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diff --git a/16028-8.txt b/16028-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48b1636 --- /dev/null +++ b/16028-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8900 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, +November, 1863, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: June 9, 2005 [EBook #16028] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 12 *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. XII.--NOVEMBER, 1863.--NO. LXXIII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + +THE SPANIARD AND THE HERETIC. + +[In the August number of the "Atlantic," under the title of "The +Fleur-de-Lis in Florida," will be found a narrative of the Huguenot +attempts to occupy that country, which, exciting the jealousy of Spain, +gave rise to the crusade whose history is recorded below.] + + +The monk, the inquisitor, the Jesuit, these were the lords of +Spain,--sovereigns of her sovereign, for they had formed and fed the +dark and narrow mind of that tyrannical recluse. They had formed and fed +the minds of her people, quenched in blood every spark of rising heresy, +and given over a noble nation to bigotry, dark, blind, inexorable as the +doom of fate. Linked with pride, ambition, avarice, every passion of a +rich, strong nature, potent for good and ill, it made the Spaniard of +that day a scourge as dire as ever fell on man. + +Day was breaking on the world. Light, hope, freedom, pierced with +vitalizing ray the clouds and the miasma that hung so thick over the +prostrate Middle Age, once noble and mighty, now a foul image of decay +and death. Kindled with new life, the nations teemed with a progeny of +heroes, and the stormy glories of the sixteenth century rose on awakened +Europe. But Spain was the citadel of darkness,--a monastic cell, an +inquisitorial dungeon, where no ray could pierce. She was the bulwark of +the Church, against whose adamantine front the wrath of innovation beat +in vain. In every country of Europe the party of freedom and reform was +the national party, the party of reaction and absolutism was the Spanish +party, leaning on Spain, looking to her for help. Above all, it was so +in France; and while within her bounds there was a semblance of peace, +the national and religious rage burst forth on a wilder theatre. Thither +it is for us to follow it, where, on the shores of Florida, the Spaniard +and the Frenchman, the bigot and the Huguenot, met in the grapple of +death. + +In a corridor of the Escurial, Philip II. was met by a man who had long +stood waiting his approach, and who with proud reverence placed a +petition in the hand of the pale and sombre King. The petitioner was +Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the ablest and most distinguished +officers of the Spanish marine. He was born of an ancient Asturian +family. His boyhood had been wayward, ungovernable, and fierce. He ran +off at eight years of age, and when, after a search of six months, he +was found and brought back, he ran off again. This time he was more +successful, escaping on board a fleet bound against the Barbary +corsairs, when his precocious appetite for blood and blows had +reasonable contentment. A few years later, he found means to build a +small vessel in which he cruised against the corsairs and the French, +and, though still little more than a boy, displayed a singular address +and daring. The wonders of the New World now seized his imagination. He +made a voyage thither, and the ships under his charge came back +freighted with wealth. War with France was then at its height. As +captain-general of the fleet, he was sent with troops to Flanders, and +to their prompt arrival was due, it is said, the victory of St. Quentin, +Two years later, he commanded the luckless armada which bore back Philip +to his native shore, and nearly drowned him in a storm off the port of +Laredo. This mischance, or his own violence and insubordination, wrought +to the prejudice of Menendez. He complained that his services were ill +repaid. Philip lent him a favoring ear, and despatched him to the Indies +as general of the fleet and army. Here he found means to amass vast +riches; and, in 1561, returning to Spain, charges were brought against +him of a nature which his too friendly biographer does not explain. The +Council of the Indies arrested him. He was imprisoned and sentenced to a +heavy fine, but, gaining his release, hastened to Madrid to throw +himself on the royal clemency. + +His petition was most graciously received. Philip restored his command, +but remitted only half his fine, a strong presumption of his guilt. + +Menendez kissed the royal hand; he had still a petition in reserve. His +son had been wrecked near the Bermudas, and he would fain go thither to +find tidings of his fate. The pious King bade him trust in God, and +promised that he should be despatched without delay to the Bermudas and +to Florida with a commission to make an exact survey of those perilous +seas for the profit of future voyagers; but Menendez was ill content +with such an errand. He knew, he said, nothing of greater moment to His +Majesty than the conquest and settlement of Florida. The climate was +healthful, the soil fertile; and, worldly advantages aside, it was +peopled by a race sunk in the thickest shades of infidelity. "Such +grief," he pursued, "seizes me, when I behold this multitude of wretched +Indians, that I should choose the conquest and settling of Florida above +all commands, offices, and dignities which your Majesty might bestow." +Those who think this hypocrisy do not know the Spaniard of the sixteenth +century. + +The King was edified by his zeal. An enterprise of such spiritual and +temporal promise was not to be slighted, and Menendez was empowered to +conquer and convert Florida at his own cost. The conquest was to be +effected within three years. Menendez was to take with him five hundred +men, and supply them with five hundred slaves, besides horses, cattle, +sheep, and hogs. Villages were to be built, with forts to defend them; +and sixteen ecclesiastics, of whom four should be Jesuits, were to form +the nucleus of a Floridian church. The King, on his part, granted +Menendez free trade with Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, the +office of Adelantado of Florida for life, joined to the right of naming +his successor, and large emoluments to be drawn from the expected +conquest. + +The compact struck, Menendez hastened to his native Asturias to raise +money among his relatives. Scarcely was he gone, when tidings for the +first time reached Madrid that Florida was already occupied by a colony +of French Protestants, and that a reinforcement, under Ribaut, was on +the point of sailing thither. A French historian of high authority +declares that these advices came from the Catholic party at the French +court, in whom all sense of the national interest and honor was +smothered under their hatred of Coligny and the Huguenots. Of this there +can be little doubt, though information also came from the buccaneer +Frenchmen captured in the West Indies. + +Foreigners had invaded the territory of Spain. The trespassers, too, +were heretics, foes of God and liegemen of the Devil. Their doom was +fixed. But how would France endure an assault, in time of peace, on +subjects who had gone forth on an enterprise sanctioned by the crown, +undertaken in its name, and under its commission? + +The throne of France, where the corruption of the nation seemed gathered +to a head, was trembling between the two parties of the Catholics and +the Huguenots, whose chiefs aimed at royalty. Flattering both, caressing +both, betraying both, playing one against the other, Catherine de +Médicis, by a thousand crafty arts and expedients of the moment, sought +to retain the crown on the heads of her weak and vicious sons. Of late +her crooked policy had drawn her towards the Catholic party, in other +words, the party of Spain; and already she had given ear to the savage +Duke of Alva, urging her to the course which, seven years later, led to +the carnage of St. Bartholomew. In short, the Spanish policy was +ascendant, and no thought of the national interest or honor could +restrain that basest of courts from consigning by hundreds to the +national enemy those whom, itself, it was meditating to immolate by +thousands. + +Menendez was summoned back in haste to the court. There was counsel, +deep and ominous, in the chambers of the Escurial. His force must be +strengthened. Three hundred and ninety-four men were added at the royal +charge, and a corresponding number of transport and supply ships. It was +a holy war, a crusade, and as such was preached by priest and monk along +the western coasts of Spain. All the Biscayan ports flamed with zeal, +and adventurers crowded to enroll themselves; since to plunder heretics +is good for the soul as well as the purse, and broil and massacre have +double attraction, when promoted to a means of salvation: a fervor, deep +and hot, but not of celestial kindling; nor yet that buoyant and +inspiring zeal, which, when the Middle Age was in its youth and prime, +glowed in the soul of Tancred, Godfrey, and St. Louis, and which, when +its day was long since past, could still find its home in the great +heart of Columbus. A darker spirit urged the new crusade,--born, not of +hope, but of fear, slavish in its nature, the creature and the tool of +despotism. For the typical Spaniard of the sixteenth century was not in +strictness a fanatic; he was bigotry incarnate. + +Heresy was a plague-spot, an ulcer to be eradicated with fire and the +knife, and this foul abomination was infecting the shores which the +Vicegerent of Christ had given to the King of Spain, and which the Most +Catholic King had given to the Adelantado. Thus would countless heathen +tribes be doomed to an eternity of flame, shut out from that saving +communion with Holy Church, to which, by the sword and the whip and the +fagot, dungeons and slavery, they would otherwise have been mercifully +driven, to the salvation of their souls, and the greater glory of God. +And, for the Adelantado himself, should the vast outlays, the vast +debts, of his bold Floridian venture be all in vain? Should his fortunes +be wrecked past redemption through these tools of Satan? As a Catholic, +as a Spaniard, as an adventurer, his course was clear. Woe, then, to the +Huguenot in the gripe of Pedro Menendez! + +But what was the scope of this enterprise, and the limits of the +Adelantado's authority? He was invested with power almost absolute, not +merely over the peninsula which now retains the name of Florida, but +over all North America, from Labrador to Mexico,--for this was the +Florida of the old Spanish geographers, and the Florida designated in +the commission of Menendez. It was a continent which he was to conquer +and occupy out of his own purse. The impoverished King contracted with +his daring and ambitious subject to win and hold for him the territory +of the future United States and British Provinces. His plan, as +subsequently developed and exposed at length in his unpublished letters +to Philip II., was, first, to plant a garrison at Port Royal, and next +to fortify strongly on Chesapeake Bay, called by him St. Mary's. He +believed that this bay was an arm of the sea, running northward and +eastward, and communicating with the Gulf of St. Lawrence, thus making +New England, with adjacent districts, an island. His proposed fort on +the Chesapeake, giving access, by this imaginary passage, to the seas of +Newfoundland, would enable the Spaniards to command the fisheries, on +which both the French and the English had long encroached, to the great +prejudice of Spanish rights. Doubtless, too, these inland waters gave +access to the South Sea, and their occupation was necessary to prevent +the French from penetrating thither; for that ambitious people, since +the time of Cartier, had never abandoned their schemes of seizing this +portion of the dominions of the King of Spain. Five hundred soldiers and +one hundred sailors must, he urges, take possession, without delay, of +Port Royal and the Chesapeake. + +Preparation for his enterprise was pushed with a furious energy. His +force amounted to two thousand six hundred and forty-six persons, in +thirty-four vessels, one of which, the San Pelayo, bearing Menendez +himself, was of more than nine hundred tons' burden, and is described as +one of the finest ships afloat. There were twelve Franciscans and eight +Jesuits, besides other ecclesiastics; and many knights of Galicia, +Biscay, and the Asturias bore part in the expedition. With a slight +exception, the whole was at the Adelantado's charge. Within the first +fourteen months, according to his admirer, Barcia, the adventure cost +him a million ducats. + +Before the close of the year, Sancho de Arciniega was commissioned to +join Menendez with an additional force of fifteen hundred men. + +Red-hot with a determined purpose, he would brook no delay. To him, says +the chronicler, every day seemed a year. He was eager to anticipate +Ribaut, of whose designs and whose force he seems to have been informed +to the minutest particular, but whom he hoped to thwart and ruin by +gaining Fort Caroline before him. With eleven ships, then, he sailed +from Cadiz on the 29th of June, 1565, leaving the smaller vessels of his +fleet to follow with what speed they might. He touched first at the +Canaries, and on the eighth of July left them, steering for Dominica. A +minute account of the voyage has come down to us from the pen of +Mendoza, chaplain of the expedition, a somewhat dull and illiterate +person, who busily jots down the incidents of each passing day, and is +constantly betraying, with a certain awkward simplicity, how the cares +of this world and the next jostle each other in his thoughts. + +On Friday, the twentieth of July, a storm fell upon them with appalling +fury. The pilots lost head, the sailors gave themselves up to their +terrors. Throughout the night, they beset Mendoza for confession and +absolution, a boon not easily granted, for the seas swept the crowded +decks in cataracts of foam, and the shriekings of the gale in the +rigging drowned the exhortations of the half-drowned priest. Cannon, +cables, spars, water-casks, were thrown overboard, and the chests of the +sailors would have followed, had not the latter, despite their fright, +raised such a howl of remonstrance that the order was revoked. At length +day dawned. At least there was light to die by. Plunging, reeling, half +submerged, quivering under the crashing shock of the seas, whose +mountain ridges rolled down upon her before the gale, the ship lay in +deadly jeopardy from Friday till Monday noon. Then the storm abated; the +sun broke forth; and again she held her course. + +They reached Dominica on Sunday, the fifth of August. The chaplain +tells us how he went on shore to refresh himself,--how, while his +Italian servant washed his linen at a brook, he strolled along the beach +and picked up shells,--and how he was scared, first, by a prodigious +turtle, and next by a vision of the cannibal natives, which caused his +prompt retreat to the boats. + +On the tenth, they anchored in the harbor of Porto Rico, where they +found two of their companion-ships, from which they had parted in the +storm. One of them was the San Pelayo, with Menendez on board. Mendoza +informs us that in the evening the officers came on board his ship, when +he, the chaplain, regaled them with sweetmeats, and that Menendez +invited him not only to supper that night, but to dinner the next day, +"for the which I thanked him, as reason was," says the gratified +churchman. + +Here thirty men deserted, and three priests also ran off, of which +Mendoza bitterly complains, as increasing his own work. The motives of +the clerical truants may perhaps be inferred from a worldly temptation +to which the chaplain himself was subjected. "I was offered the service +of a chapel where I should have got a _peso_ for every mass I said, the +whole year round; but I did not accept it, for fear that what I hear +said of the other three would be said of me. Besides, it is not a place +where one can hope for any great advancement, and I wished to try +whether, in refusing a benefice for the love of the Lord, He will not +repay me with some other stroke of fortune before the end of the voyage; +for it is my aim to serve God and His blessed Mother." + +The original design had been to rendezvous at Havana, but, with the +Adelantado, the advantages of despatch outweighed every other +consideration. He resolved to push directly for Florida. Five of his +scattered ships had by this time rejoined company, comprising, exclusive +of officers, a force of about five hundred soldiers, two hundred +sailors, and one hundred colonists. Bearing northward, he advanced by an +unknown and dangerous course along the coast of Hayti and through the +intricate passes of the Bahamas. On the night of the twenty-sixth, the +San Pelayo struck three times on the shoals; "but," says the chaplain, +"inasmuch as our enterprise was undertaken for the sake of Christ and +His blessed Mother, two heavy seas struck her abaft, and set her afloat +again." + +At length the ships lay becalmed in the Bahama Channel, slumbering on +the dead and glassy sea, torpid with the heats of a West-Indian August. +Menendez called a council of the commanders. There was doubt and +indecision. Perhaps Ribaut had already reached the French fort, and then +to attack the united force would be a stroke of desperation. Far better +to await their lagging comrades. But the Adelantado was of another mind; +and, even had his enemy arrived, he was resolved that he should have no +time to fortify himself. + +"It is God's will," he said, "that our victory should be due, not to our +numbers, but to His all-powerful aid. Therefore has He stricken us with +tempests and scattered our ships." And he gave his voice for instant +advance. + +There was much dispute; even the chaplain remonstrated; but nothing +could bend the iron will of Menendez. Nor was a sign of celestial +approval wanting. At nine in the evening, a great meteor burst forth in +mid-heaven, and, blazing like the sun, rolled westward towards the +Floridian coast. The fainting spirits of the crusaders were kindled +anew. Diligent preparation was begun. Prayers and masses were said; and, +that the temporal arm might not be wanting, the men were daily practised +on deck in shooting at marks, in order, says the chronicle, that the +recruits might learn not to be afraid of their guns. + +The dead calm continued. "We were all very tired," says the chaplain, +"and I above all, with praying to God for a fair wind. To-day, at about +two in the afternoon, He took pity on us, and sent us a breeze." Before +night they saw land,--the faint line of forest, traced along the watery +horizon, that marked the coast of Florida. But where in all this vast +monotony was the lurking-place of the French? Menendez anchored, and +sent fifty men ashore, who presently found a band of Indians in the +woods, and gained from them the needed information. He stood northward, +till, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the fourth of September, he descried +four ships anchored near the mouth of a river. It was the river St. +John's, and the ships were four of Ribaut's squadron. The prey was in +sight. The Spaniards prepared for battle, and bore down upon the +Lutherans; for, with them, all reformers alike were branded with the +name of the arch-heretic. Slowly, before the faint breeze, the ships +glided on their way; but while, excited and impatient, the fierce crews +watched the decreasing space, and while they were still three leagues +from their prize, the air ceased to stir, the sails flapped against the +mast, a black cloud with thunder rose above the coast, and the warm rain +of the South descended on the breathless sea. It was dark before the +wind moved again, and the ships resumed their course. At half past +eleven they reached the French. The San Pelayo slowly moved to windward +of Ribaut's flag-ship, the Trinity, and anchored very near her. The +other ships took similar stations. While these preparations were making, +a work of two hours, the men labored in silence, and the French, +thronging their gangways, looked on in equal silence. "Never, since I +came into the world," writes the chaplain, "did I know such a +stillness." + +It was broken, at length, by a trumpet from the deck of the San Pelayo. +A French trumpet answered. Then Menendez, "with much courtesy," says his +Spanish eulogist, demanded, "Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" + +"From France," was the reply. + +"What are you doing here?" pursued the Adelantado. + +"Bringing soldiers and supplies for a fort which the King of France has +in this country, and for many others which he soon will have." + +"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" + +Many voices cried together, "Lutherans, of the new religion"; then, in +their turn, they demanded who Menendez was, and whence he came. The +latter answered,-- + +"I am Pedro Menendez, General of the fleet of the King of Spain, Don +Philip the Second, who have come to this country to hang and behead all +Lutherans whom I shall find by land or sea, according to instructions +from my King, so precise that I have power to pardon none whomsoever; +and these commands I shall fulfil, as you shall know. At daybreak I +shall board your ships, and if I find there any Catholic, he shall be +well treated; but every heretic shall die." + +The French with one voice raised a cry of wrath and defiance. + +"If you are a brave man, don't wait till day. Come on now, and see what +you will get!" + +And they assailed the Adelantado with a shower of scoffs and insults. + +Menendez broke into a rage, and gave the order to board. The men slipped +the cables, and the sullen black hulk of the San Pelayo drifted down +upon the Trinity. The French by no means made good their defiance. +Indeed, they were incapable of resistance, Ribaut with his soldiers +being ashore at Fort Caroline. They cut their cables, left their +anchors, made sail, and fled. The Spaniards fired, the French replied. +The other Spanish ships had imitated the movement of the San Pelayo; +"but," writes the chaplain, Mendoza, "these devils run mad are such +adroit sailors, and manoeuvred so well, that we did not catch one of +them." Pursuers and pursued ran out to sea, firing useless volleys at +each other. + +In the morning Menendez gave over the chase, turned, and, with the San +Pelayo alone, ran back for the St. John's. But here a welcome was +prepared for him. He saw bands of armed men drawn up on the beach, and +the smaller vessels of Ribaut's squadron, which had crossed the bar +several days before, anchored behind it to oppose his landing. He would +not venture an attack, but, steering southward, skirted the coast till +he came to an inlet which he named St. Augustine. + +Here he found three of his ships, already debarking their troops, guns, +and stores. Two officers, Patiño and Vicente, had taken possession of +the dwelling of Seloy, an Indian chief, a huge barn-like structure, +strongly framed of entire trunks of trees, and thatched with +palmetto-leaves. Around it they were throwing up intrenchments of +fascines and sand. Gangs of negroes, with pick, shovel, and spade, were +toiling at the work. Such was the birth of St. Augustine, the oldest +town of the United States, and such the introduction of slave-labor upon +their soil. + +On the eighth, Menendez took formal possession of his domain. Cannon +were fired, trumpets sounded, and banners displayed, as, at the head of +his officers and nobles, he landed in state. Mendoza, crucifix in hand, +came to meet him, chanting, "_Te Deum laudamus_," while the Adelantado +and all his company, kneeling, kissed the cross, and the congregated +Indians gazed in silent wonder. + +Meanwhile the tenants of Fort Caroline were not idle. Two or three +soldiers, strolling along the beach in the afternoon, had first seen the +Spanish ships and hastily summoned Ribaut. He came down to the mouth of +the river, followed by an anxious and excited crowd; but, as they +strained their eyes through the darkness, they could see nothing but the +flashes of the distant guns. The returning light showed them at length, +far out at sea, the Adelantado in hot chase of their flying comrades. +Pursuers and pursued were soon out of sight. The drums beat to arms. +After many hours of suspense, the San Pelayo reappeared, hovering about +the mouth of the river, then bearing away towards the south. More +anxious hours ensued, when three other sail came in sight, and they +recognized three of their own returning ships. Communication was opened, +a boat's crew landed, and they learned from Captain Cosette, that, +confiding in the speed of his ship, he had followed the Spaniards to St. +Augustine, reconnoitred their position, and seen them land their negroes +and intrench themselves. + +In his chamber at Fort Caroline, Laudonnière lay sick in bed, when +Ribaut entered, and with him La Grange, Ste. Marie, Ottigny, Yonville, +and other officers. At the bedside of the displaced commandant they held +their council of war. There were three alternatives: first, to remain +where they were and fortify; next, to push overland for St. Augustine, +and attack the invaders in their intrenchments; and, finally, to embark, +and assail them by sea. The first plan would leave their ships a prey to +the Spaniards; and so too, in all likelihood, would the second, besides +the uncertainties of an overland march through an unknown wilderness. By +sea, the distance was short and the route explored. By a sudden blow +they could capture or destroy the Spanish ships, and master the troops +on shore before their reinforcements could arrive, and before they had +time to complete their defences. + +Such were the views of Ribaut, with which, not unnaturally, Laudonnière +finds fault, and Le Moyne, judging by results, echoes the censures of +his chief. And yet the plan seems as well-conceived as it was bold, +lacking nothing but success. The Spaniards, stricken with terror, owed +their safety to the elements, or, as they affirm, to the special +interposition of the Holy Virgin. Let us be just to Menendez. He was a +leader fit to stand with Cortés and Pizarro; but he was matched with a +man as cool, skilful, prompt, and daring as himself. The traces that +have come down to us indicate, in Ribaut, one far above the common +stamp: "a distinguished man, of many high qualities," as even the +fault-finding Le Moyne calls him, devout after the best spirit of the +Reform, and with a human heart under his steel breastplate. + +La Grange and other officers took part with Laudonnière and opposed the +plan of an attack by sea; but Ribaut's conviction was unshaken, and the +order was given. All his own soldiers fit for duty embarked in haste, +and with them went La Caille, Arlac, and, as it seems, Ottigny, with the +best of Laudonnière's men. Even Le Moyne, though wounded in the fight +with Outina's warriors, went on board to bear his part in the fray, and +would have sailed with the rest, had not Ottigny, seeing his disabled +condition, ordered him back to the fort. + +On the tenth, the ships, crowded with troops, set sail. Ribaut was gone, +and with him the pith and sinew of the colony. The miserable remnant +watched his receding sails with dreary foreboding, a foreboding which +seemed but too just, when, on the next day, a storm, more violent than +the Indians had ever known, howled through the forest and lashed the +ocean into fury, Most forlorn was the plight of these exiles, left, it +might be, the prey of a band of ferocious bigots more terrible than the +fiercest hordes of the wilderness. And when night closed on the stormy +river and the gloomy waste of pines, what dreams of terror may not have +haunted the helpless women who crouched under the hovels of Fort +Caroline! + +The fort was in a ruinous state, the palisade on the water side broken +down, and three breaches in the rampart. In the driving rain, urged by +the sick Laudonnière, the men, bedrenched and disheartened, labored as +they might to strengthen their defences. Their muster-roll shows but a +beggarly array. "Now," says Laudonnière, "let them which have bene bold +to say that I had men ynongh left me, so that I had meanes to defend my +selfe, give care a little now vnto mee, and if they have eyes in their +heads, let them see what men I had." Of Ribaut's followers left at the +fort, only nine or ten had weapons, while only two or three knew how to +use them. Four of them were boys, who kept Ribaut's dogs, and another +was his cook. Besides these, he had left a brewer, an old +crossbow-maker, two shoemakers, a player on the spinet, four valets, a +carpenter of threescore--Challeux, no doubt, who has left us the story +of his woes,--and a crowd of women, children, and eighty-six +camp-followers. To these were added the remnant of Laudonnière's men, of +whom seventeen could bear arms, the rest being sick or disabled by +wounds received in the fight with Outina. + +Laudonnière divided his force, such as it was, into two watches, over +which he placed two officers, St. Cler and La Vigne, gave them lanterns +to go the rounds, and an hour-glass to set the time; while he himself, +giddy with weakness and fever, was every night at the guard-room. + +It was the night of the nineteenth of September; floods of rain +bedrenched the sentries on the rampart, and as day dawned on the +dripping barracks and deluged parade, the storm increased in violence. +What enemy could have ventured forth on such a night? La Vigne, who had +the watch, took pity on the sentries and on himself, dismissed them, and +went to his quarters. He little knew what mortal energies, urged by +ambition, avarice, bigotry, desperation, will dare and do. + +To return to the Spaniards at St. Augustine. On the morning of the +eleventh, the crew of one of their smaller vessels, lying outside the +bar, saw through the twilight of early dawn two of Ribaut's ships close +upon them. Not a breath of air was stirring. There was no escape, and +the Spaniards fell on their knees in supplication to Our Lady of Utrera, +explaining to her that the heretics were upon them, and begging her to +send them a little wind. "Forthwith," says Mendoza, "one would have said +that Our Lady herself came down upon the vessel." A wind sprang up, and +the Spaniards found refuge behind the bar. The returning day showed to +their astonished eyes all the ships of Ribaut, their decks black with +men, hovering off the entrance of the port; but Heaven had them in its +charge, and again they experienced its protecting care. The breeze sent +by Our Lady of Utrera rose to a gale, then to a furious tempest; and the +grateful Adelantado saw through rack and mist the ships of his enemy +tossed wildly among the raging waters as they struggled to gain an +offing. With exultation at his heart the skilful seaman read their +danger, and saw them in his mind's eye dashed to utter wreck among the +sand-bars and breakers of the lee-shore. + +A bold thought seized him. He would march overland with five hundred men +and attack Fort Caroline while its defenders were absent. First he +ordered a mass; then he called a council. Doubtless, it was in that +great Indian lodge of Seloy, where he had made his head-quarters; and +here, in this dim and smoky concave, nobles, officers, priests, gathered +at his summons. There were fears and doubts and murmurings, but Menendez +was desperate. Not the mad desperation that strikes wildly and at +random, but the still red heat that melts and burns and seethes with a +steady, unquenchable fierceness. "Comrades," he said, "the time has come +to show our courage and our zeal. This is God's war, and we must not +flinch. It is a war with Lutherans, and we must wage it with blood and +fire." + +But his hearers would not respond. They had not a million of ducats at +stake, and were nowise ready for a cast so desperate. A clamor of +remonstrance rose from the circle. Many voices, that of Mendoza among +the rest, urged waiting till their main forces should arrive. The +excitement spread to the men without, and the swarthy, black-bearded +crowd broke into tumults mounting almost to mutiny, while an officer was +heard to say that he would not go on such a hare-brained errand to be +butchered like a beast. But nothing could move the Adelantado. His +appeals or his threats did their work at last; the confusion was +quelled, and preparation was made for the march. + +Five hundred arquebusiers and pikemen were drawn up before the camp. + +To each was given a sack of bread and a flagon of wine. Two Indians and +a renegade Frenchman, called François Jean, were to guide them, and +twenty Biscayan axe-men moved to the front to clear the way. Through +floods of driving rain, a hoarse voice shouted the word of command, and +the sullen march began. + +With dire misgiving, Mendoza watched the last files as they vanished in +the tempestuous forest. Two days of suspense ensued, when a messenger +came back with a letter from the Adelantado announcing that he had +nearly reached the French fort, and that on the morrow, September +twentieth, at sunrise, he hoped to assault it. "May the Divine Majesty +deign to protect us, for He knows that we have need of it," writes the +scared chaplain; "the Adelantado's great zeal and courage make us hope +he will succeed, but for the good of His Majesty's service he ought to +be a little less ardent in pursuing his schemes." + +Meanwhile the five hundred had pushed their march through forest and +quagmire, through swollen streams and inundated savannas, toiling +knee-deep through mud, rushes, and the rank, tangled grass,--hacking +their way through thickets of the _yucca_ or Spanish bayonet, with its +clumps of dagger-like leaves, or defiling in gloomy procession through +the drenched forest, to the moan, roar, and howl of the storm-racked +pines. As they bent before the tempest, the water trickling from the +rusty headpiece crept clammy and cold betwixt the armor and the skin; +and when they made their wretched bivouac, their bed was the spongy +soil, and the exhaustless clouds their tent. + +The night of Wednesday, the nineteenth, found their vanguard in a deep +forest of pines, less than a mile from Fort Caroline, and near the low +hills which extended in its rear, and formed a continuation of St. +John's Bluff. All around was one great morass. In pitchy darkness, +knee-deep in weeds and water, half starved, worn with toil and lack of +sleep, drenched to the skin, their provision spoiled, their ammunition +wet, their spirit chilled out of them, they stood in shivering groups, +cursing the enterprise and the author of it. Menendez heard an ensign +say aloud to his comrades,-- + +"This Asturian _corito_, who knows no more of war on shore than an ass, +has ruined us all. By ----, if my advice had been followed, he would have +had his deserts the day he set out on this cursed journey!" + +The Adelantado pretended not to hear. + +Two hours before dawn he called his officers about him. All night, he +said, he had been praying to God and the Virgin. + +"Señores, what shall we resolve on? Our ammunition and provisions are +gone. Our case is desperate." And he urged a bold rush on the fort. + +But men and officers alike were disheartened and disgusted. They +listened coldly and sullenly; many were for returning at every risk; +none were in a mood for fight. Menendez put forth all his eloquence, +till at length the dashed spirits of his followers were so far rekindled +that they consented to follow him. + +All fell on their knees in the marsh; then, rising, they formed their +ranks and began to advance, guided by the renegade Frenchman, whose +hands, to make sure of him, were tied behind his back. Groping and +stumbling in the dark among trees, roots, and underbrush, buffeted by +wind and rain, and slashed in the face by the recoiling boughs which +they could not see, they soon lost their way, fell into confusion, and +came to a stand, in a mood more savagely desponding than before. But +soon a glimmer of returning day came to their aid, and showed them the +dusky sky, and the dark columns of the surrounding pines. Menendez +ordered the men forward on pain of death. They obeyed, and presently, +emerging from the forest, could dimly discern the ridge of a low hill, +behind which, the Frenchman told them, was the fort. Menendez, with a +few officers and men, cautiously mounted to the top. Beneath lay Fort +Caroline, three gunshots distant; but the rain, the imperfect light, and +a cluster of intervening houses prevented his seeing clearly, and he +sent two officers to reconnoitre. Descending, they met a solitary +Frenchman, a straggler from the fort. They knocked him down with a +sheathed sword, took him prisoner, then stabbed him in cold blood. This +done, and their observations made, they returned to the top of the hill, +behind which, clutching their weapons in fierce expectancy, all the gang +stood waiting. + +"Santiago!" cried Menendez. "At them! God is with us!" + +And, shouting their hoarse war-cries, the Spaniards rushed down the +slope like starved wolves. + +Not a sentry was on the rampart. La Vigne, the officer of the guard, had +just gone to his quarters, but a trumpeter, who chanced to remain, saw, +through sheets of rain, the black swarm of assailants sweeping down the +hill. He blew the alarm, and at his shrill summons a few half-naked +soldiers ran wildly out of the barracks. It was too late. Through the +breaches, over the ramparts, the Spaniards came pouring in. + +"Santiago! Santiago! Down with the Lutherans!" + +Sick men leaped from their beds. Women and children, blind with fright, +darted shrieking from the houses. A fierce gaunt visage, the thrust of a +pike or blow of a rusty halberd,--such was the greeting that met all +alike. Laudonnière snatched his sword and target, and ran towards the +principal breach, calling to his soldiers. A rush of Spaniards met him; +his men were cut down around him; and he, with a soldier named +Bartholomew, was forced back into the courtyard of his house. Here a +tent was pitched, and as the pursuers stumbled among the cords, he +escaped behind Ottigny's house, sprang through the breach in the western +rampart, and fled for the woods. + +Le Moyne had been one of the guard. Scarcely had he thrown himself into +a hammock which was slung in his room, when a savage shout, and a wild +uproar of shrieks, outcries, and the clash of weapons, brought him to +his feet. He rushed past two Spaniards in the door-way, ran behind the +guard-house leaped through an embrasure into the ditch, and escaped to +the forest. + +Challeux, the carpenter, was going betimes to his work, a chisel in his +hand. He was old, but pike and partisan brandished at his back gave +wings to his flight. In the ecstasy of his terror, he leaped upward at +the top of the palisade, and, clutching it, threw himself over with the +agility of a boy. He ran up the hill, no one pursuing, and as he neared +the edge of the forest, turned and looked back. From the high ground +where he stood he could see the butchery, the fury of the conquerors, +the agonized gestures of the victims. He turned again in horror, and +plunged into the woods. As he tore his way through the briers and +thickets, he met several fugitives, escaped like himself. Others +presently came up, haggard and wild, like men broke loose from the jaws +of fate. They gathered and consulted together. One of them, in great +repute for his knowledge of the Bible, was for returning and +surrendering to the Spaniards. "They are men," he said; "perhaps when +their fury is over they will spare our lives, and even if they kill us, +it will only be a few moments' pain. Better so than to starve here in +the woods or be torn to pieces by wild beasts." + +The greater part of the naked and despairing company assented, but +Challeux was of a different mind. The old Huguenot quoted Scripture, and +called up the names of prophets and apostles to witness, that, in direst +extremity, God would not abandon those who rested their faith in Him. +Six of the fugitives, however, still held to their desperate purpose. +Issuing from the woods, they descended towards the fort, and as with +beating hearts their comrades watched the result, a troop of Spaniards +rushed forth, hewed them down with swords and halberds, and dragged +their bodies to the brink of the river, where the victims of the +massacre were already flung in heaps. + +Le Moyne, with a soldier named Grandchemin, whom he had met in his +flight, toiled all day through the woods, in the hope of reaching the +small vessels anchored behind the bar. Night found them in a morass. No +vessels could be seen, and the soldier, in despair, broke into angry +upbraidings against his companion,--saying that he would go back and +give himself up. Le Moyne at first opposed him, then yielded. But when +they drew near the fort, and heard the howl of savage revelry that rose +from within, the artist's heart failed him. He embraced his companion, +and the soldier advanced alone. A party of Spaniards came out to meet +him. He kneeled, and begged for his life. He was answered by a +death-blow; and the horrified Le Moyne, from his hiding-place in the +thickets, saw his limbs hacked apart, thrust on pikes, and borne off in +triumph. + +Meanwhile, Menendez, mustering his followers, had offered thanks to God +for their victory; and this pious butcher wept with emotion as he +recounted the favors which Heaven had showered upon their enterprise. +His admiring historian gives it in proof of his humanity, that, after +the rage of the assault was spent, he ordered that women, infants, and +boys under fifteen should thenceforth be spared. Of these, by his own +account, there were about fifty. Writing in October to the King, he says +that they cause him great anxiety, since he fears the anger of God, +should he now put them to death, while, on the other hand, he is in +dread lest the venom of their heresy should infect his men. + +A hundred and forty-two persons were slain in and around the fort, and +their bodies lay heaped together on the shore. Nearly opposite was +anchored a small vessel, called the Pearl, commanded by James Ribaut, +son of the Admiral. The ferocious soldiery, maddened with victory and +drunk with blood, crowded to the beach, shouting insults to those on +board, mangling the corpses, tearing out their eyes, and throwing them +towards the vessel from the points of their daggers. Thus did the Most +Catholic Philip champion the cause of Heaven in the New World. + +It was currently believed in France, and, though no eye-witness attests +it, there is reason to think it true, that among those murdered at Fort +Caroline there were some who died a death of peculiar ignominy. +Menendez, it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed over +them the inscription, "I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to +Lutherans." + +The Spaniards gained a great booty: armor, clothing, and provision. +"Nevertheless," says the devout Mendoza, after closing his inventory of +the plunder, "the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which +our Lord has granted us, whereby His holy gospel will be introduced into +this country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from +perdition." Again, he writes in his journal,--"We owe to God and His +Mother, more than to human strength, this victory over the adversaries +of the holy Catholic religion." + +To whatever influence, celestial or other, the exploit may best be +ascribed, the victors were not yet quite content with their success. Two +small French vessels, besides that of James Ribaut, still lay within +range of the fort. When the storm had a little abated, the cannon were +turned on them. One of them was sunk, but Ribaut, with the others, +escaped down the river, at the mouth of which several light craft, +including that bought from the English, had been anchored since the +arrival of his father's squadron. + +While this was passing, the wretched fugitives were flying from the +scene of massacre through a tempest, of whose pertinacious violence all +the narratives speak with wonder. Exhausted, starved, half-clothed,--for +most of them had escaped in their shirts,--they pushed their toilsome +way amid the ceaseless howl of the elements. A few sought refuge in +Indian villages; but these, it is said, were afterwards killed by the +Spaniards. The greater number attempted to reach the vessels at the +mouth of the river. Of the latter was Le Moyne, who, despite his former +failure, was toiling through the maze of tangled forests when he met a +Belgian soldier with the woman described as Laudonnière's maid-servant, +the latter wounded in the breast, and, urging their flight towards the +vessels, they fell in with other fugitives, among them Laudonnière +himself. As they struggled through the salt-marsh, the rank sedge cut +their naked limbs, and the tide rose to their waists. Presently they +descried others, toiling like themselves through the matted vegetation, +and recognized Challeux and his companions, also in quest of the +vessels. The old man still, as he tells us, held fast to his chisel, +which had done good service in cutting poles to aid the party to cross +the deep creeks that channelled the morass. The united band, twenty-six +in all, were relieved at length by the sight of a moving sail. It was +the vessel of Captain Mallard, who, informed of the massacre, was +standing along-shore in the hope of picking up some of the fugitives. He +saw their signals, and sent boats to their rescue; but such was their +exhaustion, that, had not the sailors, wading to their armpits among the +rushes, borne them out on their shoulders, few could have escaped. +Laudonnière was so feeble that nothing but the support of a soldier, who +held him upright in his arms, had saved him from drowning in the marsh. + +Gaining the friendly decks, the fugitives counselled together. One and +all, they sickened for the sight of France. + +After waiting a few days, and saving a few more stragglers from the +marsh, they prepared to sail. Young Ribaut, though ignorant of his +father's fate, assented with something more than willingness; indeed, +his behavior throughout had been stamped with weakness and poltroonery. +On the twenty-fifth of September, they put to sea in two vessels; and, +after a voyage whose privations were fatal to many of them, they +arrived, one party at Rochelle, the other at Swansea, in Wales. + +In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of +John Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and +ward at St. Augustine, in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the +celestial guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as +protectors Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and +about a hundred soldiers. Day and night, the latter toiled to throw up +earthworks and strengthen their position. + +A week elapsed, when they saw a man running towards their fort, shouting +as he ran. + +Mendoza went out to meet him. + +"Victory! Victory!" gasped the breathless messenger. "The French fort is +ours!" And he flung his arms about the chaplain's neck. + +"To-day," writes the latter in his journal, "Monday, the twenty-fourth, +came our good general himself, with fifty soldiers, very tired, like all +those who were with him. As soon as they told me he was coming, I ran to +my lodging, took a new cassock, the best I had, put on my surplice, and +went out to meet him with a crucifix in my hand; whereupon he, like a +gentleman and a good Christian, kneeled down with all his followers, and +gave the Lord a thousand thanks for the great favors he had received +from Him." + +In solemn procession, four priests in front chanting the _Te Deum_, the +victors entered St. Augustine in triumph. + +On the twenty-eighth, when the weary Adelantado was taking his _siesta_ +under the sylvan roof of Seloy, a troop of Indians came in with news +that quickly roused him from his slumbers. They had seen a French vessel +wrecked on the coast towards the south. Those who escaped from her were +some four leagues off, on the banks of a river or arm of the sea, which +they could not cross. + +Menendez instantly sent forty or fifty men in boats to reconnoitre. +Next, he called the chaplain,--for he would fain have him at his elbow +to countenance the devilish deeds he meditated,--and embarked, with him, +twelve soldiers, and two Indian guides, in another boat. They rowed +along the channel between Anastasia Island and the main shore; then +landed, struck across the country on foot, traversed plains and marshes, +readied the sea towards night, and searched along-shore till ten o'clock +to find their comrades who had gone before. At length, with mutual joy, +the two parties met, and bivouacked together on the sands. Not far +distant they could see lights. They were the camp-fires of the +shipwrecked French. + +And now, to relate the fortunes of these unhappy men. To do so with +precision is impossible, for henceforward the French narratives are no +longer the narratives of eye-witnesses. + +It has been seen how, when on the point of assailing the Spaniards of +St. Augustine, John Ribaut was thwarted by a gale which the former +hailed as a divine interposition. The gale rose to a tempest of strange +fury. Within a few days, all the French ships were cast on shore, the +greater number near Cape Canaveral. According to the letter of Menendez, +many of those on board were lost, but others affirm that all escaped but +the captain, La Grange, an officer of high merit, who was washed from a +floating mast. One of the ships was wrecked at a point farther northward +than the rest, and it was her company whose camp-fires were seen by the +Spaniards at their bivouac among the sands of Anastasia Island. They +were endeavoring to reach Fort Caroline, of whose fate they knew +nothing, while Ribaut with the remainder was farther southward, +struggling through the wilderness towards the same goal. What befell the +latter will appear hereafter. Of the fate of the former party there is +no French record. What we know of it is due to three Spanish writers, +Mendoza, Doctor Solis de las Meras, and Menendez himself. Solis was a +priest, and brother-in-law to Menendez. Like Mendoza, he minutely +describes what he saw, and, like him, was a red-hot zealot, lavishing +applause on the darkest deeds of his chief. Before me lie the long +despatches, now first brought to light from the archives of Seville, +which Menendez sent from Florida to the King, a cool record of +atrocities never surpassed, and inscribed on the back with the royal +indorsement,--"Say to him that he has done well." + +When the Adelantado saw the French fires in the distance, he lay close +in his bivouac, and sent two soldiers to reconnoitre. At two in the +morning they came back and reported that it was impossible to get at the +enemy, since they were on the farther side of an arm of the sea, +probably Matanzas Inlet. Menendez, however, gave orders to march, and +before daybreak reached the hither bank, where he hid his men in a bushy +hollow. Thence, as it grew light, they could discern the enemy, many of +whom were searching along the sands and shallows for shell-fish, for +they were famishing. A thought struck Menendez, an inspiration, says +Mendoza, of the Holy Spirit. He put on the clothes of a sailor, entered +a boat which had been brought to the spot, and rowed towards the +shipwrecked men, the better to learn their condition. A Frenchman swam +out to meet him. Menendez demanded what men they were. + +"Followers of Ribaut," answered the swimmer, "Viceroy of the King of +France." + +"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" + +"All Lutherans." + +A brief dialogue ensued, during which the Adelantado declared his name +and character. The Frenchman swam back to his companions, but soon +returned, and asked safe conduct for his captain and four other +gentlemen who wished to hold conference with the Spanish general. +Menendez gave his word for their safety, and, returning to the shore, +sent his boat to bring them over. On their landing, he met them very +courteously. His followers were kept at a distance, so disposed behind +hills and clumps of bushes as to give an exaggerated idea of their +force,--a precaution the more needful as they were only about sixty in +number, while the French, says Solis, were above two hundred, though +Menendez declares that they did not exceed a hundred and forty. The +French officer told him the story of their shipwreck, and begged him to +lend them a boat to aid them in crossing the rivers which lay between +them and a fort of their King, whither they were making their way. + +Then came again the ominous question,-- + +"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" + +"We are Lutherans." + +"Gentlemen," pursued Menendez, "your fort is taken, and all in it put to +the sword." And in proof of his declaration he caused articles plundered +from Fort Caroline to be shown to the unhappy petitioners. He then left +them, to breakfast with his officers, first ordering food to be placed +before them. His repast over, he returned to them. + +"Are you convinced now," he asked, "that what I have told you is true?" + +The French captain assented, and implored him to lend them ships in +which to return home. Menendez answered, that he would do so willingly, +if they were Catholics, and if he had ships to spare, but he had none. +The supplicants then expressed the hope, that, at least, they and their +followers would be allowed to remain with the Spaniards till ships could +be sent to their relief, since there was peace between the two nations, +whose kings were friends and brothers. + +"All Catholics," retorted the Spaniard, "I will befriend; but as you are +of the New Sect, I hold you as enemies, and wage deadly war against you; +and this I will do with all cruelty [_crueldad_] in this country, where +I command as Viceroy and Captain-General for my King. I am here to plant +the holy gospel, that the Indians may be enlightened and come to the +knowledge of the holy Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the +Roman Church teaches it. If you will give up your arms and banners, and +place yourselves at my mercy, you may do so, and I will act towards you +as God shall give me grace. Do as you will, for other than this you can +have neither truce nor friendship with me." + +Such were the Adelantado's words, as reported by a by-stander, his +admiring brother-in-law; and that they contain an implied assurance of +mercy has been held, not only by Protestants, but by Catholics and +Spaniards. The report of Menendez himself is more brief and sufficiently +equivocal:-- + +"I answered, that they could give up their arms and place themselves +under my mercy,--that I should do with them what our Lord should order; +and from that I did not depart, nor would I, unless God our Lord should +otherwise inspire." + +One of the Frenchmen recrossed to consult with his companions. In two +hours he returned, and offered fifty thousand ducats to secure their +lives; but Menendez, says his brother-in-law, would give no pledges. On +the other hand, expressions in his own despatches point to the inference +that a virtual pledge was given, at least to certain individuals. + +The starving French saw no resource but to yield themselves to his +mercy. The boat was again sent across the river. It returned, laden with +banners, arquebuses, swords, targets, and helmets. The Adelantado +ordered twenty soldiers to bring over the prisoners by tens at a time. +He then took the French officers aside behind a ridge of sand, two +gunshots from the bank. Here, with courtesy on his lips and murder +reeking at his heart, he said,-- + +"Gentlemen, I have but few men, and you are so many, that, if you were +free, it would be easy for you to take your satisfaction on us for the +people we killed when we took your fort. Therefore it is necessary that +you should go to my camp, four leagues from this place, with your hands +tied." + +Accordingly, as each party landed, they were led out of sight behind the +sand-hill, and their hands tied at their backs with the match-cords of +the arquebuses,--though not before each had been supplied with food. The +whole day passed before all were brought together, bound and helpless, +under the eye of the inexorable Adelantado. But now Mendoza interposed. +"I was a priest," he says, "and had the bowels of a man." He asked, +that, if there were Christians, that is to say Catholics, among the +prisoners, they should be set apart. Twelve Breton sailors professed +themselves to be such; and these, together with four carpenters and +calkers, "of whom," writes Menendez, "I was in great need," were put on +board the boat and sent to St. Augustine. The rest were ordered to march +thither by land. + +The Adelantado walked in advance till he came to a lonely spot, not far +distant, deep among the bush-covered hills. Here he stopped, and with +his cane drew a line in the sand. The sun was set when the captive +Huguenots, with their escort, reached the fatal goal thus marked out. +And now let the curtain drop; for here, in the name of Heaven, the +hounds of hell were turned loose, and the savage soldiery, like wolves +in a sheepfold, rioted in slaughter. Of all that wretched company, not +one was left alive. + +"I had their hands tied behind their backs," writes the chief criminal, +"and themselves passed under the knife. It appeared to me, that, by thus +chastising them, God our Lord and your Majesty were served; whereby in +future they will leave us more free from their evil sect, to plant the +gospel in these parts." + +Again Menendez returned triumphant to St. Augustine, and behind him +marched his band of butchers, steeped in blood to the elbows, but still +unsated. Great as had been his success, he still had cause for anxiety. +There was ill news of his fleet. Some of the ships were lost, others +scattered, or lagging tardily on their way. Of his whole force, but a +fraction had reached Florida, and of this a large part was still at Fort +Caroline. Ribaut could not be far off; and whatever might be the +condition of his shipwrecked company, their numbers would make them +formidable, unless taken at advantage. Urged by fear and fortified by +fanaticism, Menendez had well begun his work of slaughter; but rest for +him there was none; a darker deed was behind. + +On the next day, Indians came with the tidings that at the spot where +the French had been found was now another party, still larger. This +murder-loving race looked with great respect on Menendez for his +wholesale butchery of the night before,--an exploit rarely equalled in +their own annals of massacre. On his part, he doubted not that Ribaut +was at hand. Marching with a hundred and fifty men, he reached the inlet +at midnight, and again, like a savage, ambushed himself on the bank. Day +broke, and he could plainly see the French on the farther side. They had +made a raft, which lay in the water, ready for crossing. Menendez and +his men showed themselves, when, forthwith, the French displayed their +banners, sounded drums and trumpets, and set their sick and starving +ranks in array of battle. But the Adelantado, regardless of this warlike +show, ordered his men to seat themselves at breakfast, while he with +three officers walked unconcernedly along the shore. His coolness had +its effect. The French blew a trumpet of parley, and showed a white +flag. The Spaniards replied. A Frenchman came out upon the raft, and, +shouting across the water, asked that a Spanish envoy should be sent +over. + +"You have a raft," was the reply; "come yourselves." + +An Indian canoe lay under the bank on the Spanish side. A French sailor +swam to it, paddled back unmolested, and presently returned, bringing +with him La Caille, Ribaut's sergeant-major. He told Menendez that the +French were three hundred and fifty in all, on their way to Fort +Caroline; and, like the officers of the former party, begged for boats +to aid them in crossing the river. + +"My brother," said Menendez, "go and tell your general, that, if he +wishes to speak with me, he may come with four or six companions, and +that I pledge my word he shall go back safe." + +La Caille returned; and Ribaut, with eight gentlemen, soon came over in +the canoe. Menendez met them courteously, caused wine and preserved +fruits to be placed before them,--he had come with well-stocked larder +on his errand of blood,--and next led Ribaut to the reeking Golgotha, +where, in heaps upon the sands, lay the corpses of his slaughtered +followers. Ribaut was prepared for the spectacle; La Caille had already +seen it; but he would not believe that Fort Caroline was taken till a +part of the plunder was shown him. Then, mastering his despair, he +turned to the conqueror. + +"What has befallen us," he said, "may one day befall you." And, urging +that the kings of France and Spain were brothers and close friends, he +begged, in the name of that friendship, that the Spaniard would aid him +in conveying his followers home. Menendez gave him the same equivocal +answer that he had given the former party, and Ribaut returned to +consult with his officers. After three hours of absence, he came back in +the canoe, and told the Adelantado that some of his people were ready to +surrender at discretion, but that many refused. + +"They can do as they please," was the reply. + +In behalf of those who surrendered Ribaut offered a ransom of a hundred +thousand ducats. + +"It grieves me much," said Menendez, "that I cannot accept it; for I +have great need of it." + +Ribaut was much encouraged. Menendez could scarcely forego such a prize, +and he thought, says the Spanish narrator, that the lives of his +followers would now be safe. He asked to be allowed the night for +deliberation, and at sunset recrossed the river. In the morning he +reappeared among the Spaniards and reported that two hundred of his men +had retreated from the spot, but that the remaining one hundred and +fifty would surrender. At the same time he gave into the hands of +Menendez the royal standard and other flags, with his sword, dagger, +helmet, buckler, and his official seal, given him by Coligny. Menendez +directed an officer to enter the boat and bring over the French by +tens. He next led Ribaut among the bushes behind the neighboring +sand-hill, and ordered his hands to be bound fast. Then the scales fell +from the prisoner's eyes. Face to face his hideous fate rose up before +him. He saw his followers and himself entrapped,--the dupe of words +artfully framed to lure them to their ruin. The day wore on; and, as +band after band of prisoners was brought over, they were led behind the +sand-hill, out of sight from the farther shore, and bound like their +general. At length the transit was complete. With bloodshot eyes and +weapons bared, the fierce Spaniards closed around their victims. + +"Are you Catholics or Lutherans? and is there any one among you who will +go to confession?" + +Ribaut answered,-- + +"I and all here are of the Reformed Faith." + +And he recited the Psalm, "_Domine, memento mei_." + +"We are of earth," he continued, "and to earth we must return; twenty +years more or less can matter little"; and, turning to the Adelantado, +he bade him do his will. + +The stony-hearted bigot gave the signal; and those who will may paint to +themselves the horrors of the scene. A few, however, were spared. + +"I saved," writes Menendez, "the lives of two young gentlemen of about +eighteen years of age, as well as of three others, the fifer, the +drummer, and the trumpeter; and I caused Jean Ribaut with all the rest +to be passed under the knife, judging this to be expedient for the +service of God our Lord, and of your Majesty. And I consider it great +good fortune that he (Jean Ribaut) should be dead, for the King of +France could effect more with him and five hundred ducats than with +other men and five thousand, and he would do more in one year than +another in ten, for he was the most experienced sailor and naval +commander ever known, and of great skill in this passage to the Indies +and the coast of Florida. He was, besides, greatly liked in England, in +which kingdom his reputation is such that he was appointed +Captain-General of all the British fleet against the French Catholics in +the war between England and France some years ago." + +Such is the sum of the Spanish accounts,--the self-damning testimony of +the author and abettors of the crime. A picture of lurid and awful +coloring; and yet there is reason to believe that the truth was more +hideous still. Among those spared was one Christophe le Breton, who was +carried to Spain, escaped to France, and told his story to Challeux. +Among those struck down in the carnage was a sailor of Dieppe, stunned +and left for dead under a heap of corpses. In the night he revived, +contrived to draw his knife, cut the cords that bound his hands, and +make his way to an Indian village. The Indians, though not without +reluctance, abandoned him to the Spaniards. The latter sold him as a +slave; but on his way in fetters to Portugal, the ship was taken by the +Huguenots, the sailor set free, and his story published in the narrative +of Le Moyne. When the massacre was known in France, the friends and +relatives of the victims sent to the King, Charles IX., a vehement +petition for redress; and their memorial recounts many incidents of the +tragedy. From these three sources is to be drawn the French version of +the story. The following is its substance:-- + +Famished and desperate, the followers of Ribaut were toiling northward +to seek refuge at Fort Caroline, when they found the Spaniards in their +path. Some were filled with dismay; others, in their misery, almost +hailed them as deliverers. La Caille, the sergeant-major, crossed the +river. Menendez met him with a face of friendship, and protested that he +would spare the lives of the shipwrecked men, sealing the promise with +an oath, a kiss, and many signs of the cross. He even gave it in +writing, under seal. Still, there were many among the French who would +not place themselves in his power. The most credulous crossed the river +in a boat. As each successive party landed, their hands were bound fast +at their backs; and thus, except a few who were set apart, they were all +driven towards the fort, like cattle to the shambles, with curses and +scurrilous abuse. Then, at sound of drums and trumpets, the Spaniards +fell upon them, striking them down with swords, pikes, and halberds. +Ribaut vainly called on the Adelantado to remember his oath. By the +latter's order, a soldier plunged a dagger into his heart; and Ottigny, +who stood near, met a similar fate. Ribaut's beard was cut off, and +portions of it sent in a letter to Philip II. His head was hewn into +four parts, one of which was displayed on the point of a lance at each +corner of Fort St. Augustine. Great fires were kindled, and the bodies +of the murdered burned to ashes. + +Such is the sum of the French accounts. The charge of breach of faith +contained in them was believed by Catholics as well as Protestants, and +it was as a defence against this charge that the narrative of the +Adelantado's brother-in-law was published. That Ribaut, a man whose good +sense and bravery were both reputed high, should have submitted himself +and his men to Menendez without positive assurance of safety is scarcely +credible; nor is it lack of charity to believe that a miscreant so +savage in heart and so perverted in conscience would act on the maxim, +current among the bigots of the day, that faith ought not to be kept +with heretics. + +It was night when the Adelantado again entered St. Augustine. Some there +were who blamed his cruelty; but many applauded. "Even if the French had +been Catholics,"--such was their language,--"he would have done right, +for, with the little provision we have, they would all have starved; +besides, there were so many of them that they would have cut our +throats." + +And now Menendez again addressed himself to the despatch, already begun, +in which he recounts to the King his labors and his triumphs, a +deliberate and business-like document, mingling narratives of butchery +with recommendations for promotions, commissary details, and petitions +for supplies; enlarging, too, on the vast schemes of encroachment which +his successful generalship had brought to nought. The French, he says, +had planned a military and naval depot at Los Martires, whence they +would make a descent upon Havana, and another at the Bay of Ponce de +Leon, whence they could threaten Vera Cruz. They had long been +encroaching on Spanish rights at Newfoundland, from which a great arm of +the sea--the St. Lawrence--would give them access to the Moluccas and +other parts of the East Indies. Moreover, he adds in a later despatch, +by this passage they may reach the mines of Zacatecas and St. Martin, as +well as every part of the South Sea. And, as already mentioned, he urges +immediate occupation of Chesapeake Bay, which, by its supposed +water-communication with the St. Lawrence, would enable Spain to +vindicate her rights, control the fisheries of Newfoundland, and thwart +her rival in her vast designs of commercial and territorial +aggrandizement. Thus did France and Spain dispute the possession of +North America long before England became a party to the strife. + +Some twenty days after Menendez returned to St. Augustine, the Indians, +enamored of carnage, and exulting to see their invaders mowed down, came +to tell him that on the coast southward, near Cape Canaveral, a great +number of Frenchmen were intrenching themselves. They were those of +Ribaut's party who had refused to surrender. Retreating to the spot +where their ships had been cast ashore, they were endeavoring to build a +vessel from the fragments of the wrecks. + +In all haste Menendez despatched messengers to Fort Caroline,--named by +him San Mateo,--ordering a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty men. In +a few days they came. He added some of his own soldiers, and, with a +united force of two hundred and fifty, set forth, as he tells us, on +the second of November, pushing southward along the shore with such +merciless energy that some of his men dropped dead with wading night and +day through the loose sands. When, from behind their frail defences, the +French saw the Spanish pikes and partisans glittering into view, they +fled in a panic, and took refuge among the hills. Menendez sent a +trumpet to summon them, pledging his honor for their safety. The +commander and several others told the messenger that they would sooner +be eaten by the savages than trust themselves to Spaniards; and, +escaping, they fled to the Indian towns. The rest surrendered; and +Menendez kept his word. The comparative number of his own men made his +prisoners no longer dangerous. They were led back to St. Augustine, +where, as the Spanish writer affirms, they were well treated. Those of +good birth sat at the Adelantado's table, eating the bread of a homicide +crimsoned with the slaughter of their comrades. The priests essayed +their pious efforts, and, under the gloomy menace of the Inquisition, +some of the heretics renounced their errors. The fate of the captives +may be gathered from the indorsement, in the handwriting of the King, on +the back of the despatch of Menendez of December twelfth. + +"Say to him," writes Philip II., "that, as to those he has killed, he +has done well, and as for those he has saved, they shall be sent to the +galleys." + +Thus did Spain make good her claim to North America, and crush the upas +of heresy in its germ. Within her bounds the tidings were hailed with +acclamation, while in France a cry of horror and execration rose from +the Huguenots, and found an echo even among the Catholics. But the weak +and ferocious son of Catherine de Médicis gave no response. The victims +were Huguenots, disturbers of the realm, followers of Coligny, the man +above all others a thorn in his side. True, the enterprise was a +national enterprise, undertaken at the national charge, with royal +commission, and under the royal standard. True, it had been assailed in +time of peace by a power professing the closest amity. Yet Huguenot +influence, had prompted and Huguenot hands executed it. That influence +had now ebbed low; Coligny's power had waned; and the Spanish party was +ascendant. Charles IX., long vacillating, was fast subsiding into the +deathly embrace of Spain, for whom, at last, on the bloody eve of St. +Bartholomew, he was destined to become the assassin of his own best +subjects. + +In vain the relatives of the slain petitioned him for redress; and had +the honor of the nation rested in the keeping of her king, the blood of +hundreds of murdered Frenchmen would have cried from the ground in vain. +But it was not so to be. Injured humanity found an avenger, and outraged +France a champion. Her chivalrous annals may be searched in vain for a +deed of more romantic daring than the vengeance of Dominic de Gourgue. + + * * * * * + +WEARINESS. + + + O little feet, that such long years + Must wander on through doubts and fears, + Must ache and bleed beneath your load! + I, nearer to the way-side inn + Where toil shall cease and rest begin, + Am weary, thinking of your road. + + O little hands, that, weak or strong, + Have still to serve or rule so long, + Have still so long to give or ask! + I, who so much with book and pen + Have toiled among my fellow-men, + Am weary, thinking of your task. + + O little hearts, that throb and beat + With such impatient, feverish heat, + Such limitless and strong desires! + Mine, that, so long has glowed and burned, + With passions into ashes turned, + Now covers and conceals its fires. + + O little souls, as pure and white + And crystalline as rays of light + Direct from heaven, their source divine! + Refracted through the mist of years, + How red my setting sun appears, + How lurid looks this soul, of mine! + + * * * * * + +MRS. LEWIS. + +A STORY IN THREE PARTS. + +PART III. + + +XI. + +When we returned from our journey, Lulu was among the first to greet us, +and with a cordial animation quite unlike the gentle, dawdling way she +used to have. Indeed, I was struck the first evening with a new impulse, +and a healthful mental current, that gave glow and freshness to +everything she said. Mr. Lewis was gone to Cuba, she told us, and would +be away a month more, but "George" was with her continually, and the +days were all too short for what they had to do. She seemed to have +attacked all the arts and sciences simultaneously, and with an eagerness +very amusing to see. George had begun a numismatic collection for her, +and she had made out an historic table from the coins, writing down all +that was most important under each king's reign. George had brought home +some fine specimens of stones, and had interested her much in +mineralogy. George liked riding, and had taught her to ride; and she now +perpetually made her appearance in her riding-habit and little +jockey-cap, wishing she could do something for me here or there. George +moulded, and taught her to mould; and she was dabbling in clay and +plaster of Paris all the morning. George painted beautifully in +water-colors, and taught her to sketch from Nature, which she often did +now, in their rides, when the days were pleasant enough. George not only +thrummed a Spanish guitar, but liked singing; so music went on with +wonderful force and improvement. Nothing that George liked better than +botany, metaphysics, and micrology. And now Lulu was screaming at +dreadful dragons' heads on a pin's point, or delighted with +diamond-beetles and spiders' eyes. She fairly revelled in the new worlds +that were opened to her eager eye and hungry mind. No more long, +tiresome mornings now. Every hour was occupied. Intelligent smiles +dimpled her beautiful mouth; the weary, unoccupied, childish look +vanished from her eyes; and her talk was animated and animating. For +though she might not tell much that was new, she told it in a new way +and with the fresh light of recent experience. Thus she became in a +wonderfully short time a quite different woman from the Lulu of the +early winter. + +We acknowledged that she was become an agreeable companion. In a few +weeks of home-education her soul had expanded to a tropical and rich +growth. This we were talking over one night, when Lulu had been with us, +and when George had come for her and extinguished us with his great +hearty laugh and abundant health and activity, as the sun's effulgence +does a house-candle. + +"I don't like that Remington, either," said the minister, after we were +left in this state of darkness. + +"But, surely, he has given Lulu's mind a most desirable impulse and +direction. How glad Mr. Lewis will be to see her so happy, so animated, +and so sensible, when he comes home!" + +"If that makes him happy, he could have had it before, I suppose. But do +you notice anything unhealthy in this mental cultivation,--anything +forced in this luxuriant flowering? Now the light of heaven expands the +whole nature, I hold, into healthy and proportioned beauty. If anything +is lacking or exuberant, the influence is not heavenly, be sure. What do +you think of this statement?" + +"Very sensible, but very Hebrew to me." + +"I never thought Lulu's were 'household eyes,'--but now she never speaks +of husband or children, of house or home. Now that is not a suitable +mental condition. Let us hope that this intellectual effervescence will +subside, and leave her some thoughtfulness and care for others, and the +meditation which will make her accomplishments something to enrich and +strengthen, rather than excite and overrun her mind." + +"Ah! well, it is only a few weeks, not more than six, since she found +out she had a soul. No wonder she feels she has been such a laggard in +the race, she must keep on the gallop now to make up for lost time." + +"But,--about the husband and children?" + +"Oh, they will come in in due time and take their true place. She is a +young artist, and hasn't got her perspectives arranged. Be sure they +will be in the foreground presently," said I, cheerfully. + +"Let us hope so. For a wife, mother, and house-mistress to be racing +after so many ologies, and ignoring her daily duties, is a spectacle of +doubtful utility to me." + +To tell the truth, this want of domestic interest had often struck me +also. One day, as we were talking about my children, Lulu had said that +she believed herself destitute of the maternal instinct; for although +she liked to see the children, of course, yet she did not miss them +when away from her. And after the death of young Lewis, which happened +while they were at Cuba, and which distressed my Johnnie so much that he +could not for a long time bear either books or play, for want of his +beloved playmate, his mother, apparently, did not lament him at all. + +"I never liked to have him with me," she said to me,--"partly, I +suppose, because he reminded me of Montalli, and of a period of great +suffering in my life. I should be glad never to think of him again. But +William seemed to love and pity him always. Gave him his name, and +always treated him like an only and elder son. And William is fond of +the little girls, too. I don't mean that I am not fond of them, but not +as he is. He will go and spend a week at a time playing and driving with +them." + +Indeed, she very often reminded me of Undine in her soulless days. + +As she scarcely went into society, during the absence of Mr. Lewis, Lulu +had time for all this multifarious culture that I have been describing, +and she was gradually coming also to reason and reflect on what she read +and heard, though her appetite for knowledge continued with the same +keenness. Her artistic eye, which naturally grouped and arranged with +taste whatever was about her, stood her in good stead of experience; and +with a very little instruction, she was able to do wonders in both a +plastic and pictorial way. + +One day she showed me a fine drawing of the Faun of Praxiteles, with +some verses written beneath. The lines seemed to me full of vigor and +harmony. They implied and breathed, too, such an intimacy with classical +thought, that I was astonished when, in answer to my inquiry, she told +me she wrote them herself. + +"How delighted Mr. Lewis will be with this!" I exclaimed, looking at the +beautifully finished drawing; "to think how you have improved, Lulu!" + +"You think so?" she answered, with glistening eyes. "I, too, feel that I +have, and am so happy!" + +"I am sure Mr. Lewis will be so, too," I continued, persistently. + +She answered in a sharp tone, dropping her eyes, and, as it were, all +the joy out of them,-- + +"Surely, I have told you often enough that Mr. Lewis hates literary +women! I am not goose enough to expect him to sympathize with any +intellectual pursuits of mine. No. Fatima in the harem, or Nourmahal +thrumming her lute under a palm-tree, is his _belle-idéale_; failing +that, a housekeeper and drudge." + +I cannot describe the scorn with which she said this. She changed the +subject, however, at once, instead of pursuing it as she would formerly +have done, and soon after left me for a drive over Milton Hills with +George, with a hammer and sketch-book in the chaise. + +Mr. Lewis's business in Cuba was prolonged into May. He had estates +there, and desired to dispose of them, Lulu said, so that they might for +the future live entirely at the North, which they both liked better. + +I could not help seeing that her affections drifted farther and farther +every week from their lawful haven, and I wished Mr. Lewis safe back +again and overlooking his Northern estates. I guessed how, through her +pride of awakened intellect, Lulu's gratitude had wrought a deep +interest in her cousin. He had rescued her from the idleness and inanity +of her daily life, pointed out to her the broad fields of literary +enjoyment and excellence, and inevitably associated his own image with +all the new and varied occupations with which her now busy days were +filled. The poetry she read he brought to her; the songs she sang were +of his selection. His mind and taste, his observations and reflections, +were all written over every page she read, over every hour of her life. +She had been on a desert island in her intellectual loneliness. She +could hardly help loving the hand that had guided her to the palm-tree +and the fountain, especially when she glanced back at the long sandy +reach of her life. + +Naturally enough, I watched and distrusted Mr. Remington, who was a man +of the world, and knew very well what he was about. Of all things, he +dearly loved to be excited, occupied, and amused. Of course, I was not +disturbed about his heart, nor seriously supposed he would get into any +entanglement of the affections and the duties of life, but I thought he +might do a great deal of harm for all that. + +At last, in the middle of May, Mr. Lewis returned, having failed in his +desired arrangement for a permanent residence in New England. The first +evening I saw them together without company, I perceived that he was +struck with the new life in Lulu's manner and conversation. He watched +and listened to her with an astonishment which he could not conceal. + +I never saw anything like jealousy in Mr. Lewis's manner, either at this +time, or before. He was always tender and dignified, when speaking to or +of her. If he felt any uneasiness now, he did not betray it. In looking +back, I am sure of this. Afterwards, in company, where he might be +supposed to be proud of his wife, he often looked at her with the same +astonishment, and sometimes with unaffected admiration. He could not +help seeing the great change in her,--that the days were taken up with +rational and elegant pursuits, and that the hours were vocal with poetry +and taste. The illuminating mind had brought her tulip beauty into a +brighter and more gorgeous glow, and her movements were full of graceful +meaning. Everything was touched and inspired but the heart. I don't know +that he felt this, or that he missed anything. She had the same easy +self-possession in his presence which she had always had,--the same pet +names of endearment. It was always "Willie, dear," or "Yes, my love," +which makes the usual matrimonial vocabulary, and which does not reward +study. But he always looked at her with a calm delight, perfectly +satisfied with all she said and did, and with a Southern indolence of +mind and body, that precluded effort. I think he never once lost entire +confidence in her, or was jealous of the hand that had unlocked such +mental treasures for her. + +Meanwhile her eager lip quaffed the bright cup so cautiously presented, +and drained it with ever new delight. If it was mingled with delicate +flattery, it only sparkled more merrily; and if there were poison there, +I am sure she never guessed it, even when it burnt in her cheek or +thrilled in her dancing veins. + + +XII. + +The Lewises, with Mr. Remington and a large party of pleasure-seekers, +went about this time on a tour to Quebec and the Falls of Montmorency. +They decided to shut their house in Boston, and Lulu asked me if I would +employ and look after a _protégée_ of hers, in whom she took some +interest. The woman was a tolerable seamstress, she said, and would come +to me the next day. She knew nothing about her except that she was poor +and could sew. + +When the woman came in, I was puzzled to think where I could have seen +her, which I was sure I had done somewhere, though I could not recall +the where or when. In answer to my particular inquiries, as she could +give me no references, she told me her husband was living, but was sick +and could do nothing for his family,--in fact, that she and three +children were kept alive by her efforts of various sorts. These were, +sewing when she could get it, washing and scrubbing when she could not. +She was very poorly dressed, but had a Yankee, go-ahead expression, as +if she would get a living on the top of a bare rock. + +Still puzzling over the likeness in her face to somebody I had known, I +continued to ask questions and to observe face, manner, and voice, in +hope to catch the clue of which I was in search. When she admitted that +her husband's intemperance had lost him his place and forbade his +getting another, and said his name was Jim Ruggles, "a light broke in +upon my brain." I remembered my vision of the fresh young girl who had +sprung out on our path like a morning-glory, on our way to New York +seven years before. The poor morning-glory was sadly trodden in the +dust. It hadn't done "no good," as the driver had remarked, to forewarn +her of the consequences of marrying a sponge. She had accepted her lot, +and, strangely enough, was quite happy in it. There could be no mistake +in the cheerful expression of her worn face. Whatever Jim might be to +other people, she said, he was always good to her and the children; and +she pitied him, loved him, and took care of him. It wasn't at all in the +fashion the Temperance Society would have liked; for when I first went +to the house, I found her pouring out a glass of strong waters for him, +and handing it to his pale and trembling lips herself. As soon as I was +seated, she locked bottle and glass carefully. Before I left her, she +had given him stimulants of various sorts from the same source, which he +received with grateful smiles, and then went on coughing as before. + +"It's no time now for him to be forming new habits," said she, in answer +to my open-eyed surprise; "and it's best he should have all the comfort +and ease he can get. As long as I can get it for him, he shall have it." + +She spoke very quietly, but very much as if the same will of her own +which had led her to marry Jim Ruggles, when a gay, dissipated fellow, +kept her determined to give him what he wanted, even to the doubtful +extreme I saw. So she struggled bravely on during the next four weeks of +Jim's existence, keeping herself and her three children on hasty +pudding, and buying for Jim's consumptively craving appetite rich +mince-pies and platefuls of good rich food from an eating-house hard by. +At the end of the four weeks he died most peacefully and suddenly, +having not five minutes before swallowed a glass of gin sling, prepared +by the loving hand of his wife, and saying to her, with a firm, clear +voice, and a grateful smile, "Good Amy! always good!" So the weak man's +soul passed away. And as Amy told me about it, with sorrowful sobs, I +was not ready to say or think she had done wrong, although both her +conduct and my opinion were entirely uncanonical. + +Before Mrs. Lewis returned, Amy was one day at my room and asked me when +I expected her back. + +"Is Mr. Lewis with her, Ma'am?" said she, hesitatingly. + +"Of course; at least, I suppose so. Why, what makes you ask?" said I, +with surprise at her downcast eyes and flushed face. + +"I heard he had gone away. And that--_that_ Mr. Remington was there with +her. But you know about it, most likely." + +"No, I know nothing about it, Amy." + +"It was their old cook told me, Mrs. Butler. And she said,--oh! all +sorts of things, that I am sure couldn't be true, for Mrs. Lewis is such +a kind, beautiful woman! I couldn't believe a word she said!" + +In my quality of minister's wife, and with a general distrust of cooks' +opinions, I told Amy that there was always scandal enough, and it was a +waste of time to listen to it. But after she left me, I confess to a +whole hour wasted in speculations and anxious reflections on Amy's +communication, and also to having taken the Dominie away from his sermon +for a like space of time to consider the matter fully. + +I was relieved when the whole party came back, and when the blooming, +happy face of Lulu showed that she, at least, had neither thought nor +done anything very bad. + +The summer was becoming warm and oppressive in Boston, and we prepared +to take the children and go to Weston for a few weeks. While we should +be among the mountains, the Lewises proposed a voyage to Scotland, and +we hoped that sometime in the early autumn we should all be together +once more. The evening before our departure Mr. Remington and Lulu +spent with us, Mr. Lewis coming in at a later hour. I remember vividly +the conversation during the whole of that last evening we ever passed +together. + + +XIII. + +While Mrs. Lewis and I were chatting in one corner on interests +specially feminine, the Dominie had got Mr. Remington into a +metaphysical discussion of some length. From time to time we heard, +"Pascal's idea seems to be," and then, "The notion of Descartes and all +that school of thinkers"; and feeling that they were plunging quite +beyond our depth, we continued babbling of dry goods, and what was +becoming, till Mr. Remington leaned back laughing to us, and said,-- + +"What do you think, ladies? or are you of the opinion of somebody who +said of metaphysics, 'Whoever troubles himself to skin a flint should +have the skin for his pains'?" + +"But that is a most unfair comparison!" said the minister, eagerly, "and +what I will by no means allow. By so much more as the mind is better +than the body, nay, because the mind is all that is worth anything about +a man, metaphysics is the noblest science, and most worthy"-- + +"I give in! I am down!" said Remington. + +"But what are you disputing about?" said I. + +"Oh, only Infinity!" said Remington. "But then you know metaphysics does +not hesitate at anything. I say, it is impossible for the mind to go +back to a first cause, and if the mind of a man cannot conceive an idea, +why of course that idea can never be true to him. I can think of no +cause that may not be an effect." + +"Nor of infinite space, nor of infinite time?" said the minister. + +"No,--of nothing that cannot be divided, and nothing that cannot be +extended." + +"Very good. Perhaps you can't. I suppose we cannot comprehend infinity, +because we are essentially finite ourselves. But it by no means follows +that we cannot apprehend and believe in attributes which we are unable +to comprehend. We can certainly do that." + +"No. After you reach your limit of comprehension, you may say, all +beyond that is infinite,--but you only push the object of your thought +out of view. After you have reiterated the years till you are tired, you +say, beyond that is infinite. You only mean that you are tired of +computing and adding." + +"Then you cannot believe in an Infinite Creator?" said the minister. + +"I can believe in nothing that is not founded on reason. I should be +very glad to believe in an Infinite Creator, only it is entirely +impossible, you see, for the mind to conceive of a being who is not +himself created." + +"Yet you can believe in a world that is not created?" said the minister. +"You can believe that a world full of adaptations, full of signs of +intelligence and design, could be uncreated. How do you make that out?" + +"There remains no greater difficulty to me," said Remington, "in +believing in an uncreated world than you have in believing in an +uncreated God. Why is it stranger that Chaos should produce harmony than +that Nothing should produce God?" + +He looked at us, smiling as he said this, which he evidently considered +unanswerable. + +"You are quite right," said my husband, gravely. "It is impossible that +nothing should produce God, and therefore I say God is eternal. It is +not impossible that something should produce the world, and therefore I +believe the world is not eternal. That point is the one on which the +whole argument hangs in my mind." + +"It does not become me to dispute a clergyman," said Mr. Remington, +smiling affectedly, as if only courtesy prevented his coming in with an +entirely demolishing argument. + +To my great surprise Lulu instantly answered, and with an intelligence +that showed she had followed the argument entirely,-- + +"I am certain, George, that Mr. Prince has altogether the best of it. +Yours is merely a technical difficulty,--merely words. You can conceive +a thousand things which you can never fully comprehend. And this, too, +is a proof of the Infinite Father in our very reasoning,--that, if we +could comprehend Him, we should be ourselves infinite. As it is, we can +believe and adore,--and, more than that, rejoice that we cannot in this +finite life of ours do more." + +"If we believed we could comprehend Him," said I, "we should soon begin +to meddle with God's administration of affairs." + +"Yes,--and in fatalism I have always thought there was a profound +reverence," said Lulu. + +"Oh, are you going into theological mysteries, too?" said Remington, +with a laugh in which none of us joined; "what care you, Lulu, for the +quiddities of Absolute Illimitation and Infinite Illimitation? After +all, what matters it whether one believes in a God, who you allow to be +the personation of all excellence, if only one endeavors to act up to +the highest conceivable standard of perfection,--I mean of human +perfection,--leaving, of course, a liberal margin for human frailties +and defects? One wouldn't like to leave out mercy, you know." + +Whatever might be the real sentiments of the man, there was an air of +levity in his mode of treating the most important subjects of thought +which displeased me, especially when he said, "You adore the +Incomprehensible; I am contented to adore, with silent reverence, the +lovely works of His hand." He pointed his remark without hesitation at +LuLu, who sat looking into the fire, and did not notice him or it. + +"You are quite right, Mr. Prince, and my cousin, is quite wrong," said +she, looking up with a docile, childlike expression, at the minister. +"One feels that all through, though one may not be able to reason or +argue about it." + +"And the best evidence of all truth, my dear," answered the delighted +Dominie, "is that intuition which is before all reasoning, and by which +we must try reasoning itself. The moral is before the intellectual; and +that is why we preachers continually insist on faith as an illuminator +of the reason." + +"You mean that we should cultivate faith," I said. + +"Yes: not the faith that is blind, but the faith that sees, that is +positive; that which leads, not that which follows; the faith that +weighs argument and decides on it; in short, the native intuitions which +are a necessary part of the mind." + +"I see, and I shall remember," said Lulu. "I shall never forget all you +say, Mr. Prince." + +It was this sweet frankness, and the clearness with which her lately +developed intellect acted, that made us begin to respect Lulu as well as +to love her. She seemed to be getting right-minded at last. + +When Mr. Lewis came, the conversation turned on other subjects; but it +was quite late at night before we were willing to part with our friends. +The shadow of misgiving which hangs over even short separations was +deeper than usual with me from the thought of the voyage. Lulu had been +so many times across the sea that she had no fear of it; and she went +up-stairs with me to say last words and give last commissions with her +usual cheerfulness. Notwithstanding the relief which I had felt during +the evening from her expressions of a moral and religious kind, I yet +had a brooding fear of the effect of association with a mind so lively +and so full of error as Remington's. What help or what sustaining power +for her there might be in her husband I could not tell; but be it more +or less, I feared she would not avail herself of it. Indeed, I feared +that she was daily becoming more alienated from him, as she pursued +onward and upward the bright mental track on which she had entered. And +it was seeing that she had not yet begun to con the alphabet of true +knowledge, that disturbed me most. If I could have seen her thoughtful +for others, humble in her endeavor after duty, I should have hailed, +rejoicingly, her intellectual illumination. As it was, I could not help +saying to her, anxiously, before we went downstairs,-- + +"I don't like Mr. Remington's notions at all, my dear!--I don't mean +merely his theological notions, but his ideas of life and duty seem to +me wrong and poor. You will forgive me, if I say, you cannot be too +careful how you allow his views to act on your own sense of right and +wrong." + +"What!--George? Oh, dear friend, it is only his nonsense! He will take +any side for the time, only to hear himself talk. But he _is_ the best +fellow that ever breathed. Oh, if you only knew his excellence as well +as I do!" + +"My dear Lulu!" I expostulated, greatly pained to see her glowing face +and the almost tearful sparkle of her eyes, as she defended her cousin, +"your husband is a great deal the best guide for you,--in action, and I +presume in opinion. At all events, you are safest under the shadow of +his wing. There is the truest peace for a wife." + +Whether she guessed what was in my mind I don't know; I did not try much +to conceal it. But she shook her curls away from her face as if +irritated, and answered in a tone from which all the animation had been +quenched,-- + +"No. I have been a child. I am one no longer. Don't ask me to go back. I +am a living, feeling, understanding woman! George himself allows it is +perfectly shocking to be treated as I am,--a mere toy! a plaything!" + +George again! I could scarcely restrain my impatience. Yet how to make +her understand? + +"Don't you see, Lulu, that George ought never to have dared to name the +subject of your and your husband's differences? and do you not see that +you can never discuss the subject with anybody with propriety? If, +unhappily, all is not as you, as we, wish it, let us hope for the effect +of time and right feeling in both; but don't, don't allow any gentleman +to talk to you of your husband's treatment of you!" + +Lulu listened in quiet wonderment, while, with agitated voice and +trembling mouth, I addressed her as I had never before done. I had +constantly avoided speaking to her on the subject. She looked at me now +with clear, innocent eyes, (I am so glad to remember them!) and placed +her two hands affectionately on my shoulders. + +"I know what you mean,--and what you fear. That I shall say something, +or do something undignified, or possibly wrong. But that, with God's +help, I shall never do. Such happiness as I can procure, aside from my +husband, and which I had a right to expect through him,--such enjoyment +as comes from intellectual improvement and the exercise of my faculties, +this is surely innocent pleasure, this I shall have. And George,--you +must not blame him for being indignant, when he sees me treated so +unworthily,--or for calling Lewis a Pacha, as he always does. You must +think, my dear, that it isn't pleasant to be treated only like a +Circassian slave, and that one may have something better to do in life +than to twirl jewelled armlets, or to light my lord's _chibouk!_" + +She looked all radiant with scorn, as she said this,--her eyes flashing, +and her very forehead crimson. I could see she was remembering long +months and years in that moment of indignant anger. Seeing them with her +eyes, I could not say she was unjust, or that her estrangement was +unnatural. + +"Now, then, good friend, good bye! Don't look anxious. Don't fear for +me. I am not happy, but I shall know how to keep myself from misery. You +and your excellent husband have done more for me than you know or think; +and I shall try to keep right." + +She left me with this, and we parted from both with a lingering sweet +friendliness that dwells still in our memories. + +"It would be horrible to be on these terms, if she loved him," said the +minister, that night, after I had told him of our parting interview. + +"Well, she don't, you see. Did she ever?" + +"With such mind and heart as she had, I suppose. On the other hand, what +did he marry?" + +"Grace and beauty--and promise. Of course, like every man in love, he +took everything good for granted." + +"The sweetest flower in my garden," said the minister, "should perfume +no stranger's vase, however, nor dangle at a knave's button-hole." + +"Because you would watch it and care for it, water and train it, and +make it doubly your own. But if you did neither?" + +"I should deserve my fate," said he, sorrowfully. + + +XIV. + +The first letter we received from Mrs. Lewis was from the North of +Scotland, where the party of three, increased to one much larger, were +making the tour of the Hebrides. I cannot say much for either the +penmanship or the orthography of the letter, which was incorrect as +usual; but the abundant beauty of her descriptions, and the fine sense +she seemed to have of lofty and wild scenery, made her journey a living +picture. All her keen sense of external life was brought into activity, +and she projected on the paper before her groups of people, or groups of +mountains, with a vividness that showed she had only to transfer them +from the retina: they had no need of any additional processes. She made +no remarks on society, or inferences from what she saw in the present to +what had been in the past or might be in the future. It was simply a +power of representation, unequalled in its way, and yet more remarkable +to us for what it failed of doing than for what it did. + +We could not but perceive two things. One, that she never spoke of +home-ties, or children, or husband: not an allusion to either. The +other, that every hill and every vale, the mounting mist and the resting +shadow, all that gave life and beauty to her every-day pursuits, which +seemed, indeed, all pictorial,--all these were informed and permeated, +as it were, with one influence,--that of Remington. An uncomfortable +sense of this made me say, as I finished the letter,-- + +"I am sorry for the poor bird!" + +"So am I," answered the minister, with a clouded brow; "and the more, as +I think I see the bird is limed." + +"How?" I said, with a sort of horrified retreat from the expressed +thought, though the thought itself haunted me. + +My husband seemed thinking the matter over, as if to clear it in his own +mind before he spoke again. + +"I suppose there is a moral disease, which, through its connection with +a newly awakened and brilliant intellect, does not enervate the whole +character. I mean that this connection of moral weakness with the +intellect gives a fatal strength to the character,--do you take me?" + +"Yes, I think so," said I. + +"She is lofty, self-poised,--confident in what never yet supported any +one. Pride of character does not keep us from falling. Humility would +help us in that way. Unfortunately, that, too, is often bought dearly. I +mean that this virtue of humbleness, which makes us tender of others and +afraid for ourselves, is at the expense of sorrowful and humiliating +experience." + +"You speak as if you feared more for her than I do," said I, struck by +the foreboding look in his face. + +"You women judge only by your own hearts, or by solitary instances; and +you forget the inevitable downward course of wrong tendencies. Besides, +she has neither lofty principle nor a strong will. You will think I +mistake here; but I don't mean she has not wilfulness enough. A strong +will generally excludes wilfulness,--and the converse." + +This conversation made me nervous. + +I had such an intense anxiety for her now, that I could not avoid +expressing it often and strongly in my letters to her. I wondered Lewis +was not more open-eyed. I blamed him for letting her run on so +heedlessly into habits which might compromise her reputation for dignity +and discretion, if no worse. Then I would recall her manner the last +evening she was with us, when, although her want of self-regulation was +very apparent, not less so was the native nobleness and purity of her +soul. I could not think of this "unsphered angel wofully astray" without +inward tears that dimmed the vision of my foreboding heart. + +Could Lewis mistake her indifference? Could he avoid suffering from it? +Could he, for a moment, accept her conventional expletives in place of +the irrepressible and endearing tokens of a real love? Could he see what +had weaned her from him, and was still, like a baleful star, wiling her +farther and farther on its treacherously lighted path? Could he +see,--feel?--had he a heart? These questions I incessantly asked myself. + +In the last days of summer we went with the children to Nantasket Beach. + +We had walked to a point of rocks at some distance from the bay, above +which we lodged, and were sitting in the luxury of quiet companionship, +gazing out on the water. + +The ineffable, still beauty of Nature, separated from the usual noises +of actual life,--the brilliant effect of the long reaches of color from +the plunging sun, as it dipped, and reappeared, and dipped again, as +loath to leave its field of beauty,--then the still plash against the +rocks, and the subsidence in murmurs of the retiring wave, with all its +gathered treasure of pebbles and shells,--all these sounds and sights of +reposeful life suggested unspeakable thoughts and memories that clung to +silence. We had not been without so much sorrow in life as does not well +afford to dwell on its own images; and we rose to retrace our steps to +the measure of the eternal and significant psalm of the sea. + +As we turned away, we both perceived at once a sail in the distance, +against the western sky. It had just rounded the nearest point and was +coming slowly in with a gentle breeze, when it suddenly tacked and put +out to sea again. It had come so near, however, that with our glass we +saw that it was a small boat, holding two persons, and with a single +sail. + +Immediately after, a dead calm succeeded the light wind which had before +rippled the distant waves, and we watched the boat, lying as if asleep +and floating lazily on the red water against the blazing sky,--or +rather, itself like a cradle, so pavilioned was it with gorgeous +cloud-curtains, and fit home for the two water-sprites lying in the +slant sunbeams. + +Walking slowly borne, we felt the air to be full of oppressive languor, +and turned now and then to see if the distant sail were yet lightened by +the coming breeze. When we reached the inner bay, we mounted a rock, +from which, with the lessened interval between us, I could distinctly +see the boat. One of the occupants--a lady--wore a dark hat with a +scarlet plume drooping from it. She leaned over the gunwale, dipping her +hands in the blazing water and holding them up against the light, as if +playing rainbows in the sunset. The other figure was busy in fastening +up the sail, ready to catch the first breath of wind. + +As we stood looking, the water, which during the last few minutes had +changed from flaming red to the many-colored hues of a dolphin's back, +suddenly turned slate-colored, almost black. Then a low scud crept +stealthily and quickly along the surface, bringing with it a steady +breeze, for perhaps five minutes. We watched the little boat, as it +yielded gracefully to the welcome impetus, and swept rapidly to the +shore. Fearing, however, from the sudden change of weather, that it +would soon rain, we cast a parting look at the boat, and started on a +rapid walk to the house. + +This last glimpse of the boat showed us a tall figure standing upright +against the mast, and fastening or holding something to it, while the +lady still played with the water, bending her head so low that the red +plume in her hat almost touched it. She seemed in a pleasant reverie, +and rocked softly with the rocking waves. It was a peaceful +picture,--the sail set, and full of heaven's breath, as it seemed. + +Before we could grasp anything,--even if there had been anything to +grasp on the level sand,--we were both taken at once off our feet and +thrown violently to the ground. I had felt the force of water before, +but never that of wind, and had no idea of the utter helplessness of man +or woman before a wind that is really in earnest. It was with a very +novel sense of more than childish incapacity that I suffered the Dominie +to gather up capes, canes, hats, and shawls, and, last of all, an +astonished woman, and put them on their way homewards. However, long +before we reached the house-door we were drenched to the skin. The rain +poured in blinding sheets, and the thunder was like a hundred cannon +about our ears. It was so sudden and so frightful to me that I had but +one idea, that of getting into the piazza, where was comparative safety. +Having reached it, we turned to face the elements. Nothing could be seen +through the thick deluge. The ocean itself, tossing and tumbling in +angry darkness, seemed fighting with the other ocean that poured from +the black wall above, and all was one tumult of thunderous fury. This +elemental war lasted but a short time, and gave place to a quiet as +sudden as its angry burst. It was my first experience of a squall. It is +always difficult for me to feel that a storm is a natural +occurrence,--so that I have a great reverence for a Dominie who stands +with head uncovered, with calm eyes, looking tranquilly out on the +loudest tempest. + +"Beautiful! wonderful!" he murmured, as the lightning fiercely shot over +us, and the roar died away in long billows of heavy sound. + +Afterwards he told me he had the same unbounded delight in a great storm +as he had at the foot of Niagara, or in looking at the stars on a winter +night: that it stirred in his soul all that was loftiest,--that for the +time he could comprehend Deity, and that "the noise of the thundering of +His waters" was an anthem that struck the highest chords of his nature. +What is really sublime takes us out of ourselves, so that we have no +room for personal terror, and we mingle with the elemental roar in +spirit as with something kindred to us. I guessed this, and meditated on +it, while I stopped my ears and shut my eyes and trembled with +overwhelming terror myself. Clearly, I am a coward, in spite of my +admiration of the sublime. The Dominie, being as good as he is great, +does not require a woman to be sublime, luckily; and I think, as I like +him all the better for his strength, he really does not object to a +moderate amount of weakness on my part, which is unaffected and not to +be helped. When animal magnetism becomes a science, it will be seen why +some spirits revel and soar, and some cower and shrink, at the same +amount of electricity. So the Dominie says now; and then--he said +nothing. + + +XV. + +In the fright, excitement, and thorough wetting, I forgot about the +boat,--or rather, no misgiving seized me as to its safety. But, on +coming to breakfast the next morning, we felt that there was a great +commotion in the house. Everybody was out on the piazza, and a crowd was +gathered a short distance off. Somebody had taken off the doors from the +south entrance, and there was a sort of procession already formed on +each side of these two doors. We went out in front of the house to +listen to a rough fisherman who described the storm in which the little +boat capsized. He had stood on the shore and just finished fastening his +own boat, for he well knew the signs of the storm, when he caught sight +of the little sail scudding with lightning-speed to the landing. +Suddenly it stopped short, shook all over as if in an ague, and capsized +in an instant. The storm broke, and although he tried to discern some +traces of the boat or its occupants, nothing could be seen but the white +foam on the black water, glistening like a shark's teeth when he has +seized his prey. In the early morning he had found two bodies on the +sand. The water, he said, must have tossed them with considerable +force,--yet not against the rocks at all, for they were not disfigured, +nor their clothing much torn. As the man ceased relating the story, the +bodies were brought past us, covered by a piano-cloth which somebody had +considerately snatched up and taken to the shore. They were placed in +the long parlor on a table. + +My husband beckoned to me to come to him. Turning down the cloth, he +showed me the faces I dreamily expected to see. I don't know when I +thought of it, but suppose I recognized the air and movement so +familiar, even in the distant dimness. No matter how clearly and fully +death is expected, when it comes it is with a death-shock,--how much +more, coming as this did, as if with a bolt from the clear sky! + +In their prime,--in their beauty,--in their pride of youth,--in their +pleasure, they died. What was the strong man or the smiling woman,--what +was the smooth sea, the shining sail,--what was strength, skill, +loveliness, against the great and terrible wind of the Lord? + +So here they lay, white and quiet as sculptured stone, and as placid as +if they had only fallen asleep in the midst of the tempestuous uproar. +All the clamor and talking about the house had subsided in the real +presence of death; and every one went lightly and softly around, as if +afraid of wakening the sleepers. + +She had never looked so beautiful, even in her utmost pride of health +and bloom. Her dark luxuriant hair lay in masses over brow and bosom, +and her face expressed the unspeakable calm and perfect peace which are +suggested only by the sleep of childhood. The long eyelashes seemed to +say, in their close adherence to the cheek, how gladly they shut out the +tumult of life; and the whole cast of the face was so elevated by death +as to look rather angelic than mortal. + +His face was quiet, too,--the manliness and massive character of the +features giving a majestic and severe cast to the whole countenance, far +more elevated than it had while living. + +We could only weep over these relics. But where was the deepest mourner? +No one had even seen these two before, or could give any account of +them. + +On making stricter inquiry and looking at the books, we found that Mr. +and Mrs. Lewis had arrived first. Mr. Lewis had taken his gun and a +boat, and gone out at once to shoot. The lady had been in her room but a +short time, when another gentleman arrived, wrote his name, and ordered +a boat. She had scarcely seen any one, but the boatman saw her step into +the boat, and described her dress. + +A message was at once sent to "the Glades," where Mr. Lewis had gone, +and where he was detained, as we had supposed, by the storm. Before he +reached the house, however, all necessary arrangements were completed +for removing any associations of suffering. No confusion remained; the +room was gently darkened, and the bodies, robed in white, lay in such +peaceful silence as soothes and quiets the mourner. + +As the carriage drew up to the door, we both hastened to meet Mr. Lewis, +to take him by the hand, and to lead him, by our evident sympathy, to +accept his terrible affliction with something like composure. In our +entire uncertainty as to his feelings, we could only weep silently, and +hold his hands, which were as cold as death. + +He looked surprised a little at seeing us, but otherwise his face was +like stone. His eyes,--they, too, looked stony, and as if all the +expression and life were turned inward. Outwardly, there seemed hardly +consciousness. He sat down between us, while we related all the +particulars of the accident, which he seemed greedy to hear,--turning, +as one ceased, to the other, with an eager, hungry look, most painful +to witness. He made us describe, repeatedly, our last glimpse of the +unconscious victims, and then, pressing our hands with a vice-cold grip, +said, in a dry whisper,-- + +"Where are they?" + +We led him to the door. He went in, and we softly closed it after him. +As we went up-stairs to our own room we heard deep groans of anguish. We +knew that his heart could not relieve itself by tears. My husband read +the "prayer for persons in great affliction," and then we sat silently +looking out on the peaceful sea. In the great stillness of the house, we +heard the calm wave plash up on the smiling sands, and watched the +silver specks in the distance as they hovered over the blue sea. So +soft, so still, it had been the day before,--and where we now saw the +placid wave we had seen it then. Yet there had two lives gone out, as +suddenly as one quenches a lamp. + +Thinking, but not speaking, we waited. The report of a pistol in the +house struck us to the heart. I believe we felt sure, both of us, of +what it must be. He had loved her so much! And now we were sure, that in +the tension of his grief, reason had given way. When we saw them next, +there were three where two had been, in the marble calm of death. + + * * * * * + +THE FORMATION OF GLACIERS. + + +The long summer was over. For ages a tropical climate had prevailed over +a great part of the earth, and animals whose home is now beneath the +Equator roamed over the world from the far South to the very borders of +the Arctics. The gigantic quadrupeds, the Mastodons, Elephants, Tigers, +Lions, Hyenas, Bears, whose remains are found in Europe from its +southern promontories to the northernmost limits of Siberia and +Scandinavia, and in America from the Southern States to Greenland and +the Melville Islands, may indeed be said to have possessed the earth in +those days. But their reign was over. A sudden intense winter, that was +also to last for ages, fell upon our globe; it spread over the very +countries where these tropical animals had their homes, and so suddenly +did it come upon them that they were embalmed beneath masses of snow and +ice, without time even for the decay which follows death. The Elephant +whose story was told at length in the preceding article was by no means +a solitary specimen; upon further investigation it was found that the +disinterment of these large tropical animals in Northern Russia and Asia +was no unusual occurrence. Indeed, their frequent discoveries of this +kind had given rise among the ignorant inhabitants to the singular +superstition already alluded to, that gigantic moles lived under the +earth, which crumbled away and turned to dust as soon as they came to +the upper air. This tradition, no doubt, arose from the fact, that, when +in digging they came upon the bodies of these animals, they often found +them perfectly preserved under the frozen ground, but the moment they +were exposed to heat and light they decayed and fell to pieces at once. +Admiral Wrangel, whose Arctic explorations have been so valuable to +science, tells us that the remains of these animals are heaped up in +such quantities in certain parts of Siberia that he and his men climbed +over ridges and mounds consisting entirely of the bones of Elephants, +Rhinoceroses, etc. From these facts it would seem that they roamed over +all these northern regions in troops as large and numerous as the +Buffalo herds that wander over our Western prairies now. We are +indebted to Russian naturalists, and especially to Rathke, for the most +minute investigations of these remains, in which even the texture of the +hair, the skin, and flesh has been subjected by him to microscopic +examination as accurate as if made upon any living animal. + +We have as yet no clue to the source of this great and sudden change of +climate. Various suggestions have been made,--among others, that +formerly the inclination of the earth's axis was greater, or that a +submersion of the continents under water might have produced a decided +increase of cold; but none of these explanations are satisfactory, and +science has yet to find any cause which accounts for all the phenomena +connected with it. It seems, however, unquestionable that since the +opening of the Tertiary age a cosmic summer and winter have succeeded +each other, during which a Tropical heat and an Arctic cold have +alternately prevailed over a great portion of the globe. In the +so-called drift (a superficial deposit subsequent to the Tertiaries, of +the origin of which I shall speak presently) there are found far to the +south of their present abode the remains of animals whose home now is in +the Arctics or the coldest parts of the Temperate Zones. Among them are +the Musk-Ox, the Reindeer, the Walrus, the Seal, and many kinds of +Shells characteristic of the Arctic regions. The northernmost part of +Norway and Sweden is at this day the southern limit of the Reindeer in +Europe; but their fossil remains are found in large quantities in the +drift about the neighborhood of Paris, where their presence would, of +course, indicate a climate similar to the one now prevailing in Northern +Scandinavia. Side by side with the remains of the Reindeer are found +those of the European Marmot, whose present home is in the mountains, +about six thousand feet above the level of the sea. The occurrence of +these animals in the superficial deposits of the plains of Central +Europe, one of which is now confined to the high North, and the other to +mountain-heights, certainly indicates an entire change of climatic +conditions since the time of their existence. European Shells now +confined to the Northern Ocean are found as fossils in Italy,--showing, +that, while the present Arctic climate prevailed in the Temperate Zone, +that of the Temperate Zone extended much farther south to the regions we +now call sub-tropical. In America there is abundant evidence of the same +kind; throughout the recent marine deposits of the Temperate Zone, +covering the low lands above tide-water on this continent, are found +fossil Shells whose present home is on the shores of Greenland. It is +not only in the Northern hemisphere that these remains occur, but in +Africa and in South America, wherever there has been an opportunity for +investigation, the drift is found to contain the traces of animals whose +presence indicates a climate many degree colder than that now prevailing +there. + +But these organic remains are not the only evidence of the geological +winter. There are a number of phenomena indicating that during this +period two vast caps of ice stretched from the Northern pole southward +and from the Southern pole northward, extending in each case far toward +the Equator,--and that ice-fields, such as now spread over the Arctics, +covered a great part of the Temperate Zones, while the line of perpetual +ice and snow in the tropical mountain-ranges descended far below its +present limits. As the explanation of these facts has been drawn from +the study of glacial action, I shall devote this and subsequent articles +to some account of glaciers and of the phenomena connected with them. + +The first essential condition for the formation of glaciers in +mountain-ranges is the shape of their valleys. Glaciers are by no means +in proportion to the height and extent of mountains. There are many +mountain-chains as high or higher than the Alps, which can boast of but +few and small glaciers, if, indeed, they have any. In the Andes, the +Rocky Mountains, the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, the few glaciers remaining +from the great ice-period are insignificant in size. The volcanic, +cone-like shape of the Andes gives, indeed, but little chance for the +formation of glaciers, though their summits are capped with snow. The +glaciers of the Rocky Mountains have been little explored, but it is +known that they are by no means extensive. In the Pyrenees there is but +one great glacier, though the height of these mountains is such, that, +were the shape of their valleys favorable to the accumulation of snow, +they might present beautiful glaciers. In the Tyrol, on the contrary, as +well as in Norway and Sweden, we find glaciers almost as fine as those +of Switzerland, in mountain-ranges much lower than either of the +above-named chains. But they are of diversified forms, and have valleys +widening upward on the slope of long crests. The glaciers on the +Caucasus are very small in proportion to the height of the range; but on +the northern side of the Himalaya there are large and beautiful ones, +while the southern slope is almost destitute of them. Spitzbergen and +Greenland are famous for their extensive glaciers, coming down to the +sea-shore, where huge masses of ice, many hundred feet in thickness, +break off and float away into the ocean as icebergs. At the Aletsch in +Switzerland, where a little lake lies in a deep cup between the +mountains, with the glacier coming down to its brink, we have these +Arctic phenomena on a small scale; a miniature iceberg may often be seen +to break off from the edge of the larger mass, and float out upon the +surface of the water. Icebergs were first traced back to their true +origin by the nature of the land-ice of which they are always composed, +and which is quite distinct in structure and consistency from the marine +ice produced by frozen sea-water, and called "ice-flow" by the Arctic +explorers, as well as from the pond or river ice, resulting from the +simple congelation of fresh water. + +Water is changed to ice at a certain temperature under the same law of +crystallization by which any inorganic bodies in a fluid state may +assume a solid condition, taking the shape of perfectly regular +crystals, which combine at certain angles with mathematical precision. +The frost does not form a solid, continuous sheet of ice over an expanse +of water, but produces crystals, little ice-blades, as it were, which +shoot into each other at angles of thirty or sixty degrees, forming the +closest net-work. Of course, under the process of alternate freezing and +thawing, these crystals lose their regularity, and soon become merged in +each other. But even then a mass of ice is not continuous or compact +throughout, for it is rendered completely porous by air-bubbles, the +presence of which is easily explained. Ice being in a measure +transparent to heat, the water below any frozen surface is nearly as +susceptible to the elevation of the temperature without as if it were in +immediate contact with it. Such changes of temperature produce +air-bubbles, which float upward against the lower surface of the ice and +are stranded there. At night there may come a severe frost; new ice is +then formed below the air-bubbles, and they are thus caught and +imprisoned, a layer of air-bubbles between two layers of ice, and this +process may be continued until we have a succession of such parallel +layers, forming a body of ice more or less permeated with air. These +air-bubbles have the power also of extending their own area, and thus +rendering the whole mass still more porous; for, since the ice offers +little or no obstacle to the passage of heat, such an air-bubble may +easily become heated during the day; the moment it reaches a temperature +above thirty-two degrees, it melts the ice around it, thus clearing a +little space for itself, and rises through the water produced by the +action of its own warmth. The spaces so formed are so many vertical +tubes in the ice, filled with water, and having an air-bubble at the +upper extremity. + +Ice of this kind, resulting from the direct congelation of water, is +easily recognized under all circumstances by its regular +stratification, the alternate beds varying in thickness according to the +intensity of the cold, and its continuance below the freezing-point +during a longer or shorter period. Singly, these layers consist of +irregular crystals confusedly blended together, as in large masses of +crystalline rocks in which a crystalline structure prevails, though +regular crystals occur but rarely. The appearance of stratification is +the result of the circumstances under which the water congeals. The +temperature varies much more rapidly in the atmosphere around the earth +than in the waters upon its surface. When the atmosphere above any sheet +of water sinks below the freezing-point, there stretches over its +surface a stratum of cold air, determining by its intensity and duration +the formation of the first stratum of ice. According to the alternations +of temperature, this process goes on with varying activity until the +sheet of ice is so thick that it becomes itself a shelter to the water +below, and protects it, to a certain degree, from the cold without. Thus +a given thickness of ice may cause a suspension of the freezing process, +and the first ice-stratum may even be partially thawed before the cold +is renewed with such intensity as to continue the thickening of the +ice-sheet by the addition of fresh layers. The strata or beds of ice +increase gradually in this manner, their separation being rendered still +more distinct by the accumulation of air-bubbles, which, during a hot +and clear day, may rise from a muddy bottom in great numbers. In +consequence of these occasional collections of air-bubbles, the layers +differ, not only in density and closeness, but also in color, the more +compact strata being blue and transparent, while those containing a +greater quantity of air-bubbles are opaque and whitish, like water +beaten to froth. + +A cake of pond-ice, such as is daily left in summer at our doors, if +held against the light and turned in different directions, will exhibit +all these phenomena very distinctly, and we may learn still more of its +structure by watching its gradual melting. The process of decomposition +is as different in fresh-water ice and in land-or glacier-ice and that +of their formation. Pond-ice, in contact with warm air, melts uniformly +over its whole surface, the mass being thus gradually reduces from the +exterior till it vanishes completely. If the process be slow, the +temperature of the air-bubbles contained in it may be so raised as to +form the vertical funnels or tubes alluded to above. By the anastomosing +of these funnels, the whole mass may be reduced to a collection of +angular pyramids, more or less closely united by cross-beams of ice, and +it finally falls to pieces when the spaces in the interior have become +for numerous as to render it completely cavernous. Such a breaking-up of +ice is always caused by the enlargement of the open spaces produces by +the elevated temperature of the air-bubbles, these spaces being +necessarily more or less parallel with one another, and vertical in +their position, owing to the natural tendency of the air-bubbles to work +their way upward till they reach the surface, where they escape. A sheet +of ice, of this kind, floating upon water, dissolves in the same manner, +melting wholly from the surface, if the process be sufficiently rapid, +or falling to pieces, if the air-bubbles are gradually raised in their +temperature sufficiently to render the whole mass cavernous and +incoherent. If we now compare these facts with what is known of the +structure of land-ice, we shall see that the mode of formation in the +two cases differs essentially. + +Land-ice, of which both the ice-fields of the Arctics and glaciers +consist, is produced by the slow and gradual transformation of snow into +ice; and though the ice thus formed may eventually be as clear and +transparent as the purest pond- or river-ice, its structure is +nevertheless entirely distinct. We may trace these different processes +during any moderately cold winter in the ponds and snow-meadows +immediately about us. We need not join an Arctic exploring expedition, +nor even undertake a more tempting trip to the Alps, in order to +investigate these phenomena for ourselves, if we have any curiosity to +do so. The first warm day after a thick fall of light, dry snow, such as +occurs in the coldest of our winter weather, is sufficient to melt its +surface. As this snow is porous, the water readily penetrates it, having +also a tendency to sink by its own weight, so that the whole mass +becomes more or less filled with moisture in the course of the day. +Daring the lower temperature of the night, however, the water is frozen +again, and the snow is now filled with new ice-particles. Let this +process be continued long enough, and the mass of snow is changed to a +kind of ice-gravel, or, if the grains adhere together, to something like +what we call pudding-stone, allowing, of course, for the difference of +material; the snow, which has been rendered cohesive by the process of +partial melting and regelation, holding the ice-globules together, just +as the loose materials of the pudding-stone are held together by the +cement which unites them. + +Within this mass, air is intercepted and held inclosed between the +particles of ice. The process by which snow-flakes or snow-crystals are +transformed into grains of ice, more or less compact, is easily +understood. It is the result of a partial thawing, under a temperature +maintained very nearly at thirty-two degrees, falling sometimes a little +below, and then rising a little above the freezing-point, and thus +producing constant alternations of freezing and thawing in the same mass +of snow. This process amounts to a kind of kneading of the snow, and +when combined with the cohesion among the particles more closely held +together in one snow-flake, it produces granular ice. Of course, the +change takes place gradually, and is unequal in its progress at +different depths in the same bed of recently fallen snow. It depends +greatly on the amount of moisture infiltrating the mass, whether derived +from the melting of its own surface, or from the accumulation of dew or +the falling of rain or mist upon it. The amount of water retained within +the mass will also be greatly affected by the bottom on which it rests +and by the state of the atmosphere. Under a certain temperature, the +snow may only be glazed at the surface by the formation of a thin, icy +crust, an outer membrane, as it were, protecting the mass below from a +deeper transformation into ice; or it may be rapidly soaked throughout +its whole bulk, the snow being thus changed into a kind of soft pulp, +what we commonly call slosh, which, upon freezing, becomes at once +compact ice; or, the water sinking rapidly, the lower layers only may be +soaked, while the upper portion remains comparatively dry. But, under +all these various circumstances, frost will transform the crystalline +snow into more or less compact ice, the mass of which will be composed +of an infinite number of aggregated snow-particles, very unequal in +regularity of outline, and cemented by ice of another kind, derived from +the freezing of the infiltrated moisture, the whole being interspersed +with air. Let the temperature rise, and such a mass, rigid before, will +resolve itself again into disconnected ice-particles, like grains more +or less rounded. The process may be repeated till the whole mass is +transformed into very compact, almost uniformly transparent and blue +ice, broken only by the intervening air-bubbles. Such a mass of ice, +when exposed to a temperature sufficiently high to dissolve it, does not +melt from the surface and disappear by a gradual diminution of its bulk, +like pond-ice, but crumbles into its original granular fragments, each +one of which melts separately. This accounts for the sudden +disappearance icebergs, which, instead of slowly dissolving into the +ocean, are often seen to fall to pieces and vanish at once. + +Ice of this kind may be seen forming every winter on our sidewalks, on +the edge of the little ditches which drain them, or on the summits of +broad gateposts when capped with snow. Of such ice glaciers are +composed; but, in the glacier, another element comes in which we have +not considered as yet,--that of immense pressure in consequence of the +vast accumulations of snow within circumscribed spaces. We see the same +effects produced on a small scale, when snow is transformed into a +snowball between the hands. Every boy who balls a mass of snow in his +hands illustrates one side of glacial phenomena. Loose snow, light and +porous, and pure white from the amount of air contained in it, is in +this way presently converted into hard, compact, almost transparent ice. +This change will take place sooner, if the snow be damp at first,--but +if dry, the action of the hand will presently produce moisture enough to +complete the process. In this case, mere pressure produces the same +effect which, in the cases we have been considering above, was brought +about by alternate thawing and freezing,--only that in the latter the +ice is distinctly granular, instead of being uniform throughout, as when +formed under pressure. In the glaciers we have the two processes +combined. But the investigators of glacial phenomena have considered too +exclusively one or the other: some of them attributing glacial motion +wholly to the dilatation produced by the freezing of infiltrated +moisture in the mass of snow; others accounting for it entirely by +weight and pressure. There is yet a third class, who, disregarding the +real properties of ice, would have us believe, that, because tar, for +instance, is viscid when it moves, therefore ice is viscid because it +moves. We shall see hereafter that the phenomena exhibited in the onward +movement of glaciers are far more diversified than has generally been +supposed. + +There is no chain of mountains in which the shape of the valleys is more +favorable to the formation of glaciers than the Alps. Contracted at +their lower extremity, these valleys widen upward, spreading into deep, +broad, trough-like depressions. Take, for instance, the valley of +Hassli, which is not more than half a mile wide where you enter it above +Meyringen; it opens gradually upward, till, above the Grimsel, at the +foot of the Finster-Aarhorn, it measures several miles across. These +huge mountain-troughs form admirable cradles for the snow, which +collects in immense quantities within them, and, as it moves slowly down +from the upper ranges, is transformed into ice on its way, and compactly +crowded into the narrower space below. At the lower extremity of the +glacier the ice is pure, blue and transparent, but, as we ascend, it +appears less compact, more porous and granular, assuming gradually the +character of snow, till in the higher regions the snow is as light, as +shifting, and incoherent, as the sand of the desert. A snow-storm on a +mountain-summit is very different from a snow-storm on the plain, on +account of the different degrees of moisture in the atmosphere. At great +heights, there is never dampness enough to allow the fine snow-crystals +to coalesce and form what are called "snow-flakes." I have even stood on +the summit of the Jungfrau when a frozen cloud filled the air with +ice-needles, while I could see the same cloud pouring down sheet of rain +upon Lauterbrunnen below. I remember this spectacle as one of the most +impressive I have witnessed in my long experience of Alpine scenery. The +air immediately about me seemed filled with rainbow-dust, for the +ice-needles glittered with a thousand hues under the decomposition of +light upon them, while the dark storm in the valley below offered a +strange contract to the brilliancy of the upper region in which I stood. +One wonder where even so much vapor as may be transformed into the +finest snow should come from at such heights. But the warm winds, +creeping up the sides of the valleys, the walls of which become heated +during the middle of the day, come laden with moisture which is changed +to a dry snow like dust as soon as it comes into contact with the +intense cold above. + +Currents of warm air affect the extent of the glaciers, and influence +also the line of perpetual snow, which is by no means at the same level +even in neighboring localities. The size of glaciers, of course, +determines to a great degree the height at which they terminate, simply +because a small mass of ice will melt more rapidly, and at a lower +temperature, than a larger one. Thus, the small glaciers, such as those +of the Rothhorn or of Trift, above the Grimsel, terminate at a +considerable height above the plain, while the Mer de Glace, fed from +the great snow-caldrons of Mont Blanc, forces its way down to the bottom +of the valley of Chamouni, and the glacier of Grindelwald, constantly +renewed from the deep reservoirs where the Jungfrau hoards her vast +supplies of snow, descends to about four thousand feet above the +sea-level. But the glacier of the Aar, though also very large, comes to +a pause at about six thousand feet above the level of the sea; for the +south wind from the other side of the Alps, the warm sirocco of Italy, +blows across it, and it consequently melts at a higher level than either +the Mer de Glace or the Grindelwald. It is a curious fact, that in the +valley of Hassli the temperature frequently rises instead of falling as +you ascend; at the Grimsel, the temperature is at times higher than at +Meyringen below, where the warmer winds are not felt so directly. The +glacier of Aletsch, on the southern slope of the Jungfrau, and into +which many other glaciers enter, terminates also at a considerable +height, because it turns into the valley of the Rhone, through which the +southern winds blow constantly. + +Under ordinary conditions, vegetation fades in these mountains at the +height of six thousand feet, but, in consequence of prevailing winds, +and the sheltering influence of the mountain-walls, there is no +uniformity in the limit of perpetual snow and ice. Where currents of +warm air are very constant, glaciers do not occur at all, even where +other circumstances are favorable to their formation. There are valleys +in the Alps far above six thousand feet which have no glaciers, and +where perpetual snow is seen only on their northern sides. These +contrasts in temperature lead to the most wonderful contrasts in the +aspect of the soil; summer and winter lie side by side, and bright +flowers look out from the edge of snows that never melt. Where the warm +winds prevail, there may be sheltered spots at a height of ten or eleven +thousand feet, isolated nooks opening southward where the most exquisite +flowers bloom in the midst of perpetual snow and ice; and occasionally I +have seen a bright little flower with a cap of snow over it that seemed +to be its shelter. The flowers give, indeed, a peculiar charm to these +high Alpine regions. Occurring often in beds of the same kind, forming +green, blue or yellow patches, they seem nestled close together in +sheltered spots, or even in fissures and chasms of the rock, where they +gather in dense quantities. Even in the sternest scenery of the Alps +some sign of vegetation lingers; and I remember to have found a tuft of +lichen growing on the only rock which pierced through the ice on the +summit of the Jungfrau. The absolute solitude, the intense stillness of +the upper Alps is most impressive; no cattle, no pasturage, no bird, nor +any sound of life,--and, indeed, even if there were, the rarity of the +air in these high regions is such that sound is hardly transmissible. +The deep repose, the purity of aspect of every object, the snow, broken +only by ridges of angular rocks, produce an effect no less beautiful +than solemn. Sometimes, in the midst of the wide expanse, one comes upon +a patch of the so-called red snow of the Alps. At a distance, one would +say that such a spot marked some terrible scene of blood, but, as you +come nearer, the hues are so tender and delicate, as they fade from deep +red to rose, and so die into the pure colorless snow around, that the +first impression is completely dispelled. This red snow is an organic +growth, a plant springing up in such abundance that it colors extensive +surfaces, just as the microscopic plants dye our pools with green in the +spring. It is an _Alga_ well known in the Arctics, where it forms wide +fields in the summer. With the above facts before us concerning the +materials of which glaciers are composed, we may now proceed to +consider their structure more fully in connection with their movements +and the effects they produce on the surfaces over which they extend. It +has already been stated that the ice of the glaciers has not the same +appearance everywhere, but differs according to the level at which it +stands. In consequence of this we distinguish three very distinct +regions in these frozen fields, the uppermost of which, upon the sides +of the steepest and highest slopes of the mountain-ridges, consists +chiefly of layers of snow piled one above another by the successive +snowfalls of the colder seasons, and which would remain in uniform +superposition but for the change to which they are subjected in +consequence of a gradual downward movement, causing the mass to descend +by slow degrees, while new accumulations in the higher regions annually +replace the snow which has been thus removed to an inferior level. We +shall consider hereafter the process by which this change of position is +brought about. For the present it is sufficient to state that such a +transfer, by which a balance is preserved in the distribution of the +snow, takes place in all glaciers, so that, instead of increasing +indefinitely in the upper regions, where on account of the extreme cold +there is little melting, they permanently preserve about the same +thickness, being yearly reduced by their downward motion in a proportion +equal to their annual increase by fresh additions of snow. Indeed, these +reservoirs of snow maintain themselves at the same level, much as a +stream, into which many rivulets empty, remains within its usual limits +in consequence of the drainage of the average supply. Of course, very +heavy rains or sudden thaws at certain seasons or in particular years +may cause an occasional overflow of such a stream; and irregularities of +the same kind are observed during certain years or at different periods +of the same year in the accumulations of snow, in consequence of which +the successive strata may vary in thickness. But in ordinary times +layers from six to eight feet deep are regularly added annually to the +accumulation of snow in the higher regions,--not taking into account, of +course, the heavy drifts heaped up in particular localities, but +estimating the uniform average increase over wide fields. This snow is +gradually transformed into more or less compact ice, passing through an +intermediate condition analogous to the slosh of our roads, and in that +condition chiefly occupies the upper part of the extensive troughs into +which these masses descend from the loftier heights. This region is +called the region of the _névé_. It is properly the birthplace of the +glaciers, for it is here that the transformation of the snow into ice +begins. The _névé_ ice, though varying in the degree of its compactness +and solidity, is always very porous and whitish in color, resembling +somewhat frozen slosh, while lower down in the region of the glacier +proper the ice is close, solid, transparent, and of a bluish tint. + +But besides the differences in solidity and in external appearance, +there are also many other important changes taking place in the ice of +these different regions, to which we shall return presently. Such +modifications arise chiefly from the pressure to which it is subjected +in its downward progress, and to the alterations, in consequence of this +displacement, in the relative position of the snow- and ice-beds, as +well as to the influence exerted by the form of the valleys themselves, +not only upon the external aspect of the glaciers, but upon their +internal structure also. The surface of a glacier varies greatly in +character in these different regions. The uniform even surfaces of the +upper snow-fields gradually pass into a more undulating outline, the +pure white fields become strewn with dust and sand in the lower levels, +while broken bits of stone and larger fragments of rock collect upon +them, which assume a regular arrangement, and produce a variety of +features most startling and incomprehensible at first sight, but more +easily understood when studied in connection with the whole series of +glacial phenomena. They are then seen to be the consequence of the +general movement of the glacier, and of certain effects which the course +of the seasons, the action of the sun, the rain, the reflected heat from +the sides of the valley, or the disintegration of its rocky walls, may +produce upon the surface of the ice. In the next article we shall +consider in detail all these phenomena, and trace them in their natural +connection. Once familiar with these facts, it will not be difficult +correctly to appreciate the movement of the glacier and the cause of its +inequalities. We shall see, that, in consequence of the greater or less +rapidity in the movement of certain portions of the mass, its centre +progressing faster than its sides, and the upper, middle, and lower +regions of the same glacier advancing at different rates, the strata +which in the higher ranges of the snow-fields were evenly spread over +wide expanses, become bent and folded to such a degree that the +primitive stratification is nearly obliterated, while the internal mass +of the ice has also assumed new features under these new circumstances. +There is, indeed, as much difference between the newly formed beds of +snow in the upper region and the condition of the ice at the lower end +of a glacier as between a recent deposit of coral sand or a mud-bed in +an estuary and the metamorphic limestone or clay slate twisted and +broken as they are seen in the very chains of mountains from which the +glaciers descend. A geologist, familiar with all the changes to which a +bed of rock may be subjected from the time it was deposited in +horizontal layers up to the time when it was raised by Plutonic agencies +along the sides of a mountain-ridge, bent and distorted in a thousand +directions, broken through the thickness of its mass, and traversed by +innumerable fissures which are themselves filled with new materials, +will best be able to understand how the stratification of snow may be +modified by pressure and displacement so as finally to appear like a +laminated mass full of cracks and crevices, in which the original +stratification is recognized only by the practical student. I trust in +my next article I shall be able to explain intelligibly to my readers +even these extreme alterations in the condition of the primitive snow of +the Alpine summits. + + * * * * * + +TWO SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BLONDEL. + + +SCENE I.--_Near a Castle in Germany._ + + 'Twere no hard task, perchance, to win + The popular laurel for my song; + 'Twere only to comply with sin, + And own the crown, though snatched by wrong: + Rather Truth's chaplet let me wear, + Though sharp as death its thorns may sting; + Loyal to Loyalty, I bear + No badge but of my rightful king. + + Patient by town and tower I wait, + Or o'er the blustering moorland go; + I buy no praise at cheaper rate, + Or what faint hearts may fancy so: + For me, no joy in lady's bower, + Or hall, or tourney, will I sing, + Till the slow stars wheel round the hour + That crowns my hero and my king. + + While all the land runs red with strife, + And wealth is won by peddler-crimes, + Let who will find content in life + And tinkle in unmanly rhymes: + I wait and seek; through dark and light, + Safe in my heart my hope I bring, + Till I once more my faith may plight + To him my whole soul owns her king. + + When power is filched by drone and dolt, + And, with caught breath and flashing eye, + Her knuckles whitening round the bolt, + Vengeance leans eager from the sky,-- + While this and that the people guess, + And to the skirts of praters cling, + Who court the crowd they should compress,-- + I turn in scorn to seek my king. + + Shut in what tower of darkling chance + Or dungeon of a narrow doom, + Dream'st thou of battle-axe and lance + That for the cross make crashing room? + Come! with strained eyes the battle waits + In the wild van thy mace's swing; + While doubters parley with their fates, + Make thou thine own and ours, my king! + + Oh, strong to keep upright the old, + And wise to buttress with the new, + Prudent, as only are the bold, + Clear-eyed, as only are the true, + To foes benign, to friendship stern, + Intent to imp Law's broken wing,-- + Who would not die, if death might earn + The right to kiss thy hand, my king? + + +SCENE II.--_An Inn near the Château of Chalus._ + + Well, the whole thing is over, and here I sit + With one arm in a sling and a milk-score of gashes, + And this flagon of Cyprus must e'en warm my wit, + Since what's left of youth's flame is a head flecked with ashes. + I remember I sat in this very same inn,-- + I was young then, and one young man thought I was handsome,-- + I had found out what prison King Richard was in, + And was spurring for England to push on the ransom. + + How I scorned the dull souls that sat guzzling around, + And knew not my secret nor recked my derision! + Let the world sink or swim, John or Richard be crowned, + All one, so the beer-tax got lenient revision. + How little I dreamed, as I tramped up and down, + That granting our wish one of Fate's saddest jokes is! + I had mine with a vengeance,--my king got his crown, + And made his whole business to break other folks's. + + I might as well join in the safe old _tum_, _tum_: + A hero's an excellent loadstar,--but, bless ye, + What infinite odds 'twixt a hero to come + And your only too palpable hero _in esse_! + Precisely the odds (such examples are rife) + 'Twixt the poem conceived and the rhyme we make show of, + 'Twixt the boy's morning dream and the wake-up of life, + 'Twixt the Blondel God meant and a Blondel I know of! + + But the world's better off, I'm convinced of it now, + Than if heroes, like buns, could be bought for a penny, + To regard all mankind as their haltered milch-cow, + And just care for themselves. Well, God cares for the many; + And somehow the poor old Earth blunders along, + Each son of hers adding his mite of unfitness, + And, choosing the sure way of coming out wrong, + Gets to port, as the next generation will witness. + + You think her old ribs have come all crashing through, + If a whisk of Fate's broom snap your cobweb asunder; + But her rivets were clinched by a wiser than you, + And our sins cannot push the Lord's right hand from under. + Better one honest man who can wait for God's mind, + In our poor shifting scene here, though heroes were plenty! + Better one bite, at forty, of truth's bitter rind + Than the hot wine that gushed from the vintage of twenty! + + I see it all now: when I wanted a king, + 'Twas the kingship that failed in myself I was seeking,-- + 'Tis so much less easy to do than to sing, + So much simpler to reign by a proxy than _be_ king! + Yes, I think I _do_ see: after all's said and sung, + Take this one rule of life and you never will rue it,-- + 'Tis but do your own duty and hold your own tongue, + And Blondel were royal himself, if he knew it! + + * * * * * + +NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT. + + +Chancing to take a memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I +resolved to take more such walks, and make acquaintance with another +side of Nature. I have done so. + +According to Pliny, there is a stone in Arabia called Selenites, +"wherein is a white, which increases and decreases with the moon." My +journal for the last year or two has been _selenitic_ in this sense. + +Is not the midnight like Central Africa to most of us? Are we not +tempted to explore it,--to penetrate to the shores of its Lake Tchad, +and discover the source of its Nile, perchance the Mountains of the +Moon? Who knows what fertility and beauty, moral and natural, are there +to be found? In the Mountains of the Moon, in the Central Africa of the +night, there is where all Niles have their hidden heads. The expeditions +up the Nile as yet extend but to the Cataracts, or perchance to the +mouth of the White Nile; but it is the Black Nile that concerns us. + +I shall be a benefactor, if I conquer some realms from the night,--if I +report to the gazettes anything transpiring about us at that season +worthy of their attention,--if I can show men that there is some beauty +awake while they are asleep,--if I add to the domains of poetry. + +Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. I soon +discovered that I was acquainted only with its complexion; and as for +the moon, I had seen her only as it were through a crevice in a shutter, +occasionally. Why not walk a little way in her light? + +Suppose you attend to the suggestions which the moon makes for one +month, commonly in vain, will it not be very different from anything in +literature or religion? But why not study this Sanscrit? What if one +moon has come and gone, with its world of poetry, its weird teachings, +its oracular suggestions,--so divine a creature freighted with hints for +me, and I have not used her,--one moon gone by unnoticed? + +I think it was Dr. Chalmers who said, criticizing Coleridge, that for +his part he wanted ideas which he could see all round, and not such as +he must look at away up in the heavens. Such a man, one would say, would +never look at the moon, because she never turns her other side to us. +The light which comes from ideas which have their orbit as distant from +the earth, and which is no less cheering and enlightening to the +benighted traveller than that of the moon and stars, is naturally +reproached or nicknamed as moonshine by such. They are moonshine, are +they? Well, then, do your night-travelling when there is no moon to +light you; but I will be thankful for the light that reaches me from the +star of least magnitude. Stars are lesser or greater only as they appear +to us so. I will be thankful that I see so much as one side of a +celestial idea, one side of the rainbow and the sunset sky. + +Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities +very well, and despised them,--as owls might talk of sunshine. None of +your sunshine!--but this word commonly means merely something which they +do not understand, which they are abed and asleep to, however much it +may be worth their while to be up and awake to it. + +It must be allowed that the light of the moon, sufficient though it is +for the pensive walker, and not disproportionate to the inner light we +have, is very inferior in quality and intensity to that of the sun. But +the moon is not to be judged alone by the quantity of light she sends to +us, but also by her influence on the earth and its inhabitants. "The +moon gravitates toward the earth, and the earth reciprocally toward the +moon." The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his +thought which is to be referred to lunar influence. I will endeavor to +separate the tide in my thoughts from the current distractions of the +day. I would warn my hearers that they must not try my thoughts by a +daylight standard, but endeavor to realize that I speak out of the +night. All depends on your point of view. In Drake's "Collection of +Voyages," Wafer says of some Albinos among the Indians of Darien,--"They +are quite white, but their whiteness is like that of a horse, quite +different from the fair or pale European, as they have not the least +tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion.... Their eyebrows are +milk-white, as is likewise the hair of their heads, which is very +fine.... They seldom go abroad in the daytime, the sun being +disagreeable to them, and causing their eyes, which are weak and poring, +to water, especially if it shines towards them; yet they see very well +by moonlight, from which we call them mooneyed." + +Neither in our thoughts in these moonlight walks, methinks, is there +"the least tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion," but we are +intellectually and morally Albinos,--children of Endymion,--such is the +effect of conversing much with the moon. + +I complain of Arctic voyages that they do not enough remind us of the +constant peculiar dreariness of the scenery, and the perpetual twilight +of the Arctic night. So he whose theme is moonlight, though he may find +it difficult, must, as it were, illustrate it with the light of the moon +alone. + +Many men walk by day; few walk by night. It is a very different season. +Take a July night, for instance. About ten o'clock,--when man is asleep, +and day fairly forgotten,--the beauty of moonlight is seen over lonely +pastures where cattle are silently feeding. On all sides novelties +present themselves. Instead of the sun, there are the moon and stars; +instead of the wood-thrush, there is the whippoorwill; instead of +butterflies in the meadows, fire-flies, winged sparks of fire!--who +would have believed it? What kind of cool, deliberate life dwells in +those dewy abodes associated with a spark of fire? So man has fire in +his eyes, or blood, or brain. Instead of singing-birds, the +half-throttled note of a cuckoo flying over, the croaking of frogs, and +the intenser dream of crickets,--but above all, the wonderful trump of +the bull-frog, ringing from Maine to Georgia. The potato-vines stand +upright, the corn grows apace, the bushes loom, the grain-fields are +boundless. On our open river-terraces, once cultivated by the Indian, +they appear to occupy the ground like an army,--their heads nodding in +the breeze. Small trees and shrubs are seen in the midst, overwhelmed as +by an inundation. The shadows of rocks and trees and shrubs and hills +are more conspicuous than the objects themselves. The slightest +irregularities in the ground are revealed by the shadows, and what the +feet find comparatively smooth appears rough and diversified in +consequence. For the same reason the whole landscape is more variegated +and picturesque than by day. The smallest recesses in the rocks are dim +and cavernous; the ferns in the wood appear of tropical size. The +sweet-fern and indigo in overgrown wood-paths wet you with dew up to +your middle. The leaves of the shrub-oak are shining as if a liquid were +flowing over them. The pools seen through the trees are as full of light +as the sky. "The light of the day takes refuge in their bosoms," as the +Purana says of the ocean. All white objects are more remarkable than by +day. A distant cliff looks like a phosphorescent space on a hill-side. +The woods are heavy and dark. Nature slumbers. You see the moonlight +reflected from particular stumps in the recesses of the forest, as if +she selected what to shine on. These small fractions of her light remind +one of the plant called moon-seed,--as if the moon were sowing it in +such places. + +In the night the eyes are partly closed, or retire into the head. Other +senses take the lead. The walker is guided as well by the sense of +smell. Every plant and field and forest emits its odor now,--swamp-pink +in the meadow, and tansy in the road; and there is the peculiar dry +scent of corn which has begun to show its tassels. The senses both of +hearing and smelling are more alert. We hear the tinkling of rills which +we never detected before. From time to time, high up on the sides of +hills, you pass through a stratum of warm air: a blast which has come up +from the sultry plains of noon. It tells of the day, of sunny noon-tide +hours and banks, of the laborer wiping his brow and the bee humming amid +flowers. It is an air in which work has been done,--which men have +breathed. It circulates about from wood-side to hill-side, like a dog +that has lost its master, now that the sun is gone. The rocks retain all +night the warmth of the sun which they have absorbed. And so does the +sand: if you dig a few inches into it, you find a warm bed. + +You lie on your back on a rock in a pasture on the top of some bare hill +at midnight, and speculate on the height of the starry canopy. The stars +are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day +has to show. A companion with whom I was sailing, one very windy, but +bright moonlight night, when the stars were few and faint, thought that +a man could get along with _them_, though he was considerably reduced in +his circumstances,--that they were a kind of bread and cheese that never +failed. + +No wonder that there have been astrologers,--that some have conceived +that they were personally related to particular stars. Du Bartas, as +translated by Sylvester, says he'll + + "not believe that the Great Architect + With all these fires the heavenly arches decked + Only for shew, and with these glistering shields, + 'T awake poor shepherds, watching in the fields,"-- + +he'll + + "not believe that the least flower which pranks + Our garden-borders or our common banks, + And the least stone that in her warming lap + Our Mother Earth doth covetously wrap, + Hath some peculiar virtue of its own, + And that the glorious stars of heaven have none." + +And Sir Walter Raleigh well says, "The stars are instruments of far +greater use than to give an obscure light, and for men to gaze on after +sunset"; and he quotes Plotinus as affirming that they "are significant, +but not efficient"; and also Augustine as saying, "_Deus regit inferiora +corpora per superiora_": God rules the bodies below by those above. But +best of all is this, which another writer has expressed: "_Sapiens +adjuvabit opus astrorum quemadmodum agricola terræ naturam_": A wise man +assisteth the work of the stars as the husbandman helpeth the nature of +the soil. + +It does not concern men who are asleep in their beds, but it is very +important to the traveller, whether the moon shines brightly or is +obscured. It is not easy to realize the serene joy of all the earth, +when she commences to shine unobstructedly, unless you have often been +abroad alone in moonlight nights. She seems to be waging continual war +with the clouds in your behalf. Yet we fancy the clouds to be _her_ foes +also. She comes on magnifying her dangers by her light, revealing, +displaying them in all their hugeness and blackness,--then suddenly +casts them behind into the light concealed, and goes her way triumphant +through a small space of clear sky. + +In short, the moon traversing, or appearing to traverse, the small +clouds which lie in her way, now obscured by them, now easily +dissipating and shining through them, makes the drama of the moonlight +night to all watchers and night-travellers. Sailors speak of it as the +moon eating up the clouds. The traveller all alone, the moon all alone, +except for his sympathy, overcoming with incessant victory whole +squadrons of clouds above the forests and lakes and hills. When she is +obscured, he so sympathizes with her that he could whip a dog for her +relief, as Indians do. When she enters on a clear field of great extent +in the heavens, and shines unobstructedly, he is glad. And when she has +fought her way through all the squadron of her foes, and rides majestic +in a clear sky unscathed, and there are no more any obstructions in her +path, he cheerfully and confidently pursues his way, and rejoices in his +heart, and the cricket also seems to express joy in its song. + +How insupportable would be the days, if the night, with its dews and +darkness, did not come to restore the drooping world! As the shades +begin to gather around us, our primeval instincts are aroused, and we +steal forth from our lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in +search of those silent and brooding thoughts which are the natural prey +of the intellect. + +Richter says, that "the earth is every day overspread with the veil of +night for the same reason as the cages of birds are darkened, namely, +that we may the more readily apprehend the higher harmonies of thought +in the hush and quiet of darkness. Thoughts which day turns into smoke +and mist stand about us in the night as light and flames; even as the +column which fluctuates above the crater of Vesuvius in the daytime +appears a pillar of cloud, but by night a pillar of fire." + +There are nights in this climate of such serene and majestic beauty, so +medicinal and fertilizing to the spirit, that methinks a sensitive +nature would not devote them to oblivion, and perhaps there is no man +but would be better and wiser for spending them out of doors, though he +should sleep all the next day to pay for it, should sleep an Endymion +sleep, as the ancients expressed it,--nights which warrant the Grecian +epithet _ambrosial_, when, as in the land of Beulah, the atmosphere is +charged with dewy fragrance, and with music, and we take our repose and +have our dreams awake,--when the moon, not secondary to the sun, + + "gives us his blaze again, + Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day. + Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop, + Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime." + +Diana still hunts in the New-England sky. + + "In heaven queen she is among the spheres; + She, mistress-like, makes all things to be pure; + Eternity in her oft change she bears; + She Beauty is; by her the fair endure. + + "Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide; + Mortality below her orb is placed; + By her the virtues of the stars down slide; + By her is Virtue's perfect image cast." + +The Hindoos compare the moon to a saintly being who has reached the last +stage of bodily existence. + +Great restorer of antiquity, great enchanter! In a mild night, when the +harvest or hunter's moon shines unobstructedly, the houses in our +village, whatever architect they may have had by day, acknowledge only a +master. The village street is then as wild as the forest. New and old +things are confounded. I know not whether I am sitting on the ruins of a +wall, or on the material which is to compose a new one. Nature is an +instructed and impartial teacher, spreading no crude opinions, and +flattering none; she will be neither radical nor conservative. Consider +the moonlight, so civil, yet so savage! + +The light is more proportionate to our knowledge than that of day. It is +no more dusky in ordinary nights than our mind's habitual atmosphere, +and the moonlight is as bright as our most illuminated moments are. + + "In such a night let me abroad remain + Till morning breaks, and all's confused again." + +Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an +inward dawn?--to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the +morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring. + +When Ossian, in his address to the Sun, exclaims,-- + + "Where has darkness its dwelling? + Where is the cavernous home of the stars, + When thou quickly followest their steps, + Pursuing them like a hunter in the sky,-- + Thou climbing the lofty hills, + They descending on barren mountains?" + +who does not in his thought accompany the stars to their "cavernous +home," "descending" with them "on barren mountains"? + +Nevertheless, even by night the sky is blue and not black; for we see +through the shadow of the earth into the distant atmosphere of day, +where the sunbeams are revelling. + + * * * * * + +ANDANTE. + +BEETHOVEN'S SIXTH SYMPHONY. + + + Sounding above the warring of the years, + Over their stretch of toils and pains and fears, + Comes the well-loved refrain, + That ancient voice again. + + Sweeter than when beside the river's marge + We lay and watched, like Innocence at large, + The changeful waters flow, + Speaks this brave music now. + + Tender as sunlight upon childhood's head, + Serene as moonlight upon childhood's bed, + Comes the remembered power + Of that forgotten hour. + + The little brook with merry voice and low, + The gentle ripples rippling far below, + Talked with no idle voice, + Though idling were their choice. + + Now through the tumult and the pride of life, + Gentler, yet firmly soothing all its strife, + Nature draws near once more, + And knocks at the world's door. + + She walks within her wild, harmonious maze, + Evolving melodies from doubt and haze, + And leaves us freed from care, + Like children standing there. + + * * * * * + +THE BROTHERS. + + +Doctor Franck came in as I sat sewing up the rents in an old shirt, that +Tom might go tidily to his grave. New shirts were needed for the living, +and there was no wife or mother to "dress him handsome when he went to +meet the Lord," as one woman said, describing the fine funeral she had +pinched herself to give her son. + +"Miss Dane, I'm in a quandary," began the Doctor, with that expression +of countenance which says as plainly as words, "I want to ask a favor, +but I wish you'd save me the trouble." + +"Can I help you out of it?" + +"Faith! I don't like to propose it, but you certainly can, if you +please." + +"Then give it a name, I beg." + +"You see a Reb has just been brought in crazy with typhoid; a bad case +every way; a drunken, rascally little captain somebody took the trouble +to capture, but whom nobody wants to take the trouble to cure. The wards +are full, the ladies worked to death, and willing to be for our own +boys, but rather slow to risk their lives for a Reb. Now you've had the +fever, you like queer patients, your mate will see to your ward for a +while, and I will find you a good attendant. The fellow won't last long, +I fancy; but he can't die without some sort of care, you know. I've put +him in the fourth story of the west wing, away from the rest. It is +airy, quiet, and comfortable there. I'm on that ward, and will do my +best for you in every way. Now, then, will you go?" + +"Of course I will, out of perversity, if not common charity; for some of +these people think that because I'm an abolitionist I am also a heathen, +and I should rather like to show them, that, though I cannot quite love +my enemies, I am willing to take care of them." + +"Very good; I thought you'd go; and speaking of abolition reminds me +that you can have a contraband for servant, if you like. It is that fine +mulatto fellow who was found burying his Rebel master after the fight, +and, being badly cut over the head, our boys brought him along. Will you +have him?" + +"By all means,--for I'll stand to my guns on that point, as on the +other; these black boys are far more faithful and handy than some of the +white scamps given me to serve, instead of being served by. But is this +man well enough?" + +"Yes, for that sort of work, and I think you'll like him. He must have +been a handsome fellow before he got his face slashed; not much darker +than myself; his master's son, I dare say, and the white blood makes him +rather high and haughty about some things. He was in a bad way when he +came in, but vowed he'd die in the street rather than turn in with the +black fellows below; so I put him up in the west wing, to be out of the +way, and he's seen to the captain all the morning. "When can you go up?" + +"As soon as Tom is laid out, Skinner moved, Haywood washed, Marble +dressed, Charley rubbed, Downs taken up, Upham laid down, and the whole +forty fed." + +We both laughed, though the Doctor was on his way to the dead-house and +I held a shroud on my lap. But in a hospital one learns that +cheerfulness is one's salvation; for, in an atmosphere of suffering and +death, heaviness of heart would soon paralyze usefulness of hand, if the +blessed gift of smiles had been denied us. + +In an hour I took possession of my new charge, finding a +dissipated-looking boy of nineteen or twenty raving in the solitary +little room, with no one near him but the contraband in the room +adjoining. Feeling decidedly more interest in the black man than in the +white, yet remembering the Doctor's hint of his being "high and +haughty," I glanced furtively at him as I scattered chloride of lime +about the room to purify the air, and settled matters to suit myself. I +had seen many contrabands, but never one so attractive as this. All +colored men are called "boys," even if their heads are white; this boy +was five-and-twenty at least, strong-limbed and manly, and had the look +of one who never had been cowed by abuse or worn with oppressive labor. +He sat on his bed doing nothing; no book, no pipe, no pen or paper +anywhere appeared, yet anything less indolent or listless than his +attitude and expression I never saw. Erect he sat, with a hand on either +knee, and eyes fixed on the bare wall opposite, so rapt in some +absorbing thought as to be unconscious of my presence, though the door +stood wide open and my movements were by no means noiseless. His face +was half averted, but I instantly approved the Doctor's taste, for the +profile which I saw possessed all the attributes of comeliness belonging +to his mixed race. He was more quadroon than mulatto, with Saxon +features, Spanish complexion darkened by exposure, color in lips and +cheek, waving hair, and an eye full of the passionate melancholy which +in such men always seems to utter a mute protest against the broken law +that doomed them at their birth. What could he be thinking of? The sick +boy cursed and raved, I rustled to and fro, steps passed the door, bells +rang, and the steady rumble of army-wagons came up from the street, +still he never stirred. I had seen colored people in what they call "the +black sulks," when, for days, they neither smiled nor spoke, and +scarcely ate. But this was something more than that; for the man was not +dully brooding over some small grievance; he seemed to see an +all-absorbing fact or fancy recorded on the wall, which was a blank to +me. I wondered if it were some deep wrong or sorrow, kept alive by +memory and impotent regret; if he mourned for the dead master to whom he +had been faithful to the end; or if the liberty now his were robbed of +half its sweetness by the knowledge that some one near and dear to him +still languished in the hell from which he had escaped. My heart quite +warmed to him at that idea; I wanted to know and comfort him; and, +following the impulse of the moment, I went in and touched him on the +shoulder. + +In an instant the man vanished and the slave appeared. Freedom was too +new a boon to have wrought its blessed changes yet, and as he started +up, with his hand at his temple and an obsequious "Yes, Ma'am," any +romance that had gathered round him fled away, leaving the saddest of +all sad facts in living guise before me. Not only did the manhood seem +to die out of him, but the comeliness that first attracted me; for, as +he turned, I saw the ghastly wound that had laid open cheek and +forehead. Being partly healed, it was no longer bandaged, but held +together with strips of that transparent plaster which I never see +without a shiver and swift recollections of the scenes with which it is +associated in my mind. Part of his black hair had been shorn away, and +one eye was nearly closed; pain so distorted, and the cruel sabre-cut so +marred that portion of his face, that, when I saw it, I felt as if a +fine medal had been suddenly reversed, showing me a far more striking +type of human suffering and wrong than Michel Angelo's bronze prisoner. +By one of those inexplicable processes that often teach us how little we +understand ourselves, my purpose was suddenly changed, and though I went +in to offer comfort as a friend, I merely gave an order as a mistress. + +"Will you open these windows? this man needs more air." + +He obeyed at once, and, as he slowly urged up the unruly sash, the +handsome profile was again turned toward me, and again I was possessed +by my first impression so strongly that I involuntarily said,-- + +"Thank you, Sir." + +Perhaps it was fancy, but I thought that in the look of mingled surprise +and something like reproach which he gave me there was also a trace of +grateful pleasure. But he said, in that tone of spiritless humility +these poor souls learn so soon,-- + +"I a'n't a white man, Ma'am, I'm a contraband." + +"Yes, I know it; but a contraband is a free man, and I heartily +congratulate you." + +He liked that; his face shone, he squared his shoulders, lifted his +head, and looked me full in the eye with a brisk-- + +"Thank ye, Ma'am; anything more to do fer yer?" + +"Doctor Franck thought you would help me with this man, as there are +many patients and few nurses or attendants. Have you had the fever?" + +"No, Ma'am." + +"They should have thought of that when they put him here; wounds and +fevers should not be together. I'll try to get you moved." + +He laughed a sudden laugh,--if he had been a white man, I should have +called it scornful; as he was a few shades darker than myself, I suppose +it must be considered an insolent, or at least an unmannerly one. + +"It don't matter, Ma'am. I'd rather be up here with the fever than down +with those niggers; and there a'n't no other place fer me." + +Poor fellow! that was true. No ward in all the hospital would take him +in to lie side by side with the most miserable white wreck there. Like +the bat in Æsop's fable, he belonged to neither race; and the pride of +one, the helplessness of the other, kept him hovering alone in the +twilight a great sin has brought to overshadow the whole land. + +"You shall stay, then; for I would far rather have you than my lazy +Jack. But are you well and strong enough?" + +"I guess I'll do, Ma'am." + +He spoke with a passive sort of acquiescence,--as if it did not much +matter, if he were not able, and no one would particularly rejoice, if +he were. + +"Yes, I think you will. By what name shall I call you?" + +"Bob, Ma'am." + +Every woman has her pet whim; one of mine was to teach the men +self-respect by treating them respectfully. Tom, Dick, and Harry would +pass, when lads rejoiced in those familiar abbreviations; but to address +men often old enough to be my father in that style did not suit my +old-fashioned ideas of propriety. This "Bob" would never do; I should +have found it as easy to call the chaplain "Gus" as my tragical-looking +contraband by a title so strongly associated with the tail of a kite. + +"What is your other name?" I asked. "I like to call my attendants by +their last names rather than by their first." + +"I've got no other, Ma'am; we have our masters' names, or do without. +Mine's dead, and I won't have anything of his about me." + +"Well, I'll call you Robert, then, and you may fill this pitcher for me, +if you will be so kind." + +He went; but, through all the tame obedience years of servitude had +taught him, I could see that the proud spirit his father gave him was +not yet subdued, for the look and gesture with which he repudiated his +master's name were a more effective declaration of independence than any +Fourth-of-July orator could have prepared. + +We spent a curious week together. Robert seldom left his room, except +upon my errands; and I was a prisoner all day, often all night, by the +bedside of the Rebel. The fever burned itself rapidly away, for there +seemed little vitality to feed it in the feeble frame of this old young +man, whose life had been none of the most righteous, judging from the +revelations made by his unconscious lips; since more than once Robert +authoritatively silenced him, when my gentler hushings were of no avail, +and blasphemous wanderings or ribald camp-songs made my cheeks burn and +Robert's face assume an aspect of disgust. The captain was a gentleman +in the world's eye, but the contraband was the gentleman in mine;--I was +a fanatic, and that accounts for such depravity of taste, I hope. I +never asked Robert of himself, feeling that somewhere there was a spot +still too sore to bear the lightest touch; but, from his language, +manner, and intelligence, I inferred that his color had procured for him +the few advantages within the reach of a quick-witted, kindly treated +slave. Silent, grave, and thoughtful, but most serviceable, was my +contraband; glad of the books I brought him, faithful in the performance +of the duties I assigned to him, grateful for the friendliness I could +not but feel and show toward him. Often I longed to ask what purpose was +so visibly altering his aspect with such daily deepening gloom. But I +never dared, and no one else had either time or desire to pry into the +past of this specimen of one branch of the chivalrous "F.F.Vs." + +On the seventh night, Dr. Franck suggested that it would be well for +some one, besides the general watchman of the ward, to be with the +captain, as it might be his last. Although the greater part of the two +preceding nights had been spent there, of course I offered to +remain,--for there is a strange fascination in these scenes, which +renders one careless of fatigue and unconscious of fear until the crisis +is passed. + +"Give him water as long as he can drink, and if he drops into a natural +sleep, it may save him. I'll look in at midnight, when some change will +probably take place. Nothing but sleep or a miracle will keep him now. +Good night." + +Away went the Doctor; and, devouring a whole mouthful of gapes, I +lowered the lamp, wet the captain's head, and sat down on a hard stool +to begin my watch. The captain lay with his hot, haggard face turned +toward me, filling the air with his poisonous breath, and feebly +muttering, with lips and tongue so parched that the sanest speech would +have been difficult to understand. Robert was stretched on his bed in +the inner room, the door of which stood ajar, that a fresh draught from +his open window might carry the fever-fumes away through mine. I could +just see a long, dark figure, with the lighter outline of a face, and, +having little else to do just then, I fell to thinking of this curious +contraband, who evidently prized his freedom highly, yet seemed in no +haste to enjoy it. Doctor Franck had offered to send him on to safer +quarters, but he had said, "No, thank yer, Sir, not yet," and then had +gone away to fall into one of those black moods of his, which began to +disturb me, because I had no power to lighten them. As I sat listening +to the clocks from the steeples all about us, I amused myself with +planning Robert's future, as I often did my own, and had dealt out to +him a generous hand of trumps wherewith to play this game of life which +hitherto had gone so cruelly against him, when a harsh, choked voice +called,-- + +"Lucy!" + +It was the captain, and some new terror seemed to have gifted him with +momentary strength. + +"Yes, here's Lucy," I answered, hoping that by following the fancy I +might quiet him,--for his face was damp with the clammy moisture, and +his frame shaken with the nervous tremor that so often precedes death. +His dull eye fixed upon me, dilating with a bewildered look of +incredulity and wrath, till he broke out fiercely,-- + +"That's a lie! she's dead,--and so's Bob, damn him!" + +Finding speech a failure, I began to sing the quiet tune that had often +soothed delirium like this; but hardly had the line, + + "See gentle patience smile on pain," + +passed my lips, when he clutched me by the wrist, whispering like one in +mortal fear,-- + +"Hush! she used to sing that way to Bob, but she never would to me. I +swore I'd whip the Devil out of her, and I did; but you know before she +cut her throat she said she'd haunt me, and there she is!" + +He pointed behind me with an aspect of such pale dismay, that I +involuntarily glanced over my shoulder and started as if I had seen a +veritable ghost; for, peering from the gloom of that inner room, I saw a +shadowy face, with dark hair all about it, and a glimpse of scarlet at +the throat. An instant showed me that it was only Robert leaning from +his bed's-foot, wrapped in a gray army-blanket, with his red shirt just +visible above it, and his long hair disordered by sleep. But what a +strange expression was on his face! The unmarred side was toward me, +fixed and motionless as when I first observed it,--less absorbed now, +but more intent. His eye glittered, his lips were apart like one who +listened with every sense, and his whole aspect reminded me of a hound +to which some wind had brought the scent of unsuspected prey. + +"Do you know him, Robert? Does he mean you?" + +"Lord, no, Ma'am; they all own half a dozen Bobs: but hearin' my name +woke me; that's all." + +He spoke quite naturally, and lay down again, while I returned to my +charge, thinking that this paroxysm was probably his last. But by +another hour I perceived a hopeful change, for the tremor had subsided, +the cold dew was gone, his breathing was more regular, and Sleep, the +healer, had descended to save or take him gently away. Doctor Franck +looked in at midnight, bade me keep all cool and quiet, and not fail to +administer a certain draught as soon as the captain woke. Very much +relieved, I laid my head on my arms, uncomfortably folded on the little +table, and fancied I was about to perform one of the feats which +practice renders possible,--"sleeping with one eye open," as we say: a +half-and-half doze, for all senses sleep but that of hearing; the +faintest murmur, sigh, or motion will break it, and give one back one's +wits much brightened by the brief permission to "stand at ease." On this +night, the experiment was a failure, for previous vigils, confinement, +and much care had rendered naps a dangerous indulgence. Having roused +half a dozen times in an hour to find all quiet, I dropped my heavy head +on my arms, and, drowsily resolving to look up again in fifteen minutes, +fell fast asleep. + +The striking of a deep-voiced clock woke me with a start. "That is one," +thought I, but, to my dismay, two more strokes followed; and in +remorseful haste I sprang up to see what harm my long oblivion had done. +A strong hand put me back into my seat, and held me there. It was +Robert. The instant my eye met his my heart began to beat, and all along +my nerves tingled that electric flash which foretells a danger that we +cannot see. He was very pale, his mouth grim, and both eyes full of +sombre fire,--for even the wounded one was open now, all the more +sinister for the deep scar above and below. But his touch was steady, +his voice quiet, as he said,-- + +"Sit still, Ma'am; I won't hurt yer, nor even scare yer, if I can help +it, but yer waked too soon." + +"Let me go, Robert,--the, captain is stirring,--I must give him +something." + +"No, Ma'am, yer can't stir an inch. Look here!" + +Holding me with one hand, with the other he took up the glass in which I +had left the draught, and showed me it was empty. + +"Has he taken it?" I asked, more and more bewildered. + +"I flung it out o' winder, Ma'am; he'll have to do without." + +"But why, Robert? why did you do it?" + +"Because I hate him!" + +Impossible to doubt the truth of that; his whole face showed it, as he +spoke through his set teeth, and launched a fiery glance at the +unconscious captain. I could only hold my breath and stare blankly at +him, wondering what mad act was coming next. I suppose I shook and +turned white, as women have a foolish habit of doing when sudden danger +daunts them; for Robert released my arm, sat down upon the bedside just +in front of me, and said, with the ominous quietude that made me cold to +see and hear,-- + +"Don't yer be frightened, Ma'am: don't try to run away, fer the door's +locked an' the key in my pocket; don't yer cry out, fer yer'd have to +scream a long while, with my hand on yer mouth, before yer was heard. +Be still, an' I'll tell yer what I'm goin' to do." + +"Lord help us! he has taken the fever in some sudden, violent way, and +is out of his head. I must humor him till some one comes"; in pursuance +of which swift determination, I tried to say, quite composedly,-- + +"I will be still and hear you; but open the window. Why did you shut +it?" + +"I'm sorry I can't do it, Ma'am; but yer'd jump out, or call, if I did, +an' I'm not ready yet. I shut it to make yer sleep, an' heat would do it +quicker 'n anything else I could do." + +The captain moved, and feebly muttered, "Water!" Instinctively I rose, +to give it to him, but the heavy hand came down upon my shoulder, and in +the same decided tone Robert said,-- + +"The water went with the physic; let him call." + +"Do let me go to him! he'll die without care!" + +"I mean he shall;--don't yer interfere, if yer please, Ma'am." + +In spite of his quiet tone and respectful manner, I saw murder in his +eyes, and turned faint with fear; yet the fear excited me, and, hardly +knowing what I did, I seized the hands that had seized me, crying,-- + +"No, no, you shall not kill him! it is base to hurt a helpless man. Why +do you hate him? He is not your master?" + +"He's my brother." + +I felt that answer from head to foot, and seemed to fathom what was +coming, with a prescience vague, but unmistakable. One appeal was left +to me, and I made it. + +"Robert, tell me what it means? Do not commit a crime and make me +accessory to it. There is a better way of righting wrong than by +violence;--let me help you find it." + +My voice trembled as I spoke, and I heard the frightened flutter of my +heart; so did he, and if any little act of mine had ever won affection +or respect from him, the memory of it served me then. He looked down, +and seemed to put some question to himself; whatever it was, the answer +was in my favor, for when his eyes rose again, they were gloomy, but not +desperate. + +"I _will_ tell you, Ma'am; but mind, this makes no difference; the boy +is mine. I'll give the Lord a chance to take him fust; if He don't, I +shall." + +"Oh, no! remember, he is your brother." + +An unwise speech; I felt it as it passed my lips, for a black frown +gathered on Robert's face, and his strong hands closed with an ugly sort +of grip. But he did not touch the poor soul gasping there behind him, +and seemed content to let the slow suffocation of that stifling room end +his frail life. + +"I'm not like to forget that, Ma'am, when I've been thinkin' of it all +this week. I knew him when they fetched him in, an' would 'a' done it +long 'fore this, but I wanted to ask where Lucy was; he knows,--he told +to-night--an' now he's done for." + +"Who is Lucy?" I asked hurriedly, intent on keeping his mind busy with +any thought but murder. + +With one of the swift transitions of a mixed temperament like this, at +my question Robert's deep eyes filled, the clenched hands were spread +before his face, and all I heard were the broken words,-- + +"My wife,--he took her"-- + +In that instant every thought of fear was swallowed up in burning +indignation for the wrong, and a perfect passion of pity for the +desperate man so tempted to avenge an injury for which there seemed no +redress but this. He was no longer slave or contraband, no drop of black +blood marred him in my sight, but an infinite compassion yearned to +save, to help, to comfort him. Words seemed so powerless I offered none, +only put my hand on his poor head, wounded, homeless, bowed down with +grief for which I had no cure, and softly smoothed the long neglected +hair, pitifully wondering the while where was the wife who must have +loved this tender-hearted man so well. + +The captain moaned again, and faintly whispered, "Air!" but I never +stirred. God forgive me! just then I hated him as only a woman thinking +of a sister woman's wrong could hate. Robert looked up; his eyes were +dry again, his mouth grim. I saw that, said, "Tell me more," and he +did,--for sympathy is a gift the poorest may give, the proudest stoop to +receive. + +"Yer see, Ma'am, his father,--I might say ours, if I warn't ashamed of +both of 'em,--his father died two years ago, an' left us all to Marster +Ned,--that's him here, eighteen then. He always hated me, I looked so +like old Marster: he don't,--only the light skin an' hair. Old Marster +was kind to all of us, me 'specially, an' bought Lucy off the next +plantation down there in South Car'lina, when he found I liked her. I +married her, all I could, Ma'am; it warn't much, but we was true to one +another till Marster Ned come home a year after an' made hell fur both +of us. He sent my old mother to be used up in his rice-swamp in Georgy; +he found me with my pretty Lucy, an' though young Miss cried, an' I +prayed to him on my knees, an' Lucy run away, he wouldn't have no mercy; +he brought her back, an'--took her, Ma'am." + +"Oh! what did you do?" I cried, hot with helpless pain and passion. + +How the man's outraged heart sent the blood flaming up into his face and +deepened the tones of his impetuous voice, as he stretched his arm +across the bed, saying, with a terribly expressive gesture,-- + +"I half murdered him, an' to-night I'll finish." + +"Yes, yes,--but go on now; what came next?" + +He gave me a look that showed no white man could have felt a deeper +degradation in remembering and confining these last acts of brotherly +oppression. + +"They whipped me till I couldn't stand, an' then they sold me further +South. Yer thought I was a white man once;--look here!" + +With a sudden wrench he tore the shirt from neck to waist, and on his +strong brown shoulders showed me furrows deeply ploughed, wounds which, +though healed, were ghastlier to me than any in that house. I could not +speak to him, and, with the pathetic dignity a great grief lends the +humblest sufferer, he ended his brief tragedy by simply saying,-- + +"That's all, Ma'am. I've never seen her since, an' now I never shall in +this world,--maybe not in t' other." + +"But, Robert, why think her dead? The captain was wandering when he said +those sad things; perhaps he will retract them when he is sane. Don't +despair; don't give up yet." + +"No, Ma'am, I guess he's right; she was too proud to bear that long. +It's like her to kill herself. I told her to, if there was no other way; +an' she always minded me, Lucy did. My poor girl! Oh, it warn't right! +No, by God, it warn't!" + +As the memory of this bitter wrong, this double bereavement, burned in +his sore heart, the devil that lurks in every strong man's blood leaped +up; he put his hand upon his brother's throat, and, watching the white +face before him, muttered low between his teeth,-- + +"I'm lettin' him go too easy; there's no pain in this; we a'n't even +yet. I wish he knew me. Marster Ned! it's Bob; where's Lucy?" + +From the captain's lips there came a long faint sigh, and nothing but a +flutter of the eyelids showed that he still lived. A strange stillness +filled the room as the elder brother held the younger's life suspended +in his hand, while wavering between a dim hope and a deadly hate. In the +whirl of thoughts that went on in my brain, only one was clear enough to +act upon. I must prevent murder, if I could,--but how? What could I do +up there alone, locked in with a dying man and a lunatic?--for any mind +yielded utterly to any unrighteous impulse is mad while the impulse +rules it. Strength I had not, nor much courage, neither time nor wit for +stratagem, and chance only could bring me help before it was too late. +But one weapon I possessed,--a tongue,--often a woman's best defence; +and sympathy, stronger than fear, gave me power to use it. What I said +Heaven only knows, but surely Heaven helped me; words burned on my lips, +tears streamed from my eyes, and some good angel prompted me to use the +one name that had power to arrest my hearer's hand and touch his heart. +For at that moment I heartily believed that Lucy lived, and this earnest +faith rousted in him a like belief. + +He listened with the lowering look of one in whom brute instinct was +sovereign for the time,--a look that makes the noblest countenance base. +He was but a man,--a poor, untaught, outcast, outraged man. Life had few +joys for him; the world offered him no honors, no success, no home, no +love. What future would this crime mar? and why should he deny himself +that sweet, yet bitter morsel called revenge? How many white men, with +all New England's freedom, culture, Christianity, would not have felt as +he felt then? Should I have reproached him for a human anguish, a human +longing for redress, all now left him from the ruin of his few poor +hopes? Who had taught him that self-control, self-sacrifice, are +attributes that make men masters of the earth and lift them nearer +heaven? Should I have urged the beauty of forgiveness, the duty of +devout submission? He had no religion, for he was no saintly "Uncle +Tom," and Slavery's black shadow seemed to darken all the world to him +and shut out God. Should I have warned him of penalties, of judgments, +and the potency of law? What did he know of justice, or the mercy that +should temper that stern virtue, when every law, human and divine, had +been broken on his hearthstone? Should I have tried to touch him by +appeals to filial duty, to brotherly love? How had his appeals been +answered? What memories had father and brother stored up in his heart to +plead for either now? No,--all these influences, these associations, +would have proved worse than useless, had I been calm enough to try +them. I was not; but instinct, subtler than reason, showed me the one +safe clue by which to lead this troubled soul from the labyrinth in +which it groped and nearly fell. When I paused, breathless, Robert +turned to me, asking, as if human assurances could strengthen his faith +in Divine Omnipotence,-- + +"Do you believe, if I let Marster Ned live, the Lord will give me back +my Lucy?" + +"As surely as there is a Lord, you will find her here or in the +beautiful hereafter, where there is no black or white, no master and no +slave." + +He took his hand from his brother's throat, lifted his eyes from my face +to the wintry sky beyond, as if searching for that blessed country, +happier even than the happy North. Alas, it was the darkest hour before +the dawn!--there was no star above, no light below but the pale glimmer +of the lamp that showed the brother who had made him desolate. Like a +blind man who believes there is a sun, yet cannot see it, he shook his +head, let his arms drop nervelessly upon his knees, and sat there dumbly +asking that question which many a soul whose faith is firmer fixed than +his has asked in hours less dark than this,--"Where is God?" I saw the +tide had turned, and strenuously tried to keep this rudderless life-boat +from slipping back into the whirlpool wherein it had been so nearly +lost. + +"I have listened to you, Robert; now hear me, and heed what I say, +because my heart is full of pity for you, full of hope for your future, +and a desire to help you now. I want you to go away from here, from the +temptation of this place, and the sad thoughts that haunt it. You have +conquered yourself once, and I honor you for it, because, the harder the +battle, the more glorious the victory; but it is safer to put a greater +distance between you and this man. I will write you letters, give you +money, and send you to good old Massachusetts to begin your new life a +freeman,--yes, and a happy man; for when the captain is himself again, I +will learn where Lucy is, and move heaven and earth to find and give her +back to you. Will you do this, Robert?" + +Slowly, very slowly, the answer came; for the purpose of a week, perhaps +a year, was hard to relinquish in an hour. + +"Yes, Ma'am, I will." + +"Good! Now you are the man I thought you, and I'll work for you with all +my heart. You need sleep, my poor fellow; go, and try to forget. The +captain is still alive, and as yet you are spared that sin. No, don't +look there; I'll care for him. Come, Robert, for Lucy's sake." + +Thank Heaven for the immortality of love! for when all other means of +salvation failed, a spark of this vital fire softened the man's iron +will until a woman's hand could bend it. He let me take from him the +key, let me draw him gently away and lead him to the solitude which now +was the most healing balm I could bestow. Once in his little room, he +fell down on his bed and lay there as if spent with the sharpest +conflict of his life. I slipped the bolt across his door, and unlocked +my own, flung up the window, steadied myself with a breath of air, then +rushed to Doctor Franck. He came; and till dawn we worked together, +saving one brother's life, and taking earnest thought how best to secure +the other's liberty. When the sun came up as blithely as if it shone +only upon happy homes, the Doctor went to Robert. For an hour I heard +the murmur of their voices; once I caught the sound of heavy sobs, and +for a time a reverent hush, as if in the silence that good man were +ministering to soul as well as sense. When he departed he took Robert +with him, pausing to tell me he should get him off as soon as possible, +but not before we met again. + +Nothing more was seen of them all day; another surgeon came to see the +captain, and another attendant came to fill the empty place. I tried to +rest, but could not, with the thought of poor Lucy tugging at my heart, +and was soon back at my post again, anxiously hoping that my contraband +had not been too hastily spirited away. Just as night fell there came a +tap, and opening, I saw Robert literally "clothed and in his right +mind." The Doctor had replaced the ragged suit with tidy garments, and +no trace of that tempestuous night remained but deeper lines upon the +forehead and the docile look of a repentant child. He did not cross the +threshold, did not offer me his hand,--only took off his cap, saying, +with a traitorous falter in his voice,-- + +"God bless you, Ma'am! I'm goin'." + +I put out both my hands, and held his fast. + +"Good bye, Robert! Keep up good heart, and when I come home to +Massachusetts we'll meet in a happier place than this. Are you quite +ready, quite comfortable for your journey?" + +"Yes, Ma'am, yes; the Doctor's fixed everything; I'm goin' with a friend +of his; my papers are all right, an' I'm as happy as I can be till I +find"-- + +He stopped there; then went on, with a glance into the room,-- + +"I'm glad I didn't do it, an' I thank yer, Ma'am, fer hinderin' +me,--thank yer hearty; but I'm afraid I hate him jest the same." + +Of course he did; and so did I; for these faulty hearts of ours cannot +turn perfect in a night, but need frost and fire, wind and rain, to +ripen and make them ready for the great harvest-home. Wishing to divert +his mind, I put my poor mite into his hand, and, remembering the magic +of a certain little book, I gave him mine, on whose dark cover whitely +shone the Virgin Mother and the Child, the grand history of whose life +the book contained. The money went into Robert's pocket with a grateful +murmur, the book into his bosom with a long look and a tremulous-- + +"I never saw _my_ baby, Ma'am." + +I broke down then; and though my eyes were too dim to see, I felt the +touch of lips upon my hands, heard the sound of departing feet, and knew +my contraband was gone. + +When one feels an intense dislike, the less one says about the subject +of it the better; therefore I shall merely record that the captain +lived,--in time was exchanged; and that, whoever the other party was, I +am convinced the Government got the best of the bargain. But long before +this occurred, I had fulfilled my promise to Robert; for as soon as my +patient recovered strength of memory enough to make his answer +trustworthy, I asked, without any circumlocution,-- + +"Captain Fairfax, where is Lucy?" + +And too feeble to be angry, surprised, or insincere, he straightway +answered,-- + +"Dead, Miss Dane." + +"And she killed herself, when you sold Bob?" + +"How the Devil did you know that?" he muttered, with an expression +half-remorseful, half-amazed; but I was satisfied, and said no more. + +Of course, this went to Robert, waiting far away there in a lonely +home,--waiting, working, hoping for his Lucy. It almost broke my heart +to do it; but delay was weak, deceit was wicked; so I sent the heavy +tidings, and very soon the answer came,--only three lines; but I felt +that the sustaining power of the man's life was gone. + +"I thought I'd never see her any more; I'm glad to know she's out of +trouble. I thank yer, Ma'am; an' if they let us, I'll fight fer yer till +I'm killed, which I hope will be 'fore long." + +Six months later he had his wish, and kept his word. + +Every one knows the story of the attack on Fort Wagner; but we should +not tire yet of recalling how our Fifty-Fourth, spent with three +sleepless nights, a day's fast, and a march under the July sun, stormed +the fort as night fell, facing death in many shapes, following their +brave leaders through a fiery rain of shot and shell, fighting valiantly +for "God and Governor Andrew,"--how the regiment that went into action +seven hundred strong came out having had nearly half its number +captured, killed, or wounded, leaving their young commander to be +buried, like a chief of earlier times, with his body-guard around him, +faithful to the death. Surely, the insult turns to honor, and the wide +grave needs no monument but the heroism that consecrates it in our +sight; surely, the hearts that held him nearest see through their tears +a noble victory in the seeming sad defeat; and surely, God's benediction +was bestowed, when this loyal soul answered, as Death called the roll, +"Lord, here am I, with the brothers Thou hast given me!" + +The future must show how well that fight was fought; for though Fort +Wagner still defies us, public prejudice is down; and through the +cannon-smoke of that black night the manhood of the colored race shines +before many eyes that would not see, rings in many ears that would not +hear, wins many hearts that would not hitherto believe. + +When the news came that we were needed, there was none so glad as I to +leave teaching contrabands, the new work I had taken up, and go to nurse +"our boys," as my dusky flock so proudly called the wounded of the +Fifty-Fourth. Feeling more satisfaction, as I assumed my big apron and +turned up my cuffs, than if dressing for the President's levee, I fell +to work on board the hospital-ship in Hilton-Head harbor. The scene was +most familiar, and yet strange; for only dark faces looked up at me from +the pallets so thickly laid along the floor, and I missed the sharp +accent of my Yankee boys in the slower, softer voices calling cheerily +to one another, or answering my questions with a stout, "We'll never +give it up, Ma'am, till the last Reb's dead," or, "If our people's free, +we can afford to die." + +Passing from bed to bed, intent on making one pair of hands do the work +of three, at least, I gradually washed, fed, and bandaged my way down +the long line of sable heroes, and coming to the very last, found that +he was my contraband. So old, so worn, so deathly weak and wan, I never +should have known him but for the deep scar on his cheek. That side lay +uppermost, and caught my eye at once; but even then I doubted, such an +awful change had come upon him, when, turning to the ticket just above +his head, I saw the name, "Robert Dane." That both assured and touched +me, for, remembering that he had no name, I knew that he had taken mine. +I longed for him to speak to me, to tell how he had fared since I lost +sight of him, and let me perform some little service for him in return +for many he had done for me; but he seemed asleep; and as I stood +reliving that strange night again, a bright lad, who lay next him softly +waving an old fan across both beds, looked up and said,-- + +"I guess you know him, Ma'am?" + +"You are right. Do you?" + +"As much as any one was able to, Ma'am." + +"Why do you say 'was,' as if the man were dead and gone?" + +"I s'pose because I know he'll have to go. He's got a bad jab in the +breast, an' is bleedin' inside, the Doctor says. He don't suffer any, +only gets weaker 'n' weaker every minute. I've been fannin' him this +long while, an' he's talked a little; but he don't know me now, so he's +most gone, I guess." + +There was so much sorrow and affection in the boy's face, that I +remembered something, and asked, with redoubled interest,-- + +"Are you the one that brought him off? I was told about a boy who nearly +lost his life in saving that of his mate." + +I dare say the young fellow blushed, as any modest lad might have done; +I could not see it, but I heard the chuckle of satisfaction that escaped +him, as he glanced from his shattered arm and bandaged side to the pale +figure opposite. + +"Lord, Ma'am, that's nothin'; we boys always stan' by one another, an' I +warn't goin' to leave him to be tormented any more by them cussed Rebs. +He's been a slave once, though he don't look half so much like it as me, +an' I was born in Boston." + +He did not; for the speaker was as black as the ace of spades,--being a +sturdy specimen, the knave of clubs would perhaps be a fitter +representative,--but the dark freeman looked at the white slave with the +pitiful, yet puzzled expression I have so often seen on the faces of our +wisest men, when this tangled question of Slavery presents itself, +asking to be cut or patiently undone. + +"Tell me what you know of this man; for, even if he were awake, he is +too weak to talk." + +"I never saw him till I joined the regiment, an' no one 'peared to have +got much out of him. He was a shut-up sort of feller, an' didn't seem to +care for anything but gettin' at the Rebs. Some say he was the fust man +of us that enlisted; I know he fretted till we were off, an' when we +pitched into old Wagner, he fought like the Devil." + +"Were you with him when he was wounded? How was it?" + +"Yes, Ma'am. There was somethin' queer about it; for he 'peared to know +the chap that killed him, an' the chap knew him. I don't dare to ask, +but I rather guess one owned the other some time,--for, when they +clinched, the chap sung out, 'Bob!' an' Dane, 'Marster Ned!'--then they +went at it." + +I sat down suddenly, for the old anger and compassion struggled in my +heart, and I both longed and feared to hear what was to follow. + +"You see, when the Colonel--Lord keep an' send him back to us!--it a'n't +certain yet, you know, Ma'am, though it's two days ago we lost +him--well, when the Colonel shouted, 'Rush on, boys, rush on!' Dane tore +away as if he was goin' to take the fort alone; I was next him, an' kept +close as we went through the ditch an' up the wall. Hi! warn't that a +rusher!" and the boy flung up his well arm with a whoop, as if the mere +memory of that stirring moment came over him in a gust of irrepressible +excitement. + +"Were you afraid?" I said,--asking the question women often put, and +receiving the answer they seldom fail to get. + +"No, Ma'am!"--emphasis on the "Ma'am,"--"I never thought of anything but +the damn' Rebs, that scalp, slash, an' cut our ears off, when they git +us. I was bound to let daylight into one of 'em at least, an' I did. +Hope he liked it!" + +"It is evident that you did, and I don't blame you in the least. Now go +on about Robert, for I should be at work." + +"He was one of the fust up; I was just behind, an' though the whole +thing happened in a minute, I remember how it was, for all I was yellin' +an' knockin' round like mad. Just where we were, some sort of an officer +was wavin' his sword an' cheerin' on his men; Dane saw him by a big +flash that come by; he flung away his gun, give a leap, an' went at that +feller as if he was Jeff, Beauregard, an' Lee, all in one. I scrabbled +after as quick as I could, but was only up in time to see him git the +sword straight through him an' drop into the ditch. You needn't ask what +I did next, Ma'am, for I don't quite know myself; all I'm clear about +is, that I managed somehow to pitch that Reb into the fort as dead as +Moses, git hold of Dane, an' bring him off. Poor old feller! we said we +went in to live or die; he said he went in to die, an' he's done it." + +I had been intently watching the excited speaker; but as he regretfully +added those last words I turned again, and Robert's eyes met +mine,--those melancholy eyes, so full of an intelligence that proved he +had heard, remembered, and reflected with that preternatural power which +often outlives all other faculties. He knew me, yet gave no greeting; +was glad to see a woman's face, yet had no smile wherewith to welcome +it; felt that he was dying, yet uttered no farewell. He was too far +across the river to return or linger now; departing thought, strength, +breath, were spent in one grateful look, one murmur of submission to the +last pang he could ever feel. His lips moved, and, bending to them, a +whisper chilled my cheek, as it shaped the broken words,-- + +"I would have done it,--but it's better so,--I'm satisfied." + +Ah! well he might be,--for, as he turned his face from the shadow of the +life that was, the sunshine of the life to be touched it with a +beautiful content, and in the drawing of a breath my contraband found +wife and home, eternal liberty and God. + + * * * * * + + +THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS IN THE TOWN OF BOSTON.--CONCLUDED.[1] + +THE REMOVAL. + + +"I have been in constant panic," wrote Franklin in London to Dr. Cooper +in Boston, "since I heard of troops assembling in Boston, lest the +madness of mobs, or the interference of soldiers, or both, when too near +each other, might occasion some mischief difficult to be prevented or +repaired, and which might spread far and wide." + +The people wore indignant at the introduction of the troops, and the +crown officials were arrogant and goading; but so wise and forbearing +were the popular leaders, that, for ten months, from October, 1768, to +August, 1769, no detriment came to their cause from the madness of mobs +or the insolence of soldiers. The Loyalists, in this public order, saw +the wholesome terror with which military force had imbued the community; +they said this "had prevented, if it had not put a final period to, its +most pestilential town-meetings": but they termed this quiet "only a +truce procured from the dread of the bayonet"; and they held that +nothing would reach and suppress the rising spirit of independence but a +radical stroke at the democratic element in the local Constitution. They +relied on physical force to carry out such a policy, and hence they +looked on the demand of the people for a withdrawal of the troops as +equivalent to a demand for the abandonment of their policy and the +abdication of the Government. The partial removal already made caused +great chagrin. The report, at first, was hardly credited in British +political circles, and, when confirmed, was construed into inability, +inconsistency, and concession by the Administration, and a sign that +things were growing worse in America. + +General Gage had withdrawn the Sixty-Fourth and Sixty-Fifth Regiments, +the detachment of the Fifty-Ninth, and the company of artillery, which +left the Fourteenth Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple and the +Twenty-Ninth under Lieutenant-Colonel Carr,--the two regiments which +Lord North termed "the Sam Adams Regiments,"--not enough, if the +Ministers intended to govern by military force, and too many, if they +did not intend this. They continued under General Mackay until he left +for England, when the command devolved on Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple, +the senior officer, under whom they had landed, who was exacting, severe +in his judgment on the Patriots, and impatient of professional service. +Commodore Hood and his family also sailed for Halifax. Both Mackay and +Hood, aiming at reconciliation, and liberal in non-essentials, easily +won the general good-will. The disuse of the press-gang, which even +"Junius" was now justifying, and which England had not learned to +abominate, but which rowelled the differently trained mind of the +Colonies, was regarded as a great concession to personal liberty; and +the discontinuance of parades and horse-racing on Sundays was accepted +as a concession to a religious sentiment that was very general, and +which, so far from deserving the sneer of being hypocritical, indicated +the wide growth of respect for things noble and divine. These officers +seemed, at least, to steer clear of political matters, to keep to the +line of their profession, and to make the best of an irksome duty. They +lived on good terms with the popular leaders, were invited to visit the +common-schools with the Selectmen, appeared at the public festivals, +and, on their departure, were handsomely complimented in both the Whig +and Tory journals for the manner in which they had discharged their +duties. They were, however, no mere lookers-on, and their official +representations and conclusions were no more far-reaching than those of +their superiors. Hood, from Halifax, wrote in harsh terms of Boston, +although he put on record severe and true things of that chronic local +infliction, the Commissioners of the Customs. His official letters, +printed this year, were open to sharp criticism, which they received in +the journals. Not, however, until the publication of the Cavendish +Debates was it known that General Mackay, who was regarded as uncommonly +liberal, received every personal attention, and was the most +complimented by the press, stood up in the House of Commons, soon after +his arrival in England, and maligned Boston in severe terms. He charged +the town with being without government; said it was tyrannized over by a +set of men hardly respectable, in point of fortune; and even had the +hardihood to say that some of the troops he commanded there had been +sold for slaves! + +Boston, now a subject of speculation in Continental courts, as well as +of abuse in Parliament, was destined to undergo a still severer trial +for the succeeding seven months, from August, 1769, to March, 1770, +during the continuance of the two remaining regiments. This was an +eventful period, characterized by violent agitation in the Colonies to +promote a repeal of the revenue acts and an abandonment of the +intermeddling and aggressive policy of the Ministry; and it was marked +by uncommon political activity in Boston. The popular leaders, as +though no British troops were lookers-on, and in spite, too, of the +protests and commands of the crown officials, steadily guided the +deliberations of the people in Faneuil Hall; and at times the disorderly +also, in violations of law and personal liberty that can never be +justified, intrepidly carried out their projects. The events of this +period tended powerfully to inflame the public mind. The appeals of the +Patriots, through the press, show their appreciation of the danger of an +outbreak, and yet their determination to meet their whole duty. They +endeavored to restrain the rash among the Sons of Liberty within the +safe precincts of the law; yet, repelling all thought of submission to +arbitrary power, they strove to lift up the general mind to the high +plane of action which a true patriotism demanded, and prepare it, if +need were, for the majestic work of revolution. + +The executive, during an interval thus exciting and important, was in a +transition-state, from Francis Bernard to Thomas Hutchinson. It was +semi-officially announced in the journals, when the Governor sailed for +England, that the Administration had no intention of superseding his +commission; and it was intimated that the Lieutenant-Governor would +administer the functions of the office until the return of the chief +magistrate to his post. These officials, for nine years, had been warm +personal friends and intimate political associates. Indeed, so close had +been their private and public relations, that Bernard ascribed the +origin of his administrative difficulties to his adoption of the +quarrels of Hutchinson. For a long time, the Governor had been seeking +and expecting something better in the political line than his present +office, as a substantial recognition of his zeal; and he had urged, and +was now urging, the selection of the Lieutenant-Governor for his +successor in office. He represented that Hutchinson was well versed in +the local affairs,--knew the motives of the Governor,--warmly approved +the policy of the Ministry,--had been, on critical occasions, a trusted +confidential adviser,--and, in fact, had become so thoroughly identified +with public affairs, that, of the two officials, he (Hutchinson) was the +most hated by the faction, which the Governor seemed to consider a +special recommendation. He favored this appointment as a measure that +would be equivalent to an indorsement of his own administration, and +therefore a compliment to himself and a blow at the faction. "It would +be," he said, "a peculiarly happy stroke; for while it would discourage +the Sons of Liberty, it would afford another great instance of rewarding +faithful servants to the Crown." + +Thomas Hutchinson, descended from one of the most respected families of +New England, and the son of an honored merchant of Boston, was now +fifty-seven years of age. He was a pupil at the Old North Grammar +School, and was graduated at Harvard College, when he entered upon a +mercantile life. He was not successful as a merchant. Thus early, +however, he evinced the untiring industry that marked his whole career. +He had a decided political turn, and, with uncommon natural talent, had +the capacity and the ambition for public life. An irreproachable private +character, pleasing manners, common-sense views of things, and politics +rather adroit than high-toned, secured him a run of popular favor and +executive confidence so long that he had now (1769) been thirty-three +years uninterruptedly engaged in public affairs; and he confessed to his +friends that this concern in politics had created a hankering for them +which a return to business-pursuits could not overcome. He had reason to +be gratified at the tokens of public approbation. He was so faithful to +the municipal interests as a Selectman that the town intrusted him with +an important mission to England, which he satisfactorily executed; his +wide commercial knowledge, familiarity with constitutional law and +history, decided ability in debate, and reputed disinterestedness, gave +him large influence as a Representative in the General Court; he showed +as Councillor an ever ready zeal for the prerogative, and thus won the +most confidential relations with so obsequious a courtier as Bernard; as +Judge of Probate, he was attentive, kind to the widow, accurate, and won +general commendation; and as a member of the Superior Court, he +administered the law, in the main, satisfactorily. He had been Chief +Justice for nine years, and for eleven years the Lieutenant-Governor. He +had also prepared two volumes of his History, which, though rough in +narrative, is a valuable authority, and his volume of "Collections" was +now announced. His fame at the beginning of the Revolutionary +controversy was at its zenith; for, according to John Adams, "he had +been admired, revered, rewarded, and almost adored; and the idea was +common that he was the greatest and best man in America." He was now, +and had been for years, the master-spirit of the Loyalist party. It Is +an anomaly that he should have attained to this position. He had had +practical experience, as a merchant, of the intolerable injustice of the +old mercantile system, and yet he sided with its friends; he had dealt, +as a politician, to a greater degree than most men, with the rights and +privileges which the people prized, conceded that they had made no ill +use of them, and yet urged that they ought to be abridged; as a patriot, +when he loved his native land wisely, he remonstrated against the +imposition of the Stamp Tax, and yet he grew into one of the sturdiest +of the defenders of the supremacy of Parliament in all cases whatsoever. +He exhibited the usual characteristics of public men who from unworthy +considerations change their principles and desert their party. No man +urged a more arbitrary course; no man passed more discreditable +judgments on his patriot contemporaries; and if in that way he won the +smiles of the court which he was swift to serve, he earned the hatred of +the land which he professed to love. The more his political career is +studied, the greater will be the wonder that one who was reared on +republican soil, and had antecedents so honorable, should have become so +complete an exponent of arbitrary power. + +Hutchinson was not so blinded by party-spirit or love of money or of +place as not to see the living realities of his time; for he wrote that +a thirst for liberty seemed to be the ruling passion, not only of +America, but of the age, and that a mighty empire was rising on this +continent, the progress of which would be a theme for speculative and +ingenious minds in distant ages. It was the vision of the cold and clear +intellect, distrusting the march of events and the capacity and +intelligence of the people, he had no heart to admire, he had not even +the justice to recognize, the greatness that was making an immortal +record,--the sublime faith, the divine enthusiasm, the dauntless +resolve, the priceless consciousness of being in the right, that were +the life and inspiration of the lovers of freedom. He conceded, however, +that the body of the people were honest, but acted on the belief, +inspired by wrong-headed leaders, that their liberties were in danger; +and while, with the calculation of the man of the world, he dreaded, and +endeavored to stem, still, with a statesman's foresight, he appreciated +and held in respect, the mysterious element of public opinion. He felt +that it was rising as a power. He saw this power already intrenched in +the impregnable lines of free institutions. Seeking to know its springs, +he was a close and at times a shrewd observer, as well from a habit of +research, in tracing the currents of the past, as from occupying a +position which made it a duty to watch the growth of what influenced the +present. His letters, very voluminous, deal with causes as well as with +facts, and are often fine tributes to the life-giving power of vital +political ideas, from the pen of a subtle and determined enemy. + +When the executive functions devolved on Hutchinson, it had been +semi-officially announced that the Ministry, wholly out of commercial +considerations, intended to propose, at the next session of Parliament, +a repeal of a portion of the revenue acts; and the Patriots were +pressing, with more zeal than ever, the non-importation agreement, in +the hope of obtaining, as matter of constitutional right, a total +repeal. To enforce this agreement, the merchants had held a public +meeting in Faneuil Hall, adopted a series of spirited resolves, and +adjourned to a future day; and Hutchinson's first important +gubernatorial decision had reference to this meeting. He had urged the +necessity of troops to sustain the authority of the Government. He had +awarded to them the credit of preventing a great catastrophe. He had +written that they would make the Boston saints as tame as lambs. It was +his settled conviction that the Americans never would set armies in the +field against Great Britain, and if they did, that "a few troops would +be sufficient to quell them." He was now importuned to use the troops at +his command to disperse the merchants' meeting at its adjournment. He +held that this meeting was contrary to law. He characterized its +resolves as contemptuous and insolent, and derogatory to the authority +of Parliament. He never grew weary of holding up to reprobation the +objects which the merchants had in view. And his political friends now +asked him to make good his professions by acts. But he declined to +interfere with this meeting. The merchants proceeded to a close with +their business. Hutchinson's explanation of his course to the Ministry, +on this occasion, applies to the popular demonstrations which took +place, at intervals, down to the military crisis. "I am very sensible," +are his words, "that the whole proceeding is unwarrantable; but it is so +generally countenanced in this and in several of the Colonies, and the +authority of Government is so feeble, that an attempt to put a stop to +it would have no other effect than still further to inflame the minds of +the people. I can do no more than represent to your Lordship, and wait +for such instructions as may be thought proper." And he continued to +present these combinations of the merchants as "a most certain evidence +of the lost authority of Government," and as exhibiting "insolence and +contempt of Parliament." But he complains that they were not so much +regarded in England as he expected they would be, and that he was left +to act on his own judgment. He soon saw pilloried in the newspapers the +names of a son of Governor Bernard and two of his own sons, in a list of +Boston merchants who "audaciously counteracted the united sentiments of +the body of merchants throughout North America by importing British +goods contrary to agreement." + +The Lieutenant-Governor again kept quiet, as a town-meeting went on, +which he watched with the keenest interest, freely commented on in his +letters, and which is far too important to be overlooked in any review +of these times. William Bollan, the Colonial Agent in London, sent to +the popular leaders a selection from the letters of Governor Bernard, +General Gage, Commodore Hood, and others, bearing on the introduction of +the troops, which were judged to have aspersed the character, affected +the rights, and injured the interests of the town. Their publication +made a profound impression on the public mind, and they became the theme +of every circle. At one of the political clubs, in which the Adamses, +the Coopers, Warren, and others were wont to discuss public affairs, +Otis, in a blaze of indignation, charged the crown officials with +haughtiness, arbitrary dispositions, and the insolence of office, and +vehemently urged a town-meeting. One was soon summoned by the Selectmen, +which deliberated with dignity and order, and made answer to the +official indictment in a strong, conclusive, and grand "Appeal to the +World," and appointed, as a committee to circulate it, Thomas Cushing, +Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Richard Dana, Joshua Henshaw, Joseph +Jackson, and Benjamin Kent,--men of sterling character, and bearing +names that have shed lustre on the whole country. Reason and truth, +thus put forth, exerted an influence. Hutchinson felt the force of this. +"We find, my Lord, by experience," he advised Lord Hillsborough, October +19, 1769, "that associations and assemblies pretending to be legal and +constitutional, assuming powers that belong only to established +authority, prove more fatal to this authority than mobs, riots, or the +most tumultuous disorders; for such assemblies, from erroneous or +imperfect notions of the nature of government, very often meet with the +approbation of the body of the people, and in such case there is no +internal power which can be exerted to suppress them. Such case we are +in at present, and shall probably continue in it until the wisdom of +Parliament delivers us from it." + +It would be difficult to say what power the people now assumed that +belonged only to established authority; they assumed only the right of +public meeting and of liberty of discussion, which are unquestionable in +every free country; but the ruling spirit of Hutchinson is seen in this +fine tribute to the instrumentality of the town-meeting, for he regarded +the American custom of corporate presentation of political matters as +illegal, and the power of Parliament as sufficient to meet it with pains +and penalties. As the committee already named sent forth the doings of +the town, they said, (October 23, 1769,) "The people will never think +their grievances redressed till every revenue act is repealed, the Board +of Commissioners dissolved, and the troops removed." + +A few days after this the Lieutenant-Governor was obliged to deal with a +mob, which grew out of the meanness of importers, whose selfish course +proved to be a great strain on the forbearing policy of the popular +leaders. The merchants on the Tory side, among whom were two of +Hutchinson's sons, persisted in importing goods; and he writes, with a +good deal of pride, as though it were meritorious, that since the +agreement was formed these two sons had imported two hundred chests of +tea, which they had been so clever as to sell. But such was the public +indignation at this course, that they, too, were compelled to give in to +the non-importation agreement; and Hutchinson's letters are now severer +than ever on the Patriots. He characterizes "the confederacy of +merchants" as a very high offence, and the Sons of Liberty as the +greatest tyrants ever known. But as he continually predicted a crisis, +he said, "I can find nobody to join with me in an attempt to discourage +them." He adds, "If any tumults should happen, I shall be under less +difficulty than if my own children had been the pretended occasion of +them; and for this reason Dalrymple tells me he is very glad they have +done as they have." The immediate occasion of the mob was the dealing of +the people with an informer on the twenty-eighth of October. They got +track of him about noon, and, after a long search, found him towards +evening, when they immediately prepared to tar and feather him. It was +quite dark. A formidable procession carted the culprit from one quarter +of the town to another, and threatened to break the windows of all +houses which were without lights. The Lieutenant-Governor summoned such +of the members of the Council as were at hand, and the justices of the +county, to meet him at the Council-Chamber; he requested Dalrymple to +order the force under his command "to be ready to march when the +occasion required"; and he "kept persons employed to give him immediate +notice of every new motion of the mob." Dalrymple, with a soldier's +alacrity, complied with the official request; but the mob went on its +course, for "none of the justices nor the sheriff," writes Hutchinson, +"thought it safe for them to restrain so great a body of people in a +dark evening,"--and the only work done by the soldiers was to protect +Mien, the printer, who, being goaded into discharging a pistol among the +crowd, fled to the main guard for safety. The finale of this mob is thus +related by Hutchinson:--"Between eight and nine o'clock they dispersed +of their own account, and the town was quiet." + +The intrepid and yet prudent course of the popular leaders and of the +people, in standing manfully for the common cause in presence of the +British troops, was now eliciting the warmest encomiums on the town from +the friends of liberty in England and in the Colonies. The generous +praise was copied into the local journals, and, so far from being +received with assumption, became a powerful incentive to worthy action. +"Your Bostonians," a Southern letter runs, "shine with renewed lustre. +Their last efforts were indeed like themselves, full of wisdom, +prudence, and magnanimity. Such a conduct must silence every pretended +suspicion, and baffle every vile attempt to calumniate their noble and +generous struggles in the cause of American Liberty." "So much wisdom +and virtue," says a New-Hampshire letter, "as hath been conspicuous in +the Bostonians, will not go unrewarded. You will in all respects +increase until you become the glory of New England, the pride of British +kings, the scourge of tyrants, and the joy of the whole earth," "The +patriotism of Boston," says another letter, "will be revered through +every age." One of these tributes, from a Southern journal, in the +Boston papers of December 18, 1769, runs,--"The noble conduct of the +Representatives, Selectmen, and principal merchants of Boston, in +defending and supporting the rights of America and the British +Constitution, cannot fail to excite love and gratitude in the heart of +every worthy person in the British empire. They discover a dignity of +soul worthy the human mind, which is the true glory of man, and merits +the applause of all rational beings. Their names will shine unsullied in +the bright records of Panic to the latest ages, and unborn millions will +rise up and call them blessed." + +This eulogy on Boston is a great fact of these times, and therefore +ought to have a place in a history of them. It was not of a local cast, +for it appears in several Colonies and in England; it was not a +manufacture of politicians, for it is seen in the private letters of the +friends of constitutional liberty which have come to light subsequently +to the events; it was not a transient enthusiasm, for the same strain +was continued during the years preceding the war. The praise was +bestowed on a town small in territory and comparatively small in +population. Such were the cities of Greece in the era of their renown. +"The territories of Athens, Sparta, and their allies," remarks Gibbon, +"do not exceed a moderate province of France or England; but after the +trophies of Salamis or Platæa, they expand in our fancy to the gigantic +size of Asia, which had been trampled under the feet of the victorious +Greeks." No trophies had been gathered in an American Platæa; there had +been no great civic triumph; there was no hero upon whom public +affection centred; nor was there here a field on which to weave a web of +court-intrigue, or to play a game of criminal ambition;--there was, +indeed, little that common constructors of history would consider to be +history. Yet it was now written, and made common thought by an +unfettered press,--"Nobler days nor deeds were never seen than at this +time."[2] This was an instinctive appreciation of a great truth; for +the real American Revolution was going on in the tidal flow of thought +and feeling, and in the formation of public opinion. A people inspired +by visions of better days for humanity, luxuriating in the emotions of +hope and faith, yearning for the right, mastering the reasoning on which +it was based, were steadily taking their fit place on the national +stage, in the belief of the nearness of a mighty historic hour. And +their spontaneous praise was for a community heroically acting on +national principles and for a national cause. Because of this did they +predict that unborn millions would hold up the men of Boston as worthy +to be enrolled in the shining record of Fame. + +As the new year (1770) came in, the people were looking forward to a +meeting of the General Court, always a season of peculiar interest, and +more so now than ever, for it was certain that the debates in this body +would turn on the foremost local subject, the removal of the troops. But +the subject was no longer merely local, for it had become a general +issue, one affecting not only Boston and Massachusetts, but other towns +and Colonies, and the interest felt in the controversy was wide and +deep. "In this day of constitutional light," a New-York essay copied +into a Boston newspaper runs, "it is monstrous that troops should be +kept, not to protect the right, but to enslave the continent." While it +was thus put by the journals, the policy was meant to be of this +significance by the Ministry; and the letters printed for the first time +in this monograph attest the accuracy of the Patriot judgment. On purely +local grounds, also, the presence of the troops continued to be +deplored. "The troops," Dr. Cooper wrote, January 1, 1770, "greatly +corrupt our morals, and are in every sense an oppression. May Heaven +soon deliver us from this great evil!" Samuel Adams said, "The troops +must move to the Castle; it must be the first business of the General +Court to move them out of town"; and James Otis said. "The Governor has +the power to move them under the Constitution." Hutchinson endeavored to +conciliate the people by making arrangements with General Gage for a +removal of the main guard from its location near the Town-House, being +informed that this might satisfy the greater part of the members. + +Having taken this precaution, Hutchinson was really anxious for a +meeting of the General Court. He was in great uncertainty both as to +public and private affairs. He knew now that Bernard was not to return, +but he did not know who was to be the successor; he conjectured that it +might be "that the government was to be put on a new establishment, and +a person of rank appointed Governor"; and he confessed that he was +"ignorant of the Ministerial plan" as to the Colonies. The Legislature +was appointed to convene on the tenth of January. But the November +packet from England, happening to make an uncommonly short passage, +brought him a peremptory order, which he received on the evening of the +third of January, to prorogue the time of the sitting of the General +Court; and the journals of the next morning contain his Proclamation, +setting forth that "by His Majesty's command" the Legislature was +prorogued to the second Wednesday in March. "I guess," Hutchinson +writes, "that the Court is prorogued to a particular day with an +intention that something from the King or the Parliament shall be then +laid before them." "Some of the distant members will be on their journey +before the Proclamation reaches them; and if the packet had not had a +better passage than common, my orders would have found the Court +sitting." As a consequence of this unlooked-for prorogation, the main +guard continued to be stationed near the Town-House, until a portion of +it played its tragic part on the memorable fifth of March. + +The Lieutenant-Governor was apprehensive that this sudden prorogation +would cause a great clamor; but he judged that the popular leaders were +rather humbled and mortified than roused and enraged by it; and he soon +expressed the conviction that this was the right step. But the favorite +organ of the Patriots, the "Boston Gazette," in its next issue, of +January the eighth, indicates anything but humility. Through it James +Otis, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams spoke kindling words to a community +who received words from them as things. Otis, in a card elicited by +strictures on the "unmanly assault, battery, and barbarous wounding" of +himself by Robinson, declared that "a clear stage and no favor were all +he ever wished or wanted in court, country, camp, or city"; Hancock, in +a card commenting on the report that he had violated the merchants' +agreement, "publicly defied all mankind" to prove the allegation, and +pledged his coöperation "in every legal and laudable measure to redress +the grievances under which the Province and the Continent had so long +labored"; and Samuel Adams, under the signature of "Vindex," tested the +legality of the prorogation by the terms of the Charter, and adjured +every man to make it the subject of his contemplation. "We all +remember," are his weighty words, "that, no longer ago than last year, +the extraordinary dissolution by Governor Bernard, in which he declared +he was purely Ministerial, produced another assembly, which, though +legal in all its proceedings, awaked an attention in the very soul of +the British empire." He claimed that a Massachusetts executive ought to +act from the dictates of his own judgment. "It is not to be expected +that in ordinary times, much less at such an important period as this, +any man, though endowed with the wisdom of Solomon, at the distance of +three thousand miles, can be an adequate judge of the expediency of +proroguing, and in effect of putting an end to, an American legislative +assembly." + +The Lieutenant-Governor had now to meet the severest pressure brought to +bear on him by the Tory faction for the employment of the troops, +occasioned by a violation on the part of his sons of their agreement as +to a sale of goods. They had stipulated with the merchants that an +importation of teas made by them should remain unsold, and, as security, +had given to the committee of inspection the key of the building in +which it was stored. Yet they secretly made sales, broke the lock, and +delivered the teas. This was done when the non-importation agreement was +the paramount measure,--when fidelity to it was patriotism, was honor, +was union, was country,--and when all eyes were looking to see Boston +faithful. "If this agreement of the merchants," said "Determinatus" in +the "Boston Gazette," "is of that consequence to all America which our +brethren in all the other governments and in Great Britain itself think +it to be,--if the fate of unborn millions is suspended upon it, verily +it behooves not the merchants only, but every individual of every class +in city and country to aid and support them, and peremptorily to insist +upon its being strictly adhered to. And yet what is most astonishing is, +that some two or three persons, of very little consequence in +themselves, have dared openly to give out that they will vend the goods +they have imported, though they have solemnly pledged their faith to the +body of merchants that they should remain in store till a general +importation takes place." The merchants met in Faneuil Hall in a large +and commanding gathering; for it was composed of the solid men of the +town. After deliberation, they proceeded in a body to the residence of +the Lieutenant-Governor to remonstrate against the course of his sons. +Meantime, the ultra Loyalists pressed him to order the troops to +disperse the meeting; the Commissioners savagely urged, that "there +could not be a better time for trying the strength of the government"; +and others said, "It were best to bring matters to extremities." The +commanding officers of the troops now expected work, and prepared for +it. Dalrymple dealt out twelve rounds of cartridges to the men. But +Hutchinson involuntarily shrank from the bloody business of this +programme. He tried other means than force. He appealed to the justices +of the peace, and through the sheriff he commanded the meeting, in His +Majesty's name, to disperse. But the intrepid merchants, in a written +paper, in Hancock's handwriting, averred that law warranted their +proceeding; and so they calmly adhered to the action that patriotism +dictated. Hutchinson at length sent for the Moderator, William Phillips, +of fragrant Revolutionary renown and of educational fame, and stipulated +to deposit a sum of money to stand for the tea that had been sold, and +to return the balance of it to the store. The concession was accepted. +In explanation of his course, and with special reference to the action +of the Commissioners in this case, Hutchinson pleaded a want of power, +under the Constitution, to comply with their demand. "They did not +consider the Constitution," he remarked, "and that by the Charter I can +do nothing without the Council, the major part of whom are against me, +and the civil magistrates, many of whom made a part of the body which +was to be suppressed; so that there could not have been a worse occasion +[to call out the troops], and I think anything tragical would have set +the whole Province in a flame, and maybe spread farther." + +Thus Hutchinson, as well as Franklin, dreaded the effect of a serious +collision between the citizens and the troops. At this time the feeling +was one of sullen acquiescence in their presence. "Molineaux," he says, +February 18, 1770, "to whom the Sons of Liberty have given the name of +Paoli, and some others, are restless; but there seems to be no +disposition to any general muster of the people again." And yet the +newspapers were now crowded with unusually exciting matter, and so +continued up to the first week in March: articles about the Liberty-Pole +in New York being cut down by the military and replaced in a triumphal +procession by the people; about McDougal's imprisonment for printing +free comments on the Assembly for voting supplies to the troops; the +famous address of "Junius" to the King, in which one count is his +alienation of a people who left their native land for freedom and found +it in a desert; the details of the shooting, by an informer, of +Christopher Snider, the son of a poor German, and of the imposing +funeral, which moved from the Liberty-Tree to the burial-place. The +importers now feared an assault on their houses; whereupon soldiers were +allowed as a guard to some, while others slept with loaded guns at their +bedsides. These things deserve to be borne in mind; for they show how +much there was to exasperate, when the popular leaders were called upon +to meet a paroxysm without a precedent in the Colonies. + +It seemed to the Patriots astonishing that the Ministry persisted in +keeping troops in Boston. There was no spirit of resistance to law; +there was no plot maturing to resist the Government; the avocations of +life went on as usual; the popular leaders, men of whom any community +might be proud, averred that their opposition to public measures had +been prudent and legal, and that they had not taken "a single step that +could not be fully justified on constitutional grounds"; and the demand +in the public prints was continuous to know what the troops were wanted +for, and how they were to be used. On the other hand, the ultra +Loyalists as continuously represented that the town was full of a +rebellious spirit, was a nest of disorder, and threatened the leaders in +it with transportation. Hutchinson seems to have apprehended that this +misrepresentation had been carried so far as to be suicidal; for he +advised Lord Hillsborough, that, "in matters that had no relation to the +dispute between the Kingdom and the Colonies, government retained its +vigor, and the administration of it was attended with no unusual +difficulty." This is to the point, and conclusive. This was the truth on +which the popular leaders rested; and hence it seemed to them a marvel +that the Ministry, to use the words of Samuel Adams, should employ +troops only "to parade the streets of Boston, and, by their ridiculous +merry-andrew tricks, to become the objects of contempt of the women and +children." + +It would be a tedious and profitless task to go over the bickerings and +quarrels that occurred between the inhabitants and the soldiers. The +high-spirited citizens, on being challenged in their walks, could not +keep their temper; the roughs, here as in every place, would have their +say; and the coarse British soldier could not be restrained by +discipline; yet in all the brawls, for seventeen months, not a gun was +fired in an affray. Fist had been met with fist, and club with club; and +not unfrequently these quarrels were settled in the courts. The nature +of such emergency as would justify the troops in firing on the people +was acutely discussed in the newspapers, and undoubtedly the subject was +talked about in private circles and in the political clubs. "What shall +I say?" runs an article in the "Gazette." "I shudder at the thought. +Surely no provincial magistrate could be found so steeled against the +sensations of humanity and justice as wantonly to order troops to fire +on an unarmed populace, and more than repeat in Boston the tragic scene +exhibited in St. George's Fields." It was a wanton fire on an unarmed +populace that was protected against; and the protest was by men who +involuntarily shrank from mob-law as they would from the hell of +anarchy. They apprehended an impromptu collision between the people and +the troops; they knew that an illegal and wanton fire on the people +would produce such collision; the danger of this result formed, +undoubtedly, a large portion of the common talk; and the frequency and +manner in which the subject was discussed elicited from General Gage the +rather sweeping remark, that every citizen in Boston was a lawyer. Every +citizen was interested in the support of public liberty and public +order, and might well regard with deep concern the threats that were +continually made, which, if executed, would disturb both. Hutchinson, in +one of his letters, thus states the conclusions that were reached:--"Our +heroes for liberty say that no troops dare to fire on the people without +the order of the civil magistrate, and that no civil magistrate, would +dare to give such orders. In the first part of their opinion they may be +right; in the second they cannot be sure until they have made the +trial." + +On Friday, the second of March, in the forenoon, as three soldiers were +at Gray's Ropewalks, near the head of India Wharf, they were asked by +one of the workmen to empty a vault. Sharp altercation followed this +insult, and the soldiers went off, but soon returned with a party of +their comrades, when there was a challenge to a boxing-match, and this +grew into a fight, the rope-makers using their "wouldring-sticks," and +the soldiers clubs and cutlasses. It proved to be the most serious +quarrel that had occurred. Lieutenant-Colonel Carr, commander of the +Twenty-Ninth, which, Hutchinson said, was composed of such bad fellows +that discipline could not restrain them, made a complaint to the +Lieutenant-Governor relative to the provoking conduct of the rope-maker +which brought on the affray; and thus this affair became the occasion of +political consultation, which tended to intensify the animosity between +the parties. + +On Saturday, the report was circulated that the parties who were engaged +in this affray would renew the fight on Monday evening; on Sunday, Carr +and other officers went into the ropewalk, giving out that they were +searching for a sergeant of their regiment; but though on these days +there was much irritation, the town was comparatively quiet. + +On Monday, the Lieutenant-Governor laid the complaint of +Lieutenant-Colonel Carr before the Council, and asked the advice of this +body, which gave rise to debate about the removal of the +troops,--members freely expressing the opinion, that the way to prevent +collisions between the military and the people was to withdraw the two +regiments to the Castle. No important action was taken by the Council, +although the apprehension was expressed that the ropewalk affair might +grow into a general quarrel. And it is worthy of remark, that, ominous +as the signs were, the Lieutenant-Governor took no precautionary +measures, not even the obvious step of having the troops restrained to +their barracks. His letters, and, indeed, his whole course, up to the +eventful evening of this day, indicate confidence in the opinion that +there was no intention on the part of the popular leaders to molest the +troops, and that the troops, without an order from the civil authority, +would not fire on the citizens. + +Nor was there now, as zealous Loyalists alleged, any plan formed by the +popular leaders, or by any persons of consideration, to expel the troops +by force from the town, much less the obnoxious Commissioners of the +Customs; nor is there any evidence to support the allegation on the +other side, that the crown officials, civil or military, meditated or +stimulated an attack on the inhabitants. The Patriots regarded what had +occurred and what was threatened, like much that had taken place during +the last seventeen months, as the motions of a rod of power needlessly +held over the people to overawe them, serving no earthly good, but +souring their minds and embittering their passions; the crown officials +represented this chafing of the free spirit at the incidents of military +rule as a sign of the lost authority of Government and of a desire for +independence. Among the fiery spirits, accurately on both sides the +mob-element, the ropewalk affair was regarded as a drawn game, and a +renewal of the fight was desired on the ground that honor was at stake; +while to spirit up the roughs among the Whigs, to use Dr. Gordon's +words,--"the newspapers had a pompous account of a victory obtained by +the inhabitants of New York over the soldiers there in an affray, while +the Boston newspapers could present but a tame relation of the result of +the affray here." These facts account satisfactorily for the intimations +and warnings given during the day to prominent characters on both sides, +and for the handbill that was circulated in the afternoon. The course +things took fully justifies the remark of Gordon, that "everything +tended to a crisis, and it is rather wonderful that it did not exist +sooner, when so many circumstances united to hasten its approach." + +There was a layer of ice on the ground, a slight fall of snow during the +day, and a young moon in the evening. At an early hour, as though +something uncommon was expected, parties of boys, apprentices, and +soldiers strolled through the streets, and neither side was sparing of +insult. Ten or twelve soldiers went from the main guard, in King Street, +across this street to Murray's Barracks, in Brattle Street, about three +hundred yards from King Street; and another party came out of these +barracks, armed with clubs and cutlasses, bent on a stroll. A little +after eight o'clock, quite a crowd collected near the Brattle-Street +Church, many of whom had canes and sticks; and after a spell of +bantering wretched abuse on both sides, things grew into a fight. As it +became more and more threatening, a few North-Enders ran to the Old +Brick Meeting-House, on what is now Washington Street, at the head of +King Street, and lifted a boy into a window, who rang the bell. About +the same time, Captain Goldfinch, of the army, who was on his way to +Murray's Barracks, crossed King Street, near the Custom-House, at the +corner of Exchange Lane, where a sentinel had long been stationed; and +as he was passing along, he was taunted by a barber's apprentice as a +mean fellow for not paying for dressing his hair, when the sentinel ran +after the boy and gave him a severe blow with his musket. The boy went +away crying, and told several persons of the assault, while the Captain +passed on towards Murray's Barracks, but found the passage into the yard +obstructed by the affray going on here,--the crowd pelting the soldiers +with snowballs, and the latter defending themselves. Being the senior +officer, he ordered the men into the barracks; the gate of the yard was +then shut, and the promise was made that no more men should be let out +that evening. In this way the affray here was effectually stopped. + +For a little time, perhaps twenty minutes, there was nothing to attract +to a centre the people who were drawn by the alarm-bell out of their +homes on this frosty, moonlight, memorable evening; and in various +places individuals were asking where the fire was. King Street, then, as +now, the commercial centre of Boston, was quiet. A group was standing +before the main guard with firebags and buckets in their hands; a few +persons were moving along in other parts of the street; and the sentinel +at the Custom-House, with his firelock on his shoulder, was pacing his +beat quite unmolested. In Dock Square, a small gathering, mostly of +participants in the affair just over, were harangued by a large, tall +man, who wore a red cloak and a white wig; and as he closed, there was a +hurrah, and the cry, "To the main guard!" In another street, a similar +cry was raised, "To the main guard!--that is the nest!" But no assault +was made on the main guard. The word went round that there was no fire, +"only a rumpus with the soldiers," who had been driven to their +quarters; and well-disposed citizens, as they withdrew, were saying, +"Every man to his home!" + +But at about fifteen minutes past nine, an excited party passed up Royal +Exchange Lane, (now Exchange Street,) leading into King Street; and as +they came near the Custom-House, on the corner, one of the number, who +knew of the assault on the apprentice-boy, said, "Here is the soldier +who did it," when they gathered round the sentinel. The barber's boy now +came up and said, "This is the soldier who knocked me down with the +butt-end of his musket." Some now said, "Kill him! knock him down!" The +sentinel moved back up the steps of the Custom-House, and loaded his +gun. Missiles were thrown at him, when he presented his musket, warned +the party to keep off, and called for help. Some one ran to Captain +Preston, the officer of the day, and informed him that the people were +about to assault the sentinel, when he hastened to the main guard, on +the opposite side of the street, about forty rods from the Custom-House, +and sent from here a sergeant, a very young officer, with a file of +seven men, to protect the sentinel. They went over in a kind of trot, +using rough words and actions towards those who went with them, and, +coming near the party round the sentinel, rudely pushed them aside, +pricking some with their bayonets, and formed in a half-circle near the +sentry-box. The sentinel now came down the steps and fell in with the +file, when they were ordered to prime and load. Captain Preston almost +immediately joined his men. The file now numbered nine. + +The number of people here at this time is variously estimated from +thirty to a hundred,--"between fifty and sixty" being the most common +statement. Some of them were fresh from the affray at the barracks, and +some of the soldiers had been in the affair at the ropewalks. There was +aggravation on both sides. The crowd were unarmed, or had merely sticks, +which they struck defiantly against each other,--having no definite +object, and doing no greater mischief than, in retaliation of +uncalled-for military roughness, to throw snowballs, hurrah, whistle +through their fingers, use oaths and foul language, call the soldiers +names, hustle them, and dare them to fire. One of the file was struck +with a stick. There were good men trying to prevent a riot, and some +assured the soldiers that they would not be hurt. Among others, Henry +Knox, subsequently General, was present, who saw nothing to justify the +use of fire-arms, and, with others, remonstrated against their +employment; but Captain Preston, as he was talking with Knox, saw his +men pressing the people with their bayonets, when, in great agitation, +he rushed in among them. Then, with or without orders, but certainly +without any legal form or warning, seven of the file, one after another, +discharged their muskets upon the citizens; and the result indicates the +malignity and precision of their aim. Crispus Attucks, an intrepid +mulatto, who was a leader in the affair at Murray's Barracks, was killed +as he stood leaning and resting his breast on a stout "cord-wood stick"; +Samuel Gray, one of the rope-makers, was shot as he stood with his hands +in his bosom, and just as he had said, "My lads, they will not fire"; +Patrick Carr, on hearing the alarm-bell, had left his house full of +fight, and, as he was crossing the street, was mortally wounded; James +Caldwell, in like manner summoned from his home, was killed as he was +standing in the middle of the street; Samuel Maverick, a lad of +seventeen, ran out of the house to go to a fire, and was shot as he was +crossing the street; six others were wounded. But fifteen or twenty +minutes had elapsed from the time the sergeant went from the main guard +to the time of the firing. The people, on the report of the guns, fell +back, but instinctively and instantly returned for the killed and +wounded, when the infuriated soldiers prepared to fire again, but were +checked by Captain Preston, and were withdrawn across the street to the +main guard. The drums beat; several companies of the Twenty-Ninth +Regiment, under Colonel Carr, promptly appeared in the street, and were +formed in three divisions in front of the main guard, the front division +near the northeast corner of the Town-House, in the kneeling posture for +street-firing. The Fourteenth Regiment was ordered under arms, but +remained at their barracks. + +The report now spread that "the troops had risen on the people"; and the +beat of drums, the church-bells, and the cry of fire summoned the +inhabitants from their homes, and they rushed through the streets to the +place of alarm. In a few minutes thousands collected, and the cry was, +"To arms! to arms!" The whole town was in the utmost confusion; while in +King Street there was, what the Patriots had so long predicted, dreaded, +and vainly endeavored to avert, an indignant population and an +exasperated soldiery face to face. The excitement was terrible. The care +of the popular leaders for their cause, since the mob-days of the Stamp +Act, had been like the care of their personal honor: it drew them forth +as the prompt and brave controlling power in every crisis; and they were +among the concourse on this "night of consternation." Joseph Warren, +early on the ground to act the good physician as well as the fearless +patriot, gives the impression produced on himself and his co-laborers as +they saw the first blood flowing that was shed for American liberty. +"Language," he says, "is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls, +when our streets were stained with the blood of our brethren, when our +ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were +tormented by the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead." "Our hearts +beat to arms; we snatched our weapons, almost resolved by one decisive +stroke to avenge the death of our slaughtered brethren." + +Meantime the Lieutenant-Governor, at his residence in North Square, +heard the sound of the church-bell near by, and supposed it was an alarm +of fire. But soon, at nearly ten o'clock, a number of the inhabitants +came running into the house, entreating him to go to King Street +immediately, otherwise, they said, "the town would be all in blood." He +immediately started for the scene of danger. On his way, in the +Market-Place, he found himself amidst a great body of people, some armed +with clubs, others with cutlasses, and all calling for fire-arms. He +made himself known to them, but pleaded in vain for a hearing; and, to +insure his safety, he retreated into a dwelling-house, and thence went +by a private way into King Street, where he found an excited multitude +anxiously awaiting his arrival. He first called for Captain Preston; and +a natural indignation at a high-handed act is expressed in the stern and +searching questions which the civilian put to the soldier, bearing on +the vital point of the subordination of the military to the civil power. + +"Are you the commanding officer?" + +"Yes, Sir." + +"Do you know, Sir, you have no power to fire on any body of people +collected together, except you have a civil magistrate with you to give +orders?" + +Captain Preston replied,-- + +"I was obliged to, to save the sentry." + +So great was the confusion that Preston's reply was heard but by few. +The cry was raised, "To the Town-House! to the Town-House!" when +Hutchinson, by the irresistible violence of the crowd, was forced into +the building, and up to the Council-Chamber; and in a few minutes he +appeared on the balcony. Near him were prominent citizens, both +Loyalists and Whigs; below him, on the one side, were his indignant +townsmen, who had conferred on him every honor in their power, and on +the other side, the regiment in its defiant attitude. He could speak +with eloquence and power; throughout this strange and trying scene he +bore himself with dignity and self-possession; and as in the stillness +of night he expressed great concern at the unhappy event, and made +solemn pledges to the people, his manner must have been uncommonly +earnest. "The law," he averred, "should have its course; he would live +and die by the law." He promised to order an inquiry in the morning, and +requested all to retire to their homes. But words now were not +satisfactory to the people; and those near him urged that the course of +justice had always been evaded or obstructed in favor of the soldiery, +and that the people were determined not to disperse until Captain +Preston was arrested. In consequence, Hutchinson ordered an immediate +court of inquiry. The Patriots also entreated the Lieutenant-Governor to +order the troops to their barracks. He replied, that it was not in his +power to give such an order, but he would consult the officers. They now +came on to the balcony,--Dalrymple of the Fourteenth Regiment being +present,--and after an interview with Hutchinson returned to the troops. +The men now rose from their kneeling posture; the order to "shoulder +arms" was heard; and the people were greatly relieved by seeing the +troops move towards their barracks. + +The people now began to disperse, but slowly, however. Meanwhile, the +court of inquiry on Captain Preston was in session, and, after an +examination that lasted three hours, he was bound over for trial. Later, +the file of soldiers were also arrested. It was three o'clock in the +morning before the Lieutenant-Governor left the scene of the massacre. +And now all, excepting about a hundred of the people, who formed +themselves into a watch, left the streets. Thus wise action by the crown +officials, the activity of the popular leaders, and the habitual respect +of the people for law, proved successful in preventing further carnage. +"It was Royal George's livery," said Warren, "that proved a shield to +the soldiery, and saved them from destruction." Hence, a contemporary +versifier and participator in these scenes was able to write,-- + + "No sudden rage the ruffian soldier bore, + Or drenched the pavements with his vital gore; + Deliberate thought did all our souls compose, + Till veiled in gloom the low'ry morning rose." + +During the night, the popular leaders sent expresses to the neighboring +towns, bearing intelligence of what had occurred, and summoning people +from their beds to go to the aid of Boston; but as the efforts to +restore quiet were proving successful, the summons was countermanded. +This action accounts for the numbers who, very early in the morning of +the sixth of March, flocked into the town. They could learn details of +the tragedy from the actors in it,--could see the blood, the brains +even, of the slaughtered inhabitants,--could hear the groans of the +wounded,--could view the bodies of the dead. This terrible revelation of +the work of arbitrary power, to a people habitually tender of regard for +human life, naturally shocked the sensibilities of all; and thus the +public temper was again wrought up to a fearful pitch of indignation. It +required the strongest moral influence to restrain the rash, and to +guide in the forms of law a righteous demand for a redress of grievance +and for future security. + +The Lieutenant-Governor, during the night, had summoned such members of +the Council as were within reach to meet in the Council-Chamber in the +morning; and on joining them, he found the Selectmen, with most of the +justices of the county, waiting for him, to represent, as he says, +"their opinion of the absolute necessity of the troops being at a +distance, that there might be no intercourse between the inhabitants and +them, in order to prevent a further effusion of blood." Such was the +logic of events which now forced the seventeen months' question of the +removal of the troops on the civil and military authorities with an +imperativeness that could not be resisted. + +The question, however, came up now in a new shape. To put it in the +simplest way, and in the very words used on that day,--the people were +so excited by the shedding of blood on the preceding night, that they +were resolved no longer to acquiesce in the decision of the constituted +authorities as to the troops; but, failing in other means, they were +determined to effect their removal by force, let the act be deemed +rebellion or otherwise. Not that any conspiracy existed; not that any +plan had been matured to do this; but circumstances had transferred the +question from the domain of reason to that of physical force; and the +only point with the crown officials, during this whole day's +deliberations, was, whether they would be justified in what appeared to +them lowering the national standard at the demand of a power which they +habitually represented as "the faction," or whether they might venture +to take the responsibility of resisting the demand and of meeting the +consequences. Well might John Adams say, "This was a dangerous and +difficult crisis." + +The Selectmen expressed to the Lieutenant-Governor the opinion, that +"the inhabitants would be under no restraint whilst the troops were in +town." "I let them know," Hutchinson says, "that I had no power to +remove the troops." They also informed him that they had been requested +to call a town-meeting, which was the special dread of Hutchinson. As +the settled determination of the people became revealed, the anxiety of +the Lieutenant-Governor naturally deepened as to what the day might +bring forth; and he sent for Colonels Dalrymple and Carr to be present +in Council and act as military advisers. But the discussions here were +interrupted by the entrance of a messenger from another assembly, +bearing the ominous summons for the immediate presence among them of the +Selectmen. + +This summons invites attention to the movements of the people, who had +been constantly coming in from the neighboring towns, and had now +gathered in great numbers in and around Faneuil Hall, to use +Hutchinson's words, "in a perfect frenzy." It was, however, the general +disposition, volcanic as were the elements, to act with caution, +deliberation, and in a spirit of unity, and, doubtless, with the +consideration that the eyes of the friends of their cause were upon +them, and the name and fame of Boston were at stake. The hours passed, +and no warrant appeared calling a town-meeting; when, at eleven o'clock, +the town-records say, "the freeholders and other inhabitants" held a +meeting, "occasioned, by the massacre made in King Street by the +soldiery." The town-clerk, William Cooper, acted as the chairman. This +true and intrepid patriot held this office forty-nine years, which +speaks for his fidelity to duty, intelligence, devotion to principle, +and moral worth. "The Selectmen," his clear, round record reads, "not +being present, and the inhabitants being informed that they were in the +Council-Chamber, it was voted that Mr. William Greenleaf be desired to +proceed there and acquaint the Selectmen that the inhabitants desire +and expect their attendance at the Hall." This was virtually a command, +and the Selectmen immediately repaired thither. Thomas Cushing was +chosen the Moderator. He was now the Speaker of the House of +Representatives; and though not of such shining abilities as to cause +him to be looked up to in Boston as a leader, and of the moderate class +of Patriots, yet, by urbanity of manner, a high personal character, +diligent public service, and fidelity to the cause, he won a large +influence. It was next voted that Constable Wallace wait upon the +Reverend Dr. Cooper and acquaint him that the inhabitants desired him to +open the meeting with prayer. This great divine was a brother of the +town-clerk, and the pastor of the Brattle-Street Church. He was devoted +to the Patriot cause, and on the most confidential terms with the +popular leaders; and besides being rich in genius and learning, he had, +says Dr. Eliot, a gift in prayer peculiar and very excellent. He +complied with the request, but no reporter has transmitted the words of +this righteous man, or described this solemn assembly, as fervent prayer +now went up for country. + +The meeting next voted to invite any citizen to give information of the +massacre of the preceding evening, "that the same might be minuted by +the town-clerk"; whereupon several persons related details of the +tragedy. One said he heard a soldier, after the firing, say, that "the +Devil might give quarter, he should give none"; another said he heard a +soldier say, that "his officer told him, that, if the soldiers went out +that night, they must go armed and in companies"; another related a +soldier's story of a scheme formed to kill the inhabitants; another +said, he "descried a soldier who struck down the inhabitants." These +homely words are life-like glimpses of the spirit of the hour. No speech +could have been more eloquent, because none could have been better +calculated to deepen the general conviction and minister to the common +emotion. However, so many witnesses were ready to testify, that it was +found to be impracticable to hear all; and a committee was appointed to +receive and digest the evidence. + +Samuel Adams addressed this remarkable meeting. He spoke with a pathos +peculiar to himself. His manner, naturally impressive, was rendered more +so by the solemnity of the occasion, and every heart was moved. The +great hour demanded dignity and discretion in unison with firmness, and +they were combined in the action of the meeting. It resolved that the +inhabitants would submit no longer to the insult of military rule. A +committee of fifteen was chosen to wait on the Lieutenant-Governor, and +acquaint him that it was the unanimous opinion of the meeting that the +inhabitants and soldiery could no longer dwell together in safety, and +that nothing could be rationally expected to restore the peace of the +town and prevent additional scenes of blood and carnage but the +immediate removal of the troops; and to say, further, that they most +fervently prayed his Honor that his power and influence might be exerted +in order that this removal might be instantly effected. This committee +well represented the intelligence, the patriotism, the varied interests, +and whatever there was of true greatness in Boston. The meeting now +dissolved; when the Selectmen issued a warrant for a regular +town-meeting to convene at the same place, at three o'clock in the +afternoon. + +It was about noon when the Lieutenant-Governor received the committee of +the town at the Council-Chamber, the Council being in session. I have +found no details of what was said by the committee at this interview, in +urging a compliance with the demand. Hutchinson said he was not prepared +to reply, but would give an answer in writing, when the committee +withdrew into another room; and he gives glimpses of what then occurred. +"I told the Council," he says, "that a removal of the troops was not +with me; and I desired them to consider what answer I could give to +this application of the town, whilst Colonel Dalrymple, who had the +command, was present." Some of the members, who were among the truest +Patriots, urged a compliance, when the Lieutenant-Governor declared that +"he would upon no consideration whatever give orders for their removal." +The result reached this morning was an advice for the removal of one +regiment, in which the commanding officer concurred. As Hutchinson rose +from this sitting, he declared that "he meant to receive no further +application on the subject." + +Things wore a gloomy aspect during the interval between the session of +the Council and the time of the afternoon meeting; for the natural +effect of the unbending tone of the crown officials was to give firmness +to the determined spirit of the people. There were consultations between +members of the Council, the popular leaders, and the commanding +officers; and now the very men who were branded as incendiaries, enemies +of Great Britain, and traitors, were again seen quietly endeavoring to +prevent a catastrophe. Hutchinson, in his History, says it was intimated +to members of the Council, that, though the commanding officer should +receive no authoritative order to remove all the troops, yet the +expression of a desire by the Lieutenant-Governor and Council that it +should be done would cause him to do it; and on this basis Hutchinson +was prevailed upon to meet the Council in the afternoon. This was a +great point gained for the popular cause. + +At three o'clock, Faneuil Hall was filled to overflowing with the +excited population assembled in legal town-meeting. Thomas Cushing was +again chosen the Moderator; but the place would hold only about thirteen +hundred, and the record reads, "The Hall not being spacious enough to +receive the inhabitants who attended, it was voted to adjourn to Dr. +Sewall's meeting-house,"--the Old South. The most convenient way for the +people would be to pass into King Street, up by the Council-Chamber, and +along what is now Washington Street, to the church. As they went, no +mention is made of mottoes or banners or flags, of cheers or of jeers. +Thomas dishing said his countrymen "were like the old British commoners, +grave and sad men"; and it was said in the Council to Hutchinson, "That +multitude are not such as pulled down your house"; but they are "men of +the best characters," "men of estates and men of religion," "men who +pray over what they do." With similar men, men who feared God and were +devoted to public liberty, Cromwell won at Marston Moor; and so striking +was the analogy, that at this hour it virtually forced itself on the +well-read Hutchinson: for men of this stamp had once made a revolution +in Boston, and as he looked out on this scene, perhaps scanned the +concourse who passed from Faneuil Hall to the Old South, and read in +their faces the sign of resolute hearts, he judged "their spirit to be +as high as was the spirit of their ancestors when they imprisoned +Andros, while they were four times as numerous." As the burden of +official responsibility pressed heavily on him, he realized that he had +to deal with an element far more potent than "the faction" which +officials had long represented as composing the Patriot band, and that +much depended on dealing with it wisely. This was not a dependent and +starved host wildly urging the terrible demand of "Bread or blood"; nor +was it fanaticism in a season of social discontent claiming +impossibilities at the hand of power: the craving was moral and +intellectual: it was an intelligent public opinion, a people with +well-grounded and settled convictions, making a just demand on arbitrary +power. Was such public opinion about to be scorned as though it were but +a faction, and by officials who bore high the party-standard? And were +men of such resoluteness of character and purpose about to be involved +in a work of carnage? or would the wielders of British authority avoid +the extremity by concession? Boston, indeed America, had seen no hour of +intenser interest, of deeper solemnity, of more instant peril, or of +truer moral sublimity; and as this assembly deliberated with the sounds +of the fife and drum in their ears, and with the soldiery in their +sight, questions like these must have been on every lip,--and they are +of the civil-war questions that cause an involuntary shudder in every +home. + +The Old South was not large enough to hold the people, and they stood in +the street and near the Town-House awaiting the report of the committee +of fifteen, chosen in the morning. The Lieutenant-Governor was now at +the Council-Chamber, where, in addition to Colonels Dalrymple and Carr, +there had been summoned Captain Caldwell of the Rose frigate; and +Hutchinson would, he says, have summoned other crown officers, but he +knew the Council would not consent to it. He took care to repeat to the +committee, he says, the declaration which he had made in the morning to +the Selectmen, the Justices, and the Council,--that "the ordering of the +troops did not lie with him." As the committee, with Samuel Adams at the +head, appeared on the Town-House steps, the people were in motion, and +the word passed, "Make way for the committee!" Adams uncovered his head, +and, as he went towards the church, he bowed alternately to those on +each side of the lane that was formed, and repeated the words, "Both +regiments or none." The answer of the Lieutenant-Governor to the morning +demand for a total removal of the troops was read to the meeting in the +church. It was to the effect, that he had conferred with the commanders +of the two regiments, who received orders from the General in New York, +and it was not in his power to countermand these orders; but the Council +desired their removal, and Colonel Dalrymple had signified that because +of the part which the Twenty-Ninth Regiment had taken in the differences +it should be placed without delay in the barracks at the Castle, and +also that the main guard should be removed; while the Fourteenth +Regiment should be so disposed and laid under such restraint that all +occasion for future differences might be prevented. And now resounded +through the excited assembly, from a thousand tongues, the words, "Both +regiments or none!" + +A short debate occurred, when the answer was voted to be unsatisfactory. +Then another committee was chosen. It was resolved that John Hancock, +Samuel Adams, William Molineaux, William Phillips, Joseph Warren, Joshua +Henshaw, and Samuel Pemberton be a committee to inform the +Lieutenant-Governor that it was the unanimous opinion of the people that +the reply was by no means satisfactory, and that nothing less would +satisfy them than a total and immediate removal of the troops. This +committee was one worthy of a great occasion. Hancock, Henshaw, and +Pemberton, besides being individually of large and just influence from +their ability, patriotism, worth, and wealth, were members of the Board +of Selectmen, and therefore represented the municipality; Phillips, who +had served on this Board, was a type of the upright and liberal +merchant; Molineaux was one of the most determined and zealous of the +Patriots, and a stirring business-man; Warren, ardent and bold, of +rising fame as a leader, personified the generous devotion and noble +enthusiasm of the young men; Adams, though not the first-named on the +committee, played so prominent a part in its doings, that he appears as +its chairman. He was so widely and favorably known now that he was +addressed as "the Father of America." Of middling stature, plain in +dress, quiet in manner, unpretending in deportment, he exhibited nothing +extraordinary in common affairs; but on great occasions, when his deeper +nature was called into action, he rose, without the smallest +affectation, into an upright dignity of figure and bearing,--with a +harmony of voice and a power of speech which made a strong impression, +the more lasting from the purity and nervous eloquence of his style and +the logical consistency of his argument. Such were the men selected to +speak and act for Boston in this hour of deep passion and of high +resolve. + +The committee, about four o'clock, repaired to the Council-Chamber. It +was a room respectable in size and not without ornament and historic +memorials. On its walls were representatives of the two elements now in +conflict,--of the Absolutism that was passing away, in full-length +portraits of Charles II. and James II. robed in the royal ermine, and of +a Republicanism which had grown robust and self-reliant, in the heads of +Belcher and Bradstreet and Endicott and Winthrop. Around a long table +were seated the Lieutenant-Governor and the members of the Council with +the military officers,--the scrupulous and sumptuous costumes of +civilians in authority, gold and silver lace, scarlet cloaks, and large +wigs, mingled with the brilliant uniforms of the British army and navy. +Into such imposing presence was now ushered the plainly attired +committee of the town. + +At this time the Lieutenant-Governor, a portion of the Council, the +military officers, and, among other officials now in the Town-House, +though not in the Council, the Secretary of the Province, were sternly +resolved to refuse compliance with the demand of the people. On the vote +of the meeting being presented to the Lieutenant-Governor, Adams +remarked at length on the illegality of quartering troops on the +inhabitants in time of peace and without the consent of the legislature, +urged that the public service did not require them, adverted with +sensibility and warmth to the late tragedy, painted the misery in which +the town would be involved, if the troops were suffered to remain, and +urged the necessity of an immediate compliance with the vote of the +people. The Lieutenant-Governor, in a brief reply, defended both the +legality and the necessity of the troops, and renewed his old assertion +that they were not subject to his authority. Adams again rose, and +attention was riveted on him as he paused and gave a searching look at +the Lieutenant-Governor. There was in his countenance and attitude a +silent eloquence that words could not express; his manner showed that +the energies of his soul were roused; and, in a tone not loud, but deep +and earnest, he again addressed himself to Hutchinson, "It is well +known," he said, "that, acting as Governor of the Province, you are, by +its Charter, the Commander-in-Chief of the military forces within it, +and, as such, the troops now in the capital are subject to your orders. +If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under you, have the power to remove one +regiment, you have the power to remove both; and nothing short of their +total removal will satisfy the people or preserve the peace of the +Province. A multitude, highly incensed, now wait the result of this +application. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands that both +regiments be forthwith removed. Their voice must be respected,--their +demand obeyed. Fail, then, at your peril, to comply with this +requisition. On you alone rests the responsibility of the decision; and +if the just expectations of the people are disappointed, you must be +answerable to God and your country for the fatal consequences that must +ensue. The committee have discharged their duty, and it is for you to +discharge yours. They wait your final determination." As Adams, while +speaking, intently eyed Hutchinson, he says, "I observed his knees to +tremble; I saw his face grow pale; and I enjoyed the sight." + +A spell of silence followed this appeal. Then there was low +conversation, to a whisper, between the Lieutenant-Governor and Colonel +Dalrymple, who, in the spirit of the unbending soldier, was for +resisting this demand, as he had been for summary proceedings in the +case of the meetings. "It is impossible for me," he had said this +afternoon, "to go any further lengths in this matter. The information +given of the intended rebellion is sufficient reason against the removal +of His Majesty's troops." But he now said in a loud tone, "I am ready to +obey your orders," which threw the responsibility on Hutchinson. All the +members of the committee urged the demand. "Every one of them," +Hutchinson says, "deliberately gave his opinion at large, and generally +gave this reason to support it,--that the people would most certainly +drive out the troops, and that the inhabitants of the other towns would +join in it; and several of the gentlemen, declared that they did not +judge from the general temper of the people only, but they knew it to be +the determination, not of a mob, but of the generality of the principal +inhabitants; and they added, that all the blood would be charged to me +alone, for refusing to follow their unanimous advice, in desiring that +the quarters of a single regiment might be changed, in order to put an +end to the animosities between the troops and the inhabitants, seeing +Colonel Dalrymple would consent to it." After the committee withdrew, +the debates of the Council were long and earnest; and, as they went on, +Hutchinson asked, "What protection would there be for the Commissioners, +if both regiments were ordered to the Castle?" Several said, "They would +be safe, and always had been safe." "As safe," said Gray, "without the +troops as with them." And Irving said, "They never had been in danger, +and he would pawn his life that they should receive no injury." "Unless +the troops were removed," it was said, "before evening there would be +ten thousand men on the Common." "The people in general," Tyler said, +"were resolved to have the troops removed, without which they would not +be satisfied; that, failing of other means, they were determined to +effect their removal by force, let the act be deemed rebellion or +otherwise." As the Council deliberated, the people were impatient, and +the members were repeatedly called out to give information as to the +result, This at length was unanimity. This body resolved, that, to +preserve the peace, it was absolutely necessary that the troops should +be removed; and they advised the Lieutenant-Governor to communicate that +conclusion to Colonel Dalrymple, and to request that he would order his +whole command to Castle William. + +The remark of Dalrymple, as well as the decision of the Council, became +known to the people, and the word passed round, "that Colonel Dalrymple +had yielded, and that the Lieutenant-Governor only held out." This +circumstance was communicated to Hutchinson, and he says, "It now lay +upon me to choose that side which had the fewest and least difficulties; +and I weighed and compared them as well as the time I had for them would +permit. I knew it was most regular for me to leave this matter entire to +the commanding officer. I was sensible the troops were designed to be, +upon occasion, employed under the direction of the civil magistrate, and +that at the Castle they would be too remote, in most cases, to answer +that purpose. But then I considered they never had been used for that +purpose, and there was no probability they ever would be, because no +civil magistrate could be found under whose directions they might act; +and they could be considered only as having a tendency to keep the +inhabitants in some degree of awe, and even this was every day +lessening; and the affronts the troops received were such that there was +no avoiding quarrels and slaughter." Still he hesitated substantially to +retract his word; for now a request from him, he knew, was equivalent to +an order; and before he determined, he consulted three officers of the +crown, who, though not present in the Council, were in the building, and +the Secretary, Oliver. All agreed that he ought to comply with the +advice of the Council. He then formally recommended Colonel Dalrymple to +remove all the troops, who gave his word of honor that he would commence +preparations in the morning for a removal, and that there should be no +unnecessary delay in quartering both regiments at the Castle. + +It was dark when the committee bore back to the meeting the great report +of their success. It was received with expressions of the highest +satisfaction. What a burden was lifted from the hearts of the Patriots! +They did not, however, regard their work as quite done. They voted that +a strong watch was necessary through the night, when the committee who +had waited on the Lieutenant-Governor tendered their services to make a +part of the watch, and the whole matter was placed in their hands as "a +committee of safety." They were authorized to accept the service of such +inhabitants as they might deem proper. The meeting, then dissolved. A +few days after, the two regiments were removed to the Castle. + +The withdrawal of the troops caused great surprise in England, and long +deliberations by the Ministry. "It is put out of all doubt," Governor +Bernard wrote Hutchinson, "that the attacking the soldiers was +preconcerted in order to oblige them to fire, and then make it necessary +to quit the town, in consequence of their doing what they were forced to +do. It is considered by thinking men wholly as a manoeuvre to support +the cause of non-importation." The Opposition termed it an indignity put +upon Great Britain, and called upon the Ministry to resent it upon a +system, or to resign their offices. Lord Barrington, who approved of the +soldiers' retiring to the Castle, said, that, "where there was no +magistracy there should be no soldiers; and if they intended to have +soldiers sent there again, they should provide for a magistracy, which +could not be done but by appointing a royal Council, instead of the +present democratical one." The Government were perplexed; but the +expectation was general, that General Gage, without waiting for orders +from the Government, would send a reinforcement to Boston, and order the +whole of the troops into the town. "Every one," Governor Bernard wrote, +"without exception, says it must be immediately done. Those in +opposition are as loud as any. Lord Shelburne told a gentleman, who +reported it to me, that it was now high time for Great Britain to act +with spirit." The Governor advised Hutchinson, that, should it turn out +that he had been successful in preventing Captain Preston from being +murdered by the mob, "Government might be reconciled to the removal of +the troops." There was much outside clamor, and those who indulged in it +could not reconcile to themselves "six hundred regular troops giving way +to two or three thousand common people, who, they say, would not have +dared to attack them, if they had stood their ground"; and this class +regarded the affair "as a successful bully." Colonel Barré, in the House +of Commons, disposed of the question in a few words: "The officers +agreed in sending the soldiers to Castle William; what Minister will +dare to send them back to Boston?" + +These events stirred the public mind in the Colonies profoundly. The +Spirit evinced by the people of Boston in the whole transaction raised +the town still higher in the estimation of the Patriots; annual +commemorative orations kept alive the tragic scene; and thus the +introduction of the troops, the question involved in their removal, and +the massacre and triumph of the people, contributed powerfully to bring +about that change in affections and principles which finally resulted in +American Independence. + + * * * * * + +WET-WEATHER WORK. + +BY A FARMER. + + +IV. + +We are fairly on English ground now; of course, it is wet weather. The +phenomena of the British climate have not changed much since the time +when the rains "let fall their horrible pleasure" upon the head of the +poor, drenched outcast, Lear. Thunder and lightning, however, which +belonged to that particular war of the elements, are rare in England. +The rain is quiet, fine, insinuating, constant as a lover,--not wasting +its resources in sudden, explosive outbreaks. + +During a foot-tramp of some four hundred miles, which I once had the +pleasure of making upon English soil, and which led me from the mouth of +the Thames to its sources, and thence through Derbyshire, the West +Riding of Yorkshire, and all of the Lake counties, I do not think that +the violence of the rain kept me housed for more than five days out of +forty. Not to say that the balance showed sunshine and a bonny sky; on +the contrary, a soft, lubricating mist is the normal condition of the +British atmosphere; and a neutral tint of gray sky, when no wet is +falling, is almost sure to call out from the country-landlord, if +communicative, an explosive and authoritative, "Fine morning, this, +Sir!" + +The really fine, sunny days--days you believed in rashly, upon the sunny +evidence of such blithe poets as Herrick--are so rare, that, after a +month of British travel, you can count them on your fingers. On such a +one, by a piece of good fortune, I saw all the parterres of Hampton +Court,--its great vine, its labyrinthine walks, its stately alleys, its +ruddy range of brick, its clipped lindens, its rotund and low-necked +beauties of Sir Peter Lely, and the red geraniums flaming on the +window-sills of once royal apartments, where the pensioned dowagers now +dream away their lives. On another such day, Twickenham, and all its +delights of trees, bowers, and villas, were flashing in the sun as +brightly as ever in the best days of Horace Walpole or of Pope. And on +yet another, after weary tramp, I toiled up to the inn-door of "The +Bear," at Woodstock; and after a cut or two into a ripe haunch of +Oxfordshire mutton, with certain "tiny kickshaws," I saw, for the first +time, under the light of a glorious sunset, that exquisite velvety +stretch of the park of Woodstock, dimpled with water, dotted with +forest--clumps, where companies of sleek fallow-deer were grazing by the +hundred, where pheasants whirred away down the aisles of wood, where +memories of Fair Rosamond and of Rochester and of Alice Lee +lingered,--and all brought to a ringing close by Southey's ballad of +"Blenheim," as the shadow of the gaunt Marlborough column slanted across +the path. + +There are other notable places, however, which seem--so dependent are we +on first impressions--to be always bathed in a rain-cloud. It is quite +impossible, for instance, for me to think of London Bridge save as a +great reeking thoroughfare, slimy with thin mud, with piles of umbrellas +crowding over it, like an army of turtles, and its balustrade steaming +with wet. The charming little Dulwich Gallery, with its Bonningtons and +Murillos, I remember as situated somewhere (for I could never find it +again of my own head) at a very rainy distance from London, under the +spout of an interminable waterfall. The guide-books talk of a pretty +neighborhood, and of a thousand rural charms thereabout; I remember only +one or two draggled policemen in oil-skin capes, and with heads slanted +to the wind, and my cabby, in a four-caped coat, shaking himself like a +water-dog, in the area. Exeter, Gloucester, and Glasgow are three great +wet cities in my memory,--a damp cathedral in each, with a damp-coated +usher to each, who shows damp tombs, and whose talk is dampening to the +last degree. I suppose they have sunshine in these places, and in the +light of the sun I am sure that marvellous gray tower of Gloucester must +make a rare show; but all the reports in the world will not avail to dry +up the image of those wet days of visit. + +Considering how very much the fair days are overbalanced by the dirty, +thick, dropping, misty weather of England, I think we take a too sunny +aspect of her history: it has not been under the full-faced smiles of +heaven that her battles, revolutions, executions, and pageants have held +their august procession; the rain has wet many a May-day and many a +harvesting, whose traditional color (through tender English verses) is +gaudy with yellow sunshine. The revellers of the "Midsummer Night's +Dream" would find a wet turf eight days out of ten to disport upon. We +think of Bacon without an umbrella, and of Cromwell without a +mackintosh; yet I suspect both of them carried these, or their +equivalents, pretty constantly. Raleigh, indeed, threw his velvet cloak +into the mud for the Virgin Queen to tread upon,--from which we infer a +recent shower; but it is not often that an historical incident is so +suggestive of the true state of the atmosphere. + +History, however, does not mind the rain: agriculture must. More +especially in any view of British agriculture, whether old or new, and +in any estimate of its theories or progress, due consideration must be +had for the generous dampness of the British atmosphere. To this cause +is to be attributed primarily that wonderful velvety turf which is so +unmatchable elsewhere; to the same cause, and to the accompanying even +temperature, is to be credited very much of the success of the +turnip-culture, which has within a century revolutionized the +agriculture of Kugland; yet again, the magical effects of a thorough +system of drainage are nowhere so demonstrable as in a soil constantly +wetted, and giving a steady flow, however small, to the discharging +tile. Measured by inches, the rain-fall is greater in most parts of +America than in Great Britain; but this fall is so capricious with us, +often so sudden and violent, that there must be inevitably a large +surface-discharge, even though the tile, three feet below, is in working +order. The true theory of skilful drainage is, not to carry away the +quick flush of a shower, but to relieve a soil too heavily saturated by +opening new outflows, setting new currents astir of both air and +moisture, and thus giving new life and an enlarged capacity to lands +that were dead with a stagnant over-soak. + +Bearing in mind, then, the conditions of the British climate, which are +so much in keeping with the "wet weather" of these studies, let us go +back again to old Markham's day, and amble along--armed with our +umbrellas--through the current of the seventeenth century. + +James I., that conceited old pedant, whose "Counterblast to Tobacco" has +worked the poorest of results, seems to have had a nice taste for +fruits; and Sir Henry Wotton, his ambassador at Venice, writing from +that city in 1622, says,--"I have sent the choicest melon-seeds of all +kinds, which His Majesty doth expect, as I had order both from ray Lord +Holderness and from Mr. Secretary Calvert." Sir Henry sent also with the +seeds very particular directions for the culture of the plants, obtained +probably from some head-gardener of a Priuli or a Morosini, whose melons +had the full beat of Italian sunshine upon the south slopes of the +Vicentine mountains. The same ambassador sends at that date to Lord +Holderness "a double-flowering yellow rose, of no ordinary nature";[3] +and it would be counted of no ordinary nature now, if what he avers be +true, that "it flowreth every month from May till almost Christmas." + +King James took special interest in the establishment of his garden at +the Theobald Palace in Hertfordshire: there were clipped hedges, neat +array of linden avenues, fountains, and a Mount of Venus within a +labyrinth; twelve miles of wall encircled the park, and the soldiers of +Cromwell found fine foraging-ground in it, when they entered upon the +premises a few years later. The schoolmaster-king formed also a guild of +gardeners in the city of London, at whose hands certificates of capacity +for garden-work were demanded, and these to be given only after proper +examination of the applicants. Lord Bacon possessed a beautiful garden, +if we may trust his own hints to that effect, and the added praises of +Wotton. Cashiobury, Holland House, and Greenwich gardens were all noted +in this time; and the experiments and successes of the proprietor of +Bednall-Greene garden I have already alluded to. But the +country-gentleman, who lived upon his land and directed the cultivation +of his property, was but a very savage type of the Bedford or +Oxfordshire landholders of our day. It involved a muddy drag over bad +roads, after a heavy Flemish mare, to bring either one's self or one's +crops to market. + +Sir Thomas Overbury, who draws such a tender picture of a "Milke-Mayde," +is severe, and, I dare say, truthful, upon the country-gentleman. "His +conversation," says he, "amongst his tenants is desperate: but amongst +his equals full of doubt. His travel is seldome farther than the next +market towne, and his inquisition is about the price of corne: when he +travelleth, he will goe ten mile out of the way to a cousins house of +his to save charges; and rewards servants by taking them by the hand +when hee departs. Nothing under a _sub-poena_ can draw him to +_London_: and when he is there, he sticks fast upon every object, casts +his eyes away upon gazing, and becomes the prey of every cut-purse. When +he comes home, those wonders serve him for his holy-day talke. If he goe +to court, it is in yellow stockings: and if it be in winter, in a slight +tafety cloake, and pumps and pantofles." + +The portrait of the smaller farmer, who, in this time, tilled his own +ground, is even more severely sketched by Bishop Earle. "A plain country +fellow is one that manures his ground well, but lets himself lye fallow +and unfilled. He has reason enough to do his business, and not enough to +be idle or melancholy.... His hand guides the plough, and the plough his +thoughts, and his ditch and land-mark is the very mound of his +meditations. He expostulates with his oxen very understandingly, and +speaks _gee_, and _ree_, better than English. His mind is not much +distracted with objects, but if a good fat cow come in his way, he +stands dumb and astonished, and though his haste be never so great, wilt +fix here half an hours contemplation. His habitation is some poor +thatched roof, distinguished from his barn by the loop-holes that let +out smoak, which the rain had long since washed through, but for the +double ceiling of bacon on the inside, which has hung there from his +grand-sires time, and is yet to make rashers for posterity. He +apprehends Gods blessings only in a good year, or a fat pasture, and +never praises him but on _good ground_." + +Such were the men who were to be reached by the agricultural literature +of the day! Yet, notwithstanding this unpromising audience, scarcely a +year passed but some talker was found who felt himself competent to +expound the whole art and mystery of husbandry. + +Adam Speed, Gent., (from which title we may presume that he was no +Puritan,) published a little book in the year 1626, which he wittily +called "Adam out of Eden." In this he undertakes to show how Adam, under +the embarrassing circumstance of being shut out of Paradise, may +increase the product of a farm from two hundred pounds to two thousand +pounds a year by the rearing of rabbits on furze and broom! It is all +mathematically computed; there is nothing to disappoint in the figures; +but I suspect there might be in the rabbits. + +Gentleman Speed speaks of turnips, clover, and potatoes; he advises the +boiling of "butchers' blood" for poultry, and mixing the "pudding" with +bran and other condiments, which will "feed the beasts very fat." + +The author of "Adam out of Eden" also indulges himself in verse, which +is certainly not up to the measure of "Paradise Lost." This is its +taste:-- + + "Each soyl hath no liking of every grain, + Nor barley nor wheat is for every vein; + Yet know I no country so barren of soyl + But some kind of come may be gotten with toyl. + Though husband at home be to count the cost what, + Yet thus huswife within is as needful as that: + What helpeth in store to have never so much, + Half lost by ill-usage, ill huswifes, and such?" + +The papers of Bacon upon subjects connected with rural life are so +familiar that I need not recur to them. His particular suggestions, +however sound in themselves, (and they generally are sound,) did by no +means measure the extent of his contribution to the growth of good +husbandry. But the more thorough methods of investigation which he +instituted and encouraged gave a new and healthier direction to +inquiries connected not only with agriculture, but with every +experimental art. + +Thus, Gabriel Platte, publishing his "Observations and Improvements in +Husbandry," about the year 1638, thinks it necessary to sustain and +illustrate them with a record of "twenty experiments." + +Sir Richard Weston, too, a sensible up-country knight, has travelled +through Flanders about the same time, and has seen such success +attending upon the turnip and the clover culture there, that he urges +the same upon his fellow-landholders, in a "Discourse of Husbandrie." + +The book was published under the name of Hartlib,--the same Master +Samuel Hartlib to whom Milton addressed his tractate "Of Education," and +of whom the great poet speaks as "a person sent hither [to England] by +some good Providence from a far country, to be the occasion and +incitement of great good to this island." + +This mention makes us curious to know something more of Master Samuel +Hartlib. I find that he was the son of a Polish merchant, of Lithuania, +was himself engaged for a time in commercial transactions, and came to +England about the year 1640. He wrote several theological tracts, edited +sundry agricultural works, including, among others, those of Sir Richard +Weston, and published his own observations upon the shortcomings of +British husbandry. He also proposed a grandiose scheme for an +agricultural college, in order to teach youths "the theorick and +practick parts of this most ancient, noble, and honestly gainfull art, +trade, or mystery." The work published under his name entitled "The +Legacy," besides notices of the Brabant husbandry, embraces epistles +from various farmers, who may be supposed to represent the progressive +agriculture of England. Among these letters I note one upon "Snaggreet," +(shelly earth from river-beds); another upon "Seaweeds"; a third upon +"Sea-sand"; and a fourth upon "Woollen-rags." + +Hartlib was in good odor during the days of the Commonwealth; for he +lived long enough to see that bitter tragedy of the executed king before +Whitehall Palace, and to hold over to the early years of the +Restoration. But he was not in favor with the people about Charles II.; +the small pension that Cromwell had bestowed fell into sad arrearages; +and the story is, that he died miserably poor. + +It is noticeable that Hartlib, and a great many sensible old gentlemen +of his date, spoke of the art of husbandry as a mystery. And so it is; a +mystery then, and a mystery now. Nothing tries my patience more than to +meet one of those billet-headed farmers who--whether in print or in +talk--pretend to have solved the mystery and mastered it. + +Take my own crop of corn yonder upon the flat, which I have watched +since the day when it first shot up its little dainty spears of green, +until now it spindles has been faithfully ploughed and fed and tilled; +but how gross appliances all these, to the fine fibrous feeders that +have been searching, day by day, every cranny of the soil,--to the broad +leaflets that, week by week, have stolen out from their green sheaths to +wanton with the wind and caress the dews! Is there any quick-witted +farmer who shall tell us with anything like definiteness what the +phosphates have contributed to all this, and how much the nitrogenous +manures, and to what degree the deposits of _humus_? He may establish +the conditions of a sure crop, thirty, forty, or sixty bushels to the +acre, (seasons favoring); but how short a reach is this toward +determining the final capacity of either soil or plant! How often the +most petted experiments laugh us in the face! The great miracle of the +vital laboratory in the plant remains to mock us. We test it; we humor +it; we fondly believe that we have detected its secret: but the mystery +stays. + +A bumpkin may rear a crop that shall keep him from starvation; but to +develop the _utmost_ capacity of a given soil by fertilizing appliances, +or by those of tillage, is the work, I suspect, of a wiser man than +belongs to our day. And when I find one who fancies he has resolved all +the conditions which contribute to this miracle of God's, and can +control and fructify at his will, I have less respect for his head than +for a good one--of Savoy cabbage. The great problem of Adam's curse is +not worked out so easily. The sweating is not over yet. + +If we are confronted with mystery, it is not blank, hopeless, fathomless +mystery. Our plummet-lines are only too short; but they are growing +longer. It is a lively mystery, that piques and tempts and rewards +endeavor. It unfolds with an appetizing delay. Every year a new secret +is laid bare, which, in the flush of triumph, seems a crowning +development; whereas it presently appears that we have only opened a new +door upon some further labyrinth. + +Throughout the seventeenth century, the progress in husbandry, without +being at any one period very brilliant, was decided and constant. If +there was anything like a relapse, and neglect of good culture, it was +most marked shortly after the Restoration. The country-gentlemen, who +had entertained a wholesome horror of Cromwell and his troopers, had, +during the Commonwealth, devoted themselves to a quiet life upon their +estates, repairing the damages which the Civil War had wrought in their +fortunes and in their lands. The high price of farm-products stimulated +their efforts, and their country-isolation permitted a harmless show of +the chivalrous contempt they entertained for the _novi homines_ of the +Commonwealth. With the return of Charles they abandoned their estates +once more to the bailiffs, and made a rush for the town and for their +share of the "leeks and onions." + +But the earnest men were at work. Sainfoin and turnips were growing +every year into credit. The potato was becoming a crop of value; and in +the year 1664 a certain John Foster devoted a treatise to it, entitled, +"England's Happiness increased, or a Sure Remedy against all Succeeding +Dear Years, by a Plantation of Roots called Potatoes." + +For a long time the crop had been known, and Sir Thomas Overbury had +made it the vehicle of one of his sharp witticisms against people who +were forever boasting of their ancestry,--their best part being below +ground. But Foster anticipates the full value of what had before been +counted a novelty and a curiosity. He advises how custards, paste, +puddings, and even bread, may be made from the flour of potatoes. + +John Worlidge (1669) gives a full system of husbandry, advising green +fallows, and even recommending and describing a drill for the putting in +of seed, and for distributing with it a fine fertilizer. + +Evelyn, also, about this time, gave a dignity to rural pursuits by his +"Sylva" and "Terra," both these treatises having been recited before the +Royal Society. The "Terra" is something muddy,[4] and is by no means +exhaustive; but the "Sylva" for more than a century was the British +planter's hand-book, being a judicious, sensible, and eloquent treatise +upon a subject as wide and as beautiful as its title. Even Walter +Scott,--himself a capital woodsman,--when he tells (in "Kenilworth") of +the approach of Tressilian and his Doctor companion to the neighborhood +of Say's Court, cannot forego his tribute to the worthy and cultivated +author who once lived there, and who in his "Sylva" gave a manual to +every British planter, and in his life an exemplar to every British +gentleman. + +Evelyn was educated at Oxford, travelled widely upon the Continent, was +a firm adherent of the royal party, and at one time a member of Prince +Rupert's famous troop. He married the daughter of the British ambassador +in Paris, through whom he came into possession of Say's Court, which he +made a gem of beauty. But in his later years he had the annoyance of +seeing his fine parterres and shrubbery trampled down by that Northern +boor, Peter the Great, who made his residence there while studying the +mysteries of ship-building at Deptford, and who had as little reverence +for a parterre of flowers as for any other of the tenderer graces of +life. + +The British monarchs have always been more regardful of those interests +which were the object of Evelyn's tender devotion. I have already +alluded to the horticultural fancies of James I. His son Charles was an +extreme lover of flowers, as well as of a great many luxuries which +hedged him against all Puritan sympathy. "Who knows not," says Milton, +in his reply to the [Greek: EIKÔN BASIAIKÊ], "the licentious remissness +of his Sunday's theatre, accompanied with that reverend statute for +dominical jigs and May-poles, published in his own name," etc.? + +But the poor king was fated to have little enjoyment of either jigs or +May-poles; harsher work belonged to his reign; and all his +garden-delights came to be limited finally to a little pot of flowers +upon his prison-window. And I can easily believe that the elegant, +wrong-headed, courteous gentleman tended these poor flowers daintily to +the very last, and snuffed their fragrance with a Christian gratitude. + +Charles was an appreciative lover of poetry, too, as well as of Nature. +I wonder if it ever happened to him, in his prison-hours at Carisbrooke, +to come upon Milton's "L'Allegro," (first printed in the very year of +the Battle of Naseby,) and to read,-- + + "In thy right hand lead with thee + The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; + And if I give thee honor due, + Mirth, admit me of thy crew + To live with her, and live with thee, + In unreprovèd pleasures free; + To hear the lark begin his flight, + And, singing, startle the dull night, + From his watch-tower in the skies, + Till the dappled dawn doth rise; + Then to come, in spite of sorrow, + And at my window bid good-morrow, + Through the sweetbrier, or the vine, + Or the twisted eglantine." + +How it must have smitten the King's heart to remember that the tender +poet, whose rhythm none could appreciate better than he, was also the +sturdy Puritan pamphleteer whose blows had thwacked so terribly upon the +last props that held up his tottering throne! + +Cromwell, as we have seen, gave Master Hartlib a pension; but whether on +the score of his theological tracts, or his design for an agricultural +college, would be hard to say. I suspect that the hop was the +Protector's favorite among flowering plants, and that his admiration of +trees was measured by their capacity for timber. Yet that rare masculine +energy, which he and his men carried with them in their tread all over +England, was a very wakeful stimulus to productive agriculture. + +Charles II. loved tulips, and befriended Evelyn. In his long residence +at Paris he had grown into a great fondness for the French gardens. He +afterward sent for Le Notre--who had laid out Versailles at an expense +of twenty millions of dollars--to superintend the planting of Greenwich +and St. James. Fortunately, no strict imitation of Versailles was +entered upon. The splendors of Chatsworth Garden grew in this time out +of the exaggerated taste, and must have delighted the French heart of +Charles. Other artists have had the handling of this great domain since +the days of Le Notre. A crazy wilderness of rock-work, amid which the +artificial waters commit freak upon freak, has been strewed athwart the +lawn; a stately conservatory has risen, under which the Duke may drive, +if he choose, in coach and four, amid palm-trees, and the +monster-vegetation of the Eastern archipelago; the little glass temple +is in the gardens, under which the Victoria lily was first coaxed into +British bloom; a model village has sprung up at the Park gates, in which +each cottage is a gem, and seems transplanted from the last book on +rural ornamentation. But the sight of the village oppresses one with a +strange incongruity; the charm of realism is wanting; it needs a +population out of one of Watteau's pictures,--clean and deft as the +painted figures; flesh and blood are too gross, too prone to muddy +shoes, and to--sneeze. The rock-work, also, is incongruous; it belongs +on no such wavy roll of park-land; you see it a thousand times grander, +a half-hour's drive away, toward Matlock. And the stiff parterres, +terraces, and alleys of Le Notre are equally out of place in such a +scene. If, indeed, as at Versailles, they bounded and engrossed the +view, so that natural surfaces should have no claim upon your eye,--if +they were the mere setting to a monster palace, whose colonnades and +balusters of marble edged away into colonnades and balusters of +box-wood, and these into a limitless extent of long green lines, which +are only lost to the eye where a distant fountain dashes its spray of +golden dust into the air,--as at Versailles,--there would be keeping. +But the Devonshire palace has quite other setting. Blue Derbyshire hills +are behind it; a grand, billowy slope of the comeliest park-land in +England rolls down from its terrace-foot to where the Derwent, under +hoary oaks, washes its thousand acres of meadow-vale, with a flow as +charming and limpid as one of Virgil's eclogues. It is such a setting +that carries the great quadrangle of Chatsworth Palace and its flanking +artificialities of rock and garden, like a black patch upon the face of +a fine woman of Charles's court. + +This brings us upon our line of march again. Charles II. loved stiff +gardens; James II. loved stiff gardens; and William, with his +Low-Country tastes, out-stiffened both, with his + + "topiary box a-row." + +Lord Bacon has commended the formal style to public admiration by his +advocacy and example. The lesson was repeated at Cashiobury by the most +noble the Earl of Essex (of whom Evelyn writes,--"My Lord is not +illiterate beyond the rate of most noblemen of his age"). So also that +famous garden of Moor-Park in Hertfordshire, laid out by the witty +Duchess of Bedford, to whom Dr. Donne addresses some of his piquant +letters, was a model of old-fashioned and stately graces. Sir William +Temple praises it beyond reason in his "Garden of Epicurus," and +cautions readers against undertaking any of those irregularities of +garden-figures which the Chinese so much affect. He admires only +stateliness and primness. "Among us," he says, "the Beauty of Building +and Planting is placed chiefly in some certain Proportions, Symmetries, +or Uniformities; our Walks and our Trees ranged so as to answer one +another, and at exact Distances." + +From all these it is clear what was the garden-drift of the century. +Even Waller, the poet,--whose moneys, if he were like most poets, could +not be thrown away idly,--spent a large sum in levelling the hills +about his rural home at Beaconsfields. (We shall find a different poet +and treatment by-and-by in Shenstone.) + +Only Milton, speaking from the very arcana of the Puritan rigidities, +breaks in upon these geometric formalities with the rounded graces of +the garden which he planted in Eden. There + + "the crisped brooks, + Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold + With mazy error under pendent shades, + Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed + Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art + In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon + Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain." + +Going far behind all conventionalities, he credited to Paradise--the +ideal of man's happiest estate--variety, irregularity, profusion, +luxuriance; and to the fallen estate, precision, formality, and an +inexorable Art, which, in place of concealing, glorified itself. In the +next century, when Milton comes to be illustrated by Addison and the +rest, we shall find gardens of a different style from those of Waller +and of Hampton Court. + +And now from some look-out point near to the close of the seventeenth +century, when John Evelyn, in his age, is repairing the damages that +Peter the Great has wrought in his pretty Deptford home, let us take a +bird's-eye glance at rural England. + +It is raining; and the clumsy Bedford coach, drawn by stout Flemish +mares,--for thorough-breds are as yet unknown,--is covered with a +sail-cloth to keep the wet away from the six "insides." The grass, +wherever the land is stocked with grass, is as velvety as now. The wheat +in the near county of Herts is fair, and will turn twenty bushels to the +acre; here and there an enterprising landholder has a small field of +dibbled grain, which will yield a third more. John Worlidge's drill is +not in request, and is only talked of by a few wiseacres who prophesy +its ultimate adoption. The fat bullocks of Bedford will not dress more +than seven hundred a head; and the cows, if killed, would not overrun +five hundred weight. There are occasional fields of sainfoin and of +turnips; but these latter are small, and no ridging or hurdling is yet +practised. From time to time appears a patch of barren moorland, which +has been planted with forest-trees, in accordance with the suggestions +of Mr. Evelyn, and under the wet sky the trees are thriving. Wide +reaches of fen, measured by hundreds of miles, (which now bear great +crops of barley,) are saturated with moisture, and tenanted only by +ghost-like companies of cranes. + +The gardens attached to noble houses, under the care of some pupil of +Wise, or of Parkinson, have their espaliers,--their plums, their +pears,[5] and their grapes. These last are rare, however, (Parkinson +says sour, too,) and bear a great price in the London market. One or two +horticulturists of extraordinary enterprise have built greenhouses, +warmed, Evelyn says, "in a most ingenious way, by passing a brick flue +underneath the beds." + +The lesser country-gentlemen, who have no establishments in town, rarely +venture up, for fear of the footpads on the heath, and the insolence of +the black-guard Cockneys. Their wives are staid dames, learned at the +brew-tub and in the buttery,--but not speaking French, nor wearing hoops +or patches. A great many of the older exotic plants have become +domesticated; and the goodwife has a flaming parterre at her door,--but +not valued one half so much as her bed of marjoram and thyme. She may +read King James's Bible, or, if a Non-Conformist, Baxter's "Saint's +Rest"; while the husband regales himself with a thumb-worn copy of "Sir +Fopling Flutter," or, if he live well into the closing years of the +century, with De Foe's "True-born Englishman." + +Poetic feeling was more lacking in the country-life than in the +illustrative literature of the century. To say nothing of Milton's +brilliant little poems, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," which flash all +over with the dews, there are the charming "Characters" of Sir Thomas +Overbury, and the graceful discourse of Sir William Temple. The poet +Drummond wrought a music out of the woods and waters which lingers +alluringly even now around the delightful cliffs and valleys of +Hawthornden. John Dryden, though a thorough cit, and a man who would +have preferred his arm-chair at Will's Coffee-House to Chatsworth and +the fee of all its lands, has yet touched most tenderly the "daisies +white" and the spring, in his "Flower and the Leaf." + +But we skip a score of the poets, and bring our wet day to a close with +the naming of two honored pastorals. The first, in sober prose, is +nothing more nor less than Walton's "Angler." Its homeliness, its calm, +sweet pictures of fields and brooks, its dainty perfume of flowers, its +delicate shadowing-forth of the Christian sentiment which lived by old +English firesides, its simple, artless songs, (not always of the highest +style, but of a hearty naturalness that is infinitely better,)--these +make the "Angler" a book that stands among the thumb-worn. There is good +marrowy English in it; I know very few fine writers of our times who +could make a better book on such a subject to-day,--with all the added +information, and all the practice of the newspaper-columns. What Walton +wants to say he says. You can make no mistake about his meaning; all is +as lucid as the water of a spring. He does not play upon your wonderment +with tropes. There is no chicane of the pen; he has some pleasant +matters to tell of, and he tells of them--straight. + +Another great charm about Walton is his childlike truthfulness. I think +he is almost the only earnest trout-fisher I ever knew (unless Sir +Humphrey Davy be excepted) whose report could be relied upon for the +weight of a trout. I have many excellent friends--capital +fishermen--whose word is good upon most concerns of life, but in this +one thing they cannot be confided in. I excuse it; I take off twenty per +cent. from their estimates without either hesitation, anger, or +reluctance. + +I do not think I should have trusted in such a matter Charles Cotton, +although he was agricultural as well as piscatory,--having published a +"Planter's Manual." I think he could, and did, draw a long bow. I +suspect innocent milkmaids were not in the habit of singing Kit +Marlowe's songs to the worshipful Mr. Cotton. + +One pastoral remains to mention, published at the very opening of the +year 1600, and spending its fine forest-aroma thenceforward all down the +century. I mean Shakspeare's play of "As You Like It." + +From beginning to end the grand old forest of Arden is astir overhead; +from beginning to end the brooks brawl in your ear; from beginning to +end you smell the bruised ferns and the delicate-scented wood-flowers. +It is Theocritus again, with the civilization of the added centuries +contributing its spangles of reason, philosophy, and grace. Who among +all the short-kirtled damsels of all the eclogues will match us this +fair, lithe, witty, capricious, mirthful, buxom Rosalind? Nowhere in +books have we met with her like,--but only at some long-gone picnic in +the woods, where we worshipped "blushing sixteen" in dainty boots and +white muslin. There, too, we met a match for sighing Orlando,--mirrored +in the water; there, too, some diluted Jaques may have "moralized" the +excursion for next day's "Courier," and some lout of a Touchstone (there +are always such in picnics) passed the ices, made poor puns, and won +more than his share of the smiles. + +Walton is English all over; but "As You Like It" is as broad as the sky, +or love, or folly, or hope. + + * * * * * + +THE FRENCH STRUGGLE FOR NAVAL AND COLONIAL POWER. + + +In comparison with our national misfortunes all beside seems trifling. +Else nothing would so fasten our attention as the French invasion and +conquest of Mexico. A dependency of France established at our door! The +most restless, ambitious, and warlike nation in Europe our neighbor! Who +shall tell what results, momentous and lasting, may follow in the train +of such events? + +What is the explanation of this conquest? Is it the freak of an +ambitious despot? Or is it only a stroke in the line of a settled +policy? one fact, which we see, amid a great number of facts which we do +not see? + +This particular enterprise comes close to us. It affronts our pride and +tramples upon our political traditions. It establishes, what we did not +wish to see on this Western Continent, another foreign jurisdiction. But +for more than twenty-five years France has been engaged in a series of +like enterprises. In places not so near to us, by the same arbitrary +methods, she has already achieved conquests as important. With +soft-footed ambition, she has planted her flag and reared her +strongholds on spots full of natural advantages. But the aim is the same +everywhere: the reëstablishment of her lost colonial and naval power. +And the hope of France is, that in the race for mercantile and naval +greatness she may yet challenge and vanquish the Sovereign of the Seas. + + * * * * * + +The peace of 1815 left France with her naval and colonial power broken +apparently beyond hope. Even in the thirteen years preceding that peace +England had taken or destroyed not less than six hundred of her +war-ships. In the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic, amid the islands of +the West Indies, in the far-off golden East, wherever contending, fleet +against fleet, or ship with ship, everywhere she had been vanquished and +driven from the sea. That boundless colonial empire, of which Dupleix in +the East dreamed, and for whose establishment in the West Montcalm +fought and died, had shrunk to a few fishing-ports off the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, a few sugar-islands in the West Indies, and some unarmed +factories dotting the coasts of Africa and the shores of Hindostan, and +existing by British grace and permission. To so low an estate had fallen +that towering ambition which thought to exercise uncontrolled dominion +over this continent, to rule with more than regal sway the rich islands +and peninsulas of Asia, and to dictate peace to fallen England from the +guns of her armadas. After five wars waged with no craven spirit in less +than three-quarters of a century, after she had exhausted every resource +and more than once banded against her island foe every naval power in +Europe, she was forced to succumb to British perseverance and to the +gallantry of British sailors. The peace, which came not a moment too +soon, found her with a navy literally annihilated, and with little +remaining of her colonial empire but the memory. When we compare this +hopeless failure with the mercantile activity and naval force of Modern +France,--when we call up, in imagination, her new colonies, the germs +almost of empires,--we cannot admire too much the courage and energy +which have called into existence such magnificent resources. To what are +we to attribute this stupendous change? What have been the methods of +this growth? By what steps has this grand progress from weakness to +strength been achieved? + + * * * * * + +In such a work of restoration, France had everything to create,--ships, +armaments, machinery, and sailors even, to replace those who had fallen +in the front of battle. To produce capacity of production was her first +work,--to establish new ports or replenish old ones, to build docks, to +rear workshops, to gather materials. This is what she has been doing. +Silently and steadily she has been laying the foundations of maritime +greatness. Her ports, in everything which contributes to naval +efficiency,--in size, in mechanical appliances, in concentration upon +one spot of all the trades and all the resources necessary for the +construction and repair of war-ships,--excel all other naval depots in +the world. + +This is no exaggeration. There is the port of Cherbourg. Originally it +was little more than an open bay, hollowed by the waters of the English +Channel in the French coast, with a rocky shore exposed to every +northern blast. But it was situated just where France needed a harbor, +midway on her northern coast, facing England. Across this open bay, as a +chord subtends its arc, a gigantic sea-wall has been stretched. Built in +deep water more than a mile from the head of the bay, it extends almost +from shore to shore. It is nearly three miles long. It is scarcely less +than nine hundred feet wide at its base. Rising from the bed of the sea +sixty-six feet, it is firm enough to bear up fortresses strong as human +engineering can rear. This is the famous _digue_ of Cherbourg. Its +construction has been a seventy years' battle with the elements. Many +times the waves have destroyed the work of years. Once a furious tempest +swept away the whole superstructure, with its forts, armaments, +barracks, and even garrison. But failure has only awakened fresh energy, +and it stands now complete and rooted in the sea like a reef. At each +end of the _digue_, between it and the main land, are broad +ship-channels, affording a free passage at all tides to the largest +ships. Thus science has called into existence a safe harbor, protected +from the assaults of the sea by its granite barrier,--protected none the +less from man's assaults by the concentric fire of more than six hundred +guns. + +This is but the exterior of Cherbourg. In the bosom of the rocky cliffs +of its western shore three basins or docks have been hewn with gigantic +toil. The first, finished in 1813, is 950 feet long, 768 feet wide, and +55 feet deep, and will hold securely fifteen ships of the line. The +second, of somewhat smaller dimensions, was completed in 1829, and will +float a dozen ships. The third, far larger than either, was opened with +great ceremony in 1858: it is 1365 feet long, 650 feet wide, and 60 feet +deep, and will contain eighteen or twenty ships of the largest size. On +the sides of these basins are twelve building-slips and seven docks. And +radiating from them, and in close contiguity, are arsenals, storehouses, +timber-yards, ropewalks, sail-lofts, bakeries, and machine-shops capable +of turning out marine engines, anchors, cables, and indeed every piece +of iron-work which enters into the construction of a ship. It is no vain +boast that an army of a hundred thousand men can be embarked any fine +morning at Cherbourg, and that the fleet necessary for its transport can +be built and armed and equipped and protected to the hour of its +departure in this fortified haven. + +Yet Cherbourg is but one of five ports equally efficient, equally +protected, and equally furnished with the products of mechanic and +nautical invention. Brest, L'Orient, and Rochefort, on the west, have +far greater natural and scarcely less acquired advantages; while the old +port of Toulon on the Mediterranean, old only in name, has been so +enlarged and strengthened, that it can supply for the southern waters +all and more than Cherbourg does for the northern. One fact will show to +what an extent this power of naval production has been carried. In these +five ports are some eighty building-slips or houses, and twenty-five +docks, and, connected with them, all the materials, all the trades, all +the labor-saving machines, all the mechanical forces, which the +nineteenth century knows. If she wished, France could build at the same +time forty ships of the line and forty frigates, while twenty-five more +were undergoing repairs. The result of all this activity is, that, in +extent, in completeness, in concentration of forces upon the right spot, +the naval ports and dockyards of France are absolutely unequalled. And +the work goes on. To-day twenty-two thousand men are employed upon naval +works. Within six months a wet dock has been completed at Toulon, and +another at L'Orient, while at Brest great ranges of workshops are +hastening to completion; and it is whispered that at Cherbourg another +basin is, like its predecessors, to be chiselled out of the solid rock. + + * * * * * + +Do we ask now what France has gained, in fleets and armaments, from this +immense work of preparation? Everything. Not to dwell upon +sailing-ships, which the progress of invention has made of inferior +worth, she has a steam-navy second to that of no power in Europe. Her +present ruler has fully appreciated the importance of that new element +in naval warfare, steam,--an element all the more important to France, +that it tends to lower the value of mere seamanship, in which she has +always been deficient, and to increase the value of scientific knowledge +and training, in which she has ever been with the foremost. For ten +years her energy has been tasked to produce steamships of the greatest +power and of the finest models. Since 1852 her ships of the line have +increased from two to forty, and her frigates from twenty-one to +forty-six. A fleet has thus been created which is numerically equal to +that of England, and which, so far as these things depend upon the +stanchness of the ships and the weight of the armaments, is perhaps in +force and efficiency superior. + +If we turn our attention to iron-clad ships, we shall see best displayed +the sagacity, energy, and secretiveness of Louis Napoleon. In the +Crimean War, three floating batteries covered with iron slabs, and each +mounting eighteen fifty-pounders, silenced the Russian fort at Kinburn. +This was a lesson it would seem that any one might learn. Louis Napoleon +did not fail to learn it. If a ship can be made invulnerable, or nearly +so, in every part, then of what avail is that strategy which secures +choice of position, and which, of old, almost decided the battle? Will +not he come off victor who can produce guns from which the heaviest shot +may be hurled at the highest velocity, and gunners who shall launch them +on their errand of destruction with the greatest accuracy? The French +emperor has fairly overreached his island rivals. While they were +experimenting, he laid the keels of two iron-clads of six thousand tons +burden. In 1859 he ordered the construction of twenty steel-clad +frigates and fifty gunboats. Lord Clarence Paget declared in debate last +March, that, while England had, finished or constructing, only sixteen +iron-clad frigates, France had thirty-one. And even this takes no +account of floating-batteries and gunboats, wholly or in part protected, +and of which, if we are to trust her papers, France has an almost +fabulous number. + + * * * * * + +But who shall man this fleet? Where are the skilful mariners to make +efficient these tremendous elements of naval power? It was Lord Nelson, +I think, who exclaimed, when he saw the stanch ships of Spain, "Thank +God, Spaniards cannot build men!" The recent changes in naval +construction, decreasing perhaps the relative worth of mere seamanship, +may have made the exclamation less pertinent than of old. But, after +all, on the rude and stormy ocean, proverbially fickle and uncertain, +nothing can take the place of sailors,--of brave and skilful men, +trained by long struggle with wind and wave, calm in danger, apt in +emergencies, finding the narrow path of safety where common eyes see +only peril and ruin. France understands tins. She knows how many of her +past humiliations can be traced directly to defective seamanship. But +where to seek the remedy? How to find or make sailors fit to contend +with those who were almost born and bred on the restless surge? By what +methods, with a slender commercial marine and a people reluctant to +encounter the hardships and dangers of sea-life, to fill up the scanty +roll of her able seamen? That is the problem France had to solve; and +she has done everything to solve it,--but remove impossibilities. + +The first counsel of wisdom was to make the number of her sailors +greater. France has, at the most liberal estimate, only one hundred and +fifty thousand men at all conversant with the sea; while England has, +including boatmen, fishermen, coasters, and sailors of long voyages, the +enormous number of eight hundred thousand. Remove this disproportion and +you settle the whole question. Unfortunately, this is a matter in which +government can do but little, while national tastes and habits do +everything. No despotism can make a commercial marine where no +commercial spirit is. And no voice, charm it ever so wisely, can draw +the peasant of France from his vine-clad hills and plains. The French +rulers have done what they could. They have fostered, with a steady and +liberal hand, the fisheries. Every spring, twenty thousand men have set +sail to that best nursery of seamanship,--the Banks of Newfoundland. +These men are paid a bounty by Government, and, in return, are subjected +to a naval discipline, and, upon an emergency, are liable at a moment's +notice to enter into the naval service. To quicken mercantile +enterprise, by which alone mariners can be called into existence, +enormous subsidies have been paid to the great lines of steamers to +Brazil and the East. And the yearning for colonies, which in our day has +led to almost simultaneous attempts to found settlements in both +hemispheres and in all waters, has no doubt for a leading cause the +desire to build up a mercantile marine, and with it a numerous body of +expert seamen. If these efforts have not accomplished all that their +projectors could wish, it is not because their plans lacked sagacity, +but because it is hard to put the genius of the sea into the breasts of +men who are essentially landsmen. + +To increase the number of French sailors would unquestionably be the +best possible method of adding to French naval power. But suppose that +this cannot be done. Supposes that there is in the heart of the French +people an invincible attachment to the soil, which makes them deaf to +every siren of the sea. What is the next counsel of wisdom? This, is it +not? To make what sailors you have efficient and available for naval +emergencies. In this respect the French authorities have achieved an +entire success. Every sailor, nay, every man whose employment savors at +all of maritime life, though he be only a boatman plying the river, or a +laborer in harbor or dock, is enrolled in what is called the marine +inscription,--thenceforward in all times of need to be called into +active service. This puts the whole seafaring population at the disposal +of Government. Nor is this all. Regular drafts are made upon the seamen; +and it is computed that in every period of nine years all the sailors of +France serve in their turn in the navy. They are trained in all that +belongs to naval duty: in the use of ships' guns, in the sailing of +great ships, and in the evolutions of fleets. No matter how sudden the +call, or from what direction the sailors are taken, no French fleet +leaves or can leave port with a crew of green hands. + +The training which is given to sailors actually in service is an equally +important matter. The French Admiralty keeps no drones in its employ; +certainly it does not promote them to places of trust. Honors are won, +not bought. Every step up, from midshipman to admiral, must be the +result of honorable service, and actual proficiency both in the theory +and practice of a sailor's profession. The modern French naval officer +is master of his business, fit to compete with the best skill of the +best maritime races. Then the sailors themselves are trained. Even in +time of peace, twenty-five thousand are kept in service. Gathered on +board great experimental fleets, officers and men alike are schooled in +all branches of nautical duty. In port or out of it, they are not idle. +Every day a prescribed routine of exercise is rigidly enforced. Great +have been the results. The French sailor of 1863 is not a reproduction +of the sailor of 1800. In alertness, in knowledge, in silent obedience, +he is a great improvement upon his predecessor. Actual experiment shows +that a French crew will weigh anchor, spread and furl sail, replace +spars or running-ringing, lower or raise topmasts, or perform any other +duty pertaining to a ship, with as much celerity as the crew of any +other nation. And no confusion, no babbling of many voices, such as the +British writers of the last generations delighted to describe, mars the +beauty of the evolutions. One mind directs, and one voice alone breaks +the stillness. Since the Crimean War, the English speak with respect of +French seamanship; and though they do not believe that it is equal to +their own, they do not scruple to allow that a naval battle would be +disputed now with a fierceness hitherto unknown. + +All that sagacity and experience would prompt has been attempted. All +that training and discipline can do has already been accomplished. Yet +there is one source of weakness for which there can be no remedy. France +has no naval reserves. And if she war with England, she will need them. +To put her marine on a war-basis would require all her available seamen. +To fill the gaps of war, she has not, and she cannot have, until a truly +commercial spirit grows up in the hearts of her people, the multitudes +of reserved men, more familiar with the sea than the land, such as swarm +in English ports. Yet, with every deduction, her capacity of naval +production, her strong fleets, and her trained seamen make her a naval +power whose might no one can estimate, and whose assault any nation may +well shun by all means except the sacrifice of honor and rights. + + * * * * * + +If now we turn from the naval progress of France to her recent colonial +enterprises, we shall find fresh evidence that she has resumed that +contest which came to so disastrous a close fifty years ago. The old +dream of colonial empire has come back again. This was inevitable. A +great nation like France cannot always drink the cup of humiliation. +With an ambition no less high and arrogant than that which pervades the +British mind, she would plant far and wide French ideas and +civilization. While England has colonies scattered in every part of the +habitable globe, while Holland has almost monopolized the rich islands +of the Eastern Archipelago, and while even Spain has Manila in the East +and Cuba in the West, it could hardly be expected that France, the equal +of either, and in some respects the superior of all, should rest content +with a virtual exclusion from everything but her narrow +home-possessions. + +And then, however disguised, there is in the heart of France an intense +naval rivalry of England. Though the stern logic of events has been +against her more than once, she does not accept the verdict. She means +to revise it with a strong hand. But she must have a navy, and a navy +cannot exhibit its highest vigor, unless it have a just foundation in an +energetic, wide-ranging commerce. And such a commerce cannot exist +except it have its depots and its agencies, its outlets and its markets, +everywhere. Above all, we are to seek the source of this new colonial +ambition in the character and purposes of that singular man who controls +the destinies of France. Not even his enemies would now question his +ability. The power he wields in Europe, the impression he has stamped +upon its policy, the skill with which he has made even his foes minister +to his greatness, all bear witness to it. But no one can study him in +the light of the past and not see that his is no ordinary ambition. To +be the ruler of one kingdom does not fill out its measure. To be the +arbiter of the fortunes of states, the genius who shall change the +current of affairs and shape the destiny of the future,--to exercise a +power in every part of the globe, and to have a name familiar in every +land and beneath every sun,--this is his ambition. No wonder that under +such a ruler France has embarked in a career of colonial aggrandizement +whose limit no one can foresee. The same hand which curbed the despot of +the North, and made the fair vision of Italian unity a solid reality, +may well think to place a puppet king on the throne of the Aztecs, or to +carve rich provinces out of Farther India. + + * * * * * + +France made her first practical essay in colonization by her conquest of +Algiers. A Dey once said to an English consul, "The Algerines are a +company of rogues, and I am their captain." The definition cannot be +improved. That such a power should have been permitted to exist and +ravage is one of the anomalies of modern history. Yet within the memory +of living men this hoard of pirates flaunted its barbarism in the face +of the civilization of the nineteenth century. But in 1830 the Dey +filled the cup of wrath to the brim. He inflicted upon the French +consul, in full levee, the gross insult of a blow in the face. The +expedition sent to revenge the insult showed upon what a hollow +foundation this savage power rested. The army landed without opposition. +In five days it swept before it in hopeless rout the wreck of the +Algerine forces. In three weeks it breached and captured the corsair's +strongholds. The history of the French occupation of Algeria is a tale +of unceasing martial exploits, by which France has extended her empire +six hundred miles along the shores of the Mediterranean, and inland +fifty miles,--two hundred miles, according, we had almost said, to the +position of the last Arab or Kabyle raid and insurrection. + +Whatever else Algeria may or may not have done for France, it certainly +has furnished a field whereon to train soldiers. Here seventy-five +thousand men, day and night, have watched and fought a wily foe. Here +all the great soldiers of the Empire, Arnand, Pelissier, Canrobert, +Bosquet, have won their first laurels. Here, amid the exigencies of wild +desert and mountain campaigning, has grown up that marvellous body of +soldiers, the Zouaves: "picked men, short of stature, broad-shouldered, +deep-chested, bull-necked," agile as goats, tolerant of thirst and +hunger, outmarching, outfighting, and outenduring the Desert Arab; men +who have never turned their backs upon a foe. Subtract from the army of +Louis Napoleon the heroes of Algeria, and you leave behind a body out of +which the fiery soul has fled. + +The commercial results are not quite so satisfactory. The exports, +indeed, have risen to fifteen millions of dollars, and the imports to +twenty-five millions more; while some two hundred thousand Europeans +have made their home in the Colony, and a few hundred square miles have +been subjected to European culture. But as the yearly cost of the +occupation is fifteen million of dollars, the net profit cannot be +great. Algeria, however, is the safety-valve of France, giving active +employment to the idle, the discontented, and the revolutionary; and the +Government, on that account, may consider that the money is well +expended. + +One consequence of the occupation of Algeria has generally been +overlooked,--its naval result. Hitherto France had absolutely no good +port in the Mediterranean (if we except those of Corsica) but Toulon and +Marseilles. It was absolutely less at home in its own sea than England. +The new conquest gave it a strip of coast on the southern border of the +sea, but no port. The harbor of Algiers, with the exception of a little +haven artificially protected and capable of holding insecurely a dozen +vessels, was much like that of Cherbourg, an open bay, facing northward. +The storms sweep it with such fury that not less than twenty vessels +have been driven ashore in one gale. But the French genius seems to +delight in such struggles for empire with the waves. Almost with the +taking of the citadel the engineer began his work. Two jetties, as they +are called, were pushed out from the land into deep water,--one from +the mole on the north, half a mile long, and the other from Point +Bab-Azoum on the south, a third of a mile long. In 1850 these were so +far complete as to inclose a safe harbor of two hundred acres. But not +content, the French have already planned, and possibly are now finished, +still other works, by which the perilous roadstead outside this harbor +shall be transformed into a secure anchorage of sixteen hundred acres. +Past events warrant us in believing that these improvements will be +pursued with no slack hand, until astonished Europe finds another +Cherbourg, a safe harbor, ample means of repair, and frowning guns to +repel all invaders. Imprudent Young France, indeed, whispers now that +Algiers makes the Mediterranean a French lake. But that is a little +premature. While Gibraltar and Malta hold safely their harbors, and +England's naval power is unbroken, no nation can truly make this boast. + + * * * * * + +The next enterprise of France was hardly so creditable to her as the +Algerine conquest. Midway in the Pacific is the island of Tahita or +Otaheite,--as fair a gem as the sun ever looked down upon. The soft and +balmy air,--the undulating surface, rising to mountains and sinking into +deep valleys, luxuriant with tropical verdure,--the distant girdle of +coral reefs, which holds the island set in a circlet of tranquil blue +waters,--the gentle and indolent temper of the natives,--have all +conspired to throw an air of romance around the very name Otaheite. The +Christian world is bound to it by another tie. For thither came +Protestant missionaries, drawn by the reports of the tractable +disposition of the islanders, and labored with such success that in 1817 +the king and all his subjects espoused Christianity. + +Into this island Eden discord came in the guise of a Roman catechist, +who was sent thither for the express purpose of proselyting. As if aware +of the nature of his ungracious task, he disguised his real character. +But he was detected, and, together with a companion who had joined him, +was dismissed from the island by Queen Pomare, who dreaded the sectarian +strife his presence would awaken. This was her whole offence. Four years +later, in 1838, when the whole transaction might well have been +forgotten, Captain De Petit Thouars appeared in the French frigate +Venus, and demanded and obtained satisfaction in the sum of two thousand +piastres Spanish, and freedom for Catholic worship. In two subsequent +visits, though no new offence had been given, he increased the severity +of his demands, first putting the island under a protectorate, and +finally, in 1843, taking full possession of it as a French colony. The +helpless Queen appealed to Louis Philippe, who returned the island, but +reaffirmed the protectorate. + +This same French protectorate is a rare piece of ponderous irony. The +French governor collects all export and import duties, writes all +state-papers, assembles and dismisses the island legislature according +to his good pleasure, doles out to the Queen a yearly allowance of a +thousand pounds, puts her in duress in her own house, if her conduct +displeases him, and will not allow her to see strangers, except by his +permission. Few will believe that zeal for the honor of the Catholic +Church prompted Louis Philippe to inflict so disproportioned a +punishment. That the island is the best victualling-station in the South +Pacific is a far greater sin, and one for which there could be in +covetous eyes no adequate punishment, except that seizure which is so +modestly termed a protectorate. + + * * * * * + +Pass now from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. There is the little rocky +island of St. Paul, situated in the same latitude as Cape Town and +Melbourne; and, planted with singular accuracy equidistant from the two, +it is the only place of shelter in the long route between them. Its +harbor, if harbor it may be called, is the most secure, the most +secluded, and the most romantic, perhaps, in the whole world. St. Paul +is of volcanic origin. It is, indeed, little more than an extinct +crater with a narrow rim of land around it to separate it from the sea. +Through this rim the waters of the great Indian Ocean have cut a +channel. The crater has thus become a beautiful salt lake, a mile in +diameter, clear, deep, almost circular, and from whose border, on every +side, rise the old volcanic walls draped in verdure. The strait +connecting it with the sea is but three hundred feet wide, and at high +tide ten feet deep,--thus affording an easy passage for small vessels +into this most delightful seclusion; and no doubt the strait might be so +deepened as to float the largest ships. St. Paul is not at present much +frequented. But in a sea which is every year becoming more populous with +the commerce of every nation, who shall tell what such a central station +may become? Its title was somewhat uncertain. England thought she held +it as a dependency of Mauritius. But in 1847 the governor of Bourbon, +with a happy audacity, took possession of it, as an outpost of his own +island, and planted a little French colony of fishermen. We have not +heard that the assumption has been disputed. + + * * * * * + +No doubt, most of our readers may have observed in the daily prints +occasional allusions to the French War in Cochin China. Probably few +have understood the full meaning of the facts so quietly chronicled. +Perhaps none have dreamed that they were reading the first notices of a +new Eastern conquest, which, in extent and importance, may yet be second +only to that which has already been achieved by the British in +Hindostan. Yet so it is. The Cambodia is the largest river in Southern +Asia, and, together with the smaller and parallel river of Saigon, +drains a tract of not less than five hundred thousand square miles. The +region for which the French have been contending includes the provinces +which cluster around the mouths of these two rivers, and command them. +No position could be happier. For while on the one hand it controls the +outlet of a river stretching up into a rich and fertile country eighteen +hundred miles, on the other it projects into the Chinese Sea at a point +nearly midway between Singapore and Hong Kong, and so secures to its +possessor a just influence in that commercial highway. The ostensible +cause of the war in this region was the murder of a French missionary. +If this was ever the real cause, it long since gave way to a settled +purpose of conquest. + +In the latter part of the year 1862 the Emperor of Cochin China was +forced to cede to France the coveted provinces. Already new +fortifications have arisen at Saigon, and dock-yards and coal-depots +been established, and all steps taken for a permanent occupation of the +territory. The following advertisement appeared in the London "Times" +for January 23, 1863,--"Contract for transportation from Glasgow to +Saigon of a floating iron dock in pieces. Notice to ship-owners. The +administration of the Imperial Navy of France have at Glasgow a floating +iron dock in pieces, which they require to be transported from that port +to Saigon, Cochin China. The said dock, with machinery, pumps, anchors, +and instruments necessary to its working, will weigh from two thousand +to twenty-five hundred tons. Ship-owners disposed to undertake the +transport are requested to forward their tenders to the Minister of +Marine and Colonies previous to the fifth of February next." Now, if we +consider that the news of the cession of these provinces did not reach +France until the close of the year 1862, that this advertisement is +dated January 23, 1863, and that a dock of the magnitude described could +hardly be constructed short of many months, we shall be satisfied, that, +long before any definite articles of peace had been proposed, the +Emperor had settled in his own mind just what region he would annex to +his dominions. + + * * * * * + +We shall not need much argument to convince us that the subjugation of +Mexico does not, either in character or methods, differ much from other +acts of the French ruler. Nevertheless, the details are curious and +instructive. It must be allowed that Mexico had given the Allies causes +of offence. She left unpaid large sums due from her to foreign +bond-holders. The subjects of the allied powers, temporarily resident in +Mexico, were robbed by forced loans, and sometimes imprisoned, and even +murdered. To redress these grievances, an expedition was fitted out by +the combined powers of England, France, and Spain. The objects of the +expedition were, first, to obtain satisfaction for past wrongs, and, +second, some security against their recurrence in the future. It was +expressly agreed by all parties, that the Mexicans should be left +entirely free to choose for themselves their own form of government. +Later events would seem to prove that England and Spain were sincere in +their professions. + +Everything went on smoothly until the capture of Vera Cruz. Then the +French Emperor unfolded secret plans which were not contained in the +original programme. They were these: To take advantage of the weakness +of the United States to establish in Mexico a European influence; to +take possession of its capital city; and thence to impose upon the +Mexican people a government more agreeable than the present to the +Allies. England and Spain retired from the expedition with scarcely +concealed disgust, declaring, in almost so many words, that they did not +come into Mexico to rob another people of their rights, but to gain +redress and protection for their own subjects. Louis Napoleon does not +even seek to conceal his intentions from us. "We propose," he says, "to +restore to the Latin race on the other side of the Atlantic all its +strength and prestige. We have an interest, indeed, in the Republic of +the United States being powerful and prosperous; but not that she should +take possession of the whole Gulf of Mexico, thence to command the +Antilles as well as South America, and to be the only dispenser of the +products of the New World." This is plain enough. What will be the final +form of settlement we do not even conjecture. It is probable that the +Emperor does not himself know. With our fortunes so unsettled, and with +so many European jealousies to conciliate, even his astute genius may +well be puzzled as to the wisest policy. But it is of no consequence +what particular government France may impose upon the conquered +State,--monarchical, vice-regal, or republican,--Maximilian, a +Bonaparte, or some one of the seditious Mexican chiefs. In either case, +if the French plan succeeds, the broad country which Cortés won and +Spain lost, will be virtually a dependency of France. + + * * * * * + +Even while we write, France has embarked in yet other schemes of +colonial aggrandizement. She has just purchased the port of Oboch on the +eastern coast of Africa, near the entrance of the Red Sea. The place is +not laid down upon the maps; nor is its naval and commercial importance +known; but its proximity to Aden suggests that it may be intended as a +checkmate to that English stronghold. In the great island of Madagascar +she is founding mercantile establishments whose exact character have not +as yet been divulged; but experience teaches us that these enterprises +are likely to be pursued with promptness and vigor. + +Thus France is displaying in colonial affairs an aggressive activity +which was scarcely to have been expected. To what extent she may perfect +her plans no one can prophesy. That she will be able to girdle the earth +with her possessions, and rear strongholds in every sea, is not +probable. England has chosen almost at her leisure what spots of +commercial advantage or military strength she will occupy; and the whole +world hardly affords the material for another colonial system as wide +and comprehensive. + + * * * * * + +There is one consideration which ought not to be overlooked. It is this: +the relations which Louis Napoleon has succeeded in maintaining between +himself and that power which had the most interest in defeating his +schemes, and the most ability to do it. Under the Bourbons, the whole +policy of France was based upon a principle of settled and unchangeable +enmity to England. As a result, war always broke out while French +preparations were incomplete; and the concentrated English navy swept +from the sea almost every vestige of an opposing force. The present +French emperor has adopted an altogether different course. He has sought +the friendship of England. He has multiplied occasions of mutual action. +He has sedulously avoided occasions of offence. Kinglake, in his +"Crimean War," intimates that Louis Napoleon desired this alliance with +England and her noble Queen to cover up the terrible wrongs by which he +had obtained his authority. It is more likely far that he sought it in +order that under its shadow he might build himself up to resistless +power: just as an oak planted beneath the shade of other trees grows to +strength and majesty only to cut down its benefactors. + +This proposal for alliance was unquestionably received by the English +people at first with feelings akin to disgust. The memory of the bad +faith by which power had been won, of the wrongs and exile of the +greatest statesmen and soldiers of France, and of the red carnage of the +Boulevards, was too recent to make such a friendship attractive. Though +acceptance of it might be good policy, yet it could not be yielded +without profound reluctance. But soon this early sentiment gave way to +something like pride. It was so satisfactory to think that the allied +powers were wellnigh irresistible; that they had only to speak and it +must be done; that they could dictate terms to the world; that they +could scourge back even the Russian despot, seeking to pour down his +hordes from the icy North to more genial climes. It is hardly +surprising, then, that men came to congratulate themselves upon so +favorable an alliance, and concluded to overlook the defect in his title +in consideration of the solid benefits which the occupant of the French +throne conferred. + +But this feeling could not last. When the people of England saw how +inevitably Louis Napoleon reaped from every conflict some selfish +advantage, how the Crimean War gave him all the prestige, and the +Italian War the coveted province of Nice, they began to doubt his fair +professions. And this jealousy is fast deepening into fear. The English +people have an instinct of approaching danger. Any one can see that the +"_entente cordiale_" is not quite what it once was. When a British Lord +of Admiralty can rise in his place in Parliament, and, after alluding to +the powerful and increasing naval force of France, add,--"I say that any +Ministry who did not act upon that statement, and did not at once set +about putting the country in the position she ought to occupy in respect +to her navy, would deserve to be sent to the Tower or penitentiary,"--we +may be sure that England has as much jealousy as trust, and perhaps +quite as much alarm as either. + +But we have only to look at her acts to know what England is thinking. +For six years she has been engaged in an unceasing war with +France,--not, indeed, with swords and bayonets, but as really with her +workshops and dockyards. She has tasked these to their uttermost to +maintain and increase her naval superiority. And this is not the only +evidence we have of her true feeling. The building of new fortifications +for her ports, and the enlargement and strengthening of the old +defences, all tell the same story of profound distrust. "Plymouth has +been made secure. The mouth of the Thames is thought to be impregnable." +That is the way English papers write. Around Portsmouth and Gosport she +has thrown an immense girdle of forts. We may think what we will of +Cherbourg, England views it in the light of a perpetual menace. To the +proud challenge she has sent back a sturdy defiance. Right opposite to +it, on her nearest shore, she has reared a "Gibraltar of the Channel." +If you take your map, you will perceive, facing Cherbourg, and +projecting from the southern coast of England, the little island of +Portland, which at low tide becomes a peninsula, and is connected with +the main land by Chesil Bank, a low ridge of shingle ten miles long. On +the extreme north of this island, looking down into Weymouth Bay, is a +little cluster of rocky hills, rising sharply to a considerable height, +and occupying, perhaps, a space of sixty acres. This is where the +fortress, or Veme, as it is called, is built. On the northern side, the +cliff lifts itself up from the waters of the bay almost in a +perpendicular line, and is absolutely inaccessible. On all other sides +the Veme has been isolated by a tremendous chasm, which makes the dry +ditch of the fort. This chasm has been blasted into the solid rock, and +is nowhere less than a hundred feet wide and eighty feet deep. At the +angles of the fortress it widens to two hundred feet, and sinks beneath +the batteries in a sheer perpendicular of one hundred and thirty feet. +Two bastions jut from the main work into it, protecting it from approach +by a terrible cross-fire. All the appointments are upon the same scale. +The magazines, the storehouses, the water-tanks, are built to furnish +supplies for a siege, not of months, but of years. On every side the +rocky surface of the hills has been shaved down below the level of its +guns; so that there is not a spot seaward or landward that may not be +swept by its tremendous batteries. Such is this remarkable stronghold +which is rising to completion opposite Cherbourg. Yet it is but one of +several strong forts which are to protect the single harbor of Weymouth +Bay. Was this Titanic work reared in the spirit of trust? Does it speak +of England's hope of abiding friendship with France? No; it tells us +that beneath seeming amity a deadly struggle is going on,--that every +dock hollowed, every ship launched, every colony seized, and every +fortress reared, is but another step in a silent, but real, contest for +supremacy. + +When this hidden fire shall burst forth into a devouring flame, when +this seeming alliance shall change into open enmity and bitter war, no +one can prophesy. But no doubt sooner or later. For between nations, as +well as in the bosom of communities, there are irrepressible conflicts, +which no alliances, no compacts, and no motives of wisdom or interest +can forever hold in check. And when it shall burst forth, no one can +foretell what its end shall be. That dread uncertainty, more than all +these things else, keeps the peace. We can but think that the naval +preëminence of England has grown out of the real character of her people +and of their pursuits,--and that the same causes which, in the long, +perilous conflicts of the past, have enabled her to secure the +sovereignty of the seas, will strengthen her to maintain that +sovereignty in all the conflicts which in the future may await her. But, +whatever may be the result, to whomsoever defeat may come, nothing can +obliterate from the pages of history the record of the sagacity, +perseverance, and courage with which the French people and their ruler +have striven to overcome a maritime inferiority, whose origin, perhaps, +is in the structure of their society and in the nature of their race. + + * * * * * + +SOMETHING LEFT UNDONE. + + + Labor with what zeal we will, + Something still remains undone, + Something, uncompleted still, + Waits the rising of the sun. + + By the bedside, on the stair, + At the threshold, near the gates, + With its menace or its prayer, + Like a mendicant it waits: + + Waits, and will not go away,-- + Waits, and will not be gainsaid. + By the cares of yesterday + Each to-day is heavier made, + + Till at length it is, or seems, + Greater than our strength can bear,-- + As the burden of our dreams, + Pressing on us everywhere; + + And we stand from day to day + Like the dwarfs of times gone by, + Who, as Northern legends say, + On their shoulders held the sky. + + * * * * * + +THE GREAT INSTRUMENT. + + +Early in the month of November the mysterious curtain which has hidden +the work long in progress at the Boston Music Hall will be lifted, and +the public will throng to look upon and listen to the GREAT ORGAN. + +It is the most interesting event in the musical history of the New +World. The masterpiece of Europe's master-builder is to uncover its +veiled front and give voice to its long-brooding harmonies. The most +precious work of Art that ever floated from one continent to the other +is to be formally displayed before a great assembly. The occasion is one +of well-earned rejoicing, almost of loud triumph; for it is the crowning +festival which rewards an untold sum of devoted and conscientious labor, +carried on, without any immediate recompense, through a long series of +years, to its now perfect consummation. The whole community will share +in the deep satisfaction with which the public-spirited citizens who +have encouraged this noble undertaking, and the enterprising; and +untiring lover of science and art who has conducted it from the first, +may look upon their completed task. + +What is this wondrous piece of mechanism which has cost so much time and +money, and promises to become one of the chief attractions of Boston and +a source of honest pride to all cultivated Americans? The organ, as its +name implies, is _the instrument_, in distinction from all other and +less noble instruments. We might almost think it was called +organ as being a part of an unfinished _organism_, a kind of +Frankenstein-creation, half framed and half vitalized. It breathes like +an animal, but its huge lungs must be filled and emptied by alien force. +It has a wilderness of windpipes, each furnished with its own vocal +adjustment, or larynx. Thousands of long, delicate tendons govern its +varied internal movements, themselves obedient to the human muscles +which are commanded by the human brain, which again is guided in its +volitions by the voice of the great half-living creature. A strange +cross between the form and functions of animated beings, on the one +hand, and the passive conditions of inert machinery, on the other! Its +utterance rises through all the gamut of Nature's multitudinous voices, +and has a note for all her outward sounds and inward moods. Its thunder +is deep as that of billows that tumble through ocean-caverns, and its +whistle is sharper than that of the wind through their narrowest +crevice. It roars louder than the lion of the desert, and it can draw +out a thread of sound as fine as the locust spins at hot noon on his +still tree-top. Its clustering columns are as a forest in which every +music-flowering tree and shrub finds its representative. It imitates all +instruments; it cheats the listener with the sound of singing choirs; it +strives for a still purer note than can be strained from human throats, +and emulates the host of heaven with its unearthly "voice of angels." +Within its breast all the passions of humanity seem to reign in turn. It +moans with the dull ache of grief, and cries with the sudden thrill of +pain; it sighs, it shouts, it laughs, it exults, it wails, it pleads, it +trembles, it shudders, it threatens, it storms, it rages, it is soothed, +it slumbers. + +Such is the organ, man's nearest approach to the creation of a true +organism. + +But before the audacious conception of this instrument ever entered the +imagination of man, before he had ever drawn a musical sound from pipe +or string, the chambers where the royal harmonies of his grandest vocal +mechanism were to find worthy reception were shaped in his own +marvellous structure. The _organ_ of hearing was finished by its Divine +Builder while yet the morning stars sang together, and the voices of the +young creation joined in their first choral symphony. We have seen how +the mechanism of the artificial organ takes on the likeness of life; we +shall attempt to describe the living organ in common language by the aid +of such images as our ordinary dwellings furnish us. The unscientific +reader need not take notice of the words in parentheses. + +The annexed diagram may render it easier to follow the description. + +[Illustration] + +The structure which is to admit Sound as a visitor is protected and +ornamented at its entrance by a light movable awning (the external ear). +Beneath and within this opens a recess or passage, (_meatus auditorium +externus_,) at the farther end of which is the parchment-like +front-door, D (_membrana tympani_). + +Beyond this is the hall or entry, H, (cavity of the _tympanum_,) which +has a ventilator, V, (Eustachian tube,) communicating with the outer +air, and two windows, one oval, _o_, (_fenestra ovalis_,) one round, +_r_, (_fenestra rotunda_,) both filled with parchment-like membrane, and +looking upon the inner suite of apartments (labyrinth). + +This inner suite of apartments consists of an antechamber, A, +(vestibule,) an arched chamber, B, (semicircular canals,) and a spiral +chamber, S, (_cochlea_,) with a partition, P, dividing it across, except +for a small opening at one end. The antechamber opens freely into the +arched chamber, and into one side of the partitioned spiral chamber. The +other side of this spiral chamber looks on the hall by the round window +already mentioned; the oval window looking on the hall belongs to the +antechamber. From the front-door to the oval window of the antechamber +extends a chain, _c_, (_ossicula auditûs_,) so connected that a knock on +the first is transmitted instantly to the second. But as the round +window of the spiral chamber looks into the hall, the knock at the +front-door will also make itself heard at and through that window, being +conveyed along the hall. + +In each division of the inner suite of apartments are the watchmen, +(branches of the auditory nerve,) listening for the approach of Sound. +The visitor at length enters the porch, and knocks at the front-door. +The watchmen in the antechamber hear the blow close to them, as it is +repeated, through the chain, on the window of their apartment. The +impulse travels onward into the arched chamber, and startles its +tenants. It is transmitted into one half of the partitioned spiral +chamber, and rouses the recumbent guardians in that apartment. Some +portion of it even passes the small opening in the partition, and +reaches the watchmen in the other half of the room. But they also hear +it through the round window, not as it comes through the chain, but as +it resounds along the hall. + +Thus the summons of Sound reaches all the watchmen, but not all of them +through the same channels or with the same force. It is not known how +their several precise duties are apportioned, but it seems probable that +the watchmen in the spiral chamber observe the pitch of the audible +impulse which reaches them, while the others take cognizance of its +intensity and perhaps of its direction. + +Such is the plan of the organ of hearing as an architect might describe +it. But the details of its special furnishing are so intricate and +minute that no anatomist has proved equal to their entire and exhaustive +delineation. An Italian nobleman, the Marquis Corti, has hitherto proved +most successful in describing the wonderful _key-board_ found in the +spiral chamber, the complex and symmetrical beauty of which is +absolutely astonishing to those who study it by the aid of the +microscope. The figure annexed shows a small portion of this +extraordinary structure. It is from Kölliker's well-known work on +Microscopic Anatomy. + +[Illustration] + +Enough has been said to show that the ear is as carefully adjusted to +respond to the blended impressions of sound as the eye to receive the +mingled rays of light; and that as the telescope presupposes the lens +and the retina, so the organ presupposes the resonant membranes, the +labyrinthine chambers, and the delicately suspended or exquisitely +spread-out nervous filaments of that other organ, whose builder is the +Architect of the universe and the Master of all its harmonies. + +Not less an object of wonder is that curious piece of mechanism, the +most perfect, within its limited range of powers, of all musical +instruments, the _organ_ of the human voice. It is the highest triumph +of our artificial contrivances to reach a tone like that of a singer, +and among a hundred organ-stops none excites such admiration as the _vox +humana_; a brief account of the vocal organ will not, therefore, be out +of place. The principles of the action of the larynx are easily +illustrated by reference to the simpler musical instruments. In a flute +or flageolet the musical sound is produced by the vibration of a column +of air contained in its interior. In a clarionet or a bassoon another +source of sound is added in the form of a thin slip of wood contained in +the mouth-piece, and called the _reed_, the vibrations of which give a +superadded nasal thrill to the resonance of the column of air. + +The human organ of voice is like the clarionet and the bassoon. The +windpipe is the tube containing the column of air. The larynx is the +mouth-piece containing the reed. But the reed is double, consisting of +two very thin membranous edges, which are made tense or relaxed, and +have the interval between them through which the air rushes narrowed or +widened by the instinctive, automatic action of a set of little muscles. +The vibration of these membranous edges (_chordæ vocales_) produces a +musical sound, just as the vibration of the edge of a finger-bowl +produces one when a wet finger is passed round it. The cavities of the +nostrils, and their side-chambers, with their light, elastic +sounding-boards of thin bone, are essential to the richness of the tone, +as all singers find out when those passages are obstructed by a cold in +the head. + +The human voice, perfect as it may be in tone, is yet always very +deficient in compass, as is obvious from the fact that the bass voice, +the barytone, the contralto, and the soprano have all different +registers, and are all required to produce a complete vocal harmony. If +we could make organ-pipes with movable, self-regulating lips, with +self-shortening and self-lengthening tubes, so that each tube should +command the two or three octaves of the human voice, a very limited +number of them would be required. But as each tube has but a single +note, we understand why we have those immense clusters of hollow +columns. As we wish to produce different effects, sometimes using the +pure flute-sounds, at other times preferring the nasal thrill of the +reed-instruments, we see why some of the tubes have simple mouths and +others are furnished with vibratory tongues. And, lastly, we can easily +understand that the great interior spaces of the organ must of +themselves furnish those resonant surfaces which we saw provided for, on +a small scale, in the nasal passages,--the sounding-board of the human +larynx. + + * * * * * + +The great organ of the Music Hall is a choir of nearly six thousand +vocal throats. Its largest windpipes are thirty-two feet in length, and +a man can crawl through them. Its finest tubes are too small for a +baby's whistle. Eighty-nine _stops_ produce the various changes and +combinations of which its immense orchestra is capable, from the purest +solo of a singing nun to the loudest chorus in which all its groups of +voices have their part in the full flow of its harmonies. Like all +instruments of its class, it contains several distinct systems of pipes, +commonly spoken of as separate organs, and capable of being played alone +or in connection with each other. Four _manuals_, or hand key-boards, +and two _pedals_, or foot key-boards, command these several +systems,--the _solo_ organ, the _choir_ organ, the _swell_ organ, and +the _great_ organ, and the _piano_ and _forte_ pedal-organ. Twelve pairs +of bellows, which it is intended to move by water-power, derived from +the Cochituate reservoirs, furnish the breath which pours itself forth +in music. Those beautiful effects, for which the organ is incomparable, +the _crescendo_ and _diminuendo_,--the gradual rise of the sound from +the lowest murmur to the loudest blast, and the dying fall by which it +steals gently back into silence,--the _dissolving views_, so to speak, +of harmony,--are not only provided for in the swell-organ, but may be +obtained by special adjustments from the several systems of pipes and +from the entire instrument. + +It would be anticipating the proper time for judgment, if we should +speak of the excellence of the musical qualities of the great organ +before having had the opportunity of hearing its full powers displayed. +We have enjoyed the privilege, granted to few as yet, of listening to +some portions of the partially mounted instrument, from which we can +confidently infer that its effect, when all its majestic voices find +utterance, must be noble and enchanting beyond all common terms of +praise. But even without such imperfect trial, we have a right, merely +from a knowledge of its principles of construction, of the preëminent +skill of its builder, of the time spent in its construction, of the +extraordinary means taken to insure its perfection, and of the liberal +scale of expenditure which has rendered all the rest possible, to feel +sure that we are to hear the instrument which is and will probably long +remain beyond dispute the first of the New World and second to none in +the Old in the sum of its excellences and capacities. + +The mere comparison of numbers of pipes and of stops, or of external +dimensions, though it gives an approximative idea of the scale of an +organ, is not so decisive as it might seem as to its real musical +effectiveness. In some cases, many of the stops are rather nominal than +of any real significance. Even in the Haarlem organ, which has only +about two-thirds as many as the Boston one, Dr. Burney says, "The +variety they afford is by no means what might be expected." It is +obviously easy to multiply the small pipes to almost any extent. The +dimensions of an organ, in its external aspect, must depend a good deal +on the height of the edifice in which it is contained. Thus, the vaulted +roof of the Cathedral of Ulm permitted the builder of our Music-Hall +organ to pile the _façade_ of the one he constructed for that edifice up +to the giddy elevation of almost a hundred feet, while the famous +instrument in the Town Hall of Birmingham has only three-quarters of the +height of our own, which is sixty feet. It is obvious also that the +effective power of an organ does not depend merely on its size, but that +the perfection of all its parts will have quite as much to do with it. +In judging a vocalist, we can form but a very poor guess of the compass, +force, quality of the voice, from a mere inspection of the throat and +chest. In the case of the organ, however, we have the advantage of being +able to minutely inspect every throat and larynx, to walk into the +interior of the working mechanism, and to see the adaptation of each +part to its office. In absolute power and compass the Music-Hall organ +ranks among the three or four mightiest instruments ever built. In the +perfection of all its parts, and in its whole arrangements, it +challenges comparison with, any the world can show. + +Such an instrument ought to enshrine itself in an outward frame that +should correspond in some measure to the grandeur and loveliness of its +own musical character. It has been a dream of metaphysicians, that the +soul shaped its own body. If this many-throated singing creature could +have sung itself into an external form, it could hardly have moulded one +more expressive of its own nature. We must leave to those more skilled +in architecture the detailed description of that noble _façade_ which +fills the eye with music as the voices from behind it fill the mind +through the ear with vague, dreamy pictures. For us it loses all +technical character in its relations to the soul of which it is the +body. It is as if a glorious anthem had passed into outward solid form +in the very ecstasy of its grandest chorus. Milton has told us of such a +miracle, wrought by fallen angels, it is true, but in a description rich +with all his opulence of caressing and ennobling language:-- + + "Anon out of the earth a fabric huge + Rose, like an exhalation, with the sound + Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, + Built like a temple, where pilasters round + Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid + With golden architrave; nor did there want + Cornice or frieze with bossy sculptures grav'n." + +The structure is of black walnut, and is covered with carved statues, +busts, masks, and figures in the boldest relief. In the centre a richly +ornamented arch contains the niche for the key-boards and stops. A +colossal mask of a singing woman looks from over its summit. The +pediment above is surmounted by the bust of Johann Sebastian Bach. +Behind this rises the lofty central division, containing pipes, and +crowning it is a beautiful sitting statue of Saint Cecilia, holding her +lyre. On each side of her a griffin sits as guardian. This centre is +connected by harp-shaped compartments, filled with pipes, to the two +great round towers, one on each side, and each of them containing three +colossal pipes. These magnificent towers come boldly forward into the +hall, being the most prominent, as they are the highest and stateliest, +part of the _façade_. At the base of each a gigantic half-caryatid, in +the style of the ancient _hermæ_, but finished to the waist, bends +beneath the superincumbent weight, like Atlas under the globe. These +figures are of wonderful force, the muscular development almost +excessive, but in keeping with their superhuman task. At each side of +the base two lion-_hermæ_ share in the task of the giant. Over the base +rise the round pillars which support the dome and inclose the three +great pipes already mentioned. Graceful as these look in their position, +half a dozen men might creep into one of them and lie hidden. A man of +six feet high went up a ladder, and standing at the base of one of them +could just reach to put his hand into the mouth at its lower part, above +the conical foot. The three great pipes are crowned by a heavily +sculptured, ribbed, rounded dome; and this is surmounted, on each side, +by two cherubs, whose heads almost touch the lofty ceiling. This whole +portion of the sculpture is of eminent beauty. The two exquisite cherubs +of one side are playing on the lyre and the lute; those of the other +side on the flute and the horn. All the reliefs that run round the lower +portion of the dome are of singular richness. We have had an opportunity +of seeing one of the artist's photographs, which showed in detail the +full-length figures and the large central mask of this portion of the +work, and found them as beautiful on close inspection as the originals +at a distance. + +Two other lateral compartments, filled with pipes, and still more +suggestive of the harp in their form, lead to the square lateral towers. +Over these compartments, close to the round tower, sits on each side a +harper, a man on the right, a woman on the left, with their harps, all +apparently of natural size. The square towers, holding pipes in their +open interior, are lower than the round towers, and fall somewhat back +from the front. Below, three colossal _hermæ_ of Sibyl-like women +perform for them the office which the giants and the lion-shapes perform +for the round towers. The four pillars which rise from the base are +square, and the dome which surmounts them is square also. Above the dome +is a vase-like support, upon which are disposed figures of the lyre and +other musical symbols. + +The whole base of the instrument, in the intervals of the figures +described, is covered with elaborate carvings. Groups of musical +instruments, standing out almost detached from the background, occupy +the panels. Ancient and modern, clustered with careless grace and quaint +variety, from the violin down to a string of sleigh-bells, they call up +all the echoes of forgotten music, such as the thousand-tongued organ +blends together in one grand harmony. + +The instrument is placed upon a low platform, the outlines of which are +in accordance with its own. Its whole height is about sixty feet, its +breadth forty-eight feet, and its average depth twenty-four feet. Some +idea of its magnitude may be got from the fact that the wind-machinery +and the swell-organ alone fill up the whole recess occupied by the +former organ, which was not a small one. All the other portions of the +great instrument come forward into the hall. + +In front of its centre stands Crawford's noble bronze statue of +Beethoven, the gift of our townsman, Mr. Charles C. Perkins. It might be +suggested that so fine a work of Art should have a platform wholly to +itself; but the eye soon reconciles itself to the position of the +statue, and the tremulous atmosphere which surrounds the vibrating organ +is that which the almost breathing figure would seem to delight in, as +our imagination invests it with momentary consciousness. + +As we return to the impression produced by the grand _façade_, we are +more and more struck with the subtile art displayed in its adaptations +and symbolisms. Never did any structure we have looked upon so fully +justify Madame de Staël's definition of architecture, as "frozen music." +The outermost towers, their pillars and domes, are all _square_, their +outlines thus passing without too sudden transitions from the sharp +square angles of the vaulted ceiling and the rectangular lines of the +walls of the hall itself into the more central parts of the instrument, +where a smoother harmony of outline is predominant. For in the great +towers, which step forward, as it were, to represent the meaning of the +entire structure, the lines are all curved, as if the slight discords +which gave sharpness and variety to its less vital portions were all +resolved as we approached its throbbing heart. And again, the half +fantastic repetitions of musical forms in the principal outlines--the +lyre-like shape of the bases of the great towers, the harp-like figure +of the connecting wings, the clustering reeds of the columns--fill the +mind with musical suggestions, and dispose the wondering spectator to +become the entranced listener. + +The great organ would be but half known, if it were not played in a +place fitted for it in dimensions. In the open air the sound would be +diluted and lost; in an ordinary hall the atmosphere would be churned +into a mere tumult by the vibrations. The Boston Music Hall is of ample +size to give play to the waves of sound, yet not so large that its space +will not be filled and saturated with the overflowing resonance. It is +one hundred and thirty feet in length by seventy-eight in breadth and +sixty-five in height, being thus of somewhat greater dimensions than the +celebrated Town Hall of Birmingham. At the time of building it, (1852,) +its great height was ordered partly with reference to the future +possibility of its being furnished with a large organ. It will be +observed that the three dimensions above given are all multiples of the +same number, thirteen, the length being ten times, the breadth six times +and the height five times this number. This is in accordance with Mr. +Scott Russell's recommendation, and has been explained by the fact that +vibrating solids divide into _harmonic lengths_, separated by _nodal +points_ of rest, and that these last are equally distributed at aliquot +parts of its whole length. If the whole extent of the walls be in +vibration, its angles should come in at the nodal points in order to +avoid the confusion arising from different vibrating lengths; and for +this reason they are placed at aliquot parts of its entire length. Thus +the hall is itself a kind of passive musical instrument, or at least a +sounding-board, constructed on theoretical principles. Whatever is +thought of the theory, it proves in practice to possess the excellence +which is liable to be lost in the construction of the best-designed +edifice. + + * * * * * + +We have thus attempted to give our readers some imperfect idea of the +great instrument, illustrating it by the objects of comparison with +which we are most familiar, and leaving to others the more elaborate +work of subjecting it to a thorough artistic survey, and the rigorous +analysis necessary to bring out the various degrees of excellence in its +special qualities, which, as in a human character, will be found to mark +its individuality. We shall proceed to give some account of the manner +in which the plan of obtaining the best instrument the Old World could +furnish to the New was formed, matured, and carried into successful +execution. + +It is mainly to the persistent labors of a single individual that our +community is indebted for the privilege it now enjoys in possessing an +instrument of the supreme order, such as make cities illustrious by +their presence. That which is on the lips of all it can wrong no +personal susceptibilities to tell in print; and when we say that Boston +owes the Great Organ chiefly to the personal efforts of the present +President of the Music-Hall Association, Dr. J. Baxter Upham, the +statement is only for the information of distant readers. + +Dr. Upham is widely known to the medical profession in connection with +important contributions to practical science. His researches on typhus +fever, as observed by him at different periods, during and since the +years 1847 and 1848, in this country, and as seen at Dublin and in the +London Fever Hospital, were recognized as valuable contributions to the +art of medicine. More recently, as surgeon in charge of the Stanley +General Hospital, Eighteenth Army Corps, he has published an account of +the "Congestive Fever" prevailing at Newborn, North Carolina, during the +winter and spring of 1862-63. We must add to these practical labors the +record of his most ingenious and original investigations of the +circulation in the singular case of M. Groux, which had puzzled so many +European experts, and to which, with the tact of a musician, he applied +the electro-magnetic telegraphic apparatus so as to change the rapid +consecutive motions of different parts of the heart, which puzzled the +eye, into successive _sounds_ of a character which the ear could +recognize in their order. It was during these experiments, many of which +we had the pleasure of witnessing, that the "side-show" was exhibited of +counting the patient's pulse, through the wires, at the Observatory in +Cambridge, while it was beating in Dr. Upham's parlor in Boston. Nor +should we forget that other ingenious contrivance of his, the system of +_sound-signals_, devised during his recent term of service as surgeon, +and applied with the most promising results, as a means of +intercommunication between different portions of the same armament. + +In the summer of 1853, less than a year after the Music Hall was opened +to the public, Dr. Upham, who had been for some time occupied with the +idea of procuring an organ worthy of the edifice, made a tour in Europe +with the express object of seeing some of the most famous instruments of +the Continent and of Great Britain. He examined many, especially in +Germany, and visited some of the great organ-builders, going so far as +to obtain specifications from Mr. Walcker of Ludwigsburg, and from +Weigl, his pupil at Stuttgart. On returning to this country, he brought +the proposition of procuring a great instrument in Europe in various +ways before the public, among the rest by his "Reminiscences of a Summer +Tour," published in "Dwight's Journal of Music." After this he laid the +matter before the members of the Harvard Musical Association, and, +having thus gradually prepared the way, presented it for consideration +before the Board of Directors of the Music-Hall Association. A committee +was appointed "to consider." There was some division of opinion as to +the expediency of the more ambitious plan of sending abroad for a +colossal instrument. There was a majority report in its favor, and a +verbal minority report advocating a more modest instrument of home +manufacture. Then followed the anaconda-torpor which marks the process +of digestion of a huge and as yet crude project by a multivertebrate +corporation. + +On the first of March, 1856, the day of the inauguration of Beethoven's +statue, a subscription-paper was started, headed by Dr. Upham, for +raising the sum of ten thousand dollars. At a meeting in June the plan +was brought before the stockholders of the Music Hall, who unanimously +voted to appropriate ten thousand dollars and the proceeds of the old +organ, on condition that fifteen thousand dollars should be raised by +private subscription. In October it was reported to the Directors that +ten thousand dollars of this sum were already subscribed, and Dr. Upham, +President of the Board, pledged himself to raise the remainder on +certain conditions, which were accepted. He was then authorized to go +abroad to investigate the whole subject, with full powers to select the +builder and to make the necessary contracts. + +Dr. Upham had already made an examination of the best organs and +organ-factories in New England, New York, and elsewhere in this country, +and received several specifications and plans from builders. He +proceeded at once, therefore, to Europe, examined the great English +instruments, made the acquaintance of Mr. Hopkins, the well-known +organist and recognized authority on all matters pertaining to the +instrument, and took lessons of him in order to know better the handling +of the keys and the resources of the instrument. In his company, Dr. +Upham examined some of the best instruments in London. He made many +excursions among the old churches of Sir Christopher Wren's building, +where are to be found the fine organs of "Father Smith," John Snetzler, +and other famous builders of the past. He visited the workshops of Hill, +Gray and Davidson, Willis, Robson, and others. He made a visit to Oxford +to examine the beautiful organ in Trinity College. He found his way into +the organ-lofts of St. Paul's, of Westminster Abbey, and the Temple +Church, during the playing at morning and evening service. He inspected +Thompson's _enharmonic_ organ, and obtained models of various portions +of organ-structure. + +From London Dr. Upham went to Holland, where he visited the famous +instruments at Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, and the organ-factory +at Utrecht, the largest and best in Holland. Thence to Cologne, where, +as well as at Utrecht, he obtained plans and schemes of instruments; to +Hamburg, where are fine old organs, some of them built two or three +centuries ago; to Lubeck, Dresden, Breslau, Leipsic, Halle, Merseburg. +Here he found a splendid organ, built by Ladergast, whose instruments +excel especially in their tone-effects. A letter from Liszt, the +renowned pianist, recommended this builder particularly to Dr. Upham's +choice. At Frankfort and at Stuttgart he found two magnificent +instruments, built by Walcker of Ludwigsburg, to which place he repaired +in order to examine his factories carefully, for the second time. Thence +the musical tourist proceeded to Ulm, where is the sumptuous organ, the +work of the same builder, ranking, we believe, first in point of +dimensions of all in the world. Onward still, to Munich, Bamberg, +Augsburg, Nuremberg, along the Lake of Constance to Weingarten, where is +that great organ claiming to have sixty-six stops and six thousand six +hundred and sixty-six pipes; to Freyburg, in Switzerland, where is +another great organ, noted for the rare beauty of its _vox-humana_ stop, +the mechanism of which had been specially studied by Mr. Walcker, who +explained it to Dr. Upham. + +Returning to Ludwigsburg, Dr. Upham received another specification from +Mr. Walcker. He then passed some time at Frankfort examining the +specifications already received and the additional ones which came to +him while there. + +At last, by the process of exclusion, the choice was narrowed down to +three names, Schultze, Ladergast, and Walcker, then to the two last. +There was still a difficulty in deciding between these. Dr. Upham called +in Mr. Walcker's partner and son, who explained every point on which he +questioned them with the utmost minuteness. Still undecided, he +revisited Merseburg and Weissenfels, to give Ladergast's instruments +another trial. The result was that he asked Mr. Walcker for a third +specification, with certain additions and alterations which he named. +This he received, and finally decided in his favor,--but with the +condition that Mr. Walcker should meet him in Paris for the purpose of +examining the French organs with reference to any excellences of which +he might avail himself, and afterwards proceed to London and inspect the +English instruments with the same object. + +The details of this joint tour are very interesting, but we have not +space for them. The frank enthusiasm with which the great German +organ-builder was received in France contrasted forcibly with the +quiet, not to say cool, way in which the insular craftsmen received him, +gradually, however, warming, and at last, with a certain degree of +effort, admitting him to their confidence. + +A fortnight was spent by Dr. Upham in company with Walcker and Mr. +Hopkins in studying and perfecting the specification, which was at last +signed in German and English, and stamped with the notarial seal, and +thus the contract made binding. + +A long correspondence relating to the instrument followed between Dr. +Upham, the builder, and Mr. Hopkins, ending only with the shipment of +the instrument. A most interesting part of this was Dr. Upham's account +of his numerous original experiments with the natural larynx, made with +reference to determining the conditions requisite for the successful +imitation of the human voice in the arrangement called _vox humana_. Mr. +Walcker has availed himself of the results of these experiments in the +stop as made for this organ, but with what success we are unable to say, +as the pipes have not been set in place at the time of our writing. As +there is always great curiosity to hear this particular stop, we will +guard our readers against disappointment by quoting a few remarks about +that of the Haarlem organ, made by the liveliest of musical writers, Dr. +Burney. + +"As to the _vox humana_, which is so celebrated, it does not at all +resemble a human voice, though a very good stop of the kind; but the +world is very apt to be imposed upon by names; the instant a common +hearer is told that an organist is playing upon a stop which resembles +the human voice, he supposes it to be very fine, and never inquires into +the propriety of the name, or exactness of the imitation. However, with +respect to our own feelings, we must confess, that, of all the stops +which we have yet heard, that have been honored with the appellation of +_vox humana_, no one in the treble part has ever reminded us of anything +human, so much as the cracked voice of an old woman of ninety, or, in +the lower parts, of Punch singing through a comb." Let us hope that this +most irreverent description will not apply to the _vox humana_ of our +instrument, after all the science and skill that have been expended upon +it. Should it prove a success like that of the Freyburg organ, there +will be pilgrimages from the shores of the Pacific and the other side of +the Atlantic to listen to the organ that can _sing_: and what can be a +more miraculous triumph of art than to cheat the ear with such an +enchanting delusion? + +Before the organ could be accepted, it was required by the terms of the +contract to be set up at the factory, and tested by three persons: one +to be selected by the Organ Committee of the Music-Hall Association, one +by the builder, and a third to be chosen by them. Having been approved +by these judges, and also by the State-Commissioner of Würtemberg, +according to the State ordinance, the result of the trial was +transmitted to the President and Directors of the Music-Hall +Association, and the organ was accepted. + +The war broke out in the mean time, and there were fears lest the vessel +in which the instrument might be shipped should fall a victim to some of +the British corsairs sailing under Confederate colors. But the Dutch +brig "Presto," though slow, was safe from the licensed pirates, unless +an organ could be shown to be contraband of war. She was out so long, +however,--nearly three months from Rotterdam,--that the insurance-office +presidents shook their heads over her, fearing that she had gone down +with all her precious freight. + +"At length," to borrow Dr. Upham's words, "one stormy Sunday in March +she was telegraphed from the marine station down in the bay, and the +next morning, among the marine intelligence, in the smallest possible +type, might be read the invoice of her cargo thus:-- + + "'Sunday Mar. 22 + + "'Arr. Dutch brig Presto, Van Wyngarten, Rotterdam, Jan. 1. + Helvoet, 10th Had terrific gales from SW the greater part of the + passage. 40 casks gin JD & M Williams 8 sheep Chenery & Co 200 + bags coffee 2 casks herrings 1 case cheese W. Winsel 1 organ JB + Upham 20 pipes 6 casks gin JD Richards 6 casks nutmegs J Schumaker + 20 do gin 500 bags chickory root Order,' etc., etc. + +"And this was the heralding of this greatest marvel of a high and noble +art, after the labor of seven years bestowed upon it, having been tried +and pronounced complete by the most fastidious and competent of critics, +the wonder and admiration of music-loving Germany, the pride of +Würtemberg, bringing a new phase of civilization to our shores in the +darkest hour of our country's trouble." + +It remains to give a brief history of the construction of the grand and +imposing architectural frame which we have already attempted to +describe. Many organ-fronts were examined with reference to their +effects, during Dr. Upham's visits of which we have traced the course, +and photographs and sketches obtained for the same purpose. On +returning, the task of procuring a fitting plan was immediately +undertaken. We need not detail the long series of trials which were +necessary before the requirements of the President and Directors of the +Music-Hall Association were fully satisfied. As the result of these, it +was decided that the work should be committed to the brothers Herter, of +New York, European artists, educated at the Royal Academy of Art in +Stuttgart. The general outline of the _façade_ followed a design made by +Mr. Hammatt Billings, to whom also are due the drawings from which the +Saint Cecilia and the two groups of cherubs upon the round towers were +modelled. These figures were executed at Stuttgart; the other carvings +were all done in New York, under Mr. Herter's direction, by Italian and +German artists, one of whom had trained his powers particularly to the +shaping of colossal figures. In the course of the work, one of the +brothers Herter visited Ludwigsburg for the special purpose of comparing +his plans with the structure to which they were to be adapted, and was +received with enthusiasm, the design for the front being greatly +admired. + +The contract was made with Mr. Herter in April, 1860, and the work, +having been accepted, was sent to Boston during the last winter, and +safely stored in the lecture-room beneath the Music Hall. In March the +_Great Work_ arrived from Germany, and was stored in the hall above. + +"The seven-years' task is done,--the danger from flood and fire so far +escaped,--the gantlet of the pirates safely run,--the perils of the sea +and the rail surmounted by _the good Providence of God_." + +The devout gratitude of the President of the Association, under whose +auspices this great undertaking has been successfully carried through, +will be shared by all lovers of Art and all the friends of American +civilization and culture. We cannot naturalize the Old-World cathedrals, +for they were the architectural embodiment of a form of worship +belonging to other ages and differently educated races. But the organ +was only lent to human priesthoods for their masses and requiems; it +belongs to Art, a religion of which God himself appoints the +high-priests. At first it appears almost a violence to transplant it +from those awful sanctuaries, out of whose arches its forms seemed to +grow, and whose echoes seemed to hold converse with it, into our gay and +gilded halls, to utter its majestic voice before the promiscuous +multitude. Our hasty impression is a wrong one. We have undertaken, for +the first time in the world's history, to educate a nation. To teach a +people to know the Creator in His glorious manifestations through the +wondrous living organs is a task for which no implement of human +fabrication is too sacred; for all true culture is a form of worship, +and to every rightly ordered mind a setting forth of the Divine glory. + +This consummate work of science and skill reaches us in the midst of the +discordant sounds of war, the prelude of that blessed harmony which will +come whenever the jarring organ of the State has learned once more to +obey its keys. + +God grant that the _Miserere_ of a people in its anguish may soon be +followed by the _Te Deum_ of a redeemed Nation! + + * * * * * + +THE KING'S WINE. + + + The small green grapes in countless clusters grew, + Feeding on mystic moonlight and white dew + And mellow sunshine, the long summer through: + + Till, with blind motion in her veins, the Vine + Felt the delicious pulses of the wine, + And the grapes ripened in the year's decline. + + And day by day the Virgins watched their charge; + And when, at last, beyond the horizon's marge + The harvest-moon dropt beautiful and large, + + The subtile spirit in the grape was caught, + And to the slowly dying Monarch brought + In a great cup fantastically wrought, + + Whereof he drank; then straightway from his brain + Went the weird malady, and once again + He walked the Palace free of scar or pain,-- + + But strangely changed, for somehow he had lost + Body and voice: the courtiers, as he crost + The royal chambers, whispered,--"_The King's Ghost_!" + + * * * * * + +MONOGRAPH FROM AN OLD NOTE-BOOK; WITH A POSTSCRIPT. + +"ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN, SCEPTRUMQUE TYRANNIS." + + +In a famous speech, made in the House of Lords, March 16, 1838, against +the Eastern slave-trade, Lord Brougham arrests the current of his +eloquence by the following illustrative diversion:-- + +"I have often heard it disputed among critics, which of all quotations +was the most appropriate, the most closely applicable to the +subject-matter illustrated; _and the palm in generally awarded to that +which applied to Dr. Franklin the line in Claudian_,-- + + 'Eripuit fulmen coelo, mox sceptra tyrannis'; + +yet still there is a difference of opinion, and even that citation, +admirably close as it is, has rivals." + +The British orator errs in attributing this remarkable verse to +Claudian; and he errs also in the language of the verse itself, which he +fails to quote with entire accuracy. And this double mistake becomes +more noticeable, when it appears not merely in the contemporary report, +but in the carefully prepared collection of speeches, revised at +leisure, and preserved in permanent volumes.[6] + +The beauty of this verse, even in its least accurate form, will not be +questioned, especially as applied to Franklin, who, before the American +Revolution, in which it was his fortune to perform so illustrious a +part, had already awakened the world's admiration by drawing the +lightning from the skies. But beyond its acknowledged beauty, this verse +has an historic interest which has never been adequately appreciated. +Appearing at the moment it did, it is closely associated with the +acknowledgment of American Independence. Plainly interpreted, it calls +George III. "tyrant," and announces that the sceptre has been snatched +from his hands. It was a happy ally to Franklin in France, and has ever +since been an inspiring voice. Latterly it has been adopted by the city +of Boston, and engraved on granite in letters of gold,--in honor of its +greatest child and citizen. It may not be entirely superfluous to +recount the history of a verse which has justly attracted so much +attention, and which, in the history of civilization, has been of more +value than the whole State of South Carolina. + +From its first application to Franklin, this verse has excited something +more than curiosity. Lord Brougham tells us that it is often discussed +in private circles. There is other evidence of the interest it has +created. For instance, in an early number of "Notes and Queries"[7] +there is the following inquiry:-- + + "Can you tell me who wrote the line on Franklin, '_Eripuit_,'etc.? + + "HENRY H. BREEN. + + "_St. Lucia_." + +A subsequent writer in this same work, after calling the verse "a +parody" of a certain line of antiquity, says,--"I am unable to say who +adapted these words to Franklin's career. Was it Condorcet?"[8] Another +writer in the same work says,--"The inscription was written by +Mirabeau."[9] + +I remember well a social entertainment in Boston, where a most +distinguished scholar of our country, in reply to an inquiry made at the +table, said that the verse was founded on the following line from the +"Astronomicon"[10] of Manilius,-- + + "Eripuit Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi." + +John Quincy Adams, who was present, seemed to concur. Mr. Sparks, in his +notes to the correspondence of Franklin, attributes it to the same +origin.[11] But there are other places where its origin is traced with +more precision. One of the correspondents of "Notes and Queries" says +that he has read, but does not remember where, "that this line was +_immediately_ taken from one in the 'Anti-Lucretius' of Cardinal +Polignac."[12] Another correspondent shows the intermediate +authority.[13] My own notes were originally made without any knowledge +of these studies, which, while fixing its literary origin, fail to +exhibit the true character of the verse, both in its meaning and in the +time when it was uttered. + +The verse cannot be found in any ancient writer,--not Claudian or +anybody else. It is clear that it does not come from antiquity, unless +indirectly; nor does it appear that at the time of its first production +it was in any way referred to any ancient writer. Manilius was not +mentioned. The verse is of modern invention, and was composed after the +arrival of Franklin in Paris on his eventful mission. At first it was +anonymous; but it was attributed sometimes to D'Alembert and sometimes +to Turgot. Beyond question, it was not the production of D'Alembert, +while it will be found in the Works of Turgot,[14] published after his +death, in the following form:-- + + "Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis." + +There is no explanation by the editor of the circumstances under which +the verse was written; but it is given among poetical miscellanies of +the author, immediately after a translation into French of Pope's "Essay +on Man," and is entitled "Inscription for a Portrait of Benjamin +Franklin." It appears that Turgot also tried his hand in these French +verses, having the same idea:-- + + "Le voilà ce mortel dont l'heureuse industrie + Sut enchaîner la Foudre et lui donner des loix, + Dont la sagesse active et l'éloquente voix + D'un pouvoir oppresseur affranchit sa Patrie, + Qui désarma les Dieux, qui réprime les Rois." + +The single Latin verse is a marvellous substitute for these diffuse and +feeble lines. + +If there were any doubt upon its authorship, it would be removed by the +positive statement of Condorcet, who, in his Life of Turgot, written +shortly after the death of this great man, says, "There is known from +Turgot but one Latin verse, designed for a portrait of Franklin";[15] +and he gives the verse in this form:-- + + "Eripuit coelo fulmen, mox sceptra tyrannis." + +But Sparks and Mignet, in their biographies,[16] and so also both the +biographical dictionaries of France,--that of Michaud and that of +Didot,--while ascribing the verse to Turgot, concur in the form already +quoted from Turgot's Works, which was likewise adopted by Ginguené, the +scholar who has done so much to illustrate Italian literature, on the +title-page of his "Science du Bon-Homme Richard," with an abridged Life +of Franklin, in 1794, and by Cabanis, who lived in such intimacy with +Franklin.[17] It cannot be doubted that it was the final form which this +verse assumed,--as it is unquestionably the best. + +To appreciate the importance of this verse, as marking and helping a +great epoch, there are certain dates which must not be forgotten. +Franklin reached Paris on his mission towards the close of 1776. He had +already signed the Declaration of Independence, and his present duty was +to obtain the recognition of France for the new power. The very clever +Madame Du Deffant, in her amusing correspondence with Horace Walpole, +describes him in a visit to her "with his fur cap on his head and his +spectacles on his nose," in the same small circle with Madame de +Luxembourg, a great lady of the time, and the Duke de Choiseul, late +Prime-Minister. This was on the thirty-first of December, 1776.[18] A +pretty good beginning. More than a year of effort and anxiety ensued, +brightened at last by the news that Burgoyne had surrendered at +Saratoga. On the sixth of February, 1778, the work of the American +Plenipotentiary was crowned by the signature of the two Treaties of +Alliance and Commerce by which France acknowledged our Independence and +pledged her belligerent support. On the fifteenth of March, one of these +treaties, with a diplomatic note announcing that the Colonies were free +and independent States, was communicated to the British Government, at +London, which was promptly encountered by a declaration of war from +Great Britain. On the twenty-second of March, Franklin was received by +the King at Versailles, and this remarkable scene is described by the +same feminine pen to which we are indebted for the early glimpse of him +on his arrival in Paris.[19] But throughout this intervening period he +had not lived unknown. Indeed, he had become at once a celebrity. +Lacretelle, the eminent French historian, says, "By the effect which +Franklin produced, he appears to have fulfilled his mission, not with a +court, but with a free people. His virtues and renown negotiated for +him."[20] + +Condorcet, who was a part of that intellectual society which welcomed +the new Plenipotentiary, has left a record of his reception. "The +celebrity of Franklin in the sciences," he says, "gave him the +friendship of all who love or cultivate them, that is, of all who exert +a real and durable influence upon public opinion. At his arrival he +became an object of veneration to all enlightened men, and of curiosity +to others. He submitted to this curiosity with the natural facility of +his character, and with the conviction that in this way he served the +cause of his country. It was an honor to have seen him. People repeated +what they had heard him say. Every _fête_ which he consented to receive, +every house where he consented to go, spread in society new admirers, +_who became so many partisans of the American Revolution_.... Men whom +the works of philosophy had disposed secretly to the love of liberty +were impassioned for that of a strange people. A general cry was soon +raised in favor of the American War, and the friends of peace dared not +even complain that peace was sacrificed to the cause of liberty."[21] +This is an animated picture by an eye-witness. But all authorities +concur in its truthfulness. Even Capefigue--whose business is to +belittle all that is truly great, and especially to efface those names +which are associated with human liberty, while, like another Old +Mortality, he furbishes the tombstones of royal mistresses--is yet +constrained to bear witness to the popularity and influence which +Franklin achieved. The critic dwells on what he styles his "Quaker +garb," "his linen so white under clothes so brown," and also the +elaborate art of the philosopher, who understood France and knew well +"that a popular man became soon more powerful than power itself"; but he +cannot deny that the philosopher "fulfilled his duties with great +superiority," or that he became at once famous.[22] + +The arrival of Franklin was followed very soon by the departure of the +youthful Lafayette, who crossed the sea to offer his generous sword to +the service of American liberty. Our cause was now widely known. In the +thronged _cafés_ and the places of public resort it was discussed with +sympathy and admiration.[23] And so completely was Franklin recognized +as the representative of new ideas, that the Emperor Joseph II. of +Austria,--professed reformer as he was,--on one of his visits to France +under the travelling-name of Count Falkenstein, is reported to have +firmly avoided all temptation to see him, saying, "My business is to be +a Royalist,"--thus doing homage to the real character of Franklin, in +whom the Republic was personified. + +Franklin was at once, by natural attraction, the welcome guest of that +brilliant company of philosophers who exercised such influence over the +eighteenth century. The "Encyclopédie" was their work, and they were +masters at the Academy. He was received into their guild. At the famous +table of the Baron D'Holbach, where twice a week, Sunday and Thursday, +at dinner, lasting from two till seven o'clock, the wits of that time +were gathered, he found a hospitable chair. But he was most at home with +Madame Helvétius, the widow of the rich and handsome philosopher, whose +name, derived from Holland, is now almost unknown. At her house he met +in social familiarity D'Alembert, Diderot, D'Holbach, Morellet, Cabanis, +and Condorcet, with their compeers. There, also, was Turgot, the +greatest of all. There was another person in some respects as famous as +any of these, but leading a very different life, whom Franklin saw +often,--I refer to Caron de Beaumarchais, the author already of the +"Barbier de Séville," as he was afterwards of the "Mariage de Figaro," +who, turning aside from an unsurpassed success at the theatre, exerted +his peculiar genius to enlist the French Government on the side of the +struggling Colonies, predicted their triumph, and at last, under the +assumed name of a mercantile house, became the agent of the Comte de +Vergennes in furnishing clandestine supplies of arms even before the +recognition of Independence. It is supposed that through this popular +dramatist Franklin maintained communications with the French Government +until the mask was thrown aside.[24] + +Beyond all doubt, Turgot is one of the most remarkable intelligences +which France has produced. He was by nature a philosopher and a +reformer, but he was also a statesman, who for a time held a seat in the +cabinet of Louis XVI., first as Minister of the Marine, and then as +Comptroller of the Finances. Perhaps no minister ever studied more +completely the good of the people. His administration was one constant +benefaction. But he was too good for the age in which he lived,--or +rather, the age was not good enough for him. The King was induced to +part with him, saying, when he yielded,--"You and I are the only two +persons who really love the people." This was some time in May, 1776; so +that Franklin, on his arrival, found this eminent Frenchman free from +all the constraints of a ministerial position. The character of Turgot +shows how naturally he sympathized with the Colonies struggling for +independence, especially when represented by a person like Franklin. In +a prize essay of his youth, written in 1750, when he was only +twenty-three years of age, he had foretold the American Revolution. +These are his remarkable words on that occasion:-- + +"Colonies are like fruits, which do not hold to the tree after their +maturity. Having become sufficient in themselves, they do that which +Carthage did, _that which America will one day do_."[25] + +One of his last acts before leaving the Ministry was to prepare a memoir +on the American War, for the information of the Comte de Vergennes, in +which he says "that the idea of the absolute separation of the Colonies +and the mother-country seems infinitely probable; that, when the +independence of the Colonies shall be entire and acknowledged by the +English, there will be a total revolution in the political and +commercial relations of Europe and America; and that all the +mother-countries will be forced to abandon all empire over their +colonies, to leave them entire liberty of commerce with all nations, and +to be content in sharing with others this liberty, and in preserving +with their colonies the bonds of amity and fraternity."[26] This memoir +of the French statesman bears date the sixth of April, 1776, nearly +three months before the Declaration of Independence. + +On leaving the Ministry, Turgot devoted himself to literature, science, +and charity, translating Odes of Horace and Eclogues of Virgil, studying +geometry with Bossut, chemistry with Lavoisier, and astronomy with +Rochon, and interesting himself in every thing by which human welfare +could be advanced. Such a character, with such an experience of +government, and the prophet of American independence, was naturally +prepared to welcome Franklin, not only as philosopher, but as statesman +also. + +But the classical welcome of Turgot was partially anticipated,--at least +in an unsuccessful attempt. Baron Grimm, in that interesting and +instructive "Correspondance," prepared originally for the advantage of +distant courts, but now constituting one of the literary and social +monuments of the period, mentions, under date of October, 1777, that the +following French verses were made for a portrait of Franklin by Cochin, +engraved by St. Aubin:-- + + "C'est l'honneur et l'appui du nouvel hémisphère; + Les flots de l'Océan s'abaissent à sa voix; + Il réprime ou dirige à son gré le tonnerre; + Qui désarme les dieux, peut-il craindre les rois?" + +These verses seem to contain the very idea in the verse of Turgot. But +they were suppressed at the time by the censor on the ground that they +were "blasphemous,"--although it is added in a note that "they concerned +only the King of England." Was it that the negotiations with Franklin +were not yet sufficiently advanced? And here mark the dates. + +It was only after the communication to Great Britain of the Treaty of +Alliance and the reception of Franklin at Versailles, that the seal +seems to have been broken. Baron Grimm, in his "Correspondance,"[27] +under date of April, 1778, makes the following entry:-- + +"A very beautiful Latin verse has been made for the portrait of Dr. +Franklin,-- + + 'Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.' + +It is a happy imitation of a verse of the 'Anti-Lucretius,'-- + + 'Eripuitque Jovi fulmen, Phoeboque sagittas.'" + +Here is the earliest notice of this verse, authenticating its origin. +Nothing further is said of the "Anti-Lucretius"; for in that day it was +familiar to every lettered person. But I shall speak of it before I +close. + +Only a few days later the verse appears in the correspondence of Madame +D'Épinay, whose intimate relations with Baron Grimm--the subject of +curiosity and scandal--will explain her early knowledge of it. She +records it in a letter to the very remarkable Italian Abbé Galiani, +under date of May 3d, 1778.[28] And she proceeds to give a translation +in French verse, which she says "D'Alembert made the other day between +sleeping and waking." Galiani, who was himself a master of Latin +versification, and followed closely the fortunes of America, must have +enjoyed the tribute. In a letter written shortly afterwards, he enters +into all the grandeur of the occasion. "You have," says he, "at this +hour decided the greatest question of the globe,--that is, if it is +America which shall reign over Europe, or Europe which shall continue to +reign over America. I would wager in favor of America."[29] In these +words the Neapolitan said as much as Turgot. + +A little later the verse appears in a different scene. It had reached +the _salons_ of Madame Doublet, whence it was transferred to the +"Mémoires Secrets de Bachaumont," under date of June 8th, 1778, as "a +very beautiful verse, proper to characterize M. Franklin and to serve as +an inscription for his portrait." These Memoirs, as is well known, are +the record of conversations and news gathered in the circle of that +venerable Egeria of gossip;[30] and here is evidence of the publicity +which this welcome had already obtained. + +The verse was now fairly launched. War was flagrant between France and +Great Britain. There was no longer any reason why the new alliance +between France and the United States should not be placed under the +auspices of genius, and why the same hand which had snatched the +lightning from the skies should not have the fame of snatching the +sceptre from King George III. The time for free speech had come. It was +no longer "blasphemous." + +But it will be observed that these records of this verse fail to mention +the immediate author. Was he unknown at the time? Or did the fact that +he was recently a cabinet-minister induce him to hide behind a mask? +Turgot was a master of epigram,--as witness the terrible lines on +Frederick of Prussia; but he was very prudent in conduct. "Nobody," said +Voltaire, "so skilful to launch the shaft without showing the hand." But +there is a letter from no less a person than D'Alembert, which reveals +something of the "filing" which this verse underwent, and something of +the persons consulted. Unhappily, the letter is without date; nor does +it appear to whom it was addressed, except that the "_cher confrère_" +seems to imply that it was to a brother of the Academy. This letter will +be found in a work which is now known to have been the compilation of +the Marquis Gaëtan de La Rochefoucauld,[31] entitled, "Mémoires de +Condorcet sur la Révolution Française, extraits de sa Correspondance et +de celle de ses Amis."[32] It is introduced by the following words from +the Marquis:-- + +"It is known how Franklin had been fêted when he came to Paris, because +he was the representative of a republic. The philosophers, especially, +received him with enthusiasm. It may be said, among other things, that +D'Alembert lost his sleep; and we are going to prove it by a letter +which he wrote, where he put himself to the torture in order to versify +in honor of Franklin." + +The letter is then given as follows:-- + + "_Friday Morning_. + + "MY DEAR COLLEAGUE,--You are acquainted with the Franklin verse,-- + + 'Eripuit coelo fulmen, _mox sceptra_ tyrannis.' + + You should surely cause it to be put in the Paris paper, if it is + not there already. + + "I should agree with La Harpe that _sceptrumque_ is better: first, + because _mox sceptra_ is a little hard, and then because _mox_, + according to the dictionary of Gesner, who collects examples, + signifies equally _statim_ or _deinde_, which causes a double + meaning, _mox eripuit_ or _mox eripiet_. + + "However, here is how I have attempted to translate this verse for + the portrait of Franklin:-- + + 'Tu vois le sage courageux + Dont l'heureux et mâle génie + Arracha le tonnerre aux dieux + Et le sceptre à la tyrannie.' + + If you find these verses sufficiently supportable, so that people + will not laugh at me, you can put them into the Paris paper, even + with my name. I shall honor myself in rendering this homage to + Franklin, but on condition that you find the verses _printable_. + As I make no pretension on account of them, I shall be perfectly + content, if you reject them as bad. + + "The third verse can be put,--_A ravi le tonnerre aux cieux_, or + _aux dieux_." + +From this letter it appears that the critical judgment of La Harpe, +confirmed by D'Alembert, sided for _sceptrumque_ as better than _mox +sceptra_. + +But the verse of Turgot was not alone in its testimony. There was an +incident precisely contemporaneous, which shows how completely France +had fallen under the fascination of the American cause. Voltaire, the +acknowledged chief of French literature in the brilliant eighteenth +century, after many years of busy exile at Ferney, in the neighborhood +of Geneva, where he had wielded his far-reaching sceptre, was induced, +in his old age, to visit Paris once again before he died. He left his +Swiss retreat on the sixth of February, 1778, the very day on which +Franklin signed the Alliance with France, and after a journey which +resembled the progress of a sovereign, he reached Paris on the twelfth +of February. He was at once surrounded by the homage of all that was +most illustrious in literature and science, while the theatre, grateful +for his contributions to the drama, vied with the Academy. But there +were two characters on whom the patriarch, as he was fondly called, +lavished a homage of his own. He had already addressed to Turgot a most +remarkable epistle in verse, the mood of which may be seen in its title, +"Épitre à un Homme"; but on seeing the discarded statesman, who had +been so true to benevolent ideas, he came forward to meet him, saying, +with his whole soul, "Let me kiss the hand which signed the salvation of +the people." The scene with Franklin was more touching still. Voltaire +began in English, which he had spoken early in life, but, having lost +the habit, he soon charted to French, saying that he "could not resist +the desire of speaking for one moment the language of Franklin." The +latter had brought with him his grandson, for whom he asked a +benediction. "God and Liberty," said Voltaire, putting his hands upon +the head of the child; "this is the only benediction proper for the +grandson of Franklin." A few days afterward, at a public session of the +Academy, they were placed side by side, when, amidst the applause of the +enlightened company, the two old men rose and embraced. The political +triumphs of Franklin and the dramatic triumphs of Voltaire caused the +exclamation, that "Solon embraced Sophocles." But it was more than this. +It was France embracing America, beneath the benediction of "God and +Liberty." Only a few days later, Voltaire died. But the alliance with +France had received a new assurance, and the cause of American +Independence an unalterable impulse. + +Turgot did not live to enjoy the final triumph of the cause to which he +had given such remarkable expression. He died March 30th, 1781, several +months before that "crowning mercy," the capture of Cornwallis, and +nearly two years before the Provisional Articles of Peace, by which the +Colonies were recognized as free and independent States. But his +attachment to Franklin was one of the enjoyments of his latter +years.[33] Besides the verse to which so much reference has been made, +there is an interesting incident which attests the communion of ideas +between them, if not the direct influence of Turgot. Captain Cook, the +eminent navigator, who "steered Britain's oak into a world unknown," was +in distant seas on a voyage of discovery. Such an enterprise naturally +interested Franklin, and, in the spirit of a refined humanity, he sought +to save it from the chances of war. Accordingly, he issued a passport, +addressed "To all captains and commanders of armed ships, acting by +commission from the Congress of the United States of America, now in war +with Great Britain," where, after setting forth the nature of the voyage +of the English navigator, he proceeded to say,--"This is most earnestly +to recommend to every one of you, that, in case the said ship, which is +now expected to be soon in the European seas on her return, should +happen to fall into your hands, you would not consider her as an enemy, +nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor +obstruct her immediate return to England; but that you would treat the +said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness, +affording them, as common friends to mankind, all the assistance in your +power which they may happen to stand in need of."[34] This document +bears date March 10th, 1779. But Turgot had anticipated Franklin. At the +first outbreak of the war, he had submitted a memoir to the French +Government, on which it was ordered that Captain Cook should not be +treated as an enemy, but as a benefactor of all European nations.[35] +Here was a triumph of civilization, by which we have all been gainers; +for such an example is immortal in its influence. + +There is yet another circumstance which should be mentioned, in order to +exhibit the identity of sympathies in these two eminent persons. Each +sought to marry Madame Helvétius: Turgot early in life, while she was +still Mademoiselle Ligniville, belonging to a family of twenty-one +children, from a chateau in Lorraine, and the niece of Madame de +Graffigny, the author of the "Peruvian Letters"; Franklin in his old +age, while a welcome guest in the intellectual circle which this +widowed lady continued to gather about her. Throughout his stay in +France he was in unbroken relations with this circle, dining with it +very often, and adding much to its gayety, while Madame Helvétius, with +her friends, dined with him once a week. It was with tears in his eyes +that he parted from her, whom he never expected to see again in this +life; and on reaching his American home, he addressed her in words of +touching tenderness:--"I stretch out my arms towards you, +notwithstanding the immensity of the seas which separate us, while I +wait the heavenly kiss which I firmly trust one day to give you."[36] + +But the story of the verse is not yet finished. And here it mingles with +the history of Franklin in Paris, constituting in itself an episode of +the American Revolution. The verse was written for a portrait. And now +that the ice was broken, the portrait of Franklin was to be seen +everywhere,--in painting, in sculpture, and in engraving. I have +counted, in the superb collection of the Bibliothèque Impériale at +Paris, nearly a hundred engraved heads of him. At the royal exposition +of pictures the republican portrait found a place, and the name of +Franklin was printed at length in the catalogue,--a circumstance which +did not pass unobserved at the time; for the "Espion Anglais," in +recording it, treats it as "announcing that he began to come out from +his obscurity."[37] The same curious authority, describing a festival at +Marseilles, says, under date of March 20th, 1779,--"I was struck, on +entering the hall, to observe a crowd of portraits representing the +insurgents; but that of M. Franklin especially drew my attention, on +account of the device, '_Eripuit coelo_,' etc. This was inscribed +recently, and _every one admired the sublime truth_."[38] Thus +completely was France, not merely in its social centre, where fashion +gives the law, but in its distant borders, pledged to the cause of which +Franklin was the representative. + +As in the halls of science and in popular resorts, so was our +Plenipotentiary even in the palace of princes. The biographer of the +Prince de Condé dwells with admiration upon the illustrious character +who, during the great debate and the negotiations which ensued, had +fixed the regards of Paris, of Versailles, of the whole kingdom +indeed,--although in his simple and farmer-like exterior so unlike those +gilded plenipotentiaries to whom France was accustomed,--and he +recounts, most sympathetically, that the Prince, after an interview of +two hours, declared that "Franklin appeared to him above even his +reputation."[39] And here again we encounter the unwilling testimony of +Capefigue, who says that he was followed everywhere, taking possession +of "hearts and minds," and that "his image, under the simple garb of a +Quaker, was to be found at the hearth of the poor and in the boudoir of +the beautiful";[40]--all of which is in harmony with the more +sympathetic record of Lacretelle, who says that "portraits of Franklin +were everywhere, with this inscription, _Eripuit coelo_, etc., _which +the Court itself found just and sublime_."[41] + +But it was at court, even in the precincts of Versailles, that the +portrait and the inscription had their most remarkable experience. Of +this there is an authentic account in the Memoirs of Marie Antoinette by +her attendant, Madame Campan. This feminine chronicler relates that +Franklin appeared at court in the dress of an American farmer. His flat +hair without powder, his round hat, his coat of brown cloth contrasted +with the bespangled and embroidered dresses, the powdered and perfumed +hair of the courtiers of Versailles. The novelty charmed the lively +imagination of French ladies. Elegant _fêtes_ were given to the man who +was said to unite in himself the renown of a great, natural philosopher +with "those patriotic virtues which had made him embrace the noble part +of Apostle of Liberty." Madame Campan records that she assisted at one +of these _fêtes_, where the most beautiful among three hundred ladies +was designated to place a crown of laurel upon the white head of the +American philosopher, and two kisses upon the cheeks of the old man. +Even in the palace, at the exposition of the Sèvres porcelain, the +medallion of Franklin, with the legend, "_Eripuit coelo_", etc., was +sold directly under the eyes of the King. Madame Campan adds, however, +that the King avoided expressing himself on this enthusiasm, which, she +says, "without doubt, his sound sense made him blame." But an incident, +called "a pleasantry," which has remained quite unknown, goes beyond +speech in the way of explaining the secret sentiments of Louis XVI. The +Comtesse Diane de Polignac, devoted to Marie Antoinette, shared warmly +the "infatuation" with regard to Franklin. The King observed it. But +here the story shall be told in the language of the eminent lady who +records it:--"Il fit faire à la manufacture de Sèvres un vase de nuit, +an fond duquel était placé le médaillon avec la légende _si fort en +vogue_, et l'envoya en présent d'étrennes à la Comtesse Diane."[42] Such +was the exceptional treatment of Franklin, and of the inscription in his +honor which was so much in vogue. Giving to this incident its natural +interpretation, it is impossible to resist the conclusion, that the +French people, and not the King, sanctioned American Independence. + +The conduct of the Queen on this special occasion is not recorded; +although we are told by the same communicative chronicler who had been +Her Majesty's companion, that she did not hesitate to express herself +more openly than the King on the part which France took in favor of the +independence of the American Colonies, to which she was constantly +opposed. A letter from Mario Antoinette, addressed to Madame de +Polignac, under the date of April 9th, 1787, declares unavailing regret, +saying,--"The time of illusions is past, and to-day we pay dear on +account of our infatuation and enthusiasm for the American War."[43] It +is evident that Marie Antoinette, like her brother Joseph, thought that +her "business was to be a Royalist." + +But the name of Franklin triumphed in France. So long as he continued to +reside there he was received with honor, and when, after the achievement +of Independence, and the final fulfilment of all that was declared in +the verse of Turgot, he undertook to return home, the Queen--who had +looked with so little favor upon the cause which he so grandly +represented--sent a litter to receive his sick body and carry him gently +to the sea. As the great Revolution began to show itself, his name was +hailed with new honor; and this was natural, for the great Revolution +was the outbreak of that spirit which had risen to welcome him. In +snatching the sceptre from a tyrant he had given a lesson to France. +His death, when at last it occurred, was the occasion of a magnificent +eulogy from Mirabeau, who, borrowing the idea of Turgot, exclaimed from +the tribune of the National Assembly,--"Antiquity would have raised +altars to the powerful genius, who, for the good of man, embracing in +his thought heaven and earth, _could subdue lightning and tyrants_."[44] +On his motion, France went into mourning for Franklin. His bust was a +favorite ornament, and, during the festival of Liberty, it was carried, +with those of Sidney, Rousseau, and Voltaire, before the people to +receive their veneration.[45] A little later, the eminent medical +character, Cabanis, who had lived in intimate association with Franklin, +added his testimony, saying that the enfranchisement of the United +States was in many respects his work, and that the Revolution, the most +important to the happiness of men which had then been accomplished on +earth, united with one of the most brilliant discoveries of physical +science to consecrate his memory; and he concludes by quoting the verse +of Turgot.[46] Long afterwards, his last surviving companion in the +cheerful circle of Madame Helvétius, still loyal to the idea of Turgot, +hailed him as "that great man who had placed his country in the number +of independent states, and made one of the most important discoveries of +the age."[47] + +But it is time to look at this verse in its literary relations, from +which I have been diverted by its commanding interest as a political +event. Its importance on this account must naturally enhance the +interest in its origin. + +The poem which furnished the prototype of the famous verse was +"Anti-Lucretius, sive de Deo et Natura," by the Cardinal Melchior de +Polignac. Its author was of that patrician house which is associated so +closely with Marie Antoinette in the earlier Revolution, and with +Charles X. in the later Revolution, having its cradle in the mountains +of Auvergne, near the cradle of Lafayette, and its present tomb in the +historic cemetery of Picpus, near the tomb of Lafayette, so that these +two great names, representing opposite ideas, begin and end side by +side. He was not merely an author, but statesman and diplomatist also, +under Louis XIV. and the Regent. Through his diplomacy a French prince +was elected King of Poland. He represented France at the Peace of +Utrecht, where he bore himself very proudly towards the Dutch. By the +nomination of the Pretender, at that time in France, he obtained the hat +of a cardinal. At Rome he was a favorite, and he was also, with some +interruptions, a favorite at Versailles. His personal appearance, his +distinguished manners, his genius, and his accomplishments, all +commended him. Literary honors were superadded to political and +ecclesiastical. He succeeded to the chair of Bossuet at the Academy. But +he was not without the vicissitudes of political life. Falling into +disgrace at court, he was banished to the abbacy of Bonport. There the +scholarly ecclesiastic occupied himself with a refutation of Lucretius, +in Latin verse. + +The origin of the poem is not without interest. Meeting Bayle in +Holland, the ecclesiastic found the indefatigable skeptic most +persistently citing Lucretius, in whose elaborate verse the atheistic +materialism of Epicurus is developed and exalted. Others had already +answered the philosopher directly; but the indignant Christian was moved +to answer the poet through whom the dangerous system was proclaimed. His +poem was, therefore, a vindication of God and religion, in direct +response to a master-poem of antiquity, in which these are assailed. The +attempt was lofty, especially when the champion adopted the language of +Lucretius. Perhaps, since Sannazaro, no modern production in Latin verse +has found equal success. Even before its publication, in 1747, it was +read at court, and was admired in the princely circle of Sceaux. It +appeared in elegant, editions, was translated into French prose by +Bougainville, and into French verse by Jeanty-Laurans, also most +successfully into Italian verse by Ricci. At the latter part of the last +century, when Franklin reached Paris, it was hardly less known in +literary circles than a volume of Grote's History in our own day. +Voltaire, the arbiter of literary fame at that time, regarding the +author only on the side of literature, said of him, in his "Temple du +Goût,"-- + + "Le Cardinal, oracle de la France, + Réunissaut Virgile avec Platon, + _Vengeur du ciel et vainqueur de Lucrèce_." + +The last line of this remarkable eulogy has a movement and balance not +unlike the Latin verse of Turgot, or that which suggested it in the poem +of Polignac; but the praise which it so pointedly offers attests the +fame of the author; nor was this praise confined to the "fine frenzy" of +verse. The "Anti-Lucretius" was gravely pronounced the "rival of the +poem which it answered,"--"with verses as flowing as Ovid, sometimes +approaching the elegant simplicity of Horace and sometimes the nobleness +of Virgil,"--and then again, with a philosophy and a poetry combined +"which would not be disavowed either by Descartes or by Virgil."[48] + +Turning now to the poem itself, we shall see how completely the verse of +Turgot finds its prototype there. Epicurus is indignantly described as +denying to the gods all power, and declaring man independent, so as to +act for himself; and here the poet says, "Braving the thunderous +recesses of heaven, _he snatched the lightning from Jove and the arrows +from Apollo_, and, liberating the mortal race, ordered it to dare all +things,"-- + + "Coeli et tonitralia templa lacessens, + _Eripuit fulmenque Jovi, Phoeboque sagittas_; + Et mortale manumittens genus, omnia jussit + Audere."[49] + +To deny the power of God and to declare independence of His commands, +which the poet here holds up to judgment, is very unlike the life of +Franklin, all whose service was in obedience to God's laws, whether in +snatching the lightning from the skies or the sceptre from tyrants; and +yet it is evident that the verse which pictured Epicurus in his impiety +suggested the picture of the American plenipotentiary in his double +labors of science and statesmanship. + +But the present story will not be complete without an allusion to that +poem of antiquity which was supposed to have suggested the verse of +Turgot, and which doubtless did suggest the verse of the +"Anti-Lucretius." Manilius is a poet little known. It is difficult to +say when he lived or what he was. He is sometimes supposed to have lived +under Augustus, and sometimes under Theodosius. He is sometimes supposed +to have been a Roman slave, and sometimes a Roman senator. His poem, +under the name of "Astronomicon," is a treatise on astronomy in verse, +which recounts the origin of the material universe, exhibits the +relations of the heavenly bodies, and vindicates this ancient science. +It is while describing the growth of knowledge, which gradually mastered +Nature, that the poet says,-- + + "Eriputque Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi."[50] + +The meaning of this line will be seen in the context, which, for +plainness as well as curiosity, I quote from a metrical version of the +first book of the poem,[51] entitled, "The Sphere of Marcus Manilius +made an English Poem, by Edward Sherburne," which was dedicated to +Charles II.:-- + + "Nor put they to their curious search an end + Till reason had scaled heaven, thence viewed this round + And Nature latent in its causes found: + Why thunder does the suffering clouds assail; + Why winter's snow more soft than summer's hail; + Whence earthquakes come and subterranean fires; + Why showers descend, what force the wind inspires: + From error thus the wondering minds uncharmed, + _Unsceptred Jove, the Thunderer disarmed_." + +Enough has been said on the question of origin; but there is yet one +other aspect of the story. + +The verse was hardly divulged when it became the occasion of various +efforts in the way of translation. Turgot had already done it into +French; so had D'Alembert. M. Nogaret wrote to Franklin, inclosing an +attempted translation, and says in his letter,--"The French have done +their best to translate the Latin verse, where justice is done you in so +few words. They have appeared as jealous of transporting this eulogy +into their language as they are of possessing you. But nobody has +succeeded, and I think nobody will succeed."[52] He then quotes a +translation which he thinks defective, although it appeared in the +"Almanach des Muses" as the best:-- + + "Cet homme que tu vois, sublime en tous les tems, + Dérobe aux dieux la foudre et le sceptre aux tyrans." + +To this letter Dr. Franklin made the following reply:[53]-- + + "_Passy, 8 March, 1781_. + + "SIR,--I received the letter you have done me the honor of writing + to me the 2d instant, wherein, after overwhelming me with a flood + of compliments, which I can never hope to merit, you request my + opinion of your translation of a Latin verse that has been applied + to me. If I were, which I really am not, sufficiently skilled in + your excellent language to be a proper judge of its poesy, the + supposition of my being the subject must restrain me from giving + any opinion on that line, except that it ascribes too much to me, + especially in what relates to the tyrant, the Revolution having + been the work of many able and brave men, wherein it is sufficient + honor for me, if I am allowed a small share. I am much obliged by + the favorable sentiments you are pleased to entertain of me. + + "With regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, etc., + + "B. FRANKLIN." + +In his acknowledgment of this letter M. Nogaret says,--"Paris is pleased +with the translation of your '_Eripuit_,' and your portrait, as I had +foreseen, makes the fortune of the engraver."[54] But it does not appear +to which translation he refers. + +Here is another attempt:-- + + "Il a par ses travaux, toujours plus étonnans, + Ravi la foudre aux Dieux et le sceptre aux tyrans." + +There are other verses which adopt the idea of Turgot. Here, for +instance, is a part of a song by the Abbé Morellet, written for one of +the dinners of Madame Helvétius:[55]-- + + "Comme un aigle audacieux, + Il a volé jusqu'aux cieux, + _Et dérobé le tonnerre_ + Dont ils effrayaient la terre, + Heureux larcin + De l'habile Benjamin. + + "L'Américain indompté + _Recouvre sa liberté_; + Et ce généreux ouvrage, + Autre exploit de notre sage, + Est mis à fin + Par Louis et Benjamin." + +Mr. Sparks found among Franklin's papers the following paraphrastic +version:[56]-- + + "Franklin sut arrêter la foudre dans les airs, + Et c'est le moindre bien qu'il fit à sa patrie; + Au milieu de climats divers, + Où dominait la tyrannie, + Il fit régner les arts, les moeurs, et le génie; + Et voilà le héros que j'offre à l'univers." + +Nor should I omit a translation into English by Mr. Elphinstone:-- + + "He snatched the bolt from Heaven's avenging hand, + Disarmed and drove the tyrant from the land." + +In concluding this sketch, I wish to say that the literary associations +of the subject did not tempt me; but I could not resist the inducement +to present in its proper character an interesting incident which can be +truly comprehended only when it is recognized in its political +relations. To this end it was important to exhibit its history, even in +details, so that the verse which has occupied so much attention should +be seen not only in its scholarly fascination, but in its wide-spread +influence in the circles of the learned and the circles even of the +fashionable in Paris and throughout France, binding this great nation by +an unchangeable vow to the support of American liberty. Words are +sometimes things; but never were words so completely things as those +with which Turgot welcomed Franklin. The memory of that welcome cannot +be forgotten in America. Can it ever be forgotten in France? + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +And now the country is amazed by the report that the original welcome of +France to America and the inspired welcome of Turgot to Franklin are +forgotten by the France of this day, or, rather let me say, forgotten by +the Emperor, whose memory for the time is the memory of France. It is +said that Louis Napoleon is concerting an alliance with the Rebel +slavemongers of our country, founded on the recognition of their +independence, so that they may take their place as a new power in the +family of nations. Indeed, we have been told, through the columns of the +official organ, the "Moniteur," that he wishes to do this thing. Perhaps +he imagines that he follows the great example of the last century. + +What madness! + +The two cases are in perfect contrast,--as opposite as the poles, as +unlike as Liberty and Slavery. + +The struggle for American Independence was a struggle for Liberty, and +was elevated throughout by this holy cause. But the struggle for +Slavemonger Independence is necessarily and plainly a struggle for +Slavery, and is degraded throughout by the unutterable vileness of all +its barefaced pretensions. + +The earlier struggle, adopted by the enlightened genius of France, was +solemnly placed under the benediction of "God and Liberty." The present +struggle, happily thus far discarded by that same enlightened genius, +can have no other benediction than "Satan and Slavery." + +The earlier struggle was to snatch the sceptre from a kingly tyrant. The +present struggle is to put whips into the hands of Rebel slavemongers +with which _to compel work without wages_, and thus give wicked power to +vulgar tyrants without number. + +The earlier struggle was fitly pictured by the welcome of Turgot to +Franklin. But another spirit must be found, and other words must be +invented, to picture the struggle which it is now proposed to place +under the protection of France. + +The earlier struggle was grandly represented by Benjamin Franklin, who +was already known by a sublime discovery in science. The present +struggle is characteristically represented by John Slidell, whose great +fame is from the electioneering frauds by which he sought to control a +Presidential election; so that his whole life is fitly pictured, when it +is said, that he thrust fraudulent votes into the ballot-box, and whips +into the hands of task-masters. + +The earlier struggle was predicted by Turgot, who said, that, in the +course of Nature, colonies must drop from the parent stem, like ripe +fruit. But where is the Turgot who has predicted, that, in the course of +Nature, the great Republic must be broken, in order to found a new power +on the corner-stone of Slavery? + +The earlier struggle gathered about it the sympathy of the learned, the +good, and the wise, while the people of France rose up to call it +blessed. The present struggle can expect nothing but detestation from +all who are not lost to duty and honor, while the people of France must +cover it with curses. + +The earlier struggle enjoyed the favor of France, whether in assemblies +of learning or of fashion, in spite of its King. It remains to be seen +if the present struggle must not ignobly fail in France, still mindful +of its early vows, in spite of its Emperor. + +Where duty and honor are so plain, it is painful to think that even for +a moment there can be any hesitation. + +Alas for France! + + * * * * * + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_History of Spanish Literature._ By GEORGE TICKNOR. In Three Volumes. +Third American Edition, corrected and enlarged. Boston: Ticknor & +Fields. + +The first edition of this work was published in 1849, in three volumes +octavo, and it is hardly necessary for us to add, that it was received +with very great favor both at home and abroad. Indeed, we may go +farther, and say that it was received with the highest favor by those +who were best qualified to pronounce upon its merits. The audience which +it addressed was small at home, and not numerous anywhere; for the +literature of Spain, in general, does not present strong attractions to +those who are not natives of the Peninsula. In our country, at the time +of its publication, there was hardly a man competent to examine and +criticize it; and in Europe, outside of Spain itself, the number of +thorough Spanish scholars was and is but small, and of these a large +proportion is found in Germany. But by these, whether in Germany, +France, or England, Mr. Ticknor's History was received with a generous +and hearty admiration which must have been to him as authentic a token +of the worth of his book as the voice of posterity itself. But, of +course, it was exposed to the severest trial in Spain, the people of +which are intensely national, loving their literature, like everything +else which belongs to them, with a passionate and exclusive love, and +not disposed to treat with any tenderness a foreign writer who should +lay an incompetent hand upon any of their great writers, though in a +friendly and liberal spirit. But by the scholars and men of letters in +Spain it was greeted with a kindliness of welcome which nothing but the +most substantial excellence could have assured. Universal assent to the +views of a foreigner and a Protestant was not to be expected: this or +that particular judgment was questioned; but no one said, or could say, +that Mr. Ticknor's History was superficial, or hastily prepared, or +prejudiced, or wanting in due proportions. On the other hand, a most +hearty tribute of admiration was paid to its thorough learning, its +minute and patient research, its accurate judgments, its candid temper +and generous spirit. Cultivated Spaniards were amazed that a foreigner +had so thoroughly traced the stream of their literature from its +fountain-heads, omitting nothing, overlooking nothing, and doing justice +to all. + +Such a work could never attain any very wide popularity, and this from +the nature of its subject. To the general reader books about books are +never so attractive as histories and biographies, which deal with the +doings of men, and glow with the warmth of human interests. But every +man of literary taste, though but superficially acquainted with Spanish +literature, could recognize the merits of Mr. Ticknor's work, its +philosophical spirit, its lucid arrangement, its elegant and judicious +criticisms, and its neat, correct, and accurate style. He could not fail +to see that the works of Bouterwek and Sismondi were, by comparison, +merely a series of graceful sketches, with no claim to be called a +complete and thorough history. It took its place at once as the highest +authority in any language upon the subject of which it treated, as the +very first book which everybody would consult who wanted any information +upon that subject. + +The present edition of the "History of Spanish Literature" is by no +means identical with those which have preceded it. It omits nearly the +whole of the inedited, primitive Castilian poems which have heretofore +filled about seventy pages at the end of the last volume; and in other +parts of the work a corresponding, and even more than a corresponding, +amount of new matter has been introduced, which will, it is believed, be +accounted of greater interest than the early poetry it displaces. These +additions and changes have been derived from very various sources. In +the first place, Mr. Ticknor was in Europe himself in 1856 and 1857, and +visited the principal libraries, public and private, in England, France, +Germany, and Italy, in which any considerable collection of Spanish +books was to be found, and by examination of these supplied any wants +there might be in his own very ample stores. In the second place, his +History has been translated into German and Spanish, the former version +being illustrated with notes by Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, perhaps the best +Spanish scholar in Germany, and the latter by Don Pascual de Gayangos, +one of the best scholars in Spain. From the results of the labors of +these distinguished annotators Mr. Ticknor has taken--with generous +acknowledgment--everything which, in his judgment, could add value, +interest, or completeness to the present revised edition. And lastly, in +the period between the publication of the first edition and the present +time much has been done for the illustration of Spanish literature, both +in the Peninsula and out of it. This is due in part to the interest in +the subject which Mr. Ticknor himself awakened; and in Spain it is one +of the consequences of the rapid progress in material development and +vital energy which that country has been making during the last fifteen +years. New lives of some of its principal writers have been published, +and new editions of their works have been prepared. From all these +sources a very ample supply of new materials has been derived, so that, +while the work remains substantially the same in plan, outline, and +spirit, there are hardly three consecutive pages in it which do not +contain additions and improvements. We will briefly mention a few of the +more prominent of these. + +In the first volume, pages 446-455, the life of Garcilasso de la Vega is +almost entirely rewritten from materials found in a recent biography by +Don Eustaquio Navarrete, which Mr. Ticknor pronounces "an important +contribution to Spanish literary history." The writer is the son of the +learned Don Martin Navarrete. + +In the second volume, pages 75-81, many new and interesting facts are +stated in regard to the life of Luis de Leon, derived from a recently +published report of the entire official record of his trial before the +Inquisition, of which Mr. Ticknor says that it is "by far the most +important authentic statement known to me respecting the treatment of +men of letters who were accused before that formidable tribunal, and +probably the most curious and important one in existence, whether in +manuscript or in print. Its multitudinous documents fill more than nine +hundred pages, everywhere teeming with instruction and warning on the +subject of ecclesiastical usurpations, and the noiseless, cold, subtle +means by which they crush the intellectual freedom and manly culture of +a people." + +In the same volume, pages 118-119, some new and interesting facts are +stated which prove beyond a doubt, that Lope de Vega was actuated by +ungenerous feelings towards his great contemporary, Cervantes. The +evidence is found in some autograph letters of Lope, extracts from which +were made by Duran, and are now published by Von Schack, an excellent +Spanish scholar. + +In the same volume, page 191, is a copy of the will of Lope de Vega, +recently discovered, and obtained from the late Lord Holland. + +In the same volume, pages 354-357, is a learned bibliographical note +upon the publication and various editions of the plays of Calderon. + +In the third volume, Appendix B., pages 408-414, is a learned +bibliographical note on the Romanceros. + +In the same volume, Appendix C., pages 419-422, is an elaborate note on +the Centon Epistolario, in reply to an article by the Marques de Pidal. + +In the same volume, Appendix D., pages 432-434, is a new postscript on +the clever literary forgery, _El Buscapié_. + +At the close of the third volume there are seven pages giving a brief +and condensed account of the several works connected with Spanish +literature which have been published within two or three years past, and +since the stereotype plates for the present work were cast. + +The present edition is in a duodecimo, instead of an octavo form, and is +sold at a less price than the previous ones. + +In the closing sentences of the preface to this edition, Mr. Ticknor +says: "Its preparation has been a pleasant task, scattered lightly over +the years that have elapsed since the first edition of this work was +published, and that have been passed, like the rest of my life, almost +entirely among my own books. That I shall ever recur to this task again, +for the purpose of further changes or additions, is not at all probable. +My accumulated years forbid any such anticipation; and therefore, with +whatever of regret I may part from what has entered into the happiness +of so considerable a portion of my life, I feel that now I part from it +for the last time. _Extremum hoc munus habeto_." This is a very natural +feeling, and gracefully expressed; but whatever of sadness there may be +in parting from a book which has so long been a constant resource, a +daily companion, may in this case be tempered by the thought that the +work, as now dismissed, is so well founded, so symmetrically +proportioned, so firmly built, as to defy the sharpest criticism--that +of Time itself. + + * * * * * + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC +MONTHLY. + + +The History, Civil, Political, and Military, of the Southern Rebellion, +from its Incipient Stages to its Close. Comprehending, also, all +Important State-Papers, Ordinances of Secession, Proclamations, +Proceedings of Congress, Official Reports of Commanders, etc., etc. By +Orville J. Victor. New York. James D. Torrey. Vols. I. and II. 8vo. pp. +viii., 531; viii., 537. per vol. $2.50. + +Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers engaged in the War against +the Rebellion of 1861. By James Grant Wilson, Major commanding Fifteenth +Illinois Cavalry. Enlarged Edition. Illustrated with Portraits. Chicago, +James Barnet. 8vo. paper. pp. 120. 50 cts. + +Leaves from the Diary of an Army-Surgeon; or, Incidents of Field, Camp, +and Hospital Life. By Thomas T. Ellis, M.D., late Post-Surgeon at New +York, and Acting Medical Director at Whitehouse, Va. New York. John +Bradburn. 12mo. pp. 312. $1.00. + +The Actress in High Life: An Episode in Winter Quarters. New York. John +Bradburn. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.25. + +Americans in Rome. By Henry P. Leland. New York. Charles T. Evans. 12mo. +pp. 311. $1.25. + +The Castle's Heir: A Novel in Real Life. By Mrs. Henry Wood. In Two +Volumes. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper. pp. 144, +260. $1.00. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: The circumstances connected with the introduction of the +British troops into Boston will be found related in the "Atlantic +Monthly" for June, 1862; and the number for the following August +contains a view of the relation of the question of removal to the +arbitrary policy contemplated for the Colonies.] + +[Footnote 2: Boston, printed in the "Gazette" of February 12, 1770. A +letter printed in the "Boston Evening Post," October 9, 1789, from +London, received by the last ship, after eulogizing "the noble stand of +the colonists," says, "I am charmed with the prudent conduct of the +Bostonians in particular, and that you have been able lo preserve so +much tranquillity among you, while the spirits of the people must have +been so soured and agitated by oppression. You have certainly very wise +and prudent men concerned in the conduct of your affairs." A Tory view +of Boston in these times, (by "Sagittarius,") is as follows:--"The +Town-Meeting at Boston is the hot-bed of sedition. It is there that all +their dangerous insurrections are engendered; it is there that the flame +of discord and rebellion was first lighted up and disseminated over the +Provinces; it is therefore greatly to be wished that Parliament may +rescue the loyal inhabitants of that town and Province from the +merciless hand of an ignorant mob, led on and inflamed by +self-interested and profligate men."] + +[Footnote 3: _Reliq. Wotton._, p. 317, et seq.] + +[Footnote 4: Of clay he says, "It is a cursed step-dame to almost all +vegetation, as having few or no meatuses for the percolation of +alimental showers."] + +[Footnote 5: Sir William Temple gives this list of his pears:--Blanquet, +Robin, Rousselet, Pepin, Jargonel; and for autumn: Buree, Vertlongue, +and Bergamot.] + +[Footnote 6: Brougham's _Speeches_, Vol. II. p. 233.] + +[Footnote 7: Vol. IV. p. 443, First Series.] + +[Footnote 8: _Notes and Queries_, Vol. V. p. 17.] + +[Footnote 9: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 10: Lib. I. v. 104.] + +[Footnote 11: Sparks's _Works of Franklin_, Vol. VIII. p. 538.] + +[Footnote 12: _Notes and Queries_, Vol. V. p. 549, First Series.] + +[Footnote 13: _Ibid_. Vol. V. p. 140. See, also, _Ibid._ Vol. V. p. 571; +Vol. VI. p. 88; _Dublin Review_ for March, 1847, p. 212; _Quarterly +Review_ for June, 1850.] + +[Footnote 14: _Oevres de Turgot_, Tom. IX. p. 140.] + +[Footnote 15: _Oeuvres de Condorcet_, par O'Connor, Tom. V. p. 162.] + +[Footnote 16: Sparks's _Works of Franklin_, Vol. VIII. p. 537; Mignet, +_Notices et Portraits_, Tom. II. p. 480.] + +[Footnote 17: Cabania, _Oeuvres_, Tom. V. p. 251.] + +[Footnote 18: _Lettres de Madame Du Deffant_, Tom. III. p. 367.] + +[Footnote 19: _Ibid_. Tom. IV. p. 35.] + +[Footnote 20: Lacretelle, _Histoire de France_, Tom. V. p. 90.] + +[Footnote 21: _Oeuvres de Condorcet_, par O'Connor, Tom. V. pp. 406, +407.] + +[Footnote 22: Capefigue, _Louis XVI_, Tom. II. pp. 12, 13, 42, 49, 50. +The rose-water biographer of Diane de Poitiers, Madame de Pompadour, and +Madame du Barry would naturally disparage Franklin.] + +[Footnote 23: Mignet, _Notices at Portraits_, Tom. II. p. 427.] + +[Footnote 24: _La Gazette Secrète_, 15 Jan. 1777; Capefigue, _Louis +XVI._, Tom. II. p. 15.] + +[Footnote 25: _Oeuvres de Turgot_, Tom. II. p. 66.] + +[Footnote 26: _Oeuvres de Turgot_, Tom. VIII. p. 496.] + +[Footnote 27: Vol. X. p. 107.] + +[Footnote 28: _Mémoires de Madame D'Épinay_, Tom. III. p. 431.] + +[Footnote 29: Galiani, _Correspondance_, Tom. II. p. 275, _Lettre de 25 +Juillet_, 1778. Nobody saw America with a more prophetic eye than this +inspired Pulcinello of Naples. As far back as the eighteenth of May, +1776, several weeks before the Declaration of Independence, he +wrote,--"The epoch is come for the total fall of Europe and its +transmigration to America. Do not buy your house in the Chaussée +d'Antin, but at Philadelphia. The misfortune for me is that there are no +abbeys in America." Tom. II. p. 203. See also Grimm, _Correspondence_, +Tom. IX. p. 285 (1776).] + +[Footnote 30: The dictionaries of Michaud and Didot concur in the date +of her death; but there is reason to suppose that they are both +mistaken.] + +[Footnote 31: See Quérard, _La France Littéraire_, article _La +Rochefoucauld_.] + +[Footnote 32: Tom. I. p. 168.] + +[Footnote 33: _Oeuvres de Turgot_, Tom. I. p. 416.] + +[Footnote 34: Franklin, _Works_, by Sparks, Vol. V. p. 124.] + +[Footnote 35: _Oeuvres de Turgot_, Tom. I. p. 414; Tom. IX. p. 416; +_Oeuvres de Condorcet_, Tom. V. p. 162.] + +[Footnote 36: Cabanis, _Oeuvres_, Tom. V. p. 261; Mignet, _Notices et +Portraits_, Tom. II. p. 475. See, also, Morellet, _Mémoires_, Tom. I. p. +290. Cabanis and Morellet both lived for many years under the hospitable +roof of Madame Helvétius. It is the former who has preserved the +interesting extract from the letter of Franklin. Nobody who has visited +the Imperial Library at Paris can forget the very pleasant autograph +note of Franklin in French to Madame Helvétius, which is exhibited in +the same case with an autograph note of Henry IV. to Gabrielle +d'Estrées.] + +[Footnote 37: Tom. II. p. 83. See, also, p. 337.] + +[Footnote 38: Tom. II. p. 465. See, also, the letter of the Marquis de +Chastellux to Professor Madison on the Fine Arts in America, where the +generous Frenchman recommends for all our great towns a portrait of +Franklin, "with the Latin verse inscribed in France below his portrait." +Chastellux, _Travels in North America_, Vol. II. p. 372.] + +[Footnote 39: Chambelland, _Vie du Prince de Bourbon-Condé_, Tom. I. p. +374.] + +[Footnote 40: Capefigue, _Louis XVI._, Tom. II. pp. 49, 50.] + +[Footnote 41: Lacretelle, _Histoire de France pendant le 18me Siècle_, +Tom. V. p. 91. The historian errs in putting this success in 1777, +before the date of the Treaty; and he errs also with regard to the +Court, if he meant to embrace the King and Queen.] + +[Footnote 42: _Mémoires sur Marie Antoinette_, par Madame Campan, Tom. +I. p. 251.] + +[Footnote 43: _Bulletin de l'Alliance des Arts_, 10 Octobre, 1843. See +also Goncourt, _Histoire de Marie Antoinette_, p. 221.] + +[Footnote 44: Grimm, _Correspondance_, Tom. XVI. p. 407.] + +[Footnote 45: Louis Blanc, _Histoire de la Revolution_, Tom. VI. pp. +234, 316.] + +[Footnote 46: Cabanis, _Oeuvres_, Tom. V. p. 251.] + +[Footnote 47: Morellet, _Mémoires_, Tom. I. p. 290.] + +[Footnote 48: _L'Anit-Lucrèce_, traduit de Bougainville, _Épitre +Dédicatoire, Discours Préliminaire_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 49: Lib. I. v. 95.] + +[Footnote 50: Lib. I. v. 104. _Tonandi_ is sometimes changed to +_tonantis_, and also _tonanti_. (See _Notes and Queries_, Vol. V. p. +140.)] + +[Footnote 51: It is understood that there is a metrical version of this +poem by the Rev. Dr. Frothingham of Boston, which he does not choose to +publish, although, like everything from this refined scholar, it must be +marked by taste and accuracy.] + +[Footnote 52: Sparks's _Works of Franklin_, Vol. VIII. p. 538, note.] + +[Footnote 53: Ibid. p. 537.] + +[Footnote 54: Sparks's _Works of Franklin_, Vol. VIII. p. 539, note.] + +[Footnote 55: Morellet, _Mémoires_, Tom. I. p. 288. Nothing is more +curious with regard to Franklin than these _Mémoires_, including +especially the engraving from an original design by him. In some copies +this engraving is wanting. It is, probably, the gayeties here recorded, +and, perhaps, the "infatuation" of the court-ladies, that suggested the +scandalous charges which Dr. Julius has strangely preserved in his +_Nordamerikas Sittliche, Zustände_, Vol. I. p. 98.] + +[Footnote 56: Sparks's _Works of Franklin_, Vol. VIII. p. 539, note.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, +November, 1863, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 12 *** + +***** This file should be named 16028-8.txt or 16028-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/2/16028/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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