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diff --git a/13719-0.txt b/13719-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..452eb82 --- /dev/null +++ b/13719-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9430 @@ +*** 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 *** |