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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+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: Sketches
+       The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul’s Daughter, Walstein--Or
+       A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of
+       Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian
+       Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk,
+       Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+
+THE CARRIER PIGEON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Charolois and Branchimont_
+
+ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad
+bosom of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only
+by its rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of
+Charolois, situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the
+reflected radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of
+triumph at the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western
+side of the valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and
+sharply defined against the resplendent heaven.
+
+Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high
+places--the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but the
+hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with
+more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the
+house of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of
+Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss
+in the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son.
+
+Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff
+and gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest
+passions of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the
+theatre of their havoc.
+
+The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark
+towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned
+the devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was
+deposited the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had
+raised on a small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile
+from his stern hold.
+
+At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from
+the postern of Charolois--the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child of
+the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers.
+She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached
+the sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already
+kneeling,--faces of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she
+entered, a palmer, with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely
+muffled up in his cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in
+the fount of holy water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and
+pressed the beautiful fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived
+by the kneeling votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her
+self-control, or such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she
+exhibited no other symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar,
+was soon buried in her devotions.
+
+The mass was celebrated--the vassals rose and retired. According to her
+custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of her
+brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that someone
+was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived, knelt
+at her side. ‘Lothair!’ muttered the lady, apparently at her prayers,
+‘beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!’
+
+‘Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?’ was the hushed reply.
+
+‘For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.’
+
+‘Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped.
+Let me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated.
+Your father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh,
+fly!’
+
+‘Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?’
+
+‘Sweet love! I pray thee listen:--to Italy. At the court of my
+cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I
+for Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are
+no traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy,
+trust me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father’s walls.’
+
+‘Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other
+like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love?
+Yet I adore thee------’
+
+‘Lady!’ said the page, advancing, ‘the priest approaches.’
+
+The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar.
+
+‘To-morrow, at this hour,’ whispered Lothair.
+
+The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the
+shrine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Pert Page_
+
+‘DEAREST Lady,’ said the young page, as they returned to the castle,
+‘my heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the
+huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.’ ‘Hah! he is my father’s most
+devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to
+execute--a most ruthless knave!’
+
+‘And can see like a cat in the dark, too,’ observed young Theodore.
+
+‘I never loved that man, even in my cradle,’ said the Lady Imogene;
+‘though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?’
+
+‘Indeed I thought so, madam.’
+
+‘Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little
+page.’
+
+‘I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.’
+
+‘I warrant you,’ said Imogene; ‘you have a bold heart, little Theodore,
+and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my
+bright-eyed Lothair!’
+
+‘Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,’ said
+Theodore. ‘I would I were his squire.’
+
+‘Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.’
+
+‘Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I
+indeed be his squire, lady sweet?’
+
+‘Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.’
+
+‘I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and
+as strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!’
+
+‘It is indeed a beard, Theodore,’ said the Lady Imogene. ‘When wilt thou
+have one like it?’
+
+‘Another summer, perchance,’ said Theodore, passing his small palm
+musingly over his smooth chin.
+
+‘Another summer!’ said the Lady Imogene, laughing; ‘why, I may as soon
+hope to have a beard myself.’
+
+‘I hope you will have Lord Branchimont’s,’ said the page.
+
+‘Amen!’ responded the lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Love’s Messenger_
+
+THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded.
+On the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont
+at the shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her
+father, and, after having been loaded with every species of reproach and
+invective for her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was
+confined to a chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which
+she was never permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery
+with an old female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and
+manners. Her page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource
+and amusement was her mandolin.
+
+The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep
+so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was
+therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The
+landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted
+of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care
+that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont.
+The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from
+her. Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight.
+Very unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or
+pouring forth her passion over her lonely lute.
+
+A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was
+seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought,
+and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused
+her, and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the
+high back of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with
+an azure beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not
+alarmed was the beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached
+it; but it looked up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and
+flapped with some earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady
+Imogene smiled with marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her
+captivity; and putting forth her hand, which was even whiter than
+the wing, she patted the bright neck of the glad stranger, and gently
+stroked its soft plumage.
+
+‘Heaven hath sent me a friend,’ exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; ‘Ah!
+what--what is this?’
+
+‘Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?’ inquired the harsh voice of acid
+Martha, whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door.
+
+‘Nothing--nothing--I want nothing,’ quickly answered Imogene, as she
+seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered
+Martha over her shoulder. ‘Did she see thee, my treasure?’ continued the
+agitated Imogene, ‘Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were
+not discovered.’ So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step
+imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird
+from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly
+detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had
+perceived, in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont.
+
+Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted
+her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then
+she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to
+collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:--
+
+
+_‘Lothair to Imogene_.
+
+‘Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has
+promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I
+love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove
+a thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and
+catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am
+planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to
+tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of
+your fidelity to your own
+
+Lothair.’
+
+
+It was read--it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears--tears of
+wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the
+faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him,
+had she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously
+awaiting the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her
+tablets and inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under
+the wing, she bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last
+embrace, permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the
+air.
+
+Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue
+sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky
+shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _A Cruel Dart_
+
+IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that
+her unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as
+possible, and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit
+from Mignon. Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of
+consolation; and by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair
+respecting her escape was actively maintained. A thousand plans were
+formed by the sanguine lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then
+decided to be impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another,
+young Theodore was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and
+become, by some contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved
+that these were as wild as lovers’ plans are wont to be; and another
+week stole away without anything being settled. Yet this second week was
+not so desolate as the first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting
+hope; and each day to hear that Lothair still adored her, and each day
+to be enabled to breathe back to him her own adoration, solaced the
+hours of her captivity. But Fate, that will often frown upon the
+fortunes of true love, decided that this sweet source of consolation
+should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman, who was ever prowling
+about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye for a bird, one day
+observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the window of the tower.
+His practised sense instantly assured him that the bird was trained, and
+he resolved to watch its course.
+
+‘Hah, hah!’ said Rufus, the huntsman, ‘is Branchimont thy dovecot?
+Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.’
+
+Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the
+visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew
+had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont.
+True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky.
+Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can
+doubt that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling
+visits! Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing!
+She shall kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter
+than the scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all
+thy fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon
+the unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to
+anticipate the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes
+her heart tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions.
+
+Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred--an arrow
+swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The
+snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal!
+
+It touches thy form--it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no
+good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas,
+alas! the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy
+transcendent eye grows dim--all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to the
+earth!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _Another Message_
+
+A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour
+after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and
+the Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight,
+she became nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light
+remained, an indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed
+night, and nothing but the outline of the surrounding hills was
+perceptible, she could no longer restrain herself; and, bursting into
+hysteric tears, she threw herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were
+they discovered? Had Lothair forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless
+efforts, had he left her to her miserable, her solitary fate? There was
+a slight sound--something seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her
+side she beheld a letter, which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown
+in at the window. She started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed
+herself for doubting for an instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore
+open the letter; but so great was her emotion that some minutes elapsed
+before she could decipher its contents. At length she learned that,
+on the ensuing eve, Lothair and Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of
+Charolois, would contrive to meet in safety beneath her window, and for
+the rest she must dare to descend. It was a bold, a very perilous plan.
+It was the project of desperation. But there are moments in life when
+desperation becomes success. Nor was the spirit of the Lady Imogene one
+that would easily quail. Hers was a true woman’s heart; and she could
+venture everything for love. She examined the steep; she cast a rapid
+glance at the means of making the descent: her shawls, her clothes, the
+hangings of her bed--here were resources--here was hope!
+
+Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the
+unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon?
+But the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not
+mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were
+faint--that the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed;
+but this she did not observe. She was sanguine--she was confident in the
+wisdom of Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured
+forth her supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then,
+exhausted by all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a
+deep repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Flight and Discovery_
+
+MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. ‘He has his reasons,’
+answered the Lady Imogene: ‘Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right
+soon, I hope, we shall need no messenger.’ Oh, what a long, long day was
+this, the last of her captivity! Will the night never come--that night
+she had once so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no
+longer gladness in thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet
+thine orb is as high in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon!
+The unceasing cry of the birds, once so consoling, now only made her
+restless. She listened, and she listened, until at length the rosy
+sky called forth their last thrilling chant, and the star of evening
+summoned them to roost.
+
+It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the
+hours at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that
+it wanted but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed
+a rope of shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force.
+The bell struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her
+fate. Slowly and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air,
+until her feet at length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her
+footing, she now rested, and looked around her. She had descended about
+twenty feet. The moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was
+more rugged. It seemed not impracticable--she clambered down.
+
+‘Hist! hist!’ said a familiar voice, ‘all is right, lady--but why did
+you not answer us?’
+
+‘Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?’
+
+‘Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees--give me thy hand, sweet lady.
+Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.’
+
+Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont.
+
+‘We have no time for embraces,’ said Theodore; ‘the horses are ready.
+The Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an
+eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you
+Mignon?’
+
+‘Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.’
+
+‘But my letter,’ said Lothair-’you received it?’
+
+‘It was thrown in at my window,’ said the Lady Imogene.
+
+‘My heart misgives me,’ said little Theodore. ‘Away! there is no time
+to lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout!
+Fly! fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!’
+
+And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches
+seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of
+Lothair.
+
+‘We will die together!’ she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his
+breast.
+
+Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty
+sword.
+
+‘Seize him!’ shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; ‘seize
+the robber!’ shouted her father.
+
+‘At your peril!’ answered Lothair to his surrounding foes.
+
+They stood at bay--an awful group! The father and his murdering minions,
+alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their chieftain’s
+daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the silver
+moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their entrapped
+victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress.
+
+There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of
+the father, ‘Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare
+not the traitress!’
+
+But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion,
+they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey.
+
+‘Let me, then, teach you your duty!’ exclaimed the exasperated father.
+He advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus
+they stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow
+glanced over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to
+the heart. His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan.
+
+Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon,
+had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master
+of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was
+thine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _The Dove Returns to Imogene_
+
+THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different
+its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary
+vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois
+is again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet
+waters, still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks
+and mused over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering
+and bright, like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from
+thy dying glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve--no
+more shall her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no
+more shall her lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds.
+Oh, yes! she is dead--the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of
+misery heralded her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for
+the good priest who had often administered consolation to his unhappy
+mistress over her brother’s tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying
+couch, assured many a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim
+who loved to listen to the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a
+beatitude; for he did not doubt, from the distracted expressions that
+occasionally caught his ear, that the Holy Spirit, in that material form
+he most loves to honour, to wit, the semblance of a pure white dove,
+often solaced by his presence the last hours of Imogene de Charolois!
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CONSUL’S DAUGHTER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Henrietta_
+
+AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby
+held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the
+noble family with which he was connected had obtained for him this
+office, after serving his country, with no slight distinction, during
+the glorious war of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his
+family consisted of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of
+very tender years when he first obtained his appointment, but who had
+completed her eighteenth year at the period, memorable in her life,
+which these pages attempt to commemorate. A girl of singular beauty
+was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not remarkable merely for her beauty. Her
+father, a very accomplished gentleman, had himself superintended her
+education with equal care and interest. In their beautiful solitude,
+for they enjoyed the advantage of very little society save that of
+those passing travellers who occasionally claimed his protection and
+hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most engaging pursuit of Major
+Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of the lively talents of
+his daughter, and to watch with delight, not unattended with anxiety,
+the formation of her ardent and imaginative character: he had himself
+imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine arts in which he
+himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite languages which
+he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose rich and
+interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was careful,
+also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she should
+not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable
+portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from
+England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly
+as proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in
+Portugal and Spain.
+
+The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and
+rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections
+she had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy
+and agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into
+loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm,
+that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the
+constant presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman
+can alone imbue existence; without which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is very dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is never desperate.
+
+There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether
+inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently
+qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be
+destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended
+the daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the
+father’s heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush
+unseen, and waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then,
+with all a father’s pride, and under all the influence of that worldly
+ambition from which men are never free, he would form plans by which she
+might visit, and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble
+cousins were thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might
+enter that great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and
+more than once he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might
+be better for them both that they should for a season part: but the
+Consul’s daughter shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from
+the murmurs of a rising storm. She could not conceive existence without
+her father--the father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived
+and flourished--the father to whom she was indebted, not only for
+existence, but all the attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire,
+her tutor, her constant company, her dear, dear friend. To part from
+him, even though but for a season, and to gain splendour, appeared to
+her pure, yet lively imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible
+destiny--an awful dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an
+hour; once, indeed, he had been absent for three days; he had sailed
+with the fleet on public business to a neighbouring port; he had
+been obliged to leave his daughter, and the daughter remembered those
+terrible three days like a frightful dream, the recollection of which
+made her shudder.
+
+Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony--he possessed only the small
+income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which rewarded
+many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was cast,
+these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries, but
+all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy
+of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues
+lined their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful
+galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent
+facing the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the
+fanciful garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming
+aloes, was a most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret
+may not be hired in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion
+Miss Ponsonby was the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and
+flowers, surrounded by her birds: and here she might be often seen at
+sunset glancing amid its beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step
+as airy, as the bright gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Fair Presentment_
+
+ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city
+where Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests
+of British commerce--for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy
+presence of a bishop--a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial
+merchant brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took
+his way to the Consul’s house. He was a man of an age apparently verging
+towards thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage
+and directed his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by
+a single servant, he did not share the general reputation of his
+countrymen for wealth, his appearance to those practised in society
+was not undistinguished. Tall, slender, and calm, his air, though
+unaffected, was that of a man not deficient in self-confidence; and
+whether it were the art of his tailor, or the result of his own good
+frame, his garb, although remarkably plain, had that indefinable style
+which we associate with the costume of a man of some mark and breeding.
+
+On arriving at the Consul’s house, he was ushered through a large, dark,
+cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to
+the suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted
+up in the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of
+the library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office.
+Dwarf bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble
+bust, or bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a
+vacant easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his
+Britannic majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and
+over the mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the
+attention of the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He
+had a very ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an
+hour elapsed before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of
+a young lady. She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a
+gazelle. Her form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was
+not English, the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of
+the beauties of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep
+blue eye, the high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all
+northern, but northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand
+a branch of orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower.
+
+‘Signor Ferrers, I believe,’ said a shrill voice. The traveller started,
+and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning,
+bowing Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent
+up to the Consul.
+
+‘My name is Ferrers,’ replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and
+speaking in a low, sweet tone.
+
+‘Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,’ said the Italian: ‘I have the honour
+to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.’
+
+It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and
+his chief clerk a chancellor.
+
+‘I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,’ said
+the Italian; ‘and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the
+Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at
+Otranto?’
+
+‘I hope so too,’ replied the traveller; ‘and so I believe.’
+
+‘You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me--the Consul
+will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be
+very happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for
+a moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity
+of informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular
+messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send
+him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have
+any letters for the Consul?’
+
+‘None,’ replied the traveller.
+
+The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted
+he had been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a
+letter of introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart.
+
+The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, ‘Pray,
+may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?’
+
+‘Certainly,’ replied the chancellor; ‘’tis the Signora Ponsonby.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Mysterious Stranger_
+
+IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a
+dusky little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before
+sunset on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the
+casino of the Consul’s daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby
+had invited him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to
+taste his oranges. The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a
+very fine plane-tree, under whose spreading branches was arranged a
+banquet of fruit and flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and
+wines of the Levant, cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his
+chibouque, and his daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her
+guitar fall upon the turf. The original of the portrait proved that the
+painter had no need to flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner,
+the radiant smile, and the sweet and thrilling voice with which she
+welcomed her countryman would have completed the spell, had, indeed, the
+wanderer been one prepared, or capable of being enchanted. As it was,
+Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his welcome, with becoming complaisance,
+exhibited the breeding of a man accustomed to sights of strangeness
+and of beauty; and, while he expressed his sense of the courtesy of his
+companions, admired their garden, and extolled the loveliness of the
+prospect, he did not depart for a moment from that subdued, and even
+sedate manner, which indicates, the individual whom the world has little
+left to astonish, and less to enrapture, although, perhaps, much to
+please. Yet he was fluent in conversation, sensible and polished, and
+very agreeable. It appeared that he had travelled much, though he was
+far from boasting of his exploits. He had been long absent from England,
+had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had sojourned at Damascus. While he
+refused the pipe, he proved, by his observations on its use, that he was
+learned in its practice; and he declined his host’s offer of a file of
+English journals, as he was not interested in their contents. His host
+was too polished to originate any inquiry which might throw light upon
+the connections or quality of his guest, and his guest imitated his
+example. Nothing could be more perfectly well-bred than his whole
+demeanour--he listened to the major with deference, and he never paid
+Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never even asked her to sing;
+but the fond father did not omit this attention. Henrietta, in the most
+unaffected manner, complied with his request, because, as she was in the
+habit of singing every evening to her father, she saw no reason why he
+should, on this occasion, be deprived of an amusement to which he was
+accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and stirred the flowers and
+branches, her voice blended with its fresh and fragrant breath. It was
+a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air in which she indulged,
+indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the picturesque scene
+and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with attention, and thanked
+her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the casino he even
+requested the favour of her repeating the gratification, but in so quiet
+a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to comply with a
+wish expressed with so little fervour.
+
+The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the
+Consul’s daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were
+executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with
+interest--his observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than
+suspect his skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the
+fine arts, and offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she
+thought it would amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with
+more animation than on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed
+with the observations of a fine eye and cultivated taste.
+
+At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression.
+Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike
+personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad
+to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of
+the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been
+acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what
+Ferrers he was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul_
+
+THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby,
+to the Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him
+immediately afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him
+to dine with them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be
+permitted to pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The
+major, under the circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance
+to comply with their desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very
+reserved, and the Consul desisted.
+
+Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again
+appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before.
+They drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and
+again repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the
+portfolio:--they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all
+kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the
+Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of
+Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment,
+shaded by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Señorita, shrouded in
+her mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance,
+however, about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least
+remarkable. It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each
+drawing, in all probability containing the name and initials of the
+artist, had been carefully obliterated.
+
+Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers
+passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an
+honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the
+squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr.
+Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed
+rather confused; but at length he said: ‘Oh, they are stupid things: I
+did not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine,
+who was at Cadiz.’
+
+‘Oh, I see the name,’ said the major; ‘“_The Kraken_.” Why, that is Lord
+Bohun’s yacht!’
+
+‘The same,’ said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed.
+
+‘Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?’ said Miss Ponsonby. ‘We have often
+expected him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say
+he is the most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?’
+
+‘I never heard much in his favour,’ said Mr. Ferrers. ‘I believe he has
+made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.’
+
+‘Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,’ said the Consul.
+‘He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in
+every man’s favour.’
+
+‘And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,’ said Miss Ponsonby; ‘and a
+Bedouin robber, and--I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who was
+here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.’
+
+‘Affectations!’ said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. ‘Bohun, however, has
+some excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his
+cradle.’
+
+‘Is he clever?’ inquired Miss Ponsonby.
+
+‘Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,’ replied Mr. Ferrers.
+‘I confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers.
+I am not at all romantic.’
+
+And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a
+bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten.
+
+A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our
+Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter
+remained on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and
+every evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed
+that he was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy
+Consul always adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his
+wonder as to what Ferrers he was.
+
+Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and
+several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of
+the hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr.
+Ferrers should meet them. He discussed this important point with his
+daughter.
+
+‘My darling, I don’t like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man.
+The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an
+insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he
+is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would
+see something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall
+we do?’
+
+‘I will ask him,’ replied Miss Ponsonby. ‘I don’t think he could refuse
+me.’
+
+‘I am sure I could not,’ replied the major, smiling.
+
+And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that
+she had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was
+his courteous reply.
+
+‘Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.’
+
+Mr. Ferrers’ brow immediately clouded.
+
+‘Now, do not look so suspicious,’ said Miss Ponsonby. ‘Do you think that
+ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live
+only on fruit and flowers?’ continued Miss Ponsonby. ‘Do you know,’ she
+added, with an arch smile, ‘I think you must be a ghoul.’
+
+A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of
+the Englishman.
+
+‘You will come!’ said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly.
+
+‘I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby’s hospitality,’
+muttered Mr. Ferrers; ‘I have no claim to it.’
+
+‘You are our countryman.’
+
+‘Unknown.’
+
+‘The common consequence of being a traveller.’
+
+‘Yes--but--in short--I--’
+
+‘You must come,’ said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine.
+
+‘You do with me what you like,’ exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation.
+‘Beautiful--weather,’ he concluded.
+
+Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that
+from this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain,
+this gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul’s table; accepting
+a general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable,
+availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception.
+
+Could it be the Consul’s daughter that effected this revolution? Time
+may perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were
+that she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over
+society; or whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly
+pleasing because she was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta
+Ponsonby never appeared to greater advantage than she did upon the day
+of this memorable festival. Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house,
+sauntered to the mole, and gazed upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous
+symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers had before this been fixed in mute
+abstraction on many a summer wave, when Dian was in her bower; and
+this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed, was learned in woman, and
+woman’s ways. Shall a Consul’s daughter melt a heart that boasted of
+being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself upon its clouds?
+
+But if the state of Mr. Ferrers’ heart were doubtful, I must perforce
+confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured
+to inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own
+feelings. Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers
+had now insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power
+of which she was unconscious,--only because it was unceasing. Had for
+a moment the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have
+discovered, with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed
+she had become since the first evening he approached their pleasant
+casino. And yet Mr. Ferrers was not her lover. No act,--no word of
+gallantry,--no indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever
+escaped him. All that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then,
+there was no other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among
+them; but, then, he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and
+repose, which ever and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular
+activity and strange adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct.
+But, whatever might be his motives, certain it is, that the English
+stranger dangerously interested the feelings of the Consul’s daughter;
+and when she thought the time must arrive for his departure, she drove
+the recollection from her mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang
+which she experienced by its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the
+heart of this young and lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in
+the presence of her companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature
+had invested the Englishman with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant
+person; his tender, yet reserved manners; his experienced, yet ornate
+mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet mellowed imagination, which ever
+and anon would break forth in his conversation: perhaps, too, the air
+of melancholy, and even of mystery, which enveloped him, were all spells
+potent in the charm that enchants the heart of woman. And the major,
+what did he think? The good Consul was puzzled. The confirmed intimacy
+between his daughter and his guest alike perplexed and pleased him. He
+certainly never had become acquainted with a man whom he would sooner
+have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only known who he was. But
+two months, and more than two months, had elapsed, and threw no light
+upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul hesitated as
+to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good breeding. Now he
+thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his daughter. There were
+objections to each line of conduct, and his confidence in Mr. Ferrers
+was very great, although he did not exactly know who he was: he was
+decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his conduct and
+conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so much
+delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and did,
+that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
+and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
+conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
+his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
+gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A Tender Avowal_
+
+IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M’Intyre were two
+very different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay,
+noisy, pleasant, commonplace persons. They were ‘_on leave_’ from one
+of the Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot
+red-legged partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a
+pipe with the Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights
+they had seen, and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they
+styled ‘regular adventures’: and they insisted upon giving everyone a
+description of what everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their
+arrival, Mr. Ferrers discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and
+resumed his old habit of riding up to the casino, every evening, on his
+Barbary ass, to eat oranges and talk to the Consul’s daughter.
+
+‘I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?’ said Major M’Intyre.
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+‘St. Peter’s, of course, you have seen?’ said Captain Ormsby.
+
+‘But have you seen it during Holy Week?’ said the major. ‘That’s the
+thing.’
+
+‘Ah, I see you have been everywhere,’ said the captain: ‘Algiers, of
+course?’
+
+‘I never was at Algiers,’ replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
+circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.
+
+‘By Jove,’ said the major, with elevated eyes, ‘not been at Algiers!
+why, Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great
+traveller indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers
+more worth seeing than any place we ever visited. Don’t you, Ormsby?’
+
+The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
+place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
+Bohun’s yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
+proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
+Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain
+Ormsby finally pronounced ‘Bohun a devilish good fellow.’
+
+‘Do you know Lord Bohun?’ inquired Mr. Ferrers.
+
+‘Why, no!’ confessed Captain Ormsby: ‘but he is a devilish intimate
+friend of a devilish intimate friend of mine.’
+
+Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him
+into the garden. ‘I cannot endure the jabber of these men,’ said Mr.
+Ferrers.
+
+‘They are very good-natured,’ said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+‘It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they
+think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in
+a short time, and then I shall be forgotten.’
+
+‘That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if
+absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.’
+
+‘I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second
+part to Lord Bohun.’
+
+‘Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to
+anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.’
+
+‘I have been in this island ten weeks,’ said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully.
+
+‘When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,’ said Miss
+Ponsonby.
+
+‘You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my
+existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been
+very happy,’ said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; ‘very happy, indeed. The only
+_happy_ time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.’
+
+‘And why not remain, then?’ said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice.
+
+‘There are many reasons,’ said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm
+to Miss Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino.
+‘These ten weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,’ he continued, but
+in a calm voice, ‘because you have been my companion. My life has
+taken its colour from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss
+Ponsonby, and be not alarmed. I love you!’
+
+Her arm trembled in his.
+
+‘Yes, I _love_ you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common
+feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life;
+and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as
+may be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.’
+
+She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand.
+
+‘Most beauteous lady,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘pardon me if I agitate
+you; for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger,
+utterly unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my
+power, even at _this_ moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal
+position. Yet, whatever I may be, I offer my existence, and all its
+accidents, good or bad, in homage to your heart. May I indulge the
+delicious hope that, if not now accepted, they are at least considered
+with kindliness and without suspicion?’
+
+‘Oh, yes! without _suspicion_,’ murmured Miss Ponsonby--‘without
+suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that
+you are not so good as you are------gifted.’
+
+‘Darling Henrietta!’ exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting
+tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon
+her lips. ‘This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman’s love I
+long have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are
+mine; once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay,
+start not, sweet one. ‘Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return
+to claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and
+solemn engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet
+again; you may hear _of_ me and not to my advantage. What matter? You
+love me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour
+_never sullied_. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!’
+
+‘I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in
+you, I will despair of them for ever.’
+
+‘Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me,
+indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _The Famous Lord Bohun_
+
+He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous
+event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she
+was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father’s child.
+She belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and
+departed being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young
+lady passed her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain
+she attempted to struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted
+to herself the error, perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was
+fascinated. She could not reason; she could not communicate to her
+father all that had happened. A thousand times her lips moved to reveal
+her secret; a thousand times an irresistible power restrained them. She
+remained silent, moody, and restless: she plucked flowers, and threw
+them to the wind: she gazed upon the sea, and watched the birds in
+abstraction wilder than their wing: and yet she would not doubt her
+betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and so sincere, still
+lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty brow was engraven
+on her memory: never could she forget those delicate adieus!
+
+This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after
+some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of
+the departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained
+his noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled
+with the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the
+maiden; but the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct
+gave evidence of restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed
+sometimes exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing.
+The Consul was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is
+bitter for a father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but
+doubly bitter is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret.
+
+Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested
+on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of
+Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of
+this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was
+a diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed
+there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected
+individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very
+luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the
+Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted
+his extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the
+course of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave
+a magnificent entertainment on board the _Kraken_, to the bishop and the
+principal islanders, in honour of the Consul’s daughter. Indeed it was
+soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary
+admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked
+attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these
+attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a
+lord, and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced
+Henrietta might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a
+traveller.
+
+One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own
+yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had
+been copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who
+preceded him. His name was inquired, and given.
+
+‘Ferrers!’ exclaimed his lordship. ‘What, has Ferrers been here?’
+
+‘You know Mr. Ferrers, then?’ inquired Henrietta, with suppressed
+agitation.
+
+‘Oh yes, I know Ferrers.’
+
+‘A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,’ said the Consul, anxious, he
+knew not why, that the conversation would cease.
+
+‘Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being
+agreeable,--Mr. Ferrers.’
+
+‘From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,’ said Henrietta, in a firm,
+and rather decided tone, ‘I should not have given him credit for any
+sentiment approaching to _conceit_.’
+
+‘He is fortunate in having such a defender,’ said his lordship, bowing
+gallantly.
+
+‘Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,’ said Miss Ponsonby, ‘unless
+they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs
+any defence.’
+
+His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air.
+
+‘Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,’ said the Consul, who was now
+desirous that the conversation should proceed.
+
+‘He had evidently a great inducement,’ said Lord Bohun. ‘I wonder he
+ever departed.’
+
+‘He is a great favourite in this house,’ said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+‘I perceive it,’ said Lord Bohun.
+
+‘What Ferrers is he?’ inquired the Consul.
+
+‘Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,’ said Lord Bohun. ‘I never heard
+his breeding impeached.’
+
+‘And I should think, nothing else,’ said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+‘Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,’ said his
+lordship; ‘except that he was a _roué_, and a little mad. That is all.’
+
+‘Enough, I should think,’ said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow.
+
+‘What a _roué_ may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,’ said
+Henrietta. ‘If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his
+thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title.
+As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three
+months: if he be mad, it must be a very _little_ indeed.’
+
+‘He was a great favourite of Henrietta,’ said her father, with a forced
+smile.
+
+‘Fortunate man!’ said the lord. ‘Fortunate Ferrers!’
+
+Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was
+left alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she
+was alone, her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A
+_roué!_ Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had
+pledged the freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she,
+after all, only a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a
+_roué!_ That lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely,
+was he a _roué,_ an eccentric _roué_; one whose unprincipled conduct
+could only be excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect?
+She could not credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct
+had been so strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and
+then she recollected his last dark-muttered words: ‘_You may hear of me,
+and not to my advantage._’ Oh, what a prophecy! And _from_ him she had
+never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
+the Consul’s daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge,
+and his honour that had been _never sullied_. She buried her face in her
+hands,--she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened since
+his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had said
+and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was madness
+for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no misery
+so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all her
+happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
+gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
+sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if
+not light-hearted, at least serene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _More Mystery_
+
+THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
+island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
+remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited
+no inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
+interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month,
+made himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest,
+certainly with the Consul, if not with the Consul’s daughter. As for the
+name of Mr. Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta
+piqued herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on
+respecting her absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting
+much information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to
+annex a precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were
+rich or poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of
+disgraceful lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been
+fellow-travellers--all was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble
+guest was inattentive to her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost
+annoyed her by his constant devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined
+to resent his singularly marked expressions of admiration as an insult;
+when, to her utter astonishment, one morning her father astounded her by
+an announcement that Lord Bohun had done her the honour of offering her
+his hand and heart. The beautiful Henrietta was in great perplexity.
+It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his flattering proposal without
+reservation: it was difficult, almost impossible, to convince her father
+of the expediency of such a proceeding. There was in the proposal of
+Lord Bohun every circumstance which could gratify Major Ponsonby. In
+the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition, his hopes had never soared
+higher than the possession of such a son-in-law: high born, high
+rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished youth, were combined in the
+individual whom some favouring destiny, it would seem, had wafted to
+this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows to its accomplished
+mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so brief an acquaintance,
+to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative stranger, was what
+he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should unhesitatingly
+and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for which he was
+totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified--for the first
+time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that Lord
+Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all
+others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when
+his fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss
+Ponsonby. It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father
+required her to grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a
+repetition of the proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in
+vain. It was otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more
+kind and unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss
+Ponsonby to think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she
+was glad, however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or
+annoyed. Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he
+had spent in her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire
+whether time might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby’s determination.
+And when he had received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he
+only expressed his wishes for her future happiness, which he could not
+doubt.
+
+‘I feel,’ said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; ‘I feel,’ he
+said, in a very hesitating voice, ‘I am taking a great, an unwarrantable
+liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could
+venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your
+welfare.
+
+Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with
+kindness.’
+
+‘I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were
+engaged to another.’
+
+Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with
+blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces.
+
+‘Is this a fair inquiry?’ she murmured. ‘It is for your sake I inquire,’
+answered Lord Bohun.
+
+Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was
+thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at
+length something of her mysterious lover.
+
+‘What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?’ She spoke without
+raising her head.
+
+‘In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a
+treasure.’
+
+‘You speak of Edmund Ferrers?’ said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+‘The same.’
+
+‘You know him?’ she inquired, in a choking voice.
+
+‘I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not
+boast a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more
+blessed.’
+
+‘Shall you see him?’ she inquired in a quick tone.
+
+‘Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his
+movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you
+have sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again;
+and methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here,
+Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as
+well as that of your lord’s. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _A Welcome Message_
+
+THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without
+a certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta
+Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often
+mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling,
+indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom
+she had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of
+Ferrers in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual
+seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted
+it with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations.
+Here, too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side--the beautiful and
+bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple
+life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love,
+indeed, is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic--it changes all
+things; and the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing,
+becomes as rife with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate
+theatre of some old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her
+mysterious and absent lover was at her side-but then he spoke only
+Greek. In vain she tried to make him comprehend how much she desired to
+have tidings of his master. The graceful mute could only indulge in airy
+pantomime, point to the skies and ocean, or press his hand to his heart
+in token of fidelity. Henrietta amused herself in teaching Spiridion
+Italian, and repaid herself for all her trouble in occasionally
+obtaining some slight information of her friend. In time she learned
+that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord Bohun before the departure
+of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and often-repeated inquiries
+whether he would soon return, Spiridion was constant to his consoling
+affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress of languages as
+Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian scarf, which
+the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his master when
+Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the scarf for a
+Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour.
+
+Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page,
+rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below
+the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that
+a vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an
+English vessel--it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and
+watched the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed
+the British Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also
+immediately return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal--upon
+a white ground a crimson heart--whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his
+breast a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away.
+
+He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace
+until he arrived at the Consul’s mansion--he rushed in, dashed up the
+staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the
+sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby--her gaze was serious, but her
+beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched
+by gloom--pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still
+echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on
+which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were
+her gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of
+him whom she had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful,
+confiding maiden! It was the strength of thy mind as much as the
+simplicity of thy heart that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who
+would not envy thy unknown adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for
+weak minds and cold-blooded spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou
+wast just, for, behold, he is true!
+
+A fluttering sound roused her--she turned her head, and expected to see
+her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he
+held towards her a letter. She seized it--she recognised in an instant
+the handwriting she had so often studied--it was his! Yes! it was his.
+It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her hand
+trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read, and
+she read these words:--
+
+‘If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which
+since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me
+to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my
+bride; but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let
+nothing be known to our father.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Mystery Revealed_
+
+MY DEAREST Henrietta,’ said the Consul as he entered, ‘who, think you,
+has returned? Lord Bohun.’
+
+‘Indeed!’ said Henrietta. ‘Have you seen him?’ ‘No. I paid my respects
+to him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow,
+at ten.’
+
+The morrow came, but ten o’clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven
+sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her--he was surprised
+to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early ramble. At
+this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that, from some
+error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited the
+Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As
+he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and--Mr.
+Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was
+about to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she
+disappeared down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted
+her father--
+
+‘You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?’
+
+‘I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?’
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+‘I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major
+Ponsonby,’ continued Mr. Ferrers.
+
+‘I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I
+must go and greet his lordship.’
+
+‘Oh, never mind Bohun,’ said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. ‘I have no
+ceremony with him--he can wait.’
+
+The major was a little perplexed.
+
+‘You must know, my dearest sir,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘that I wish to
+speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.’
+
+‘Proceed, sir,’ said the Consul, looking still more puzzled.
+
+‘You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire
+your daughter.’
+
+The Consul bowed.
+
+‘Indeed,’ said Mr. Ferrers; ‘it seems to me impossible to know her and
+not admire: I should say, adore her.’
+
+‘You flatter a father’s feelings,’ said the Consul.
+
+‘I express my own,’ replied Mr. Ferrers. ‘I love her--I have long loved
+her devotedly.’
+
+‘Hem!’ said Major Ponsonby.
+
+‘I feel,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, ‘that there is a great deal to
+apologise for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that
+my conduct may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will
+not say that the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end
+was, at least, a great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.’
+
+‘I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.’
+
+‘It is some consolation to me,’ continued that gentleman, ‘that the
+daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I
+may be as successful with the father.’
+
+‘I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must
+own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and
+shake hands with Lord Bohun.’
+
+‘I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my
+dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby,
+with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this
+island. This knowledge is necessary for my justification.’
+
+‘But what is there to justify?’ inquired the major.
+
+‘Conceive a man born to a great fortune,’ continued Mr. Ferrers, without
+noticing the interruption, ‘and to some accidents of life, which many
+esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth--conceive this
+man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in
+that great world with which you are not unacquainted--conceive him with
+a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe and
+the victim of all whom he encounters--conceive him, in disgust, flying
+from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of those
+accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to his
+morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery--conceive this
+man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of
+which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own
+sake--a miserable man, sir!’
+
+‘It would seem so,’ said the Consul.
+
+‘Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession
+of all for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for
+himself, and loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his
+purest youth: yet the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his
+joy. He is haunted by the suspicion that the affection, even of this
+being, is less the result of his own qualities, than of her inexperience
+of life--he has everything at stake--he dares to submit her devotion to
+the sharpest trial--he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain
+with which he had enveloped himself--he quits her with the distinct
+understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit
+to return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret
+from the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that
+his name shall be traduced in her presence--that the proudest fortune,
+the loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will
+renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major
+Ponsonby!’
+
+‘Indeed, most terrible.’
+
+‘But she is true--truer even than truth--and I have come back to claim
+my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?’
+
+‘I speak, then-----’ murmured the astounded Consul--
+
+‘To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!’
+
+
+
+
+WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _A Philosophical  Conversation between a Physician and
+     His Patient._
+
+DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was
+not only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy
+of his patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between
+medicine and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to
+Walstein. The physician looked forward to the interview with his patient
+with some degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had
+never yet met that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his
+travels, and who had been absent from his country for several years.
+
+When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was
+admitted into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and
+ascending a double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a
+magnificent gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient
+statues were ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were
+suspended many beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them
+were dwarf bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and
+crowned with Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a
+man of taste, looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he
+was gazing on a group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of
+whom he had heard much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and
+turning round, Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of
+youth, but of very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and
+graceful manner. ‘I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting
+you to be a moment alone,’ said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile.
+
+‘Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,’ replied the
+physician. ‘There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of
+your father, Mr. Walstein.’
+
+‘’Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,’ replied
+Walstein, ‘the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a
+_pococurante_, I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the
+commonplace.’
+
+‘Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,’ replied
+Schulembourg.
+
+Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be
+seated. ‘I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,’ he observed,
+somewhat abruptly. ‘My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that
+a physician is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I
+am in excellent health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My
+temperament I have ever considered to be of a very sanguine character.
+I have nothing upon my mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto
+I have only committed blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless,
+I have, of late, become the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy,
+which I can ascribe to no cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you
+throw any light upon my dark feelings? Can you remove them?’
+
+‘How long have you experienced them?’ inquired the physician.
+
+‘More or less ever since my return,’ replied Walstein; ‘but most
+grievously during the last three months.’
+
+‘Are you in love?’ inquired Schulembourg.
+
+‘Certainly not,’ replied Walstein, ‘and I fear I never shall be.’
+
+‘You have been?’ inquired the physician.
+
+‘I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,’ answered the patient; ‘but
+youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and,
+in all probability, never will be.’
+
+‘Besides an idea of a heroine,’ said Schulembourg, ‘you have also, if I
+mistake not, an idea of a hero?’
+
+‘Without doubt,’ replied Walstein. ‘I have preconceived for myself a
+character which I have never achieved.’
+
+‘Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero,
+why should you complain?’ rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+‘There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,’ said
+Walstein.
+
+‘And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of
+our mistress,’ rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+‘You reason,’ said Walstein. ‘I was myself once fond of reasoning, but
+the greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is
+not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from
+passion.’
+
+‘Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,’ observed Schulembourg.
+
+‘And thus we pass the ocean of life,’ said Walstein. ‘Would that I
+could discover a new continent of sensation!’
+
+‘Do you mix much in society?’ said the physician.
+
+‘By fits and starts,’ said Walstein. ‘A great deal when I first
+returned: of late little.’
+
+‘And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?’
+
+‘It would superficially appear so,’ observed Walstein; ‘but I consider
+my present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the
+reaction of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a
+sense of disappointment of the past.’
+
+‘You are disappointed,’ observed Schulembourg. ‘What, then, did you
+expect?’
+
+‘I do not know,’ replied Walstein; ‘that is the very thing I wish to
+discover.’
+
+‘How do you in general pass your time?’ inquired the physician.
+
+‘When I reply _in doing nothing_, my dear Doctor,’ said Walstein,
+‘you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But
+perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.’
+
+‘Do you read?’
+
+‘I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but
+books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering
+life.’
+
+‘Do you write?’
+
+‘I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate
+reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.’
+
+‘Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your
+own feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.’
+
+‘My sympathies are strong,’ replied Walstein. ‘In an evil hour I might
+descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd;
+I should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.’
+
+‘You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?’
+
+‘Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very
+evanescent.’
+
+‘Travel is action,’ replied Schulembourg. ‘Believe me, that in action
+you alone can find a cure.’
+
+‘What is action?’ inquired Walstein. ‘Travel I have exhausted. The world
+is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a
+career?’
+
+‘Action,’ replied Schulembourg, ‘is the exercise of our faculties. Do
+not mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life
+almost within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action.
+Witness the convents and the churches that are covered with his
+exploits. A great student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or
+a statesman. You must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an
+object in life; great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe
+me, it is better to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.’
+
+‘Your advice is profound,’ replied Walstein, ‘and you have struck upon a
+sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.’
+
+‘You are a very ambitious man,’ replied the physician.
+
+‘How know you that?’ said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly
+blushing.
+
+‘We doctors know many strange things,’ replied Schulembourg, with a
+smile. ‘Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?’
+
+‘Prime minister of Oberon!’ said Walstein, laughing; ‘’tis indeed a
+great destiny.’
+
+‘Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate
+themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a
+prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.’
+
+‘Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.’
+
+Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which
+he handed to his patient.
+
+Walstein smiled as he read the prescription.
+
+‘Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein’s
+company at dinner, to-morrow at two o’clock.’
+
+Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his
+promise. ‘I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Containing Some Future Conversation_
+
+WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The
+house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was
+situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been
+presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa,
+which recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights
+of marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion,
+all painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon
+the terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases
+sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains
+were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and
+bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet
+and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky,
+and threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and
+serene, floated the airy crescent of the young white moon.
+
+‘My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,’ exclaimed
+Walstein.
+
+The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered
+through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an
+octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved
+away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was
+Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to
+apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest.
+
+Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely
+beautiful. Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks
+of ebon hair shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her
+large and deep blue eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The
+expression of her face was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played
+like meteors on her soft round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head
+was carelessly tied under her chin, and fastened with a white rose of
+pearls. Her vest and train of white satin did not conceal her sylphlike
+form and delicate feet. She held forth a little white hand to Walstein,
+adorned only by a single enormous ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring
+ease.
+
+‘I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr.
+Walstein,’ said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around,
+and recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being
+introduced, for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor.
+
+‘I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,’ said Walstein,
+addressing the latter gentleman. ‘You have left your fame behind you
+at Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least
+accompanied with admiration.’ The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly
+blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid,
+petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly
+and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with
+a true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even
+when enthusiastic.
+
+‘It is difficult to remember we are in the North,’ said Walstein to
+Madame Schulembourg, ‘amid these colonnades and orange trees.’
+
+‘It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,’ replied the
+lady, ‘and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.’
+
+‘You have resided long in Italy?’ inquired Walstein.
+
+‘I was born at Milan,’ replied Madame de Schulembourg, ‘my father
+commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.’
+
+‘I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,’ said
+Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady.
+
+‘Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,’ replied
+Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; ‘is it not so, Mr. Revel?’
+
+The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady’s mother,
+whom he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then
+they exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they
+were conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: ‘I must
+compensate for keeping you from dinner,’ said their host, ‘by having the
+pleasure of announcing that it is prepared.’
+
+He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the
+dining-room. The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her
+side.
+
+The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German
+dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with
+an ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman
+was an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent,
+without that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to
+a finished man of the world. The host was himself ever animated and
+cheerful, but calm and clear--and often addressed himself to the artist,
+who was silent, and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein
+himself, indeed, was not very talkative, but his manner indicated that
+he was interested, and when he made an observation it was uttered with
+facility, and arrested attention by its justness or its novelty. It was
+an agreeable party.
+
+They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the
+supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very
+sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest
+of the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg
+avowed her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary.
+Schulembourg philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he
+was a magnetiser, and his explanations were more marvellous than the
+portents.
+
+‘And you, Mr. Walstein,’ said Madame de Schulembourg, ‘what is your
+opinion?’
+
+‘I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the
+burthen of daily reality,’ replied Walstein.
+
+‘You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,’ observed Mr. Revel, bowing to
+the sculptor.
+
+‘Novalis is an astrologer,’ said Madame Schulembourg; ‘I think he would
+just suit you.’
+
+‘Destiny is a grand subject,’ observed Walstein, ‘and although I am not
+prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be
+surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.’
+
+‘That has been the belief of great spirits,’ observed the sculptor, his
+countenance brightening with more assurance.
+
+‘It is true,’ replied Walstein, ‘I would rather err with my great
+namesake and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.’
+
+‘That is a dangerous speech, Baron,’ said Schulembourg.
+
+‘With regard to destiny,’ said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist
+of the old school, ‘everything depends upon a man’s nature; the
+ambitious will rise, and the grovelling will crawl--those whose volition
+is strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the
+consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.’
+
+Schulembourg shook his head. ‘By a man’s nature you mean his structure,’
+said the physician, ‘much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but
+structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to
+sympathy.’
+
+‘It is true,’ replied the sculptor; ‘and what is the influence of the
+stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?’
+
+‘I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,’ remarked Walstein;
+‘this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de
+Schulembourg.’
+
+‘On the contrary,’ she replied, ‘the mystical ever delights me.’
+
+‘Yet,’ continued Walstein, ‘perceiving that the discontent and
+infelicity of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his
+intelligence and his knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant
+and the simple.’
+
+‘A man can only be content,’ replied Schulembourg, ‘when his career is
+in harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great
+physical activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in
+spite of great physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence,
+under the influence of the action which is necessary to their living,
+counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure,
+when he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man
+of genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being
+developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that
+sublime art so ill-comprehended!’
+
+‘I agree with you,’ said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of
+Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; ‘all the scrapes and unhappiness
+of my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be
+ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out
+of a man who wished to be a soldier.’
+
+‘And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,’ replied
+Schulembourg; ‘but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a
+noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady
+was not ashamed to marry me.’
+
+‘I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,’ said Novalis, his eyes
+flashing with enthusiasm. ‘I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor
+mother’s heart.’
+
+There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. ‘As for
+myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out.
+Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This,
+however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen--at least it
+would be,’ he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, ‘were it
+not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.’
+
+‘Come,’ said Madame, rising, ‘the carriages are at the door. Let us take
+a drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady._
+
+MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG’S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian
+ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was
+followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis
+stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. ‘Caroline,’
+he said, as he bid his guest adieu, ‘I commend Mr. Walstein to your
+care. When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend
+has escaped.’
+
+‘I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,’ replied Caroline,
+with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat.
+
+Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was
+as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue
+without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a
+flitting friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the
+road lined on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast
+beds of tall fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn.
+
+‘Here, Mr. Walstein,’ said Caroline, ‘with your permission, I shall take
+my afternoon walk.’ Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which
+she and her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she
+declined it, folding herself up in her shawl.
+
+‘Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?’ said
+Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+‘At this moment, decidedly Dresden,’ replied her companion.
+
+‘Ah! that is a compliment,’ said Madame de Schulembourg, after a
+moment’s musing. ‘My dear Mr. Walstein,’ she continued, looking up with
+an arch expression, ‘never pay me compliments.’
+
+‘You mistake me: it was not a compliment,’ replied Walstein. ‘It was a
+sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable
+existence.’
+
+‘You know that you are my patient,’ rejoined Madame de Schulembourg.
+‘I have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such
+complaints.’
+
+‘I have no doubt of it,’ replied Walstein, with a slight bow.
+
+‘If we could but find out the cause!’ continued Caroline. ‘I venture to
+believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come,
+be frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with
+a fair Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our
+heroine a captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?’
+
+‘Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences
+of their influence,’ replied Walstein, ‘and in general they are right.’
+
+‘But in your case?’
+
+‘Very wrong.’
+
+‘I am determined to find it out,’ said Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+‘I wish to heaven you could,’ said Baron de Walstein.
+
+‘I think a wandering life has spoiled you,’ said Caroline. ‘I think it
+must be civilisation that you find wearisome.’
+
+‘That would be very sublime,’ replied Walstein. ‘But I assure you,
+if there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the
+anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more
+than I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion
+without excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure,
+let me at least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene
+is with me exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be
+tempted to quit this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.’
+
+‘I see how it is,’ exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head
+very knowingly, ‘you must marry.’
+
+‘The last resource of feminine fancy!’ exclaimed Walstein, almost
+laughing. ‘You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle
+of the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de
+Schulembourg,’ he continued, in a very serious tone, ‘that, with
+my present sensations, I should consider it highly dishonourable to
+implicate any woman in my destiny.’
+
+‘Ha! ha! ha!’ laughed Madame; ‘I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein,
+that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. ‘Tis
+the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times
+before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.’
+
+‘You have, indeed,’ said Walstein; ‘and perhaps, were I Doctor de
+Schulembourg, I might be as gay.’
+
+‘Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on
+truth. The fact is, I think you are too much alone.’
+
+‘I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,’
+replied Walstein. ‘Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I
+am-----what I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your
+ridicule.’
+
+‘Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise
+with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself.
+If you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an
+affair of climate.’
+
+‘No,’ said Walstein, still very serious, ‘not an affair of
+climate--certainly not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we
+bear with its yoke as we do with all that is initiatory--with the solace
+of expectation. But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear
+to be no mysteries in which I am to be initiated.’
+
+‘Then, after all, you want something to do?’
+
+‘No doubt.’
+
+‘What shall it be?’ inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful
+air.
+
+‘Ah! what shall it be?’ echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; ‘or,
+rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more
+unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?’
+
+‘A career!’ exclaimed Caroline. ‘What, you want to set the world in
+a blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine
+speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very
+ambitious!’
+
+‘I know not what I am,’ replied Walstein; ‘but I feel that my present
+lot is an intolerable burthen.’
+
+‘But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the
+accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men
+struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that
+you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe
+me, my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to
+employ any man’s faculties.’
+
+‘My youth is fast fading, which I don’t regret,’ replied Walstein, ‘for
+I am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to
+it, and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity
+of producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by
+no uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy
+does not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this
+afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his
+career must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of
+happiness to me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a
+mechanic?’
+
+‘You must settle all this with Augustus,’ replied Madame de
+Schulembourg; ‘I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always
+tell Sidonia that he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him
+beyond description. Do you know him?’
+
+‘Only by fame.’
+
+‘He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you
+like to make his acquaintance?’
+
+‘Authors are best known by their writings,’ replied Walstein; ‘I admire
+his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human
+heart, and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think
+and to utter in solitude.’
+
+‘I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make
+the acquaintance of an admirer.’
+
+‘I entreat you not,’ replied Walstein, really alarmed. ‘It is precisely
+because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What
+can the conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His
+appearance and his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is
+always interesting to indulge.’
+
+‘Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a
+wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair.
+I am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,’ continued
+Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. ‘Do not think me heartless; all
+his passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has
+written to me every week--his letters are each time more reasonable.
+I have no doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work
+which will amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden
+quite cool. I delight in Sidonia--he is my especial favourite.’
+
+After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The
+public drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg
+gaily bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend.
+
+‘Dear girls, come home with us this eve,’ she exclaimed, as she curbed
+her ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young
+ladies who were seated within it with their mother. ‘Let me introduce
+Mr. Walstein to you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise
+Augusta and Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is
+Emilius--How do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your
+Bavarian friend.’
+
+‘How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?’ inquired Augusta.
+
+‘Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter;
+read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim;
+adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.’ So they drove away.
+
+
+
+
+IBRAHIM PASHA
+
+THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety
+towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt,
+and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless
+well acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present
+condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success
+of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new
+basis, the political geography of the East.
+
+In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have
+fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the
+Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of
+history, from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when
+the Turkish Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally
+inquire what has become of the intellectual inheritance which the
+ancient inhabitants of these countries left behind them? Where are the
+successors of the skilful workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora;
+the navigators of Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of
+Chaldea? Several distinct characters of civilisation have successively
+flourished in this part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of
+the Pelasgi, correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the
+Phrygian monuments of Seïdï Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of
+Bagdad, and the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period,
+the baths, the amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the
+Archipelago; to the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in
+every direction the whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages,
+the church of Iznik.
+
+And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods
+produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at
+its last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand
+thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects
+together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in
+this part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis,
+who compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits
+and recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their
+last connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest--that
+they were only encamped in the land--that they had received a military
+organisation for a permanent state of warfare--that their headquarters
+was Constantinople--they have become attached to the soil, and shut
+themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal system, are
+divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their contempt for
+foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power.
+
+Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some
+degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller
+advances into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On
+approaching the central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that
+cultivation seldom extends beyond the distance of half a league round
+a village; the inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully
+avoid the vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical
+phenomenon, that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous
+and the richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that
+the passage of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than
+the fatal plague itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of
+Eske-Seher have been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at
+the head of 300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked
+by all the devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those
+horsemen called Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha,
+enters a village, the consternation is general, and followed by a system
+of exaction that to the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To
+complain to the Pasha would be to court instant destruction.
+
+From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at
+the passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and
+consequently the obstacles a European army would encounter which should
+ever be masters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans,
+a Nornase tribe, who sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the
+Archipelago, and who pay but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also
+another cause of devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers
+of the Pasha, who are the oppressors _par excellence_; they are always
+present to despoil the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common
+expression in the mouths of this oppressed race, ‘but eyes wherewith to
+weep.’ The welfare of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte,
+are things to them of the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise
+men and taxes; to obey, is to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost
+exclusively at forty or fifty leagues from the capital.
+
+But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every
+social tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent
+tribes--the cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis--a people who adore the
+spirit of Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and
+all those fierce natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the
+fastnesses of the Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the
+wandering Arabs, the pirates of the desert, and the mountaineers of
+Lebanon, who live in a state of perpetual discord. Over this immense
+line of countries centuries have passed, and left no trace behind;
+all that the ancients and the crusaders have related to us of them, is
+typical of their condition at this day. The bows and arrows, the armour,
+exhibited as objects of curiosity in our museums, are still in use
+among them. It is only by chance, or by profiting by their intestine
+divisions, that the authority of the Porte is recognised. The Pashas are
+mostly hereditary, and live in a state of perpetual insurrection. Thus
+from the shores of the Archipelago to the banks of the Euphrates and
+the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear to obey the same law of
+decrease.
+
+It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of
+Upper Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride
+of this monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has
+reached such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible
+to regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all
+those parts so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and
+organised into independent states. Towards the North, Russia has
+pushed on her battalions as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found
+more difficult, to govern Armenia from St. Petersburg than from
+Constantinople. In politics, the calculation of distances is an
+important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays claim to Syria,
+and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus and the sea--a
+territory in which she will find those resources she at present stands
+so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding, etc., a Christian
+population, among whom the seeds of European civilisation will be more
+easily implanted. She will thus form an empire that will one day become
+powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that system of monopoly so
+rigorously put in force by her present ruler.
+
+The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali,
+justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha
+had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it
+into his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league
+against him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated
+his pardon for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid.
+Interest soon prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there
+was more to be gained from Constantinople than from Cairo--that the
+authority of the Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than
+nominal, and that the Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be
+in a condition to prevent his exactions; he therefore sought, on every
+occasion, to get rid of the influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the
+jealousy of the Porte against him. An opportunity soon offered itself.
+Some Egyptian fellahs had taken refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha;
+Mehemet Ali demanded these men, but the Governor of Acre refused to give
+them up, on the plea that they were subjects of the Grand Signor, and
+referred the matter to the Porte, who on this occasion was seized with
+a fit of humanity, and _bewailed_ the oppression of the peasantry of the
+Valley of the Vale--_Inde Bellum_.’ This was at the close of 1831.
+
+The moment was favourable for the Viceroy’s great designs. Europe was
+sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention
+on the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open
+revolt, and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics
+on the side of Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the
+Russians, and his conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole
+empire. In the meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the
+government had extended to every object of production and industry,
+while the conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the
+population; and if to this organised system of spoliation we farther
+add the ravages of the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the
+wretched state of those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that
+the Egyptians were everywhere hailed as deliverers.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head
+of the Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that
+gigantic strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires
+such respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull
+with a blow of his scimitar--to execute, like Peter the Great, his
+victims with his own hand--to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks
+of champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his
+manners, from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat
+polished, and in deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and
+dignity--in fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good
+opinion of Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so
+distinguishes the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind.
+Soliman Bey, a renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff
+of Marshal Grouchy, was associated with him, and it is to him that the
+success of the Egyptian army may be chiefly attributed.
+
+Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered
+itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of
+Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends
+from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side
+by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from
+Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth
+about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most
+important military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of
+Saint Jean d’Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as
+the key to several valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan;
+Alexandretta, situated upon a tongue of land between the marshes and the
+sea; and lastly, Aentab and Zenyma, which command the two passages on
+the right side of Mount Amanus.
+
+We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all
+strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria.
+Malte Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at
+two millions, but we are inclined to question the accuracy of this
+calculation, since no two travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the
+Druses, some estimating them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks
+form two-fifths of the population--they inhabit the large towns with the
+Greeks; the remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs,
+of Kurds, and of Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes;
+of Bedouin Arabs, who pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and
+along the edge of the desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the
+descendants of the servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites,
+who profess the Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful;
+of all the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the
+sect of Ali; of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state
+of independence. We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this
+prodigious diversity of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep
+possession of. With the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north
+of Syria, all of them obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the
+Emir Bechir, a Druse, prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el
+Din, who revolted against Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when
+Abdallah raised the standard of revolt in 1822, sought the protection of
+Mehemet Ali, who re-established him in his government.
+
+Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular
+troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took
+the same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean
+d’Acre. Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha,
+Jerusalem, Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and
+Acre submitted at his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected
+reinforcements both in men and material, he made haste to occupy the
+whole line of coast as far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of
+November, before Saint Jean d’Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular
+infantry, two regiments of lancers, 1,000 Bedouins, two companies of
+sappers, one of cannoniers, one of bombardiers, and a train of field
+and siege artillery. The place is situated on a promontory surrounded on
+three sides by the sea, and defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned
+by a tower, which serves as a citadel. This last fort, the bastions
+of which, from their retiring flanks being too short, is the only one
+accessible on the land side, but it was enfiladed from a neighbouring
+height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint Jean d’Acre, was destitute of
+siege artillery, and was not master of the sea. He had, therefore, many
+more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim.
+
+During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very
+vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor
+before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was
+made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the
+fleet and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The
+besieged on their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a
+heavy loss, and several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th
+to the 18th the bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy
+guns were placed in battery. The operations of the siege were now
+pushed forward with great ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate
+reduction of the place. The defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by
+the most determined energy. He had sworn, it was reported, that he would
+blow up the town. It was, however, of the utmost importance to push
+forward the operations with the greatest activity. The first disposition
+of the population, which had been favourable, might undergo a change
+should not Ibrahim succeed in striking a great blow. The mountaineers of
+Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and
+were ready to furnish a contingent of their warriors.
+
+The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread
+terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated,
+and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she
+summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her
+orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of
+December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed
+governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent
+to the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims
+of Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict
+injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of
+Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars
+was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of
+the subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every
+day the efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its
+authority, encountered new obstacles.
+
+The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held
+out for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as
+an hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran
+Osman Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of
+Tripoli, but it was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms.
+-This port was already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha
+Agar Barbar, a man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier
+Mehemet Pasha consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular
+horsemen, and fourteen small field-pieces.
+
+The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the
+Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint
+Jean d’Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his
+troops over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play
+upon the town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the
+castle were also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped
+up to the very houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of
+musketry, which, galling them severely, drove them across the heights.
+Night put an end to the affair.
+
+A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his
+lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d’Acre and wishing
+to reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six
+field-pieces, before Osman’s camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately
+abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the
+Pasha of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general
+immediately pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened
+upon this point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he
+retired, after some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his
+camp, and was joined by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men.
+But his presence was required in other quarters. Divisions had broken
+out at several points, and the slowness with which the operations of the
+siege of Saint Jean d’Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his
+partisans.
+
+At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the
+Cadi, the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable
+reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive
+dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean
+d’Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the
+19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians
+made the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and
+experienced a heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it
+was again closed up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace
+was destroyed, and Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by
+Djezzar. The garrison was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last,
+on the 27th of May, a general assault was made. Three breaches were
+practicable, one on the tower of Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh
+Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six battalions had the horrors of the attack,
+which commenced at daybreak and lasted twelve hours.
+
+At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but
+Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and
+having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault.
+Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he
+was obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429
+wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d’Acre, after a memorable
+defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim
+the possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect
+security.
+
+While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the
+war, the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of
+March, Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and
+by the extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but
+in other respects, a soldier _à la Turc_, was appointed chief of the
+expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the
+empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly
+invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar.
+He received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly
+caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the
+army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at
+Konisk.
+
+By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the
+army had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers.
+The mass of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha’s brigade of
+infantry, with the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of
+irregulars, under the orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender
+Pasha’s brigade of infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha’s
+brigade, with the cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was
+accompanied by its batteries. An European organisation had been given
+to the different services, such as the paymaster-general’s department,
+commissariat, etc. The Sultan had written out many of the regulations
+with his own hand.
+
+The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of
+Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops,
+under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with
+all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European
+instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of
+artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army
+had they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and
+experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two
+former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by
+the Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back.
+As for Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his
+endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every
+branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against
+him, and he retired in disgust.
+
+On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he
+displayed the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in
+vain that the European inspectors requested him to put in force ‘the
+regulation for troops in the field,’ of the French general Prevan, which
+had been translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than
+were their complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence
+and negligence of the chiefs.
+
+The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his
+army. The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military
+administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact,
+it was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted,
+once overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that
+the Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an
+arm which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000
+Janizaries. This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to
+unsheathe this weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor
+Mehemet Ali, and his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied
+the Turkish history must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would
+find at last his master--the executioner; but since the late victories
+of the Russians, all national faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis.
+Excommunication is an arm as worn out at Constantinople as at Rome.
+
+Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she
+directed a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which
+she explained the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded
+the strictest neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared
+Egypt in a state of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul
+from Alexandria, and even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary
+corps d’armee. Austria, an enemy to all revolutions, went so far as
+to threaten the Viceroy. England appeared to preserve the strictest
+neutrality, while France strenuously employed all her influence to bring
+about an accommodation; but in vain.
+
+The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the
+question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that
+calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three
+weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on
+the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker’s
+brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons,
+brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d’Acre. It became,
+therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to
+march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to
+Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for
+a fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached
+Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days
+were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim’s delay to take up a more
+advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes,
+and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with
+the Turkish irregulars.
+
+But all Ibrahim’s operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After
+securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns,
+which offered an excellent position, where they might have established
+a communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and
+whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not
+till the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet
+Pasha commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue
+rations to the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost
+dead with hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with
+his irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning
+even to think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or
+to issue rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain
+ceremonies.
+
+The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into
+a magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the
+two viziers made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the
+hargueleh.
+
+Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian
+army was within two hours’ march of them. The disorder that ensued was
+dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the
+Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light
+troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of
+which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of
+a hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish
+regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their
+irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus
+the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had
+an opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European
+instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery
+even refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not
+remain inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from
+right to left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the
+Orontes, but they were checked by part of Beker’s brigade and two pieces
+of cannon. Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire.
+In the course of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered
+considerably.
+
+Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead
+of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement,
+he put himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who
+immediately formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned
+by his artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy,
+fell back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried.
+The second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour;
+and on the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a
+decisive charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in
+the most disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy’s cavalry. It was a
+general _sauve qui peut_. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish
+army from total destruction. The loss of the Sultan’s forces in this
+affair amounted to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners.
+
+The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead
+of rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha’s brigade, which was encamped at two
+hours’ march from the field of battle, fled with them.
+
+The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the _tête du
+pont_ on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the
+point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who
+endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself
+to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably
+calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was
+able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it.
+Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing
+anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military
+chest, impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying
+nowhere and holding up the name of his master to universal execration.
+At the action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that
+there yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal
+allowed an army to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable
+organisation. Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for
+Antioch, with the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the
+neighbourhood of Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts,
+he returned by forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his
+troops by a march of eight hundred leagues.
+
+However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and
+made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country
+declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to
+him. His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his
+protection the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There
+now only remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize
+Antioch and Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with
+extreme slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a
+decision favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish
+field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania.
+
+Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he
+disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile
+of Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some
+places that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand
+route of the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet
+on the 5th of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after
+an action of two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the
+conqueror Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces
+of cannon. The Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable
+positions which the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana.
+Ibrahim pursued them with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a
+ford, Hussein Pasha having blown up the superb bridge of nine arches
+that crossed that river at Missis.
+
+The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana,
+but they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by
+the enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The
+whole district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length
+reached the new line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the
+boundaries of his empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of
+the Egyptians upon Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers
+of Hussein Pasha deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the
+Anatolian peasantry murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could
+find them, which was not difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the
+provinces of Upper Asia were in such a state of insurrection that a
+single officer of Ibrahim’s would have been sufficient to make the most
+considerable town capitulate.
+
+The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the
+Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari.
+But his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise,
+for however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would
+have appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could
+not have prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he
+succeeded in these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been
+the result? Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would
+have found himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its
+base, which no human power can regenerate.
+
+Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France,
+and endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the
+Porte, listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the
+blind obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories
+of the Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an
+armistice of five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was
+succeeded by the Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had
+distinguished himself in Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro
+Pasha. Brave and accustomed to the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was
+superior to his predecessor, but even he was only a Turkish general.
+He had been selected principally on account of his great influence
+in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received orders to repair to
+Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians and Albanians, of
+which they knew he could dispose, and with the six regiments of infantry
+and cavalry that belonged to them.
+
+In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in
+re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it
+was echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops
+brought by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have
+prevented Ibrahim’s further advance; but there was neither skill in
+the general nor ardour among the troops; the councils of the European
+instructors were, as usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on
+the contrary, was almost exclusively under the direction of European
+officers. A single piece of artillery would have sufficed to defend the
+passage of the Taurus, and yet when Ibrahim appeared on its northern
+declivity he had to encounter but a few irregulars, of whom he soon gave
+a good account. He then fixed his camp on the plain of Erekli, at one
+hundred and sixty days’ march of a camel from Constantinople, and then
+advanced upon Koniah.
+
+Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish
+army until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken
+at the approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of
+Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of
+taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour
+of the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced.
+The cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads
+rendered so impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the
+artillery and ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found
+themselves, as at Horns, without provisions in the presence of the
+enemy.
+
+Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at
+the head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the
+mountains up the village of Lilé, which was occupied by a strong
+detachment of Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand
+army, was to pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been
+simultaneous, but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the
+scene of action, and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check,
+the Grand Vizier continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in
+presence of the enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared
+to give him a warm reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st
+of December), and from the advanced hour of the day there was no
+alternative but to attack, otherwise he must have passed a night upon
+the field, without bread, exposed to the action of an intense cold that
+would have paralysed the ardour of the troops.
+
+Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order
+of battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering
+useless a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to
+alter his dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not
+reconnoitre the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension
+of front. His left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained
+formed in columns of attack, while the enemy’s artillery committed
+dreadful havoc on their profound masses. He committed also another
+fault, that of placing his artillery between the interval of the lines,
+so that it did not reach the Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary,
+posted in their front, did great execution.
+
+Mehemet Redchid’s main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his
+forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy’s army,
+whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But
+Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point
+attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his
+adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the
+Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and
+afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus
+found itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled.
+
+Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last
+effort, but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed,
+and fell, severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss
+of the Turks was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the
+line, left 3,000 men upon the field of battle.
+
+The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was
+annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and
+the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the
+Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at
+stake rather than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on
+independent sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that
+he owes this glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is
+rapidly sinking under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which
+European diplomacy will in vain attempt to arrest.
+
+
+
+
+THE COURT OF EGYPT
+
+TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is
+Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the
+banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the
+gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is
+one of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember.
+
+Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive
+before you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of
+marble steps. These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large
+quadrangular colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake,
+studded by three or four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken
+cords. The colonnade terminates towards the water by a very noble marble
+balustrade, the top of which is covered with groups of various kinds of
+fish in high relief. At each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives
+way to a flight of steps which are guarded by crocodiles of immense
+size, admirably sculptured in white marble. On the farther side the
+colonnade opens into a great number of very brilliant banqueting-rooms,
+which you enter by withdrawing curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour
+vividly contrasting with the white shining marble of which the whole
+kiosk is formed. It is a frequent diversion of the Pasha himself to
+row some favourite Circassians in one of the barques and to overset
+his precious freight in the midst of the lake. As his Highness piques
+himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba or exterior robe of
+coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same terrors it would offer
+to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians shrieking, with their
+streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian eunuchs rushing to their
+aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade, or dashing down the t
+marble steps,--all this forms an agreeable relaxation after the labours
+of the Divan.
+
+All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court
+of Egypt. The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy
+countenances, clothed in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering
+Damascus sabres, and gently bounding on their snow-white steeds, is,
+perhaps, the most picturesque corps in the world. The numerous harem,
+the crowds of civil functionaries and military and naval officers
+in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the vast number of pages and
+pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly attired attendants, the
+splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has an absolute passion,
+the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred dromedaries, altogether form
+a blending of splendour and luxury which easily recall the golden days
+of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph.
+
+Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious
+summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the
+Bairam the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is
+it easy to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms
+were all open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in
+gorgeous groups, some standing and conversing, some seated on small
+Persian carpets smoking pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees
+lounging, in their crimson shawls and scarlet vests, over the white
+balustrade, and flinging their glowing shadows over the moonlit water:
+from every quarter came bursts of melody, and each moment the river
+breeze brought gusts of perfume on its odorous wings.
+
+
+
+
+THE VALLEY OF THEBES
+
+UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side
+affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and
+hills of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl
+hundred miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile
+to the vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the
+most picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern
+capital, we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most
+celebrated of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian,
+or Latin city--Athens, or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of
+Persepolis, nor the columns of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent,
+variety, and sublime dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes.
+
+These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions:
+two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the
+river Nile--Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and
+Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are
+the cemeteries of the great city--the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles
+in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the
+queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs
+of the kings.
+
+The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few
+Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those
+gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is
+sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and
+museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the
+roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population
+of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in
+the tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the
+notice of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a
+lofty platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that
+colossal genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted
+to rival. The entrance to this temple is through a magnificent
+propylon;-that is, a portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two
+hundred feet in breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil.
+This gate is entirely covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph
+of a conquering monarch.
+
+On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite,
+buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the
+top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a
+little in advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect
+obelisks remaining. One of them is now at Paris;--that famous obelisk of
+Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass
+into a peristyle court,--about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one
+hundred and seventy--the roof of which was once supported by double rows
+of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other pyramidal
+gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in all
+probability, of a more ancient date than those first described.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile
+in extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink
+before the first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes--of
+architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures
+of Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more
+gigantic; the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive:
+but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and
+courts of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of
+colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that
+of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture--a rare omission,
+and doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken.
+The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+
+Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones--compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks--has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and
+propyla are completely covered with sculptured forms.
+
+I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory
+aches with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger
+than most temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups
+around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal
+splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and
+what ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and
+the solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi,
+one of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see
+him still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of
+Thebes. This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered
+with inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they
+had listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
+companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
+enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which
+may yet be traced.
+
+The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides
+we recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
+supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
+came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure,
+though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude
+is concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
+supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate
+in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge
+colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
+granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is
+entirely obliterated. It lies upon its back, and in its fall has
+destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet
+round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and
+the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a
+man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a
+palace; and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find
+represented on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing
+chess with his queen. It is these domestic details that render also the
+sepulchres of Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be
+studied in their tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived,
+we must frequent their burial-places. A curious instance of this is,
+that, in a tomb near Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians
+procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with
+which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and
+primary characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say
+Imagination, as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the
+Greeks. Thus, when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs,
+they blended the delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention
+of the Nile, and produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the
+Pharaohs, however, that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the
+pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the
+sphinx.
+
+It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the
+Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque
+was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last
+beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the
+columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious
+voyage, were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade,
+almost unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his
+pipe-bearer, and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition,
+descended from the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and
+approached the boat. I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be
+hailed in my native tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a
+place, to find a countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he
+told me that he had lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the
+antiquities, the history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I
+availed myself of his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying
+him, I found that I was a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a
+gloomy dwelling-place. A platform, carved in the mountain, was
+surrounded by a mud wall and tower, to protect it from hostile Arabs.
+A couple of gazelles played in this front court, while we, reposing on a
+divan, arranged round the first chamber of the tomb, were favoured with
+a most commanding view of the valley outspread beneath. There were
+several inner chambers, separated from each other by hangings of scarlet
+cloth. Many apartments in the Albany have I seen not half as pleasant
+and convenient. I found a library, and instruments of art and science;
+a companion full of knowledge, profound in Oriental manners, and
+thoroughly master of the subject which naturally then most interested
+me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but the unusual convenience of
+forks was not wanting, and my host told me that they were the very ones
+that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never forget that first day
+at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then unknown to fame,
+but whom the world has since recognised--the learned, the ingenious, and
+amiable Mr. Wilkinson.
+
+
+
+
+EGYPTIAN THEBES
+
+THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian
+architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the
+Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich
+invention of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations
+of architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined
+Philoe--such the magnificent Dendera--such the sumptuous Edfou!
+
+All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the
+greatest empires,--the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of
+the Romans; the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and
+Sicilians; the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the
+pillars of Palmyra and Girgenti,--sink into insignificance when compared
+with the structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind
+makes a leap amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New
+combinations rise upon our limited invention and contract the
+taste,--the pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the
+obelisk, the sphinx.
+
+Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source
+baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when
+the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are
+the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading
+to the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150
+miles of the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an
+immense plain, once the granary of the world.
+
+A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear,
+and guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this
+country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are
+few,--some rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears.
+Are his ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with
+beautiful sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in
+height? It is well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile,
+over the perfectibility of man.
+
+A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and
+although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least
+decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are
+incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they
+are dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter
+into a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous
+here only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner,
+some idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the
+Egyptian antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the
+marvellous creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman
+which shall unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and
+romantic history.
+
+I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval,
+at once inform me that it was constructed by a ‘Son of the Sun,’ or
+a ‘Phrah,’ or ‘Pharaoh.’ It is remarkable that the Greeks never once
+mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated
+it by their celebrated personification, ‘Sol,’ or ‘Apollo.’ In the
+obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore
+read, in the third column, instead of ‘the powerful Apollo,’ ‘the
+powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun.’ Proceeding with the
+inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses
+the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised
+some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes.
+
+The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
+mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his
+own results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
+suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of
+the hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
+genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must
+be studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing
+with sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
+catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
+traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient
+of nations.
+
+Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous
+ruins, the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know
+by the inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly
+celebrate the achievements of a great conqueror,--Rameses the Second, or
+the Great, whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than
+fifteen hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore,
+demonstrate the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand
+years back. Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes
+and the Amunophs, are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty.
+Thothmes the Fourth, one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the
+Pyramids; as for the Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they
+were not raised at the comparatively late period ascribed to them
+by Herodotus and Diodorus. No monuments in Egypt can be compared in
+antiquity with these buildings; and the names of the predecessors of
+Rameses the Great are found in their vicinity, evidently sculptured at
+a much later epoch. ‘The Pyramids are at least ten thousand years old,’
+said Champollion to a friend of mine in Egypt, rubbing his hands, with
+eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of triumphant research.
+
+It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of
+Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no
+Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the
+Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch--Rameses the
+First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that
+Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most
+powerful enemy,’ and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation
+with fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and
+well-wooded country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians,
+who, according to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and
+Semiramis. Thothmes the Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the
+First, carried on this war with uncertain success. The successor of
+Rameses the First, whose phonetic name is doubtful, was not unworthy
+of the son whom the gods accorded to him as a reward for his valour
+and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the war in person,
+and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of Karnak--a
+sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and
+historians--we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of
+infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty
+walls and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country
+in advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the
+progress of the invader’s chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh
+returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of
+rich and fantastic tribute.
+
+The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great.
+Following the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led
+a numerous and chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the
+Egyptians. He passed along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without
+doubt, Syria, since the name of Rameses the Second is still found on
+that shore, near the ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued
+his march into the interior, where we at length find him opposed by a
+powerful force on the banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates.
+On the opposite bank of the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city.
+The battle is fought and won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue
+for peace. The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often
+sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with
+scaling-ladders and the testudo. And what was this city? Was it Babylon?
+Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is it at this remote period, to read for
+the first time, the Gazettes of the Pharaohs! It does not appear to have
+been the object of the Egyptians to make a permanent settlement in these
+conquered countries. They laid waste the land, they accumulated plunder,
+they secured peace by the dread of their arms, and, returning home with
+the same rapidity that they advanced, they enjoyed and commemorated
+their victories in the embellishment of their majestic cities. The
+remainder of the long reign of Rameses the Great was passed in the
+cultivation of the arts. A greater number of monuments, statues, and
+temples bear the name of this king than of any other who ruled in Egypt,
+and there are few remains of any city in that country where it is not
+met with. To him we are indebted alike for the rock temples of Nubia,
+and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised that splendid structure
+on the western side of Thebes, supported by colossal statues, which is
+foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great additions to Karnak; he
+built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned the great temple of
+Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently had a passion;
+and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples, especially in Nubia,
+which it would be tedious to recount, and other remains, he cut the
+famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may have been the
+actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no Egyptian
+king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then allow
+that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
+former-too great for the limited power of Europe--and remain persuaded,
+that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the utmost extent
+of his march was confined to the countries bordering on Assyria, Arabia,
+and part of Æthiopia, from which country he is represented as receiving
+tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second secured a long peace to
+Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however, are celebrated for the
+creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes, leading from Luxor
+to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous evidence of the
+prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs. War, however,
+broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly against another
+power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning victorious, the
+third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the temple and the
+palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting period of
+Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom bore the
+name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they were
+distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons which
+may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the reign
+of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
+records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It
+is useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose
+blinded conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total
+darkness in which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous
+musical statue of Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and
+serene, on the plain of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height,
+and the base of the figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and
+Roman travellers, vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise
+melody. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at
+Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to
+me to have solved the mystery of this music. He informed me that having
+ascended the statue, he discovered that some metallic substance had been
+inserted in its breast, which, when struck, emitted a very melodious
+sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have
+ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the
+mighty arms while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable,
+there was probably some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this
+statue, with its remaining companion, although now isolated in their
+situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the ruins of which yet
+remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks to the phonetic
+system, we now know that this musical statue is one of Amunoph the
+Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The truth is,
+the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over modern
+knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no
+conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos.
+Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few
+marauding clans.
+
+‘Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the
+books of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs?
+
+‘Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred
+waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic
+stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates;
+alas! for the mysterious Nile!’
+
+It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on
+any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed,
+more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a
+fanciful resemblance. It responds in every particular.
+
+I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of
+it is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however
+curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader,
+and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates.
+
+The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes--a valley formed by ranges
+of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian desert,
+and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red Sea. On
+each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the side of
+the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great temple
+called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the general
+title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures
+comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the
+Lybian side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves
+of Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains,
+the tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk
+the famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred
+Gates now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of
+mud huts clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a
+single one of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe
+for their palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often,
+indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a
+single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of
+Gornou, in number between three and four hundred, reside solely in the
+tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the
+traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform.
+Its enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of
+the Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance
+to this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal
+flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and
+rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered
+with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the
+supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues
+of red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring
+thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side
+of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that
+remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the
+propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty
+feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once
+supported by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so
+on through other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers
+which are, in all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and
+obelisks and colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by
+Rameses, who commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building
+still more famous.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile
+in extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either
+_andro_ or _crio_ sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with
+the man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at
+length penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and
+they are monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak,
+was raised by the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and
+represents their long line of ancestry.
+
+All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak.
+It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be
+unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus
+of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more
+curious and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious
+wonders of the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to
+one general impression of colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul’s, and its height exceeds
+that of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare
+omission, and doubtless intended, that the unity of the effect should
+not be broken. The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in
+height.
+
+Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place,
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and
+propyla, are completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not
+attempt to describe any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with
+the effort; there are many buildings attached to it, larger than most
+temples; there are an infinite number of gates, and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in glorious
+groups around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure.
+What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies, what tilts and
+tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival the vast, the
+beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated
+colossi, one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon.
+These doubtless once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient
+than any remaining, for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a
+predecessor, by some generations, of the great Rameses. They were,
+doubtless, once seated on each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and
+in all probability were flanked by obelisks. Whether the temple were
+destroyed for materials, for more recent structures, or whether it has
+sunk under the accumulations of the slimy soil, may be decided by the
+future excavator.
+
+We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great.
+In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated
+the rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of
+giants. From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British
+Museum. But this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture,
+sinks, so far as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when
+compared with the statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the
+waist, now lies prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is
+probably the most huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The
+fragment is of red granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately
+the face is entirely obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and
+in its fall has destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more
+than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly
+seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large
+enough for a man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter
+of Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the
+Third.
+
+The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles,
+chariots, captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the
+vivid pen of Mr. Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of
+the monarch. Here also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is
+curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented on the
+walls, in a very admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen.
+Chess is, probably, a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third
+lived before the Trojan war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the
+invention of chess.
+
+The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more
+fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples.
+The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn
+how this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were
+buried. To cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too
+long, it is from a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how
+the Egyptians procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses
+of stone and granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and
+the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with
+delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering
+on the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the
+company of the Pharaohs.
+
+
+
+
+SHOUBRA
+
+ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not
+realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or
+indeed the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of
+the success of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen.
+Commerce once followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and
+the vast buildings which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing
+materials, were filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but
+furnished with all the productions of art and curious luxury, which the
+adventurous spirit of man brought from every quarter of the globe to
+Samarcand and Bagdad. The site of these mighty capitals is almost erased
+from the map of the modern traveller; but tribute and traffic have also
+ceased to sustain even the dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent
+Stamboul, and, until very recently, all that remained of the splendour
+of the Caliphs of Egypt was the vast Necropolis, which still contains
+their palatial sepulchres.
+
+How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on
+the ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on
+the seat of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military
+prowess, lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was
+not altogether an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common
+curiosity that some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and
+scared Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace
+of Mehemet Ali.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during
+the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous
+city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present
+the appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed
+cavaliers force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in
+their course by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the
+women enveloped in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of
+white linen, and borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The
+attendant eunuchs beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen,
+with their golden and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and
+shining arms, trampling on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but
+all efforts are vain, for at the turning of the street appears the first
+still solemn visage of a long string of tall camels bearing provisions
+to the citadel, a Nubian astride on the neck of the leader, and beating
+a wild drum, to apprise the people of his approach. The streets, too,
+in which these scenes occur are in themselves full of variety and
+architectural beauty. The houses are lofty and latticed, abounding in
+balconies; fountains are frequent and vast and as richly adorned
+as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified palace of one of the old
+Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener the exquisite shape of
+an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot vie with the fanes
+of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their lofty minarets
+covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their arabesques recalled
+to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace of the Alcazars
+and the shrines of Seville and Cordova.
+
+At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each
+person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our
+conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life--the
+Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic--afford a different, but
+not less delightful scene.
+
+It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to
+Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six
+months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we
+were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze
+on the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce
+a freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine
+regions, where there is more variety of the seasons.
+
+Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the
+banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady
+avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side
+delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling
+villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation,
+the golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it
+forms; or, perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids.
+
+The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the
+river--moderate in its character, and modest in its appointments; but
+clean, orderly, and in a state of complete repair; and, if we may
+use such an epithet with reference to oriental life, comfortable. It
+possesses all the refined conveniences of European manners, of which the
+pasha at the time I am referring to was extremely proud. Most of these
+had been the recent gift of the French government, and his highness
+occasionally amused his guests--some sheikh from Arabia, or some emir
+from the Lebanon--by the exhibition of some scientific means of domestic
+accommodation with which use has made us familiar, but which I was
+assured had sensibly impressed the magnates of the desert and the
+mountain with the progress of modern civilisation.
+
+The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in
+admirable order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely
+oriental. You enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable
+shade; you emerge upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in
+beds of artificial forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted
+kiosks. Arched walks of orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers
+hanging over your head, lead again to fountains, or to some other
+garden-court, where myrtles border beds of tulips, and you wander on
+mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase flashes amid a group of dark
+cypresses, and you are invited to repose under a Syrian walnut tree by a
+couch or a summer-house.
+
+The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake
+surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a
+fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as
+well as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the
+pure and glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life.
+It is a pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent
+offering of the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of
+the precedent thus afforded by his highness’s own creation for the
+introduction of living forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They
+might have varied their huge present with advantage. Indeed, with the
+crocodile and the palm-tree, surely something more beautiful and not
+less characteristic than their metallic mausoleum might easily have been
+devised.
+
+This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced
+peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with
+their painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming
+shoals of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my
+attendant, a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it
+on some high festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to
+appreciate all its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved
+for me, yet my first visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not
+immemorable.
+
+I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness
+where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came,
+somewhat suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks
+emptied, cut through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a
+little man, robust, though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful
+countenance; his attire plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a
+turban white as his snowy beard; he was in merry conversation with his
+companion, who turned out to be his jester. In the background,
+against the myrtle wall, stood three or four courtiers in rich
+dresses--courtiers, for the little old man was their princely
+master--the great Pasha of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+EDEN AND LEBANON
+
+I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green
+slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation--vineyards, gardens,
+groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and
+the walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until,
+reaching the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters
+of a rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness.
+
+On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare
+rock, was a most beautiful village--flat cottages with terraced roofs,
+shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A
+cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs
+around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and
+the murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of
+beauteous children were frolicking with the kids.
+
+The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is
+_Eden_, which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a
+‘Dwelling of Delight.’
+
+I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of
+mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the
+range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the
+Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the
+edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the
+dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the
+fragments of a gloomy forest--cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind
+moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract
+were the only sounds that greeted me.
+
+In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the
+relics of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of
+which must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite
+dead; while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five
+or six huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were,
+lifeless amid their apparent power.
+
+Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests--black, blasted,
+riven, and surrounded by deep snows--behold the trees that built the
+palaces of Solomon!
+
+When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted
+it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the
+innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age--of exhausted
+passions and desolate neglect.
+
+
+
+
+A SYRIAN SKETCH
+
+THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from
+Jaffa to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ
+that agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had
+been attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that
+now served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure
+boundary otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of
+Indian fig.
+
+It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain
+of Ramie--the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment,
+green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most
+charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem.
+
+The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of
+the orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some
+florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness
+of fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which
+not a single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange
+and lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the
+citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever
+and anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or
+golden clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the
+date-bearing palm.
+
+While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my
+ear was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the
+sounds, I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle
+of which was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate
+Persian carpet, a venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of
+whom, at a little distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master’s
+left hand was a volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the
+serpentine tube of his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he
+saluted me with all the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his
+heart, but not rising. I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me
+with serene cordiality, and invited me to share his carpet and touch his
+pipe.
+
+Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European
+horses and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the
+solemn and sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa,
+came floating on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and
+his companions performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling
+towards Mecca, repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the
+Turkish aga, for such was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening
+breeze, and accompany him in a walk round his garden.
+
+As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from
+his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and
+threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which
+somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his
+fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the
+racy sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could
+not refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he
+should studiously waste so considerable a portion.
+
+‘Effendi,’ said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, ‘to
+friends we give only the sunny side.’
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSPHORUS
+
+THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of
+the Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret
+and satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid
+strait, stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth
+of the Euxine, may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary
+breadth seldom exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one
+might hear the birds sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great
+continents are divided by an ocean stream narrower than many rivers
+that are the mere boundaries of kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the
+character of these two famous divisions of our earth is nowhere more
+marked than on the shores of the Bosphorus. The traveller turns without
+disappointment from the gay and glittering shores of Europe to the
+sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur of Asia.
+
+The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of
+the Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and
+ornamental buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces,
+and bright kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green
+background to the scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens,
+rising up a chain of hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with
+groves of cypress and of chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair
+and delicate valleys, richly wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique
+aqueduct.
+
+But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into
+forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there
+is something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general
+appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less
+cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they
+linger over the lofty peak of ‘the Giant’s grave,’ seem conscious that
+they are haunting some heroic burial-place.
+
+I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles
+that I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned
+home in my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus,
+where I had been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of
+dolphins, who were making their way from the Ægean and the Sea of
+Marmora through the Strait to the Euxine. They stretched right across
+the water, and I should calculate that they covered, with very little
+interval, a space of three or four miles. It is very difficult to form
+an estimate of their number, but there must, of course, have been
+many thousands. They advanced in grand style, and produced an immense
+agitation: the snorting, spouting, and splashing, and the wild panting
+rush, I shall never forget. As it was late, no other caique was in
+sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being run down, stopped to defend
+themselves with their oars. I had my pistols with me, and found great
+sport, as, although the dolphins made every effort to avoid us, there
+were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one was hit, general
+confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced about with
+increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and turned
+up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly
+three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At
+length the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must
+have arrived at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the
+elegant hospitality of the British Palace at Pera.
+
+
+
+
+AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK
+
+WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the
+invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at
+Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a
+secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were
+assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of
+Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom
+I well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the
+Levant. I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached
+to this expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper
+quarters, there appeared little probability of my wish not being
+gratified. With these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had
+intended, but it would seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent
+as their intended volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but
+indifferently. Orders and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches,
+boats pressed on the Nile for the passage of troops from the capital,
+which were all liberated the next day, many divans and much smoking; but
+still the troops remained within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months
+glided away apparently without any material advancement.
+
+I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an
+excellent understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim,
+a degree of petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their
+mutual communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning
+to attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father,
+I was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to
+the levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my
+return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo,
+I found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that
+Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me.
+
+I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of
+that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future
+conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an
+aide-de-camp.
+
+A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke.
+After the usual compliments, ‘Effendi,’ said Ibrahim, ‘do you think the
+English horses would live in Egypt?’
+
+I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that
+English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are
+very diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered,
+however, that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses
+would flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation
+about English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered
+fifty times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or
+two about English women. At length the point of the interview began to
+poke its horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle.
+
+‘If you want to go with the army,’ said his Highness, ‘’tis I who am
+the person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there’
+(meaning the citadel).
+
+I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter
+of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha
+on the subject of the expedition.
+
+‘I suppose you talked with Boghaz?’ said Ibrahim.
+
+Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali.
+
+‘Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once
+graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought
+it both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person
+whatever.’
+
+‘Tahib!’ exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied.
+‘After all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have
+been in Syria?’
+
+I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been
+addressed to me.
+
+‘Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?’ inquired Ibrahim, with a
+smile.
+
+This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life
+Guards could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said
+that I did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that
+condition.
+
+‘Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!’ This was
+a favourite phrase of his Highness.
+
+I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness,
+the army would march till we could see another ocean.
+
+‘It is all talk up there,’ replied Ibrahim; ‘but my life is a life of
+deeds.’
+
+‘Words are very good things sometimes,’ I replied; ‘that is, if we keep
+marching at the same time.’
+
+‘God is great!’ exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers,
+‘the Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.’
+
+Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the
+energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient
+Epirus.
+
+‘What do you think of Redchid?’ he inquired.
+
+‘I think he is worthy of being your Highness’s rival.’
+
+‘He has always been victorious,’ said Ibrahim; ‘but I think his sabre is
+made of gold. That will not do with me.’
+
+‘It’s a pity,’ I observed, ‘that if your Highness find time to march
+into Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with
+the Pasha of Scutari.’
+
+‘May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and
+watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.’
+
+The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and
+even if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in
+order that he may take advantage of the other’s success or discomfiture.
+Mehemet Ali, at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts
+in European Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of
+the Porte were unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy;
+but in the conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a
+golden sabre, and the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom
+he was obliged to bribe, were all busied in Europe.
+
+The night previous to this conversation the style of the military
+oath of the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of
+swearing allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet
+Ali. The Grand Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order
+for it was countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with
+gratuities to the troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion
+among the officers, everything went off very quietly. There was also
+a rumour that Mehemet Ali intended immediately to assume the title of
+_Caliph_.
+
+This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking
+observation of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+‘Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a
+caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?’
+
+I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a
+beneficial effect at foreign courts.
+
+‘Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there,
+they are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight
+does not think of his shadow on the earth!’
+
+
+
+
+MUNICH
+
+THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should
+periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of
+the Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and
+brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they
+purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity
+accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is
+excellent.
+
+Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals
+as the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners
+have undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has
+advanced in an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to
+social life has diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine
+Arts have decayed and vanished.
+
+I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement
+in the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but
+not inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence.
+
+It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found
+myself in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The
+street in which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side
+with palaces or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few
+were completely finished: the sculptor was working at the statues
+that adorned their fronts; the painter was still touching the external
+frescoes; and the scaffold of the architect was not in every instance
+withdrawn. Everywhere was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine
+style of many of these buildings was novel to me in its modern
+adaptation, yet very effective. The delicate detail of ornament
+contrasted admirably with the broad fronts and noble façades which they
+adorned. A church with two very lofty towers of white marble, with their
+fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue, gleamed in the sun; and
+near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal palace at Venice, but of
+nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its portal approached by a
+lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal statues of poets and
+philosophers--suitably guarded, for it was the National Library.
+
+As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance
+adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal
+hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a
+pediment brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its
+purpose; an Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of
+a Phidias or a Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was
+told the first stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle.
+But what struck me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples,
+and palaces, its magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and
+consummate statues, was the all-pervading presence and all-inspiring
+influence of living and breathing Art. In every street, a school: the
+atelier of the sculptor open, the studio of the painter crowded: devoted
+pupils, aspiring rivals: enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here
+the long-lost feudal-art of colouring glass re-discovered; there
+fresco-painting entirely revived, and on the grandest scale; while the
+ardent researches of another man of genius successfully analyses the
+encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and secures the secret process for the
+triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city such as I had mused over amid the
+crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided alike by memory and fancy, had
+conjured up in the palaces and gardens of the Medici.
+
+Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and
+corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who
+visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all
+more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince,
+fond only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute,
+and useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women
+and priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the
+inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch.
+
+With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the
+present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal
+expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria,
+when completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace
+in the world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is
+a temple dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state,
+painted in fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in
+colour, breathe the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the
+‘Nibelungenlied,’ the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements
+of the heroic Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful
+Chrimhilde. The heart of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and
+scenes of the Teutonic Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and
+Dankwart the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and
+haughty Brunhilda. But in point of harmonious dimension and august
+beauty, no chamber is perhaps more imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or
+Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should think, considerably above one
+hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in exact proportion. Its
+roof is supported on either side by columns of white marble; the
+inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded brass, of
+the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at the end
+of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the solemn
+majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a sculptor
+who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his
+master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled
+Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr,
+and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries,
+churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated
+Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and
+the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown;
+but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has
+revived the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect.
+
+But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly
+impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight
+in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek
+poets, of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are
+devoted to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest
+Greek style; severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the
+friezes in outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the
+contrary, is Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as
+brilliant, as free, and as flowing as the genius of the great Mæonian.
+The chamber of the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs,
+raised on a ground of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior
+in many instances to the Attic remains, and characterised, at the same
+time, by a singular combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is
+devoted to Æschylus, and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of
+Aristophanes laughs and sings in his Majesty’s dressing-room; while
+the king is lulled to slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing
+landscapes of Theocritus.
+
+Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of
+Art. The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of
+their decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could
+be selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are
+equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant
+and harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the
+arabesques and other appropriate decorations, which blend with all
+around, and heighten the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean
+rivals in the private chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous
+style, but entirely devoted to the poets of her own land. The
+Minnesingers occupy her first apartments, but the brilliant saloon is
+worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon forms it frieze; while the bedchamber
+gleams with the beautiful forms and pensive incidents of Goethe’s
+esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study with his stirring characters
+and his vigorous incidents. Groups from ‘Wallenstein’ and ‘Wilhelm Tell’
+form the rich and unrivalled ceiling: while the fight of the dragon and
+the founding of the bell, the innocent Fridolin, the inspired maiden of
+Orleans, breathe in the compartments of the walls.
+
+When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and
+sights of beauty that had moved before me in my morning’s wanderings, I
+asked myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital
+of modern Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space,
+and with such facility and completeness, should have achieved those
+results which had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest
+and most powerful community in the world?
+
+It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of
+individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation
+of mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been
+accomplished by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know
+of its sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction.
+Munich is the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a
+king but a poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM
+
+_[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the
+English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet
+‘A Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and
+Learned Lord.’ The same theory is expounded in another way in the three
+great novels, ‘Coningsby,’ ‘Sybil,’ and ‘Tancred.’ His contemporaries
+never seem to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date
+appear to have written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance
+of his real political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract
+ought, in the minds of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever
+the innumerable calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since
+the Reform struggle of 1859-1867.]_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Object of the Whigs_
+
+ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has
+in a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested
+succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the
+national honours of its members, in the good government of the country,
+has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular
+passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments
+of an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers,
+though far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser
+proprietors of the country in favour of a political system which offers
+them a constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of
+redress; her Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent
+endowment from the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies
+of its communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and
+religion, and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law
+of primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and
+independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade
+the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That
+great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings
+knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the
+present and the memory of the past--offers in this country, through
+these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy
+framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built
+constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and
+dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities.
+The march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved
+from those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries,
+like a whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep
+away an illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured
+order, has consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken
+tide of progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest,
+and the most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled,
+our manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful
+in Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have
+they arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of
+the people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated,
+the people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them
+with renewed strength and renovated vigour.
+
+The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when
+the nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any
+period of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has
+occasioned these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and
+the traitor smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so
+serene and so splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that
+of the first Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent
+similarity produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted
+past as a passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which
+it may be profitable to discuss and wise to study.
+
+Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid
+yet accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck
+at the same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the
+Huguenot exclaimed: ‘It appears to me that this great society can only
+be dissolved by the violence of its political parties.’ What are these
+parties? Why are they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving
+these questions, we may obtain an accurate idea of our present political
+position, and by pondering over the past we may make that past not a
+prophecy, as the disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the
+loyal may profit.
+
+The two great parties into which England has during the last century and
+a half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the
+Crown and the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to
+despotic power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy
+in their struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of
+England formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the
+Roses destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors
+succeeded. Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of
+the Papacy, the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who
+succeeded to a despotism which they did not create. When Charles the
+First, after a series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for
+him the support of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised
+the royal standard, the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than
+the constitution of the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But
+a portion of the able party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast
+and beneficial revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary
+powers which they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section
+of the aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though
+that title was not invented until the next reign. The primitive
+Whigs-’Parliament-men,’ as they liked to call themselves, ‘Roundheads,’
+as they were in time dubbed--aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they
+obtained one; but unable to maintain themselves in power against the
+returning sense and rising spirit of a generous and indignant people,
+they called to their aid that domestic revolutionary party which exists
+in all countries, and an anti-national enemy in addition. These were the
+English Radicals, or Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To
+conciliate the first they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second
+they abolished the Church. The constitution of England in Church
+and State was destroyed, and the Whig oligarchy, in spite of their
+machinations, were soon merged in the common ruin.
+
+The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject
+produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The
+ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown
+were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to
+their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that
+the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power
+than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of
+popular rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed
+themselves of the offered opportunity; and when James the Second
+ascended the throne, the nation was again prepared to second the
+aristocracy in a struggle for their liberties. But the Whigs had
+profited by their previous experiment: they resolved upon a revolution,
+but they determined that that revolution should be brought about by
+as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as possible. They studiously
+confined that appeal to the religious feelings of the nation. They hired
+a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in their service. They
+dethroned James, they established themselves in power without the aid of
+the mass; and had William the Third been a man of ordinary capacity, the
+constitution of Venice would have been established in England in 1688.
+William the Third told the Whigs that he would never consent to be
+a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well as in his
+position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his skilful
+balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is
+probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in
+England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions
+because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local
+institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love
+of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates.
+
+An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of
+toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown
+checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a
+nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually
+banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament
+of England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs
+at all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates.
+They despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can
+they succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for
+the other, then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the
+country by the House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more
+powerful in the House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a
+Peerage, exhausted by civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from
+the courtiers of the Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution
+which the Whigs occasioned, they attempted to govern the country by
+the House of Lords, in which they were predominant; and, in order to
+guarantee their power for ever, they introduced a Bill to deprive the
+King of his prerogative of making further Peers. The revolution of 1640
+led to the abolition of the House of Lords because the Lords opposed the
+oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of Lords, the Whigs introduced
+the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords would have been rendered
+independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the country, the Whigs
+attacked the influence of popular election, and the moment that, by
+the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained a temporary
+majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act.
+
+The Whigs of the eighteenth century ‘swamped’ the House of Commons; the
+Whigs of the nineteenth would ‘swamp’ the House of Lords. The Whigs
+of the eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords
+unchangeable; the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons.
+
+I conclude here the first chapter of the ‘Spirit of Whiggism’-a little
+book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig
+party have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in
+another reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in
+another they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries,
+and various modes of conduct; but they have only one object--the
+establishment of an oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not
+wish this country to be governed by a small knot of great families, and
+therefore I oppose the Whigs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Parliamentary Reform_
+
+WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious
+hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to
+re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses
+of Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted
+for this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose
+their Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried
+the Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill
+had become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and
+I believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been
+transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James’s
+might have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous
+ducal palace of the Adriatic.
+
+George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power;
+but an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and
+the India Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the
+oligarchical faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive
+during the great interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt
+and the resurrection of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry
+to carry them into power, they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the
+chorus of an emancipated people, and fancied, in order to take the
+throne by storm, that nothing was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and
+to cover their haughty brows with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped
+the wings of Whiggism; nor is it possible to conceive a party that had
+effected so many revolutions and governed a great country for so long
+a period, more broken, sunk, and shattered, more desolate and
+disheartened, than these same Whigs at the Peace of Paris. From that
+period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs consisted in gently and
+gradually extricating themselves from their false position as the
+disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post as the
+hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the transition
+less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a bridge
+by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily recross
+on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so
+much precipitation. A dozen years of ‘liberal principles’ broke up the
+national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity
+and glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and
+lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction,
+that their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his
+party, elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician
+order, and attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the
+Tories. Had that negotiation led to the result which was originally
+intended by those interested, the Riots of Paris would not have
+occasioned the Reform of London.
+
+It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by
+a nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a
+dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long
+exile from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means,
+invariably has recourse to a _coup-d’état_. An oligarchical party is
+necessarily not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble
+lineage or vast possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers.
+The Whigs, in 1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under
+very peculiar circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In
+each estate of the realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal
+to the Commons of England, that constituency which, in its elements,
+had undergone no alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the
+influence of the legislature or the action of time--that constituency
+which had elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers,
+Walpole, and Pulteney--an appeal to this constituency, it was generally
+acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined
+to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary
+reform: the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual
+upon a coup-d’état, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general
+the difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their
+concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus
+they had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England
+from popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of
+the first House of Commons in which they could command a majority.
+
+But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary
+reformers, for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all
+their art was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their
+own interest should secure an irresistible predominance.
+
+But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections?
+Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own
+limited ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were
+obliged to look about for allies wherewith to form their new popular
+estate. Any estate of the Commons modelled on any equitable principle,
+either of property or population, must have been fatal to the Whigs;
+they, therefore, very dexterously adopted a small minority of the
+nation, consisting of the sectarians, and inaugurating them as the
+people with a vast and bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies,
+invested the Dissenters with political power. By this _coup-d’état_ they
+managed the House of Commons, and having at length obtained a position,
+they have from that moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the
+intention of reducing that great institution and making it surrender at
+discretion. This is the exact state of English politics during the last
+five years. The Whigs have been at war with the English constitution.
+First of all they captured the King; then they vanquished the House of
+Commons; now they have laid siege to the House of Lords. But here the
+fallacy of their grand scheme of political mystification begins to
+develop itself. Had, indeed, their new constituency, as they have long
+impudently pretended, really been ‘the people,’ a struggle between
+such a body and the House of Lords would have been brief but final.
+The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or three hundred
+individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure against the
+decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation is so
+glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect that
+in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But
+as ‘the people’ of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not
+exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English
+nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a
+class privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some
+jobbing Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish
+schemes of personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as
+mindful of its duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours
+of its ancestors. The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue
+from the degrading plots of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising
+sectarianism, and a boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary
+leaders--the Peers. The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment
+represents everything in the realm except the Whig oligarchs, their
+tools--the Dissenters, and their masters--the Irish priests. In the
+meantime the Whigs bawl aloud that there is a ‘collision’! It is true
+there is a collision; but it is not a collision between the Lords and
+the people, but between the Ministers and the Constitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Menace to England_
+
+IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary
+party is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not
+indispensably a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in
+England that, were a republic to be established here to-morrow, it would
+partake rather of the oligarchical than of the aristocratic character.
+We should be surprised to find in how few families the power of the
+State was concentrated. And although the framers of the new commonwealth
+would be too crafty to base it on any avowed and ostensible principle of
+exclusion, but on the contrary would in all probability ostentatiously
+inaugurate the novel constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about
+as definite and as prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or
+the sovereignty of the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were
+we not to find that the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in
+the conduct of public affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out
+from the fruition and exercise of power as under that Venetian polity
+which has ever been the secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration.
+The Church, under such circumstances, would probably have again been
+plundered, and therefore the discharge of ecclesiastical duties might
+be spared to the nation; but the people would assuredly be practically
+excluded from its services, which would swarm with the relations and
+connections of the senatorial class; for, whether this country be
+governed only by the House of Commons, or only by the House of Lords,
+the elements of the single chamber will not materially differ; and
+although in the event of the triumph of the Commons, the ceremony of
+periodical election may be retained (and we should not forget that the
+Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary form), the selected
+members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any House of Parliament
+whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of Whig sneers or
+Radical anathemas.
+
+The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by
+institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of
+intellect that will be found a sufficient surety for the public
+welfare in the crisis of a country’s freedom. Our interest taints our
+intelligence, our passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity
+are too often the willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous
+adventurer. Life, is short, man is imaginative; our means are limited,
+our passions high.
+
+In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong
+temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the
+orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics’
+institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and
+fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish
+a tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become
+the oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of
+knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of
+their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with
+which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render
+them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these
+institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state
+of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all
+those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and
+some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo.
+Let us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy
+reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of
+their magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects
+established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous
+and vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders
+of a single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes--aye,
+and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under
+the plea of the ‘spirit of the age’ or ‘county reform’ or ‘cheap
+government.’ But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will
+dare disobey London?--the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can
+we think, if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still
+chance to linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny,
+or appeal to the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his
+ancestors had protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not
+be judges in Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all
+the pains and penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which
+such a troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter
+ourselves that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High
+Commission Court would not be in the background to supply all the
+deficiencies of the laws of England? When these merry times arrive--the
+times of extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes--and, if we
+proceed in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the
+phrase ‘Anti-Reformer’ will serve as well as that of ‘Malignant,’ and
+be as valid a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all
+those who venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.
+
+Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
+established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift
+and stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
+irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals.
+I do not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in
+this age of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the
+nonce the false colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and
+considerable party, too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and
+the safety of the State-who have a definite object which they distinctly
+avow--I mean those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their
+unstamped press, and ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration.
+Not merely that which is just, but that which is also practicable,
+should be the aim of a sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well
+consider whether, in attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are
+not, in fact, only assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme
+is infinitely more adverse to their own than the existing system, whose
+genius I believe they entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories
+is more democratic than the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with
+a keener sympathy to the passions of the millions; it studies their
+interest with a more comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment
+that I have mistaken the genius of the English constitution, what
+chance, if our institutions be overthrown, is there of substituting
+in their stead a more popular polity? This hazard, both for their own
+happiness and the honour of their country, the English Radicals are
+bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they will find themselves,
+too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the slaves of a stern
+usurper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    _The English Constitution_
+
+A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit
+of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects--that the
+spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political
+institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of
+discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our
+famous establishment of ‘King, Lords, and Commons;’ and no institutions
+ever yet flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented
+and more misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound
+ignorance and the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the
+House of Commons, a member of a family who pique themselves on their
+constitutional reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate
+treatise on our polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late
+as the last session of Parliament, declared his desire and determination
+to uphold the present settlement of the ‘three estates of the realm,
+viz.--King, Lords, and Commons.’ Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an
+estate of the realm than Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of
+the realm are the estate of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords
+Temporal, and the estate of the Commons. An estate is a popular class
+established into a political order. It is a section of the nation
+invested for the public and common good with certain powers
+and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes upon the English
+constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this moment,
+is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is a
+complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is
+necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he
+is not an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is
+responsible to the estates and to them alone.
+
+When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates
+of the realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not
+proceed. They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that
+the House of Commons was the House of the people, and that the people
+were not properly represented. They consequently enlarged the estate
+of the Commons; they increased the number of that privileged order who
+appear by their representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They
+rendered the estate of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding,
+because they rendered them more numerous; but they did not render their
+representatives one jot more the representatives of the people. Throwing
+the Commons of Ireland out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon
+a political order so unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during
+the present century, some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last
+general election, their representatives to Westminster.
+
+Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they
+are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well,
+then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that
+there are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because,
+although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal
+suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is
+not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House
+of the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the
+House of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was
+intended to be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to
+be so by courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English
+constitution.
+
+It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a
+legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it
+is folly to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400
+individuals, or a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign
+will and pleasure. But I deny that a people can govern itself.
+Self-government is a contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government
+may assume, power must be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall,
+perhaps, be reminded of the ancient republics. I answer, that the
+ancient republics were as aristocratic communities as any that
+flourished in the middle ages. The Demos of Athens was an oligarchy
+living upon slaves. There is a great slave population even in the United
+States, if a society of yesterday is to illustrate an argument on our
+ancient civilisation.
+
+But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly.
+
+The phrase ‘the people’ is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term.
+It is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised
+community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of
+time. A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences--the
+influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws,
+customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their
+history, and the individual character of their illustrious citizens.
+These influences create the nation--these form the national mind, and
+produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you
+destroy the political institutions which these influences have called
+into force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly
+act, you destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and
+dissolution, then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the
+consequent misery, like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and
+rifled of their hive, they set to again and establish themselves into a
+society.
+
+Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the
+world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and
+our foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious
+character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy
+and toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our
+manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary
+equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented
+system of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests,
+and apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Sieyès
+himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely
+and definitely represented.
+
+The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the
+school of Abbe Sieyès. Their first object was to make us free; their
+next to keep us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the
+basis of their social order, they took care to blend every man’s
+ambition with the perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality
+of modern days, the ancient equality of England elevates and creates.
+Learned in human nature, the English constitution holds out privilege
+to every subject as the inducement to do his duty. As it has secured
+freedom, justice, and even property to the humblest of the commonwealth,
+so, pursuing the same system of privileges, it has confided the
+legislature of the realm to two orders of the subjects--orders, however,
+in which every English citizen may be constitutionally enrolled--the
+Lords and the Commons. The two estates of the Peers are personally
+summoned to meet in their chamber: the more extensive and single estate
+of the Commons meets by its representatives. Both are political orders,
+complete in their character, independent in their authority, legally
+irresponsible for the exercise of their power. But they are the trustees
+of the nation, not its masters; and there is a High Court of Chancery
+in the public opinion of the nation at large, which exercises a vigilant
+control over these privileged classes of the community, and to which
+they are equitably and morally amenable. Estimating, therefore,
+the moral responsibility of our political estates, it may fairly be
+maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the responsibility of
+the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of Commons itself not
+being an estate of the realm, but only the representatives of an estate,
+owes to the nation a responsibility neither legal nor moral. The House
+of Commons is responsible only to that privileged order who are its
+constituents. Between the Lords and the Commons themselves there is this
+prime difference--that the Lords are known, and seen, and marked; the
+Commons are unknown, invisible, and unobserved. The Lords meet in a
+particular spot; the Commons are scattered over the kingdom. The eye of
+the nation rests upon the Lords, few in number, and notable in position;
+the eye of the nation wanders in vain for the Commons, far more
+numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute the nation appeals to
+the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain; for if the majority
+of the Commons choose to support their representatives in a course of
+conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of Commons
+will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they
+never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of
+Parliament--the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate and
+Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the ‘House of the People,’ but
+both alike represent the ‘Nation.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A True Democracy_
+
+THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may
+appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless,
+as I believe, just and true. And they are these:--First. That there is
+no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government
+than the present English constitution.
+
+Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a
+departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution.
+
+Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined
+by the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a
+Senate and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub
+each householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws
+preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of
+the country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may
+have an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with
+no aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the
+government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity
+of Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of
+Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great
+scale, and maintained during a great period, that history offers.
+The constitution of France during the last half century has been fast
+approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern
+equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous
+Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient
+Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system
+never could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the
+Turks. Both the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced
+their system with popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general
+subjection. Napoleon and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the
+Suleimans and the Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan,
+the Prefects but inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the
+Seraglio and the Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism
+on condition that they have no other master save himself.
+
+The disposition of property in England throws the government of the
+country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that
+any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert
+that power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our
+present social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the
+more powerful would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an
+inevitable consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear
+understanding that such an extension should be established on a fair,
+and not a factious, basis.
+
+Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which.
+I shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my
+opinion, that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the
+ballot would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if
+the ballot were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious
+extension of the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in
+the ultimate result.
+
+Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important
+point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property
+in England--a disposition of property which, by producing a very general
+similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into
+the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select?
+
+It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining
+the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic
+of the English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being
+industry. Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English
+character since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me
+that the salient point in our national psychology is the passion for
+accumulating wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We
+value our freedom principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our
+pursuits; and that reverence for law and for all that is established,
+which also eminently distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned
+by the conviction that, next to liberty, order is the most efficacious
+assistant of industry.
+
+And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the
+history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent
+effects upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by
+the passions of creative minds taking advantage, for their own
+aggrandisement, of peculiar circumstances in our national progress.
+They are never called for by the great body of the nation. Churches are
+plundered, long rebellions maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments
+abolished; but when the storm is passed, the features of the social
+landscape remain unimpaired; there are no traces of the hurricane, the
+earthquake, or the volcano; it has been but a tumult of the atmosphere,
+that has neither toppled down our old spires and palaces nor swallowed
+up our cities and seats of learning, nor blasted our ancient woods, nor
+swept away our ports and harbours. The English nation ever recurs to its
+ancient institutions--the institutions that have alike secured freedom
+and order; and after all their ebullitions, we find them, when the
+sky is clear, again at work, and toiling on at their eternal task of
+accumulation.
+
+There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the
+revolutions of the Continent--the European revolution is a struggle
+against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new
+class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the
+natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader
+takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence.
+Thus the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders
+of the manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the
+Whigs have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new
+interest, having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer,
+like every other Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The
+manufacturer begins to lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played
+the same game with the commercial interests; a century has passed, and
+the commercial interests are all as devoted to the constitution as the
+manufacturers soon will be. Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek
+for succour from the Irish papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only
+imitating Pym under the same circumstances. In 1640, when the English
+movement was satisfied, and the constitutional party, headed by such men
+as Falkland and Hyde, were about to attain power, Pym and his friends,
+in despair at their declining influence and the close divisions in their
+once unanimous Parliament, fled to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered
+into a ‘close compact’ for the destruction of the Church of England as
+the price of their assistance. So events repeat themselves; but if the
+study of history is really to profit us, the nation at the present day
+will take care that the same results do not always occur from the same
+events.
+
+When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who
+has struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having
+obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to
+assist in destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or
+his posterity may yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing
+district has his eye already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of
+his political position to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a
+baronetcy, and dreams of a coroneted descendant.
+
+The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will
+submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we
+deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its
+best security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore,
+insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the
+whole scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the
+accumulation of wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot
+alter, therefore, the disposition of property in this country without we
+change the national character. Far from the present age being hostile to
+the supremacy of property, there has been no period of our history where
+property has been more esteemed, because there has been no period when
+the nation has been so industrious.
+
+Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of
+property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can
+become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic
+constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic
+constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny
+that an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the
+legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every
+subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English
+constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the
+enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a
+perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain
+them; and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always
+be devoted, except he is a Whig.
+
+In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Results of Whiggism_
+
+THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their
+side; and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and
+bellowing about ‘intimidation,’ seem to confess the soft impeachment.
+Their prime organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is
+opposed to them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published,
+by way of consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some
+twenty Dukes and Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to
+‘Liberal’ principles, and whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical
+rhodomontade, they assert, could buy up the whole income of the rest
+of the hereditary Peerage. The Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to
+reconcile this anomalous circumstance with the indisputably forlorn
+finances of their faction in general. Now, this little tract on the
+‘Spirit of Whiggism’ may perhaps throw some light upon this perplexing
+state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a fresh illustration of
+the principles which I have demonstrated, from the whole current of our
+history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union of oligarchical
+wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the ‘Spirit of Whiggism.’
+
+The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of
+Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the
+hands of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of
+their respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom,
+without which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor
+its just reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent
+those who have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in
+whose classes every industrious citizen has a right to register himself,
+offer also an equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those
+great families, over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the
+Whig-Radical writers gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the
+equipages of their masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense
+between those who are beneath power and those who wish to be above it;
+and oligarchies and despotisms are usually established by the agency of
+a deluded multitude. The Crown, with its constitutional influence over
+the military services, a Parliament of two houses watching each other’s
+proceedings with constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy
+and, not least, an independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the
+progressive establishment of that scheme of government which a small
+knot of great families--these dukes and marquises, whose revenues
+according to the Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole
+peerage-naturally wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the
+whole period of our more modern history, a powerful section of the great
+nobles ever at war with the national institutions, checking the Crown,
+attacking the independence of that House of Parliament in which they
+happen to be in a minority--no matter which, patronising sects to
+reduce the influence of the Church, and playing town against country to
+overcome the authority of the gentry.
+
+It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little
+essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers.
+To secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to
+manoeuvre with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they
+apparently advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an
+inducement to all the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their
+standard; they play their discontented minority against the prosperous
+majority, and, dubbing their partisans ‘the people,’ they flatter
+themselves that their projects are irresistible. The attack is
+unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well matured, dexterously mystified.
+Before the nation is roused to its danger, the oligarchical object is
+often obtained; and then the oligarchy, entrenched in power, count upon
+the nation to defend them from their original and revolutionary allies.
+If they succeed, a dynasty is changed, or a Parliament reformed, and the
+movement is stopped; if the Tories or the Conservatives cannot arrest
+the fatal career which the Whigs have originally impelled, then away
+go the national institutions; the crown falls from the King’s brow;
+the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of Parliament is sure to
+disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously dubbed Malignants,
+or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the dregs of the
+nation sequester their estates and install themselves in their halls;
+and ‘liberal principles’ having thus gloriously triumphed, after a due
+course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble tyranny, the
+people of England, sighing once more to be the English nation, secure
+order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they have got rid of
+their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their newly-regained
+security by re-establishing the English constitution.
+
+The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation
+with their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the
+sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced
+the House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed
+the Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which
+they have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly
+very popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their
+reform of the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the
+municipal corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have,
+in fact, increased the democratic character of our constitution or
+not--whether they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular
+concessions inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical
+career.
+
+The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been
+this--that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the hands
+of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public intelligence
+and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M’Hale and Kehoe
+more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted to
+represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard
+or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a
+basis formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters,
+in general returned by the small constituencies of small towns--classes
+whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly
+exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the
+maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of
+popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven.
+If the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the
+hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very
+considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present
+Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this
+great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other,
+obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new
+constituency has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has
+been given to a small class, and one hostile to the interests of the
+great body. Is this more democratic? The apparent majority in the House
+of Commons is produced by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that
+a small and favoured class command a majority in the House of Commons,
+and the sway of the administration, as far as that House is concerned,
+is regulated by a smaller number of individuals than those who governed
+it previous to its reform.
+
+But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural
+preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country,
+hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords,
+to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of
+provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to
+support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without
+which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now,
+centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel
+of the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to
+dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government
+which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform
+of the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the
+authority of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the
+most substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in
+power. By this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the
+towns where he before exercised a just influence, while an elective
+magistrate from the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions,
+and presents in his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of
+the bench, flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests,
+of the giddy million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county
+reform whenever an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative
+in Parliament hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the
+moment, that the Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and
+hereditary power of the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations
+substitute themselves as an equivalent check on a centralising
+Government? Whence springs their influence? From property? Not half a
+dozen have estates. Their influence springs from the factitious power
+with which the reforming Government has invested them, and of which the
+same Government will deprive them in a session, the moment they cease
+to be corresponding committees of the reforming majority in the House of
+Commons. They will either be swept away altogether, or their functions
+will be limited to raising the local taxes which will discharge their
+expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan police, or the local
+judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down to preside over
+their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the English corporations
+do not possess more substantial and durable elements of power than
+the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris? These
+corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor property.
+Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor substance. They
+have no indirect authority over the minds of their townsmen; they have
+only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly engrossed letter
+of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public benefits they
+are the official distributers; they do not stand on the vantage-ground
+on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests; they neither
+administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the poor nor
+educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they have not
+sprung from the national character; they were born by faction, and they
+will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt; they
+will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a
+faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a
+London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the
+consequent results of their opportune services.
+
+I think I have now established the two propositions with which I
+commenced my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the
+‘Spirit of Whiggism’ with their recapitulation, and the inferences which
+I draw from them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing
+in this country a more democratic government than the English
+constitution, it will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their
+rights, to maintain that constitution; and if the more recent measures
+of the Whigs, however plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been
+a departure from the democratic character of that constitution, it will
+be as well for the English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and
+all their soul, and all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs
+and the ‘Spirit of Whiggism.’
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+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: Sketches
+       The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul's Daughter, Walstein--Or
+       A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of
+       Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian
+       Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk,
+       Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+
+THE CARRIER PIGEON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Charolois and Branchimont_
+
+ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad
+bosom of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only
+by its rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of
+Charolois, situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the
+reflected radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of
+triumph at the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western
+side of the valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and
+sharply defined against the resplendent heaven.
+
+Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high
+places--the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but the
+hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with
+more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the
+house of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of
+Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss
+in the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son.
+
+Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff
+and gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest
+passions of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the
+theatre of their havoc.
+
+The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark
+towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned
+the devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was
+deposited the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had
+raised on a small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile
+from his stern hold.
+
+At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from
+the postern of Charolois--the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child of
+the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers.
+She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached
+the sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already
+kneeling,--faces of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she
+entered, a palmer, with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely
+muffled up in his cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in
+the fount of holy water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and
+pressed the beautiful fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived
+by the kneeling votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her
+self-control, or such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she
+exhibited no other symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar,
+was soon buried in her devotions.
+
+The mass was celebrated--the vassals rose and retired. According to her
+custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of her
+brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that someone
+was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived, knelt
+at her side. 'Lothair!' muttered the lady, apparently at her prayers,
+'beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!'
+
+'Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?' was the hushed reply.
+
+'For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.'
+
+'Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped.
+Let me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated.
+Your father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh,
+fly!'
+
+'Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?'
+
+'Sweet love! I pray thee listen:--to Italy. At the court of my
+cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I
+for Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are
+no traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy,
+trust me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father's walls.'
+
+'Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other
+like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love?
+Yet I adore thee------'
+
+'Lady!' said the page, advancing, 'the priest approaches.'
+
+The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar.
+
+'To-morrow, at this hour,' whispered Lothair.
+
+The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the
+shrine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Pert Page_
+
+'DEAREST Lady,' said the young page, as they returned to the castle,
+'my heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the
+huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.' 'Hah! he is my father's most
+devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to
+execute--a most ruthless knave!'
+
+'And can see like a cat in the dark, too,' observed young Theodore.
+
+'I never loved that man, even in my cradle,' said the Lady Imogene;
+'though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?'
+
+'Indeed I thought so, madam.'
+
+'Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little
+page.'
+
+'I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.'
+
+'I warrant you,' said Imogene; 'you have a bold heart, little Theodore,
+and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my
+bright-eyed Lothair!'
+
+'Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,' said
+Theodore. 'I would I were his squire.'
+
+'Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.'
+
+'Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I
+indeed be his squire, lady sweet?'
+
+'Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.'
+
+'I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and
+as strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!'
+
+'It is indeed a beard, Theodore,' said the Lady Imogene. 'When wilt thou
+have one like it?'
+
+'Another summer, perchance,' said Theodore, passing his small palm
+musingly over his smooth chin.
+
+'Another summer!' said the Lady Imogene, laughing; 'why, I may as soon
+hope to have a beard myself.'
+
+'I hope you will have Lord Branchimont's,' said the page.
+
+'Amen!' responded the lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Love's Messenger_
+
+THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded.
+On the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont
+at the shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her
+father, and, after having been loaded with every species of reproach and
+invective for her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was
+confined to a chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which
+she was never permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery
+with an old female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and
+manners. Her page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource
+and amusement was her mandolin.
+
+The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep
+so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was
+therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The
+landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted
+of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care
+that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont.
+The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from
+her. Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight.
+Very unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or
+pouring forth her passion over her lonely lute.
+
+A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was
+seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought,
+and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused
+her, and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the
+high back of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with
+an azure beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not
+alarmed was the beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached
+it; but it looked up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and
+flapped with some earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady
+Imogene smiled with marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her
+captivity; and putting forth her hand, which was even whiter than
+the wing, she patted the bright neck of the glad stranger, and gently
+stroked its soft plumage.
+
+'Heaven hath sent me a friend,' exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; 'Ah!
+what--what is this?'
+
+'Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?' inquired the harsh voice of acid
+Martha, whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door.
+
+'Nothing--nothing--I want nothing,' quickly answered Imogene, as she
+seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered
+Martha over her shoulder. 'Did she see thee, my treasure?' continued the
+agitated Imogene, 'Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were
+not discovered.' So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step
+imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird
+from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly
+detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had
+perceived, in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont.
+
+Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted
+her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then
+she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to
+collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:--
+
+
+_'Lothair to Imogene_.
+
+'Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has
+promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I
+love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove
+a thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and
+catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am
+planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to
+tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of
+your fidelity to your own
+
+Lothair.'
+
+
+It was read--it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears--tears of
+wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the
+faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him,
+had she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously
+awaiting the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her
+tablets and inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under
+the wing, she bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last
+embrace, permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the
+air.
+
+Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue
+sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky
+shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _A Cruel Dart_
+
+IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that
+her unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as
+possible, and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit
+from Mignon. Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of
+consolation; and by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair
+respecting her escape was actively maintained. A thousand plans were
+formed by the sanguine lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then
+decided to be impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another,
+young Theodore was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and
+become, by some contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved
+that these were as wild as lovers' plans are wont to be; and another
+week stole away without anything being settled. Yet this second week was
+not so desolate as the first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting
+hope; and each day to hear that Lothair still adored her, and each day
+to be enabled to breathe back to him her own adoration, solaced the
+hours of her captivity. But Fate, that will often frown upon the
+fortunes of true love, decided that this sweet source of consolation
+should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman, who was ever prowling
+about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye for a bird, one day
+observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the window of the tower.
+His practised sense instantly assured him that the bird was trained, and
+he resolved to watch its course.
+
+'Hah, hah!' said Rufus, the huntsman, 'is Branchimont thy dovecot?
+Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.'
+
+Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the
+visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew
+had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont.
+True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky.
+Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can
+doubt that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling
+visits! Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing!
+She shall kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter
+than the scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all
+thy fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon
+the unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to
+anticipate the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes
+her heart tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions.
+
+Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred--an arrow
+swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The
+snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal!
+
+It touches thy form--it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no
+good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas,
+alas! the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy
+transcendent eye grows dim--all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to the
+earth!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _Another Message_
+
+A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour
+after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and
+the Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight,
+she became nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light
+remained, an indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed
+night, and nothing but the outline of the surrounding hills was
+perceptible, she could no longer restrain herself; and, bursting into
+hysteric tears, she threw herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were
+they discovered? Had Lothair forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless
+efforts, had he left her to her miserable, her solitary fate? There was
+a slight sound--something seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her
+side she beheld a letter, which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown
+in at the window. She started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed
+herself for doubting for an instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore
+open the letter; but so great was her emotion that some minutes elapsed
+before she could decipher its contents. At length she learned that,
+on the ensuing eve, Lothair and Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of
+Charolois, would contrive to meet in safety beneath her window, and for
+the rest she must dare to descend. It was a bold, a very perilous plan.
+It was the project of desperation. But there are moments in life when
+desperation becomes success. Nor was the spirit of the Lady Imogene one
+that would easily quail. Hers was a true woman's heart; and she could
+venture everything for love. She examined the steep; she cast a rapid
+glance at the means of making the descent: her shawls, her clothes, the
+hangings of her bed--here were resources--here was hope!
+
+Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the
+unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon?
+But the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not
+mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were
+faint--that the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed;
+but this she did not observe. She was sanguine--she was confident in the
+wisdom of Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured
+forth her supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then,
+exhausted by all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a
+deep repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Flight and Discovery_
+
+MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. 'He has his reasons,'
+answered the Lady Imogene: 'Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right
+soon, I hope, we shall need no messenger.' Oh, what a long, long day was
+this, the last of her captivity! Will the night never come--that night
+she had once so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no
+longer gladness in thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet
+thine orb is as high in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon!
+The unceasing cry of the birds, once so consoling, now only made her
+restless. She listened, and she listened, until at length the rosy
+sky called forth their last thrilling chant, and the star of evening
+summoned them to roost.
+
+It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the
+hours at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that
+it wanted but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed
+a rope of shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force.
+The bell struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her
+fate. Slowly and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air,
+until her feet at length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her
+footing, she now rested, and looked around her. She had descended about
+twenty feet. The moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was
+more rugged. It seemed not impracticable--she clambered down.
+
+'Hist! hist!' said a familiar voice, 'all is right, lady--but why did
+you not answer us?'
+
+'Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?'
+
+'Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees--give me thy hand, sweet lady.
+Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.'
+
+Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont.
+
+'We have no time for embraces,' said Theodore; 'the horses are ready.
+The Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an
+eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you
+Mignon?'
+
+'Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.'
+
+'But my letter,' said Lothair-'you received it?'
+
+'It was thrown in at my window,' said the Lady Imogene.
+
+'My heart misgives me,' said little Theodore. 'Away! there is no time
+to lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout!
+Fly! fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!'
+
+And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches
+seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of
+Lothair.
+
+'We will die together!' she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his
+breast.
+
+Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty
+sword.
+
+'Seize him!' shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; 'seize
+the robber!' shouted her father.
+
+'At your peril!' answered Lothair to his surrounding foes.
+
+They stood at bay--an awful group! The father and his murdering minions,
+alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their chieftain's
+daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the silver
+moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their entrapped
+victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress.
+
+There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of
+the father, 'Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare
+not the traitress!'
+
+But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion,
+they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey.
+
+'Let me, then, teach you your duty!' exclaimed the exasperated father.
+He advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus
+they stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow
+glanced over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to
+the heart. His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan.
+
+Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon,
+had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master
+of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was
+thine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _The Dove Returns to Imogene_
+
+THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different
+its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary
+vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois
+is again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet
+waters, still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks
+and mused over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering
+and bright, like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from
+thy dying glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve--no
+more shall her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no
+more shall her lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds.
+Oh, yes! she is dead--the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of
+misery heralded her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for
+the good priest who had often administered consolation to his unhappy
+mistress over her brother's tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying
+couch, assured many a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim
+who loved to listen to the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a
+beatitude; for he did not doubt, from the distracted expressions that
+occasionally caught his ear, that the Holy Spirit, in that material form
+he most loves to honour, to wit, the semblance of a pure white dove,
+often solaced by his presence the last hours of Imogene de Charolois!
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CONSUL'S DAUGHTER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Henrietta_
+
+AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby
+held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the
+noble family with which he was connected had obtained for him this
+office, after serving his country, with no slight distinction, during
+the glorious war of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his
+family consisted of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of
+very tender years when he first obtained his appointment, but who had
+completed her eighteenth year at the period, memorable in her life,
+which these pages attempt to commemorate. A girl of singular beauty
+was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not remarkable merely for her beauty. Her
+father, a very accomplished gentleman, had himself superintended her
+education with equal care and interest. In their beautiful solitude,
+for they enjoyed the advantage of very little society save that of
+those passing travellers who occasionally claimed his protection and
+hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most engaging pursuit of Major
+Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of the lively talents of
+his daughter, and to watch with delight, not unattended with anxiety,
+the formation of her ardent and imaginative character: he had himself
+imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine arts in which he
+himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite languages which
+he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose rich and
+interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was careful,
+also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she should
+not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable
+portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from
+England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly
+as proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in
+Portugal and Spain.
+
+The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and
+rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections
+she had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy
+and agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into
+loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm,
+that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the
+constant presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman
+can alone imbue existence; without which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is very dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is never desperate.
+
+There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether
+inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently
+qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be
+destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended
+the daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the
+father's heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush
+unseen, and waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then,
+with all a father's pride, and under all the influence of that worldly
+ambition from which men are never free, he would form plans by which she
+might visit, and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble
+cousins were thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might
+enter that great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and
+more than once he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might
+be better for them both that they should for a season part: but the
+Consul's daughter shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from
+the murmurs of a rising storm. She could not conceive existence without
+her father--the father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived
+and flourished--the father to whom she was indebted, not only for
+existence, but all the attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire,
+her tutor, her constant company, her dear, dear friend. To part from
+him, even though but for a season, and to gain splendour, appeared to
+her pure, yet lively imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible
+destiny--an awful dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an
+hour; once, indeed, he had been absent for three days; he had sailed
+with the fleet on public business to a neighbouring port; he had
+been obliged to leave his daughter, and the daughter remembered those
+terrible three days like a frightful dream, the recollection of which
+made her shudder.
+
+Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony--he possessed only the small
+income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which rewarded
+many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was cast,
+these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries, but
+all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy
+of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues
+lined their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful
+galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent
+facing the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the
+fanciful garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming
+aloes, was a most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret
+may not be hired in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion
+Miss Ponsonby was the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and
+flowers, surrounded by her birds: and here she might be often seen at
+sunset glancing amid its beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step
+as airy, as the bright gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Fair Presentment_
+
+ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city
+where Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests
+of British commerce--for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy
+presence of a bishop--a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial
+merchant brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took
+his way to the Consul's house. He was a man of an age apparently verging
+towards thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage
+and directed his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by
+a single servant, he did not share the general reputation of his
+countrymen for wealth, his appearance to those practised in society
+was not undistinguished. Tall, slender, and calm, his air, though
+unaffected, was that of a man not deficient in self-confidence; and
+whether it were the art of his tailor, or the result of his own good
+frame, his garb, although remarkably plain, had that indefinable style
+which we associate with the costume of a man of some mark and breeding.
+
+On arriving at the Consul's house, he was ushered through a large, dark,
+cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to
+the suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted
+up in the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of
+the library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office.
+Dwarf bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble
+bust, or bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a
+vacant easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his
+Britannic majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and
+over the mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the
+attention of the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He
+had a very ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an
+hour elapsed before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of
+a young lady. She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a
+gazelle. Her form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was
+not English, the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of
+the beauties of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep
+blue eye, the high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all
+northern, but northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand
+a branch of orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower.
+
+'Signor Ferrers, I believe,' said a shrill voice. The traveller started,
+and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning,
+bowing Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent
+up to the Consul.
+
+'My name is Ferrers,' replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and
+speaking in a low, sweet tone.
+
+'Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,' said the Italian: 'I have the honour
+to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.'
+
+It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and
+his chief clerk a chancellor.
+
+'I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,' said
+the Italian; 'and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the
+Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at
+Otranto?'
+
+'I hope so too,' replied the traveller; 'and so I believe.'
+
+'You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me--the Consul
+will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be
+very happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for
+a moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity
+of informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular
+messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send
+him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have
+any letters for the Consul?'
+
+'None,' replied the traveller.
+
+The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted
+he had been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a
+letter of introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart.
+
+The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, 'Pray,
+may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?'
+
+'Certainly,' replied the chancellor; ''tis the Signora Ponsonby.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Mysterious Stranger_
+
+IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a
+dusky little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before
+sunset on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the
+casino of the Consul's daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby
+had invited him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to
+taste his oranges. The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a
+very fine plane-tree, under whose spreading branches was arranged a
+banquet of fruit and flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and
+wines of the Levant, cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his
+chibouque, and his daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her
+guitar fall upon the turf. The original of the portrait proved that the
+painter had no need to flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner,
+the radiant smile, and the sweet and thrilling voice with which she
+welcomed her countryman would have completed the spell, had, indeed, the
+wanderer been one prepared, or capable of being enchanted. As it was,
+Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his welcome, with becoming complaisance,
+exhibited the breeding of a man accustomed to sights of strangeness
+and of beauty; and, while he expressed his sense of the courtesy of his
+companions, admired their garden, and extolled the loveliness of the
+prospect, he did not depart for a moment from that subdued, and even
+sedate manner, which indicates, the individual whom the world has little
+left to astonish, and less to enrapture, although, perhaps, much to
+please. Yet he was fluent in conversation, sensible and polished, and
+very agreeable. It appeared that he had travelled much, though he was
+far from boasting of his exploits. He had been long absent from England,
+had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had sojourned at Damascus. While he
+refused the pipe, he proved, by his observations on its use, that he was
+learned in its practice; and he declined his host's offer of a file of
+English journals, as he was not interested in their contents. His host
+was too polished to originate any inquiry which might throw light upon
+the connections or quality of his guest, and his guest imitated his
+example. Nothing could be more perfectly well-bred than his whole
+demeanour--he listened to the major with deference, and he never paid
+Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never even asked her to sing;
+but the fond father did not omit this attention. Henrietta, in the most
+unaffected manner, complied with his request, because, as she was in the
+habit of singing every evening to her father, she saw no reason why he
+should, on this occasion, be deprived of an amusement to which he was
+accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and stirred the flowers and
+branches, her voice blended with its fresh and fragrant breath. It was
+a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air in which she indulged,
+indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the picturesque scene
+and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with attention, and thanked
+her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the casino he even
+requested the favour of her repeating the gratification, but in so quiet
+a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to comply with a
+wish expressed with so little fervour.
+
+The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the
+Consul's daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were
+executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with
+interest--his observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than
+suspect his skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the
+fine arts, and offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she
+thought it would amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with
+more animation than on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed
+with the observations of a fine eye and cultivated taste.
+
+At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression.
+Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike
+personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad
+to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of
+the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been
+acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what
+Ferrers he was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul_
+
+THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby,
+to the Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him
+immediately afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him
+to dine with them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be
+permitted to pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The
+major, under the circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance
+to comply with their desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very
+reserved, and the Consul desisted.
+
+Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again
+appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before.
+They drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and
+again repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the
+portfolio:--they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all
+kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the
+Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of
+Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment,
+shaded by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Se�orita, shrouded in
+her mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance,
+however, about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least
+remarkable. It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each
+drawing, in all probability containing the name and initials of the
+artist, had been carefully obliterated.
+
+Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers
+passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an
+honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the
+squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr.
+Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed
+rather confused; but at length he said: 'Oh, they are stupid things: I
+did not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine,
+who was at Cadiz.'
+
+'Oh, I see the name,' said the major; '"_The Kraken_." Why, that is Lord
+Bohun's yacht!'
+
+'The same,' said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed.
+
+'Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?' said Miss Ponsonby. 'We have often
+expected him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say
+he is the most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?'
+
+'I never heard much in his favour,' said Mr. Ferrers. 'I believe he has
+made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.'
+
+'Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,' said the Consul.
+'He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in
+every man's favour.'
+
+'And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,' said Miss Ponsonby; 'and a
+Bedouin robber, and--I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who was
+here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.'
+
+'Affectations!' said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. 'Bohun, however, has
+some excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his
+cradle.'
+
+'Is he clever?' inquired Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,' replied Mr. Ferrers.
+'I confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers.
+I am not at all romantic.'
+
+And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a
+bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten.
+
+A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our
+Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter
+remained on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and
+every evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed
+that he was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy
+Consul always adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his
+wonder as to what Ferrers he was.
+
+Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and
+several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of
+the hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr.
+Ferrers should meet them. He discussed this important point with his
+daughter.
+
+'My darling, I don't like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man.
+The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an
+insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he
+is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would
+see something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall
+we do?'
+
+'I will ask him,' replied Miss Ponsonby. 'I don't think he could refuse
+me.'
+
+'I am sure I could not,' replied the major, smiling.
+
+And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that
+she had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was
+his courteous reply.
+
+'Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.'
+
+Mr. Ferrers' brow immediately clouded.
+
+'Now, do not look so suspicious,' said Miss Ponsonby. 'Do you think that
+ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live
+only on fruit and flowers?' continued Miss Ponsonby. 'Do you know,' she
+added, with an arch smile, 'I think you must be a ghoul.'
+
+A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of
+the Englishman.
+
+'You will come!' said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly.
+
+'I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby's hospitality,'
+muttered Mr. Ferrers; 'I have no claim to it.'
+
+'You are our countryman.'
+
+'Unknown.'
+
+'The common consequence of being a traveller.'
+
+'Yes--but--in short--I--'
+
+'You must come,' said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine.
+
+'You do with me what you like,' exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation.
+'Beautiful--weather,' he concluded.
+
+Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that
+from this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain,
+this gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul's table; accepting
+a general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable,
+availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception.
+
+Could it be the Consul's daughter that effected this revolution? Time
+may perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were
+that she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over
+society; or whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly
+pleasing because she was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta
+Ponsonby never appeared to greater advantage than she did upon the day
+of this memorable festival. Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house,
+sauntered to the mole, and gazed upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous
+symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers had before this been fixed in mute
+abstraction on many a summer wave, when Dian was in her bower; and
+this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed, was learned in woman, and
+woman's ways. Shall a Consul's daughter melt a heart that boasted of
+being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself upon its clouds?
+
+But if the state of Mr. Ferrers' heart were doubtful, I must perforce
+confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured
+to inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own
+feelings. Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers
+had now insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power
+of which she was unconscious,--only because it was unceasing. Had for
+a moment the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have
+discovered, with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed
+she had become since the first evening he approached their pleasant
+casino. And yet Mr. Ferrers was not her lover. No act,--no word of
+gallantry,--no indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever
+escaped him. All that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then,
+there was no other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among
+them; but, then, he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and
+repose, which ever and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular
+activity and strange adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct.
+But, whatever might be his motives, certain it is, that the English
+stranger dangerously interested the feelings of the Consul's daughter;
+and when she thought the time must arrive for his departure, she drove
+the recollection from her mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang
+which she experienced by its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the
+heart of this young and lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in
+the presence of her companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature
+had invested the Englishman with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant
+person; his tender, yet reserved manners; his experienced, yet ornate
+mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet mellowed imagination, which ever
+and anon would break forth in his conversation: perhaps, too, the air
+of melancholy, and even of mystery, which enveloped him, were all spells
+potent in the charm that enchants the heart of woman. And the major,
+what did he think? The good Consul was puzzled. The confirmed intimacy
+between his daughter and his guest alike perplexed and pleased him. He
+certainly never had become acquainted with a man whom he would sooner
+have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only known who he was. But
+two months, and more than two months, had elapsed, and threw no light
+upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul hesitated as
+to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good breeding. Now he
+thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his daughter. There were
+objections to each line of conduct, and his confidence in Mr. Ferrers
+was very great, although he did not exactly know who he was: he was
+decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his conduct and
+conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so much
+delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and did,
+that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
+and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
+conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
+his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
+gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A Tender Avowal_
+
+IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M'Intyre were two
+very different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay,
+noisy, pleasant, commonplace persons. They were '_on leave_' from one
+of the Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot
+red-legged partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a
+pipe with the Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights
+they had seen, and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they
+styled 'regular adventures': and they insisted upon giving everyone a
+description of what everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their
+arrival, Mr. Ferrers discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and
+resumed his old habit of riding up to the casino, every evening, on his
+Barbary ass, to eat oranges and talk to the Consul's daughter.
+
+'I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?' said Major M'Intyre.
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+'St. Peter's, of course, you have seen?' said Captain Ormsby.
+
+'But have you seen it during Holy Week?' said the major. 'That's the
+thing.'
+
+'Ah, I see you have been everywhere,' said the captain: 'Algiers, of
+course?'
+
+'I never was at Algiers,' replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
+circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.
+
+'By Jove,' said the major, with elevated eyes, 'not been at Algiers!
+why, Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great
+traveller indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers
+more worth seeing than any place we ever visited. Don't you, Ormsby?'
+
+The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
+place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
+Bohun's yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
+proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
+Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain
+Ormsby finally pronounced 'Bohun a devilish good fellow.'
+
+'Do you know Lord Bohun?' inquired Mr. Ferrers.
+
+'Why, no!' confessed Captain Ormsby: 'but he is a devilish intimate
+friend of a devilish intimate friend of mine.'
+
+Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him
+into the garden. 'I cannot endure the jabber of these men,' said Mr.
+Ferrers.
+
+'They are very good-natured,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they
+think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in
+a short time, and then I shall be forgotten.'
+
+'That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if
+absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.'
+
+'I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second
+part to Lord Bohun.'
+
+'Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to
+anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'I have been in this island ten weeks,' said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully.
+
+'When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,' said Miss
+Ponsonby.
+
+'You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my
+existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been
+very happy,' said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; 'very happy, indeed. The only
+_happy_ time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.'
+
+'And why not remain, then?' said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice.
+
+'There are many reasons,' said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm
+to Miss Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino.
+'These ten weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,' he continued, but
+in a calm voice, 'because you have been my companion. My life has
+taken its colour from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss
+Ponsonby, and be not alarmed. I love you!'
+
+Her arm trembled in his.
+
+'Yes, I _love_ you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common
+feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life;
+and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as
+may be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.'
+
+She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand.
+
+'Most beauteous lady,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'pardon me if I agitate
+you; for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger,
+utterly unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my
+power, even at _this_ moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal
+position. Yet, whatever I may be, I offer my existence, and all its
+accidents, good or bad, in homage to your heart. May I indulge the
+delicious hope that, if not now accepted, they are at least considered
+with kindliness and without suspicion?'
+
+'Oh, yes! without _suspicion_,' murmured Miss Ponsonby--'without
+suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that
+you are not so good as you are------gifted.'
+
+'Darling Henrietta!' exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting
+tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon
+her lips. 'This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman's love I
+long have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are
+mine; once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay,
+start not, sweet one. 'Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return
+to claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and
+solemn engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet
+again; you may hear _of_ me and not to my advantage. What matter? You
+love me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour
+_never sullied_. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!'
+
+'I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in
+you, I will despair of them for ever.'
+
+'Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me,
+indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _The Famous Lord Bohun_
+
+He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous
+event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she
+was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father's child.
+She belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and
+departed being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young
+lady passed her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain
+she attempted to struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted
+to herself the error, perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was
+fascinated. She could not reason; she could not communicate to her
+father all that had happened. A thousand times her lips moved to reveal
+her secret; a thousand times an irresistible power restrained them. She
+remained silent, moody, and restless: she plucked flowers, and threw
+them to the wind: she gazed upon the sea, and watched the birds in
+abstraction wilder than their wing: and yet she would not doubt her
+betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and so sincere, still
+lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty brow was engraven
+on her memory: never could she forget those delicate adieus!
+
+This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after
+some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of
+the departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained
+his noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled
+with the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the
+maiden; but the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct
+gave evidence of restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed
+sometimes exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing.
+The Consul was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is
+bitter for a father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but
+doubly bitter is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret.
+
+Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested
+on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of
+Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of
+this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was
+a diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed
+there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected
+individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very
+luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the
+Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted
+his extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the
+course of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave
+a magnificent entertainment on board the _Kraken_, to the bishop and the
+principal islanders, in honour of the Consul's daughter. Indeed it was
+soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary
+admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked
+attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these
+attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a
+lord, and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced
+Henrietta might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a
+traveller.
+
+One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own
+yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had
+been copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who
+preceded him. His name was inquired, and given.
+
+'Ferrers!' exclaimed his lordship. 'What, has Ferrers been here?'
+
+'You know Mr. Ferrers, then?' inquired Henrietta, with suppressed
+agitation.
+
+'Oh yes, I know Ferrers.'
+
+'A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,' said the Consul, anxious, he
+knew not why, that the conversation would cease.
+
+'Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being
+agreeable,--Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,' said Henrietta, in a firm,
+and rather decided tone, 'I should not have given him credit for any
+sentiment approaching to _conceit_.'
+
+'He is fortunate in having such a defender,' said his lordship, bowing
+gallantly.
+
+'Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,' said Miss Ponsonby, 'unless
+they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs
+any defence.'
+
+His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air.
+
+'Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,' said the Consul, who was now
+desirous that the conversation should proceed.
+
+'He had evidently a great inducement,' said Lord Bohun. 'I wonder he
+ever departed.'
+
+'He is a great favourite in this house,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'I perceive it,' said Lord Bohun.
+
+'What Ferrers is he?' inquired the Consul.
+
+'Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,' said Lord Bohun. 'I never heard
+his breeding impeached.'
+
+'And I should think, nothing else,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,' said his
+lordship; 'except that he was a _rou�_, and a little mad. That is all.'
+
+'Enough, I should think,' said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow.
+
+'What a _rou�_ may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,' said
+Henrietta. 'If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his
+thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title.
+As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three
+months: if he be mad, it must be a very _little_ indeed.'
+
+'He was a great favourite of Henrietta,' said her father, with a forced
+smile.
+
+'Fortunate man!' said the lord. 'Fortunate Ferrers!'
+
+Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was
+left alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she
+was alone, her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A
+_rou�!_ Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had
+pledged the freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she,
+after all, only a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a
+_rou�!_ That lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely,
+was he a _rou�,_ an eccentric _rou�_; one whose unprincipled conduct
+could only be excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect?
+She could not credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct
+had been so strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and
+then she recollected his last dark-muttered words: '_You may hear of me,
+and not to my advantage._' Oh, what a prophecy! And _from_ him she had
+never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
+the Consul's daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge,
+and his honour that had been _never sullied_. She buried her face in her
+hands,--she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened since
+his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had said
+and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was madness
+for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no misery
+so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all her
+happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
+gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
+sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if
+not light-hearted, at least serene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _More Mystery_
+
+THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
+island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
+remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited
+no inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
+interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month,
+made himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest,
+certainly with the Consul, if not with the Consul's daughter. As for the
+name of Mr. Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta
+piqued herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on
+respecting her absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting
+much information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to
+annex a precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were
+rich or poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of
+disgraceful lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been
+fellow-travellers--all was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble
+guest was inattentive to her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost
+annoyed her by his constant devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined
+to resent his singularly marked expressions of admiration as an insult;
+when, to her utter astonishment, one morning her father astounded her by
+an announcement that Lord Bohun had done her the honour of offering her
+his hand and heart. The beautiful Henrietta was in great perplexity.
+It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his flattering proposal without
+reservation: it was difficult, almost impossible, to convince her father
+of the expediency of such a proceeding. There was in the proposal of
+Lord Bohun every circumstance which could gratify Major Ponsonby. In
+the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition, his hopes had never soared
+higher than the possession of such a son-in-law: high born, high
+rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished youth, were combined in the
+individual whom some favouring destiny, it would seem, had wafted to
+this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows to its accomplished
+mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so brief an acquaintance,
+to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative stranger, was what
+he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should unhesitatingly
+and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for which he was
+totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified--for the first
+time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that Lord
+Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all
+others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when
+his fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss
+Ponsonby. It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father
+required her to grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a
+repetition of the proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in
+vain. It was otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more
+kind and unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss
+Ponsonby to think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she
+was glad, however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or
+annoyed. Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he
+had spent in her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire
+whether time might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby's determination.
+And when he had received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he
+only expressed his wishes for her future happiness, which he could not
+doubt.
+
+'I feel,' said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; 'I feel,' he
+said, in a very hesitating voice, 'I am taking a great, an unwarrantable
+liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could
+venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your
+welfare.
+
+Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with
+kindness.'
+
+'I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were
+engaged to another.'
+
+Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with
+blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces.
+
+'Is this a fair inquiry?' she murmured. 'It is for your sake I inquire,'
+answered Lord Bohun.
+
+Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was
+thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at
+length something of her mysterious lover.
+
+'What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?' She spoke without
+raising her head.
+
+'In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a
+treasure.'
+
+'You speak of Edmund Ferrers?' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'The same.'
+
+'You know him?' she inquired, in a choking voice.
+
+'I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not
+boast a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more
+blessed.'
+
+'Shall you see him?' she inquired in a quick tone.
+
+'Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his
+movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you
+have sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again;
+and methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here,
+Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as
+well as that of your lord's. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _A Welcome Message_
+
+THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without
+a certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta
+Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often
+mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling,
+indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom
+she had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of
+Ferrers in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual
+seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted
+it with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations.
+Here, too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side--the beautiful and
+bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple
+life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love,
+indeed, is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic--it changes all
+things; and the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing,
+becomes as rife with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate
+theatre of some old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her
+mysterious and absent lover was at her side-but then he spoke only
+Greek. In vain she tried to make him comprehend how much she desired to
+have tidings of his master. The graceful mute could only indulge in airy
+pantomime, point to the skies and ocean, or press his hand to his heart
+in token of fidelity. Henrietta amused herself in teaching Spiridion
+Italian, and repaid herself for all her trouble in occasionally
+obtaining some slight information of her friend. In time she learned
+that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord Bohun before the departure
+of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and often-repeated inquiries
+whether he would soon return, Spiridion was constant to his consoling
+affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress of languages as
+Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian scarf, which
+the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his master when
+Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the scarf for a
+Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour.
+
+Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page,
+rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below
+the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that
+a vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an
+English vessel--it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and
+watched the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed
+the British Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also
+immediately return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal--upon
+a white ground a crimson heart--whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his
+breast a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away.
+
+He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace
+until he arrived at the Consul's mansion--he rushed in, dashed up the
+staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the
+sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby--her gaze was serious, but her
+beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched
+by gloom--pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still
+echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on
+which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were
+her gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of
+him whom she had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful,
+confiding maiden! It was the strength of thy mind as much as the
+simplicity of thy heart that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who
+would not envy thy unknown adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for
+weak minds and cold-blooded spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou
+wast just, for, behold, he is true!
+
+A fluttering sound roused her--she turned her head, and expected to see
+her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he
+held towards her a letter. She seized it--she recognised in an instant
+the handwriting she had so often studied--it was his! Yes! it was his.
+It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her hand
+trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read, and
+she read these words:--
+
+'If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which
+since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me
+to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my
+bride; but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let
+nothing be known to our father.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Mystery Revealed_
+
+MY DEAREST Henrietta,' said the Consul as he entered, 'who, think you,
+has returned? Lord Bohun.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Henrietta. 'Have you seen him?' 'No. I paid my respects
+to him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow,
+at ten.'
+
+The morrow came, but ten o'clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven
+sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her--he was surprised
+to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early ramble. At
+this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that, from some
+error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited the
+Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As
+he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and--Mr.
+Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was
+about to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she
+disappeared down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted
+her father--
+
+'You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?'
+
+'I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?'
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+'I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major
+Ponsonby,' continued Mr. Ferrers.
+
+'I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I
+must go and greet his lordship.'
+
+'Oh, never mind Bohun,' said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. 'I have no
+ceremony with him--he can wait.'
+
+The major was a little perplexed.
+
+'You must know, my dearest sir,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'that I wish to
+speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.'
+
+'Proceed, sir,' said the Consul, looking still more puzzled.
+
+'You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire
+your daughter.'
+
+The Consul bowed.
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Ferrers; 'it seems to me impossible to know her and
+not admire: I should say, adore her.'
+
+'You flatter a father's feelings,' said the Consul.
+
+'I express my own,' replied Mr. Ferrers. 'I love her--I have long loved
+her devotedly.'
+
+'Hem!' said Major Ponsonby.
+
+'I feel,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'that there is a great deal to
+apologise for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that
+my conduct may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will
+not say that the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end
+was, at least, a great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.'
+
+'I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'It is some consolation to me,' continued that gentleman, 'that the
+daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I
+may be as successful with the father.'
+
+'I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must
+own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and
+shake hands with Lord Bohun.'
+
+'I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my
+dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby,
+with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this
+island. This knowledge is necessary for my justification.'
+
+'But what is there to justify?' inquired the major.
+
+'Conceive a man born to a great fortune,' continued Mr. Ferrers, without
+noticing the interruption, 'and to some accidents of life, which many
+esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth--conceive this
+man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in
+that great world with which you are not unacquainted--conceive him with
+a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe and
+the victim of all whom he encounters--conceive him, in disgust, flying
+from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of those
+accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to his
+morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery--conceive this
+man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of
+which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own
+sake--a miserable man, sir!'
+
+'It would seem so,' said the Consul.
+
+'Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession
+of all for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for
+himself, and loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his
+purest youth: yet the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his
+joy. He is haunted by the suspicion that the affection, even of this
+being, is less the result of his own qualities, than of her inexperience
+of life--he has everything at stake--he dares to submit her devotion to
+the sharpest trial--he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain
+with which he had enveloped himself--he quits her with the distinct
+understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit
+to return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret
+from the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that
+his name shall be traduced in her presence--that the proudest fortune,
+the loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will
+renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major
+Ponsonby!'
+
+'Indeed, most terrible.'
+
+'But she is true--truer even than truth--and I have come back to claim
+my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?'
+
+'I speak, then-----' murmured the astounded Consul--
+
+'To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!'
+
+
+
+
+WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _A Philosophical  Conversation between a Physician and
+     His Patient._
+
+DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was
+not only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy
+of his patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between
+medicine and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to
+Walstein. The physician looked forward to the interview with his patient
+with some degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had
+never yet met that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his
+travels, and who had been absent from his country for several years.
+
+When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was
+admitted into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and
+ascending a double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a
+magnificent gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient
+statues were ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were
+suspended many beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them
+were dwarf bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and
+crowned with Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a
+man of taste, looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he
+was gazing on a group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of
+whom he had heard much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and
+turning round, Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of
+youth, but of very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and
+graceful manner. 'I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting
+you to be a moment alone,' said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile.
+
+'Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,' replied the
+physician. 'There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of
+your father, Mr. Walstein.'
+
+''Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,' replied
+Walstein, 'the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a
+_pococurante_, I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the
+commonplace.'
+
+'Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,' replied
+Schulembourg.
+
+Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be
+seated. 'I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,' he observed,
+somewhat abruptly. 'My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that
+a physician is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I
+am in excellent health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My
+temperament I have ever considered to be of a very sanguine character.
+I have nothing upon my mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto
+I have only committed blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless,
+I have, of late, become the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy,
+which I can ascribe to no cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you
+throw any light upon my dark feelings? Can you remove them?'
+
+'How long have you experienced them?' inquired the physician.
+
+'More or less ever since my return,' replied Walstein; 'but most
+grievously during the last three months.'
+
+'Are you in love?' inquired Schulembourg.
+
+'Certainly not,' replied Walstein, 'and I fear I never shall be.'
+
+'You have been?' inquired the physician.
+
+'I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,' answered the patient; 'but
+youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and,
+in all probability, never will be.'
+
+'Besides an idea of a heroine,' said Schulembourg, 'you have also, if I
+mistake not, an idea of a hero?'
+
+'Without doubt,' replied Walstein. 'I have preconceived for myself a
+character which I have never achieved.'
+
+'Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero,
+why should you complain?' rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+'There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,' said
+Walstein.
+
+'And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of
+our mistress,' rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+'You reason,' said Walstein. 'I was myself once fond of reasoning, but
+the greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is
+not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from
+passion.'
+
+'Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,' observed Schulembourg.
+
+'And thus we pass the ocean of life,' said Walstein. 'Would that I
+could discover a new continent of sensation!'
+
+'Do you mix much in society?' said the physician.
+
+'By fits and starts,' said Walstein. 'A great deal when I first
+returned: of late little.'
+
+'And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?'
+
+'It would superficially appear so,' observed Walstein; 'but I consider
+my present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the
+reaction of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a
+sense of disappointment of the past.'
+
+'You are disappointed,' observed Schulembourg. 'What, then, did you
+expect?'
+
+'I do not know,' replied Walstein; 'that is the very thing I wish to
+discover.'
+
+'How do you in general pass your time?' inquired the physician.
+
+'When I reply _in doing nothing_, my dear Doctor,' said Walstein,
+'you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But
+perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.'
+
+'Do you read?'
+
+'I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but
+books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering
+life.'
+
+'Do you write?'
+
+'I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate
+reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.'
+
+'Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your
+own feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.'
+
+'My sympathies are strong,' replied Walstein. 'In an evil hour I might
+descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd;
+I should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.'
+
+'You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?'
+
+'Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very
+evanescent.'
+
+'Travel is action,' replied Schulembourg. 'Believe me, that in action
+you alone can find a cure.'
+
+'What is action?' inquired Walstein. 'Travel I have exhausted. The world
+is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a
+career?'
+
+'Action,' replied Schulembourg, 'is the exercise of our faculties. Do
+not mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life
+almost within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action.
+Witness the convents and the churches that are covered with his
+exploits. A great student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or
+a statesman. You must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an
+object in life; great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe
+me, it is better to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.'
+
+'Your advice is profound,' replied Walstein, 'and you have struck upon a
+sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.'
+
+'You are a very ambitious man,' replied the physician.
+
+'How know you that?' said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly
+blushing.
+
+'We doctors know many strange things,' replied Schulembourg, with a
+smile. 'Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?'
+
+'Prime minister of Oberon!' said Walstein, laughing; ''tis indeed a
+great destiny.'
+
+'Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate
+themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a
+prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.'
+
+'Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.'
+
+Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which
+he handed to his patient.
+
+Walstein smiled as he read the prescription.
+
+'Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein's
+company at dinner, to-morrow at two o'clock.'
+
+Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his
+promise. 'I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Containing Some Future Conversation_
+
+WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The
+house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was
+situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been
+presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa,
+which recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights
+of marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion,
+all painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon
+the terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases
+sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains
+were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and
+bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet
+and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky,
+and threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and
+serene, floated the airy crescent of the young white moon.
+
+'My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,' exclaimed
+Walstein.
+
+The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered
+through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an
+octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved
+away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was
+Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to
+apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest.
+
+Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely
+beautiful. Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks
+of ebon hair shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her
+large and deep blue eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The
+expression of her face was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played
+like meteors on her soft round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head
+was carelessly tied under her chin, and fastened with a white rose of
+pearls. Her vest and train of white satin did not conceal her sylphlike
+form and delicate feet. She held forth a little white hand to Walstein,
+adorned only by a single enormous ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring
+ease.
+
+'I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr.
+Walstein,' said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around,
+and recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being
+introduced, for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor.
+
+'I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,' said Walstein,
+addressing the latter gentleman. 'You have left your fame behind you
+at Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least
+accompanied with admiration.' The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly
+blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid,
+petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly
+and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with
+a true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even
+when enthusiastic.
+
+'It is difficult to remember we are in the North,' said Walstein to
+Madame Schulembourg, 'amid these colonnades and orange trees.'
+
+'It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,' replied the
+lady, 'and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.'
+
+'You have resided long in Italy?' inquired Walstein.
+
+'I was born at Milan,' replied Madame de Schulembourg, 'my father
+commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.'
+
+'I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,' said
+Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady.
+
+'Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,' replied
+Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; 'is it not so, Mr. Revel?'
+
+The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady's mother,
+whom he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then
+they exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they
+were conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: 'I must
+compensate for keeping you from dinner,' said their host, 'by having the
+pleasure of announcing that it is prepared.'
+
+He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the
+dining-room. The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her
+side.
+
+The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German
+dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with
+an ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman
+was an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent,
+without that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to
+a finished man of the world. The host was himself ever animated and
+cheerful, but calm and clear--and often addressed himself to the artist,
+who was silent, and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein
+himself, indeed, was not very talkative, but his manner indicated that
+he was interested, and when he made an observation it was uttered with
+facility, and arrested attention by its justness or its novelty. It was
+an agreeable party.
+
+They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the
+supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very
+sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest
+of the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg
+avowed her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary.
+Schulembourg philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he
+was a magnetiser, and his explanations were more marvellous than the
+portents.
+
+'And you, Mr. Walstein,' said Madame de Schulembourg, 'what is your
+opinion?'
+
+'I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the
+burthen of daily reality,' replied Walstein.
+
+'You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,' observed Mr. Revel, bowing to
+the sculptor.
+
+'Novalis is an astrologer,' said Madame Schulembourg; 'I think he would
+just suit you.'
+
+'Destiny is a grand subject,' observed Walstein, 'and although I am not
+prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be
+surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.'
+
+'That has been the belief of great spirits,' observed the sculptor, his
+countenance brightening with more assurance.
+
+'It is true,' replied Walstein, 'I would rather err with my great
+namesake and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.'
+
+'That is a dangerous speech, Baron,' said Schulembourg.
+
+'With regard to destiny,' said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist
+of the old school, 'everything depends upon a man's nature; the
+ambitious will rise, and the grovelling will crawl--those whose volition
+is strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the
+consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.'
+
+Schulembourg shook his head. 'By a man's nature you mean his structure,'
+said the physician, 'much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but
+structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to
+sympathy.'
+
+'It is true,' replied the sculptor; 'and what is the influence of the
+stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?'
+
+'I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,' remarked Walstein;
+'this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de
+Schulembourg.'
+
+'On the contrary,' she replied, 'the mystical ever delights me.'
+
+'Yet,' continued Walstein, 'perceiving that the discontent and
+infelicity of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his
+intelligence and his knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant
+and the simple.'
+
+'A man can only be content,' replied Schulembourg, 'when his career is
+in harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great
+physical activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in
+spite of great physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence,
+under the influence of the action which is necessary to their living,
+counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure,
+when he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man
+of genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being
+developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that
+sublime art so ill-comprehended!'
+
+'I agree with you,' said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of
+Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; 'all the scrapes and unhappiness
+of my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be
+ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out
+of a man who wished to be a soldier.'
+
+'And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,' replied
+Schulembourg; 'but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a
+noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady
+was not ashamed to marry me.'
+
+'I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,' said Novalis, his eyes
+flashing with enthusiasm. 'I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor
+mother's heart.'
+
+There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. 'As for
+myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out.
+Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This,
+however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen--at least it
+would be,' he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, 'were it
+not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.'
+
+'Come,' said Madame, rising, 'the carriages are at the door. Let us take
+a drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady._
+
+MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG'S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian
+ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was
+followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis
+stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. 'Caroline,'
+he said, as he bid his guest adieu, 'I commend Mr. Walstein to your
+care. When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend
+has escaped.'
+
+'I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,' replied Caroline,
+with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat.
+
+Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was
+as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue
+without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a
+flitting friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the
+road lined on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast
+beds of tall fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn.
+
+'Here, Mr. Walstein,' said Caroline, 'with your permission, I shall take
+my afternoon walk.' Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which
+she and her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she
+declined it, folding herself up in her shawl.
+
+'Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?' said
+Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+'At this moment, decidedly Dresden,' replied her companion.
+
+'Ah! that is a compliment,' said Madame de Schulembourg, after a
+moment's musing. 'My dear Mr. Walstein,' she continued, looking up with
+an arch expression, 'never pay me compliments.'
+
+'You mistake me: it was not a compliment,' replied Walstein. 'It was a
+sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable
+existence.'
+
+'You know that you are my patient,' rejoined Madame de Schulembourg.
+'I have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such
+complaints.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it,' replied Walstein, with a slight bow.
+
+'If we could but find out the cause!' continued Caroline. 'I venture to
+believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come,
+be frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with
+a fair Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our
+heroine a captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?'
+
+'Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences
+of their influence,' replied Walstein, 'and in general they are right.'
+
+'But in your case?'
+
+'Very wrong.'
+
+'I am determined to find it out,' said Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+'I wish to heaven you could,' said Baron de Walstein.
+
+'I think a wandering life has spoiled you,' said Caroline. 'I think it
+must be civilisation that you find wearisome.'
+
+'That would be very sublime,' replied Walstein. 'But I assure you,
+if there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the
+anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more
+than I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion
+without excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure,
+let me at least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene
+is with me exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be
+tempted to quit this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.'
+
+'I see how it is,' exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head
+very knowingly, 'you must marry.'
+
+'The last resource of feminine fancy!' exclaimed Walstein, almost
+laughing. 'You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle
+of the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de
+Schulembourg,' he continued, in a very serious tone, 'that, with
+my present sensations, I should consider it highly dishonourable to
+implicate any woman in my destiny.'
+
+'Ha! ha! ha!' laughed Madame; 'I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein,
+that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. 'Tis
+the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times
+before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.'
+
+'You have, indeed,' said Walstein; 'and perhaps, were I Doctor de
+Schulembourg, I might be as gay.'
+
+'Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on
+truth. The fact is, I think you are too much alone.'
+
+'I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,'
+replied Walstein. 'Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I
+am-----what I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your
+ridicule.'
+
+'Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise
+with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself.
+If you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an
+affair of climate.'
+
+'No,' said Walstein, still very serious, 'not an affair of
+climate--certainly not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we
+bear with its yoke as we do with all that is initiatory--with the solace
+of expectation. But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear
+to be no mysteries in which I am to be initiated.'
+
+'Then, after all, you want something to do?'
+
+'No doubt.'
+
+'What shall it be?' inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful
+air.
+
+'Ah! what shall it be?' echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; 'or,
+rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more
+unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?'
+
+'A career!' exclaimed Caroline. 'What, you want to set the world in
+a blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine
+speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very
+ambitious!'
+
+'I know not what I am,' replied Walstein; 'but I feel that my present
+lot is an intolerable burthen.'
+
+'But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the
+accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men
+struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that
+you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe
+me, my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to
+employ any man's faculties.'
+
+'My youth is fast fading, which I don't regret,' replied Walstein, 'for
+I am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to
+it, and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity
+of producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by
+no uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy
+does not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this
+afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his
+career must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of
+happiness to me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a
+mechanic?'
+
+'You must settle all this with Augustus,' replied Madame de
+Schulembourg; 'I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always
+tell Sidonia that he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him
+beyond description. Do you know him?'
+
+'Only by fame.'
+
+'He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you
+like to make his acquaintance?'
+
+'Authors are best known by their writings,' replied Walstein; 'I admire
+his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human
+heart, and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think
+and to utter in solitude.'
+
+'I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make
+the acquaintance of an admirer.'
+
+'I entreat you not,' replied Walstein, really alarmed. 'It is precisely
+because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What
+can the conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His
+appearance and his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is
+always interesting to indulge.'
+
+'Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a
+wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair.
+I am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,' continued
+Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. 'Do not think me heartless; all
+his passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has
+written to me every week--his letters are each time more reasonable.
+I have no doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work
+which will amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden
+quite cool. I delight in Sidonia--he is my especial favourite.'
+
+After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The
+public drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg
+gaily bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend.
+
+'Dear girls, come home with us this eve,' she exclaimed, as she curbed
+her ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young
+ladies who were seated within it with their mother. 'Let me introduce
+Mr. Walstein to you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise
+Augusta and Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is
+Emilius--How do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your
+Bavarian friend.'
+
+'How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?' inquired Augusta.
+
+'Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter;
+read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim;
+adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.' So they drove away.
+
+
+
+
+IBRAHIM PASHA
+
+THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety
+towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt,
+and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless
+well acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present
+condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success
+of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new
+basis, the political geography of the East.
+
+In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have
+fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the
+Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of
+history, from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when
+the Turkish Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally
+inquire what has become of the intellectual inheritance which the
+ancient inhabitants of these countries left behind them? Where are the
+successors of the skilful workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora;
+the navigators of Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of
+Chaldea? Several distinct characters of civilisation have successively
+flourished in this part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of
+the Pelasgi, correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the
+Phrygian monuments of Se�d� Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of
+Bagdad, and the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period,
+the baths, the amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the
+Archipelago; to the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in
+every direction the whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages,
+the church of Iznik.
+
+And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods
+produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at
+its last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand
+thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects
+together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in
+this part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis,
+who compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits
+and recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their
+last connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest--that
+they were only encamped in the land--that they had received a military
+organisation for a permanent state of warfare--that their headquarters
+was Constantinople--they have become attached to the soil, and shut
+themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal system, are
+divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their contempt for
+foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power.
+
+Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some
+degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller
+advances into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On
+approaching the central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that
+cultivation seldom extends beyond the distance of half a league round
+a village; the inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully
+avoid the vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical
+phenomenon, that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous
+and the richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that
+the passage of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than
+the fatal plague itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of
+Eske-Seher have been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at
+the head of 300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked
+by all the devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those
+horsemen called Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha,
+enters a village, the consternation is general, and followed by a system
+of exaction that to the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To
+complain to the Pasha would be to court instant destruction.
+
+From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at
+the passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and
+consequently the obstacles a European army would encounter which should
+ever be masters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans,
+a Nornase tribe, who sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the
+Archipelago, and who pay but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also
+another cause of devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers
+of the Pasha, who are the oppressors _par excellence_; they are always
+present to despoil the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common
+expression in the mouths of this oppressed race, 'but eyes wherewith to
+weep.' The welfare of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte,
+are things to them of the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise
+men and taxes; to obey, is to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost
+exclusively at forty or fifty leagues from the capital.
+
+But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every
+social tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent
+tribes--the cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis--a people who adore the
+spirit of Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and
+all those fierce natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the
+fastnesses of the Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the
+wandering Arabs, the pirates of the desert, and the mountaineers of
+Lebanon, who live in a state of perpetual discord. Over this immense
+line of countries centuries have passed, and left no trace behind;
+all that the ancients and the crusaders have related to us of them, is
+typical of their condition at this day. The bows and arrows, the armour,
+exhibited as objects of curiosity in our museums, are still in use
+among them. It is only by chance, or by profiting by their intestine
+divisions, that the authority of the Porte is recognised. The Pashas are
+mostly hereditary, and live in a state of perpetual insurrection. Thus
+from the shores of the Archipelago to the banks of the Euphrates and
+the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear to obey the same law of
+decrease.
+
+It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of
+Upper Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride
+of this monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has
+reached such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible
+to regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all
+those parts so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and
+organised into independent states. Towards the North, Russia has
+pushed on her battalions as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found
+more difficult, to govern Armenia from St. Petersburg than from
+Constantinople. In politics, the calculation of distances is an
+important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays claim to Syria,
+and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus and the sea--a
+territory in which she will find those resources she at present stands
+so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding, etc., a Christian
+population, among whom the seeds of European civilisation will be more
+easily implanted. She will thus form an empire that will one day become
+powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that system of monopoly so
+rigorously put in force by her present ruler.
+
+The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali,
+justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha
+had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it
+into his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league
+against him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated
+his pardon for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid.
+Interest soon prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there
+was more to be gained from Constantinople than from Cairo--that the
+authority of the Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than
+nominal, and that the Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be
+in a condition to prevent his exactions; he therefore sought, on every
+occasion, to get rid of the influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the
+jealousy of the Porte against him. An opportunity soon offered itself.
+Some Egyptian fellahs had taken refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha;
+Mehemet Ali demanded these men, but the Governor of Acre refused to give
+them up, on the plea that they were subjects of the Grand Signor, and
+referred the matter to the Porte, who on this occasion was seized with
+a fit of humanity, and _bewailed_ the oppression of the peasantry of the
+Valley of the Vale--_Inde Bellum_.' This was at the close of 1831.
+
+The moment was favourable for the Viceroy's great designs. Europe was
+sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention
+on the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open
+revolt, and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics
+on the side of Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the
+Russians, and his conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole
+empire. In the meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the
+government had extended to every object of production and industry,
+while the conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the
+population; and if to this organised system of spoliation we farther
+add the ravages of the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the
+wretched state of those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that
+the Egyptians were everywhere hailed as deliverers.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head
+of the Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that
+gigantic strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires
+such respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull
+with a blow of his scimitar--to execute, like Peter the Great, his
+victims with his own hand--to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks
+of champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his
+manners, from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat
+polished, and in deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and
+dignity--in fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good
+opinion of Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so
+distinguishes the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind.
+Soliman Bey, a renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff
+of Marshal Grouchy, was associated with him, and it is to him that the
+success of the Egyptian army may be chiefly attributed.
+
+Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered
+itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of
+Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends
+from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side
+by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from
+Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth
+about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most
+important military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of
+Saint Jean d'Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as
+the key to several valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan;
+Alexandretta, situated upon a tongue of land between the marshes and the
+sea; and lastly, Aentab and Zenyma, which command the two passages on
+the right side of Mount Amanus.
+
+We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all
+strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria.
+Malte Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at
+two millions, but we are inclined to question the accuracy of this
+calculation, since no two travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the
+Druses, some estimating them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks
+form two-fifths of the population--they inhabit the large towns with the
+Greeks; the remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs,
+of Kurds, and of Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes;
+of Bedouin Arabs, who pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and
+along the edge of the desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the
+descendants of the servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites,
+who profess the Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful;
+of all the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the
+sect of Ali; of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state
+of independence. We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this
+prodigious diversity of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep
+possession of. With the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north
+of Syria, all of them obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the
+Emir Bechir, a Druse, prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el
+Din, who revolted against Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when
+Abdallah raised the standard of revolt in 1822, sought the protection of
+Mehemet Ali, who re-established him in his government.
+
+Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular
+troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took
+the same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean
+d'Acre. Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha,
+Jerusalem, Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and
+Acre submitted at his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected
+reinforcements both in men and material, he made haste to occupy the
+whole line of coast as far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of
+November, before Saint Jean d'Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular
+infantry, two regiments of lancers, 1,000 Bedouins, two companies of
+sappers, one of cannoniers, one of bombardiers, and a train of field
+and siege artillery. The place is situated on a promontory surrounded on
+three sides by the sea, and defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned
+by a tower, which serves as a citadel. This last fort, the bastions
+of which, from their retiring flanks being too short, is the only one
+accessible on the land side, but it was enfiladed from a neighbouring
+height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint Jean d'Acre, was destitute of
+siege artillery, and was not master of the sea. He had, therefore, many
+more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim.
+
+During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very
+vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor
+before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was
+made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the
+fleet and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The
+besieged on their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a
+heavy loss, and several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th
+to the 18th the bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy
+guns were placed in battery. The operations of the siege were now
+pushed forward with great ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate
+reduction of the place. The defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by
+the most determined energy. He had sworn, it was reported, that he would
+blow up the town. It was, however, of the utmost importance to push
+forward the operations with the greatest activity. The first disposition
+of the population, which had been favourable, might undergo a change
+should not Ibrahim succeed in striking a great blow. The mountaineers of
+Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and
+were ready to furnish a contingent of their warriors.
+
+The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread
+terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated,
+and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she
+summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her
+orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of
+December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed
+governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent
+to the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims
+of Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict
+injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of
+Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars
+was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of
+the subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every
+day the efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its
+authority, encountered new obstacles.
+
+The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held
+out for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as
+an hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran
+Osman Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of
+Tripoli, but it was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms.
+-This port was already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha
+Agar Barbar, a man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier
+Mehemet Pasha consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular
+horsemen, and fourteen small field-pieces.
+
+The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the
+Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint
+Jean d'Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his
+troops over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play
+upon the town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the
+castle were also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped
+up to the very houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of
+musketry, which, galling them severely, drove them across the heights.
+Night put an end to the affair.
+
+A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his
+lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d'Acre and wishing
+to reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six
+field-pieces, before Osman's camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately
+abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the
+Pasha of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general
+immediately pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened
+upon this point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he
+retired, after some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his
+camp, and was joined by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men.
+But his presence was required in other quarters. Divisions had broken
+out at several points, and the slowness with which the operations of the
+siege of Saint Jean d'Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his
+partisans.
+
+At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the
+Cadi, the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable
+reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive
+dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean
+d'Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the
+19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians
+made the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and
+experienced a heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it
+was again closed up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace
+was destroyed, and Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by
+Djezzar. The garrison was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last,
+on the 27th of May, a general assault was made. Three breaches were
+practicable, one on the tower of Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh
+Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six battalions had the horrors of the attack,
+which commenced at daybreak and lasted twelve hours.
+
+At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but
+Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and
+having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault.
+Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he
+was obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429
+wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d'Acre, after a memorable
+defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim
+the possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect
+security.
+
+While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the
+war, the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of
+March, Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and
+by the extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but
+in other respects, a soldier _� la Turc_, was appointed chief of the
+expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the
+empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly
+invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar.
+He received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly
+caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the
+army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at
+Konisk.
+
+By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the
+army had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers.
+The mass of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha's brigade of
+infantry, with the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of
+irregulars, under the orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender
+Pasha's brigade of infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha's
+brigade, with the cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was
+accompanied by its batteries. An European organisation had been given
+to the different services, such as the paymaster-general's department,
+commissariat, etc. The Sultan had written out many of the regulations
+with his own hand.
+
+The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of
+Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops,
+under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with
+all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European
+instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of
+artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army
+had they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and
+experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two
+former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by
+the Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back.
+As for Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his
+endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every
+branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against
+him, and he retired in disgust.
+
+On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he
+displayed the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in
+vain that the European inspectors requested him to put in force 'the
+regulation for troops in the field,' of the French general Prevan, which
+had been translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than
+were their complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence
+and negligence of the chiefs.
+
+The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his
+army. The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military
+administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact,
+it was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted,
+once overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that
+the Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an
+arm which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000
+Janizaries. This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to
+unsheathe this weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor
+Mehemet Ali, and his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied
+the Turkish history must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would
+find at last his master--the executioner; but since the late victories
+of the Russians, all national faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis.
+Excommunication is an arm as worn out at Constantinople as at Rome.
+
+Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she
+directed a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which
+she explained the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded
+the strictest neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared
+Egypt in a state of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul
+from Alexandria, and even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary
+corps d'armee. Austria, an enemy to all revolutions, went so far as
+to threaten the Viceroy. England appeared to preserve the strictest
+neutrality, while France strenuously employed all her influence to bring
+about an accommodation; but in vain.
+
+The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the
+question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that
+calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three
+weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on
+the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker's
+brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons,
+brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d'Acre. It became,
+therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to
+march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to
+Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for
+a fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached
+Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days
+were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim's delay to take up a more
+advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes,
+and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with
+the Turkish irregulars.
+
+But all Ibrahim's operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After
+securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns,
+which offered an excellent position, where they might have established
+a communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and
+whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not
+till the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet
+Pasha commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue
+rations to the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost
+dead with hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with
+his irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning
+even to think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or
+to issue rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain
+ceremonies.
+
+The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into
+a magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the
+two viziers made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the
+hargueleh.
+
+Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian
+army was within two hours' march of them. The disorder that ensued was
+dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the
+Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light
+troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of
+which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of
+a hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish
+regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their
+irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus
+the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had
+an opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European
+instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery
+even refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not
+remain inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from
+right to left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the
+Orontes, but they were checked by part of Beker's brigade and two pieces
+of cannon. Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire.
+In the course of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered
+considerably.
+
+Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead
+of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement,
+he put himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who
+immediately formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned
+by his artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy,
+fell back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried.
+The second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour;
+and on the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a
+decisive charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in
+the most disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy's cavalry. It was a
+general _sauve qui peut_. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish
+army from total destruction. The loss of the Sultan's forces in this
+affair amounted to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners.
+
+The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead
+of rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha's brigade, which was encamped at two
+hours' march from the field of battle, fled with them.
+
+The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the _t�te du
+pont_ on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the
+point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who
+endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself
+to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably
+calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was
+able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it.
+Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing
+anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military
+chest, impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying
+nowhere and holding up the name of his master to universal execration.
+At the action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that
+there yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal
+allowed an army to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable
+organisation. Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for
+Antioch, with the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the
+neighbourhood of Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts,
+he returned by forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his
+troops by a march of eight hundred leagues.
+
+However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and
+made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country
+declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to
+him. His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his
+protection the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There
+now only remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize
+Antioch and Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with
+extreme slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a
+decision favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish
+field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania.
+
+Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he
+disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile
+of Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some
+places that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand
+route of the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet
+on the 5th of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after
+an action of two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the
+conqueror Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces
+of cannon. The Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable
+positions which the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana.
+Ibrahim pursued them with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a
+ford, Hussein Pasha having blown up the superb bridge of nine arches
+that crossed that river at Missis.
+
+The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana,
+but they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by
+the enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The
+whole district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length
+reached the new line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the
+boundaries of his empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of
+the Egyptians upon Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers
+of Hussein Pasha deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the
+Anatolian peasantry murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could
+find them, which was not difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the
+provinces of Upper Asia were in such a state of insurrection that a
+single officer of Ibrahim's would have been sufficient to make the most
+considerable town capitulate.
+
+The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the
+Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari.
+But his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise,
+for however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would
+have appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could
+not have prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he
+succeeded in these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been
+the result? Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would
+have found himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its
+base, which no human power can regenerate.
+
+Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France,
+and endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the
+Porte, listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the
+blind obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories
+of the Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an
+armistice of five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was
+succeeded by the Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had
+distinguished himself in Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro
+Pasha. Brave and accustomed to the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was
+superior to his predecessor, but even he was only a Turkish general.
+He had been selected principally on account of his great influence
+in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received orders to repair to
+Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians and Albanians, of
+which they knew he could dispose, and with the six regiments of infantry
+and cavalry that belonged to them.
+
+In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in
+re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it
+was echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops
+brought by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have
+prevented Ibrahim's further advance; but there was neither skill in
+the general nor ardour among the troops; the councils of the European
+instructors were, as usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on
+the contrary, was almost exclusively under the direction of European
+officers. A single piece of artillery would have sufficed to defend the
+passage of the Taurus, and yet when Ibrahim appeared on its northern
+declivity he had to encounter but a few irregulars, of whom he soon gave
+a good account. He then fixed his camp on the plain of Erekli, at one
+hundred and sixty days' march of a camel from Constantinople, and then
+advanced upon Koniah.
+
+Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish
+army until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken
+at the approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of
+Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of
+taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour
+of the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced.
+The cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads
+rendered so impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the
+artillery and ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found
+themselves, as at Horns, without provisions in the presence of the
+enemy.
+
+Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at
+the head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the
+mountains up the village of Lil�, which was occupied by a strong
+detachment of Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand
+army, was to pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been
+simultaneous, but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the
+scene of action, and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check,
+the Grand Vizier continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in
+presence of the enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared
+to give him a warm reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st
+of December), and from the advanced hour of the day there was no
+alternative but to attack, otherwise he must have passed a night upon
+the field, without bread, exposed to the action of an intense cold that
+would have paralysed the ardour of the troops.
+
+Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order
+of battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering
+useless a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to
+alter his dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not
+reconnoitre the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension
+of front. His left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained
+formed in columns of attack, while the enemy's artillery committed
+dreadful havoc on their profound masses. He committed also another
+fault, that of placing his artillery between the interval of the lines,
+so that it did not reach the Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary,
+posted in their front, did great execution.
+
+Mehemet Redchid's main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his
+forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy's army,
+whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But
+Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point
+attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his
+adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the
+Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and
+afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus
+found itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled.
+
+Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last
+effort, but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed,
+and fell, severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss
+of the Turks was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the
+line, left 3,000 men upon the field of battle.
+
+The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was
+annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and
+the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the
+Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at
+stake rather than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on
+independent sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that
+he owes this glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is
+rapidly sinking under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which
+European diplomacy will in vain attempt to arrest.
+
+
+
+
+THE COURT OF EGYPT
+
+TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is
+Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the
+banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the
+gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is
+one of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember.
+
+Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive
+before you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of
+marble steps. These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large
+quadrangular colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake,
+studded by three or four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken
+cords. The colonnade terminates towards the water by a very noble marble
+balustrade, the top of which is covered with groups of various kinds of
+fish in high relief. At each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives
+way to a flight of steps which are guarded by crocodiles of immense
+size, admirably sculptured in white marble. On the farther side the
+colonnade opens into a great number of very brilliant banqueting-rooms,
+which you enter by withdrawing curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour
+vividly contrasting with the white shining marble of which the whole
+kiosk is formed. It is a frequent diversion of the Pasha himself to
+row some favourite Circassians in one of the barques and to overset
+his precious freight in the midst of the lake. As his Highness piques
+himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba or exterior robe of
+coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same terrors it would offer
+to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians shrieking, with their
+streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian eunuchs rushing to their
+aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade, or dashing down the t
+marble steps,--all this forms an agreeable relaxation after the labours
+of the Divan.
+
+All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court
+of Egypt. The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy
+countenances, clothed in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering
+Damascus sabres, and gently bounding on their snow-white steeds, is,
+perhaps, the most picturesque corps in the world. The numerous harem,
+the crowds of civil functionaries and military and naval officers
+in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the vast number of pages and
+pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly attired attendants, the
+splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has an absolute passion,
+the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred dromedaries, altogether form
+a blending of splendour and luxury which easily recall the golden days
+of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph.
+
+Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious
+summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the
+Bairam the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is
+it easy to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms
+were all open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in
+gorgeous groups, some standing and conversing, some seated on small
+Persian carpets smoking pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees
+lounging, in their crimson shawls and scarlet vests, over the white
+balustrade, and flinging their glowing shadows over the moonlit water:
+from every quarter came bursts of melody, and each moment the river
+breeze brought gusts of perfume on its odorous wings.
+
+
+
+
+THE VALLEY OF THEBES
+
+UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side
+affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and
+hills of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl
+hundred miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile
+to the vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the
+most picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern
+capital, we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most
+celebrated of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian,
+or Latin city--Athens, or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of
+Persepolis, nor the columns of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent,
+variety, and sublime dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes.
+
+These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions:
+two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the
+river Nile--Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and
+Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are
+the cemeteries of the great city--the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles
+in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the
+queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs
+of the kings.
+
+The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few
+Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those
+gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is
+sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and
+museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the
+roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population
+of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in
+the tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the
+notice of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a
+lofty platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that
+colossal genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted
+to rival. The entrance to this temple is through a magnificent
+propylon;-that is, a portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two
+hundred feet in breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil.
+This gate is entirely covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph
+of a conquering monarch.
+
+On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite,
+buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the
+top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a
+little in advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect
+obelisks remaining. One of them is now at Paris;--that famous obelisk of
+Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass
+into a peristyle court,--about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one
+hundred and seventy--the roof of which was once supported by double rows
+of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other pyramidal
+gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in all
+probability, of a more ancient date than those first described.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile
+in extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink
+before the first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes--of
+architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures
+of Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more
+gigantic; the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive:
+but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and
+courts of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of
+colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that
+of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture--a rare omission,
+and doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken.
+The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+
+Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin's-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones--compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks--has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and
+propyla are completely covered with sculptured forms.
+
+I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory
+aches with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger
+than most temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups
+around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal
+splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and
+what ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and
+the solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi,
+one of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see
+him still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of
+Thebes. This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered
+with inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they
+had listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
+companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
+enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which
+may yet be traced.
+
+The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides
+we recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
+supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
+came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure,
+though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude
+is concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
+supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate
+in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge
+colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
+granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is
+entirely obliterated. It lies upon its back, and in its fall has
+destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet
+round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and
+the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a
+man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a
+palace; and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find
+represented on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing
+chess with his queen. It is these domestic details that render also the
+sepulchres of Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be
+studied in their tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived,
+we must frequent their burial-places. A curious instance of this is,
+that, in a tomb near Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians
+procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with
+which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and
+primary characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say
+Imagination, as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the
+Greeks. Thus, when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs,
+they blended the delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention
+of the Nile, and produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the
+Pharaohs, however, that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the
+pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the
+sphinx.
+
+It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the
+Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque
+was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last
+beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the
+columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious
+voyage, were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade,
+almost unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his
+pipe-bearer, and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition,
+descended from the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and
+approached the boat. I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be
+hailed in my native tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a
+place, to find a countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he
+told me that he had lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the
+antiquities, the history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I
+availed myself of his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying
+him, I found that I was a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a
+gloomy dwelling-place. A platform, carved in the mountain, was
+surrounded by a mud wall and tower, to protect it from hostile Arabs.
+A couple of gazelles played in this front court, while we, reposing on a
+divan, arranged round the first chamber of the tomb, were favoured with
+a most commanding view of the valley outspread beneath. There were
+several inner chambers, separated from each other by hangings of scarlet
+cloth. Many apartments in the Albany have I seen not half as pleasant
+and convenient. I found a library, and instruments of art and science;
+a companion full of knowledge, profound in Oriental manners, and
+thoroughly master of the subject which naturally then most interested
+me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but the unusual convenience of
+forks was not wanting, and my host told me that they were the very ones
+that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never forget that first day
+at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then unknown to fame,
+but whom the world has since recognised--the learned, the ingenious, and
+amiable Mr. Wilkinson.
+
+
+
+
+EGYPTIAN THEBES
+
+THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian
+architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the
+Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich
+invention of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations
+of architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined
+Philoe--such the magnificent Dendera--such the sumptuous Edfou!
+
+All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the
+greatest empires,--the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of
+the Romans; the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and
+Sicilians; the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the
+pillars of Palmyra and Girgenti,--sink into insignificance when compared
+with the structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind
+makes a leap amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New
+combinations rise upon our limited invention and contract the
+taste,--the pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the
+obelisk, the sphinx.
+
+Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source
+baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when
+the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are
+the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading
+to the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150
+miles of the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an
+immense plain, once the granary of the world.
+
+A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear,
+and guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this
+country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are
+few,--some rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears.
+Are his ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with
+beautiful sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in
+height? It is well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile,
+over the perfectibility of man.
+
+A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and
+although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least
+decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are
+incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they
+are dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter
+into a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous
+here only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner,
+some idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the
+Egyptian antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the
+marvellous creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman
+which shall unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and
+romantic history.
+
+I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval,
+at once inform me that it was constructed by a 'Son of the Sun,' or
+a 'Phrah,' or 'Pharaoh.' It is remarkable that the Greeks never once
+mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated
+it by their celebrated personification, 'Sol,' or 'Apollo.' In the
+obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore
+read, in the third column, instead of 'the powerful Apollo,' 'the
+powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun.' Proceeding with the
+inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses
+the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised
+some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes.
+
+The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
+mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his
+own results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
+suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of
+the hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
+genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must
+be studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing
+with sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
+catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
+traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient
+of nations.
+
+Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous
+ruins, the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know
+by the inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly
+celebrate the achievements of a great conqueror,--Rameses the Second, or
+the Great, whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than
+fifteen hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore,
+demonstrate the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand
+years back. Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes
+and the Amunophs, are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty.
+Thothmes the Fourth, one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the
+Pyramids; as for the Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they
+were not raised at the comparatively late period ascribed to them
+by Herodotus and Diodorus. No monuments in Egypt can be compared in
+antiquity with these buildings; and the names of the predecessors of
+Rameses the Great are found in their vicinity, evidently sculptured at
+a much later epoch. 'The Pyramids are at least ten thousand years old,'
+said Champollion to a friend of mine in Egypt, rubbing his hands, with
+eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of triumphant research.
+
+It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of
+Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no
+Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the
+Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch--Rameses the
+First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that
+Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most
+powerful enemy,' and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation
+with fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and
+well-wooded country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians,
+who, according to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and
+Semiramis. Thothmes the Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the
+First, carried on this war with uncertain success. The successor of
+Rameses the First, whose phonetic name is doubtful, was not unworthy
+of the son whom the gods accorded to him as a reward for his valour
+and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the war in person,
+and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of Karnak--a
+sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and
+historians--we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of
+infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty
+walls and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country
+in advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the
+progress of the invader's chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh
+returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of
+rich and fantastic tribute.
+
+The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great.
+Following the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led
+a numerous and chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the
+Egyptians. He passed along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without
+doubt, Syria, since the name of Rameses the Second is still found on
+that shore, near the ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued
+his march into the interior, where we at length find him opposed by a
+powerful force on the banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates.
+On the opposite bank of the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city.
+The battle is fought and won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue
+for peace. The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often
+sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with
+scaling-ladders and the testudo. And what was this city? Was it Babylon?
+Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is it at this remote period, to read for
+the first time, the Gazettes of the Pharaohs! It does not appear to have
+been the object of the Egyptians to make a permanent settlement in these
+conquered countries. They laid waste the land, they accumulated plunder,
+they secured peace by the dread of their arms, and, returning home with
+the same rapidity that they advanced, they enjoyed and commemorated
+their victories in the embellishment of their majestic cities. The
+remainder of the long reign of Rameses the Great was passed in the
+cultivation of the arts. A greater number of monuments, statues, and
+temples bear the name of this king than of any other who ruled in Egypt,
+and there are few remains of any city in that country where it is not
+met with. To him we are indebted alike for the rock temples of Nubia,
+and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised that splendid structure
+on the western side of Thebes, supported by colossal statues, which is
+foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great additions to Karnak; he
+built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned the great temple of
+Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently had a passion;
+and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples, especially in Nubia,
+which it would be tedious to recount, and other remains, he cut the
+famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may have been the
+actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no Egyptian
+king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then allow
+that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
+former-too great for the limited power of Europe--and remain persuaded,
+that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the utmost extent
+of his march was confined to the countries bordering on Assyria, Arabia,
+and part of �thiopia, from which country he is represented as receiving
+tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second secured a long peace to
+Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however, are celebrated for the
+creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes, leading from Luxor
+to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous evidence of the
+prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs. War, however,
+broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly against another
+power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning victorious, the
+third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the temple and the
+palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting period of
+Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom bore the
+name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they were
+distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons which
+may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the reign
+of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
+records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It
+is useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose
+blinded conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total
+darkness in which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous
+musical statue of Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and
+serene, on the plain of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height,
+and the base of the figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and
+Roman travellers, vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise
+melody. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at
+Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to
+me to have solved the mystery of this music. He informed me that having
+ascended the statue, he discovered that some metallic substance had been
+inserted in its breast, which, when struck, emitted a very melodious
+sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have
+ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the
+mighty arms while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable,
+there was probably some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this
+statue, with its remaining companion, although now isolated in their
+situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the ruins of which yet
+remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks to the phonetic
+system, we now know that this musical statue is one of Amunoph the
+Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The truth is,
+the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over modern
+knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no
+conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos.
+Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few
+marauding clans.
+
+'Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the
+books of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs?
+
+'Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred
+waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic
+stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates;
+alas! for the mysterious Nile!'
+
+It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on
+any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed,
+more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a
+fanciful resemblance. It responds in every particular.
+
+I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of
+it is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however
+curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader,
+and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates.
+
+The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes--a valley formed by ranges
+of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian desert,
+and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red Sea. On
+each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the side of
+the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great temple
+called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the general
+title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures
+comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the
+Lybian side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves
+of Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains,
+the tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk
+the famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred
+Gates now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of
+mud huts clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a
+single one of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe
+for their palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often,
+indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a
+single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of
+Gornou, in number between three and four hundred, reside solely in the
+tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the
+traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform.
+Its enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of
+the Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance
+to this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal
+flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and
+rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered
+with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the
+supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues
+of red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring
+thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side
+of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that
+remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the
+propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty
+feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once
+supported by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so
+on through other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers
+which are, in all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and
+obelisks and colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by
+Rameses, who commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building
+still more famous.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile
+in extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either
+_andro_ or _crio_ sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with
+the man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at
+length penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and
+they are monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak,
+was raised by the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and
+represents their long line of ancestry.
+
+All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak.
+It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be
+unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus
+of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more
+curious and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious
+wonders of the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to
+one general impression of colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul's, and its height exceeds
+that of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare
+omission, and doubtless intended, that the unity of the effect should
+not be broken. The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in
+height.
+
+Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place,
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin's-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and
+propyla, are completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not
+attempt to describe any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with
+the effort; there are many buildings attached to it, larger than most
+temples; there are an infinite number of gates, and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in glorious
+groups around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure.
+What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies, what tilts and
+tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival the vast, the
+beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated
+colossi, one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon.
+These doubtless once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient
+than any remaining, for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a
+predecessor, by some generations, of the great Rameses. They were,
+doubtless, once seated on each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and
+in all probability were flanked by obelisks. Whether the temple were
+destroyed for materials, for more recent structures, or whether it has
+sunk under the accumulations of the slimy soil, may be decided by the
+future excavator.
+
+We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great.
+In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated
+the rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of
+giants. From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British
+Museum. But this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture,
+sinks, so far as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when
+compared with the statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the
+waist, now lies prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is
+probably the most huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The
+fragment is of red granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately
+the face is entirely obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and
+in its fall has destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more
+than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly
+seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large
+enough for a man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter
+of Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the
+Third.
+
+The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles,
+chariots, captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the
+vivid pen of Mr. Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of
+the monarch. Here also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is
+curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented on the
+walls, in a very admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen.
+Chess is, probably, a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third
+lived before the Trojan war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the
+invention of chess.
+
+The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more
+fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples.
+The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn
+how this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were
+buried. To cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too
+long, it is from a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how
+the Egyptians procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses
+of stone and granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and
+the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with
+delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering
+on the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the
+company of the Pharaohs.
+
+
+
+
+SHOUBRA
+
+ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not
+realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or
+indeed the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of
+the success of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen.
+Commerce once followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and
+the vast buildings which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing
+materials, were filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but
+furnished with all the productions of art and curious luxury, which the
+adventurous spirit of man brought from every quarter of the globe to
+Samarcand and Bagdad. The site of these mighty capitals is almost erased
+from the map of the modern traveller; but tribute and traffic have also
+ceased to sustain even the dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent
+Stamboul, and, until very recently, all that remained of the splendour
+of the Caliphs of Egypt was the vast Necropolis, which still contains
+their palatial sepulchres.
+
+How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on
+the ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on
+the seat of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military
+prowess, lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was
+not altogether an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common
+curiosity that some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and
+scared Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace
+of Mehemet Ali.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during
+the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous
+city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present
+the appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed
+cavaliers force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in
+their course by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the
+women enveloped in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of
+white linen, and borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The
+attendant eunuchs beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen,
+with their golden and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and
+shining arms, trampling on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but
+all efforts are vain, for at the turning of the street appears the first
+still solemn visage of a long string of tall camels bearing provisions
+to the citadel, a Nubian astride on the neck of the leader, and beating
+a wild drum, to apprise the people of his approach. The streets, too,
+in which these scenes occur are in themselves full of variety and
+architectural beauty. The houses are lofty and latticed, abounding in
+balconies; fountains are frequent and vast and as richly adorned
+as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified palace of one of the old
+Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener the exquisite shape of
+an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot vie with the fanes
+of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their lofty minarets
+covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their arabesques recalled
+to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace of the Alcazars
+and the shrines of Seville and Cordova.
+
+At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each
+person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our
+conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life--the
+Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic--afford a different, but
+not less delightful scene.
+
+It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to
+Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six
+months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we
+were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze
+on the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce
+a freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine
+regions, where there is more variety of the seasons.
+
+Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the
+banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady
+avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side
+delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling
+villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation,
+the golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it
+forms; or, perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids.
+
+The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the
+river--moderate in its character, and modest in its appointments; but
+clean, orderly, and in a state of complete repair; and, if we may
+use such an epithet with reference to oriental life, comfortable. It
+possesses all the refined conveniences of European manners, of which the
+pasha at the time I am referring to was extremely proud. Most of these
+had been the recent gift of the French government, and his highness
+occasionally amused his guests--some sheikh from Arabia, or some emir
+from the Lebanon--by the exhibition of some scientific means of domestic
+accommodation with which use has made us familiar, but which I was
+assured had sensibly impressed the magnates of the desert and the
+mountain with the progress of modern civilisation.
+
+The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in
+admirable order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely
+oriental. You enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable
+shade; you emerge upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in
+beds of artificial forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted
+kiosks. Arched walks of orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers
+hanging over your head, lead again to fountains, or to some other
+garden-court, where myrtles border beds of tulips, and you wander on
+mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase flashes amid a group of dark
+cypresses, and you are invited to repose under a Syrian walnut tree by a
+couch or a summer-house.
+
+The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake
+surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a
+fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as
+well as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the
+pure and glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life.
+It is a pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent
+offering of the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of
+the precedent thus afforded by his highness's own creation for the
+introduction of living forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They
+might have varied their huge present with advantage. Indeed, with the
+crocodile and the palm-tree, surely something more beautiful and not
+less characteristic than their metallic mausoleum might easily have been
+devised.
+
+This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced
+peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with
+their painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming
+shoals of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my
+attendant, a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it
+on some high festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to
+appreciate all its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved
+for me, yet my first visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not
+immemorable.
+
+I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness
+where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came,
+somewhat suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks
+emptied, cut through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a
+little man, robust, though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful
+countenance; his attire plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a
+turban white as his snowy beard; he was in merry conversation with his
+companion, who turned out to be his jester. In the background,
+against the myrtle wall, stood three or four courtiers in rich
+dresses--courtiers, for the little old man was their princely
+master--the great Pasha of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+EDEN AND LEBANON
+
+I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green
+slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation--vineyards, gardens,
+groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and
+the walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until,
+reaching the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters
+of a rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness.
+
+On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare
+rock, was a most beautiful village--flat cottages with terraced roofs,
+shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A
+cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs
+around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and
+the murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of
+beauteous children were frolicking with the kids.
+
+The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is
+_Eden_, which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a
+'Dwelling of Delight.'
+
+I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of
+mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the
+range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the
+Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the
+edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the
+dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the
+fragments of a gloomy forest--cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind
+moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract
+were the only sounds that greeted me.
+
+In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the
+relics of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of
+which must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite
+dead; while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five
+or six huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were,
+lifeless amid their apparent power.
+
+Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests--black, blasted,
+riven, and surrounded by deep snows--behold the trees that built the
+palaces of Solomon!
+
+When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted
+it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the
+innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age--of exhausted
+passions and desolate neglect.
+
+
+
+
+A SYRIAN SKETCH
+
+THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from
+Jaffa to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ
+that agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had
+been attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that
+now served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure
+boundary otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of
+Indian fig.
+
+It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain
+of Ramie--the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment,
+green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most
+charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem.
+
+The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of
+the orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some
+florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness
+of fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which
+not a single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange
+and lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the
+citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever
+and anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or
+golden clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the
+date-bearing palm.
+
+While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my
+ear was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the
+sounds, I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle
+of which was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate
+Persian carpet, a venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of
+whom, at a little distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master's
+left hand was a volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the
+serpentine tube of his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he
+saluted me with all the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his
+heart, but not rising. I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me
+with serene cordiality, and invited me to share his carpet and touch his
+pipe.
+
+Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European
+horses and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the
+solemn and sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa,
+came floating on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and
+his companions performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling
+towards Mecca, repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the
+Turkish aga, for such was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening
+breeze, and accompany him in a walk round his garden.
+
+As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from
+his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and
+threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which
+somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his
+fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the
+racy sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could
+not refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he
+should studiously waste so considerable a portion.
+
+'Effendi,' said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, 'to
+friends we give only the sunny side.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSPHORUS
+
+THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of
+the Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret
+and satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid
+strait, stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth
+of the Euxine, may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary
+breadth seldom exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one
+might hear the birds sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great
+continents are divided by an ocean stream narrower than many rivers
+that are the mere boundaries of kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the
+character of these two famous divisions of our earth is nowhere more
+marked than on the shores of the Bosphorus. The traveller turns without
+disappointment from the gay and glittering shores of Europe to the
+sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur of Asia.
+
+The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of
+the Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and
+ornamental buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces,
+and bright kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green
+background to the scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens,
+rising up a chain of hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with
+groves of cypress and of chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair
+and delicate valleys, richly wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique
+aqueduct.
+
+But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into
+forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there
+is something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general
+appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less
+cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they
+linger over the lofty peak of 'the Giant's grave,' seem conscious that
+they are haunting some heroic burial-place.
+
+I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles
+that I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned
+home in my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus,
+where I had been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of
+dolphins, who were making their way from the �gean and the Sea of
+Marmora through the Strait to the Euxine. They stretched right across
+the water, and I should calculate that they covered, with very little
+interval, a space of three or four miles. It is very difficult to form
+an estimate of their number, but there must, of course, have been
+many thousands. They advanced in grand style, and produced an immense
+agitation: the snorting, spouting, and splashing, and the wild panting
+rush, I shall never forget. As it was late, no other caique was in
+sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being run down, stopped to defend
+themselves with their oars. I had my pistols with me, and found great
+sport, as, although the dolphins made every effort to avoid us, there
+were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one was hit, general
+confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced about with
+increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and turned
+up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly
+three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At
+length the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must
+have arrived at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the
+elegant hospitality of the British Palace at Pera.
+
+
+
+
+AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK
+
+WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the
+invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at
+Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a
+secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were
+assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of
+Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom
+I well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the
+Levant. I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached
+to this expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper
+quarters, there appeared little probability of my wish not being
+gratified. With these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had
+intended, but it would seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent
+as their intended volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but
+indifferently. Orders and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches,
+boats pressed on the Nile for the passage of troops from the capital,
+which were all liberated the next day, many divans and much smoking; but
+still the troops remained within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months
+glided away apparently without any material advancement.
+
+I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an
+excellent understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim,
+a degree of petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their
+mutual communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning
+to attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father,
+I was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to
+the levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my
+return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo,
+I found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that
+Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me.
+
+I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of
+that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future
+conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an
+aide-de-camp.
+
+A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke.
+After the usual compliments, 'Effendi,' said Ibrahim, 'do you think the
+English horses would live in Egypt?'
+
+I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that
+English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are
+very diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered,
+however, that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses
+would flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation
+about English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered
+fifty times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or
+two about English women. At length the point of the interview began to
+poke its horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle.
+
+'If you want to go with the army,' said his Highness, ''tis I who am
+the person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there'
+(meaning the citadel).
+
+I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter
+of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha
+on the subject of the expedition.
+
+'I suppose you talked with Boghaz?' said Ibrahim.
+
+Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali.
+
+'Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once
+graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought
+it both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person
+whatever.'
+
+'Tahib!' exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied.
+'After all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have
+been in Syria?'
+
+I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been
+addressed to me.
+
+'Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?' inquired Ibrahim, with a
+smile.
+
+This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life
+Guards could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said
+that I did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that
+condition.
+
+'Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!' This was
+a favourite phrase of his Highness.
+
+I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness,
+the army would march till we could see another ocean.
+
+'It is all talk up there,' replied Ibrahim; 'but my life is a life of
+deeds.'
+
+'Words are very good things sometimes,' I replied; 'that is, if we keep
+marching at the same time.'
+
+'God is great!' exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers,
+'the Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.'
+
+Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the
+energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient
+Epirus.
+
+'What do you think of Redchid?' he inquired.
+
+'I think he is worthy of being your Highness's rival.'
+
+'He has always been victorious,' said Ibrahim; 'but I think his sabre is
+made of gold. That will not do with me.'
+
+'It's a pity,' I observed, 'that if your Highness find time to march
+into Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with
+the Pasha of Scutari.'
+
+'May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and
+watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.'
+
+The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and
+even if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in
+order that he may take advantage of the other's success or discomfiture.
+Mehemet Ali, at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts
+in European Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of
+the Porte were unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy;
+but in the conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a
+golden sabre, and the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom
+he was obliged to bribe, were all busied in Europe.
+
+The night previous to this conversation the style of the military
+oath of the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of
+swearing allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet
+Ali. The Grand Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order
+for it was countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with
+gratuities to the troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion
+among the officers, everything went off very quietly. There was also
+a rumour that Mehemet Ali intended immediately to assume the title of
+_Caliph_.
+
+This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking
+observation of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+'Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a
+caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?'
+
+I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a
+beneficial effect at foreign courts.
+
+'Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there,
+they are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight
+does not think of his shadow on the earth!'
+
+
+
+
+MUNICH
+
+THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should
+periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of
+the Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and
+brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they
+purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity
+accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is
+excellent.
+
+Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals
+as the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners
+have undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has
+advanced in an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to
+social life has diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine
+Arts have decayed and vanished.
+
+I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement
+in the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but
+not inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence.
+
+It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found
+myself in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The
+street in which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side
+with palaces or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few
+were completely finished: the sculptor was working at the statues
+that adorned their fronts; the painter was still touching the external
+frescoes; and the scaffold of the architect was not in every instance
+withdrawn. Everywhere was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine
+style of many of these buildings was novel to me in its modern
+adaptation, yet very effective. The delicate detail of ornament
+contrasted admirably with the broad fronts and noble fa�ades which they
+adorned. A church with two very lofty towers of white marble, with their
+fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue, gleamed in the sun; and
+near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal palace at Venice, but of
+nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its portal approached by a
+lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal statues of poets and
+philosophers--suitably guarded, for it was the National Library.
+
+As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance
+adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal
+hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a
+pediment brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its
+purpose; an Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of
+a Phidias or a Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was
+told the first stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle.
+But what struck me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples,
+and palaces, its magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and
+consummate statues, was the all-pervading presence and all-inspiring
+influence of living and breathing Art. In every street, a school: the
+atelier of the sculptor open, the studio of the painter crowded: devoted
+pupils, aspiring rivals: enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here
+the long-lost feudal-art of colouring glass re-discovered; there
+fresco-painting entirely revived, and on the grandest scale; while the
+ardent researches of another man of genius successfully analyses the
+encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and secures the secret process for the
+triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city such as I had mused over amid the
+crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided alike by memory and fancy, had
+conjured up in the palaces and gardens of the Medici.
+
+Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and
+corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who
+visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all
+more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince,
+fond only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute,
+and useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women
+and priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the
+inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch.
+
+With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the
+present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal
+expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria,
+when completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace
+in the world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is
+a temple dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state,
+painted in fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in
+colour, breathe the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the
+'Nibelungenlied,' the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements
+of the heroic Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful
+Chrimhilde. The heart of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and
+scenes of the Teutonic Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and
+Dankwart the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and
+haughty Brunhilda. But in point of harmonious dimension and august
+beauty, no chamber is perhaps more imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or
+Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should think, considerably above one
+hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in exact proportion. Its
+roof is supported on either side by columns of white marble; the
+inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded brass, of
+the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at the end
+of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the solemn
+majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a sculptor
+who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his
+master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled
+Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr,
+and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries,
+churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated
+Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and
+the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown;
+but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has
+revived the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect.
+
+But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly
+impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight
+in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek
+poets, of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are
+devoted to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest
+Greek style; severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the
+friezes in outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the
+contrary, is Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as
+brilliant, as free, and as flowing as the genius of the great M�onian.
+The chamber of the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs,
+raised on a ground of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior
+in many instances to the Attic remains, and characterised, at the same
+time, by a singular combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is
+devoted to �schylus, and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of
+Aristophanes laughs and sings in his Majesty's dressing-room; while
+the king is lulled to slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing
+landscapes of Theocritus.
+
+Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of
+Art. The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of
+their decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could
+be selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are
+equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant
+and harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the
+arabesques and other appropriate decorations, which blend with all
+around, and heighten the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean
+rivals in the private chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous
+style, but entirely devoted to the poets of her own land. The
+Minnesingers occupy her first apartments, but the brilliant saloon is
+worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon forms it frieze; while the bedchamber
+gleams with the beautiful forms and pensive incidents of Goethe's
+esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study with his stirring characters
+and his vigorous incidents. Groups from 'Wallenstein' and 'Wilhelm Tell'
+form the rich and unrivalled ceiling: while the fight of the dragon and
+the founding of the bell, the innocent Fridolin, the inspired maiden of
+Orleans, breathe in the compartments of the walls.
+
+When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and
+sights of beauty that had moved before me in my morning's wanderings, I
+asked myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital
+of modern Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space,
+and with such facility and completeness, should have achieved those
+results which had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest
+and most powerful community in the world?
+
+It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of
+individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation
+of mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been
+accomplished by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know
+of its sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction.
+Munich is the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a
+king but a poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM
+
+_[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the
+English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet
+'A Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and
+Learned Lord.' The same theory is expounded in another way in the three
+great novels, 'Coningsby,' 'Sybil,' and 'Tancred.' His contemporaries
+never seem to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date
+appear to have written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance
+of his real political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract
+ought, in the minds of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever
+the innumerable calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since
+the Reform struggle of 1859-1867.]_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Object of the Whigs_
+
+ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has
+in a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested
+succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the
+national honours of its members, in the good government of the country,
+has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular
+passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments
+of an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers,
+though far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser
+proprietors of the country in favour of a political system which offers
+them a constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of
+redress; her Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent
+endowment from the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies
+of its communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and
+religion, and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law
+of primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and
+independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade
+the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That
+great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings
+knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the
+present and the memory of the past--offers in this country, through
+these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy
+framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built
+constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and
+dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities.
+The march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved
+from those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries,
+like a whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep
+away an illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured
+order, has consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken
+tide of progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest,
+and the most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled,
+our manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful
+in Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have
+they arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of
+the people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated,
+the people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them
+with renewed strength and renovated vigour.
+
+The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when
+the nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any
+period of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has
+occasioned these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and
+the traitor smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so
+serene and so splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that
+of the first Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent
+similarity produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted
+past as a passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which
+it may be profitable to discuss and wise to study.
+
+Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid
+yet accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck
+at the same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the
+Huguenot exclaimed: 'It appears to me that this great society can only
+be dissolved by the violence of its political parties.' What are these
+parties? Why are they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving
+these questions, we may obtain an accurate idea of our present political
+position, and by pondering over the past we may make that past not a
+prophecy, as the disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the
+loyal may profit.
+
+The two great parties into which England has during the last century and
+a half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the
+Crown and the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to
+despotic power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy
+in their struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of
+England formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the
+Roses destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors
+succeeded. Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of
+the Papacy, the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who
+succeeded to a despotism which they did not create. When Charles the
+First, after a series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for
+him the support of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised
+the royal standard, the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than
+the constitution of the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But
+a portion of the able party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast
+and beneficial revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary
+powers which they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section
+of the aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though
+that title was not invented until the next reign. The primitive
+Whigs-'Parliament-men,' as they liked to call themselves, 'Roundheads,'
+as they were in time dubbed--aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they
+obtained one; but unable to maintain themselves in power against the
+returning sense and rising spirit of a generous and indignant people,
+they called to their aid that domestic revolutionary party which exists
+in all countries, and an anti-national enemy in addition. These were the
+English Radicals, or Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To
+conciliate the first they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second
+they abolished the Church. The constitution of England in Church
+and State was destroyed, and the Whig oligarchy, in spite of their
+machinations, were soon merged in the common ruin.
+
+The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject
+produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The
+ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown
+were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to
+their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that
+the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power
+than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of
+popular rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed
+themselves of the offered opportunity; and when James the Second
+ascended the throne, the nation was again prepared to second the
+aristocracy in a struggle for their liberties. But the Whigs had
+profited by their previous experiment: they resolved upon a revolution,
+but they determined that that revolution should be brought about by
+as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as possible. They studiously
+confined that appeal to the religious feelings of the nation. They hired
+a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in their service. They
+dethroned James, they established themselves in power without the aid of
+the mass; and had William the Third been a man of ordinary capacity, the
+constitution of Venice would have been established in England in 1688.
+William the Third told the Whigs that he would never consent to be
+a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well as in his
+position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his skilful
+balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is
+probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in
+England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions
+because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local
+institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love
+of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates.
+
+An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of
+toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown
+checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a
+nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually
+banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament
+of England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs
+at all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates.
+They despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can
+they succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for
+the other, then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the
+country by the House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more
+powerful in the House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a
+Peerage, exhausted by civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from
+the courtiers of the Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution
+which the Whigs occasioned, they attempted to govern the country by
+the House of Lords, in which they were predominant; and, in order to
+guarantee their power for ever, they introduced a Bill to deprive the
+King of his prerogative of making further Peers. The revolution of 1640
+led to the abolition of the House of Lords because the Lords opposed the
+oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of Lords, the Whigs introduced
+the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords would have been rendered
+independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the country, the Whigs
+attacked the influence of popular election, and the moment that, by
+the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained a temporary
+majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act.
+
+The Whigs of the eighteenth century 'swamped' the House of Commons; the
+Whigs of the nineteenth would 'swamp' the House of Lords. The Whigs
+of the eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords
+unchangeable; the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons.
+
+I conclude here the first chapter of the 'Spirit of Whiggism'-a little
+book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig
+party have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in
+another reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in
+another they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries,
+and various modes of conduct; but they have only one object--the
+establishment of an oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not
+wish this country to be governed by a small knot of great families, and
+therefore I oppose the Whigs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Parliamentary Reform_
+
+WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious
+hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to
+re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses
+of Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted
+for this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose
+their Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried
+the Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill
+had become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and
+I believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been
+transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James's
+might have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous
+ducal palace of the Adriatic.
+
+George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power;
+but an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and
+the India Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the
+oligarchical faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive
+during the great interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt
+and the resurrection of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry
+to carry them into power, they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the
+chorus of an emancipated people, and fancied, in order to take the
+throne by storm, that nothing was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and
+to cover their haughty brows with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped
+the wings of Whiggism; nor is it possible to conceive a party that had
+effected so many revolutions and governed a great country for so long
+a period, more broken, sunk, and shattered, more desolate and
+disheartened, than these same Whigs at the Peace of Paris. From that
+period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs consisted in gently and
+gradually extricating themselves from their false position as the
+disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post as the
+hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the transition
+less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a bridge
+by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily recross
+on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so
+much precipitation. A dozen years of 'liberal principles' broke up the
+national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity
+and glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and
+lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction,
+that their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his
+party, elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician
+order, and attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the
+Tories. Had that negotiation led to the result which was originally
+intended by those interested, the Riots of Paris would not have
+occasioned the Reform of London.
+
+It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by
+a nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a
+dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long
+exile from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means,
+invariably has recourse to a _coup-d'�tat_. An oligarchical party is
+necessarily not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble
+lineage or vast possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers.
+The Whigs, in 1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under
+very peculiar circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In
+each estate of the realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal
+to the Commons of England, that constituency which, in its elements,
+had undergone no alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the
+influence of the legislature or the action of time--that constituency
+which had elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers,
+Walpole, and Pulteney--an appeal to this constituency, it was generally
+acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined
+to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary
+reform: the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual
+upon a coup-d'�tat, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general
+the difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their
+concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus
+they had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England
+from popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of
+the first House of Commons in which they could command a majority.
+
+But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary
+reformers, for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all
+their art was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their
+own interest should secure an irresistible predominance.
+
+But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections?
+Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own
+limited ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were
+obliged to look about for allies wherewith to form their new popular
+estate. Any estate of the Commons modelled on any equitable principle,
+either of property or population, must have been fatal to the Whigs;
+they, therefore, very dexterously adopted a small minority of the
+nation, consisting of the sectarians, and inaugurating them as the
+people with a vast and bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies,
+invested the Dissenters with political power. By this _coup-d'�tat_ they
+managed the House of Commons, and having at length obtained a position,
+they have from that moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the
+intention of reducing that great institution and making it surrender at
+discretion. This is the exact state of English politics during the last
+five years. The Whigs have been at war with the English constitution.
+First of all they captured the King; then they vanquished the House of
+Commons; now they have laid siege to the House of Lords. But here the
+fallacy of their grand scheme of political mystification begins to
+develop itself. Had, indeed, their new constituency, as they have long
+impudently pretended, really been 'the people,' a struggle between
+such a body and the House of Lords would have been brief but final.
+The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or three hundred
+individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure against the
+decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation is so
+glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect that
+in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But
+as 'the people' of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not
+exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English
+nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a
+class privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some
+jobbing Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish
+schemes of personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as
+mindful of its duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours
+of its ancestors. The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue
+from the degrading plots of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising
+sectarianism, and a boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary
+leaders--the Peers. The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment
+represents everything in the realm except the Whig oligarchs, their
+tools--the Dissenters, and their masters--the Irish priests. In the
+meantime the Whigs bawl aloud that there is a 'collision'! It is true
+there is a collision; but it is not a collision between the Lords and
+the people, but between the Ministers and the Constitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Menace to England_
+
+IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary
+party is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not
+indispensably a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in
+England that, were a republic to be established here to-morrow, it would
+partake rather of the oligarchical than of the aristocratic character.
+We should be surprised to find in how few families the power of the
+State was concentrated. And although the framers of the new commonwealth
+would be too crafty to base it on any avowed and ostensible principle of
+exclusion, but on the contrary would in all probability ostentatiously
+inaugurate the novel constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about
+as definite and as prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or
+the sovereignty of the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were
+we not to find that the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in
+the conduct of public affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out
+from the fruition and exercise of power as under that Venetian polity
+which has ever been the secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration.
+The Church, under such circumstances, would probably have again been
+plundered, and therefore the discharge of ecclesiastical duties might
+be spared to the nation; but the people would assuredly be practically
+excluded from its services, which would swarm with the relations and
+connections of the senatorial class; for, whether this country be
+governed only by the House of Commons, or only by the House of Lords,
+the elements of the single chamber will not materially differ; and
+although in the event of the triumph of the Commons, the ceremony of
+periodical election may be retained (and we should not forget that the
+Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary form), the selected
+members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any House of Parliament
+whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of Whig sneers or
+Radical anathemas.
+
+The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by
+institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of
+intellect that will be found a sufficient surety for the public
+welfare in the crisis of a country's freedom. Our interest taints our
+intelligence, our passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity
+are too often the willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous
+adventurer. Life, is short, man is imaginative; our means are limited,
+our passions high.
+
+In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong
+temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the
+orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics'
+institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and
+fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish
+a tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become
+the oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of
+knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of
+their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with
+which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render
+them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these
+institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state
+of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all
+those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and
+some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo.
+Let us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy
+reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of
+their magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects
+established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous
+and vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders
+of a single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes--aye,
+and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under
+the plea of the 'spirit of the age' or 'county reform' or 'cheap
+government.' But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will
+dare disobey London?--the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can
+we think, if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still
+chance to linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny,
+or appeal to the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his
+ancestors had protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not
+be judges in Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all
+the pains and penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which
+such a troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter
+ourselves that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High
+Commission Court would not be in the background to supply all the
+deficiencies of the laws of England? When these merry times arrive--the
+times of extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes--and, if we
+proceed in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the
+phrase 'Anti-Reformer' will serve as well as that of 'Malignant,' and
+be as valid a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all
+those who venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.
+
+Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
+established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift
+and stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
+irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals.
+I do not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in
+this age of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the
+nonce the false colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and
+considerable party, too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and
+the safety of the State-who have a definite object which they distinctly
+avow--I mean those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their
+unstamped press, and ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration.
+Not merely that which is just, but that which is also practicable,
+should be the aim of a sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well
+consider whether, in attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are
+not, in fact, only assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme
+is infinitely more adverse to their own than the existing system, whose
+genius I believe they entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories
+is more democratic than the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with
+a keener sympathy to the passions of the millions; it studies their
+interest with a more comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment
+that I have mistaken the genius of the English constitution, what
+chance, if our institutions be overthrown, is there of substituting
+in their stead a more popular polity? This hazard, both for their own
+happiness and the honour of their country, the English Radicals are
+bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they will find themselves,
+too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the slaves of a stern
+usurper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    _The English Constitution_
+
+A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit
+of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects--that the
+spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political
+institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of
+discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our
+famous establishment of 'King, Lords, and Commons;' and no institutions
+ever yet flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented
+and more misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound
+ignorance and the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the
+House of Commons, a member of a family who pique themselves on their
+constitutional reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate
+treatise on our polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late
+as the last session of Parliament, declared his desire and determination
+to uphold the present settlement of the 'three estates of the realm,
+viz.--King, Lords, and Commons.' Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an
+estate of the realm than Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of
+the realm are the estate of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords
+Temporal, and the estate of the Commons. An estate is a popular class
+established into a political order. It is a section of the nation
+invested for the public and common good with certain powers
+and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes upon the English
+constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this moment,
+is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is a
+complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is
+necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he
+is not an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is
+responsible to the estates and to them alone.
+
+When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates
+of the realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not
+proceed. They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that
+the House of Commons was the House of the people, and that the people
+were not properly represented. They consequently enlarged the estate
+of the Commons; they increased the number of that privileged order who
+appear by their representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They
+rendered the estate of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding,
+because they rendered them more numerous; but they did not render their
+representatives one jot more the representatives of the people. Throwing
+the Commons of Ireland out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon
+a political order so unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during
+the present century, some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last
+general election, their representatives to Westminster.
+
+Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they
+are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well,
+then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that
+there are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because,
+although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal
+suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is
+not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House
+of the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the
+House of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was
+intended to be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to
+be so by courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English
+constitution.
+
+It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a
+legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it
+is folly to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400
+individuals, or a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign
+will and pleasure. But I deny that a people can govern itself.
+Self-government is a contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government
+may assume, power must be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall,
+perhaps, be reminded of the ancient republics. I answer, that the
+ancient republics were as aristocratic communities as any that
+flourished in the middle ages. The Demos of Athens was an oligarchy
+living upon slaves. There is a great slave population even in the United
+States, if a society of yesterday is to illustrate an argument on our
+ancient civilisation.
+
+But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly.
+
+The phrase 'the people' is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term.
+It is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised
+community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of
+time. A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences--the
+influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws,
+customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their
+history, and the individual character of their illustrious citizens.
+These influences create the nation--these form the national mind, and
+produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you
+destroy the political institutions which these influences have called
+into force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly
+act, you destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and
+dissolution, then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the
+consequent misery, like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and
+rifled of their hive, they set to again and establish themselves into a
+society.
+
+Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the
+world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and
+our foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious
+character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy
+and toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our
+manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary
+equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented
+system of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests,
+and apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Siey�s
+himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely
+and definitely represented.
+
+The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the
+school of Abbe Siey�s. Their first object was to make us free; their
+next to keep us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the
+basis of their social order, they took care to blend every man's
+ambition with the perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality
+of modern days, the ancient equality of England elevates and creates.
+Learned in human nature, the English constitution holds out privilege
+to every subject as the inducement to do his duty. As it has secured
+freedom, justice, and even property to the humblest of the commonwealth,
+so, pursuing the same system of privileges, it has confided the
+legislature of the realm to two orders of the subjects--orders, however,
+in which every English citizen may be constitutionally enrolled--the
+Lords and the Commons. The two estates of the Peers are personally
+summoned to meet in their chamber: the more extensive and single estate
+of the Commons meets by its representatives. Both are political orders,
+complete in their character, independent in their authority, legally
+irresponsible for the exercise of their power. But they are the trustees
+of the nation, not its masters; and there is a High Court of Chancery
+in the public opinion of the nation at large, which exercises a vigilant
+control over these privileged classes of the community, and to which
+they are equitably and morally amenable. Estimating, therefore,
+the moral responsibility of our political estates, it may fairly be
+maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the responsibility of
+the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of Commons itself not
+being an estate of the realm, but only the representatives of an estate,
+owes to the nation a responsibility neither legal nor moral. The House
+of Commons is responsible only to that privileged order who are its
+constituents. Between the Lords and the Commons themselves there is this
+prime difference--that the Lords are known, and seen, and marked; the
+Commons are unknown, invisible, and unobserved. The Lords meet in a
+particular spot; the Commons are scattered over the kingdom. The eye of
+the nation rests upon the Lords, few in number, and notable in position;
+the eye of the nation wanders in vain for the Commons, far more
+numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute the nation appeals to
+the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain; for if the majority
+of the Commons choose to support their representatives in a course of
+conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of Commons
+will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they
+never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of
+Parliament--the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate and
+Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the 'House of the People,' but
+both alike represent the 'Nation.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A True Democracy_
+
+THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may
+appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless,
+as I believe, just and true. And they are these:--First. That there is
+no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government
+than the present English constitution.
+
+Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a
+departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution.
+
+Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined
+by the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a
+Senate and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub
+each householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws
+preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of
+the country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may
+have an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with
+no aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the
+government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity
+of Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of
+Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great
+scale, and maintained during a great period, that history offers.
+The constitution of France during the last half century has been fast
+approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern
+equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous
+Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient
+Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system
+never could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the
+Turks. Both the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced
+their system with popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general
+subjection. Napoleon and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the
+Suleimans and the Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan,
+the Prefects but inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the
+Seraglio and the Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism
+on condition that they have no other master save himself.
+
+The disposition of property in England throws the government of the
+country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that
+any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert
+that power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our
+present social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the
+more powerful would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an
+inevitable consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear
+understanding that such an extension should be established on a fair,
+and not a factious, basis.
+
+Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which.
+I shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my
+opinion, that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the
+ballot would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if
+the ballot were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious
+extension of the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in
+the ultimate result.
+
+Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important
+point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property
+in England--a disposition of property which, by producing a very general
+similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into
+the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select?
+
+It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining
+the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic
+of the English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being
+industry. Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English
+character since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me
+that the salient point in our national psychology is the passion for
+accumulating wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We
+value our freedom principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our
+pursuits; and that reverence for law and for all that is established,
+which also eminently distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned
+by the conviction that, next to liberty, order is the most efficacious
+assistant of industry.
+
+And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the
+history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent
+effects upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by
+the passions of creative minds taking advantage, for their own
+aggrandisement, of peculiar circumstances in our national progress.
+They are never called for by the great body of the nation. Churches are
+plundered, long rebellions maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments
+abolished; but when the storm is passed, the features of the social
+landscape remain unimpaired; there are no traces of the hurricane, the
+earthquake, or the volcano; it has been but a tumult of the atmosphere,
+that has neither toppled down our old spires and palaces nor swallowed
+up our cities and seats of learning, nor blasted our ancient woods, nor
+swept away our ports and harbours. The English nation ever recurs to its
+ancient institutions--the institutions that have alike secured freedom
+and order; and after all their ebullitions, we find them, when the
+sky is clear, again at work, and toiling on at their eternal task of
+accumulation.
+
+There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the
+revolutions of the Continent--the European revolution is a struggle
+against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new
+class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the
+natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader
+takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence.
+Thus the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders
+of the manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the
+Whigs have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new
+interest, having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer,
+like every other Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The
+manufacturer begins to lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played
+the same game with the commercial interests; a century has passed, and
+the commercial interests are all as devoted to the constitution as the
+manufacturers soon will be. Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek
+for succour from the Irish papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only
+imitating Pym under the same circumstances. In 1640, when the English
+movement was satisfied, and the constitutional party, headed by such men
+as Falkland and Hyde, were about to attain power, Pym and his friends,
+in despair at their declining influence and the close divisions in their
+once unanimous Parliament, fled to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered
+into a 'close compact' for the destruction of the Church of England as
+the price of their assistance. So events repeat themselves; but if the
+study of history is really to profit us, the nation at the present day
+will take care that the same results do not always occur from the same
+events.
+
+When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who
+has struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having
+obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to
+assist in destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or
+his posterity may yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing
+district has his eye already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of
+his political position to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a
+baronetcy, and dreams of a coroneted descendant.
+
+The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will
+submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we
+deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its
+best security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore,
+insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the
+whole scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the
+accumulation of wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot
+alter, therefore, the disposition of property in this country without we
+change the national character. Far from the present age being hostile to
+the supremacy of property, there has been no period of our history where
+property has been more esteemed, because there has been no period when
+the nation has been so industrious.
+
+Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of
+property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can
+become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic
+constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic
+constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny
+that an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the
+legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every
+subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English
+constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the
+enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a
+perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain
+them; and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always
+be devoted, except he is a Whig.
+
+In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Results of Whiggism_
+
+THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their
+side; and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and
+bellowing about 'intimidation,' seem to confess the soft impeachment.
+Their prime organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is
+opposed to them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published,
+by way of consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some
+twenty Dukes and Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to
+'Liberal' principles, and whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical
+rhodomontade, they assert, could buy up the whole income of the rest
+of the hereditary Peerage. The Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to
+reconcile this anomalous circumstance with the indisputably forlorn
+finances of their faction in general. Now, this little tract on the
+'Spirit of Whiggism' may perhaps throw some light upon this perplexing
+state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a fresh illustration of
+the principles which I have demonstrated, from the whole current of our
+history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union of oligarchical
+wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the 'Spirit of Whiggism.'
+
+The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of
+Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the
+hands of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of
+their respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom,
+without which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor
+its just reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent
+those who have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in
+whose classes every industrious citizen has a right to register himself,
+offer also an equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those
+great families, over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the
+Whig-Radical writers gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the
+equipages of their masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense
+between those who are beneath power and those who wish to be above it;
+and oligarchies and despotisms are usually established by the agency of
+a deluded multitude. The Crown, with its constitutional influence over
+the military services, a Parliament of two houses watching each other's
+proceedings with constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy
+and, not least, an independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the
+progressive establishment of that scheme of government which a small
+knot of great families--these dukes and marquises, whose revenues
+according to the Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole
+peerage-naturally wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the
+whole period of our more modern history, a powerful section of the great
+nobles ever at war with the national institutions, checking the Crown,
+attacking the independence of that House of Parliament in which they
+happen to be in a minority--no matter which, patronising sects to
+reduce the influence of the Church, and playing town against country to
+overcome the authority of the gentry.
+
+It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little
+essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers.
+To secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to
+manoeuvre with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they
+apparently advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an
+inducement to all the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their
+standard; they play their discontented minority against the prosperous
+majority, and, dubbing their partisans 'the people,' they flatter
+themselves that their projects are irresistible. The attack is
+unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well matured, dexterously mystified.
+Before the nation is roused to its danger, the oligarchical object is
+often obtained; and then the oligarchy, entrenched in power, count upon
+the nation to defend them from their original and revolutionary allies.
+If they succeed, a dynasty is changed, or a Parliament reformed, and the
+movement is stopped; if the Tories or the Conservatives cannot arrest
+the fatal career which the Whigs have originally impelled, then away
+go the national institutions; the crown falls from the King's brow;
+the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of Parliament is sure to
+disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously dubbed Malignants,
+or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the dregs of the
+nation sequester their estates and install themselves in their halls;
+and 'liberal principles' having thus gloriously triumphed, after a due
+course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble tyranny, the
+people of England, sighing once more to be the English nation, secure
+order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they have got rid of
+their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their newly-regained
+security by re-establishing the English constitution.
+
+The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation
+with their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the
+sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced
+the House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed
+the Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which
+they have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly
+very popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their
+reform of the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the
+municipal corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have,
+in fact, increased the democratic character of our constitution or
+not--whether they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular
+concessions inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical
+career.
+
+The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been
+this--that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the hands
+of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public intelligence
+and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M'Hale and Kehoe
+more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted to
+represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard
+or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a
+basis formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters,
+in general returned by the small constituencies of small towns--classes
+whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly
+exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the
+maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of
+popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven.
+If the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the
+hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very
+considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present
+Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this
+great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other,
+obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new
+constituency has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has
+been given to a small class, and one hostile to the interests of the
+great body. Is this more democratic? The apparent majority in the House
+of Commons is produced by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that
+a small and favoured class command a majority in the House of Commons,
+and the sway of the administration, as far as that House is concerned,
+is regulated by a smaller number of individuals than those who governed
+it previous to its reform.
+
+But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural
+preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country,
+hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords,
+to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of
+provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to
+support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without
+which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now,
+centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel
+of the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to
+dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government
+which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform
+of the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the
+authority of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the
+most substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in
+power. By this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the
+towns where he before exercised a just influence, while an elective
+magistrate from the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions,
+and presents in his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of
+the bench, flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests,
+of the giddy million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county
+reform whenever an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative
+in Parliament hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the
+moment, that the Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and
+hereditary power of the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations
+substitute themselves as an equivalent check on a centralising
+Government? Whence springs their influence? From property? Not half a
+dozen have estates. Their influence springs from the factitious power
+with which the reforming Government has invested them, and of which the
+same Government will deprive them in a session, the moment they cease
+to be corresponding committees of the reforming majority in the House of
+Commons. They will either be swept away altogether, or their functions
+will be limited to raising the local taxes which will discharge their
+expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan police, or the local
+judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down to preside over
+their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the English corporations
+do not possess more substantial and durable elements of power than
+the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris? These
+corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor property.
+Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor substance. They
+have no indirect authority over the minds of their townsmen; they have
+only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly engrossed letter
+of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public benefits they
+are the official distributers; they do not stand on the vantage-ground
+on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests; they neither
+administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the poor nor
+educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they have not
+sprung from the national character; they were born by faction, and they
+will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt; they
+will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a
+faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a
+London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the
+consequent results of their opportune services.
+
+I think I have now established the two propositions with which I
+commenced my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the
+'Spirit of Whiggism' with their recapitulation, and the inferences which
+I draw from them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing
+in this country a more democratic government than the English
+constitution, it will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their
+rights, to maintain that constitution; and if the more recent measures
+of the Whigs, however plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been
+a departure from the democratic character of that constitution, it will
+be as well for the English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and
+all their soul, and all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs
+and the 'Spirit of Whiggism.'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+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: Sketches
+       The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul's Daughter, Walstein--Or
+              A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of
+              Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian
+              Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk,
+              Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      SKETCHES
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Benjamin Disraeli
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE CARRIER PIGEON</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> <b>THE CONSUL&rsquo;S DAUGHTER</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> <b>WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> IBRAHIM PASHA </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> THE COURT OF EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> THE VALLEY OF THEBES </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> EGYPTIAN THEBES </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> SHOUBRA </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> EDEN AND LEBANON </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> A SYRIAN SKETCH </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> THE BOSPHORUS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> MUNICH </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> <b>THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THE CARRIER PIGEON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Charolois and Branchimont</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad bosom
+      of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only by its
+      rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of Charolois,
+      situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the reflected
+      radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of triumph at
+      the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western side of the
+      valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and sharply
+      defined against the resplendent heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high
+      places&mdash;the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but
+      the hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with
+      more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the house
+      of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of
+      Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss in
+      the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff and
+      gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest passions
+      of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the theatre of
+      their havoc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark
+      towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned the
+      devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was deposited
+      the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had raised on a
+      small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile from his stern
+      hold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from
+      the postern of Charolois&mdash;the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child
+      of the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers.
+      She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached the
+      sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already kneeling,&mdash;faces
+      of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she entered, a palmer,
+      with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely muffled up in his
+      cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in the fount of holy
+      water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and pressed the beautiful
+      fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived by the kneeling
+      votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her self-control, or
+      such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she exhibited no other
+      symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar, was soon buried in her
+      devotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mass was celebrated&mdash;the vassals rose and retired. According to
+      her custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of
+      her brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that
+      someone was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived,
+      knelt at her side. &lsquo;Lothair!&rsquo; muttered the lady, apparently at her
+      prayers, &lsquo;beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?&rsquo; was the hushed reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped. Let
+      me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated. Your
+      father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh, fly!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sweet love! I pray thee listen:&mdash;to Italy. At the court of my
+      cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I for
+      Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are no
+      traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy, trust
+      me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father&rsquo;s walls.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other
+      like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love? Yet
+      I adore thee&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lady!&rsquo; said the page, advancing, &lsquo;the priest approaches.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-morrow, at this hour,&rsquo; whispered Lothair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the
+      shrine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Pert Page</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;DEAREST Lady,&rsquo; said the young page, as they returned to the castle, &lsquo;my
+      heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the
+      huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.&rsquo; &lsquo;Hah! he is my father&rsquo;s most
+      devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to
+      execute&mdash;a most ruthless knave!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And can see like a cat in the dark, too,&rsquo; observed young Theodore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never loved that man, even in my cradle,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene;
+      &lsquo;though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed I thought so, madam.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little
+      page.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I warrant you,&rsquo; said Imogene; &lsquo;you have a bold heart, little Theodore,
+      and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my
+      bright-eyed Lothair!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,&rsquo; said
+      Theodore. &lsquo;I would I were his squire.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I
+      indeed be his squire, lady sweet?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and as
+      strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is indeed a beard, Theodore,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene. &lsquo;When wilt thou
+      have one like it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another summer, perchance,&rsquo; said Theodore, passing his small palm
+      musingly over his smooth chin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another summer!&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene, laughing; &lsquo;why, I may as soon
+      hope to have a beard myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope you will have Lord Branchimont&rsquo;s,&rsquo; said the page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Amen!&rsquo; responded the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Love&rsquo;s Messenger</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded. On
+      the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont at the
+      shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her father, and,
+      after having been loaded with every species of reproach and invective for
+      her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was confined to a
+      chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which she was never
+      permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery with an old
+      female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and manners. Her
+      page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource and amusement was
+      her mandolin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep
+      so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was
+      therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The
+      landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted
+      of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care
+      that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont.
+      The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from her.
+      Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight. Very
+      unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or pouring
+      forth her passion over her lonely lute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was
+      seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought,
+      and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused her,
+      and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the high back
+      of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with an azure
+      beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not alarmed was the
+      beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached it; but it looked
+      up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and flapped with some
+      earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady Imogene smiled with
+      marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her captivity; and putting
+      forth her hand, which was even whiter than the wing, she patted the bright
+      neck of the glad stranger, and gently stroked its soft plumage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven hath sent me a friend,&rsquo; exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; &lsquo;Ah! what&mdash;what
+      is this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?&rsquo; inquired the harsh voice of acid Martha,
+      whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing&mdash;nothing&mdash;I want nothing,&rsquo; quickly answered Imogene, as
+      she seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered
+      Martha over her shoulder. &lsquo;Did she see thee, my treasure?&rsquo; continued the
+      agitated Imogene, &lsquo;Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were not
+      discovered.&rsquo; So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step
+      imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird
+      from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly
+      detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had perceived,
+      in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted
+      her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then
+      she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to
+      collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>&lsquo;Lothair to Imogene</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has
+      promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I
+      love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove a
+      thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and
+      catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am
+      planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to
+      tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of your
+      fidelity to your own
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lothair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was read&mdash;it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears&mdash;tears
+      of wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the
+      faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him, had
+      she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously awaiting
+      the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her tablets and
+      inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under the wing, she
+      bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last embrace,
+      permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue
+      sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky
+      shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Cruel Dart</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that her
+      unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as possible,
+      and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit from Mignon.
+      Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of consolation; and
+      by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair respecting her escape
+      was actively maintained. A thousand plans were formed by the sanguine
+      lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then decided to be
+      impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another, young Theodore
+      was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and become, by some
+      contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved that these were as
+      wild as lovers&rsquo; plans are wont to be; and another week stole away without
+      anything being settled. Yet this second week was not so desolate as the
+      first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting hope; and each day to hear
+      that Lothair still adored her, and each day to be enabled to breathe back
+      to him her own adoration, solaced the hours of her captivity. But Fate,
+      that will often frown upon the fortunes of true love, decided that this
+      sweet source of consolation should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman,
+      who was ever prowling about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye
+      for a bird, one day observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the
+      window of the tower. His practised sense instantly assured him that the
+      bird was trained, and he resolved to watch its course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hah, hah!&rsquo; said Rufus, the huntsman, &lsquo;is Branchimont thy dovecot?
+      Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the
+      visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew
+      had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont.
+      True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky.
+      Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can doubt
+      that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling visits!
+      Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing! She shall
+      kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter than the
+      scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all thy
+      fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon the
+      unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to anticipate
+      the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes her heart
+      tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred&mdash;an arrow
+      swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The
+      snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It touches thy form&mdash;it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no
+      good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas, alas!
+      the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy
+      transcendent eye grows dim&mdash;all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to
+      the earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Another Message</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour
+      after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and the
+      Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight, she became
+      nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light remained, an
+      indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed night, and nothing
+      but the outline of the surrounding hills was perceptible, she could no
+      longer restrain herself; and, bursting into hysteric tears, she threw
+      herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were they discovered? Had Lothair
+      forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless efforts, had he left her to her
+      miserable, her solitary fate? There was a slight sound&mdash;something
+      seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her side she beheld a letter,
+      which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown in at the window. She
+      started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed herself for doubting for an
+      instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore open the letter; but so great
+      was her emotion that some minutes elapsed before she could decipher its
+      contents. At length she learned that, on the ensuing eve, Lothair and
+      Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of Charolois, would contrive to meet in
+      safety beneath her window, and for the rest she must dare to descend. It
+      was a bold, a very perilous plan. It was the project of desperation. But
+      there are moments in life when desperation becomes success. Nor was the
+      spirit of the Lady Imogene one that would easily quail. Hers was a true
+      woman&rsquo;s heart; and she could venture everything for love. She examined the
+      steep; she cast a rapid glance at the means of making the descent: her
+      shawls, her clothes, the hangings of her bed&mdash;here were resources&mdash;here
+      was hope!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the
+      unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon? But
+      the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not
+      mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were faint&mdash;that
+      the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed; but this she did
+      not observe. She was sanguine&mdash;she was confident in the wisdom of
+      Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured forth her
+      supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then, exhausted by
+      all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a deep repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Flight and Discovery</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. &lsquo;He has his reasons,&rsquo; answered
+      the Lady Imogene: &lsquo;Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right soon, I hope,
+      we shall need no messenger.&rsquo; Oh, what a long, long day was this, the last
+      of her captivity! Will the night never come&mdash;that night she had once
+      so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no longer gladness in
+      thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet thine orb is as high
+      in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon! The unceasing cry of the
+      birds, once so consoling, now only made her restless. She listened, and
+      she listened, until at length the rosy sky called forth their last
+      thrilling chant, and the star of evening summoned them to roost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the hours
+      at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that it wanted
+      but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed a rope of
+      shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force. The bell
+      struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her fate. Slowly
+      and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air, until her feet at
+      length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her footing, she now
+      rested, and looked around her. She had descended about twenty feet. The
+      moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was more rugged. It
+      seemed not impracticable&mdash;she clambered down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hist! hist!&rsquo; said a familiar voice, &lsquo;all is right, lady&mdash;but why did
+      you not answer us?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees&mdash;give me thy hand, sweet
+      lady. Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have no time for embraces,&rsquo; said Theodore; &lsquo;the horses are ready. The
+      Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an
+      eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you
+      Mignon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my letter,&rsquo; said Lothair-&rsquo;you received it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was thrown in at my window,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My heart misgives me,&rsquo; said little Theodore. &lsquo;Away! there is no time to
+      lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout! Fly!
+      fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches
+      seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of
+      Lothair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will die together!&rsquo; she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Seize him!&rsquo; shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; &lsquo;seize the
+      robber!&rsquo; shouted her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At your peril!&rsquo; answered Lothair to his surrounding foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood at bay&mdash;an awful group! The father and his murdering
+      minions, alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their
+      chieftain&rsquo;s daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the
+      silver moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their
+      entrapped victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of the
+      father, &lsquo;Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare not the
+      traitress!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion,
+      they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let me, then, teach you your duty!&rsquo; exclaimed the exasperated father. He
+      advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus they
+      stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow glanced
+      over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to the heart.
+      His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon,
+      had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master
+      of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was
+      thine!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Dove Returns to Imogene</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different
+      its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary
+      vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois is
+      again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet waters,
+      still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks and mused
+      over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering and bright,
+      like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from thy dying
+      glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve&mdash;no more shall
+      her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no more shall her
+      lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds. Oh, yes! she is
+      dead&mdash;the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of misery heralded
+      her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for the good priest who
+      had often administered consolation to his unhappy mistress over her
+      brother&rsquo;s tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying couch, assured many
+      a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim who loved to listen to
+      the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a beatitude; for he did not
+      doubt, from the distracted expressions that occasionally caught his ear,
+      that the Holy Spirit, in that material form he most loves to honour, to
+      wit, the semblance of a pure white dove, often solaced by his presence the
+      last hours of Imogene de Charolois!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE CONSUL&rsquo;S DAUGHTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Henrietta</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby
+      held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the noble
+      family with which he was connected had obtained for him this office, after
+      serving his country, with no slight distinction, during the glorious war
+      of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his family consisted
+      of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of very tender years when
+      he first obtained his appointment, but who had completed her eighteenth
+      year at the period, memorable in her life, which these pages attempt to
+      commemorate. A girl of singular beauty was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not
+      remarkable merely for her beauty. Her father, a very accomplished
+      gentleman, had himself superintended her education with equal care and
+      interest. In their beautiful solitude, for they enjoyed the advantage of
+      very little society save that of those passing travellers who occasionally
+      claimed his protection and hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most
+      engaging pursuit of Major Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of
+      the lively talents of his daughter, and to watch with delight, not
+      unattended with anxiety, the formation of her ardent and imaginative
+      character: he had himself imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine
+      arts in which he himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite
+      languages which he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose
+      rich and interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was
+      careful, also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she
+      should not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable
+      portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from
+      England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly as
+      proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in
+      Portugal and Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and
+      rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections she
+      had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy and
+      agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into
+      loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm,
+      that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the constant
+      presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman can alone imbue
+      existence; without which life, indeed, under any circumstances, is very
+      dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any circumstances, is never
+      desperate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether
+      inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently
+      qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be
+      destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended the
+      daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the father&rsquo;s
+      heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush unseen, and
+      waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then, with all a
+      father&rsquo;s pride, and under all the influence of that worldly ambition from
+      which men are never free, he would form plans by which she might visit,
+      and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble cousins were
+      thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might enter that
+      great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and more than once
+      he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might be better for
+      them both that they should for a season part: but the Consul&rsquo;s daughter
+      shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from the murmurs of a
+      rising storm. She could not conceive existence without her father&mdash;the
+      father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived and flourished&mdash;the
+      father to whom she was indebted, not only for existence, but all the
+      attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire, her tutor, her constant
+      company, her dear, dear friend. To part from him, even though but for a
+      season, and to gain splendour, appeared to her pure, yet lively
+      imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible destiny&mdash;an awful
+      dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an hour; once, indeed,
+      he had been absent for three days; he had sailed with the fleet on public
+      business to a neighbouring port; he had been obliged to leave his
+      daughter, and the daughter remembered those terrible three days like a
+      frightful dream, the recollection of which made her shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony&mdash;he possessed only the
+      small income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which
+      rewarded many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was
+      cast, these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries,
+      but all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy
+      of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues lined
+      their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful
+      galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent facing
+      the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the fanciful
+      garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming aloes, was a
+      most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret may not be hired
+      in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion Miss Ponsonby was
+      the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and flowers, surrounded by her
+      birds: and here she might be often seen at sunset glancing amid its
+      beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step as airy, as the bright
+      gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Fair Presentment</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city where
+      Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests of British
+      commerce&mdash;for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy presence
+      of a bishop&mdash;a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial merchant
+      brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took his way to
+      the Consul&rsquo;s house. He was a man of an age apparently verging towards
+      thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage and directed
+      his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by a single servant,
+      he did not share the general reputation of his countrymen for wealth, his
+      appearance to those practised in society was not undistinguished. Tall,
+      slender, and calm, his air, though unaffected, was that of a man not
+      deficient in self-confidence; and whether it were the art of his tailor,
+      or the result of his own good frame, his garb, although remarkably plain,
+      had that indefinable style which we associate with the costume of a man of
+      some mark and breeding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On arriving at the Consul&rsquo;s house, he was ushered through a large, dark,
+      cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to the
+      suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted up in
+      the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of the
+      library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office. Dwarf
+      bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble bust, or
+      bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a vacant
+      easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his Britannic
+      majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and over the
+      mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the attention of
+      the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He had a very
+      ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed
+      before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of a young lady.
+      She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a gazelle. Her
+      form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was not English,
+      the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of the beauties
+      of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep blue eye, the
+      high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all northern, but
+      northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand a branch of
+      orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Signor Ferrers, I believe,&rsquo; said a shrill voice. The traveller started,
+      and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning, bowing
+      Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent up to
+      the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My name is Ferrers,&rsquo; replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and speaking
+      in a low, sweet tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,&rsquo; said the Italian: &lsquo;I have the honour
+      to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and his
+      chief clerk a chancellor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,&rsquo; said
+      the Italian; &lsquo;and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the
+      Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at
+      Otranto?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope so too,&rsquo; replied the traveller; &lsquo;and so I believe.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me&mdash;the Consul
+      will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be very
+      happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for a
+      moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity of
+      informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular
+      messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send
+      him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have
+      any letters for the Consul?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;None,&rsquo; replied the traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted he had
+      been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a letter of
+      introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, &lsquo;Pray,
+      may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; replied the chancellor; &lsquo;&rsquo;tis the Signora Ponsonby.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Mysterious Stranger</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a dusky
+      little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before sunset
+      on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the casino of
+      the Consul&rsquo;s daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby had invited
+      him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to taste his oranges.
+      The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a very fine plane-tree,
+      under whose spreading branches was arranged a banquet of fruit and
+      flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and wines of the Levant,
+      cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his chibouque, and his
+      daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her guitar fall upon the
+      turf. The original of the portrait proved that the painter had no need to
+      flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner, the radiant smile, and the
+      sweet and thrilling voice with which she welcomed her countryman would
+      have completed the spell, had, indeed, the wanderer been one prepared, or
+      capable of being enchanted. As it was, Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his
+      welcome, with becoming complaisance, exhibited the breeding of a man
+      accustomed to sights of strangeness and of beauty; and, while he expressed
+      his sense of the courtesy of his companions, admired their garden, and
+      extolled the loveliness of the prospect, he did not depart for a moment
+      from that subdued, and even sedate manner, which indicates, the individual
+      whom the world has little left to astonish, and less to enrapture,
+      although, perhaps, much to please. Yet he was fluent in conversation,
+      sensible and polished, and very agreeable. It appeared that he had
+      travelled much, though he was far from boasting of his exploits. He had
+      been long absent from England, had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had
+      sojourned at Damascus. While he refused the pipe, he proved, by his
+      observations on its use, that he was learned in its practice; and he
+      declined his host&rsquo;s offer of a file of English journals, as he was not
+      interested in their contents. His host was too polished to originate any
+      inquiry which might throw light upon the connections or quality of his
+      guest, and his guest imitated his example. Nothing could be more perfectly
+      well-bred than his whole demeanour&mdash;he listened to the major with
+      deference, and he never paid Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never
+      even asked her to sing; but the fond father did not omit this attention.
+      Henrietta, in the most unaffected manner, complied with his request,
+      because, as she was in the habit of singing every evening to her father,
+      she saw no reason why he should, on this occasion, be deprived of an
+      amusement to which he was accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and
+      stirred the flowers and branches, her voice blended with its fresh and
+      fragrant breath. It was a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air
+      in which she indulged, indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the
+      picturesque scene and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with
+      attention, and thanked her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the
+      casino he even requested the favour of her repeating the gratification,
+      but in so quiet a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to
+      comply with a wish expressed with so little fervour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the
+      Consul&rsquo;s daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were
+      executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with interest&mdash;his
+      observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than suspect his
+      skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the fine arts, and
+      offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she thought it would
+      amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with more animation than
+      on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed with the observations
+      of a fine eye and cultivated taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression.
+      Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike
+      personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad
+      to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of
+      the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been
+      acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what
+      Ferrers he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, to the
+      Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him immediately
+      afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him to dine with
+      them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be permitted to
+      pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The major, under the
+      circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance to comply with their
+      desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very reserved, and the Consul
+      desisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again
+      appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before. They
+      drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and again
+      repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the
+      portfolio:&mdash;they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all
+      kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the
+      Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of
+      Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment, shaded
+      by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Señorita, shrouded in her
+      mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance, however,
+      about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least remarkable.
+      It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each drawing, in all
+      probability containing the name and initials of the artist, had been
+      carefully obliterated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers
+      passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an
+      honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the
+      squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr.
+      Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed
+      rather confused; but at length he said: &lsquo;Oh, they are stupid things: I did
+      not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine, who was
+      at Cadiz.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I see the name,&rsquo; said the major; &lsquo;&ldquo;<i>The Kraken</i>.&rdquo; Why, that is
+      Lord Bohun&rsquo;s yacht!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The same,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;We have often expected
+      him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say he is the
+      most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never heard much in his favour,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I believe he has
+      made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+      &lsquo;He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in
+      every man&rsquo;s favour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby; &lsquo;and a
+      Bedouin robber, and&mdash;I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who
+      was here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Affectations!&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. &lsquo;Bohun, however, has some
+      excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his cradle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is he clever?&rsquo; inquired Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I
+      confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers. I am
+      not at all romantic.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a
+      bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our
+      Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter remained
+      on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and every
+      evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed that he
+      was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy Consul always
+      adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his wonder as to
+      what Ferrers he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and
+      several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of the
+      hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr. Ferrers
+      should meet them. He discussed this important point with his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My darling, I don&rsquo;t like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man.
+      The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an
+      insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he
+      is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would see
+      something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall we do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will ask him,&rsquo; replied Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t think he could refuse
+      me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure I could not,&rsquo; replied the major, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that she
+      had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was his
+      courteous reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers&rsquo; brow immediately clouded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, do not look so suspicious,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;Do you think that
+      ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live
+      only on fruit and flowers?&rsquo; continued Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;Do you know,&rsquo; she
+      added, with an arch smile, &lsquo;I think you must be a ghoul.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of the
+      Englishman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will come!&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby&rsquo;s hospitality,&rsquo;
+      muttered Mr. Ferrers; &lsquo;I have no claim to it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are our countryman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unknown.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The common consequence of being a traveller.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes&mdash;but&mdash;in short&mdash;I&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must come,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You do with me what you like,&rsquo; exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation.
+      &lsquo;Beautiful&mdash;weather,&rsquo; he concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that from
+      this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain, this
+      gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul&rsquo;s table; accepting a
+      general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable,
+      availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Could it be the Consul&rsquo;s daughter that effected this revolution? Time may
+      perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were that
+      she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over society; or
+      whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly pleasing because she
+      was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta Ponsonby never appeared to
+      greater advantage than she did upon the day of this memorable festival.
+      Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house, sauntered to the mole, and gazed
+      upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers
+      had before this been fixed in mute abstraction on many a summer wave, when
+      Dian was in her bower; and this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed,
+      was learned in woman, and woman&rsquo;s ways. Shall a Consul&rsquo;s daughter melt a
+      heart that boasted of being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself
+      upon its clouds?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the state of Mr. Ferrers&rsquo; heart were doubtful, I must perforce
+      confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured to
+      inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own feelings.
+      Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers had now
+      insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power of which
+      she was unconscious,&mdash;only because it was unceasing. Had for a moment
+      the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have discovered,
+      with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed she had become
+      since the first evening he approached their pleasant casino. And yet Mr.
+      Ferrers was not her lover. No act,&mdash;no word of gallantry,&mdash;no
+      indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever escaped him. All
+      that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then, there was no
+      other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among them; but, then,
+      he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and repose, which ever
+      and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular activity and strange
+      adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct. But, whatever might be
+      his motives, certain it is, that the English stranger dangerously
+      interested the feelings of the Consul&rsquo;s daughter; and when she thought the
+      time must arrive for his departure, she drove the recollection from her
+      mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang which she experienced by
+      its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the heart of this young and
+      lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in the presence of her
+      companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature had invested the Englishman
+      with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant person; his tender, yet reserved
+      manners; his experienced, yet ornate mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet
+      mellowed imagination, which ever and anon would break forth in his
+      conversation: perhaps, too, the air of melancholy, and even of mystery,
+      which enveloped him, were all spells potent in the charm that enchants the
+      heart of woman. And the major, what did he think? The good Consul was
+      puzzled. The confirmed intimacy between his daughter and his guest alike
+      perplexed and pleased him. He certainly never had become acquainted with a
+      man whom he would sooner have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only
+      known who he was. But two months, and more than two months, had elapsed,
+      and threw no light upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul
+      hesitated as to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good
+      breeding. Now he thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his
+      daughter. There were objections to each line of conduct, and his
+      confidence in Mr. Ferrers was very great, although he did not exactly know
+      who he was: he was decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his
+      conduct and conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so
+      much delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and
+      did, that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
+      and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
+      conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
+      his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
+      gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Tender Avowal</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M&rsquo;Intyre were two very
+      different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay, noisy,
+      pleasant, commonplace persons. They were &lsquo;<i>on leave</i>&rsquo; from one of the
+      Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot red-legged
+      partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a pipe with the
+      Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights they had seen,
+      and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they styled &lsquo;regular
+      adventures&rsquo;: and they insisted upon giving everyone a description of what
+      everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their arrival, Mr. Ferrers
+      discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and resumed his old habit of
+      riding up to the casino, every evening, on his Barbary ass, to eat oranges
+      and talk to the Consul&rsquo;s daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?&rsquo; said Major M&rsquo;Intyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;St. Peter&rsquo;s, of course, you have seen?&rsquo; said Captain Ormsby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But have you seen it during Holy Week?&rsquo; said the major. &lsquo;That&rsquo;s the
+      thing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, I see you have been everywhere,&rsquo; said the captain: &lsquo;Algiers, of
+      course?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never was at Algiers,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
+      circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By Jove,&rsquo; said the major, with elevated eyes, &lsquo;not been at Algiers! why,
+      Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great traveller
+      indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers more worth
+      seeing than any place we ever visited. Don&rsquo;t you, Ormsby?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
+      place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
+      Bohun&rsquo;s yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
+      proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
+      Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain
+      Ormsby finally pronounced &lsquo;Bohun a devilish good fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know Lord Bohun?&rsquo; inquired Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why, no!&rsquo; confessed Captain Ormsby: &lsquo;but he is a devilish intimate friend
+      of a devilish intimate friend of mine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him into
+      the garden. &lsquo;I cannot endure the jabber of these men,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They are very good-natured,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they
+      think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in a
+      short time, and then I shall be forgotten.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if
+      absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second
+      part to Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to
+      anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have been in this island ten weeks,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my
+      existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been very
+      happy,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; &lsquo;very happy, indeed. The only <i>happy</i>
+      time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why not remain, then?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are many reasons,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm to Miss
+      Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino. &lsquo;These ten
+      weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,&rsquo; he continued, but in a calm
+      voice, &lsquo;because you have been my companion. My life has taken its colour
+      from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss Ponsonby, and be not
+      alarmed. I love you!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her arm trembled in his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I <i>love</i> you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common
+      feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life;
+      and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as may
+      be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Most beauteous lady,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;pardon me if I agitate you;
+      for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger, utterly
+      unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my power, even at <i>this</i>
+      moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal position. Yet, whatever I
+      may be, I offer my existence, and all its accidents, good or bad, in
+      homage to your heart. May I indulge the delicious hope that, if not now
+      accepted, they are at least considered with kindliness and without
+      suspicion?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, yes! without <i>suspicion</i>,&rsquo; murmured Miss Ponsonby&mdash;&lsquo;without
+      suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that
+      you are not so good as you are&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;gifted.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Darling Henrietta!&rsquo; exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting
+      tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon her
+      lips. &lsquo;This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman&rsquo;s love I long
+      have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are mine;
+      once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay, start
+      not, sweet one. &lsquo;Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return to
+      claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and solemn
+      engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet again;
+      you may hear <i>of</i> me and not to my advantage. What matter? You love
+      me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour <i>never
+      sullied</i>. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in
+      you, I will despair of them for ever.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me,
+      indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Famous Lord Bohun</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous
+      event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she
+      was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father&rsquo;s child. She
+      belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and departed
+      being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young lady passed
+      her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain she attempted to
+      struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted to herself the error,
+      perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was fascinated. She could not
+      reason; she could not communicate to her father all that had happened. A
+      thousand times her lips moved to reveal her secret; a thousand times an
+      irresistible power restrained them. She remained silent, moody, and
+      restless: she plucked flowers, and threw them to the wind: she gazed upon
+      the sea, and watched the birds in abstraction wilder than their wing: and
+      yet she would not doubt her betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and
+      so sincere, still lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty
+      brow was engraven on her memory: never could she forget those delicate
+      adieus!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after
+      some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of the
+      departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained his
+      noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled with
+      the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the maiden; but
+      the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct gave evidence of
+      restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed sometimes
+      exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing. The Consul
+      was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is bitter for a
+      father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but doubly bitter
+      is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested
+      on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of
+      Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of
+      this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was a
+      diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed
+      there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected
+      individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very
+      luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the
+      Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted his
+      extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the course
+      of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave a
+      magnificent entertainment on board the <i>Kraken</i>, to the bishop and
+      the principal islanders, in honour of the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. Indeed it was
+      soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary
+      admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked
+      attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these
+      attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a lord,
+      and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced Henrietta
+      might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own
+      yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had been
+      copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who preceded
+      him. His name was inquired, and given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ferrers!&rsquo; exclaimed his lordship. &lsquo;What, has Ferrers been here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know Mr. Ferrers, then?&rsquo; inquired Henrietta, with suppressed
+      agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh yes, I know Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,&rsquo; said the Consul, anxious, he
+      knew not why, that the conversation would cease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being
+      agreeable,&mdash;Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,&rsquo; said Henrietta, in a firm, and
+      rather decided tone, &lsquo;I should not have given him credit for any sentiment
+      approaching to <i>conceit</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is fortunate in having such a defender,&rsquo; said his lordship, bowing
+      gallantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, &lsquo;unless
+      they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs any
+      defence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,&rsquo; said the Consul, who was now desirous
+      that the conversation should proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He had evidently a great inducement,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun. &lsquo;I wonder he ever
+      departed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is a great favourite in this house,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I perceive it,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What Ferrers is he?&rsquo; inquired the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun. &lsquo;I never heard
+      his breeding impeached.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I should think, nothing else,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,&rsquo; said his
+      lordship; &lsquo;except that he was a <i>roué</i>, and a little mad. That is
+      all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Enough, I should think,&rsquo; said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What a <i>roué</i> may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,&rsquo; said
+      Henrietta. &lsquo;If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his
+      thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title.
+      As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three months:
+      if he be mad, it must be a very <i>little</i> indeed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was a great favourite of Henrietta,&rsquo; said her father, with a forced
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fortunate man!&rsquo; said the lord. &lsquo;Fortunate Ferrers!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was left
+      alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she was alone,
+      her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A <i>roué!</i>
+      Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had pledged the
+      freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she, after all, only
+      a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a <i>roué!</i> That
+      lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely, was he a <i>roué,</i>
+      an eccentric <i>roué</i>; one whose unprincipled conduct could only be
+      excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect? She could not
+      credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct had been so
+      strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and then she
+      recollected his last dark-muttered words: &lsquo;<i>You may hear of me, and not
+      to my advantage.</i>&rsquo; Oh, what a prophecy! And <i>from</i> him she had
+      never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
+      the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge, and
+      his honour that had been <i>never sullied</i>. She buried her face in her
+      hands,&mdash;she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened
+      since his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had
+      said and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was
+      madness for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no
+      misery so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all
+      her happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
+      gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
+      sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if not
+      light-hearted, at least serene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>More Mystery</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
+      island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
+      remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited no
+      inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
+      interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month, made
+      himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest, certainly
+      with the Consul, if not with the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. As for the name of Mr.
+      Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta piqued
+      herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on respecting her
+      absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting much
+      information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to annex a
+      precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were rich or
+      poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of disgraceful
+      lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been fellow-travellers&mdash;all
+      was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble guest was inattentive to
+      her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost annoyed her by his constant
+      devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined to resent his singularly marked
+      expressions of admiration as an insult; when, to her utter astonishment,
+      one morning her father astounded her by an announcement that Lord Bohun
+      had done her the honour of offering her his hand and heart. The beautiful
+      Henrietta was in great perplexity. It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his
+      flattering proposal without reservation: it was difficult, almost
+      impossible, to convince her father of the expediency of such a proceeding.
+      There was in the proposal of Lord Bohun every circumstance which could
+      gratify Major Ponsonby. In the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition,
+      his hopes had never soared higher than the possession of such a
+      son-in-law: high born, high rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished
+      youth, were combined in the individual whom some favouring destiny, it
+      would seem, had wafted to this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows
+      to its accomplished mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so
+      brief an acquaintance, to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative
+      stranger, was what he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should
+      unhesitatingly and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for
+      which he was totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified&mdash;for
+      the first time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that
+      Lord Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all
+      others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when his
+      fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss Ponsonby.
+      It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father required her to
+      grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a repetition of the
+      proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in vain. It was
+      otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more kind and
+      unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss Ponsonby to
+      think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she was glad,
+      however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or annoyed.
+      Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he had spent in
+      her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire whether time
+      might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby&rsquo;s determination. And when he had
+      received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he only expressed his
+      wishes for her future happiness, which he could not doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; he said,
+      in a very hesitating voice, &lsquo;I am taking a great, an unwarrantable
+      liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could
+      venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your welfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with
+      kindness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were
+      engaged to another.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with
+      blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is this a fair inquiry?&rsquo; she murmured. &lsquo;It is for your sake I inquire,&rsquo;
+      answered Lord Bohun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was
+      thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at length
+      something of her mysterious lover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?&rsquo; She spoke without
+      raising her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a
+      treasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You speak of Edmund Ferrers?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The same.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know him?&rsquo; she inquired, in a choking voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not boast
+      a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more
+      blessed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Shall you see him?&rsquo; she inquired in a quick tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his
+      movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you have
+      sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again; and
+      methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here,
+      Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as well
+      as that of your lord&rsquo;s. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Welcome Message</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without a
+      certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta
+      Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often
+      mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling,
+      indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom she
+      had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of Ferrers
+      in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual
+      seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted it
+      with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations. Here,
+      too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side&mdash;the beautiful and
+      bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple
+      life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love, indeed,
+      is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic&mdash;it changes all things; and
+      the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing, becomes as rife
+      with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate theatre of some
+      old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her mysterious and absent
+      lover was at her side-but then he spoke only Greek. In vain she tried to
+      make him comprehend how much she desired to have tidings of his master.
+      The graceful mute could only indulge in airy pantomime, point to the skies
+      and ocean, or press his hand to his heart in token of fidelity. Henrietta
+      amused herself in teaching Spiridion Italian, and repaid herself for all
+      her trouble in occasionally obtaining some slight information of her
+      friend. In time she learned that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord
+      Bohun before the departure of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and
+      often-repeated inquiries whether he would soon return, Spiridion was
+      constant to his consoling affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress
+      of languages as Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian
+      scarf, which the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his
+      master when Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the
+      scarf for a Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page,
+      rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below
+      the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that a
+      vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an English
+      vessel&mdash;it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and watched
+      the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed the British
+      Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also immediately
+      return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal&mdash;upon a white
+      ground a crimson heart&mdash;whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his breast
+      a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace until he
+      arrived at the Consul&rsquo;s mansion&mdash;he rushed in, dashed up the
+      staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the
+      sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby&mdash;her gaze was serious, but her
+      beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched by
+      gloom&mdash;pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still
+      echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on
+      which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were her
+      gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of him whom she
+      had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful, confiding maiden!
+      It was the strength of thy mind as much as the simplicity of thy heart
+      that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who would not envy thy unknown
+      adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for weak minds and cold-blooded
+      spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou wast just, for, behold, he is
+      true!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fluttering sound roused her&mdash;she turned her head, and expected to
+      see her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he
+      held towards her a letter. She seized it&mdash;she recognised in an
+      instant the handwriting she had so often studied&mdash;it was his! Yes! it
+      was his. It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her
+      hand trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read,
+      and she read these words:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which
+      since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me
+      to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my bride;
+      but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let nothing
+      be known to our father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Mystery Revealed</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MY DEAREST Henrietta,&rsquo; said the Consul as he entered, &lsquo;who, think you, has
+      returned? Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed!&rsquo; said Henrietta. &lsquo;Have you seen him?&rsquo; &lsquo;No. I paid my respects to
+      him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow, at
+      ten.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morrow came, but ten o&rsquo;clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven
+      sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her&mdash;he was
+      surprised to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early
+      ramble. At this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that,
+      from some error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited
+      the Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As
+      he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and&mdash;Mr.
+      Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was about
+      to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she disappeared
+      down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted her father&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major
+      Ponsonby,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I
+      must go and greet his lordship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, never mind Bohun,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. &lsquo;I have no ceremony
+      with him&mdash;he can wait.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The major was a little perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must know, my dearest sir,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;that I wish to
+      speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Proceed, sir,&rsquo; said the Consul, looking still more puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire your
+      daughter.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Consul bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers; &lsquo;it seems to me impossible to know her and not
+      admire: I should say, adore her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You flatter a father&rsquo;s feelings,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I express my own,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I love her&mdash;I have long
+      loved her devotedly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hem!&rsquo; said Major Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;that there is a great deal to apologise
+      for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that my conduct
+      may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will not say that
+      the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end was, at least, a
+      great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is some consolation to me,&rsquo; continued that gentleman, &lsquo;that the
+      daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I
+      may be as successful with the father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must
+      own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and shake
+      hands with Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my
+      dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby,
+      with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this island.
+      This knowledge is necessary for my justification.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what is there to justify?&rsquo; inquired the major.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Conceive a man born to a great fortune,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, without
+      noticing the interruption, &lsquo;and to some accidents of life, which many
+      esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth&mdash;conceive
+      this man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in
+      that great world with which you are not unacquainted&mdash;conceive him
+      with a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe
+      and the victim of all whom he encounters&mdash;conceive him, in disgust,
+      flying from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of
+      those accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to
+      his morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery&mdash;conceive
+      this man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of
+      which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own sake&mdash;a
+      miserable man, sir!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It would seem so,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession of all
+      for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for himself, and
+      loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his purest youth: yet
+      the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his joy. He is haunted by
+      the suspicion that the affection, even of this being, is less the result
+      of his own qualities, than of her inexperience of life&mdash;he has
+      everything at stake&mdash;he dares to submit her devotion to the sharpest
+      trial&mdash;he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain with which
+      he had enveloped himself&mdash;he quits her with the distinct
+      understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit to
+      return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret from
+      the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that his name
+      shall be traduced in her presence&mdash;that the proudest fortune, the
+      loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will
+      renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major
+      Ponsonby!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed, most terrible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But she is true&mdash;truer even than truth&mdash;and I have come back to
+      claim my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I speak, then&mdash;&mdash;-&rsquo; murmured the astounded Consul&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Philosophical  Conversation between a Physician and
+     His Patient.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was not
+      only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy of his
+      patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between medicine
+      and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to Walstein. The
+      physician looked forward to the interview with his patient with some
+      degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had never yet met
+      that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his travels, and who
+      had been absent from his country for several years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was admitted
+      into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and ascending a
+      double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a magnificent
+      gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient statues were
+      ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were suspended many
+      beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them were dwarf
+      bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and crowned with
+      Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a man of taste,
+      looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he was gazing on a
+      group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of whom he had heard
+      much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and turning round,
+      Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of youth, but of
+      very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and graceful manner.
+      &lsquo;I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting you to be a moment
+      alone,&rsquo; said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,&rsquo; replied the physician.
+      &lsquo;There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of your father,
+      Mr. Walstein.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,&rsquo; replied
+      Walstein, &lsquo;the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a <i>pococurante</i>,
+      I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the commonplace.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,&rsquo; replied
+      Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be
+      seated. &lsquo;I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,&rsquo; he observed, somewhat
+      abruptly. &lsquo;My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that a physician
+      is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I am in excellent
+      health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My temperament I have
+      ever considered to be of a very sanguine character. I have nothing upon my
+      mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto I have only committed
+      blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless, I have, of late, become
+      the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy, which I can ascribe to no
+      cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you throw any light upon my dark
+      feelings? Can you remove them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long have you experienced them?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;More or less ever since my return,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;but most
+      grievously during the last three months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you in love?&rsquo; inquired Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly not,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and I fear I never shall be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have been?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,&rsquo; answered the patient; &lsquo;but
+      youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and,
+      in all probability, never will be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Besides an idea of a heroine,&rsquo; said Schulembourg, &lsquo;you have also, if I
+      mistake not, an idea of a hero?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Without doubt,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;I have preconceived for myself a
+      character which I have never achieved.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero,
+      why should you complain?&rsquo; rejoined Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,&rsquo; said
+      Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of our
+      mistress,&rsquo; rejoined Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You reason,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;I was myself once fond of reasoning, but the
+      greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is not a
+      rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from
+      passion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,&rsquo; observed Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And thus we pass the ocean of life,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;Would that I could
+      discover a new continent of sensation!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mix much in society?&rsquo; said the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By fits and starts,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;A great deal when I first returned:
+      of late little.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It would superficially appear so,&rsquo; observed Walstein; &lsquo;but I consider my
+      present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the reaction
+      of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a sense of
+      disappointment of the past.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are disappointed,&rsquo; observed Schulembourg. &lsquo;What, then, did you
+      expect?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;that is the very thing I wish to
+      discover.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you in general pass your time?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When I reply <i>in doing nothing</i>, my dear Doctor,&rsquo; said Walstein,
+      &lsquo;you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But
+      perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you read?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but
+      books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering
+      life.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you write?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate
+      reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your own
+      feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My sympathies are strong,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;In an evil hour I might
+      descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd; I
+      should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very
+      evanescent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Travel is action,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg. &lsquo;Believe me, that in action you
+      alone can find a cure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is action?&rsquo; inquired Walstein. &lsquo;Travel I have exhausted. The world
+      is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a
+      career?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Action,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, &lsquo;is the exercise of our faculties. Do not
+      mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life almost
+      within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action. Witness
+      the convents and the churches that are covered with his exploits. A great
+      student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or a statesman. You
+      must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an object in life;
+      great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe me, it is better
+      to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your advice is profound,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and you have struck upon a
+      sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a very ambitious man,&rsquo; replied the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How know you that?&rsquo; said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly
+      blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We doctors know many strange things,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, with a smile.
+      &lsquo;Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prime minister of Oberon!&rsquo; said Walstein, laughing; &lsquo;&rsquo;tis indeed a great
+      destiny.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate
+      themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a
+      prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which he
+      handed to his patient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein smiled as he read the prescription.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein&rsquo;s
+      company at dinner, to-morrow at two o&rsquo;clock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his
+      promise. &lsquo;I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Containing Some Future Conversation</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The
+      house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was
+      situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been
+      presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa, which
+      recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights of
+      marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion, all
+      painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon the
+      terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases
+      sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains
+      were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and
+      bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet
+      and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky, and
+      threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and serene,
+      floated the airy crescent of the young white moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,&rsquo; exclaimed
+      Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered
+      through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an
+      octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved
+      away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was
+      Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to
+      apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely beautiful.
+      Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks of ebon hair
+      shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her large and deep blue
+      eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The expression of her face
+      was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played like meteors on her soft
+      round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head was carelessly tied under her
+      chin, and fastened with a white rose of pearls. Her vest and train of
+      white satin did not conceal her sylphlike form and delicate feet. She held
+      forth a little white hand to Walstein, adorned only by a single enormous
+      ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr.
+      Walstein,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around, and
+      recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being introduced,
+      for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,&rsquo; said Walstein,
+      addressing the latter gentleman. &lsquo;You have left your fame behind you at
+      Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least
+      accompanied with admiration.&rsquo; The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly
+      blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid,
+      petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly
+      and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with a
+      true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even
+      when enthusiastic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is difficult to remember we are in the North,&rsquo; said Walstein to Madame
+      Schulembourg, &lsquo;amid these colonnades and orange trees.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,&rsquo; replied the lady,
+      &lsquo;and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have resided long in Italy?&rsquo; inquired Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was born at Milan,&rsquo; replied Madame de Schulembourg, &lsquo;my father
+      commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,&rsquo; said
+      Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,&rsquo; replied
+      Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; &lsquo;is it not so, Mr. Revel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady&rsquo;s mother, whom
+      he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then they
+      exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they were
+      conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: &lsquo;I must compensate
+      for keeping you from dinner,&rsquo; said their host, &lsquo;by having the pleasure of
+      announcing that it is prepared.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the dining-room.
+      The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German
+      dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with an
+      ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman was
+      an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent, without
+      that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to a finished man
+      of the world. The host was himself ever animated and cheerful, but calm
+      and clear&mdash;and often addressed himself to the artist, who was silent,
+      and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein himself, indeed, was
+      not very talkative, but his manner indicated that he was interested, and
+      when he made an observation it was uttered with facility, and arrested
+      attention by its justness or its novelty. It was an agreeable party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the
+      supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very
+      sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest of
+      the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg avowed
+      her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary. Schulembourg
+      philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he was a magnetiser,
+      and his explanations were more marvellous than the portents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you, Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg, &lsquo;what is your
+      opinion?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the
+      burthen of daily reality,&rsquo; replied Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,&rsquo; observed Mr. Revel, bowing to the
+      sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Novalis is an astrologer,&rsquo; said Madame Schulembourg; &lsquo;I think he would
+      just suit you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Destiny is a grand subject,&rsquo; observed Walstein, &lsquo;and although I am not
+      prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be
+      surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That has been the belief of great spirits,&rsquo; observed the sculptor, his
+      countenance brightening with more assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is true,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;I would rather err with my great namesake
+      and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a dangerous speech, Baron,&rsquo; said Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With regard to destiny,&rsquo; said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist of
+      the old school, &lsquo;everything depends upon a man&rsquo;s nature; the ambitious
+      will rise, and the grovelling will crawl&mdash;those whose volition is
+      strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the
+      consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schulembourg shook his head. &lsquo;By a man&rsquo;s nature you mean his structure,&rsquo;
+      said the physician, &lsquo;much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but
+      structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to
+      sympathy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is true,&rsquo; replied the sculptor; &lsquo;and what is the influence of the
+      stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,&rsquo; remarked Walstein;
+      &lsquo;this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de
+      Schulembourg.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary,&rsquo; she replied, &lsquo;the mystical ever delights me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet,&rsquo; continued Walstein, &lsquo;perceiving that the discontent and infelicity
+      of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his intelligence and his
+      knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant and the simple.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A man can only be content,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, &lsquo;when his career is in
+      harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great physical
+      activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in spite of great
+      physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence, under the
+      influence of the action which is necessary to their living,
+      counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure, when
+      he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man of
+      genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being
+      developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that sublime
+      art so ill-comprehended!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I agree with you,&rsquo; said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of
+      Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; &lsquo;all the scrapes and unhappiness of
+      my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be
+      ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out of
+      a man who wished to be a soldier.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,&rsquo; replied
+      Schulembourg; &lsquo;but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a
+      noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady
+      was not ashamed to marry me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,&rsquo; said Novalis, his eyes
+      flashing with enthusiasm. &lsquo;I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor
+      mother&rsquo;s heart.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. &lsquo;As for
+      myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out.
+      Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This,
+      however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen&mdash;at least it
+      would be,&rsquo; he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, &lsquo;were it
+      not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; said Madame, rising, &lsquo;the carriages are at the door. Let us take a
+      drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG&rsquo;S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian
+      ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was
+      followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis
+      stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. &lsquo;Caroline,&rsquo; he
+      said, as he bid his guest adieu, &lsquo;I commend Mr. Walstein to your care.
+      When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend has
+      escaped.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,&rsquo; replied Caroline,
+      with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was
+      as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue
+      without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a flitting
+      friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the road lined
+      on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast beds of tall
+      fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Here, Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; said Caroline, &lsquo;with your permission, I shall take
+      my afternoon walk.&rsquo; Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which she and
+      her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she declined it,
+      folding herself up in her shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?&rsquo; said
+      Madame de Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At this moment, decidedly Dresden,&rsquo; replied her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! that is a compliment,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg, after a moment&rsquo;s
+      musing. &lsquo;My dear Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; she continued, looking up with an arch
+      expression, &lsquo;never pay me compliments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mistake me: it was not a compliment,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;It was a
+      sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable
+      existence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know that you are my patient,&rsquo; rejoined Madame de Schulembourg. &lsquo;I
+      have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such
+      complaints.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no doubt of it,&rsquo; replied Walstein, with a slight bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If we could but find out the cause!&rsquo; continued Caroline. &lsquo;I venture to
+      believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come, be
+      frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with a fair
+      Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our heroine a
+      captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences of
+      their influence,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and in general they are right.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But in your case?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very wrong.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am determined to find it out,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to heaven you could,&rsquo; said Baron de Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think a wandering life has spoiled you,&rsquo; said Caroline. &lsquo;I think it
+      must be civilisation that you find wearisome.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That would be very sublime,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;But I assure you, if
+      there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the
+      anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more than
+      I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion without
+      excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure, let me at
+      least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene is with me
+      exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be tempted to quit
+      this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see how it is,&rsquo; exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head very
+      knowingly, &lsquo;you must marry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The last resource of feminine fancy!&rsquo; exclaimed Walstein, almost
+      laughing. &lsquo;You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle of
+      the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de Schulembourg,&rsquo;
+      he continued, in a very serious tone, &lsquo;that, with my present sensations, I
+      should consider it highly dishonourable to implicate any woman in my
+      destiny.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ha! ha! ha!&rsquo; laughed Madame; &lsquo;I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein,
+      that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. &lsquo;Tis
+      the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times
+      before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have, indeed,&rsquo; said Walstein; &lsquo;and perhaps, were I Doctor de
+      Schulembourg, I might be as gay.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on truth.
+      The fact is, I think you are too much alone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,&rsquo;
+      replied Walstein. &lsquo;Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I am&mdash;&mdash;-what
+      I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your ridicule.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise
+      with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself. If
+      you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an affair
+      of climate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Walstein, still very serious, &lsquo;not an affair of climate&mdash;certainly
+      not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we bear with its yoke as
+      we do with all that is initiatory&mdash;with the solace of expectation.
+      But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear to be no
+      mysteries in which I am to be initiated.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, after all, you want something to do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No doubt.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What shall it be?&rsquo; inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! what shall it be?&rsquo; echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; &lsquo;or,
+      rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more
+      unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A career!&rsquo; exclaimed Caroline. &lsquo;What, you want to set the world in a
+      blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine
+      speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very
+      ambitious!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know not what I am,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;but I feel that my present lot
+      is an intolerable burthen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the
+      accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men
+      struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that
+      you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe me,
+      my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to employ
+      any man&rsquo;s faculties.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My youth is fast fading, which I don&rsquo;t regret,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;for I
+      am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to it,
+      and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity of
+      producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by no
+      uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy does
+      not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this
+      afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his career
+      must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of happiness to
+      me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a mechanic?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must settle all this with Augustus,&rsquo; replied Madame de Schulembourg;
+      &lsquo;I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always tell Sidonia that
+      he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him beyond description. Do
+      you know him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only by fame.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you like
+      to make his acquaintance?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Authors are best known by their writings,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;I admire
+      his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human heart,
+      and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think and to
+      utter in solitude.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make
+      the acquaintance of an admirer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I entreat you not,&rsquo; replied Walstein, really alarmed. &lsquo;It is precisely
+      because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What can the
+      conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His appearance and
+      his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is always interesting
+      to indulge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a
+      wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair. I
+      am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,&rsquo; continued
+      Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. &lsquo;Do not think me heartless; all his
+      passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has written to
+      me every week&mdash;his letters are each time more reasonable. I have no
+      doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work which will
+      amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden quite cool. I
+      delight in Sidonia&mdash;he is my especial favourite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The public
+      drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg gaily
+      bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dear girls, come home with us this eve,&rsquo; she exclaimed, as she curbed her
+      ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young ladies who
+      were seated within it with their mother. &lsquo;Let me introduce Mr. Walstein to
+      you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise Augusta and
+      Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is Emilius&mdash;How
+      do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your Bavarian
+      friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?&rsquo; inquired Augusta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter;
+      read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim;
+      adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.&rsquo; So they drove away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IBRAHIM PASHA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety
+      towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt,
+      and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless well
+      acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present
+      condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success
+      of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new basis,
+      the political geography of the East.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have
+      fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the
+      Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of history,
+      from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when the Turkish
+      Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally inquire what has
+      become of the intellectual inheritance which the ancient inhabitants of
+      these countries left behind them? Where are the successors of the skilful
+      workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora; the navigators of
+      Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of Chaldea? Several
+      distinct characters of civilisation have successively flourished in this
+      part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of the Pelasgi,
+      correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the Phrygian
+      monuments of Seïdï Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of Bagdad, and
+      the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period, the baths, the
+      amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the Archipelago; to
+      the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in every direction the
+      whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages, the church of Iznik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods
+      produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at its
+      last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand
+      thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects
+      together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in this
+      part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis, who
+      compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits and
+      recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their last
+      connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest&mdash;that
+      they were only encamped in the land&mdash;that they had received a
+      military organisation for a permanent state of warfare&mdash;that their
+      headquarters was Constantinople&mdash;they have become attached to the
+      soil, and shut themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal
+      system, are divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their
+      contempt for foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some
+      degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller advances
+      into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On approaching the
+      central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that cultivation seldom
+      extends beyond the distance of half a league round a village; the
+      inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully avoid the
+      vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical phenomenon,
+      that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous and the
+      richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that the passage
+      of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than the fatal plague
+      itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of Eske-Seher have
+      been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at the head of
+      300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked by all the
+      devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those horsemen called
+      Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha, enters a village,
+      the consternation is general, and followed by a system of exaction that to
+      the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To complain to the Pasha
+      would be to court instant destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at the
+      passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and consequently
+      the obstacles a European army would encounter which should ever be masters
+      of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans, a Nornase tribe, who
+      sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the Archipelago, and who pay
+      but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also another cause of
+      devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers of the Pasha, who are
+      the oppressors <i>par excellence</i>; they are always present to despoil
+      the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common expression in the
+      mouths of this oppressed race, &lsquo;but eyes wherewith to weep.&rsquo; The welfare
+      of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte, are things to them of
+      the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise men and taxes; to obey, is
+      to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost exclusively at forty or fifty
+      leagues from the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every social
+      tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent tribes&mdash;the
+      cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis&mdash;a people who adore the spirit of
+      Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and all those fierce
+      natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the fastnesses of the
+      Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the wandering Arabs, the pirates
+      of the desert, and the mountaineers of Lebanon, who live in a state of
+      perpetual discord. Over this immense line of countries centuries have
+      passed, and left no trace behind; all that the ancients and the crusaders
+      have related to us of them, is typical of their condition at this day. The
+      bows and arrows, the armour, exhibited as objects of curiosity in our
+      museums, are still in use among them. It is only by chance, or by
+      profiting by their intestine divisions, that the authority of the Porte is
+      recognised. The Pashas are mostly hereditary, and live in a state of
+      perpetual insurrection. Thus from the shores of the Archipelago to the
+      banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear
+      to obey the same law of decrease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of Upper
+      Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride of this
+      monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has reached
+      such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible to
+      regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all those parts
+      so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and organised into
+      independent states. Towards the North, Russia has pushed on her battalions
+      as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found more difficult, to govern Armenia
+      from St. Petersburg than from Constantinople. In politics, the calculation
+      of distances is an important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays
+      claim to Syria, and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus
+      and the sea&mdash;a territory in which she will find those resources she
+      at present stands so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding,
+      etc., a Christian population, among whom the seeds of European
+      civilisation will be more easily implanted. She will thus form an empire
+      that will one day become powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that
+      system of monopoly so rigorously put in force by her present ruler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali,
+      justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha
+      had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it into
+      his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league against
+      him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated his pardon
+      for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid. Interest soon
+      prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there was more to be
+      gained from Constantinople than from Cairo&mdash;that the authority of the
+      Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than nominal, and that the
+      Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be in a condition to prevent
+      his exactions; he therefore sought, on every occasion, to get rid of the
+      influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the jealousy of the Porte against
+      him. An opportunity soon offered itself. Some Egyptian fellahs had taken
+      refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha; Mehemet Ali demanded these men,
+      but the Governor of Acre refused to give them up, on the plea that they
+      were subjects of the Grand Signor, and referred the matter to the Porte,
+      who on this occasion was seized with a fit of humanity, and <i>bewailed</i>
+      the oppression of the peasantry of the Valley of the Vale&mdash;<i>Inde
+      Bellum</i>.&rsquo; This was at the close of 1831.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment was favourable for the Viceroy&rsquo;s great designs. Europe was
+      sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention on
+      the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open revolt,
+      and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics on the side of
+      Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the Russians, and his
+      conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole empire. In the
+      meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the government had
+      extended to every object of production and industry, while the
+      conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the population; and
+      if to this organised system of spoliation we farther add the ravages of
+      the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the wretched state of
+      those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that the Egyptians were
+      everywhere hailed as deliverers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head of the
+      Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that gigantic
+      strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires such
+      respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull with a
+      blow of his scimitar&mdash;to execute, like Peter the Great, his victims
+      with his own hand&mdash;to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks of
+      champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his manners,
+      from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat polished, and in
+      deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and dignity&mdash;in
+      fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good opinion of
+      Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so distinguishes
+      the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind. Soliman Bey, a
+      renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff of Marshal Grouchy,
+      was associated with him, and it is to him that the success of the Egyptian
+      army may be chiefly attributed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered
+      itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of
+      Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends
+      from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side
+      by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from
+      Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth
+      about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most important
+      military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as the key to several
+      valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan; Alexandretta, situated upon a
+      tongue of land between the marshes and the sea; and lastly, Aentab and
+      Zenyma, which command the two passages on the right side of Mount Amanus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all
+      strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria. Malte
+      Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at two millions, but
+      we are inclined to question the accuracy of this calculation, since no two
+      travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the Druses, some estimating
+      them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks form two-fifths of the
+      population&mdash;they inhabit the large towns with the Greeks; the
+      remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs, of Kurds, and of
+      Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes; of Bedouin Arabs, who
+      pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and along the edge of the
+      desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the descendants of the
+      servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites, who profess the
+      Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful; of all the
+      inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the sect of Ali;
+      of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state of independence.
+      We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this prodigious diversity
+      of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep possession of. With
+      the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north of Syria, all of them
+      obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the Emir Bechir, a Druse,
+      prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el Din, who revolted against
+      Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when Abdallah raised the standard of
+      revolt in 1822, sought the protection of Mehemet Ali, who re-established
+      him in his government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular
+      troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took the
+      same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre.
+      Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha, Jerusalem,
+      Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and Acre submitted at
+      his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected reinforcements both
+      in men and material, he made haste to occupy the whole line of coast as
+      far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of November, before Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular infantry, two regiments of lancers,
+      1,000 Bedouins, two companies of sappers, one of cannoniers, one of
+      bombardiers, and a train of field and siege artillery. The place is
+      situated on a promontory surrounded on three sides by the sea, and
+      defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned by a tower, which serves as a
+      citadel. This last fort, the bastions of which, from their retiring flanks
+      being too short, is the only one accessible on the land side, but it was
+      enfiladed from a neighbouring height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint
+      Jean d&rsquo;Acre, was destitute of siege artillery, and was not master of the
+      sea. He had, therefore, many more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very
+      vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor
+      before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was
+      made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the fleet
+      and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The besieged on
+      their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a heavy loss, and
+      several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th to the 18th the
+      bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy guns were placed
+      in battery. The operations of the siege were now pushed forward with great
+      ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate reduction of the place. The
+      defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by the most determined energy. He
+      had sworn, it was reported, that he would blow up the town. It was,
+      however, of the utmost importance to push forward the operations with the
+      greatest activity. The first disposition of the population, which had been
+      favourable, might undergo a change should not Ibrahim succeed in striking
+      a great blow. The mountaineers of Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their
+      chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and were ready to furnish a contingent of
+      their warriors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread
+      terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated,
+      and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she
+      summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her
+      orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of
+      December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed
+      governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent to
+      the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims of
+      Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict
+      injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of
+      Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars
+      was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of the
+      subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every day the
+      efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its authority,
+      encountered new obstacles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held out
+      for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as an
+      hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran Osman
+      Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of Tripoli, but it
+      was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms. -This port was
+      already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha Agar Barbar, a
+      man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier Mehemet Pasha
+      consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular horsemen, and
+      fourteen small field-pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the
+      Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his troops
+      over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play upon the
+      town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the castle were
+      also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped up to the very
+      houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of musketry, which,
+      galling them severely, drove them across the heights. Night put an end to
+      the affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his
+      lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre and wishing to
+      reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six
+      field-pieces, before Osman&rsquo;s camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately
+      abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the Pasha
+      of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general immediately
+      pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened upon this
+      point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he retired, after
+      some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his camp, and was joined
+      by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men. But his presence was
+      required in other quarters. Divisions had broken out at several points,
+      and the slowness with which the operations of the siege of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his partisans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the Cadi,
+      the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable
+      reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive
+      dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the
+      19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians made
+      the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and experienced a
+      heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it was again closed
+      up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace was destroyed, and
+      Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by Djezzar. The garrison
+      was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last, on the 27th of May, a general
+      assault was made. Three breaches were practicable, one on the tower of
+      Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six
+      battalions had the horrors of the attack, which commenced at daybreak and
+      lasted twelve hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but
+      Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and
+      having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault.
+      Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he was
+      obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429
+      wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre, after a memorable
+      defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim the
+      possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect security.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the war,
+      the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of March,
+      Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and by the
+      extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but in other
+      respects, a soldier <i>à la Turc</i>, was appointed chief of the
+      expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the
+      empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly
+      invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar. He
+      received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly
+      caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the
+      army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at
+      Konisk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the army
+      had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers. The mass
+      of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha&rsquo;s brigade of infantry, with
+      the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of irregulars, under the
+      orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender Pasha&rsquo;s brigade of
+      infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha&rsquo;s brigade, with the
+      cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was accompanied by its
+      batteries. An European organisation had been given to the different
+      services, such as the paymaster-general&rsquo;s department, commissariat, etc.
+      The Sultan had written out many of the regulations with his own hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of
+      Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops,
+      under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with
+      all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European
+      instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of
+      artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army had
+      they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and
+      experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two
+      former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by the
+      Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back. As for
+      Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his
+      endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every
+      branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against
+      him, and he retired in disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he displayed
+      the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in vain that the
+      European inspectors requested him to put in force &lsquo;the regulation for
+      troops in the field,&rsquo; of the French general Prevan, which had been
+      translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than were their
+      complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence and
+      negligence of the chiefs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his army.
+      The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military
+      administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact, it
+      was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted, once
+      overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that the
+      Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an arm
+      which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000 Janizaries.
+      This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to unsheathe this
+      weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor Mehemet Ali, and
+      his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied the Turkish history
+      must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would find at last his master&mdash;the
+      executioner; but since the late victories of the Russians, all national
+      faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis. Excommunication is an arm as
+      worn out at Constantinople as at Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she directed
+      a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which she explained
+      the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded the strictest
+      neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared Egypt in a state
+      of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul from Alexandria, and
+      even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary corps d&rsquo;armee. Austria, an
+      enemy to all revolutions, went so far as to threaten the Viceroy. England
+      appeared to preserve the strictest neutrality, while France strenuously
+      employed all her influence to bring about an accommodation; but in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the
+      question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that
+      calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three
+      weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on
+      the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker&rsquo;s
+      brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons,
+      brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre. It became,
+      therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to
+      march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to
+      Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for a
+      fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached
+      Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days
+      were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim&rsquo;s delay to take up a more
+      advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes,
+      and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with
+      the Turkish irregulars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all Ibrahim&rsquo;s operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After
+      securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns, which
+      offered an excellent position, where they might have established a
+      communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and
+      whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not till
+      the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet Pasha
+      commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue rations to
+      the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost dead with
+      hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with his
+      irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning even to
+      think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or to issue
+      rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain ceremonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into a
+      magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the two viziers
+      made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the hargueleh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian
+      army was within two hours&rsquo; march of them. The disorder that ensued was
+      dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the
+      Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light
+      troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of
+      which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of a
+      hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish
+      regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their
+      irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus
+      the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had an
+      opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European
+      instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery even
+      refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not remain
+      inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from right to
+      left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the Orontes, but
+      they were checked by part of Beker&rsquo;s brigade and two pieces of cannon.
+      Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire. In the course
+      of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered considerably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead
+      of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement, he put
+      himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who immediately
+      formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned by his
+      artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy, fell
+      back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried. The
+      second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour; and on
+      the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a decisive
+      charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in the most
+      disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy&rsquo;s cavalry. It was a general <i>sauve
+      qui peut</i>. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish army from
+      total destruction. The loss of the Sultan&rsquo;s forces in this affair amounted
+      to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead of
+      rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha&rsquo;s brigade, which was encamped at two hours&rsquo;
+      march from the field of battle, fled with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the <i>tête du
+      pont</i> on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the
+      point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who
+      endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself
+      to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably
+      calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was
+      able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it.
+      Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing
+      anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military chest,
+      impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying nowhere
+      and holding up the name of his master to universal execration. At the
+      action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that there
+      yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal allowed an army
+      to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable organisation.
+      Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for Antioch, with
+      the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the neighbourhood of
+      Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts, he returned by
+      forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his troops by a march of
+      eight hundred leagues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and
+      made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country
+      declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to him.
+      His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his protection
+      the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There now only
+      remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize Antioch and
+      Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with extreme
+      slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a decision
+      favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish
+      field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he
+      disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile of
+      Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some places
+      that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand route of
+      the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet on the 5th
+      of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after an action of
+      two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the conqueror
+      Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces of cannon. The
+      Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable positions which
+      the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana. Ibrahim pursued them
+      with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a ford, Hussein Pasha having
+      blown up the superb bridge of nine arches that crossed that river at
+      Missis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana, but
+      they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by the
+      enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The whole
+      district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length reached the new
+      line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the boundaries of his
+      empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of the Egyptians upon
+      Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers of Hussein Pasha
+      deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the Anatolian peasantry
+      murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could find them, which was not
+      difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the provinces of Upper Asia were in
+      such a state of insurrection that a single officer of Ibrahim&rsquo;s would have
+      been sufficient to make the most considerable town capitulate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the
+      Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari. But
+      his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise, for
+      however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would have
+      appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could not have
+      prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he succeeded in
+      these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been the result?
+      Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would have found
+      himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its base, which no
+      human power can regenerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France, and
+      endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the Porte,
+      listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the blind
+      obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories of the
+      Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an armistice of
+      five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was succeeded by the
+      Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had distinguished himself in
+      Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro Pasha. Brave and accustomed to
+      the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was superior to his predecessor, but
+      even he was only a Turkish general. He had been selected principally on
+      account of his great influence in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received
+      orders to repair to Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians
+      and Albanians, of which they knew he could dispose, and with the six
+      regiments of infantry and cavalry that belonged to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in
+      re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it was
+      echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops brought
+      by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have prevented
+      Ibrahim&rsquo;s further advance; but there was neither skill in the general nor
+      ardour among the troops; the councils of the European instructors were, as
+      usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on the contrary, was almost
+      exclusively under the direction of European officers. A single piece of
+      artillery would have sufficed to defend the passage of the Taurus, and yet
+      when Ibrahim appeared on its northern declivity he had to encounter but a
+      few irregulars, of whom he soon gave a good account. He then fixed his
+      camp on the plain of Erekli, at one hundred and sixty days&rsquo; march of a
+      camel from Constantinople, and then advanced upon Koniah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish army
+      until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken at the
+      approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of
+      Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of
+      taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour of
+      the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced. The
+      cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads rendered so
+      impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the artillery and
+      ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found themselves, as at
+      Horns, without provisions in the presence of the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at the
+      head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the mountains
+      up the village of Lilé, which was occupied by a strong detachment of
+      Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand army, was to
+      pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been simultaneous,
+      but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the scene of action,
+      and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check, the Grand Vizier
+      continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in presence of the
+      enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared to give him a warm
+      reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st of December), and from the
+      advanced hour of the day there was no alternative but to attack, otherwise
+      he must have passed a night upon the field, without bread, exposed to the
+      action of an intense cold that would have paralysed the ardour of the
+      troops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order of
+      battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering useless
+      a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to alter his
+      dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not reconnoitre
+      the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension of front. His
+      left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained formed in columns
+      of attack, while the enemy&rsquo;s artillery committed dreadful havoc on their
+      profound masses. He committed also another fault, that of placing his
+      artillery between the interval of the lines, so that it did not reach the
+      Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary, posted in their front, did great
+      execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Redchid&rsquo;s main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his
+      forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy&rsquo;s army,
+      whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But
+      Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point
+      attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his
+      adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the
+      Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and
+      afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus found
+      itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the efforts
+      of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last effort,
+      but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed, and fell,
+      severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss of the Turks
+      was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the line, left
+      3,000 men upon the field of battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was
+      annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and the
+      tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the Russian
+      Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at stake rather
+      than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on independent
+      sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that he owes this
+      glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is rapidly sinking
+      under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which European diplomacy
+      will in vain attempt to arrest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE COURT OF EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is
+      Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the
+      banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the
+      gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is one
+      of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive before
+      you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of marble steps.
+      These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large quadrangular
+      colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake, studded by three or
+      four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken cords. The colonnade
+      terminates towards the water by a very noble marble balustrade, the top of
+      which is covered with groups of various kinds of fish in high relief. At
+      each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives way to a flight of steps
+      which are guarded by crocodiles of immense size, admirably sculptured in
+      white marble. On the farther side the colonnade opens into a great number
+      of very brilliant banqueting-rooms, which you enter by withdrawing
+      curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour vividly contrasting with the white
+      shining marble of which the whole kiosk is formed. It is a frequent
+      diversion of the Pasha himself to row some favourite Circassians in one of
+      the barques and to overset his precious freight in the midst of the lake.
+      As his Highness piques himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba
+      or exterior robe of coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same
+      terrors it would offer to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians
+      shrieking, with their streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian
+      eunuchs rushing to their aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade,
+      or dashing down the t marble steps,&mdash;all this forms an agreeable
+      relaxation after the labours of the Divan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court of Egypt.
+      The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy countenances, clothed
+      in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering Damascus sabres, and gently
+      bounding on their snow-white steeds, is, perhaps, the most picturesque
+      corps in the world. The numerous harem, the crowds of civil functionaries
+      and military and naval officers in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the
+      vast number of pages and pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly
+      attired attendants, the splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has
+      an absolute passion, the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred
+      dromedaries, altogether form a blending of splendour and luxury which
+      easily recall the golden days of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious
+      summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the Bairam
+      the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is it easy
+      to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms were all
+      open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in gorgeous groups,
+      some standing and conversing, some seated on small Persian carpets smoking
+      pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees lounging, in their crimson
+      shawls and scarlet vests, over the white balustrade, and flinging their
+      glowing shadows over the moonlit water: from every quarter came bursts of
+      melody, and each moment the river breeze brought gusts of perfume on its
+      odorous wings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE VALLEY OF THEBES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side
+      affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and hills
+      of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl hundred
+      miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile to the
+      vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the most
+      picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern capital,
+      we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most celebrated
+      of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian, or Latin city&mdash;Athens,
+      or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of Persepolis, nor the columns
+      of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent, variety, and sublime
+      dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions:
+      two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the
+      river Nile&mdash;Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and
+      Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are the
+      cemeteries of the great city&mdash;the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles in
+      extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the
+      queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs of
+      the kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few Arab
+      families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those
+      gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is
+      sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and
+      museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the
+      roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population
+      of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in the
+      tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the notice
+      of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty
+      platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that colossal
+      genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The
+      entrance to this temple is through a magnificent propylon;-that is, a
+      portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in
+      breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely
+      covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of a conquering monarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite, buried
+      in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the top of
+      their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a little in
+      advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect obelisks
+      remaining. One of them is now at Paris;&mdash;that famous obelisk of
+      Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass into a
+      peristyle court,&mdash;about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one
+      hundred and seventy&mdash;the roof of which was once supported by double
+      rows of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other
+      pyramidal gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in
+      all probability, of a more ancient date than those first described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side of
+      the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile in
+      extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink before the
+      first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes&mdash;of
+      architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures of
+      Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more gigantic;
+      the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive: but
+      criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and courts
+      of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of colossal
+      variety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief
+      entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+      heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built of
+      a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three thousand
+      years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader than the
+      front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that of the
+      Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture&mdash;a rare omission, and
+      doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken. The
+      great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place
+      would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front of
+      a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great hall
+      of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand square
+      feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches as our
+      St. Martin&rsquo;s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this unrivalled
+      chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed of single
+      stones&mdash;compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would appear
+      almost bricks&mdash;has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+      colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+      thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and propyla
+      are completely covered with sculptured forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory aches
+      with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger than most
+      temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and colossi; but the
+      imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred or heroic
+      procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, through the
+      great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups around the
+      gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal splendour, and
+      what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and what
+      ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and the
+      solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi, one
+      of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see him
+      still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of Thebes.
+      This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered with
+      inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they had
+      listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
+      companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
+      enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which may
+      yet be traced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides we
+      recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
+      supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
+      came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure, though
+      a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude is
+      concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
+      supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate in
+      the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge colossus
+      that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red granite, and
+      of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is entirely obliterated.
+      It lies upon its back, and in its fall has destroyed all the temple within
+      reach. It measures more than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth
+      of the instep is nearly seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures
+      engraven on the arm are large enough for a man to walk in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+      Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a palace;
+      and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented
+      on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing chess with his
+      queen. It is these domestic details that render also the sepulchres of
+      Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their
+      tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived, we must frequent
+      their burial-places. A curious instance of this is, that, in a tomb near
+      Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians procured from the
+      distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with which they raised
+      the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and primary
+      characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say Imagination,
+      as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the Greeks. Thus,
+      when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs, they blended the
+      delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention of the Nile, and
+      produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the Pharaohs, however,
+      that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the pyramid, the
+      propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the sphinx.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the
+      Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque
+      was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last
+      beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the
+      columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious voyage,
+      were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade, almost
+      unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his pipe-bearer,
+      and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition, descended from
+      the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and approached the boat.
+      I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be hailed in my native
+      tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a place, to find a
+      countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he told me that he had
+      lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the antiquities, the
+      history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I availed myself of
+      his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying him, I found that I was
+      a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a gloomy dwelling-place. A
+      platform, carved in the mountain, was surrounded by a mud wall and tower,
+      to protect it from hostile Arabs. A couple of gazelles played in this
+      front court, while we, reposing on a divan, arranged round the first
+      chamber of the tomb, were favoured with a most commanding view of the
+      valley outspread beneath. There were several inner chambers, separated
+      from each other by hangings of scarlet cloth. Many apartments in the
+      Albany have I seen not half as pleasant and convenient. I found a library,
+      and instruments of art and science; a companion full of knowledge,
+      profound in Oriental manners, and thoroughly master of the subject which
+      naturally then most interested me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but
+      the unusual convenience of forks was not wanting, and my host told me that
+      they were the very ones that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never
+      forget that first day at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then
+      unknown to fame, but whom the world has since recognised&mdash;the
+      learned, the ingenious, and amiable Mr. Wilkinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      EGYPTIAN THEBES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian
+      architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the
+      Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich invention
+      of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations of
+      architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined Philoe&mdash;such
+      the magnificent Dendera&mdash;such the sumptuous Edfou!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the greatest
+      empires,&mdash;the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of the Romans;
+      the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and Sicilians; the
+      Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the pillars of Palmyra
+      and Girgenti,&mdash;sink into insignificance when compared with the
+      structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind makes a leap
+      amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New combinations
+      rise upon our limited invention and contract the taste,&mdash;the pyramid,
+      the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, the sphinx.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source
+      baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when
+      the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are
+      the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading to
+      the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150 miles of
+      the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an immense plain,
+      once the granary of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear, and
+      guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this
+      country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are few,&mdash;some
+      rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears. Are his
+      ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with beautiful
+      sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in height? It is
+      well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile, over the
+      perfectibility of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and
+      although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least
+      decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are
+      incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they are
+      dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter into
+      a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous here
+      only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner, some
+      idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the Egyptian
+      antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the marvellous
+      creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman which shall
+      unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and romantic
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval, at
+      once inform me that it was constructed by a &lsquo;Son of the Sun,&rsquo; or a
+      &lsquo;Phrah,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Pharaoh.&rsquo; It is remarkable that the Greeks never once mention
+      this memorable title, simply because they have always translated it by
+      their celebrated personification, &lsquo;Sol,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Apollo.&rsquo; In the obelisk of
+      Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore read, in the
+      third column, instead of &lsquo;the powerful Apollo,&rsquo; &lsquo;the powerful Phrah, the
+      all-splendid Son of the Sun.&rsquo; Proceeding with the inscription, I also
+      discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses the Second, a monarch
+      of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised some of the most
+      wonderful monuments of Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
+      mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his own
+      results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
+      suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of the
+      hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
+      genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must be
+      studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing with
+      sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
+      catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
+      traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient of
+      nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous ruins,
+      the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know by the
+      inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly celebrate the
+      achievements of a great conqueror,&mdash;Rameses the Second, or the Great,
+      whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than fifteen
+      hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore, demonstrate
+      the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand years back.
+      Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes and the Amunophs,
+      are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty. Thothmes the Fourth,
+      one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the Pyramids; as for the
+      Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they were not raised at the
+      comparatively late period ascribed to them by Herodotus and Diodorus. No
+      monuments in Egypt can be compared in antiquity with these buildings; and
+      the names of the predecessors of Rameses the Great are found in their
+      vicinity, evidently sculptured at a much later epoch. &lsquo;The Pyramids are at
+      least ten thousand years old,&rsquo; said Champollion to a friend of mine in
+      Egypt, rubbing his hands, with eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of
+      triumphant research.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of
+      Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no
+      Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the
+      Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch&mdash;Rameses
+      the First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that
+      Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most
+      powerful enemy,&rsquo; and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation with
+      fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and well-wooded
+      country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians, who, according
+      to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and Semiramis. Thothmes the
+      Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the First, carried on this war with
+      uncertain success. The successor of Rameses the First, whose phonetic name
+      is doubtful, was not unworthy of the son whom the gods accorded to him as
+      a reward for his valour and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the
+      war in person, and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of
+      Karnak&mdash;a sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and
+      historians&mdash;we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of
+      infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty walls
+      and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country in
+      advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the
+      progress of the invader&rsquo;s chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh
+      returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of
+      rich and fantastic tribute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great. Following
+      the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led a numerous and
+      chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the Egyptians. He passed
+      along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without doubt, Syria, since
+      the name of Rameses the Second is still found on that shore, near the
+      ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued his march into the
+      interior, where we at length find him opposed by a powerful force on the
+      banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates. On the opposite bank of
+      the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city. The battle is fought and
+      won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue for peace. The city is not
+      represented as taken, yet sieges are often sculptured on these walls, and
+      the Egyptian army is always supplied with scaling-ladders and the testudo.
+      And what was this city? Was it Babylon? Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is
+      it at this remote period, to read for the first time, the Gazettes of the
+      Pharaohs! It does not appear to have been the object of the Egyptians to
+      make a permanent settlement in these conquered countries. They laid waste
+      the land, they accumulated plunder, they secured peace by the dread of
+      their arms, and, returning home with the same rapidity that they advanced,
+      they enjoyed and commemorated their victories in the embellishment of
+      their majestic cities. The remainder of the long reign of Rameses the
+      Great was passed in the cultivation of the arts. A greater number of
+      monuments, statues, and temples bear the name of this king than of any
+      other who ruled in Egypt, and there are few remains of any city in that
+      country where it is not met with. To him we are indebted alike for the
+      rock temples of Nubia, and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised
+      that splendid structure on the western side of Thebes, supported by
+      colossal statues, which is foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great
+      additions to Karnak; he built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned
+      the great temple of Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently
+      had a passion; and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples,
+      especially in Nubia, which it would be tedious to recount, and other
+      remains, he cut the famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may
+      have been the actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no
+      Egyptian king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then
+      allow that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
+      former-too great for the limited power of Europe&mdash;and remain
+      persuaded, that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the
+      utmost extent of his march was confined to the countries bordering on
+      Assyria, Arabia, and part of Æthiopia, from which country he is
+      represented as receiving tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second
+      secured a long peace to Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however,
+      are celebrated for the creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes,
+      leading from Luxor to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous
+      evidence of the prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs.
+      War, however, broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly
+      against another power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning
+      victorious, the third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the
+      temple and the palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting
+      period of Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom
+      bore the name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they
+      were distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons
+      which may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the
+      reign of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
+      records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It is
+      useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose blinded
+      conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total darkness in
+      which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous musical statue of
+      Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and serene, on the plain
+      of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height, and the base of the
+      figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and Roman travellers,
+      vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise melody. The learned
+      and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at Thebes upwards of ten
+      years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to me to have solved the
+      mystery of this music. He informed me that having ascended the statue, he
+      discovered that some metallic substance had been inserted in its breast,
+      which, when struck, emitted a very melodious sound. From the attitude of
+      the statue, a priest might easily have ascended in the night, and remained
+      completely concealed behind the mighty arms while he struck the breast;
+      or, which is not improbable, there was probably some secret way to ascend,
+      now blocked up; for this statue, with its remaining companion, although
+      now isolated in their situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the
+      ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks
+      to the phonetic system, we now know that this musical statue is one of
+      Amunoph the Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The
+      truth is, the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over
+      modern knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no
+      conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos.
+      Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few
+      marauding clans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the books
+      of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred
+      waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic
+      stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates;
+      alas! for the mysterious Nile!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on
+      any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed,
+      more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a fanciful
+      resemblance. It responds in every particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of it
+      is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however
+      curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader,
+      and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes&mdash;a valley formed by
+      ranges of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian
+      desert, and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red
+      Sea. On each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the
+      side of the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great
+      temple called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the
+      general title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures
+      comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the Lybian
+      side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves of
+      Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, the
+      tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk the
+      famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred Gates
+      now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts
+      clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a single one
+      of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their
+      palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often, indeed,
+      have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a single Egyptian
+      temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of Gornou, in number
+      between three and four hundred, reside solely in the tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the
+      traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform. Its
+      enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of the
+      Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance to
+      this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal flanked
+      by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and rises
+      nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered with
+      sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the
+      supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of
+      red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring
+      thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side
+      of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that
+      remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the
+      propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty
+      feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once supported
+      by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so on through
+      other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers which are, in
+      all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and obelisks and
+      colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by Rameses, who
+      commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building still more
+      famous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side of
+      the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile in
+      extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either <i>andro</i>
+      or <i>crio</i> sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with the
+      man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at length
+      penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and they are
+      monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak, was raised by
+      the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and represents their
+      long line of ancestry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak.
+      It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be
+      unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus
+      of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more curious
+      and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of
+      the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to one general
+      impression of colossal variety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief entrance
+      of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue heaven,
+      that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built of a light
+      yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three thousand years.
+      The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader than the front of
+      our cathedral of St. Paul&rsquo;s, and its height exceeds that of the Trajan
+      column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare omission, and doubtless
+      intended, that the unity of the effect should not be broken. The great
+      door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place,
+      would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front of
+      a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great hall
+      of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand square
+      feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches as our
+      St. Martin&rsquo;s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this unrivalled
+      chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed of single
+      stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would appear almost
+      bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four colossal
+      columns which supported it, and which are considerably above thirty feet
+      in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and propyla, are
+      completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not attempt to describe
+      any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with the effort; there are many
+      buildings attached to it, larger than most temples; there are an infinite
+      number of gates, and obelisks, and colossi; but the imagination cannot
+      refrain from calling up some sacred or heroic procession, moving from
+      Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, through the great avenue of sphinxes,
+      and ranging themselves in glorious groups around the gigantic columns of
+      this sublime structure. What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies,
+      what tilts and tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival
+      the vast, the beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated colossi,
+      one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon. These doubtless
+      once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient than any remaining,
+      for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a predecessor, by some
+      generations, of the great Rameses. They were, doubtless, once seated on
+      each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and in all probability were flanked
+      by obelisks. Whether the temple were destroyed for materials, for more
+      recent structures, or whether it has sunk under the accumulations of the
+      slimy soil, may be decided by the future excavator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great.
+      In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated the
+      rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants.
+      From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But
+      this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far
+      as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when compared with the
+      statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the waist, now lies
+      prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is probably the most
+      huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
+      granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately the face is entirely
+      obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and in its fall has destroyed
+      all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet round the
+      shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and the
+      hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a man to
+      walk in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+      Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the Third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles, chariots,
+      captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the vivid pen of Mr.
+      Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of the monarch. Here
+      also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is curious, among other
+      domestic subjects, that we find represented on the walls, in a very
+      admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen. Chess is, probably,
+      a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third lived before the Trojan
+      war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the invention of chess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more
+      fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples. The
+      arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn how
+      this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were buried. To
+      cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too long, it is from
+      a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how the Egyptians
+      procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of stone and
+      granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of
+      Luxor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with
+      delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering on
+      the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the company
+      of the Pharaohs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      SHOUBRA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not
+      realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or indeed
+      the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of the success
+      of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen. Commerce once
+      followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and the vast buildings
+      which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing materials, were
+      filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but furnished with all the
+      productions of art and curious luxury, which the adventurous spirit of man
+      brought from every quarter of the globe to Samarcand and Bagdad. The site
+      of these mighty capitals is almost erased from the map of the modern
+      traveller; but tribute and traffic have also ceased to sustain even the
+      dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent Stamboul, and, until very
+      recently, all that remained of the splendour of the Caliphs of Egypt was
+      the vast Necropolis, which still contains their palatial sepulchres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on the
+      ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on the seat
+      of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military prowess,
+      lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was not altogether
+      an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common curiosity that
+      some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and scared
+      Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace of
+      Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during
+      the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous
+      city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present the
+      appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed cavaliers
+      force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in their course
+      by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the women enveloped
+      in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of white linen, and
+      borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The attendant eunuchs
+      beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen, with their golden
+      and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and shining arms, trampling
+      on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but all efforts are vain, for
+      at the turning of the street appears the first still solemn visage of a
+      long string of tall camels bearing provisions to the citadel, a Nubian
+      astride on the neck of the leader, and beating a wild drum, to apprise the
+      people of his approach. The streets, too, in which these scenes occur are
+      in themselves full of variety and architectural beauty. The houses are
+      lofty and latticed, abounding in balconies; fountains are frequent and
+      vast and as richly adorned as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified
+      palace of one of the old Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener
+      the exquisite shape of an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot
+      vie with the fanes of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their
+      lofty minarets covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their
+      arabesques recalled to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace
+      of the Alcazars and the shrines of Seville and Cordova.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each
+      person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our
+      conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life&mdash;the
+      Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic&mdash;afford a different,
+      but not less delightful scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to
+      Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six
+      months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we
+      were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze on
+      the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce a
+      freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine
+      regions, where there is more variety of the seasons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the
+      banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady
+      avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side
+      delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling
+      villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation, the
+      golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it forms; or,
+      perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the river&mdash;moderate
+      in its character, and modest in its appointments; but clean, orderly, and
+      in a state of complete repair; and, if we may use such an epithet with
+      reference to oriental life, comfortable. It possesses all the refined
+      conveniences of European manners, of which the pasha at the time I am
+      referring to was extremely proud. Most of these had been the recent gift
+      of the French government, and his highness occasionally amused his guests&mdash;some
+      sheikh from Arabia, or some emir from the Lebanon&mdash;by the exhibition
+      of some scientific means of domestic accommodation with which use has made
+      us familiar, but which I was assured had sensibly impressed the magnates
+      of the desert and the mountain with the progress of modern civilisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in admirable
+      order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely oriental. You
+      enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable shade; you emerge
+      upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in beds of artificial
+      forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted kiosks. Arched walks of
+      orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers hanging over your head, lead
+      again to fountains, or to some other garden-court, where myrtles border
+      beds of tulips, and you wander on mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase
+      flashes amid a group of dark cypresses, and you are invited to repose
+      under a Syrian walnut tree by a couch or a summer-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake
+      surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a
+      fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as well
+      as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the pure and
+      glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life. It is a
+      pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent offering of
+      the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of the precedent thus
+      afforded by his highness&rsquo;s own creation for the introduction of living
+      forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They might have varied their huge
+      present with advantage. Indeed, with the crocodile and the palm-tree,
+      surely something more beautiful and not less characteristic than their
+      metallic mausoleum might easily have been devised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced
+      peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with their
+      painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming shoals
+      of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my attendant,
+      a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it on some high
+      festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to appreciate all
+      its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved for me, yet my first
+      visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not immemorable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness
+      where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came, somewhat
+      suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks emptied, cut
+      through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a little man, robust,
+      though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful countenance; his attire
+      plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a turban white as his snowy
+      beard; he was in merry conversation with his companion, who turned out to
+      be his jester. In the background, against the myrtle wall, stood three or
+      four courtiers in rich dresses&mdash;courtiers, for the little old man was
+      their princely master&mdash;the great Pasha of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      EDEN AND LEBANON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green
+      slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation&mdash;vineyards, gardens,
+      groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and the
+      walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until, reaching
+      the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters of a
+      rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare
+      rock, was a most beautiful village&mdash;flat cottages with terraced
+      roofs, shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A
+      cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs
+      around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and the
+      murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of
+      beauteous children were frolicking with the kids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is <i>Eden</i>,
+      which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a &lsquo;Dwelling
+      of Delight.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of
+      mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the
+      range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the
+      Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the
+      edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the
+      dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the
+      fragments of a gloomy forest&mdash;cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind
+      moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract were
+      the only sounds that greeted me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the relics
+      of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of which
+      must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite dead;
+      while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five or six
+      huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were, lifeless
+      amid their apparent power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests&mdash;black, blasted,
+      riven, and surrounded by deep snows&mdash;behold the trees that built the
+      palaces of Solomon!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted
+      it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the
+      innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age&mdash;of exhausted
+      passions and desolate neglect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      A SYRIAN SKETCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from Jaffa
+      to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ that
+      agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had been
+      attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that now
+      served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure boundary
+      otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of Indian fig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain of
+      Ramie&mdash;the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment,
+      green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most
+      charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of the
+      orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some
+      florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness of
+      fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which not a
+      single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange and
+      lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the
+      citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever and
+      anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or golden
+      clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the date-bearing
+      palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my ear
+      was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the sounds,
+      I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle of which
+      was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate Persian carpet, a
+      venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of whom, at a little
+      distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master&rsquo;s left hand was a
+      volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the serpentine tube of
+      his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he saluted me with all
+      the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his heart, but not rising.
+      I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me with serene cordiality,
+      and invited me to share his carpet and touch his pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European horses
+      and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the solemn and
+      sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa, came floating
+      on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and his companions
+      performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling towards Mecca,
+      repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the Turkish aga, for such
+      was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening breeze, and accompany him in
+      a walk round his garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from
+      his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and
+      threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which
+      somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his
+      fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the racy
+      sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could not
+      refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he should
+      studiously waste so considerable a portion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Effendi,&rsquo; said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, &lsquo;to friends
+      we give only the sunny side.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE BOSPHORUS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of the
+      Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret and
+      satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid strait,
+      stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth of the Euxine,
+      may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary breadth seldom
+      exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one might hear the birds
+      sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great continents are divided by
+      an ocean stream narrower than many rivers that are the mere boundaries of
+      kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the character of these two famous
+      divisions of our earth is nowhere more marked than on the shores of the
+      Bosphorus. The traveller turns without disappointment from the gay and
+      glittering shores of Europe to the sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur
+      of Asia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of the
+      Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and ornamental
+      buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces, and bright
+      kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green background to the
+      scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens, rising up a chain of
+      hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with groves of cypress and of
+      chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair and delicate valleys, richly
+      wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique aqueduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into
+      forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there is
+      something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general
+      appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less
+      cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they linger
+      over the lofty peak of &lsquo;the Giant&rsquo;s grave,&rsquo; seem conscious that they are
+      haunting some heroic burial-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles that
+      I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned home in
+      my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus, where I had
+      been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of dolphins, who were
+      making their way from the Ægean and the Sea of Marmora through the Strait
+      to the Euxine. They stretched right across the water, and I should
+      calculate that they covered, with very little interval, a space of three
+      or four miles. It is very difficult to form an estimate of their number,
+      but there must, of course, have been many thousands. They advanced in
+      grand style, and produced an immense agitation: the snorting, spouting,
+      and splashing, and the wild panting rush, I shall never forget. As it was
+      late, no other caique was in sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being
+      run down, stopped to defend themselves with their oars. I had my pistols
+      with me, and found great sport, as, although the dolphins made every
+      effort to avoid us, there were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one
+      was hit, general confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced
+      about with increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and
+      turned up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly
+      three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At length
+      the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must have arrived
+      at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the elegant
+      hospitality of the British Palace at Pera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the
+      invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at
+      Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a
+      secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were
+      assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of
+      Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom I
+      well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the Levant.
+      I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached to this
+      expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper quarters,
+      there appeared little probability of my wish not being gratified. With
+      these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had intended, but it would
+      seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent as their intended
+      volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but indifferently. Orders
+      and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches, boats pressed on the Nile
+      for the passage of troops from the capital, which were all liberated the
+      next day, many divans and much smoking; but still the troops remained
+      within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months glided away apparently
+      without any material advancement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an excellent
+      understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim, a degree of
+      petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their mutual
+      communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning to
+      attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father, I
+      was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to the
+      levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my
+      return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo, I
+      found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that
+      Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of
+      that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future
+      conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an
+      aide-de-camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke.
+      After the usual compliments, &lsquo;Effendi,&rsquo; said Ibrahim, &lsquo;do you think the
+      English horses would live in Egypt?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that
+      English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are very
+      diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered, however,
+      that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses would
+      flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation about
+      English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered fifty
+      times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or two about
+      English women. At length the point of the interview began to poke its
+      horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you want to go with the army,&rsquo; said his Highness, &lsquo;&rsquo;tis I who am the
+      person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there&rsquo;
+      (meaning the citadel).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter
+      of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha
+      on the subject of the expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you talked with Boghaz?&rsquo; said Ibrahim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once
+      graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought it
+      both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person whatever.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tahib!&rsquo; exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied. &lsquo;After
+      all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have been in
+      Syria?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been addressed
+      to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?&rsquo; inquired Ibrahim, with a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life Guards
+      could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said that I
+      did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!&rsquo; This was a
+      favourite phrase of his Highness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness,
+      the army would march till we could see another ocean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is all talk up there,&rsquo; replied Ibrahim; &lsquo;but my life is a life of
+      deeds.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Words are very good things sometimes,&rsquo; I replied; &lsquo;that is, if we keep
+      marching at the same time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;God is great!&rsquo; exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers, &lsquo;the
+      Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the
+      energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient
+      Epirus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you think of Redchid?&rsquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think he is worthy of being your Highness&rsquo;s rival.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has always been victorious,&rsquo; said Ibrahim; &lsquo;but I think his sabre is
+      made of gold. That will not do with me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s a pity,&rsquo; I observed, &lsquo;that if your Highness find time to march into
+      Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with the
+      Pasha of Scutari.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and
+      watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and even
+      if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in order that
+      he may take advantage of the other&rsquo;s success or discomfiture. Mehemet Ali,
+      at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts in European
+      Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of the Porte were
+      unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy; but in the
+      conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a golden sabre, and
+      the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom he was obliged to
+      bribe, were all busied in Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night previous to this conversation the style of the military oath of
+      the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of swearing
+      allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet Ali. The Grand
+      Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order for it was
+      countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with gratuities to the
+      troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion among the officers,
+      everything went off very quietly. There was also a rumour that Mehemet Ali
+      intended immediately to assume the title of <i>Caliph</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking
+      observation of Ibrahim Pasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a
+      caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a
+      beneficial effect at foreign courts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there, they
+      are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight does not
+      think of his shadow on the earth!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      MUNICH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should
+      periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of the
+      Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and
+      brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they
+      purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity
+      accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is
+      excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals as
+      the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners have
+      undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has advanced in
+      an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to social life has
+      diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine Arts have decayed
+      and vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement in
+      the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but not
+      inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found myself
+      in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The street in
+      which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side with palaces
+      or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few were completely
+      finished: the sculptor was working at the statues that adorned their
+      fronts; the painter was still touching the external frescoes; and the
+      scaffold of the architect was not in every instance withdrawn. Everywhere
+      was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine style of many of these
+      buildings was novel to me in its modern adaptation, yet very effective.
+      The delicate detail of ornament contrasted admirably with the broad fronts
+      and noble façades which they adorned. A church with two very lofty towers
+      of white marble, with their fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue,
+      gleamed in the sun; and near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal
+      palace at Venice, but of nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its
+      portal approached by a lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal
+      statues of poets and philosophers&mdash;suitably guarded, for it was the
+      National Library.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance
+      adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal
+      hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a pediment
+      brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its purpose; an
+      Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of a Phidias or a
+      Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was told the first
+      stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle. But what struck
+      me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples, and palaces, its
+      magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and consummate statues, was the
+      all-pervading presence and all-inspiring influence of living and breathing
+      Art. In every street, a school: the atelier of the sculptor open, the
+      studio of the painter crowded: devoted pupils, aspiring rivals:
+      enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here the long-lost feudal-art of
+      colouring glass re-discovered; there fresco-painting entirely revived, and
+      on the grandest scale; while the ardent researches of another man of
+      genius successfully analyses the encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and
+      secures the secret process for the triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city
+      such as I had mused over amid the crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided
+      alike by memory and fancy, had conjured up in the palaces and gardens of
+      the Medici.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and
+      corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who
+      visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all
+      more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince, fond
+      only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute, and
+      useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women and
+      priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the
+      inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the
+      present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal
+      expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria, when
+      completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace in the
+      world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is a temple
+      dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state, painted in
+      fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in colour, breathe
+      the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the &lsquo;Nibelungenlied,&rsquo;
+      the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements of the heroic
+      Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful Chrimhilde. The heart
+      of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and scenes of the Teutonic
+      Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and Dankwart the swift; Volker,
+      the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and haughty Brunhilda. But in point
+      of harmonious dimension and august beauty, no chamber is perhaps more
+      imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should
+      think, considerably above one hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in
+      exact proportion. Its roof is supported on either side by columns of white
+      marble; the inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded
+      brass, of the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at
+      the end of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the
+      solemn majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a
+      sculptor who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his
+      master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled
+      Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr,
+      and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries,
+      churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated
+      Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and
+      the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown;
+      but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has revived
+      the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly
+      impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight
+      in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek poets,
+      of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are devoted
+      to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest Greek style;
+      severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the friezes in
+      outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the contrary, is
+      Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as brilliant, as
+      free, and as flowing as the genius of the great Mæonian. The chamber of
+      the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs, raised on a ground
+      of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior in many instances to the
+      Attic remains, and characterised, at the same time, by a singular
+      combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is devoted to Æschylus,
+      and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of Aristophanes laughs
+      and sings in his Majesty&rsquo;s dressing-room; while the king is lulled to
+      slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing landscapes of
+      Theocritus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of Art.
+      The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of their
+      decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could be
+      selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are
+      equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant and
+      harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the arabesques and
+      other appropriate decorations, which blend with all around, and heighten
+      the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean rivals in the private
+      chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous style, but entirely
+      devoted to the poets of her own land. The Minnesingers occupy her first
+      apartments, but the brilliant saloon is worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon
+      forms it frieze; while the bedchamber gleams with the beautiful forms and
+      pensive incidents of Goethe&rsquo;s esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study
+      with his stirring characters and his vigorous incidents. Groups from
+      &lsquo;Wallenstein&rsquo; and &lsquo;Wilhelm Tell&rsquo; form the rich and unrivalled ceiling:
+      while the fight of the dragon and the founding of the bell, the innocent
+      Fridolin, the inspired maiden of Orleans, breathe in the compartments of
+      the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and sights
+      of beauty that had moved before me in my morning&rsquo;s wanderings, I asked
+      myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital of modern
+      Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space, and with
+      such facility and completeness, should have achieved those results which
+      had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest and most
+      powerful community in the world?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of
+      individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation of
+      mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been accomplished
+      by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know of its
+      sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction. Munich is
+      the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a king but a
+      poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the
+      English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet &lsquo;A
+      Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and Learned
+      Lord.&rsquo; The same theory is expounded in another way in the three great
+      novels, &lsquo;Coningsby,&rsquo; &lsquo;Sybil,&rsquo; and &lsquo;Tancred.&rsquo; His contemporaries never seem
+      to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date appear to have
+      written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance of his real
+      political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract ought, in the minds
+      of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever the innumerable
+      calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since the Reform
+      struggle of 1859-1867.]</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Object of the Whigs</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has in
+      a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested
+      succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the
+      national honours of its members, in the good government of the country,
+      has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular
+      passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments of
+      an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers, though
+      far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser proprietors
+      of the country in favour of a political system which offers them a
+      constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of redress; her
+      Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent endowment from
+      the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies of its
+      communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and religion,
+      and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law of
+      primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and
+      independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade
+      the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That
+      great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings
+      knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the
+      present and the memory of the past&mdash;offers in this country, through
+      these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy
+      framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built
+      constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and
+      dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities. The
+      march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved from
+      those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries, like a
+      whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep away an
+      illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured order, has
+      consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken tide of
+      progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest, and the
+      most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled, our
+      manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful in
+      Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have they
+      arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of the
+      people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated, the
+      people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them with
+      renewed strength and renovated vigour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when the
+      nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any period
+      of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has occasioned
+      these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and the traitor
+      smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so serene and so
+      splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that of the first
+      Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent similarity
+      produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted past as a
+      passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which it may be
+      profitable to discuss and wise to study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid yet
+      accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck at the
+      same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the Huguenot
+      exclaimed: &lsquo;It appears to me that this great society can only be dissolved
+      by the violence of its political parties.&rsquo; What are these parties? Why are
+      they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving these questions, we may
+      obtain an accurate idea of our present political position, and by
+      pondering over the past we may make that past not a prophecy, as the
+      disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the loyal may profit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two great parties into which England has during the last century and a
+      half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the Crown and
+      the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to despotic
+      power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy in their
+      struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of England
+      formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the Roses
+      destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors succeeded.
+      Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of the Papacy,
+      the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who succeeded to a
+      despotism which they did not create. When Charles the First, after a
+      series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for him the support
+      of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised the royal standard,
+      the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than the constitution of
+      the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But a portion of the able
+      party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast and beneficial
+      revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary powers which
+      they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section of the
+      aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though that title was
+      not invented until the next reign. The primitive Whigs-&rsquo;Parliament-men,&rsquo;
+      as they liked to call themselves, &lsquo;Roundheads,&rsquo; as they were in time
+      dubbed&mdash;aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they obtained one; but
+      unable to maintain themselves in power against the returning sense and
+      rising spirit of a generous and indignant people, they called to their aid
+      that domestic revolutionary party which exists in all countries, and an
+      anti-national enemy in addition. These were the English Radicals, or
+      Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To conciliate the first
+      they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second they abolished the Church.
+      The constitution of England in Church and State was destroyed, and the
+      Whig oligarchy, in spite of their machinations, were soon merged in the
+      common ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject
+      produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The
+      ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown
+      were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to
+      their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that
+      the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power
+      than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of popular
+      rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed themselves of
+      the offered opportunity; and when James the Second ascended the throne,
+      the nation was again prepared to second the aristocracy in a struggle for
+      their liberties. But the Whigs had profited by their previous experiment:
+      they resolved upon a revolution, but they determined that that revolution
+      should be brought about by as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as
+      possible. They studiously confined that appeal to the religious feelings
+      of the nation. They hired a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in
+      their service. They dethroned James, they established themselves in power
+      without the aid of the mass; and had William the Third been a man of
+      ordinary capacity, the constitution of Venice would have been established
+      in England in 1688. William the Third told the Whigs that he would never
+      consent to be a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well
+      as in his position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his
+      skilful balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is
+      probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in
+      England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions
+      because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local
+      institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love
+      of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of
+      toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown
+      checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a
+      nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually
+      banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament of
+      England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs at
+      all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates. They
+      despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can they
+      succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for the other,
+      then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the country by the
+      House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more powerful in the
+      House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a Peerage, exhausted by
+      civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from the courtiers of the
+      Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution which the Whigs occasioned,
+      they attempted to govern the country by the House of Lords, in which they
+      were predominant; and, in order to guarantee their power for ever, they
+      introduced a Bill to deprive the King of his prerogative of making further
+      Peers. The revolution of 1640 led to the abolition of the House of Lords
+      because the Lords opposed the oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of
+      Lords, the Whigs introduced the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords
+      would have been rendered independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the
+      country, the Whigs attacked the influence of popular election, and the
+      moment that, by the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained
+      a temporary majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whigs of the eighteenth century &lsquo;swamped&rsquo; the House of Commons; the
+      Whigs of the nineteenth would &lsquo;swamp&rsquo; the House of Lords. The Whigs of the
+      eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords unchangeable;
+      the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I conclude here the first chapter of the &lsquo;Spirit of Whiggism&rsquo;-a little
+      book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig party
+      have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in another
+      reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in another
+      they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries, and various modes
+      of conduct; but they have only one object&mdash;the establishment of an
+      oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not wish this country to be
+      governed by a small knot of great families, and therefore I oppose the
+      Whigs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Parliamentary Reform</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious
+      hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to
+      re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses of
+      Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted for
+      this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose their
+      Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried the
+      Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill had
+      become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and I
+      believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been
+      transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James&rsquo;s might
+      have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous ducal
+      palace of the Adriatic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power; but
+      an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and the India
+      Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the oligarchical
+      faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive during the great
+      interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt and the resurrection
+      of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry to carry them into power,
+      they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the chorus of an emancipated
+      people, and fancied, in order to take the throne by storm, that nothing
+      was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and to cover their haughty brows
+      with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped the wings of Whiggism; nor is
+      it possible to conceive a party that had effected so many revolutions and
+      governed a great country for so long a period, more broken, sunk, and
+      shattered, more desolate and disheartened, than these same Whigs at the
+      Peace of Paris. From that period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs
+      consisted in gently and gradually extricating themselves from their false
+      position as the disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post
+      as the hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the
+      transition less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a
+      bridge by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily
+      recross on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so
+      much precipitation. A dozen years of &lsquo;liberal principles&rsquo; broke up the
+      national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity and
+      glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and
+      lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction, that
+      their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his party,
+      elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician order, and
+      attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the Tories. Had that
+      negotiation led to the result which was originally intended by those
+      interested, the Riots of Paris would not have occasioned the Reform of
+      London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by a
+      nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a
+      dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long exile
+      from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means, invariably
+      has recourse to a <i>coup-d&lsquo;état</i>. An oligarchical party is necessarily
+      not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble lineage or vast
+      possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers. The Whigs, in
+      1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under very peculiar
+      circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In each estate of the
+      realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal to the Commons of
+      England, that constituency which, in its elements, had undergone no
+      alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the influence of the
+      legislature or the action of time&mdash;that constituency which had
+      elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers, Walpole, and
+      Pulteney&mdash;an appeal to this constituency, it was generally
+      acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined
+      to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary reform:
+      the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual upon a
+      coup-d&lsquo;état, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general the
+      difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their
+      concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus they
+      had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England from
+      popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of the first
+      House of Commons in which they could command a majority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary reformers,
+      for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all their art
+      was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their own interest
+      should secure an irresistible predominance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections?
+      Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own limited
+      ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were obliged to look
+      about for allies wherewith to form their new popular estate. Any estate of
+      the Commons modelled on any equitable principle, either of property or
+      population, must have been fatal to the Whigs; they, therefore, very
+      dexterously adopted a small minority of the nation, consisting of the
+      sectarians, and inaugurating them as the people with a vast and
+      bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies, invested the Dissenters with
+      political power. By this <i>coup-d&lsquo;état</i> they managed the House of
+      Commons, and having at length obtained a position, they have from that
+      moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the intention of reducing
+      that great institution and making it surrender at discretion. This is the
+      exact state of English politics during the last five years. The Whigs have
+      been at war with the English constitution. First of all they captured the
+      King; then they vanquished the House of Commons; now they have laid siege
+      to the House of Lords. But here the fallacy of their grand scheme of
+      political mystification begins to develop itself. Had, indeed, their new
+      constituency, as they have long impudently pretended, really been &lsquo;the
+      people,&rsquo; a struggle between such a body and the House of Lords would have
+      been brief but final. The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or
+      three hundred individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure
+      against the decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation
+      is so glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect
+      that in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But
+      as &lsquo;the people&rsquo; of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not
+      exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English
+      nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a class
+      privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some jobbing
+      Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish schemes of
+      personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as mindful of its
+      duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours of its ancestors.
+      The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue from the degrading plots
+      of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising sectarianism, and a
+      boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary leaders&mdash;the Peers.
+      The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment represents everything in the
+      realm except the Whig oligarchs, their tools&mdash;the Dissenters, and
+      their masters&mdash;the Irish priests. In the meantime the Whigs bawl
+      aloud that there is a &lsquo;collision&rsquo;! It is true there is a collision; but it
+      is not a collision between the Lords and the people, but between the
+      Ministers and the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Menace to England</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary party
+      is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not indispensably
+      a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in England that, were a
+      republic to be established here to-morrow, it would partake rather of the
+      oligarchical than of the aristocratic character. We should be surprised to
+      find in how few families the power of the State was concentrated. And
+      although the framers of the new commonwealth would be too crafty to base
+      it on any avowed and ostensible principle of exclusion, but on the
+      contrary would in all probability ostentatiously inaugurate the novel
+      constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about as definite and as
+      prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or the sovereignty of
+      the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were we not to find that
+      the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in the conduct of public
+      affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out from the fruition and
+      exercise of power as under that Venetian polity which has ever been the
+      secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration. The Church, under such
+      circumstances, would probably have again been plundered, and therefore the
+      discharge of ecclesiastical duties might be spared to the nation; but the
+      people would assuredly be practically excluded from its services, which
+      would swarm with the relations and connections of the senatorial class;
+      for, whether this country be governed only by the House of Commons, or
+      only by the House of Lords, the elements of the single chamber will not
+      materially differ; and although in the event of the triumph of the
+      Commons, the ceremony of periodical election may be retained (and we
+      should not forget that the Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary
+      form), the selected members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any
+      House of Parliament whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of
+      Whig sneers or Radical anathemas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by
+      institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of intellect
+      that will be found a sufficient surety for the public welfare in the
+      crisis of a country&rsquo;s freedom. Our interest taints our intelligence, our
+      passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity are too often the
+      willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous adventurer. Life, is
+      short, man is imaginative; our means are limited, our passions high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong
+      temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the
+      orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics&rsquo;
+      institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and
+      fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish a
+      tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become the
+      oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of
+      knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of
+      their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with
+      which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render
+      them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these
+      institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state
+      of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all
+      those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and
+      some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo. Let
+      us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy
+      reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of their
+      magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects
+      established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous and
+      vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders of a
+      single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes&mdash;aye,
+      and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under the
+      plea of the &lsquo;spirit of the age&rsquo; or &lsquo;county reform&rsquo; or &lsquo;cheap government.&rsquo;
+      But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will dare disobey
+      London?&mdash;the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can we think,
+      if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still chance to
+      linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny, or appeal to
+      the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his ancestors had
+      protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not be judges in
+      Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all the pains and
+      penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which such a
+      troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter ourselves
+      that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High Commission
+      Court would not be in the background to supply all the deficiencies of the
+      laws of England? When these merry times arrive&mdash;the times of
+      extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes&mdash;and, if we proceed
+      in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the phrase
+      &lsquo;Anti-Reformer&rsquo; will serve as well as that of &lsquo;Malignant,&rsquo; and be as valid
+      a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all those who
+      venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
+      established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift and
+      stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
+      irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals. I do
+      not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in this age
+      of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the nonce the false
+      colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and considerable party,
+      too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and the safety of the
+      State-who have a definite object which they distinctly avow&mdash;I mean
+      those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their unstamped press, and
+      ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration. Not merely that which
+      is just, but that which is also practicable, should be the aim of a
+      sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well consider whether, in
+      attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are not, in fact, only
+      assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme is infinitely more
+      adverse to their own than the existing system, whose genius I believe they
+      entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories is more democratic than
+      the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with a keener sympathy to the
+      passions of the millions; it studies their interest with a more
+      comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment that I have mistaken the
+      genius of the English constitution, what chance, if our institutions be
+      overthrown, is there of substituting in their stead a more popular polity?
+      This hazard, both for their own happiness and the honour of their country,
+      the English Radicals are bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they
+      will find themselves, too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the
+      slaves of a stern usurper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    <i>The English Constitution</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit
+      of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects&mdash;that the
+      spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political
+      institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of
+      discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our famous
+      establishment of &lsquo;King, Lords, and Commons;&rsquo; and no institutions ever yet
+      flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented and more
+      misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound ignorance and
+      the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the House of Commons, a
+      member of a family who pique themselves on their constitutional
+      reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate treatise on our
+      polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late as the last session
+      of Parliament, declared his desire and determination to uphold the present
+      settlement of the &lsquo;three estates of the realm, viz.&mdash;King, Lords, and
+      Commons.&rsquo; Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an estate of the realm than
+      Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of the realm are the estate
+      of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords Temporal, and the estate
+      of the Commons. An estate is a popular class established into a political
+      order. It is a section of the nation invested for the public and common
+      good with certain powers and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes
+      upon the English constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this
+      moment, is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is
+      a complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is
+      necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he is not
+      an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is responsible to
+      the estates and to them alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates of the
+      realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not proceed.
+      They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that the House of
+      Commons was the House of the people, and that the people were not properly
+      represented. They consequently enlarged the estate of the Commons; they
+      increased the number of that privileged order who appear by their
+      representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They rendered the estate
+      of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding, because they rendered
+      them more numerous; but they did not render their representatives one jot
+      more the representatives of the people. Throwing the Commons of Ireland
+      out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon a political order so
+      unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during the present century,
+      some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last general election, their
+      representatives to Westminster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they
+      are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well,
+      then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that there
+      are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because,
+      although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal
+      suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is
+      not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House of
+      the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the House
+      of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was intended to
+      be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to be so by
+      courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a
+      legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it is folly
+      to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400 individuals, or
+      a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign will and pleasure.
+      But I deny that a people can govern itself. Self-government is a
+      contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government may assume, power must
+      be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall, perhaps, be reminded of
+      the ancient republics. I answer, that the ancient republics were as
+      aristocratic communities as any that flourished in the middle ages. The
+      Demos of Athens was an oligarchy living upon slaves. There is a great
+      slave population even in the United States, if a society of yesterday is
+      to illustrate an argument on our ancient civilisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phrase &lsquo;the people&rsquo; is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term. It
+      is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised
+      community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of time.
+      A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences&mdash;the
+      influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws,
+      customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their history,
+      and the individual character of their illustrious citizens. These
+      influences create the nation&mdash;these form the national mind, and
+      produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you
+      destroy the political institutions which these influences have called into
+      force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly act, you
+      destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and dissolution,
+      then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the consequent misery,
+      like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and rifled of their hive,
+      they set to again and establish themselves into a society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the
+      world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and our
+      foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious
+      character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy and
+      toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our
+      manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary
+      equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented system
+      of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests, and
+      apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Sieyès
+      himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely and
+      definitely represented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the school
+      of Abbe Sieyès. Their first object was to make us free; their next to keep
+      us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the basis of their
+      social order, they took care to blend every man&rsquo;s ambition with the
+      perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality of modern days, the
+      ancient equality of England elevates and creates. Learned in human nature,
+      the English constitution holds out privilege to every subject as the
+      inducement to do his duty. As it has secured freedom, justice, and even
+      property to the humblest of the commonwealth, so, pursuing the same system
+      of privileges, it has confided the legislature of the realm to two orders
+      of the subjects&mdash;orders, however, in which every English citizen may
+      be constitutionally enrolled&mdash;the Lords and the Commons. The two
+      estates of the Peers are personally summoned to meet in their chamber: the
+      more extensive and single estate of the Commons meets by its
+      representatives. Both are political orders, complete in their character,
+      independent in their authority, legally irresponsible for the exercise of
+      their power. But they are the trustees of the nation, not its masters; and
+      there is a High Court of Chancery in the public opinion of the nation at
+      large, which exercises a vigilant control over these privileged classes of
+      the community, and to which they are equitably and morally amenable.
+      Estimating, therefore, the moral responsibility of our political estates,
+      it may fairly be maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the
+      responsibility of the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of
+      Commons itself not being an estate of the realm, but only the
+      representatives of an estate, owes to the nation a responsibility neither
+      legal nor moral. The House of Commons is responsible only to that
+      privileged order who are its constituents. Between the Lords and the
+      Commons themselves there is this prime difference&mdash;that the Lords are
+      known, and seen, and marked; the Commons are unknown, invisible, and
+      unobserved. The Lords meet in a particular spot; the Commons are scattered
+      over the kingdom. The eye of the nation rests upon the Lords, few in
+      number, and notable in position; the eye of the nation wanders in vain for
+      the Commons, far more numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute
+      the nation appeals to the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain;
+      for if the majority of the Commons choose to support their representatives
+      in a course of conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of
+      Commons will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they
+      never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of
+      Parliament&mdash;the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate
+      and Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the &lsquo;House of the People,&rsquo; but
+      both alike represent the &lsquo;Nation.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A True Democracy</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may
+      appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless, as
+      I believe, just and true. And they are these:&mdash;First. That there is
+      no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government
+      than the present English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a
+      departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined by
+      the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a Senate
+      and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub each
+      householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws
+      preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of the
+      country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may have
+      an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with no
+      aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the
+      government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity of
+      Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of
+      Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great scale,
+      and maintained during a great period, that history offers. The
+      constitution of France during the last half century has been fast
+      approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern
+      equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous
+      Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient
+      Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system never
+      could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the Turks. Both
+      the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced their system with
+      popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general subjection. Napoleon
+      and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the Suleimans and the
+      Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan, the Prefects but
+      inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the Seraglio and the
+      Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism on condition that
+      they have no other master save himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disposition of property in England throws the government of the
+      country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that
+      any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert that
+      power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our present
+      social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the more powerful
+      would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an inevitable
+      consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear understanding that
+      such an extension should be established on a fair, and not a factious,
+      basis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which. I
+      shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my opinion,
+      that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the ballot
+      would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if the ballot
+      were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious extension of
+      the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in the ultimate
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important
+      point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property in
+      England&mdash;a disposition of property which, by producing a very general
+      similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into
+      the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining
+      the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic of the
+      English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being industry.
+      Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English character
+      since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me that the
+      salient point in our national psychology is the passion for accumulating
+      wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We value our freedom
+      principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our pursuits; and that
+      reverence for law and for all that is established, which also eminently
+      distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned by the conviction that,
+      next to liberty, order is the most efficacious assistant of industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the
+      history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent effects
+      upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by the passions
+      of creative minds taking advantage, for their own aggrandisement, of
+      peculiar circumstances in our national progress. They are never called for
+      by the great body of the nation. Churches are plundered, long rebellions
+      maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments abolished; but when the storm
+      is passed, the features of the social landscape remain unimpaired; there
+      are no traces of the hurricane, the earthquake, or the volcano; it has
+      been but a tumult of the atmosphere, that has neither toppled down our old
+      spires and palaces nor swallowed up our cities and seats of learning, nor
+      blasted our ancient woods, nor swept away our ports and harbours. The
+      English nation ever recurs to its ancient institutions&mdash;the
+      institutions that have alike secured freedom and order; and after all
+      their ebullitions, we find them, when the sky is clear, again at work, and
+      toiling on at their eternal task of accumulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the
+      revolutions of the Continent&mdash;the European revolution is a struggle
+      against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new
+      class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the
+      natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader
+      takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence. Thus
+      the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders of the
+      manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the Whigs
+      have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new interest,
+      having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer, like every other
+      Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The manufacturer begins to
+      lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played the same game with the
+      commercial interests; a century has passed, and the commercial interests
+      are all as devoted to the constitution as the manufacturers soon will be.
+      Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek for succour from the Irish
+      papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only imitating Pym under the same
+      circumstances. In 1640, when the English movement was satisfied, and the
+      constitutional party, headed by such men as Falkland and Hyde, were about
+      to attain power, Pym and his friends, in despair at their declining
+      influence and the close divisions in their once unanimous Parliament, fled
+      to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered into a &lsquo;close compact&rsquo; for the
+      destruction of the Church of England as the price of their assistance. So
+      events repeat themselves; but if the study of history is really to profit
+      us, the nation at the present day will take care that the same results do
+      not always occur from the same events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who has
+      struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having
+      obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to assist in
+      destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or his posterity may
+      yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing district has his eye
+      already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of his political position
+      to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a baronetcy, and dreams of a
+      coroneted descendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will
+      submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we
+      deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its best
+      security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore,
+      insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the whole
+      scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the accumulation of
+      wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot alter, therefore, the
+      disposition of property in this country without we change the national
+      character. Far from the present age being hostile to the supremacy of
+      property, there has been no period of our history where property has been
+      more esteemed, because there has been no period when the nation has been
+      so industrious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of
+      property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can
+      become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic
+      constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic
+      constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny that
+      an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the
+      legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every
+      subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English
+      constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the
+      enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a
+      perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain them;
+      and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always be
+      devoted, except he is a Whig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Results of Whiggism</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their side;
+      and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and bellowing
+      about &lsquo;intimidation,&rsquo; seem to confess the soft impeachment. Their prime
+      organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is opposed to
+      them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published, by way of
+      consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some twenty Dukes and
+      Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to &lsquo;Liberal&rsquo; principles, and
+      whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical rhodomontade, they assert,
+      could buy up the whole income of the rest of the hereditary Peerage. The
+      Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to reconcile this anomalous circumstance
+      with the indisputably forlorn finances of their faction in general. Now,
+      this little tract on the &lsquo;Spirit of Whiggism&rsquo; may perhaps throw some light
+      upon this perplexing state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a
+      fresh illustration of the principles which I have demonstrated, from the
+      whole current of our history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union
+      of oligarchical wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the &lsquo;Spirit
+      of Whiggism.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of
+      Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the hands
+      of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of their
+      respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom, without
+      which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor its just
+      reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent those who
+      have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in whose classes
+      every industrious citizen has a right to register himself, offer also an
+      equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those great families,
+      over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the Whig-Radical writers
+      gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the equipages of their
+      masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense between those who are
+      beneath power and those who wish to be above it; and oligarchies and
+      despotisms are usually established by the agency of a deluded multitude.
+      The Crown, with its constitutional influence over the military services, a
+      Parliament of two houses watching each other&rsquo;s proceedings with
+      constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy and, not least, an
+      independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the progressive
+      establishment of that scheme of government which a small knot of great
+      families&mdash;these dukes and marquises, whose revenues according to the
+      Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole peerage-naturally
+      wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the whole period of our
+      more modern history, a powerful section of the great nobles ever at war
+      with the national institutions, checking the Crown, attacking the
+      independence of that House of Parliament in which they happen to be in a
+      minority&mdash;no matter which, patronising sects to reduce the influence
+      of the Church, and playing town against country to overcome the authority
+      of the gentry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little
+      essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers. To
+      secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to manoeuvre
+      with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they apparently
+      advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an inducement to all
+      the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their standard; they play
+      their discontented minority against the prosperous majority, and, dubbing
+      their partisans &lsquo;the people,&rsquo; they flatter themselves that their projects
+      are irresistible. The attack is unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well
+      matured, dexterously mystified. Before the nation is roused to its danger,
+      the oligarchical object is often obtained; and then the oligarchy,
+      entrenched in power, count upon the nation to defend them from their
+      original and revolutionary allies. If they succeed, a dynasty is changed,
+      or a Parliament reformed, and the movement is stopped; if the Tories or
+      the Conservatives cannot arrest the fatal career which the Whigs have
+      originally impelled, then away go the national institutions; the crown
+      falls from the King&rsquo;s brow; the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of
+      Parliament is sure to disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously
+      dubbed Malignants, or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the
+      dregs of the nation sequester their estates and install themselves in
+      their halls; and &lsquo;liberal principles&rsquo; having thus gloriously triumphed,
+      after a due course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble
+      tyranny, the people of England, sighing once more to be the English
+      nation, secure order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they
+      have got rid of their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their
+      newly-regained security by re-establishing the English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation with
+      their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the
+      sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced the
+      House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed the
+      Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which they
+      have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly very
+      popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their reform of
+      the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the municipal
+      corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have, in fact,
+      increased the democratic character of our constitution or not&mdash;whether
+      they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular concessions
+      inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been
+      this&mdash;that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the
+      hands of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public
+      intelligence and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M&rsquo;Hale
+      and Kehoe more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted
+      to represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard
+      or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a basis
+      formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters, in
+      general returned by the small constituencies of small towns&mdash;classes
+      whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly
+      exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the
+      maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of
+      popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven. If
+      the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the
+      hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very
+      considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present
+      Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this
+      great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other,
+      obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new constituency
+      has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has been given to a
+      small class, and one hostile to the interests of the great body. Is this
+      more democratic? The apparent majority in the House of Commons is produced
+      by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that a small and favoured
+      class command a majority in the House of Commons, and the sway of the
+      administration, as far as that House is concerned, is regulated by a
+      smaller number of individuals than those who governed it previous to its
+      reform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural
+      preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country,
+      hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords,
+      to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of
+      provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to
+      support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without
+      which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now,
+      centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel of
+      the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to
+      dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government
+      which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform of
+      the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the authority
+      of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the most
+      substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in power. By
+      this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the towns where
+      he before exercised a just influence, while an elective magistrate from
+      the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions, and presents in
+      his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of the bench,
+      flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests, of the giddy
+      million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county reform whenever
+      an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative in Parliament
+      hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the moment, that the
+      Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and hereditary power of
+      the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations substitute themselves
+      as an equivalent check on a centralising Government? Whence springs their
+      influence? From property? Not half a dozen have estates. Their influence
+      springs from the factitious power with which the reforming Government has
+      invested them, and of which the same Government will deprive them in a
+      session, the moment they cease to be corresponding committees of the
+      reforming majority in the House of Commons. They will either be swept away
+      altogether, or their functions will be limited to raising the local taxes
+      which will discharge their expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan
+      police, or the local judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down
+      to preside over their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the
+      English corporations do not possess more substantial and durable elements
+      of power than the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris?
+      These corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor
+      property. Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor
+      substance. They have no indirect authority over the minds of their
+      townsmen; they have only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly
+      engrossed letter of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public
+      benefits they are the official distributers; they do not stand on the
+      vantage-ground on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests;
+      they neither administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the
+      poor nor educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they
+      have not sprung from the national character; they were born by faction,
+      and they will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt;
+      they will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a
+      faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a
+      London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the
+      consequent results of their opportune services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think I have now established the two propositions with which I commenced
+      my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the &lsquo;Spirit of
+      Whiggism&rsquo; with their recapitulation, and the inferences which I draw from
+      them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing in this
+      country a more democratic government than the English constitution, it
+      will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their rights, to maintain
+      that constitution; and if the more recent measures of the Whigs, however
+      plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been a departure from the
+      democratic character of that constitution, it will be as well for the
+      English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and all their soul, and
+      all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs and the &lsquo;Spirit of
+      Whiggism.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+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: Sketches
+       The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul's Daughter, Walstein--Or
+       A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of
+       Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian
+       Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk,
+       Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+
+THE CARRIER PIGEON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Charolois and Branchimont_
+
+ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad
+bosom of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only
+by its rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of
+Charolois, situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the
+reflected radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of
+triumph at the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western
+side of the valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and
+sharply defined against the resplendent heaven.
+
+Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high
+places--the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but the
+hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with
+more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the
+house of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of
+Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss
+in the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son.
+
+Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff
+and gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest
+passions of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the
+theatre of their havoc.
+
+The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark
+towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned
+the devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was
+deposited the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had
+raised on a small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile
+from his stern hold.
+
+At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from
+the postern of Charolois--the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child of
+the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers.
+She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached
+the sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already
+kneeling,--faces of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she
+entered, a palmer, with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely
+muffled up in his cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in
+the fount of holy water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and
+pressed the beautiful fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived
+by the kneeling votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her
+self-control, or such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she
+exhibited no other symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar,
+was soon buried in her devotions.
+
+The mass was celebrated--the vassals rose and retired. According to her
+custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of her
+brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that someone
+was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived, knelt
+at her side. 'Lothair!' muttered the lady, apparently at her prayers,
+'beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!'
+
+'Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?' was the hushed reply.
+
+'For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.'
+
+'Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped.
+Let me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated.
+Your father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh,
+fly!'
+
+'Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?'
+
+'Sweet love! I pray thee listen:--to Italy. At the court of my
+cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I
+for Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are
+no traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy,
+trust me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father's walls.'
+
+'Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other
+like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love?
+Yet I adore thee------'
+
+'Lady!' said the page, advancing, 'the priest approaches.'
+
+The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar.
+
+'To-morrow, at this hour,' whispered Lothair.
+
+The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the
+shrine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Pert Page_
+
+'DEAREST Lady,' said the young page, as they returned to the castle,
+'my heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the
+huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.' 'Hah! he is my father's most
+devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to
+execute--a most ruthless knave!'
+
+'And can see like a cat in the dark, too,' observed young Theodore.
+
+'I never loved that man, even in my cradle,' said the Lady Imogene;
+'though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?'
+
+'Indeed I thought so, madam.'
+
+'Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little
+page.'
+
+'I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.'
+
+'I warrant you,' said Imogene; 'you have a bold heart, little Theodore,
+and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my
+bright-eyed Lothair!'
+
+'Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,' said
+Theodore. 'I would I were his squire.'
+
+'Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.'
+
+'Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I
+indeed be his squire, lady sweet?'
+
+'Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.'
+
+'I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and
+as strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!'
+
+'It is indeed a beard, Theodore,' said the Lady Imogene. 'When wilt thou
+have one like it?'
+
+'Another summer, perchance,' said Theodore, passing his small palm
+musingly over his smooth chin.
+
+'Another summer!' said the Lady Imogene, laughing; 'why, I may as soon
+hope to have a beard myself.'
+
+'I hope you will have Lord Branchimont's,' said the page.
+
+'Amen!' responded the lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Love's Messenger_
+
+THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded.
+On the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont
+at the shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her
+father, and, after having been loaded with every species of reproach and
+invective for her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was
+confined to a chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which
+she was never permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery
+with an old female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and
+manners. Her page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource
+and amusement was her mandolin.
+
+The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep
+so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was
+therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The
+landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted
+of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care
+that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont.
+The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from
+her. Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight.
+Very unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or
+pouring forth her passion over her lonely lute.
+
+A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was
+seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought,
+and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused
+her, and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the
+high back of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with
+an azure beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not
+alarmed was the beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached
+it; but it looked up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and
+flapped with some earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady
+Imogene smiled with marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her
+captivity; and putting forth her hand, which was even whiter than
+the wing, she patted the bright neck of the glad stranger, and gently
+stroked its soft plumage.
+
+'Heaven hath sent me a friend,' exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; 'Ah!
+what--what is this?'
+
+'Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?' inquired the harsh voice of acid
+Martha, whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door.
+
+'Nothing--nothing--I want nothing,' quickly answered Imogene, as she
+seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered
+Martha over her shoulder. 'Did she see thee, my treasure?' continued the
+agitated Imogene, 'Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were
+not discovered.' So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step
+imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird
+from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly
+detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had
+perceived, in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont.
+
+Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted
+her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then
+she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to
+collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:--
+
+
+_'Lothair to Imogene_.
+
+'Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has
+promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I
+love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove
+a thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and
+catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am
+planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to
+tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of
+your fidelity to your own
+
+Lothair.'
+
+
+It was read--it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears--tears of
+wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the
+faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him,
+had she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously
+awaiting the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her
+tablets and inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under
+the wing, she bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last
+embrace, permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the
+air.
+
+Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue
+sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky
+shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _A Cruel Dart_
+
+IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that
+her unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as
+possible, and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit
+from Mignon. Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of
+consolation; and by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair
+respecting her escape was actively maintained. A thousand plans were
+formed by the sanguine lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then
+decided to be impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another,
+young Theodore was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and
+become, by some contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved
+that these were as wild as lovers' plans are wont to be; and another
+week stole away without anything being settled. Yet this second week was
+not so desolate as the first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting
+hope; and each day to hear that Lothair still adored her, and each day
+to be enabled to breathe back to him her own adoration, solaced the
+hours of her captivity. But Fate, that will often frown upon the
+fortunes of true love, decided that this sweet source of consolation
+should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman, who was ever prowling
+about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye for a bird, one day
+observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the window of the tower.
+His practised sense instantly assured him that the bird was trained, and
+he resolved to watch its course.
+
+'Hah, hah!' said Rufus, the huntsman, 'is Branchimont thy dovecot?
+Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.'
+
+Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the
+visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew
+had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont.
+True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky.
+Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can
+doubt that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling
+visits! Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing!
+She shall kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter
+than the scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all
+thy fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon
+the unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to
+anticipate the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes
+her heart tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions.
+
+Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred--an arrow
+swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The
+snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal!
+
+It touches thy form--it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no
+good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas,
+alas! the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy
+transcendent eye grows dim--all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to the
+earth!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _Another Message_
+
+A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour
+after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and
+the Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight,
+she became nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light
+remained, an indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed
+night, and nothing but the outline of the surrounding hills was
+perceptible, she could no longer restrain herself; and, bursting into
+hysteric tears, she threw herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were
+they discovered? Had Lothair forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless
+efforts, had he left her to her miserable, her solitary fate? There was
+a slight sound--something seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her
+side she beheld a letter, which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown
+in at the window. She started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed
+herself for doubting for an instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore
+open the letter; but so great was her emotion that some minutes elapsed
+before she could decipher its contents. At length she learned that,
+on the ensuing eve, Lothair and Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of
+Charolois, would contrive to meet in safety beneath her window, and for
+the rest she must dare to descend. It was a bold, a very perilous plan.
+It was the project of desperation. But there are moments in life when
+desperation becomes success. Nor was the spirit of the Lady Imogene one
+that would easily quail. Hers was a true woman's heart; and she could
+venture everything for love. She examined the steep; she cast a rapid
+glance at the means of making the descent: her shawls, her clothes, the
+hangings of her bed--here were resources--here was hope!
+
+Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the
+unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon?
+But the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not
+mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were
+faint--that the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed;
+but this she did not observe. She was sanguine--she was confident in the
+wisdom of Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured
+forth her supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then,
+exhausted by all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a
+deep repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Flight and Discovery_
+
+MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. 'He has his reasons,'
+answered the Lady Imogene: 'Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right
+soon, I hope, we shall need no messenger.' Oh, what a long, long day was
+this, the last of her captivity! Will the night never come--that night
+she had once so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no
+longer gladness in thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet
+thine orb is as high in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon!
+The unceasing cry of the birds, once so consoling, now only made her
+restless. She listened, and she listened, until at length the rosy
+sky called forth their last thrilling chant, and the star of evening
+summoned them to roost.
+
+It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the
+hours at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that
+it wanted but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed
+a rope of shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force.
+The bell struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her
+fate. Slowly and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air,
+until her feet at length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her
+footing, she now rested, and looked around her. She had descended about
+twenty feet. The moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was
+more rugged. It seemed not impracticable--she clambered down.
+
+'Hist! hist!' said a familiar voice, 'all is right, lady--but why did
+you not answer us?'
+
+'Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?'
+
+'Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees--give me thy hand, sweet lady.
+Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.'
+
+Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont.
+
+'We have no time for embraces,' said Theodore; 'the horses are ready.
+The Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an
+eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you
+Mignon?'
+
+'Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.'
+
+'But my letter,' said Lothair-'you received it?'
+
+'It was thrown in at my window,' said the Lady Imogene.
+
+'My heart misgives me,' said little Theodore. 'Away! there is no time
+to lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout!
+Fly! fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!'
+
+And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches
+seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of
+Lothair.
+
+'We will die together!' she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his
+breast.
+
+Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty
+sword.
+
+'Seize him!' shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; 'seize
+the robber!' shouted her father.
+
+'At your peril!' answered Lothair to his surrounding foes.
+
+They stood at bay--an awful group! The father and his murdering minions,
+alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their chieftain's
+daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the silver
+moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their entrapped
+victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress.
+
+There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of
+the father, 'Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare
+not the traitress!'
+
+But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion,
+they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey.
+
+'Let me, then, teach you your duty!' exclaimed the exasperated father.
+He advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus
+they stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow
+glanced over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to
+the heart. His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan.
+
+Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon,
+had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master
+of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was
+thine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _The Dove Returns to Imogene_
+
+THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different
+its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary
+vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois
+is again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet
+waters, still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks
+and mused over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering
+and bright, like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from
+thy dying glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve--no
+more shall her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no
+more shall her lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds.
+Oh, yes! she is dead--the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of
+misery heralded her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for
+the good priest who had often administered consolation to his unhappy
+mistress over her brother's tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying
+couch, assured many a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim
+who loved to listen to the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a
+beatitude; for he did not doubt, from the distracted expressions that
+occasionally caught his ear, that the Holy Spirit, in that material form
+he most loves to honour, to wit, the semblance of a pure white dove,
+often solaced by his presence the last hours of Imogene de Charolois!
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CONSUL'S DAUGHTER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Henrietta_
+
+AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby
+held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the
+noble family with which he was connected had obtained for him this
+office, after serving his country, with no slight distinction, during
+the glorious war of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his
+family consisted of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of
+very tender years when he first obtained his appointment, but who had
+completed her eighteenth year at the period, memorable in her life,
+which these pages attempt to commemorate. A girl of singular beauty
+was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not remarkable merely for her beauty. Her
+father, a very accomplished gentleman, had himself superintended her
+education with equal care and interest. In their beautiful solitude,
+for they enjoyed the advantage of very little society save that of
+those passing travellers who occasionally claimed his protection and
+hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most engaging pursuit of Major
+Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of the lively talents of
+his daughter, and to watch with delight, not unattended with anxiety,
+the formation of her ardent and imaginative character: he had himself
+imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine arts in which he
+himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite languages which
+he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose rich and
+interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was careful,
+also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she should
+not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable
+portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from
+England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly
+as proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in
+Portugal and Spain.
+
+The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and
+rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections
+she had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy
+and agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into
+loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm,
+that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the
+constant presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman
+can alone imbue existence; without which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is very dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any
+circumstances, is never desperate.
+
+There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether
+inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently
+qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be
+destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended
+the daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the
+father's heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush
+unseen, and waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then,
+with all a father's pride, and under all the influence of that worldly
+ambition from which men are never free, he would form plans by which she
+might visit, and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble
+cousins were thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might
+enter that great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and
+more than once he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might
+be better for them both that they should for a season part: but the
+Consul's daughter shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from
+the murmurs of a rising storm. She could not conceive existence without
+her father--the father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived
+and flourished--the father to whom she was indebted, not only for
+existence, but all the attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire,
+her tutor, her constant company, her dear, dear friend. To part from
+him, even though but for a season, and to gain splendour, appeared to
+her pure, yet lively imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible
+destiny--an awful dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an
+hour; once, indeed, he had been absent for three days; he had sailed
+with the fleet on public business to a neighbouring port; he had
+been obliged to leave his daughter, and the daughter remembered those
+terrible three days like a frightful dream, the recollection of which
+made her shudder.
+
+Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony--he possessed only the small
+income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which rewarded
+many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was cast,
+these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries, but
+all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy
+of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues
+lined their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful
+galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent
+facing the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the
+fanciful garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming
+aloes, was a most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret
+may not be hired in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion
+Miss Ponsonby was the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and
+flowers, surrounded by her birds: and here she might be often seen at
+sunset glancing amid its beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step
+as airy, as the bright gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _A Fair Presentment_
+
+ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city
+where Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests
+of British commerce--for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy
+presence of a bishop--a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial
+merchant brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took
+his way to the Consul's house. He was a man of an age apparently verging
+towards thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage
+and directed his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by
+a single servant, he did not share the general reputation of his
+countrymen for wealth, his appearance to those practised in society
+was not undistinguished. Tall, slender, and calm, his air, though
+unaffected, was that of a man not deficient in self-confidence; and
+whether it were the art of his tailor, or the result of his own good
+frame, his garb, although remarkably plain, had that indefinable style
+which we associate with the costume of a man of some mark and breeding.
+
+On arriving at the Consul's house, he was ushered through a large, dark,
+cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to
+the suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted
+up in the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of
+the library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office.
+Dwarf bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble
+bust, or bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a
+vacant easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his
+Britannic majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and
+over the mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the
+attention of the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He
+had a very ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an
+hour elapsed before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of
+a young lady. She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a
+gazelle. Her form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was
+not English, the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of
+the beauties of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep
+blue eye, the high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all
+northern, but northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand
+a branch of orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower.
+
+'Signor Ferrers, I believe,' said a shrill voice. The traveller started,
+and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning,
+bowing Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent
+up to the Consul.
+
+'My name is Ferrers,' replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and
+speaking in a low, sweet tone.
+
+'Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,' said the Italian: 'I have the honour
+to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.'
+
+It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and
+his chief clerk a chancellor.
+
+'I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,' said
+the Italian; 'and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the
+Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at
+Otranto?'
+
+'I hope so too,' replied the traveller; 'and so I believe.'
+
+'You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me--the Consul
+will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be
+very happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for
+a moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity
+of informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular
+messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send
+him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have
+any letters for the Consul?'
+
+'None,' replied the traveller.
+
+The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted
+he had been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a
+letter of introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart.
+
+The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, 'Pray,
+may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?'
+
+'Certainly,' replied the chancellor; ''tis the Signora Ponsonby.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Mysterious Stranger_
+
+IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a
+dusky little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before
+sunset on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the
+casino of the Consul's daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby
+had invited him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to
+taste his oranges. The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a
+very fine plane-tree, under whose spreading branches was arranged a
+banquet of fruit and flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and
+wines of the Levant, cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his
+chibouque, and his daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her
+guitar fall upon the turf. The original of the portrait proved that the
+painter had no need to flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner,
+the radiant smile, and the sweet and thrilling voice with which she
+welcomed her countryman would have completed the spell, had, indeed, the
+wanderer been one prepared, or capable of being enchanted. As it was,
+Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his welcome, with becoming complaisance,
+exhibited the breeding of a man accustomed to sights of strangeness
+and of beauty; and, while he expressed his sense of the courtesy of his
+companions, admired their garden, and extolled the loveliness of the
+prospect, he did not depart for a moment from that subdued, and even
+sedate manner, which indicates, the individual whom the world has little
+left to astonish, and less to enrapture, although, perhaps, much to
+please. Yet he was fluent in conversation, sensible and polished, and
+very agreeable. It appeared that he had travelled much, though he was
+far from boasting of his exploits. He had been long absent from England,
+had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had sojourned at Damascus. While he
+refused the pipe, he proved, by his observations on its use, that he was
+learned in its practice; and he declined his host's offer of a file of
+English journals, as he was not interested in their contents. His host
+was too polished to originate any inquiry which might throw light upon
+the connections or quality of his guest, and his guest imitated his
+example. Nothing could be more perfectly well-bred than his whole
+demeanour--he listened to the major with deference, and he never paid
+Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never even asked her to sing;
+but the fond father did not omit this attention. Henrietta, in the most
+unaffected manner, complied with his request, because, as she was in the
+habit of singing every evening to her father, she saw no reason why he
+should, on this occasion, be deprived of an amusement to which he was
+accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and stirred the flowers and
+branches, her voice blended with its fresh and fragrant breath. It was
+a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air in which she indulged,
+indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the picturesque scene
+and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with attention, and thanked
+her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the casino he even
+requested the favour of her repeating the gratification, but in so quiet
+a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to comply with a
+wish expressed with so little fervour.
+
+The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the
+Consul's daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were
+executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with
+interest--his observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than
+suspect his skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the
+fine arts, and offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she
+thought it would amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with
+more animation than on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed
+with the observations of a fine eye and cultivated taste.
+
+At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression.
+Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike
+personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad
+to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of
+the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been
+acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what
+Ferrers he was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul_
+
+THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby,
+to the Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him
+immediately afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him
+to dine with them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be
+permitted to pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The
+major, under the circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance
+to comply with their desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very
+reserved, and the Consul desisted.
+
+Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again
+appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before.
+They drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and
+again repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the
+portfolio:--they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all
+kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the
+Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of
+Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment,
+shaded by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Senorita, shrouded in
+her mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance,
+however, about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least
+remarkable. It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each
+drawing, in all probability containing the name and initials of the
+artist, had been carefully obliterated.
+
+Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers
+passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an
+honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the
+squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr.
+Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed
+rather confused; but at length he said: 'Oh, they are stupid things: I
+did not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine,
+who was at Cadiz.'
+
+'Oh, I see the name,' said the major; '"_The Kraken_." Why, that is Lord
+Bohun's yacht!'
+
+'The same,' said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed.
+
+'Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?' said Miss Ponsonby. 'We have often
+expected him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say
+he is the most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?'
+
+'I never heard much in his favour,' said Mr. Ferrers. 'I believe he has
+made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.'
+
+'Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,' said the Consul.
+'He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in
+every man's favour.'
+
+'And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,' said Miss Ponsonby; 'and a
+Bedouin robber, and--I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who was
+here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.'
+
+'Affectations!' said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. 'Bohun, however, has
+some excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his
+cradle.'
+
+'Is he clever?' inquired Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,' replied Mr. Ferrers.
+'I confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers.
+I am not at all romantic.'
+
+And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a
+bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten.
+
+A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our
+Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter
+remained on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and
+every evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed
+that he was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy
+Consul always adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his
+wonder as to what Ferrers he was.
+
+Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and
+several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of
+the hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr.
+Ferrers should meet them. He discussed this important point with his
+daughter.
+
+'My darling, I don't like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man.
+The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an
+insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he
+is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would
+see something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall
+we do?'
+
+'I will ask him,' replied Miss Ponsonby. 'I don't think he could refuse
+me.'
+
+'I am sure I could not,' replied the major, smiling.
+
+And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that
+she had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was
+his courteous reply.
+
+'Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.'
+
+Mr. Ferrers' brow immediately clouded.
+
+'Now, do not look so suspicious,' said Miss Ponsonby. 'Do you think that
+ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live
+only on fruit and flowers?' continued Miss Ponsonby. 'Do you know,' she
+added, with an arch smile, 'I think you must be a ghoul.'
+
+A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of
+the Englishman.
+
+'You will come!' said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly.
+
+'I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby's hospitality,'
+muttered Mr. Ferrers; 'I have no claim to it.'
+
+'You are our countryman.'
+
+'Unknown.'
+
+'The common consequence of being a traveller.'
+
+'Yes--but--in short--I--'
+
+'You must come,' said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine.
+
+'You do with me what you like,' exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation.
+'Beautiful--weather,' he concluded.
+
+Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that
+from this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain,
+this gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul's table; accepting
+a general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable,
+availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception.
+
+Could it be the Consul's daughter that effected this revolution? Time
+may perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were
+that she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over
+society; or whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly
+pleasing because she was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta
+Ponsonby never appeared to greater advantage than she did upon the day
+of this memorable festival. Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house,
+sauntered to the mole, and gazed upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous
+symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers had before this been fixed in mute
+abstraction on many a summer wave, when Dian was in her bower; and
+this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed, was learned in woman, and
+woman's ways. Shall a Consul's daughter melt a heart that boasted of
+being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself upon its clouds?
+
+But if the state of Mr. Ferrers' heart were doubtful, I must perforce
+confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured
+to inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own
+feelings. Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers
+had now insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power
+of which she was unconscious,--only because it was unceasing. Had for
+a moment the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have
+discovered, with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed
+she had become since the first evening he approached their pleasant
+casino. And yet Mr. Ferrers was not her lover. No act,--no word of
+gallantry,--no indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever
+escaped him. All that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then,
+there was no other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among
+them; but, then, he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and
+repose, which ever and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular
+activity and strange adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct.
+But, whatever might be his motives, certain it is, that the English
+stranger dangerously interested the feelings of the Consul's daughter;
+and when she thought the time must arrive for his departure, she drove
+the recollection from her mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang
+which she experienced by its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the
+heart of this young and lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in
+the presence of her companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature
+had invested the Englishman with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant
+person; his tender, yet reserved manners; his experienced, yet ornate
+mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet mellowed imagination, which ever
+and anon would break forth in his conversation: perhaps, too, the air
+of melancholy, and even of mystery, which enveloped him, were all spells
+potent in the charm that enchants the heart of woman. And the major,
+what did he think? The good Consul was puzzled. The confirmed intimacy
+between his daughter and his guest alike perplexed and pleased him. He
+certainly never had become acquainted with a man whom he would sooner
+have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only known who he was. But
+two months, and more than two months, had elapsed, and threw no light
+upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul hesitated as
+to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good breeding. Now he
+thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his daughter. There were
+objections to each line of conduct, and his confidence in Mr. Ferrers
+was very great, although he did not exactly know who he was: he was
+decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his conduct and
+conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so much
+delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and did,
+that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
+and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
+conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
+his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
+gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A Tender Avowal_
+
+IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M'Intyre were two
+very different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay,
+noisy, pleasant, commonplace persons. They were '_on leave_' from one
+of the Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot
+red-legged partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a
+pipe with the Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights
+they had seen, and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they
+styled 'regular adventures': and they insisted upon giving everyone a
+description of what everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their
+arrival, Mr. Ferrers discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and
+resumed his old habit of riding up to the casino, every evening, on his
+Barbary ass, to eat oranges and talk to the Consul's daughter.
+
+'I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?' said Major M'Intyre.
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+'St. Peter's, of course, you have seen?' said Captain Ormsby.
+
+'But have you seen it during Holy Week?' said the major. 'That's the
+thing.'
+
+'Ah, I see you have been everywhere,' said the captain: 'Algiers, of
+course?'
+
+'I never was at Algiers,' replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
+circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.
+
+'By Jove,' said the major, with elevated eyes, 'not been at Algiers!
+why, Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great
+traveller indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers
+more worth seeing than any place we ever visited. Don't you, Ormsby?'
+
+The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
+place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
+Bohun's yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
+proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
+Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain
+Ormsby finally pronounced 'Bohun a devilish good fellow.'
+
+'Do you know Lord Bohun?' inquired Mr. Ferrers.
+
+'Why, no!' confessed Captain Ormsby: 'but he is a devilish intimate
+friend of a devilish intimate friend of mine.'
+
+Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him
+into the garden. 'I cannot endure the jabber of these men,' said Mr.
+Ferrers.
+
+'They are very good-natured,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they
+think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in
+a short time, and then I shall be forgotten.'
+
+'That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if
+absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.'
+
+'I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second
+part to Lord Bohun.'
+
+'Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to
+anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'I have been in this island ten weeks,' said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully.
+
+'When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,' said Miss
+Ponsonby.
+
+'You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my
+existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been
+very happy,' said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; 'very happy, indeed. The only
+_happy_ time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.'
+
+'And why not remain, then?' said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice.
+
+'There are many reasons,' said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm
+to Miss Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino.
+'These ten weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,' he continued, but
+in a calm voice, 'because you have been my companion. My life has
+taken its colour from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss
+Ponsonby, and be not alarmed. I love you!'
+
+Her arm trembled in his.
+
+'Yes, I _love_ you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common
+feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life;
+and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as
+may be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.'
+
+She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand.
+
+'Most beauteous lady,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'pardon me if I agitate
+you; for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger,
+utterly unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my
+power, even at _this_ moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal
+position. Yet, whatever I may be, I offer my existence, and all its
+accidents, good or bad, in homage to your heart. May I indulge the
+delicious hope that, if not now accepted, they are at least considered
+with kindliness and without suspicion?'
+
+'Oh, yes! without _suspicion_,' murmured Miss Ponsonby--'without
+suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that
+you are not so good as you are------gifted.'
+
+'Darling Henrietta!' exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting
+tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon
+her lips. 'This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman's love I
+long have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are
+mine; once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay,
+start not, sweet one. 'Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return
+to claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and
+solemn engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet
+again; you may hear _of_ me and not to my advantage. What matter? You
+love me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour
+_never sullied_. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!'
+
+'I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in
+you, I will despair of them for ever.'
+
+'Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me,
+indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _The Famous Lord Bohun_
+
+He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous
+event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she
+was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father's child.
+She belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and
+departed being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young
+lady passed her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain
+she attempted to struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted
+to herself the error, perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was
+fascinated. She could not reason; she could not communicate to her
+father all that had happened. A thousand times her lips moved to reveal
+her secret; a thousand times an irresistible power restrained them. She
+remained silent, moody, and restless: she plucked flowers, and threw
+them to the wind: she gazed upon the sea, and watched the birds in
+abstraction wilder than their wing: and yet she would not doubt her
+betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and so sincere, still
+lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty brow was engraven
+on her memory: never could she forget those delicate adieus!
+
+This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after
+some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of
+the departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained
+his noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled
+with the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the
+maiden; but the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct
+gave evidence of restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed
+sometimes exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing.
+The Consul was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is
+bitter for a father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but
+doubly bitter is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret.
+
+Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested
+on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of
+Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of
+this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was
+a diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed
+there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected
+individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very
+luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the
+Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted
+his extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the
+course of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave
+a magnificent entertainment on board the _Kraken_, to the bishop and the
+principal islanders, in honour of the Consul's daughter. Indeed it was
+soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary
+admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked
+attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these
+attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a
+lord, and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced
+Henrietta might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a
+traveller.
+
+One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own
+yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had
+been copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who
+preceded him. His name was inquired, and given.
+
+'Ferrers!' exclaimed his lordship. 'What, has Ferrers been here?'
+
+'You know Mr. Ferrers, then?' inquired Henrietta, with suppressed
+agitation.
+
+'Oh yes, I know Ferrers.'
+
+'A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,' said the Consul, anxious, he
+knew not why, that the conversation would cease.
+
+'Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being
+agreeable,--Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,' said Henrietta, in a firm,
+and rather decided tone, 'I should not have given him credit for any
+sentiment approaching to _conceit_.'
+
+'He is fortunate in having such a defender,' said his lordship, bowing
+gallantly.
+
+'Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,' said Miss Ponsonby, 'unless
+they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs
+any defence.'
+
+His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air.
+
+'Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,' said the Consul, who was now
+desirous that the conversation should proceed.
+
+'He had evidently a great inducement,' said Lord Bohun. 'I wonder he
+ever departed.'
+
+'He is a great favourite in this house,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'I perceive it,' said Lord Bohun.
+
+'What Ferrers is he?' inquired the Consul.
+
+'Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,' said Lord Bohun. 'I never heard
+his breeding impeached.'
+
+'And I should think, nothing else,' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,' said his
+lordship; 'except that he was a _roue_, and a little mad. That is all.'
+
+'Enough, I should think,' said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow.
+
+'What a _roue_ may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,' said
+Henrietta. 'If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his
+thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title.
+As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three
+months: if he be mad, it must be a very _little_ indeed.'
+
+'He was a great favourite of Henrietta,' said her father, with a forced
+smile.
+
+'Fortunate man!' said the lord. 'Fortunate Ferrers!'
+
+Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was
+left alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she
+was alone, her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A
+_roue!_ Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had
+pledged the freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she,
+after all, only a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a
+_roue!_ That lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely,
+was he a _roue,_ an eccentric _roue_; one whose unprincipled conduct
+could only be excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect?
+She could not credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct
+had been so strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and
+then she recollected his last dark-muttered words: '_You may hear of me,
+and not to my advantage._' Oh, what a prophecy! And _from_ him she had
+never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
+the Consul's daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge,
+and his honour that had been _never sullied_. She buried her face in her
+hands,--she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened since
+his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had said
+and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was madness
+for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no misery
+so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all her
+happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
+gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
+sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if
+not light-hearted, at least serene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _More Mystery_
+
+THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
+island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
+remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited
+no inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
+interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month,
+made himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest,
+certainly with the Consul, if not with the Consul's daughter. As for the
+name of Mr. Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta
+piqued herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on
+respecting her absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting
+much information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to
+annex a precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were
+rich or poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of
+disgraceful lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been
+fellow-travellers--all was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble
+guest was inattentive to her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost
+annoyed her by his constant devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined
+to resent his singularly marked expressions of admiration as an insult;
+when, to her utter astonishment, one morning her father astounded her by
+an announcement that Lord Bohun had done her the honour of offering her
+his hand and heart. The beautiful Henrietta was in great perplexity.
+It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his flattering proposal without
+reservation: it was difficult, almost impossible, to convince her father
+of the expediency of such a proceeding. There was in the proposal of
+Lord Bohun every circumstance which could gratify Major Ponsonby. In
+the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition, his hopes had never soared
+higher than the possession of such a son-in-law: high born, high
+rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished youth, were combined in the
+individual whom some favouring destiny, it would seem, had wafted to
+this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows to its accomplished
+mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so brief an acquaintance,
+to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative stranger, was what
+he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should unhesitatingly
+and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for which he was
+totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified--for the first
+time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that Lord
+Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all
+others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when
+his fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss
+Ponsonby. It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father
+required her to grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a
+repetition of the proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in
+vain. It was otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more
+kind and unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss
+Ponsonby to think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she
+was glad, however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or
+annoyed. Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he
+had spent in her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire
+whether time might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby's determination.
+And when he had received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he
+only expressed his wishes for her future happiness, which he could not
+doubt.
+
+'I feel,' said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; 'I feel,' he
+said, in a very hesitating voice, 'I am taking a great, an unwarrantable
+liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could
+venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your
+welfare.
+
+Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with
+kindness.'
+
+'I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were
+engaged to another.'
+
+Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with
+blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces.
+
+'Is this a fair inquiry?' she murmured. 'It is for your sake I inquire,'
+answered Lord Bohun.
+
+Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was
+thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at
+length something of her mysterious lover.
+
+'What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?' She spoke without
+raising her head.
+
+'In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a
+treasure.'
+
+'You speak of Edmund Ferrers?' said Miss Ponsonby.
+
+'The same.'
+
+'You know him?' she inquired, in a choking voice.
+
+'I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not
+boast a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more
+blessed.'
+
+'Shall you see him?' she inquired in a quick tone.
+
+'Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his
+movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you
+have sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again;
+and methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here,
+Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as
+well as that of your lord's. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _A Welcome Message_
+
+THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without
+a certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta
+Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often
+mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling,
+indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom
+she had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of
+Ferrers in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual
+seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted
+it with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations.
+Here, too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side--the beautiful and
+bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple
+life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love,
+indeed, is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic--it changes all
+things; and the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing,
+becomes as rife with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate
+theatre of some old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her
+mysterious and absent lover was at her side-but then he spoke only
+Greek. In vain she tried to make him comprehend how much she desired to
+have tidings of his master. The graceful mute could only indulge in airy
+pantomime, point to the skies and ocean, or press his hand to his heart
+in token of fidelity. Henrietta amused herself in teaching Spiridion
+Italian, and repaid herself for all her trouble in occasionally
+obtaining some slight information of her friend. In time she learned
+that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord Bohun before the departure
+of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and often-repeated inquiries
+whether he would soon return, Spiridion was constant to his consoling
+affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress of languages as
+Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian scarf, which
+the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his master when
+Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the scarf for a
+Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour.
+
+Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page,
+rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below
+the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that
+a vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an
+English vessel--it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and
+watched the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed
+the British Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also
+immediately return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal--upon
+a white ground a crimson heart--whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his
+breast a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away.
+
+He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace
+until he arrived at the Consul's mansion--he rushed in, dashed up the
+staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the
+sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby--her gaze was serious, but her
+beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched
+by gloom--pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still
+echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on
+which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were
+her gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of
+him whom she had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful,
+confiding maiden! It was the strength of thy mind as much as the
+simplicity of thy heart that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who
+would not envy thy unknown adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for
+weak minds and cold-blooded spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou
+wast just, for, behold, he is true!
+
+A fluttering sound roused her--she turned her head, and expected to see
+her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he
+held towards her a letter. She seized it--she recognised in an instant
+the handwriting she had so often studied--it was his! Yes! it was his.
+It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her hand
+trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read, and
+she read these words:--
+
+'If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which
+since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me
+to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my
+bride; but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let
+nothing be known to our father.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Mystery Revealed_
+
+MY DEAREST Henrietta,' said the Consul as he entered, 'who, think you,
+has returned? Lord Bohun.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Henrietta. 'Have you seen him?' 'No. I paid my respects
+to him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow,
+at ten.'
+
+The morrow came, but ten o'clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven
+sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her--he was surprised
+to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early ramble. At
+this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that, from some
+error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited the
+Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As
+he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and--Mr.
+Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was
+about to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she
+disappeared down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted
+her father--
+
+'You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?'
+
+'I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?'
+
+Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+
+'I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major
+Ponsonby,' continued Mr. Ferrers.
+
+'I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I
+must go and greet his lordship.'
+
+'Oh, never mind Bohun,' said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. 'I have no
+ceremony with him--he can wait.'
+
+The major was a little perplexed.
+
+'You must know, my dearest sir,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'that I wish to
+speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.'
+
+'Proceed, sir,' said the Consul, looking still more puzzled.
+
+'You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire
+your daughter.'
+
+The Consul bowed.
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Ferrers; 'it seems to me impossible to know her and
+not admire: I should say, adore her.'
+
+'You flatter a father's feelings,' said the Consul.
+
+'I express my own,' replied Mr. Ferrers. 'I love her--I have long loved
+her devotedly.'
+
+'Hem!' said Major Ponsonby.
+
+'I feel,' continued Mr. Ferrers, 'that there is a great deal to
+apologise for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that
+my conduct may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will
+not say that the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end
+was, at least, a great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.'
+
+'I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.'
+
+'It is some consolation to me,' continued that gentleman, 'that the
+daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I
+may be as successful with the father.'
+
+'I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must
+own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and
+shake hands with Lord Bohun.'
+
+'I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my
+dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby,
+with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this
+island. This knowledge is necessary for my justification.'
+
+'But what is there to justify?' inquired the major.
+
+'Conceive a man born to a great fortune,' continued Mr. Ferrers, without
+noticing the interruption, 'and to some accidents of life, which many
+esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth--conceive this
+man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in
+that great world with which you are not unacquainted--conceive him with
+a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe and
+the victim of all whom he encounters--conceive him, in disgust, flying
+from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of those
+accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to his
+morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery--conceive this
+man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of
+which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own
+sake--a miserable man, sir!'
+
+'It would seem so,' said the Consul.
+
+'Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession
+of all for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for
+himself, and loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his
+purest youth: yet the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his
+joy. He is haunted by the suspicion that the affection, even of this
+being, is less the result of his own qualities, than of her inexperience
+of life--he has everything at stake--he dares to submit her devotion to
+the sharpest trial--he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain
+with which he had enveloped himself--he quits her with the distinct
+understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit
+to return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret
+from the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that
+his name shall be traduced in her presence--that the proudest fortune,
+the loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will
+renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major
+Ponsonby!'
+
+'Indeed, most terrible.'
+
+'But she is true--truer even than truth--and I have come back to claim
+my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?'
+
+'I speak, then-----' murmured the astounded Consul--
+
+'To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!'
+
+
+
+
+WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _A Philosophical  Conversation between a Physician and
+     His Patient._
+
+DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was
+not only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy
+of his patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between
+medicine and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to
+Walstein. The physician looked forward to the interview with his patient
+with some degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had
+never yet met that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his
+travels, and who had been absent from his country for several years.
+
+When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was
+admitted into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and
+ascending a double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a
+magnificent gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient
+statues were ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were
+suspended many beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them
+were dwarf bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and
+crowned with Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a
+man of taste, looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he
+was gazing on a group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of
+whom he had heard much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and
+turning round, Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of
+youth, but of very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and
+graceful manner. 'I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting
+you to be a moment alone,' said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile.
+
+'Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,' replied the
+physician. 'There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of
+your father, Mr. Walstein.'
+
+''Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,' replied
+Walstein, 'the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a
+_pococurante_, I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the
+commonplace.'
+
+'Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,' replied
+Schulembourg.
+
+Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be
+seated. 'I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,' he observed,
+somewhat abruptly. 'My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that
+a physician is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I
+am in excellent health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My
+temperament I have ever considered to be of a very sanguine character.
+I have nothing upon my mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto
+I have only committed blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless,
+I have, of late, become the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy,
+which I can ascribe to no cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you
+throw any light upon my dark feelings? Can you remove them?'
+
+'How long have you experienced them?' inquired the physician.
+
+'More or less ever since my return,' replied Walstein; 'but most
+grievously during the last three months.'
+
+'Are you in love?' inquired Schulembourg.
+
+'Certainly not,' replied Walstein, 'and I fear I never shall be.'
+
+'You have been?' inquired the physician.
+
+'I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,' answered the patient; 'but
+youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and,
+in all probability, never will be.'
+
+'Besides an idea of a heroine,' said Schulembourg, 'you have also, if I
+mistake not, an idea of a hero?'
+
+'Without doubt,' replied Walstein. 'I have preconceived for myself a
+character which I have never achieved.'
+
+'Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero,
+why should you complain?' rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+'There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,' said
+Walstein.
+
+'And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of
+our mistress,' rejoined Schulembourg.
+
+'You reason,' said Walstein. 'I was myself once fond of reasoning, but
+the greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is
+not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from
+passion.'
+
+'Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,' observed Schulembourg.
+
+'And thus we pass the ocean of life,' said Walstein. 'Would that I
+could discover a new continent of sensation!'
+
+'Do you mix much in society?' said the physician.
+
+'By fits and starts,' said Walstein. 'A great deal when I first
+returned: of late little.'
+
+'And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?'
+
+'It would superficially appear so,' observed Walstein; 'but I consider
+my present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the
+reaction of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a
+sense of disappointment of the past.'
+
+'You are disappointed,' observed Schulembourg. 'What, then, did you
+expect?'
+
+'I do not know,' replied Walstein; 'that is the very thing I wish to
+discover.'
+
+'How do you in general pass your time?' inquired the physician.
+
+'When I reply _in doing nothing_, my dear Doctor,' said Walstein,
+'you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But
+perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.'
+
+'Do you read?'
+
+'I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but
+books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering
+life.'
+
+'Do you write?'
+
+'I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate
+reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.'
+
+'Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your
+own feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.'
+
+'My sympathies are strong,' replied Walstein. 'In an evil hour I might
+descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd;
+I should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.'
+
+'You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?'
+
+'Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very
+evanescent.'
+
+'Travel is action,' replied Schulembourg. 'Believe me, that in action
+you alone can find a cure.'
+
+'What is action?' inquired Walstein. 'Travel I have exhausted. The world
+is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a
+career?'
+
+'Action,' replied Schulembourg, 'is the exercise of our faculties. Do
+not mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life
+almost within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action.
+Witness the convents and the churches that are covered with his
+exploits. A great student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or
+a statesman. You must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an
+object in life; great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe
+me, it is better to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.'
+
+'Your advice is profound,' replied Walstein, 'and you have struck upon a
+sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.'
+
+'You are a very ambitious man,' replied the physician.
+
+'How know you that?' said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly
+blushing.
+
+'We doctors know many strange things,' replied Schulembourg, with a
+smile. 'Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?'
+
+'Prime minister of Oberon!' said Walstein, laughing; ''tis indeed a
+great destiny.'
+
+'Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate
+themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a
+prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.'
+
+'Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.'
+
+Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which
+he handed to his patient.
+
+Walstein smiled as he read the prescription.
+
+'Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein's
+company at dinner, to-morrow at two o'clock.'
+
+Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his
+promise. 'I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Containing Some Future Conversation_
+
+WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The
+house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was
+situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been
+presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa,
+which recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights
+of marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion,
+all painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon
+the terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases
+sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains
+were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and
+bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet
+and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky,
+and threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and
+serene, floated the airy crescent of the young white moon.
+
+'My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,' exclaimed
+Walstein.
+
+The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered
+through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an
+octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved
+away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was
+Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to
+apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest.
+
+Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely
+beautiful. Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks
+of ebon hair shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her
+large and deep blue eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The
+expression of her face was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played
+like meteors on her soft round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head
+was carelessly tied under her chin, and fastened with a white rose of
+pearls. Her vest and train of white satin did not conceal her sylphlike
+form and delicate feet. She held forth a little white hand to Walstein,
+adorned only by a single enormous ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring
+ease.
+
+'I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr.
+Walstein,' said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around,
+and recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being
+introduced, for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor.
+
+'I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,' said Walstein,
+addressing the latter gentleman. 'You have left your fame behind you
+at Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least
+accompanied with admiration.' The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly
+blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid,
+petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly
+and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with
+a true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even
+when enthusiastic.
+
+'It is difficult to remember we are in the North,' said Walstein to
+Madame Schulembourg, 'amid these colonnades and orange trees.'
+
+'It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,' replied the
+lady, 'and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.'
+
+'You have resided long in Italy?' inquired Walstein.
+
+'I was born at Milan,' replied Madame de Schulembourg, 'my father
+commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.'
+
+'I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,' said
+Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady.
+
+'Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,' replied
+Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; 'is it not so, Mr. Revel?'
+
+The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady's mother,
+whom he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then
+they exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they
+were conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: 'I must
+compensate for keeping you from dinner,' said their host, 'by having the
+pleasure of announcing that it is prepared.'
+
+He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the
+dining-room. The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her
+side.
+
+The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German
+dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with
+an ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman
+was an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent,
+without that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to
+a finished man of the world. The host was himself ever animated and
+cheerful, but calm and clear--and often addressed himself to the artist,
+who was silent, and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein
+himself, indeed, was not very talkative, but his manner indicated that
+he was interested, and when he made an observation it was uttered with
+facility, and arrested attention by its justness or its novelty. It was
+an agreeable party.
+
+They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the
+supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very
+sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest
+of the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg
+avowed her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary.
+Schulembourg philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he
+was a magnetiser, and his explanations were more marvellous than the
+portents.
+
+'And you, Mr. Walstein,' said Madame de Schulembourg, 'what is your
+opinion?'
+
+'I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the
+burthen of daily reality,' replied Walstein.
+
+'You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,' observed Mr. Revel, bowing to
+the sculptor.
+
+'Novalis is an astrologer,' said Madame Schulembourg; 'I think he would
+just suit you.'
+
+'Destiny is a grand subject,' observed Walstein, 'and although I am not
+prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be
+surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.'
+
+'That has been the belief of great spirits,' observed the sculptor, his
+countenance brightening with more assurance.
+
+'It is true,' replied Walstein, 'I would rather err with my great
+namesake and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.'
+
+'That is a dangerous speech, Baron,' said Schulembourg.
+
+'With regard to destiny,' said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist
+of the old school, 'everything depends upon a man's nature; the
+ambitious will rise, and the grovelling will crawl--those whose volition
+is strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the
+consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.'
+
+Schulembourg shook his head. 'By a man's nature you mean his structure,'
+said the physician, 'much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but
+structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to
+sympathy.'
+
+'It is true,' replied the sculptor; 'and what is the influence of the
+stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?'
+
+'I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,' remarked Walstein;
+'this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de
+Schulembourg.'
+
+'On the contrary,' she replied, 'the mystical ever delights me.'
+
+'Yet,' continued Walstein, 'perceiving that the discontent and
+infelicity of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his
+intelligence and his knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant
+and the simple.'
+
+'A man can only be content,' replied Schulembourg, 'when his career is
+in harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great
+physical activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in
+spite of great physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence,
+under the influence of the action which is necessary to their living,
+counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure,
+when he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man
+of genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being
+developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that
+sublime art so ill-comprehended!'
+
+'I agree with you,' said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of
+Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; 'all the scrapes and unhappiness
+of my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be
+ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out
+of a man who wished to be a soldier.'
+
+'And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,' replied
+Schulembourg; 'but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a
+noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady
+was not ashamed to marry me.'
+
+'I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,' said Novalis, his eyes
+flashing with enthusiasm. 'I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor
+mother's heart.'
+
+There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. 'As for
+myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out.
+Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This,
+however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen--at least it
+would be,' he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, 'were it
+not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.'
+
+'Come,' said Madame, rising, 'the carriages are at the door. Let us take
+a drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady._
+
+MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG'S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian
+ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was
+followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis
+stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. 'Caroline,'
+he said, as he bid his guest adieu, 'I commend Mr. Walstein to your
+care. When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend
+has escaped.'
+
+'I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,' replied Caroline,
+with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat.
+
+Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was
+as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue
+without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a
+flitting friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the
+road lined on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast
+beds of tall fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn.
+
+'Here, Mr. Walstein,' said Caroline, 'with your permission, I shall take
+my afternoon walk.' Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which
+she and her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she
+declined it, folding herself up in her shawl.
+
+'Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?' said
+Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+'At this moment, decidedly Dresden,' replied her companion.
+
+'Ah! that is a compliment,' said Madame de Schulembourg, after a
+moment's musing. 'My dear Mr. Walstein,' she continued, looking up with
+an arch expression, 'never pay me compliments.'
+
+'You mistake me: it was not a compliment,' replied Walstein. 'It was a
+sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable
+existence.'
+
+'You know that you are my patient,' rejoined Madame de Schulembourg.
+'I have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such
+complaints.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it,' replied Walstein, with a slight bow.
+
+'If we could but find out the cause!' continued Caroline. 'I venture to
+believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come,
+be frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with
+a fair Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our
+heroine a captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?'
+
+'Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences
+of their influence,' replied Walstein, 'and in general they are right.'
+
+'But in your case?'
+
+'Very wrong.'
+
+'I am determined to find it out,' said Madame de Schulembourg.
+
+'I wish to heaven you could,' said Baron de Walstein.
+
+'I think a wandering life has spoiled you,' said Caroline. 'I think it
+must be civilisation that you find wearisome.'
+
+'That would be very sublime,' replied Walstein. 'But I assure you,
+if there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the
+anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more
+than I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion
+without excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure,
+let me at least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene
+is with me exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be
+tempted to quit this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.'
+
+'I see how it is,' exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head
+very knowingly, 'you must marry.'
+
+'The last resource of feminine fancy!' exclaimed Walstein, almost
+laughing. 'You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle
+of the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de
+Schulembourg,' he continued, in a very serious tone, 'that, with
+my present sensations, I should consider it highly dishonourable to
+implicate any woman in my destiny.'
+
+'Ha! ha! ha!' laughed Madame; 'I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein,
+that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. 'Tis
+the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times
+before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.'
+
+'You have, indeed,' said Walstein; 'and perhaps, were I Doctor de
+Schulembourg, I might be as gay.'
+
+'Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on
+truth. The fact is, I think you are too much alone.'
+
+'I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,'
+replied Walstein. 'Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I
+am-----what I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your
+ridicule.'
+
+'Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise
+with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself.
+If you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an
+affair of climate.'
+
+'No,' said Walstein, still very serious, 'not an affair of
+climate--certainly not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we
+bear with its yoke as we do with all that is initiatory--with the solace
+of expectation. But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear
+to be no mysteries in which I am to be initiated.'
+
+'Then, after all, you want something to do?'
+
+'No doubt.'
+
+'What shall it be?' inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful
+air.
+
+'Ah! what shall it be?' echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; 'or,
+rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more
+unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?'
+
+'A career!' exclaimed Caroline. 'What, you want to set the world in
+a blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine
+speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very
+ambitious!'
+
+'I know not what I am,' replied Walstein; 'but I feel that my present
+lot is an intolerable burthen.'
+
+'But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the
+accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men
+struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that
+you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe
+me, my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to
+employ any man's faculties.'
+
+'My youth is fast fading, which I don't regret,' replied Walstein, 'for
+I am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to
+it, and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity
+of producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by
+no uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy
+does not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this
+afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his
+career must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of
+happiness to me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a
+mechanic?'
+
+'You must settle all this with Augustus,' replied Madame de
+Schulembourg; 'I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always
+tell Sidonia that he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him
+beyond description. Do you know him?'
+
+'Only by fame.'
+
+'He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you
+like to make his acquaintance?'
+
+'Authors are best known by their writings,' replied Walstein; 'I admire
+his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human
+heart, and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think
+and to utter in solitude.'
+
+'I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make
+the acquaintance of an admirer.'
+
+'I entreat you not,' replied Walstein, really alarmed. 'It is precisely
+because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What
+can the conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His
+appearance and his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is
+always interesting to indulge.'
+
+'Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a
+wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair.
+I am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,' continued
+Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. 'Do not think me heartless; all
+his passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has
+written to me every week--his letters are each time more reasonable.
+I have no doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work
+which will amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden
+quite cool. I delight in Sidonia--he is my especial favourite.'
+
+After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The
+public drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg
+gaily bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend.
+
+'Dear girls, come home with us this eve,' she exclaimed, as she curbed
+her ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young
+ladies who were seated within it with their mother. 'Let me introduce
+Mr. Walstein to you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise
+Augusta and Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is
+Emilius--How do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your
+Bavarian friend.'
+
+'How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?' inquired Augusta.
+
+'Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter;
+read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim;
+adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.' So they drove away.
+
+
+
+
+IBRAHIM PASHA
+
+THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety
+towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt,
+and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless
+well acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present
+condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success
+of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new
+basis, the political geography of the East.
+
+In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have
+fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the
+Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of
+history, from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when
+the Turkish Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally
+inquire what has become of the intellectual inheritance which the
+ancient inhabitants of these countries left behind them? Where are the
+successors of the skilful workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora;
+the navigators of Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of
+Chaldea? Several distinct characters of civilisation have successively
+flourished in this part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of
+the Pelasgi, correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the
+Phrygian monuments of Seidi Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of
+Bagdad, and the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period,
+the baths, the amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the
+Archipelago; to the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in
+every direction the whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages,
+the church of Iznik.
+
+And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods
+produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at
+its last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand
+thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects
+together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in
+this part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis,
+who compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits
+and recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their
+last connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest--that
+they were only encamped in the land--that they had received a military
+organisation for a permanent state of warfare--that their headquarters
+was Constantinople--they have become attached to the soil, and shut
+themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal system, are
+divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their contempt for
+foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power.
+
+Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some
+degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller
+advances into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On
+approaching the central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that
+cultivation seldom extends beyond the distance of half a league round
+a village; the inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully
+avoid the vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical
+phenomenon, that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous
+and the richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that
+the passage of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than
+the fatal plague itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of
+Eske-Seher have been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at
+the head of 300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked
+by all the devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those
+horsemen called Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha,
+enters a village, the consternation is general, and followed by a system
+of exaction that to the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To
+complain to the Pasha would be to court instant destruction.
+
+From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at
+the passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and
+consequently the obstacles a European army would encounter which should
+ever be masters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans,
+a Nornase tribe, who sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the
+Archipelago, and who pay but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also
+another cause of devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers
+of the Pasha, who are the oppressors _par excellence_; they are always
+present to despoil the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common
+expression in the mouths of this oppressed race, 'but eyes wherewith to
+weep.' The welfare of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte,
+are things to them of the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise
+men and taxes; to obey, is to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost
+exclusively at forty or fifty leagues from the capital.
+
+But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every
+social tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent
+tribes--the cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis--a people who adore the
+spirit of Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and
+all those fierce natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the
+fastnesses of the Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the
+wandering Arabs, the pirates of the desert, and the mountaineers of
+Lebanon, who live in a state of perpetual discord. Over this immense
+line of countries centuries have passed, and left no trace behind;
+all that the ancients and the crusaders have related to us of them, is
+typical of their condition at this day. The bows and arrows, the armour,
+exhibited as objects of curiosity in our museums, are still in use
+among them. It is only by chance, or by profiting by their intestine
+divisions, that the authority of the Porte is recognised. The Pashas are
+mostly hereditary, and live in a state of perpetual insurrection. Thus
+from the shores of the Archipelago to the banks of the Euphrates and
+the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear to obey the same law of
+decrease.
+
+It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of
+Upper Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride
+of this monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has
+reached such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible
+to regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all
+those parts so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and
+organised into independent states. Towards the North, Russia has
+pushed on her battalions as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found
+more difficult, to govern Armenia from St. Petersburg than from
+Constantinople. In politics, the calculation of distances is an
+important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays claim to Syria,
+and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus and the sea--a
+territory in which she will find those resources she at present stands
+so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding, etc., a Christian
+population, among whom the seeds of European civilisation will be more
+easily implanted. She will thus form an empire that will one day become
+powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that system of monopoly so
+rigorously put in force by her present ruler.
+
+The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali,
+justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha
+had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it
+into his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league
+against him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated
+his pardon for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid.
+Interest soon prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there
+was more to be gained from Constantinople than from Cairo--that the
+authority of the Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than
+nominal, and that the Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be
+in a condition to prevent his exactions; he therefore sought, on every
+occasion, to get rid of the influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the
+jealousy of the Porte against him. An opportunity soon offered itself.
+Some Egyptian fellahs had taken refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha;
+Mehemet Ali demanded these men, but the Governor of Acre refused to give
+them up, on the plea that they were subjects of the Grand Signor, and
+referred the matter to the Porte, who on this occasion was seized with
+a fit of humanity, and _bewailed_ the oppression of the peasantry of the
+Valley of the Vale--_Inde Bellum_.' This was at the close of 1831.
+
+The moment was favourable for the Viceroy's great designs. Europe was
+sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention
+on the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open
+revolt, and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics
+on the side of Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the
+Russians, and his conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole
+empire. In the meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the
+government had extended to every object of production and industry,
+while the conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the
+population; and if to this organised system of spoliation we farther
+add the ravages of the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the
+wretched state of those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that
+the Egyptians were everywhere hailed as deliverers.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head
+of the Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that
+gigantic strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires
+such respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull
+with a blow of his scimitar--to execute, like Peter the Great, his
+victims with his own hand--to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks
+of champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his
+manners, from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat
+polished, and in deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and
+dignity--in fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good
+opinion of Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so
+distinguishes the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind.
+Soliman Bey, a renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff
+of Marshal Grouchy, was associated with him, and it is to him that the
+success of the Egyptian army may be chiefly attributed.
+
+Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered
+itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of
+Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends
+from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side
+by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from
+Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth
+about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most
+important military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of
+Saint Jean d'Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as
+the key to several valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan;
+Alexandretta, situated upon a tongue of land between the marshes and the
+sea; and lastly, Aentab and Zenyma, which command the two passages on
+the right side of Mount Amanus.
+
+We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all
+strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria.
+Malte Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at
+two millions, but we are inclined to question the accuracy of this
+calculation, since no two travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the
+Druses, some estimating them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks
+form two-fifths of the population--they inhabit the large towns with the
+Greeks; the remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs,
+of Kurds, and of Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes;
+of Bedouin Arabs, who pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and
+along the edge of the desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the
+descendants of the servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites,
+who profess the Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful;
+of all the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the
+sect of Ali; of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state
+of independence. We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this
+prodigious diversity of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep
+possession of. With the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north
+of Syria, all of them obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the
+Emir Bechir, a Druse, prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el
+Din, who revolted against Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when
+Abdallah raised the standard of revolt in 1822, sought the protection of
+Mehemet Ali, who re-established him in his government.
+
+Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular
+troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took
+the same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean
+d'Acre. Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha,
+Jerusalem, Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and
+Acre submitted at his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected
+reinforcements both in men and material, he made haste to occupy the
+whole line of coast as far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of
+November, before Saint Jean d'Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular
+infantry, two regiments of lancers, 1,000 Bedouins, two companies of
+sappers, one of cannoniers, one of bombardiers, and a train of field
+and siege artillery. The place is situated on a promontory surrounded on
+three sides by the sea, and defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned
+by a tower, which serves as a citadel. This last fort, the bastions
+of which, from their retiring flanks being too short, is the only one
+accessible on the land side, but it was enfiladed from a neighbouring
+height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint Jean d'Acre, was destitute of
+siege artillery, and was not master of the sea. He had, therefore, many
+more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim.
+
+During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very
+vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor
+before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was
+made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the
+fleet and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The
+besieged on their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a
+heavy loss, and several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th
+to the 18th the bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy
+guns were placed in battery. The operations of the siege were now
+pushed forward with great ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate
+reduction of the place. The defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by
+the most determined energy. He had sworn, it was reported, that he would
+blow up the town. It was, however, of the utmost importance to push
+forward the operations with the greatest activity. The first disposition
+of the population, which had been favourable, might undergo a change
+should not Ibrahim succeed in striking a great blow. The mountaineers of
+Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and
+were ready to furnish a contingent of their warriors.
+
+The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread
+terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated,
+and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she
+summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her
+orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of
+December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed
+governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent
+to the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims
+of Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict
+injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of
+Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars
+was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of
+the subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every
+day the efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its
+authority, encountered new obstacles.
+
+The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held
+out for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as
+an hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran
+Osman Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of
+Tripoli, but it was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms.
+-This port was already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha
+Agar Barbar, a man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier
+Mehemet Pasha consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular
+horsemen, and fourteen small field-pieces.
+
+The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the
+Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint
+Jean d'Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his
+troops over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play
+upon the town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the
+castle were also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped
+up to the very houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of
+musketry, which, galling them severely, drove them across the heights.
+Night put an end to the affair.
+
+A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his
+lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d'Acre and wishing
+to reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six
+field-pieces, before Osman's camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately
+abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the
+Pasha of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general
+immediately pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened
+upon this point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he
+retired, after some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his
+camp, and was joined by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men.
+But his presence was required in other quarters. Divisions had broken
+out at several points, and the slowness with which the operations of the
+siege of Saint Jean d'Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his
+partisans.
+
+At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the
+Cadi, the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable
+reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive
+dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean
+d'Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the
+19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians
+made the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and
+experienced a heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it
+was again closed up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace
+was destroyed, and Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by
+Djezzar. The garrison was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last,
+on the 27th of May, a general assault was made. Three breaches were
+practicable, one on the tower of Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh
+Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six battalions had the horrors of the attack,
+which commenced at daybreak and lasted twelve hours.
+
+At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but
+Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and
+having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault.
+Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he
+was obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429
+wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d'Acre, after a memorable
+defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim
+the possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect
+security.
+
+While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the
+war, the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of
+March, Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and
+by the extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but
+in other respects, a soldier _a la Turc_, was appointed chief of the
+expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the
+empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly
+invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar.
+He received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly
+caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the
+army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at
+Konisk.
+
+By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the
+army had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers.
+The mass of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha's brigade of
+infantry, with the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of
+irregulars, under the orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender
+Pasha's brigade of infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha's
+brigade, with the cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was
+accompanied by its batteries. An European organisation had been given
+to the different services, such as the paymaster-general's department,
+commissariat, etc. The Sultan had written out many of the regulations
+with his own hand.
+
+The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of
+Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops,
+under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with
+all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European
+instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of
+artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army
+had they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and
+experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two
+former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by
+the Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back.
+As for Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his
+endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every
+branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against
+him, and he retired in disgust.
+
+On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he
+displayed the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in
+vain that the European inspectors requested him to put in force 'the
+regulation for troops in the field,' of the French general Prevan, which
+had been translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than
+were their complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence
+and negligence of the chiefs.
+
+The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his
+army. The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military
+administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact,
+it was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted,
+once overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that
+the Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an
+arm which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000
+Janizaries. This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to
+unsheathe this weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor
+Mehemet Ali, and his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied
+the Turkish history must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would
+find at last his master--the executioner; but since the late victories
+of the Russians, all national faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis.
+Excommunication is an arm as worn out at Constantinople as at Rome.
+
+Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she
+directed a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which
+she explained the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded
+the strictest neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared
+Egypt in a state of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul
+from Alexandria, and even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary
+corps d'armee. Austria, an enemy to all revolutions, went so far as
+to threaten the Viceroy. England appeared to preserve the strictest
+neutrality, while France strenuously employed all her influence to bring
+about an accommodation; but in vain.
+
+The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the
+question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that
+calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three
+weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on
+the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker's
+brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons,
+brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d'Acre. It became,
+therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to
+march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to
+Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for
+a fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached
+Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days
+were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim's delay to take up a more
+advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes,
+and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with
+the Turkish irregulars.
+
+But all Ibrahim's operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After
+securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns,
+which offered an excellent position, where they might have established
+a communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and
+whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not
+till the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet
+Pasha commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue
+rations to the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost
+dead with hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with
+his irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning
+even to think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or
+to issue rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain
+ceremonies.
+
+The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into
+a magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the
+two viziers made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the
+hargueleh.
+
+Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian
+army was within two hours' march of them. The disorder that ensued was
+dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the
+Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light
+troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of
+which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of
+a hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish
+regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their
+irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus
+the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had
+an opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European
+instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery
+even refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not
+remain inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from
+right to left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the
+Orontes, but they were checked by part of Beker's brigade and two pieces
+of cannon. Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire.
+In the course of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered
+considerably.
+
+Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead
+of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement,
+he put himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who
+immediately formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned
+by his artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy,
+fell back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried.
+The second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour;
+and on the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a
+decisive charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in
+the most disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy's cavalry. It was a
+general _sauve qui peut_. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish
+army from total destruction. The loss of the Sultan's forces in this
+affair amounted to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners.
+
+The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead
+of rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha's brigade, which was encamped at two
+hours' march from the field of battle, fled with them.
+
+The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the _tete du
+pont_ on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the
+point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who
+endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself
+to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably
+calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was
+able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it.
+Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing
+anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military
+chest, impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying
+nowhere and holding up the name of his master to universal execration.
+At the action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that
+there yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal
+allowed an army to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable
+organisation. Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for
+Antioch, with the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the
+neighbourhood of Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts,
+he returned by forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his
+troops by a march of eight hundred leagues.
+
+However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and
+made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country
+declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to
+him. His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his
+protection the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There
+now only remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize
+Antioch and Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with
+extreme slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a
+decision favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish
+field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania.
+
+Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he
+disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile
+of Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some
+places that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand
+route of the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet
+on the 5th of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after
+an action of two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the
+conqueror Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces
+of cannon. The Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable
+positions which the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana.
+Ibrahim pursued them with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a
+ford, Hussein Pasha having blown up the superb bridge of nine arches
+that crossed that river at Missis.
+
+The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana,
+but they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by
+the enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The
+whole district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length
+reached the new line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the
+boundaries of his empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of
+the Egyptians upon Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers
+of Hussein Pasha deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the
+Anatolian peasantry murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could
+find them, which was not difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the
+provinces of Upper Asia were in such a state of insurrection that a
+single officer of Ibrahim's would have been sufficient to make the most
+considerable town capitulate.
+
+The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the
+Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari.
+But his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise,
+for however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would
+have appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could
+not have prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he
+succeeded in these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been
+the result? Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would
+have found himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its
+base, which no human power can regenerate.
+
+Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France,
+and endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the
+Porte, listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the
+blind obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories
+of the Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an
+armistice of five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was
+succeeded by the Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had
+distinguished himself in Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro
+Pasha. Brave and accustomed to the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was
+superior to his predecessor, but even he was only a Turkish general.
+He had been selected principally on account of his great influence
+in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received orders to repair to
+Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians and Albanians, of
+which they knew he could dispose, and with the six regiments of infantry
+and cavalry that belonged to them.
+
+In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in
+re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it
+was echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops
+brought by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have
+prevented Ibrahim's further advance; but there was neither skill in
+the general nor ardour among the troops; the councils of the European
+instructors were, as usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on
+the contrary, was almost exclusively under the direction of European
+officers. A single piece of artillery would have sufficed to defend the
+passage of the Taurus, and yet when Ibrahim appeared on its northern
+declivity he had to encounter but a few irregulars, of whom he soon gave
+a good account. He then fixed his camp on the plain of Erekli, at one
+hundred and sixty days' march of a camel from Constantinople, and then
+advanced upon Koniah.
+
+Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish
+army until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken
+at the approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of
+Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of
+taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour
+of the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced.
+The cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads
+rendered so impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the
+artillery and ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found
+themselves, as at Horns, without provisions in the presence of the
+enemy.
+
+Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at
+the head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the
+mountains up the village of Lile, which was occupied by a strong
+detachment of Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand
+army, was to pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been
+simultaneous, but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the
+scene of action, and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check,
+the Grand Vizier continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in
+presence of the enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared
+to give him a warm reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st
+of December), and from the advanced hour of the day there was no
+alternative but to attack, otherwise he must have passed a night upon
+the field, without bread, exposed to the action of an intense cold that
+would have paralysed the ardour of the troops.
+
+Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order
+of battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering
+useless a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to
+alter his dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not
+reconnoitre the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension
+of front. His left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained
+formed in columns of attack, while the enemy's artillery committed
+dreadful havoc on their profound masses. He committed also another
+fault, that of placing his artillery between the interval of the lines,
+so that it did not reach the Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary,
+posted in their front, did great execution.
+
+Mehemet Redchid's main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his
+forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy's army,
+whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But
+Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point
+attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his
+adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the
+Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and
+afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus
+found itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled.
+
+Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last
+effort, but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed,
+and fell, severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss
+of the Turks was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the
+line, left 3,000 men upon the field of battle.
+
+The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was
+annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and
+the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the
+Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at
+stake rather than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on
+independent sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that
+he owes this glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is
+rapidly sinking under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which
+European diplomacy will in vain attempt to arrest.
+
+
+
+
+THE COURT OF EGYPT
+
+TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is
+Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the
+banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the
+gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is
+one of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember.
+
+Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive
+before you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of
+marble steps. These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large
+quadrangular colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake,
+studded by three or four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken
+cords. The colonnade terminates towards the water by a very noble marble
+balustrade, the top of which is covered with groups of various kinds of
+fish in high relief. At each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives
+way to a flight of steps which are guarded by crocodiles of immense
+size, admirably sculptured in white marble. On the farther side the
+colonnade opens into a great number of very brilliant banqueting-rooms,
+which you enter by withdrawing curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour
+vividly contrasting with the white shining marble of which the whole
+kiosk is formed. It is a frequent diversion of the Pasha himself to
+row some favourite Circassians in one of the barques and to overset
+his precious freight in the midst of the lake. As his Highness piques
+himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba or exterior robe of
+coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same terrors it would offer
+to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians shrieking, with their
+streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian eunuchs rushing to their
+aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade, or dashing down the t
+marble steps,--all this forms an agreeable relaxation after the labours
+of the Divan.
+
+All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court
+of Egypt. The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy
+countenances, clothed in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering
+Damascus sabres, and gently bounding on their snow-white steeds, is,
+perhaps, the most picturesque corps in the world. The numerous harem,
+the crowds of civil functionaries and military and naval officers
+in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the vast number of pages and
+pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly attired attendants, the
+splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has an absolute passion,
+the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred dromedaries, altogether form
+a blending of splendour and luxury which easily recall the golden days
+of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph.
+
+Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious
+summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the
+Bairam the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is
+it easy to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms
+were all open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in
+gorgeous groups, some standing and conversing, some seated on small
+Persian carpets smoking pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees
+lounging, in their crimson shawls and scarlet vests, over the white
+balustrade, and flinging their glowing shadows over the moonlit water:
+from every quarter came bursts of melody, and each moment the river
+breeze brought gusts of perfume on its odorous wings.
+
+
+
+
+THE VALLEY OF THEBES
+
+UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side
+affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and
+hills of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl
+hundred miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile
+to the vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the
+most picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern
+capital, we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most
+celebrated of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian,
+or Latin city--Athens, or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of
+Persepolis, nor the columns of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent,
+variety, and sublime dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes.
+
+These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions:
+two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the
+river Nile--Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and
+Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are
+the cemeteries of the great city--the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles
+in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the
+queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs
+of the kings.
+
+The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few
+Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those
+gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is
+sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and
+museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the
+roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population
+of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in
+the tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the
+notice of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a
+lofty platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that
+colossal genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted
+to rival. The entrance to this temple is through a magnificent
+propylon;-that is, a portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two
+hundred feet in breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil.
+This gate is entirely covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph
+of a conquering monarch.
+
+On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite,
+buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the
+top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a
+little in advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect
+obelisks remaining. One of them is now at Paris;--that famous obelisk of
+Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass
+into a peristyle court,--about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one
+hundred and seventy--the roof of which was once supported by double rows
+of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other pyramidal
+gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in all
+probability, of a more ancient date than those first described.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile
+in extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink
+before the first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes--of
+architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures
+of Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more
+gigantic; the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive:
+but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and
+courts of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of
+colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that
+of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture--a rare omission,
+and doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken.
+The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+
+Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin's-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones--compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks--has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and
+propyla are completely covered with sculptured forms.
+
+I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory
+aches with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger
+than most temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups
+around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal
+splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and
+what ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and
+the solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi,
+one of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see
+him still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of
+Thebes. This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered
+with inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they
+had listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
+companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
+enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which
+may yet be traced.
+
+The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides
+we recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
+supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
+came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure,
+though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude
+is concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
+supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate
+in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge
+colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
+granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is
+entirely obliterated. It lies upon its back, and in its fall has
+destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet
+round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and
+the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a
+man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a
+palace; and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find
+represented on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing
+chess with his queen. It is these domestic details that render also the
+sepulchres of Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be
+studied in their tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived,
+we must frequent their burial-places. A curious instance of this is,
+that, in a tomb near Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians
+procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with
+which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and
+primary characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say
+Imagination, as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the
+Greeks. Thus, when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs,
+they blended the delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention
+of the Nile, and produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the
+Pharaohs, however, that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the
+pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the
+sphinx.
+
+It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the
+Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque
+was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last
+beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the
+columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious
+voyage, were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade,
+almost unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his
+pipe-bearer, and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition,
+descended from the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and
+approached the boat. I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be
+hailed in my native tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a
+place, to find a countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he
+told me that he had lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the
+antiquities, the history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I
+availed myself of his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying
+him, I found that I was a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a
+gloomy dwelling-place. A platform, carved in the mountain, was
+surrounded by a mud wall and tower, to protect it from hostile Arabs.
+A couple of gazelles played in this front court, while we, reposing on a
+divan, arranged round the first chamber of the tomb, were favoured with
+a most commanding view of the valley outspread beneath. There were
+several inner chambers, separated from each other by hangings of scarlet
+cloth. Many apartments in the Albany have I seen not half as pleasant
+and convenient. I found a library, and instruments of art and science;
+a companion full of knowledge, profound in Oriental manners, and
+thoroughly master of the subject which naturally then most interested
+me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but the unusual convenience of
+forks was not wanting, and my host told me that they were the very ones
+that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never forget that first day
+at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then unknown to fame,
+but whom the world has since recognised--the learned, the ingenious, and
+amiable Mr. Wilkinson.
+
+
+
+
+EGYPTIAN THEBES
+
+THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian
+architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the
+Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich
+invention of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations
+of architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined
+Philoe--such the magnificent Dendera--such the sumptuous Edfou!
+
+All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the
+greatest empires,--the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of
+the Romans; the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and
+Sicilians; the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the
+pillars of Palmyra and Girgenti,--sink into insignificance when compared
+with the structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind
+makes a leap amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New
+combinations rise upon our limited invention and contract the
+taste,--the pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the
+obelisk, the sphinx.
+
+Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source
+baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when
+the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are
+the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading
+to the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150
+miles of the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an
+immense plain, once the granary of the world.
+
+A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear,
+and guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this
+country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are
+few,--some rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears.
+Are his ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with
+beautiful sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in
+height? It is well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile,
+over the perfectibility of man.
+
+A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and
+although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least
+decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are
+incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they
+are dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter
+into a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous
+here only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner,
+some idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the
+Egyptian antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the
+marvellous creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman
+which shall unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and
+romantic history.
+
+I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval,
+at once inform me that it was constructed by a 'Son of the Sun,' or
+a 'Phrah,' or 'Pharaoh.' It is remarkable that the Greeks never once
+mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated
+it by their celebrated personification, 'Sol,' or 'Apollo.' In the
+obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore
+read, in the third column, instead of 'the powerful Apollo,' 'the
+powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun.' Proceeding with the
+inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses
+the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised
+some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes.
+
+The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
+mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his
+own results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
+suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of
+the hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
+genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must
+be studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing
+with sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
+catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
+traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient
+of nations.
+
+Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous
+ruins, the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know
+by the inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly
+celebrate the achievements of a great conqueror,--Rameses the Second, or
+the Great, whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than
+fifteen hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore,
+demonstrate the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand
+years back. Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes
+and the Amunophs, are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty.
+Thothmes the Fourth, one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the
+Pyramids; as for the Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they
+were not raised at the comparatively late period ascribed to them
+by Herodotus and Diodorus. No monuments in Egypt can be compared in
+antiquity with these buildings; and the names of the predecessors of
+Rameses the Great are found in their vicinity, evidently sculptured at
+a much later epoch. 'The Pyramids are at least ten thousand years old,'
+said Champollion to a friend of mine in Egypt, rubbing his hands, with
+eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of triumphant research.
+
+It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of
+Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no
+Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the
+Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch--Rameses the
+First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that
+Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most
+powerful enemy,' and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation
+with fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and
+well-wooded country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians,
+who, according to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and
+Semiramis. Thothmes the Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the
+First, carried on this war with uncertain success. The successor of
+Rameses the First, whose phonetic name is doubtful, was not unworthy
+of the son whom the gods accorded to him as a reward for his valour
+and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the war in person,
+and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of Karnak--a
+sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and
+historians--we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of
+infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty
+walls and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country
+in advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the
+progress of the invader's chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh
+returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of
+rich and fantastic tribute.
+
+The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great.
+Following the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led
+a numerous and chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the
+Egyptians. He passed along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without
+doubt, Syria, since the name of Rameses the Second is still found on
+that shore, near the ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued
+his march into the interior, where we at length find him opposed by a
+powerful force on the banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates.
+On the opposite bank of the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city.
+The battle is fought and won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue
+for peace. The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often
+sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with
+scaling-ladders and the testudo. And what was this city? Was it Babylon?
+Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is it at this remote period, to read for
+the first time, the Gazettes of the Pharaohs! It does not appear to have
+been the object of the Egyptians to make a permanent settlement in these
+conquered countries. They laid waste the land, they accumulated plunder,
+they secured peace by the dread of their arms, and, returning home with
+the same rapidity that they advanced, they enjoyed and commemorated
+their victories in the embellishment of their majestic cities. The
+remainder of the long reign of Rameses the Great was passed in the
+cultivation of the arts. A greater number of monuments, statues, and
+temples bear the name of this king than of any other who ruled in Egypt,
+and there are few remains of any city in that country where it is not
+met with. To him we are indebted alike for the rock temples of Nubia,
+and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised that splendid structure
+on the western side of Thebes, supported by colossal statues, which is
+foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great additions to Karnak; he
+built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned the great temple of
+Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently had a passion;
+and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples, especially in Nubia,
+which it would be tedious to recount, and other remains, he cut the
+famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may have been the
+actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no Egyptian
+king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then allow
+that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
+former-too great for the limited power of Europe--and remain persuaded,
+that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the utmost extent
+of his march was confined to the countries bordering on Assyria, Arabia,
+and part of AEthiopia, from which country he is represented as receiving
+tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second secured a long peace to
+Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however, are celebrated for the
+creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes, leading from Luxor
+to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous evidence of the
+prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs. War, however,
+broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly against another
+power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning victorious, the
+third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the temple and the
+palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting period of
+Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom bore the
+name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they were
+distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons which
+may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the reign
+of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
+records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It
+is useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose
+blinded conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total
+darkness in which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous
+musical statue of Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and
+serene, on the plain of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height,
+and the base of the figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and
+Roman travellers, vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise
+melody. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at
+Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to
+me to have solved the mystery of this music. He informed me that having
+ascended the statue, he discovered that some metallic substance had been
+inserted in its breast, which, when struck, emitted a very melodious
+sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have
+ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the
+mighty arms while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable,
+there was probably some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this
+statue, with its remaining companion, although now isolated in their
+situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the ruins of which yet
+remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks to the phonetic
+system, we now know that this musical statue is one of Amunoph the
+Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The truth is,
+the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over modern
+knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no
+conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos.
+Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few
+marauding clans.
+
+'Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the
+books of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs?
+
+'Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred
+waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic
+stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates;
+alas! for the mysterious Nile!'
+
+It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on
+any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed,
+more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a
+fanciful resemblance. It responds in every particular.
+
+I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of
+it is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however
+curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader,
+and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates.
+
+The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes--a valley formed by ranges
+of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian desert,
+and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red Sea. On
+each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the side of
+the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great temple
+called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the general
+title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures
+comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the
+Lybian side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves
+of Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains,
+the tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk
+the famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred
+Gates now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of
+mud huts clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a
+single one of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe
+for their palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often,
+indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a
+single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of
+Gornou, in number between three and four hundred, reside solely in the
+tombs.
+
+I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the
+traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform.
+Its enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of
+the Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance
+to this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal
+flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and
+rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered
+with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the
+supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues
+of red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring
+thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side
+of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that
+remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the
+propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty
+feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once
+supported by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so
+on through other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers
+which are, in all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and
+obelisks and colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by
+Rameses, who commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building
+still more famous.
+
+From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side
+of the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile
+in extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either
+_andro_ or _crio_ sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with
+the man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at
+length penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and
+they are monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak,
+was raised by the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and
+represents their long line of ancestry.
+
+All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak.
+It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be
+unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus
+of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more
+curious and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious
+wonders of the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to
+one general impression of colossal variety.
+
+I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief
+entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built
+of a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three
+thousand years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader
+than the front of our cathedral of St. Paul's, and its height exceeds
+that of the Trajan column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare
+omission, and doubtless intended, that the unity of the effect should
+not be broken. The great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in
+height.
+
+Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place,
+would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front
+of a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great
+hall of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand
+square feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches
+as our St. Martin's-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this
+unrivalled chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed
+of single stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would
+appear almost bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and
+propyla, are completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not
+attempt to describe any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with
+the effort; there are many buildings attached to it, larger than most
+temples; there are an infinite number of gates, and obelisks, and
+colossi; but the imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred
+or heroic procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp,
+through the great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in glorious
+groups around the gigantic columns of this sublime structure.
+What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies, what tilts and
+tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival the vast, the
+beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+
+Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated
+colossi, one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon.
+These doubtless once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient
+than any remaining, for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a
+predecessor, by some generations, of the great Rameses. They were,
+doubtless, once seated on each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and
+in all probability were flanked by obelisks. Whether the temple were
+destroyed for materials, for more recent structures, or whether it has
+sunk under the accumulations of the slimy soil, may be decided by the
+future excavator.
+
+We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great.
+In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated
+the rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of
+giants. From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British
+Museum. But this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture,
+sinks, so far as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when
+compared with the statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the
+waist, now lies prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is
+probably the most huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The
+fragment is of red granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately
+the face is entirely obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and
+in its fall has destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more
+than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly
+seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large
+enough for a man to walk in.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter
+of Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the
+Third.
+
+The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles,
+chariots, captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the
+vivid pen of Mr. Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of
+the monarch. Here also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is
+curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented on the
+walls, in a very admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen.
+Chess is, probably, a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third
+lived before the Trojan war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the
+invention of chess.
+
+The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more
+fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples.
+The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn
+how this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were
+buried. To cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too
+long, it is from a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how
+the Egyptians procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses
+of stone and granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and
+the obelisks of Luxor.
+
+But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with
+delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering
+on the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the
+company of the Pharaohs.
+
+
+
+
+SHOUBRA
+
+ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not
+realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or
+indeed the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of
+the success of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen.
+Commerce once followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and
+the vast buildings which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing
+materials, were filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but
+furnished with all the productions of art and curious luxury, which the
+adventurous spirit of man brought from every quarter of the globe to
+Samarcand and Bagdad. The site of these mighty capitals is almost erased
+from the map of the modern traveller; but tribute and traffic have also
+ceased to sustain even the dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent
+Stamboul, and, until very recently, all that remained of the splendour
+of the Caliphs of Egypt was the vast Necropolis, which still contains
+their palatial sepulchres.
+
+How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on
+the ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on
+the seat of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military
+prowess, lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was
+not altogether an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common
+curiosity that some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and
+scared Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace
+of Mehemet Ali.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during
+the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous
+city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present
+the appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed
+cavaliers force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in
+their course by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the
+women enveloped in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of
+white linen, and borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The
+attendant eunuchs beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen,
+with their golden and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and
+shining arms, trampling on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but
+all efforts are vain, for at the turning of the street appears the first
+still solemn visage of a long string of tall camels bearing provisions
+to the citadel, a Nubian astride on the neck of the leader, and beating
+a wild drum, to apprise the people of his approach. The streets, too,
+in which these scenes occur are in themselves full of variety and
+architectural beauty. The houses are lofty and latticed, abounding in
+balconies; fountains are frequent and vast and as richly adorned
+as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified palace of one of the old
+Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener the exquisite shape of
+an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot vie with the fanes
+of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their lofty minarets
+covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their arabesques recalled
+to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace of the Alcazars
+and the shrines of Seville and Cordova.
+
+At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each
+person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our
+conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life--the
+Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic--afford a different, but
+not less delightful scene.
+
+It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to
+Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six
+months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we
+were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze
+on the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce
+a freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine
+regions, where there is more variety of the seasons.
+
+Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the
+banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady
+avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side
+delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling
+villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation,
+the golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it
+forms; or, perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids.
+
+The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the
+river--moderate in its character, and modest in its appointments; but
+clean, orderly, and in a state of complete repair; and, if we may
+use such an epithet with reference to oriental life, comfortable. It
+possesses all the refined conveniences of European manners, of which the
+pasha at the time I am referring to was extremely proud. Most of these
+had been the recent gift of the French government, and his highness
+occasionally amused his guests--some sheikh from Arabia, or some emir
+from the Lebanon--by the exhibition of some scientific means of domestic
+accommodation with which use has made us familiar, but which I was
+assured had sensibly impressed the magnates of the desert and the
+mountain with the progress of modern civilisation.
+
+The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in
+admirable order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely
+oriental. You enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable
+shade; you emerge upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in
+beds of artificial forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted
+kiosks. Arched walks of orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers
+hanging over your head, lead again to fountains, or to some other
+garden-court, where myrtles border beds of tulips, and you wander on
+mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase flashes amid a group of dark
+cypresses, and you are invited to repose under a Syrian walnut tree by a
+couch or a summer-house.
+
+The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake
+surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a
+fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as
+well as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the
+pure and glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life.
+It is a pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent
+offering of the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of
+the precedent thus afforded by his highness's own creation for the
+introduction of living forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They
+might have varied their huge present with advantage. Indeed, with the
+crocodile and the palm-tree, surely something more beautiful and not
+less characteristic than their metallic mausoleum might easily have been
+devised.
+
+This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced
+peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with
+their painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming
+shoals of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my
+attendant, a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it
+on some high festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to
+appreciate all its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved
+for me, yet my first visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not
+immemorable.
+
+I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness
+where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came,
+somewhat suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks
+emptied, cut through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a
+little man, robust, though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful
+countenance; his attire plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a
+turban white as his snowy beard; he was in merry conversation with his
+companion, who turned out to be his jester. In the background,
+against the myrtle wall, stood three or four courtiers in rich
+dresses--courtiers, for the little old man was their princely
+master--the great Pasha of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+EDEN AND LEBANON
+
+I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green
+slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation--vineyards, gardens,
+groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and
+the walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until,
+reaching the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters
+of a rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness.
+
+On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare
+rock, was a most beautiful village--flat cottages with terraced roofs,
+shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A
+cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs
+around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and
+the murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of
+beauteous children were frolicking with the kids.
+
+The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is
+_Eden_, which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a
+'Dwelling of Delight.'
+
+I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of
+mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the
+range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the
+Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the
+edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the
+dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the
+fragments of a gloomy forest--cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind
+moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract
+were the only sounds that greeted me.
+
+In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the
+relics of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of
+which must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite
+dead; while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five
+or six huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were,
+lifeless amid their apparent power.
+
+Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests--black, blasted,
+riven, and surrounded by deep snows--behold the trees that built the
+palaces of Solomon!
+
+When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted
+it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the
+innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age--of exhausted
+passions and desolate neglect.
+
+
+
+
+A SYRIAN SKETCH
+
+THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from
+Jaffa to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ
+that agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had
+been attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that
+now served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure
+boundary otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of
+Indian fig.
+
+It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain
+of Ramie--the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment,
+green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most
+charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem.
+
+The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of
+the orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some
+florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness
+of fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which
+not a single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange
+and lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the
+citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever
+and anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or
+golden clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the
+date-bearing palm.
+
+While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my
+ear was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the
+sounds, I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle
+of which was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate
+Persian carpet, a venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of
+whom, at a little distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master's
+left hand was a volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the
+serpentine tube of his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he
+saluted me with all the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his
+heart, but not rising. I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me
+with serene cordiality, and invited me to share his carpet and touch his
+pipe.
+
+Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European
+horses and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the
+solemn and sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa,
+came floating on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and
+his companions performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling
+towards Mecca, repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the
+Turkish aga, for such was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening
+breeze, and accompany him in a walk round his garden.
+
+As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from
+his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and
+threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which
+somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his
+fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the
+racy sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could
+not refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he
+should studiously waste so considerable a portion.
+
+'Effendi,' said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, 'to
+friends we give only the sunny side.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSPHORUS
+
+THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of
+the Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret
+and satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid
+strait, stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth
+of the Euxine, may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary
+breadth seldom exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one
+might hear the birds sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great
+continents are divided by an ocean stream narrower than many rivers
+that are the mere boundaries of kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the
+character of these two famous divisions of our earth is nowhere more
+marked than on the shores of the Bosphorus. The traveller turns without
+disappointment from the gay and glittering shores of Europe to the
+sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur of Asia.
+
+The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of
+the Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and
+ornamental buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces,
+and bright kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green
+background to the scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens,
+rising up a chain of hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with
+groves of cypress and of chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair
+and delicate valleys, richly wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique
+aqueduct.
+
+But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into
+forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there
+is something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general
+appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less
+cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they
+linger over the lofty peak of 'the Giant's grave,' seem conscious that
+they are haunting some heroic burial-place.
+
+I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles
+that I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned
+home in my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus,
+where I had been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of
+dolphins, who were making their way from the AEgean and the Sea of
+Marmora through the Strait to the Euxine. They stretched right across
+the water, and I should calculate that they covered, with very little
+interval, a space of three or four miles. It is very difficult to form
+an estimate of their number, but there must, of course, have been
+many thousands. They advanced in grand style, and produced an immense
+agitation: the snorting, spouting, and splashing, and the wild panting
+rush, I shall never forget. As it was late, no other caique was in
+sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being run down, stopped to defend
+themselves with their oars. I had my pistols with me, and found great
+sport, as, although the dolphins made every effort to avoid us, there
+were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one was hit, general
+confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced about with
+increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and turned
+up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly
+three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At
+length the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must
+have arrived at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the
+elegant hospitality of the British Palace at Pera.
+
+
+
+
+AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK
+
+WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the
+invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at
+Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a
+secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were
+assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of
+Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom
+I well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the
+Levant. I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached
+to this expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper
+quarters, there appeared little probability of my wish not being
+gratified. With these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had
+intended, but it would seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent
+as their intended volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but
+indifferently. Orders and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches,
+boats pressed on the Nile for the passage of troops from the capital,
+which were all liberated the next day, many divans and much smoking; but
+still the troops remained within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months
+glided away apparently without any material advancement.
+
+I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an
+excellent understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim,
+a degree of petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their
+mutual communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning
+to attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father,
+I was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to
+the levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my
+return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo,
+I found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that
+Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me.
+
+I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of
+that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future
+conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an
+aide-de-camp.
+
+A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke.
+After the usual compliments, 'Effendi,' said Ibrahim, 'do you think the
+English horses would live in Egypt?'
+
+I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that
+English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are
+very diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered,
+however, that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses
+would flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation
+about English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered
+fifty times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or
+two about English women. At length the point of the interview began to
+poke its horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle.
+
+'If you want to go with the army,' said his Highness, ''tis I who am
+the person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there'
+(meaning the citadel).
+
+I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter
+of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha
+on the subject of the expedition.
+
+'I suppose you talked with Boghaz?' said Ibrahim.
+
+Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali.
+
+'Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once
+graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought
+it both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person
+whatever.'
+
+'Tahib!' exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied.
+'After all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have
+been in Syria?'
+
+I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been
+addressed to me.
+
+'Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?' inquired Ibrahim, with a
+smile.
+
+This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life
+Guards could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said
+that I did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that
+condition.
+
+'Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!' This was
+a favourite phrase of his Highness.
+
+I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness,
+the army would march till we could see another ocean.
+
+'It is all talk up there,' replied Ibrahim; 'but my life is a life of
+deeds.'
+
+'Words are very good things sometimes,' I replied; 'that is, if we keep
+marching at the same time.'
+
+'God is great!' exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers,
+'the Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.'
+
+Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the
+energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient
+Epirus.
+
+'What do you think of Redchid?' he inquired.
+
+'I think he is worthy of being your Highness's rival.'
+
+'He has always been victorious,' said Ibrahim; 'but I think his sabre is
+made of gold. That will not do with me.'
+
+'It's a pity,' I observed, 'that if your Highness find time to march
+into Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with
+the Pasha of Scutari.'
+
+'May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and
+watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.'
+
+The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and
+even if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in
+order that he may take advantage of the other's success or discomfiture.
+Mehemet Ali, at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts
+in European Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of
+the Porte were unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy;
+but in the conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a
+golden sabre, and the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom
+he was obliged to bribe, were all busied in Europe.
+
+The night previous to this conversation the style of the military
+oath of the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of
+swearing allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet
+Ali. The Grand Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order
+for it was countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with
+gratuities to the troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion
+among the officers, everything went off very quietly. There was also
+a rumour that Mehemet Ali intended immediately to assume the title of
+_Caliph_.
+
+This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking
+observation of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+'Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a
+caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?'
+
+I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a
+beneficial effect at foreign courts.
+
+'Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there,
+they are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight
+does not think of his shadow on the earth!'
+
+
+
+
+MUNICH
+
+THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should
+periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of
+the Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and
+brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they
+purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity
+accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is
+excellent.
+
+Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals
+as the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners
+have undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has
+advanced in an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to
+social life has diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine
+Arts have decayed and vanished.
+
+I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement
+in the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but
+not inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence.
+
+It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found
+myself in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The
+street in which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side
+with palaces or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few
+were completely finished: the sculptor was working at the statues
+that adorned their fronts; the painter was still touching the external
+frescoes; and the scaffold of the architect was not in every instance
+withdrawn. Everywhere was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine
+style of many of these buildings was novel to me in its modern
+adaptation, yet very effective. The delicate detail of ornament
+contrasted admirably with the broad fronts and noble facades which they
+adorned. A church with two very lofty towers of white marble, with their
+fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue, gleamed in the sun; and
+near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal palace at Venice, but of
+nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its portal approached by a
+lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal statues of poets and
+philosophers--suitably guarded, for it was the National Library.
+
+As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance
+adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal
+hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a
+pediment brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its
+purpose; an Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of
+a Phidias or a Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was
+told the first stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle.
+But what struck me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples,
+and palaces, its magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and
+consummate statues, was the all-pervading presence and all-inspiring
+influence of living and breathing Art. In every street, a school: the
+atelier of the sculptor open, the studio of the painter crowded: devoted
+pupils, aspiring rivals: enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here
+the long-lost feudal-art of colouring glass re-discovered; there
+fresco-painting entirely revived, and on the grandest scale; while the
+ardent researches of another man of genius successfully analyses the
+encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and secures the secret process for the
+triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city such as I had mused over amid the
+crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided alike by memory and fancy, had
+conjured up in the palaces and gardens of the Medici.
+
+Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and
+corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who
+visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all
+more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince,
+fond only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute,
+and useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women
+and priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the
+inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch.
+
+With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the
+present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal
+expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria,
+when completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace
+in the world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is
+a temple dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state,
+painted in fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in
+colour, breathe the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the
+'Nibelungenlied,' the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements
+of the heroic Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful
+Chrimhilde. The heart of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and
+scenes of the Teutonic Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and
+Dankwart the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and
+haughty Brunhilda. But in point of harmonious dimension and august
+beauty, no chamber is perhaps more imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or
+Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should think, considerably above one
+hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in exact proportion. Its
+roof is supported on either side by columns of white marble; the
+inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded brass, of
+the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at the end
+of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the solemn
+majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a sculptor
+who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his
+master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled
+Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr,
+and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries,
+churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated
+Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and
+the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown;
+but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has
+revived the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect.
+
+But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly
+impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight
+in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek
+poets, of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are
+devoted to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest
+Greek style; severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the
+friezes in outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the
+contrary, is Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as
+brilliant, as free, and as flowing as the genius of the great Maeonian.
+The chamber of the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs,
+raised on a ground of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior
+in many instances to the Attic remains, and characterised, at the same
+time, by a singular combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is
+devoted to AEschylus, and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of
+Aristophanes laughs and sings in his Majesty's dressing-room; while
+the king is lulled to slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing
+landscapes of Theocritus.
+
+Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of
+Art. The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of
+their decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could
+be selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are
+equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant
+and harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the
+arabesques and other appropriate decorations, which blend with all
+around, and heighten the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean
+rivals in the private chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous
+style, but entirely devoted to the poets of her own land. The
+Minnesingers occupy her first apartments, but the brilliant saloon is
+worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon forms it frieze; while the bedchamber
+gleams with the beautiful forms and pensive incidents of Goethe's
+esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study with his stirring characters
+and his vigorous incidents. Groups from 'Wallenstein' and 'Wilhelm Tell'
+form the rich and unrivalled ceiling: while the fight of the dragon and
+the founding of the bell, the innocent Fridolin, the inspired maiden of
+Orleans, breathe in the compartments of the walls.
+
+When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and
+sights of beauty that had moved before me in my morning's wanderings, I
+asked myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital
+of modern Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space,
+and with such facility and completeness, should have achieved those
+results which had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest
+and most powerful community in the world?
+
+It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of
+individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation
+of mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been
+accomplished by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know
+of its sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction.
+Munich is the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a
+king but a poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM
+
+_[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the
+English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet
+'A Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and
+Learned Lord.' The same theory is expounded in another way in the three
+great novels, 'Coningsby,' 'Sybil,' and 'Tancred.' His contemporaries
+never seem to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date
+appear to have written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance
+of his real political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract
+ought, in the minds of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever
+the innumerable calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since
+the Reform struggle of 1859-1867.]_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _Object of the Whigs_
+
+ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has
+in a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested
+succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the
+national honours of its members, in the good government of the country,
+has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular
+passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments
+of an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers,
+though far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser
+proprietors of the country in favour of a political system which offers
+them a constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of
+redress; her Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent
+endowment from the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies
+of its communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and
+religion, and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law
+of primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and
+independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade
+the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That
+great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings
+knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the
+present and the memory of the past--offers in this country, through
+these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy
+framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built
+constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and
+dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities.
+The march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved
+from those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries,
+like a whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep
+away an illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured
+order, has consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken
+tide of progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest,
+and the most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled,
+our manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful
+in Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have
+they arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of
+the people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated,
+the people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them
+with renewed strength and renovated vigour.
+
+The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when
+the nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any
+period of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has
+occasioned these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and
+the traitor smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so
+serene and so splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that
+of the first Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent
+similarity produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted
+past as a passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which
+it may be profitable to discuss and wise to study.
+
+Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid
+yet accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck
+at the same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the
+Huguenot exclaimed: 'It appears to me that this great society can only
+be dissolved by the violence of its political parties.' What are these
+parties? Why are they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving
+these questions, we may obtain an accurate idea of our present political
+position, and by pondering over the past we may make that past not a
+prophecy, as the disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the
+loyal may profit.
+
+The two great parties into which England has during the last century and
+a half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the
+Crown and the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to
+despotic power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy
+in their struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of
+England formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the
+Roses destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors
+succeeded. Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of
+the Papacy, the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who
+succeeded to a despotism which they did not create. When Charles the
+First, after a series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for
+him the support of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised
+the royal standard, the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than
+the constitution of the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But
+a portion of the able party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast
+and beneficial revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary
+powers which they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section
+of the aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though
+that title was not invented until the next reign. The primitive
+Whigs-'Parliament-men,' as they liked to call themselves, 'Roundheads,'
+as they were in time dubbed--aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they
+obtained one; but unable to maintain themselves in power against the
+returning sense and rising spirit of a generous and indignant people,
+they called to their aid that domestic revolutionary party which exists
+in all countries, and an anti-national enemy in addition. These were the
+English Radicals, or Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To
+conciliate the first they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second
+they abolished the Church. The constitution of England in Church
+and State was destroyed, and the Whig oligarchy, in spite of their
+machinations, were soon merged in the common ruin.
+
+The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject
+produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The
+ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown
+were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to
+their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that
+the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power
+than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of
+popular rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed
+themselves of the offered opportunity; and when James the Second
+ascended the throne, the nation was again prepared to second the
+aristocracy in a struggle for their liberties. But the Whigs had
+profited by their previous experiment: they resolved upon a revolution,
+but they determined that that revolution should be brought about by
+as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as possible. They studiously
+confined that appeal to the religious feelings of the nation. They hired
+a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in their service. They
+dethroned James, they established themselves in power without the aid of
+the mass; and had William the Third been a man of ordinary capacity, the
+constitution of Venice would have been established in England in 1688.
+William the Third told the Whigs that he would never consent to be
+a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well as in his
+position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his skilful
+balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is
+probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in
+England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions
+because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local
+institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love
+of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates.
+
+An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of
+toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown
+checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a
+nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually
+banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament
+of England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs
+at all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates.
+They despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can
+they succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for
+the other, then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the
+country by the House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more
+powerful in the House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a
+Peerage, exhausted by civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from
+the courtiers of the Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution
+which the Whigs occasioned, they attempted to govern the country by
+the House of Lords, in which they were predominant; and, in order to
+guarantee their power for ever, they introduced a Bill to deprive the
+King of his prerogative of making further Peers. The revolution of 1640
+led to the abolition of the House of Lords because the Lords opposed the
+oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of Lords, the Whigs introduced
+the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords would have been rendered
+independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the country, the Whigs
+attacked the influence of popular election, and the moment that, by
+the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained a temporary
+majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act.
+
+The Whigs of the eighteenth century 'swamped' the House of Commons; the
+Whigs of the nineteenth would 'swamp' the House of Lords. The Whigs
+of the eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords
+unchangeable; the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons.
+
+I conclude here the first chapter of the 'Spirit of Whiggism'-a little
+book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig
+party have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in
+another reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in
+another they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries,
+and various modes of conduct; but they have only one object--the
+establishment of an oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not
+wish this country to be governed by a small knot of great families, and
+therefore I oppose the Whigs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _Parliamentary Reform_
+
+WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious
+hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to
+re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses
+of Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted
+for this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose
+their Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried
+the Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill
+had become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and
+I believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been
+transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James's
+might have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous
+ducal palace of the Adriatic.
+
+George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power;
+but an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and
+the India Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the
+oligarchical faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive
+during the great interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt
+and the resurrection of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry
+to carry them into power, they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the
+chorus of an emancipated people, and fancied, in order to take the
+throne by storm, that nothing was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and
+to cover their haughty brows with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped
+the wings of Whiggism; nor is it possible to conceive a party that had
+effected so many revolutions and governed a great country for so long
+a period, more broken, sunk, and shattered, more desolate and
+disheartened, than these same Whigs at the Peace of Paris. From that
+period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs consisted in gently and
+gradually extricating themselves from their false position as the
+disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post as the
+hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the transition
+less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a bridge
+by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily recross
+on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so
+much precipitation. A dozen years of 'liberal principles' broke up the
+national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity
+and glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and
+lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction,
+that their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his
+party, elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician
+order, and attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the
+Tories. Had that negotiation led to the result which was originally
+intended by those interested, the Riots of Paris would not have
+occasioned the Reform of London.
+
+It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by
+a nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a
+dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long
+exile from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means,
+invariably has recourse to a _coup-d'etat_. An oligarchical party is
+necessarily not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble
+lineage or vast possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers.
+The Whigs, in 1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under
+very peculiar circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In
+each estate of the realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal
+to the Commons of England, that constituency which, in its elements,
+had undergone no alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the
+influence of the legislature or the action of time--that constituency
+which had elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers,
+Walpole, and Pulteney--an appeal to this constituency, it was generally
+acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined
+to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary
+reform: the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual
+upon a coup-d'etat, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general
+the difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their
+concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus
+they had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England
+from popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of
+the first House of Commons in which they could command a majority.
+
+But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary
+reformers, for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all
+their art was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their
+own interest should secure an irresistible predominance.
+
+But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections?
+Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own
+limited ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were
+obliged to look about for allies wherewith to form their new popular
+estate. Any estate of the Commons modelled on any equitable principle,
+either of property or population, must have been fatal to the Whigs;
+they, therefore, very dexterously adopted a small minority of the
+nation, consisting of the sectarians, and inaugurating them as the
+people with a vast and bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies,
+invested the Dissenters with political power. By this _coup-d'etat_ they
+managed the House of Commons, and having at length obtained a position,
+they have from that moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the
+intention of reducing that great institution and making it surrender at
+discretion. This is the exact state of English politics during the last
+five years. The Whigs have been at war with the English constitution.
+First of all they captured the King; then they vanquished the House of
+Commons; now they have laid siege to the House of Lords. But here the
+fallacy of their grand scheme of political mystification begins to
+develop itself. Had, indeed, their new constituency, as they have long
+impudently pretended, really been 'the people,' a struggle between
+such a body and the House of Lords would have been brief but final.
+The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or three hundred
+individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure against the
+decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation is so
+glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect that
+in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But
+as 'the people' of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not
+exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English
+nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a
+class privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some
+jobbing Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish
+schemes of personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as
+mindful of its duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours
+of its ancestors. The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue
+from the degrading plots of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising
+sectarianism, and a boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary
+leaders--the Peers. The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment
+represents everything in the realm except the Whig oligarchs, their
+tools--the Dissenters, and their masters--the Irish priests. In the
+meantime the Whigs bawl aloud that there is a 'collision'! It is true
+there is a collision; but it is not a collision between the Lords and
+the people, but between the Ministers and the Constitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Menace to England_
+
+IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary
+party is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not
+indispensably a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in
+England that, were a republic to be established here to-morrow, it would
+partake rather of the oligarchical than of the aristocratic character.
+We should be surprised to find in how few families the power of the
+State was concentrated. And although the framers of the new commonwealth
+would be too crafty to base it on any avowed and ostensible principle of
+exclusion, but on the contrary would in all probability ostentatiously
+inaugurate the novel constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about
+as definite and as prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or
+the sovereignty of the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were
+we not to find that the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in
+the conduct of public affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out
+from the fruition and exercise of power as under that Venetian polity
+which has ever been the secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration.
+The Church, under such circumstances, would probably have again been
+plundered, and therefore the discharge of ecclesiastical duties might
+be spared to the nation; but the people would assuredly be practically
+excluded from its services, which would swarm with the relations and
+connections of the senatorial class; for, whether this country be
+governed only by the House of Commons, or only by the House of Lords,
+the elements of the single chamber will not materially differ; and
+although in the event of the triumph of the Commons, the ceremony of
+periodical election may be retained (and we should not forget that the
+Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary form), the selected
+members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any House of Parliament
+whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of Whig sneers or
+Radical anathemas.
+
+The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by
+institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of
+intellect that will be found a sufficient surety for the public
+welfare in the crisis of a country's freedom. Our interest taints our
+intelligence, our passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity
+are too often the willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous
+adventurer. Life, is short, man is imaginative; our means are limited,
+our passions high.
+
+In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong
+temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the
+orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics'
+institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and
+fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish
+a tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become
+the oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of
+knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of
+their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with
+which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render
+them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these
+institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state
+of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all
+those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and
+some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo.
+Let us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy
+reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of
+their magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects
+established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous
+and vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders
+of a single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes--aye,
+and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under
+the plea of the 'spirit of the age' or 'county reform' or 'cheap
+government.' But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will
+dare disobey London?--the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can
+we think, if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still
+chance to linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny,
+or appeal to the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his
+ancestors had protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not
+be judges in Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all
+the pains and penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which
+such a troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter
+ourselves that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High
+Commission Court would not be in the background to supply all the
+deficiencies of the laws of England? When these merry times arrive--the
+times of extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes--and, if we
+proceed in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the
+phrase 'Anti-Reformer' will serve as well as that of 'Malignant,' and
+be as valid a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all
+those who venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.
+
+Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
+established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift
+and stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
+irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals.
+I do not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in
+this age of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the
+nonce the false colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and
+considerable party, too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and
+the safety of the State-who have a definite object which they distinctly
+avow--I mean those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their
+unstamped press, and ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration.
+Not merely that which is just, but that which is also practicable,
+should be the aim of a sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well
+consider whether, in attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are
+not, in fact, only assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme
+is infinitely more adverse to their own than the existing system, whose
+genius I believe they entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories
+is more democratic than the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with
+a keener sympathy to the passions of the millions; it studies their
+interest with a more comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment
+that I have mistaken the genius of the English constitution, what
+chance, if our institutions be overthrown, is there of substituting
+in their stead a more popular polity? This hazard, both for their own
+happiness and the honour of their country, the English Radicals are
+bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they will find themselves,
+too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the slaves of a stern
+usurper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    _The English Constitution_
+
+A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit
+of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects--that the
+spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political
+institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of
+discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our
+famous establishment of 'King, Lords, and Commons;' and no institutions
+ever yet flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented
+and more misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound
+ignorance and the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the
+House of Commons, a member of a family who pique themselves on their
+constitutional reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate
+treatise on our polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late
+as the last session of Parliament, declared his desire and determination
+to uphold the present settlement of the 'three estates of the realm,
+viz.--King, Lords, and Commons.' Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an
+estate of the realm than Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of
+the realm are the estate of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords
+Temporal, and the estate of the Commons. An estate is a popular class
+established into a political order. It is a section of the nation
+invested for the public and common good with certain powers
+and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes upon the English
+constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this moment,
+is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is a
+complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is
+necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he
+is not an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is
+responsible to the estates and to them alone.
+
+When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates
+of the realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not
+proceed. They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that
+the House of Commons was the House of the people, and that the people
+were not properly represented. They consequently enlarged the estate
+of the Commons; they increased the number of that privileged order who
+appear by their representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They
+rendered the estate of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding,
+because they rendered them more numerous; but they did not render their
+representatives one jot more the representatives of the people. Throwing
+the Commons of Ireland out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon
+a political order so unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during
+the present century, some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last
+general election, their representatives to Westminster.
+
+Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they
+are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well,
+then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that
+there are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because,
+although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal
+suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is
+not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House
+of the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the
+House of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was
+intended to be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to
+be so by courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English
+constitution.
+
+It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a
+legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it
+is folly to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400
+individuals, or a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign
+will and pleasure. But I deny that a people can govern itself.
+Self-government is a contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government
+may assume, power must be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall,
+perhaps, be reminded of the ancient republics. I answer, that the
+ancient republics were as aristocratic communities as any that
+flourished in the middle ages. The Demos of Athens was an oligarchy
+living upon slaves. There is a great slave population even in the United
+States, if a society of yesterday is to illustrate an argument on our
+ancient civilisation.
+
+But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly.
+
+The phrase 'the people' is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term.
+It is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised
+community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of
+time. A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences--the
+influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws,
+customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their
+history, and the individual character of their illustrious citizens.
+These influences create the nation--these form the national mind, and
+produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you
+destroy the political institutions which these influences have called
+into force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly
+act, you destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and
+dissolution, then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the
+consequent misery, like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and
+rifled of their hive, they set to again and establish themselves into a
+society.
+
+Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the
+world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and
+our foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious
+character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy
+and toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our
+manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary
+equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented
+system of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests,
+and apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Sieyes
+himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely
+and definitely represented.
+
+The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the
+school of Abbe Sieyes. Their first object was to make us free; their
+next to keep us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the
+basis of their social order, they took care to blend every man's
+ambition with the perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality
+of modern days, the ancient equality of England elevates and creates.
+Learned in human nature, the English constitution holds out privilege
+to every subject as the inducement to do his duty. As it has secured
+freedom, justice, and even property to the humblest of the commonwealth,
+so, pursuing the same system of privileges, it has confided the
+legislature of the realm to two orders of the subjects--orders, however,
+in which every English citizen may be constitutionally enrolled--the
+Lords and the Commons. The two estates of the Peers are personally
+summoned to meet in their chamber: the more extensive and single estate
+of the Commons meets by its representatives. Both are political orders,
+complete in their character, independent in their authority, legally
+irresponsible for the exercise of their power. But they are the trustees
+of the nation, not its masters; and there is a High Court of Chancery
+in the public opinion of the nation at large, which exercises a vigilant
+control over these privileged classes of the community, and to which
+they are equitably and morally amenable. Estimating, therefore,
+the moral responsibility of our political estates, it may fairly be
+maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the responsibility of
+the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of Commons itself not
+being an estate of the realm, but only the representatives of an estate,
+owes to the nation a responsibility neither legal nor moral. The House
+of Commons is responsible only to that privileged order who are its
+constituents. Between the Lords and the Commons themselves there is this
+prime difference--that the Lords are known, and seen, and marked; the
+Commons are unknown, invisible, and unobserved. The Lords meet in a
+particular spot; the Commons are scattered over the kingdom. The eye of
+the nation rests upon the Lords, few in number, and notable in position;
+the eye of the nation wanders in vain for the Commons, far more
+numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute the nation appeals to
+the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain; for if the majority
+of the Commons choose to support their representatives in a course of
+conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of Commons
+will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they
+never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of
+Parliament--the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate and
+Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the 'House of the People,' but
+both alike represent the 'Nation.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _A True Democracy_
+
+THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may
+appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless,
+as I believe, just and true. And they are these:--First. That there is
+no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government
+than the present English constitution.
+
+Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a
+departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution.
+
+Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined
+by the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a
+Senate and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub
+each householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws
+preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of
+the country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may
+have an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with
+no aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the
+government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity
+of Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of
+Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great
+scale, and maintained during a great period, that history offers.
+The constitution of France during the last half century has been fast
+approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern
+equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous
+Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient
+Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system
+never could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the
+Turks. Both the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced
+their system with popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general
+subjection. Napoleon and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the
+Suleimans and the Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan,
+the Prefects but inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the
+Seraglio and the Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism
+on condition that they have no other master save himself.
+
+The disposition of property in England throws the government of the
+country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that
+any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert
+that power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our
+present social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the
+more powerful would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an
+inevitable consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear
+understanding that such an extension should be established on a fair,
+and not a factious, basis.
+
+Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which.
+I shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my
+opinion, that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the
+ballot would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if
+the ballot were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious
+extension of the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in
+the ultimate result.
+
+Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important
+point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property
+in England--a disposition of property which, by producing a very general
+similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into
+the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select?
+
+It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining
+the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic
+of the English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being
+industry. Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English
+character since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me
+that the salient point in our national psychology is the passion for
+accumulating wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We
+value our freedom principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our
+pursuits; and that reverence for law and for all that is established,
+which also eminently distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned
+by the conviction that, next to liberty, order is the most efficacious
+assistant of industry.
+
+And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the
+history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent
+effects upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by
+the passions of creative minds taking advantage, for their own
+aggrandisement, of peculiar circumstances in our national progress.
+They are never called for by the great body of the nation. Churches are
+plundered, long rebellions maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments
+abolished; but when the storm is passed, the features of the social
+landscape remain unimpaired; there are no traces of the hurricane, the
+earthquake, or the volcano; it has been but a tumult of the atmosphere,
+that has neither toppled down our old spires and palaces nor swallowed
+up our cities and seats of learning, nor blasted our ancient woods, nor
+swept away our ports and harbours. The English nation ever recurs to its
+ancient institutions--the institutions that have alike secured freedom
+and order; and after all their ebullitions, we find them, when the
+sky is clear, again at work, and toiling on at their eternal task of
+accumulation.
+
+There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the
+revolutions of the Continent--the European revolution is a struggle
+against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new
+class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the
+natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader
+takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence.
+Thus the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders
+of the manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the
+Whigs have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new
+interest, having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer,
+like every other Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The
+manufacturer begins to lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played
+the same game with the commercial interests; a century has passed, and
+the commercial interests are all as devoted to the constitution as the
+manufacturers soon will be. Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek
+for succour from the Irish papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only
+imitating Pym under the same circumstances. In 1640, when the English
+movement was satisfied, and the constitutional party, headed by such men
+as Falkland and Hyde, were about to attain power, Pym and his friends,
+in despair at their declining influence and the close divisions in their
+once unanimous Parliament, fled to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered
+into a 'close compact' for the destruction of the Church of England as
+the price of their assistance. So events repeat themselves; but if the
+study of history is really to profit us, the nation at the present day
+will take care that the same results do not always occur from the same
+events.
+
+When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who
+has struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having
+obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to
+assist in destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or
+his posterity may yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing
+district has his eye already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of
+his political position to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a
+baronetcy, and dreams of a coroneted descendant.
+
+The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will
+submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we
+deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its
+best security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore,
+insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the
+whole scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the
+accumulation of wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot
+alter, therefore, the disposition of property in this country without we
+change the national character. Far from the present age being hostile to
+the supremacy of property, there has been no period of our history where
+property has been more esteemed, because there has been no period when
+the nation has been so industrious.
+
+Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of
+property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can
+become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic
+constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic
+constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny
+that an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the
+legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every
+subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English
+constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the
+enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a
+perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain
+them; and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always
+be devoted, except he is a Whig.
+
+In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _Results of Whiggism_
+
+THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their
+side; and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and
+bellowing about 'intimidation,' seem to confess the soft impeachment.
+Their prime organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is
+opposed to them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published,
+by way of consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some
+twenty Dukes and Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to
+'Liberal' principles, and whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical
+rhodomontade, they assert, could buy up the whole income of the rest
+of the hereditary Peerage. The Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to
+reconcile this anomalous circumstance with the indisputably forlorn
+finances of their faction in general. Now, this little tract on the
+'Spirit of Whiggism' may perhaps throw some light upon this perplexing
+state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a fresh illustration of
+the principles which I have demonstrated, from the whole current of our
+history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union of oligarchical
+wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the 'Spirit of Whiggism.'
+
+The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of
+Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the
+hands of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of
+their respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom,
+without which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor
+its just reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent
+those who have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in
+whose classes every industrious citizen has a right to register himself,
+offer also an equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those
+great families, over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the
+Whig-Radical writers gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the
+equipages of their masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense
+between those who are beneath power and those who wish to be above it;
+and oligarchies and despotisms are usually established by the agency of
+a deluded multitude. The Crown, with its constitutional influence over
+the military services, a Parliament of two houses watching each other's
+proceedings with constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy
+and, not least, an independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the
+progressive establishment of that scheme of government which a small
+knot of great families--these dukes and marquises, whose revenues
+according to the Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole
+peerage-naturally wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the
+whole period of our more modern history, a powerful section of the great
+nobles ever at war with the national institutions, checking the Crown,
+attacking the independence of that House of Parliament in which they
+happen to be in a minority--no matter which, patronising sects to
+reduce the influence of the Church, and playing town against country to
+overcome the authority of the gentry.
+
+It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little
+essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers.
+To secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to
+manoeuvre with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they
+apparently advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an
+inducement to all the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their
+standard; they play their discontented minority against the prosperous
+majority, and, dubbing their partisans 'the people,' they flatter
+themselves that their projects are irresistible. The attack is
+unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well matured, dexterously mystified.
+Before the nation is roused to its danger, the oligarchical object is
+often obtained; and then the oligarchy, entrenched in power, count upon
+the nation to defend them from their original and revolutionary allies.
+If they succeed, a dynasty is changed, or a Parliament reformed, and the
+movement is stopped; if the Tories or the Conservatives cannot arrest
+the fatal career which the Whigs have originally impelled, then away
+go the national institutions; the crown falls from the King's brow;
+the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of Parliament is sure to
+disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously dubbed Malignants,
+or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the dregs of the
+nation sequester their estates and install themselves in their halls;
+and 'liberal principles' having thus gloriously triumphed, after a due
+course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble tyranny, the
+people of England, sighing once more to be the English nation, secure
+order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they have got rid of
+their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their newly-regained
+security by re-establishing the English constitution.
+
+The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation
+with their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the
+sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced
+the House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed
+the Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which
+they have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly
+very popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their
+reform of the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the
+municipal corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have,
+in fact, increased the democratic character of our constitution or
+not--whether they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular
+concessions inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical
+career.
+
+The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been
+this--that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the hands
+of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public intelligence
+and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M'Hale and Kehoe
+more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted to
+represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard
+or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a
+basis formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters,
+in general returned by the small constituencies of small towns--classes
+whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly
+exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the
+maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of
+popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven.
+If the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the
+hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very
+considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present
+Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this
+great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other,
+obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new
+constituency has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has
+been given to a small class, and one hostile to the interests of the
+great body. Is this more democratic? The apparent majority in the House
+of Commons is produced by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that
+a small and favoured class command a majority in the House of Commons,
+and the sway of the administration, as far as that House is concerned,
+is regulated by a smaller number of individuals than those who governed
+it previous to its reform.
+
+But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural
+preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country,
+hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords,
+to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of
+provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to
+support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without
+which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now,
+centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel
+of the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to
+dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government
+which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform
+of the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the
+authority of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the
+most substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in
+power. By this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the
+towns where he before exercised a just influence, while an elective
+magistrate from the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions,
+and presents in his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of
+the bench, flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests,
+of the giddy million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county
+reform whenever an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative
+in Parliament hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the
+moment, that the Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and
+hereditary power of the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations
+substitute themselves as an equivalent check on a centralising
+Government? Whence springs their influence? From property? Not half a
+dozen have estates. Their influence springs from the factitious power
+with which the reforming Government has invested them, and of which the
+same Government will deprive them in a session, the moment they cease
+to be corresponding committees of the reforming majority in the House of
+Commons. They will either be swept away altogether, or their functions
+will be limited to raising the local taxes which will discharge their
+expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan police, or the local
+judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down to preside over
+their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the English corporations
+do not possess more substantial and durable elements of power than
+the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris? These
+corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor property.
+Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor substance. They
+have no indirect authority over the minds of their townsmen; they have
+only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly engrossed letter
+of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public benefits they
+are the official distributers; they do not stand on the vantage-ground
+on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests; they neither
+administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the poor nor
+educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they have not
+sprung from the national character; they were born by faction, and they
+will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt; they
+will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a
+faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a
+London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the
+consequent results of their opportune services.
+
+I think I have now established the two propositions with which I
+commenced my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the
+'Spirit of Whiggism' with their recapitulation, and the inferences which
+I draw from them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing
+in this country a more democratic government than the English
+constitution, it will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their
+rights, to maintain that constitution; and if the more recent measures
+of the Whigs, however plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been
+a departure from the democratic character of that constitution, it will
+be as well for the English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and
+all their soul, and all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs
+and the 'Spirit of Whiggism.'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
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diff --git a/19781.zip b/19781.zip
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/19781.zip
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #19781 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19781)
diff --git a/old/19781-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/19781-h.htm.2021-01-25
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/19781-h.htm.2021-01-25
@@ -0,0 +1,6209 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+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: Sketches
+       The Carrier Pigeon, The Consul's Daughter, Walstein--Or
+              A Cure For Melancholy, The Court Of Egypt, The Valley Of
+              Thebes, Egyptian Thebes, Shoubra Eden And Lebanon, A Syrian
+              Sketch, The Bosphorus, An Interview With A Great Turk,
+              Munich, The Spirit Of Whiggism
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19781]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      SKETCHES
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Benjamin Disraeli
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE CARRIER PIGEON</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> <b>THE CONSUL&rsquo;S DAUGHTER</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> <b>WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> IBRAHIM PASHA </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> THE COURT OF EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> THE VALLEY OF THEBES </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> EGYPTIAN THEBES </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> SHOUBRA </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> EDEN AND LEBANON </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> A SYRIAN SKETCH </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> THE BOSPHORUS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> MUNICH </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> <b>THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THE CARRIER PIGEON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Charolois and Branchimont</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ALTHOUGH the deepest shades of twilight had descended upon the broad bosom
+      of the valley, and the river might almost be recognised only by its
+      rushing sound, the walls and battlements of the castle of Charolois,
+      situate on one of the loftiest heights, still blazed in the reflected
+      radiance of the setting sun, and cast, as it were, a glance of triumph at
+      the opposing castle of Branchimont, that rose on the western side of the
+      valley, with its lofty turrets and its massy keep black and sharply
+      defined against the resplendent heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deadly was the hereditary feud between the powerful lords of these high
+      places&mdash;the Counts of Charolois and the Barons of Branchimont, but
+      the hostility which had been maintained for ages never perhaps raged with
+      more virulence than at this moment; since the only male heir of the house
+      of Charolois had been slain in a tournament by the late Baron of
+      Branchimont, and the distracted father had avenged his irreparable loss in
+      the life-blood of the involuntary murderer of his son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the pilgrim, who at this serene hour might rest upon his staff and
+      gaze on the surrounding scene, would hardly deem that the darkest passions
+      of our nature had selected this fair and silent spot for the theatre of
+      their havoc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun set; the evening star, quivering and bright, rose over the dark
+      towers of Branchimont; from the opposite bank a musical bell summoned the
+      devout vassals of Charolois to a beautiful shrine, wherein was deposited
+      the heart of their late young lord, and which his father had raised on a
+      small and richly wooded promontory, distant about a mile from his stern
+      hold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first chime on this lovely eve came forth a lovelier maiden from
+      the postern of Charolois&mdash;the Lady Imogene, the only remaining child
+      of the bereaved count, attended by her page, bearing her book of prayers.
+      She took her way along the undulating heights until she reached the
+      sanctuary. The altar was illumined; several groups were already kneeling,&mdash;faces
+      of fidelity well known to their adored lady; but as she entered, a palmer,
+      with his broad hat drawn over his face, and closely muffled up in his
+      cloak, dipped his hand at the same time with hers in the fount of holy
+      water placed at the entrance of of the shrine, and pressed the beautiful
+      fingers of the Lady Imogene. A blush, unperceived by the kneeling
+      votaries, rose to her cheek; but apparently such was her self-control, or
+      such her deep respect for the hallowed spot, that she exhibited no other
+      symptom of emotion, and, walking to the high altar, was soon buried in her
+      devotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mass was celebrated&mdash;the vassals rose and retired. According to
+      her custom, the Lady Imogene yet remained, and knelt before the tomb of
+      her brother. A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that
+      someone was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived,
+      knelt at her side. &lsquo;Lothair!&rsquo; muttered the lady, apparently at her
+      prayers, &lsquo;beloved Lothair, thou art too bold!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Imogene! for thee what would I not venture?&rsquo; was the hushed reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For the sake of all our hopes, wild though they be, I counsel caution.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fear naught. The priest, flattered by my confession, is fairly duped. Let
+      me employ this golden moment to urge what I have before entreated. Your
+      father, Imogene, can never be appeased. Fly, then, my beloved! oh, fly!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, my Lothair! it never can be. Alas! whither can we fly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sweet love! I pray thee listen:&mdash;to Italy. At the court of my
+      cousin, the Duke of Milan, we shall be safe and happy. What care I for
+      Branchimont, and all its fortunes? And for that, my vassals are no
+      traitors. If ever the bright hour arrive when we may return in joy, trust
+      me, sweet love, my flag will still wave on my father&rsquo;s walls.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Lothair! why did we meet? Why, meeting, did we not hate each other
+      like our fated race? My heart is distracted. Can this misery be love? Yet
+      I adore thee&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lady!&rsquo; said the page, advancing, &lsquo;the priest approaches.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lady Imogene rose, and crossed herself before the altar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-morrow, at this hour,&rsquo; whispered Lothair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lady Imogene nodded assent, and, leaning on her page, quitted the
+      shrine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Pert Page</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;DEAREST Lady,&rsquo; said the young page, as they returned to the castle, &lsquo;my
+      heart misgives me. As we quitted the shrine, I observed Rufus, the
+      huntsman, slink into the adjoining wood.&rsquo; &lsquo;Hah! he is my father&rsquo;s most
+      devoted instrument: nor is there any bidding which he would hesitate to
+      execute&mdash;a most ruthless knave!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And can see like a cat in the dark, too,&rsquo; observed young Theodore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never loved that man, even in my cradle,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene;
+      &lsquo;though he can fawn, too. Did he indeed avoid us?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed I thought so, madam.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! my Theodore, we have no friend but you, and you are but a little
+      page.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would I were a stout knight, lady, and I would fight for you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I warrant you,&rsquo; said Imogene; &lsquo;you have a bold heart, little Theodore,
+      and a kind one. O holy Virgin. I pray thee guard in all perils my
+      bright-eyed Lothair!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord Branchimont is the finest knight I ever set eyes upon,&rsquo; said
+      Theodore. &lsquo;I would I were his squire.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thou shalt be his squire, too, little Theodore, if all goes well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! glorious day, when I shall wear a sword instead of a scarf! Shall I
+      indeed be his squire, lady sweet?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed I think thou wilt make a very proper squire.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would I were a knight like Lord Branchimont; as tall as a lance, and as
+      strong as a lion; and such a fine beard too!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is indeed a beard, Theodore,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene. &lsquo;When wilt thou
+      have one like it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another summer, perchance,&rsquo; said Theodore, passing his small palm
+      musingly over his smooth chin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another summer!&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene, laughing; &lsquo;why, I may as soon
+      hope to have a beard myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope you will have Lord Branchimont&rsquo;s,&rsquo; said the page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Amen!&rsquo; responded the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Love&rsquo;s Messenger</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE apprehensions of the little Theodore proved to be too well founded. On
+      the morning after the meeting of Lady Imogene with Lord Branchimont at the
+      shrine of Charolois, she was summoned to the presence of her father, and,
+      after having been loaded with every species of reproach and invective for
+      her clandestine meeting with their hereditary foe, she was confined to a
+      chamber in one of the loftiest towers of the castle, which she was never
+      permitted to quit, except to walk in a long gloomy gallery with an old
+      female servant remarkable for the acerbity of her mind and manners. Her
+      page escaped punishment by flight; and her only resource and amusement was
+      her mandolin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tower in which the Lady Imogene was imprisoned sprang out of a steep
+      so precipitous that the position was considered impregnable. She was
+      therefore permitted to open her lattice, which was not even barred. The
+      landscape before her, which was picturesque and richly wooded, consisted
+      of the en-closed chase of Charolois; but her jailers had taken due care
+      that her chamber should not command a view of the castle of Branchimont.
+      The valley and all its moving life were indeed entirely shut out from her.
+      Often the day vanished without a human being appearing in sight. Very
+      unhappy was the Lady Imo-gene, gazing on the silent woods, or pouring
+      forth her passion over her lonely lute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A miserable week had nearly elapsed. It was noon; the Lady Imogene was
+      seated alone in her chamber, leaning her head upon her hand in thought,
+      and dreaming of her Lothair, when a fluttering noise suddenly roused her,
+      and, looking up, she beheld, to her astonishment, perched on the high back
+      of a chair, a beautiful bird-a pigeon whiter than snow, with an azure
+      beak, and eyes blazing with a thousand shifting tints. Not alarmed was the
+      beautiful bird when the Lady Imogene gently approached it; but it looked
+      up to her with eyes of intelligent tenderness, and flapped with some
+      earnestness its pure and sparkling plume. The Lady Imogene smiled with
+      marvelling pleasure, for the first time since her captivity; and putting
+      forth her hand, which was even whiter than the wing, she patted the bright
+      neck of the glad stranger, and gently stroked its soft plumage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven hath sent me a friend,&rsquo; exclaimed the beautiful Imogene; &lsquo;Ah! what&mdash;what
+      is this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Didst thou call, Lady Imogene?&rsquo; inquired the harsh voice of acid Martha,
+      whom the exclamation of her mistress had summoned to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing&mdash;nothing&mdash;I want nothing,&rsquo; quickly answered Imogene, as
+      she seized the bird with her hand, and, pressing it to her bosom, answered
+      Martha over her shoulder. &lsquo;Did she see thee, my treasure?&rsquo; continued the
+      agitated Imogene, &lsquo;Oh! did she see thee, my joy? Methinks we were not
+      discovered.&rsquo; So saying, and tripping along on the lightest step
+      imaginable, the captive secured the door; then bringing forth the bird
+      from its sweet shelter, she produced a letter, which she had suddenly
+      detected to be fastened under its left wing, and which she had perceived,
+      in an instant, to be written by Lord Branchimont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her sight was dizzy, her cheek pale, her breath seemed to have deserted
+      her. She looked up to heaven, she looked down upon the letter, and then
+      she covered it with a thousand kisses; then, making a vigorous effort to
+      collect herself, she read its strange and sweet contents:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>&lsquo;Lothair to Imogene</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Soul of my existence! Mignon, in whom you may place implicit trust, has
+      promised me to bear you this sign of my love. Oh, I love you, Imogene! I
+      love you more even than this bird can the beautiful sky! Kiss the dove a
+      thousand times, that I may steal the kisses again from his neck, and
+      catch, even at this distance, your fragrant breath. My beloved, I am
+      planning your freedom and our happiness. Each day Mignon shall come to
+      tell you how we speed; each day shall he bring back some testimony of your
+      fidelity to your own
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lothair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was read&mdash;it was read with gushing and fast-flowing tears&mdash;tears
+      of wild joy. A thousand times, ay, a thousand times, Imogene embraced the
+      faithful Mignon; nor could she indeed have ever again parted with him, had
+      she not remembered that all this time her Lothair was anxiously awaiting
+      the return of his messenger. So she tore a leaf from her tablets and
+      inscribed her devotion; then, fastening it with care under the wing, she
+      bore Mignon to the window, and, bestowing upon him a last embrace,
+      permitted him to extend his beautiful wings and launch into the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bright in the sun glanced the white bird as it darted into the deep-blue
+      sky. Imogene watched it until the sparkling form changed into a dusky
+      shade, and the dusky shade vanished into the blending distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Cruel Dart</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS now a principal object with the fair captive of Charolois, that her
+      unsympathising attendant should enter her chamber as little as possible,
+      and only at seasons when there was no chance of a visit from Mignon.
+      Faithful was the beautiful bird in these daily visits of consolation; and
+      by his assistance, the correspondence with Lothair respecting her escape
+      was actively maintained. A thousand plans were formed by the sanguine
+      lovers-a thousand plans were canvassed, and then decided to be
+      impracticable. One day, Martha was to be bribed; another, young Theodore
+      was to re-enter the castle disguised as a girl, and become, by some
+      contrivance, her attendant; but reflection ever proved that these were as
+      wild as lovers&rsquo; plans are wont to be; and another week stole away without
+      anything being settled. Yet this second week was not so desolate as the
+      first. On the contrary, it was full of exciting hope; and each day to hear
+      that Lothair still adored her, and each day to be enabled to breathe back
+      to him her own adoration, solaced the hours of her captivity. But Fate,
+      that will often frown upon the fortunes of true love, decided that this
+      sweet source of consolation should flow on no longer. Rufus, the huntsman,
+      who was ever prowling about, and who at all times had a terribly quick eye
+      for a bird, one day observed the carrier-pigeon sallying forth from the
+      window of the tower. His practised sense instantly assured him that the
+      bird was trained, and he resolved to watch its course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hah, hah!&rsquo; said Rufus, the huntsman, &lsquo;is Branchimont thy dovecot?
+      Methinks, my little rover, thou bearest news I long to read.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another and another day passed, and again and again Rufus observed the
+      visits of Mignon; so, taking his cross-bow one fair morning, ere the dew
+      had left the flowers, he wandered forth in the direction of Branchimont.
+      True to his mission, Mignon soon appears, skimming along the sky.
+      Beautiful, beautiful bird! Fond, faithful messenger of love! Who can doubt
+      that thou well comprehendest the kindly purpose of thy consoling visits!
+      Thou bringest joy to the unhappy, and hope to the despairing! She shall
+      kiss thee, bright Mignon! Yes! an embrace from lips sweeter than the
+      scented dawn in which thou revelest, shall repay thee for all thy
+      fidelity! And already the Lady Imogene is at her post, gazing upon the
+      unclouded sky, and straining her beautiful eyes, as it were, to anticipate
+      the slight and gladsome form, whose first presence ever makes her heart
+      tremble with a host of wild and conflicting emotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ah! through the air an arrow from a bow that never erred&mdash;an arrow
+      swifter than thy swiftest flight, Mignon, whizzes with fell intent. The
+      snake that darts upon its unconscious prey less fleet and fatal!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It touches thy form&mdash;it transfixes thy beautiful breast! Was there no
+      good spirit, then, to save thee, thou hope of the hopeless? Alas, alas!
+      the blood gushes from thy breast, and from thine azure beak! Thy
+      transcendent eye grows dim&mdash;all is over! The carrier-pigeon falls to
+      the earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Another Message</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A DAY without hearing from Lothair was madness; and, indeed, when hour
+      after heavy hour rolled away without the appearance of Mignon, and the
+      Lady Imogene found herself gazing upon the vanishing twilight, she became
+      nearly frantic with disappointment and terror. While light remained, an
+      indefinite hope maintained her; but when it was indeed night, and nothing
+      but the outline of the surrounding hills was perceptible, she could no
+      longer restrain herself; and, bursting into hysteric tears, she threw
+      herself upon the floor of her chamber. Were they discovered? Had Lothair
+      forgotten her? Wearied with fruitless efforts, had he left her to her
+      miserable, her solitary fate? There was a slight sound&mdash;something
+      seemed to have dropped. She looked up. At her side she beheld a letter,
+      which, wrapped round a stone, had been thrown in at the window. She
+      started up in an ecstasy of joy. She cursed herself for doubting for an
+      instant the fidelity of her lover! She tore open the letter; but so great
+      was her emotion that some minutes elapsed before she could decipher its
+      contents. At length she learned that, on the ensuing eve, Lothair and
+      Theodore, disguised as huntsmen of Charolois, would contrive to meet in
+      safety beneath her window, and for the rest she must dare to descend. It
+      was a bold, a very perilous plan. It was the project of desperation. But
+      there are moments in life when desperation becomes success. Nor was the
+      spirit of the Lady Imogene one that would easily quail. Hers was a true
+      woman&rsquo;s heart; and she could venture everything for love. She examined the
+      steep; she cast a rapid glance at the means of making the descent: her
+      shawls, her clothes, the hangings of her bed&mdash;here were resources&mdash;here
+      was hope!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full of these thoughts, some time elapsed before she was struck at the
+      unusual mode in which the communication reached her. Where was Mignon? But
+      the handwriting was the handwriting of Lothair. That she could not
+      mistake. She might, however, have observed that the characters were faint&mdash;that
+      the paper had the appearance of being stained or washed; but this she did
+      not observe. She was sanguine&mdash;she was confident in the wisdom of
+      Lothair. She knelt before an image of the Virgin, and poured forth her
+      supplications for the success of their enterprise. And then, exhausted by
+      all the agitation of the day, the Lady Imogene sunk into a deep repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Flight and Discovery</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MORN came at length, but brought no Mignon. &lsquo;He has his reasons,&rsquo; answered
+      the Lady Imogene: &lsquo;Lothair is never wrong. And soon, right soon, I hope,
+      we shall need no messenger.&rsquo; Oh, what a long, long day was this, the last
+      of her captivity! Will the night never come&mdash;that night she had once
+      so much dreaded? Sun, wilt thou never set? There is no longer gladness in
+      thy beams. The shadows, indeed, grow longer, and yet thine orb is as high
+      in heaven as if it were an everlasting noon! The unceasing cry of the
+      birds, once so consoling, now only made her restless. She listened, and
+      she listened, until at length the rosy sky called forth their last
+      thrilling chant, and the star of evening summoned them to roost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was twilight: pacing her chamber, and praying to the Virgin, the hours
+      at length stole away. The chimes of the sanctuary told her that it wanted
+      but a quarter of an hour to midnight. Already she had formed a rope of
+      shawls: now she fastened it to the-lattice with all her force. The bell
+      struck twelve, and the Lady Imogene delivered herself to her fate. Slowly
+      and fearfully she descended, long suspended in the air, until her feet at
+      length touched a ledge of rock. Cautiously feeling her footing, she now
+      rested, and looked around her. She had descended about twenty feet. The
+      moon shone bright on the rest of the descent, which was more rugged. It
+      seemed not impracticable&mdash;she clambered down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hist! hist!&rsquo; said a familiar voice, &lsquo;all is right, lady&mdash;but why did
+      you not answer us?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Theodore, where is my Lothair?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord Branchimont is shaded by the trees&mdash;give me thy hand, sweet
+      lady. Courage! all is right; but indeed you should have answered us.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imogene de Charolois is in the arms of Lothair de Branchimont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have no time for embraces,&rsquo; said Theodore; &lsquo;the horses are ready. The
+      Virgin be praised, all is right. I would not go through such an
+      eight-and-forty hours again to be dubbed a knight on the spot. Have you
+      Mignon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mignon, indeed! he has not visited me these two days.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my letter,&rsquo; said Lothair-&rsquo;you received it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was thrown in at my window,&rsquo; said the Lady Imogene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My heart misgives me,&rsquo; said little Theodore. &lsquo;Away! there is no time to
+      lose. Hist! I hear footsteps. This way, dear friends. Hist! a shout! Fly!
+      fly! Lord Branchimont, we are betrayed!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And indeed from all quarters simultaneous sounds now rose, and torches
+      seemed suddenly to wave in all quarters. Imogene clung to the neck of
+      Lothair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will die together!&rsquo; she exclaimed, as she hid her face in his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Branchimont placed himself against a tree, and drew his mighty sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Seize him!&rsquo; shouted a voice, instantly recognised by Imogene; &lsquo;seize the
+      robber!&rsquo; shouted her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At your peril!&rsquo; answered Lothair to his surrounding foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood at bay&mdash;an awful group! The father and his murdering
+      minions, alike fearful of encountering Branchimont and slaying their
+      chieftain&rsquo;s daughter; the red and streaming torches blending with the
+      silver moonlight that fell full upon the fixed countenance of their
+      entrapped victim and the distracted form of his devoted mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead, still pause. It was broken by the denouncing tone of the
+      father, &lsquo;Cowards! do you fear a single arm? Strike him dead! spare not the
+      traitress!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But still the vassals would not move; deep as was their feudal devotion,
+      they loved the Lady Imogene, and dared to disobey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let me, then, teach you your duty!&rsquo; exclaimed the exasperated father. He
+      advanced, but a wild shriek arrested his extended sword; and as thus they
+      stood, all alike prepared for combat, yet all motionless, an arrow glanced
+      over the shoulder of the Count and pierced Lord Branchimont to the heart.
+      His sword fell from his grasp, and he died without a groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes! the same bow that had for ever arrested the airy course of Mignon,
+      had now, as fatally and as suddenly, terminated the career of the master
+      of the carrier-pigeon. Vile Rufus, the huntsman, the murderous aim was
+      thine!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Dove Returns to Imogene</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE bell of the shrine of Charolois is again sounding; but how different
+      its tone from the musical and inspiring chime that summoned the weary
+      vassals to their grateful vespers! The bell of the shrine of Charolois is
+      again sounding. Alas! it tolls a gloomy knell. Oh! valley of sweet waters,
+      still are thy skies as pure as when she wandered by thy banks and mused
+      over her beloved! Still sets thy glowing sun; and quivering and bright,
+      like the ascending soul of a hero, still Hesperus rises from thy dying
+      glory! But she, the maiden fairer than the fairest eve&mdash;no more shall
+      her light step trip among the fragrance of its flowers; no more shall her
+      lighter voice emulate the music of thy melodious birds. Oh, yes! she is
+      dead&mdash;the beautiful Imogene is dead! Three days of misery heralded
+      her decease. But comfort is there in all things; for the good priest who
+      had often administered consolation to his unhappy mistress over her
+      brother&rsquo;s tomb, and who knelt by the side of her dying couch, assured many
+      a sorrowful vassal, and many a sympathising pilgrim who loved to listen to
+      the mournful tale, that her death was indeed a beatitude; for he did not
+      doubt, from the distracted expressions that occasionally caught his ear,
+      that the Holy Spirit, in that material form he most loves to honour, to
+      wit, the semblance of a pure white dove, often solaced by his presence the
+      last hours of Imogene de Charolois!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE CONSUL&rsquo;S DAUGHTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Henrietta</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      AT ONE of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean Major Ponsonby
+      held the office of British Consul. The Parliamentary interest of the noble
+      family with which he was connected had obtained for him this office, after
+      serving his country, with no slight distinction, during the glorious war
+      of the Peninsula. Major Ponsonby was a widower, and his family consisted
+      of an only daughter, Henrietta, who was a child of very tender years when
+      he first obtained his appointment, but who had completed her eighteenth
+      year at the period, memorable in her life, which these pages attempt to
+      commemorate. A girl of singular beauty was Henrietta Ponsonby, but not
+      remarkable merely for her beauty. Her father, a very accomplished
+      gentleman, had himself superintended her education with equal care and
+      interest. In their beautiful solitude, for they enjoyed the advantage of
+      very little society save that of those passing travellers who occasionally
+      claimed his protection and hospitality, the chief, and certainly the most
+      engaging pursuit of Major Ponsonby, had been to assist the development of
+      the lively talents of his daughter, and to watch with delight, not
+      unattended with anxiety, the formation of her ardent and imaginative
+      character: he had himself imparted to her a skilful practice in those fine
+      arts in which he himself excelled, and a knowledge of those exquisite
+      languages which he himself not only spoke with facility, but with whose
+      rich and interesting literature he was intimately acquainted. He was
+      careful, also, that, although almost an alien from her native country, she
+      should not be ignorant of the progress of its mind; and no inconsiderable
+      portion of his income had of late years been expended in importing from
+      England the productions of those eminent writers of which we are justly as
+      proud as of the heroes under whose flag he had himself conquered in
+      Portugal and Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The progress of the daughter amply repaid the father for his care, and
+      rewarded him for his solicitude: from the fond child of his affections she
+      had become the cherished companion of his society: her lively fancy and
+      agreeable conversation prevented solitude from degenerating into
+      loneliness: she diffused over their happy home that indefinable charm,
+      that spell of unceasing, yet soothing excitement, with which the constant
+      presence of an amiable, a lovely and accomplished woman can alone imbue
+      existence; without which life, indeed, under any circumstances, is very
+      dreary; and with which life, indeed, under any circumstances, is never
+      desperate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were moments, perhaps, when Major Ponsonby, who was not altogether
+      inexperienced in the great world, might sigh, that one so eminently
+      qualified as his daughter to shine even amid its splendour, should be
+      destined to a career so obscure as that which necessarily attended the
+      daughter of a Consul in a distant country. It sometimes cost the father&rsquo;s
+      heart a pang that his fair and fragrant flower should blush unseen, and
+      waste its perfume even in their lovely wilderness; and then, with all a
+      father&rsquo;s pride, and under all the influence of that worldly ambition from
+      which men are never free, he would form plans by which she might visit,
+      and visit with advantage, her native country. All the noble cousins were
+      thought over, under whose distinguished patronage she might enter that
+      great and distant world she was so capable of adorning; and more than once
+      he had endeavoured to intimate to Henrietta that it might be better for
+      them both that they should for a season part: but the Consul&rsquo;s daughter
+      shrunk from these whispers as some beautiful tree from the murmurs of a
+      rising storm. She could not conceive existence without her father&mdash;the
+      father under whose breath and sight she had ever lived and flourished&mdash;the
+      father to whom she was indebted, not only for existence, but all the
+      attributes that made life so pleasant; her sire, her tutor, her constant
+      company, her dear, dear friend. To part from him, even though but for a
+      season, and to gain splendour, appeared to her pure, yet lively
+      imagination, the most fatal of fortunes; a terrible destiny&mdash;an awful
+      dispensation. They had never parted, scarcely for an hour; once, indeed,
+      he had been absent for three days; he had sailed with the fleet on public
+      business to a neighbouring port; he had been obliged to leave his
+      daughter, and the daughter remembered those terrible three days like a
+      frightful dream, the recollection of which made her shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Ponsonby had inherited no patrimony&mdash;he possessed only the
+      small income derived from his office, and a slender pension, which
+      rewarded many wounds; but, in the pleasant place in which their lot was
+      cast, these moderate means obtained for them not merely the necessaries,
+      but all the luxuries of life. They inhabited in the town a palace worthy
+      of the high, though extinct nobility, whose portraits and statues lined
+      their lofty saloons, and filled their long corridors and graceful
+      galleries; and about three miles from the town, on a gentle ascent facing
+      the ocean, and embowered in groves of orange and olive trees, the fanciful
+      garden enclosed in a thick wall of Indian fig and blooming aloes, was a
+      most delicate casino, rented at a rate for which a garret may not be hired
+      in England; but, indeed, a paradise. Of this pavilion Miss Ponsonby was
+      the mistress; and here she lived amid fruit and flowers, surrounded by her
+      birds: and here she might be often seen at sunset glancing amid its
+      beauties, with an eye as brilliant, and a step as airy, as the bright
+      gazelle that ever glided or bounded at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Fair Presentment</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ONE summer day, when everybody was asleep in the little sultry city where
+      Major Ponsonby, even in his siesta, watched over the interests of British
+      commerce&mdash;for it was a city, and was blessed with the holy presence
+      of a bishop&mdash;a young Englishman disembarked from an imperial merchant
+      brig just arrived from Otranto, and, according to custom, took his way to
+      the Consul&rsquo;s house. He was a man of an age apparently verging towards
+      thirty; and, although the native porter, who bore his luggage and directed
+      his path, proved that, as he was accompanied not even by a single servant,
+      he did not share the general reputation of his countrymen for wealth, his
+      appearance to those practised in society was not undistinguished. Tall,
+      slender, and calm, his air, though unaffected, was that of a man not
+      deficient in self-confidence; and whether it were the art of his tailor,
+      or the result of his own good frame, his garb, although remarkably plain,
+      had that indefinable style which we associate with the costume of a man of
+      some mark and breeding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On arriving at the Consul&rsquo;s house, he was ushered through a large, dark,
+      cool hall, at the end of which was a magnificent staircase leading to the
+      suite of saloons, into a small apartment on the ground floor fitted up in
+      the English style, which, although it offered the appearance of the
+      library of an English gentleman, was, in fact, the consular office. Dwarf
+      bookcases encircled the room, occasionally crowned by a marble bust, or
+      bronze group. The ample table was covered with papers, and a vacant
+      easy-chair was evidently the consular throne. A portrait of his Britannic
+      majesty figured on the walls of one part of the chamber; and over the
+      mantel was another portrait, which immediately engaged the attention of
+      the traveller, and, indeed, monopolised his observation. He had a very
+      ample opportunity of studying it, for nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed
+      before he was disturbed. It was the full-length portrait of a young lady.
+      She stood on a terrace in a garden, and by her side was a gazelle. Her
+      form was of wonderful symmetry; but although her dress was not English,
+      the expression of her countenance reminded the traveller of the beauties
+      of his native land. The dazzling complexion, the large deep blue eye, the
+      high white forehead, the clustering brown hair, were all northern, but
+      northern of the highest order. She held in her small hand a branch of
+      orange-blossom-the hand was fairer than the flower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Signor Ferrers, I believe,&rsquo; said a shrill voice. The traveller started,
+      and turned round. Before him stood a little, parched-up, grinning, bowing
+      Italian, holding in his hand the card that the traveller had sent up to
+      the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My name is Ferrers,&rsquo; replied the traveller, slightly bowing, and speaking
+      in a low, sweet tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Signor Ponsonby is at the casino,&rsquo; said the Italian: &lsquo;I have the honour
+      to be the chancellor of the British Consulate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is singular that a mercantile agent should be styled a Consul, and his
+      chief clerk a chancellor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have the honour to be the chancellor of the British Consulate,&rsquo; said
+      the Italian; &lsquo;and I will take the earliest opportunity of informing the
+      Consul of your arrival. From Otranto, I believe? All well, I hope, at
+      Otranto?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope so too,&rsquo; replied the traveller; &lsquo;and so I believe.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will be pleased to leave your passport, sir, with me&mdash;the Consul
+      will be most happy to see you at the casino: about sunset he will be very
+      happy to see you at the casino. I am sorry that I detained you for a
+      moment, but I was at my siesta. I will take the earliest opportunity of
+      informing the Consul of your arrival; but at present all the consular
+      messengers are taking their siesta; the moment one is awake I shall send
+      him to the casino. May I take the liberty of inquiring whether you have
+      any letters for the Consul?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;None,&rsquo; replied the traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chancellor shrugged his shoulders a little, as if he regretted he had
+      been roused from his siesta for a traveller who had not even a letter of
+      introduction, and then turned on his heel to depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller took up his hat, hesitated a moment, and then said, &lsquo;Pray,
+      may I inquire of whom this is a portrait?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; replied the chancellor; &lsquo;&rsquo;tis the Signora Ponsonby.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Mysterious Stranger</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS even upon as ignoble an animal as a Barbary ass, goaded by a dusky
+      little islander almost in a state of nudity, that, an hour before sunset
+      on the day of his arrival, the English traveller approached the casino of
+      the Consul&rsquo;s daughter, for there a note from Major Ponsonby had invited
+      him to repair, to be introduced to his daughter, and to taste his oranges.
+      The servant who received him led Mr. Ferrers to a very fine plane-tree,
+      under whose spreading branches was arranged a banquet of fruit and
+      flowers, coffee in cups of oriental filigree, and wines of the Levant,
+      cooled in snow. The worthy Consul was smoking his chibouque, and his
+      daughter, as she rose to greet their guest, let her guitar fall upon the
+      turf. The original of the portrait proved that the painter had no need to
+      flatter; and the dignified, yet cordial manner, the radiant smile, and the
+      sweet and thrilling voice with which she welcomed her countryman would
+      have completed the spell, had, indeed, the wanderer been one prepared, or
+      capable of being enchanted. As it was, Mr. Ferrers, while he returned his
+      welcome, with becoming complaisance, exhibited the breeding of a man
+      accustomed to sights of strangeness and of beauty; and, while he expressed
+      his sense of the courtesy of his companions, admired their garden, and
+      extolled the loveliness of the prospect, he did not depart for a moment
+      from that subdued, and even sedate manner, which indicates, the individual
+      whom the world has little left to astonish, and less to enrapture,
+      although, perhaps, much to please. Yet he was fluent in conversation,
+      sensible and polished, and very agreeable. It appeared that he had
+      travelled much, though he was far from boasting of his exploits. He had
+      been long absent from England, had visited Egypt and Arabia, and had
+      sojourned at Damascus. While he refused the pipe, he proved, by his
+      observations on its use, that he was learned in its practice; and he
+      declined his host&rsquo;s offer of a file of English journals, as he was not
+      interested in their contents. His host was too polished to originate any
+      inquiry which might throw light upon the connections or quality of his
+      guest, and his guest imitated his example. Nothing could be more perfectly
+      well-bred than his whole demeanour&mdash;he listened to the major with
+      deference, and he never paid Miss Ponsonby a single compliment: he never
+      even asked her to sing; but the fond father did not omit this attention.
+      Henrietta, in the most unaffected manner, complied with his request,
+      because, as she was in the habit of singing every evening to her father,
+      she saw no reason why he should, on this occasion, be deprived of an
+      amusement to which he was accustomed. As the welcome sea-breeze rose and
+      stirred the flowers and branches, her voice blended with its fresh and
+      fragrant breath. It was a beautiful voice; and the wild and plaintive air
+      in which she indulged, indigenous to their isle, harmonised alike with the
+      picturesque scene and the serene hour. Mr. Ferrers listened with
+      attention, and thanked her for her courtesy. Before they withdrew to the
+      casino he even requested the favour of her repeating the gratification,
+      but in so quiet a manner that most young ladies would have neglected to
+      comply with a wish expressed with so little fervour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principal chamber of the casino was adorned with drawings by the
+      Consul&rsquo;s daughter: they depicted the surrounding scenery, and were
+      executed by the hand of a master. Mr. Ferrers examined them with interest&mdash;his
+      observations proved his knowledge, and made them more than suspect his
+      skill. He admitted that he had some slight practice in the fine arts, and
+      offered to lend his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, if she thought it would
+      amuse her. Upon the subject of scenery he spoke with more animation than
+      on any other topic: his conversation, indeed, teemed with the observations
+      of a fine eye and cultivated taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length he departed, leaving behind him a very favourable impression.
+      Henrietta and her father agreed that he was a most gentlemanlike
+      personage-that he was very clever and very agreeable; and they were glad
+      to know him. The major detailed all the families and all the persons of
+      the name of Ferrers Of whom he had ever heard, and with whom he had been
+      acquainted; and, before he slept, wondered, for the fiftieth time, what
+      Ferrers he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Mr. Ferrers Dines with the Consul</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE next morning, Mr. Ferrers sent his portfolio to Miss Ponsonby, to the
+      Consuls house, in the city; and her father called upon him immediately
+      afterwards, to return his original visit, and to request him to dine with
+      them. Mr. Ferrers declined the invitation; but begged to be permitted to
+      pay his respects again at the casino, in the evening. The major, under the
+      circumstances, ventured to press his new acquaintance to comply with their
+      desire; but Mr. Ferrers became immediately very reserved, and the Consul
+      desisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards sunset, however, mounted on his Barbary ass, Mr. Ferrers again
+      appeared at the gate of the casino, as mild and agreeable as before. They
+      drank their coffee and ate their fruit, chatted and sang, and again
+      repaired to the pavilion. Here they examined the contents of the
+      portfolio:&mdash;they were very rich, for it contained drawings of all
+      kinds, and almost of every celebrated place in the vicinity of the
+      Mediterranean shores; Saracenic palaces, Egyptian temples, mosques of
+      Damascus, and fountains of Stamboul. Here was a Bedouin encampment, shaded
+      by a grove of palms; and there a Spanish Señorita, shrouded in her
+      mantilla, glided along the Alameda. There was one circumstance, however,
+      about these drawings, which struck Miss Ponsonby as at least remarkable.
+      It was obvious that some pencil-mark in the corner of each drawing, in all
+      probability containing the name and initials of the artist, had been
+      carefully obliterated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the drawings were several sketches of a yacht, which Mr. Ferrers
+      passed over quickly, and without notice. The Consul, however, who was an
+      honorary member of the yacht club, and interested in every vessel of the
+      squadron that visited the Mediterranean, very naturally inquired of Mr.
+      Ferrers, to whom the schooner in question belonged. Mr. Ferrers seemed
+      rather confused; but at length he said: &lsquo;Oh, they are stupid things: I did
+      not know they were here. The yacht is a yacht of a friend of mine, who was
+      at Cadiz.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I see the name,&rsquo; said the major; &lsquo;&ldquo;<i>The Kraken</i>.&rdquo; Why, that is
+      Lord Bohun&rsquo;s yacht!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The same,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, but perfectly composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! do you know Lord Bohun?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;We have often expected
+      him here. I wonder he has never paid us a visit, papa. They say he is the
+      most eccentric person in the world. Is he so?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never heard much in his favour,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I believe he has
+      made himself a great fool, as most young nobles do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I have heard very extraordinary things of him,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+      &lsquo;He is a great traveller, at all events, which I think a circumstance in
+      every man&rsquo;s favour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And then he has been a guerilla chieftain,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby; &lsquo;and a
+      Bedouin robber, and&mdash;I hardly know what else; but Colonel Garth, who
+      was here last summer, told us the most miraculous tales of his lordship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Affectations!&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, with a sneer. &lsquo;Bohun, however, has some
+      excuses for his folly: for he was an orphan, I believe, in his cradle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is he clever?&rsquo; inquired Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Colonel Garth is a much better judge than I am,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I
+      confess I have no taste for guerilla chieftains, or Bedouin robbers. I am
+      not at all romantic.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here he attracted her attention to what he called an attempt at a
+      bull-fight; the conversation dropped, and Lord Bohun was forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight passed away, and Mr. Ferrers was still a visitant of our
+      Mediterranean isle. His intimacy with the Consul and his daughter remained
+      on the same footing. Every evening he paid them a visit; and every
+      evening, when he had retired, the major and his daughter agreed that he
+      was a most agreeable person, though rather odd; the worthy Consul always
+      adding his regret that he would not dine with him, and his wonder as to
+      what Ferrers he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it so happened that it was a royal birthday; and the bishop, and
+      several of the leading persons of the town, had agreed to partake of the
+      hospitality of the British Consul. The major was anxious that Mr. Ferrers
+      should meet them. He discussed this important point with his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My darling, I don&rsquo;t like to ask him: he really is such a very odd man.
+      The moment you ask him to dinner, he looks as if you had offered him an
+      insult. Shall we send him a formal invitation? I wonder what Ferrers he
+      is? I should be gratified if he would dine with us. Besides, he would see
+      something of our native society here, which is amusing. What shall we do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will ask him,&rsquo; replied Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t think he could refuse
+      me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure I could not,&rsquo; replied the major, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Miss Ponsonby seized an opportunity of telling Mr. Ferrers that she
+      had a favour to ask him. He was more fortunate than he imagined, was his
+      courteous reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you must dine with papa, to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers&rsquo; brow immediately clouded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, do not look so suspicious,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;Do you think that
+      ours is an Italian banquet? Is there poison in the dish? Or do you live
+      only on fruit and flowers?&rsquo; continued Miss Ponsonby. &lsquo;Do you know,&rsquo; she
+      added, with an arch smile, &lsquo;I think you must be a ghoul.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of smile struggled with a scowl over the haughty countenance of the
+      Englishman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will come!&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, most winningly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have already trespassed too much upon Major Ponsonby&rsquo;s hospitality,&rsquo;
+      muttered Mr. Ferrers; &lsquo;I have no claim to it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are our countryman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unknown.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The common consequence of being a traveller.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes&mdash;but&mdash;in short&mdash;I&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must come,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, with a glance like sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You do with me what you like,&rsquo; exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, with animation.
+      &lsquo;Beautiful&mdash;weather,&rsquo; he concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers was therefore their guest; and strange it is to say, that from
+      this day, from some cause, which it is now useless to ascertain, this
+      gentleman became an habitual guest at the Consul&rsquo;s table; accepting a
+      general invitation without even a frown; and, what is more remarkable,
+      availing himself of it, scarcely with an exception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Could it be the Consul&rsquo;s daughter that effected this revolution? Time may
+      perhaps solve this interesting problem. Certainly, whether it were that
+      she was seldom seen to more advantage than when presiding over society; or
+      whether, elate with her triumph, she was particularly pleasing because she
+      was particularly pleased; certainly Henrietta Ponsonby never appeared to
+      greater advantage than she did upon the day of this memorable festival.
+      Mr. Ferrers, when he quitted the house, sauntered to the mole, and gazed
+      upon the moonlight sea.-A dangerous symptom. Yet the eye of Mr. Ferrers
+      had before this been fixed in mute abstraction on many a summer wave, when
+      Dian was in her bower; and this man, cold and inscrutable as he seemed,
+      was learned in woman, and woman&rsquo;s ways. Shall a Consul&rsquo;s daughter melt a
+      heart that boasted of being callous, and clear a brow that prided itself
+      upon its clouds?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the state of Mr. Ferrers&rsquo; heart were doubtful, I must perforce
+      confess that, as time drew on, Henrietta Ponsonby, if she had ventured to
+      inquire, could have little hesitated as to the state of her own feelings.
+      Her companion, her constant companion, for such Mr. Ferrers had now
+      insensibly become, exercised over her an influence, of the power of which
+      she was unconscious,&mdash;only because it was unceasing. Had for a moment
+      the excitement of her novel feelings ceased, she would have discovered,
+      with wonder, perhaps with some degree of fear, how changed she had become
+      since the first evening he approached their pleasant casino. And yet Mr.
+      Ferrers was not her lover. No act,&mdash;no word of gallantry,&mdash;no
+      indication of affection, to her inexperienced sense, ever escaped him. All
+      that he did was, that he sought her society; but, then, there was no
+      other. The only wonder was, that he should remain among them; but, then,
+      he had been everywhere. The vague love of lounging and repose, which ever
+      and anon falls upon men long accustomed to singular activity and strange
+      adventure, sufficiently accounted for his conduct. But, whatever might be
+      his motives, certain it is, that the English stranger dangerously
+      interested the feelings of the Consul&rsquo;s daughter; and when she thought the
+      time must arrive for his departure, she drove the recollection from her
+      mind with a swiftness which indicated the pang which she experienced by
+      its occurrence. And no marvel either, that the heart of this young and
+      lovely maiden softened at the thought, and in the presence of her
+      companion: no marvel, and no shame, for nature had invested the Englishman
+      with soul-subduing qualities. His elegant person; his tender, yet reserved
+      manners; his experienced, yet ornate mind; the flashes of a brilliant, yet
+      mellowed imagination, which ever and anon would break forth in his
+      conversation: perhaps, too, the air of melancholy, and even of mystery,
+      which enveloped him, were all spells potent in the charm that enchants the
+      heart of woman. And the major, what did he think? The good Consul was
+      puzzled. The confirmed intimacy between his daughter and his guest alike
+      perplexed and pleased him. He certainly never had become acquainted with a
+      man whom he would sooner have preferred for a son-in-law, if he had only
+      known who he was. But two months, and more than two months, had elapsed,
+      and threw no light upon this most necessary point of knowledge. The Consul
+      hesitated as to his conduct. His anxiety almost mastered his good
+      breeding. Now he thought of speaking to Mr. Ferrers, and then to his
+      daughter. There were objections to each line of conduct, and his
+      confidence in Mr. Ferrers was very great, although he did not exactly know
+      who he was: he was decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his
+      conduct and conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so
+      much delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and
+      did, that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
+      and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
+      conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
+      his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
+      gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Tender Avowal</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M&rsquo;Intyre were two very
+      different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay, noisy,
+      pleasant, commonplace persons. They were &lsquo;<i>on leave</i>&rsquo; from one of the
+      Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot red-legged
+      partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a pipe with the
+      Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights they had seen,
+      and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they styled &lsquo;regular
+      adventures&rsquo;: and they insisted upon giving everyone a description of what
+      everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their arrival, Mr. Ferrers
+      discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and resumed his old habit of
+      riding up to the casino, every evening, on his Barbary ass, to eat oranges
+      and talk to the Consul&rsquo;s daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?&rsquo; said Major M&rsquo;Intyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;St. Peter&rsquo;s, of course, you have seen?&rsquo; said Captain Ormsby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But have you seen it during Holy Week?&rsquo; said the major. &lsquo;That&rsquo;s the
+      thing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, I see you have been everywhere,&rsquo; said the captain: &lsquo;Algiers, of
+      course?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never was at Algiers,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
+      circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By Jove,&rsquo; said the major, with elevated eyes, &lsquo;not been at Algiers! why,
+      Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great traveller
+      indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers more worth
+      seeing than any place we ever visited. Don&rsquo;t you, Ormsby?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
+      place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
+      Bohun&rsquo;s yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
+      proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
+      Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Captain
+      Ormsby finally pronounced &lsquo;Bohun a devilish good fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know Lord Bohun?&rsquo; inquired Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why, no!&rsquo; confessed Captain Ormsby: &lsquo;but he is a devilish intimate friend
+      of a devilish intimate friend of mine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers made a sign to Miss Ponsonby; she rose, and followed him into
+      the garden. &lsquo;I cannot endure the jabber of these men,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They are very good-natured,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It may be so; and I have no right to criticise them. I dare say they
+      think me very dull. However, it appears you will have Lord Bohun here in a
+      short time, and then I shall be forgotten.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is not a very kind speech. You would not be forgotten, even if
+      absent; and you have, I hope, no thought of quitting us.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have remained here too long. Besides, I have no wish to play a second
+      part to Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who thinks of Lord Bohun? and why should you play a second part to
+      anyone? You are a little perverse, Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have been in this island ten weeks,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When we begin to count time, we are generally weary,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are in error. I would willingly compound that the rest of my
+      existence should be as happy as the last ten weeks. They have been very
+      happy,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, musingly; &lsquo;very happy, indeed. The only <i>happy</i>
+      time I ever knew. They have been so serene, and so sweet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why not remain, then?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are many reasons,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers; and he offered his arm to Miss
+      Ponsonby, and they walked together, far away from the casino. &lsquo;These ten
+      weeks have been so serene, and so sweet,&rsquo; he continued, but in a calm
+      voice, &lsquo;because you have been my companion. My life has taken its colour
+      from your character. Now, listen to me, dearest Miss Ponsonby, and be not
+      alarmed. I love you!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her arm trembled in his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I <i>love</i> you; and, believe me, I use that word with no common
+      feeling. It describes the entire devotion of my existence to your life;
+      and my complete sympathy with every attribute of your nature. Calm as may
+      be my speech, I love you with a burning heart.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bowed her head, and covered her face with her right hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Most beauteous lady,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;pardon me if I agitate you;
+      for my respect is equal to my love. I stand before you a stranger, utterly
+      unknown; and I am so circumstanced that it is not in my power, even at <i>this</i>
+      moment, to offer any explanation of my equivocal position. Yet, whatever I
+      may be, I offer my existence, and all its accidents, good or bad, in
+      homage to your heart. May I indulge the delicious hope that, if not now
+      accepted, they are at least considered with kindliness and without
+      suspicion?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, yes! without <i>suspicion</i>,&rsquo; murmured Miss Ponsonby&mdash;&lsquo;without
+      suspicion. Nothing, nothing in the world shall ever make me believe that
+      you are not so good as you are&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;gifted.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Darling Henrietta!&rsquo; exclaimed Mr. Ferrers, in a voice of melting
+      tenderness; and he pressed her to his heart, and sealed his love upon her
+      lips. &lsquo;This, this is confidence; this, this is the woman&rsquo;s love I long
+      have sighed for. Doubt me not, dearest; never doubt me! Say you are mine;
+      once more pledge yourself to me. I leave our isle this night. Nay, start
+      not, sweet one. &lsquo;Tis for our happiness; this night. I shall return to
+      claim my bride. Now, listen, darling! our engagement, our sweet and solemn
+      engagement, is secret. You will never hear from me until we meet again;
+      you may hear <i>of</i> me and not to my advantage. What matter? You love
+      me; you cannot doubt me. I leave with you my honour: an honour <i>never
+      sullied</i>. Mind that. Oh no, you cannot doubt me!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am yours: I care not what they say: if there be no faith and truth in
+      you, I will despair of them for ever.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Beautiful being! you make me mad with joy. Has fate reserved for me,
+      indeed, this treasure? Am I at length loved, and loved only for myself!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Famous Lord Bohun</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He has gone; Mr. Ferrers has departed. What an event! What a marvellous
+      event! A revolution has occurred in the life of Henrietta Ponsonby: she
+      was no longer her own mistress; she was no longer her father&rsquo;s child. She
+      belonged to another; and that other a stranger, an unknown, and departed
+      being! How strange! And yet how sweet! This beautiful young lady passed
+      her days in pondering over her singular position. In vain she attempted to
+      struggle with her destiny. In vain she depicted to herself the error,
+      perhaps the madness, of her conduct. She was fascinated. She could not
+      reason; she could not communicate to her father all that had happened. A
+      thousand times her lips moved to reveal her secret; a thousand times an
+      irresistible power restrained them. She remained silent, moody, and
+      restless: she plucked flowers, and threw them to the wind: she gazed upon
+      the sea, and watched the birds in abstraction wilder than their wing: and
+      yet she would not doubt her betrothed. That voice so sweet and solemn, and
+      so sincere, still lingered in her ear: the gaze of that pure and lofty
+      brow was engraven on her memory: never could she forget those delicate
+      adieus!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This change in his daughter was not unmarked by the Consul, who, after
+      some reflection, could not hesitate in considering it as the result of the
+      departure of Mr. Ferrers. The thought made him mournful. It pained his
+      noble nature, that the guest whom he so respected might have trifled with
+      the affections of the child whom he so loved. He spoke to the maiden; but
+      the maiden said she was happy. And, indeed, her conduct gave evidence of
+      restlessness rather than misery; for her heart seemed sometimes
+      exuberantly gay; often did she smile, and ever did she sing. The Consul
+      was conscious there was a mystery he could not fathom. It is bitter for a
+      father at all times to feel that his child is unhappy; but doubly bitter
+      is the pang when he feels that the cause is secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three months, three heavy months passed away, and the cloud still rested
+      on this once happy home. Suddenly Lord Bohun arrived, the much talked-of
+      Lord Bohun, in his more talked-of yacht. The bustle which the arrival of
+      this celebrated personage occasioned in the consular establishment was a
+      diversion from the reserve, or the gloom, which had so long prevailed
+      there. Lord Bohun was a young, agreeable, and somewhat affected
+      individual. He had a German chasseur and a Greek page. He was very
+      luxurious, and rather troublesome; but infinitely amusing, both to the
+      Consul and his daughter. He dined with them every day, and recounted his
+      extraordinary adventures with considerable self-complacency. In the course
+      of the week he scampered over every part of the island; and gave a
+      magnificent entertainment on board the <i>Kraken</i>, to the bishop and
+      the principal islanders, in honour of the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. Indeed it was
+      soon very evident that his lordship entertained feelings of no ordinary
+      admiration for his hostess. He paid her on all occasions the most marked
+      attention; and the Consul, who did not for a moment believe that these
+      attentions indicated other than the transient feelings that became a lord,
+      and so adventurous a lord, began to fear that his inexperienced Henrietta
+      might again become the victim of the fugitive admiration of a traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening at the casino, his lordship noticed a drawing of his own
+      yacht, and started. The Consul explained to him, that the drawing had been
+      copied by his daughter from a sketch by an English traveller, who preceded
+      him. His name was inquired, and given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ferrers!&rsquo; exclaimed his lordship. &lsquo;What, has Ferrers been here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know Mr. Ferrers, then?&rsquo; inquired Henrietta, with suppressed
+      agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh yes, I know Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A most agreeable and gentleman-like man,&rsquo; said the Consul, anxious, he
+      knew not why, that the conversation would cease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh yes, Ferrers is a very agreeable man. He piques himself on being
+      agreeable,&mdash;Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From what I have observed of Mr. Ferrers,&rsquo; said Henrietta, in a firm, and
+      rather decided tone, &lsquo;I should not have given him credit for any sentiment
+      approaching to <i>conceit</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is fortunate in having such a defender,&rsquo; said his lordship, bowing
+      gallantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Our friends are scarcely worth possessing,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby, &lsquo;unless
+      they defend us when absent. But I am not aware that Mr. Ferrers needs any
+      defence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His lordship turned on his heel, and hummed an opera air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr. Ferrers paid us a long visit,&rsquo; said the Consul, who was now desirous
+      that the conversation should proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He had evidently a great inducement,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun. &lsquo;I wonder he ever
+      departed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is a great favourite in this house,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I perceive it,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What Ferrers is he?&rsquo; inquired the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, he has gentle blood in his veins,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun. &lsquo;I never heard
+      his breeding impeached.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I should think, nothing else,&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I never heard anything particular against Ferrers,&rsquo; said his
+      lordship; &lsquo;except that he was a <i>roué</i>, and a little mad. That is
+      all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Enough, I should think,&rsquo; said Major Ponsonby, with a clouded brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What a <i>roué</i> may be, I can scarcely be supposed to judge,&rsquo; said
+      Henrietta. &lsquo;If, however, it be a man remarkable for the delicacy of his
+      thoughts and conduct, Mr. Ferrers has certainly some claim to the title.
+      As for his madness, he was our constant companion for nearly three months:
+      if he be mad, it must be a very <i>little</i> indeed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was a great favourite of Henrietta,&rsquo; said her father, with a forced
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fortunate man!&rsquo; said the lord. &lsquo;Fortunate Ferrers!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Bohun stepped into the garden with the Consul: Miss Ponsonby was left
+      alone. Firm as had been her previous demeanour, now, that she was alone,
+      her agitated countenance denoted the tumult of her mind. A <i>roué!</i>
+      Could it be so! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had pledged the
+      freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she, after all, only
+      a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a <i>roué!</i> That
+      lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely, was he a <i>roué,</i>
+      an eccentric <i>roué</i>; one whose unprincipled conduct could only be
+      excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect? She could not
+      credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct had been so
+      strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and then she
+      recollected his last dark-muttered words: &lsquo;<i>You may hear of me, and not
+      to my advantage.</i>&rsquo; Oh, what a prophecy! And <i>from</i> him she had
+      never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
+      the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge, and
+      his honour that had been <i>never sullied</i>. She buried her face in her
+      hands,&mdash;she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened
+      since his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had
+      said and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was
+      madness for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no
+      misery so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all
+      her happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
+      gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
+      sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if not
+      light-hearted, at least serene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>More Mystery</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
+      island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
+      remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited no
+      inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
+      interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month, made
+      himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest, certainly
+      with the Consul, if not with the Consul&rsquo;s daughter. As for the name of Mr.
+      Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta piqued
+      herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on respecting her
+      absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting much
+      information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to annex a
+      precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were rich or
+      poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of disgraceful
+      lineage; when and where Lord Bohun and himself had been fellow-travellers&mdash;all
+      was alike obscure and shadowy. Not that her noble guest was inattentive to
+      her inquiries; on the contrary, he almost annoyed her by his constant
+      devotion: she was almost, indeed, inclined to resent his singularly marked
+      expressions of admiration as an insult; when, to her utter astonishment,
+      one morning her father astounded her by an announcement that Lord Bohun
+      had done her the honour of offering her his hand and heart. The beautiful
+      Henrietta was in great perplexity. It was due to Lord Bohun to reject his
+      flattering proposal without reservation: it was difficult, almost
+      impossible, to convince her father of the expediency of such a proceeding.
+      There was in the proposal of Lord Bohun every circumstance which could
+      gratify Major Ponsonby. In the wildest dreams of his paternal ambition,
+      his hopes had never soared higher than the possession of such a
+      son-in-law: high born, high rank, splendid fortune, and accomplished
+      youth, were combined in the individual whom some favouring destiny, it
+      would seem, had wafted to this distant and obscure isle to offer his vows
+      to its accomplished mistress. That his daughter might hesitate, on so
+      brief an acquaintance, to unite her eternal lot in life with a comparative
+      stranger, was what he had in some degree, anticipated; but that she should
+      unhesitatingly and unreservedly decline the proposal, was conduct for
+      which he was totally unprepared. He was disappointed and mortified&mdash;for
+      the first time in his life he was angry with his child. It is strange that
+      Lord Bohun, who had required a deputy to make, a proposition which, of all
+      others, the most becomes and most requires a principal, should, when his
+      fate was decided, have requested a personal interview with Miss Ponsonby.
+      It was a favour which she could not refuse, for her father required her to
+      grant it. She accordingly prepared herself for a repetition of the
+      proposal from lips, doubtless unaccustomed to sue in vain. It was
+      otherwise: never had Lord Bohun conducted himself in a more kind and
+      unaffected manner than during this interview: it pained Miss Ponsonby to
+      think she had pained one who was in reality so amiable: she was glad,
+      however, to observe that he did not appear very much moved or annoyed.
+      Lord Bohun expressed his gratitude for the agreeable hours he had spent in
+      her society; and then most delicately ventured to inquire whether time
+      might, perhaps, influence Miss Ponsonby&rsquo;s determination. And when he had
+      received her most courteous, though hopeless answer, he only expressed his
+      wishes for her future happiness, which he could not doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; said Lord Bohun, as he was about to depart; &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; he said,
+      in a very hesitating voice, &lsquo;I am taking a great, an unwarrantable
+      liberty; but believe me, dear Miss Ponsonby, the inquiry, if I could
+      venture to make it, is inspired by the sincerest desire for your welfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speak with freedom, Lord Bohun; you will ever, I am sure, speak with
+      kindness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would not willingly despair then, unless I believed that heart were
+      engaged to another.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Ponsonby bent down and plucked a flower, and, her brow covered with
+      blushes, with an agitated hand tore the flower to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is this a fair inquiry?&rsquo; she murmured. &lsquo;It is for your sake I inquire,&rsquo;
+      answered Lord Bohun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now an irresistible conviction came over her mind that Lord Bohun was
+      thinking of Ferrers, and a desire on her part as strong to learn at length
+      something of her mysterious lover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What, indeed, if I be not mistress of my heart?&rsquo; She spoke without
+      raising her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In that case I will believe that it belongs to one worthy of such a
+      treasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You speak of Edmund Ferrers?&rsquo; said Miss Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The same.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know him?&rsquo; she inquired, in a choking voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know and honour him. I have long believed that the world did not boast
+      a man more gifted; now I know that it does not possess a man more
+      blessed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Shall you see him?&rsquo; she inquired in a quick tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Probably you will see him first; I am sufficiently acquainted with his
+      movements to know that he will soon be here. This Greek boy whom you have
+      sometimes noticed is his page; I wish him to join his master again; and
+      methinks the readiest way will be to leave him in this isle. Here,
+      Spiridion, bow to your new mistress, and be dutiful for her sake, as well
+      as that of your lord&rsquo;s. Adieu! dearest Miss Ponsonby!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Welcome Message</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THIS strange conversation with Lord Bohun at parting, was not without a
+      certain wild, but not unpleasing influence over the mind of Henrietta
+      Ponsonby. Much as it at first had agitated her, its result, as she often
+      mused over it, was far from being without solace. It was consoling,
+      indeed, to know that one person, at least, honoured that being in whom she
+      had so implicitly relied: Lord Bohun, also, had before spoken of Ferrers
+      in a very different tone; but she felt confidence in the unusual
+      seriousness of his last communication; and with satisfaction contrasted it
+      with the heedlessness, or the levity, of his former intimations. Here,
+      too, was the page of Ferrers, at her side&mdash;the beautiful and
+      bright-eyed Spiridion. How strange it was! how very strange! Her simple
+      life had suddenly become like some shifting fairy-tale; but love, indeed,
+      is a fairy, and full of marvels and magic&mdash;it changes all things; and
+      the quietest domestic hearth, when shadowed by its wing, becomes as rife
+      with wonders and adventure as if it were the passionate theatre of some
+      old romance. Yes! the bright-eyed Greek page of her mysterious and absent
+      lover was at her side-but then he spoke only Greek. In vain she tried to
+      make him comprehend how much she desired to have tidings of his master.
+      The graceful mute could only indulge in airy pantomime, point to the skies
+      and ocean, or press his hand to his heart in token of fidelity. Henrietta
+      amused herself in teaching Spiridion Italian, and repaid herself for all
+      her trouble in occasionally obtaining some slight information of her
+      friend. In time she learned that Ferrers was in Italy, and had seen Lord
+      Bohun before the departure of that nobleman. In answer to her anxious and
+      often-repeated inquiries whether he would soon return, Spiridion was
+      constant to his consoling affirmative. Never was such a sedulous mistress
+      of languages as Henrietta Ponsonby. She learned, also, that an Albanian
+      scarf, which the page wore round his waist, had been given him by his
+      master when Spiridion quitted him; and Henrietta instantly obtained the
+      scarf for a Barbary shawl of uncommon splendour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it happened one afternoon towards sunset, as the Greek page,
+      rambling, as was his custom, over the neighbouring heights, beheld below
+      the spreading fort, the neighbouring straits, and the distant sea, that a
+      vessel appeared in sight, and soon entered the harbour. It was an English
+      vessel&mdash;it was the yacht of Lord Bohun. The page started and watched
+      the vessel with a fixed and earnest gaze; soon he observed the British
+      Consul in his boat row to the side of the vessel, and also immediately
+      return. At that moment the yacht hoisted a signal&mdash;upon a white
+      ground a crimson heart&mdash;whereupon Spiridion, drawing from his breast
+      a letter, kissed it twice, and bounded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bounded away towards the city, and scarcely slackened his pace until he
+      arrived at the Consul&rsquo;s mansion&mdash;he rushed in, dashed up the
+      staircase, and entered the saloons. At the window of one, gazing on the
+      sunset, was Henrietta Ponsonby&mdash;her gaze was serious, but her
+      beautiful countenance was rather tinged by melancholy than touched by
+      gloom&mdash;pensive, not sorrowful. By her side lay her guitar, still
+      echoing, as it were, with her touch; and near it the Albanian scarf, on
+      which she had embroidered the name of her beloved. Of him, then, were her
+      gentle musings? Who can doubt it? Her gentle musings were of him whom she
+      had loved with such unexampled trust. Fond, beautiful, confiding maiden!
+      It was the strength of thy mind as much as the simplicity of thy heart
+      that rendered thee so faithful and so firm! Who would not envy thy unknown
+      adorer? Can he be false? Suspicion is for weak minds and cold-blooded
+      spirits. Thou never didst doubt; and thou wast just, for, behold, he is
+      true!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fluttering sound roused her&mdash;she turned her head, and expected to
+      see her gazelle: it was Spiridion; his face was wreathed with smiles as he
+      held towards her a letter. She seized it&mdash;she recognised in an
+      instant the handwriting she had so often studied&mdash;it was his! Yes! it
+      was his. It was the handwriting of her beloved. Her face was pale, her
+      hand trembled; a cloud moved before her vision; yet at length she read,
+      and she read these words:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If, as I hope, and as I believe, you are faithful to those vows which
+      since my departure have been my only consolation, you will meet me
+      to-morrow, two hours before noon, in our garden. I come to claim my bride;
+      but until my lips have expressed to you how much I adore you, let nothing
+      be known to our father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Mystery Revealed</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MY DEAREST Henrietta,&rsquo; said the Consul as he entered, &lsquo;who, think you, has
+      returned? Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed!&rsquo; said Henrietta. &lsquo;Have you seen him?&rsquo; &lsquo;No. I paid my respects to
+      him immediately, but he was unwell. He breakfasts with us to-morrow, at
+      ten.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morrow came, but ten o&rsquo;clock brought no Lord Bohun; and even eleven
+      sounded: the Consul sought his daughter to consult her&mdash;he was
+      surprised to learn that Miss Ponsonby had not returned from her early
+      ramble. At this moment a messenger arrived from the yacht to say that,
+      from some error, Lord Bohun had repaired to the casino, where he awaited
+      the Consul. The major mounted his barb, and soon reached the pavilion. As
+      he entered the garden, he beheld, in the distance, his daughter and&mdash;Mr.
+      Ferrers. He was, indeed, surprised. It appeared that Henrietta was about
+      to run forward to him; but her companion checked her, and she disappeared
+      down a neighbouring walk. Mr. Ferrers advanced, and saluted her father&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are surprised to see me, my dear sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am surprised, but most happy. You came, of course, with Lord Bohun?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Ferrers bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am very desirous of having some conversation with you, my dear Major
+      Ponsonby,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am ever at your service, my dearest sir, but at the present moment I
+      must go and greet his lordship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, never mind Bohun,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers, carelessly. &lsquo;I have no ceremony
+      with him&mdash;he can wait.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The major was a little perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must know, my dearest sir,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;that I wish to
+      speak to you on a subject in which my happiness is entirely concerned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Proceed, sir,&rsquo; said the Consul, looking still more puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can scarcely be astonished, my dearest sir, that I should admire your
+      daughter.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Consul bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed,&rsquo; said Mr. Ferrers; &lsquo;it seems to me impossible to know her and not
+      admire: I should say, adore her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You flatter a father&rsquo;s feelings,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I express my own,&rsquo; replied Mr. Ferrers. &lsquo;I love her&mdash;I have long
+      loved her devotedly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hem!&rsquo; said Major Ponsonby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, &lsquo;that there is a great deal to apologise
+      for in my conduct, towards both you and herself: I feel that my conduct
+      may, in some degree, be considered even unpardonable: I will not say that
+      the end justifies the means, Major Ponsonby, but my end was, at least, a
+      great, and, I am sure a virtuous one.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not clearly comprehend you, Mr. Ferrers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is some consolation to me,&rsquo; continued that gentleman, &lsquo;that the
+      daughter has pardoned me; now let me indulge the delightful hope that I
+      may be as successful with the father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will, at least, listen with patience, to you, Mr. Ferrers; but I must
+      own your meaning is not very evident to me: let me, at least, go and shake
+      hands with Lord Bohun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will answer for Lord Bohun excusing your momentary neglect. Pray, my
+      dear sir, listen to me. I wish to make you acquainted, Major Ponsonby,
+      with the feelings which influenced me when I first landed on this island.
+      This knowledge is necessary for my justification.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what is there to justify?&rsquo; inquired the major.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Conceive a man born to a great fortune,&rsquo; continued Mr. Ferrers, without
+      noticing the interruption, &lsquo;and to some accidents of life, which many
+      esteem above fortune; a station as eminent as his wealth&mdash;conceive
+      this man master of his destiny from his boyhood, and early experienced in
+      that great world with which you are not unacquainted&mdash;conceive him
+      with a heart, gifted, perhaps, with too dangerous a sensibility; the dupe
+      and the victim of all whom he encounters&mdash;conceive him, in disgust,
+      flying from the world that had deceived him, and divesting himself of
+      those accidents of existence which, however envied by others, appeared to
+      his morbid imagination the essential causes of his misery&mdash;conceive
+      this man, unknown and obscure, sighing to be valued for those qualities of
+      which fortune could not deprive him, and to be loved only for his own sake&mdash;a
+      miserable man, sir!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It would seem so,&rsquo; said the Consul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, then, for a moment imagine this man apparently in possession of all
+      for which he had so long panted; he is loved, he is loved for himself, and
+      loved by a being surpassing the brightest dream of his purest youth: yet
+      the remembrance of the past poisons, even now, his joy. He is haunted by
+      the suspicion that the affection, even of this being, is less the result
+      of his own qualities, than of her inexperience of life&mdash;he has
+      everything at stake&mdash;he dares to submit her devotion to the sharpest
+      trial&mdash;he quits her without withdrawing the dark curtain with which
+      he had enveloped himself&mdash;he quits her with the distinct
+      understanding that she shall not even hear from him until he thinks fit to
+      return; and entangles her pure mind, for the first time, in a secret from
+      the parent whom she adores. He is careful, in the meanwhile, that his name
+      shall be traduced in her presence&mdash;that the proudest fortune, the
+      loftiest rank, shall be offered for her acceptance, if she only will
+      renounce him, and the dim hope of his return. A terrible trial, Major
+      Ponsonby!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed, most terrible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But she is true&mdash;truer even than truth&mdash;and I have come back to
+      claim my unrivalled bride. Can you pardon me? Can you sympathise with me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I speak, then&mdash;&mdash;-&rsquo; murmured the astounded Consul&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To your son, with your permission-to Lord Bohun!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      WALSTEIN; OR A CURE FOR MELANCHOLY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Philosophical  Conversation between a Physician and
+     His Patient.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      DR. DE SCHULEMBOURG was the most eminent physician in Dresden. He was not
+      only a physician; he was a philosopher. He studied the idiosyncrasy of his
+      patients, and was aware of the fine and secret connection between medicine
+      and morals. One morning Dr. de Schulembourg was summoned to Walstein. The
+      physician looked forward to the interview with his patient with some
+      degree of interest. He had often heard of Walstein, but had never yet met
+      that gentleman, who had only recently returned from his travels, and who
+      had been absent from his country for several years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Dr. de Schulembourg arrived at the house of Walstein, he was admitted
+      into a circular hall containing the busts of the Caesars, and ascending a
+      double staircase of noble proportion, was ushered into a magnificent
+      gallery. Copies in marble of the most celebrated ancient statues were
+      ranged on each side of this gallery. Above them were suspended many
+      beautiful Italian and Spanish pictures, and between them were dwarf
+      bookcases full of tall volumes in sumptuous bindings, and crowned with
+      Etruscan vases and rare bronzes. Schulembourg, who was a man of taste,
+      looked around him with great satisfaction. And while he was gazing on a
+      group of diaphanous cherubim, by Murillo, an artist of whom he had heard
+      much and knew little, his arm was gently touched, and turning round,
+      Schulembourg beheld his patient, a man past the prime of youth, but of
+      very distinguished appearance, and with a very frank and graceful manner.
+      &lsquo;I hope you will pardon me, my dear sir, for permitting you to be a moment
+      alone,&rsquo; said Walstein, with an ingratiating smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Solitude, in such a scene, is not very wearisome,&rsquo; replied the physician.
+      &lsquo;There are great changes in-this mansion since the time of your father,
+      Mr. Walstein.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;Tis an attempt to achieve that which we are all sighing for,&rsquo; replied
+      Walstein, &lsquo;the Ideal. But for myself, although I assure you not a <i>pococurante</i>,
+      I cannot help thinking there is no slight dash of the commonplace.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Which is a necessary ingredient of all that is excellent,&rsquo; replied
+      Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein shrugged his shoulders, and then invited the physician to be
+      seated. &lsquo;I wish to consult you, Dr. Schulembourg,&rsquo; he observed, somewhat
+      abruptly. &lsquo;My metaphysical opinions induce me to believe that a physician
+      is the only philosopher. I am perplexed by my own case. I am in excellent
+      health, my appetite is good, my digestion perfect. My temperament I have
+      ever considered to be of a very sanguine character. I have nothing upon my
+      mind. I am in very easy circumstances. Hitherto I have only committed
+      blunders in life and never crimes. Nevertheless, I have, of late, become
+      the victim of a deep and inscrutable melancholy, which I can ascribe to no
+      cause, and can divert by no resource. Can you throw any light upon my dark
+      feelings? Can you remove them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long have you experienced them?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;More or less ever since my return,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;but most
+      grievously during the last three months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you in love?&rsquo; inquired Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly not,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and I fear I never shall be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have been?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have had some fancies, perhaps too many,&rsquo; answered the patient; &lsquo;but
+      youth deludes itself. My idea of a heroine has never been realised, and,
+      in all probability, never will be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Besides an idea of a heroine,&rsquo; said Schulembourg, &lsquo;you have also, if I
+      mistake not, an idea of a hero?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Without doubt,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;I have preconceived for myself a
+      character which I have never achieved.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet, if you have never met a heroine nearer your ideal than your hero,
+      why should you complain?&rsquo; rejoined Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are moments when my vanity completes my own portrait,&rsquo; said
+      Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And there are moments when our imagination completes the portrait of our
+      mistress,&rsquo; rejoined Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You reason,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;I was myself once fond of reasoning, but the
+      greater my experience, the more I have become convinced that man is not a
+      rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from
+      passion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Passion is the ship, and reason is the rudder,&rsquo; observed Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And thus we pass the ocean of life,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;Would that I could
+      discover a new continent of sensation!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mix much in society?&rsquo; said the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By fits and starts,&rsquo; said Walstein. &lsquo;A great deal when I first returned:
+      of late little.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And your distemper has increased in proportion with your solitude?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It would superficially appear so,&rsquo; observed Walstein; &lsquo;but I consider my
+      present distemper as not so much the result of solitude, as the reaction
+      of much converse with society. I am gloomy at present from a sense of
+      disappointment of the past.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are disappointed,&rsquo; observed Schulembourg. &lsquo;What, then, did you
+      expect?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;that is the very thing I wish to
+      discover.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you in general pass your time?&rsquo; inquired the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When I reply <i>in doing nothing</i>, my dear Doctor,&rsquo; said Walstein,
+      &lsquo;you will think that you have discovered the cause of my disorder. But
+      perhaps you will only mistake an effect for a cause.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you read?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have lost the faculty of reading: early in life I was a student, but
+      books become insipid when one is rich with the wisdom of a wandering
+      life.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you write?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have tried, but mediocrity disgusts me. In literature a second-rate
+      reputation is no recompense for the evils that authors are heirs to.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet, without making your compositions public, you might relieve your own
+      feelings in expressing them. There is a charm in creation.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My sympathies are strong,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;In an evil hour I might
+      descend from my pedestal; I should compromise my dignity with the herd; I
+      should sink before the first shaft of ridicule.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did not suffer from this melancholy when travelling?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Occasionally: but the fits were never so profound, and were very
+      evanescent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Travel is action,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg. &lsquo;Believe me, that in action you
+      alone can find a cure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is action?&rsquo; inquired Walstein. &lsquo;Travel I have exhausted. The world
+      is quiet. There are no wars now, no revolutions. Where can I find a
+      career?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Action,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, &lsquo;is the exercise of our faculties. Do not
+      mistake restlessness for action. Murillo, who passed a long life almost
+      within the walls of his native city, was a man of great action. Witness
+      the convents and the churches that are covered with his exploits. A great
+      student is a great actor, and as great as a marshal or a statesman. You
+      must act, Mr. Walstein, you must act; you must have an object in life;
+      great or slight, still you must have an object. Believe me, it is better
+      to be a mere man of pleasure than a dreamer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your advice is profound,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and you have struck upon a
+      sympathetic chord. But what am I to do? I have no object.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a very ambitious man,&rsquo; replied the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How know you that?&rsquo; said Walstein, somewhat hastily, and slightly
+      blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We doctors know many strange things,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, with a smile.
+      &lsquo;Come now, would you like to be prime minister of Saxony?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prime minister of Oberon!&rsquo; said Walstein, laughing; &lsquo;&rsquo;tis indeed a great
+      destiny.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! when you have lived longer among us, your views will accommodate
+      themselves to our limited horizon. In the meantime, I will write you a
+      prescription, provided you promise to comply with my directions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do not doubt me, my dear Doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schulembourg seated himself at the table, and wrote a few lines, which he
+      handed to his patient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein smiled as he read the prescription.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dr. de Schulembourg requests the honour of the Baron de Walstein&rsquo;s
+      company at dinner, to-morrow at two o&rsquo;clock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein smiled and looked a little perplexed, but he remembered his
+      promise. &lsquo;I shall, with pleasure, become your guest, Doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Containing Some Future Conversation</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      WALSTEIN did not forget his engagement with his friendly physician. The
+      house of Schulembourg was the most beautiful mansion in Dresden. It was
+      situated in a delicious garden in the midst of the park, and had been
+      presented to him by a grateful sovereign. It was a Palladian villa, which
+      recalled the Brenda to the recollection of Walstein, with flights of
+      marble steps, airy colonnades, pediments of harmonious proportion, all
+      painted with classic frescoes. Orange trees clustered in groups upon the
+      terrace, perfumed the summer air, rising out of magnificent vases
+      sculptured in high relief; and amid the trees, confined by silver chains
+      were rare birds of radiant plumage, rare birds with prismatic eyes and
+      bold ebon beaks, breasts flooded with crimson, and long tails of violet
+      and green. The declining sun shone brightly in the light blue sky, and
+      threw its lustre upon the fanciful abode, above which, slight and serene,
+      floated the airy crescent of the young white moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My friend, too, I perceive, is a votary of the Ideal,&rsquo; exclaimed
+      Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carriage stopped. Walstein mounted the marble steps and was ushered
+      through a hall, wherein was the statue of a single nymph, into an
+      octagonal apartment. Schulembourg himself had not arrived. Two men moved
+      away, as he was announced, from a lady whom they attended. The lady was
+      Madame de Schulembourg, and she came forward, with infinite grace, to
+      apologise for the absence of her husband, and to welcome her guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her appearance was very remarkable. She was young and strangely beautiful.
+      Walstein thought that he had never beheld such lustrous locks of ebon hair
+      shading a countenance of such dazzling purity. Her large and deep blue
+      eyes gleamed through their long black lashes. The expression of her face
+      was singularly joyous. Two wild dimples played like meteors on her soft
+      round cheeks. A pink veil worn over her head was carelessly tied under her
+      chin, and fastened with a white rose of pearls. Her vest and train of
+      white satin did not conceal her sylphlike form and delicate feet. She held
+      forth a little white hand to Walstein, adorned only by a single enormous
+      ruby, and welcomed him with inspiring ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know whether you are acquainted with your companions, Mr.
+      Walstein,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg. Walstein looked around, and
+      recognised the English minister, and had the pleasure of being introduced,
+      for the first time, to a celebrated sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have heard of your name, not only in Germany,&rsquo; said Walstein,
+      addressing the latter gentleman. &lsquo;You have left your fame behind you at
+      Rome. If the Italians are excusably envious, their envy is at least
+      accompanied with admiration.&rsquo; The gratified sculptor bowed and slightly
+      blushed. Walstein loved art and artists. He was not one of those frigid,
+      petty souls who are ashamed to evince feeling in society. He felt keenly
+      and expressed himself without reserve. But nature had invested him with a
+      true nobility of manner as well as of mind. He was ever graceful, even
+      when enthusiastic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is difficult to remember we are in the North,&rsquo; said Walstein to Madame
+      Schulembourg, &lsquo;amid these colonnades and orange trees.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is thus that I console myself for beautiful Italy,&rsquo; replied the lady,
+      &lsquo;and, indeed, to-day the sun favours the design.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have resided long in Italy?&rsquo; inquired Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was born at Milan,&rsquo; replied Madame de Schulembourg, &lsquo;my father
+      commanded a Hungarian regiment in garrison.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought that I did not recognise an Italian physiognomy,&rsquo; said
+      Walstein, looking somewhat earnestly at the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet I have a dash of the Lombard blood in me, I assure you,&rsquo; replied
+      Madame de Schulembourg, smiling; &lsquo;is it not so, Mr. Revel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman advanced and praised the beauty of the lady&rsquo;s mother, whom
+      he well knew. Then he asked Walstein when he was at Milan; then they
+      exchanged more words respecting Milanese society; and while they were
+      conversing, the Doctor entered, followed by a servant: &lsquo;I must compensate
+      for keeping you from dinner,&rsquo; said their host, &lsquo;by having the pleasure of
+      announcing that it is prepared.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He welcomed Walstein with warmth. Mr. Revel led Madame to the dining-room.
+      The table was round, and Walstein seated himself at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The repast was light and elegant, unusual characteristics of a German
+      dinner. Madame de Schulembourg conversed with infinite gaiety, but with an
+      ease that showed that to charm was with her no effort. The Englishman was
+      an excellent specimen of his nation, polished and intelligent, without
+      that haughty and graceless reserve which is so painful to a finished man
+      of the world. The host was himself ever animated and cheerful, but calm
+      and clear&mdash;and often addressed himself to the artist, who was silent,
+      and, like students in general, constrained. Walstein himself, indeed, was
+      not very talkative, but his manner indicated that he was interested, and
+      when he made an observation it was uttered with facility, and arrested
+      attention by its justness or its novelty. It was an agreeable party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had discussed several light topics. At length they diverged to the
+      supernatural. Mr. Revel, as is customary with Englishmen, who are very
+      sceptical, affected for the moment a belief in spirits. With the rest of
+      the society, however, it was no light theme. Madame de Schulembourg avowed
+      her profound credulity. The artist was a decided votary. Schulembourg
+      philosophically accounted for many appearances, but he was a magnetiser,
+      and his explanations were more marvellous than the portents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you, Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg, &lsquo;what is your
+      opinion?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am willing to yield to any faith that distracts my thoughts from the
+      burthen of daily reality,&rsquo; replied Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You would just suit Mr. Novalis, then,&rsquo; observed Mr. Revel, bowing to the
+      sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Novalis is an astrologer,&rsquo; said Madame Schulembourg; &lsquo;I think he would
+      just suit you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Destiny is a grand subject,&rsquo; observed Walstein, &lsquo;and although I am not
+      prepared to say that I believe in fate, I should nevertheless not be
+      surprised to read my fortunes in the stars.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That has been the belief of great spirits,&rsquo; observed the sculptor, his
+      countenance brightening with more assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is true,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;I would rather err with my great namesake
+      and Napoleon than share the orthodoxy of ordinary mortality.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a dangerous speech, Baron,&rsquo; said Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With regard to destiny,&rsquo; said Mr. Revel, who was in fact a materialist of
+      the old school, &lsquo;everything depends upon a man&rsquo;s nature; the ambitious
+      will rise, and the grovelling will crawl&mdash;those whose volition is
+      strong will believe in fate, and the weak-minded accounts for the
+      consequences of his own incongruities by execrating chance.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schulembourg shook his head. &lsquo;By a man&rsquo;s nature you mean his structure,&rsquo;
+      said the physician, &lsquo;much, doubtless, depends upon structure, but
+      structure is again influenced by structure. All is subservient to
+      sympathy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is true,&rsquo; replied the sculptor; &lsquo;and what is the influence of the
+      stars on human conduct but sympathy of the highest degree?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am little accustomed to metaphysical discussions,&rsquo; remarked Walstein;
+      &lsquo;this is, indeed, a sorry subject to amuse a fair lady with, Madame de
+      Schulembourg.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary,&rsquo; she replied, &lsquo;the mystical ever delights me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yet,&rsquo; continued Walstein, &lsquo;perceiving that the discontent and infelicity
+      of man generally increase in an exact ratio with his intelligence and his
+      knowledge, I am often tempted to envy the ignorant and the simple.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A man can only be content,&rsquo; replied Schulembourg, &lsquo;when his career is in
+      harmony with his organisation. Man is an animal formed for great physical
+      activity, and this is the reason why the vast majority, in spite of great
+      physical suffering, are content. The sense of existence, under the
+      influence of the action which is necessary to their living,
+      counterbalances all misery. But when a man has a peculiar structure, when
+      he is born with a predisposition, or is, in vulgar language, a man of
+      genius, his content entirely depends upon the predisposition being
+      developed and indulged. And this is philosophical education, that sublime
+      art so ill-comprehended!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I agree with you,&rsquo; said Revel, who recollected the nonsense-verses of
+      Eton, and the logic of Christ Church; &lsquo;all the scrapes and unhappiness of
+      my youth, and I assure you they were not inconsiderable, are to be
+      ascribed to the obstinate resolution of my family to make a priest out of
+      a man who wished to be a soldier.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I was disinherited because I would be a physician,&rsquo; replied
+      Schulembourg; &lsquo;but instead of a poor, insignificant baron, I am now a
+      noble in four kingdoms and have the orders of all Europe, and that lady
+      was not ashamed to marry me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was a swineherd in the wilds of Pomerania,&rsquo; said Novalis, his eyes
+      flashing with enthusiasm. &lsquo;I ran away to Italy, but I broke my poor
+      mother&rsquo;s heart.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead, painful pause, in which Walstein interposed. &lsquo;As for
+      myself, I suppose I have no predisposition, or I have not found it out.
+      Perhaps nature intended me for a swineherd, instead, of a baron. This,
+      however, I do know, that life is an intolerable burthen&mdash;at least it
+      would be,&rsquo; he added, turning with a smile to his fair hostess, &lsquo;were it
+      not for occasionally meeting some one so inspiring as you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; said Madame, rising, &lsquo;the carriages are at the door. Let us take a
+      drive. Mr. Walstein, you shall give me your opinion of my ponies.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Containing a Drive in the Park with a Very Charming Lady.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      MADAME DE SCHULEMBOURG&rsquo;S carriage, drawn by two beautiful Hanoverian
+      ponies, cream in colour, with long manes and tails like floss silk, was
+      followed by a britzka; but despatches called away Mr. Revel, and Novalis
+      stole off to his studio. The doctor, as usual, was engaged. &lsquo;Caroline,&rsquo; he
+      said, as he bid his guest adieu, &lsquo;I commend Mr. Walstein to your care.
+      When I return in the evening, do not let me find that our friend has
+      escaped.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure that though unhappy he is not ungallant,&rsquo; replied Caroline,
+      with a smile; and she took his offered arm, and ascended her seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Swiftly the little ponies scudded along the winding roads. The Corso was
+      as yet but slightly attended. Caroline passed through the wide avenue
+      without stopping, but sometimes recognising with bow and smile a flitting
+      friend. They came to a wilder and woodier part of the park, the road lined
+      on each side with linden trees, and in the distance were vast beds of tall
+      fern, tinged with the first rich hues of autumn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Here, Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; said Caroline, &lsquo;with your permission, I shall take
+      my afternoon walk.&rsquo; Thus speaking, she stopped the carriage, which she and
+      her companion quitted. Walstein offered her his arm, but she declined it,
+      folding herself up in her shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Which do you like best, Mr. Walstein, Constantinople or Dresden?&rsquo; said
+      Madame de Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At this moment, decidedly Dresden,&rsquo; replied her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! that is a compliment,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg, after a moment&rsquo;s
+      musing. &lsquo;My dear Mr. Walstein,&rsquo; she continued, looking up with an arch
+      expression, &lsquo;never pay me compliments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mistake me: it was not a compliment,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;It was a
+      sincere and becoming tribute of gratitude for three hours of endurable
+      existence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know that you are my patient,&rsquo; rejoined Madame de Schulembourg. &lsquo;I
+      have orders to cure your melancholy. I am very successful in such
+      complaints.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no doubt of it,&rsquo; replied Walstein, with a slight bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If we could but find out the cause!&rsquo; continued Caroline. &lsquo;I venture to
+      believe that, after all, it will turn out an affair of the heart. Come, be
+      frank with your physician. Tell me, have you left it captive with a fair
+      Greek of the Isles, or a dark-eyed maiden of the Nile? Is our heroine a
+      captive behind a Spanish jalousie, or in an Italian convent?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Women ever believe that all moods and tempers of man are consequences of
+      their influence,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;and in general they are right.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But in your case?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very wrong.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am determined to find it out,&rsquo; said Madame de Schulembourg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to heaven you could,&rsquo; said Baron de Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think a wandering life has spoiled you,&rsquo; said Caroline. &lsquo;I think it
+      must be civilisation that you find wearisome.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That would be very sublime,&rsquo; replied Walstein. &lsquo;But I assure you, if
+      there be one thing that disgusts me more than another, it is the
+      anticipation of renewed travel! I have seen all that I wish, and more than
+      I ever expected. All that I could experience now would be exertion without
+      excitement, a dreadful doom. If I am not to experience pleasure, let me at
+      least have the refuge of repose. The magic of change of scene is with me
+      exhausted. If I am to live, I do not think that I could be tempted to quit
+      this city; sometimes I think, scarcely even my house.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see how it is,&rsquo; exclaimed Madame de Schulembourg, shaking her head very
+      knowingly, &lsquo;you must marry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The last resource of feminine fancy!&rsquo; exclaimed Walstein, almost
+      laughing. &lsquo;You would lessen my melancholy, I suppose, on the principle of
+      the division of gloom. I can assure you, my dear Madame de Schulembourg,&rsquo;
+      he continued, in a very serious tone, &lsquo;that, with my present sensations, I
+      should consider it highly dishonourable to implicate any woman in my
+      destiny.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ha! ha! ha!&rsquo; laughed Madame; &lsquo;I can assure you, my dear Mr. Walstein,
+      that I have a great many very pretty friends who will run the risk. &lsquo;Tis
+      the best cure for melancholy, believe me. I was serious myself at times
+      before I married, but you see I have got over my gloom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have, indeed,&rsquo; said Walstein; &lsquo;and perhaps, were I Doctor de
+      Schulembourg, I might be as gay.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another compliment! However, I accept it, because it is founded on truth.
+      The fact is, I think you are too much alone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have lived in a desert, and now I live in what is called the world,&rsquo;
+      replied Walstein. &lsquo;Yet in Arabia I was fairly content, and now I am&mdash;&mdash;-what
+      I shall not describe, because it will only procure me your ridicule.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nay! not ridicule, Mr. Walstein. Do not think that I do not sympathise
+      with your affliction, because I wish you to be as cheerful as myself. If
+      you were fairly content in Arabia, I shall begin to consider it an affair
+      of climate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Walstein, still very serious, &lsquo;not an affair of climate&mdash;certainly
+      not. The truth is, travel is a preparation, and we bear with its yoke as
+      we do with all that is initiatory&mdash;with the solace of expectation.
+      But my preparation can lead to nothing, and there appear to be no
+      mysteries in which I am to be initiated.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, after all, you want something to do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No doubt.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What shall it be?&rsquo; inquired Madame de Schulembourg, with a thoughtful
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! what shall it be?&rsquo; echoed Walstein, in accents of despondence; &lsquo;or,
+      rather, what can it be? What can be more tame, more uninteresting, more
+      unpromising than all around? Where is there a career?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A career!&rsquo; exclaimed Caroline. &lsquo;What, you want to set the world in a
+      blaze! I thought you were a poetic dreamer, a listless, superfine
+      speculator of an exhausted world. And all the time you are very
+      ambitious!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know not what I am,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;but I feel that my present lot
+      is an intolerable burthen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what can you desire? You have wealth, youth, and station, all the
+      accidents of fortune which nature can bestow, and all for which men
+      struggle. Believe me, you are born to enjoy yourself; nor do I see that
+      you require any other career than the duties of your position. Believe me,
+      my dear Mr. Walstein, life is a great business, and quite enough to employ
+      any man&rsquo;s faculties.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My youth is fast fading, which I don&rsquo;t regret,&rsquo; replied Walstein, &lsquo;for I
+      am not an admirer of youth. As for station, I attribute no magic to it,
+      and wealth I value only because I know from experience its capacity of
+      producing pleasure; were I a beggar tomorrow, I should be haunted by no
+      uneasy sensations. Pardon me, Madame de Schulembourg; your philosophy does
+      not appear to be that of my friend, the Doctor. We were told this
+      afternoon that, to produce happiness, the nature of a being and his career
+      must coincide. Now, what can wealth and station produce of happiness to
+      me, if I have the mind of a bandit, or, perhaps, even of a mechanic?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must settle all this with Augustus,&rsquo; replied Madame de Schulembourg;
+      &lsquo;I am glad, however, to hear you abuse youth. I always tell Sidonia that
+      he makes his heroes too young, which enrages him beyond description. Do
+      you know him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only by fame.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He would suit you. He is melancholy too, but only by fits. Would you like
+      to make his acquaintance?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Authors are best known by their writings,&rsquo; replied Walstein; &lsquo;I admire
+      his, because, amid much wildness, he is a great reader of the human heart,
+      and I find many echoes in his pages of what I dare only to think and to
+      utter in solitude.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall introduce you to him. He is exceedingly vain, and likes to make
+      the acquaintance of an admirer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I entreat you not,&rsquo; replied Walstein, really alarmed. &lsquo;It is precisely
+      because I admire him very much that I never wish to see him. What can the
+      conversation of Sidonia be compared with his writings? His appearance and
+      his manner will only destroy the ideal, in which it is always interesting
+      to indulge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, be not alarmed! He is not now in Dresden. He has been leading a
+      wild life for some time in our Saxon Switzerland, in a state of despair. I
+      am the unhappy nymph who occasions his present desperation,&rsquo; continued
+      Madame de Schulembourg, with a smile. &lsquo;Do not think me heartless; all his
+      passion is imagination. Change of scene ever cures him; he has written to
+      me every week&mdash;his letters are each time more reasonable. I have no
+      doubt he has by this time relieved his mind in some mad work which will
+      amuse us all very much, and will return again to Dresden quite cool. I
+      delight in Sidonia&mdash;he is my especial favourite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some little time the companions re-entered the carriage. The public
+      drive was now full of sparkling equipages. Madame de Schulembourg gaily
+      bowed, as she passed along, to many a beautiful friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dear girls, come home with us this eve,&rsquo; she exclaimed, as she curbed her
+      ponies by the side of an open carriage, and addressed two young ladies who
+      were seated within it with their mother. &lsquo;Let me introduce Mr. Walstein to
+      you-Madame de Man-heim, the Misses de Manheim, otherwise Augusta and
+      Amelia. Ask any of our friends whom you pass. There is Emilius&mdash;How
+      do you do? Count Voyna, come home with us, and bring your Bavarian
+      friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How is Sidonia, Madame de Schulembourg?&rsquo; inquired Augusta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, quite mad. He will not be sane this week. There is his last letter;
+      read it, and return it to me when we meet. Adieu, Madame de Manheim;
+      adieu, dear girls; do not stay long: adieu, adieu.&rsquo; So they drove away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IBRAHIM PASHA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE eyes of all Europe have been lately directed with feverish anxiety
+      towards the East. With the early history of the present ruler of Egypt,
+      and with his projects of military reform, our readers are doubtless well
+      acquainted. We shall, therefore, only rapidly glance at the present
+      condition of Syria, as on the causes that led to the astonishing success
+      of a campaign that at one time threatened to construct, upon a new basis,
+      the political geography of the East.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In contemplating the state of degradation and impotency into which have
+      fallen Syria, and that vast Peninsula which extends westward of the
+      Euphrates, after having occupied so proud a place in the page of history,
+      from the earliest traditionary periods down to the time when the Turkish
+      Sultans abandoned Broussa for Adrianople, we naturally inquire what has
+      become of the intellectual inheritance which the ancient inhabitants of
+      these countries left behind them? Where are the successors of the skilful
+      workmen of Damascus, of Mossul, and of Angora; the navigators of
+      Phoenicia, the artists of Ionia, and the wise men of Chaldea? Several
+      distinct characters of civilisation have successively flourished in this
+      part of Asia. To the primitive ages, to the reign of the Pelasgi,
+      correspond the subterraneous excavations of Macri, and the Phrygian
+      monuments of Seïdï Gazi; to the Babylonian power, the ruins of Bagdad, and
+      the artificial mountains of Van; to the Hellenic period, the baths, the
+      amphitheatres, and the ruins which strew the coast of the Archipelago; to
+      the Roman empire, the military roads which traverse in every direction the
+      whole Peninsula; to the Greeks of the middle ages, the church of Iznik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now that Mussulman civilisation, which at its brightest periods
+      produced the beautiful mosque of the Sultan Bayazid at Amasia, is at its
+      last gasp; for we can, with safety, affirm that not a single grand
+      thought, either social, religious, or political, any longer connects
+      together the four millions of inhabitants which the Porte numbers in this
+      part of her dominions. All unity has disappeared, and the Asmoulis, who
+      compose the predominating race, no longer obey but some old habits and
+      recollections. The downfall of the Janizary system destroyed their last
+      connecting link. Forgetting that their destiny was conquest&mdash;that
+      they were only encamped in the land&mdash;that they had received a
+      military organisation for a permanent state of warfare&mdash;that their
+      headquarters was Constantinople&mdash;they have become attached to the
+      soil, and shut themselves up in their harems, have established a feudal
+      system, are divided among themselves by hereditary enmities, and their
+      contempt for foreigners is no longer founded on their courage and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near the coasts of the Archipelago European intercourse has, in some
+      degree, civilised the manners of the Turks, but as the traveller advances
+      into the interior, civilisation sensibly decreases. On approaching the
+      central plateau of Asia Minor, he perceives that cultivation seldom
+      extends beyond the distance of half a league round a village; the
+      inhabitants are secreted in the mountains, and carefully avoid the
+      vicinity of the great roads; it is a well-known statistical phenomenon,
+      that the most inaccessible districts are the most populous and the
+      richest. This will be easily understood, when it is told that the passage
+      of troops through a district is a pest more dreaded than the fatal plague
+      itself. The once flourishing and magnificent plains of Eske-Seher have
+      been deserts since the Sultan Amurath traversed them, at the head of
+      300,000 men, to lay siege to Bagdad. His passage was marked by all the
+      devastating effects of the hurricane. When a body of those horsemen called
+      Delhis, who are attached to the suite of every Pasha, enters a village,
+      the consternation is general, and followed by a system of exaction that to
+      the unfortunate villager is equivalent to ruin. To complain to the Pasha
+      would be to court instant destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this we can conceive the horror of the peasantry of Anatolia at the
+      passage of large bodies of troops through their country, and consequently
+      the obstacles a European army would encounter which should ever be masters
+      of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Turcomans, a Nornase tribe, who
+      sometimes pitch their tents on the shores of the Archipelago, and who pay
+      but a moderate tribute to the Porte, are also another cause of
+      devastation. But it is the Musseleins, the farmers of the Pasha, who are
+      the oppressors <i>par excellence</i>; they are always present to despoil
+      the unfortunate fellah, to leave him, to use a common expression in the
+      mouths of this oppressed race, &lsquo;but eyes wherewith to weep.&rsquo; The welfare
+      of the people, respect for the orders of the Porte, are things to them of
+      the utmost indifference; to govern is to raise men and taxes; to obey, is
+      to fear. Thus the law of force reigns almost exclusively at forty or fifty
+      leagues from the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on a nearer approach to the Euphrates, the dissolution of every social
+      tie becomes more striking. We find ourselves amid the independent tribes&mdash;the
+      cruel Lendes; among the Tezdis&mdash;a people who adore the spirit of
+      Erib. Towards the north we fall in with the Lazzi, and all those fierce
+      natives who are entrenched like vultures amid the fastnesses of the
+      Caucasus. Again, in the South we discover the wandering Arabs, the pirates
+      of the desert, and the mountaineers of Lebanon, who live in a state of
+      perpetual discord. Over this immense line of countries centuries have
+      passed, and left no trace behind; all that the ancients and the crusaders
+      have related to us of them, is typical of their condition at this day. The
+      bows and arrows, the armour, exhibited as objects of curiosity in our
+      museums, are still in use among them. It is only by chance, or by
+      profiting by their intestine divisions, that the authority of the Porte is
+      recognised. The Pashas are mostly hereditary, and live in a state of
+      perpetual insurrection. Thus from the shores of the Archipelago to the
+      banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, civilisation and vegetation appear
+      to obey the same law of decrease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is incontestable that Syria and the Pashalics on the confines of Upper
+      Asia are of no real importance to the Sultan; and that the pride of this
+      monarch would be the only sufferer by their loss. Desolation has reached
+      such a point in the Ottoman Empire, that it is almost impossible to
+      regenerate her, unless the branches of the tree, lopped of all those parts
+      so eccentric by their position, are detached from it, and organised into
+      independent states. Towards the North, Russia has pushed on her battalions
+      as far as Erzeroum, but it will be found more difficult, to govern Armenia
+      from St. Petersburg than from Constantinople. In politics, the calculation
+      of distances is an important element. In the South of Asia, Egypt lays
+      claim to Syria, and that part of Caramania situated between Mount Taurus
+      and the sea&mdash;a territory in which she will find those resources she
+      at present stands so much in need of, such as timber for shipbuilding,
+      etc., a Christian population, among whom the seeds of European
+      civilisation will be more easily implanted. She will thus form an empire
+      that will one day become powerful, if not prematurely exhausted by that
+      system of monopoly so rigorously put in force by her present ruler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the quarrels of the Pasha of Acre with Mehemet Ali,
+      justifies, in some degree, the pretensions of the latter. Abdallah Pasha
+      had rendered himself famous by his extortions, and in 1822 took it into
+      his head to seize Damascus. The neighbouring Pasha formed a league against
+      him, and laid siege to his capital, when Mehemet Ali negotiated his pardon
+      for a sum of 60,000 purses, which of course the people paid. Interest soon
+      prevailed over gratitude; the Pasha of Acre felt there was more to be
+      gained from Constantinople than from Cairo&mdash;that the authority of the
+      Sultan in the Pashalic would never be more than nominal, and that the
+      Porte, satisfied by some presents, would not be in a condition to prevent
+      his exactions; he therefore sought, on every occasion, to get rid of the
+      influence of Mehemet Ali, and to excite the jealousy of the Porte against
+      him. An opportunity soon offered itself. Some Egyptian fellahs had taken
+      refuge under the guns of Abdallah Pasha; Mehemet Ali demanded these men,
+      but the Governor of Acre refused to give them up, on the plea that they
+      were subjects of the Grand Signor, and referred the matter to the Porte,
+      who on this occasion was seized with a fit of humanity, and <i>bewailed</i>
+      the oppression of the peasantry of the Valley of the Vale&mdash;<i>Inde
+      Bellum</i>.&rsquo; This was at the close of 1831.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment was favourable for the Viceroy&rsquo;s great designs. Europe was
+      sufficiently agitated to leave him no apprehensions of an intervention on
+      the part of Russia. The Albanians and the Borneans were in open revolt,
+      and insurrections had broken out also in several Pashalics on the side of
+      Upper Asia. The Sultan was considered the slave of the Russians, and his
+      conduct excited the contempt and hatred of the whole empire. In the
+      meantime, since the revolution the exactions of the government had
+      extended to every object of production and industry, while the
+      conscription decimated the most industrious portion of the population; and
+      if to this organised system of spoliation we farther add the ravages of
+      the plague and cholera, we may form some idea of the wretched state of
+      those provinces, and shall be no longer surprised that the Egyptians were
+      everywhere hailed as deliverers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibrahim Pasha, the step-son of Mehemet Ali, was placed at the head of the
+      Egyptian army. Of a short, thick-set figure, he possesses that gigantic
+      strength which Homer so loved in his heroes, and which inspires such
+      respect among barbarous nations. To strike off the head of a bull with a
+      blow of his scimitar&mdash;to execute, like Peter the Great, his victims
+      with his own hand&mdash;to fall, dead drunk, amid the broken wrecks of
+      champagne bottles, are three diversions of his. But latterly his manners,
+      from his intercourse with Europeans, have been somewhat polished, and in
+      deference to them, he has displayed both clemency and dignity&mdash;in
+      fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to acquire the good opinion of
+      Europe. He possesses all that strong common-sense that so distinguishes
+      the Turks, rather than an elevated intelligence of mind. Soliman Bey, a
+      renegade Frenchman, formerly an officer on the staff of Marshal Grouchy,
+      was associated with him, and it is to him that the success of the Egyptian
+      army may be chiefly attributed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which offered
+      itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the side of
+      Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, and extends
+      from the Gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is bounded on one side
+      by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the desert. Her length from
+      Aintab to Gaza is one hundred and fifty leagues, and the mean breadth
+      about thirty. By a single glance at the map we perceive the most important
+      military points for the defence of Syria are the fortress of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre; Tyre, which ought to be fortified; Bolbeck, as the key to several
+      valleys; Antakea, the passage of the Beilan; Alexandretta, situated upon a
+      tongue of land between the marshes and the sea; and lastly, Aentab and
+      Zenyma, which command the two passages on the right side of Mount Amanus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have entered into details in order to show how destitute of all
+      strategetical combinations was the whole plan of campaign in Syria. Malte
+      Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at two millions, but
+      we are inclined to question the accuracy of this calculation, since no two
+      travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the Druses, some estimating
+      them at 120,000, others at a million. The Turks form two-fifths of the
+      population&mdash;they inhabit the large towns with the Greeks; the
+      remainder of the population is composed of Arab fellahs, of Kurds, and of
+      Turcomans, who wander in the valley of the Orontes; of Bedouin Arabs, who
+      pitch their tents on the banks of the Jordan and along the edge of the
+      desert of Ansarich, worshippers of the sun, the descendants of the
+      servants of the Old Man of the Mountain of Maronites, who profess the
+      Catholic ritual; of Druses, whose creed is doubtful; of all the
+      inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; of Mebualis, Mussulmans of the sect of Ali;
+      of Naplonsins and other tribes who have preserved a state of independence.
+      We shall not be astonished to know that amidst this prodigious diversity
+      of races Syria is more easy to conquer than to keep possession of. With
+      the exception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north of Syria, all of them
+      obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the Emir Bechir, a Druse,
+      prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el Din, who revolted against
+      Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when Abdallah raised the standard of
+      revolt in 1822, sought the protection of Mehemet Ali, who re-established
+      him in his government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 regular
+      troops, and four or five thousand Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took the
+      same route as Bonaparte, and rapidly advanced against Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre.
+      Without firing a shot, he made himself master of Jaffa, Caipha, Jerusalem,
+      Naplonsia. Tabaneh and all the country between Gaza and Acre submitted at
+      his approach. Master of the sea, by which he expected reinforcements both
+      in men and material, he made haste to occupy the whole line of coast as
+      far as Ladikich, and set down on the 27th of November, before Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, with a corps of 15,000 regular infantry, two regiments of lancers,
+      1,000 Bedouins, two companies of sappers, one of cannoniers, one of
+      bombardiers, and a train of field and siege artillery. The place is
+      situated on a promontory surrounded on three sides by the sea, and
+      defended on the fourth by a fort, crowned by a tower, which serves as a
+      citadel. This last fort, the bastions of which, from their retiring flanks
+      being too short, is the only one accessible on the land side, but it was
+      enfiladed from a neighbouring height. Bonaparte, at the siege of Saint
+      Jean d&rsquo;Acre, was destitute of siege artillery, and was not master of the
+      sea. He had, therefore, many more obstacles to encounter than Ibrahim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the first ten days the cannonade of the besiegers was not very
+      vigorous, but on the 9th of December, five frigates having cast anchor
+      before the place, with some gun-boats under sail, a general attack was
+      made, and from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon the fleet
+      and the batteries on shore kept up a well-directed fire. The besieged on
+      their side were not inactive. The Egyptians experienced a heavy loss, and
+      several of their ships were much cut up. From the 9th to the 18th the
+      bombardment lasted night and day. On the 10th some heavy guns were placed
+      in battery. The operations of the siege were now pushed forward with great
+      ardour, but yet nothing denoted the immediate reduction of the place. The
+      defence of Ab-dallah Pasha was marked by the most determined energy. He
+      had sworn, it was reported, that he would blow up the town. It was,
+      however, of the utmost importance to push forward the operations with the
+      greatest activity. The first disposition of the population, which had been
+      favourable, might undergo a change should not Ibrahim succeed in striking
+      a great blow. The mountaineers of Lebanon and of Naplonsia had sent their
+      chiefs to the Egyptian camp, and were ready to furnish a contingent of
+      their warriors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The news of the invasion of Syria by the army of Mehemet Ali, spread
+      terror at Constantinople. The Porte, with her usual craft, dissimulated,
+      and feigning to see in this event but a quarrel between two Pashas, she
+      summoned them to lay before her their respective griefs; but finding her
+      orders were disregarded, she made preparations for war. On the 16th of
+      December, 1831, Mehemet Pasha, already governor of Racca, was appointed
+      governor of Aleppo, and Seraskier of Syria and Arabia. Orders were sent to
+      the directors of the Imperial Mines, Osman Pasha, to the Musselims of
+      Marash, of Sevas, of Adana, and of Payas, to levy troops. Strict
+      injunctions were also given to the governors of Caramania, and of
+      Caesarea, to hold themselves in readiness; but this movement of Tartars
+      was insufficient to produce a numerous army; the lukewarm devotion of the
+      subjects of the Porte found ample means of evasion; and every day the
+      efforts of the Turkish government in Syria to reestablish its authority,
+      encountered new obstacles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of the Emir Bechir assembled troops in the mountains, and held out
+      for Mehemet Ali. Damascus armed itself through fear, but retained as an
+      hostage the Pasha appointed to conduct the caravan to Mecca. Memiran Osman
+      Pasha had been selected by the Porte for the government of Tripoli, but it
+      was necessary to take possession of it by force of arms. -This port was
+      already occupied, in the name of Mehemet Ali, by Mustapha Agar Barbar, a
+      man of considerable note in the country. The Seraskier Mehemet Pasha
+      consented to furnish Osman with some thousand irregular horsemen, and
+      fourteen small field-pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter arrived before his capital early in April. Believing the
+      Egyptian Commander-in-Chief still occupied with the siege of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, all his dispositions of attack consisted in scattering his troops
+      over the surrounding hills, and in ordering his artillery to play upon the
+      town, which did not displace a single stone; the guns of the castle were
+      also so badly pointed that the Turkish horsemen galloped up to the very
+      houses, and were only beaten off by a brisk fire of musketry, which,
+      galling them severely, drove them across the heights. Night put an end to
+      the affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after this skirmish, Ibrahim Pasha, having left to one of his
+      lieutenants the direction of the siege of Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre and wishing to
+      reconnoitre the country, appeared at the head of 800 men, with six
+      field-pieces, before Osman&rsquo;s camp, who, seized with a panic, immediately
+      abandoned it to the enemy, and hastened to form a junction with the Pasha
+      of Aleppo, who was posted near Hameh. The Egyptian general immediately
+      pursued him, and took up a position at Horn. But, threatened upon this
+      point by three brigades of the Seraskier Mehemet Pasha, he retired, after
+      some skirmishes, to Bolbeck, where he established his camp, and was joined
+      by Abaz Pasha, his nephew, at the head of 800 men. But his presence was
+      required in other quarters. Divisions had broken out at several points,
+      and the slowness with which the operations of the siege of Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre was carried on had damped the ardour of his partisans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Tripoli a conspiracy was discovered, in which were implicated the Cadi,
+      the Mufti, and the principal Turks. After receiving a considerable
+      reinforcement of troops from Candia, and making some defensive
+      dispositions to the south of Bolbeck, Ibrahim encamped before Saint Jean
+      d&rsquo;Acre, to bring the siege to a conclusion by a decisive attack. On the
+      19th of May the fire was recommenced with great vigour; the Egyptians made
+      the most extraordinary efforts to get into the city, and experienced a
+      heavy loss; but no sooner was a breach effected than it was again closed
+      up. Nothing was left standing in the town. The palace was destroyed, and
+      Abdullah Pasha obliged to retire to the caves dug by Djezzar. The garrison
+      was reduced to less than 2,000 men. At last, on the 27th of May, a general
+      assault was made. Three breaches were practicable, one on the tower of
+      Kapon Bourdjon, the other two at Nebieh Zaleh, and at Zavieh. Six
+      battalions had the horrors of the attack, which commenced at daybreak and
+      lasted twelve hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Kapon Bourdjon the Arabs were on the point of giving ground, but
+      Ibrahim having with his own hand struck off the head of a captain, and
+      having turned a battery against them, they returned to the assault.
+      Unfortunately for Abdullah, his gunners ran from their pieces, and he was
+      obliged to capitulate. The Egyptians confessed a loss but of 1,429
+      wounded, and 512 killed. Thus fell Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre, after a memorable
+      defence of six months. The capture of this place insured to Ibrahim the
+      possession of Lower Syria, and enabled him to advance in perfect security.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the son of Mehemet Ali was thus vigorously pushing forward the war,
+      the Porte was still occupied with her preparations. In the month of March,
+      Hussein Pasha, celebrated by the destruction of Janizaries, and by the
+      extraordinary bravery he displayed in the Russian Campaign, but in other
+      respects, a soldier <i>à la Turc</i>, was appointed chief of the
+      expedition to Arabia. To this soldier was confided the safety of the
+      empire, with the title of field-marshal of Anatolia. He was solemnly
+      invested with the Har-vani (a short cloak) with an embroidered collar. He
+      received a sabre set in brilliants, and two Arabian horses, superbly
+      caparisoned; and, on the 17th of April, he received orders to join the
+      army which Horsen Pasha had organised, the headquarters of which was at
+      Konisk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the formation and rapid assembly of the new regular regiments, the army
+      had been raised to 60,000 men, including artillery and engineers. The mass
+      of their forces was composed of Beckir Pasha&rsquo;s brigade of infantry, with
+      the 2nd regiment of cavalry and a strong brigade of irregulars, under the
+      orders of the governor of Silistria; of Skender Pasha&rsquo;s brigade of
+      infantry, and the 6th cavalry; and Delaver Pasha&rsquo;s brigade, with the
+      cavalry of the guard. Each of these corps was accompanied by its
+      batteries. An European organisation had been given to the different
+      services, such as the paymaster-general&rsquo;s department, commissariat, etc.
+      The Sultan had written out many of the regulations with his own hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young general of division, Mehemet Pasha, a manumitted slave of
+      Hussein, was specially charged with the direction of the regular troops,
+      under the orders of Hussein Pasha. He was tolerably well acquainted with
+      all our manoeuvres, and possessed some military talent. The European
+      instructors were attached to his suite. They were the captain of
+      artillery, Thernin, whose counsels would have saved the Turkish army had
+      they been listened to; the engineer officer, Reully, a brave and
+      experienced soldier; and the captain of the cavalry, Colosso. The two
+      former (Frenchmen) saw almost the whole of the war. Taken prisoners by the
+      Egyptians, they refused to enter their service, and were sent back. As for
+      Colosso, he sojourned but a short time in the camp; for, on his
+      endeavouring to put a stop to the frightful abuses that pervaded every
+      branch of the service, the generals and colonels formed a league against
+      him, and he retired in disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th of May the field-marshal arrived at Koniah, where he displayed
+      the most culpable negligence and carelessness. It was in vain that the
+      European inspectors requested him to put in force &lsquo;the regulation for
+      troops in the field,&rsquo; of the French general Prevan, which had been
+      translated into Turkish; they were no more listened to than were their
+      complaints on the bad state of the camp, and on the indolence and
+      negligence of the chiefs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The generalissimo never even deemed it once requisite to review his army.
+      The most frightful disorder prevailed in the Turkish military
+      administrations, which subsequently led to all their reverses; in fact, it
+      was evident to every experienced eye that an army so constituted, once
+      overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally disorganised, and that the
+      Porte ought to place no reliance upon its army. But there was an arm
+      which, in the flourishing times of Islamism, was worth 100,000 Janizaries.
+      This was excommunication. The Sultan at last resolved to unsheathe this
+      weapon. The fatal fetva was launched against the traitor Mehemet Ali, and
+      his son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those who have studied the Turkish history
+      must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would find at last his master&mdash;the
+      executioner; but since the late victories of the Russians, all national
+      faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis. Excommunication is an arm as
+      worn out at Constantinople as at Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of excommunication, she directed
+      a note to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, in which she explained
+      the quarrel with her subjects, and in which she demanded the strictest
+      neutrality on the part of the great powers, and declared Egypt in a state
+      of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas recalled his consul from Alexandria, and
+      even made an offer of a fleet, and an auxiliary corps d&rsquo;armee. Austria, an
+      enemy to all revolutions, went so far as to threaten the Viceroy. England
+      appeared to preserve the strictest neutrality, while France strenuously
+      employed all her influence to bring about an accommodation; but in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Divan refusing the demands of Mehemet Ali, the solution of the
+      question was referred to Field-Marshal Hussein, who proceeded with that
+      calculated exertion which the Ottomans take for dignity; and thus three
+      weeks were lost before the army advanced on Mount Taurus. It was only on
+      the 1st of June that Mehemet Pasha arrived with the vanguard and Beker&rsquo;s
+      brigade at Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons,
+      brought back the news of the fall of Saint Jean d&rsquo;Acre. It became,
+      therefore, an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to
+      march upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched to
+      Hussein, who posted off in great haste to Adana, only to halt there for a
+      fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the army reached
+      Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and where eight days
+      were lost. Instead of profiting by Ibrahim&rsquo;s delay to take up a more
+      advanced position, the latter descended into the valley of the Orontes,
+      and entered Damascus on the 15th of June, after a short engagement with
+      the Turkish irregulars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all Ibrahim&rsquo;s operations were marked by a want of rapidity. After
+      securing Antioch, the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns, which
+      offered an excellent position, where they might have established a
+      communication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, and
+      whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus. But it was not till
+      the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this movement. Mehemet Pasha
+      commenced his march; but in their haste they forgot to issue rations to
+      the troops, who reached Horns at ten in the morning, almost dead with
+      hunger and fatigue. The Seraskier of Aleppo was encamped, with his
+      irregular troops, at the gates of the city; but without deigning even to
+      think of the enemy, whom they thought to be at some distance, or to issue
+      rations to the serving troops, they wasted their time in vain ceremonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Mehemet Pasha was carried, under a salute of artillery, into a
+      magnificent tent pitched upon the bank of the river. There the two viziers
+      made a long interchange of compliments, and smoked the hargueleh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Midst of all this mummery, intelligence was brought in that the Egyptian
+      army was within two hours&rsquo; march of them. The disorder that ensued was
+      dreadful. The hungry soldiers dragged themselves in masses to meet the
+      Arabs. The latter waited for them, with their front masked by light
+      troops, presenting twenty-seven battalions deployed in line, the left of
+      which rested on the Orontes, and the right upon a hamlet at the foot of a
+      hill. The Egyptians, who were ignorant of the presence of the Turkish
+      regular infantry, had adopted this vicious disposition against their
+      irregular cavalry. But no one really commanded among the Turks, and thus
+      the opportunity of striking a decisive blow was lost. Every colonel had an
+      opinion of his own. One Pasha wished to retreat, while the European
+      instructors insisted on an immediate attack. In short, the artillery even
+      refused to advance to the front. However, Ibrahim Pasha did not remain
+      inactive; he pressed the Turks closely, doubled his line from right to
+      left, and pushed forward some battalions on the side of the Orontes, but
+      they were checked by part of Beker&rsquo;s brigade and two pieces of cannon.
+      Then the whole Egyptian line halted and opened their fire. In the course
+      of twenty minutes the left of the Turks suffered considerably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Pasha resolved to charge the enemy with the bayonet; but instead
+      of remaining with the second line in order to direct the movement, he put
+      himself at the head of his soldiers to attack the Arabs, who immediately
+      formed in column. Before he reached them, he was abandoned by his
+      artillery, while his cavalry, which should have turned the enemy, fell
+      back in disorder before a battery which they might have carried. The
+      second line of infantry did not support the movement with vigour; and on
+      the Egyptian columns deploying into line, preparatory to a decisive
+      charge, the whole Turkish army went to the right-about in the most
+      disgraceful manner, pursued by the enemy&rsquo;s cavalry. It was a general <i>sauve
+      qui peut</i>. The approach of night alone saved the Turkish army from
+      total destruction. The loss of the Sultan&rsquo;s forces in this affair amounted
+      to 2,000 killed and 2,500 prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wrecks of the Turkish corps retired pell-mell upon Antioch. Instead of
+      rallying them, Ned-geb Pasha&rsquo;s brigade, which was encamped at two hours&rsquo;
+      march from the field of battle, fled with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The field-marshal, on learning this disaster, took post at the <i>tête du
+      pont</i> on Djezzer, on the Orontes. He received the fugitives at the
+      point of the bayonet, and cut off the heads of the first mutineers who
+      endeavoured to cross. It was in such moments that Hussein showed himself
+      to be above the ordinary stamp of mankind. His energy was admirably
+      calculated for quelling a revolt; but, on the other hand, though he was
+      able to master the confusion of a retreat, he knew not how to avoid it.
+      Such was his military incapacity that he was incapable of foreseeing
+      anything. In a short time he expended all the money in the military chest,
+      impoverishing all the districts through which he passed, paying nowhere
+      and holding up the name of his master to universal execration. At the
+      action of Horns, the mass of his forces were not engaged, so that there
+      yet remained 40,000 regular troops; but the field-marshal allowed an army
+      to perish, to which Horsen Pasha had given a tolerable organisation.
+      Instead of taking any measures of defence, he set out for Antioch, with
+      the view of effecting a junction with some troops in the neighbourhood of
+      Aleppo; but finding no provisions in those districts, he returned by
+      forced marches to Alexandretta, after fatiguing his troops by a march of
+      eight hundred leagues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Ibrahim was advancing, having recalled all his garrisons, and
+      made new levies in the mountains. As he advanced, the whole country
+      declared in his favour, and the castle of Aleppo was delivered up to him.
+      His conduct was marked by great skill and generosity. Under his protection
+      the numerous Christians began to raise their heads. There now only
+      remained, to complete the entire occupation of Syria, to seize Antioch and
+      Alexandretta; but his operations were pushed forward with extreme
+      slowness, because he always expected from Constantinople a decision
+      favourable to the pretensions of his father-in-law. The Turkish
+      field-marshal had thus plenty of time to stop his passage into Carmania.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antioch offered a position for an entrenched camp; but this he
+      disregarded, and made his advanced posts fall back upon the defile of
+      Beylau. This defile, formed by a deep valley, is so narrow in some places
+      that a camel can scarcely pass. Nevertheless, this is the grand route of
+      the Mecca caravan. Nothing was more easy than to defend it; yet on the 5th
+      of August the Egyptians made themselves masters of it, after an action of
+      two hours. The passage of the Beylau delivered to the conqueror
+      Alexandretta, its immense magazines, and one hundred pieces of cannon. The
+      Turks, instead of rallying in the rear, in the favourable positions which
+      the ground afforded, fled in the direction of Adana. Ibrahim pursued them
+      with his cavalry, which passed the Djihun at a ford, Hussein Pasha having
+      blown up the superb bridge of nine arches that crossed that river at
+      Missis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ottoman troops continued their retreat across the plain of Adana, but
+      they had scarcely reached that city before they were dislodged by the
+      enemy, who were on the point of capturing the field-marshal. The whole
+      district of Adana declared for Ibrahim, who had at length reached the new
+      line of frontiers which Mehemet Ali wished to make the boundaries of his
+      empire. There was now nothing to prevent the march of the Egyptians upon
+      Constantinople itself, for the demoralised soldiers of Hussein Pasha
+      deserved not the name of an army. The Kurds and the Anatolian peasantry
+      murdered the Turkish regulars wherever they could find them, which was not
+      difficult, for, deserted by platoons, the provinces of Upper Asia were in
+      such a state of insurrection that a single officer of Ibrahim&rsquo;s would have
+      been sufficient to make the most considerable town capitulate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Viceroy, at one moment, had the insane idea of himself attacking the
+      Turkish capital by sea, while Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari. But
+      his prudence doubtless prevented the execution of the enterprise, for
+      however popular the cause of Mehemet Ali may have been, he would have
+      appeared in Constantinople only as a subject, and certainly could not have
+      prevented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he succeeded in
+      these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been the result?
+      Instead of a compact state bounded by Mount Taurus, he would have found
+      himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering to its base, which no
+      human power can regenerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali listened, therefore, to the sagacious counsel of France, and
+      endeavoured to obtain the recognition of his independence. But the Porte,
+      listening to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the blind
+      obstinacy that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories of the
+      Russians, would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an armistice of
+      five months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pasha was succeeded by the
+      Grand Vizier, Redchid Pasha, the same who had distinguished himself in
+      Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro Pasha. Brave and accustomed to
+      the camp, a sound politician, Redchid was superior to his predecessor, but
+      even he was only a Turkish general. He had been selected principally on
+      account of his great influence in Turkey in Europe. He therefore received
+      orders to repair to Constantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians
+      and Albanians, of which they knew he could dispose, and with the six
+      regiments of infantry and cavalry that belonged to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime the indefatigable Hussein Pasha had succeeded in
+      re-organising an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve; it was
+      echeloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the troops brought
+      by the Grand Vizier; it was sufficiently numerous to have prevented
+      Ibrahim&rsquo;s further advance; but there was neither skill in the general nor
+      ardour among the troops; the councils of the European instructors were, as
+      usual, disregarded, while the Egyptian army, on the contrary, was almost
+      exclusively under the direction of European officers. A single piece of
+      artillery would have sufficed to defend the passage of the Taurus, and yet
+      when Ibrahim appeared on its northern declivity he had to encounter but a
+      few irregulars, of whom he soon gave a good account. He then fixed his
+      camp on the plain of Erekli, at one hundred and sixty days&rsquo; march of a
+      camel from Constantinople, and then advanced upon Koniah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reuff Pasha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the Turkish army
+      until the arrival of Red-chid Pasha, prudently fell back upon Acken at the
+      approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the disastrous day of
+      Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the offensive instead of
+      taking up a position in the mountains; and, allowing the unusual rigour of
+      the season to thin the ranks of the enemy, he precipitately advanced. The
+      cold was so excessive, the weather so dreadful, and the roads rendered so
+      impassable by the snow, that only a small portion of the artillery and
+      ammunition could follow the movement, so that they found themselves, as at
+      Horns, without provisions in the presence of the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some distance from Koniah, Redchid Pasha sent forward his selector at the
+      head of a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the mountains
+      up the village of Lilé, which was occupied by a strong detachment of
+      Arabs, while the Grand Vizier on his side with the grand army, was to
+      pursue the route of the plain. The attack was to have been simultaneous,
+      but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the scene of action,
+      and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check, the Grand Vizier
+      continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in presence of the
+      enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and prepared to give him a warm
+      reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb (21st of December), and from the
+      advanced hour of the day there was no alternative but to attack, otherwise
+      he must have passed a night upon the field, without bread, exposed to the
+      action of an intense cold that would have paralysed the ardour of the
+      troops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Redchid Pasha made therefore no dispositions for attack, but his order of
+      battle was best: he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering useless
+      a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to alter his
+      dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not reconnoitre
+      the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an extension of front. His
+      left wing therefore was unable to deploy, and remained formed in columns
+      of attack, while the enemy&rsquo;s artillery committed dreadful havoc on their
+      profound masses. He committed also another fault, that of placing his
+      artillery between the interval of the lines, so that it did not reach the
+      Egyptians, while theirs on the contrary, posted in their front, did great
+      execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Redchid&rsquo;s main plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his
+      forces, composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy&rsquo;s army,
+      whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But
+      Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point
+      attacked a sufficient force to make ahead for a short time, turned his
+      adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of the
+      Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, and
+      afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which thus found
+      itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of all the efforts
+      of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Redchid Pasha then put himself at the head of his guard for a last effort,
+      but after performing prodigies of valour, he was again repulsed, and fell,
+      severely wounded, into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss of the Turks
+      was immense; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the line, left
+      3,000 men upon the field of battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The battle was decisive. The second army of the Grand Seigneur was
+      annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and the
+      tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the Russian
+      Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at stake rather
+      than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on independent
+      sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that he owes this
+      glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is rapidly sinking
+      under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which European diplomacy
+      will in vain attempt to arrest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE COURT OF EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TWO or three miles from Cairo, approached by an avenue of sycamores, is
+      Shoubra, a favourite residence of the Pasha of Egypt. The palace, on the
+      banks of the Nile, is not remarkable for its size or splendour, but the
+      gardens are extensive and beautiful, and adorned by a kiosk, which is one
+      of the most elegant and fanciful creations I can remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Emerging from fragant bowers of orange trees, you suddenly perceive before
+      you tall and glittering gates rising from a noble range of marble steps.
+      These you ascend, and entering, find yourself in a large quadrangular
+      colonnade of white marble. It surrounds a small lake, studded by three or
+      four gaudy barques, fastened to the land by silken cords. The colonnade
+      terminates towards the water by a very noble marble balustrade, the top of
+      which is covered with groups of various kinds of fish in high relief. At
+      each angle of the colonnade the balustrade gives way to a flight of steps
+      which are guarded by crocodiles of immense size, admirably sculptured in
+      white marble. On the farther side the colonnade opens into a great number
+      of very brilliant banqueting-rooms, which you enter by withdrawing
+      curtains of scarlet cloth, a colour vividly contrasting with the white
+      shining marble of which the whole kiosk is formed. It is a frequent
+      diversion of the Pasha himself to row some favourite Circassians in one of
+      the barques and to overset his precious freight in the midst of the lake.
+      As his Highness piques himself upon wearing a caftan of calico, and a juba
+      or exterior robe of coarse cloth, a ducking has not for him the same
+      terrors it would offer to a less eccentric Osmanli. The fair Circassians
+      shrieking, with their streaming hair and dripping finery, the Nubian
+      eunuchs rushing to their aid, plunging into the water from the balustrade,
+      or dashing down the t marble steps,&mdash;all this forms an agreeable
+      relaxation after the labours of the Divan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the splendour of the Arabian Nights is realised in the Court of Egypt.
+      The guard of Nubian eunuchs with their black, glossy countenances, clothed
+      in scarlet and gold, waving their glittering Damascus sabres, and gently
+      bounding on their snow-white steeds, is, perhaps, the most picturesque
+      corps in the world. The numerous harem, the crowds of civil functionaries
+      and military and naval officers in their embroidered Nizam uniforms, the
+      vast number of pages and pipe-bearers, and other inferior but richly
+      attired attendants, the splendid military music, for which Mehemet Ali has
+      an absolute passion, the beautiful Arabian horses and high-bred
+      dromedaries, altogether form a blending of splendour and luxury which
+      easily recall the golden days of Bagdad and its romantic Caliph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet this Court is never seen to greater advantage than in the delicious
+      summer palace in the gardens of Shoubra. During the festival of the Bairam
+      the Pasha usually holds his state in this enchanted spot, nor is it easy
+      to forget that strange and brilliant scene. The banqueting-rooms were all
+      open and illuminated, the colonnade was full of guests in gorgeous groups,
+      some standing and conversing, some seated on small Persian carpets smoking
+      pipes beyond all price, and some young grandees lounging, in their crimson
+      shawls and scarlet vests, over the white balustrade, and flinging their
+      glowing shadows over the moonlit water: from every quarter came bursts of
+      melody, and each moment the river breeze brought gusts of perfume on its
+      odorous wings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE VALLEY OF THEBES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      UPPER EGYPT is a river flowing through a desert; the banks on each side
+      affording a narrow margin of extreme fertility. Rocks of granite and hills
+      of sand form, at slight intervals, through a course of sev-earl hundred
+      miles, a chain of valleys, reaching from the rapids of the Nile to the
+      vicinity of Cairo. In one of these valleys, the broadest and the most
+      picturesque, about half-way between the cataracts and the modern capital,
+      we find the most ancient, the most considerable, and the most celebrated
+      of architectural remains. For indeed no Greek, or Sicilian, or Latin city&mdash;Athens,
+      or Agrigentum, or Rome; nor the platforms of Persepolis, nor the columns
+      of Palmyra, can vie for a moment in extent, variety, and sublime
+      dimensions, with the ruins of ancient Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These remains may be classed, generally, in four considerable divisions:
+      two of these great quarters of ruins being situated on each side of the
+      river Nile&mdash;Karnak and Luxor towards the Red Sea; the Memnonion and
+      Medcenet Habu towards the great Libyan Desert. On this side, also, are the
+      cemeteries of the great city&mdash;the mummy-caves of Gornou, two miles in
+      extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, are the tombs of the
+      queens; and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk, the famous tombs of
+      the kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The population of the city of a hundred gates now consists of a few Arab
+      families, who form four villages of mud huts, clustered round those
+      gigantic columns and those mighty obelisks, a single one of which is
+      sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their palaces and
+      museums. Often, indeed, have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the
+      roof of a single Egyptian temple. Dendera is an instance. The population
+      of Gornou, numbering between three and four hundred, resides solely in the
+      tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think that Luxor, from its situation, usually first attracts the notice
+      of the traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty
+      platform. Its enormous columns are the first specimens of that colossal
+      genius of the Pharaohs, which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The
+      entrance to this temple is through a magnificent propylon;-that is, a
+      portal flanked by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in
+      breadth, and rises nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely
+      covered with sculpture, commemorating the triumph of a conquering monarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of red granite, buried
+      in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring thence, to the top of
+      their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side of them, a little in
+      advance, at the time of my visit, were the two most perfect obelisks
+      remaining. One of them is now at Paris;&mdash;that famous obelisk of
+      Luxor, of which we have heard so much. From the propylon, you pass into a
+      peristyle court,&mdash;about two hundred and thirty feet long, by one
+      hundred and seventy&mdash;the roof of which was once supported by double
+      rows of columns, many of which now remain: and so on through other
+      pyramidal gates, and courts, and porticoes, and chambers, which are, in
+      all probability, of a more ancient date than those first described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side of
+      the river, through an avenue of sphinxes, considerably above a mile in
+      extent, though much broken. All the marvels of the world sink before the
+      first entrance into Karnak. It is the Alps-the Andes&mdash;of
+      architecture. The obelisks of Luxor may be unrivalled; the sculptures of
+      Medoenet Habu more exquisite; the colossus of the Memnonion more gigantic;
+      the paintings of the royal tombs more curious and instructive: but
+      criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of the halls and courts
+      of Karnak, and the mind is open only to one general impression of colossal
+      variety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I well remember the morning when I stood before the propylon, or chief
+      entrance of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue
+      heaven, that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built of
+      a light yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three thousand
+      years. The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader than the
+      front of our cathedral of St. Paul, and its height exceeds that of the
+      Trajan column. It is entirely without sculpture&mdash;a rare omission, and
+      doubtless intended that the unity of effect should not be broken. The
+      great door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through this you pass into colonnaded courts, which in any other place
+      would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front of
+      a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great hall
+      of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand square
+      feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches as our
+      St. Martin&rsquo;s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this unrivalled
+      chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed of single
+      stones&mdash;compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would appear
+      almost bricks&mdash;has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four
+      colossal columns which supported it, and which are considerably above
+      thirty feet in circumference, still remain, and with the walls and propyla
+      are completely covered with sculptured forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall not attempt to describe any other part of Karnak;-the memory aches
+      with the effort. There are many buildings attached to it, larger than most
+      temples; and infinite number of gates and obelisks, and colossi; but the
+      imagination cannot refrain from calling up some sacred or heroic
+      procession, moving from Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, through the
+      great avenue of sphinxes, and ranging themselves in groups around the
+      gigantic columns of this sublime structure. What feudal splendour, and
+      what Gothic ceremonies; what tilts and tournaments, and what
+      ecclesiastical festivals, could rival the vast, the beautiful, and the
+      solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at two seated colossi, one
+      of which is the famous musical statue of Memnon. It is fine to see him
+      still seated on his throne, dignified and serene, on the plain of Thebes.
+      This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered with
+      inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they had
+      listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
+      companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
+      enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which may
+      yet be traced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides we
+      recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
+      supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
+      came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure, though
+      a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude is
+      concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
+      supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate in
+      the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge colossus
+      that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red granite, and
+      of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is entirely obliterated.
+      It lies upon its back, and in its fall has destroyed all the temple within
+      reach. It measures more than sixty feet round the shoulders, the breadth
+      of the instep is nearly seven feet, and the hieroglyphical figures
+      engraven on the arm are large enough for a man to walk in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+      Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a palace;
+      and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find represented
+      on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing chess with his
+      queen. It is these domestic details that render also the sepulchres of
+      Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their
+      tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived, we must frequent
+      their burial-places. A curious instance of this is, that, in a tomb near
+      Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians procured from the
+      distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with which they raised
+      the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and primary
+      characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say Imagination,
+      as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the Greeks. Thus,
+      when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs, they blended the
+      delicate taste of Ionia t with the rich invention of the Nile, and
+      produced Philoe, Dendera, and Edfou. It is from the Pharaohs, however,
+      that you must seek for the vast and the gigantic: the pyramid, the
+      propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, and the sphinx.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the early part of the year of the invasion of Syria by the
+      Egyptians, some eight years gone, that I first visited Thebes. My barque
+      was stowed against the bank of the river, near the Memnonion; the last
+      beam of the sun, before it sunk behind the Libyan hills, quivered on the
+      columns of Luxor; the Nubian crew, after their long and laborious voyage,
+      were dispersed on shore; and I was myself reposing in the shade, almost
+      unattended, when a Turk, well mounted, and followed by his pipe-bearer,
+      and the retinue that accompanies an Oriental of condition, descended from
+      the hills which contain the tombs of the queens, and approached the boat.
+      I was surprised, on advancing to welcome him, to be hailed in my native
+      tongue; and pleased, at such a moment and in such a place, to find a
+      countryman. While we smoked the pipe of salutation, he told me that he had
+      lived at Thebes for nearly ten years, studying the antiquities, the
+      history, and the manners of its ancient inhabitants. I availed myself of
+      his invitation to his residence, and, accompanying him, I found that I was
+      a visitor in a tomb, and yet by no means a gloomy dwelling-place. A
+      platform, carved in the mountain, was surrounded by a mud wall and tower,
+      to protect it from hostile Arabs. A couple of gazelles played in this
+      front court, while we, reposing on a divan, arranged round the first
+      chamber of the tomb, were favoured with a most commanding view of the
+      valley outspread beneath. There were several inner chambers, separated
+      from each other by hangings of scarlet cloth. Many apartments in the
+      Albany have I seen not half as pleasant and convenient. I found a library,
+      and instruments of art and science; a companion full of knowledge,
+      profound in Oriental manners, and thoroughly master of the subject which
+      naturally then most interested me. Our repast was strictly Eastern, but
+      the unusual convenience of forks was not wanting, and my host told me that
+      they were the very ones that he had used at Exeter College. I shall never
+      forget that first day at Thebes, and this my first interview with one then
+      unknown to fame, but whom the world has since recognised&mdash;the
+      learned, the ingenious, and amiable Mr. Wilkinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      EGYPTIAN THEBES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian
+      architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the
+      Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich invention
+      of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations of
+      architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined Philoe&mdash;such
+      the magnificent Dendera&mdash;such the sumptuous Edfou!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the greatest
+      empires,&mdash;the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of the Romans;
+      the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and Sicilians; the
+      Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the pillars of Palmyra
+      and Girgenti,&mdash;sink into insignificance when compared with the
+      structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind makes a leap
+      amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New combinations
+      rise upon our limited invention and contract the taste,&mdash;the pyramid,
+      the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, the sphinx.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Take the map; trace the windings of the mysterious stream, whose source
+      baffles even this age of enterprise, and which remains unknown even when
+      the Niger is discovered. It flows through a wilderness. On one side are
+      the interminable wastes of Libya; on the other, a rocky desert, leading to
+      the ocean: yet its banks are fertile as a garden; and within 150 miles of
+      the sea it divides into two branches, which wind through an immense plain,
+      once the granary of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Nubian passed me in a state of nudity, armed with a poisoned spear, and
+      guarded by the skin of a hippopotamus, formed into a shield. In this
+      country, the animal called man is fine, although his wants are few,&mdash;some
+      rice, a calabash of palm wine, and the fish he himself spears. Are his
+      ancestors the creators of the adjoining temple, covered with beautiful
+      sculptures, and supported by colossal figures fifty feet in height? It is
+      well to ponder, by the roar of the cataracts of the Nile, over the
+      perfectibility of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A light has at length broken into the darkness of Egyptian ages; and
+      although we cannot discover the source of the Nile, we can at least
+      decipher its hieroglyphics. Those who are ignorant of the study are
+      incredulous as to its fruits; they disbelieve in the sun, because they are
+      dazzled by its beams. A popular miscellany is not the place to enter into
+      a history, or a vindication, of the phonetic system. I am desirous here
+      only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner, some
+      idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the Egyptian
+      antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the marvellous
+      creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman which shall
+      unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and romantic
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval, at
+      once inform me that it was constructed by a &lsquo;Son of the Sun,&rsquo; or a
+      &lsquo;Phrah,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Pharaoh.&rsquo; It is remarkable that the Greeks never once mention
+      this memorable title, simply because they have always translated it by
+      their celebrated personification, &lsquo;Sol,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Apollo.&rsquo; In the obelisk of
+      Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore read, in the
+      third column, instead of &lsquo;the powerful Apollo,&rsquo; &lsquo;the powerful Phrah, the
+      all-splendid Son of the Sun.&rsquo; Proceeding with the inscription, I also
+      discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses the Second, a monarch
+      of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised some of the most
+      wonderful monuments of Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
+      mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his own
+      results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
+      suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of the
+      hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
+      genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must be
+      studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing with
+      sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
+      catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
+      traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient of
+      nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous ruins,
+      the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know by the
+      inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly celebrate the
+      achievements of a great conqueror,&mdash;Rameses the Second, or the Great,
+      whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than fifteen
+      hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore, demonstrate
+      the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand years back.
+      Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes and the Amunophs,
+      are described as monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty. Thothmes the Fourth,
+      one of these ancestors, cut the great Sphinx of the Pyramids; as for the
+      Pyramids themselves, it is now undeniable that they were not raised at the
+      comparatively late period ascribed to them by Herodotus and Diodorus. No
+      monuments in Egypt can be compared in antiquity with these buildings; and
+      the names of the predecessors of Rameses the Great are found in their
+      vicinity, evidently sculptured at a much later epoch. &lsquo;The Pyramids are at
+      least ten thousand years old,&rsquo; said Champollion to a friend of mine in
+      Egypt, rubbing his hands, with eyes sparkling with all the enthusiasm of
+      triumphant research.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of
+      Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no
+      Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the
+      Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch&mdash;Rameses
+      the First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that
+      Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most
+      powerful enemy,&rsquo; and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation with
+      fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and well-wooded
+      country. It is probable that this nation was the Assyrians, who, according
+      to ancient writers, invaded Egypt under Ninus and Semiramis. Thothmes the
+      Third and Fourth, Amunoph, and Rameses the First, carried on this war with
+      uncertain success. The successor of Rameses the First, whose phonetic name
+      is doubtful, was not unworthy of the son whom the gods accorded to him as
+      a reward for his valour and magnificence. This anonymous sovereign led the
+      war in person, and probably against degenerate princes. On the walls of
+      Karnak&mdash;a sculptured scroll, more durable than those of his poets and
+      historians&mdash;we find him in his triumphal chariot, leading a host of
+      infantry and chariots, attacking fortified places, defended by lofty walls
+      and surrounded by water. The enemy is seen clearing their country in
+      advance, driving away their cattle, and felling forests to impede the
+      progress of the invader&rsquo;s chariots; but at length the victorious Pharaoh
+      returns to his Nile with crowds of prisoners, bearing every variety of
+      rich and fantastic tribute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of this chieftain was Rameses the Second, or the Great. Following
+      the example of his illustrious predecessor, he soon led a numerous and
+      chosen army to extend the Oriental conquests of the Egyptians. He passed
+      along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without doubt, Syria, since
+      the name of Rameses the Second is still found on that shore, near the
+      ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued his march into the
+      interior, where we at length find him opposed by a powerful force on the
+      banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates. On the opposite bank of
+      the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city. The battle is fought and
+      won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue for peace. The city is not
+      represented as taken, yet sieges are often sculptured on these walls, and
+      the Egyptian army is always supplied with scaling-ladders and the testudo.
+      And what was this city? Was it Babylon? Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is
+      it at this remote period, to read for the first time, the Gazettes of the
+      Pharaohs! It does not appear to have been the object of the Egyptians to
+      make a permanent settlement in these conquered countries. They laid waste
+      the land, they accumulated plunder, they secured peace by the dread of
+      their arms, and, returning home with the same rapidity that they advanced,
+      they enjoyed and commemorated their victories in the embellishment of
+      their majestic cities. The remainder of the long reign of Rameses the
+      Great was passed in the cultivation of the arts. A greater number of
+      monuments, statues, and temples bear the name of this king than of any
+      other who ruled in Egypt, and there are few remains of any city in that
+      country where it is not met with. To him we are indebted alike for the
+      rock temples of Nubia, and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised
+      that splendid structure on the western side of Thebes, supported by
+      colossal statues, which is foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great
+      additions to Karnak; he built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned
+      the great temple of Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently
+      had a passion; and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples,
+      especially in Nubia, which it would be tedious to recount, and other
+      remains, he cut the famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may
+      have been the actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no
+      Egyptian king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then
+      allow that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
+      former-too great for the limited power of Europe&mdash;and remain
+      persuaded, that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the
+      utmost extent of his march was confined to the countries bordering on
+      Assyria, Arabia, and part of Æthiopia, from which country he is
+      represented as receiving tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second
+      secured a long peace to Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however,
+      are celebrated for the creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes,
+      leading from Luxor to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous
+      evidence of the prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs.
+      War, however, broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly
+      against another power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning
+      victorious, the third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the
+      temple and the palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting
+      period of Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom
+      bore the name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they
+      were distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons
+      which may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the
+      reign of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
+      records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It is
+      useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose blinded
+      conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total darkness in
+      which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous musical statue of
+      Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and serene, on the plain
+      of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height, and the base of the
+      figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and Roman travellers,
+      vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise melody. The learned
+      and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at Thebes upwards of ten
+      years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to me to have solved the
+      mystery of this music. He informed me that having ascended the statue, he
+      discovered that some metallic substance had been inserted in its breast,
+      which, when struck, emitted a very melodious sound. From the attitude of
+      the statue, a priest might easily have ascended in the night, and remained
+      completely concealed behind the mighty arms while he struck the breast;
+      or, which is not improbable, there was probably some secret way to ascend,
+      now blocked up; for this statue, with its remaining companion, although
+      now isolated in their situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the
+      ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which may yet be traced. Thanks
+      to the phonetic system, we now know that this musical statue is one of
+      Amunoph the Second, who lived many centuries before the Trojan war. The
+      truth is, the Greeks, who have exercised almost as fatal an influence over
+      modern knowledge as they have a beneficial one over modern taste, had no
+      conception of anything more ancient than the Trojan war, except Chaos.
+      Chaos is a poetic legend, and the Trojan war was the squabble of a few
+      marauding clans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where are the records of the great Assyrian monarchy? Where are the books
+      of the Medes and Persians? Where the learned annals of Pharaohs?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Fortunate Jordan! Fortunate Ilissus! I have waded through the sacred
+      waters; with difficulty I traced the scanty windings of the classic
+      stream. Alas! for the exuberant Tigris; alas! for the mighty Euphrates;
+      alas! for the mysterious Nile!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is curious that no allusion whatever to the Jews has yet turned up on
+      any Egyptian monuments. But upon the walls of Medoenet Habu I observed,
+      more than once repeated, the Ark borne in triumph. This is not a fanciful
+      resemblance. It responds in every particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have noticed the history of Ancient Egypt, because some knowledge of it
+      is necessary to illustrate Thebes. I quit a subject which, however
+      curious, is probably of too confined an interest for the general reader,
+      and I enter in his company the City of the Hundred Gates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nile winds through the valley of Thebes&mdash;a valley formed by
+      ranges of mountains, which on one side defend it from the great Lybian
+      desert, and on the other from the rocky wilderness that leads to the Red
+      Sea. On each side of the stream are two great quarters of ruins. On the
+      side of the Red Sea are Luxor and Karnak, on the opposite bank the great
+      temple called the Memnonion, and the various piles which, under the
+      general title of Medoenet Habu, in all probability among other structures
+      comprise the principal palace of the more ancient Pharaohs. On the Lybian
+      side, also, are the cemeteries of the great city-the mummy caves of
+      Gornou, two miles in extent; above them, excavated in the mountains, the
+      tombs of the Queens, and in the adjacent valley of Beban-el-Maluk the
+      famous tombs of the Kings. The population of the City of the Hundred Gates
+      now consists of a few Arab families, who form four villages of mud huts
+      clustered round those gigantic columns and mighty obelisks, a single one
+      of which is sought for by the greatest sovereigns of Europe for their
+      palaces and museums as the rarest of curious treasures. Often, indeed,
+      have I seen a whole Arab village rising from the roof of a single Egyptian
+      temple. Dendera is an instance. The population of Gornou, in number
+      between three and four hundred, reside solely in the tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think that Luxor, from its situation, first attracts the notice of the
+      traveller. It is close on the river, and is built on a lofty platform. Its
+      enormous columns are the first specimen of that colossal genius of the
+      Pharaohs which the Ptolemies never attempted to rival. The entrance to
+      this temple is through a magnificent propylon, that is, a portal flanked
+      by massy pyramidal moles. It is two hundred feet in breadth, and rises
+      nearly sixty feet above the soil. This gate is entirely covered with
+      sculpture, commemorating the triumph of Rameses the Great over the
+      supposed Assyrians. On each side of the portal are two colossal statues of
+      red granite, buried in the sand up to their shoulders, but measuring
+      thence, to the top of their crowns, upwards of twenty feet. On each side
+      of them, a little in advance, rise the two most perfect obelisks that
+      remain, also of red granite, and each about eighty feet high. From the
+      propylon you pass into a peristyle court, about two hundred and thirty
+      feet long by one hundred and seventy, the roof of which was once supported
+      by double rows of columns, many of which now remain; and so on through
+      other pyramidal gates and courts and porticoes and chambers which are, in
+      all probability, of a more ancient date than the gates and obelisks and
+      colossi first described, which last were perhaps added by Rameses, who
+      commemorated his triumph by rendering a celebrated building still more
+      famous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Luxor you proceed to Karnak, the other great division on this side of
+      the river, through an avenue of sphinxes considerably above a mile in
+      extent; and here I should observe that Egyptian sphinxes are either <i>andro</i>
+      or <i>crio</i> sphinxes, the one formed by the union of the lion with the
+      man, and the other of the lion with the ram. Their mystery is at length
+      penetrated. They are male and never female. They are male and they are
+      monarchs. This great avenue, extending from Luxor to Karnak, was raised by
+      the two immediate successors of the great Rameses, and represents their
+      long line of ancestry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the marvels of the world sink before the first entrance into Karnak.
+      It may vie with the Alps and the Andes. The obelisks of Luxor may be
+      unrivalled, the sculptures of Medcenet Habu more exquisite, the colossus
+      of Memnonion more gigantic, the paintings of the royal tombs more curious
+      and instructive, but criticism ceases before the multifarious wonders of
+      the halls and courts of Karnak and the mind is open only to one general
+      impression of colossal variety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I well remember the morning I stood before the propylon, or chief entrance
+      of Karnak. The silver stars were still shining in the cold blue heaven,
+      that afforded a beautiful relief to the mighty structure, built of a light
+      yellow stone, and quite unstained by the winds of three thousand years.
+      The front of this colossal entrance is very much broader than the front of
+      our cathedral of St. Paul&rsquo;s, and its height exceeds that of the Trajan
+      column. It is entirely without sculptures, a rare omission, and doubtless
+      intended, that the unity of the effect should not be broken. The great
+      door in the centre is sixty-four feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through this you pass into columned courts, which, in any other place,
+      would command undivided attention, until you at length arrive in front of
+      a second propylon. Ascending a flight of steps, you enter the great hall
+      of Karnak. The area of this hall is nearly fifty-eight thousand square
+      feet, and it has recently been calculated that four such churches as our
+      St. Martin&rsquo;s-in-the-Fields might stand side by side in this unrivalled
+      chamber without occupying the whole space. The roof, formed of single
+      stones, compared with which the masses at Stonehenge would appear almost
+      bricks, has fallen in; but the one hundred and thirty-four colossal
+      columns which supported it, and which are considerably above thirty feet
+      in circumference, still remain, and, with the walls and propyla, are
+      completely covered with sculptured forms. I shall not attempt to describe
+      any other part of Karnak. The memory aches with the effort; there are many
+      buildings attached to it, larger than most temples; there are an infinite
+      number of gates, and obelisks, and colossi; but the imagination cannot
+      refrain from calling up some sacred or heroic procession, moving from
+      Luxor to Karnak, in melodious pomp, through the great avenue of sphinxes,
+      and ranging themselves in glorious groups around the gigantic columns of
+      this sublime structure. What feudal splendour, and what Gothic ceremonies,
+      what tilts and tournaments, and what ecclesiastic festivals, could rival
+      the vast, the beautiful, and solemn magnificence of the old Egyptians?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the river to Western Thebes, we arrive at the two seated colossi,
+      one of which I have already noticed as the musical Memnon. These doubtless
+      once guarded the entrance of some temple more ancient than any remaining,
+      for they were raised by Amunoph the Second, a predecessor, by some
+      generations, of the great Rameses. They were, doubtless, once seated on
+      each side of a propylon, as at Luxor, and in all probability were flanked
+      by obelisks. Whether the temple were destroyed for materials, for more
+      recent structures, or whether it has sunk under the accumulations of the
+      slimy soil, may be decided by the future excavator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We arrive at the Memnonion. This temple was raised by Rameses the Great.
+      In the colossal Caryatides we recognise the same genius that excavated the
+      rocks of Ipsambul, and supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants.
+      From the Memnonion came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But
+      this figure, though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far
+      as magnitude is concerned, into insignificance when compared with the
+      statue of Rameses himself, which, broken off at the waist, now lies
+      prostrate in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is probably the most
+      huge colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
+      granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately the face is entirely
+      obliterated. The statue lies upon its back, and in its fall has destroyed
+      all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet round the
+      shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and the
+      hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a man to
+      walk in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
+      Medcenet Habu. Most of the buildings are of the time of Rameses the Third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptured walls of the great temples, covered with battles, chariots,
+      captives, and slaves, have been worthily described by the vivid pen of Mr.
+      Hamilton. They celebrate the victorious campaigns of the monarch. Here
+      also the Third Rameses raised his palace. And it is curious, among other
+      domestic subjects, that we find represented on the walls, in a very
+      admirable style, Rameses playing chess with his Queen. Chess is, probably,
+      a most ancient Oriental game. Rameses the Third lived before the Trojan
+      war, to which the Greeks, as usual, ascribe the invention of chess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sepulchres of Thebes still remain to be described, a theme more
+      fertile in interest and instruction than even its palaces and temples. The
+      arts of the Egyptians must be studied in their tombs, and to learn how
+      this remarkable people lived, we must even go where they were buried. To
+      cite no other instances in a sketch which is already too long, it is from
+      a painting in a tomb near Beni-hassan that we learn how the Egyptians
+      procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of stone and
+      granite with which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of
+      Luxor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we must conclude. We have touched a virgin subject rich with
+      delightful knowledge, and if our readers be not wearied with wandering on
+      the banks of the Nile, we may perhaps again introduce them to the company
+      of the Pharaohs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      SHOUBRA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ORIENTAL palaces, except perhaps in the great Indian peninsula, do not
+      realise the dreams and glittering visions of the Arabian Nights, or indeed
+      the authentic histories written in the flush and fullness of the success
+      of the children of the desert, the Tartar and the Saracen. Commerce once
+      followed in the train of the conquerors of Asia, and the vast buildings
+      which they hastily threw up of slight and perishing materials, were
+      filled, not only with the plunder of the East, but furnished with all the
+      productions of art and curious luxury, which the adventurous spirit of man
+      brought from every quarter of the globe to Samarcand and Bagdad. The site
+      of these mighty capitals is almost erased from the map of the modern
+      traveller; but tribute and traffic have also ceased to sustain even the
+      dilapidated serail of the once omnipotent Stamboul, and, until very
+      recently, all that remained of the splendour of the Caliphs of Egypt was
+      the vast Necropolis, which still contains their palatial sepulchres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How the bold Roumelian peasant who in our days has placed himself on the
+      ancient throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as Napoleon on the seat
+      of the Merovingian kings, usurping political power by military prowess,
+      lodged and contented himself in the valley of the Nile, was not altogether
+      an uninteresting speculation; and it was with no common curiosity that
+      some fifteen years ago, before he had conquered Syria and scared
+      Constantinople, I made one morning a visit to Shoubra, the palace of
+      Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be conceived more animated and picturesque than Cairo during
+      the early morning or at night. It seems the most bustling and populous
+      city in the world. The narrow streets, abounding with bazaars, present the
+      appearance of a mob, through which troops of richly dressed cavaliers
+      force with difficulty their prancing way, arrested often in their course
+      by the procession of a harem returning from the bath, the women enveloped
+      in inscrutable black garments, and veils and masks of white linen, and
+      borne along by the prettiest donkeys in the world. The attendant eunuchs
+      beat back the multitude; even the swaggering horsemen, with their golden
+      and scarlet jackets, rich shawls and scarfs, and shining arms, trampling
+      on those around, succeed in drawing aside; but all efforts are vain, for
+      at the turning of the street appears the first still solemn visage of a
+      long string of tall camels bearing provisions to the citadel, a Nubian
+      astride on the neck of the leader, and beating a wild drum, to apprise the
+      people of his approach. The streets, too, in which these scenes occur are
+      in themselves full of variety and architectural beauty. The houses are
+      lofty and latticed, abounding in balconies; fountains are frequent and
+      vast and as richly adorned as Gothic shrines; sometimes the fortified
+      palace of one of the old Mamlouks, now inhabited by a pasha, still oftener
+      the exquisite shape of an Arabian mosque. The temples of Stamboul cannot
+      vie with the fanes of Cairo. Their delicate domes and airy cupolas, their
+      lofty minarets covered with tracery, and the flowing fancy of their
+      arabesques recalled to me the glories of the Alhambra, the fantastic grace
+      of the Alcazars and the shrines of Seville and Cordova.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night the illuminated coffee-houses, the streaming population, each
+      person carrying a lantern, in an atmosphere warmer and softer than our
+      conservatories, and all the innocent amusements of an out-door life&mdash;the
+      Nubian song, the Arabian tale, the Syrian magic&mdash;afford a different,
+      but not less delightful scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was many hours before noon, however, that I made my first visit to
+      Shoubra, beneath a sky as cloudless as it remained during the whole six
+      months I was in Egypt, during which time I have no recollection that we
+      were favoured by a single drop of rain; and yet the ever-living breeze on
+      the great river, and the excellent irrigation of the earth, produce a
+      freshness in the sky and soil, which are missed in other Levantine
+      regions, where there is more variety of the seasons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shoubra is about four or five miles from the metropolis. It rises on the
+      banks of the Nile, and the road to it from Cairo is a broad but shady
+      avenue, formed of sycamores, of noble growth and colour; on one side
+      delightful glimpses of the river, with its palmy banks and sparkling
+      villages, and on the other, after a certain tract of vivid vegetation, the
+      golden sands of the desert, and the shifting hillocks which it forms; or,
+      perhaps, the grey peaks of some chain of pyramids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The palace of Shoubra is a pile of long low buildings looking to the river&mdash;moderate
+      in its character, and modest in its appointments; but clean, orderly, and
+      in a state of complete repair; and, if we may use such an epithet with
+      reference to oriental life, comfortable. It possesses all the refined
+      conveniences of European manners, of which the pasha at the time I am
+      referring to was extremely proud. Most of these had been the recent gift
+      of the French government, and his highness occasionally amused his guests&mdash;some
+      sheikh from Arabia, or some emir from the Lebanon&mdash;by the exhibition
+      of some scientific means of domestic accommodation with which use has made
+      us familiar, but which I was assured had sensibly impressed the magnates
+      of the desert and the mountain with the progress of modern civilisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gardens of Shoubra, however, are vast, fanciful, and kept in admirable
+      order. They appeared to me in their character also entirely oriental. You
+      enter them by long, low, winding walks of impenetrable shade; you emerge
+      upon an open ground sparkling with roses, arranged in beds of artificial
+      forms, and leading to gilded pavilions and painted kiosks. Arched walks of
+      orange trees, with the fruit and the flowers hanging over your head, lead
+      again to fountains, or to some other garden-court, where myrtles border
+      beds of tulips, and you wander on mosaic walks of polished pebbles. A vase
+      flashes amid a group of dark cypresses, and you are invited to repose
+      under a Syrian walnut tree by a couch or a summer-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most striking picture, however, of this charming retreat is a lake
+      surrounded by light cloisters of white marble, and in its centre a
+      fountain of crocodiles, carved in the same material. That material as well
+      as the art, however, are European. It was Carrara that gave the pure and
+      glittering blocks, and the Tuscan chisel called them into life. It is a
+      pity that the honourable board of directors, in their recent offering of
+      the silver fountain to the pasha, had not been aware of the precedent thus
+      afforded by his highness&rsquo;s own creation for the introduction of living
+      forms into Moslem sculpture and carving. They might have varied their huge
+      present with advantage. Indeed, with the crocodile and the palm-tree,
+      surely something more beautiful and not less characteristic than their
+      metallic mausoleum might easily have been devised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This marble pavilion at Shoubra, indeed, with its graceful, terraced
+      peristyles, its chambers and divans, the bright waters beneath, with their
+      painted boats, wherein the ladies of the harem chase the gleaming shoals
+      of gold and silver fish, is a scene worthy of a sultan; but my attendant,
+      a Greek employed in the garden, told me I ought to view it on some high
+      festival, crowded by the court in their rich costumes, to appreciate all
+      its impressive beauty. This was a scene not reserved for me, yet my first
+      visit to Shoubra closed with an incident not immemorable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had quitted the marble pavilion and was about to visit the wilderness
+      where roam, in apparent liberty, many rare animals, when I came, somewhat
+      suddenly, on a small circular plot into which several walks emptied, cut
+      through a thick hedge of myrtle. By a sun-dial stood a little man, robust,
+      though aged, rather stout, and of a very cheerful countenance; his attire
+      plain and simple, a pelisse of dark silk, and a turban white as his snowy
+      beard; he was in merry conversation with his companion, who turned out to
+      be his jester. In the background, against the myrtle wall, stood three or
+      four courtiers in rich dresses&mdash;courtiers, for the little old man was
+      their princely master&mdash;the great Pasha of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      EDEN AND LEBANON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I FOUND myself high among the mountains, and yet amid a series of green
+      slopes. All around me sparkled with cultivation&mdash;vineyards, gardens,
+      groves of young mulberry trees, clustering groups of the sycamore and the
+      walnut. Falling around, the cascades glittered in the sun, until, reaching
+      the bottom of the winding valley, they mingled with the waters of a
+      rivulet that glided through a glade of singular vividness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the broad bosom of a sunny hill, behind which rose a pyramid of bare
+      rock, was a most beautiful village&mdash;flat cottages with terraced
+      roofs, shaded by spreading trees, and surrounded by fruit and flowers. A
+      cerulean sky above; the breath of an infinite variety of fragrant herbs
+      around; and a land of silk and wine; everywhere the hum of bees and the
+      murmur of falling streams; while, on the undulating down, a band of
+      beauteous children were frolicking with the kids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of this village, the fairest spot in the region of Lebanon, is <i>Eden</i>,
+      which, rendered from the Arabic into the English tongue, means a &lsquo;Dwelling
+      of Delight.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ascended the peak that overhung this village. I beheld ridges of
+      mountains succeeding each other in proportionate pre-eminence, until the
+      range of the eternal glaciers, with their lustrous cones, flashed in the
+      Syrian sun. I descended into the deep and solemn valleys, skirted the
+      edges of rocky precipices, and toiled over the savage monotony of the
+      dreary table-land. At length, on the brow of a mountain, I observed the
+      fragments of a gloomy forest&mdash;cedar, and pine, and cypress. The wind
+      moaning through its ancient avenues and the hoarse roar of a cataract were
+      the only sounds that greeted me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the front was a scanty group of gigantic trees, that seemed the relics
+      of some pre-Adamite grove. Their grey and massive trunks, each of which
+      must have been more than twelve yards in girth, were as if quite dead;
+      while, about twenty feet from the ground, they divided into five or six
+      huge limbs, each equal to a single tree, but all, as it were, lifeless
+      amid their apparent power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bare of all foliage, save on their ancient crests&mdash;black, blasted,
+      riven, and surrounded by deep snows&mdash;behold the trees that built the
+      palaces of Solomon!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I recall the scene from which I had recently parted, and contrasted
+      it with the spectacle before me, it seemed that I had quitted the
+      innocence and infancy of Nature to gaze on its old age&mdash;of exhausted
+      passions and desolate neglect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      A SYRIAN SKETCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE sun was quivering above the horizon, when I strolled forth from Jaffa
+      to enjoy the coming breeze amid the beautiful gardens that environ that
+      agreeable town. Riding along the previous day, my attention had been
+      attracted by a marble gate, the fragment of some old temple, that now
+      served as the entrance to one of these enclosures, their secure boundary
+      otherwise formed by a picturesque and impenetrable hedge of Indian fig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not a hundred yards from the town; behind it stretches the plain of
+      Ramie&mdash;the ancient Arimathea-broad and fertile, and, at this moment,
+      green; for it was just after the latter rains, when Syria is most
+      charming. The caravan track winding through it led to Jerusalem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air was exquisitely soft and warm, and sweet with the perfume of the
+      orange bowers. I passed through the marble portal, adorned with some
+      florid yet skilful sculptures, and found myself in a verdant wilderness of
+      fruit-trees, rising in rich confusion from the turf, through which not a
+      single path seemed to wander. There were vast groups of orange and
+      lemon-trees, varied occasionally with the huge offspring of the
+      citron-tree, and the glowing produce of the pomegranate; while, ever and
+      anon, the tall banana raised its head aloft with its green or golden
+      clusters, and sometimes the graceful and languid crest of the date-bearing
+      palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was in doubt as to the direction I should bend my steps, my ear
+      was caught by the wild notes of Turkish music; and, following the sounds,
+      I emerged upon a plot of turf, clear from trees, in the middle of which
+      was a fountain, and, by its margin, seated on a delicate Persian carpet, a
+      venerable Turk. Some slaves were near him, one of whom, at a little
+      distance, was playing on a rude lyre; in the master&rsquo;s left hand was a
+      volume of Arabian poetry, and he held in his right the serpentine tube of
+      his narghileh, or Syrian pipe. When he beheld me, he saluted me with all
+      the dignity of the Orient, pressing his hand to his heart, but not rising.
+      I apologised for my intrusion; but he welcomed me with serene cordiality,
+      and invited me to share his carpet and touch his pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time elapsed in answering those questions respecting European horses
+      and European arms, wherein the Easterns delight. At length, the solemn and
+      sonorous voice of the muezzin, from the minarets of Jaffa, came floating
+      on the air. The sun had set; and, immediately, my host and his companions
+      performed their ablutions in the fountain; and kneeling towards Mecca,
+      repeated their accustomed prayers. Then rising, the Turkish aga, for such
+      was his rank, invited me to enjoy the evening breeze, and accompany him in
+      a walk round his garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we proceeded, my companion plucked an orange, and taking a knife from
+      his girdle, and cutting the fruit in half, offered me one moiety, and
+      threw the other away. More than once he repeated this ceremony, which
+      somewhat excited my surprise. At length he inquired my opinion of his
+      fruit. I enlarged, and with sincerity, on its admirable quality, the racy
+      sweetness of its flavour, which I esteemed unequalled; but I could not
+      refrain from expressing my surprise, that of fruit so exquisite he should
+      studiously waste so considerable a portion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Effendi,&rsquo; said the Turk, with a grave though gracious smile, &lsquo;to friends
+      we give only the sunny side.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE BOSPHORUS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE stranger whose felicity it has been to float between the shores of the
+      Bosphorus will often glance back with mingled feelings of regret and
+      satisfaction to the memory of those magical waters. This splendid strait,
+      stretching from the harbour of Constantinople to the mouth of the Euxine,
+      may be about twenty miles in length, and its ordinary breadth seldom
+      exceeds one mile. The old Greek story tells that one might hear the birds
+      sing on the opposite shore. And thus two great continents are divided by
+      an ocean stream narrower than many rivers that are the mere boundaries of
+      kingdoms. Yet it is strange that the character of these two famous
+      divisions of our earth is nowhere more marked than on the shores of the
+      Bosphorus. The traveller turns without disappointment from the gay and
+      glittering shores of Europe to the sublimer beauty and the dusky grandeur
+      of Asia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The European side, until you advance within four or five miles of the
+      Black Sea, is almost uninterruptedly studded with fanciful and ornamental
+      buildings: beautiful villages, and brilliant summer palaces, and bright
+      kiosks, painted in arabesque, and often gilt. The green background to the
+      scene is a sparkling screen of terraced gardens, rising up a chain of
+      hills whose graceful undulations are crowned with groves of cypress and of
+      chestnut, occasionally breaking into fair and delicate valleys, richly
+      wooded, and crossed by a grey and antique aqueduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in Asia the hills rise into mountains, and the groves swell into
+      forests. Everything denotes a vast, rich and prolific land, but there is
+      something classical, antique, and even mysterious in its general
+      appearance. An air of stillness and deep repose pervades its less
+      cultivated and less frequented shores; and the very eagles, as they linger
+      over the lofty peak of &lsquo;the Giant&rsquo;s grave,&rsquo; seem conscious that they are
+      haunting some heroic burial-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember that one of the most strange, and even sublime, spectacles that
+      I ever beheld occurred to me one balmy autumnal eve as I returned home in
+      my caique from Terapia, a beautiful village on the Bosphorus, where I had
+      been passing the day, to Pera. I encountered an army of dolphins, who were
+      making their way from the Ægean and the Sea of Marmora through the Strait
+      to the Euxine. They stretched right across the water, and I should
+      calculate that they covered, with very little interval, a space of three
+      or four miles. It is very difficult to form an estimate of their number,
+      but there must, of course, have been many thousands. They advanced in
+      grand style, and produced an immense agitation: the snorting, spouting,
+      and splashing, and the wild panting rush, I shall never forget. As it was
+      late, no other caique was in sight, and my boatmen, apprehensive of being
+      run down, stopped to defend themselves with their oars. I had my pistols
+      with me, and found great sport, as, although the dolphins made every
+      effort to avoid us, there were really crowds always in shot. Whenever one
+      was hit, general confusion ran through the whole line. They all flounced
+      about with increased energy, ducked their round heads under water, and
+      turned up their arrowy tails. We remained thus stationary for nearly
+      three-quarters of an hour, and very diverting I found the delay. At length
+      the mighty troop of strangers passed us, and, I suppose, must have arrived
+      at the Symplegades about the same time that I sought the elegant
+      hospitality of the British Palace at Pera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      AN INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT TURK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN I was in Egypt the great subject of political speculation was the
+      invasion of Syria; not that the object of the formation of the camp at
+      Alexandria was generally known; on the contrary, it was a secret,-but a
+      secret shared by many ears. Forty thousand well-disciplined troops were
+      assembled at Cairo; and it was whispered at Court that Abdallah Pasha of
+      Acre might look to himself, a young and valiant chief, by-the-bye, whom I
+      well know, but indulging in dissipation, extraordinary even in the Levant.
+      I was exceedingly anxious of becoming in some manner attached to this
+      expedition; and as I was not without influence in the proper quarters,
+      there appeared little probability of my wish not being gratified. With
+      these views I remained in Egypt longer than I had intended, but it would
+      seem that the invaders were not quite as ardent as their intended
+      volunteer, for affairs at Alexandria progressed but indifferently. Orders
+      and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches, boats pressed on the Nile
+      for the passage of troops from the capital, which were all liberated the
+      next day, many divans and much smoking; but still the troops remained
+      within pistol-shot of the citadel, and months glided away apparently
+      without any material advancement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had often observed that although there was in most subjects an excellent
+      understanding between the two Pashas, Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim, a degree of
+      petty jealousy existed between them on the point of their mutual
+      communications with foreigners; so that if I happened one morning to
+      attend the divan of the Grand Pasha, as the Franks styled the father, I
+      was sure, on some excuse or other, of being summoned the next day to the
+      levee of the son; I was therefore not surprised when, one day, on my
+      return from paying my respects to the divan at the citadel of Cairo, I
+      found a Nubian eunuch in attendance at my quarters, telling me that
+      Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to see me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I accordingly repaired without loss of time to the sumptuous palace of
+      that chieftain: and being ushered into his presence, I found the future
+      conqueror of Syria attended only by his dragoman, his secretary; and an
+      aide-de-camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pipe was immediately brought me, but Ibrahim himself did not smoke.
+      After the usual compliments, &lsquo;Effendi,&rsquo; said Ibrahim, &lsquo;do you think the
+      English horses would live in Egypt?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was too practised an observer of the Turkish character to suppose that
+      English horses were really the occasion of my summons. The Turks are very
+      diplomatic, and are a long time coming to the point. I answered, however,
+      that, with English grooms, I was of opinion that English horses would
+      flourish in any climate. A curt, dry, uninteresting conversation about
+      English horses was succeeded by some queries, which I had answered fifty
+      times before, about English pistols: and then came a sly joke or two about
+      English women. At length the point of the interview began to poke its
+      horns out of this shell of tittle-tattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you want to go with the army,&rsquo; said his Highness, &lsquo;&rsquo;tis I who am the
+      person to speak to. They know nothing about those things up there&rsquo;
+      (meaning the citadel).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered his Highness that I had attended the divan merely as a matter
+      of ceremony, and that I had not interchanged a word with the Grand Pasha
+      on the subject of the expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you talked with Boghaz?&rsquo; said Ibrahim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Boghaz was the favourite of Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Neither with Boghaz nor any one else. Your Highness having once
+      graciously promised me that I should attend you, I should have thought it
+      both impertinent and unnecessary to apply to any other person whatever.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tahib!&rsquo; exclaimed his Highness, which meant that he was satisfied. &lsquo;After
+      all, I do not know whether the army will march at all. You have been in
+      Syria?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered, in the affirmative, a question which had often been addressed
+      to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you think I could march as far as Gaza?&rsquo; inquired Ibrahim, with a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a question of mockery. It was like asking whether the Life Guards
+      could take Windsor. I therefore only returned the smile, and said that I
+      did not doubt the enemy would agree to settle affairs upon that condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tahib! Well I think I can march as far as they speak Arabic!&rsquo; This was a
+      favourite phrase of his Highness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered that I hoped, if I had the honour of attending his Highness,
+      the army would march till we could see another ocean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is all talk up there,&rsquo; replied Ibrahim; &lsquo;but my life is a life of
+      deeds.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Words are very good things sometimes,&rsquo; I replied; &lsquo;that is, if we keep
+      marching at the same time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;God is great!&rsquo; exclaimed Ibrahim; and looking round to his officers, &lsquo;the
+      Effendi speaks truth; and thus it was that Redchid beat the beys.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibrahim alluded to the Albanian campaign of the preceding year, when the
+      energy of the grand vizier crushed the rebellious beys of the ancient
+      Epirus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you think of Redchid?&rsquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think he is worthy of being your Highness&rsquo;s rival.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has always been victorious,&rsquo; said Ibrahim; &lsquo;but I think his sabre is
+      made of gold. That will not do with me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s a pity,&rsquo; I observed, &lsquo;that if your Highness find time to march into
+      Syria, you had not acted simultaneously with the Albanians, or with the
+      Pasha of Scutari.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I kill my mother but it is true; but up there, they will watch, and
+      watch, and watch, till they fall asleep.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is, the Orientals have no idea of military diversions; and even
+      if they combine, each strives to be the latest in the field, in order that
+      he may take advantage of the other&rsquo;s success or discomfiture. Mehemet Ali,
+      at an immense expenditure, had excited two terrible revolts in European
+      Turkey, and then waited to invade Syria until the armies of the Porte were
+      unemployed. The result with some will justify his policy; but in the
+      conquest of Syria, the truth is, Ibrahim himself used a golden sabre, and
+      the year, before, the contingents of the pashas, whom he was obliged to
+      bribe, were all busied in Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night previous to this conversation the style of the military oath of
+      the Egyptian army had been altered; and the troops, instead of swearing
+      allegiance to the Sultan, had pledged themselves to Mehemet Ali. The Grand
+      Pasha was so nervous about this change, that the order for it was
+      countermanded twice in four hours; however, what with gratuities to the
+      troops, and the discreet distribution of promotion among the officers,
+      everything went off very quietly. There was also a rumour that Mehemet Ali
+      intended immediately to assume the title of <i>Caliph</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This piece of information is necessary to explain the following striking
+      observation of Ibrahim Pasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a
+      caliph? Will it make 40,000 men 80,000?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I replied, that I thought the assumption of the title would have a
+      beneficial effect at foreign courts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bah! before the Yahoos hear of it, I shall be at Damascus. Up there, they
+      are always busying themselves with forms. The eagle in his flight does not
+      think of his shadow on the earth!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      MUNICH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE destiny of nations appears to have decreed that a society should
+      periodically, though rarely, flourish, characterised by its love of the
+      Fine Arts, and its capacity of ideal creation. These occasional and
+      brilliant ebullitions of human invention elevate the race of man; they
+      purify and chasten the taste of succeeding generations; and posterity
+      accepts them as the standard of what is choice, and the model of what is
+      excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Classic Greece and Christian Italy stand out in our universal annals as
+      the epochs of the Arts. During the last two centuries, while manners have
+      undergone a rapid transition, while physical civilisation has advanced in
+      an unprecedented degree, and the application of science to social life has
+      diverted the minds of men from other pursuits, the Fine Arts have decayed
+      and vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish to call the attention of my countrymen to another great movement in
+      the creative mind of Europe; one yet young and little recognised, but not
+      inferior, in my opinion, either to that of Athens or of Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on a cloudless day of the autumn of last year, that I found myself
+      in a city that seemed almost visibly rising beneath my eye. The street in
+      which I stood was of noble dimensions, and lined on each side with palaces
+      or buildings evidently devoted to public purposes. Few were completely
+      finished: the sculptor was working at the statues that adorned their
+      fronts; the painter was still touching the external frescoes; and the
+      scaffold of the architect was not in every instance withdrawn. Everywhere
+      was the hum of art and artists. The Byzantine style of many of these
+      buildings was novel to me in its modern adaptation, yet very effective.
+      The delicate detail of ornament contrasted admirably with the broad fronts
+      and noble façades which they adorned. A church with two very lofty towers
+      of white marble, with their fretted cones relieved with cerulean blue,
+      gleamed in the sun; and near it was a pile not dissimilar to the ducal
+      palace at Venice, but of nobler and more beautiful proportions, with its
+      portal approached by a lofty flight of steps, and guarded by the colossal
+      statues of poets and philosophers&mdash;suitably guarded, for it was the
+      National Library.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I advanced, I found myself in squares and circuses, in every instance
+      adorned by an obelisk of bronze or the equestrian statue of some royal
+      hero: I observed a theatre with a lofty Corinthian portico, and a pediment
+      brilliantly painted in fresco with designs appropriate to its purpose; an
+      Ionic museum of sculpture, worthy to enshrine the works of a Phidias or a
+      Praxiteles; and a palace for the painter, of which I was told the first
+      stone had been rightly laid on the birthday of Raffaelle. But what struck
+      me most in this city, more than its galleries, temples, and palaces, its
+      magnificent buildings, splendid paintings, and consummate statues, was the
+      all-pervading presence and all-inspiring influence of living and breathing
+      Art. In every street, a school: the atelier of the sculptor open, the
+      studio of the painter crowded: devoted pupils, aspiring rivals:
+      enthusiasm, emulation, excellence. Here the long-lost feudal-art of
+      colouring glass re-discovered; there fresco-painting entirely revived, and
+      on the grandest scale; while the ardent researches of another man of
+      genius successfully analyses the encaustic tenting of Herculaneum, and
+      secures the secret process for the triumph of modern Art. I beheld a city
+      such as I had mused over amid the crumbling fanes of Pericles, or, aided
+      alike by memory and fancy, had conjured up in the palaces and gardens of
+      the Medici.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is Munich, a city which, half a century ago, was the gross and
+      corrupt capital of a barbarous and brutal people. Baron Reisbech, who
+      visited Bavaria in 1780, describes the Court of Munich as one not at all
+      more advanced than those of Lisbon and Madrid. A good-natured prince, fond
+      only of show and thinking only of the chase; an idle, dissolute, and
+      useless nobility; the nomination to offices depending on women and
+      priests; the aristocracy devoted to play, and the remainder of the
+      inhabitants immersed in scandalous debauch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these recollections of the past, let us enter the palace of the
+      present sovereign. With habits of extreme simplicity, and a personal
+      expenditure rigidly economical, the residence of the King of Bavaria, when
+      completed, will be the most extensive and the most sumptuous palace in the
+      world. But, then, it is not merely the palace of a king: it is a temple
+      dedicated to the genius of a nation. The apartments of state, painted in
+      fresco on the grandest scale, bold in design, splendid in colour, breathe
+      the very Teutonic soul. The subjects are taken from the &lsquo;Nibelungenlied,&rsquo;
+      the Gothic epic, and commemorate all the achievements of the heroic
+      Siegfried, and all the adventures of the beautiful Chrimhilde. The heart
+      of a German beats as he gazes on the forms and scenes of the Teutonic
+      Iliad; as he beholds Haghen the fierce, and Dankwart the swift; Volker,
+      the minstrel knight, and the beautiful and haughty Brunhilda. But in point
+      of harmonious dimension and august beauty, no chamber is perhaps more
+      imposing than the Kaiser Saal, or Hall of the Sovereigns. It is, I should
+      think, considerably above one hundred feet in length, broad and lofty in
+      exact proportion. Its roof is supported on either side by columns of white
+      marble; the inter-columniations are filled by colossal statues, of gilded
+      brass, of the electors and kings of the country. Seated on his throne, at
+      the end of this imperial chamber, Louis of Bavaria is surrounded by the
+      solemn majesty of his ancestors. These statues are by Schwanthaler, a
+      sculptor who to the severe and classic taste and profound sentiment of his
+      master, Thorwaldsen, unites an exuberance of invention which has filled
+      Munich with the greatest works since Phidias. Cornelius, Julius Schnorr,
+      and Hess are the principal painters who have covered the galleries,
+      churches, and palaces of Munich with admirable frescoes. The celebrated
+      Klenze is known throughout Europe as the first of living architects, and
+      the favourite of his sovereign when that sovereign did not wear a crown;
+      but we must not forget the name of Gartner, the architect who has revived
+      the Byzantine style of building with such admirable effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was in the private apartments of the king that I was peculiarly
+      impressed with the supreme genius of Schwanthaler. These chambers, eight
+      in number, are painted in encaustic, with subjects from the Greek poets,
+      of which Schwanthaler supplied the designs. The ante-chambers are devoted
+      to Orpheus and Hesiod, and the ornaments are in the oldest Greek style;
+      severely simple; archaic, but not rude; the figures of the friezes in
+      outline, and without relief. The saloon of reception, on the contrary, is
+      Homeric; and in its colouring, design, and decoration, as brilliant, as
+      free, and as flowing as the genius of the great Mæonian. The chamber of
+      the throne is entirely adorned with white bas-reliefs, raised on a ground
+      of dead gold; the subjects Pindaric; not inferior in many instances to the
+      Attic remains, and characterised, at the same time, by a singular
+      combination of vigour and grace. Another saloon is devoted to Æschylus,
+      and the library to Sophocles. The gay, wild muse of Aristophanes laughs
+      and sings in his Majesty&rsquo;s dressing-room; while the king is lulled to
+      slumber by the Sicilian melodies and the soothing landscapes of
+      Theocritus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of these chambers, I should say that they were a perfect creation of Art.
+      The rooms themselves are beautifully proportioned; the subjects of their
+      decorations are the most interesting in every respect that could be
+      selected; and the purity, grace, and invention of the designs, are
+      equalled only by their colouring, at the same time the most brilliant and
+      harmonious that can be conceived; and the rich fancy of the arabesques and
+      other appropriate decorations, which blend with all around, and heighten
+      the effect of the whole. Yet they find no mean rivals in the private
+      chambers of the queen, decorated in an analogous style, but entirely
+      devoted to the poets of her own land. The Minnesingers occupy her first
+      apartments, but the brilliant saloon is worthy of Wieland, whose Oberon
+      forms it frieze; while the bedchamber gleams with the beautiful forms and
+      pensive incidents of Goethe&rsquo;s esoteric pen. Schiller has filled the study
+      with his stirring characters and his vigorous incidents. Groups from
+      &lsquo;Wallenstein&rsquo; and &lsquo;Wilhelm Tell&rsquo; form the rich and unrivalled ceiling:
+      while the fight of the dragon and the founding of the bell, the innocent
+      Fridolin, the inspired maiden of Orleans, breathe in the compartments of
+      the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I beheld these refined creations, and recalled the scenes and sights
+      of beauty that had moved before me in my morning&rsquo;s wanderings, I asked
+      myself, how Munich, recently so Boeotian, had become the capital of modern
+      Art; and why a country of limited resources, in a brief space, and with
+      such facility and completeness, should have achieved those results which
+      had so long and utterly eluded the desires of the richest and most
+      powerful community in the world?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the fashion of the present age to underrate the influence of
+      individual character. For myself, I have ever rejected this consolation of
+      mediocrity. I believe that everything that is great has been accomplished
+      by great men. It is not what witnessed at Munich, or know of its
+      sovereign, that should make me doubt the truth of my conviction. Munich is
+      the creation of its king, and Louis of Bavaria is not only a king but a
+      poet. A poet on a throne has realised his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SPIRIT OF WHIGGISM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>[In the following pages Lord Beaconsfield expounds that theory of the
+      English Constitution which he had previously set forth in his pamphlet &lsquo;A
+      Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and Learned
+      Lord.&rsquo; The same theory is expounded in another way in the three great
+      novels, &lsquo;Coningsby,&rsquo; &lsquo;Sybil,&rsquo; and &lsquo;Tancred.&rsquo; His contemporaries never seem
+      to have understood it, while his assailants of a later date appear to have
+      written and spoken concerning him in absolute ignorance of his real
+      political creed. The concluding paragraph of the tract ought, in the minds
+      of all candid men, to disperse at once and forever the innumerable
+      calumnies levelled at Lord Beaconsfield during and since the Reform
+      struggle of 1859-1867.]</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Object of the Whigs</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ENGLAND has become great by her institutions. Her hereditary Crown has in
+      a great degree insured us from the distracting evils of a contested
+      succession; her Peerage, interested, from the vast property and the
+      national honours of its members, in the good government of the country,
+      has offered a compact bulwark against the temporary violence of popular
+      passion; her House of Commons, representing the conflicting sentiments of
+      an estate of the realm not less privileged than that of the Peers, though
+      far more numerous, has enlisted the great mass of the lesser proprietors
+      of the country in favour of a political system which offers them a
+      constitutional means of defence and a legitimate method of redress; her
+      Ecclesiastical Establishment, preserved by its munificent endowment from
+      the fatal necessity of pandering to the erratic fancies of its
+      communicants, has maintained the sacred cause of learning and religion,
+      and preserved orthodoxy while it secured toleration; her law of
+      primogeniture has supplied the country with a band of natural and
+      independent leaders, trustees of those legal institutions which pervade
+      the land, and which are the origin of our political constitution. That
+      great body corporate, styled a nation-a vast assemblage of human beings
+      knit together by laws and arts and customs, by the necessities of the
+      present and the memory of the past&mdash;offers in this country, through
+      these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy
+      framework than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built
+      constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and
+      dangerous humours which must at times arise in all human communities. The
+      march of revolution must here at least be orderly. We are preserved from
+      those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries, like a
+      whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep away an
+      illustrious aristocracy. This constitution, which has secured order, has
+      consequently promoted civilisation; and the almost unbroken tide of
+      progressive amelioration has made us the freest, the wealthiest, and the
+      most refined society of modern ages. Our commerce is unrivalled, our
+      manufacturers supply the world, our agriculture is the most skilful in
+      Christendom. So national are our institutions, so completely have they
+      arisen from the temper and adapted themselves to the character of the
+      people, that when for a season they were apparently annihilated, the
+      people of England voluntarily returned to them, and established them with
+      renewed strength and renovated vigour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The constitution of England is again threatened, and at a moment when the
+      nation is more prosperous, more free, and more famous than at any period
+      of its momentous and memorable career. Why is this? What has occasioned
+      these distempered times, which make the loyal tremble and the traitor
+      smile? Why has this dark cloud suddenly gathered in a sky so serene and so
+      splendid? Is there any analogy between this age and that of the first
+      Charles? Are the same causes at work, or is the apparent similarity
+      produced only by designing men, who make use of the perverted past as a
+      passport to present mischief? These are great questions, which it may be
+      profitable to discuss and wise to study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rapin, a foreigner who wrote our history, in the course of his frigid yet
+      accurate pages, indulged in one philosophical observation. Struck at the
+      same time by our greatness and by the fury of our factions, the Huguenot
+      exclaimed: &lsquo;It appears to me that this great society can only be dissolved
+      by the violence of its political parties.&rsquo; What are these parties? Why are
+      they violent? Why should they exist? In resolving these questions, we may
+      obtain an accurate idea of our present political position, and by
+      pondering over the past we may make that past not a prophecy, as the
+      disaffected intend, but a salutary lesson by which the loyal may profit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two great parties into which England has during the last century and a
+      half been divided originated in the ancient struggle between the Crown and
+      the aristocracy. As long as the Crown possessed or aspired to despotic
+      power, the feeling of the nation supported the aristocracy in their
+      struggles to establish a free government. The aristocracy of England
+      formed the constitution of the Plantagenets; the Wars of the Roses
+      destroyed that aristocracy, and the despotism of the Tudors succeeded.
+      Renovated by more than a century of peace and the spoils of the Papacy,
+      the aristocracy of England attacked the first Stuarts, who succeeded to a
+      despotism which they did not create. When Charles the First, after a
+      series of great concessions which ultimately obtained for him the support
+      of the most illustrious of his early opponents, raised the royal standard,
+      the constitution of the Plantagenets, and more than the constitution of
+      the Plantagenets, had been restored and secured. But a portion of the able
+      party which had succeeded in effecting such a vast and beneficial
+      revolution was not content to part with the extraordinary powers which
+      they had obtained in this memorable struggle. This section of the
+      aristocracy were the origin of the English Whigs, though that title was
+      not invented until the next reign. The primitive Whigs-&rsquo;Parliament-men,&rsquo;
+      as they liked to call themselves, &lsquo;Roundheads,&rsquo; as they were in time
+      dubbed&mdash;aspired to an oligarchy. For a moment they obtained one; but
+      unable to maintain themselves in power against the returning sense and
+      rising spirit of a generous and indignant people, they called to their aid
+      that domestic revolutionary party which exists in all countries, and an
+      anti-national enemy in addition. These were the English Radicals, or
+      Root-and-Branch men, and the Scotch Covenanters. To conciliate the first
+      they sacrificed the Crown; to secure the second they abolished the Church.
+      The constitution of England in Church and State was destroyed, and the
+      Whig oligarchy, in spite of their machinations, were soon merged in the
+      common ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ignoble tyranny to which this great nation was consequently subject
+      produced that reaction which is in the nature of human affairs. The
+      ancient constitution was in time restored, and the Church and the Crown
+      were invested with greater powers than they had enjoyed previously to
+      their overthrow. So hateful had been the consequences of Whig rule, that
+      the people were inclined rather to trust the talons of arbitrary power
+      than to take refuge under the wing of these pretended advocates of popular
+      rights. A worthless monarch and a corrupted court availed themselves of
+      the offered opportunity; and when James the Second ascended the throne,
+      the nation was again prepared to second the aristocracy in a struggle for
+      their liberties. But the Whigs had profited by their previous experiment:
+      they resolved upon a revolution, but they determined that that revolution
+      should be brought about by as slight an appeal to popular sympathies as
+      possible. They studiously confined that appeal to the religious feelings
+      of the nation. They hired a foreign prince and enlisted a foreign army in
+      their service. They dethroned James, they established themselves in power
+      without the aid of the mass; and had William the Third been a man of
+      ordinary capacity, the constitution of Venice would have been established
+      in England in 1688. William the Third told the Whigs that he would never
+      consent to be a Doge. Resembling Louis Philippe in his character as well
+      as in his position, that extraordinary prince baffled the Whigs by his
+      skilful balance of parties; and had Providence accorded him an heir, it is
+      probable that the oligarchical faction would never have revived in
+      England. The Whigs have ever been opposed to the national institutions
+      because they are adverse to the establishment of an oligarchy. Local
+      institutions, supported by a landed gentry, check them; hence their love
+      of centralisation and their hatred of unpaid magistrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An independent hierarchy checks them; hence their affected advocacy of
+      toleration and their patronage of the Dissenters. The power of the Crown
+      checks them; therefore they always labour to reduce the sovereign to a
+      nonentity, and by the establishment of the Cabinet they have virtually
+      banished the King from his own councils. But, above all, the Parliament of
+      England checks them, and therefore it may be observed that the Whigs at
+      all times are quarrelling with some portion of those august estates. They
+      despair of destroying the Parliament; by it, and by it alone, can they
+      succeed in their objects. Corruption for one part, force for the other,
+      then, is their motto. In 1640 they attempted to govern the country by the
+      House of Commons, because the aristocracy was then more powerful in the
+      House of Commons than in the House of Lords, where a Peerage, exhausted by
+      civil wars, had been too liberally recruited from the courtiers of the
+      Tudors and the Stuarts. At the next revolution which the Whigs occasioned,
+      they attempted to govern the country by the House of Lords, in which they
+      were predominant; and, in order to guarantee their power for ever, they
+      introduced a Bill to deprive the King of his prerogative of making further
+      Peers. The revolution of 1640 led to the abolition of the House of Lords
+      because the Lords opposed the oligarchy. Having a majority in the House of
+      Lords, the Whigs introduced the Peerage Bill, by which the House of Lords
+      would have been rendered independent of the sovereign; unpopular with the
+      country, the Whigs attacked the influence of popular election, and the
+      moment that, by the aid of the most infamous corruption, they had obtained
+      a temporary majority in the Lower House, they passed the Septennial Act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whigs of the eighteenth century &lsquo;swamped&rsquo; the House of Commons; the
+      Whigs of the nineteenth would &lsquo;swamp&rsquo; the House of Lords. The Whigs of the
+      eighteenth century would have rendered the House of Lords unchangeable;
+      the Whigs of the nineteenth remodel the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I conclude here the first chapter of the &lsquo;Spirit of Whiggism&rsquo;-a little
+      book which I hope may be easily read and easily remembered. The Whig party
+      have always adopted popular cries. In one age it is Liberty, in another
+      reform; at one period they sound the tocsin against popery, in another
+      they ally themselves with papists. They have many cries, and various modes
+      of conduct; but they have only one object&mdash;the establishment of an
+      oligarchy in this free and equal land. I do not wish this country to be
+      governed by a small knot of great families, and therefore I oppose the
+      Whigs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Parliamentary Reform</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      WHEN the Whigs and their public organs favour us with their mysterious
+      hints that the constitution has provided the sovereign with a means to
+      re-establish at all times a legislative sympathy between the two Houses of
+      Parliament, it may be as well to remind them that we are not indebted for
+      this salutary prerogative to the forbearance of their party. Suppose their
+      Peerage Bill had passed into an Act, how would they have carried the
+      Reform Bill of 1832? The Whigs may reply, that if the Peerage Bill had
+      become a law, the Reform Bill would never have been introduced; and I
+      believe them. In that case, the British House of Lords would have been
+      transformed into a Venetian Senate, and the old walls of St. James&rsquo;s might
+      have witnessed scenes of as degrading mortification as the famous ducal
+      palace of the Adriatic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      George III. routed the Whigs, consolidated by half a century of power; but
+      an ordinary monarch would have sunk beneath the Coalition and the India
+      Bill. This scheme was the last desperate effort of the oligarchical
+      faction previous to 1830. Not that they were inactive during the great
+      interval that elapsed between the advent of Mr. Pitt and the resurrection
+      of Lord Grey: but, ever on the watch for a cry to carry them into power,
+      they mistook the yell of Jacobinism for the chorus of an emancipated
+      people, and fancied, in order to take the throne by storm, that nothing
+      was wanting but to hoist the tricolour and to cover their haughty brows
+      with a red cap. This fatal blunder clipped the wings of Whiggism; nor is
+      it possible to conceive a party that had effected so many revolutions and
+      governed a great country for so long a period, more broken, sunk, and
+      shattered, more desolate and disheartened, than these same Whigs at the
+      Peace of Paris. From that period till 1830, the tactics of the Whigs
+      consisted in gently and gradually extricating themselves from their false
+      position as the disciples of Jacobinism, and assuming their ancient post
+      as the hereditary guardians of an hereditary monarchy. To make the
+      transition less difficult than it threatened, they invented Liberalism, a
+      bridge by which they were to regain the lost mainland, and daintily
+      recross on tiptoe the chasm over which they had originally sprung with so
+      much precipitation. A dozen years of &lsquo;liberal principles&rsquo; broke up the
+      national party of England, cemented by half a century of prosperity and
+      glory, compared with which all the annals of the realm are dim and
+      lack-lustre. Yet so weak intrinsically was the oligarchical faction, that
+      their chief, despairing to obtain a monopoly of power for his party,
+      elaborately announced himself as the champion of his patrician order, and
+      attempted to coalesce with the liberalised leader of the Tories. Had that
+      negotiation led to the result which was originally intended by those
+      interested, the Riots of Paris would not have occasioned the Reform of
+      London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a great delusion to believe that revolutions are ever effected by a
+      nation. It is a faction, and generally a small one, that overthrows a
+      dynasty or remodels a constitution. A small party, stung by a long exile
+      from power, and desperate of success except by desperate means, invariably
+      has recourse to a <i>coup-d&lsquo;état</i>. An oligarchical party is necessarily
+      not numerous. Its members in general attempt, by noble lineage or vast
+      possessions, to compensate for their poverty of numbers. The Whigs, in
+      1830, found themselves by accident in place, but under very peculiar
+      circumstances. They were in place but not in power. In each estate of the
+      realm a majority was arrayed against them. An appeal to the Commons of
+      England, that constituency which, in its elements, had undergone no
+      alteration since the time of Elizabeth, either by the influence of the
+      legislature or the action of time&mdash;that constituency which had
+      elected Pym, and Selden, and Hampden, as well as Somers, Walpole, and
+      Pulteney&mdash;an appeal to this constituency, it was generally
+      acknowledged, would be fatal to the Whigs, and therefore they determined
+      to reconstruct it. This is the origin of the recent parliamentary reform:
+      the Whigs, in place without being in power, resolved as usual upon a
+      coup-d&lsquo;état, and looked about for a stalking-horse. In general the
+      difficult task had devolved upon them of having to accomplish their
+      concealed purpose while apparently achieving some public object. Thus they
+      had carried the Septennial Act on the plea of preserving England from
+      popery, though their real object was to prolong the existence of the first
+      House of Commons in which they could command a majority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the present instance they became sincerely parliamentary reformers,
+      for by parliamentary reform they could alone subsist; and all their art
+      was dedicated so to contrive, that in this reformation their own interest
+      should secure an irresistible predominance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But how was an oligarchical party to predominate in popular elections?
+      Here was the difficulty. The Whigs had no resources from their own limited
+      ranks to feed the muster of the popular levies. They were obliged to look
+      about for allies wherewith to form their new popular estate. Any estate of
+      the Commons modelled on any equitable principle, either of property or
+      population, must have been fatal to the Whigs; they, therefore, very
+      dexterously adopted a small minority of the nation, consisting of the
+      sectarians, and inaugurating them as the people with a vast and
+      bewildering train of hocus-pocus ceremonies, invested the Dissenters with
+      political power. By this <i>coup-d&lsquo;état</i> they managed the House of
+      Commons, and having at length obtained a position, they have from that
+      moment laid siege to the House of Lords, with the intention of reducing
+      that great institution and making it surrender at discretion. This is the
+      exact state of English politics during the last five years. The Whigs have
+      been at war with the English constitution. First of all they captured the
+      King; then they vanquished the House of Commons; now they have laid siege
+      to the House of Lords. But here the fallacy of their grand scheme of
+      political mystification begins to develop itself. Had, indeed, their new
+      constituency, as they have long impudently pretended, really been &lsquo;the
+      people,&rsquo; a struggle between such a body and the House of Lords would have
+      been brief but final. The absurdity of supposing that a chamber of two or
+      three hundred individuals could set up their absolute will and pleasure
+      against the decrees of a legislative assembly chosen by the whole nation
+      is so glaring that the Whigs and their scribes might reasonably suspect
+      that in making such allegations they were assuredly proving too much. But
+      as &lsquo;the people&rsquo; of the Whigs is in fact a number of Englishmen not
+      exceeding in amount the population of a third-rate city, the English
+      nation is not of opinion that this arrogant and vaunting moiety of a class
+      privileged for the common good, swollen though it may be by some jobbing
+      Scots and rebel Irish, shall pass off their petty and selfish schemes of
+      personal aggrandisement as the will of a great people, as mindful of its
+      duty to its posterity as it is grateful for the labours of its ancestors.
+      The English nation, therefore, rallies for rescue from the degrading plots
+      of a profligate oligarchy, a barbarising sectarianism, and a
+      boroughmongering Papacy round their hereditary leaders&mdash;the Peers.
+      The House of Lords, therefore, at this moment represents everything in the
+      realm except the Whig oligarchs, their tools&mdash;the Dissenters, and
+      their masters&mdash;the Irish priests. In the meantime the Whigs bawl
+      aloud that there is a &lsquo;collision&rsquo;! It is true there is a collision; but it
+      is not a collision between the Lords and the people, but between the
+      Ministers and the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Menace to England</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT MAY be as well to remind the English nation that a revolutionary party
+      is not necessarily a liberal one, and that a republic is not indispensably
+      a democracy. Such is the disposition of property in England that, were a
+      republic to be established here to-morrow, it would partake rather of the
+      oligarchical than of the aristocratic character. We should be surprised to
+      find in how few families the power of the State was concentrated. And
+      although the framers of the new commonwealth would be too crafty to base
+      it on any avowed and ostensible principle of exclusion, but on the
+      contrary would in all probability ostentatiously inaugurate the novel
+      constitution by virtue of some abstract plea about as definite and as
+      prodigal of practical effects as the rights of man or the sovereignty of
+      the people, nevertheless I should be astonished were we not to find that
+      the great mass of the nation, as far as any share in the conduct of public
+      affairs was concerned, was as completely shut out from the fruition and
+      exercise of power as under that Venetian polity which has ever been the
+      secret object of Whig envy and Whig admiration. The Church, under such
+      circumstances, would probably have again been plundered, and therefore the
+      discharge of ecclesiastical duties might be spared to the nation; but the
+      people would assuredly be practically excluded from its services, which
+      would swarm with the relations and connections of the senatorial class;
+      for, whether this country be governed only by the House of Commons, or
+      only by the House of Lords, the elements of the single chamber will not
+      materially differ; and although in the event of the triumph of the
+      Commons, the ceremony of periodical election may be retained (and we
+      should not forget that the Long Parliament soon spared us that unnecessary
+      form), the selected members will form a Senate as irresponsible as any
+      House of Parliament whose anomalous constitution may now be the object of
+      Whig sneers or Radical anathemas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rights and liberties of a nation can only be preserved by
+      institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of intellect
+      that will be found a sufficient surety for the public welfare in the
+      crisis of a country&rsquo;s freedom. Our interest taints our intelligence, our
+      passions paralyse our reason. Knowledge and capacity are too often the
+      willing tools of a powerful faction or a dexterous adventurer. Life, is
+      short, man is imaginative; our means are limited, our passions high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In seasons of great popular excitement, gold and glory offer strong
+      temptations to needy ability. The demagogues throughout a country, the
+      orators of town-councils and vestries, and the lecturers of mechanics&rsquo;
+      institutes present, doubtless in most cases unconsciously, the ready and
+      fit machinery for the party or the individual that aspires to establish a
+      tyranny. Duly graduating in corruption, the leaders of the mob become the
+      oppressors of the people. Cultivation of intellect and diffusion of
+      knowledge may make the English nation more sensible of the benefits of
+      their social system, and better qualified to discharge the duties with
+      which their institutions have invested them, but they will never render
+      them competent to preserve their liberties without the aid of these
+      institutions. Let us for a moment endeavour to fancy Whiggism in a state
+      of rampant predominance; let us try to contemplate England enjoying all
+      those advantages which our present rulers have not yet granted us, and
+      some of which they have as yet only ventured to promise by innuendo. Let
+      us suppose our ancient monarchy abolished, our independent hierarchy
+      reduced to a stipendiary sect, the gentlemen of England deprived of their
+      magisterial functions, and metropolitan prefects and sub-prefects
+      established in the counties and principal towns, commanding a vigorous and
+      vigilant police, and backed by an army under the immediate orders of a
+      single House of Parliament. Why, these are threatened changes&mdash;aye,
+      and not one of them that may not be brought about to-morrow, under the
+      plea of the &lsquo;spirit of the age&rsquo; or &lsquo;county reform&rsquo; or &lsquo;cheap government.&rsquo;
+      But where then will be the liberties of England? Who will dare disobey
+      London?&mdash;the enlightened and reformed metropolis! And can we think,
+      if any bold squire, in whom some of the old blood might still chance to
+      linger, were to dare to murmur against this grinding tyranny, or appeal to
+      the spirit of those neighbours whose predecessors his ancestors had
+      protected, can we flatter ourselves that there would not be judges in
+      Westminster Hall prepared and prompt to inflict on him all the pains and
+      penalties, the dungeon, the fine, the sequestration, which such a
+      troublesome Anti-Reformer would clearly deserve? Can we flatter ourselves
+      that a Parliamentary Star Chamber and a Parliamentary High Commission
+      Court would not be in the background to supply all the deficiencies of the
+      laws of England? When these merry times arrive&mdash;the times of
+      extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes&mdash;and, if we proceed
+      in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the phrase
+      &lsquo;Anti-Reformer&rsquo; will serve as well as that of &lsquo;Malignant,&rsquo; and be as valid
+      a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all those who
+      venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
+      established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift and
+      stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
+      irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals. I do
+      not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in this age
+      of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the nonce the false
+      colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and considerable party,
+      too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and the safety of the
+      State-who have a definite object which they distinctly avow&mdash;I mean
+      those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their unstamped press, and
+      ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration. Not merely that which
+      is just, but that which is also practicable, should be the aim of a
+      sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well consider whether, in
+      attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are not, in fact, only
+      assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme is infinitely more
+      adverse to their own than the existing system, whose genius I believe they
+      entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories is more democratic than
+      the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with a keener sympathy to the
+      passions of the millions; it studies their interest with a more
+      comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment that I have mistaken the
+      genius of the English constitution, what chance, if our institutions be
+      overthrown, is there of substituting in their stead a more popular polity?
+      This hazard, both for their own happiness and the honour of their country,
+      the English Radicals are bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they
+      will find themselves, too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the
+      slaves of a stern usurper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    <i>The English Constitution</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the spirit
+      of Whiggism. There is this connection between the subjects&mdash;that the
+      spirit of Whiggism is hostile to the English constitution. No political
+      institutions ever yet flourished which have been more the topic of
+      discussion among writers of all countries and all parties than our famous
+      establishment of &lsquo;King, Lords, and Commons;&rsquo; and no institutions ever yet
+      flourished, of which the character has been more misrepresented and more
+      misconceived. One fact alone will illustrate the profound ignorance and
+      the perplexed ideas. The present Whig leader of the House of Commons, a
+      member of a family who pique themselves on their constitutional
+      reputation, an author who has even written an elaborate treatise on our
+      polity, in one of his speeches, delivered only so late as the last session
+      of Parliament, declared his desire and determination to uphold the present
+      settlement of the &lsquo;three estates of the realm, viz.&mdash;King, Lords, and
+      Commons.&rsquo; Now, his Gracious Majesty is no more an estate of the realm than
+      Lord John Russell himself. The three estates of the realm are the estate
+      of the Lords Spiritual, the estate of the Lords Temporal, and the estate
+      of the Commons. An estate is a popular class established into a political
+      order. It is a section of the nation invested for the public and common
+      good with certain powers and privileges. Lord John Russell first writes
+      upon the English constitution, and then reforms it, and yet, even at this
+      moment, is absolutely ignorant of what it consists. A political estate is
+      a complete and independent body. Now, all power that is independent is
+      necessarily irresponsible. The sovereign is responsible because he is not
+      an estate; he is responsible through his Ministers; he is responsible to
+      the estates and to them alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Whigs obtained power in 1830, they found the three estates of the
+      realm opposed to them, and the Government, therefore, could not proceed.
+      They resolved, therefore, to remodel them. They declared that the House of
+      Commons was the House of the people, and that the people were not properly
+      represented. They consequently enlarged the estate of the Commons; they
+      increased the number of that privileged order who appear by their
+      representatives in the Lower House of Parliament. They rendered the estate
+      of the Commons more powerful by this proceeding, because they rendered
+      them more numerous; but they did not render their representatives one jot
+      more the representatives of the people. Throwing the Commons of Ireland
+      out of the question, for we cannot speculate upon a political order so
+      unsettled that it has been thrice remodelled during the present century,
+      some 300,000 individuals sent up, at the last general election, their
+      representatives to Westminster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, are these 300,000 persons the people of England? Grant that they
+      are; grant that these members are divided into two equal portions. Well,
+      then, the people of England consist of 150,000 persons. I know that there
+      are well-disposed persons that tremble at this reasoning, because,
+      although they admit its justice, they allege it leads to universal
+      suffrage. We must not show, they assert, that the House of the people is
+      not elected by the people. I admit it; we must not show that the House of
+      the people is not elected by the people, but we must show that the House
+      of Commons is not the House of the people, that it never was intended to
+      be the House of the people, and that, if it be admitted to be so by
+      courtesy, or become so in fact, it is all over with the English
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is quite impossible that a whole people can be a branch of a
+      legislature. If a whole people have the power of making laws, it is folly
+      to suppose that they will allow an assembly of 300 or 400 individuals, or
+      a solitary being on a throne, to thwart their sovereign will and pleasure.
+      But I deny that a people can govern itself. Self-government is a
+      contradiction in terms. Whatever form a government may assume, power must
+      be exercised by a minority of numbers. I shall, perhaps, be reminded of
+      the ancient republics. I answer, that the ancient republics were as
+      aristocratic communities as any that flourished in the middle ages. The
+      Demos of Athens was an oligarchy living upon slaves. There is a great
+      slave population even in the United States, if a society of yesterday is
+      to illustrate an argument on our ancient civilisation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is useless to argue the question abstractedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phrase &lsquo;the people&rsquo; is sheer nonsense. It is not a political term. It
+      is a phrase of natural history. A people is a species; a civilised
+      community is a nation. Now, a nation is a work of art and a work of time.
+      A nation is gradually created by a variety of influences&mdash;the
+      influence of original organisation, of climate, soil, religion, laws,
+      customs, manners, extraordinary accidents and incidents in their history,
+      and the individual character of their illustrious citizens. These
+      influences create the nation&mdash;these form the national mind, and
+      produce in the course of centuries a high degree of civilisation. If you
+      destroy the political institutions which these influences have called into
+      force, and which are the machinery by which they constantly act, you
+      destroy the nation. The nation, in a state of anarchy and dissolution,
+      then becomes a people; and after experiencing all the consequent misery,
+      like a company of bees spoiled of their queen and rifled of their hive,
+      they set to again and establish themselves into a society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although all society is artificial, the most artificial society in the
+      world is unquestionably the English nation. Our insular situation and our
+      foreign empire, our immense accumulated wealth and our industrious
+      character, our peculiar religious state, which secures alike orthodoxy and
+      toleration, our church and our sects, our agriculture and our
+      manufactures, our military services, our statute law, and supplementary
+      equity, our adventurous commerce, landed tenure, and unprecedented system
+      of credit, form, among many others, such a variety of interests, and
+      apparently so conflicting, that I do not think even the Abbe Sieyès
+      himself could devise a scheme by which this nation could be absolutely and
+      definitely represented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The framers of the English constitution were fortunately not of the school
+      of Abbe Sieyès. Their first object was to make us free; their next to keep
+      us so. While, therefore, they selected equality as the basis of their
+      social order, they took care to blend every man&rsquo;s ambition with the
+      perpetuity of the State. Unlike the levelling equality of modern days, the
+      ancient equality of England elevates and creates. Learned in human nature,
+      the English constitution holds out privilege to every subject as the
+      inducement to do his duty. As it has secured freedom, justice, and even
+      property to the humblest of the commonwealth, so, pursuing the same system
+      of privileges, it has confided the legislature of the realm to two orders
+      of the subjects&mdash;orders, however, in which every English citizen may
+      be constitutionally enrolled&mdash;the Lords and the Commons. The two
+      estates of the Peers are personally summoned to meet in their chamber: the
+      more extensive and single estate of the Commons meets by its
+      representatives. Both are political orders, complete in their character,
+      independent in their authority, legally irresponsible for the exercise of
+      their power. But they are the trustees of the nation, not its masters; and
+      there is a High Court of Chancery in the public opinion of the nation at
+      large, which exercises a vigilant control over these privileged classes of
+      the community, and to which they are equitably and morally amenable.
+      Estimating, therefore, the moral responsibility of our political estates,
+      it may fairly be maintained that, instead of being irresponsible, the
+      responsibility of the Lords exceeds that of the Commons. The House of
+      Commons itself not being an estate of the realm, but only the
+      representatives of an estate, owes to the nation a responsibility neither
+      legal nor moral. The House of Commons is responsible only to that
+      privileged order who are its constituents. Between the Lords and the
+      Commons themselves there is this prime difference&mdash;that the Lords are
+      known, and seen, and marked; the Commons are unknown, invisible, and
+      unobserved. The Lords meet in a particular spot; the Commons are scattered
+      over the kingdom. The eye of the nation rests upon the Lords, few in
+      number, and notable in position; the eye of the nation wanders in vain for
+      the Commons, far more numerous, but far less remarkable. As a substitute
+      the nation appeals to the House of Commons, but sometimes appeals in vain;
+      for if the majority of the Commons choose to support their representatives
+      in a course of conduct adverse to the opinion of the nation, the House of
+      Commons will set the nation at defiance. They have done so once; may they
+      never repeat that destructive career! Such are our two Houses of
+      Parliament&mdash;the most illustrious assemblies since the Roman Senate
+      and Grecian Areopagus; neither of them is the &lsquo;House of the People,&rsquo; but
+      both alike represent the &lsquo;Nation.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A True Democracy</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE are two propositions, which, however at the first glance they may
+      appear to contradict the popular opinions of the day, are nevertheless, as
+      I believe, just and true. And they are these:&mdash;First. That there is
+      no probability of ever establishing a more democratic form of government
+      than the present English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. That the recent political changes of the Whigs are, in fact, a
+      departure from the democratic spirit of that constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever form a government may assume, its spirit must be determined by
+      the laws which regulate the property of the country. You may have a Senate
+      and Consuls, you may have no hereditary titles, and you may dub each
+      householder or inhabitant a citizen; but if the spirit of your laws
+      preserves masses of property in a particular class, the government of the
+      country will follow the disposition of the property. So also you may have
+      an apparent despotism without any formal popular control, and with no
+      aristocracy, either natural or artificial, and the spirit of the
+      government may nevertheless be republican. Thus the ancient polity of
+      Rome, in its best days, was an aristocracy, and the government of
+      Constantinople is the nearest approach to a democracy on a great scale,
+      and maintained during a great period, that history offers. The
+      constitution of France during the last half century has been fast
+      approaching that of the Turks. The barbarous Jacobins blended modern
+      equality with the refined civilisation of ancient France; the barbarous
+      Ottomans blended their equality with the refined civilisation of ancient
+      Rome. Paris secured to the Jacobins those luxuries that their system never
+      could have produced: Byzantium served the same purpose to the Turks. Both
+      the French and their turbaned prototypes commenced their system with
+      popular enthusiasm, and terminated it with general subjection. Napoleon
+      and Louis Philippe are playing the same part as the Suleimans and the
+      Mahmouds. The Chambers are but a second-rate Divan, the Prefects but
+      inferior Pachas: a solitary being rules alike in the Seraglio and the
+      Tuileries, and the whole nation bows to his despotism on condition that
+      they have no other master save himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disposition of property in England throws the government of the
+      country into the hands of its natural aristocracy. I do not believe that
+      any scheme of the suffrage, or any method of election, could divert that
+      power into other quarters. It is the necessary consequence of our present
+      social state. I believe, the wider the popular suffrage, the more powerful
+      would be the natural aristocracy. This seems to me an inevitable
+      consequence; but I admit this proposition on the clear understanding that
+      such an extension should be established on a fair, and not a factious,
+      basis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, arises the question of the ballot, into the merits of which. I
+      shall take another opportunity of entering, recording only now my opinion,
+      that in the present arrangement of the constituencies, even the ballot
+      would favour the power of the natural aristocracy, and that, if the ballot
+      were simultaneously introduced with a fair and not a factious extension of
+      the suffrage, it would produce no difference whatever in the ultimate
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quitting, then, these considerations, let us arrive at the important
+      point. Is there any probability of a different disposition of property in
+      England&mdash;a disposition of property which, by producing a very general
+      similarity of condition, would throw the government of the country into
+      the hands of any individuals whom popular esteem or fancy might select?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears to me that this question can only be decided by ascertaining
+      the genius of the English nation. What is the prime characteristic of the
+      English mind? I apprehend I may safely decide upon its being industry.
+      Taking a general but not a superficial survey of the English character
+      since the Reformation, a thousand circumstances convince me that the
+      salient point in our national psychology is the passion for accumulating
+      wealth, of which industry is the chief instrument. We value our freedom
+      principally because it leaves us unrestricted in our pursuits; and that
+      reverence for law and for all that is established, which also eminently
+      distinguishes the English nation, is occasioned by the conviction that,
+      next to liberty, order is the most efficacious assistant of industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus we see that those great revolutions which must occur in the
+      history of all nations when they happen here produce no permanent effects
+      upon our social state. Our revolutions are brought about by the passions
+      of creative minds taking advantage, for their own aggrandisement, of
+      peculiar circumstances in our national progress. They are never called for
+      by the great body of the nation. Churches are plundered, long rebellions
+      maintained, dynasties changed, parliaments abolished; but when the storm
+      is passed, the features of the social landscape remain unimpaired; there
+      are no traces of the hurricane, the earthquake, or the volcano; it has
+      been but a tumult of the atmosphere, that has neither toppled down our old
+      spires and palaces nor swallowed up our cities and seats of learning, nor
+      blasted our ancient woods, nor swept away our ports and harbours. The
+      English nation ever recurs to its ancient institutions&mdash;the
+      institutions that have alike secured freedom and order; and after all
+      their ebullitions, we find them, when the sky is clear, again at work, and
+      toiling on at their eternal task of accumulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is this difference between the revolutions of England and the
+      revolutions of the Continent&mdash;the European revolution is a struggle
+      against privilege; an English revolution is a struggle for it. If a new
+      class rises in the State, it becomes uneasy to take its place in the
+      natural aristocracy of the land: a desperate faction or a wily leader
+      takes advantage of this desire, and a revolution is the consequence. Thus
+      the Whigs in the present day have risen to power on the shoulders of the
+      manufacturing interest. To secure themselves in their posts, the Whigs
+      have given the new interest an undue preponderance; but the new interest,
+      having obtained its object, is content. The manufacturer, like every other
+      Englishman, is as aristocratic as the landlord. The manufacturer begins to
+      lack in movement. Under Walpole the Whigs played the same game with the
+      commercial interests; a century has passed, and the commercial interests
+      are all as devoted to the constitution as the manufacturers soon will be.
+      Having no genuine party, the Whigs seek for succour from the Irish
+      papists; Lord John Russell, however, is only imitating Pym under the same
+      circumstances. In 1640, when the English movement was satisfied, and the
+      constitutional party, headed by such men as Falkland and Hyde, were about
+      to attain power, Pym and his friends, in despair at their declining
+      influence and the close divisions in their once unanimous Parliament, fled
+      to the Scotch Covenanters, and entered into a &lsquo;close compact&rsquo; for the
+      destruction of the Church of England as the price of their assistance. So
+      events repeat themselves; but if the study of history is really to profit
+      us, the nation at the present day will take care that the same results do
+      not always occur from the same events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When passions have a little subsided, the industrious ten-pounder, who has
+      struggled into the privileged order of the Commons, proud of having
+      obtained the first step of aristocracy, will be the last man to assist in
+      destroying the other gradations of the scale which he or his posterity may
+      yet ascend; while the new member of a manufacturing district has his eye
+      already upon a neighbouring park, avails himself of his political position
+      to become a county magistrate, meditates upon a baronetcy, and dreams of a
+      coroneted descendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nation that esteems wealth as the great object of existence will
+      submit to no laws that do not secure the enjoyment of wealth. Now, we
+      deprive wealth of its greatest source of enjoyment, as well as of its best
+      security, if we deprive it of power. The English nation, therefore,
+      insists that property shall be the qualification for power, and the whole
+      scope of its laws and customs is to promote and favour the accumulation of
+      wealth and the perpetuation of property. We cannot alter, therefore, the
+      disposition of property in this country without we change the national
+      character. Far from the present age being hostile to the supremacy of
+      property, there has been no period of our history where property has been
+      more esteemed, because there has been no period when the nation has been
+      so industrious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing, therefore, that no change will occur in the disposition of
+      property in this country, I cannot comprehend how our government can
+      become more democratic. The consequence of our wealth is an aristocratic
+      constitution; the consequence of our love of liberty is an aristocratic
+      constitution founded on an equality of civil rights. And who can deny that
+      an aristocratic constitution resting on such a basis, where the
+      legislative, and even the executive office may be obtained by every
+      subject of the realm, is, in fact, a noble democracy? The English
+      constitution, faithful to the national character, secures to all the
+      enjoyment of property and the delights of freedom. Its honours are a
+      perpetual reward of industry; every Englishman is toiling to obtain them;
+      and this is the constitution to which every Englishman will always be
+      devoted, except he is a Whig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the next Chapter I shall discuss the second proposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Results of Whiggism</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE Tories assert that the whole property of the country is on their side;
+      and the Whigs, wringing their hands over lost elections and bellowing
+      about &lsquo;intimidation,&rsquo; seem to confess the soft impeachment. Their prime
+      organ also assures us that every man with 500L. per annum is opposed to
+      them. Yet the Whig-Radical writers have recently published, by way of
+      consolation to their penniless proselytes, a list of some twenty Dukes and
+      Marquises, who, they assure us, are devoted to &lsquo;Liberal&rsquo; principles, and
+      whose revenues, in a paroxysm of economical rhodomontade, they assert,
+      could buy up the whole income of the rest of the hereditary Peerage. The
+      Whig-Radical writers seem puzzled to reconcile this anomalous circumstance
+      with the indisputably forlorn finances of their faction in general. Now,
+      this little tract on the &lsquo;Spirit of Whiggism&rsquo; may perhaps throw some light
+      upon this perplexing state of affairs. For myself, I see in it only a
+      fresh illustration of the principles which I have demonstrated, from the
+      whole current of our history, to form the basis of Whig policy. This union
+      of oligarchical wealth and mob poverty is the very essence of the &lsquo;Spirit
+      of Whiggism.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English constitution, which, from the tithing-man to the Peer of
+      Parliament, has thrown the whole government of the country into the hands
+      of those who are qualified by property to perform the duties of their
+      respective offices, has secured that diffused and general freedom, without
+      which the national industry would neither have its fair play nor its just
+      reward, by a variety of institutions, which, while they prevent those who
+      have no property from invading the social commonwealth, in whose classes
+      every industrious citizen has a right to register himself, offer also an
+      equally powerful check to the ambitious fancies of those great families,
+      over whose liberal principles and huge incomes the Whig-Radical writers
+      gloat with the self-complacency of lackeys at the equipages of their
+      masters. There is ever an union in a perverted sense between those who are
+      beneath power and those who wish to be above it; and oligarchies and
+      despotisms are usually established by the agency of a deluded multitude.
+      The Crown, with its constitutional influence over the military services, a
+      Parliament of two houses watching each other&rsquo;s proceedings with
+      constitutional jealousy, an independent hierarchy and, not least, an
+      independent magistracy, are serious obstacles in the progressive
+      establishment of that scheme of government which a small knot of great
+      families&mdash;these dukes and marquises, whose revenues according to the
+      Government organ, could buy up the income of the whole peerage-naturally
+      wish to introduce. We find, therefore, throughout the whole period of our
+      more modern history, a powerful section of the great nobles ever at war
+      with the national institutions, checking the Crown, attacking the
+      independence of that House of Parliament in which they happen to be in a
+      minority&mdash;no matter which, patronising sects to reduce the influence
+      of the Church, and playing town against country to overcome the authority
+      of the gentry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is evident that these aspiring oligarchs, as a party, can have little
+      essential strength; they can count upon nothing but their retainers. To
+      secure the triumph of their cause, therefore, they are forced to manoeuvre
+      with a pretext, and while they aim at oligarchical rule, they apparently
+      advocate popular rights. They hold out, consequently, an inducement to all
+      the uneasy portion of the nation to enlist under their standard; they play
+      their discontented minority against the prosperous majority, and, dubbing
+      their partisans &lsquo;the people,&rsquo; they flatter themselves that their projects
+      are irresistible. The attack is unexpected, brisk, and dashing, well
+      matured, dexterously mystified. Before the nation is roused to its danger,
+      the oligarchical object is often obtained; and then the oligarchy,
+      entrenched in power, count upon the nation to defend them from their
+      original and revolutionary allies. If they succeed, a dynasty is changed,
+      or a Parliament reformed, and the movement is stopped; if the Tories or
+      the Conservatives cannot arrest the fatal career which the Whigs have
+      originally impelled, then away go the national institutions; the crown
+      falls from the King&rsquo;s brow; the crosier is snapped in twain; one House of
+      Parliament is sure to disappear, and the gentlemen of England, dexterously
+      dubbed Malignants, or Anti-Reformers, or any other phrase in fashion, the
+      dregs of the nation sequester their estates and install themselves in
+      their halls; and &lsquo;liberal principles&rsquo; having thus gloriously triumphed,
+      after a due course of plunder, bloodshed, imprisonment, and ignoble
+      tyranny, the people of England, sighing once more to be the English
+      nation, secure order by submitting to a despot, and in time, when they
+      have got rid of their despot, combine their ancient freedom with their
+      newly-regained security by re-establishing the English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whigs of the present day have made their assault upon the nation with
+      their usual spirit. They have already succeeded in controlling the
+      sovereign and in remodelling the House of Commons. They have menaced the
+      House of Lords, violently assailed the Church, and reconstructed the
+      Corporations. I shall take the two most comprehensive measures which they
+      have succeeded in carrying, and which were at the time certainly very
+      popular, and apparently of a very democratic character,-their reform of
+      the House of Commons, and their reconstruction of the municipal
+      corporations. Let us see whether these great measures have, in fact,
+      increased the democratic character of our constitution or not&mdash;whether
+      they veil an oligarchical project, or are, in fact, popular concessions
+      inevitably offered by the Whigs in their oligarchical career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result of the Whig remodelling of the order of the Commons has been
+      this&mdash;that it has placed the nomination of the Government in the
+      hands of the popish priesthood. Is that a great advance of public
+      intelligence and popular liberty? Are the parliamentary nominees of M&rsquo;Hale
+      and Kehoe more germane to the feelings of the English nation, more adapted
+      to represent their interests, than the parliamentary nominees of a Howard
+      or a Percy? This papist majority, again, is the superstructure of a basis
+      formed by some Scotch Presbyterians and some English Dissenters, in
+      general returned by the small constituencies of small towns&mdash;classes
+      whose number and influence, intelligence and wealth, have been grossly
+      exaggerated for factious purposes, but classes avowedly opposed to the
+      maintenance of the English constitution. I do not see that the cause of
+      popular power has much risen, even with the addition of this leaven. If
+      the suffrages of the Commons of England were polled together, the
+      hustings-books of the last general election will prove that a very
+      considerable majority of their numbers is opposed to the present
+      Government, and that therefore, under this new democratic scheme, this
+      great body of the nation are, by some hocus-pocus tactics or other,
+      obliged to submit to the minority. The truth is, that the new constituency
+      has been so arranged that an unnatural preponderance has been given to a
+      small class, and one hostile to the interests of the great body. Is this
+      more democratic? The apparent majority in the House of Commons is produced
+      by a minority of the Commons themselves; so that a small and favoured
+      class command a majority in the House of Commons, and the sway of the
+      administration, as far as that House is concerned, is regulated by a
+      smaller number of individuals than those who governed it previous to its
+      reform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this is not the whole evil: this new class, with its unnatural
+      preponderance, is a class hostile to the institutions of the country,
+      hostile to the union of Church and State, hostile to the House of Lords,
+      to the constitutional power of the Crown, to the existing system of
+      provincial judicature. It is, therefore, a class fit and willing to
+      support the Whigs in their favourite scheme of centralisation, without
+      which the Whigs can never long maintain themselves in power. Now,
+      centralisation is the death-blow of public freedom; it is the citadel of
+      the oligarchs, from which, if once erected, it will be impossible to
+      dislodge them. But can that party be aiming at centralised government
+      which has reformed the municipal corporations? We will see. The reform of
+      the municipal corporations of England is a covert attack on the authority
+      of the English gentry,-that great body which perhaps forms the most
+      substantial existing obstacle to the perpetuation of Whiggism in power. By
+      this democratic Act the county magistrate is driven from the towns where
+      he before exercised a just influence, while an elective magistrate from
+      the towns jostles him on the bench at quarter sessions, and presents in
+      his peculiar position an anomaly in the constitution of the bench,
+      flattering to the passions, however fatal to the interests, of the giddy
+      million. Here is a lever to raise the question of county reform whenever
+      an obstinate shire may venture to elect a representative in Parliament
+      hostile to the liberal oligarchs. Let us admit, for the moment, that the
+      Whigs ultimately succeed in subverting the ancient and hereditary power of
+      the English gentry. Will the municipal corporations substitute themselves
+      as an equivalent check on a centralising Government? Whence springs their
+      influence? From property? Not half a dozen have estates. Their influence
+      springs from the factitious power with which the reforming Government has
+      invested them, and of which the same Government will deprive them in a
+      session, the moment they cease to be corresponding committees of the
+      reforming majority in the House of Commons. They will either be swept away
+      altogether, or their functions will be limited to raising the local taxes
+      which will discharge their expenses of the detachment of the metropolitan
+      police, or the local judge or governor, whom Downing Street may send down
+      to preside over their constituents. With one or two exceptions, the
+      English corporations do not possess more substantial and durable elements
+      of power than the municipalities of France. What check are they on Paris?
+      These corporations have neither prescription in their favour, nor
+      property. Their influence is maintained neither by tradition nor
+      substance. They have no indirect authority over the minds of their
+      townsmen; they have only their modish charters to appeal to, and the newly
+      engrossed letter of the law. They have no great endowments of whose public
+      benefits they are the official distributers; they do not stand on the
+      vantage-ground on which we recognise the trustees of the public interests;
+      they neither administer to the soul nor the body; they neither feed the
+      poor nor educate the young; they have no hold on the national mind; they
+      have not sprung from the national character; they were born by faction,
+      and they will live by faction. Such bodies must speedily become corrupt;
+      they will ultimately be found dangerous instruments in the hands of a
+      faction. The members of the country corporations will play the game of a
+      London party, to secure their factitious local importance and obtain the
+      consequent results of their opportune services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think I have now established the two propositions with which I commenced
+      my last chapter: and will close this concluding one of the &lsquo;Spirit of
+      Whiggism&rsquo; with their recapitulation, and the inferences which I draw from
+      them. If there be a slight probability of ever establishing in this
+      country a more democratic government than the English constitution, it
+      will be as well, I conceive, for those who love their rights, to maintain
+      that constitution; and if the more recent measures of the Whigs, however
+      plausible their first aspect, have, in fact, been a departure from the
+      democratic character of that constitution, it will be as well for the
+      English nation to oppose, with all their heart, and all their soul, and
+      all their strength, the machinations of the Whigs and the &lsquo;Spirit of
+      Whiggism.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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