97,316    ...    100,973     41     97,321     96
+
+
+  II.--AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING.
+
+                       1821.             1831.             1841.
+                   Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.     Pop.     Com.
+
+  Shropshire,     266,153    159    222,938    228    239,048    416
+  Kent,           426,916    492    479,155    640    548,337    962
+  Norfolk,        344,368    356    390,054    549    412,664    666
+  Essex,          289,424    303    317,507    607    344,979    647
+  Northumberland, 198,965     70    222,912    108    250,278    226
+  East Lothian,    35,127    ...     36,145     23     35,886     38
+  Perthshire,     139,050    ...    142,894    140    137,390    116
+  Aberdeenshire,  155,387    ...    177,657    161    192,387     92
+
+
+  III.--MANUFACTURING AND MINING.
+
+                        1821.             1831.             1841.
+                     Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.       Pop.   Com.
+
+  Middlesex,    1,144,531  2,480  1,358,330  3,514  1,576,636  3,586
+  Lancashire,   1,052,859  1,716  1,336,854  2,352  1,667,054  3,987
+  Staffordshire,  345,895    374    410,512    644    510,504  1,059
+  Yorkshire,      801,274    757    976,350  1,270  1,154,111  1,895
+  Glamorgan,      101,737     28    126,612    132    171,188    189
+  Lanark,         244,387    ...    316,849    470    426,972    513
+  Renfrew,        112,175    ...    133,443    205    155,072    505
+  Forfar,         113,430    ...    139,666    124    l70,520    333
+
+  --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables, and Census_ 1841.]
+
+Here, then, we are at length on firm ground in point of fact. Several
+writers of the liberal school who had a partiality for manufactures,
+because their chief political supporters were to be found among that
+class of society, have laboured hard to show that manufactures are
+noways detrimental either to health or morals; and that the mortality
+and crime of the manufacturing counties were in no respect greater
+than those of the pastoral or agricultural districts. The common
+sense of mankind has uniformly revolted against this absurdity, so
+completely contrary to what experience every where tells in a
+language not to be misunderstood; but it has now been completely
+disproved by the Parliamentary returns. The criminal statistics have
+exposed this fallacy as completely, in reference to the different
+degrees of depravity in different parts of the empire, as the
+registrar-general's returns have, in regard to the different degrees
+of salubrity in employments, and mortality in rural districts and
+manufacturing places. It now distinctly appears that crime is greatly
+more prevalent in proportion to the numbers of the people in densely
+peopled than thinly inhabited localities, and that it is making far
+more rapid progress in the former situation than the latter.
+Statistics are not to be despised when they thus, at once and
+decisively, disprove errors so assiduously spread, maintained by
+writers of such respectability, and supported by such large and
+powerful bodies in the state.
+
+Nor can it be urged with the slightest degree of foundation, that
+this superior criminality of the manufacturing and densely peopled
+districts is owing to a police force being more generally established
+than in the agricultural or pastoral, and thus crime being more
+thoroughly detected in the former situation than the latter. For, in
+the first place, in several of the greatest manufacturing counties,
+particularly Lanarkshire in Scotland, there is no police at all; and
+the criminal establishment is just what it was forty years ago. In
+the next place, a police force is the _consequence_ of a previous
+vast accumulation or crime, and is never established till the risk to
+life and insecurity to property had rendered it unbearable. Being
+always established by the voluntary assessment of the inhabitants,
+nothing can be more certain than that it never can be called into
+existence but by such an increase of crime as has rendered it a
+matter of necessity.
+
+We are far, however, from having approached the whole truth, if we
+have merely ascertained, upon authentic evidence, that crime is
+greatly more prevalent in the manufacturing than the rural districts.
+That will probably be generally conceded; and the preceding details
+have been given merely to show the extent of the difference, and the
+rapid steps which it is taking. It is more material to inquire what
+are the causes of this superior profligacy of manufacturing to rural
+districts; and whether it arises unavoidably from the nature of their
+respective employments, or is in some degree within the reach of
+human amendment or prevention.
+
+It is usual for persons who are not practically acquainted with the
+subject, to represent manufacturing occupations as necessarily and
+inevitably hurtful to the human mind. The crowding together, it is
+said, young persons, of different sexes and in great numbers, in the
+hot atmosphere and damp occupations of factories or mines, is
+necessarily destructive to morality, and ruinous to regularity of
+habit. The passions are excited by proximity of situation or indecent
+exposure; infant labour early emancipates the young from parental
+control; domestic subordination, the true foundation for social
+virtue, is destroyed; the young exposed to temptation before they
+have acquired strength to resist it; and vice spreads the more
+extensively from the very magnitude of the establishments on which
+the manufacturing greatness of the country depends. Such views are
+generally entertained by writers on the social state of the country;
+and being implicitly adopted by the bulk of the community, the nation
+has abandoned itself to a sort of despair on the subject, and
+regarding manufacturing districts as the necessary and unavoidable
+hotbed of crimes, strives only to prevent the spreading of the
+contagion into the rural parts of the country.
+
+There is certain degree of truth in these observations; but they are
+much exaggerated, and it is not in these causes that the principal
+sources of the profligacy of the manufacturing districts is to be
+found.
+
+The real cause of the demoralization of manufacturing towns is to be
+found, not in the nature of the employment which the people there
+receive, so much as in the manner in which they are brought together,
+the unhappy prevalence of general strikes, and the prodigious
+multitudes who are cast down by the ordinary vicissitudes of life, or
+the profligacy of their parents, into a situation of want,
+wretchedness, and despair.
+
+Consider how, during the last half century, the people have been
+brought together in the great manufacturing districts of England and
+Scotland. So rapid has been the progress of manufacturing industry
+during that period, that it has altogether out-stripped the powers of
+population in the districts where it was going forward, and
+occasioned a prodigious influx of persons from different and distant
+quarters, who have migrated from their paternal homes, and settled in
+the manufacturing districts, never to return.[5] Authentic evidence
+proves, that not less than _two millions_ of persons have, in this
+way, been transferred to the manufacturing counties of the north of
+England within the last forty years, chiefly from the agricultural
+counties of the south of that kingdom, or from Ireland. Not less than
+three hundred and fifty thousand persons have, during the same
+period, migrated into the two manufacturing counties of Lanark and
+Renfrew alone, in Scotland, chiefly from the Scotch Highlands, or
+north of Ireland. No such astonishing migration of the human species
+in so short a time, and to settle on so small a space, is on record
+in the whole annals of the world. It is unnecessary to say that the
+increase is to be ascribed chiefly, if not entirely, to immigration;
+for it is well known that such is the unhealthiness of manufacturing
+towns, especially to young children, that, so far from being able to
+add to their numbers, they are hardly ever able, without extraneous
+addition, to maintain them.
+
+[Footnote 5: Table showing the Population in 1801, 1891, and 1841, in
+the under-mentioned counties of Great Britain.
+
+                                                       Increase in
+                       1801       1821         1841    forty years.
+
+  Lancashire,         672,731   1,052,859   1,667,054     994,323
+  Yorkshire, W.R.,    565,282     801,274   1,154,101     588,819
+  Staffordshire,      233,153     343,895     510,504     277,351
+  Nottingham,         140,350     186,873     249,910     109,560
+  Warwick,            208,190     274,322     401,715     193,155
+  Gloucester,         250,809     335,843     431,383     180,574
+
+                    2,070,515   2,995,066   4,412,667   2,343,782
+
+
+  Lanark,             146,699     244,387     434,972     288,273
+  Renfrew,             78,056     112,175     155,072      77,016
+
+                      224,755     356,562     590,044     365,289
+
+  --_Census of_ 1841. Preface, p. 8 and 9.]
+
+Various causes have combined to produce demoralization among the vast
+crowd, thus suddenly attracted, by the alluring prospect of high
+wages and steady employment, from the rural to the manufacturing
+districts. In the first place, they acquired wealth before they had
+learned how to use it, and that is, perhaps, the most general cause
+of the rapid degeneracy of mankind. High wages flowed in upon them
+before they had acquired the artificial wants in the gratification of
+which they could be innocently spent. Thence the general recourse to
+the grosser and sensual enjoyments, which are powerful alike on the
+savage and the sage. Men who, in the wilds of Ireland or the
+mountains of Scotland, were making three or four shillings a-week, or
+in Sussex ten, suddenly found themselves, as cotton-spinners,
+iron-moulders, colliers, or mechanics, in possession of from twenty
+to thirty shillings. Meanwhile, their habits and inclinations had
+undergone scarce any alteration; they had no taste for comfort in
+dress, lodging, or furniture; and as to laying by money, the thing,
+of course, was not for a moment thought of. Thus, this vast addition
+to their incomes was spent almost exclusively on eating and drinking.
+The extent to which gross sensual enjoyment was thus spread among
+these first settlers in the regions of commercial opulence, is
+incredible. It is an ascertained fact, that above a million a-year is
+annually spent in Glasgow on ardent spirits;[6] and it has recently
+been asserted by a respectable and intelligent operative in
+Manchester, that, in that city, 750,000 _more_ is annually spent on
+beer and spirits, than on the purchase of provisions. Is it
+surprising that a large part of the progeny of a generation which has
+embraced such habits, should be sunk in sensuality and profligacy,
+and afford a never-failing supply for the prisons and transport
+ships? It is the counterpart of the sudden corruption which
+invariably overtakes northern conquerors, when they settle in the
+regions of southern opulence.
+
+[Footnote 6: ALISON _on Population_, ii. Appendix A.]
+
+Another powerful cause which promotes the corruption of men, when
+thus suddenly congregated together from different quarters in the
+manufacturing districts, is, that the restraints of character,
+relationship, and vicinity are, in a great measure, lost in the
+crowd. Every body knows what powerful influence public opinion, or
+the opinion of their relations, friends, and acquaintances, exercises
+on all men in their native seats, or when living for any length of
+time in one situation. It forms, in fact, next to religion, the most
+powerful restraint on vice, and excitement to virtue, that exists in
+the world. But when several hundred thousand of the working classes
+are suddenly huddled together in densely peopled localities, this
+invaluable check is wholly lost. Nay, what is worse, it is rolled
+over to the other side; and forms an additional incentive to
+licentiousness. The poor in these situations have no neighbours who
+care for them, or even know their names; but they are surrounded by
+multitudes who are willing to accompany them in the career of
+sensuality. They are unknown alike to each other, and to any persons
+of respectability or property in their vicinity. Philanthropy seeks
+in vain for virtue amidst thousands and tens of thousands of unknown
+names; charity itself is repelled by the hopelessness of all attempts
+to relieve the stupendous mass of destitution which follows in the
+train of such enormous accumulation of numbers. Every individual or
+voluntary effort is overlooked amidst the prodigious multitude, as it
+was in the Moscow campaign of Napoleon. Thus the most powerful
+restraints on human conduct--character, relations, neighbourhood--are
+lost upon mankind at the very time when their salutary influence is
+most required to enable them to withstand the increasing temptations
+arising from density of numbers and a vast increase of wages.
+Multitudes remove responsibility without weakening passion. Isolation
+ensures concealment without adding to resolution. This is the true
+cause of the more rapid deterioration of the character of the poor
+than the rich, when placed in such dense localities. The latter have
+a neighbourhood to watch them, because their station renders them
+conspicuous--the former have none. Witness the rapid and general
+corruption of the higher ranks, when they get away from such
+restraint, amidst the profligacy of New South Wales.
+
+In the foremost rank of the causes which demoralize the urban and
+mining population, we must place the frequency of those strikes which
+unhappily have now become so common as to be of more frequent
+occurrence than a wet season, even in our humid climate. During the
+last twenty years there have been six great strikes: viz. in 1826,
+1828, 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1844. All of these have kept multitudes
+of the labouring poor idle for months together. Incalculable is the
+demoralization thus produced upon the great mass of the working
+classes. We speak not of the actual increase of commitments during
+the continuance of a great strike, though that increase is so
+considerable that it in general augments them in a single year from
+thirty to fifty per cent.[7] We allude to the far more general and
+lasting causes of demoralization which arise from the arraying of one
+portion of the community in fierce hostility against another, the
+wretchedness which is spread among multitudes by months of compulsory
+idleness, and the not less ruinous effect of depriving them of
+_occupation_ during such protracted periods. When we recollect that
+such is the vehemence of party feeling produced by these disastrous
+combinations, that it so far obliterates all sense of right and wrong
+as generally to make their members countenance contumely and insult,
+sometimes even robbery, fire-raising, and murder, committed on
+innocent persons who are only striving to earn an honest livelihood
+for themselves by hard labour, but in opposition to the strike; and
+that it induces twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit
+obedience to the commands of an unknown committee, who have power to
+force them to do what the Sultan Mahmoud, or the Committee of Public
+Safety, never ventured to attempt--to abstain from labour, and endure
+want and starvation for months together, for an object of which they
+often in secret disapprove--it may be conceived how wide-spread and
+fatal is the confusion of moral principle, and habits of idleness and
+insubordination thus produced. Their effects invariably appear for a
+course of years afterwards, in the increased roll of criminal
+commitments, and the number of young persons of both sexes, who,
+loosened by these protracted periods of idleness, never afterwards
+regain habits of regularity and industry. Nor is the evil lessened by
+the blind infatuation with which it is uniformly regarded by the
+other classes of the community, and the obstinate resistance they
+make to all measures calculated to arrest the violence of these
+combinations, in consequence of the expense with which they would
+probably be attended--a supineness which, by leaving the coast
+constantly clear to the terrors of such associations, and promising
+impunity to their crimes, operates as a continual bounty on their
+recurrence.
+
+[Footnote 7:
+
+  Commitments:--
+            Lanarkshire.   Lancashire.   Staffordshire.   Yorkshire.
+  1836         451            2,265           686           1,252
+  1837[8]      565            2,809           909           1,376
+  1841         513            3,987         1,059           1,895
+  1842[9]      696            4,497         1,485           2,598
+
+  PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, xi. 162.--_Parl. Paper of Crime_,
+  1843, p. 53.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Strike.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Strike.]
+
+Infant labour, unhappily now so frequent in all kinds of factories,
+and the great prevalence of female workers, is another evil of a very
+serious kind in the manufacturing districts. We do not propose to
+enter into the question, recently so fiercely agitated in the
+legislature, as to the practicability of substituting a compulsory
+ten-hours' bill for the twelve hours' at present in operation.
+Anxious to avoid all topics on which there is a difference of opinion
+among able and patriotic men, we merely state this prevalence and
+precocity of juvenile labour in the manufacturing and mining
+districts as _a fact_ which all must deplore, and which is attended
+with the most unhappy effects on the rising generation. The great
+majority, probably nine-tenths, of all the workers in cotton-mills or
+printfields, are females. We have heard much of the profligacy and
+licentiousness which pervade such establishments; but though that may
+be too true in some cases, it is far from being universal, or even
+general; and there are numerous instances of female virtue being as
+jealously guarded and effectually preserved in such establishments,
+as in the most secluded rural districts. The real evils--and they
+follow universally from such employment of juvenile females in great
+numbers in laborious but lucrative employment--are the emancipation
+of the young from parental control, the temptation held out to
+idleness in the parents from the possibility of living on their
+children, and the disqualifying the girls for performing all the
+domestic duties of wives and mothers in after life.
+
+These evils are real, general, and of ruinous consequence. When
+children--from the age of nine or ten in some establishments, of
+thirteen or fourteen in all--are able to earn wages varying from 3s.
+6d. to 6s. a-week, they soon become in practice independent of
+parental control. The strongest of all securities for filial
+obedience--a sense of dependence--is destroyed. The children assert
+the right of self-government, because they bear the burden of
+self-maintenance. Nature, in the ordinary case, has effectually
+guarded against this premature and fatal emancipation of the young,
+by the protracted period of weakness during childhood and
+adolescence, which precludes the possibility of serious labour being
+undertaken before the age when a certain degree of mental firmness
+has been acquired. But the steam-engine, amidst its other marvels,
+has entirely destroyed, within the sphere of its influence, this
+happy and necessary exemption of infancy from labour. Steam is the
+moving power; it exerts the strength; the human machine is required
+only to lift a web periodically, or damp a roller, or twirl a film
+round the finger, to which the hands of infancy are as adequate as
+those of mature age. Hence the general employment of children, and
+especially girls, in such employments. They are equally serviceable
+as men or women, and they are more docile, cheaper, and less given to
+strikes. But as these children earn their own subsistence, they soon
+become rebellious to parental authority, and exercise the freedom of
+middle life as soon as they feel its passions, and before they have
+acquired its self-control.
+
+If the effect of such premature emancipation of the young is hurtful
+to them, it is, if possible, still more pernicious to their parents.
+Labour is generally irksome to man; it is seldom persevered in after
+the period of its necessity has passed. When parents find that, by
+sending three or four children out to the mills or into the mines,
+they can get eighteen or twenty shillings a-week without doing any
+thing themselves, they soon come to abridge the duration and cost of
+education, in order to accelerate the arrival of the happy period
+when they may live on their offspring, not their offspring on them.
+Thus the purest and best affections of the heart are obliterated on
+the very threshold of life. That best school of disinterestedness and
+virtue, the _domestic hearth_, where generosity and self-control are
+called forth in the parents, and gratitude and affection in the
+children, from the very circumstance of the dependence of the latter
+on the former, is destroyed. It is worse than destroyed, it is made
+the parent of wickedness: it exists, but it exists only to nourish
+the selfish and debasing passions. Children come to be looked on, not
+as objects of affection, but as instruments of gain; not as forming
+the first duty of life and calling forth its highest energies, but as
+affording the first means of relaxing from labour, and permitting a
+relapse into indolence and sensuality. The children are, practically
+speaking, sold for slaves, and--oh! unutterable horror!--_the sellers
+are their own parents_! Unbounded is the demoralization produced by
+this monstrous perversion of the first principles of nature. Thence
+it is that it is generally found, that all the beneficent provisions
+of the legislature for the protection of infant labour are so
+generally evaded, as to render it doubtful whether any law, how
+stringent soever, could protect them. The reason is apparent. The
+parents of the children are the chief violators of the law; for the
+sake of profit they send them out, the instant they can work, to the
+mills or the mines. Those whom nature has made their protectors, have
+become their oppressors. The thirst for idleness, intoxication, or
+sensuality, has turned the strongest of the generous, into the most
+malignant of the selfish passions.
+
+The habits acquired by such precocious employment of young women, are
+not less destructive of their ultimate utility and respectability in
+life. Habituated from their earliest years to one undeviating
+mechanical employment, they acquire great skill in it, but grow up
+utterly ignorant of any thing else. We speak not of ignorance of
+reading or writing, but of ignorance in still more momentous
+particulars, with reference to their usefulness in life as wives and
+mothers. They can neither bake nor brew, wash nor iron, sew nor knit.
+The finest London lady is not more utterly inefficient than they are,
+for any other object but the one mechanical occupation to which they
+have been habituated. They can neither darn a stocking nor sew on a
+button. As to making porridge or washing a handkerchief, the thing is
+out of the question. Their food is cooked out of doors by persons who
+provide the lodging-houses in which they dwell--they are clothed from
+head to foot, like fine ladies, by milliners and dressmakers. This is
+not the result of fashion, caprice, or indolence, but of the entire
+concentration of their faculties, mental and corporeal, from their
+earliest years, in one limited mechanical object. They are unfit to
+be any man's wife--still more unfit to be any child's mother. We hear
+little of this from philanthropists or education-mongers; but it is,
+nevertheless, not the least, because the most generally diffused,
+evil connected with our manufacturing industry.
+
+But by far the greatest cause of the mass of crime of the
+manufacturing and mining districts of the country, is to be found in
+the prodigious number of persons, especially in infancy, who are
+reduced to a state of destitution, and precipitated into the very
+lowest stations of life, in consequence of the numerous ills to which
+all flesh--but especially all flesh in manufacturing communities--is
+heir. Our limits preclude the possibility of entering into all the
+branches of this immense subject; we shall content ourselves,
+therefore, with referring to one, which seems of itself perfectly
+sufficient to explain the increase of crime, which at first sight
+appears so alarming. This is the immense proportion of _destitute
+widows with families_, who in such circumstances find themselves
+immovably fixed in places where they can neither bring up their
+children decently, nor get away to other and less peopled localities.
+
+From the admirable statistical returns of the condition of the
+labouring poor in France, prepared for the _Bureau de l'Interieure_,
+it appears that the number of widows in that country amounts to the
+enormous number of 1,738,000.[10] This, out of a population now of
+about 34,000,000, is as nearly as possible _one in twenty_ of the
+entire population! Population is advancing much more rapidly in Great
+Britain than France; for in the former country it is doubling in
+about 60 years, in the latter in 106. It is certain, therefore, that
+the proportion of widows must be greater in this country than in
+France, especially in the manufacturing districts, where early
+marriages, from the ready employment for young children, are so
+frequent; and early deaths, from the unhealthiness of employment or
+contagious disorders, are so common. But call the proportion the
+same: let it be taken at a twentieth part of the existing population.
+At this rate, the two millions of strangers who, during the last
+forty years, have been thrown into the four northern counties of
+Lancaster, York, Stafford, and Warwick, must contain at this moment
+_a hundred thousand widows_. The usual average of a family is two and
+a half children--call it two only. There will thus be found to be
+200,000 children belonging to these 100,000 widows. It is hardly
+necessary to say, that the great majority, probably four-fifths of
+this immense body, must be in a state of destitution. We know in what
+state the fatherless and widows are in their affliction, and who has
+commanded us to visit them. On the most moderate calculation,
+250,000, or an eighth of the whole population, must be in a state of
+poverty and privation. And in Scotland, where, during the same period
+of forty years, 350,000 strangers have been suddenly huddled together
+on the banks of the Clyde, the proportion may be presumed to be the
+same; or, in other words, _thirty thousand_ widows and orphans are
+constantly there in a state deserving of pity, and requiring support,
+hardly any of whom receive more from the parish funds than _a
+shilling a-week_, even for the maintenance of a whole family.
+
+The proportion of widows and orphans to the entire population, though
+without doubt in some degree aggravated by the early marriages and
+unhealthy employments incident to manufacturing districts, may be
+supposed to be not materially different in one age, or part of the
+country, from another. The widow and the orphan, as well as the poor,
+will be always with us; but the peculiar circumstance which renders
+their condition so deplorable in the dense and suddenly peopled
+manufacturing districts is, that the poor have been brought together
+in such prodigious numbers that all the ordinary means of providing
+for the relief of such casualties fails; while the causes of
+mortality among them are periodically so fearful, as to produce a
+vast and sudden increase of the most destitute classes altogether
+outstripping all possible means of local or voluntary relief. During
+the late typhus fever in Glasgow, in the years 1836 and 1837, above
+30,000 of the poor took the epidemic, of whom 3300 died.[11] In the
+first eight months of 1843 alone, 32,000 persons in Glasgow were
+seized with fever.[12] Out of 1000 families, at a subsequent period,
+visited by the police, in conjunction with the visitors for the
+distribution of the great fund raised by subscription in 1841, 680
+were found to be widows, who, with their families, amounted to above
+2000 persons all in the most abject state of wretchedness and
+want.[13] On so vast a scale do the causes of human destruction and
+demoralization act, when men are torn up from their native seats by
+the irresistible magnet of commercial wealth, and congregated
+together in masses, resembling rather the armies of Timour and
+Napoleon than any thing else ever witnessed in the transactions of
+men.
+
+[Footnote 10: _Statistique de la France, publiee par le
+Gouvernement_, viii. 371-4. A most splendid work.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Fever patients, Glasgow, 1836, 37.
+
+             Fever patients.    Died.
+  1836, . .    10,092        .  1187
+  1837, . .    21,800        .  2180
+               ------           ----
+               31,892           3367
+
+--COWAN'S _Vital Statistics of Glasgow_, 1388, p 8, the work of a
+most able and meritorious medical gentleman now no more.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Dr Alison on the Epidemic of 1843, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Captain Millar's Report, 1841, p. 8.]
+
+Here, then, is the great source of demoralization, destitution, and
+crime in the manufacturing districts. It arises from the sudden
+congregation of human beings in such fearful multitudes together,
+that all the usual alleviations of human suffering, or modes of
+providing for human indigence, entirely fail. We wonder at the rapid
+increase of crime in the manufacturing districts, forgetting that a
+squalid mass of two or three hundred thousand human beings are
+constantly precipitated to the bottom of society in a few counties,
+in such circumstances of destitution that recklessness and crime
+arise naturally, it may almost be said unavoidably, amongst them. And
+it is in the midst of such gigantic causes of evil--of causes arising
+from the extraordinary and unparalleled influx of mankind into the
+manufacturing districts during the last forty years, which can bear a
+comparison to nothing but the collection of the host with which
+Napoleon invaded Russia, or Timour and Genghis Khan desolated
+Asia--that we are gravely told that it is to be arrested by education
+and moral training; by infant schools and shortened hours of labour;
+by multiplication of ministers and solitary imprisonment! All these
+are very good things; each in its way is calculated to do a certain
+amount of good; and their united action upon the whole will
+doubtless, in process of time, produce some impression upon the
+aspect of society, even in the densely peopled manufacturing
+districts. As to their producing any immediate effect, or in any
+sensible degree arresting the prodigious amount of misery,
+destitution, and crime which pervades them, you might as well have
+tried, by the schoolmaster, to arrest the horrors of the Moscow
+retreat.
+
+That the causes which have now been mentioned are the true sources of
+the rapid progress of crime and general demoralization of our
+manufacturing and mining districts, must be evident to all from this
+circumstance, well known to all who are practically conversant with
+the subject, but to a great degree unattended to by the majority of
+men, and that is,--that the prodigious stream of depravity and
+corruption which prevails, is far from being equally and generally
+diffused through society, even in the densely peopled districts where
+it is most alarming, but is in a great degree confined to the _very
+lowest class_. It is from that lowest class that nine-tenths of the
+crime, and nearly all the professional crime, which is felt as so
+great an evil in society, flows. Doubtless in all classes there are
+some wicked, many selfish and inhumane men; and a beneficent Deity,
+in the final allotment of rewards and punishments, will take largely
+into account both the opportunities of doing well which the better
+classes have abused, and the almost invincible causes which so often
+chain, as it were, the destitute to recklessness and crime. But
+still, in examining the classes of society on which the greater part
+of the crime comes, it will be found that at least three-fourths,
+probably nine-tenths, comes from the very lowest and the most
+destitute. It is incorrect to say crime is common among them; in
+truth, among the young at least, a tendency to it is there all but
+universal. If we examine who it is that compose this dismal
+substratum, this hideous _black band of society_, we shall find that
+it is not made up of any one class more than another--not of factory
+workers more than labourers, carters, or miners--but is formed by an
+aggregate of the most unfortunate or improvident of _all classes_,
+who, variously struck down from better ways by disease, vice, or
+sensuality, are now of necessity huddled together by tens of
+thousands in the dens of poverty, and held by the firm bond of
+necessity in the precincts of contagion and crime. Society in such
+circumstances resembles the successive bands of which the imagination
+of Dante has framed the infernal regions, which contain one
+concentric circle of horrors and punishments within another, until,
+when you arrive at the bottom, you find one uniform mass of crime,
+blasphemy and suffering.
+
+We are persuaded there is no person practically acquainted with the
+causes of immorality and crime in the manufacturing districts, who
+will not admit that these are the true ones; and that the others,
+about which so much is said by theorists and philanthropists, though
+not without influence, are nevertheless trifling in the balance. And
+what we particularly call the public attention to is this--Suppose
+all the remedies which theoretical writers or practical legislators
+have put forth and recommended, as singly adequate to remove the
+evils of the manufacturing classes, were to be in _united_ operation,
+they would still leave these gigantic causes of evil untouched. Let
+Lord Ashley obtain from a reluctant legislature his ten-hours' bill,
+and Dr Chalmers have a clergyman established for every 700
+inhabitants; let church extension be pushed till there is a chapel in
+every village, and education till there is a school in every street;
+let the separate system be universal in prisons, and every criminal
+be entirely secluded from vicious contamination; still the great
+fountains of evil will remain unclosed; still 300,000 widows and
+orphans will exist in a few counties of England amidst a newly
+collected and strange population, steeped in misery themselves, and
+of necessity breeding up their children in habits of destitution and
+depravity; still the poor will be deprived, from the suddenness of
+their collection, and the density of their numbers, of any effective
+control, either from private character or the opinion of
+neighbourhood; still individual passion will be inflamed, and
+individual responsibility lost amidst multitudes; still strikes will
+spread their compulsory idleness amidst tens of thousands, and
+periodically array the whole working classes under the banners of
+sedition, despotism, and murder; still precocious female labour will
+at once tempt parents into idleness in middle life, and disqualify
+children, in youth, for household or domestic duties. We wish well to
+the philanthropists: we are far from undervaluing either the
+importance or the utility of their labours; but as we have hitherto
+seen no diminution of crime whatever from their efforts, so we
+anticipate a very slow and almost imperceptible improvement in
+society from their exertions.
+
+Strong, and in many respects just, pictures of the state of the
+working classes in the manufacturing districts, have been lately put
+forth, and the _Perils of the Nation_ have, with reason, been thought
+to be seriously increased by them. Those writers, however, how
+observant and benevolent soever, give a partial, and in many respects
+fallacious view, of the _general_ aspect of society. After reading
+their doleful accounts of the general wretchedness, profligacy, and
+licentiousness of the working classes, the stranger is astonished, on
+travelling through England, to behold green fields and smiling
+cottages on all sides; to see in every village signs of increasing
+comfort, in every town marks of augmented wealth, and the aspect of
+poverty almost banished from the land. Nay, what is still more
+gratifying, the returns of the sanatary condition of the whole
+population, though still exhibiting a painful difference between the
+health and chances of life in the rural and manufacturing districts,
+present unequivocal proof of a general amelioration of the chances of
+life, and, consequently, of the general wellbeing of the whole
+community.
+
+How are these opposite statements and appearances to be reconciled?
+Both are true--the reconciliation is easy. The misery, recklessness,
+and vice exist chiefly in one class--the industry, sobriety, and
+comfort in another. Each observer tells truly what he sees in his own
+circle of attention; he does not tell what, nevertheless, exists, and
+exercises a powerful influence on society, of the good which exists
+in the other classes. If the evils detailed in Lord Ashley's
+speeches, and painted with so much force in the _Perils of the
+Nation_, were universal, or even general, society could not hold
+together for a week. But though these evils are great, sometimes
+overwhelming in particular districts, they are far from being
+general. Nothing effectual has yet been done to arrest them in the
+localities or communities where they arise; but they do not spread
+much beyond them. The person engaged in the factories are stated by
+Lord Ashley to be between four and five hundred thousand: the
+population of the British islands is above 27,000,000. It is in the
+steadiness, industry, and good conduct of a large proportion of this
+immense majority that the security is to be found. Observe that
+industrious and well-doing majority; you would suppose there is no
+danger:--observe the profligate and squalid minority; you would
+suppose there is no hope.
+
+At present about 60,000 persons are annually committed, in the
+British islands, for serious offences[14] worthy of deliberate trial,
+and above double that number for summary or police offences. A
+hundred and eighty thousand persons annually fall under the lash of
+the criminal law, and are committed for longer or shorter periods to
+places of confinement for punishment. The number is prodigious--it is
+frightful. Yet it is in all only about 1 in 120 of the population;
+and from the great number who are repeatedly committed during the
+same year, the individuals punished are not 1 in 200. Such as they
+are, it may safely be affirmed that four-fifths of this 180,000 comes
+out of two or three millions of the community. We are quite sure that
+150,000 come from 3,000,000 of the lowest and most squalid of the
+empire, and not 30,000 from the remaining 24,000,000 who live in
+comparative comfort. This consideration is fitted both to encourage
+hope and awaken shame--hope, as showing from how small a class in
+society the greater part of the crime comes, and to how limited a
+sphere the remedies require to be applied; shame, as demonstrating
+how disgraceful has been the apathy, selfishness, and supineness in
+the other more numerous and better classes, around whom the evil has
+arisen, but who seldom interfere, except to RESIST all measures
+calculated for its removal.
+
+It is to this subject--the ease with which the extraordinary and
+unprecedented increase of crime in the empire might be arrested by
+proper means and the total inefficiency of all the remedies hitherto
+attempted, from the want of practical knowledge on the part of those
+at the head of affairs, and an entirely false view of human nature in
+society generally, that we shall direct the attention of our readers
+in a future Number.
+
+[Footnote 14: Viz., in round numbers--
+
+  England,    30,000
+  Ireland,    26,000
+  Scotland,    4,000
+              60,000]
+
+
+
+
+THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.
+
+A BALLAD.
+
+
+  It was upon an April morn
+    While yet the frost lay hoar,
+  We heard Lord James's bugle-horn
+    Sound by the rocky shore.
+
+  Then down we went, a hundred knights,
+    All in our dark array,
+  And flung our armour in the ships
+    That rode within the bay.
+
+  We spoke not as the shore grew less,
+    But gazed in silence back,
+  Where the long billows swept away
+    The foam behind our track.
+
+  And aye the purple hues decay'd
+    Upon the fading hill,
+  And but one heart in all that ship
+    Was tranquil, cold, and still.
+
+  The good Earl Douglas walk'd the deck,
+    And oh, his brow was wan!
+  Unlike the flush it used to wear
+    When in the battle van.--
+
+  "Come hither, come hither, my trusty knight,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee;
+  There is a freit lies near my soul
+    I fain would tell to thee.
+
+  "Thou knowest the words King Robert spoke
+    Upon his dying day,
+  How he bade me take his noble heart
+    And carry it far away:
+
+  "And lay it in the holy soil
+    Where once the Saviour trod,
+  Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,
+    Nor strike one blow for God.
+
+  "Last night as in my bed I lay,
+    I dream'd a dreary dream:--
+  Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand
+    In the moonlight's quivering beam.
+
+  "His robe was of the azure dye,
+    Snow-white his scatter'd hairs,
+  And even such a cross he bore
+    As good Saint Andrew bears.
+
+  "'Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,
+    'With spear and belted brand?
+  Why do ye take its dearest pledge
+    From this our Scottish land?
+
+  "'The sultry breeze of Galilee
+    Creeps through its groves of palm,
+  The olives on the Holy Mount
+    Stand glittering in the calm.
+
+  "'But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart
+    Shall rest by God's decree,
+  Till the great angel calls the dead
+    To rise from earth and sea!
+
+  "'Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede
+    That heart shall pass once more
+  In fiery fight against the foe,
+    As it was wont of yore.
+
+  "'And it shall pass beneath the Cross,
+    And save King Robert's vow,
+  But other hands shall bear it back,
+    Not, James of Douglas, thou!'
+
+  "Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray,
+    Sir Simon of the Lee--
+  For truer friend had never man
+    Than thou hast been to me--
+
+  "If ne'er upon the Holy Land
+    'Tis mine in life to tread,
+  Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth
+    The relics of her dead."
+
+  The tear was in Sir Simon's eye
+    As he wrung the warrior's hand--
+  "Betide me weal, betide me woe,
+    I'll hold by thy command.
+
+  "But if in battle front, Lord James,
+    'Tis ours once more to ride,
+  Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend,
+    Shall cleave me from thy side!"
+
+  And aye we sail'd, and aye we sail'd,
+    Across the weary sea,
+  Until one morn the coast of Spain
+    Rose grimly on our lee.
+
+  And as we rounded to the port,
+    Beneath the watch-tower's wall,
+  We heard the clash of the atabals,
+    And the trumpet's wavering call.
+
+  "Why sounds yon Eastern music here
+    So wantonly and long,
+  And whose the crowd of armed men
+    That round yon standard throng?'
+
+  "The Moors have come from Africa
+    To spoil and waste and slay,
+  And Pedro, King of Arragon,
+    Must fight with them to-day."
+
+  "Now shame it were," cried good Lord James,
+    "Shall never be said of me,
+   That I and mine have turn'd aside,
+    From the Cross in jeopardie!
+
+  "Have down, have down my merry men all--
+    Have down unto the plain;
+   We'll let the Scottish lion loose
+    Within the fields of Spain!"--
+
+  "Now welcome to me, noble lord,
+    Thou and thy stalwart power;
+   Dear is the sight of a Christian knight
+    Who comes in such an hour!
+
+  "Is it for bond or faith ye come,
+    Or yet for golden fee?
+  Or bring ye France's lilies here,
+    Or the flower of Burgundie?'
+
+  "God greet thee well, thou valiant King,
+    Thee and thy belted peers--
+  Sir James of Douglas am I call'd,
+    And these are Scottish spears.
+
+  "We do not fight for bond or plight,
+    Nor yet for golden fee;
+  But for the sake of our blessed Lord,
+    That died Upon the tree.
+
+  "We bring our great King Robert's heart
+    Across the weltering wave,
+  To lay it in the holy soil
+    Hard by the Saviour's grave.
+
+  "True pilgrims we, by land or sea,
+    Where danger bars the way;
+  And therefore are we here, Lord King,
+    To ride with thee this day!"
+
+  The King has bent his stately head,
+    And the tears were in his eyne--
+  "God's blessing on thee, noble knight,
+    For this brave thought of thine!
+
+  "I know thy name full well, Lord James,
+    And honour'd may I be,
+  That those who fought beside the Bruce
+    Should fight this day for me!
+
+  "Take thou the leading of the van,
+    And charge the Moors amain;
+  There is not such a lance as thine
+    In all the host of Spain!"
+
+  The Douglas turned towards us then,
+    Oh, but his glance was high!--
+  "There is not one of all my men
+    But is as bold as I.
+
+  "There is not one of all my knights
+    But bears as true a spear--
+  Then onwards! Scottish gentlemen,
+    And think--King Robert's here!"
+
+  The trumpets blew, the cross-bolts flew,
+    The arrows flash'd like flame,
+  As spur in side, and spear in rest,
+    Against the foe we came.
+
+  And many a bearded Saracen
+    Went down, both horse and man;
+  For through their ranks we rode like corn,
+    So furiously we ran!
+
+  But in behind our path they closed,
+    Though fain to let us through,
+  For they were forty thousand men,
+    And we were wondrous few.
+
+  We might not see a lance's length,
+    So dense was their array,
+  But the long fell sweep of the Scottish blade
+    Still held them hard at bay.
+
+  "Make in! make in!" Lord Douglas cried,
+    "Make in, my brethren dear!
+  Sir William of St Clair is down,
+    We may not leave him here!"
+
+  But thicker, thicker, grew the swarm,
+    And sharper shot the rain,
+  And the horses rear'd amid the press,
+    But they would not charge again.
+
+  "Now Jesu help thee," said Lord James,
+    "Thou kind and true St Clair!
+  An' if I may not bring thee off,
+    I'll die beside thee there!"
+
+  Then in his stirrups up he stood,
+    So lionlike and bold,
+  And held the precious heart aloft
+    All in its case of gold.
+
+  He flung it from him, far ahead,
+    And never spake he more,
+  But--"Pass thee first, thou dauntless heart,
+    As thou were wont of yore!"
+
+  The roar of fight rose fiercer yet,
+    And heavier still the stour,
+  Till the spears of Spain came shivering in
+    And swept away the Moor.
+
+  "Now praised be God, the day is won!
+    They fly o'er flood and fell--
+  Why dost thou draw the rein so hard,
+    Good knight, that fought so well?"
+
+  "Oh, ride ye on, Lord King!" he said,
+    "And leave the dead to me,
+  For I must keep the dreariest watch
+    That ever I shall dree!
+
+  "There lies beside his master's heart
+    The Douglas, stark and grim;
+  And woe is me I should be here,
+    Not side by side with him!
+
+  "The world grows cold, my arm is old,
+    And thin my lyart hair,
+  And all that I loved best on earth
+    Is stretch'd before me there.
+
+  "O Bothwell banks! that bloom so bright,
+    Beneath the sun of May,
+  The heaviest cloud that ever blew
+    Is bound for you this day.
+
+  "And, Scotland, thou may'st veil thy head
+    In sorrow and in pain;
+  The sorest stroke upon thy brow
+    Hath fallen this day in Spain!
+
+  "We'll bear them back into our ship,
+    We'll bear them o'er the sea,
+  And lay them in the hallow'd earth,
+    Within our own countrie.
+
+  "And be thou strong of heart, Lord King,
+    For this I tell thee sure,
+  The sod that drank the Douglas' blood
+    Shall never bear the Moor!"
+
+  The King he lighted from his horse,
+    He flung his brand away,
+  And took the Douglas by the hand,
+    So stately as he lay.
+
+  "God give thee rest, thou valiant soul,
+    That fought so well for Spain;
+  I'd rather half my land were gone,
+    So thou wert here again!"
+
+  We bore the good Lord James away,
+    And the priceless heart he bore,
+  And heavily we steer'd our ship
+    Towards the Scottish shore.
+
+  No welcome greeted our return,
+    Nor clang of martial tread,
+  But all were dumb and hush'd as death
+    Before the mighty dead.
+
+  We laid the Earl in Douglas Kirk,
+    The heart in fair Melrose;
+  And woful men were we that day--
+    God grant their souls repose!
+                               W.E.A.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+THE MUSEUM OF PALERMO.
+
+
+The museum of Palermo is a small but very interesting collection of
+statues and other sculpture, gathered chiefly, they say, from the
+ancient temples of Sicily, with a few objects bestowed out of the
+superfluities of Pompeii. In the lower room are some good
+bas-reliefs, to which a story is attached. They were discovered
+fifteen years ago at _Selinuntium_ by some young Englishmen, the
+reward of four months' labour. Our guide, who had been also theirs,
+had warned them not to stay after the month of June, when malaria
+begins. They did stay. All (four) took the fever; one died of it in
+Palermo, and the survivors were deprived by the government--that is,
+by the king--of the spoils for which they had suffered so much and
+worked so hard. No one is permitted to excavate without royal
+license; _excavation_ is, like _Domitian's fish, res fisci_. Even Mr
+Fagan, who was consul at Palermo, having made some interesting
+underground discoveries, was deprived of them. We saw here a fine
+Esculapius, in countenance and expression exceedingly like the _Ecce
+Homo_ of Leonardo da Vinci, with all that god-like compassion which
+the great painter had imparted without any sacrifice of dignity. He
+holds a poppy-head, which we do not recollect on his statue or gems,
+and the Epidaurian snake is at his side. Up-stairs we saw specimens
+of fruits from Pompeii, barley, beans, the carob pod, pine kernels,
+as well as bread, sponge, linen: and the sponge was obviously such,
+and so was the linen. A bronze Hercules treading on the back of a
+stag, which he has overtaken and subdued, is justly considered as one
+of the most perfect bronzes discovered at Pompeii. A head of our
+Saviour, by Corregio, is exquisite in conception, and such as none
+but a person long familiar with the physiognomy of suffering could
+have accomplished. These are exceptions rather than specimens. The
+pictures, in general, are poor in interest; and a long gallery of
+_casts_ of the _chef-d'oeuvres_ of antiquity possessed by the
+capitals of Italy, Germany, England, and France, looks oddly here,
+and shows the poverty of a country which had been to the predatory
+proconsuls of Rome an inexhaustible repertory of the highest
+treasures of art. A VERRES REDIVIVUS would now find little to carry
+off but toys made of amber, lava snuff-boxes, and WODEHOUSE'S
+MARSALA--one of which he certainly would not guess the _age_ of, and
+the other of which he would not _drink_.
+
+
+LUNATIC ASYLUM.
+
+We saw nothing in this house or its arrangements to make us think it
+superior, or very different from others we had visited elsewhere. The
+making a lunatic asylum a show-place for strangers is to be censured;
+indeed, we heard Esquirol observe, that nothing was so bad as the
+admission of many persons to see the patients at all; for that,
+although some few were better for the visits of friends, it was
+injurious as a general rule to give even friends admittance, and that
+it ought to be left discretionary with the physician, _when_ to
+admit, and _whom_. Cleanliness, good fare, a garden, and the
+suppression of all violence--these have become immutable canons for
+the conduct of such institutions, and fortunately demand little more
+than ordinary good feeling and intelligence in the superintendent.
+But we could not fail to observe a sad want of suitable inducement to
+_occupation_, which was apparent throughout this asylum. That not
+above one in ten could read, may perhaps be thought a light matter,
+for few can be the resources of insanity in books; yet we saw at
+_Genoa_ a case where it had taken that turn, and as it is occupation
+to read, with how much profit it matters not. Not one woman in four,
+as usually occurs in insanity, could be induced to _dress according
+to her sex_; they figured away in men's coats and hats! The
+dining-room was hung with portraits of some merit, by one of the
+lunatics; and we noticed that every face, if indeed all are
+_portraits_, had some insanity in it. They have a dance every Sunday
+evening. What an exhibition it must be!
+
+
+MISCELLANEA
+
+That the vegetation of Palermo excels that of Naples, partly depends
+on the superior intelligence of the agriculturist, and partly upon
+soil and climate: the fruits here are not only more advanced, but
+finer in quality. We left a very meagre dessert of cherries beginning
+to ripen at Naples; the very next day, a superabundance of very fine
+and mature ones were to be had on all the stalls of Palermo. This
+must be the result of industry and care in a great measure; for on
+leaving that city, after a _sejour_ of three weeks, for Messina,
+Catania, and Syracuse, although summer was much further advanced, we
+relapsed into miserably meagre supplies of what we had eaten in
+perfection in the capital; yet Syracuse and Catania are much warmer
+than Palermo.
+
+The vegetables here are of immense growth. The fennel root (and there
+is no better test of your whereabouts in Italy) is nearly twice as
+large as at Naples, and weighs, accordingly, nearly double. The
+cauliflowers are quite colossal; and they have a blue cabbage so big
+that your arms will scarcely embrace it. We question, however,
+whether this hypertrophy of fruit or vegetables improves their
+flavour; give us _English vegetables_--ay, and _English fruit_.
+Though Smyrna's _fig_ is eaten throughout Europe, and Roman _brocoli_
+be without a rival; though the _cherry_ and the Japan _medlar_
+flourish only at Palermo, and the _cactus_ of Catania can be eaten
+nowhere else; what country town in England is not better off on the
+whole, if quality alone be considered? But we have one terrible
+drawback; for _whom_ are these fruits of the earth produced? Our
+_prices_ are enormous, and our supply scanty; could we _forget this_,
+and the artichoke, the asparagus, the peas and beans of London and
+Paris, are rarely elsewhere so fine. To our palates the _gooseberry_
+and the _black currant_ are a sufficient indemnity to Britain for the
+_grape_, merely regarded as a fruit to _eat. Pine-apples_, those
+"illustrious foreigners," are so successfully _petted_ at home, that
+they will scarcely condescend now to flourish out of England.
+_Nectarines_ refuse to ripen, and _apricots_ to have any taste
+elsewhere. Our _pears_ and _apples_ are better, and of more various
+excellence, than any in the world. And we really prefer our very
+figs, grown on a fine _prebendal_ wall in the close of _Winchester_,
+or under _Pococke's_ window in a canon's garden at _chilly Oxford_.
+Thus has the kitchen-garden refreshed our patriotism, and made us
+half ashamed of our long forgetfulness of home. But there are good
+things abroad too for poor men; the rich may live any where. An
+enormous salad, crisp, cold, white, and of delicious flavour, for a
+halfpenny; olive oil, for fourpence a pound, to dress it with; and
+wine for fourpence a gallon to make it disagree with you;[15] fuel
+for almost nothing, and bread for little, are not small advantages to
+frugal housekeepers; but, when dispensed by a despotic government,
+where one must read those revolting words _motu proprio_ at the head
+of every edict, let us go back to our carrots and potatoes, our Peels
+and our income-tax, our fogs and our frost. The country mouse came to
+a right conclusion, and did not like the fragments of the feast with
+the cat in the cupboard--
+
+  Give me again my hollow tree,
+  My crust of bread, and liberty."
+
+[Footnote 15:
+
+  ----_Lactuca_ innatat acri
+  Post vinum stomacho.--HOR.]
+
+Fish, though plentiful and various, is not fine in any part of the
+_Mediterranean_; and as to _thunny_, one surfeit would put it out of
+the bill of fare for life. On the whole, though at Palermo and Naples
+the pauper starves not in the streets, the gourmand would be sadly at
+a loss in his requisition of delicacies and variety. Inferior bread,
+at a penny a pound, is here considered palatable by the sprinkling
+over of the crust with a small rich seed (_jugulena_) which has a
+flavour like the almond; it is also strewn, like our caraway seeds in
+biscuits, _into_ the paste, and is largely cultivated for that single
+use. The _capsici_, somewhat similar in flavour to the pea, are
+detached from the radicles of a plant with a flower strikingly like
+the potatoe, and is used for a similar purpose to the jugulena.
+
+This island was the granary of Athens before it nourished Rome; and
+wheat appears to have been first raised in Europe on the plains of
+eastern Sicily. In Cicero's time it returned eightfold; and to this
+day one grain yields its eightfold of increase; which, however, is by
+a small fraction less than our own, as given by M'Culloch in his
+"Dictionary of Commerce." We plucked some _siligo_, or bearded wheat,
+near Palermo, the beard of which was eight inches long, the ear
+contained sixty grains, eight being also in this instance the average
+increase; how many grains, then, must perish in the ground!
+
+In Palermo, English gunpowder is sold by British sailors at the high
+price of from five to seven shillings per English pound; the "Polvere
+_nostrale_" of the Sicilians only fetches 1s. 8d.; yet such is the
+superiority of English gunpowder, that every one who has a passion
+for popping at sparrows, and other _Italian sports_, (complimented by
+the title of _La caccia_,) prefers the dear article. When they have
+killed off all the robins, and there is not a twitter in _the whole
+country_, they go to the river side and shoot _gudgeons_.
+
+The Palermo donkey is the most obliging animal that ever wore long
+ears, and will carry you cheerfully four or five miles an hour
+without whip or other _encouragement_. The oxen, no longer white or
+cream-coloured, as in Tuscany, were originally importations from
+Barbary, (to which country the Sicilians are likewise indebted for
+the _mulberry_ and _silk-worm_.) Their colour is brown. They rival
+the Umbrian breed in the herculean symmetry of their form, and in the
+possession of horns of more than Umbrian dimensions, rising more
+perpendicularly over the forehead than in that ancient race. The
+lizards here are such beautiful creatures, that it is worth while to
+bring one away, and, to _pervert_ a quotation, "UNIUS _Dominum sese
+fecisse_ LACERTAE." Some are all green, some mottled like a mosaic
+floor, others green and black on the upper side, and orange-coloured
+or red underneath. Of snakes, there is a _Coluber niger_ from four to
+five feet in length, with a shining coat, and an eye not pleasant to
+watch even through glass; yet the peasants here put them into their
+Phrygian bonnets, and handle them with as much _sang-froid_ as one
+would a walking-stick.
+
+The coarse earthen vessels, pitchers, urns, &c., used by the
+peasants, are of the most beautiful shapes, often that of the ancient
+_amphora_; and at every cottage door by the road-side you meet with
+this vestige of the ancient arts of the country.
+
+The plague which visited Palermo in 1624 swept away 20,000
+inhabitants; Messina, in 1743, lost 40,000. The cholera, in 1837,
+destroyed 69,253 persons. The present population of the whole island
+is 1,950,000; the female exceeds the male by about three per cent,
+which is contrary to the general rule. It is said that nearly
+one-half the children received into the foundling hospital of Palermo
+die within the first year.
+
+Formerly the barons of Sicily were rich and independent, like our
+English gentlemen; but they say that, since 1812, the king's whole
+pleasure and business, as before our _Magna Charta_ times, have been
+to lower their importance. In that year a revolt was the consequence
+of an income-tax even of two per cent, for they were yet unbroken to
+the yoke; but now that he has saddled property with a deduction,
+_said_ to be eventually equal to fifteen per cent, if not more; now
+that he doubles the impost on the native sulphur, which is therefore
+checked in its sale; now that he keeps an army of 80,000 men to play
+at soldiers with; now that he constitutes himself the only referee
+even in questions of commercial expediency, and _a fortiori_ in all
+other cases, which he settles _arbitrarily_, or does not settle at
+all; now that he sees so little the signs of the times, that he will
+not let a professor go to a science-congress at Florence or Bologna
+without an express permission, and so ignorant as to have _refused_
+that permission for fear of a political bias; now that he diverts a
+nation's wealth from works of charity or usefulness, to keep a set of
+foreigners in his pay--they no doubt here remember in their prayers,
+with becoming gratitude, "the holy alliance," or, as we would call
+it, the _mutual insurance company of the kings of Europe_, of which
+Castlereagh and Metternich were the honorary secretaries.
+
+In the midst of all the gloomy despotism, beautiful even as
+imagination can paint it, is Palermo beautiful! One eminent advantage
+it possesses over Naples itself--its vicinity presents more "drives;"
+and all the drives here might contest the name given to one of them,
+which is called "_Giro delle Grazie_," (the Ring or Mall of the
+Graces.) It has a _Marina_ of unrivaled beauty, to which the noblesse
+and the citizens repair and form a promenade of elegant equipages. A
+fine pavement for foot passengers is considerately raised three or
+four feet above the carriage road; so that the walking population
+have nothing to annoy them. The sea is immediately below both, and
+you see the little rock-encircled bays animated with groups of those
+sturdy fishermen with bare legs; which you admire in Claude and
+Salvator, throwing before them, with admirable precision, their
+_epervier_ net, whose fine wrought meshes sometimes hang, veil-like,
+between you and the ruddy sunset, or plashing, as they fall nightly
+into the smooth sea, contribute the pleasure of an agreeable sound to
+the magic of the scenery. Some take the air on donkeys, which go at a
+great rate; some are mounted on Spanish mules, all mixed together
+freely amidst handsome and numerous equipages; and the whole is
+backed by a fine row of houses opposite the sea, built after the
+fashion of our terraces and crescents at watering-places. And
+finally, that blue _aequor_, as it now deserves to be termed, studded
+over with thunny boats and coasting craft with the haze latine sail,
+that we should be sorry to trust in British hands, is walled in by
+cliffs so bold, so rugged, and standing out so beautifully in relief,
+that for a moment we cannot choose but envy the citizen of
+_Panormus_. But we may not tarry even here; _we have more things_ to
+see, and every day is getting hotter than the last.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO SEGESTE.
+
+Leaving Palermo early, we pass _Monreale_ in our way to the Doric
+columns of _Segeste_, and find ourselves, before the heat of day has
+reached its greatest intensity, at a considerable elevation above the
+plain on which the capital stands, amidst mountains which, except in
+the difference of their vegetation, remind us not a little of the
+configuration of certain wild parts of the Highlands, where Ben
+Croachin flings his dark shadow across Loch Awe. Indeed, we were
+thinking of this old and favourite fishing haunt with much
+complacency, when two men suddenly came forth from behind the bristly
+aloes and the impenetrable cactus--ill-looking fellows were they;
+but, moved by the kindest intentions for our safety, they offer to
+conduct us through the remainder of the defile. This service our
+hired attendant from Palermo declined, and we push on unmolested to
+Partenico, our halting-place during the heat of the day. It is a town
+of some extent, large enough to afford two fountains of a certain
+pretension, but execrably dirty within. Twelve thousand inhabitants
+has Partenico, and five churches. Out of its five locandas, who shall
+declare the worst? Of that in which we had first taken refuge, (as,
+in a snow-storm on the Alps, any _roof_ is Paradise,) we were obliged
+to quit the shelter, and walk at _noon_, at _midsummer_, and in
+_Sicily_, a good mile _up_ a main street, which, beginning in
+habitations of the dimensions of our almshouses, ends in a few huts
+intolerably revolting, about which troops of naked children defy
+vermin, and encrust themselves in filth. At one door we could not
+help observing that worst form of _scabies_, the _gale a grosses
+bulles;_ so we had got, it appeared, from _Scylla_ into _Charybdis_,
+and were in the very preserves of Sicilian _itch_, and we
+prognosticate it will spread before the month expires wherever human
+skin is to be found for its entertainment. Partenico lies in a
+scorching plain full of malaria. Having passed the three stifling
+hours of the day here, we proceed on our journey to _Alcamo_, a town
+of considerable size, which looks remarkably well from the plain at
+the distance of four miles--an impression immediately removed on
+passing its high rampart gate. Glad to escape the miseries with which
+it threatens the _detenu_, we pass out at the other end, and zigzag
+down a hill of great beauty, and commanding such views of sea and
+land as it would be quite absurd to write about. Already a double row
+of aloe, planted at intervals, marks what is to be your course afar
+off, and is a faithful guide till it lands you in a Sicilian plain.
+This is the highest epithet with which any plain can be qualified.
+This is indeed the month for Sicily. The goddess of flowers now wears
+a morning dress of the newest spring fashion; beautifully _made up_
+is that dress, nor has she worn it long enough for it to be sullied
+ever so little, or to require the washing of a shower. A delicate
+pink and a rich red are the colours which prevail in the tasteful
+pattern of her voluminous drapery; and as she _advances_ on you with
+a light and noiseless step, over a carpet which all the looms of
+Paris or of Persia could not imitate, scattering bouquets of colours
+the most happily contrasted, and impregnating the air with the most
+grateful fragrance, we at once acknowledge her beautiful
+impersonation in that "_monument of Grecian art_," the _Farnese
+Flora_, of which we have brought the fresh recollection from the
+museum of Naples.
+
+The _Erba Bianca_ is a plant like southernwood, presenting a curious
+hoar-frosted appearance as its leaves are stirred by the wind. The
+_Rozzolo a vento_ is an ambitious plant, which grows beyond its
+strength, snaps short upon its overburdened stalk, and is borne away
+by any zephyr, however light. Large crops of _oats_ are already cut;
+and oxen of the Barbary breed, brown and coal-black, are already
+dragging the simple aboriginal plough over the land. Some of these
+fine cattle (to whom we are strangers, as they are to us) stood
+gazing at us in the plain, their white horns glancing in the sun;
+others, recumbent and ruminating, exhibit antlers which, as we have
+said before, surpass the Umbrian cattle in their elk-like length and
+imposing majesty. Arrived at the bottom of our long hill, we pass a
+beautiful stream called _Fiume freddo_, whose source we track across
+the plain by banks crowned with _Cactus_ and _Tamarisk_. Looking back
+with regret towards _Alcamo_, we see trains of mules, which still
+transact the internal commerce of the country, with large packsaddles
+on their backs; and when a halt takes place, these animals during
+their drivers' dinner obtain their own ready-found meal, and browse
+away on three courses of vegetables and a dessert.
+
+
+SICILIAN INNS.
+
+"A beautiful place this _Segeste_ must be! One could undergo any
+thing to see it!" Such would be the probable exclamation of more than
+one reader looking over some _landscape annual_, embellished with
+perhaps _a view_ of the celebrated temple and its surrounding
+scenery; but find yourself at any of the inexpressibly horrid inns of
+_Alcamo_ or _Calatafrini_, (and these are the two principal stations
+between Palermo and Segeste--one with its 12,000, the other with its
+18,000 inhabitants;) let us walk you down the main street of either,
+and if you don't wish yourself at Cheltenham, or some other
+unclassical place which never had a Latin name, we are much mistaken!
+The "_Relievo dei Cavalli_" at Alcamo offers no _relief_ for you! The
+_Magpie_ may prate on her sign-post about _clean_ beds, for magpies
+can be made to say any thing; but pray do not construe the "_Canova
+Divina_" Divine Canova! _He_ never executed any thing for the _Red
+Lion_ of Calatafrini, whose "Canova" is a low wine-shop, full of
+wrangling Sicilian boors. Or will you place yourself under the
+_Eagle's_ wing, seduced by its _nuovi mobili e buon servizio_? Oh, we
+obtest those broken window-panes whether it be not _cruel_ to expose
+_new furniture_ to such perils! For us we put up at the "_Temple of
+Segeste_," attracted rather by its name than by any promise or decoy
+it offers. Crabbe has given to the inns at Aldborough each its
+character: here all are equal in immundicity, and all equally without
+provisions. Some yellow beans lie soaking to soften them. There is
+salt-cod from the north, moist and putrid. There is no milk; eggs are
+few. The ham at the Pizzicarolo's is always bad, and the garlicked
+sausage repulsive. Nothing is painted or white-washed, let alone
+dusted, swept, or scoured. The walls have the appearance of having
+been _pawed_ over by new relays of dirty fingers daily for ten years.
+This is a very peculiar appearance at many nasty places _out_ of
+Sicily, and we really do not know its _pathology_. You tread
+loathingly an indescribable earthen floor, and your eye, on entering
+the apartment, is arrested by a nameless production of the fictile
+art, certainly not of _Etruscan_ form, which is invariably placed on
+the _bolster_ of the truck-bed destined presently for your devoted
+head. Oh! to do justice to a Sicilian _locanda_ is plainly out of
+question, and the rest of our task may as well be sung as said, verse
+and prose being alike incapable of the hopeless reality:--
+
+    "Lodged for the night, O Muse! begin
+  To sing the true Sicilian inn,
+  Where the sad choice of six foul cells
+  The least exacting traveller quells
+  (Though crawling things, not yet in sight,
+  Are waiting for the shadowy night,
+  To issue forth when all is quiet,
+  And on your feverish pulses riot;)
+  Where one wood shutter scrapes the ground,
+  By crusts, stale-bones, and garbage bound;
+  Where unmolested spiders toil
+  Behind the mirror's mildew'd foil;
+  Where the cheap crucifix of lead
+  Hangs o'er the iron tressel'd bed;
+  Where the huge bolt will scarcely keep
+  Its promise to confiding sleep,
+  Till you have forced it to its goal
+  In the bored brick-work's crumbling hole;
+  Where, in loose flakes, the white-wash peeling
+  From the bare joints of rotten ceiling,
+  Give token sure of vermin's bower,
+  And swarms of bugs that bide their hour!
+  Though bands of fierce musquittos boom
+  Their threatening bugles round the room,
+  To bed! Ere wingless creatures crawl
+  Across your path from yonder wall,
+  And slipper'd feet unheeding tread
+  We know not what! To bed! to bed!
+  What can those horrid sounds portend?
+  Some waylaid traveller near his end,
+  From ghastly gash in mortal strife,
+  Or blow of bandit's blood-stained knife?
+  No! no! They're bawling to the _Virgin_,
+  Like victim under hands of surgeon!
+  From lamp-lit _daub_, proceeds the cry
+  Of that unearthly litany!
+  And now a train of mules goes by!
+
+    "One wretch comes whooping up the street
+  For whooping's sake! And now they beat
+  Drum after drum for market mass,
+  Each day's transactions on the _place!_
+  All things that go, or stay, or come,
+  They herald forth by tuck of drum.
+  Day dawns! a tinkling tuneless bell,
+  Whate'er it be, has news to tell.
+  Then twenty more begin to strike
+  In noisy discord, all alike;--
+  Convents and churches, chapels, shrines,
+  In quick succession break the lines.
+  Till every gong in town, at last
+  Its tongue hath loos'd, and sleep is past.
+  So much for nights! New days begin,
+  Which land you in another Inn.
+  O! he that means to see _Girgenti_
+  Or _Syracuse!_--needs patience plenty!"
+
+Crossing a rustic bridge, we pass through a garden (for it is no
+less, though man has had no spade in it) of pinks, marigolds,
+cyclamens, and heart's-ease, &c. &c.; the moist meadow land below is
+a perfect jungle of lofty grasses, all fragrant and in flower, gemmed
+with the unevaporated morning dew, and colonized with the _Aphides,
+Alticae_, and swarms of the most beautiful butterflies clinging to
+their stalks. _Gramina laeta_ after Virgil's own heart, were these.
+Their elegance and unusual variety were sufficient to throw a
+botanist into a perfect HAY fever, and our own first paroxysm only
+went off, when, after an hour's hard collecting, we came to a place
+which demanded _another_ sort of enthusiasm; for THERE stood without
+a veil the _Temple of Segeste_, with one or two glimpses of which we
+had been already astonished at a distance, in all its Dorian majesty!
+This almost unmutilated and glorious memorial of past ages here
+reigns alone--the only building far or near visible in the whole
+horizon; and what a position has its architect secured! In the midst
+of hills on a bit of table-land, apparently made such by smoothing
+down the summit of one of them, with a greensward in front, and set
+off behind by a mountain background, stands this eternal monument of
+the noblest of arts amidst the finest dispositions of nature. There
+is another antiquity of the place also to be visited at Segeste--its
+_theatre_; but we are too immediately below it to know any thing
+about it at present, and must leave it in a parenthesis. To our left,
+at the distance of eight miles, this hill country of harmonious and
+graceful undulation ends in beetling cliffs, beneath which the sea,
+now full in view, lies sparkling in the morning sunshine. We shall
+never, never forget the impressions made upon us on first getting
+sight of Segeste! _Paestum_ we had seen, and thought that it exhausted
+all that was possible to a temple, or the site of a temple.
+Awe-stricken had we surveyed those monuments of "immemorial
+antiquity" in that baleful region of wild-eyed buffaloes and birds of
+prey--temples to death in the midst of his undisputed domains! We had
+fully adopted Forsyth's sentiment, and held Paestum to be probably the
+most impressive monument on earth; but here at Segeste a nature less
+austere, and more RIANTE in its wildness, lent a quite different
+charm to a scene which could scarcely be represented by art, and for
+which a reader could certainly not be _prepared_ by description. We
+gave an antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
+2000 years, and of many empires--we _felt_ the vast masses of its
+time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within its precincts, its
+pink valerians; its _erba di vento_, its scented wallflower. The
+whole scene kept our admiration long tasked, but untired. A smart
+shower compelled us to seek shelter under the shoulder of one of the
+grey entablatures: it soon passed away, leaving us a legacy of the
+richest fragrance, while a number of wild birds of the hawk kind,
+called "chaoli" from their shrill note, issued from their
+hiding-places, and gave us wild music as they scudded by!
+
+A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that now
+remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for their
+city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into a belief
+of greater wealth than they possessed.
+
+Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very steep
+one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we scared two of
+those prodigious birds, the _ospreys_, who, having reconnoitred us,
+forthwith began to wheel in larger and larger sweeps, and at last
+made off for the sea. We found the interior of the theatre occupied
+by an audience ready for our arrival; it consisted of innummerable
+_hawks_, the chaoli just mentioned, which began to scream at our
+intrusion. The ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting
+our departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
+a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song would
+save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the 24th of
+May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood, we were
+sorry to return to our inn--and such an inn! We departed abruptly,
+and probably never to return; but we shall think of Segeste in Hyde
+Park, or as we pass the candlestick Corinthians of Whitehall.
+Thucydides[16] relates that a prevailing notion in his time was, that
+the _Trojans_ after losing _Troy_ went first to _Sicily_, and founded
+there Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
+_Greek_ colony was _Naxos_, also in Sicily, Greeks and Trojans
+(strange coincidence!) must have _met again_ on new ground after the
+_Iliad_ was all acted and done with, like a tale that is told.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Vide_ THUCYDIDES, Book iv. chap. 15.]
+
+On our return towards Palermo, one of our party having a touch of
+ague, we crossed the street to the apothecary, (at Calatafrini, our
+night's halt,) and smelling about his musty galenicals, amidst a
+large supply of _malvas_ which were drying on his counter, the only
+wholesome-looking thing amidst his stores, we asked if he had any
+_quinine_. "_Sicuro!_" and he presented us with a white powder having
+a slightly bitter taste, which, together with an ounce of green tea,
+to be dispensed in pinches of five grains on extraordinary occasions,
+comes, he says, from the East. On our observing that the quinine, if
+such at all, was adulterated, and that this was too bad in a country
+of malaria, where it was the poor man's only protection, he looked
+angry; but we rose in the esteem of peasants in the shop, who said to
+each other--"Ed ha ragione il Signor." Wanting a little _soda_, we
+were presented with sub-carbonate of potash as the nearest approach
+to it--a substitution which suggested to us a classical recollection
+from Theocritus; namely, that in this same Sicily, 2000 years ago, a
+Syracusan husband is rated by his dame for sending her _soda_ for her
+washing in place of potash, the very converse of what our old
+drug-vender intended to have washed our inside withal.
+
+The Roman Catholic religion patronises painting oddly here; not a
+cart but is adorned with some sacred subject. Every wretched vehicle
+that totters under an unmerciful load, with one poor donkey to draw
+six men, has its picture of _Souls in Purgatory_, who seem putting
+their hands and heads out of the flames, and vainly calling on the
+ruffians inside to _stop_. We read _Viva la Divina Providenza_, in
+flaming characters on the front board of a carriole, while the whip
+is goading the poor starved brute who drags it; for these barbarians
+in the rear of European civilization, plainly are of opinion that a
+cart with a sacred device shall not _break down_, though its owner
+commit every species of cruelty.
+
+The next day found us again installed at our old quarters in Palermo,
+where, during our brief remaining stay, we visit a conchologist,
+before which event we had no notion that Sicily was so rich in
+shells. Two sides of a moderately large room are entirely devoted to
+his collection. Here we saw a piece of wood nearly destroyed by the
+_Teredo navalis_, or sailor's bore, who seems more active and
+industrious here than elsewhere, and seldom allows himself to be
+taken whole. Out of hundreds of specimens, three or four perfect ones
+were all that this collector could ever manage to extract, the
+molluscous wood-destroyer being very soft and fragile. His length is
+about three inches, his thickness that of a small quill; he lodges in
+a shell of extreme tenuity, and the secretion which he ejects is, it
+seems, the agent which destroys the wood, and pushes on bit by bit
+the winding tunnel. But his doings are nothing to the working of
+another wafer-shelled bivalve, whose tiny habitations are so thickly
+imbedded in the body of a nodule of _flint_ as to render its exterior
+like a sieve, _diducit scopulos aceto_. What solvent can the chemist
+prepare in his laboratory comparable to one which, while it dissolves
+silex, neither harms the insect nor injures its shell. Amongst the
+_fossils_ we notice cockles as big as ostrich eggs, clam-shells twice
+the size of the largest of our Sussex coast, and those of oysters
+which rival soup-plates. We had indeed once before met with them of
+equal size in the lime-beds at _Corneto_. Judging by the _oysters_,
+there must indeed have been _giants_ in those days. But this
+collection was chiefly remarkable for its curious fossil remains of
+_animals_ from _Monte Grifone_. In this same Monte Grifone, which we
+went to visit, is one of the largest of the caves of bones of which
+so many have been discovered--bones of various kinds, some of small,
+some of very large animals, mixed together pell-mell, and
+constituting a fossil paste of scarcely any thing besides. None of
+the geologists, in attempting to explain these deposits, sufficiently
+enter into the question of the origin of the enormous _quantity_, and
+_close juxtaposition_, of such heterogeneous specimens.
+
+By eight o'clock we are on board the _Palermo_ steamer, which is to
+convey us hence to _Messina_. The baked deck, which has been
+saturated with the sun's heat all day, is now cooling to a more
+moderate warmth, and soothing would be the scene but for the noise of
+women and children. Large liquid stars twinkle here and there, like
+so many moons on a reduced scale, over the sea, and the night is
+wholly delightful! A bell rings, which diminishes our numbers, and
+somewhat clears our deck. The boats which carry off the last
+loiterers are gone, shaking phosphorus from their gills, and leaving
+a train of it in their tails; and the many-windowed Pharos of the
+harbour has all its panes lit up, and twinkles after its own fashion.
+Round the bay an interrupted crescent of flickering light is
+reflected in the water, strongest in the middle, where the town is
+thickest, and runs back; and far behind all lights comes the clear
+outline of the darkly defined mountain rising over the city. Our own
+lantern also is up, the authorities have disappeared, Monte Pelegrino
+begins to change its position, we are in motion, and a mighty light
+we are making under us, as our leviathan, turning round her head and
+_snuffing_ the sea, begins to wind out of the harbour. A few minutes
+more, and the luminous tracery of the receding town becomes more and
+more indistinct; but the sky is _all stars_, and the water, save
+where we break its smoothness, a perfect mirror. Wherever the paddles
+play, there the sea foams up into yellow light and _gerbes_ of
+amber-coloured fireballs, caught up by the wheels, and flung off in
+our track, to float past with incredible rapidity. Men are talking
+the language of Babel in the cabin; there is amateur singing and a
+guitar on deck--_Orion_ is on his dolphin--adieu, Palermo!
+
+
+APPROACH TO MESSINA.
+
+The Italian morning presents a beautiful sight on deck to eyes weary
+and sore with night, as night passes on board steamers. We pass along
+a coast obviously of singular conformation, and to a geologist, we
+suppose, full of interest. We encounter a herd of classical dolphins
+out a-pleasuring. We ask about a pretty little town perched just
+above the sea, and called _Giocosa_. By its side lies
+_Tyndaris_--classical enough if we spell it right. The snow on Etna
+is as good as an inscription, and to be read at any distance; but
+what a deception! they tell us it is thirty miles off, and it seems
+to rise immediately from behind a ridge of hills close to the shore.
+The snow cone rises in the midst of other cones, which would appear
+equally high but for the difference of colour. _Patti_ is a
+picturesque little _borgo_, on the hillside, celebrated in Sicily for
+its manufacture of hardware. In the bay of _Melazzo_ are taken by far
+the largest supplies of thunny in the whole Mediterranean. From the
+embayed town so named you have the choice of a cross-road to Messina,
+(twenty-four miles;) but who would abridge distance and miss the
+celebrated straits towards which we are rapidly approaching, or lose
+one hour on land and miss the novelties of volcanic islands, and the
+first view of Scylla and Charybdis? It is but eight o'clock, but the
+awning has been stretched over our heads an hour ago. As to
+breakfast--the meal which is associated with that particular hour of
+the four-and-twenty to all well regulated _minds_ and _stomachs_--it
+consists here of thin _veneers_ of old mahogany-coloured thunny,
+varnished with oil, and relieved by an incongruous abomination of
+capers and olives. The cold fowls are infamous. The wine were a
+disgrace to the sorriest tapster between this and the Alps, and also
+fiery, like every thing else in this district. Drink it, and doubt
+not the old result--_de conviva Corybanta videbis_. (Oh, for muffins
+and dry toast!) Never mind, we shall soon be at Messina. And now we
+approach a point from which the lofty Calabrian coast opposite, and
+the flinty wall of the formidable Scylla, first present themselves,
+but still as distant objects. In another half hour we are just
+opposite the redoubtable rock; and here we turn abruptly at right
+angles to our hitherto course, and find ourselves _within_ the
+straits, from either side of which the English and the French so
+often tried the effect of cannon upon each other. It is now what it
+used to be--fishing ground. The Romans got their finest muraena from
+the whirlpools of _Charybdis_.[17] The shark (_cane di mare_)
+abounding here, would make bathing dangerous were the water smooth;
+but the rapid whirlpools through which our steam-boat dashes on
+disdainfully, would, at the same time, make it impossible to any
+thing but a fish. A passenger assured us he had once seen a man lost
+in the Vistula, who, from being a great swimmer, trusted imprudently
+to his strength, and was sucked down by a vortex of far less
+impetuosity, he thought, than this through which we were moving. From
+this point till we arrived at Messina, as every body was ripe for
+bathing, the whole conversation turned naturally on the Messina
+shark, and his trick of snapping at people's legs carelessly left by
+the owners dangling over the boat's side. We steam up the straits to
+our anchorage in about three-fourths of an hour. The approach is
+fine, very fine. A certain Greek, (count, he called himself,) a great
+traveller, and we afterwards found not a small adventurer, increases
+the interest of the approach, by telling us that the hills before us,
+bubbling up like blisters on chalcedony, have a considerable
+resemblance, though inferior in character, to those which embellish
+the Bosphorus and the first view of Constantinople. Inferior, no
+doubt, in the imposing accessories of mosque and minaret, and of
+cypresses as big as obelisks, which, rising thickly on the heights,
+give to the city of Constantinople an altogether peculiar and
+inimitable charm. Messina is beautifully land-locked. The only
+possible winds that can affect its port are the north-west and
+south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more sea breeze than any
+other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek friend, however, says
+that Constantinople is in this respect not only superior to Messina,
+but to any other place in the seas of Europe. Pity that the fellows
+are Turks! We did not find much to interest us within the walls of
+Messina. There was, to be sure, a fine collection of Sicilian birds,
+amongst which we were surprised to see several of very exotic shape
+and plumage. One long-legged fellow, dressed in a dirty white
+Austrian uniform, with large web-feet, on which he seemed to rest
+with great complacency, particularly arrested our attention. He stood
+as high as the _Venus di Medici_, but by no means so gracefully, and
+thrust his thick carved beak unceremoniously in your face. His card
+of address was _Phoenicopterus antiquorum_. The ancients ate him, and
+he looked as if he would break your nose if you disputed with him. A
+very large finch, which we have seen for sale about the streets here
+and elsewhere in Sicily, rejoices in the imposing name of _Fringilla
+cocco thraustis_. He wears his black cravat like a bird of
+pretension, as he evidently is. The puffin (_Puffinus Anglorum_) also
+frequents these rocks, though a very long way from the Isle of Wight.
+No! Messina, though very fine, is not equal to _Palermo_, with its
+unrivaled _Marina_, compared to which Messina is poorly off indeed,
+in her straggling dirty commerce-doing quay. We went out to see a
+little garden, which contains half a dozen zare-trees and as many
+beautiful birds in cages. We are disappointed at the poverty of our
+dessert in this region of fruitfulness--a few bad oranges, some
+miserable cherries, and that abomination the green almond. We
+observe, for the first time, to-day folks eating in the streets the
+crude contents of a little oval pod, which contains one or two very
+large peas, twice the size of any others. These are the true _cicer_,
+the proper Italian pea. Little bundles of them are tied up for sale
+at all the fruit stalls, and men are seen all the day long eating
+these raw peas, and offering them to each other as sugar-plums.
+
+[Footnote 17: "Virroni muraena datur, quo maxima venit Gurgite de
+Siculo: nam dum se continet Auster, Contemnunt mediam tem eraria lina
+Charybdim." JUVENAL, _Sat._ v. 99.]
+
+In the Corso we see a kind of temporary theatre, the deal sides of
+which are gaudily lined with Catania silk, and on its stage a whole
+_dramatis personae_ of sacred puppets. It is lighted by tapers of very
+taper dimensions, and its _stalle_ are to be let for a humble
+consideration to the faithful or the curious. It turns out to be a
+religious spectacle, supported on the voluntary system--but there is
+something for your money. A vast quantity of light framework, to
+which fireworks, chiefly of the detonating kind, are attached, are
+already going off, and folk are watching till it be completed. Then
+the evening's entertainment will begin, and a miser indeed must he
+be, or beyond measure resourceless, who refuses halfpence for such
+choice festivities. Desirous to make out the particular
+representation, we get over the fence in order to examine the figures
+of the drama on a nearer view. A smartly dressed saint in a court
+suit, but whom mitre and crosier determine to be a bishop, kneels to
+a figure in spangles, a virgin as fond of fine clothes as the Greek
+Panageia; while on the other side, with one or two priests in his
+train, is seen a crowd in civil costume. A paper cloud above,
+surrounded by glories of glass and tinsel, is supported by two solid
+cherubs equal to the occasion, and presents to the intelligent a
+representation of--we know not what! Fire-works here divide the
+public with the drum--to one or other all advertisement in Sicily is
+committed. A sale of fish and flesh, theatric entertainments,
+processions, and church invitations, are all by tuck of drum, or by
+squib and cracker. How did they get on before the invention of
+gunpowder? If a new coffeehouse is established, a couple of drums
+start it advantageously, and beat like a recruiting party up and down
+the street, to the dismay of all _Forestieri_. The drum tells you
+when the thunny is at a discount, and _fire-works_ are let off at
+_fish stalls_ when customers are slack.
+
+An old tower, five miles off, is called the telegraph. People go
+there for the panorama at the expense of three horses and two hours;
+but you are repaid by two sea views, either of which had been
+sufficient. Messina, its harbour, the straits, the opposite coast of
+Calabria, Scylla, and _Rhegium_, (famed for its bergamot,) are on the
+immediate shore, and a most striking chain of hills for the
+background, which, at a greater distance, have for their background
+the imposing range of the _Abruzzi_. The AEolian islands rise out of
+the sea in the happiest positions for effect. _Stromboli_ on the
+extreme right detaches his grey wreath of smoke, which seems as if it
+proceeded out of the water, (for Stromboli is very low,) staining for
+a moment the clear firmament, which rivals it in depth of colour.
+Some of the volcanic group are so nearly on a level with the water,
+that they look like the backs of so many leviathans at a halt. The
+sea itself lies, a waveless mirror, smooth, shining, slippery, and
+treacherous as a serpent's back--"miseri quibus intentata _nites_,"
+say we.
+
+
+JOURNEY TO TAORMINA.
+
+We left Messina under a sky which no painter would or could attempt;
+indeed, it would not have looked well on paper, or out of reality.
+There are certain unusual, yet magnificent appearances in nature,
+from which the artist conventionally abstains, not so much from the
+impotence of art, as that the nearer his approach to success the
+worse the picture. At one time the colours were like shot or clouded
+silk, or the beautiful uncertainty of the Palamida of these shores,
+or the matrix of opal; at another, the Pacific Ocean above, of which
+the continuity is often for whole months _entire_, was broken into
+gigantic continents and a Polynesia of rose-coloured islands that no
+ships might approach; while in this nether world the middle of the
+Calabro-Sicilian strait was occupied by a condensation of vapour,
+(one could never profane them by the term of _sea-mist_ or _fog_,)
+the most subtile and attenuated which ever came from the realms of
+cloud-compelling Jove. This fleecy tissue pursued its deliberate
+progress from coast to coast, like a cortege of cobwebs carrying a
+deputation from the power-looms of _Arachne_ in _Italy_ to the rival
+silk-looms at Catania. We pass the dry beds of mountain torrents at
+every half mile, ugly gashes on a smooth road; and requiring too much
+caution to leave one's attention to be engaged by many objects
+altogether new and beautiful. The rich yellow of the _Cactus_, and
+the red of the _Pomegranate_, and the most tender of all vegetable
+greens, that of the young _mulberry_, together with a sweet
+wilderness of unfamiliar plants, are not to be perfectly enjoyed on a
+fourfooted animal that stumbles, or on a road full of pitfalls. We
+shall only say that the _Cynara cardunculus_, (a singularly fine
+thistle or _wild artichoke_;) the prickly uncultivated _love-apple_,
+(a beautiful variety of the _Solanum_,) of which the decoction is not
+infrequently employed in nephritic complaints; the _Ferula_, sighing
+for occupation all along the sea-shore, and shaking its scourge as
+the wind blows; the _Rhododendron_, in full blossom, planted amongst
+the shingles; the _Thapsia gargarica_, with its silver umbel, looking
+at a short distance like mica, (an appearance caused by the shining
+white fringe of the capsule encasing its seed,) and many other
+strange and beautiful things, were the constant attendants of our
+march. We counted six or seven varieties of the spurge,
+(_Euphorbium_,) each on its milky stem, and in passing through the
+villages had _Carnations_ as large as _Dahlias_ flung at us by
+sunburnt urchins posted at their several doors. The sandy shore for
+many miles is beautifully notched in upon by tiny bays like basins,
+on which boats lie motionless and baking in the sun, or oscillate
+under a picturesque rock, immersed up to its shoulders in a green
+_hyaloid_, which reflects their forms from a depth of many fathoms.
+On more open stretches of the shore, long-drawn ripples of waves of
+tiny dimension are overrunning and treading on one another's heels
+for miles a-head, and tapping the anchored boat "with gentle blow."
+The long-horned oxen already spoken of, toil along the seaside road
+like the horses on our canal banks, and tug the heavy felucca towards
+Messina--a service, however, sometimes executed by men harnessed to
+the towing-cord, who, as they go, offend the Sicilian muses by sounds
+and by words that have little indeed of the [Greek: Doriz aoida]. The
+gable ends of cottages often exhibit a very primitive windmill for
+sawing wood within doors. It is a large wheel, to the spokes of which
+flappers are adjusted, made of coarse matting, and so placed as to
+profit by the ordinary sea breeze; and, while the _wind_ is thus
+_sawing_ his planks for him, the carpenter, at his door, carries on
+his craft. We pass below not a few fortresses abutting over the sea,
+or perched on the mountain tops. Many of these are of English
+construction, and date from the occupation of the island during the
+French war: in a word, the whole of this Sicilian road is so
+variously lovely, that if we did not know the _cornice_ between
+_Nice_ and _Genoa_, we should say it was quite unrivaled, being at
+once in lavish possession of all the grand, and most of the milder
+elements of landscape composition. It is long since it became no
+wonder to us that the greatest and in fact the only, real pastoral
+poet should have been a Sicilian; but it is a marvel indeed, that,
+having forgotten to bring his _Eclogues_ with us, we cannot, through
+the whole of Sicily, find a copy of Theocitus for sale, though there
+is a _Sicilian_ translation of him to be had at Palermo. As he
+progresses thus delightfully, a long-wished for moment awaits the
+traveller approaching towards _Giardini_--turning round a far
+projecting neck of land, _Etna_ is at last before him! A
+disappointment, however, on the whole is Etna himself, thus
+introduced. He looks far below his stature, and seems so _near_, that
+we would have wagered to get upon his shoulders and pull his ears,
+and return to the little town to dine; the ascent also, to the eye,
+seems any thing but steep; nor can you easily be brought to believe
+that such an expedition is from Giardini a three days' affair,
+except, indeed, that yonder belt of snow in the midst of this
+roasting sunshine, has its own interpretation, and cannot be
+mistaken. Alas! In the midst of all our flowers there was, as there
+always is, the _amari aliquid_--it was occasioned here by the
+_flies_. They had tasked our _improved_ capacity for bearing
+annoyances ever since we first set foot in Sicily; but _here_ they
+are perfectly incontrollable, stinging and buzzing at us without
+mercy or truce, not to be driven off for a second, nor persuaded to
+drown themselves on any consideration. Verily, the honey-pots of
+Hybla itself seem to please these troublesome insects less than the
+_flesh_-pots of Egypt.
+
+The next day begins inauspiciously for our ascent to Taormina; but
+the attendants of the excursion are already making a great noise,
+without which nothing can be done in either of the two Sicilies. A
+supply of shabby donkeys are brought and mounted, and, once astride,
+we begin to ascend, the poor beasts tottering under our weight, and
+by their constant stumbling affording us little inclination to look
+about. It takes about three-fourths of an hour of this donkey-riding
+to reach the old notched wall of the town. Two Taorminian citizens at
+this moment issue from under its arch, in their way down, and
+guessing what we are, offer some indifferent coins which do not suit
+us, but enable us to enter into conversation. We demand and obtain a
+_cicerone_, of whom we are glad to get rid after three hours'
+infliction of his stupidity and endurance of his ignorance, without
+acquiring one idea, Greek, Roman, Norman, or Saracen, out of all his
+erudition. After going through the whole tour with such a fellow for
+a Hermes, we come at last upon the far-famed theatre, where we did
+not want him. Here, however, a very intelligent attendant, supported
+by the king of Naples on a suitable pension of five baiocchi a-day,
+takes us out of the hands of the Philistine, and with a plan of the
+ground to aid us, proceeds to give an intelligible, and, as appears
+to us, a true explanation of the different parts of the huge
+construction, in the area of which we stand delighted. He directed
+our attention to a large arched tunnel, under and at right angles to
+the pulpita, and we did not want direction to the thirty-six niches
+placed at equal distances all round the ellipse, and just over the
+lowest range of the CUNEI. All niches were, no doubt, for statues;
+but these might also have been, it pleases some to suppose, for the
+reverberation of applause; and they quote something about
+_"Resonantia Vasa"_ from Macrobius, adding, that such niches were
+once probably lined with brass. Of bolder speculatists, some believe
+the _kennel_ to have been made with a similar intention. Others hold
+that it may have been a concealed way for introducing lions and
+tigers to the arena! Now, what if it were a _drain_ for the waters,
+which, in bad weather, soon collect to a formidable height in such a
+situation? Whether for voice, or wild beasts, or drainage, or none of
+these objects, there it is. As to the first, we cannot help being
+sceptical. Did it ever occur to an audience to wish the noise they
+make _greater_, and contrive expedients for _making it so?_
+
+We are here high up amidst the mountains, where, we are to remember,
+as the ancients came not to spend, like ourselves, an idle hour, but
+to consume most of the day, _shelter_ would be wanted. Two large
+lateral spaces, or as it were, side chambers, have received this
+destination at the hands of the antiquary, and have been supposed
+lobbies for foul weather or for shade at noon. We were made to notice
+by our guide, what we should else have overlooked, how the main
+passage described above communicates with several smaller ones in its
+progress, and that a small stair was a subsequent contrivance or
+afterthought meant to relieve, on emergency, the overcharged large
+one; its workmanship and style showed it plainly to have been added
+when the edifice had already become _an antiquity_. This altogether
+peculiar and most interesting building has also suffered still later
+interpolations: a Saracenic frieze runs round the wall; so that the
+hands of three widely different nations have been busy on the
+mountain theatre, which received its _first audience_ twenty-five
+centuries ago! The view obtained from this spot has often been
+celebrated, and deserves to be. Such mountains we had often seen
+before; such a sky is the usual privilege of Sicily; these indented
+_bays_, which break so beautifully the line of the coast, had been an
+object of our daily admiration; the hoary side of the majestic Etna,
+and Naxos with its castellated isthmus, might be seen from _other_
+elevated situations; and the acuminated tops of Mola, with its
+Saracenic tower, were commanded by neighbouring sites--Taormina
+_alone_, and for its _own_ sake, was the great and paramount object
+in our eyes, and possessed us wholly! We had been following _Lyell_
+half the day in antediluvian remains; but what are the bones of
+_Ichthyosauri_ or _Megalotheria_ to this gigantic skeleton of Doric
+antiquity, round which lie scattered the sepulchres of its ancient
+audiences, Greek, Roman, and Oriental--tombs which had become already
+an object of speculation, and been rifled for arms, vases, or gold
+rings, before Great Britain had made the first steps beyond painted
+barbarism!
+
+The eruptions of Etna have all been recorded. Thucydides mentions one
+of them episodically in the Peloponesian war. From the cooled caldron
+that simmers under all that snow, has proceeded all the lava that the
+ancients worked into these their city walls. The houses of
+Taurominium were built of and upon _lava_, which it requires a
+thousand years to disintegrate. After dinner we walk to Naxos,
+saluting the statue of the patron of a London parish, _St Pancras_,
+on our way. He stands on the beach here, and claims, by inscription
+on his pedestal, to have belonged to the apostolic times, St Peter
+himself having, he says, appointed him to his bishopric. He is patron
+of Taormina, where he has possessed himself of a Greek temple; and he
+also protects the faithful of Giardini. Lucky in his _architects_ has
+been St Pancras; for many of our readers are familiar with his very
+elegant modern church in the New Road, modelled, if we have not
+forgotten, on the Erechtheum, with its _Pandrosean Vestries_, its
+upright tiles, and all the subordinate details of Athenian
+architecture. We _met_ here the subject of many an ancient _bas
+relief_ done into flesh and blood--a dozen men and boys tripping
+along the road to the music of a bagpipe, one old _Silenus_ leading
+the jocund throng, and the whole of them, as the music, such as it
+was, inspired, leaping about and gesticulating with incredible
+activity. It was a bacchanalian subject, which we had seen on many a
+sarcophagus, only that the fellows here were not _quite_ naked, and
+that we looked in vain for those nascent horns and tails by which the
+children of Pan and Faunus ought to be identified. We always look out
+for _natural history_. Walking in a narrow street, we saw a tortoise,
+awake for the season, come crawling out to peep at the poultry; his
+hybernation being over, he wants to be social, and the hens in
+astonishment chuckle round him, and his tortoiseshell highness seems
+pleased at their kind enquiries, and keeps bobbing his head in and
+out of his _testudo_ in a very sentimental manner. Women who want his
+shell for _combs_ do not frequent these parts, and so, unless a cart
+pass over him as he returns home, he is in clover.
+
+A bird frequents these parts with a blue chest, called _Passer
+solitarius;_ he abounds in the rocky crevices. The notes of one,
+which was shown to us in a cage, sounded sweetly; but, as he was
+carnivorous, the weather was too hot for us to think of taking him
+away. We saw two snakes put into the same box: the one, a viper,
+presently killed the other, and much the larger of the two. Serpents,
+then, like men, do _not_, as the _Satirist_ asserts, spare their
+kind. We are disappointed at not finding any coins, nor any other
+good _souvenirs_, to bring away with us. The height of Taormina is
+sufficient to keep it from fever, which is very prevalent at Giardini
+below. Its bay was once a great place for catching _mullet_ for the
+Roman market. It seems to have been the _Torbay_ of Sicily. Some fish
+love their ease, and rejoice not in turbulent waters. The _muraena_,
+or lamprey, on the contrary, was sought in the very whirlpools of
+_Charybdis_. The modern Roman, on his own side of Italy, has few
+turbot, but very good ones are still taken off Ancona, in the
+Adriatic, where the _spatium admirabile Rhombi_, as the reader will,
+or ought to recollect, was taken and sent to Domitian at Albano by
+_Procaccio_ or _Estafetta_. Juvenal complains that the Tyrrhene sea
+was exhausted by the demand for fish, though there was no _Lent_ in
+those times. If the Catholic clergy insist that there _was_, we beg
+to object, that the keepers thereof were probably not in a condition
+to compete with the _Apiciuses_ of the day, who bought fish for their
+_bodies'_, and not for their SOULS' SAKE.
+
+
+CATANIA.
+
+Tum Catane nimium ardenti vicina Typhaeo.
+
+After a pleasant drive of twenty miles, we find ourselves at
+_Aci-Reale_, where a street, called "Galatea," reminds us
+unexpectedly of a very classical place called Dean's Yard, where we
+once had doings with _Acis_, as he figures in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_.
+We were here in luck, and, having purchased some fine coins of
+several of the tyrants of Sicily from the apothecary, proceeded on
+our way to Catania. In half an hour we reach the basaltic Isles of
+the Cyclops, and the Castle of Acis, whom the peasants hereabouts
+tell you was their king, when Sicily was under the Saracenic yoke.
+The river _Lecatia_, now lost, is supposed formerly to have issued
+hereabouts, in the port of Ulysses. Our next move placed us amidst
+the silk-slops of Catania. We have hardly been five minutes in the
+town, when offers abound to conduct us up AEtna, in whom, as so much
+national wealth, the inhabitants seem to take as much interest as in
+her useful and productive silk-looms. Standing fearless on the
+pavement of lava that buried their ancient city, they point up with
+complacency to its fountains above. The mischievous exploits of AEtna,
+in past times, are in every mouth, and children learn their AEtnean
+catechism as soon as they are breeched. AEtna here is all in all.
+Churches are constructed out of his quarried _viscera_--great men lie
+in tombs, of which the stones once ran liquid down his flames--snuff
+is taken out of lava boxes--and devotion carves the crucifix on lava,
+and numbers its beads on a lava rosary--nay, the apothecary's mortar
+was sent him down from the great mortar-battery above, and the
+village _belle_ wears fire-proof bracelets that were once too hot to
+be meddled with. Go to the museum, and you will call it a museum of
+AEtnean products. Nodulated, porous, condensed, streaked, spotted,
+clouded, granulated lava, here assumes the colour, rivals the
+compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper, of agate, and of marble;
+indeed it sometimes surpasses, in beautiful veinage, the finest and
+rarest Marmorean specimens. You would hardly distinguish some of it,
+worked into jazza or vase, from _rosso antico_ itself. A very old and
+rusty armoury may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of
+formidable shark skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very
+port of Catania, are rarities on which the _ciceroni_ like to
+prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed by
+them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if you were
+just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of bronzes has been
+made from excavations in the neighbourhood, which, indeed, must
+always promise to reward research. A figure of Mercury, two and a
+half feet high, and so exactly similar to that of John of Bologna,
+that his one seemed an absolute plagiarism, particularly attracted
+our attention on that account. The great Italian artist, however, had
+been dead one hundred and fifty years before this bronze was dug up.
+Next in importance to the bronzes, we esteem the collection of
+Sicilian, or Graeco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and
+selectness to those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also
+some ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition
+is a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
+pavement, welcome you with a _utere feliciter_, (may it do you good.)
+Round the border, a circle of the personified _"months"_ is
+artistically chained together, each bearing his _Greek_ name, for
+fear of a mistake--names not half so good as Sheridan's translation
+of the Revolutionary calendar--snowy, flowy, blowy--showery, flowery,
+bowery--moppy, croppy, poppy--breezy, sneezy, freezy. In Catania, we
+find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers, who know pretty
+generally their value throughout Europe; but, in order to be quite
+sure of the price _current,_ ask double what they take from one
+another, and judge, by your abatement of it, of the state of the
+market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when they present you the most
+impudent forgeries, you are not to get into a passion; but, glancing
+from the object to the vender, quietly insinuate your want of
+_absolute_ conviction in a _"che vi pare di questa moneta."_ He now
+looks at it again, and takes a squint at _you;_ and supposing you
+smell a rat, probably replies that certainly he _bought_ it for
+_genuine;_ but you _have suggested a doubt,_ and the piece really
+begins, even to _him_, to look suspicious, _"anzi a me."_ You reply
+coolly, and put it down--"That was just what I was thinking;" and so
+the affair passes quietly off. And now you _may_, if you happen to be
+tender-hearted, say something compassionate to the poor innocent who
+has been _taken in_, and proceed to ask him about another; and when
+you see any thing you long to pocket, enquire what can he afford to
+let a _brother collector_ (give him a step in rank) have _it_ for;
+and so go on feeling your way, and never "putting your arm so far out
+that you cannot comfortably draw it back again." He will probably ask
+you if you know Mr B---- or C----, (English collectors,) with whom he
+has had dealings, calling them "_stimabili signori;_" and, of course,
+you have no doubt of it, though you never heard of them before. It is
+also always conciliative to congratulate him on the possession of
+such and such rare and "_belle cose;_" and if you thus contrive to
+get into his good graces, he will deal with you at _fair prices_, and
+perhaps amuse you with an account of such tricks as he is not ashamed
+to have practised on _blockheads_, who will buy at any cost if the
+die is fine. Indeed, it has passed into an aphorism among these
+_mezzo-galantuomini_, as their countrymen call them, that a fine coin
+is always worth _what you can get for it._
+
+We heard the celebrated organ of St Benedict, which has been praising
+God in tremendous hallelujahs ever since it was put up, and a hundred
+years have only matured the richness of its tones. Its voice was
+gushing out as we entered the church, and filling nave and aisle with
+a diapason of all that was soft and soothing, as if a choir of
+Guido's angels had broke out in harmony.
+
+A stream of fresh water issues under the old town-wall, and an
+immense mass of incumbent lava, of at least ninety feet high, impends
+just above its source, the water struggling through a mass of rock
+once liquefied by fire, in as limpid a rill as if it came from
+limestone, and so excellent in quality that no other is used in
+Catania. Women with buckets were ascending and descending to fetch
+supplies out of the lava of the dead city below, for the use of the
+living town above. Moreover, this is the only point in Catania where
+the accident of a bit of wall arresting for some time the progress of
+the lava current, has left the level of the old town to be rigidly
+ascertained.
+
+Here, as at _Aci-Reale_, balconies at windows, for the most part
+supported by brackets, terminating in human heads, give a rich,
+though rather a heavy, appearance to the street. Much amber is found
+and worked at Catania. It has been lately discovered in a fossil
+state, and in contiguity with fossil wood; but we were quite
+_electrified_ at the price of certain little scent-bottles, and other
+articles made of this production. You see it in all its possible
+varieties of colour, opacity, or transparency. The green opalized
+kind is the most prized, and four pounds was demanded for a pair of
+pendants of this colour for earrings. Besides the yellow sort, which
+is common every where, we see the ruby red, which is very rare: some
+varieties are freckled, and some of the sort which afforded subjects
+for Martial, and for more than one of the Greek anthologists, with
+insects in its matrix. _This_ kind, they say, is found exclusively on
+the coast of Catania. There are such pieces the size of a hand, but
+it is generally in much smaller bits. Amber lies under, or is formed
+_upon_ the sand, and abounds most near the _embouchure_ of a small
+river in this neighbourhood. Many beautiful shells, fossils, and
+other objects of natural history, appear in the dealers' trays; and
+polished knife-handles of Sicilian _agate_ may be had at five dollars
+a dozen.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS.
+
+DON JOHN AND THE HERETICS OF FLANDERS.
+
+
+It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors of
+Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
+knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
+ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and colour,
+the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved fatal to all.
+
+In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were kept up
+by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh, appear studied
+rather than instinctive. At all events, the gallant Sir Philip was
+the last of English knights, as he was the first of his time.
+Thenceforward, the valour of the country assumed a character more
+professional.
+
+But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable of the
+rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed, every faith
+was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became extinct; expiring
+in France with Henri IV. and the League--in Portugal with Don
+Sebastian of Braganza--and in Spain with Charles V., exterminated
+root and branch by the pen of Cervantes.
+
+One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those crumbling
+institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the person of Don
+John of Austria;--a prince who, if consecrated by legitimacy to the
+annals of the throne, would have glorified the historical page by a
+thousand heroic incidents. But the sacrament of his baptism being
+unhappily unpreceded by that of a marriage, he has bequeathed us one
+of those anomalous existences--one of those incomplete destinies,
+which embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.
+
+On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with qualifications
+to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant son was entrusted
+by Charles V. to the charge of the master of his household, Don
+Quexada, the emperor simply described him as the offspring of a lady
+of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But the Infanta Clara Eugenia
+was confidentially informed by her father Philip II., and
+confidentially informed her satellite La Cuea, that her uncle was
+"every way of imperial lineage;" and but that he was the offspring of
+a crime, Don John had doubtless been seated on one of those thrones
+to which his legitimate brother Philip imparted so little
+distinction.
+
+Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the consanguinity of
+Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard, one of the objects of
+the hateful life of the father of Don Carlos seems to have been to
+thwart the ambitious instincts of his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in
+the boiling veins of the young prince abided the whole soul of
+Charles V.,--valour, restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life
+and mysterious death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.
+
+That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
+Holyrood,--Elizabeth at Kenilworth--Carlos at the feet of his
+mother-in-law,--the Bearnais at the gates of Paris,--have engraved
+their type in the book of universal memory. But Don John escapes
+notice--a solitary star outshone by dazzling constellations.
+Commemorated by no medals, flattered by no historiographer, sung by
+no inspired "godson," anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook
+in the temple of fame is out of sight, and forgotten.
+
+Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto, brings
+chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote lost his
+hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us, we dare not
+call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he is known in
+Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular libertine! And
+thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of his name by the
+hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his honours by Cervantes, as
+by Philip II. of a throne.--
+
+Hard fate for one described by all the writers of his time as a model
+of manly grace and Christian virtue! How charming is the account
+given by the old Spanish writers of the noble youth, extricated from
+his convent to be introduced on the high-road to a princely cavalier,
+surrounded by his retinue, whom he is first desired to salute as a
+brother, and then required to worship, as the king of Spain! We are
+told of his joy on discovering his filial relationship to the great
+emperor, so long the object of his admiration. We are told of his
+deeds of prowess against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the
+Moor. We are told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should
+be rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
+revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering throne;
+nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie" was offered to
+his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his untimely death and
+glorious funeral--mourned by all the knighthood of the land! But we
+hear and forget. Some mysterious counter-charm has stripped his
+laurels of their verdure. Even the lesser incidents of the life of
+Don John are replete with the interest of romance. When appointed by
+Philip II. governor of the Netherlands, in order that he might deal
+with the heretics of the Christian faith as with the faithful of
+Mahomet, such deadly vengeance was vowed against his person by the
+Protestant party headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was
+judged necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
+Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the attendant of
+Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the very moment the
+troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight thousand citizens
+in his revolted city of Antwerp!--
+
+The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more pacific
+measures. The dispositions of Don John were humane--his manners
+frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces were exhausted by ten years
+of civil war, and that the pay of the Spanish troops he had to lead
+against them was so miserably in arrear as to compel them to acts of
+atrocious spoliation, the hero of Lepanto appears to have done his
+best to stop the effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the
+counteraction of the Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace
+and an amnesty were proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known
+by the name of the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as
+was compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
+blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
+property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or calculation.
+
+But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the people
+and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have been fully
+sensible that his head was within the jaws of the lion. The blood of
+Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the echoes of the edicts of
+Alva yet lingered in the air; and the very stones of Brussels
+appeared to rise up and testify against a brother of Philip II.!
+
+Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse was
+afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position, by an
+incident which must again be accounted among the romantic adventures
+of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating Margaret of
+Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of indisposition, was
+generally attributed to a design against the heart of the hero of
+Lepanto.
+
+A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could do no
+less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her passage
+through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of that
+stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In process of
+time, a camp was formed in the environs, and fortresses erected on
+the banks of the Meuse under the inspection of Don John; nor was it
+at first easy to determine whether his measures were actuated by
+mistrust of the Protestants, or devotion to the worst and most
+Catholic of wives of the best and most Huguenot of kings.
+
+The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
+Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our edification by
+the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don John of blindness,
+in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her, and the absolute
+liberty accorded her during her residence at Spa, where she was
+opening a road for the arrival of her brother the Duke of Alencon. It
+is admitted, indeed, that her attack upon his heart met with defeat.
+But the young governor is said to have made up in chivalrous
+courtesies for the disappointment of her tender projects; and
+Margaret, if she did not find a lover at Namur, found the most
+assiduous of knights.
+
+Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French princess were
+as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was as completely
+absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as her highness by
+the desire of converting them into the subjects of France. It was
+only those admitted into the confidence of Don John who possessed the
+clue to the mystery.
+
+Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with which he
+had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint him with the
+suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had given rise.
+
+"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said he,
+when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels have
+been recounted in Spain of your fetes and jousts of honour, that I
+had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but the silken
+pastimes of a court."
+
+"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in my
+steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the trumpets of my
+camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder lines," continued he,
+(pointing from a window of the citadel, near which they were
+standing, commanding the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse,) "and my
+utmost diversion, an occasional charge against the boars in yonder
+forest of Marlagne!"
+
+"I cannot but suppose it more than _occasional_," rejoined Gonzaga;
+"for I must pay your highness the ill compliment of avowing, that you
+appear more worn by fatigue and weather at this moment, and in this
+sunless clime, than at the height of your glorious labours in the
+Mediterranean! Namur has already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow
+than Barbary or Lepanto."
+
+"Say rather in my _heart_!" cried the impetuous prince. "Since you
+quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have known nothing but
+cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing, that my position in this
+country is hateful. So long accustomed to war against a barbarous
+enemy, I could almost fancy myself as much a Moor at heart, as I
+appeared in visage, when in your service on my way to Luxembourg,
+whenever I find my sword uplifted against a Christian breast!--Civil
+war, Ottavio, is a hideous and repugnant thing!"--
+
+"The report is true, then, that your highness has become warmly
+attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded Gonzaga,
+not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain, that an
+opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the Barlaimont
+faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway of absolute
+sovereignty.
+
+"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me at my
+arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet more and
+more. Flemings or Brabancons, Hainaulters or Walloons, Catholic or
+Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and despite our best
+endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the feeling is reciprocal!"
+
+"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the Queen of
+Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,--"I can scarcely wonder at the
+hopes she is said to entertain of having won over the governor of
+Mons to the French interest, during her transit through Flanders."
+
+"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing. "It may
+indeed be so!--for never saw I a woman less scrupulous in the choice
+or use of arms to fight her battles. But, trust me, whatever her
+majesty may have accomplished, is through no aiding or abetting of
+mine."
+
+"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your highness"--
+
+"My highness made them _appear_ devoted in proportion to his
+consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
+Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards Margaret de
+Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the divinities who
+competed for our smiles at Tunis."
+
+Gonzaga shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don
+John was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
+perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.
+
+"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his misgivings--"I am
+as sincere in all this as becomes our friendship. But that God has
+gifted me with a happy temperament, I should scarcely support the
+disgusts of my present calling. It is much, my dear Gonzaga, to
+inherit as a birthright the brand of such an ignominy as mine. But as
+long as I trusted to conquer a happier destiny--to carve out for
+myself fortunes as glorious as those to which my blood all but
+entitles me--I bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent
+hope of distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle--that taught
+prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even the
+base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"--
+
+Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young viceroy thus
+bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he had been hearing
+imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of crimes, filled him
+with amazement.
+
+"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The harshness with
+which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my brother refused to
+ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my favour, convinced me
+that I have nothing to expect from Philip beyond the perpetual
+servitude of a satellite of the King of Spain."
+
+Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission of
+these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude stone
+walls to harbour an eavesdropper.
+
+"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of the
+unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me towards
+the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his nature--the
+harshness of his soul--the austerity of his bigotry--chill me to the
+marrow!--The Holy Inquisition deserves, in my estimation, a name the
+very antithesis of holy."
+
+"I _beseech_ your highness!" cried Ottavio Gonzaga--clasping his
+hands together in an irrepressible panic.
+
+"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in our camp;
+and if there _were_, both they and you must even hear me out!" cried
+Don John. "There is some comfort in discharging one's heart of
+matters that have long lain so heavy on it; and I swear to you,
+Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling surprised to find my cheeks so
+lank, and my eyes so hollow, you would rather be amazed to find an
+ounce of flesh upon my bones, did you know how careful are my days,
+and how sleepless my nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil
+war!--The haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul
+but that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
+Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabancons--all the varied
+tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to vie with each
+other which shall succeed best in thwarting and humiliating me. And
+for what do I bear it? What honour or profit shall I reap on my
+patience? What thanks derive for having wasted my best days and best
+energies, in bruising with my iron heel the head of the serpent of
+heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some toy of a mass neglected or an
+ave forgotten, will perchance give me over to the tender questioning
+of his grand inquisitor, as the shortest possible answer to my
+pretensions to a crown,--while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when
+roused from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
+fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified gratification--'_There_ spoke
+the blood of Charles the Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"
+
+Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
+courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the loyalty
+towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula; and that his
+services as governor of the Low Countries were fully appreciated.
+
+"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe was
+already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don John, with
+a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of my feelings and
+opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I am likely to have
+proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished a Laura as the sister
+of Henry III?"--
+
+"I confess myself disappointed," replied the crafty Italian.--"I was
+in hopes that your highness had found recreation as well as glory in
+Belgium. During my sojourn at the court of Philip, I supported with
+patience the somewhat ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the
+belief that your highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal
+enlivenments, which none more fully understand how to organize and
+adorn."
+
+"If such an expectation really availed to _enliven_ the Escurial,"
+cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must indeed possess
+miraculous properties! However, you may judge with your own eyes the
+pleasantness of my position; and every day that improves your
+acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition of this accursed
+army of the royalists, ill-paid, ill-disciplined, and
+ill-intentioned, will inspire you with stronger yearnings after our
+days of the Mediterranean, where I was master of myself and of my
+men."
+
+"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will serve to
+comfort the venomous heart of the queen mother!"--ejaculated Gonzaga,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was far too
+much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes, to take heed
+of those of my camp."
+
+"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be desirable, of
+how many things a woman's eyes are capable of doing, at one and the
+same time!"--retorted the Italian.
+
+"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of having
+occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to witness the
+friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an excursion on the
+Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne, constitute the pastimes
+you are pleased to magnify into an imperial ovation."
+
+"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a ball-room,--much in one
+poor half hour of a greenwood rendezvous!"--persisted the provoking
+Ottavio.
+
+"Ay--_much_ indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh so deep that it
+startled by its significance the attention of his brother in arms.
+"But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri the Bearnais!"
+returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I wish no worse to that
+heretic prince, than to have placed his honour in the keeping of the
+_gente Margot_."
+
+Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had taken a
+turn that promised wonders for the interest of the despatches he had
+undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in elucidation of the designs
+and sentiments of Don John,--towards whom his allegiance was as the
+kisses of Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
+assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it apparent
+that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having proposed to
+the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander, he destined the
+colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should proceed to a survey of
+the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted their horses, and, escorted
+by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish aide-de-camp of the prince,
+proceeded to the camp.
+
+The affectionate deference testified towards the young governor by
+all classes, the moment he made his appearance in public, appeared to
+Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the declarations of Don John
+that he was no favourite in Belgium. The Italian forgot that the Duke
+of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld and Barlaimont, while doffing
+their caps to the representative of the King of Spain, had as much
+right to behold in him the devoted friend of Don John of Austria, as
+_he_ to regard _them_ as the faithful vassals of his government.
+
+A fair country is the country of Namur!--The confluent streams--the
+impending rocks--the spreading forests of its environs, comprehend
+the finest features of landscape; nor could Ottavio Gonzaga feel
+surprised that his prince should find as much more pleasure in those
+breesy plains than in the narrow streets of Brussels, as he found
+security and strength.
+
+On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the town,
+stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to attain which
+by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed; and it was
+pleasant to see the Walloon peasant children run forth from the
+cottages to salute the royal train, making their heavy Flemish
+chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering cabrioles far more
+deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to which they were almost
+accustomed.
+
+As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the Meuse, they
+saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups congregated just
+then in the district, of soldiers and peasants; to which the
+attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di Zuniga, his
+aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause of the gathering.
+
+"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
+Spaniard--galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes streaming in
+the breeze;--that the Prince's train, which had halted, might resume
+its pace.
+
+"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who appreciated the
+trivialties of life very differently from those by whom he was
+surrounded.
+
+"A village grievance!--An old woman roaring her lungs out for a cow
+which has been carried off by our troopers!"--grumbled the
+aide-de-camp, with less respect than was usual to him.
+
+"And call you that a _nothing_?"--exclaimed his master. "By our lady
+of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and oppression--a thing calculated
+to make us hateful in the eyes of the village!--And many villages, my
+good Nignio, represent districts, and many districts provinces, and
+provinces a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as
+the indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
+Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!--See to it! I want no
+further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be restored
+before sunset, and the marauders punished."
+
+"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer in its
+skin?"--demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should have been
+already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"
+
+"Let her have compensation."
+
+"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness, is all
+but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
+Gonzaga,--as though they were accustomed to jest together over the
+reckless openness of heart and hand of their young chief.
+
+"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at least
+the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
+restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."
+
+"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as the
+aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with an
+imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on his
+hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal master. "It
+goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement of these
+fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and hunger, that
+eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at honesty. My
+royal brother, or those who have the distribution of his graces, is
+so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than of orders on the
+treasury of Spain, that money and rations are evermore wanting. If
+these Protestants persist in their stand against us, I shall have to
+go forth to all the Catholic cities of the empire, preaching, like
+Peter the hermit, to obtain contributions from the pious!"
+
+"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that rebels
+and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops sent to
+reduce them to submission."
+
+"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either the creed
+or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don John. "But you
+say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the instructions of my royal
+brother; whom the Almighty soften with a more Christian spirit in his
+upholding of the doctrines of Christianity!--I am bidden to regard
+myself as in a conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may
+have felt at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!--These
+people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people are
+the faithful followers of Christ."
+
+"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and your
+highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"--observed Gonzaga with
+a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I fear, indeed, that the Court of
+the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for such grievances."
+
+"Gonzaga!"--exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his horse, and
+looking his companion full in the face, "these are black and bitter
+times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles, ay, and even prelates,
+forget that they are men; or rather that there be men in the world
+beside themselves."--Then allowing his charger to resume its
+caracolling, to give time to his startled friend to recover from the
+glow of consciousness burning on his cheek,--he resumed with a less
+stern inflexion. "It is the vexation of this conviction that hath
+brought my face to the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the
+scorching sun of Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of
+swords or roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in
+contending, life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
+battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
+sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth, and
+the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the peace of
+heaven!--The petty aggravations of daily strife,--the cold-blooded
+oppressions of conquest,--the contest with the peasant for his morsel
+of bread, or with his chaste wife for her fidelity,--are so revolting
+to my conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
+moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so well
+of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal father, to some
+drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days to the snuffling of
+Capuchins!"
+
+Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
+Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this heinous
+declaration!--But he contained himself.--It was his object to work
+his way still further into the confidence of his royal companion.
+
+"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French princess
+to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it afforded from the
+contemplation of such miseries and such aggressions. I was sick at
+heart of groans and murmurs,--weary of the adjustment of grievances.
+To behold a woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping,
+was _something_!"--
+
+"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of the
+brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.
+
+"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
+exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's--her bearing a
+woman's--her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the memory of
+better days to hear the silken robes of her train rustling around me,
+instead of the customary clang of mail; and merry laughs instead of
+perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my Walloons!"
+
+An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
+Italian.--
+
+"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to see
+the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a lap-dog!--Is it not so?"
+
+"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial to your
+highness,"--replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance. "My smile was
+occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in feigning as the
+royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the attempt. There, at
+least--and there alone--is Don John of Austria certain of defeat!"
+
+"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the air of
+Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion," replied the
+Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first redoubt. The lines
+of Bouge are before you."
+
+Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
+intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of headquarters
+beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was surrounded by his
+officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his orders of the day, the
+able promptitude of one of the first commanders of his time, tempered
+by the dignified courtesy of a prince of the blood.
+
+Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical debates
+carrying on around him, to have further thought of the mysteries into
+which he was resolved to penetrate.
+
+It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his _etat
+major_ returned to Namur; invitations having been frankly given by
+Don John to a score of his officers, to an entertainment in honour of
+the return of his friend.
+
+Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga entertained
+little doubt of learning the truth. The rough railleries of such men
+were not likely to respect so slight a circumvallation as the honour
+of female reputation; and the glowing vintage of the Moselle and
+Rhine would bring forth the secret among the bubbles of their flowing
+tides. And, in truth, scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the
+potations of these mailed carousers produced deep oaths and
+uproarious laughter; amid which was toasted the name of Margaret,
+with the enthusiasm due to one of the originators of the massacre of
+St Bartholomew, from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the
+Inquisition of Spain.
+
+The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in terms
+scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by such
+frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
+restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It seemed
+an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a matter of
+indifference in the ears of Don John!
+
+That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short continuance
+as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the reviewal of the
+prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek in his conjectures,
+resolved to address himself for further information to Nignio; to
+whom he had brought confidential letters from his family in Spain,
+and who was an ancient brother in arms.
+
+Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied by the
+Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the valley of
+the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his early rest with
+a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of news from Madrid.
+
+But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened his
+budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own grievances to
+confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation of having been
+employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from execrations on the name
+of the old woman, enriched with all the blasphemies of a trooper's
+vocabulary,--it was no difficult matter to glide to the general
+misdemeanours and malefactions of the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a
+man of iron,--bred in camps, with as little of the milk of human
+kindness in his nature as his royal master King Philip; and it was
+his devout conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
+leagues of any Christian encampment,--and that women were inflicted
+upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and contamination of
+the nobler sex.
+
+"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her maids of
+honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy sinner for the
+space of a calendar year!"--cried he, still harping upon the old
+woman.
+
+"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some trouble
+and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as much as is
+_apparent_ of your householding, I can scarce imagine how you managed
+to bestow so courtly a dame here in honour; or with what pastimes you
+managed to entertain her."
+
+"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not yet
+quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came down
+handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and sister-in-law of the
+Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the thick-skulled Walloons to
+respect. It was not _money_ that was wanting--it was patience. O,
+these Parisians! Make me monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast
+garden of the Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the
+honour of being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
+travels!"
+
+Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted in the
+warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my clear
+Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a knight as Don
+John of Austria, your notions are rather those of Mahound or
+Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to hear you thus
+bitter against his Dulcinea?"
+
+"_His_ Dulcinea!"--ejaculated the aide-de-camp with a air of disgust.
+"God grant it! For a princess of Valois blood, reared under the
+teaching of a Medici, had at least the recommendations of nobility
+and orthodoxy in her favour."
+
+"As was the case when Anna di Mendoca effected the conquest over his
+boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal brother!--But
+after such proof of the hereditary aspirings of Don John, it would be
+difficult to persuade me of his highness's derogation."
+
+"Would _I_ could say as much!"--exclaimed Nignio, with a groan. "But
+such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might convince the
+scepticism of St Thomas!"
+
+"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections of the
+prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would you have me
+infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a dairy wench?"--
+
+"Of _worse_! of a daughter of the Amalekites!"--cried
+Nignio--stretching out his widely booted legs, as though it were a
+relief to him to have disburthened himself of his mystery.
+
+"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
+Italian,--no further versed in Scripture history than was the
+pleasure of his almoner.
+
+"You are his highness's _friend_, Gonzaga!" resumed the Spanish
+captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his heart! I have
+therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a matter, wherein, from
+the first, I determined to seek your counteraction. Though seemingly
+but a straw thrown up into the air, I infer from it a most evil
+predilection on the part of Don John;--fatal to himself, to us, his
+friends, and to the country he represents in Belgium."
+
+"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion, delighted to
+come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere matter of a pair
+of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"
+
+"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the aide-de-camp--
+
+"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as for
+the opening of a fairy legend--'On a time their lived a king and
+queen'--"
+
+"Will _you_ tell the story, then, or shall I?"--cried Nignio,
+impatient of his interruption.
+
+"_Yourself_, my pearl of squires! granting me in the first place your
+pardon for my ill manners."--
+
+"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the best
+diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess were,
+first a _Te Deum_ in the cathedral for her safe journey; next, an
+entertainment of dancing and music at the town hall--and a gallant
+affair it was, as far as silver draperies, and garlands of roses, and
+a blaze of light that seemed to threaten the conflagration of the
+city, may be taken in praise. The queen had brought with her, as with
+_malice prepense_, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
+court of the Louvre"--
+
+"I _knew_ it!"--again interrupted Gonzaga;--and again did Nignio
+gravely enquire of him whether (since so well informed) he would be
+pleased to finish the history in his own way?
+
+"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his finger on
+his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the Meuse."
+
+"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
+princess,--this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her mother's
+cunning and cruelty in her soul,--to perceive that the Spanish
+warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first time the
+assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more struck by the
+Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of the north, (so
+antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our sunburned
+provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her pleasure-worn Parisian
+belles."--
+
+"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent pledge,) "that
+there is no greater contrast than between our wild-eyed, glowing
+Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed daughters of these
+northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine to sunshine!"
+
+"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer and
+milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that, at this
+moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp for the sake
+of the costly fragile toys called womankind, those jackasses of
+lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn of Queen Margaret in
+Belgium, only as having brought forth from their castles in the
+Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low Country, the indigenous
+divinities that I would were at this moment at the bottom of their
+muddy moats, or of the Sambre flowing under yonder window!"--
+
+"It is one of these Brabancon belles, then, who"--
+
+Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal for
+breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue in his
+own way.--Taking counsel of himself, however, he judged that the
+shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter manner, so as to set
+further molestation at defiance.
+
+"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance foreign to
+his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball, there appeared
+among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before the tent of state
+of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender years seemed to render
+the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and whose aerial figure
+appeared to make her sojourn there, or any other spot on earth a
+matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her fair hair streamed on her
+shoulders. It was one of the angels of your immortal Titian, _minus_
+the wings! Such was, at least, the description given me by Don John,
+to enable me to ascertain among the Namurrois her name and lineage,
+for the satisfaction (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been
+fascinated by her beauty."
+
+"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the grace
+and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
+morning?"--cried Gonzaga, laughing.
+
+"And nearly the same result!--My answer to the enquiry of his
+highness was _verbatim_ the same; that the matter was not worth
+asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so much as of a
+chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity that had issued
+from the shade, to fill a place in the royal Coranto, in consequence
+of the indisposition of one of the noble daughters of the house of
+Croy. Still, as in the matter of the cow-hunt, his highness had the
+malice to persist! And next day, instead of allowing me to attend him
+in his barging with the royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of
+Brabant, I was dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a
+pretty child with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly
+grandam had snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal
+fete.--Holy St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!--I did,
+as you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
+with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
+return, that the bird had fled."--
+
+"And there was an end of the matter?"--
+
+"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness is
+likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events, the
+bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal escort,
+and the payment of all that decency required us to take upon
+ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time and
+thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
+doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over the
+sufferings of Belgium,--the lawlessness of the camp--the former
+loyalty of the provinces--the tenderness of conscience of the
+heretics,--and the eligibility of forbearance and peace,--I saw as
+plain as though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of
+Satan, that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
+this snivelling humanity!'
+
+"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
+burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses and
+putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.
+
+"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to Don John
+for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks past, I
+entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at her Louvre,
+the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place; more especially
+when he one day proposed to me an exploit savouring more of his days
+of Lepanto than I had expected at his hands again. Distracted by the
+false intelligence wherewith we were perpetually misled by the
+Brabancon scouts, Don John determined on a sortie in disguise,
+towards the intrenchments of the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle.
+Rumour of the reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the
+heretics by Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms,
+rendered him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact
+cantonments of Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set
+forward before daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a
+hunting expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits
+of civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
+Sambre towards Gembloux."
+
+"A mad project!--But such were ever the delight of our
+Quixote!"--cried Gonzaga.
+
+"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country without
+obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and before noon,
+were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the undertaking seemed to
+restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity of old! He was like a
+truant schoolboy, that has cheated his pedagogue of a day's
+bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than those of the stultified
+natives of these sluggish provinces, had been puzzled to detect under
+the huge patch that blinded him of an eye, and the slashed sleeve of
+his sad-coloured suit that showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant
+host of Queen Margaret! 'My soul comes back into me with this gallop
+across the breezy plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!'
+cried the Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto!
+But two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
+Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
+allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no better
+prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king he hath
+been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with Luxembourg and
+Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the blessing of his holiness,
+the banner under which I conquered the infidel, shall, sooner or
+later, float victorious under this northern sky!'
+
+"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood, halfway
+through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me we had to
+cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the ferry-house of this
+unfrequented track, we found only two sumpter-mules tied to a tree
+near the hovel, and a boat chained to its stump beside the stream. In
+answer to our shouts, no vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold
+the boat-chain was locked, and the current too deep and strong for
+fording.
+
+"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a boatman!"
+cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he gave me to
+hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to enter the
+ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch, a young girl,
+holding her finger to her lips in token of silence, appeared on the
+threshold!"
+
+"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
+pistoles!"--cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest that made
+him so mad a truant!"
+
+"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without noticing
+the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand, with the
+deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the house was
+little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a trifle nearer the
+porch, not a syllable of their mutual explanation escaped me.
+
+"'Are you a follower of Don John?'--was the first demand of the
+damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the States?'--the next; to
+both which questions, a negative was easily returned. After listening
+to the plea, fluently set forth by the prince, that he was simply a
+Zealand burgess, travelling on his own errand, and sorely in fear of
+falling in (God wot) with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel
+appeared to hail the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing;
+acquainted him with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own,
+that she was journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of
+Brabant, where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
+companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta within;
+for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on reaching the wood, the
+ferryman had undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the
+venerable chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.
+
+"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are in
+waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'
+
+"'Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering the
+military occupation of the province, your present protection is
+somewhat of the weakest?'--
+
+"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the open-hearted
+girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who war not against
+women and almoners. A more powerful attendance were more likely to
+provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes the best security.'
+
+"'_Home_ is a woman's only security in times like these!'--cried the
+prince with animation.
+
+"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young girl,
+with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been residing
+with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having had the
+weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to Namur last
+summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to the Queen of
+Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us; and I am sent for
+home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'
+
+"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained, more
+time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could perceive
+by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats, and were
+awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the ferryman. The
+compassion of the silly child was excited by the severe accident
+which the stranger described as the origin of his fractures and
+contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive voice and
+deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a more experienced
+one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly aspect and indigent
+apparel."
+
+"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and the
+obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
+Mecklenburgers"--
+
+"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the prince;
+for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the reconnaissance into
+which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext, I was not sorry to
+ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the grounds on which he
+stood with the enemy. And you should have heard how artfully he
+contrived to lead her back to the fetes of Namur; asking, as with the
+curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole details of the royal
+entertainments! No small mind had I to rush in and chuck the hussy
+into the torrent before me, when I heard the little fiend burst forth
+into the most genuine and enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of
+the feast,--'So young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so
+passing the kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was
+her frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
+which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
+severely visited by her father.
+
+"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may admire the
+noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native goodness
+beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This whole morning
+hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon) been giving
+scripture warrant that I have no right to importune heaven with my
+prayers for the conversion of Don John:--Yet, as my good aunt justly
+observes, the great grandson of Mary of Burgundy has his pedestal
+firm in our hearts, beyond reach of overthrow from all the
+preachments of the Reformers'"--
+
+"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in to the
+rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously assailed?"--cried
+Gonzaga.
+
+"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I had the
+comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend the want of
+dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity with strangers. To
+which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was no fault of hers if
+people wanted to convert a child into a woman!' A moment afterwards
+and the ferryman and cortege arrived together; and a more glorious
+figure of fun than the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom
+bestridden a pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
+exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the ferry,
+taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which we twain
+abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in consequence of
+the strength of the current, it was indispensable to float down some
+hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite shore.
+
+"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the precious
+freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her new and
+pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!--as every thing that is evil
+ordained it,--behold, the newly-shod palfrey of the pretty
+Brabanconne, irritated, perhaps, by the clumsy veterinaryship of a
+village smithy, began suddenly to rear and plunge, and set at
+defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was held!--The ass of a
+ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his aid, let go his oar into the
+stream; and between the awkwardness of some and the rashness of
+others, in a moment the whole party were carried round by the eddy of
+the Dyle!--The next, and Ulrica was struggling in the waters"--
+
+"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in to her
+rescue!"--
+
+"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take for
+granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the ferry-house, in
+restoring to consciousness the exhausted women, half-dead with cold
+and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of mind produced by such
+an incident, I expected indeed every moment the self-betrayal of my
+companion; but _that_ evil we escaped. And when, late in the evening,
+the party was sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably
+surprised to find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting
+the fair Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people
+were in waiting."
+
+"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"--
+
+"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn, rendered it
+expedient for us to return to Namur with only half the object of his
+highness accomplished. But the babble of the old chaplain had
+acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to know,-- namely, the number
+and disposal of the Statists, and the position taken up by the
+English auxiliaries."
+
+"And this second parting from Ulrica?"--
+
+"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been the
+laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she bade
+adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a tress of her
+silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle, which she
+entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he placed upon her
+finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of Venice, bearing the
+arms of the republic engraved on the setting; telling her that chance
+had enabled him to confer an obligation on the governor of the
+Netherlands; and that, in any strait or peril, that signet,
+dispatched in his name to Don John of Austria, would command his
+protection."
+
+"As I live, a choice romance!--almost worthy the pages of our
+matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities but that
+the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
+Dyle!--However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They will meet no
+more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his daughter under lock and
+key; and his highness has too much work cut out for him by his
+rebels, to have time for peeping through the keyhole.--So now,
+good-night.--For love-tales are apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith
+we must be a-foot by break of day."
+
+And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him, Ottavio
+Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing all he had
+learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state of mind and
+feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid open to the full
+and uncongenial investigation of his royal brother of the Escurial.
+
+
+Part II.
+
+A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of Gembloux,
+which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of Austria; and
+constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military glories which
+binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one of the obscurest of
+its countries!--Gembloux, Ramillies, Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within
+the circuit of a morning's journey, as well as within the circle of
+eternal renown.
+
+By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand men-at-arms,
+their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost to the States. The
+cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio Gonzaga, performed
+prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under that of Gaspardo Nignio,
+equally distinguished itself. But the heat of the action fell upon
+the main body of the army, which had marched from Namur under the
+command of Don John; being composed of the Italian reinforcements
+dispatched to him from Parma by desire of the Pope, under the command
+of his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese.
+
+It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals of the
+States--the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of Orange--retreated in
+dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of pursuing his advantage with
+the energy of his usual habits, seemed to derive little satisfaction
+or encouragement from his victory. It might be, that the difficulty
+of controlling the predatory habits of the German and Burgundian
+troops wearied his patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued
+some new proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
+desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
+opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness; for,
+independent of the engrossing duties of their several commands, the
+leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his nephew, Alexander
+Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in age, was almost a
+brother in affection.
+
+To him alone were confided the growing cares of his charge--the
+increasing perplexities of his mind. To both princes, the name of
+Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a sacred word; and though
+Don John had the comfort of knowing that her father, the Count de
+Cergny, was unengaged in the action of Gembloux, his highness had
+reason to fear that the regiment of Hainaulters under his command,
+constituted the garrison of one or other of the frontier fortresses
+of Brabant, to which it was now his duty to direct the conquering
+arms of his captains.
+
+The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
+Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
+according to general expectation, effected in the first instance the
+reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
+Diest,--Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next succumbed to
+their arms--Maubeuge, Chimay, Barlaimont;--and, after a severe
+struggle, the new and beautiful town of Philippeville.
+
+But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a tremendous
+carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul sickened. At Sichem,
+the indignation of the Burgundians against a body of French troops
+which, after the battle of Gembloux, had pledged itself never again
+to bear arms against Spain, caused them to have a hundred soldiers
+strangled by night, and their bodies flung into the moat at the foot
+of the citadel; after which the town was given up by Prince Alexander
+to pillage and spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and
+Leeuw hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
+while receiving day after day, and week after week, the submission of
+fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs, the anxious
+expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to his clemency
+accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again disappointed!--
+
+At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into utter
+despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken her. All
+his endeavours to ascertain the position of the Count de Cergny
+having availed him nothing, he trusted that the family must be shut
+up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange and Archduke; but when every
+night, ere he retired to a soldier's rugged pillow, and pressed his
+lips to that long fair tress which seemed to ensure the blessings of
+an angel of purity and peace, the hopes entertained by Don John of
+tidings of the gentle Ulrica became slighter and still more slight.
+
+He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and exacting
+such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as promised to
+secure protection and respect to the families of all such officers of
+the insurgent army as might, in any time or place, fall into the
+hands of the royalists.
+
+To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely less
+endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood, and who
+was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the charge was
+almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first, his orders to
+his Italian captains to pursue in all directions their enquiries
+after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it had become a matter
+of course to preface their accounts of the day's movements
+with--"_No_ intelligence, may it please your highness, of the Count
+de Cergny!"
+
+The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his attention;
+for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was pinned by the
+military science of the States. But a breach having been made in the
+walls by the Spanish artillery under the command of Nicolo di Cesi,
+the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince Alexander, and the
+Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily forced an entrance; when,
+in spite of the stanch resistance of the governor, the garrison laid
+down their arms, and the greater portion of the inhabitants took the
+oath of fealty to the king.
+
+Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most desirable;
+in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma commanded a _Te
+Deum_ to be sung in the churches, and hastened to render thanks to
+the God of Battles for an event by which further carnage was spared
+to either host.
+
+Escorted by his _etat major_, he had proceeded to the cathedral to
+join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as he quitted the
+church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached, bearing
+despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful attendant of his
+household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had recently sent with
+instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general charged with the
+reduction of the frontier fortresses of Brabant.
+
+"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous ejaculation of
+the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then, turning to the
+officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in a few words, that
+the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the propositions to
+surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice of its cannon, had
+been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and its garrison put to the
+sword.
+
+"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these braggarts of
+Brabant!"--responded Nignio, who stood at the right hand of Prince
+Alexander. "The nasal twang of their chaplains seems of late to have
+overmastered, in their ears, the eloquence of the ordnance of Spain!
+Yet, i'faith, they might be expected to find somewhat more unction in
+the preachments of our musketeers than the homilies of either Luther
+or Calvin!"
+
+He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged apart
+in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had respectfully placed
+in his hands a ring of great cost and beauty.
+
+"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian republic,
+may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I judged it better
+to remit it to your royal keeping."
+
+"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a sudden
+flush of emotion.
+
+"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I took it
+from the finger of the dead!"
+
+"And when, and where?"--exclaimed the prince, drawing him still
+further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their march to
+the States' house of Limbourg.
+
+"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!" said
+Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the fewest words, know that, after seeing
+the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave and obstinate defence of
+the banner of the States floating from the walls of his citadel, I
+did my utmost to induce the Baron de Cevray, whose Burgundians
+carried the place, to proclaim quarter. For these fellows of
+Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had fought like dragons,)
+having lost their head, were powerless; and of what use hacking to
+pieces an exhausted carcass?--But our troops were too much
+exasperated by the insolent resistance and defiance they had
+experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the conduits ran blood, and
+shrieks and groans rent the air more cruelly than the previous roar
+of the artillery. In accordance, however, with the instructions I
+have ever received from your highness, I pushed my way into all
+quarters, opposing what authority I might to the brutality of the
+troopers."
+
+"Quick, quick!"--cried Prince Alexander in anxious haste--"Let me not
+suppose that the wearer of this ring fell the victim of such an
+hour?"--
+
+It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears were
+assailed with cries of female distresses:--nor could I doubt that
+even _that_ sanctuary (held sacred by our troops of Spain!) had been
+invaded by the impiety of the German or Burgundian legions!--As
+usual, the chief ladies of the town had placed themselves under the
+protection of the high altar. But there, even there, had they been
+seized by sacrilegious hands!--The fame of the rare beauty of the
+daughter of the governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two
+daring ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."
+
+"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the spot?"--demanded the
+prince, trembling with emotion. "You dealt upon them the vengeance
+due?"
+
+"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had already
+cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest! Snatched from the
+arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce arm of a German
+musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian against whom she was
+wildly but vainly defending herself; had lighted on one of the
+fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone, the blood of this
+innocent being, scarce past the age of childhood, was streaming on
+her assailants; and when, rushing in, I proclaimed, in the name of
+God and of your highness, quarter and peace, it was an insensible
+body I rescued from the grasp of pollution!"
+
+"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more unhappy
+kinsman!"
+
+"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by the
+sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved from
+their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I bore the
+insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost skill of our
+surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it been
+spared!--The dying girl was roused only to the endurance of more
+exquisite torture; and while murmuring a petition for 'mercy--mercy
+to her _father_!' that proved her still unconscious of her family
+misfortunes, she attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I
+have had the honour to deliver to your highness:--faltering with her
+last breath, 'for _his_ sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to my
+poor old father!'"--
+
+Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these mournful
+details.
+
+"She is at rest, then?"--said he, after a pause.
+
+"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."--
+
+"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince, "and
+complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of interment that
+the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the Comte de Cergny!"
+
+Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips of the
+faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to the
+discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the details of
+that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of horror--the
+youth--the beauty--the innocence--the agonies of Ulrica, had touched
+him to the heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the
+heart of Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one
+this rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
+public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with blood!--
+
+Scarcely a month had elapsed after the storming of Dalem, when a
+terrible rumour went forth in the camp of Bouge, (where Don John had
+intrenched his division of the royalist army,) that the governor of
+the Netherlands was attacked by fatal indisposition!--For some weeks
+past, indeed, his strength and spirit had been declining. When at the
+village of Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry
+of the wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English
+troops under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
+circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
+attributed to prostration of bodily strength.
+
+When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had ceded
+the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret for the
+origin of his secession superseded every other consideration.
+
+For the word had gone forth that he was to die!--In the full vigour
+of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow had reached Don
+John of Austria!--
+
+A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
+prevalent!--For his leniency towards the Protestants had engendered a
+suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II. was known to be
+remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at hand!--
+
+But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From the
+moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering on his
+wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and every time
+he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the groups of veterans
+praying on their knees for the restoration of the son of their
+emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling aloud in loyal
+affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto, tears came into his
+eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his duties. For he knew that
+their intercessions were in vain--that the hours of the sufferer were
+numbered. In a moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments
+of the church were administered to the dying prince; having received
+which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains of
+the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain, and
+fidelity to his noble successor in command.
+
+It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of Lepanto,
+and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that, towards
+evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn aside, that
+he might contemplate for the last time the creation of God!--
+
+Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered in
+hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body might be
+borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father. For his eyes
+were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and his mind upon the
+glories of the memory of one of the greatest of kings.
+
+But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason in his
+troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with fever, his
+words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused them to sound the
+trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an onset, he ranged his
+battalions for an imaginary field of battle, and disposed his
+manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against the enemy.[18] Then,
+sinking back upon his pillow, he breathed in subdued accents, "Let me
+at least avenge her innocent blood. Why, why could I not save thee,
+my Ulrica!"--
+
+[Footnote 18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.]
+
+It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his heart with
+a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to consider the murderers
+of his master) stooped down to lay his callous hand on the heart of
+the hero, the pulses of life were still!--
+
+There was but one cry throughout the camp--there was but one thought
+among his captains:--"Let the bravest knight of Christendom be laid
+nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of mail in which he had
+fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a bier, and borne forth
+from his tent on the shoulders of the officers of his household.
+Then, having been saluted by the respect of the whole army, it was
+transmitted from post to post through the camp, on those of the
+colonels of the regiments of all nations constituting the forces of
+Spain.--And which of them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the
+dead lay the love-token of a heretic?--A double line of troops,
+infantry and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the
+camp of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
+saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those iron
+soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth, the
+gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour of glory
+and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the princes of
+Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge of Venice, they
+thought upon his knightly qualities--his courtesy, generosity, and
+valour--till all memory of his illustrious parentage became effaced.
+They forgot the prince in the man,--"and behold all Israel mourned
+for Jonathan!"
+
+A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the march, till
+they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was remitted by the
+royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and La Cros, to the hands
+of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these it was bourne in state to
+the cathedral of St Alban; and during the celebration of a solemn
+mass, deposited at the foot of the high altar till the pleasure of
+Philip II. should be known concerning the fulfilment of the last
+request of Don John.
+
+It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were conveyed to
+Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated, in return, his
+permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should share the sepulture
+of Charles V., and all that now remains to Namur in memory of one of
+the last of Christian knights, the Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts,
+who expired in its service and at its gates, is an inscription placed
+on its high altar by the piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that
+it afforded a temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
+AUSTRIA.[19]
+
+[Footnote 19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
+prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the authentic
+details of the interment of one whose posthumous destinies seemed to
+share the incompleteness of his baffled life. In order to avoid the
+contestations arising from the transit of a corpse through a foreign
+state, Nignio di Zuniga (who was charged by Philip with the duty of
+conveying it to Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.)
+caused it to be _dismembered_, and the parts packed in three budgets,
+(_bougettes_,) and laid upon packhorses!--On arriving in Spain, the
+parts were _readjusted with wires!--"On remplit le corps de bourre_,"
+says the old chronicler from which these details are derived, "_et
+ainsi la structure en aiant ete comme retablie, on le revetit de ses
+armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuye sur son baton de
+general, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect d'un mort si
+illustre ayant excite quelques larmes, on le porta a l'Escurial dans
+l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son pere_."
+
+Such is the account given in a curious old history (supplementary to
+those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of the Prince of Parma,
+published at Amsterdam early in the succeeding century. But a still
+greater insult has been offered to the memory of one of the last of
+Christian knights, in Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan
+d'Autriche," where he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!]
+
+
+
+
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.
+
+No. I.
+
+
+It may be as well to state at the outset, that we have not the most
+distant intention of laying before the public the whole mass of
+poetry that flowed from the prolific pen of Goethe, betwixt the days
+of his student life at Leipsic and those of his final courtly
+residence at Weimar. It is of no use preserving the whole wardrobe of
+the dead; we do enough if we possess ourselves of his
+valuables--articles of sterling bullion that will at any time command
+their price in the market--as to worn-out and threadbare
+personalities, the sooner they are got rid of the better. Far be it
+from us, however, to depreciate or detract from the merit of any of
+Goethe's productions. Few men have written so voluminously, and still
+fewer have written so well. But the curse of a most fluent pen, and
+of a numerous auditory, to whom his words were oracles, was upon him;
+and seventy volumes, more or less, which Cotta issued from his
+wareroom, are for the library of the Germans now, and for the
+selection of judicious editors hereafter. A long time must elapse
+after an author's death, before we can pronounce with perfect
+certainty what belongs to the trunk-maker, and what pertains to
+posterity. Happy the man--if not in his own generation, yet most
+assuredly in the time to come--whose natural hesitation or
+fastidiousness has prompted him to weigh his words maturely, before
+launching them forth into the great ocean of literature, in the midst
+of which is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power!
+
+From the minor poems, therefore, of Goethe, we propose, in the
+present series, to select such as are most esteemed by competent
+judges, including, of course, ourselves. We shall not follow the
+example of dear old Eckermann, nor preface our specimens by any
+critical remarks upon the scope and tendency of the great German's
+genius; neither shall we divide his works, as characteristic of his
+intellectual progress, into eras or into epochs; still less shall we
+attempt to institute a regular comparison between his merits and
+those of Schiller, whose finest productions (most worthily
+translated) have already enriched the pages of this Magazine. We are
+doubtless ready at all times to back our favourite against the field,
+and to maintain his intellectual superiority even against his
+greatest and most formidable rival. We know that he is the showiest,
+and we feel convinced that he is the better horse of the two; but
+talking is worse than useless when the course is cleared, and the
+start about to commence.
+
+Come forward, then, before the British public, O many-sided,
+ambidextrous Goethe, as thine own Thomas Carlyle might, or could, or
+would, or should have termed thee, and let us hear how the
+mellifluous Teutonic verse will sound when adapted to another tongue.
+And, first of all--for we yearn to know it--tell us how thy
+inspiration came? A plain answer, of course, we cannot expect--that
+were impossible from a German; but such explanation as we can draw
+from metaphor and oracular response, seems to be conveyed in that
+favourite and elaborate preface to the poems, which accordingly we
+may term the
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+  The morning came. Its footsteps scared away
+    The gentle sleep that hover'd lightly o'er me;
+  I left my quiet cot to greet the day
+    And gaily climb'd the mountain-side before me.
+  The sweet young flowers! how fresh were they and tender,
+    Brimful with dew upon the sparkling lea;
+  The young day open'd in exulting splendour,
+    And all around seem'd glad to gladden me.
+
+  And, as I mounted, o'er the meadow ground
+    A white and filmy essence 'gan to hover;
+  It sail'd and shifted till it hemm'd me round,
+    Then rose above my head, and floated over.
+  No more I saw the beauteous scene unfolded--
+    It lay beneath a melancholy shroud;
+  And soon was I, as if in vapour moulded,
+    Alone, within the twilight of the cloud.
+
+  At once, as though the sun were struggling through,
+    Within the mist a sudden radiance started;
+  Here sunk the vapour, but to rise anew,
+    There on the peak and upland forest parted.
+  O, how I panted for the first clear gleaming,
+    That after darkness must be doubly bright!
+  It came not, but a glory round me beaming,
+    And I stood blinded by the gush of light.
+
+  A moment, and I felt enforced to look,
+    By some strange impulse of the heart's emotion;
+  But more than one quick glance I scarce could brook,
+    For all was burning like a molten ocean.
+  There, in the glorious clouds that seem'd to bear her,
+    A form angelic hover'd in the air;
+  Ne'er did my eyes behold vision fairer,
+    And still she gazed upon me, floating there.
+
+  "Do'st thou not know me?" and her voice was soft
+    As truthful love, and holy calm it sounded.
+  "Know'st thou not me, who many a time and oft,
+    Pour'd balsam in thy hurts when sorest wounded?
+  Ah well thou knowest her, to whom for ever
+    Thy heart in union pants to be allied!
+  Have I not seen the tears--the wild endeavour
+    That even in boyhood brought thee to my side?"
+
+  "Yes! I have felt thy influence oft," I cried,
+    And sank on earth before her, half-adoring;
+  "Thou brought'st me rest when Passion's lava tide
+    Through my young veins like liquid fire was pouring.
+  And thou hast fann'd, as with celestial pinions,
+    In summer's heat my parch'd and fever'd brow;
+  Gav'st me the choicest gifts of earth's dominions,
+    And, save through thee, I seek no fortune now.
+
+  "I name thee not, but I have heard thee named,
+    And heard thee styled their own ere now by many;
+  All eyes believe at thee their glance is aim'd,
+    Though thine effulgence is too great for any.
+  Ah! I had many comrades whilst I wander'd--
+    I know thee now, and stand almost alone:
+  I veil thy light, too precious to be squander'd,
+    And share the inward joy I feel with none."
+
+  Smiling, she said--"Thou see'st 'twas wise from thee
+    To keep the fuller, greater revelation:
+  Scarce art thou from grotesque delusions free,
+    Scarce master of thy childish first sensation;
+  Yet deem'st thyself so far above thy brothers,
+    That thou hast won the right to scorn them! Cease.
+  Who made the yawning gulf 'twixt thee and others?
+    Know--know thyself--live with the world in peace."
+
+  "Forgive me!" I exclaim'd, "I meant no ill,
+    Else should in vain my eyes be disenchanted;
+  Within my blood there stirs a genial will--
+    I know the worth of all that thou hast granted.
+  That boon I hold in trust for others merely,
+    Nor shall I let it rust within the ground;
+  Why sought I out the pathway so sincerely,
+    If not to guide my brothers to the bound?"
+
+  And as I spoke, upon her radiant face
+    Pass'd a sweet smile, like breath across a mirror;
+  And in her eyes' bright meaning I could trace
+    What I had answer'd well and what in error,
+  She smiled, and then my heart regain'd its lightness,
+    And bounded in my breast with rapture high:
+  Then durst I pass within her zone of brightness,
+    And gaze upon her with unquailing eye.
+
+  Straightway she stretch'd her hand among the thin
+    And watery haze that round her presence hover'd;
+  Slowly it coil'd and shrunk her grasp within,
+    And lo! the landscape lay once more uncover'd--
+  Again mine eye could scan the sparkling meadow,
+    I look'd to heaven, and all was clear and bright;
+  I saw her hold a veil without a shadow,
+    That undulated round her in the light.
+
+  "I know thee!--all thy weakness, all that yet
+    Of good within thee lives and glows, I've measured;"
+  She said--her voice I never may forget--
+    "Accept the gift that long for thee was treasured.
+  Oh! happy he, thrice-bless'd in earth and heaven,
+    Who takes this gift with soul serene and true,
+  The veil of song, by Truth's own fingers given,
+    Enwoven of sunshine and the morning dew.
+
+  "Wave but this veil on high, whene'er beneath
+    The noonday fervour thou and thine are glowing,
+  And fragrance of all flowers around shall breathe,
+    And the cool winds of eve come freshly blowing.
+  Earth's cares shall cease for thee, and all its riot;
+    Where gloom'd the grave, a starry couch be seen;
+  The waves of life shall sink in halcyon quiet;
+    The days be lovely fair, the nights serene."
+
+  Come then, my friends, and whether 'neath the load
+    Of heavy griefs ye struggle on, or whether
+  Your better destiny shall strew the road
+    With flowers, and golden fruits that cannot wither,
+  United let us move, still forwards striving;
+    So while we live shall joy our days illume,
+  And in our children's hearts our love surviving
+    Shall gladden them, when we are in the tomb.
+
+This is a noble metaphysical and metaphorical poem, but purely German
+of its kind. It has been imitated, not to say travestied, at least
+fifty times, by crazy students and purblind professors--each of whom,
+in turn, has had an interview with the goddess of nature upon a
+hill-side. For our own part, we confess that we have no great
+predilection for such mysterious intercourse, and would rather draw
+our inspiration from tangible objects, than dally with a visionary
+Egeria. But the fault is both common and national.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next specimen we shall offer is the far-famed _Bride of Corinth_.
+Mrs Austin says of this poem very happily--"An awful and undefined
+horror breathes throughout it. In the slow measured rhythm of the
+verse, and the pathetic simplicity of the diction, there is a
+solemnity and a stirring spell, which chains the feelings like a deep
+mysterious strain of music." Owing to the peculiar structure and
+difficulty of the verse, this poem has hitherto been supposed
+incapable of translation. Dr Anster, who alone has rendered it into
+English, found it necessary to depart from the original structure;
+and we confess that it was not without much labour, and after
+repeated efforts, that we succeeded in vanquishing the obstacle of
+the double rhymes. If the German scholar should perceive, that in
+three stanzas some slight liberties have been taken with the
+original, we trust that he will perceive the reason, and at least
+give us credit for general fidelity and close adherence to the text.
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.
+
+  I.
+
+  A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumber'd,
+    Came from Athens: though a stranger there,
+  Soon among its townsmen to be number'd,
+    For a bride awaits him, young and fair:
+      From their childhood's years
+      They were plighted feres,
+    So contracted by their parents' care.
+
+  II.
+
+  But may not his welcome there be hinder'd?
+    Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.
+  He is still a heathen with his kindred,
+    She and her's wash'd in the Christian creed.
+      When new faiths are born,
+      Love and troth are torn
+    Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.
+
+  III.
+
+  All the house is hush'd. To rest retreated
+    Father, daughters--not the mother quite;
+  She the guest with cordial welcome greeted,
+    Led him to a room with tapers bright;
+      Wine and food she brought
+      Ere of them he thought,
+    Then departed with a fair good-night.
+
+  IV.
+
+  But he felt no hunger, and unheeded
+    Left the wine, and eager for the rest
+  Which his limbs, forspent with travel, needed,
+    On the couch he laid him, still undress'd.
+      There he sleeps--when lo!
+      Onwards gliding slow,
+    At the door appears a wondrous guest.
+
+  V.
+
+  By the waning lamp's uncertain gleaming
+    There he sees a youthful maiden stand,
+  Robed in white, of still and gentle seeming,
+    On her brow a black and golden band.
+        When she meets his eyes,
+        With a quick surprise
+    Starting, she uplifts a pallid hand.
+
+  VI.
+
+  "Is a stranger here, and nothing told me?
+    Am I then forgotten even in name?
+  Ah! 'tis thus within my cell they hold me,
+    And I now am cover'd o'er with shame!
+        Pillow still thy head
+        There upon thy bed,
+    I will leave thee quickly as I came."
+
+  VII.
+
+  "Maiden--darling! Stay, O stay!" and, leaping
+    From the couch, before her stands the boy:
+  "Ceres--Bacchus, here their gifts are heaping,
+    And thou bringest Amor's gentle joy!
+        Why with terror pale?
+        Sweet one, let us hail
+    These bright gods--their festive gifts employ."
+
+  VIII.
+
+  "Oh, no--no! Young stranger, come not nigh me;
+    Joy is not for me, nor festive cheer.
+  Ah! such bliss may ne'er be tasted by me,
+    Since my mother, in fantastic fear,
+        By long sickness bow'd,
+        To heaven's service vow'd
+    Me, and all the hopes that warm'd me here.
+
+  IX.
+
+  "They have left our hearth, and left it lonely--
+    The old gods, that bright and jocund train.
+  One, unseen, in heaven, is worshipp'd only,
+    And upon the cross a Saviour slain;
+        Sacrifice is here,
+        Not of lamb nor steer,
+    But of human woe and human pain."
+
+  X.
+
+  And he asks, and all her words cloth ponder--
+    "Can it be, that, in this silent spot,
+  I behold thee, thou surpassing wonder!
+    My sweet bride, so strangely to me brought?
+        Be mine only now--
+        See, our parents' vow
+    Heaven's good blessing hath for us besought."
+
+  XI.
+
+  "No! thou gentle heart," she cried in anguish;
+    "'Tis not mine, but 'tis my sister's place;
+  When in lonely cell I weep and languish,
+    Think, oh think of me in her embrace!
+        I think but of thee--
+        Pining drearily,
+    Soon beneath the earth to hide my face!"
+
+  XII.
+
+  "Nay! I swear by yonder flame which burneth,
+    Fann'd by Hymen, lost thou shalt not be;
+  Droop not thus, for my sweet bride returneth
+    To my father's mansion back with me!
+        Dearest! tarry here!
+        Taste the bridal cheer,
+    For our spousal spread so wondrously!"
+
+  XIII.
+
+  Then with word and sign their troth they plighted.
+    Golden was the chain she bade him wear;
+  But the cup he offer'd her she slighted,
+    Silver, wrought with cunning past compare.
+        "That is not for me;
+        All I ask of thee
+    Is one little ringlet of thy hair."
+
+  XIV.
+
+  Dully boom'd the midnight hour unhallow'd,
+    And then first her eyes began to shine;
+  Eagerly with pallid lips she swallow'd
+    Hasty draughts of purple-tinctured wine;
+        But the wheaten bread,
+        As in shuddering dread,
+    Put she always by with loathing sign.
+
+  XV.
+
+  And she gave the youth the cup: he drain'd it,
+    With impetuous haste he drain'd it dry;
+  Love was in his fever'd heart, and pain'd it,
+    Till it ached for joys she must deny.
+        But the maiden's fears
+        Stay'd him, till in tears
+    On the bed he sank, with sobbing cry.
+
+  XVI.
+
+  And she leans above him--"Dear one, still thee!
+    Ah, how sad am I to see thee so!
+  But, alas! these limbs of mine would chill thee:
+    Love, they mantle not with passion's glow;
+        Thou wouldst be afraid,
+        Didst thou find the maid
+    Thou hast chosen, cold as ice or snow."
+
+  XVII.
+
+  Round her waist his eager arms he bended,
+    Dashing from his eyes the blinding tear:
+  "Wert thou even from the grave ascended,
+    Come unto my heart, and warm thee here!"
+        Sweet the long embrace--
+        "Raise that pallid face;
+    None but thou and are watching, dear!"
+
+  XVIII.
+
+  Was it love that brought the maiden thither,
+    To the chamber of the stranger guest?
+  Love's bright fire should kindle, and not wither;
+    Love's sweet thrill should soothe, not torture, rest.
+        His impassion'd mood
+        Warms her torpid blood,
+    Yet there beats no heart within her breast.
+
+  XIX.
+
+  Meanwhile goes the mother, softly creeping,
+    Through the house, on needful cares intent,
+  Hears a murmur, and, while all are sleeping,
+    Wonders at the sounds, and what they meant.
+        Who was whispering so?--
+        Voices soft and low,
+    In mysterious converse strangely blent.
+
+  XX.
+
+  Straightway by the door herself she stations,
+    There to be assured what was amiss;
+  And she hears love's fiery protestations,
+    Words of ardour and endearing bliss:
+        "Hark, the cock! 'Tis light!
+        But to-morrow night
+    Thou wilt come again?"--and kiss on kiss.
+
+  XXI.
+
+  Quick the latch she raises, and, with features
+    Anger-flush'd, into the chamber hies.
+  "Are there in my house such shameless creatures,
+    Minions to the stranger's will?" she cries.
+        By the dying light,
+        Who is't meets her sight?
+    God! 'tis her own daughter she espies!
+
+  XXII.
+
+  And the youth in terror sought to cover,
+    With her own light veil, the maiden's head,
+  Clasp'd her close; but, gliding from her lover,
+    Back the vestment from her brow she spread,
+        And her form upright,
+        As with ghostly might,
+    Long and slowly rises from the bed.
+
+  XXIII.
+
+  "Mother! mother! wherefore thus deprive me
+    Of such joy as I this night have known?
+  Wherefore from these warm embraces drive me?
+    Was I waken'd up to meet thy frown?
+        Did it not suffice
+        That, in virgin guise,
+    To an early grave you brought me down?
+
+  XXIV.
+
+  "Fearful is the weird that forced me hither,
+    From the dark-heap'd chamber where I lay;
+  Powerless are your drowsy anthems, neither
+    Can your priests prevail, howe'er they pray.
+        Salt nor lymph can cool
+        Where the pulse is full;
+    Love must still burn on, though wrapp'd in clay.
+
+  XXV.
+
+  "To this youth my early troth was plighted,
+    Whilst yet Venus ruled within the land;
+  Mother! and that vow ye falsely slighted,
+    At your new and gloomy faith's command.
+        But no God will hear,
+        If a mother swear
+    Pure from love to keep her daughter's hand.
+
+  XXVI.
+
+  "Nightly from my narrow chamber driven,
+    Come I to fulfil my destined part,
+  Him to seek for whom my troth was given,
+    And to draw the life blood from his heart.
+        He hath served my will;
+        More I yet must kill,
+    For another prey I now depart.
+
+  XXVII.
+
+  "Fair young man! thy thread of life is broken,
+    Human skill can bring no aid to thee.
+  There thou hast my chain--a ghastly token--
+    And this lock of thine I take with me.
+        Soon must thou decay,
+        Soon wilt thou be gray,
+    Dark although to-night thy tresses be.
+
+  XXVIII.
+
+  "Mother! hear, oh hear my last entreaty!
+    Let the funeral pile arise once more;
+  Open up my wretched tomb for pity,
+    And in flames our souls to peace restore.
+        When the ashes glow,
+        When the fire-sparks flow,
+    To the ancient gods aloft we soar."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this most powerful and original ballad, let us turn to
+something more genial. The three following poems are exquisite
+specimens of the varied genius of our author; and we hardly know
+whether to prefer the plaintive beauty of the first, or the light and
+sportive brilliancy of the other twain.
+
+
+FIRST LOVE.
+
+  Oh, who will bring me back the day,
+    So beautiful, so bright!
+  Those days when love first bore my heart
+    Aloft on pinions light?
+  Oh, who will bring me but an hour
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the power
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+  I nurse my wound in solitude,
+    I sigh the livelong day,
+  And mourn the joys, in wayward mood,
+   That now are pass'd away.
+  Oh, who will bring me back the days
+    Of that delightful time,
+  And wake in me again the blaze
+    That fired my golden prime?
+
+WHO'LL BUY A CUPID?
+
+  Of all the wares so pretty
+  That come into the city,
+  There's none are so delicious,
+  There's none are half so precious,
+  As those which we are binging.
+  O, listen to our singing!
+  Young loves to sell! young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  First look you at the oldest,
+  The wantonest, the boldest!
+  So loosely goes he hopping,
+  From tree and thicket dropping,
+  Then flies aloft as sprightly--
+  We dare but praise him lightly!
+  The fickle rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Now see this little creature--
+  How modest seems his feature!
+  He nestles so demurely,
+  You'd think him safer surely;
+  And yet for all his shyness,
+  There's danger in his slyness!
+  The cunning rogue! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  Oh come and see this lovelet,
+  This little turtle-dovelet!
+  The maidens that are neatest,
+  The tenderest and sweetest,
+  Should buy it to amuse 'em,
+  And nurse it in their bosom.
+  The little pet! Young loves to sell!
+  My pretty loves who'll buy?
+
+  We need not bid you buy them,
+  They're here, if you will try them.
+  They like to change their cages;
+  But for their proving sages
+  No warrant will we utter--
+  They all have wings to flutter.
+  The pretty birds! Young loves to sell!
+  Such beauties! Come and buy!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SECOND LIFE.
+
+  After life's departing sigh,
+  To the spots I loved most dearly,
+  In the sunshine and the shadow,
+  By the fountain welling clearly,
+  Through the wood and o'er the meadow,
+  Flit I like a butterfly.
+
+  There a gentle pair I spy.
+  Round the maiden's tresses flying,
+  From her chaplet I discover
+  All that I had lost in dying,
+  Still with her and with her lover.
+  Who so happy then as I?
+
+  For she smiles with laughing eye;
+  And his lips to hers he presses,
+  Vows of passion interchanging,
+  Stifling her with sweet caresses,
+  O'er her budding beauties ranging;
+  And around the twain I fly.
+
+  And she sees me fluttering nigh;
+  And beneath his ardour trembling,
+  Starts she up--then off I hover.
+  "Look there, dearest!" Thus dissembling,
+  Speaks the maiden to her lover--
+  "Come and catch that butterfly!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the days of his boyhood, and of Monk Lewis, Sir Walter Scott
+translated the Erl King, and since then it has been a kind of
+assay-piece for aspiring German students to thump and hammer at will.
+We have heard it sung so often at the piano by soft-voiced maidens,
+and hirsute musicians, before whose roaring the bull of Phalaris
+might be dumb, that we have been accustomed to associate it with
+stiff white cravats, green tea, and a superabundance of lemonade. But
+to do full justice to its unearthly fascination, one ought to hear it
+chanted by night in a lonely glade of the Schwartzwald or Spessart
+forest, with the wind moaning as an accompaniment, and the ghostly
+shadows of the branches flitting in the moonlight across the path.
+
+
+THE ERL KING.
+
+  Who rides so late through the grisly night?
+  'Tis a father and child, and he grasps him tight;
+  He wraps him close in his mantle's fold,
+  And shelters the boy from the biting cold.
+
+  "My son, why thus to my arm dost cling?"
+  "Father, dost thou not see the Erlie-king?
+  The king with his crown and long black train!"
+  "My son, 'tis a streak of the misty rain! "
+
+  "Come hither, thou darling! come, go with me!
+  Fair games know I that I'll play with thee;
+  Many bright flowers my kingdoms hold!
+  My mother has many a robe of gold!"
+
+  "O father, dear father and dost thou not hear
+  What the Erlie-king whispers so low in mine ear?"
+  "Calm thee, my boy, 'tis only the breeze
+  Rustling the dry leaves beneath the trees!"
+
+  "Wilt thou go, bonny boy! wilt thou go with me?
+  My daughters shall wait on thee daintilie;
+  My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,
+  And rock thee, and kiss thee, and sing thee to sleep!"
+
+  "O father, dear father! and dost thou not mark
+  Erlie-king's daughters move by in the dark?"
+  "I see it, my child; but it is not they,
+  'Tis the old willow nodding its head so grey!"
+
+  "I love thee! thy beauty charms me quite;
+  And if thou refusest, I'll take thee by might!"
+  "O father, dear father! he's grasping me--
+  My heart is as cold as cold can be!"
+
+  The father rides swiftly--with terror he gasps--
+  The sobbing child in his arms he clasps;
+  He reaches the castle with spurring and dread;
+  But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Who has not heard of Mignon?--sweet, delicate little Mignon?--the
+woman-child, in whose miniature, rather than portrait, it is easy to
+trace the original of fairy Fenella? We would that we could
+adequately translate the song, which in its native German is so
+exquisitely plaintive, that few can listen to it without tears. This
+poem, it is almost needless to say, is anterior in date to Byron's
+Bride of Abyos
+
+
+  MIGNON.
+
+  Know'st thou the land where the pale citron grows,
+  And the gold orange through dark foliage glows?
+  A soft wind flutters from the deep blue sky,
+  The myrtle blooms, and towers the laurel high.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my own beloved one, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the house? On pillars rest its beams,
+  Bright is its hall, in light one chamber gleams,
+  And marble statues stand, and look on me--
+  What have they done, thou hapless child, to thee?
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O there with thee!
+  O that I might, my loved protector, flee!
+
+  Know'st thou the track that o'er the mountain goes,
+  Where the mule threads its way through mist and snows,
+  Where dwelt in caves the dragon's ancient brood,
+  Topples the crag, and o'er it roars the flood.
+  Know'st thou it well?
+                        O come with me!
+  There lies our road--oh father, let us flee!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In order duly to appreciate the next ballad, you must fancy yourself
+(if you cannot realize it) stretched on the grass, by the margin of a
+mighty river of the south, rushing from or through an Italian lake,
+whose opposite shore you cannot descry for the thick purple haze of
+heat that hangs over its glassy surface. If you lie there for an hour
+or so, gazing into the depths of the blue unfathomable sky, till the
+fanning of the warm wind and the murmur of the water combine to throw
+you into a trance, you will be able to enjoy
+
+
+THE FISHER.
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    An angler near it lay,
+  And watch'd his quill, with tranquil eye,
+    Upon the current play.
+  And as he sits in wasteful dream,
+    He sees the flood unclose,
+  And from the middle of the stream
+    A river-maiden rose.
+
+  She sang to him with witching wile,
+    "My brood why wilt thou snare,
+  With human craft and human guile,
+    To die in scorching air?
+  Ah! didst thou know how happy we
+    Who dwell in waters clear,
+  Thou wouldst come down at once to me,
+    And rest for ever here.
+
+  "The sun and ladye-moon they lave
+    Their tresses in the main,
+  And breathing freshness from the wave,
+    Come doubly bright again.
+  The deep blue sky, so moist and clear,
+    Hath it for thee no lure?
+  Does thine own face not woo thee down
+    Unto our waters pure?"
+
+  The water rush'd and bubbled by--
+    It lapp'd his naked feet;
+  He thrill'd as though he felt the touch
+    Of maiden kisses sweet.
+  She spoke to him, she sang to him--
+    Resistless was her strain--
+  Half-drawn, he sank beneath the wave,
+    And ne'er was seen again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our next extract smacks of the Troubadours, and would have better
+suited good old King Rene of Provence than a Paladin of the days of
+Charlemagne. Goethe has neither the eye of Wouverman nor Borgognone,
+and sketches but an indifferent battle-piece. Homer was a stark
+moss-trooper, and so was Scott; but the Germans want the cry of "boot
+and saddle" consumedly. However, the following is excellent in its
+way.
+
+
+THE MINSTREL.
+
+  "What sounds are those without, along
+    The drawbridge sweetly stealing?
+  Within our hall I'd have that song,
+    That minstrel measure, pealing."
+  Then forth the little foot-page hied;
+  When he came back, the king he cried,
+    "Bring in the aged minstrel!"
+
+  "Good-even to you, lordlings all;
+    Fair ladies all, good-even.
+  Lo, star on star within this hall
+    I see a radiant heaven.
+  In hall so bright with noble light,
+  'Tis not for thee to feast thy sight,
+    Old man, look not around thee!"
+
+  He closed his eyne, he struck his lyre
+    In tones with passion laden,
+  Till every gallant's eye shot fire,
+    And down look'd every maiden.
+  The king, enraptured with his strain,
+  Held out to him a golden chain,
+    In guerdon of his harping.
+
+  "The golden chain give not to me,
+    For noble's breast its glance is,
+  Who meets and beats thy enemy
+    Amid the shock of lances.
+  Or give it to thy chancellere--
+  Let him its golden burden bear,
+    Among his other burdens.
+
+  "I sing as sings the bird, whose note
+    The leafy bough is heard on.
+  The song that falters from my throat
+    For me is ample guerdon.
+  Yet I'd ask one thing, an I might,
+  A draught of brave wine, sparkling bright
+    Within a golden beaker!"
+
+  The cup was brought. He drain'd its lees,
+    "O draught that warms me cheerly!
+  Blest is the house where gifts like these
+    Are counted trifles merely.
+  Lo, when you prosper, think on me,
+  And thank your God as heartily
+    As for this draught I thank you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We intend to close the present Number with a very graceful, though
+simple ditty, which Goethe may possibly have altered from the
+Morlachian, but which is at all events worthy of his genius.
+Previously, however, in case any of the ladies should like something
+sentimental, we beg leave to present them with as nice a little
+_chansonette_ as ever was transcribed into an album.
+
+THE VIOLET.
+
+  A violet blossom'd on the lea,
+    Half hidden from the eye,
+  As fair a flower as you might see;
+    When there came tripping by
+  A shepherd maiden fair and young,
+    Lightly, lightly o'er the lea;
+  Care she knew not, and she sung
+      Merrily!
+
+  "O were I but the fairest flower
+    That blossoms on the lea;
+  If only for one little hour,
+    That she might gather me--
+  Clasp me in her bonny breast!"
+    Thought the little flower.
+  "O that in it I might rest
+      But an hour!"
+
+  Lack-a-day! Up came the lass,
+    Heeded not the violet;
+  Trod it down into the grass;
+    Though it died, 'twas happy yet.
+  "Trodden down although I lie,
+    Yet my death is very sweet--
+  For I cannot choose but die
+      At her feet!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE DOLEFUL LAY OF THE NOBLE WIFE OF ASAN AGA.
+
+  What is yon so white beside the greenwood?
+  Is it snow, or flight of cygnets resting?
+  Were it snow, ere now it had been melted;
+  Were it swans, ere now the flock had left us.
+  Neither snow nor swans are resting yonder,
+  'Tis the glittering tents of Asan Aga.
+  Faint he lies from wounds in stormy battle;
+  There his mother and his sisters seek him,
+  But his wife hangs back for shame, and comes not.
+
+  When the anguish of his hurts was over,
+  To his faithful wife he sent this message--
+  "Longer 'neath my roof thou shalt not tarry,
+  Neither in my court nor in my household."
+
+  When the lady heard this cruel sentence,
+  'Reft of sense she stood, and rack'd with anguish:
+  In the court she heard the horses stamping,
+  And in fear that it was Asan coming,
+  Fled towards the tower, to leap and perish.
+
+  Then in terror ran her little daughters,
+  Calling after her, and weeping sorely,
+  "These are not the steeds of Father Asan;
+  'Tis thy brother Pintorovich coming!"
+
+  And the wife of Asan turn'd to meet him;
+  Sobbing, threw her arms around her brother.
+  "See the wrongs, O brother, of thy sister!
+  These five babes I bore, and must I leave them?"
+
+  Silently the brother from his girdle
+  Draws the ready deed of separation,
+  Wrapp'd within a crimson silken cover.
+  She is free to seek her mother's dwelling--
+  Free to join in wedlock with another.
+
+  When the woful lady saw the writing,
+  Kiss'd she both her boys upon the forehead,
+  Kiss'd on both the cheeks her sobbing daughters;
+  But she cannot tear herself for pity
+  From the infant smiling in the cradle!
+
+  Rudely did her brother tear her from it,
+  Deftly lifted her upon a courser,
+  And in haste, towards his father's dwelling,
+  Spurr'd he onward with the woful lady.
+
+  Short the space; seven days, but barely seven--
+  Little space I ween--by many nobles
+  Was the lady--still in weeds of mourning--
+  Was the lady courted in espousal.
+
+  Far the noblest was Imoski's cadi;
+  And the dame in tears besought her brother--
+  "I adjure thee, by the life thou bearest,
+  Give me not a second time in marriage,
+  That my heart may not be rent asunder
+  If again I see my darling children!"
+
+  Little reck'd the brother of her bidding,
+  Fix'd to wed her to Imoski's cadi.
+  But the gentle lady still entreats him--
+  "Send at least a letter, O my brother!
+  To Imoski's cadi, thus imploring--
+  I, the youthful widow, greet thee fairly,
+  And entreat thee, by this selfsame token,
+  When thou comest hither with thy bridesmen,
+  Bring a heavy veil, that I may shroud me
+  As we pass along by Asan's dwelling,
+  So I may not see my darling orphans."
+
+  Scarcely had the cadi read the letter,
+  When he call'd together all his bridesmen,
+  Boune himself to bring the lady homewards,
+  And he brought the veil as she entreated.
+
+  Jocundly they reach'd the princely mansion,
+  Jocundly they bore her thence in triumph;
+  But when they drew near to Asan's dwelling,
+  Then the children recognized their mother,
+  And they cried, "Come back unto thy chamber--
+  Share the meal this evening with thy children;"
+  And she turn'd her to the lordly bridegroom--
+  "Pray thee, let the bridesmen and their horses
+  Halt a little by the once-loved dwelling,
+  Till I give these presents to my children."
+
+  And they halted by the once-loved dwelling,
+  And she gave the weeping children presents,
+  Gave each boy a cap with gold embroider'd,
+  Gave each girl a long and costly garment,
+  And with tears she left a tiny mantle
+  For the helpless baby in the cradle.
+
+  These things mark'd the father, Asan Aga,
+  And in sorrow call'd he to his children--
+  "Turn again to me, ye poor deserted;
+  Hard as steel is now your mother's bosom;
+  Shut so fast, it cannot throb with pity!"
+
+  Thus he spoke; and when the lady heard him,
+  Pale as death she dropp'd upon the pavement,
+  And the life fled from her wretched bosom
+  As she saw her children turning from her.
+
+
+
+
+MY FIRST LOVE.
+
+A SKETCH IN NEW YORK.
+
+
+"Margaret, where are you?" cried a silver-toned voice from a passage
+outside the drawing-room in which I had just seated myself. The next
+instant a lovely face appeared at the door, its owner tripped into
+the room, made a comical curtsy, and ran up to her sister.
+
+"It is really too bad, Margaret; pa' frets and bustles about, nearly
+runs over me upon the stairs, and then goes down the street as if
+'Change were on fire. Ma' yawns, and will not hear of our going
+shopping, and grumbles about money--always money--that horrid money!
+Ah! dear Margaret, our shopping excursion is at an end for to-day!"
+
+Sister Margaret, to whom this lamentation was addressed, was
+reclining on the sofa, her left hand supporting her head, her right
+holding the third volume of a novel. She looked up with a languishing
+and die-away expression--
+
+"Poor Staunton will be in despair," said her sister. "This is at
+least his tenth turn up and down the Battery. Last night he was a
+perfect picture of misery. I could not have had the heart to refuse
+to dance with him. How could you be so cruel, Margaret?"
+
+"Alas!" replied Margaret with a deep sigh, "how could I help it?
+Mamma was behind me, and kept pushing me with her elbow. Mamma is
+sometimes very ill-bred." And another sigh burst from the overcharged
+heart of the sentimental fair one.
+
+"Well," rejoined her sister, "I don't know why she so terribly
+dislikes poor Staunton; but to say the truth, our gallopade lost
+nothing by his absence. He is as stiff as a Dutch doll when he
+dances. Even our Louisianian backwoodsman here, acquits himself much
+more creditably."
+
+And the malicious girl gave me such an arch look, that I could not be
+angry with the equivocal sort of compliment paid to myself.
+
+"That is very unkind, Arthurine," said Margaret, her checks glowing
+with anger at this attack upon the graces of her admirer.
+
+"Don't be angry, sister," cried Arthurine, running up to her,
+throwing her arms round her neck, and kissing and soothing her till
+she began to smile. They formed a pretty group. Arthurine especially,
+as she skipped up to her sister, scarce touching the carpet with her
+tiny feet, looked like a fairy or a nymph. She was certainly a lovely
+creature, slender and flexible as a reed, with a waist one could
+easily have spanned with one's ten fingers; feet and hands on the
+very smallest scale, and of the most beautiful mould; features
+exquisitely regular; a complexion of lilies and roses; a small
+graceful head, adorned with a profusion of golden hair; and then
+large round clear blue eyes, full of mischief and fascination. She
+was, as the French say, _a croquer_.
+
+"Heigho!" sighed the sentimental Margaret. "To think of this vulgar,
+selfish man intruding himself between me and such a noble creature as
+Staunton! It is really heart-breaking."
+
+"Not quite so bad as that!" said Arthurine. "Moreland, as you know,
+has a good five hundred thousand dollars; and Staunton has nothing,
+or at most a couple of thousand dollars a-year--a mere feather in the
+balance against such a golden weight."
+
+"Love despises gold," murmured Margaret.
+
+"Nonsense!" replied her sister; "I would not even despise silver, if
+it were in sufficient quantity. Only think of the balls and parties,
+the fetes and pic-nics! Saratoga in the summer--perhaps even London
+or Paris! The mere thought of it makes my mouth water."
+
+"Talk not of such joys, to be bought at such a price!" cried
+Margaret, quoting probably from some of her favourite novels.
+
+"Well, don't make yourself unhappy now," said Arthurine. "Moreland
+will not be here till tea-time; and there are six long hours to that.
+If we had only a few new novels to pass the time! I cannot imagine
+why Cooper is so lazy. Only one book in a year! What if you were to
+begin to write, sister? I have no doubt you would succeed as well as
+Mrs Mitchell. Bulwer is so fantastical; and even Walter Scott is
+getting dull."
+
+"Alas, Howard!" sighed Margaret, looking to me for sympathy with her
+sorrows.
+
+"Patience, dear Margaret," said I. "If possible, I will help you to
+get rid of the old fellow. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Rat-tat-tat at the house door. Arthurine put up her finger to enjoin
+silence, and listened. Another loud knock. "A visit!" exclaimed she
+with sparkling eyes. "Ha! ladies; I hear the rustle of their gowns."
+And as she spoke the door opened, and the Misses Pearce came swimming
+into the room, in all the splendour of violet-coloured silks, covered
+with feathers, lace, and embroideries, and bringing with them an
+atmosphere of perfume.
+
+The man who has the good fortune to see our New York belles in their
+morning or home attire, must have a heart made of quartz or granite
+if he resists their attractions. Their graceful forms, their
+intellectual and somewhat languishing expression of countenance,
+their bright and beaming eyes, their slender figures, which make one
+inclined to seize and hold them lest the wind should blow them away,
+their beautifully delicate hands and feet, compose a sum of
+attraction perfectly irresistible. The Boston ladies are perhaps
+better informed, and their features are usually more regular; but
+they have something Yankeeish about them, which I could never fancy,
+and, moreover, they are dreadful blue-stockings. The fair
+Philadelphians are rounder, more elastic, more Hebe-like, and
+unapproachable in the article of small-talk; but it is amongst the
+beauties of New York that romance writers should seek for their
+Julias and Alices. I am certain that if Cooper had made their
+acquaintance whilst writing his books, he would have torn up his
+manuscripts, and painted his heroines after a less wooden fashion. He
+can only have seen them on the Battery or in Broadway, where they are
+so buried and enveloped in finery that it is impossible to guess what
+they are really like. The two young ladies who had just entered the
+room, were shining examples of that system of over-dressing. They
+seemed to have put on at one time the three or four dresses worn in
+the course of the day by a London or Paris fashionable.
+
+It was now all over with my _tete-a-tete_. I could only be _de trop_
+in the gossip of the four ladies, and I accordingly took my leave. As
+I passed before the parlour door on my way out, it was opened, and
+Mrs Bowsends beckoned me in. I entered, and found her husband also
+there.
+
+"Are you going away already, my dear Howard?" said the lady.
+
+"There are visitors up stairs."
+
+"Ah, Howard!" said Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"The workies[20] have carried the day," growled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 20: The slang term applied to the mechanics and labourers,
+a numerous and (at elections especially) a most important class in
+New York and Philadelphia.]
+
+"That horrid Staunton!" interrupted his better half. "Only think
+now'--
+
+"Our side lost--completely floored. But you've heard of it, I
+suppose, Mister Howard?"
+
+I turned from one to the other in astonished perplexity, not knowing
+to which I ought to listen first.
+
+"I don't know how it is," whined the lady, "but that Mr Staunton
+becomes every day more odious to me. Only think now, of his having
+the effrontery to persist in running after Margaret! Hardly two
+thousand a-year "--
+
+"Old Hickory is preparing to leave Hermitage already.[21] Bank shares
+have fallen half per cent in consequence," snarled her husband.
+
+[Footnote 21: The name of General Jackson's country-house and
+estate.]
+
+They were ringing the changes on poor Staunton and the new president.
+
+"He ought to remember the difference of our positions," said Mrs B.,
+drawing herself up with much dignity.
+
+"Certainly, certainly!" said I.
+
+"And the governor's election is also going desperate bad," said Mr
+Bowsends.
+
+"And then Margaret, to think of her infatuation! Certainly she is a
+good, gentle creature; but five hundred thousand dollars!" This was
+Mrs Bowsends.
+
+"By no means to be despised," said I.
+
+The five hundred thousand dollars touched a responsive chord in the
+heart of the papa.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," repeated he. "Yes, certainly; but what's the
+use of that? All nonsense. Those girls would ruin a Croesus."
+
+"You need not talk, I'm sure," retorted mamma. "Think of all your
+bets and electioneering."
+
+"You understand nothing about that," replied her husband angrily.
+"Interests of the country--congress--public good--must be supported.
+Who would do it if we"--
+
+"Did not bet," thought I.
+
+"You are a friend of the family," said Mrs Bowsends, "and I hope you
+will"--
+
+"Apropos," interrupted her loving husband. "How has your cotton crop
+turned out? You might consign it to me. How many bales?"
+
+"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."
+
+"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa musingly;
+"hm, hm."
+
+"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital in my
+hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred another year."
+
+"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened approvingly.
+"That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a good girl. We'll
+see, my dear Mr Howard--we'll see. Yes, yes--come here every
+evening--whenever you like. You know Arthurine is always glad to see
+you."
+
+"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.
+
+"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling graciously.
+
+I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
+nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends' last
+speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate father-in-law
+that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets with my cotton bales;
+and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at the selfishness of my
+species, and more especially at the stupid impudent egotism of
+Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him. To all such, even their
+children are nothing but so many bales of goods, to be bartered,
+bought, and sold. And this man belongs to the _haut-ton_ of New York!
+Five-and-twenty years ago he went about with a tailor's measure in
+his pocket--now a leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees
+and directorships.
+
+But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely face,
+the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and that is not
+saying a little, but the most elegant, charming--a perfect sylph! It
+was now about eleven months since I had first become acquainted with
+the bewitching creature; and, from the very first day, I had been her
+vassal, her slave, bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida.
+She had just left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by
+the by, is one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes
+itself upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
+fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
+danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected upon
+the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right well how to
+work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet; but not one out
+of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he had received a
+smile or a look more than his fellows. I was the only one who had
+perhaps obtained a sort of passive preference. I was allowed to
+escort her in her rides, walks, and drives; to be her regular partner
+when no other dancer offered, and suchlike enviable privileges. She
+flirted and fluttered about me, and hung familiarly on my arm, as she
+tripped along Broadway or the Battery by my side. In addition to all
+these little marks of preference, it fell to my share of duty to
+supply her with the newest novels, to furnish her with English
+Keepsakes and American Tokens and Souvenirs, and to provide the last
+fashionable songs and quadrilles. All this had cost me no small sum;
+but I consoled myself with the reflection, that my presents were made
+to the prettiest girl in New York, and that sooner or later she must
+reward my assiduities. Twice had fortune smiled upon me; in one
+instance, when we were standing on the bridge at Niagara, looking
+down on the foaming waters, and I was obliged to put my arm round her
+waist, for fear she should become dizzy and fall in--in doing which,
+by the by, I very nearly fell in myself. A similar thing occurred on
+a visit we made to the Trenton falls. That was all I had got for my
+pains, however, during the eleven months that I had trifled away in
+New York--months that had served to lighten my purse pretty
+considerably. It is the fashion in our southern states to choose our
+wives from amongst the beauties of the north. I had been bitten by
+the mania, and had come to New York upon this important business; but
+having been there nearly a year, it was high time to make an end of
+matters, if I did not wish to be put on the shelf as stale goods.
+
+This last reflection occurred to me very strongly as I was walking
+from the Bowsends' house towards Wall Street, when suddenly I caught
+sight of my fellow-sufferer Staunton. The Yankee's dolorous
+countenance almost made me smile. Up he came, with the double object
+of informing me that the weather was very fine, and of offering me a
+bite at his pigtail tobacco. I could not help expressing my
+astonishment that so sensitive and delicate a creature as Margaret
+should tolerate such a habit in the man of her choice.
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the simpleton. "Moreland chews also."
+
+"Yes, but he has got five hundred thousand dollars, and that sweetens
+the poison."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Staunton.
+
+"Keep up your courage, man; Bowsends is rich."
+
+The Yankee shook his head.
+
+"Two hundred thousand, they say; but to-morrow he may not have a
+farthing. You know our New Yorkers. Nothing but bets, elections,
+shares, railways, banks. His expenses are enormous; and, if he once
+got his daughters off his hands, he would perhaps fail next week."
+
+"And be so much the richer next year," replied I.
+
+"Do you think so?" said the Yankee, musingly.
+
+"Of course it would be so. Mean time you can marry the languishing
+Margaret, and do like many others of your fellow citizens; go out
+with a basket on your arm to the Greenwich market, and whilst your
+delicate wife is enjoying her morning slumber, buy the potatoes and
+salted mackerel for breakfast. In return for that, she will perhaps
+condescend to pour you out a cup of bohea. Famous thing that bohea!
+capital antidote to the dyspepsia!"
+
+"You are spiteful," said poor Staunton.
+
+"And you foolish," I retorted. "To a young barrister like you, there
+are hundreds of houses open."
+
+"And to you also."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And then I have this advantage--the girl likes me."
+
+"I am liked by the papa and the mamma, and the girl too."
+
+"Have you got five hundred thousand dollars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Poor Howard!" cried Staunton, laughing.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied I, laughing also.
+
+We had been chatting in this manner for nearly a quarter of an hour,
+when a coach drove out of Greenwich Street, in which I saw a face
+that I thought I knew. One of the Philadelphia steamers had just
+arrived. I stepped forward.
+
+"Stop!" cried a well-known voice.
+
+"Stop!" cried I, hastening to the coach door.
+
+It was Richards, my school and college friend, and my neighbour,
+after the fashion of the southern states; for he lived only about a
+hundred and seventy miles from me. I said good-by to poor simple
+Staunton, got into the coach, and we rattled off through Broadway to
+the American hotel.
+
+"For heaven's sake, George!" exclaimed my friend, as soon as we were
+installed in a room, "tell me what you are doing here. Have you quite
+forgotten house, land, and friends? You have been eleven months
+away."
+
+"True," replied I; "making love--and not a step further advanced than
+the first."
+
+"The report is true, then, that you have been harpooned by the
+Bowsends? Poor fellow! I am sorry for you. Just tell me what you mean
+to do with the dressed-up doll when you get her? A young lady who has
+not enough patience even to read her novels from beginning to end,
+and who, before she was twelve years old, had Tom Moore and Byron,
+_Don Juan_ perhaps excepted, by heart. A damsel who has geography and
+the globes, astronomy and Cuvier, Raphael's cartoons and Rossini's
+operas, at her finger-ends; but who, as true as I am alive, does not
+know whether a mutton chop is cut off a pig or a cow--who would boil
+tea and cauliflowers in the same manner, and has some vague idea that
+eggs are the principal ingredient in a gooseberry pie."
+
+"I want her for my wife, not for my cook," retorted I, rather
+nettled.
+
+"Who does not know," continued Richards, "whether dirty linen ought
+to be boiled or baked."
+
+"But she sings like St Cecilia, plays divinely, and dances like a
+fairy."
+
+"Yes, all that will do you a deal of good. I know the family; both
+father and mother are the most contemptible people breathing."
+
+"Stop there!" cried I; "they are not one iota better or worse than
+their neighbours."
+
+"You are right."
+
+"Well, then, leave them in peace. I have promised to drink tea there
+at six o'clock. If you will come, I will take you with me."
+
+"Know then already, man. I will go, on one condition; that you leave
+New York with me in three days."
+
+"If my marriage is not settled," replied I.
+
+"D----d fool!" muttered Richards between his teeth.
+
+Six o'clock struck as we entered the drawing-room of my future
+mother-in-law. The good lady almost frightened me as I went in, by
+her very extraordinary appearance in a tremendous grey gauze turban,
+fire-new, just arrived by the Henri Quatre packet-ship from Havre,
+and that gave her exactly the look of one of our Mississippi
+night-owls. Richards seemed a little startled; and Moreland, who was
+already there, could not take his eyes off this remarkable
+head-dress. Miss Margaret was costumed in pale green silk, her hair
+flattened upon each side of her forehead _a la Marguerite_, (see the
+_Journal des Modes,_) and looking like Jephtha's daughter, pale and
+resigned, but rather more lackadaisical, with a sort of
+"though-absent-not-forgot" look about her, inexpressibly sentimental
+and interesting. The contrast was certainly rather strong between old
+Moreland, who sat there, red-faced, thickset, and clumsy, and the
+airy slender Staunton, who, for fear of spoiling his figure, lived
+upon oysters and macaroon, and drank water with a rose leaf in it.
+
+I had brought the languishing beauty above described, Scott's _Tales
+of my Grandfather_, which had just appeared.
+
+"Ah! Walter Scott!" exclaimed she, in her pretty melting tones. Then,
+after a moment's pause, "The vulgar man has not a word to say for
+himself;" said she to me, in a low tone.
+
+"Wait a little," replied I; "he'll improve. It is no doubt his modest
+timidity that keeps his lips closed."
+
+Margaret gave me a furious look.
+
+"Heartless mocker!" she exclaimed.
+
+Meanwhile Richards had got into conversation with Bowsends. The
+unlucky dog, who did not know that his host was a violent Adams-ite,
+and had lost a good five thousand dollars in bets and subscriptions
+to influence the voices of the sovereign people at the recent
+election, had fallen on the sore subject. He began by informing his
+host that Old Hickory would shortly leave the Hermitage to assume his
+duties as president.
+
+"The blood-thirsty backwoodsman, half horse, half alligator"
+interrupted Mr Bowsends.
+
+"Costs you dear, his election," said Moreland laughing.
+
+"Smokes out of a tobacco pipe like a vulgar German," ejaculated Mrs
+Bowsends.
+
+"Not so very vulgar for that," said blundering Moreland; "tobacco has
+quite another taste out of a pipe."
+
+I gave him a tremendous dig in the back with my elbow.
+
+"Do you smoke out of a tobacco pipe, Mr Moreland?" enquired Margaret
+in her flute-like tones.
+
+Moreland stared; he had a vague idea that he had got himself into a
+scrape, but his straightforward honesty prevented him from
+prevaricating, and he blurted out--"Sometimes, miss."
+
+I thought the sensitive creature would have swooned away at this
+admission; and I had just laid my arm over the back of her chair to
+support her, when Arthurine entered the room. She gave a quick glance
+to me; it was too late to draw back my arm. She did not seem to
+notice any thing, saluted the company gaily and easily, tripped up to
+Moreland, wished him good evening--asked after his bets, his ships,
+his old dog Tom--chattered, in short, full ten minutes in a breath.
+Before Moreland knew what she was about, she had taken one of his
+hands in both of hers. But they were old acquaintances, and he might
+easily have been her grandfather. Meanwhile Margaret had somewhat
+recovered from the shock.
+
+"He smokes out of a pipe!" lisped she to Arthurine, in a tone of
+melancholy resignation.
+
+"Old Hickory is very popular in Pennsylvania," said Richards,
+resuming the conversation that had been interrupted, and perfectly
+unconscious, as Moreland would have said, of the shoals he was
+sailing amongst. "A Bedford County farmer has just sent him a present
+of a cask of Monongahela."
+
+"I envy him that present," cried Moreland. "A glass of genuine
+Monongahela is worth any money."
+
+This second shock was far too violent to be resisted by Margaret's
+delicate nerves. She sank back in her chair, half fainting, half
+hysterical. Her maids were called in, and with their help she managed
+to leave the room.
+
+"Have you brought her a book?" said Arthurine to me.
+
+"Yes, one of Walter Scott's."
+
+"Oh! then she will soon be well again," rejoined the affectionate
+sister, apparently by no means alarmed.
+
+Now that this nervous beauty was gone, the conversation became much
+more lively. Captain Moreland was a jovial sailor, who had made ten
+voyages to China, fifteen to Constantinople, twenty to St Petersburg,
+and innumerable ones to Liverpool and through his exertions had
+amassed the large fortune which he was now enjoying. He was a
+merry-hearted man, with excellent sound sense on all points except
+one--that one being the fair sex, with which he was about as well
+acquainted as an alligator with a camera-obscure. The attentions paid
+to him by Arthurine seemed to please the old bachelor uncommonly.
+There was a mixture of kindness, malice, and fascination in her
+manner, which was really enchanting; even the matter-of-fact Richards
+could not take his eyes off her.
+
+"That is certainly a charming girl!" whispered he to me.
+
+"Did not I tell you so?" said I. "Only observe with what sweetness
+she gives in to the old man's humours and fancies!"
+
+The hours passed like minutes. Supper was long over, and we rose to
+depart; when I shook hands with Arthurine, she pressed mine gently. I
+was in the ninety-ninth heaven.
+
+"Now, boys," cried worthy Moreland, as soon as we were in the
+streets, "it would really be a pity to part so early on so joyous an
+evening. What do you say? Will you come to my house, and knock the
+necks off half a dozen bottles?"
+
+We agreed to this proposal; and, taking the old seaman between us,
+steered in the direction of his cabin, as he called his magnificent
+and well-furnished house.
+
+"What a delightful family those Bowsends are!" exclaimed Moreland, as
+soon as we were comfortably seated beside a blazing fire, with the
+Lafitte and East India Madeira sparkling on the table beside us. "And
+what charming girls! 'You're getting oldish,' says I to myself the
+other day, 'but you're still fresh and active, sound as a dolphin.
+Better get married.' Margaret pleased me uncommonly, so I"--
+
+"Yes, my dear Moreland," interrupted I, "but are you sure that you
+please her?"
+
+"Pshaw! Five times a hundred thousand dollars! I tell you what, my
+lad, that's not to be met with every day."
+
+"Fifty years old," replied I.
+
+"Certainly, fifty years old, but stout and healthy; none of your
+spindle-shanked dandies--your Stauntons"--
+
+But Staunton smokes cigars, and not Dutch pipes."
+
+"I give that up. For Miss Margaret's sake, I'll burn my nose and
+mouth with those damned stumps of cigars."
+
+"Drinks no whisky," continued I. "He is president of a temperance
+society."
+
+"The devil fly away with him!" growled Moreland; "I wouldn't give up
+my whisky for all the girls in the world."
+
+"If you don't, she'll always be fainting away," replied I, laughing.
+
+"Ah! It's because I talked of the Monongahela that she began with her
+hystericals, and went away for all the evening! That's where the wind
+sits, is it? Well, you may depend I ain't to be done out of my grog
+at any rate."
+
+And he backed his assertion with an oath, swallowing off the contents
+of his glass by way of a clincher. We sat joking and chatting till
+past midnight during which time I flattered myself that I gave
+evidence of considerable diplomatic talents. As we were returning
+home, however, Richards doubted whether I had not driven the old boy
+rather too hard
+
+"No matter," replied I, "if I have only succeeded in ridding poor
+Margaret of him."
+
+Cool, calculating Richards shook his head.
+
+"I don't know what may come of it," said he; "but I do not think you
+are likely to find much gratitude for your interference."
+
+The next day was taken up in arranging matters of business consequent
+on the arrival of Richards. At least ten times I tried to go and see
+Arthurine, but was always prevented by something or other; and it was
+past tea-time when I at last got to the Bowsends' house. I found
+Margaret in the drawing-room, deep in a new novel.
+
+"Where is Arthurine?" I enquired.
+
+"At the theatre, with mamma and Mr Moreland," was the answer.
+
+"At the theatre!" repeated I in astonishment. They were playing Tom
+and Jerry, a favourite piece with the enlightened Kentuckians. I had
+seen the first scene or two at the New Orleans theatre, and had had
+quite enough of it.
+
+"That really _is_ sacrificing herself!" said I, considerably out of
+humour.
+
+"The noble girl!" exclaimed Margaret. "Mr Moreland came to tea, and
+urged us so much to go"--
+
+"That she could not help going, to be bored and disgusted for a
+couple of hours."
+
+"She went for my sake," said Margaret sentimentally. "Mamma would
+have one of us go."
+
+"Yes, that is it," thought I. Jealousy would have been ridiculous. He
+fifty years old, she seventeen. I left the house, and went to find
+Richards.
+
+"What! Back so early?" cried he.
+
+"She is gone to the theatre with her mamma and Moreland."
+
+Richards shook his head.
+
+"You put a wasp's nest into the old fellow's brain-pan yesterday,"
+said he. "Take care you do not get stung yourself."
+
+"I should like to see how she looks by his side," said I.
+
+"Well, I will go with you. The sooner you are cured the better. But
+only for ten minutes."
+
+There was certainly no temptation to remain longer in that atmosphere
+of whisky and tobacco fumes. It was at the Bowery theatre. The light
+swam as though seen through a thick fog; and a perfect shower of
+orange and apple peel, and even less agreeable things, rained down
+from the galleries. Tom and Jerry were in all their glory. I looked
+round the boxes, and soon saw the charming Arthurine, apparently
+perfectly comfortable, chatting with old Moreland as gravely, and
+looking as demure and self-possessed, as if she had been a married
+woman of thirty.
+
+"That is a prudent young lady," said Richards; "she has an eye to the
+dollars, and would marry Old Hickory himself, spite of whisky and
+tobacco pipe, if he had more money, and were to ask her."
+
+I said nothing.
+
+"If you weren't such an infatuated fool," continued my plain-spoken
+friend, I would say to you, let her take her own way, and the day
+after to-morrow we will leave New York."
+
+"One week more," said I, with an uneasy feeling about the heart.
+
+At seven the next evening I entered what had been my Elysium, but was
+now, little by little, becoming my Tartarus. Again I found Margaret
+alone over a romance. "And Arthurine?" enquired I, in a voice that
+might perhaps have been steadier.
+
+"She is gone with mamma and Mr Moreland to hear Miss Fanny Wright."
+
+"To hear Miss Fanny Wright! the atheist, the revolutionist! What a
+mad fancy! Who would ever have dreamed of such a thing!"
+
+This Miss Fanny Wright was a famous lecturess, of the Owenite school,
+who was shunned like a pestilence by the fashionable world of New
+York.
+
+"Mr Moreland," answered Margaret, "said so much about her eloquence
+that Arthurine's curiosity was roused."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I.
+
+"Oh! you do not know what a noble girl she is. For her sister she
+would sacrifice her life. My only hope is in her."
+
+I snatched up my hat, and hurried out of the house.
+
+The next morning I got up, restless and uneasy; and eleven o'clock
+had scarcely struck when I reached the Bowsends' house. This time
+both sisters were at home; and as I entered the drawing-room,
+Arthurine advanced to meet me with a beautiful smile upon her face.
+There was nevertheless a something in the expression of her
+countenance that made me start. I pressed her hand. She looked
+tenderly at me.
+
+"I hope you have been amusing yourself these last two days," said I
+after a moment's pause.
+
+"Novelty has a certain charm," replied Arthurine. "Yet I certainly
+never expected to become a disciple of Miss Fanny Wright," added she,
+laughing.
+
+"Really! I should have thought the transition from Tom and Jerry
+rather an easy one."
+
+"A little more respect for Tom and Jerry, whom _we_ patronize--that
+is to say, Mr Moreland and our high mightiness," replied Arthurine,
+trying, as I fancied, to conceal a certain confusion of manner under
+a laugh.
+
+"I should scarcely have thought my Arthurine would have become a
+party to such a conspiracy against good taste," replied I gravely.
+
+"_My_ Arthurine!" repeated she, laying a strong accent on the pronoun
+possessive. "Only see what rights and privileges the gentleman is
+usurping! We live in a free country, I believe?"
+
+There was a mixture of jest and earnest in her charming countenance.
+I looked enquiringly at her.
+
+"Do you know," cried she, "I have taken quite a fancy to Moreland? He
+is so good-natured, such a sterling character, and his roughness
+wears off when one knows him well."
+
+"And moreover," added I, "he has five hundred thousand dollars."
+
+"Which are by no means the least of his recommendations. Only think
+of the balls, Howard! I hope you will come to them. And then
+Saratoga; next year London and Paris. Oh! it will be delightful."
+
+"What, so far gone already?" said I, sarcastically.
+
+"And poor Margaret is saved!" added she, throwing her arms round her
+sister's neck, and kissing and caressing her. I hardly knew whether
+to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then, I suppose, I may congratulate you?" said I, forcing a laugh,
+and looking, I have no doubt, very like a fool.
+
+You may so," replied Arthurine. "This morning Mr Moreland begged
+permission to transfer his addresses from Margaret to your very
+humble servant."
+
+"And you?"--
+
+"We naturally, in consideration of the petitioner's many amiable
+qualities, have promised to take the request into our serious
+consideration. For decorum's sake, you know, one must deliberate a
+couple of days or so."
+
+"Are you in jest or earnest, Arthurine?"
+
+"Quite in earnest, Howard."
+
+"Farewell, then!"
+
+  "'Fare-thee-well! and if for ever Still for ever fare-thee-well!'"
+
+said Arthurine, in a half-laughing, half-sighing tone. The next
+instant I had left the room.
+
+On the stairs I met the beturbaned Mrs Bowsends, who led the way
+mysteriously into the parlour.
+
+"You have seen Arthurine?" said she. "What a dear, darling child!--is
+she not? Oh! that girl is our joy and consolation. And Mr
+Moreland--the charming Mr Moreland! Now that things are arranged so
+delightfully, we can let Margaret have her own way a little."
+
+"What I have heard is true, then?" said I.
+
+"Yes; as an old friend I do not mind telling you--though it must
+still remain a secret for a short time. Mr Moreland has made a formal
+proposal to Arthurine."
+
+I do not know what reply I made, before flinging myself out of the
+room and house, and running down the street as if I had just escaped
+from a lunatic asylum.
+
+"Richards," cried I to my friend, "shall we start tomorrow?"
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Richards. "So you are cured of the New York
+fever? Start! Yes, by all means, before you get a relapse. You must
+come with me to Virginia for a couple of months."
+
+"I will so," was my answer.
+
+As we were going down to the steam-boat on the following morning,
+Staunton overtook us, breathless with speed and delight.
+
+"Wish me joy!" cried he. "I am accepted!"
+
+"And I jilted!" replied I with a laugh. "But I am not such a fool as
+to make myself unhappy about a woman."
+
+Light words enough, but my heart was heavy as I spoke them. Five
+minutes later, we were on our way to Virginia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HYDRO-BACCHUS.
+
+
+  Great Homer sings how once of old
+  The Thracian women met to hold
+  To "Bacchus, ever young and fair,"
+  Mysterious rites with solemn care.
+  For now the summer's glowing face
+  Had look'd upon the hills of Thrace;
+  And laden vines foretold the pride
+  Of foaming vats at Autumn tide.
+  There, while the gladsome Evoee shout
+  Through Nysa's knolls rang wildly out,
+  While cymbal clang, and blare of horn,
+  O'er the broad Hellespont were borne;
+  The sounds, careering far and near,
+  Struck sudden on Lycurgus' ear--
+  Edonia's grim black-bearded lord,
+  Who still the Bacchic rites abhorr'd,
+  And cursed the god whose power divine
+  Lent heaven's own fire to generous wine.
+  Ere yet th' inspired devotees
+  Had half performed their mysteries,
+  Furious he rush'd amidst the band,
+  And whirled an ox-goad in his hand.
+  Full many a dame on earth lay low
+  Beneath the tyrant's savage blow;
+  The rest, far scattering in affright,
+  Sought refuge from his rage in flight.
+
+  But the fell king enjoy'd not long
+  The triumph of his impious wrong:
+  The vengeance of the god soon found him,
+  And in a rocky dungeon bound him.
+  There, sightless, chain'd, in woful tones
+  He pour'd his unavailing groans,
+  Mingled with all the blasts that shriek
+  Round Athos' thunder-riven peak.
+  O Thracian king! how vain the ire
+  That urged thee 'gainst the Bacchic choir
+  The god avenged his votaries well--
+  Stern was the doom that thee befell;
+  And on the Bacchus-hating herd
+  Still rests the curse thy guilt incurr'd.
+  For the same spells that in those days
+  Were wont the Bacchanals to craze--
+  The maniac orgies, the rash vow,
+  Have fall'n on thy disciples now.
+  Though deepest silence dwells alone,
+  Parnassus, on thy double cone;
+  To mystic cry, through fell and brake,
+  No more Cithaeron's echoes wake;
+  No longer glisten, white and fleet,
+  O'er the dark lawns of Taygete,
+  The Spartan virgin's bounding feet:
+  Yet Frenzy still has power to roll
+  Her portents o'er the prostrate soul.
+  Though water-nymphs must twine the spell
+  Which once the wine-god threw so well--
+  Changed are the orgies now, 'tis true,
+  Save in the madness of the crew.
+  Bacchus his votaries led of yore
+  Through woodland glades and mountains hoar;
+  While flung the Maenad to the air
+  The golden masses of her hair,
+  And floated free the skin of fawn,
+  From her bare shoulder backward borne.
+  Wild Nature, spreading all her charms,
+  Welcomed her children to her arms;
+  Laugh'd the huge oaks, and shook with glee,
+  In answer to their revelry;
+  Kind Night would cast her softest dew
+  Where'er their roving footsteps flew;
+  So bright the joyous fountains gush'd,
+  So proud the swelling rivers rush'd,
+  That mother Earth they well might deem,
+  With honey, wine, and milk, for them
+  Most bounteously had fed the stream.
+  The pale moon, wheeling overhead,
+  Her looks of love upon them shed,
+  And pouring forth her floods of light,
+  With all the landscape blest their sight.
+  Through foliage thick the moonshine fell,
+  Checker'd upon the grassy dell;
+  Beyond, it show'd the distant spires
+  Of skyish hills, the world's grey sires;
+  More brightly beam'd, where far away,
+  Around his clustering islands, lay,
+  Adown some opening vale descried,
+  The vast Aegean's waveless tide.
+  What wonder then, if Reason's power
+  Fail'd in each reeling mind that hour,
+  When their enraptured spirits woke
+  To Nature's liberty, and broke
+  The artificial chain that bound them,
+  With the broad sky above, and the free winds around them!
+  From Nature's overflowing soul,
+  That sweet delirium on them stole;
+  She held the cup, and bade them share
+  In draughts of joy too deep to bear.
+
+  Not such the scenes that to the eyes
+  Of water-Bacchanals arise;
+  Whene'er the day of festival
+  Summons the Pledged t' attend its call--
+  In long procession to appear,
+  And show the world how good they are.
+  Not theirs the wild-wood wanderings,
+  The voices of the winds and springs:
+  But seek them where the smoke-fog brown
+  Incumbent broods o'er London town;
+  'Mid Finsbury Square ruralities
+  Of mangy grass, and scrofulous trees;
+  'Mid all the sounds that consecrate
+  Thy street, melodious Bishopsgate!
+  Not by the mountain grot and pine,
+  Haunts of the Heliconian Nine:
+  But where the town-bred Muses squall
+  Love-verses in an annual;
+  Such muses as inspire the grunt
+  Of Barry Cornwall, and Leigh Hunt.
+  Their hands no ivy'd thyrsus bear,
+  No Evoee floats upon the air:
+  But flags of painted calico
+  Flutter aloft with gaudy show;
+  And round then rises, long and loud,
+  The laughter of the gibing crowd.
+
+  O sacred Temp'rance! mine were shame
+  If I could wish to brand thy name.
+  But though these dullards boast thy grace,
+  Thou in their orgies hast no place.
+  Thou still disdain'st such sorry lot,
+  As even below the soaking sot.
+  Great was high Duty's power of old
+  The empire o'er man's heart to hold;
+  To urge the soul, or check its course,
+  Obedient to her guiding force.
+  These own not her control, but draw
+  New sanction for the moral law,
+  And by a stringent compact bind
+  The independence of the mind--
+  As morals had gregarious grown,
+  And Virtue could not stand alone.
+  What need they rules against abusing?
+  They find th' offence all in the using.
+  Denounce the gifts which bounteous Heaven
+  To cheer the heart of man has given;
+  And think their foolish pledge a band
+  More potent far than God's command.
+  On this new plan they cleverly
+  Work morals by machinery;
+  Keeping men virtuous by a tether,
+  Like gangs of negroes chain'd together.
+
+  Then, Temperance, if thus it be,
+  They know no further need of thee.
+  This pledge usurps thy ancient throne--
+  Alas! thy occupation's gone!
+  From earth thou may'st unheeded rise,
+  And like Astraea--seek the skies.
+
+
+
+
+MARTIN LUTHER.
+
+AN ODE.
+
+
+  Who sits upon the Pontiff's throne?
+    On Peter's holy chair
+  Who sways the keys? At such a time
+  When dullest ears may hear the chime
+  Of coming thunders--when dark skies
+  Are writ with crimson prophecies,
+    A wise man should be there;
+  A godly man, whose life might be
+  The living logic of the sea;
+  One quick to know, and keen to feel--
+  A fervid man, and full of zeal,
+    Should sit in Peter's chair.
+
+  Alas! no fervid man is there,
+    No earnest, honest heart;
+  One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,
+  Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;
+  One who can trim the courtier's smile,
+  Or weave the diplomatic wile,
+    But knows no deeper art;
+  One who can dally with fair forms,
+  Whom a well-pointed period warms--
+  No man is he to hold the helm
+  Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm,
+    And creaking timbers start.
+
+  In vain did Julius pile sublime
+   The vast and various dome,
+  That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,
+  And the huge Flavian wonder, hide
+  Their heads in shame--these gilded stones
+  (O heaven!) were very blood and bones
+    Of those whom Christ did come
+  To save--vile grin of slaves who sold
+  Celestial rights for earthy gold,
+  Marketing grace with merchant's measure,
+  To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure
+    The pride of purple Rome.
+
+  The measure of her sins is full,
+    The scarlet-vested whore!
+  Thy murderous and lecherous race
+  Have sat too long i' the holy place;
+  The knife shall lop what no drug cures,
+  Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,
+    The monstrous mockery more.
+  Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord:
+  Mine elect warrior girds the sword--
+  A nameless man, a miner's son,
+  Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,
+    And pale the painted whore!
+
+  Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose
+    Poor fishermen before
+  To preach my gospel to the poor;
+  A pauper boy from door to door
+  That piped his hymn. By his strong word
+  The startled world shall now be stirr'd,
+    As with a lion's roar!
+  A lonely monk that loved to dwell
+  With peaceful host in silent cell;
+  This man shall shake the Pontiff's throne:
+  Him Kings and emperors shall own,
+    And stout hearts wince before
+
+  The eye profound and front sublime
+    Where speculation reigns.
+  He to the learned seats shall climb,
+  On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;
+  The arid doctrine shall inspire
+    Of wiry teachers with swift fire;
+  And, piled with cumbrous pains,
+  Proud palaces of sounding lies
+  Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise
+  Shall listen to his word; the youth
+  Shall eager seize the new-born truth
+    Where prudent age refrains.
+
+  Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds
+    From echoing town to town!
+  The clam'rous preacher and his train,
+  Organ and bell with sound inane,
+  The crimson cross, the book, the keys,
+  The flag that spreads before the breeze,
+    The triple-belted crown!
+  It wends its way; and straw is sold--
+  Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,
+  To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;
+  And though some smile, and many sneer,
+    There's none will dare to frown.
+
+  None dares but one--the race is rare--
+    One free and honest man:
+  Truth is a dangerous thing to say
+  Amid the lies that haunt the day;
+  But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!
+  From heart to heart the fire shall go,
+    Instinctive without plan;
+  Proud bishops with a lordly train,
+    Fierce cardinals with high disdain,
+  Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,
+  And wrangling doctors all shall force,
+    In vain, one honest man.
+
+  In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,
+    It is a sober thing.
+  Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,
+  Loudly to damn, and loudly save,
+  And sweep with mimic thunders' swell
+  Armies of honest souls to hell!
+    The time on whirring wing
+  Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!
+  One hour, one little hour, is given,
+  If thou could'st but repent. But no!
+  To ruin thou shalt headlong go,
+    A doom'd and blasted thing.
+
+  Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!
+    Men heed it not, thou fool!
+  Nay, from the learned city's gate,
+  In solemn show, in pomp of state,
+  The watchmen of the truth come forth,
+  The burghers old of sterling worth,
+    And students of the school:
+  And he who should have felt thy ban
+  Walks like a prophet in the van;
+  He hath a calm indignant look,
+  Beneath his arm he bears a book,
+    And in his hand the Bull.
+
+  He halts; and in the middle space
+    Bids pile a blazing fire.
+  The flame ascends with crackling glee;
+  Then, with firm step advancing, He
+  Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule
+  The false Decretals, and the Bull,
+    While thus he vents his ire:--
+  "Because the Holy One o' the Lord
+  Thou vexed hast with impious word,
+  Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  He said; and rose the echo round
+    "In everlasting fire!"
+  The hearts of men were free; one word
+  Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;
+  Erect before their God they stood
+  A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,
+    And wing'd with high desire.
+  And ever with the circling flame
+  Uprose anew the blithe acclaim:--
+  "The righteous Lord shall thee consume,
+  And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
+    In everlasting fire!"
+
+  Thus the brave German men; and we
+    Shall echo back the cry;
+  The burning of that parchment scroll
+  Annull'd the bond that sold the soul
+  Of man to man; each brother now
+  Only to one great Lord will bow,
+    One Father-God on high.
+  And though with fits of lingering life
+  The wounded foe prolong the strife,
+  On Luther's deed we build our hope,
+  Our steady faith--the fond old Pope
+    Is dying, and shall die.
+
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.
+
+No. II
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+Discreet Reader!
+
+You have seen--and 'tis no longer ago than YESTERDAY!--you must well
+remember the picture--which showed you from the rough yet
+delicate--the humorous yet sympathetic and picturesque--the original
+yet insinuating pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian
+mountaineer--the aerial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating,
+enigmatical, outwardly--mirth-given, inwardly--sorrow-touched,
+congregated folk numberless--of the Fairies Proper!--showed them at
+the urgency of a rare and strange need--clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one
+fair, kind, good and happily-born Daughter of Man!--And what
+wonder?--The once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one
+fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably
+favoured!--What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages brings
+on the appointed hour, the rebellious and outcast children of heaven
+must sue--to their keen emergency--help--oh! speak up to the height
+of the want, of the succour! and call it _a lent ray of grace_, from
+the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth!--And see, where,
+in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the hallowing
+influence shines!--Auspiciously begun, the awed though aspiring Rite,
+the still, the multitudinous, the mystical, prospers!--_Gratefully_,
+as for the boon inexpressibly worth--_easily_, as of their own
+transcending power--_promptly_, as though fearing that a benefit
+received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright hair
+of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak
+benefactress--the wedded felicity of pure love!
+
+And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises again,
+discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a little
+perhaps, our actors!--Once more, attaching to the HUMAN DRAMA,
+slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of air, the same light
+and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that They, whom you lately saw
+tranquil, earnest even to pathos--"now are frolic"--enough and to
+spare!--Once more--THE FAIRIES.
+
+And see, too--where, centring in herself interest and action of the
+rapidly shifting scenery--ever again a beautiful granddaughter of Eve
+steps--free and fearless, and bouyant and bounding--our fancy-laid
+boards!--Ah! but how much unresembling the sweet maid!--_Outwardly_,
+for lofty-piled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the
+modern Amazon, Swanhilda--more unlike _within_. Instead of the clear
+truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy Innocence" of
+the poor fairy-beloved mountain child--SHE, in whose person and
+fortunes you are invited--for the next fifty minutes--to forget your
+own--harbours, fondly harbours, ill housemates of her virginal
+breast! a small, resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison
+of unwomanly faults. Pride is there!--The iron-hard and the
+iron-cold! There Scorn--edging repulse with insult!--and envenoming
+insult with despair!--leaps up, in eager answer to the beseeching
+sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent Adoration. And there is the
+indulged Insolency of a domineering--and as you will precipitately
+augur--an _indomitable_ Will! And there is exuberant SELF-POWER,
+that, from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling,
+circulating along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis!
+turns the nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous
+and blood-sprinkled joy of man--the tempestuous and terrible CHASE,
+which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the rougher lord
+of creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent! Oh, how much
+other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian valleys, the
+shade-loving Flower, the good Maud--herself looked upon with love by
+the glad eyes of men, women, children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other
+indeed! And yet, have you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of
+unamiable qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten,
+which has fastened, upon the gentle Maud's _haughty_ antithesis--the
+serviceable regard, and--the FAVOUR, even of THE FAIRIES.
+
+The FAVOUR!!
+
+Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief process. You
+are, after a fashion, informed with what studious, persevering, and
+unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and feminine pity, the
+lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the course of the last three
+or four years, turned back from her beetle-browed castle-gate, one by
+one, as they showed themselves there--a hundred, all worthily
+born--otherwise more and less meritorious--petitioners for that
+whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon this
+very morning, an embassy from the willow-wearers all--or, to speak
+indeed more germanely to the matter, of the BASKET-BEARERS[22],
+waited upon their beautiful enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in
+one, importing first a requisition to surrender; then, in case of
+refusal to capitulate, the announcement that HYMEN having found in
+CUPID an inefficient ally, he was about associating with himself, in
+league offensive, the god MARS, with intent of carrying the
+Maiden-fortress by storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants
+of the stronghold into captivity--whereunto she made answer--
+
+  ----our castle's strength
+  Will laugh a siege to scorn--
+
+herself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the sent This
+crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the first place,
+wreak and right.
+
+[Footnote 22: To German ears--to SEND A BASKET--is to REFUSE A
+PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.]
+
+But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of Elves,
+being in full council assembled in the broad light of the sun, upon
+the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not widely sitting
+diet had yet well opened its proceedings--"tramp, tramp, across the
+land," came, flying at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap
+huntress; and without other note of preparation sounded than their
+own thunder, her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage
+assembly, causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with
+devastation dire to persons and--wearing apparel.
+
+This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and right.
+
+And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which
+is--_summary_; as, from the character of the judges and executioners,
+into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would expect;
+sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their magical hand
+they turn the impoverished heiress of ill-possessed acres forth upon
+the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous manual industry, her
+livelihood; until, from the winnings of her handicraft, she is
+moreover able to make good, as far as this was liable to pecuniary
+assessment, the damage sustained under foot of her fiery barb by the
+Fairy realm; comfort with handsome presents the rejected suitors; and
+until, thoroughly tame, she yields into her softened and opened
+bosom, now rid of its intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once
+debarred and contemned visitant--LOVE.
+
+As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out this
+drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting, as a
+matter that is related merely, not presented, that misadventure under
+the oak-tree--there is, in the chamber of Swanhilda, but a Fairy
+delegation active, whilst under the Sun's hill whole Elfdom is in
+presence; in that resplendent hollow, wearing their own lovely
+shapes; within the German castle-walls, in apt masquerade. There they
+were grave. Here, we have already said, that they are merry. There
+their office was to feel and to think. Here, if there be any trust in
+apparitions, they drink, and what is more critical for an Elfin
+lip--they eat!
+
+Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred, well-dressed, and
+right courtly cavalier, who transacted between the Fairy Queen and
+the stonemason's daughter, him you shall presently see turned into a
+sort of Elfin cupbearer or court butler; not without fairy grace of
+person and of mind assuredly; not without a due innate sense of the
+beautiful, as his perfumed name (SWEETFLOWER) at the outset warns
+you; and, as the proximity of his function to her Majesty's
+person--for we do not here fall in with any thing like mention of a
+king--would suggest, independently of the delicately responsible part
+borne by him in the action, the chief stress of which you will find
+incumbent upon his capable shoulders.
+
+Such, in respect of the subject, is, thrice courteous and intelligent
+reader, the second piece of art, which we are glad to have the
+opportunity of placing before you, from our clever friend Ernst
+Willkomm's apparently right fertile easel. The second, answering to
+the first, LIKE and UNLIKE, you perceive, as two companion pictures
+should be.
+
+But it would be worse than useless to tell you that which you have
+seen and that which you will see, unless, from the juxtaposition of
+the two fables, there followed--a moral. They have, as we apprehend,
+a moral--_i.e._ one moral, and that a grave one, in common between
+them.
+
+Hitherto we have superficially compared THE FAIRIES' SABBATH and the
+FAIRY TUTOR. We now wish to develope a profounder analogy connecting
+them. We have compared them, as if ESTHETICALLY; we would now compare
+them MYTHOLOGICALLY--for, in our understanding, there lies at the
+very foundation of both tales A MYTHOLOGICAL ROOT--by whomsoever set,
+whether by Ernst Willkomm to-day, or by the population of the
+Lusatian mountains--three, six, ten centuries ago; or, in unreckoned
+antiquity, by the common Ancestors of the believers, who, in still
+unmeasured antiquity, brought the superstition of the Fairies out of
+central Asia to remote occidental Europe.
+
+This ROOT we are bold to think is--"A DEEPLY SEATED ATTRACTION,
+ALLYING THE FAIRY MIND TO THE PURITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE MORAL WILL
+IN THE MIND OF MEN." And first for the Tale which presently concerns
+us:--THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+SWEETFLOWER will beguile us into believing that the interposition of
+the Fairies in our Baroness's domestic arrangements, grows up, if one
+shall so hazardously speak, from TWO seeds, each bearing two
+branches--namely, from two wrongs, the one hitting, the other
+striking from, themselves--BOTH which wrongs they will AVENGE and
+AMEND. We take up a strenuous theory; and we deny--and we
+defy--SWEETFLOWER. Nay, more! Should our excellent friend, ERNST
+WILLKOMM, be found taking part, real or apparent, with SWEETFLOWER,
+we defy and we deny Ernst Willkomm. For in this mixed case of the
+Fairy wrong, we distinguish, first, INJURIES which shall be
+retaliated, and, as far as may be, compensated; and secondly, a
+SHREW, who is to be turned _into_ a WIFE, being previously turned
+_out of_ a shrew.
+
+We dare to believe that this last-mentioned end is the thing
+uppermost, and undermost, and middlemost in the mind of the Fairies;
+is, in fact, the true and _the sole final cause_ of all their
+proceedings.
+
+Or that the _moral heart_ of the poem--that root in the human breast
+and will, from which every true poem springs heavenward--is here the
+zeal of the spirits for _morally reforming Swanhilda_; is, therefore,
+that deep-seated attraction, which, as we have averred, essentially
+allies the inclination of the Fairies to the moral conscience in our
+own kind.
+
+One end, therefore, grounds the whole story, although two and more
+are proposed by _Sweetflower_. It is one that _satisfies_ the moral
+reason in man; for it is no less than to cleanse and heal the will,
+wounded with error, of a human creature. That other, which he
+displays, with mock emphasis, of restitution to the downtrodden
+fairyhood, is an exotic, fair and slight bud, grafted into the
+sturdier indigenous stock. For let us fix but a steady look upon the
+thing itself, and what is there before us? a whim, a trick of the
+fancy, tickling the fancy. We are amused with a quaint calamity--a
+panic of caps and cloaks. We laugh--we cannot help it--as the pigmy
+assembly flies a thousand ways at once--grave councillors and
+all--throwing terrified somersets--hiding under stones, roots--diving
+into coney-burrows--"any where--any where"--vanishing out of
+harm's--if not out of dismay's--reach. In a tale of the Fairies, THE
+FANCY rules:--and the interest of such a misfortune, definite and not
+infinite, is congenial to the spirit of the gay faculty which hovers
+over, lives upon surfaces, and which flees abysses; which thence,
+likewise, in the moral sphere, is equal to apprehending resentment of
+a personal wrong, and a judicial assessment of damages--but NOT A
+DISINTERESTED MORAL END.
+
+What is our conclusion then? plainly that the dolorous overthrow of
+the fairy divan is no better than an invention--the device of an
+esthetical artist. We hold that Ernst Willkomm has _gratuitously_
+bestowed upon us the disastrous catastrophe; that he has done this,
+knowing the obligation which lies upon Fancy within her own chosen
+domain to _create_, because--there, Fancy listens and reads. The
+adroit Fairy delineator must wile over and reconcile the most
+sportive, capricious, and self-willed spirit of our understanding, to
+accept a purpose foreign to that spirit's habitual sympathies--a
+purpose solemn and austere--THE MORAL PURPOSE OF RESCUING A
+SIN-ENTANGLED HUMAN SOUL.
+
+Or, if Ernst Willkomm shall guarantee to us, that the reminiscences
+of his people have furnished him with the materials of this tale; if
+he is, as we must needs hope, who have freely dealt with you to
+believe that he is--honest: honest both as to the general character,
+and the particular facts of his representations--if, in short, the
+Lusatian Highlanders do, sitting by the bench and the stove, aver and
+protest that the said Swanhilda did overturn both council-board and
+councillors--then we say, upon this occasion, that which we must all,
+hundreds of times, declare--namely, that _The Genius of Tradition_ is
+the foremost of artists; and further, that in this instance _an
+unwilled fiction_, determined by a necessity of the human bosom, has
+risen up _to mantle seriousness with grace_, as a free woodbine
+enclasps with her slender-gadding twines, and bedecks with her sweet
+bright blossoms, a towering giant of the grove.
+
+It will perhaps be objected, that the moral purity and goodness that
+are so powerful to draw to themselves the regard and care of the
+spiritual people, are wanting in the character of the over-bold
+Swanhilda. We have said that her _faults_ are the CALL to the Fairies
+for help and reformation: but we may likewise guess that Virtue and
+Truth first won their love. It must be recollected that the faults
+which are extirpated from the breast of our heroine, are not such as,
+in our natural understanding of humanity, dishonour or sully. Taken
+away, the character may stand clear. It is quite possible that this
+gone, there shall be left behind a kind, good, affectionate,
+generous, noble nature.
+
+We are free, or, more properly speaking, we are bound to believe,
+that thus the Fairies left Swanhilda.
+
+As for Maud, we know--for she was told--that the Fairies loved her
+for herself ere they needed her aid. Hanging as it were upon that
+wondrous power to help which dwelt within her--her simple
+goodness--may we not say that the Fairies discover an ENFORCED
+attraction, when they afterwards approach the maiden for their own
+succour and salvation; as they do, a FREE attraction, when, in the
+person of Swanhilda, they disinterestedly attach themselves to
+reforming a fault for the welfare and happiness of her whom it
+aggrieves?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will now proceed, as in our former communication, to adduce
+instances from other quarters, confirming the fairy delineations
+offered by our tale; or which may tend generally to bring out its
+mythological and literary character.
+
+Two points would suggest themselves to us in the tale of the Fairy
+Tutor, as chiefly provoking comparison. The first is:--_The affirmed
+Presidency of the Fairies over human morals_, viewed as _a Shape of
+the Interest_ which they take in the uprightness and purity of the
+human will.
+
+The second is:--
+
+_The Manner and Style of their operations_: or, THE FAIRY WAYS. In
+which we chiefly distinguish--1, The active presence of the Sprites
+in a human habitation. 2, Their masquerading. 3, Their dispatch of
+human victuals. 4, The liability of Elfin limbs to human casualties.
+5, The personality of that saucy Puck, our tiny ambassador elf.
+
+We are at once tempted and restrained by the richness of
+illustration, which presents itself under all these heads. The
+necessity of limitation is, however, imperious. This, and a wish for
+simplicity, dispose us to throw all under one more comprehensive
+title.
+
+Perhaps the reader has not entirely forgotten that in the remarks
+introductory to THE FAIRIES' SABBATH, having launched the
+question--what is a Fairy?--we offered him in the way of answer,
+_eight_ elements of the Fairy Nature. Has he quite forgotten that for
+one of these--it was the third--we represented the Spirit under
+examination, as ONE WHICH AT ONCE SEEKS AND SHUNS MANKIND?
+
+The cursory treatment of this Elfin criterion will now compendiously
+place before the reader, as much illustration of the two above-given
+heads as we dare impose upon him.
+
+The popular Traditions of entire Western Europe variously attest for
+all the kinds of the Fairies, and for some orders of Spirits
+partaking of the Fairy character, the singularly composed, and almost
+self-contradictory traits of a _seeking_ implicated and attempered
+with a _shunning_; of a shunning with a seeking. The inclination of
+our Quest will be to evidences of the _seeking_. The shunning will,
+it need not be doubted, take good care of itself.
+
+The attraction of the Fairy Species towards our own is,
+
+  1. Recognised--in their GENERIC DESIGNATIONS.
+  2. Apparent--in their GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD with us.
+  3. IN THEIR FREQUENTING AND ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES in the places of
+     our habitual occupancy and resort.
+  4. IN THEIR CALLING OR CARRYING US into the places of their Occupancy
+     and Resort; whether to return _hither_, or to remain
+     _there_.
+  5. BY THEIR ALIGHTING UPON THE PATH, worn already with some blithe or
+     some weary steps, OF A HUMAN DESTINY;--as friendly, or as unfriendly
+     Genii.
+
+We collect the proofs: and--
+
+1. Of their GENERIC APPELLATIVES, a Word!
+
+One is tempted to say that THE NATIONS, as if conscious of the kindly
+disposition inhering in the spiritual existences toward ourselves,
+have simultaneously agreed in conferring upon them titles of
+endearment and affection. The brothers Grimm write--"In Scotland they
+[The Fairies] are called _The Good People, Good Neighbours, Men of
+Peace;_ in Wales--_The Family, The Blessing of their Mothers, The
+Dear Ladies;_ in the old Norse, and to this day in the Faroe islands,
+_Huldufolk_ (_The Gracious People;_) in Norway, _Huldre_;[23] and, in
+conformity with these denominations, discover a striving to be in the
+proximity of men, and to keep up a good understanding with them."[24]
+
+[Footnote 23: May we for HULDRE read HULDREFOLK; and understand the
+_following_, or the _Folk_ of HULDRE? Huldre _means_ the Gracious
+Lady: she is a sort of Danish and Norwegian Fairy-Queen.--See GRIMM'S
+_German Mythology_, p. 168. First edition.]
+
+[Footnote 24: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales_.]
+
+2. THIS GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, to which these last words point, is
+interestingly depicted by the Traditions.
+
+In Scotland and Germany the Fairies plant their habitation
+_adjoining_ that of man--"_under the threshold_"--and in such
+attached Fairies an alliance is unfolded with us of a most
+extraordinary kind. "The closest connexion" (_id est_, of the Fairy
+species with our own) "is expressed," say the Brothers Grimm, "by the
+tradition, agreeably to which the family of the Fairies ORDERED
+ITSELF ENTIRELY AFTER THE HUMAN to which it belonged; and OF WHICH IT
+WAS AS IF A COPY. These domestic Fairies _kept their marriages upon
+the same day_ as the Human Beings; _their children were born upon the
+same day_; and _upon the same day they wailed for their dead._"[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: The Brothers GRIMM: _Introduction to the Irish Fairy
+Tales._]
+
+Two artlessly sweet breathings of Elfin Table, from the Helvetian
+Dales,[26] lately revived to your fancy the sinless--blissful years,
+when gods with men set fellowing steps upon one and the same fragrant
+and unpolluted sward, until transgression, exiling those to their own
+celestial abodes, left these lonely--a nearer, dearer, BARBARIAN
+Golden Age--wherein the kindly Dwarf nation stand representing the
+great deities of Olympus.
+
+[Footnote 26: See _The Dwarfs upon the Maple-Tree_, and _The Dwarfs
+upon the Crag-Stone_, in the former paper.]
+
+The healthful pure air fans restoration again to us. We lay before
+you--
+
+
+GERMAN TRADITIONS
+
+No. CXLIX _The Dwarfs' Feet_.
+
+"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about them, in
+caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, _in amity and good
+neighbourhood_ with the people, for whom they performed by night many
+a heavy labour. When the country folk, betimes in the morning, came
+with wains and implements, and wondered that all was ready done, the
+Dwarfs were hiding in the bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently
+the peasants were angry when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn
+lying reaped upon the field; but when presently after hail and storm
+came on, and they could well know that probably not a stalk should
+have escaped perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the
+provident Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin,
+fooled away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
+then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
+following:--A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
+cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that the
+tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit carried,
+and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman had use to
+keep his cherries. The people said in the village, that doth no one
+other than the honest dwarflings--they come tripping along by night,
+in long mantles, with covered feet, softly as birds, and perform
+diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been
+privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come
+and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made
+curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so
+carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than
+men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and
+the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and
+bear them into the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes,
+which he strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with
+daybreak, he hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he
+saw beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
+herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
+Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and laid
+waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their mountain. They
+harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from them their help. That
+herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs turned sickly and half-witted,
+and so continued until his dying day!"
+
+There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own hardily-nursed
+wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent hand[27] that brought home
+to us those other half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition,
+you behold a third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the
+three, young poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready
+and meet for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!--or
+fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
+nature-loving--Ellen or Margaret.
+
+[Footnote 27: Of Professor Wyes.]
+
+These old-young things--bequests, as they look to be--from the
+loving, singing childhood of the earth, may lawfully make children,
+lovers, and songsters of us all; and _will_, if we are _fond_, and
+hearken to them.
+
+In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
+chronologies,
+
+  "When the world and love were young,
+  And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"
+
+the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of _borrowing and
+lending_. Many traditions touch the matter. Here is one resting upon
+it.
+
+
+No. CLIV. _The Dwarfs near Dardesheim_.
+
+"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and Brunswick. Close
+to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest water flows, which
+is called the Smansborn,[28] and wells from a hill wherein formerly
+the Dwarfs dwelled. When the ancient inhabitants of the place needed
+a holiday dress, or any rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them
+to this Dwarf's Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice,
+told their occasion, adding--
+
+  'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,
+  At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'
+
+[Footnote 28: For LESSMANSBORN, _i.e._ LESSMANN'S WELL.]
+
+The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of the
+festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward gradually did
+bickerings interrupt the good understanding that was betwixt the
+Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the beginning for a short
+season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs departed away; because the flouts
+and gibes of many boors grew intolerable to them, as likewise their
+ingratitude for kindnesses done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth
+any Dwarfs more."
+
+In _Auvergne_, Miss Costello has just now learned, how the men and
+the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest footing, nigh one
+another: how the _knowledge_ and _commodious use_ of the _Healing
+Springs_ was owed by the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of
+yore, the powerful sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound,
+opened an _innocuous channel_ for _the torrent_, which used with its
+overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how they were
+looked upon as being, in a general sense, _the protectors_ against
+harm of the country: and, in fine, how the two orders of neighbours
+lived in long and happy communion of kind offices with one another;
+until, upon one unfortunate day, the ill-renowned freebooter,
+Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly men-at-arms, having approached,
+by stealth, from his near-lying hold, stormed the romantically seated
+rock-mansion of the bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger,
+forsook the land. Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may,
+now and then, be seen at a distance.
+
+Thus, too, the late _Brillat-Savarin_, from a sprightly, acute,
+brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest antiquary,
+lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone, flowing out
+from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when he first quitted
+it, yet hidden valley of his birth:--The FAIRIES--elderly, not
+beautiful, but benevolent unmarried ladies--kept, while time was,
+open school in THE GROTTO, which was their habitation, for the young
+girls of the vicinity, whom they taught--SEWING.
+
+
+3. We go on to exemplifying--ELFIN _Frequentation of, and Settlement
+with,_ MAN.
+
+The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men by
+manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
+celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
+purchase at the Tavern--from the Shambles, or in open Market. They
+_steal_ from oven and field. They go through a house, blessing the
+rooms, the marriage-bed--and stand beside the unconscious cradle.
+They give dreams. They take part in the evening mirth. They pray in
+the churches. They seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
+constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors. They
+dance in the churchyard.[29] They make themselves the wives and the
+paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin fixes himself, like a
+cat, in the house--once and for ever.
+
+We present traditions for illustrating some of these points, as they
+offer themselves to us.
+
+[Footnote 29:
+
+  "Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep
+  That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;
+  The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!
+  Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,
+  ENTER, IN DANCE!"
+
+WORDSWORTH.--_Sonnet upon an_ ABANDONED _Cemetery._]
+
+
+THEY HALT ON A JOURNEY.
+
+No. XXXV. _The Count of Hoia_.
+
+"There did appear once to a count of Hoia, a little mauling in the
+night, and, as the count was alarmed, said to him he should have no
+fear: he had a word to sue unto him, and begged that he should not be
+denied. The count answered, if it were a thing possible to do, and
+should be never burthensome to him and his, he will gladly do it. The
+manling said--'There be some that desire to come to thee this ensuing
+night, into thy house, and to make their stopping. Wouldst thou so
+long lend them kitchen and hall, and bid thy domestics that they go
+to bed, and none look after their ways and works, neither any know
+thereof, save only thou? They will show them, therefore, grateful.
+Thou and thy line shall have cause of joy, and in the very least
+matter shall none hurt happen unto thee, neither to any that belong
+to thee.' Whereunto the count assented. Accordingly, upon the
+following night, they came like a cavalcade, marching over the
+drawbridge to the house; one and all--tiny folk, such as they use to
+describe the hill manlings. They cooked in the kitchen, fell too, and
+rested, and nothing seemed otherwise than as if a great repast were
+in preparing. Thereafter, nigh unto morn, as they will again depart,
+comes the little manling a second time to the count, and after
+conning him thanks, handed him a _sword_, a _salamander cloth_, and a
+_golden ring_, in which was RED LION set above--advertising him,
+withal, that he and his posterity shall well keep these three pieces,
+and so long as they had them all together, should it go with fair
+accordance and well in the county; but so soon as they shall be
+parted from one another, shall it be a sign that nothing good
+impendeth for the county. Accordingly, the red lion ever after, when
+any of the stem is near the point of dying, hath been seen to wax
+wan.
+
+"Howsoever, at the time that Count Job and his brothers were minors,
+and Francis of Halle governor in the country, two of the
+pieces--viz., the Sword and the Salamander Cloth, were taken away;
+but the Ring remained with the lordship unto an end. Whither it
+afterwards went is not known."
+
+
+THEY HOLD A WEDDING.
+
+No.XXXI. _The Small People's Wedding Feast._
+
+"The small people of the Eulenberg in Saxony would once hold a
+marriage, and for this purpose slipped in, in the night, through the
+keyhole and the window-chinks into the Hall, and came leaping down
+upon the smooth floor, like peas tumbled out upon the
+threshing-floor. The old Count, who slept in the high canopy bed in
+the Hall, awoke, and marvelled at the number of tiny companions; one
+of whom, in the garb of a herald, now approached him, and in well-set
+phrase, courteously prayed him to bear part in their festivity. 'Yet
+one thing,' he added, 'we beg of you. Ye shall alone be present; none
+of your court shall be bold to gaze upon our mirth--yea, not so much
+as with a glance.' The old Count answered pleasantly--'Since ye have
+once for all waked me up, I will e'en make one among you.' Hereupon
+was a little wifikin led up to him, little torch-bearers took their
+station, and a music of crickets struck up. The Count had much ado to
+save losing his little partner in the dance; she capered about so
+nimbly, and ended with whirling him round and round, until hardly
+might he have his breath again. But, in the midst of the jocund
+measure, all stood suddenly still; the music ceased, and the whole
+throng hurried to the cracks in the doors, mouse-holes, and
+hiding-places of all sorts. The newly-married couple only, the
+heralds, and the dancers, looked upward towards an orifice that was
+in the hall ceiling, and there descried the visage of the old
+Countess, who was curiously prying down upon the mirthful doings.
+Herewith they made their obeisance to the Count; and the same which
+had bidden him, again stepping forward, thanked him for his
+hospitality. 'But,' continued he, 'because our pleasure and our
+wedding hath been in such sort interrupted, that yet another eye of
+man hath looked thereon, henceforward shall your house number never
+more than seven Eulenbergs.' Thereupon, they pressed fast forth, one
+upon another. Presently all was quiet, and the old Count once again
+alone in the dark Hall. The curse hath come true to this hour, so as
+ever one of the six living knights of Eulenberg hath died ere the
+seventh was born."
+
+
+THEY JOIN THE EVENING MIRTH.
+
+No. xxxix. _The Hill-Manling at the Dance_.
+
+"Old folks veritable declared, that some years ago, at Glass, in
+Dorf, an hour from the Wunderberg, and an hour from the town of
+Salzburg, a wedding was kept, to which, towards evening, a
+Hill-Manling came out of the Wunderberg. He exhorted all the guests
+to be in honour, gleesome, and merry, and requested leave to join the
+dancers, which was not refused him. He danced accordingly, with
+modest maidens, one and another; evermore, three dances with each,
+and that with a singular featness; insomuch that the wedding guests
+looked on with admiration and pleasure. The dance over, he made his
+thanks, and bestowed upon either of the young married people three
+pieces of money that were of an unknown coinage; whereof each was
+held to be worth four kreuzers; and therewithal _admonished them to
+dwell in peace and concord, live Christianly, and piously walking, to
+bring up their children in all goodness_. These coins they should put
+amongst their money, and constantly remember him--so should they
+seldom fall into hardship. _But they must not therewithal grow
+arrogant, but, of their superfluity, succour their neighbours_.
+
+"This Hill-Manling stayed with them into the night, and took of every
+one to drink and to eat what they proffered; but from every one only
+a little. He then paid his courtesy, and desired that one of the
+wedding guests might take him over the river Salzbach toward the
+mountain. Now, there was at the marriage a boatman, by name John
+Standl, who was presently ready, and they went down together to the
+ferry. During the passage, the ferryman asked his meed. The
+Hill-Manling tendered him, in all humility, three pennies. The
+waterman scorned at such mean hire; but the Manling gave him for
+answer--'He must not vex himself, but safely store up the three
+pennies; for, so doing, he should never suffer default of his
+having--_if only he did restrain presumptousness_--at the same time
+he gave the boatman a little pebble, saying the words--'If thou shalt
+hang this about thy neck, thou shalt not possibly perish in the
+water.' Which was proved in that same year. Finally, _he persuaded
+him to a godly and humble manner of life_, and went swiftly away."
+
+
+ANOTHER OF THE SAME.
+
+No. CCCVI. _The Three Maidens from the Mere._
+
+"At Epfenbach, nigh Sinzheim, within men's memory, three wondrously
+beautiful damsels, attired in white, visited, with every evening, the
+village spinning-room. They brought along with them ever new songs
+and tunes, and new pretty tales and games. Moreover, their distaffs
+and spindles had something peculiar, and no spinster might so finely
+and nimbly spin the thread. But upon the stroke of eleven, they
+arose; packed up their spinning gear, and for no prayers might be
+moved to delay for an instant more. None wist whence they came, nor
+whither they went. Only they called them, The Maidens from the Mere;
+or, The Sisters of the Lake. The lads were glad to see them there,
+and were taken with love of them; but most of all, the schoolmaster's
+son. He might never have enough of hearkening and talking to them,
+and nothing grieved him more than that every night they went so early
+away. The thought suddenly crossed him, and he set the village clock
+an hour back; and, in the evening, with continual talking and
+sporting, not a soul perceived the delay of the hour. When the clock
+struck eleven--but it was properly twelve--the three damsels arose,
+put up their distaffs and things, and departed. Upon the following
+morrow, certain persons went by the Mere; they heard a wailing, and
+saw three bloody spots above upon the surface of the water. Since
+that season, the sisters came never again to the room. The
+schoolmaster's son pined, and died shortly thereafter."
+
+
+AN ELFIN IS BOUND, IN UNLAWFUL CHAINS, TO A HUMAN LOVER.
+
+No. LXX. _The Bushel, the Ring, and the Goblet._
+
+"In the duchy of Lorraine, when it belonged, as it long did, to
+Germany, the last count of Orgewiler ruled betwixt Nanzig and
+Luenstadt.[30] He had no male heir of his blood, and upon his
+deathbed, shared his lands amongst his three daughters and
+sons-in-law. Simon of Bestein had married the eldest daughter, the
+lord of Crony the second, and a German Rhinegrave the youngest.
+Beside the lordships, he also distributed to his heirs three
+presents; to the eldest daughter a BUSHEL, to the middle one a
+DRINKING-CUP, and to the third a jewel, which was a RING, with an
+admonition that they and their descendants should carefully hoard up
+these pieces, so should their houses be constantly fortunate."
+
+[Footnote 30: LUNEVILLE.]
+
+The tradition, how the things came into the possession of the count,
+the Marshal of Bassenstein,[31] great-grandson of Simon, does himself
+relate thus:--[32]
+
+[Footnote 31: BASSOMPIERRE.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Memoires du Marechal de_ BASSOMPIERRE: Cologne, 1666.
+Vol. I. PP. 4-6. The Marshal died in 1646.]
+
+"The count was married: but he had beside a secret amour with a
+marvellous beautiful woman, which came weekly to him every Monday,
+into a summer-house in the garden. This commerce remained long
+concealed from his wife. When he withdrew from her side, he pretended
+to her, that he went, by night, into the Forest, to the Stand.
+
+"But when a few years had thus passed, the countess took a suspicion,
+and was minded to learn the right truth. One summer morning early,
+she slipped after him, and came to the summer bower. She there saw
+her husband, sleeping in the arms of a wondrous fair female; but
+because they both slept so sweetly, she would not awaken them; but
+she took her veil from her head, and spread it over the feet of both,
+where they lay asleep.
+
+"When the beautiful paramour awoke, and perceived the veil, she gave
+a loud cry, began pitifully to wail, and said:--
+
+"'Henceforwards, my beloved, we see one another never more. Now must
+I tarry at a hundred leagues' distance away, and severed from thee.'
+
+"Therewith she did 1eave the count, but presented him first with
+those afore-named three gifts for his three daughters, which they
+should never let go from them.
+
+"The House of Bassenstein, for long years, had a toll, to draw in
+fruit, from the town of Spinal,[33] whereto this Bushel was
+constantly used."
+
+[Footnote 33: EPINAL.]
+
+
+THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT DOES HOUSEHOLD SERVICE IN A MILL.
+
+No. LXXIII. _The Kobold in the Mill._
+
+"Two students did once fare afoot from Rintel. They purposed putting
+up for the night in a village; but for as much as there did a violent
+rain fall, and the darkness grew upon them, so as they might no
+further forward, they went up to a near-lying mill, knocked, and
+begged a night's quarters. The miller was, at the first, deaf, but
+yielded, at the last, to their instant entreaty, opened the door, and
+brought them into a room. They were hungry and thirsty both; and
+because there stood upon a table a dish with food, and a mug of beer,
+they begged the miller for them, being both ready and willing to pay;
+but the miller denied them--would not give them even a morsel of
+bread, and only the hard bench for their night's bed.
+
+"'The meat and the drink,' said he, 'belong to the Household Spirit.
+If ye love your lives, leave them both untouched. But else have ye no
+harm to fear. If there chance a little din in the night, be ye but
+still and sleep.'
+
+"The two students laid themselves down to sleep; but after the space
+of an hour or the like, hunger did assail the one so vehemently that
+he stood up and sought after the dish. The other, a Master of Arts,
+warned him to leave to the Devil what was the Devil's due; but he
+answered, 'I have a better right than the Devil to it'--seated
+himself at the table, and ate to his heart's content, so that little
+was left of the cookery. After that, he laid hold of the can, took a
+good Pomeranian pull, and having thus somewhat appeased his desire,
+he laid himself again down to his companion; but when, after a time,
+thirst anew tormented him, he again rose up, and pulled a second so
+hearty draught, that he left the Household Spirit only the bottoms.
+After he had thus cheered and comforted himself, he lay down and fell
+asleep.
+
+"All remained quiet on to midnight; but hardly was this well by, when
+the Kobold came banging in with so loud coil,[34] that both sleepers
+awoke in great fright. He bounced a few times to and fro about the
+room, then seated himself as if to enjoy his supper at the table, and
+they could plainly hear how he pulled the dish to him. Immediately he
+set it, as though in ill humour, hard down again, laid hold of the
+can, pressed up the lid, but straightway let it clap sharply to
+again. He now fell to his work; he wiped the table, next the legs of
+the table, carefully down, and then swept, as with a besom, the door
+diligently. When this was done, he returned to visit once more the
+dish and the beercan, if his luck might be any better this turn, but
+once more pushed both angrily away. Thereupon he proceeded in his
+labour, came to the benches, washed, scoured, rubbed them, below and
+above. When he came to the place where the two students lay, he
+passed them over, and worked on beyond their feet. When this was
+done, he began upon the bench a second time above their heads; and,
+for the second time likewise, passed over the visitants. But the
+third time, when he came to them, he stroked gently the one which had
+nothing tasted, over the hair and along the whole body, without any
+whit hurting him; but the other he griped by the feet, dragged him
+two or three times round the room upon the floor, till at the last he
+left him lying, and ran behind the stove, whence he laughed him
+loudly to scorn. The student crawled back to the bench; but in a
+quarter of an hour the Kobold began his work anew, sweeping,
+cleaning, wiping. The two lay there quaking with fear:--the one he
+felt quite softly over, when he came to him; but the other he flung
+again upon the ground, and again broke out, at the back of the stove,
+into a flouting horse-laugh.
+
+[Footnote 34: Exactly so, the hairy THRESHING Goblin of Milton--at
+_going out_, again:--
+
+               "Till, cropful, out o' door HE FLINGS."
+  He, too, is paid for his work, with
+               ----"_his_ CREAM-BOWL, duly set."
+
+"The students now no longer chose to lie upon the bench, rose, and
+set up, before the closed and locked door, a loud outcry; but none
+took any heed to it. They were at length resolved to lay themselves
+down close together upon the flat floor; but the Kobold left them not
+in peace. He began, for the third time, his game:--came and lugged
+the guilty one about, laughed, and scoffed him. He was now fairly mad
+with rage, drew his sword, thrust and cut into the corner whence the
+laugh rang, and challenged the Kobold with bravadoes, to come on. He
+then sat down, his weapon in his hand, upon the bench, to await what
+should further befall; but the noise ceased, and all remained still.
+
+"The miller upbraided them upon the morrow, for that they had not
+conformed themselves to his admonishing, neither had left the
+victuals untouched. It was as much as their two lives were worth."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three heads only of the ATTRACTION, above imputed to the Fairies
+towards our own kind, have been here imperfectly brought out; and
+already the narrowness of our limits warns us--with a sigh given to
+the traditions crowding upon us from all countries, and which we
+perforce leave unused--to bring these preliminary remarks to a close.
+
+_Still_, something has been gained for illustrating our Tale. The
+Hill-Manling at the dance diligently warns against PRIDE--the rank
+ROOT evil which the Fairies will weed out from the bosom of our
+heroine, whilst throughout a marked feature of the Fairy ways--"THE
+ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRITS IN A HUMAN HABITATION" has forced
+itself upon us, in diverse, and some, perhaps, unexpected forms.
+
+And _still_, our fuller examples, coming to us wholly from the
+Collection of the Two Brothers, and expressing the habitudes of
+_various_ WIGHTS and ELVES, may furnish, for comparison with Ernst
+Willkomm's Upper Lusatian, an EXTRA Lusatian picture of the TEUTONIC
+FAIRYHOOD.
+
+
+THE FAIRY TUTOR.
+
+"In days of yore there lived, alone in her castle, a maiden named
+Swanhilda. She was the only child of a proud father, lately deceased.
+Her mother she had lost when she was but a child; so that the
+education of the daughter had fallen wholly into the hands of the
+father.
+
+"During the lifetime even of the old knight, many suitors had offered
+themselves for Swanhilda; but she seemed to be insensible to every
+tender emotion, and dismissed with disdainful haughtiness the whole
+body of wooers. Meanwhile she hunted the stag and the board, and
+performed squire's service for her gradually declining parent. This
+manner of life was so entirely to the taste of the maiden,
+notwithstanding that in delicacy of frame, and in bewitching
+gracefulness of figure, she gave place to none of her sex, that when
+at length her father died, she took upon herself the management of
+the castle, and lived aloof in pride and independence, in the very
+fashion of an Amazon. Maugre the many refusals which Swanhilda had
+already distributed on every side, there still flocked to her loving
+knights, eager to wed; but, like their predecessors, they were all
+sent drooping home again. The young nobility could at last bear this
+treatment no longer; and they, one and all, resolved either to
+constrain the supercilious damsel to wedlock, or to make her smart
+for a refusal. An embassy was dispatched, charged with notifying this
+resolution to the mistress of the castle. Swanhilda heard the
+speakers quietly to the end; but her answer was tuned as before, or
+indeed rang harsher and more offensive than ever. Turning her back
+upon the embassy, she left them to depart, scorned and ashamed.
+
+"In the night following the day upon which this happened, Swanhilda
+was disturbed out of her sleep by a noise which seemed to her to
+ascend from her chamber floor; but let her strain her eyes as she
+might, she could for a long while discern nothing. At length she
+observed, in the middle of the room, a straying sparkle of light,
+that threw itself over and over like a tumbler, tittering, at the
+same time, like a human being. Swanhilda for a while kept herself
+quiet; but as the luminous antic ceased not practising his
+harlequinade, she peevishly exclaimed--'What buffoon is carrying on
+his fooleries here? I desire to be left in peace.' The light vanished
+instantly, and Swanhilda already had congratulated herself upon
+gaining her point, when suddenly a loud shrilly sound was heard--the
+floor of the apartment gave way, and from the gap there arose a table
+set out with the choicest viands. It rested upon a lucid body of air,
+upon which the tiny attendants skipped with great agility to and fro,
+waiting upon seated guests. At first Swanhilda was so amazed that her
+breath forsook her; but becoming by degrees somewhat collected, she
+observed, to her extreme astonishment, that an effigy of herself sat
+at the strange table, in the midst of the numerous train of suitors,
+whom she had so haughtily dismissed. The attendants presented to the
+young knights the daintiest dishes, the savour of which came
+sweetly-smelling enough to the nostrils of the proud damsel. As
+often, however, as the knights were helped to meat and drink, the
+figure of Swanhilda at the board was presented by an ill-favoured
+Dwarf, who stood as her servant behind her, with an empty basket,
+whereat the suitor's broke out into wild laughter. She also soon
+became aware, that as many courses were served up to the guests as
+she had heretofore dispensed refusals, and the amount of these was
+certainly not small.
+
+"Swanhilda, weary of the absurd phantasmagoria, was going to speak
+again; but to her horror she discovered that the power of speech had
+left her. She had for some time been struck with a kind of whispering
+and tittering about her. In order to make out whence this proceeded,
+she leaned out of her bed, and, peering between the silk curtains,
+perceived two smart diminutive cupbearers, in garments of blue, with
+green aprons, and small yellow caps. She had scarcely got sight of
+the little gentlemen when their whispering took the character of
+audible words; and the dumb Swanhilda was enabled to overhear the
+following discourse:
+
+"'But, I pri'thee, tell me, Sweetflower, how this show shall end?'
+said one of the two cupbearers,--'thou art, we know, the confidant of
+our queen, and, certes, canst disclose to me somewhat of her plans?'
+
+"'That can I, my small-witted Monsieur Silverfine,' answered
+Sweetflower. 'Know, therefore, that this sweet and lovely to behold
+brute of a girl, is now beginning to suffer the castigation due to
+her innumerable offences. Swanhilda has sinned against all maidenly
+modesty, has borne herself proud and overbearing towards honourable
+gentlemen, and, besides, has most seriously offended our queen.'
+
+"'How so?' enquired Silverfine.
+
+"'By storming on her Barbary steed, like the devil himself, through
+the thick of our States' Assembly, pounding the arms and legs of I
+don't know how many of our sapient representatives. What makes the
+matter worse is, that this happened at the very opening of the diet,
+and whilst the grand prelusive symphony of the whole hidden people
+was in full burst. We were sitting by hundreds of thousands upon
+blades, stalks, and leaves; some of us still actively busied
+arranging comfortable seats for the older people in the blue
+harebells. For this we had stripped the skins of sixty thousand red
+field spiders, and wrought them into canopies and hangings. All our
+talented performers had tuned their instruments, scraped, fluted,
+twanged, jingled, and shawmed to their hearts' content, and had
+resined their fiddlesticks upon the freshest of dewdrops. All at
+once, tearing out of the wood, with your leave, or without your
+leave, comes this monster of a girl, plump upon upper house and lower
+house together. Ah, lack-a-daisy! what a massacre it was! The first
+hoof struck a thousand of our prime orators dead upon the spot, the
+other three hoofs scattered the Imperial diet in all directions, and,
+what is worse than all, tore to pieces a multitude of our exquisite
+caps. Our queen was almost frantic at the breach of the peace--she
+stamped with her foot, and cried out, "LIGHTNING!" and what that
+means we all pretty well know. Just at this time, too, she received
+information of the maiden's arrogant behaviour towards her suitors,
+and on the instant she determined to put the sinner to her prayers.
+We began by devouring every thing clean up, giving her the pleasure
+of looking on.'
+
+"'Silly, absurd creatures!' _thought_ Swanhilda, as the little butler
+advanced to the table to put on some fresh wine. During his absence
+she had time to note how perhaps a dozen other Fairies drew up
+through the floor whole pailfuls of wine and smoking meats, which
+were conveyed immediately to the table, and there consumed as if by
+the wind. She was heartily longing for the day to dawn, that the sun
+might dissipate her dream, when the sprightly little speaker came to
+his place again.
+
+"'Now we can gossip a little longer,' said Sweetflower. 'My guests
+are provided for, and between this and cock-crow--when house and
+cellar will be emptied--there's some time yet.'
+
+"Swanhilda uttered (_mentally_) a prodigious imprecation, and turned
+herself so violently in the bed, that the little gentlemen were
+absolutely terrified.
+
+"'I verily believe we are going to have an earthquake!' said
+Silverfine.
+
+"'No such thing!' answered Sweetflower. 'The amiable young lady in
+bed there has seen the sport perhaps, and is very likely not
+altogether pleased with it.'
+
+"'Don't you think she would speak, if she saw all this wastefulness
+going on?' asked Silverfine.
+
+"'Yes, if she could!' chuckled Sweetflower. 'But our queen has been
+cruel enough to strike her dumb, whilst she looks upon this
+heartbreaking spectacle. If she once wakes, she won't be troubled
+again with sleep before cock-crow.'
+
+"'A pretty business!' _thought_ Swanhilda, once more tossing herself
+passionately about in her bed.
+
+"'Quite right!' said Sweetflower triumphantly. 'The imp of a girl has
+waked up.'
+
+"'Insolent wretches!' said Swanhilda (internally.) 'Brute and imp to
+me! Oh, if I could only speak!'
+
+"'Why, the whole fun of the thing is,' said Sweetflower, almost
+bursting with laughter, 'just that that wish won't be gratified. Does
+the fool of a woman think that she is to trample down our orchestra
+with impunity, to put our States' Assembly to flight, and to crush
+our very selves into a jelly!'
+
+"'And the unbidden guests divine my very thoughts!' _thought_
+Swanhilda. 'Upon my life, it looks as if a spice of omniscience had
+really crept under their caps!'
+
+"'Why, of course!' answered Sweetflower.
+
+"'Then will I think no more!' _resolved_ Swanhilda.
+
+"'And there, my prudent damsel, you show a good discretion,' returned
+Sweetflower, saluting her with an ironical bow.
+
+"'How will it be, then, with our caps?' enquired Silverfine. 'Are
+they to be repaired?'
+
+"'Oh, certainly,' returned Sweetflower; 'and that will cost our
+Amazon here more than all. Indeed, the conditions of her punishment
+are, to make good the caps, to pledge her troth to one of her
+despised suitors, to compensate the rest with magnificent gifts, and,
+for the future, never to mount hunter more, but to amble upon a
+gentle palfrey, as a lady should. And, till all this is done, am I to
+have the teaching of her.'
+
+"'Pretty conditions truly!' thought Swanhilda. 'I would rather die
+than keep them.'
+
+"'Just as you please, most worthy madam,' answered Sweetflower; 'but
+you'll think better of it yet, perhaps.'
+
+"'It will fall heavy enough upon her,' said Silverfine, 'seeing that
+we have it in command to seize upon all the lady's treasures.'
+
+"'Capital, capital!' shouted Sweetflower. 'That's peppering the
+punishment truly! For now must this haughty man-hating creature go
+about begging, catching and carrying fish to market, and so
+submitting herself to the scorn and laughter of all her former
+lovers, till her trade makes her rich again. Nothing but luck in
+fishing will our queen vouchsafe the audacious madam. Three years are
+allowed her. But, in the interim, she must starve and famish like a
+white mouse learning to dance.'
+
+"At this moment a monstrous burst of laughter roared from the table.
+The guests sang aloud--
+
+  "'The last flagon we end,
+  Swanhilda shall mend;
+  Huzza, knights, and drink
+  To the last dollar's chink!'
+
+"As the song ceased, the table descended, the floor closed up, and
+stillness was in the room again, as when the lady had first retired
+to her couch. The cock crew, and Swanhilda fell into a deep sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"When it left her, the sun already shone high and bright, and played
+on her silken bed-curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and seeing every
+thing about her in its usual state, she concluded that what had
+happened was nothing worse than a feverish dream. She now arose,
+began dressing herself, and would have allayed her waking thirst, but
+she could find neither glass nor water-pitcher. She called angrily to
+her waiting-woman.
+
+"'How come you to forget water, blockhead?' she exclaimed; 'get some
+quickly, and then--Breakfast!'
+
+"The attendant departed, shaking her head; for she knew well enough
+that every thing had been put in order as usual on the evening
+before. She very quickly returned, frightened out of her wits, and
+hardly able to speak.
+
+"'Oh my lady! my lady! my lady!' she stammered out.
+
+"'Well, where is the water?'
+
+"'Gone! all drained and dried up! Tub, brook, well--all empty and
+dry!'
+
+"'Is it possible?' said Swanhilda. 'Your eyes have surely deceived
+you! But never mind--bring up my breakfast. A ham and two Pomeranian
+geese-breasts.'
+
+"'Alack! gracious lady!' answered the girl, sobbing, 'every thing in
+the house is gone too! The wine-casks lie in pieces on the cellar
+floor; the stalls are empty; your favourite horse is away--hay and
+corn rotted through. It is shocking!'
+
+"Swanhilda dismissed her, and broke out at first into words wild and
+vehement. She checked them; but tears of disappointment and bitter
+rage forced their way in spite of her. A visit to her cellar,
+store-rooms, and granaries, convinced her of the horrible
+transformation which a night had effected in every thing that
+belonged to her. She found nothing every where but mould and
+sickly-smelling mildew; and was too soon aware that the hideous
+images of the night were nothing less than frightful realities. Her
+hardened heart stood proof; and since the whole region for leagues
+round was turned into a blighted brown heath, she at one resolved to
+die of hunger. Ere noon her few servants had deserted the castle, and
+Swanhilda herself hungered till her bowels growled again.
+
+"This laudable self-castigation she persevered in for three days
+long, when her hunger had increased to such a pitch that she could no
+longer remain quiet in the castle. In a state of half consciousness,
+she staggered down to the lake, known far and wide by the name of the
+Castle mere. Here, on the glassy surface, basked the liveliest
+fishes. Swanhilda for a while watched in silence the disport of the
+happy creatures, then snatched up a hazel wand lying at her feet,
+round the end of which a worm had coiled, and, half maddened by the
+joyance of the finny tribe, struck with it into the water. A greedy
+fish snapped at the switch. The famishing Swanhilda clutched
+hungeringly at it, but found in her hand a piece of offensive
+carrion, and nothing more; whilst around, from every side, there rang
+such a clatter of commingled mockery and laughter, that Swanhilda
+vented a terrible imprecation, and shed once more--a scorching tear.
+
+"'Oh! we shall soon have you tame enough!' said a voice straight
+before her, and she recognized it at once for the speaker of that
+miserable night. Looking about her, she perceived a moss-rose that
+luxuriated upon the rock. In one of the expanded buds sat a little
+kicking fellow, with green apron, sky-blue vest, and yellow bonnet.
+He was laughing right into the face of the angry miss; and, quaffing
+off one little flower-cup after another, filled them bravely again,
+and jingled with his tiny bunch of keys, as if he had been grand
+butler to the universe.
+
+"'A flavour like a nosegay!' said the malicious rogue. 'Wilt hob-nob
+with me, maiden? What do you say? Are we adepts at sacking a house?
+'Twill give thee trouble to fill thy cellars again as we found them.
+Take heart, girl. If you will come to, and take kindly to your
+angling, and do the thing that's handsome by your wooers, you shall
+have an eatable dinner yet up at the castle.'
+
+"'Infamous pigmy!' exclaimed Swanhilda, lashing with her rod, as she
+spoke, at the little rose. The small buffeteer meanwhile had leaped
+down, and, in the turning of a hand, had perched himself upon the
+lady's nose, where he drummed an animating march with his heels.
+
+"'Thy nose, I do protest, is excellently soft, thou wicked witch!'
+said the rascal. 'If thou wilt now try thy hand at fishing for the
+town market, thou shalt be entertained the while with the finest band
+of music in the world. Be good and pretty, and take up thy
+angling-rod. Trumpets and drums, flutes and clarinets, shall all
+strike up together.'
+
+"Swanhilda tried hard to shake the jocular tormentor off, but he kept
+his place on the bridge as if he had grown to it. She made a snatch
+at him, and he bit her finger.
+
+"'Hark'e, my damsel!' quoth Sweetflower; 'if you are so unmannerly,
+'tis time for a lesson. You smarted too little when you were a young
+one. We must make all that good now;' and forthwith he settled
+himself properly upon her nose, dangling a leg on either side, like a
+cavalier in saddle. 'Come, my pretty, be industrious,' continued he;
+'get to work, and follow good counsel.' And then he whistled a blithe
+and gamesome tune.
+
+"Swanhilda, not heedlessly to prolong her own vexation, dipped the
+rod into the water, and immediately saw another gleaming fish
+wriggling at its end. A basket, delicately woven of flowers, stood
+beside her, half filled with clear water. The fish dropped into it of
+themselves. The wee companion beat meanwhile with his feet upon the
+wings of the lady's nose, played ten instruments or more at once, and
+extemporized a light rambling rhyme, wherein arch gibes and playful
+derision of her present forlorn estate were not unmingled with
+auguries of a friendlier future.
+
+"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin, laughing.
+'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to the town, and
+when your fish are once sold, you may make yourself--some
+water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped into the fish-basket,
+crept out again on the other side, plucked a king-cup, took seat in
+it, and gave the word--'Forwards!' The flower, on the instant,
+displayed its petals. There appeared sail and rudder to the small and
+delicate ship, which at once took motion, and sailed gaily through
+the air.
+
+"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower, 'behave
+discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'
+
+"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She took her
+basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise herself as
+completely as possible before making for the town. But all her
+clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then, harassed by
+hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as she was, in her
+velvet riding-habit.
+
+"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity--she was in the
+market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of the
+well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue of scorn in thrall,
+and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied. Once more within her
+castle walls, she beheld a running spring in the courtyard, and near
+it an earthen pitcher. She filled--drank--and carried the remainder
+to the hall, where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a
+loaf. She submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and
+water, appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.
+
+"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She hastened
+to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner there. In their
+stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next instant she
+perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork, galloping before her
+across the courtyard, and addressing his pupil with another snatch of
+his derisive song.
+
+"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she carried her
+fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she again on her way
+to market. An amazing multitude of people were already in motion
+here, who presently thronged about the market-woman. The basket was
+nearly emptied, when two of her old suitors approached. Swanhilda was
+confounded, and a blush of deep shame inflamed her countenance.
+Curiosity and the pleasure of malice spurred them to accost her; but
+the sometime-haughty damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in
+answer tendered her fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing,
+however, ungentle gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the
+moment, caught sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy--saluting her
+with his little cap, and nodding approbation.
+
+"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought Swanhilda, and
+in the next instant the fairy was running upon her nose and cheeks,
+most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her with a little hair till
+she sneezed again.
+
+"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a profane
+swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have pepper
+growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there--is that pepper? Thou
+art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'
+
+"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf still
+tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her infliction with a
+virtuous patience. In her court and hall she found, as before, the
+spring, the bread, and the fire. As before, she satisfied hunger and
+thirst, and slept--the sweeter already for her punishment and pain.
+
+"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less severe,
+still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading, under fairy
+guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must be owned that her
+aversion to angling craft did not increase in proportion. As time ran
+on, she had encountered all her discarded knights, now singly and now
+in companies. A year and a half elapsed, and left the relation
+between suitors and maiden as at the beginning. At length a chivalric
+and gentle knight, noble in person as in birth, ventured to accost
+her, loving and reverently as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed,
+overcome with shame, the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged,
+blithe, and watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself
+upon her heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles--she made
+honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
+constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened hand.
+
+"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn the
+festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry creatures
+played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The blissful day over,
+and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing from the banquet and
+the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able little tutor hopped before
+them, and led them to the hymeneal bower with floral flute, and
+gratulatory song!"
+
+
+
+
+PORTUGAL.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: _Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal_. By J. SMITH, Esq.,
+Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two vols.]
+
+
+The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for so long
+a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and fallen so
+constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or more relaxed
+alliance with England that a knowledge of her interests, her habits,
+and her history, becomes an especial accomplishment of the English
+statesman. The two countries have an additional tie, in the
+similitude of their early pursuits, their original character for
+enterprise, and their mutual services. Portugal, like England, with a
+narrow territory, but that territory largely open to the sea, was
+maritime from her beginning; like England, her early power was
+derived from the discovery of remote countries; like England, she
+threw her force into colonization, at an era when all other nations
+of Europe were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like
+England, without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved
+her independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
+like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
+with which, after severing the link of government, she retains the
+link of a common language, policy, literature, and religion.
+
+The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed the
+prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government by Spain
+sank her into a temporary depression. But the native gallantry of the
+nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new effort commenced for
+her restoration to the place which she was entitled to maintain in
+the world. It is remarkable that, at such periods in the history of
+nations, some eminent individual comes forward, as if designated for
+the especial office of a national guide. Such an individual was the
+Marquis of Pombal, the virtual sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven
+years--a man of talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were
+the crush of faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the
+Jesuits and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
+Restorer of his Country."
+
+The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at Soure, a
+Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father, Manoel
+Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of the rank of
+_fidalgo de provincia_--a distinction which gave him the privileges
+attached to nobility, though not to the title of a grandee, that
+honour not descending below dukes, marquises, and counts. His mother
+was Theresa de Mendonca, a woman of family. He had two brothers,
+Francis and Paul. His own names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was
+added that of Mello, from his maternal ancestor.
+
+Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general, studied for
+a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the army as a
+private, according to the custom of the country, and rose to the rank
+of corporal, which he held until circumstances, and an introduction
+to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently prime-minister, induced him
+to devote himself to the study of history, politics, and law. The
+cardinal, struck with his ability, strongly advised him to persevere
+in those pursuits, appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal
+Academy of History, and shortly after, the king proposed that he
+should write the history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but
+this design was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six
+years, until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
+Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
+remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
+language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
+country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
+however, be recollected, that at this period French was the universal
+language of diplomacy, the language of the court circles, and the
+polished language of all the travelled ranks of England. The
+writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and politicians, were
+the study of every man who pretended to good-breeding, and the only
+study of most; so that, to a stranger, the acquisition of the
+vernacular tongue could be scarcely more than a matter of curiosity.
+Times, however, are changed; and the diplomatist who should now come
+to this country without a knowledge of the language, would be
+despised for his ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better
+remain at home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a
+negotiation to reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an
+ecclesiastical claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and
+it is surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
+appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
+Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun, by
+whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined to be a
+favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was above the
+middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably intellectual
+countenance; his manners graceful, and his language animated and
+elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that on a vacancy in
+the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled to take the
+portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly after, and Don
+Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the throne, appointing
+Pombal virtually his prime-minister--a rank which he held, unshaken
+and unrivaled, for the extraordinary period of twenty-seven years.
+
+The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
+minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of the
+most memorable service to his future administration. His six years'
+residence in England added practical knowledge to theoretical; and
+with the whole machinery of a free, active, and popular government in
+constant operation before his eyes, he returned to take the
+government of a dilapidated country. The power of the priesthood,
+exercised in the most fearful shape of tyranny; the power of the
+crown, at once feeble and arbitrary; the power of opinion, wholly
+extinguished; and the power of the people, perverted into the
+instrument of their own oppression--were the elements of evil with
+which the minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
+sincerely, and successfully.
+
+The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined with the
+most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for it not merely
+punished men for obeying their own consciences, but tried them in
+defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only made a law
+contradictory of every other law, but it established a tribunal
+subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be defended. It
+was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was a bold and noble
+effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits of national safety.
+By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that thenceforth no judicial
+burnings should take place without the consent and approval of the
+government, taking to itself the right of enquiry and examination,
+and confirming or reversing the sentence according to its own
+judgment. This measure decided at once the originality and the
+boldness of the minister: for it was the first effort of the kind in
+a Popish kingdom; and it was made against the whole power of Rome,
+the restless intrigues of the Jesuits, and the inveterate
+superstition of the people.
+
+Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's next
+attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He found all
+the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an annual revenue
+of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a national manufactory
+of gunpowder, it having been previously supplied by contract, and
+being of course supplied of the worst quality at the highest rate. He
+established regulations for the fisheries, he broke up iniquitous
+contracts, he attempted to establish a sugar refinery, and directed
+the attention of the people largely to the cultivation of silk. His
+next reformation was that of the police. The disorders of the late
+reign had covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a
+police so effective, and proceeded with such determined justice
+against all disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly
+safe, and the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a
+time when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
+assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as to
+be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
+country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
+immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets of
+the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for the
+various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior officers,
+made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and restored the
+revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next engaged his attention;
+he established a company to trade to the East and China, the old
+sources of Portuguese wealth. In the western dominions of Portugal,
+commerce had hitherto languished. He established a great company for
+the Brazil trade. But his still higher praise was his humanity.
+Though acting in the midst of a nation overrun with the most violent
+follies and prejudices of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses
+of the convents; and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as
+nuns the daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over
+for their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
+Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
+Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were granted
+to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among them. Of course
+those great objects were not achieved without encountering serious
+difficulties. The pride of the idle aristocracy, the sleepless
+intriguing of the Jesuits, the ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and
+the sluggish supremacy of the priests, were all up in arms against
+him. But his principle was pure, his knowledge sound, and his
+resolution decided. Above all, he had, in the person of the king, a
+man of strong mind, convinced of the necessities of change, and
+determined to sustain the minister. The reforms soon vindicated
+themselves by the public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the
+powers of a despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a
+regenerator of his country.
+
+But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the test
+at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the resources of
+Portugal.
+
+On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755, Lisbon
+was almost torn up from the foundations by the most terrible
+earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish festival, the
+population were crowding to the churches, which were lighted up in
+honour of the day. About a quarter before ten the first shock was
+felt, which lasted the extraordinary length of six or seven minutes;
+then followed an interval of about five minutes, after which the
+shock was renewed, lasting about three minutes. The concussions were
+so violent in both instances that nearly all the solid buildings were
+dashed to the ground, and the principal part of the city almost
+wholly ruined. The terror of the population, rushing through the
+falling streets, gathered in the churches, or madly attempting to
+escape into the fields, may be imagined; but the whole scene of
+horror, death, and ruin, exceeds all description. The ground split
+into chasms, into which the people were plunged in their fright.
+Crowds fled to the water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land,
+suddenly rose to an extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and
+swept away all within its reach. It was said to have risen to the
+height of five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and
+to have sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred
+four times.
+
+The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial force
+of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for while
+Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion of a
+gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
+considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said that
+many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the Tagus, and
+totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the shock on the
+river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung upon the shore.
+To complete the catastrophe, fires broke out in the ruins, which
+spread over the face of the city, burned for five or six days, and
+reduced all the goods and property of the people to ashes. For forty
+days the shocks continued with more or less violence, but they had
+now nothing left to destroy. The people were thus kept in a constant
+state of alarm, and forced to encamp in the open fields, though it
+was now winter. The royal family were encamped in the gardens of the
+palace; and, as in all the elements of society had been shaken
+together, Lisbon and its vicinity became the place of gathering for
+banditti from all quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish
+deserters made their way to the city, and robberies and murders of
+the most desperate kind were constantly perpetrated.
+
+During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell upon
+the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He adopted the
+most active measures for provisioning the city, for repressing
+plunder and violence, and for enabling the population to support
+themselves during this period of suffering. It was calculated that
+seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the damage of the city;
+and that not less than eighty thousand lives had been lost, either
+crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the waters. Some conception
+of the native mortality may be formed from that of the English: of
+the comparatively small number of whom, resident at that time in
+Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight men and fifty women were among the
+sufferers.
+
+The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this tremendous
+calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He found every
+one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed the king, as he
+entered "to meet this infliction of divine justice?" The calm and
+resolute answer of Pombal was--"Bury the dead, and feed the living."
+This sentence is still recorded, with honour, in the memory of
+Portugal.
+
+The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and returned to
+the ruins. For several days his only habitation was his carriage; and
+from it he continued to issue regulations for the public security.
+Those regulations amounted to the remarkable number of two hundred;
+and embraced all the topics of police, provisions, and the burial of
+the sufferers. Among those regulations was the singular, but
+sagacious one, of prohibiting all persons from leaving the city
+without a passport. By this, those who had robbed the people, or
+plundered the church plate, were prevented from escaping to the
+country and hiding their plunder, and consequently were obliged to
+abandon, or to restore it. But every shape of public duty was met by
+this vigorous and intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of
+the wounded, the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the
+destitute. He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of
+the capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
+of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the streets,
+buried the dead, and restored the services of the national religion.
+
+Another task subsequently awaited him--the rebuilding of the city. He
+began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty is due to the
+taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares. He did more: he
+built the more important fabric of public sewers in the new streets,
+and he laid out a public garden for the popular recreation. But he
+found, as Wren found, even in England, the infinite difficulty of
+opposing private interest, even in public objects; and Lisbon lost
+the opportunity of being the most picturesque and stately of European
+cities. One project, which would have been at once of the highest
+beauty and of the highest benefit--a terrace along the shore of the
+Tagus from Santa Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles,
+which would have formed the finest promenade in the world--he was
+either forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was
+hopeless. It was never even begun.
+
+The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to him
+among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the plunder
+of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his minister.
+They even declared the earthquake to have been a divine judgment for
+the sins of the administration. But they were rash enough, in the
+intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a repetition of the
+earthquake at the same time next year. When the destined day came,
+Pombal planted strong guards at the city gates, to prevent the panic
+of the people in rushing into the country. The earthquake did not
+fulfil the promise; and the people first laughed at themselves, and
+then at the Jesuits. The laugh had important results in time.
+
+There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history, than the
+long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose naturally from the
+commerce of the two nations--Portugal, already the most adventurous
+of nations, and England, growing in commercial enterprise. The
+advantages were mutual. In the year 1367, we have a Portuguese treaty
+stipulating for protection to the Portuguese traders in England. In
+1382, a royal order of Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador
+to bring his baggage into England free of duty--perhaps one of the
+earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
+civilization, and which has since been generally adopted throughout
+all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405, exonerates the
+Portuguese resident in England, and their ships, from being made
+responsible for the debts contracted by their ambassadors. In 1656,
+the important privilege was conceded to the English in Portugal, of
+being exempted from the native jurisdiction, and being tried by a
+judge appointed by England. This, in our days, might be an
+inadmissible privilege; but two centuries ago, in the disturbed
+condition of the Portuguese laws and general society, it might have
+been necessary for the simple protection of the strangers.
+
+The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have lately
+occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is curious to
+see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so far in advance
+of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in striking
+contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of monopoly and
+prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor the other--nature
+and necessity were too strong against him. We are, however, to
+recollect, that the language of complaint was popular in Portugal, as
+it always will be in a poor country, and that the minister who would
+be popular must adopt the language of complaint. In an eloquent and
+almost impassioned memoir by Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of
+his country, and hastily imputes it to the predominance of English
+commerce. He tells us that, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
+Portugal scarcely produced any thing towards her own support. Two
+thirds of her physical necessities were supplied from England. He
+complains that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
+Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an English
+trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers of all the
+necessaries of life throughout the country, and that the Portuguese
+had nothing to do but look on; that Cromwell, by the treaty which
+allowed the supply of Portugal with English cloths to the amount of
+two million sterling, had utterly impoverished the country; and in
+short, that the weakness and incapacity of Portugal, as an European
+state, were wholly owing, to her being destitute of trade, and that
+the destitution was wholly owing to her being overwhelmed by English
+commodities.
+
+We are not about to enter into detail upon this subject, but it is to
+be remembered, that Portugal obtained the cloth, even if she paid for
+it, cheaper from England than she could have done from any other
+country in Europe; that she had no means of making the cloth for
+herself, and that, after all, man must be clothed. Portugal, without
+flocks or fire, without coals or capital, could never have
+manufactured cloth enough to cover the tenth part of her population,
+at ten times the expense. This has occurred in later days, and in
+more opulent countries. We remember, in the reign of the Emperor
+Paul, when he was frantic enough to declare war against England, a
+pair of broadcloth pantaloons costing seven guineas in St Peterburg.
+This would have been severe work for the purse of a Portuguese
+peasant a hundred years ago. The plain fact of domestic manufactures
+being this, that no folly can be more foolish than to attempt to form
+them where the means and the country do not give them a natural
+superiority. For example, coals and iron are essential to the product
+of all works in metal. France has neither. How can she, therefore,
+contest the superiority of our hardware? She contests it simply by
+doing without it, and by putting up with the most intolerable cutlery
+that the world has ever seen. If, where manufactures are already
+established, however ineffectual, it may become a question with the
+government whether some privations must not be submitted to by the
+people in general, rather than precipitate those unlucky manufactures
+into ruin; there can be no question whatever on the subject where
+manufactures have not been hitherto established. Let the people go to
+the best market, let no attempt be made to force nature, and let no
+money be wasted on the worst article got by the worst means. One
+thing, however, is quite clear with respect to Portugal, that, by the
+English alliance, she has gained what is worth all the manufactures
+of Europe--independence. When, in 1640, she threw off the Spanish
+usurpation, and placed the Braganza family on the national throne,
+she threw herself on the protection of England; and that protection
+never has failed her to this hour. In the Spanish invasion of
+Portugal in 1762, England sent her ten thousand men, and the first
+officer of his day, Count La Lippe, who, notwithstanding his German
+name, was an Englishman born, and had commenced his service in the
+Guards. The Spaniards were beaten in all directions, and Portugal was
+included in the treaty of Fontainbleau in 1763. The deliverance of
+Portugal in the Peninsular war is too recent to be forgotten, and too
+memorable to be spoken of here as it deserves. And to understand the
+full value of this assistance, we are to recollect, that Portugal is
+one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, and at the same time the most
+exposed; that its whole land frontier is open to Spain, and its whole
+sea frontier is open to France; that its chief produce is wine and
+oranges, and that England is incomparably its best customer for both.
+
+Pombal, in his memoir, imputes a portion of the poverty of Portugal
+to her possession of the gold mines of Brazil. This is one of the
+paradoxes of the last century; but nations are only aggregates of
+men, and what makes an individual rich, cannot make a nation poor.
+The true secret is this--that while the possession of the gold mines
+induced an indolent government to rely upon them for the expenses of
+the state, that reliance led them to abandon sources of profit in the
+agriculture and commerce of the country, which were of ten times the
+value. This was equally the case in Spain. The first influx from the
+mines of Peru, enabled the government to disregard the revenues
+arising from the industry of the people. In consequence of the want
+of encouragement from the government, the agriculture and commerce of
+Spain sank rapidly into the lowest condition, whilst the government
+indolently lived on the produce of the mines. But the more gold and
+silver exist in circulation, the less becomes their value. Within
+half a century, the imports from the Spanish and Portuguese mines,
+had reduced the value of the precious metals by one half; and those
+imports thus became inadequate to the ordinary expenses of
+government. Greater efforts were then made to obtain them from the
+mines. Still, as the more that was obtained the less was the general
+value, the operation became more profitless still; and at length both
+Spain and Portugal were reduced to borrow money, which they had no
+means to pay--in other words, were bankrupt. And this is the true
+solution of the problem--why have the gold and silver mines of the
+Peninsula left them the poorest nations of Europe? Yet this was
+contrary to the operation of new wealth. The discovery of the mines
+of the New World appears to have been a part of that providential
+plan, by which a general impulse was communicated to Europe in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Europe was preparing for a new
+vigour of religion, politics, commerce, and civilization. Nothing
+stimulates national effort of every kind with so much power and
+rapidity, as a new general accession of wealth, or, as the political
+economist would pronounce it, a rise of wages, whether industrial or
+intellectual; and this rise was effected by the new influx of the
+mines. If Peru and Mexico had belonged to England, she would have
+converted their treasures into new canals and high-roads, new
+harbours, new encouragements to agriculture, new excitements to
+public education, new enterprises of commerce, or the colonization of
+new countries in the productive regions of the globe; and thus she
+would at once have increased her natural opulence, and saved herself
+from suffering under the depreciation of the precious metals, or more
+partially, by her active employment of them, have almost wholly
+prevented that depreciation. But the Peninsula, relying wholly on its
+imported wealth, and neglecting its infinitely more important
+national riches, was exactly in the condition of an individual, who
+spends the principal of his property, which is continually sinking
+until it is extinguished altogether.
+
+Another source of Peninsular poverty existed in its religion. The
+perpetual holidays of Popery made even the working portion of the
+people habitually idle. Where labour is prohibited for nearly a
+fourth of the year by the intervention of holidays, and thus idleness
+is turned into a sacred merit, the nation must prepare for beggary.
+But Popery goes further still. The establishment of huge communities
+of sanctified idlers, monks and nuns by the ten thousand, in every
+province and almost in every town, gave a sacred sanction to
+idleness--gave a means of escaping work to all who preferred the
+lounging and useless life of the convent to regular labour, and even
+provided the means of living to multitudes of vagabonds, who were
+content to eat their bread, and drink their soup, daily at the
+convent gates, rather than to make any honest decent effort to
+maintain themselves. Every country must be poor in which a large
+portion of the public property goes to the unproductive classes. The
+soldiery, the monks, the state annuitants, the crowds of domestics,
+dependent on the families of the grandees, all are necessarily
+unproductive. The money which they receive is simply consumed. It
+makes no return. Thus poverty became universal; and nothing but the
+singular fertility of the peopled districts of Spain and Portugal,
+and the fortune of having a climate which requires but few of the
+comforts essential in a severer temperature, could have saved them
+both from being the most pauperized of all nations, or even from
+perishing altogether, and leaving the land a desert behind them. It
+strangely illustrates these positions, that, in 1754, the Portuguese
+treasury was so utterly emptied, that the monarch was compelled to
+borrow 400,000 crusadoes (L.40,000) from a private company, for the
+common expenses of his court.
+
+Wholly and justly disclaiming the imputation which would pronounce
+Portugal a dependent on England, it is impossible to turn a page of
+her history without seeing the measureless importance of her English
+connexion. Every genuine source of her power and opulence has either
+originated with, or been sustained by, her great ally. Among the
+first of these has been the wine trade. In the year 1756--the year
+following that tremendous calamity which had sunk Lisbon into
+ruins--the wine-growers in the three provinces of Beira, Minho, and
+Tras-os-Montes, represented that they were on the verge of ruin. The
+adulteration of the Portuguese wines by the low traders had destroyed
+their character in Europe, and the object of the representation was
+to reinstate that character. Pombal immediately took up their cause;
+and, in the course of the same year, was formed the celebrated Oporto
+Wine Company, with a capital of L120,000. The declared principles of
+the establishment were, to preserve the quality of the wines, to
+secure the growers by fixing a regular price, and to protect them
+from the combinations of dealers. The company had the privilege of
+purchasing all the wines grown within a particular district at a
+fixed price, for a certain period after the vintage. When that period
+had expired, the growers were at liberty to sell the wines which
+remained unpurchased in whatever market they pleased. Monopolies, in
+the advanced and prosperous career of commercial countries, generally
+sink into abuse; but they are, in most instances, absolutely
+necessary to the infant growth of national traffic. All the commerce
+of Europe has commenced by companies. In the early state of European
+trade, individuals were too poor for those large enterprises which
+require a large outlay, and whose prospects, however promising, are
+distant. What one cannot do, must be done by a combination of many,
+if it is to be done at all. Though when individual capital, by the
+very action of that monopoly, becomes powerful enough for those
+enterprises, then the time is at hand when the combination may be
+dissolved with impunity. The Oporto Wine Company had no sooner come
+into existence, than its benefits were felt in every branch of
+Portuguese revenue. It restored and extended the cultivation of the
+vine, which is the staple of Portugal. It has been abolished in the
+revolutionary changes of late years. But the question, whether the
+country is yet fit to bear the abolition, is settled by the fact,
+that the wine-growers are complaining of ruin, and that the necessity
+of the case is now urging the formation of the company once more.
+
+The decision of Pombal's character was never more strongly shown than
+on this occasion. The traders into whose hands the Portuguese wines
+had fallen, and who had enjoyed an illegal monopoly for so many
+years, raised tumults, and serious insurrection was threatened. At
+Oporto, the mob plundered the director's house, and seized on the
+chief magistrate. The military were attacked, and the government was
+endangered. The minister instantly ordered fresh troops to Oporto;
+arrests took place; seventeen persons were executed; five-and-twenty
+sent to the galleys; eighty-six banished, and others subjected to
+various periods of imprisonment. The riots were extinguished. In a
+striking memoir, written by Pombal after his retirement from office,
+he gives a brief statement of the origin of this company--a topic at
+all times interesting to the English public, and which is about to
+derive a new interest from its practical revival in Portugal. We
+quote a fragment.
+
+"The unceasing and urgent works which the calamitous earthquake of
+November 1st, 1755, had rendered indispensable, were still vigorously
+pursued, when, in the following year, one Mestre Frei Joao de
+Mansilla presented himself at the Giunta at Belem, on the part of the
+principal husbandmen of Upper Douro, and of the respectable
+inhabitants of Oporto, in a state of utter consternation.
+
+"In the popular outcry of the time, the English were represented as
+making themselves the sole managers of every thing. The fact being,
+that, as they were the only men who had any money, they were almost
+the sole purchasers in the Portuguese markets. But the English here
+complained of were the low traffickers, who, in conjunction with the
+Lisbon and Oporto vintners, bought and managed the wines at their
+discretion. It was represented to the king, that, by those means, the
+price of wine had been reduced to 7200 rios a pipe, or less, until
+the expense of cultivation was more than the value of the produce;
+that those purchasers required one or two years' credit; that the
+price did not pay for the hoeing of the land, which was consequently
+deserted; that all the principal families of one district had been
+reduced to poverty, so much so as to be obliged to sell their knives
+and forks; that the poor people had not a drop of oil for their
+salad, so that they were obliged, even in Lent, to season their
+vegetables with the fat of hogs." The memoir mentions even gross vice
+as a consequence of their extreme poverty.
+
+We quote this passage to show to what extremities a people may be
+reduced by individual mismanagement, and what important changes may
+be produced by the activity of an intelligent directing power. The
+king's letters-patent of 1756, establishing the company, provided at
+once for the purity of the wine, its extended sale in England, and
+the solvency of the wine provinces. It is only one among a thousand
+instances of the hazards in which Popery involves all regular
+government, to find the Jesuits inflaming the populace against this
+most salutary and successful act of the king. At confession, they
+prompted the people to believe "that the wines of the company were
+not fit for the celebration of mass." (For the priests drink wine in
+the communion, though the people receive only the bread.) To give
+practical example to their precept, they dispersed narratives of a
+great popular insurrection which had occurred in 1661; and both
+incentives resulted in the riots in Oporto, which it required all the
+vigour of Pombal to put down.
+
+But the country and Europe was now to acknowledge the services of the
+great minister on a still higher scale. The extinction of the Jesuits
+was the work of his bold and sagacious mind. The history of this
+event is among the most memorable features of a century finishing
+with the fall of the French monarchy.
+
+The passion of Rome for territory has been always conspicuous, and
+always unsuccessful. Perpetually disturbing the Italian princes in
+the projects of usurpation, it has scarcely ever advanced beyond the
+original bounds fixed for it by Charlemagne. Its spirit of intrigue,
+transfused into its most powerful order the Jesuits, was employed for
+the similar purpose of acquiring territorial dominion. But Europe was
+already divided among powerful nations. Those nations were governed
+by jealous authorities, powerful kings for their leaders, and
+powerful armies for their defence. All was full; there was no room
+for the contention of a tribe of ecclesiastics, although the most
+daring, subtle, and unscrupulous of the countless slaves and soldiers
+of Rome. The world of America was open. There a mighty power might
+grow up unseen by the eye of Europe. A population of unlimited
+multitudes might find space in the vast plains; commerce in the
+endless rivers; defence in the chains of mountains; and wealth in the
+rocks and sands of a region teeming with the precious metals. The
+enterprise was commenced under the pretext of converting the Indians
+of Paraguay. Within a few years the Jesuits formed an independent
+republic, numbering thirty-one towns, with a population of a hundred
+thousand souls. To render their power complete, they prohibited all
+communication between the natives and the Spaniards and Portuguese,
+forbidding them to learn the language of either country, and
+implanting in the mind of the Indians an implacable hatred of both
+Spain and Portugal. At length both courts became alarmed, and orders
+were sent out to extinguish the usurpation. Negotiations were in the
+mean time opened between Spain and Portugal relative to an exchange
+of territory, and troops were ordered to effect the exchange.
+Measures of this rank were unexpected by the Jesuits. They had
+reckoned upon the proverbial tardiness of the Peninsular councils;
+but they were determined not to relinquish their prize without a
+struggle. They accordingly armed the natives, and prepared for a
+civil war.
+
+The Indians, unwarlike as they have always been, now headed by their
+Jesuit captains, outmanoeuvred the invaders. The expedition failed;
+and the baffled invasion ended in a disgraceful treaty. The
+expedition was renewed in the next year, 1755, and again baffled. The
+Portuguese government of the Brazils now made renewed efforts, and in
+1756 obtained some advantages; but they were still as far as ever
+from final success, and the war, fruitless as it was, had begun to
+drain heavily the finances of the mother country. It had already cost
+the treasury of Lisbon a sum equal to three millions sterling. But
+the minister at the head of the Portuguese government was of a
+different character from the race who had, for the last hundred
+years, wielded the ministerial sceptres of Spain and Portugal. His
+clear and daring spirit at once saw where the evil lay, and defied
+the difficulties that lay between him and its cure. He determined to
+extinguish the order of the Jesuits at a blow. The boldness of this
+determination can be estimated only by a knowledge of the time. In
+the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were the
+ecclesiastical masters of Europe. They were the confessors of the
+chief monarchs of the Continent; the heads of the chief seminaries
+for national education; the principal professors in all the
+universities;--and this influence, vast as it was by its extent and
+variety, was rendered more powerful by the strict discipline, the
+unhesitating obedience, and the systematic activity of their order.
+All the Jesuits existing acknowledged one head, the general of their
+order, whose constant residence was at Rome. But their influence,
+powerful as it was by their open operation on society, derived
+perhaps a superior power from its secret exertions. Its name was
+legion--its numbers amounted to thousands--it took every shape of
+society, from the highest to the lowest. It was the noble and the
+peasant--the man of learning and the man of trade--the lawyer and the
+monk--the soldier and the sailor--nay, it was said, that such was the
+extraordinary pliancy of its principle of disguise, the Jesuit was
+suffered to assume the tenets of Protestantism, and even to act as a
+Protestant pastor, for the purpose of more complete deception. The
+good of the church was the plea which purified all imposture; the
+power of Rome was the principle on which this tremendous system of
+artifice was constructed; and the reduction of all modes of human
+opinion to the one sullen superstition of the Vatican, was the
+triumph for which those armies of subtle enthusiasm and fraudulent
+sanctity were prepared to live and die.
+
+The first act of Pombal was to remove the king's confessor, the
+Jesuit Moreira. The education of the younger branches of the royal
+family was in the hands of Jesuits. Pombal procured a royal order
+that no Jesuit should approach the court, without obtaining the
+express permission of the king. He lost no time in repeating the
+assault. Within a month, on the 8th of October 1767, he sent
+instructions to the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, to demand a
+private audience, and lay before the pope the misdemeanours of the
+order.
+
+Those instructions charged the Jesuits with the most atrocious
+personal profligacy, with a design to master all public power, to
+gather opulence dangerous to the state, and actually to plot against
+the authority of the crowns of Europe. He announced, that the king of
+Portugal had commanded all the Jesuit confessors of the prince and
+princesses to withdraw to their own convents; and this important
+manifesto closed by soliciting the interposition of the papal see to
+prevent the ruin, by purifying an order which had given scandal to
+Christianity, by offences against the public and private peace of
+society, equally unexampled, habitual, and abominable. In 1758, the
+representation to the pope was renewed, with additional proofs that
+the order had determined to usurp every function, and thwart every
+act of the civil government; that the confessors of the royal family,
+though dismissed, continued to conspire; that they resisted the
+formation of royal institutions for the renewal of the national
+commerce; and that they excited the people to dangerous tumults, in
+defiance of the royal authority.
+
+Their intrigues comprehended every object by which influence was to
+be obtained, or money was to be made. The "Great Wine Company," on
+which the chief commerce of Portugal, and almost the existence of its
+northern provinces depended, was a peculiar object of their
+hostility, for reasons which we can scarcely apprehend, except they
+were general jealousy of all lay power, and hostility to all the
+works of Pombal. They assailed it from their pulpits; and one of
+their popular preachers made himself conspicuous by impiously
+exclaiming, "that whoever joined that company, would have no part in
+the company of Jesus Christ."
+
+The intrigues of this dangerous and powerful society had long before
+been represented to the popes, and had drawn down upon them those
+remonstrances by which the habitual dexterity of Rome at once saves
+appearances, and suffers the continuance of the delinquency. The
+Jesuits were too useful to be restrained; yet their crimes were too
+palpable to be passed over. In consequence, the complaints of the
+monarchs of Spain and Portugal were answered by bulls issued from
+time to time, equally formal and ineffective. Yet even from these
+documents may be ascertained the singularly gross, worldly, and
+illegitimate pursuits of an order, professing itself to be supremely
+religious, and the prime sustainer of the "faith of the gospel." The
+bull of Benedict the XIV., issued in 1741, prohibited from "trade and
+commerce, all worldly dominion, and the _purchase_ and _sale_ of
+converted Indians." The bull extended the prohibition generally to
+the monkish orders, to avoid branding the Jesuits especially. But a
+bull of more direct reprehension was published at the close of the
+year, expressly against the Jesuits in their missions in the east and
+west. The language of this document amounts to a catalogue of the
+most atrocious offences against society, humanity, and morals. By
+this bull, "all men, and especially _Jesuits_," are prohibited, under
+penalty of excommunication, from "making slaves of the Indians; from
+selling and bartering them; from separating them from their wives and
+children; from robbing them of their property; from transporting them
+from their native soil," &c.
+
+Nothing but the strongest necessity, and the most ample evidence,
+would ever have drawn this condemnation from Rome, whether sincere or
+insincere. But the urgencies of the case became more evident from day
+to day. In 1758, the condemnation was followed by the practical
+measure of appointing Cardinal Saldanha visitor and reformer of the
+Jesuits in Portugal, and the Portuguese settlements in the east and
+west.
+
+Within two months of this appointment the following decree was
+issued:--"For just reasons known to us, and which concern especially
+the service of God and the public welfare, we suspend from the power
+of confessing and preaching, in the whole extent of our patriarchate,
+the fathers of the Society of Jesus, from this moment, and until
+further notice." Saldanha had been just raised to the patriarchate.
+
+We have given some observations on this subject, from its peculiar
+importance to the British empire at this moment. The order of the
+Jesuits, extinguished in the middle of the last century by the
+unanimous demand of Europe, charged with every crime which could make
+a great association obnoxious to mankind, and exhibiting the most
+atrocious violations of the common rules of human morality, has,
+within this last quarter of a century, been revived by the papacy,
+with the express declaration, that its revival is for the exclusive
+purpose of giving new effect to the doctrines, the discipline, and
+the power of Rome. The law which forbids the admission of Jesuits
+into England, has shared the fate of all laws feebly administered;
+and Jesuits are active by hundreds or by thousands in every portion
+of the empire. They have restored the whole original system,
+sustained by all their habitual passion for power, and urging their
+way, with all their ancient subtlety, through all ranks of
+Protestantism.
+
+The courage and intelligence of Pombal placed him in the foremost
+rank of Europe, when the demand was the boldest and most essential
+service which a great minister could offer to his country; he broke
+the power of Jesuitism. But an order so numerous--for even within the
+life of its half-frenzied founder it amounted to 19,000--so
+vindictive, and flung from so lofty a rank of influence, could not
+perish without some desperate attempts to revenge its ruin. The life
+of Pombal was so constantly in danger, that the king actually
+assigned him a body guard. But the king himself was exposed to one of
+the most remarkable plots of regicide on record--the memorable Aveiro
+and Tavora conspiracy.
+
+On the night of the 3d of September 1758, as the king was returning
+to the palace at night in a cabriolet, attended only by his valet,
+two men on horseback, and armed with blunderbusses, rode up to the
+carriage, and leveled their weapons at the monarch. One of them
+missed fire, the other failed of its effect. The royal postilion, in
+alarm, rushed forward, when two men, similarly waiting in the road,
+galloped after the carriage, and both fired their blunderbusses into
+it behind. The cabriolet was riddled with slugs, and the king was
+wounded in several places. By an extraordinary presence of mind, Don
+Joseph, instead of ordering the postilion to gallop onward, directed
+him instantly to turn back, and, to avoid alarming the palace, carry
+him direct to the house of the court surgeon. By this fortunate
+order, he escaped the other groups of the conspirators, who were
+stationed further on the road, and under whose repeated discharges he
+would probably have fallen.
+
+The public alarm and indignation on the knowledge of this desperate
+atrocity were unbounded. There seemed to be but one man in the
+kingdom who preserved his composure, and that one was Pombal.
+Exhibiting scarcely even the natural perturbation at an event which
+had threatened almost a national convulsion, he suffered the whole to
+become a matter of doubt, and allowed the king's retirement from the
+public eye to be considered as merely the effect of accident. The
+public despatch of Mr Hay, the British envoy at Lisbon, alludes to
+it, chiefly as assigning a reason for the delay of a court
+mourning--the order for this etiquette, on the death of the Spanish
+queen, not having been put in execution. The envoy mentions that it
+had been impeded by the king's illness,--"it being the custom of the
+court to put on _gala_ when any of the royal family are blooded. When
+I went to court to enquire after his majesty's health, I was there
+informed that the king, on Sunday night the 3d instant, passing
+through a gallery to go to the queen's apartment, had the misfortune
+to fall and bruise his right arm; he had been blooded eight different
+times; and, as his majesty is a fat bulky man, to prevent any humours
+fixing there, his physicians have advised that he should not use his
+arm, but abstain from business for some time. In consequence, the
+queen was declared regent during Don Joseph's illness."
+
+This was the public version of the event. But appended to the
+despatch was a postscript, in _cipher_, stating the reality of the
+transaction. Pombal's sagacity, and his self control, perhaps a still
+rarer quality among the possessors of power, were exhibited in the
+strongest light on this occasion. For three months not a single step
+appeared to be taken to punish, or even to detect the assassins. The
+subject was allowed to die away; when, on the 9th of December, all
+Portugal was startled by a royal decree, declaring the crime, and
+offering rewards for the seizure of the assassins. Some days
+afterwards Lisbon heard, with astonishment, an order for the arrest
+of the Duke of Aveira, one of the first nobles, and master of the
+royal household; the arrest of the whole family of the Marquis of
+Tavora, himself, his two sons, his four brothers, and his two
+sons-in-law. Other nobles were also seized; and the Jesuits were
+forbidden to be seen out of their houses.
+
+The three months of Pombal's apparent inaction had been incessantly
+employed in researches into the plot. Extreme caution was evidently
+necessary, where the criminals were among the highest officials and
+nobles, seconded by the restless and formidable machinations of the
+Jesuits. When his proofs were complete, he crushed the conspirators
+at a single grasp. His singular inactivity had disarmed them; and
+nothing but the most consummate composure could have prevented their
+flying from justice. On the 12th of January 1759, they were found
+guilty; and on the 13th they were put to death, to the number of
+nine, with the Marchioness of Tavora, in the square of Belem. The
+scaffold and the bodies were burned, and the ashes thrown into the
+sea.
+
+Those were melancholy acts; the works of melancholy times. But as no
+human crime can be so fatal to the security of a state as regicide,
+no imputation can fall on the memory of a great minister, compelled
+to exercise justice in its severity, for the protection of all orders
+of the kingdom. In our more enlightened period, we must rejoice that
+those dreadful displays of judicial power have passed away; and that
+laws are capable of being administered without the tortures, or the
+waste of life, which agonize the feelings of society. Yet, while
+blood for blood continued to be the code; while the sole prevention
+of crime was sought for in the security of judgment; and while even
+the zeal of justice against guilt was measured by the terrible
+intensity of the punishment--we must charge the horror of such
+sweeping executions to the ignorance of the age, much more than to
+the vengeance of power.
+
+This tragedy was long the subject of European memory; and all the
+extravagance of popular credulity was let loose ill discovering the
+causes of the conspiracy. It was said, in the despatches of the
+English minister, that the Marquis of Tavora, who had been Portuguese
+minister in the East, was irritated by the royal attentions to his
+son's wife. Ambition was the supposed ground of the Duke of Aveira's
+perfidy. The old Marchioness of Tavora, who had been once the
+handsomest woman at court, and was singularly vein and haughty, was
+presumed to have received some personal offence, by the rejection of
+the family claim to a dukedom. All is wrapped in the obscurity
+natural to transactions in which individuals of rank are involved in
+the highest order of crime. It was the natural policy of the minister
+to avoid extending the charges by explaining the origin of the crime.
+The connexions of the traitors were still many and powerful; and
+further disclosures might have produced only further attempts at the
+assassination of the minister or the king.
+
+It was now determined to act with vigour against the Jesuits, who
+were distinctly charged with assisting, if not originating, the
+treason. A succession of decrees were issued, depriving them of their
+privileges and possessions; and finally, on the 5th of October 1759,
+the cardinal patriarch Saldanha issued the famous mandate, by which
+the whole society was expelled from the Portuguese dominions. Those
+in the country were transported to Civita Vecchia; those in the
+colonies were also conveyed to the Papal territory; and thus, by the
+intrepidity, wisdom, and civil courage of one man, the realm was
+relieved from the presence of the most powerful and most dangerous
+body which had ever disturbed the peace of society.
+
+Portugal having thus the honour of taking the lead, Rome herself at
+length followed; and, on the accession of the celebrated Ganganelli,
+Clement XIV., a resolution was adopted to suppress the Jesuits in
+every part of the world. On the 21st of July 1773, the memorable bull
+"Dominus ac Redemptor," was published, and the order was at an end.
+The announcement was received in Lisbon with natural rejoicing. _Te
+Deum_ was sung, and the popular triumph was unbounded and universal.
+
+We now hasten to the close of this distinguished minister's career.
+His frame, though naturally vigorous, began to feel the effects of
+his incessant labour, and an apoplectic tendency threatened to
+shorten a life so essential to the progress of Portugal; for that
+whole life was one of _temperate_ and _progressive_ reform. His first
+application was to the finances; he found the Portuguese exchequer on
+the verge of bankruptcy. A third of the taxes was embezzled in the
+collection. In 1761, his new system was adopted, by which the
+finances were restored; and every week a balance-sheet of the whole
+national expenditure was presented to the king. His next reform was
+the royal household, where all unnecessary expenses--and they were
+numerous--were abolished. Another curious reform will be longer
+remembered in Portugal. The nation had hitherto used _only_ the
+_knife_ at dinner! Pombal introduced the _fork_. He brought this
+novel addition to the table with him from England in 1745!
+
+The nobility were remarkably ignorant. Pombal formed the "College of
+Nobles" for their express education. There they were taught every
+thing suitable to their rank. The only prohibition being, "that they
+should _not converse in Latin_," the old pedantic custom of the
+monks. The nobles were directed to converse in English, French,
+Italian, or their native tongue; Pombal declaring, that the custom of
+speaking Latin was only "to teach them to barbarize."
+
+Another custom, though of a more private order, attracted the notice
+of this rational and almost universal improver. It had been adopted
+as a habit by the widows of the nobility, to spend the first years of
+their widowhood in the most miserable seclusion; they shut up their
+windows, retired to some gloomy chamber, slept on the floor, and,
+suffering all kinds of voluntary and absurd mortifications, forbade
+the approach of the world. As the custom was attended with danger to
+health, and often with death, besides its general melancholy
+influence on society, the minister publicly "enacted," that every
+part of it should be abolished; and, moreover, that the widows should
+always remove to another house; or, where this was not practicable,
+that they "should _not_ close the shutters, nor '_mourn_' for more
+than a week, nor remain at home for more than a month, nor sleep on
+the ground." Doubtless, tens of thousands thanked him, and thank him
+still, for this war against a popular, but most vexatious, absurdity.
+
+His next reform was the army. After the peace of 1763, he fixed it at
+30,000 men, whom he equipped effectually, and brought into practical
+discipline.
+
+A succession of laws, made for the promotion of European and colonial
+trade, next opened the resources of Portugal to an extent unknown
+before. Pombal next abolished the "Index Expurgitorius"--an
+extraordinary achievement, not merely beyond his age, but against the
+whole superstitious spirit of his age. He was not content with
+abolishing the restraint; he attempted to _restore_ the PRESS in
+Portugal. Hitherto nearly all Portuguese books had been printed in
+foreign counties. He established a "Royal Press," and gave its
+superintendence to Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been
+expatriated for printing works against the Jesuits. Such, in value
+and extent, were the acts which Portugal owed to this indefatigable
+and powerful mind, that when, in 1766, he suffered a paralytic
+stroke, the king and the people were alike thrown into consternation.
+
+At length Don Joseph, the king, and faithful friend of Pombal, died,
+after a reign of twenty-seven years of honour and usefulness. Pombal
+requested to resign, and the Donna Maria accepted the resignation,
+and conferred various marks of honour upon him. He now retired to his
+country-seat, where Wraxall saw him in 1772, and thus describes his
+appearance. "At this time he had attained his seventy-third year, but
+age seemed to have diminished neither the freshness nor the activity
+of his faculties. In his person he was very tall and slender, his
+face long, pale, and meagre, but full of intelligence."
+
+But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles; and the
+loss of his power as minister produced a succession of intrigues
+against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and doubtless
+also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always been at once
+so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was insulted by a
+trial, at which, however, the only sentence inflicted was an order to
+retire twenty leagues from the court. The Queen was, at that time,
+probably suffering under the first access of that derangement, which,
+in a few years after, utterly incapacitated her, and condemned the
+remainder of her life to melancholy and total solitude. But the last
+praise is not given to the great minister, while his personal
+disinterestedness is forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was
+to present to the throne a statement of his public income, when it
+appeared that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration,
+he had received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
+state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was rich;
+for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes were
+joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and estimation by
+the European courts, to the great age of eighty-three, dying on the
+5th of May without pain. A long inscription, yet in which the
+panegyric did not exceed the justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a
+single sentence might have established his claim to the perpetual
+gratitude of his country and mankind--
+
+  "Here lies the man who banished the
+  Jesuits from Portugal."
+
+Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much credit to
+his research and skill.
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART XII.
+
+
+  Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+  Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+  Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+  Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+  And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+  Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+  Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+
+SHAKSPEARE.
+
+Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom, but
+one--the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He evidently
+loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour of his
+existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief traders in
+France were already in prison; and yet he carried on the perilous
+game of commerce. He was known to be immensely opulent; and he must
+have regarded the day which passed over his head, without seeing his
+strong boxes put under the government seal, and himself thrown into
+some _oubliette_, as a sort of miracle. But he was now assailed by a
+new alarm. War with England began to be rumoured among the bearded
+brethren of the synagogue; and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from
+Peru to Japan. Like Shakspeare's princely merchant--
+
+  "His mind was tossing on the ocean,
+  There where his argosies with portly sail,
+  Like signiors, and rich burghers of the flood.
+  Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
+  Did overpower the petty traffickers,
+  As they flew by them with their woven wings."
+
+The first shot fired would inevitably pour out the whole naval force
+of England, and his argosies would put their helms about, and steer
+for Portsmouth, Plymouth, and every port but a French one. If this
+formidable intelligence had awakened the haughtiness of the French
+government to a sense of public peril, what effect must it not have
+in the counting-house of a man whose existence was trade? While I was
+on my pillow, luxuriating in dreams of French fetes, Paul and
+Virginia carried off to the clouds, and Parisian _belles_ dancing
+cotillons in the bowers and pavilions of a Mahometan paradise,
+Elnathan spent the night at his desk, surrounded by his bustling
+generation of clerks, writing to correspondents at every point of the
+compass, and preparing insurances with the great London
+establishments; which I was to carry with me, though unacquainted
+with the transaction on which so many millions of francs hung
+trembling.
+
+His morning face showed me, that whatever had been his occupation
+before I met him at the breakfast-table, it had been a most uneasy
+one. His powerful and rather handsome physiognomy had shrunk to half
+the size; his lips were livid, and his hand shook to a degree which
+made me ask, whether the news from Robespierre was unfavourable. But
+his assurance that all still went on well in that delicate quarter,
+restored my tranquility, which was beginning to give way; and my only
+stipulation now was, that I should have an hour or two to spend at
+Vincennes before I took my final departure. The Jew was all
+astonishment; his long visage elongated at the very sound; he shook
+his locks, lifted up his large hands, and fixed his wide eyes on me
+with a look of mingled alarm and wonder, which would have been
+ludicrous if it had not been perfectly sincere.
+
+"In the name of common sense, do you remember in what a country, and
+in what times, we live? Oh, those Englishmen! always thinking that
+they are in England. My young friend, you are clearly not fit for
+France, and the sooner you get out of it the better."
+
+I still remonstrated. "Do you forget yesterday?" he exclaimed. "Can
+you forget the man before whom we both stood? A moment's hesitation
+on your part to set out, would breed suspicion in that most
+suspicious brain of all mankind. Life is here as uncertain as in a
+field of battle. Begone the instant your passports arrive, and never
+behind you.--For my part, I constantly feel as if my head were in the
+lion's jaws. Rejoice in your escape."
+
+But I was still unconvinced, and explained "that my only motive was,
+to relieve my friends in the fortress from the alarm which they had
+evidently felt for my fate, and to relieve myself from the charge of
+ingratitude, which would inevitably attach to me if I left Paris
+without seeing them."
+
+Never was man more perplexed with a stubborn subject. He represented
+to me the imminent hazard of straying a hair's-breadth to the right
+or left of the orders of Robespierre! "I was actually under
+surveillance, and he was responsible for me. To leave his roof; even
+for five minutes, until I left it for my journey, might forfeit the
+lives of both before evening."
+
+I still remonstrated; and pronounced the opinion, perhaps too
+flattering a one, of the dictator, that "he could not condescend to
+forbid a mere matter of civility, which still left me entirely at his
+service." The Jew at last, in despair, rushed from the room, leaving
+me to the unpleasing consciousness that I had distressed an honest
+and even a friendly man.
+
+Two hours thus elapsed, when a _chaise de poste_ drew up at the door,
+with an officer of the police in front, and from it came Varnhorst
+and the doctor, both probably expecting a summons to the scaffold;
+but the Prussian bearing his lot with the composure of a man
+accustomed to face death, and the doctor evidently in measureless
+consternation, colourless and convulsed with fear. His rapture was
+equally unbounded when Elnathan, ushering them both into the
+apartment where I sat--
+
+  Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter
+  thought"--
+
+explained, that finding me determined on my point, he had adopted the
+old proverb--of bringing Mahomet to the mountain, if he could not
+bring the mountain to Mahomet; had procured an order for their
+attendance in Paris, through his influence with the chief of the
+police, and now hoped to have the honour of their company at dinner.
+This was, certainly, a desirable exchange for the Place de Greve; and
+we sat down to a sumptuous table, where we enjoyed ourselves with the
+zest which danger escaped gives to luxurious security.
+
+All went on well. The doctor was surprised to find in the frowning
+banker, who had repulsed him so sternly from his desk, the hospitable
+entertainer; and Varhorst's honest and manly friendship was gratified
+by the approach of my release from a scene of perpetual danger.
+
+I had some remembrances to give to my friends in Prussia; and at
+length, sending away the doctor to display his connoisseurship on
+Elnathan's costly collection of pictures, Varnhorst was left to my
+questioning. My first question naturally was, "What had involved him
+in the ill-luck of the Austrians."
+
+"The soldier's temptation every where," was the answer; "having
+nothing to do at home, and expecting something to do abroad. When the
+Prussian army once crossed the Rhine, I should have had no better
+employment than to mount guard, escort the court dowagers to the
+balls, and finish the year and my life together, by dying of _ennui_.
+In this critical moment, when I was in doubt whether I should turn
+Tartar, or monk of La Trappe, Clairfait sent to offer me the command
+of a division. I closed with it at once, went to the king, obtained
+his leave, put spurs to my horse, and reached the Austrian camp
+before the courier."
+
+I could not help expressing my envy at a profession in which all the
+honours of earth lay at the feet of a successful soldier! He smiled,
+and pointed to the police-officer, who was then sulkily pacing in
+front of the house.
+
+"You see," said he, "the first specimen of my honours. Yet, from the
+moment of my arrival within the Austrian lines, I could have
+predicted our misfortune. Clairfait was, at least, as long-sighted as
+myself; and nothing could exceed his despondency but his indignation.
+His noble heart was half broken by the narrowness of his resources
+for defending the country, and the boundless folly by which the war
+council of Vienna expected to make up for the weakness of their
+battalions by the absurdity of their plans. 'I write for regiments,'
+the gallant fellow used to say; 'and they send me regulations! I tell
+them that we have not troops enough for an advanced guard; and they
+send me the plan of a pitched battle! I tell then that the French
+have raised their army in front of me to a hundred thousand strong;
+and they promise me reinforcements next year.' After all, his chief
+perplexity arose from their orders--every despatch regularly
+contradicting the one that came before.
+
+"Something in the style," said I, "of Voltaire's caricature of the
+Austrian courier in the Turkish war, with three packs strapped on his
+shoulders, inscribed, 'Orders'--'Counter-orders'--and 'Disorders.'
+
+"Just a case in point. Voltaire would have been exactly the historian
+for our campaign. What an incomparable tale he would have made of it!
+Every thing that was done was preposterous. We were actually beaten
+before we fought; we were ruined at Vienna before a shot was fired at
+Jemappes. The Netherlands were lost, not by powder and ball, but by
+pen and ink; and the consequence of our "march to Paris" is, that one
+half of the army is now scattered from Holland to the Rhine, and the
+other half is, like myself, within French walls."
+
+I enquired how Clairfait bore his change of fortune.
+
+"Like a man superior to fortune. I never saw him exhibit higher
+ability than in his dispositions for our last battle. He has become a
+magnificent tactician. But Alexander the Great himself could not
+fight without troops: and such was our exact condition.
+
+"Dumourier, at the head of a hundred thousand men, had turned short
+from the Prussian retreat, and flung himself upon the Netherlands.
+How many troops do you think the wisdom of the Aulic Council had
+provided to protect the provinces? Scarcely more than a third of the
+number, and those scattered over a frontier of a hundred miles; in a
+country, too, where every Man spoke French, where every man was half
+Republican already, where the people had actually begun a revolution,
+and where we had scarcely a friend, a fortress in repair, or
+ammunition enough for _feu de joie_. The French, of course, burst in
+like an inundation, sweeping every thing before them. I was at dinner
+with Clairfait and his staff on the day when the intelligence
+arrived. The map was laid upon the table, and we had a kind of debate
+on the course which the Frenchman would take. That evening completed
+my opinion of him as a general. He took the clearest view among all
+our conjectures, as the event proved, so far as the enemy's movements
+were concerned; though I still retain my own idea of an original
+error in the choice of our field of battle. Before the twilight fell,
+we mounted our horses, and rode to the spot where Clairfait had
+already made up his mind to meet the French. It was certainly a
+capital position for defence--a range of heights not too high for
+guns, surmounted by a central plateau; the very position for a
+battery and a brigade; but the very worst that could be taken against
+the new enemy whom we had to oppose."
+
+"Yet, what could an army of French recruits be expected to do against
+a disciplined force so strongly posted?" was my question.
+
+"My answer to that point," said Varnhorst, "must be a quotation from
+my old master of tactics. If the purpose of a general is simply to
+defend himself, let him keep his troops on heights; if his purpose is
+simply to make an artillery fight, let him keep behind his guns; but
+if it is his purpose to beat the enemy, he must leave himself able to
+follow them--and this he can do only on a plain. In the end, after
+beating the enemy in a dozen attempts to carry our batteries, but
+without the power of striking a blow in retaliation, we saw them
+carried all at once, and were totally driven from the field."
+
+"So much for bravery and discipline against bravery and enthusiasm,"
+said I. "Yet the enemy's loss must have been tremendous. Every
+assault must have torn their columns to pieces." Even this attempt at
+reconciling him to his ill fortune failed.
+
+"Yes," was the cool reply; "but they could afford it, which was more
+than we could do. Remember the maxim, my young friend, when you shall
+come to be a general, that the only security for gaining battles is,
+to have good troops, and a good many of them.--The French recruits
+fought like recruits, without knowing whether the enemy were before
+or behind them; but they fought, and when they were beaten they
+fought again. While we were fixed on our heights, they were formed
+into column once more, and marched gallantly up to the mouth of our
+guns. Then, we had but 18,000 men to the Frenchman's 60,000. Such
+odds are too great. Whether our great king would have fought at all
+with such odds against him, may be a question; but there can be none,
+whether he would have fixed himself where he could not manoeuvre. The
+Frenchman attacked us on flanks and centre, just when and where he
+pleased; there stood we, mowing down his masses from our fourteen
+redoubts, and waiting to be attacked again. To do him justice, he
+fought stoutly; and to do us justice, we fought sturdily. But still
+we were losing men; the affair looked unpromising from the first half
+hour; and I pronounced that, if Dumourier had but perseverance
+enough, he must carry the field."
+
+I made some passing remark on the singular hazard of bringing untried
+troops against the proverbial discipline of a German army, and the
+probability that the age of the wild armies of peasantry in Europe
+would be renewed, by the evidence of its success.
+
+"Right," said Varnhorst. "The thing that struck me most was, the new
+character of the whole engagement. It was Republicanism in the field;
+a bold riot, a mob battle. Nor will it be the last of its kind. Our
+whole line was once attacked by the French demi-brigades, coming to
+the charge, with a general chorus of the _Marseillaise_ hymn. The
+effect was magnificent, as we heard it pealing over the field through
+all the roar of cannon and musketry. The attack was defeated. It was
+renewed, under a chorus in honour of their general, and 'Vive
+Dumourier' was chanted by 50,000 voices, as they advanced against our
+batteries. This charge broke in upon our position, and took five of
+our fourteen redoubts. Even Clairfait now acknowledged that all was
+lost; two-thirds of our men were _hors de combat_, and orders were
+given for a retreat. My turn now came to act, and I moved forward
+with my small brigade of cavalry--but I was not more lucky than the
+rest."
+
+I pressed to hear the particulars, but his mind was still overwhelmed
+with a sense of military calamity, always the most reluctant topic to
+a brave and honest soldier; and he simply said--"the whole was a
+_melee_. Our rear was threatened in force by a column which had
+stormed the heights under a young _brave_, whom I had observed,
+during the day, exposing himself gallantly to all the risks of the
+field. To stop the progress of the enemy on this point was essential;
+for the safety of the whole army was compromised. We charged them,
+checked them, but found the brigade involved in a force of ten times
+our number; fought our way out again with heavy loss; and after all,
+a shot, which brought my charger to the ground, left me wounded and
+bruised in the hands of the French. I was taken up insensible, was
+carried to the tent of the young commander of the column, whom I
+found to be a Duc de Chartres, the son of the late Duke of Orleans.
+His kindness to his prisoner was equal to his gallantry in the field.
+Few and hurried as our interviews were, while his army remained in
+its position he gave me the idea of a mind of great promise, and
+destined for great things, unless the chances of war should stop his
+career. But, though a Republican soldier, to my surprise he was no
+Republican. His enquiries into the state of popular opinion in
+Europe, showed at once his sagacity, and the turn which his thoughts,
+young as he was, were already taking.--But the diadem is trampled
+under foot in France for ever; and with cannon-shot in his front
+every day of his life, and the guillotine in his rear, who can answer
+for the history of any man for twenty-four hours together?"
+
+My time in Paris had now come to a close. All my enquiries for the
+fate of Lafontaine had been fruitless; and I dreaded the still more
+anxious enquiries to which I should be subjected on my arrival; but I
+had at least the intelligence to give, that I had not left him in the
+fangs of the jailers of St Lazare. I took leave of my bold and
+open-hearted Prussian friend with a regret, which I had scarcely
+expected to feel for one with whom I had been thrown into contact
+simply by the rough chances of campaigning; but I had the
+gratification of procuring for him, through the mysterious interest
+of Elnathan, an order for his transmission to Berlin in the first
+exchange of prisoners. This promise seemed to compensate all the
+services which he had rendered to me. "I shall see the Rhine again,"
+said he, "which is much more than I ever expected since the day of
+our misfortune. "I shall see the Rhine again!--and thanks to you for
+it." He pressed my hand with honest gratitude.
+
+The carriage which was to convey me to Calais was now at the door.
+Still, one thought as uppermost in his mind; it was, that I should
+give due credit to the bravery of the Austrian general and his army.
+"If I have spoken of the engagement at all," said he, "it was merely
+to put you in possession of the facts. You return to England; you
+will of course hear the battle which lost the Netherlands discussed
+in various versions. The opinion of England decides the opinion of
+Europe. Tell, then, your countrymen, in vindication of Clairfait and
+his troops, that after holding his ground for nine hours against
+three times his force, he retreated with the steadiness of a movement
+on parade, without leaving behind him a single gun, colour, or
+prisoner. Tell them, too, that he was defeated only through the
+marvellous negligence of a government which left him to fight battles
+without brigades, defend fortresses without guns, and protect
+insurgent provinces with a fugitive army."
+
+My answer was--"You may rely upon my fighting your battles over the
+London dinner-tables, as perseveringly, if not as much against odds,
+as you fought it in the field. But the fortune of war is proverbial,
+and I hope yet to pour out a libation to you as Generalissimo
+Varnsdorf, the restorer of the Austrian laurels."
+
+"Well, Marston, may you be a true prophet! But read that letter from
+Guiscard; our long-headed friend not merely crops our German laurels,
+but threatens to root up the tree." He handed me a letter from the
+Prussian philosopher: it was a curious _catalogue raisonne_ of the
+_im_probabilities of success in the general war of Europe against the
+Republic; concluding with the words, so characteristic of his solemn
+and reflective views of man and the affairs of man--
+
+"War is the original propensity of human nature, and civilization is
+the great promoter of war. The more civilized all nations become, the
+more they fight. The most civilized continent of the world has spent
+the fourth of its modern existence in war. Every man of common sense,
+of course, abhors its waste of life, of treasure, and of time. Still
+the propensity is so strong, that it continues the most prodigal
+sacrifice of them all. I think that we are entering on a period, when
+war, more than ever, will be the business of nations. I should not be
+surprised if the mania of turning nations into beggars, and the
+population into the dust of the field, should last for half a
+century; until the whole existing generation are in their graves, and
+a new generation shall take their places, astonished at the fondness
+of their fathers for bankruptcy and bloodshed." After some sharp
+censures of the unpurposed conduct of the German cabinets, he
+finished by saying--"If the French continue to fight as they have
+just fought, Jemappes will be the beginning of a new era. In the
+history of the world, every great change of human supremacy has been
+the result of a change in the principles of war; and the nation which
+has been the first to adopt that change, has led the triumph for its
+time. France has now found out a new element in war--the force of
+multitude, the charge of the masses; and she will conquer, until the
+kings of Europe follow her example, and call their nations to the
+field. Till then she will be invincible, but then her conquests will
+vanish; and the world, exhausted by carnage, will be quiet for a
+while. But the wolfish spirit of human nature will again hunger for
+prey; some new system of havoc will be discovered by some great
+genius, who ought to be cursed to the lowest depths of human memory;
+but who will be exalted to the most rapturous heights of human
+praise. Then again, when one half of the earth is turned into a field
+of battle, and the other into a cemetery, mankind will cry out for
+peace; and again, when refreshed, will rush into still more ruinous
+war:--thus all things run in a circle. But France has found out the
+secret for this age, and--_vae victis!_--the pestilence will be tame
+to the triumph of her frenzy, her rapine, and her revenge."
+
+"Exactly what I should have expected from Guiscard," was my remark;
+"he is always making bold attempts to tear up the surface of the
+time, and look into what is growing below."
+
+"Well, well," replied my honest fellow soldier, "I never perplex my
+brain with those things. I dare say your philosophers may be right;
+at least once in a hundred years. But take my word for it, that
+musket and bayonet will be useful matters still; and that discipline
+and my old master Frederick, will be as good as Dumourier and
+desperation, when we shall have brigade for brigade."
+
+The postillions cracked their whips, the little Norman horses tore
+their way over the rough pavement; the sovereign people scattered off
+on every side, to save their lives and limbs; and the plan of St
+Denis, rich with golden corn, and tracked by lines of stately trees,
+opened far and wide before me. From the first ascent I gave a
+_parting_ glance at Paris--it was mingled of rejoicing and regret.
+What hours of interest, of novelty, and of terror, had I not passed
+within the circuit of those walls! Yet, how the eye cheats
+reality!--that city of imprisonment and frantic liberty, of royal
+sorrow and of popular exultation, now looked a vast circle of calm
+and stately beauty. How delusive is distance in every thing! Across
+that plain, luxuriant with harvest, surrounded with those soft hills,
+and glittering in the purple of this glorious evening, it looked a
+paradise. I knew it--a pendemonium!
+
+I speeded on--every thing was animated and animating in my journey.
+It was the finest season of the year; the roads were good; the
+prospects--as I swept down valley and rushed round hill, with the
+insolent speed of a government _employe_, leaving all meaner
+vehicles, travellers, and the whole workday world behind--seemed to
+be to redeem the character of French landscape. But how much of its
+colouring was my own! Was _I_ not _free?_ was I not _returning to
+England?_ was I not approaching scenes, and forms, and the realities
+of those recollections, which, even in the field of battle, and at
+the foot of the scaffold, had alternately cheered and pained,
+delighted and distressed me?--yet which, even with all their
+anxieties, were dearer than the most gilded hopes of ambition. Was I
+not about to meet the gay smile and poignant vivacity of Mariamne?
+was I not about to wander in the shades of my paternal castle? to see
+those relatives who were to shape so large a share of my future
+happiness; to meet in public life the eminent public men, with whose
+renown the courts and even the camps of Europe were already ringing:
+and last, proudest, and most profound feeling of all--was I not to
+venture near the shrine on which I had placed my idol; to offer her
+the solemn and distant homage of the heart; perhaps to hear of her
+from day to day; perhaps to see her noble beauty; perhaps even to
+_hear_ that voice, of which the simplest accents sank to my
+soul.--But I must not attempt to describe sensations which are in
+their nature indescribable; which dispose the spirit of man to
+silence; and which, in their true intensity, suffer but one faculty
+to exist, absorbing all the rest in deep sleep and delicious reverie.
+
+I drove with the haste of a courier to London; and after having
+deposited my despatches with one of the under-secretaries of the
+Foreign office, I flew to Mordecai's den in the city. London appeared
+to me more crowded than ever; the streets longer, and buildings
+dingier; and the whole, seen after the smokeless and light-coloured
+towns of the Continent, looked an enormous manufactory, where men
+wore themselves out in perpetual blackness and bustle, to make their
+bread, and die. But my heart beat quickly as I reached the door of
+that dingiest of all its dwellings, where the lord of hundreds of
+thousands of pounds burrowed himself on the eyes of mankind.
+
+I knocked, but was long unanswered; at last a meagre clerk, evidently
+of the "fallen people," and who seemed dug up from the depths of the
+dungeon, gave me the intelligence that "his master and family had
+left England." The answer was like an icebolt through my frame. This
+was the moment to which I had looked forward with, I shall not say
+what emotions. I could scarcely define them; but they had a share of
+every strong, every faithful, and every touching remembrance of my
+nature. My disappointment was a pang. My head grey dizzy, I reeled;
+and asked leave to enter the gloomy door, and rest for a moment. But
+this the guardian of the den was too cautious to allow, and I should
+have probably fainted in the street, but for the appearance of an
+ancient Rebecca, the wife of the clerk, who, feeling the compassion
+which belongs to the sex in all instances, and exerting the authority
+which is so generally claimed by the better-halves of men, pushed her
+husband back, and led the way into the old cobwebbed parlour where I
+had so often been. A glass of water, the sole hospitality of the
+house, revived me; and after some enquiries alike fruitless with the
+past, I was about to take my leave, when the clerk, in his removal of
+some papers, not to be trusted within reach of a stranger, dropped a
+letter from the bundle, on which was my name. From the variety of
+addresses it had evidently travelled far, and had been returned from
+half the post-offices of the Continent. It was two months' old, but
+its news was to me most interesting. It was from Mordecai; and after
+alluding to some pecuniary transactions with his foreign brethren,
+always the first topic, he hurried on in his usual abrupt
+strain:--"Mariamne has insisted on my leaving England for a while.
+This is perplexing; as the war must produce a new loan, and London
+is, after all, the only place where those affairs can be transacted
+without trouble.--My child is well, and yet she looks pallid from
+time to time, and sheds tears when she thinks herself unobserved. All
+this may pass away, but it makes me uneasy; and, as she has evidently
+made up her mind to travel, I have only to give way--for, with all
+her caprices, she is my child, my only child, and my beloved child!
+
+"I have heard a good deal of your proceedings from my correspondent
+and kinsman in Paris. You have acquitted yourself well, and it shall
+not be unknown in the quarter where it may be of most service to
+you.--I have been stopped by Mariamne's singing in the next room, and
+her voice has almost unmanned me; she is melancholy of late, and her
+only music now is taken from those ancestral hymns which our nation
+regard as the songs of the Captivity. Her tones at this moment are
+singularly touching, and I have been forced to lay down my pen, for
+she has melted me to tears. Yet her colour has not altogether faded
+lately, and I think sometimes that her eyes look brighter than ever!
+Heaven help me, if I should lose her. I should then be alone in the
+world.
+
+"You may rely on my intelligence--a war is _inevitable_. You may also
+rely on my conjecture--that it will be the most desperate war which
+Europe has yet seen. One that will break up _foundations_, as well as
+break down superstructures; not a war of politics but of principles;
+not a war for conquest but for ruin. All the treasuries of Europe
+will be bankrupt within a twelvemonth of its commencement; unless
+England shall become their banker. This will be the harvest of the
+men of money.--It is unfortunate that your money is all lodged for
+your commission; otherwise, in the course of a few operations, you
+might make cent per cent, which I propose to do. _Apropos_ of
+commissions. I had nearly omitted, in my own family anxieties, to
+mention the object for which I began my letter. I have _failed_ in
+arranging the affair of your commission! This was not for want of
+zeal. But the prospect of a war has deranged and inflamed every
+thing. The young nobility have actually besieged the Horse-guards.
+All the weight of the aristocracy has pressed upon the minister, and
+minor influence has been driven from the field. The spirit is too
+gallant a one to be blamed;--and yet--are there not a hundred other
+pursuits, in which an intelligent and active mind, like your own,
+might follow on the way to fortune? You have seen enough of
+campaigning to know, that it is not all a flourish of trumpets. Has
+the world but one gate, and that the Horse-guards? If my personal
+judgment were to be asked, I should feel no regret for a
+disappointment which may have come only to turn your knowledge and
+ability to purposes not less suitable to an ambitious spirit, nor
+less likely to produce a powerful impression on the world--the only
+thing, after all, worth living for! You may laugh at this language
+from a man of my country and my trade. But even _I_ have my ambition;
+and you may yet discover it to be not less bold than if I carried the
+lamp of Gideon, or wielded the sword of the Maccabee.--I must stop
+again; my poor restless child is coming into the room at this moment,
+complaining of the chill, in one of the finest days of summer. She
+says that this villa has grown sunless, airless, and comfortless.
+Finding that I am writing to you, she sends her best wishes; and bids
+me ask, what is the fashionable colour for mantles in Paris, and also
+what is become of that 'wandering creature,' Lafontaine, if you
+should happen to recollect such a personage."
+
+"P.S.--My daughter insists on our setting out from Brighton
+to-morrow, and crossing the Channel the day after. She has a whim for
+revisiting Switzerland; and in the mean time begs that if, during our
+absence, _you_ should have a whim for sea air and solitude, you may
+make of the villa any use you please.--Yours sincerely,
+
+"J.V. MORDECAI."
+
+
+After reading this strange and broken letter, I was almost glad that
+I had not seen Mariamne. Lafontaine was in her heart still, in spite
+of absence. At this I did not wonder, for the heart of woman, when
+once struck, is almost incapable of change: but the suspense was
+killing her; and I had no doubt that her loss would sink even her
+strong-headed parent to the grave. Yet, what tidings had I to give?
+Whether her young soldier was shot in the attempt to escape from St
+Lazare, or thrown into some of those hideous dungeons, where so many
+thousands were dying in misery from day to day, was entirely beyond
+my power to tell. It was better that she should be roving over the
+bright hills, and breathing the fresh breezes of Switzerland, than
+listening to my hopeless conjectures at home; trying to reconcile
+herself to all the chances which passion is so painfully ingenious in
+creating, and dying, like a flower in all its beauty, on the spot
+where it had grown.
+
+But the letter contained nothing of the _one_ name, for which my
+first glance had looked over every line with breathless anxiety.
+There was not a syllable of Clotilde! The father's cares had absorbed
+all other thoughts; and the letter was to me a blank in that
+knowledge for which I panted, as the hart pants for the fountains.
+Still, I was not dead to the calls of friendship; and that night's
+mail carried a long epistle to Mordecai, detailing my escapes, and
+the services of his kindred in France; and for Mariamne's ear, all
+that I could conceive cheering in my hopes of that "wandering
+creature, Lafontaine."
+
+But I was forced to think of sterner subjects. I had arrived in
+England at a time of the most extraordinary public excitement. Every
+man felt that some great trial of England and of Europe was at hand;
+but none could distinctly define either its nature or its cause.
+France, which had then begun to pour out her furious declamations
+against this country, was, of course, generally looked to as the
+quarter from which the storm was to come; but the higher minds
+evidently contemplated hazards nearer home. Affiliated societies,
+corresponding clubs, and all the revolutionary apparatus, from whose
+crush and clamour I had so lately emerged, met the ear and the eye on
+all occasions; and the fiery ferocity of French rebellion was nearly
+rivalled by the grave insolence of English "Rights of Man." But I am
+not about to write the history of a time of national fever. The
+republicanism, which Cicero and Plutarch instil into us all at our
+schools, had been extinguished in me by the squalid realities of
+France. I had seen the dissecting-room, and was cured of my love for
+the science. My spirit, too, required rest. I could have exclaimed
+with all the sincerity, and with all the weariness too, of the
+poet:--
+
+  Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+  Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+  Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
+  Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+  Might never reach me more!"
+
+But, perhaps fortunately for my understanding, if not for my life, I
+was not suffered to take refuge in the wilderness. London was around
+me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and busy London. I
+was floating on those waves of human being, in which the struggler
+must make for the shore, or sink. I was in the centre of that huge
+whispering gallery, where every sound of earth was echoed and
+re-echoed with new power; and where it was impossible to dream. My
+days were now spent in communication with the offices of government,
+and a large portion of my nights in carrying on those
+correspondences, which, though seldom known in the routine of Downing
+Street, form the essential part of its intercourse with the
+continental cabinets. But a period of suspense still remained.
+Parliament had been already summoned for the 13th of December. Up to
+nearly the last moment, the cabinet had been kept in uncertainty as
+to the actual intents of France. There had been declamation in
+abundance in the French legislature and the journals; but with this
+unsubstantial evidence the cabinet could not meet the country.
+Couriers were sent in all directions; boats were stationed along the
+coast to bring the first intelligence of actual hostilities suddenly;
+every conceivable expedient was adopted; but all in vain. The day of
+opening the Session was within twenty-four hours. After lingering
+hour by hour, in expectancy of the arrival of despatches from our
+ambassador at the Hague, I offered to cross the sea in the first
+fishing-boat which I could find, and ascertain the facts. My offer
+was accepted; and in the twilight of a winter's morning, and in the
+midst of a snow-storm, I was making my shivering way homeward through
+the wretched lanes which, dark as pitch and narrow as footpaths, then
+led to the centre of the diplomatic world; when, in my haste, I had
+nearly overset a meagre figure, which, half-blinded by the storm, was
+tottering towards the Foreign office. After a growl, in the most
+angry jargon, the man recognized me; he was the clerk whom I had seen
+at Mordecai's house. He had, but an hour before, received, by one of
+the private couriers of the firm, a letter, with orders to deliver it
+with all expedition. He put it into my hand: it was not from
+Mordecai, but from Elnathan, and was simply in these words:--"My
+kinsman and your friend has desired me to forward to you the first
+intelligence of hostilities. I send you a copy of the bulletin which
+will be issued at noon this day. It is yet unknown; but I have it
+from a source on which you may perfectly rely. Of this make what use
+you think advantageous. Your well-wisher."
+
+With what pangs the great money-trafficker must have consigned to my
+use a piece of intelligence which must have been a mine of wealth to
+any one who carried it first to the Stock Exchange, I could easily
+conjecture. But I saw in it the powerful pressure of Mordecai, which
+none of his tribe seemed even to have the means of resisting. My
+sensations were singular enough as I traced my way up the dark and
+lumbering staircase of the Foreign office; with the consciousness
+that, if I had chosen to turn my steps in another direction, I might
+before night be master of thousands, or of hundreds of thousands. But
+it is only due to the sense of honour which had been impressed on me,
+even in the riot and roughness of my Eton days, to say, that I did
+not hesitate for a moment Sending one of the attendants to arouse the
+chief clerk, I stood waiting his arrival with the bulletin unopened
+in my hands. The official had gone to his house in the country, and
+might not return for some hours. My perplexity increased. Every
+moment might supersede the value of my priority. At length a
+twinkling light through the chinks of one of the dilapidated doors,
+told me that there was some one within, from whom I might, at least,
+ask when and how ministers were to be approached. The door was
+opened, and, to my surprise, I found that the occupant of the chamber
+was one of the most influential members of administration. My name
+and purpose were easily given; and I was received as I believe few
+are in the habit of being received by the disposers of high things in
+high places. The fire had sunk to embers, the lamp was dull, and the
+hearer was half frozen and half asleep. Yet no sooner had he cast his
+eyes upon the mysterious paper which I gave into his grasp, than all
+his faculties were in full activity.
+
+"This," said he, "is the most important paper that has reached this
+country since the taking of the Bastile. THE SCHELDT IS OPENED! This
+involves an attack on Holland; the defence of our ally is a matter of
+treaty, and we must arm without delay. The war is begun, but where it
+shall end"--he paused, and fixing his eyes above, with a solemnity of
+expression which I had not expected in the stern and hard-lined
+countenance, "or who shall live to see its close--who shall tell?"
+
+"We have been waiting," said he, "for this intelligence from week to
+week, with the fullest expectation that it would come; and yet, when
+it has come, it strikes like a thunderclap. This is the third night
+that I have sat in this hovel, at this table, unable to go to rest,
+and looking for the despatch from hour to hour.--You see, sir, that
+our life is at least not the bed of roses for which the world is so
+apt to give us credit. It is like the life of my own hills--the
+higher the sheiling stands, the more it gets of the blast."
+
+I do not give the name of this remarkable man. He was a Scot, and
+possessed of all the best characteristics of his country. I had heard
+him in Parliament, where he was the most powerful second of the most
+powerful first that England had seen. But if all men were inferior to
+the prime minister in majesty and fulness of conception, the man to
+whom I now listened had no superior in readiness of retort, in
+aptness of illustration--that mixture of sport and satire, of easy
+jest and subtle sarcasm, which forms the happiest talent for the
+miscellaneous uses of debate. If Pitt moved forward like the armed
+man of chivalry, or rather like the main body of the battle--for
+never man was more entitled to the appellation of a "host in
+himself"--never were front, flanks, and rear of the host covered by a
+more rapid, quick-witted, and indefatigable auxiliary. He was a man
+of family, and brought with him into public life, not the manners of
+a menial of office, but the bearing of a gentleman. Birth and blood
+were in his bold and manly countenance; and I could have felt no
+difficulty in conceiving him, if his course had followed his nature,
+the chieftain on his hills, at the head of his gallant retainers,
+pursuing the wild sports of his romantic region; or in some foreign
+land, gathering the laurels which the Scotch soldier has so often and
+so proudly added to the honours of the empire.
+
+He was perfectly familiar with the great question of the time, and
+saw the full bearings of my intelligence with admirable sagacity;
+pointed out the inevitable results of suffering France to take upon
+herself the arbitration of Europe, and gave new and powerful views of
+the higher relation in which England was to stand, as the general
+protectress of the Continent. "This bulletin," said he, "announces
+the fact, that a French squadron has actually sailed up the Scheldt
+to attack Antwerp. Yet it was not ten years since France protested
+against the same act by Austria, as a violation of the rights of
+Holland. The new aggression is, therefore, not simply a solitary
+violence, but a vast fraud; not merely the breach of an individual
+treaty, but a declaration that no treaty is henceforth to be held as
+binding; it is more than an act of rapine; it is an universal
+dissolution of the principles by which society is held together. In
+what times are we about to live?"
+
+My reply was--"That it depended on the spirit of England herself,
+whether the conflict was to be followed by honour or by shame; that
+she had a glorious career before her, if she had magnanimity
+sufficient to take the part marked out for her by circumstances; and
+that, with the championship of the world in her hands, even defeat
+would be a triumph."
+
+He now turned the conversation to myself; spoke with more than
+official civility of my services, and peculiarly of the immediate
+one; and asked in what branch of diplomacy I desired advancement?
+
+My answer was prompt. "In none. I desired promotion but in one
+way--the army." I then briefly stated the accidental loss of my
+original appointment, and received, before I left the chamber, a note
+for the secretary at war, recommending me, in the strongest terms,
+for a commission in the Guards.--The world was now before me, and the
+world in the most vivid, various, and dazzling shape; in the boldest
+development of grandeur, terror, and wild vicissitude, which it
+exhibited for a thousand years--ENGLAND WAS AT WAR!
+
+There is no sight on earth more singular, or more awful, than a great
+nation going to war. I saw the scene in its highest point of view, by
+seeing it in England. Its perfect freedom, its infinite, and often
+conflicting, variety of opinion--its passionate excitement, and its
+stupendous power, gave the summons to hostilities a character of
+interest, of grandeur, and of indefinite but vast purposes,
+unexampled in any other time, or in any other country. When one of
+the old monarchies commenced war, the operation, however large and
+formidable, was simple. A monarch resolved, a council sat, less to
+guide than to echo his resolution; an army marched, invaded the
+enemy's territory, fought a battle--perhaps a dubious one--rested on
+its arms; and while _Te Deum_ was sung in both capitals alike for the
+"victory" of neither, the ministers of both were constructing an
+armistice, a negotiation, and a peace--each and all to be null and
+void on the first opportunity.
+
+But the war of England was a war of the nation--a war of wrath and
+indignation--a war of the dangers of civilized society entrusted to a
+single championship--a great effort of human nature to discharge, in
+the shape of blood, a disease which was sapping the vitals of Europe;
+or in a still higher, and therefore a more faithful view, the
+gathering of a tempest, which, after sweeping France in its fury, was
+to restore the exhausted soil and blasted vegetation of monarchy
+throughout the Continent; and in whose highest, England, serene and
+undismayed, was to
+
+  "Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."
+
+I must acknowledge, that I looked upon the coming conflict with a
+strange sense of mingled alarm and rejoicing. For the latter feeling,
+perhaps I ought to make some apology; but I was young, ardent, and
+ambitious. My place in life was unfixed; standing in that unhappy
+middle position, in which stands a man of birth too high to suffer
+his adoption of the humbler means of existence, and yet of resources
+too inadequate to sustain him without action--nay, bold and
+indefatigable exertion. I, at the moment, felt a very inferior degree
+of compunction at the crisis which offered to give me at least a
+chance of being seen, known, and understood among men. I felt like a
+man whose ship was stranded, and who saw the storm lifting the surges
+that were to lift him along with them; or like the traveller in an
+earthquake, who saw the cleft in the ground swallowing up the river
+which had hitherto presented an impassable obstacle--cities and
+mountains might sink before the concussion had done its irresistible
+will, but, at all events, it had cleared his way.
+
+In thoughts like these, rash and unconnected as they were, I spent
+many a restless day, and still more restless night. I often sprang
+from a pillow which, if I had lived in the days of witchcraft, I
+should have thought spelled to refuse me sleep; and walking for
+hours, endeavoured to reduce into shape the speculations which filled
+my mind with splendours and catastrophes worthy of oriental dreams.
+Why did I not then pursue the career in which I had begun the world?
+Why not devote myself to diplomacy, in which I had hitherto received
+honour? Why not enter into Parliament, which opened all the secrets
+of power? For this I had two reasons. The first--and, let me confess,
+the most imperious--was, that my pride had been deeply hurt by the
+loss of my commission. I felt that I had not only been deprived of a
+noble profession, accidental as was the loss; but that I had
+subjected myself to the trivial, but stinging remarks, which never
+fail to find an obnoxious cause for every failure. While this cloud
+hung over me, I was determined never to return to my father's house.
+Good-natured as the friends of my family might be, I was fully aware
+of the style in which misfortune is treated in the idleness of
+country life; and the Honourable Mr Marston's loss of his rank in his
+Majesty's guards, or his preference of a more pacific promotion, was
+too tempting a topic to lose any of its stimulants by the popular
+ignorance of the true transaction. My next reason was, that my mind
+was harassed and wearied by disappointment, until I should not have
+regreted to terminate the struggle in the first field of battle. The
+only woman whom I loved, and whom, in the strange frenzy of passion,
+I solemnly believed to be the only woman on earth deserving to be so
+loved, had wholly disappeared, and was, by this time, probably
+wedded. The only woman whom I regarded as a friend, was in another
+country, probably dying. If I could have returned to Mortimer
+Castle--which I had already determined to be impossible--I should
+have found only a callous, perhaps a contemptuous, head of the
+family, angry at my return to burden him. Even Vincent--my old and
+kind-hearted friend Vincent--had been a soldier; and though I was
+sure of never receiving a reproach from his wise and gentle lips, was
+I equally sure that I could escape the flash, or the sorrow, of his
+eye?
+
+In thoughts like these, and they were dangerous ones, I made many a
+solitary rush out into the wild winds and beating snows of the
+winter, which had set in early and been remarkably severe; walking
+bareheaded in the most lonely places of the suburbs, stripping my
+bosom to the blast, and longing for its tenfold chill to assuage the
+fever which burned within me. I had also found the old delay at the
+Horse-guards. The feelings of this period make me look with infinite
+compassion on the unhappy beings who take their lives into their own
+hands, and who extinguish all their earthly anxieties at a plunge.
+But I had imbibed principles of a firmer substance, and but upon one
+occasion, and one alone, felt tempted to an act of despair.
+
+Taking my lonely dinner in a tavern of the suburbs, the waiter handed
+me a newspaper, which he had rescued for my behoof from the hands of
+a group, eager, as all the world then was, for French intelligence.
+My eye rambled into the fashionable column; and the first paragraph,
+headed "Marriage in high life," announced that, on the morrow, were
+to be solemnized the nuptials of Clotilde, Countess de Tourville,
+with the Marquis de Montrecour, colonel of the French Mousquetaires,
+&c. The paper dropped from my hands. I rushed out of the house; and,
+scarcely knowing where I went, I hurried on, until I found myself out
+of the sight or sound of mortal. The night was pitch-dark; there was
+no lamp near; the wind roared; and it was only by the flash of the
+foam that I discovered the broad sheet of water before me. I had
+strayed into Hyde Park, and was on the bank of the Serpentine. With
+what ease might I not finish all! It was another step. Life was a
+burden--thought was a torment--the light of day a loathing. But the
+paroxysm soon gave way. Impressions of the duty and the trials of
+human nature, made in earlier years, revived within me with a
+singular freshness and force. Tears gushed from my eyes, fast and
+flowing; and, with a long-forgotten prayer for patience and humility,
+I turned from the place of temptation. As I reached the streets once
+more, I heard the trumpets of the Life Guards, and the band of a
+battalion returning to their quarters. The infantry were the
+Coldstream. They had been lining the streets for the king's
+procession to open the sitting of Parliament. This was the 13th of
+December--the memorable day to which every heart in Europe was more
+or less vibrating; yet which I had totally forgotten. What is man but
+an electrical machine after all? The sound and sight of soldiership
+restored me to the full vividness of my nature. The machine required
+only to be touched, to shoot out its latent sparks; and with a new
+spirit and a new determination kindling through every fibre, I
+hastened to be present at that debate which was to be the judgment of
+nations.
+
+My official intercourse with ministers had given me some privileges,
+and I obtained a seat under the gallery--that part of the House of
+Commons which is occasionally allotted to strangers of a certain
+rank. The House was crowded, and every countenance was pictured with
+interest and solemn anxiety. Grey, Sheridan, and other distinguished
+names of party, had already taken their seats; but the great heads of
+Government and Opposition were still absent. At length a buzz among
+the crowd who filled the floor,--and the name of Fox repeated in
+every tone of congratulation, announced the pre-eminent orator of
+England. I now saw Fox for the first time; and I was instantly struck
+with the incomparable similitude of all that I saw of him to all that
+I had conceived from his character and his style. In the broad bold
+forehead, the strong sense--in the relaxed mouth, the self-indulgent
+and reckless enjoyment--in the quick, small eye under those
+magnificent black brows, the man of sagacity, of sarcasm, and of
+humour; and in the grand contour of a countenance and head, which
+might have been sculptured to take its place among the sages and
+sovereigns of antiquity, the living proof of those extraordinary
+powers, which could have been checked in their ascent to the highest
+elevation of public life, only by prejudices and passions not less
+extraordinary. As he advanced up the House, he recognized every one
+on both sides, and spoke or smiled to nearly all. He stopped once or
+twice in his way, and was surrounded by a circle with whom, as I
+could judge from their laughter, he exchanged some pleasantry of the
+hour. When at length he arrived at the seat which had been reserved
+for him, he threw himself upon it with the easy look of comfort of a
+man who had reached home--gave nod to Windham, held out a finger to
+Grey, warmly shook hands with Sheridan; and then, opening his
+well-known blue and buff costume, threw himself back into the bench,
+and laughingly gasped for air.
+
+But another movement of the crowd at the bar announced another
+arrival, and Pitt entered the House. His look and movement were
+equally characteristic with those of his great rival. He looked to
+neither the right nor the left; replied to the salutations of his
+friends by the slightest possible bow; neither spoke nor smiled; but,
+slowly advancing, took his seat in total silence. The Speaker,
+hitherto occupied with some routine business, now read the King's
+speech, and, calling on "Mr Pitt," the minister rose. I have for that
+rising but one description--the one which filled my memory at the
+moment, from the noblest poet of the world.
+
+          "Deep on his front engraven,
+  Deliberation sat, and public care.
+                  Sage he stood,
+  With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
+  The weight of mightiest monarchies. His look
+  Drew audience and attention, still as night,
+  Or summer's noontide air."
+
+
+
+
+THE WEEK OF AN EMPEROR
+
+
+The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that ever
+occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a metropolis of two
+millions of souls, the head of an empire of two hundred millions. The
+recollection runs us out of breath. Every hour was a new summons to a
+new _fete_, a new fantasy, or a new exhibition of the handsomest man
+of the forty-two millions of Russia proper. The toilettes of the
+whole _beau monde_ were in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and
+from dewy eve to waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by
+which the world was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a _dejeuner a
+la fourchette_, by which it was surprised into _dining_ at three,
+(_more majorum;_) an opera, by which those whose hour for going out
+is eleven, were forced into their carriages at nine; a concert at
+Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper at Buckingham
+palace;--all were among those brilliant perversions of the habits of
+high life which make the week one brilliant tumult; but which never
+could have been revolutionized but by an emperor in the flower of his
+age. Wherever he moved, he was followed by a host of the fair and
+fashionable. The showy equipages of the nobility were in perpetual
+motion. The parks were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The
+streets were a levy _en masse_ of the peerage. The opera-house was a
+gilded "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
+scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of either,
+gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope; and
+shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into houses
+which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of princes, had
+the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House was in a state of
+siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards, cavalcades, musterings
+of the multitude, and thundering of brass bands, seemed to be the
+focus of a national revolution. But it was within the palace that the
+grand display existed. The gilt candelabra, the gold plate, the maids
+of honour, all fresh as tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all
+Junos and Minervas, all jewelled, and none under forty-five,
+enraptured the mortal eye, to a degree unrivalled in the
+recollections of the oldest courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of
+queenly hospitality.
+
+But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet said,
+
+  "Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,
+  That longs to launch into a nobler strain."
+
+We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.
+
+During this week, but one question was asked by the universal world
+of St James's--"What was the cause of the Czar's coming?"
+
+Every one answered in his own style. The tourists--a race who cannot
+live without rambling through the same continental roads, which they
+libel for their roughness every year; the same hotels, which they
+libel for their discomforts; and the same _table-d'hotes_, which they
+libel as the perfection of bad cookery, and barefaced
+_chicane_--pronounced that the love of travel was the imperial
+impulse. The politicians of the clubs--who, having nothing to do for
+themselves, manage the affairs of all nations, and can discover high
+treason in the manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
+waltz--were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to construct an
+European league against the marriage of little Queen Isabella, or to
+beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities of Morocco. With the
+fashionable world, the decision was, that he had come to see Ascot
+races, and the Duke of Devonshire's gardens, before the sun withered,
+or St Swithin washed them away. The John Bull world--as wise at least
+as any of their betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide
+the happiest period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill
+the finest spot in creation--were convinced that his Majesty's visit
+was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
+escape from the troubles of royalty and the heaviness of home, and
+take a week's ramble among the oddities of England. "Who shall
+decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps the nearest way
+of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons together, and try
+how far they may be made to agree. What can be more probable than
+that the fineness of the finest season within memory, the occurrence
+of a moment of leisure in the life of a monarch ruling a fifth of the
+habitable globe, roused the curiosity of an intelligent mind,
+excited, like that of his great ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the
+national improvements of the great country of engineering,
+shipbuilding, and tunnelling; perhaps with Ascot races--the most
+showy exhibition of the most beautiful horses in the world--to wind
+up the display, might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active
+spirit, to gallop across Europe, and give seven brief days to
+England!
+
+An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers presumed to
+be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid journey has had
+for its distinct purpose the expression of the Imperial scorn for the
+miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of the pamphlet on the French
+navy; which has excited so much contempt in England, and so much
+boasting in France, and so much surprise and ridicule every where
+else in Europe. Nothing could be more in consonance with a manly
+character, than to show how little it shared the conceptions of a
+coxcomb; and no more direct mode could be adopted than the visit, to
+prove his willingness to be on the best terms with her government and
+her people. We readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses
+a higher character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an
+advanced spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
+pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
+capable of being conferred by kings.
+
+The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St Petersburg, as
+his stops on the road were only momentary. He reached Berlin from his
+capital with courier's speed, in four days and six hours, on Sunday
+fortnight last. His arrival was so unexpected, that the Russian
+ambassador in Prussia was taken by surprise. He travelled through
+Germany incognito, and on Thursday night, the 30th, arrived at the
+Hague. Next day, at two o'clock, he embarked at Rotterdam for
+England. Here, two steamers had been prepared for his embarkation.
+The steamers anchored for the night at Helvoetsluys. At three in the
+following morning, they continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich
+at ten. The Russian ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared
+to receive him; but on his intimating his particular wish to land in
+private, the customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after
+ten, the Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume,
+covered with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
+minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff, and
+drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was given to
+rest after his fatigue.
+
+On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
+Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
+cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the Emperor
+should remove to the apartments which were provided for him in the
+palace--an offer which was politely declined. At eleven, the Emperor
+attended divine service at the chapel of the Russian embassy in
+Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince Albert arrived to conduct
+him to the palace. He wore a scarlet uniform, with the riband and
+badge of the Garter. The Queen received the Emperor in the grand
+hall. A _dejeuner_ was soon afterwards served. The remainder of the
+day was spent in visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family.
+One visit of peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley
+House, to visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the
+hall, and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
+meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed much
+and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented him highly
+on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of his mansion.
+But even emperors are but men, and the Czar, fatigued with his round
+of driving, on his return to the embassy fell asleep, and slumbered
+till dinner-time, though his Royal Highness of Cambridge and the
+Monarch of Saxony called to visit him. At a quarter to eight o'clock,
+three of the royal carriages arrived, for the purpose of conveying
+the Emperor and his suite to Buckingham palace.
+
+On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove to
+Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for an hour,
+and is _said_ to have purchased L.5000 worth of jewellery. He then
+drove to the Zoological gardens and the Regent's park. In the course
+of the drive, he visited Sir Robert Peel, and the families of some of
+our ambassadors in Russia. At three o'clock, he gave a _dejeuner_ to
+the Duke of Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia.
+Dover Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
+to put down their names in the visiting-book.
+
+At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to escort
+him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his observing its
+arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour, for the purpose
+of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had arrived, and the
+Emperor and his suite drove off through streets crowded with
+horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the Emperor examined
+the electrical telegraph, and, entering the saloon carriage, the
+train set off, and arrived at Slough, a distance of nearly twenty
+miles, in the astonishingly brief time of twenty-five minutes.
+
+At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and conveyed to
+the castle.
+
+The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall hung with
+portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of Europe, to
+paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been sent on a special
+mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir Thomas's conception of
+form and likeness was admirable, but his colouring was cold and thin.
+His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a melancholy contrast with the depth and
+richness of the adjoining "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are
+complete. The banquet was royally splendid. The table was covered
+with gold plate and chased ornaments of remarkable beauty--the whole
+lighted by rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief noblemen of
+the household, were present at the entertainment.
+
+
+TUESDAY.
+
+This was the day of Ascot races. The road from Windsor to the course
+passes through a couple of miles of the rich quiet scenery which
+peculiarly belongs to England. The course itself is a file open
+plain, commanding an extensive view. Some rumours, doubting the visit
+of the royal party, excited a double interest in the first sight of
+the cavalcade, preceded by the royal yeomen, galloping up to the
+stand. They were received with shouts. The Emperor, the King of
+Saxony, and Prince Albert, were in the leading carriage. They were
+attired simply as private gentlemen, in blue frock-coats. The Duke of
+Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and the household, followed in the royal
+carriages. The view of the Stand at this period was striking, and the
+royal and noble personages were repeatedly cheered. An announcement
+was conveyed to the people, that the Emperor had determined to give
+L.500 a-year to the course. The Czarewitch had already given L.200 at
+Newmarket. The announcement was received with renewed cheering. All
+kings are fond of horses; and the monarch of the most numerous and
+active cavalry in the world, may be allowed to be a connoisseur in
+their strength, swiftness, and perseverance, by a superior right. The
+Emperor can call out 80,000 Cossacks at a sound of his trumpet. He
+exhibited an evident interest in the races. The horses were saddled
+before the race in front of the grand stand, and brought up to it
+after the race, for the purpose of weighing the jockeys. He had a
+full opportunity of inspection; but not content with this, when the
+winner of the gold vase, the mare Alice Hawthorn, was brought up to
+the stand, he descended, and examined this beautiful animal with the
+closeness and critical eye of a judge.
+
+On Wednesday, the pageant in which emperors most delight was
+exhibited--a review of the royal guards. There are so few troops in
+England, as the Prince de Joinville has "the happiness" to observe,
+that a review on the continental scale of tens of thousands, is out
+of the question. Yet, to the eye which can discern the excellence of
+soldiership, and the completeness of soldierly equipment, the few in
+line before the Emperor on this day, were enough to gratify the
+intelligent eye which this active monarch turns upon every thing. The
+infantry were--the second battalion of the grenadier guards, the
+second battalion of the Coldstream guards, the second battalion of
+the fusilier guards, and the forty-seventh regiment. The cavalry
+were--two troops of the royal horse guards, (blue,) the first
+regiment of the life guards, and the seventeenth lancers. The
+artillery were--detachments of the royal horse artillery, and the
+field artillery.
+
+A vast multitude from London by the trains, and from the adjoining
+country, formed a line parallel to the troops; and nothing could
+exceed the universal animation and cheering when the Emperor, the
+King of Saxony, and the numerous and glittering staff, entered the
+field, and came down the line.
+
+After the usual salutes, and marching past the centre, where the
+royal carriages had taken their stand, the evolutions began. They
+were few and simple, but of that order which is most effective in the
+field. The formation of the line from the sections; the general
+advance of the line; the halt, and a running fire along the whole
+front; the breaking up of the line into squares; the squares firing,
+then deploying into line, and marching to the rear. The Queen, with
+the royal children, left the ground before the firing began, The
+review was over at half-past two. The appearance of the troops was
+admirable; the manoeuvres were completely successful; and the
+fineness of the day gave all the advantages of sun and landscape to
+this most brilliant spectacle.
+
+But the most characteristic portion of the display consisted in the
+commanding-officers who attended, to give this unusual mark of
+respect to the Emperor.
+
+Wellington, the "conqueror of a hundred fights," rode at the head of
+the grenadier guards, as their colonel Lord Combermere, general of
+the cavalry in the Peninsula, rode at the head of his regiment, the
+first life guards. The Marquis of Anglesey, general of the cavalry at
+Waterloo, rode at the head of his regiment, the royal horse guards.
+Sir George Murray, quartermaster-general in the Peninsula, rode at
+the head of the artillery, as master-general of the ordnance. His
+royal highness the Duke of Cambridge rode at the head of his
+regiment, the Coldstream. His royal highness Prince Albert rode at
+the head of his regiment, the Scotch fusiliers. General Sir William
+Anson rode at the head of his regiment, the forty-seventh.
+Lieutenant-Colonel Quentin rode at the head of the seventeenth
+lancers, the colonel of the regiment, Prince George of Cambridge,
+being in the Ionian Islands. Thus, three field-marshals, and four
+generals, passed in review before the illustrious guests of her
+Majesty. The Emperor expressed himself highly gratified; as every eye
+accustomed to troops must have been, by the admirable precision of
+the movements, and the fine appearance of the men. A striking
+instance of the value of railways for military operations, was
+connected with this review. The forty-seventh regiment, quartered in
+Gosport, was brought to Windsor in the morning, and sent back in the
+evening of the review day; the journey, altogether, was about 140
+miles! Such are the miracles of machinery in our days. This was
+certainly an extraordinary performance, when we recollect that it was
+the conveyance of about 700 men; and shows what might be done in case
+of any demand for the actual services of the troops. But even this
+exploit will be eclipsed within a few days, by the opening of the
+direct line from London to Newcastle, which will convey troops, or
+any thing, 300 miles in twelve hours. The next step will be to reach
+Edinburgh in a day!
+
+The Emperor was observed to pay marked attention to the troops of the
+line, the forty-seventh and the lancers; observing, as it is said,
+"your household troops are noble fellows; but what I wished
+particularly to see, were the troops with which you gained your
+victories in India and China." A speech of this kind was worthy of
+the sagacity of a man who knew where the true strength of a national
+army lies, and who probably, besides, has often had his glance turned
+to the dashing services of our soldiery in Asia. The household troops
+of every nation are select men, and the most showy which the country
+can supply. Thus they are nearly of equal excellence. The infantry of
+ours, it is true, have been always "fighting regiments"--the first in
+every expedition, and distinguished for the gallantry of their
+conduct in every field. The cavalry, though seldomer sent on foreign
+service, exhibited pre-eminent bravery in the Peninsula, and their
+charges at Waterloo were irresistible. But it is of the marching
+regiments that the actual "army" consists, and their character forms
+the character of the national arms.
+
+In the evening the Emperor and the King of Saxony dined with her
+Majesty at Windsor.
+
+
+THURSDAY.
+
+The royal party again drove to the Ascot course, and were received
+with the usual acclamations. The Emperor and King were in plain
+clothes, without decorations of any kind; Prince Albert wore the
+Windsor uniform. The cheers were loud for Wellington.
+
+The gold cup, value three hundred guineas, was the principal prize.
+Eight horses ran, and the cup was won by a colt of Lord Albemarle's.
+His lordship is lucky, at least on the turf. He won the cup at Ascot
+last year.
+
+
+FRIDAY.
+
+The royal party came to London by the railway. The Emperor spent the
+chief part of the day in paying visits, in the Russian ambassador's
+private carriage, to his personal friends--chiefly the families of
+those noblemen who had been ambassadors to Russia.
+
+
+SATURDAY.
+
+The Emperor, the King, and Prince Albert, went to the Duke of
+Devonshire's _dejeuner_ at Chiswick. The Duke's mansion and gardens
+are proverbial as evidences of his taste, magnificence, and princely
+expenditure. All the nobility in London at this period were present.
+The royal party were received with distinguished attention by the
+noble host, and his hospitality was exhibited in a style worthy of
+his guests and himself. While the suite of _salons_ were thrown open
+for the general company, the royal party were received in a _salon_
+which had been decorated as a Turkish tent. Bands of the guards
+played in the gardens, a quadille band played in the ball-room, and
+the fineness of the weather gave the last charm to a _fete_ prepared
+with equal elegance and splendour. We doubt whether Europe can
+exhibit any open air festivity that can compete with a _dejeuner_ at
+Chiswick. The gardens of some of the continental palaces are larger,
+but they want the finish of the English garden. Their statues and
+decorations are sometimes fine; but they want the perfect and
+exquisite neatness which gives an especial charm to English
+horticulture. The verdure of the lawns, the richness and variety of
+the flowers, and the general taste displayed, in even the most minute
+and least ornamental features, render the English garden wholly
+superior, in fitness and in beauty, to the gardens of the continental
+sovereigns and nobility.
+
+In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian opera.
+The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is said that,
+in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box. But whether this
+may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would have been well worth
+paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in the pit. After all, the
+majority of the spectators were disappointed in their principal
+object, the view of the royal party. They all sat far back in the
+box, and thus, to three-fourths of the house, were completely
+invisible. In this privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and
+which it would have been so much wiser to have avoided, the audience
+were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be sung.
+At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it. A general
+response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose, and God save
+the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus broken, it was
+followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm, rich, and bold
+composition. The Emperor was said to have shed tears at the
+unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought back the
+recollection of his country at so vast a distance from home. But if
+these anthems had not been thus accidentally performed, the royal
+party would have lost a much finer display than any thing which they
+could have seen on the stage--the rising of the whole audience in the
+boxes--all the fashionable world in _gala_, in its youth, beauty, and
+ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the stage.
+
+
+SUNDAY.
+
+On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of the
+Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked at
+Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded for
+the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down the river
+under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich; the day was
+serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel as smooth as it
+was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of the sailor with as
+much ease as he had done into those of the soldier. He conversed
+good-humouredly with the officers and men, admired the discipline and
+appearance of the marines, who had been sent as his escort, was
+peculiarly obliging to Lord Hardwicke and Lieutenant Peel, (a son of
+the premier,) and ordered his dinner on deck, that he might enjoy the
+scenery on the banks of the Thames. The medals of some of the marines
+who had served in Syria, attracted his attention, and he enquired
+into the nature of their services. He next expressed a wish to see
+the manual exercise performed, which of course was done; and his
+majesty, taking a musket, went through the Russian manual exercise.
+On his arrival on the Dutch coast, the King of Holland came out to
+meet him in a steamer; and on his landing, the British crew parted
+with him with three cheers. The Imperial munificence was large to a
+degree which we regret; for it would be much more gratifying to the
+national feelings to receive those distinguished strangers, without
+suffering the cravers for subscriptions to intrude themselves into
+their presence.
+
+On the Emperor's landing in Holland, he reviewed a large body of
+Dutch troops, and had intended to proceed up the Rhine, and enjoy the
+landscape of its lovely shores at his leisure. But for him there is
+no leisure; and his project was broken up by the anxious intelligence
+of the illness of one of his daughters by a premature confinement. He
+immediately changed his route, and set off at full speed for St
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI., by Various
+
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