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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56,
+Number 348, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: April 13, 2008 [EBook #25066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan O'Connor, Jonathan Ingram, Louise Pryor
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+{Transcriber's note: Spellings are sometimes erratic. A few obvious
+misprints have been corrected, but in general the original spelling has
+been retained. Accents in the French phrases are inconsistent, and have
+not been standardised. Greek phrases have been transliterated, and are
+enclosed in + signs +anekdotoi+.}
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+No. CCCXLVIII.    OCTOBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+    THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST,                              401
+
+    POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. II.,                   417
+
+    THE GREAT DROUGHT,                                      433
+
+    A TENDER CONSCIENCE,                                    454
+
+    THIERRY'S HISTORY OF THE GAULS,                         466
+
+    THE WITCHFINDER. CONCLUSION,                            487
+
+    MY LAST COURTSHIP; OR, LIFE IN LOUISIANA,               507
+
+    GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.                                524
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    EDINBURGH:
+    WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
+    AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+NO. CCCXLVIII.    OCTOBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST.{A}
+
+
+This is one of those curious memoirs which, from time to time, start
+forth from the family archives of public men, for the illustration of
+the past and the wisdom of the future. Nothing can be more important to
+either the man of office or the man of reflection. Avoiding all the
+theoretical portion of history, on which all men may be mistaken, they
+give us its facts, on which no one can be deceived; detailing the course
+of personal events, they supply us with the views of the most
+intelligent minds directly employed in the transactions, exhibit the
+portraits of those minds, and point out to those who are to follow, the
+effect of vigour, intrepidity, and knowledge, in overcoming the
+difficulties of nations.
+
+The work on which we are about to make some remarks, is one of those
+productions which do especial honour to the English aristocracy. It is
+the diplomatic career of the founder of a peerage; compiled and
+published by the third in succession to the earldom. The noble editor,
+professing to have done but little in this office of reverence and duty,
+has done much--he has paid due honour to a manly, wise, and vigorous
+ancestor; and he has set a striking example to the young nobility of his
+time. The libraries of every noble family of England contain similar
+records of the highest value; and nothing could be at once more
+honourable to the memory of the gallant and renowned who have passed
+away, or more important to posterity, than to give those documents to
+the light, illustrated by the recollections of their noble descendants,
+and brought before the public with the natural advantages of
+authenticity and authority.
+
+Lord Malmesbury's career continued through one of the most interesting
+portions of the last century; that which was the preparative for the
+great catastrophe of its close, the overthrow of the French monarchy. He
+was in the service of his country, as a diplomatist, from 1768 to 1797;
+and for many succeeding years was in connexion with all the leading
+political characters of a time singularly fertile in remarkable men. He
+was born at Salisbury in 1746, the descendant of an old English family,
+possessed of property in Wiltshire. His father was an eminent scholar,
+the author of _Hermes_, and other well known treatises on literary and
+philosophical subjects. But the scholar was also a man of active public
+life. Entering into parliament, he was appointed a lord of the treasury
+in 1763, and secretary and comptroller of the Queen's household some
+years after. A _bon-mot_ of one of the Townsends is recorded, on his
+taking his seat.
+
+"Who is the new member?" asked Townsend.
+
+"A Mr Harris, who has written on grammar and harmony."
+
+"Then what brings him here, where he will hear _neither_?"
+
+The son of such a man had public life before him as his natural source
+of distinction; and Lord Malmesbury, late in life, (in 1800,) thus
+gracefully commemorated his gratitude. "To my father's precepts and
+example I owe every good quality I have. To his reputation and his
+character, I attribute my more than common success in life. It was those
+that introduced me with peculiar advantage into the world. It was as his
+son that I first obtained friends and patrons. I had nothing in myself;
+and I speak, at the distance of thirty-five years, not from affected
+modesty, but from a powerful recollection of what there was to entitle
+me to notice. Once, indeed, placed in a conspicuous and responsible
+situation, I was anxious to act becomingly in it. And even here I recur
+with pleasure to the same grateful source; for while my father lived,
+which was during the first twelve years of my public life, the strongest
+incentive I had to exert myself was in the satisfaction I knew he would
+derive from any credit I might acquire; and the many and distinguished
+honours which I have since received, have suffered a great diminution in
+my esteem, from his being no longer a witness to them."
+
+He was sent to Winchester, where he remained till he was sixteen. From
+Winchester he was transferred to Oxford, where the discipline at that
+period was so relaxed, that his only surprise in after life was at the
+success of so many of his companions, among whom were Charles Fox, North,
+Bishop of Winchester, Lord Robert Spenser, Lord Auckland, and others, who
+had risen to rank of various kinds. He left Oxford in 1765, and passed
+thirty-five years on the Continent. His lordship here makes a striking
+observation on his own experience, which has been authenticated by every
+intelligent and honest mind under the same circumstances--remarking that
+his foreign residence was so far from making him undervalue England, that
+it raised it still higher in his estimation. He adds--"Here I will make
+an assertion, grounded on experience and conviction, and which may be
+applied as a never-failing test, that an Englishman who, after a long
+absence from England, returns to it with feelings and sentiments partial
+to other countries, and adverse to his own, has no _real_ mind--is
+without the powers of discernment and plain easy comparison--and has no
+title to enjoy the superior moral and local advantages to which he is
+born, but of which he is insensible and unworthy."
+
+As diplomacy was evidently the career marked out for him by his father,
+he was sent to study at Leyden, where he remained a year. In the
+commencement of the century, Holland was the central point of all
+European negotiations; and its schools became famous for languages and
+the study of international law. The society among the higher orders of
+the country was the most intelligent in Europe, consisting of
+ambassadors and scholars of the first character. After this year of
+vigorous study, and some brief stay at home, he returned to the
+Continent, and made an extensive tour of the north. In the autumn of
+this year he received his first diplomatic appointment, in the mission
+to Spain. His success in the Falkland Island negotiation recommended him
+to government, and he was appointed minister at Berlin--a very unusual
+distinction for a diplomatist only twenty-four years old. But a still
+more important distinction now awaited him. In 1777 he was sent as
+minister to the court of the Empress Catharine, where he found himself
+involved in all the craft of diplomacy with two of the most artful
+sovereigns that ever lived, Frederick and Catharine. But difficulties
+only place talents in a more conspicuous point of view, and he received
+from his government the highest reward then conferred upon a foreign
+minister, the Order of the Bath, in 1780. The climate of Russia was at
+length found too severe for his health, and he petitioned for his
+recall, which was granted, but with the honourable offer of his choice
+of a mission either to Spain or the Hague; the former was the higher in
+rank, but the latter the more important in activity. He unhesitatingly,
+and wisely, chose the embassy to the Hague. In 1784, the Foxite
+administration fell, and Pitt was in the ascendant. Harris had been at
+all times connected with Fox, and had constantly voted with him in the
+House; but so high was the public sense of his ability, and such was the
+impartiality of Pitt's sense of public duty, that he offered him the
+re-appointment to the Hague, which Harris, after consulting Fox and the
+Duke of Portland as his political leaders, accepted. His services were
+peculiarly required at this period, from the violent discussions which
+had arisen in Holland; and he either originated, or perfected, the
+treaty of alliance between England, Holland, and Prussia, which saved
+the Stadtholder for the time, and Holland probably from being made a
+French province. His conduct was regarded with so much approbation by
+the allies, that he received from the Prussian king leave to add the
+Prussian eagle to his arms, and from the Stadtholder, his motto, "_Je
+maintiendrai_." From England he received the more substantial rewards of
+the peerage, by the title of Baron Malmesbury, and the appointment of
+ambassador. But though he was a Whig, he was one on the old English
+principle, and not on the new. In 1793, when in the midst of
+revolutionary horrors, and after the murder of the unfortunate French
+king, Fox, in the spirit of infatuation, declared himself ready to
+acknowledge the French republic, all the chief leaders of the Whigs
+retired from the Opposition bench. The Duke of Portland, Lord
+Loughborough, Sir Gilbert Elliott, Lord Spenser, and Lord Malmesbury,
+joined those distinguished persons; yet without any apparent loss of
+friendship with Fox, whose manners retained personal friends even when
+he had lost their political confidence. Frederick William, king of
+Prussia, a prince of singularly undecided character, though of loud
+professions, being at this time suspected of a leaning towards the
+revolutionists, Lord Malmesbury was immediately sent by Pitt to Berlin,
+for the purpose of holding him to his good faith. He succeeded, to the
+extent of making the king sign an additional treaty with England and
+Holland.
+
+His next mission, if not one of more importance, was of still greater
+delicacy--it was to ask the hand of the Duke of Brunswick's daughter for
+the Prince of Wales. This was a marriage by compulsion, and the wrath of
+the prince fell upon the noble negotiator. He never forgave Lord
+Malmesbury, and he quickly alienated himself from the princess: the
+unfortunate result is fully known. In 1796, and 1797, Lord Malmesbury
+was engaged in the most important negotiation of his life. The French
+Directory, probably for the purpose of exciting dissensions between
+Austria and England, made a secret proposal of peace, which led to the
+mission of an ambassador. But while Napoleon was pursuing his conquests
+in Italy, France had no actual desire of pacification. The purpose was
+evidently to gain time; and Lord Malmesbury, on discovering the true
+nature of the transaction, demanded his passports, and returned to
+England. It cannot be imputed to Pitt, that he was ever negligent of
+those who had done the state service. Lord Malmesbury had already
+obtained the Order of the Bath, and a barony; he was now raised to an
+earldom, with a viscounty, by the title of Lord Fitzharris; and it was
+in Pitt's contemplation to send him once more to Paris, when his
+ministry was suddenly brought to a conclusion, and Mr Addington was
+appointed premier; by whom the peace, or rather the unlucky truce of
+Amiens, was made. His political life was now at an end. He had been for
+some time suffering under deafness, which increased so much, that he
+regarded it as incapacitating him from public employment; yet he still
+loved society, and, dividing his time between London and his seat near
+Henley, he passed a pleasant and cheerful time, mingling with the chief
+characters of the rising political generation. For the last ten years of
+his life, his thoughts seem to have been much directed to religious
+subjects; and he kept what he entitled a "self-controlling journal," in
+which he registered his thoughts. We have probably reason to regret that
+the scrupulous delicacy of his biographer has hitherto withheld it from
+the public. The few sentences transcribed from it, give a strong
+conception of the piety and clear-headedness of the noble author. They
+were written within a fortnight of his death. They describe him as
+"having completed his 74th year, and having thus lived longer than any
+of his ancestors for the last two centuries; that his existence had been
+without any great misfortune, and without any acute disease, and that he
+owed all praise and thanksgiving to the Supreme Being; that the next
+step would probably be his last; that he was now too much exhausted,
+both in mind and body, to be of service to his country, but was
+fortunate in leaving his children well and happy; and that he now waited
+the Divine will with becoming resignation."
+
+He died without disease, and through mere exhaustion of nature, in his
+75th year, in 1820, and was buried in Salisbury cathedral.
+
+Lord Malmesbury's reputation ranked very high in the diplomatic circles
+of the Continent. He was a clear-headed, well-informed, and active
+minister--sagacious enough to see his way through difficulties which
+would have perplexed inferior men, and bold enough to act according to
+his own opinion, where feebler minds would have ruined all, by waiting
+for the tardy wisdom of others. Talleyrand, a first-rate judge on such
+subjects, said of him, in his epigrammatic style--"I think that Lord
+Malmesbury was the ablest minister whom you had in his time. It was
+hopeless to get before him; all that could be done was to follow him
+close. If one let him have the last word, he contrived always to have
+the best of the argument." He seems to have been a thorough Englishman
+in the highest sense of the word, and to have had the loftiest opinion
+of the power and principles of England; not from any fantastic
+prejudice, but from the experience of a long life, with the best
+opportunities of forming an unprejudiced judgment. We have already
+mentioned his declared opinion after living long abroad, and as a great
+diplomatic functionary, living under the most advantageous circumstances
+of foreign society; that any Englishman who, after a residence abroad,
+prefers the Continent to his own country, is beyond all question a man
+of gross and contemptible mind, and incapable of taking a "common-sense
+view" of the subject. We have his constant testimony, that "as there is
+nothing equal to England on the face of the earth, so no exertion on the
+part of her people can be too great in defence of her freedom and
+honour." In conformity with this matured conviction, and reigning
+principle of his heart, he chose as the motto for his coronet--
+
+    "Ubique patriam reminisci."{B}
+
+Mr Harris's first visit to the Continent was in 1767, when he set out on
+a tour to Holland, Prussia, and Poland, remaining for some time at
+Berlin, where he had the advantage of seeing the cleverest, though the
+most eccentric, of all sovereigns, Frederick the Great. A number of
+traits of character are given, of various degrees of force, but all
+expressive. The king's chief amusement was playing on the flute, on
+which he performed very well for an amateur, though, compared with the
+professional performers, he necessarily made rather an unkingly figure.
+Frederick, who was afraid of nothing else, was so much afraid of failure
+in his flute playing, that whenever he had a new piece of music, he shut
+himself up in his closet some hours beforehand, to practise it; and
+although no one was permitted to be present at those concerts except a
+very few select friends, he was always observed to be remarkably nervous
+at the commencement. He had a fine collection of flutes, all made by the
+same man, and for which he paid a hundred ducats a-piece. He had an
+attendant whose sole office was to keep those flutes in order. During
+the war, when his finances were reduced to so low an ebb that he paid
+bad coin to every one, he took care that his flute-maker should be paid
+in good coin, lest, for bad money, he should give him bad flutes. Royal
+architecture is not always fortunate. It is observed that Louis XIV.
+built his famous Versailles in a swampy hollow, when he had the noble
+terrace of St Germain before him. Frederick built his Sans-Souci in a
+marshy meadow, while he had a fine hill within sight. Unhappily _we_
+have but little to boast of in the location of our modern palaces. The
+site of Buckingham Palace seems to have been chosen with no other object
+than to discover which was the superior annoyance, the smoke of
+steam-engines or the vapours of a swamp; and this was chosen with one of
+the finest possible situations within half a mile of it, in the centre
+of Hyde Park. Her Majesty's palace at Brighton has been located with
+exactly the same curious perversion of taste; the hills to the north of
+that very handsome town offering one of the noblest situations that can
+be conceived--a fine land view, and an unobstructed sweep of the ocean:
+but the evil genius of building prevailed, and the palace is fixed in a
+gloomy bottom, from which it can be overlooked by every body, and from
+which nothing can be seen. Frederick, though sometimes superb in his
+expenses, was habitually penurious. He seems to have thought that war
+was the only thing on which it was worth his while to spend money. The
+salaries of his gentlemen and attendants were all on the narrowest
+scale. Lord Malmesbury observes that even the Prince of Dessau's
+marriage, at which he was present, exhibited this penury. All the
+apartments, except those immediately used for supper or cards, were
+lighted with a single candle. The supper had no dessert; the wines were
+bad; their quantity stinted. On his asking, after dancing, for some wine
+and water, he was answered--"the wine is all gone, but you may have some
+tea;" and this was a peculiarly distinguished party. He saw the king
+himself directing the servants in lighting up the ball-room, and telling
+them where to put the candles. Whilst this operation was performing, the
+queen, the royal family, and the company, were waiting literally in the
+dark; as the king did not begin this ceremony till supper was finished,
+and no one dared to give orders to have it done. Frederick, when a young
+man, was intended for the husband of a British princess. This was a
+match of his mother's construction. But the old king, who hated George
+II., threatened to cut off his son's head for his presumption. The
+English king called the Prussian "my brother the sergeant;" the Prussian
+retaliated by calling the English king "my brother the dancing-master."
+This hostility amounted to a mixture of the profane and the ludicrous.
+When the old king was seized with his mortal illness, he asked whether
+"it was necessary to forgive all his enemies." On receiving the proper
+answer, he said to the Queen--"Dorothy, write to your brother that I
+forgive him all the evil that he has done me; but wait till I'm dead
+first." A good repartee of Sir Andrew Mitchell on the battle of Quebec,
+is mentioned. "Is it true," said the king to him, "that, after all, you
+have taken Quebec?" "Yes, sire," said Sir Andrew Mitchell the envoy, "by
+the help of Providence." "What!" said the king, "is Providence among
+your allies?" "Yes," said the envoy, "and the only one among then who
+demands _no subsidy_."
+
+Sir Charles Williams wrote to one of the queen's marshals a letter
+introducing Lord Essex, ludicrously finishing with--"You may be sure
+that it is not he who had his head cut off in the time of Elizabeth."
+The marshal, not perfectly understanding this, but depending on his
+information, introduced him in this style to her majesty--"Madam, my
+Lord Essex; and I assure your majesty it is not he who was decapitated
+by Queen Elizabeth."
+
+Frederick, sending a minister to Denmark who complained of the smallness
+of his salary, and said that he could keep neither an equipage nor a
+table; the king's remark to him was--"You are a prodigal; you ought to
+know that it is more healthy to go on foot than it is to go in a
+carriage; and that, so far as eating is concerned, another man's table
+is always the best."
+
+At this period Poland was in a state of great confusion. The Empress of
+Russia had marched an army into it for the purpose, as she declared, of
+allowing the popular representatives to act freely, while the king
+regarded himself as little better than her prisoner. Repnin, the Russian
+ambassador, actually commanded every thing; and the principal nobility
+of Poland were compelled to be his agents. Of course, this state of
+things never could have occurred in any country where the tone of
+manners was high; and Poland, though the people were brave, and the
+nobility in general patriotic, unquestionably fell by its own vices.
+The portrait drawn of Prince Radzivil is the reverse of flattering, but
+it is characteristic:--
+
+"Prince Radzivil, the marshal of the confederation, was one of the most
+powerful princes of Poland. His revenues were nearly equal to half a
+million sterling a-year, though they were at this period much diminished
+by Russian ravages. He had at one time an army of eight thousand man,
+with which he opposed the Imperial progress. He afterwards became the
+tool of the Russian policy, and was rewarded with the first palatinate
+of the kingdom. He gave a masquerade on the empress's birthday to near
+three thousand masks; and it was calculated that, besides the other
+wines, they drank a thousand bottles of champagne." The prodigality of a
+Polish feast exceeds all comprehension. This prince kept open house on
+such a scale, that his five-and-twenty cooks were scarcely able to
+supply his table. The great article of luxury in Poland was Hungary
+wine, which they had in great perfection, but which was very costly.
+Champagne was drunk as cider. The multitude of servants in a Polish
+establishment must have been ruinous. Prince Czartoriski's personal
+attendants and servants amounted to three hundred and seventy-five.
+Those in his country-house were still more numerous. His troops amounted
+to four thousand men. Prince Repnin, though of the Greek church, which
+abounds in forms and ceremonies, and in fasts exceeds all others, had so
+little regard for the forms of his religion, that he ordered a play to
+be acted on Ash Wednesday at Warsaw. Towards Christmas 1767, Lord
+Malmesbury, then Mr Harris, was at the house of a Polish nobleman in the
+hunting season. He observed to the king that he had never seen him in
+better spirits. "Ah!" was the royal answer, "it is very pleasant to
+delude one's self sometimes."
+
+In 1768 Mr Harris began his diplomatic life as secretary of legation
+under Sir James Gray, then British minister at the court of Madrid.
+
+He set out from Paris on the last day of the year, and after
+six-and-twenty days' journey, in which he loitered but two days on the
+road, accomplished the eleven hundred miles without accident.
+
+Though accustomed to Popish countries, the Spanish ceremonials of the
+Holy Week seem to have surprised him. In the streets was kept a second
+carnival, with a peculiar costume. The court and the higher orders wore
+black velvet, with flame-coloured waistcoats and sleeves trimmed with
+gold; the citizens left their shops, and spent the day in the streets.
+The king on Holy Thursday visited seven churches, washed the feet of
+twelve paupers, and afterwards served them at dinner. From Friday till
+Saturday all was silence, and no coaches were permitted in the streets.
+On Saturday at noon the bells rang, the people shouted, the coaches
+moved again, and all was clamour. From a personal knowledge of the
+people, Mr Harris pronounced that their defects arose from their
+religion and from their priests; both of which, by keeping the lower
+orders in a state of mendicity and the higher in a state of ignorance,
+prevent the progress of the nation. Even at this period, their dislike
+of the French was contemptuous and strongly marked.
+
+The life of a diplomatic man is not unlike the life of a naval officer.
+He has frequent opportunities of signalizing himself in a small way. The
+cabinet is the admiral, commanding a large force, and acting on a large
+scale. The diplomatist is the captain of the frigate, thrown out at a
+distance to make his observations, and enabled to exhibit his
+intrepidity and talent, through, from the smallness of his means, the
+results may be equally small. In 1769, Sir James Gray returning to
+England, left Mr Harris behind him as _chargé d'affaires_. In the next
+year Spain, always jealous of any foreign approach to her South American
+possessions, fitted out a fleet for the purpose of expelling the British
+colony from the Falkland Isles. Harris acted spiritedly on this
+occasion. He instantly made so strong a representation to the Spanish
+minister, the Marquis Grimaldi, that he threw him into evident alarm.
+The letter to the British ministry which Harris wrote on the subject,
+satisfied them of the advantage of making a vigorous remonstrance. The
+result to the country was, that the colony, which had been seized, was
+restored, and that the officer who seized it was disgraced by the
+Spanish government. To Harris the whole transaction was regarded as
+honourable, and entitling him to the favour of his government. The
+result was, his being appointed, in 1771, as minister at the court of
+the most subtle and busy monarch of Europe, Frederick the Second.
+
+We now come to the partition of Poland, the most momentous transaction
+of modern times; excepting the French Revolution, if even that
+revolution was not its consequence. Mr Harris makes his first
+communication on this important subject in March 1772. If we read his
+whole letter, the brevity of his announcement is a model even to
+diplomacy. He thus states the event to Lord Suffolk, then secretary of
+state.
+
+"Just as I am going to make up my packet, I am informed that a treaty of
+partition, disposing of several parts of Poland, was signed at
+Petersburg on the 15th of last month, and that as soon as the
+certificates can be exchanged between the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and
+Russia, a congress will be held at Warsaw." A few statements respecting
+the Prussian officers dispatched to the Polish frontier are given; and
+this seems to be the whole announcement of one of the most atrocious
+acts of perfidy and blood in the memory of Europe.
+
+The French Revolution was begun on grounds independent of foreign
+disturbances. But no man can read the annals of the French war, without
+a conviction, that one of its providential purposes was the punishment
+of the three monarchies which had perpetrated this atrocity. Within a
+brief period from the first ruin of Polish independence, the French
+armies began those sweeping conquests which were destined especially to
+ravage Prussia, Austria, and Russia. The punishment seemed even to bear
+something like a proportion to the degree of guilt in each of the
+parties. The original proposer of the partition was Frederick, the
+strenuous participator was Catharine, and the unwilling, though
+consenting accomplice, was Joseph. Before that war was over, Napoleon
+reduced Prussia to the lowest condition of a conquered country,
+plundered her of millions of gold, held her fortresses by his garrisons,
+and treated her like a province. His invasion of Russia was next in
+havoc: the ravage of the country, the repulse and slaughter of her brave
+and patriotic armies, and the destruction of her ancient capital, were
+_her_ share of the punishment. Austria suffered, but her suffering was
+of a lighter order--defeat in the field, havoc of the people, and the
+double capture of her capital; yet those wounds were rapidly healed, and
+the close of the war saw Austria taking a higher rank in Europe. Those
+struggles and sufferings extended over nearly a quarter of a century of
+unexampled bloodshed. It is remarkable that a project so fully entitled
+to excite the vigilance of all courts, seems to have been almost wholly
+overlooked by the English ministry; Lord Suffolk, in his confidential
+answer to the ambassador, simply styling it a curious transaction; and
+even in the more advanced stage of the affair, when the attention of the
+cabinet was called to it by the memorials of the Polish king and people,
+all that could be obtained was a verbal answer, evidently declining any
+interference on the subject, and contenting itself with the avoidance of
+approbation. The result of this singular negligence distinctly points
+out the course which should be taken by England in her continental
+policy. Her natural office is that of mediator and protector.
+Entertaining no views of conquest for herself, it is her duty to repress
+them in all others. If, in 1772, she had instantly issued a strong
+remonstrance to the three governments, it would have acted as an appeal
+to the reason of Europe. A fleet sent to the Baltic in support of that
+remonstrance would have acted upon the fears of the aggressors, and
+Poland would have been saved. The blood of the thousands shed in the war
+of independence would have been spared--the great crime of the century
+would have been partially avoided--and its punishment, in the shape of
+the revolutionary war, might never have been inflicted. The diplomatic
+and formal portion of this fatal event was thus announced by the
+ambassador to the British cabinet:--"Berlin, 19th September 1772.--I
+received a message from Count Finckenstein yesterday morning, desiring
+to speak to me between twelve and one. On my waiting on him, he
+informed me that his Prussian majesty having come to an agreement with
+the courts of Vienna and Petersburg to renew certain ancient claims they
+had on parts of the kingdom of Poland, they had instructed their
+respective ministers at the court of Warsaw to signify their intentions
+to the king and republic, by presenting him with a declaration on this
+subject.
+
+"That his Prussian majesty, desirous of seizing every opportunity of
+showing his friendship and attention to the king, had ordered him, Count
+Finckenstein, to take the earliest moment of acquainting me with this
+event, and at the same time to give me a copy of the declaration, which
+I here enclose--that his _chargé d'affaires_ in London had likewise
+received orders to inform the king's ministers on this subject, and to
+communicate to them the declaration."
+
+The reply of the English minister to this momentous announcement,
+exhibits, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary instances of
+ministerial negligence on record. On a subject which might have moved
+the very stones to mutiny, and which, in its consequences, involved the
+interests of all Europe, the only answer of the King of England was
+contained in the following note, written in French:--"The king is
+willing to suppose that the three courts have convinced themselves of
+the justice of their respective pretensions, although his majesty is not
+informed of the motives of their conduct." "You will observe," adds Lord
+Suffolk, "in the terns in which I express myself, that though this mode
+of expression was preferable to an absolute silence, the utmost caution
+has been used." The caution was indeed sufficiently circumspect, for it
+was wholly useless; and the consequence was perfect impunity to the
+perpetrators.
+
+Frederick was the great infidel of his day. He had been so long involved
+in hostilities with Austria, the most superstitious court in Europe,
+that he adopted "free-thinking" as a part of his policy; and his
+eagerness for European fame connected him with Voltaire and the French
+infidels, whose wit and wickedness had made them the leaders of
+philosophical fashion. But there is a principle of belief in human
+nature which revenges itself on the infidel. There are no men more
+liable to groundless fears, than those who reject the object of
+legitimate awe. The man who will not believe in a deity, has often
+believed in witchcraft; and those who will not acknowledge a Providence,
+have often trembled before a conjurer. At this period, Frederick had
+grown peculiarly anxious and irascible--a temper for which the
+ambassador accounts by a sudden impulse of superstition. He
+says--"Amongst several other incredible follies in so great a character,
+he has that of not entirely disbelieving judicial astrology; and I am
+told, from one whose authority is not despicable, that the fear of a
+prediction being this year fulfilled, which was pronounced by a Saxon
+fortune-teller whom his majesty was weak enough some time ago to
+consult, dwells on his mind, and augments the sourness of a disposition
+naturally crabbed. I should have paid no attention to these reports,
+which savour so much of the nursery, had I not myself observed him
+displeased at a mourning coat at his levee, and seen his countenance
+visibly alter on being informed of any man's dying a sudden death."
+
+We then have a curious letter from Lord Grantham, the ambassador at
+Madrid, giving an account of an expedition to Algiers, which derives an
+interest from the present state of African affairs.
+
+"You will learn that a very unsuccessful attempt has been made at
+Algiers, and that the Spanish troops have been repulsed with a loss and
+disablement of upwards of 5000 men. The fleet, consisting of 450 sail,
+and carrying about 40,000 men, sailed from Carthagena, and reached
+Algiers the 1st inst., (July 1775.) On the night of the 7th, the
+infantry, and two detachments of about 8000 men each, landed. The first
+detachment advanced too eagerly, could not be supported to any purpose,
+and, after thirteen hours' engagement, all that could regained the
+ships. But the loss of killed and wounded, first estimated at 3000,
+certainly exceeded five or six. The transports with the army are
+returned to Carthagena and Alicante. I leave you to judge how deep an
+impression this severe failure makes here. The Marquis de la Romana is
+killed--all the generals, except Buck, are wounded. Among the wounded
+are twenty-eight officers of the Spanish guards, and twelve out of
+seventeen engineers."
+
+The court of Frederick would form a singular contrast to what is called
+the British Household, composed of the great officers of state. "You are
+not ignorant," says Harris, writing to William Eden, "that the great
+officers of the court are merely titular, and never allowed to have any
+authority annexed to their office. This is given to some menial
+servants, who are constantly about the king's person, and his treasurer
+was a Russian named Deiss, in whom his Majesty placed more confidence
+than he appears to have deserved; since for maladministration, or some
+equally notorious fault, his majesty a few days ago, dismissed him from
+his high post, and ordered him to be employed as a drummer in a marching
+regiment. Deiss affected to submit patiently to his sentence, and, on
+being arrested, begged leave of the officer only to go into his room,
+adjoining the king's writing-closet, to fetch his hat. This being
+granted, he immediately locked the door, took a pistol from his pocket,
+and shot himself through the head. The king heard and was alarmed by the
+report of a pistol so near him, and being told what had happened, he
+pitied Deiss, said that he was out of his senses, and ordered all that
+he died worth to be distributed equally among his children. Deiss had
+charged the pistol with small-shot and crooked nails, and put the muzzle
+of it into his mouth."
+
+A striking anecdote is given of General Seidlitz, the officer who formed
+the Prussian cavalry. When only a lieutenant, he happened to be near the
+king on a bridge which crossed the Oder. The king asked him, "if both
+the avenues of the bridge were possessed by the enemy, what he would do
+to disengage himself." Seidlitz, without making an answer, immediately
+leaped his horse over the rails into the river, and notwithstanding its
+breadth and rapidity, swam safe ashore. The king, who took it for
+granted that he must be drowned, on seeing him come towards him, said in
+French, "_Major_, I beg of you not to run such hazards in future."
+
+Despotic power has certainly great advantages, in its rapid
+administration of justice, and sometimes in its reaching offences which
+would altogether baffle trial by jury. Frederick was ridiculously fond
+of exhibiting his musical attainments; and among the other preparatives
+for the reception of the Russian grand-duke (afterwards the Emperor
+Paul) at Berlin, was a piece of music composed by the king. The husband
+of the first singer at the opera, the well-known Madame Mara, was
+imprudent enough to observe of this performance, that "the composer knew
+more about soldiers than music." The king ordered him to be instantly
+made over to the _corps-de-garde_, with orders to punish him, enough to
+make him more cautious of criticism in future. The soldiers accordingly,
+as there happened to be no punishment in the military regulations for
+impertinent remarks on royal amateurs, took the affair into their own
+hands. They began by dressing him in a uniform, covering his face with a
+huge pair of whiskers, and loading him with the heaviest firelock which
+they could find, they then made him perform the manual exercise for two
+hours--accompanying the lesson with all the usual discipline of the
+cane--then ordered him to dance and sing, finishing their discipline by
+making the surgeon take from him a large quantity of blood, obviously to
+reduce the heat of temper which had given rise to such impertinence.
+After this lesson he was sent back to his wife. Severe as it may have
+appeared, Harris regarded it as earned by many previous impertinences of
+the same kind, but of which it may fairly be presumed this was the last.
+
+At last the grand-duke arrived, and was received with the most unusual
+pomp and ceremony by the Prussian court. By some curious instance of
+choice, Sunday is selected on the Continent as the day for every thing
+in the shape of show. The Russian prince made his public entry into
+Berlin on Sunday, and was met by the trading companies in uniform, by
+escorts of cavalry, and the equipages of the king and royal family. In
+the evening, after a sumptuous dinner, there was a concert and ball.
+The rest of the week was similarly occupied. The grand-duke had come to
+demand the Princess of Wirtemberg in marriage. When we recollect the
+fate of this unhappy monarch, murdered on the Russian throne, and
+contrast it with the brilliancy of his early reception in the world, and
+his actual powers when master of the diadem, a deeper lesson of the
+instability of human fortune has seldom been given to man.
+
+A laughable anecdote of Russian and Prussian discipline is told. All the
+domestics belonging to the Imperial family of Russia have military rank;
+the grand-duke's coachman and the king's going one evening to drink
+together, a dispute arose about precedence. "What is your rank?" said
+the Prussian. "A lieutenant-colonel," said the other. "Ay, but I am a
+colonel," said the German, and walked first into the ale-house. This
+came to the king's ears. The _colonel_ was sent for three days to
+prison, and received fifty blows of the cane.
+
+The ambassador now obtained a new instance of the favour of his court.
+He was recalled from Prussia in 1776, and shortly after was appointed to
+the most important of our embassies at that period, the embassy to
+Russia.
+
+The politics of England at this period bore an appearance of perplexity,
+which evidently alarmed her cabinet, and which as evidently excited the
+hopes of her enemies. At this period she had two enemies in Europe,
+hostile in every thing except to the extent of open war--France, always
+jealous and irreconcilable; and Prussia, which, from her dread of
+England's interference in her Polish usurpations, pretended to believe
+that England was conspiring with Austria against the safety of her
+dominions. The feebleness with which the American war was carried on,
+had deceived Europe into the belief that the power of England was really
+on the point of decay. Foreigners are never capable of appreciating the
+reality of English power. In the first place, because they prefer the
+romantic to the real; and in the next, because, living under despotisms,
+they have never seen, nor can comprehend, the effect of liberty upon
+national resources. Thus, when they see a nation unwilling to go to
+war--or, what is the next thing to reluctance, waging it tardily--they
+imagine that this tardiness has its origin in national weakness; and it
+is not until the palpable necessity of self-defence calls out the whole
+energy of the people, that the foreigner ever sees the genuine strength
+of England. The capture of two small armies in America, neither of them
+more numerous than the advanced guard of a continental army, had given
+the impression that the military strength of England was gone for ever.
+Thus the European courts thought themselves entitled to insult her; and
+thus so diminutive a power as Prussia, however guided by an able and
+politic prince, was suffered to despise her opinion. But the English
+ministry themselves of that day palpably shared the general delusion;
+and, to judge from their diplomatic correspondence, they seemed actually
+to rely for the safety of England on the aid of the foreign courts. They
+had yet to learn the lesson, taught them by the Revolutionary war, that
+England is degraded by dependence of any kind; that she is a match for
+the world in arms; that the cause of Europe is dependent on _her_; and
+that the more boldly, directly, and resolutely she defies France, and
+its allies and slaves, the more secure she is of victory. In the pursuit
+of this false policy of conciliation and supplication, Harris was sent
+to Petersburg, to counteract Prussia with the empress, and to form an
+offensive and defensive alliance with Catharine. Count Panin was at that
+time prime minister--a man of the old ministerial school, who regarded
+diplomacy as the legitimate science of chicane, was a master of all the
+littleness of his art, and was wholly under the influence of the King of
+Prussia. The count was all consent, and yet contrived to keep the
+ambassador at arm's-length; while the empress, equally crafty, and
+equally determined not to commit herself, managed him with still greater
+subtlety.
+
+In speaking of the Empress Catharine, it is impossible to avoid alluding
+to the scandals of her court. The death of her husband, suspicious as it
+was, had left her sole mistress of an empire, and of the power of public
+opinion, in a country where a sneer might send the offender to Siberia.
+The wretchedly relaxed religion of the Greek church, where a trivial
+penance atones for every thing, and ceremonial takes the place of
+morals, as it inevitably does wherever a religion is encumbered with
+unnecessary forms, could be no restraint on the conduct of a daring and
+imperious woman. By some of that easy casuistry which reconciles the
+powerful to vice, she had fully convinced herself that she ought, for
+the sake of her throne, never to submit to matrimonial ties again; and
+she adopted the notorious and guilty alternative of living with a
+succession of partners. The ambassador's letters frequently allude to
+this disgraceful topic, and always with the contempt and reprobation
+which were so amply its due. "The worst enemies"--such is his
+expression--"which the empress has, are flattery and her own passions.
+She never turns a deaf ear to the first, let it be ever so gross; and
+her inclination to gratify the latter appears to grow upon her with
+age."
+
+The policy of Russia had two grand objects, both of them wholly
+inconsistent with the policy of England; and therefore rendering the
+ambassador's zeal wholly useless. The King of Prussia favoured both, and
+therefore commanded the highest influence with the empress. It was thus
+the impossible task of the unfortunate diplomatist, to convince a
+haughty and self-sufficient woman against her will. Of course, failure
+was the necessary consequence. But in the mean time, dining and dancing,
+feasting and frivolity, went on with Asiatic splendour. The birth of the
+grand-duke's son, "Constantine," (expressly so named with a view to
+Turkish objects,) gave occasion to fêtes which it tasked the whole power
+of Russian panegyric to describe. The empress gave one in the period of
+the Carnival, ultra-imperially magnificent. The dessert and supper were
+set out with jewels to the amount of upwards of two millions sterling!
+and at the tables of macao, the fashionable game, besides the stake in
+money, a diamond of fifty rubles' value was given by her majesty to each
+of those who got _nine_, the highest point of the game. One hundred and
+fifty diamonds were distributed in this manner.
+
+But a new event occurred to stir the lazy politics of Europe--that act of
+infinite treachery on the part of the French government--the breach of
+treaty with England, and the alliance with America. The menaces of war
+which are held out at this moment by the Jacobin party, and its insolent
+eagerness to turn every trivial incident into a mortal quarrel, give a
+new and additional interest to this former act of desperate perfidy. But
+let it be remembered with what tremendous vengeance that perfidy was
+punished--that the American alliance was the precursor of the French
+republic; and that the long train of hideous calamities which broke down
+the French throne, banished the nobility, and decimated the population,
+dates its origin from the day when that fatal treaty was signed. A letter
+from Sir Gilbert Elliott (afterwards Lord Minto) to the ambassador,
+(March 20, 1778,) thus briefly communicates the intelligence:--"We had
+just passed the bills for repealing some of the obnoxious American acts,
+and for enabling the king to appoint his commissioners to treat with
+America with very large powers, when the report of the French treaty with
+the colonies became very prevalent, and obtained credit here. Government,
+however, had certainly obtained no authentic account of it which is
+singular enough; and Lord North positively disclaimed all knowledge of
+it. A loan of six millions was made on very hard terms for the public,
+much owing to the report of the French treaty; the three per cent consols
+being at 66½--monstrously low. The first payment was fixed for Tuesday
+last. On the Friday before, the Marquis de Noailles delivered a paper to
+Lord Weymouth, communicating the 'treaty of commerce and alliance' with
+the colonies, and acknowledging their independency. The manner and style
+of the communication were inexpressibly insolent, and were no doubt
+meant as a studied affront and challenge. On Saturday, all the French in
+London were sent to the opera, plays, clubs, coffee-houses, and
+ale-houses, to publish the intelligence, which they did with their
+natural impertinence. On Tuesday, the two Houses received a message from
+the king, informing them of the communication from the French
+ambassador--that he had recalled his ambassador from Versailles; and
+assuring them that he would exert every means in his power to protect
+the honour and interest of his kingdom. In answer to which, the two
+Houses voted an address, promising to support him with our lives and
+fortunes. Opposition, like _good patriots_, in answer to this message,
+proposed to address the king to remove his ministers; and C. Fox assured
+us, 'he thought an invasion a _much better thing_ than the continuance
+of the present administration.' When this proposal was negatived, they
+therefore refused their assent to our address. There is no declaration
+of war yet; but as it is quite certain, and as France will undoubtedly
+act immediately, I do not see what we gain by delaying it. I hope at
+least we shall begin taking their ships immediately. The militia is to
+be called out; credit is dreadfully low--stock was a few days ago at 60.
+The French are poorer than we--that's something."
+
+Exaggeration is a propensity which seems common to ambassadors. We
+certainly have never seen an ambassadorial correspondence, in which the
+most groundless views did not make a large part of its communications.
+The British diplomatist in Russia was unquestionably a shrewd man, and
+yet his letters abound in predictions of Russian ruin. His descriptions
+run in this style:--"Great expenses, and nothing to show for them. The
+army in a state of decay; the navy incomplete and ill-equipped; the
+political system languid, and such as, if pursued, must ultimately
+reduce this immense mass of power to that state of Asiatic
+insignificancy from which it so lately emerged."
+
+And this high-coloured and rash statement, it is to be remembered, was
+not a page in a popular novel or in a summer's "Tour," but was given as
+the deliberate opinion of a statesman conversant in continental
+politics, and addressed to the government of this country. He seems to
+have altogether overlooked the boundless territory and growing
+population of Russia, her forty millions of men--a number already
+exceeding that of any other kingdom in Europe--the inaccessible nature
+of her dominions, the implicit and Asiatic devotion of her subjects, the
+unrivaled vigour of her despotism, and the fact that she had but that
+moment secured an immense tract of Polish territory, and was stripping
+the Turks on the other side--that to the north she was touching on the
+Vistula, and to the south had nearly reached the Danube. The subsequent
+career of Russia is a still stronger refutation. Every war, instead of
+shaking her power, has only given it additional strength and stability.
+Like England, she has gone on with almost involuntary but rapid
+progress; and the period may arrive when there will be but two nations
+left in Europe--England the ruler of the seas, and Russia holding the
+kingdoms of the Continent in vassalage. It is true, that the ambassador
+adverts now and then to the inaccessible nature of the Russian
+territory, and the success of the national arms; but the former would be
+but a negative source of power, and the latter he uniformly attributed
+to good-luck. He ought to lave attributed them to the causes which would
+have produced the same effect in any age of the world--to the mastery of
+an immense population; to the daring of a head of empire possessed of
+remarkable ability, and filled with projects of unbounded supremacy; and
+to the growth of a new generation of soldiers and statesmen, encouraged
+to the highest exertion of their talents by the most munificent
+rewards--the policy of the empress making the evidence of courage and
+genius in the soldier the only requisite for promotion; and exhibiting
+the strongest personal interest of the sovereign in the elevation of
+those able servants of the crown. The consequence was, success in all
+the enterprises of Catharine, the rapid advance of the nation in
+European influence, the establishment of an insecure throne on the
+strongest footing of public security, the popularity of a despotism, the
+comparative civilization of a people half Asiatic, and who but half a
+century before had been barbarians, and the personal attachment of the
+nation to Catharine in a degree scarcely less than adoration. The chief
+cause of this triumphant state of things, beyond all question, was the
+high spirit, the generosity, and the affability of the empress. The
+unhappy transactions of her private life are matters of painful record;
+and the letters of the ambassador are full of the reprobation which the
+memoirs of the time authenticate. But we have no gratification in
+dwelling on such topics. We infinitely prefer paying the tribute due to
+great talents splendidly exercised, to the public achievements of a
+powerful intellect, and to the superiority which this munificent
+promoter of the genius of all classes of her people exhibited to all the
+haughty, exclusive, and selfish sovereigns of her time.
+
+The ambassador now found it necessary to look for support against the
+Prussian propensities of the minister; and he had recourse to Potemkin
+and the Orloffs, as the antagonists of Panin. Potemkin was one of the
+most extraordinary men whom the especial circumstances of the court and
+country raised into public distinction. He had been but a cornet of
+cavalry on the memorable night when Catharine, uncertain whether she was
+mounting a throne or a scaffold, put herself at the head of the guards,
+and deposed her husband. As she rode along, observing that she had not a
+military plume in her hat, she turned to ask for one; the cornet
+instantly plucked out his own, and presented it to her--as Raleigh threw
+his cloak on the ground for Elizabeth to walk over. These gallant acts
+are never lost upon a woman of the superior order of mind. The favour of
+the throne followed alike in both instances; and Potemkin soon became
+the guide of the Russian councils. It was the custom of the French
+memoir writers--a race who always aimed at pungency of narrative in
+preference to truth, and who, for their generation, performed the part
+of general libellers--to represent Potemkin as a savage, devoted to
+drinking, and whose influence was solely the result of his grossness.
+But the conferences which he held with this British ambassador, and the
+extracts of his opinions given in these letters, show him to have been a
+man of remarkable clearness of comprehension, dexterity of resource, and
+readiness of knowledge. It is obvious that nothing but the exertion of
+distinguished skill in the ways of courts, could have accomplished the
+objects which no other man of his time attained with such complete
+success. In a court of contention and favouritism, he retained supreme
+influence to the last; released from the labours of office, he possessed
+more than the power of a minister--and nominally a subject, he was
+scarcely less than emperor. Boundless wealth, the highest rank, and
+every honour which the empire could lavish on its first noble, were the
+prizes of Potemkin.
+
+People at home are in the habit of looking upon the diplomatic body
+abroad as a collection of very subtle and sagacious personages--a
+collection of sages. A nearer view sometimes strips the idea down to
+humble dimensions. Sir James Harris (he had now obtained the Order of
+the Bath, which he seems to have deserved by his diligence) thus
+sketches the new ambassadorial body--a general change having just taken
+place. "The Imperial, Danish, French, Prussian, and Spanish ministers
+are all altered, and one from Naples is added to our corps." The
+Neapolitan he describes as "utterly unfit for business;" Count Cobenzel,
+the Austrian ambassador, "as a man of excellent parts and great
+activity;" Goertz, the Prussian, "a very able and artful man." So far as
+this point, the honour of the corps is sustained; but then come the
+ciphers. Monsieur Verac, the cunning French envoy, is "more amiable in
+company than formidable in cabinet." The Swede and the Saxon ministers,
+"most perfectly insignificant and overpowered with debts." The Dutch
+resident, Swartz, "a man neither of birth nor character, totally
+improper for the post he fills. The Swiss resident, having no other
+business than the lawsuits of his countrymen," &c.
+
+Of the culpable habits of the empress we shall say no more. The respect
+which this country feels for the character of Emperor Nicholas, and the
+total contrast which that character presents to the especial failings of
+his ancestor, justly prevent our wandering into those observations. But
+we have a curious instance of the skill and adroitness of this memorable
+woman, in an interview in which she was wholly left to herself, and yet
+succeeded perfectly in what is presumed to be the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of
+diplomacy--the art of disguising her intentions. The British
+ambassador, after a long period of comparative failure, had succeeded in
+obtaining an audience through Potemkin--who always pretended to be
+powerless, yet who could do every thing which he desired. The
+appointment to meet the ambassador was made, and Potemkin prefaced his
+service by the following singular sketch of his sovereign. "Do not
+expect that it is in the power of any living being to prevent her from
+concluding her favourite plan of armed neutrality. Content yourself with
+destroying the effects--the resolution is immovable. As it was conceived
+by _mistake_ and perfected by _vanity_, it is maintained by _pride_ and
+_obstinacy_. You well know the hold of those passions on a _female
+mind_; and if you attempt to slacken, you will only tighten the knot."
+
+One of the imperial valets then came to lead the ambassador to the
+interview; which he gives in French, and which he commenced in a strain
+which we hope will never be imitated again by any cabinet of England.
+
+"I have come to represent to your imperial majesty the _critical
+situation_ in which our affairs are at present. You know our reliance on
+you. We venture to _flatter_ ourselves that you will _avert the storm_,
+and reassure us as to our fears of having lost your friendship." If the
+expressions were not in print, we should scarcely have thought it
+possible that such crouching language could have been used. The
+ambassador, of course, is but the mouthpiece of his government. The
+blame must fall, not on the intelligent servant, but on the feeble
+masters. Who can wonder if the daring and haughty spirit of Catharine
+scoffed at the remonstrances, and despised the interests of a country,
+whose cabinet adopted language so unfitting the dignity and real power
+of the mighty British empire? The expressions of this dialogue would
+have been humiliating to the smallest of the "square-league"
+sovereignties of the Continent. The answer of the empress was precisely
+what she might have addressed to the envoy of Poland or the Crimea.
+"Sir, you are aware of my sentiments relative to your nation; they are
+equally sincere and invariable. But I have found so little return on
+your part, that I feel I ought not to consider you any longer among my
+friends."
+
+To this haughty tone, what is the reply of the ambassador?
+
+"It is in the hope that those sentiments were not _entirely effaced_,
+that I wished to address myself directly to your Majesty. But it was not
+_without fear_ that I approached you. Appearances only too strongly
+prove the impressions which you have received from our enemies." And so
+goes on the dialogue, like a scene in a play, see-sawing through six
+intolerable pages. How differently would Pitt's cabinet have acted, and
+how differently did it act! When the Russian councils menaced the
+seizure of even a paltry Turkish fortress on the Black Sea, the great
+minister ordered a fleet to be ready as _his_ negotiators; and though
+the factiousness of Opposition at the time prevented this manly
+demonstration of policy and justice, the evidence was given, in the
+reign of Paul, when a British fleet crushed the armed neutrality--that
+trick of French mountebanks imposing on the ambition of the north--and
+restored Russia to so full a sense of the power and the honour of
+England, that she sent her fleet into her safe keeping at the approach
+of Napoleon's invasion, and has been her fast and honourable ally ever
+since. "Cromwell's ambassador" is the true one for England at all times.
+A stout British squadron sent to the Baltic in 1780 would have
+wonderfully solved the difficulties of the British negotiation, have
+completely cleared the empress's conscience, have enlightened Count
+Panin's brains, and have convinced even the wily Potemkin himself that
+the art of political delusion was too dangerous a game to be tried
+against England.
+
+But the true value of history is to instruct the future. We are now in
+nearly the same relative position to France in which we were sixty-four
+years ago relative to Russia. We are exhibiting the same dilatoriness
+which we exhibited then, and we shall be fortunate if we escape the same
+consequences. A strong fleet sent to the Mediterranean would do more to
+calm the elements of strife effectually, than all the remonstrances of
+all our negotiators. Or, if the French were foolish enough to provoke a
+battle, a repetition of the 1st of June or the 21st of October would be
+the tranquillizer of a restless people, who can never suffer Europe to
+rest in peace but when they themselves have been taught the miseries of
+war.
+
+In justice to the cabinet of 1780, it must be acknowledged that the
+personal tone of the ambassador was criticised; and we thus find him
+making his diplomatic apology to Lord Stormont, then secretary for
+foreign affairs:--
+
+"I have often been conscious of the remark your lordship makes, and have
+myself felt that I was not acting up to the character of an English
+minister, in bestowing such _fulsome incense_ on the empress. But here,
+too, I was drawn from my system and principles by the conduct of my
+adversaries. They ever addressed her as a being of a superior nature;
+and as she goes near to think herself infallible, she expects to be
+approached with all the reverence due to a divinity." No excuse could be
+more unsatisfactory. If other men chose to bow down, there would have
+only been the more manliness, and the more effect too, in refusing to
+follow such an example.
+
+In 1783, the ambassador obtained permission to return to England. His
+correspondence at the period immediately previous, is remarkably
+interesting; and it is striking to see that the successive secretaries
+for the foreign department, under all changes of administration, formed
+the same view of the substantial policy of England. When, in 1783, Fox
+assumed the foreign seals, he thus writes to Harris, in the course of a
+long letter on the foreign policy of the cabinet:--"You will readily
+believe me, that my system of foreign politics was too deeply rooted to
+make it likely that I should have changed it. Alliances with the
+northern powers _ever have been, and ever will be, the system of every
+enlightened Englishman_."
+
+In the year following, Sir James Harris was appointed by Pitt to the
+Dutch embassy, to which he had been previously nominated by Fox, his
+friend and political leader. The appointment by the new cabinet was thus
+the strongest testimony to his talents. His letters from the Hague
+contain a very intelligent statement of the parties and principles which
+agitated Holland in 1787. The object was the establishment of a
+democracy and the extinction of the Stadtholderate, or at least its
+suppression as a hereditary dignity. The court of France was busy in
+this democratic intrigue; and its partial success unquestionably added
+new combustibles to the pile on which that unfortunate monarchy, in the
+hour of infatuation, was preparing to throw itself. The ambassador's
+language on this occasion is characteristic and memorable. In one of his
+despatches to the Marquis of Carmarthen, then secretary of state, he
+thus says:--
+
+"The infamy and profligacy of the French make me long to change my
+profession, and to fight them with a sharper instrument than a pen. It
+must be with those (not our pens, but our swords) that we must carry the
+mediation through, if we mean it should be attended with any success.
+There are strong reports of a popular insurrection in France:"--"_Si_
+Dieu voulait les punir par où ils ont peché, comme j'admirerais la
+justice divine!" The remark was natural; it was almost prophetic; and it
+was on the eve of realization. In 1789, but two years after, the
+Revolution began.
+
+These volumes contain a great deal of extremely curious material,
+especially important to every man who may in future be employed in the
+foreign service of our diplomacy. They supply a model of the manner in
+which those offices may be most effectively sustained. We have already
+expressed dissatisfaction at the submissive style used in addressing the
+Russian empress. But in other instances, the language of the ambassador
+seems to have been prompt and plain. It is remarkable that England has,
+at the present time, arrived at a condition of European affairs bearing
+no slight resemblance to that of the period between 1783 and 1789. It is
+true that there will be no second French Revolution; one catastrophe of
+that terrible extent is enough for the world. But there are strong
+symptoms of those hostilities which the Bourbons were endeavouring to
+kindle against this country, for at least a dozen years before the
+Revolution which crushed their monarchy.
+
+Without any provocation on the part of England, any actual claim, or
+any desire whatever of war, this country finds itself suddenly made an
+object of perpetual insult on the part of all the active mind of France.
+The cry from every organ of public opinion seems to be, war with
+England, whether with or without cause. A violent clamour is raised for
+our national ruin; the resources of France are blazoned in all quarters;
+and the only contemplation popular in France is, how most suddenly and
+effectually French armies may be poured on our shores, our fields
+ravaged, our maritime cities burned, and our people massacred! It must
+be hoped that this detestable spirit does not reach higher than the
+Jacobin papers, and the villains by whom that principal part of the
+French press is conducted. Yet we find but little contradiction to it in
+even the more serious and authentic portion of the national sentiments.
+In such circumstances, it is only right to be prepared. We find also the
+still more expressive evidence of this spirit of evil, in the general
+conduct of the agents of France in her colonies--a habit of sudden
+encroachment, a growing arrogance, and a full exhibition of that bitter
+and sneering petulance, which was supposed to have been scourged out of
+the French by their desperate defeats towards the close of the war. All
+this insolence may, by possibility, pass away; but it also may go on to
+further inflammation, and it may be necessary to scourge it again; and
+this discipline, if once begun, must be carried through more effectually
+than when the Allies last visited Paris. The respect felt for the French
+king and his prime minister, as the friends of peace, naturally
+restrains the language with which aggression deserves to be reprobated.
+But the French government, if it desires to retain that respect, must
+exhibit its sincerity in making some substantial effort to preserve
+peace. No man of sense in Europe can believe in the necessity of the
+seizure of Algiers, nor in the necessity of the war with Morocco. But
+every man can see the influence of both on the freedom of the
+Mediterranean. The seizure of the British consul at Otaheite shows a
+spirit which must be summarily extinguished, or the preservation of
+peace will be impossible. In the mean time, we hear from France nothing
+but a cry for steam-ships, and threats of invasion. We ask, what has
+England done? Nothing to offend or injure: there is not even an
+allegation of any thing of the kind. But if war must come, woe be to
+those by whom it is begun! The history of all the wars of England with
+France, is one of French defeat. We have beaten the French by land, we
+have beaten them by sea; and, with the blessing of Heaven on the
+righteous cause and our own stout hands, we shall always beat them. We
+have beaten them on the soil of the stranger--we have beaten them on
+their own. From the fourteenth century, when English soldiers were
+masters of the half of France, down to Waterloo, we have always beaten
+France; and if we beat her under Napoleon, there can be no fear of our
+not beating her under a race so palpably his inferiors. All England
+deprecates war as useless, unnatural, and criminal. But the crime is
+solely on the head of the aggressor. Woe to those who begin the next
+war! It may be final.
+
+The late visit of the Emperor of Russia to this country, which so much
+perplexed the political circles of both France and England, now probably
+admits of elucidation. The emperor's visit has been followed by that of
+the ablest and most powerful diplomatist in his dominions, the Count
+Nesselrode, his foreign minister. For this visit, too, a speedy
+elucidation may be found. The visits of the King of Saxony, and the
+Princes of Prussia and Holland, also have their importance in this point
+of view; and the malignant insults of the French journals may have had a
+very influential share in contributing to the increased closeness of our
+connexion with the sovereignties of Germany and Russia. The maxim of
+Fox, that the northern alliances are the true policy of England, is as
+sound as ever. Still, we deprecate war--all rational men deprecate war;
+and we speak in a feeling which we fully believe to be universal in
+England, that nothing would be a higher source of rejoicing in Great
+Britain, than a _safe_ peace with France, and harmony with all the
+nations of the world.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of
+Malmesbury._ Edited by his GRANDSON, the Third Earl. 2 vols.
+
+{B} "Every where to remember his country."
+
+
+
+
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.
+
+No. II.
+
+
+Goethe's love for the Fine Arts amounted almost to a passion. In his
+earlier years, he performed the painter's customary pilgrimage through
+Italy, and not merely surveyed, but studied with intense anxiety, the
+works of the great modern masters. A poet, if he understands the theory
+of his own calling, may learn much from pictures; for the analogy
+between the sister arts is very strong. The secret of preserving
+richness without glare, fulness without pruriency, and strength without
+exaggeration, must be attained alike by poet and painter, before either
+of them can take their rank among the chosen children of immortality. It
+is a common but most erroneous idea, that an artist is more indebted for
+success to inspiration, than to severe study. Unquestionably he must
+possess some portion of the former--that is, he must have within him the
+power to imagine and to create; for if he has not that, the fundamental
+faculty is wanting. But how different are the crude shapeless fancies,
+how meagre and uncertain the outlines of the mental sketch, from the
+warm, vivid, and glowing perfection of the matured and finished work! It
+is in the strange and indescribable process of moulding the rude idea,
+of giving due proportion to each individual part, and combining the
+whole into symmetry, that the test of excellence lies. _There_
+inspiration will help but little; and labour, the common doom of man in
+the loftiest as well as the lowest walks of life, is requisite to
+consummate the triumph.
+
+No man better understood, or more thoroughly acted upon the knowledge of
+this analogy, than Goethe. He wrought rigidly by the rule of the artist.
+Not one poem, however trifling might be the subject, did he suffer to
+escape from his hands, until it had received the final touches, and
+undergone the most thorough revision. So far did he carry this
+principle, that many of his lesser works seem absolutely mere
+transcripts or descriptions of pictures, where the sentiment is rather
+inferred than expressed; and in some, for example that which we are
+about to quote, he even brings before the reader what may be called the
+process of mental painting.
+
+
+CUPID AS A LANDSCAPE PAINTER
+
+      Once I sate upon a mountain,
+    Gazing on the mist before me;
+    Like a great grey sheet of canvass,
+    Shrouding all things in its cover,
+    Did it float 'twixt earth and heaven.
+
+      Then a child appear'd beside me;
+    Saying, "Friend, it is not seemly,
+    Thus to gaze in idle wonder,
+    With that noble breadth before thee.
+    Hast thou lost thine inspiration?
+    Hath the spirit of the painter
+    Died within thee utterly?"
+
+      But I turn'd and look'd upon him,
+    Speaking not, but thinking inly,
+    "Will he read a lesson now!"
+
+      "Folded hands," pursued the infant,
+    "Never yet have won a triumph.
+    Look! I'll paint for thee a picture
+    Such as none have seen before."
+
+      And he pointed with his finger,
+    Which like any rose was ruddy,
+    And upon the breadth of vapour
+    With that finger 'gan to draw.
+
+      First a glorious sun he painted,
+    Dazzling when I look'd upon it;
+    And he made the inner border
+    Of the clouds around it golden,
+    With the light rays through the masses
+    Pouring down in streams of splendour.
+    Then the tender taper summits
+    Of the trees, all leaf and glitter,
+    Started from the sullen void;
+    And the slopes behind them rising,
+    Graceful-lined in undulation,
+    Glided backwards one by one.
+    Underneath, be sure, was water;
+    And the stream was drawn so truly
+    That it seem'd to break and shimmer,
+    That it seem'd as if cascading
+    From the lofty rolling wheel.
+
+      There were flowers beside the brooklet;
+    There were colours on the meadow--
+    Gold and azure, green and purple,
+    Emerald and bright carbuncle.
+    Clear and pure he work'd the ether
+    As with lapis-lazuli,
+    And the mountains in the distance
+    Stretching blue and far away--
+    All so well, that I, in rapture
+    At this second revelation,
+    Turn'd to gaze upon the painter
+    From the picture which he drew.
+
+      "Have I not," he said, "convinced thee
+    That I know the painter's secret?
+    Yet the greatest is to come."
+
+      Then he drew with gentle finger,
+    Still more delicately pointed,
+    In the wood, about its margin,
+    Where the sun within the water
+    Glanced as from the clearest mirror,
+    Such a maiden's form!
+    Perfect shape in perfect raiment,
+    Fair young cheeks 'neath glossy ringlets,
+    And the cheeks were of the colour
+    Of the finger whence they came.
+
+      "Child," I cried, "what wond'rous master
+    In his school of art hath form'd thee,
+    That so deftly and so truly,
+    From the sketch unto the burnish,
+    Thou hast finish'd such a gem?"
+
+      As I spoke, a breeze arising
+    Stirr'd the tree-tops in the picture,
+    Ruffled every pool of water,
+    Waved the garments of the maiden;
+    And, what more than all amazed me,
+    Her small feet took motion also,
+    And she came towards the station
+    Where I sat beside the boy.
+
+      So, when every thing was moving,
+    Leaves and water, flowers and raiment,
+    And the footsteps of the darling--
+    Think you I remain'd as lifeless
+    As the rock on which I rested?
+    No, I trow--not I!
+
+This is as perfect a landscape as one of Berghem's sunniest.
+
+An artist is, to our mind, one of the happiest creatures in God's
+creation. Now that the race of wandering minstrels has passed away, your
+painter is the only free joyous denizen of the earth, who can give way
+to his natural impulses without fear of reproach, and who can indulge
+his enthusiasm for the bright and beautiful to the utmost. He has his
+troubles, no doubt; for he is ambitious, and too often he is poor; but
+it is something to pursue ambition along the natural path with unwarped
+energies, and ardent and sincere devotion. As to poverty, that is a
+fault that must daily mend, if he is only true to himself. In a few
+years, the foot-sore wanderer of the Alps, with little more worldly
+goods than the wallet and sketch-book he carries, will be the royal
+academician, the Rubens or the Reynolds of his day, with the most
+_recherché_ studio in London, and more orders upon his list than he has
+either time or inclination to execute. Goethe has let us into the secret
+of the young German artist's life. Let us look upon him in the dawnings
+of his fame, before he is summoned to adorn the stately halls of Munich
+with frescoes from the Niebelungen Lied.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE ARTIST'S MORNING SONG.
+
+    My dwelling is the Muses' home--
+      What matters it how small?
+    And here, within my heart, is set
+      The holiest place of all.
+
+    When, waken'd by the early sun,
+      I rise from slumbers sound,
+    I see the ever-living forms
+      In radiance group'd around.
+
+    I pray, and songs of thanks and praise
+      Are more than half my prayer,
+    With simple notes of music, tuned
+      To some harmonious air.
+
+    I bow before the altar then,
+      And read, as well I may,
+    From noble Homer's master-work,
+      The lesson for the day.
+
+    He takes me to the furious fight,
+      Where lion warriors throng;
+    Where god-descended heroes whirl
+      In iron cars along.
+
+    And steeds go down before the cars;
+      And round the cumber'd wheel,
+    Both friend and foe are rolling now,
+      All blood from head to heel!
+
+    Then comes the champion of them all,
+      Pelides' friend is he,
+    And crashes through the dense array,
+      Though thousands ten they be!
+
+    And ever smites that fiery sword
+      Through helmet, shield, and mail;
+    Until he falls by craft divine,
+      Where might could not prevail.
+
+    Down from the glorious pile he rolls,
+      Which he himself had made,
+    And foemen trample on the limbs
+      From which they shrank afraid.
+
+    Then start I up, with arms in hand,
+      What arms the painter bears;
+    And soon along my kindling wall
+      The fight at Troy appears.
+
+    On! on again! The wrath is here
+      Of battle rolling red;
+    Shield strikes on shield, and sword on helm,
+      And dead men fall on dead!
+
+    I throng into the inner press,
+      Where loudest rings the din;
+    For there, around their hero's corpse,
+      Fight on his furious kin!
+
+    A rescue! rescue! bear him hence
+      Into the leaguer near;
+    Pour balsam in his glorious wounds,
+      And weep above his bier.
+
+    And when from that hot trance I pass,
+      Great Love, I feel thy charm;
+    There hangs my lady's picture near--
+      A picture yet so warm!
+
+    How fair she was, reclining there;
+      What languish in her look!
+    How thrill'd her glance through all my frame!
+      The very pencil shook.
+
+    Her eyes, her cheeks, her lovely lips,
+      Were all the world to me;
+    And in my breast a younger life
+      Rose wild and wantonly.
+
+    Oh! turn again, and bide thee here,
+      Nor fear such rude alarms;
+    How could I think of battles more
+      With thee within my arms!
+
+    But thou shalt lend thy perfect form
+      To all I fashion best;
+    I'll paint thee first, Madonna-wise,
+      The infant on thy breast.
+
+    I'll paint thee as a startled nymph,
+      Myself a following fawn;
+    And still pursue thy flying feet
+      Across the woodland lawn.
+
+    With helm on head, like Mars, I'll lie
+      By thee, the Queen of Love,
+    And draw a net around us twain,
+      And smile on heaven above.
+
+    And every god that comes shall pour
+      His blessings on thy head,
+    And envious eyes be far away
+      From that dear marriage-bed!
+
+There is abundance of spirit here. For once, in describing the battle
+and fall of Patroclus, Goethe seems to have caught a spark of Homeric
+inspiration, and the lines ring out as clearly as the stroke of the
+hammer on the anvil. There is no rhyme in the original, which, we
+confess, appears to us a fault; more especially as the rhythm is that of
+the ordinary ballad. We have, therefore, ventured to supply it, with as
+little deviation otherwise as possible. It is for the reader to judge
+whether the effect is diminished.
+
+Our next selection shall be "The God and the Bayaderé"--a poem which is
+little inferior in beauty to the Bride of Corinth, and which, from its
+structure, opposes to the translator quite as serious a difficulty. The
+subject is taken from the Hindoo mythology, and conveys a very touching
+moral of humanity and forbearance; somewhat daring, perhaps, from its
+novelty, and the peculiar customs and religious faith of an eastern
+land, yet, withal, most delicately handled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE GOD AND THE BAYADERÉ.
+
+AN INDIAN LEGEND.
+
+    I.
+
+        Mahadeh, earth's lord, descending
+          To its mansions comes again,
+        That, like man with mortals blending,
+          He may feel their joy and pain;
+        Stoops to try life's varied changes,
+          And with human eyes to see,
+        Ere he praises or avenges,
+          What their fitful lot may be.
+    He has pass'd through the city, has look'd on them all;
+    He has watch'd o'er the great, nor forgotten the small,
+    And at evening went forth on his journey so free.
+
+    II.
+
+        In the outskirts of the city,
+          Where the straggling huts are piled,
+        At a casement stood a pretty
+          Painted thing, almost a child.
+        "Greet thee, maiden!" "Thanks--art weary?
+          Wait, and quickly I'll appear!"
+        "What art thou?"--"A Bayaderé,
+          And the home of love is here."
+    She rises; the cymbals she strikes as she dances,
+    And whirling, and bending with grace, she advances,
+    And offers him flowers as she undulates near.
+
+    III.
+
+        O'er the threshold gliding lightly
+          In she leads him to her room.
+        "Fear not, gentle stranger; brightly
+          Shall my lamp dispel the gloom.
+        Art thou weary? I'll relieve thee--
+          Bathe thy feet, and soothe their smart;
+        All thou askest I can give thee--
+          Rest, or song, or joy impart."
+    She labours to soothe him, she labours to please;
+    The Deity smiles; for with pleasure he sees
+    Through deep degradation a right-loving heart.
+
+    IV.
+
+        And he asks for service menial,
+          And she only strives the more,
+        Nature's impulse now is genial
+          Where but art prevail'd before.
+        As the fruit succeeds the blossom,
+          Swells and ripens day by day,
+        So, where kindness fills the bosom,
+          Love is never far away.
+    But he, whose vast motive was deeper and higher,
+    Selected, more keenly and clearly to try her,
+    Love, follow'd by anguish, and death, and dismay.
+
+    V.
+
+        And her rosy cheeks he presses,
+          And she feels love's torment sore,
+        And, thrill'd through by his caresses,
+          Weeps, that never wept before.
+        Droops beside him, not dissembling,
+          Or for passion or for gain,
+        But her limbs grow faint and trembling,
+          And no more their strength retain.
+    Meanwhile the still hours of the night stealing by,
+    Spread their shadowy woof o'er the face of the sky,
+    Bringing love and its festival joys in their train.
+
+    VI.
+
+        Lately roused, her arms around him,
+          Waking up from broken rest,
+        Dead upon her breast she found him,
+          Dead--that dearly-cherish'd guest!
+        Shrieking loud, she flings her o'er him,
+          But he answers not her cry;
+        And unto the pile they bore him,
+          Stark of limb and cold of eye.
+    She hears the priests chanting--she hears the death-song,
+    And frantic she rises, and bursts through the throng.
+    "Who is she? what seeks she? why comes she so nigh?"
+
+    VII.
+
+        But the bier she falleth over,
+          And her shrieks are loud and shrill--
+        "I _will_ have my lord, my lover!
+          In the grave I seek him still.
+        Shall that godlike frame be wasted
+          By the fire's consuming blight?
+        Mine it was--yea mine! though tasted
+          Only one delicious night!"
+    But the priests, they chant ever--"We carry the old,
+    When their watching is over, their journeys are told;
+    We carry the young, when they pass from the light!
+
+    VIII.
+
+        "Hear us, woman! Him we carry
+          Was not, could not be, thy spouse.
+        Art thou not a Bayaderé?
+          So hast thou no nuptial vows.
+        Only to death's silent hollow
+          With the body goes the shade;
+        Only wives their husbands follow:
+          Thus alone is duty paid.
+    Strike loud the wild turmoil of drum and of gong!
+    Receive him, ye gods, in your glorious throng--
+    Receive him in garments of burning array'd!"
+
+    IX.
+
+        Harsh their words, and unavailing,
+          Swift she threaded through the quire,
+        And with arms outstretch'd, unquailing
+          Leap'd into the crackling fire.
+        But the deed alone sufficeth--
+          Robed in might and majesty,
+        From the pile the god ariseth
+          With the ransom'd one on high.
+    Divinity joys in a sinner repenting,
+    And the lost ones of earth, by immortals relenting,
+    Are borne upon pinions of fire to the sky!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us now take a poem of the Hartz mountains, containing no common
+allegory. Every man is more or less a Treasure-seeker--a hater of
+labour--until he has received the important truth, that labour alone can
+bring content and happiness. There is an affinity, strange as it may
+appear, between those whose lot in life is the most exalted, and the
+haggard hollow-eyed wretch who prowls incessantly around the crumbling
+ruins of the past, in the belief that there lies beneath their
+mysterious foundations a mighty treasure, over which some jealous demon
+keeps watch for evermore. But Goethe shall read the moral to us himself.
+
+
+THE TREASURE-SEEKER.
+
+    I.
+
+    Many weary days I suffer'd,
+      Sick of heart and poor of purse;
+    Riches are the greatest blessing--
+      Poverty the deepest curse!
+    Till at last to dig a treasure
+      Forth I went into the wood--
+    "Fiend! my soul is thine for ever!"
+      And I sign'd the scroll with blood.
+
+    II.
+
+    Then I drew the magic circles,
+      Kindled the mysterious fire,
+    Placed the herbs and bones in order,
+      Spoke the incantation dire.
+    And I sought the buried metal
+      With a spell of mickle might--
+    Sought it as my master taught me;
+      Black and stormy was the night.
+
+    III.
+
+    And I saw a light appearing
+      In the distance, like a star;
+    When the midnight hour was tolling,
+      Came it waxing from afar:
+    Came it flashing, swift and sudden;
+      As if fiery wine it were,
+    Flowing from an open chalice,
+      Which a beauteous boy did bear.
+
+    IV.
+
+    And he wore a lustrous chaplet,
+      And his eyes were full of thought,
+    As he stepp'd into the circle
+      With the radiance that he brought.
+    And he bade me taste the goblet;
+      And I thought--"It cannot be,
+    That this boy should be the bearer
+      Of the Demon's gifts to me!"
+
+    V.
+
+    "Taste the draught of pure existence
+      Sparkling in this golden urn,
+    And no more with baneful magic
+      Shalt thou hitherward return.
+    Do not dig for treasures longer;
+      Let thy future spellwords be
+    Days of labour, nights of resting;
+      So shall peace return to thee!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pass we away now from the Hartz to Heidelberg, in the company of our
+glorious poet. We all know the magnificent ruins of the Neckar, the
+feudal turrets which look down upon one of the sweetest spots that ever
+filled the soul of a weary man with yearning for a long repose. Many a
+year has gone by since the helmet of the warder was seen glancing on
+these lofty battlements, since the tramp of the steed was heard in the
+court-yard, and the banner floated proudly from the topmost turret; but
+fancy has a power to call them back, and the shattered stone is restored
+in an instant by the touch of that sublimest architect:--
+
+
+THE CASTLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+    There stands an ancient castle
+      On yonder mountain height,
+    Where, fenced with door and portal,
+      Once tarried steed and knight.
+
+    But gone are door and portal,
+      And all is hush'd and still;
+    O'er ruin'd wall and rafter
+      I clamber as I will.
+
+    A cellar with many a vintage
+      Once lay in yonder nook;
+    Where now are the cellarer's flagons,
+      And where is his jovial look?
+
+    No more he sets the beakers
+      For the guests at the wassail feast;
+    Nor fills a flask from the oldest cask
+      For the duties of the priest.
+
+    No more he gives on the staircase
+      The stoup to the thirsty squires,
+    And a hurried thanks for the hurried gift
+      Receives, nor more requires.
+
+    For burn'd are roof and rafter,
+      And they hang begrimed and black;
+    And stair, and hall, and chapel,
+      Are turn'd to dust and wrack.
+
+    Yet, as with song and cittern,
+      One day when the sun was bright,
+    I saw my love ascending
+      With me the rocky height;
+
+    From the hush and desolation
+      Sweet fancies did unfold,
+    And it seem'd as we were living
+      In the merry days of old.
+
+    As if the stateliest chambers
+      For noble guests were spread,
+    And out from the prime of that glorious time
+      A youth a maiden led.
+
+    And, standing in the chapel,
+      The good old priest did say,
+    "Will ye wed with one another?"
+      And we smiled and we answer'd "Yea!"
+
+    We sung, and our hearts they bounded
+      To the thrilling lays we sung,
+    And every note was doubled
+      By the echo's catching tongue.
+
+    And when, as eve descended,
+      We left the silence still,
+    And the setting sun look'd upward
+      On that great castled hill;
+
+    Then far and wide, like lord and bride,
+      In the radiant light we shone--
+    It sank; and again the ruins
+      Stood desolate and lone!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We shall now select, from the songs that are scattered throughout the
+tale of Wilhelm Meister, one of the most genial and sweet. It is an
+in-door picture of evening, and of those odorous flowers of life which
+expand their petals only at the approach of Hesperus.
+
+
+PHILINE'S SONG.
+
+    Sing not thus in notes of sadness
+      Of the loneliness of night;
+    No! 'tis made for social gladness,
+      Converse sweet, and love's delight.
+
+    As to rugged man his wife is,
+      As his fairest half decreed,
+    So dear night the half of life is,
+      And the fairest half indeed.
+
+    Canst thou in the day have pleasure,
+      Which but breaks on rapture in,
+    Scares us from our dreams of leisure
+      With its glare and irksome din?
+
+    But when night is come, and glowing
+      Is the lamp's attemper'd ray,
+    And from lip to lip are flowing
+      Love and mirth, in sparkling play;
+
+    When the fiery boy, that wildly
+      Rushes in his wayward mood,
+    Calms to rest, disporting mildly,
+      By some trivial gift subdued;
+
+    When the nightingale is trilling
+      Songs of love to lovers' ears,
+    Which, to hearts with sorrow thrilling,
+      Seem but sighs and waken tears;
+
+    Then, with bosom lightly springing,
+      Dost thou listen to the bell,
+    That, with midnight's number ringing,
+      Speaks of rest and joy so well?
+
+    Then, dear heart, this comfort borrow
+      From the long day's lingering light--
+    Every day hath its own sorrow,
+      Gladness cometh with the night!
+
+We are somewhat puzzled as to the title which we ought to prefix to our
+next specimen. Goethe rather maliciously calls it "Gegenwart," which may
+be equivalent to the word "Presentiality," if, indeed, such a word
+belongs to the English language. We, therefore, prefer dedicating it to
+our own ladye love; and we could not find for her any where a sweeter
+strain, unless we were to commit depredation upon the minor poems of Ben
+Jonson or of Shakspeare.
+
+
+TO MY MISTRESS.
+
+    All that's lovely speaks of thee!
+      When the glorious sun appeareth,
+    'Tis thy harbinger to me:
+      Only thus he cheereth.
+
+    In the garden where thou go'st,
+      There art thou the rose of roses,
+    First of lilies, fragrant most
+      Of the fragrant posies.
+
+    When thou movest in the dance,
+      All the stars with thee are moving,
+    And around thee gleam and glance,
+      Never tired of loving.
+
+    Night!--and would the night were here!
+      Yet the moon would lose her duty,
+    Though her sheen be soft and clear,
+      Softer is thy beauty!
+
+    Fair, and kind, and gentle one!
+      Do not moon, and stars, and flowers
+    Pay that homage to their sun
+      That we pay to ours?
+
+    Sun of mine, that art so dear--
+      Sun, that art above all sorrow!
+    Shine, I pray thee, on me here
+      Till the eternal morrow.
+
+Another little poem makes us think of "poor Ophelia." We suspect that
+Goethe had the music of her broken ballad floating in his mind, when he
+composed the following verses:--
+
+
+THE WILD ROSE.
+
+    A boy espied, in morning light,
+        A little rosebud blowing.
+    'Twas so delicate and bright,
+    That he came to feast his sight,
+        And wonder at its growing.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+    I will gather thee--he cried--
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+    Then I'll sting thee, it replied,
+    And you'll quickly start aside
+        With the prickle glowing.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+    But he pluck'd it from the plain,
+        The rosebud brightly blowing!
+    It turn'd and stung him, but in vain--
+    He regarded not the pain,
+        Homewards with it going.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+We are sure that the votaries of Wordsworth will thank us for the next
+translation, which embodies a most noble idea. See how the eye of the
+poet is scanning the silent march of the heavens, and mark with what
+solemn music he invests the stately thought!
+
+
+A NIGHT THOUGHT.
+
+    I do not envy you, ye joyless stars,
+    Though fair ye be, and glorious to the sight--
+    The seaman's hope amidst the 'whelming storm,
+    When help from God or man there cometh none.
+    No! for ye love not, nor have ever loved!
+    Through the broad fields of heaven, the eternal hours
+    Lead on your circling spheres unceasingly.
+    How vast a journey have ye travell'd o'er,
+    Since I, upon the bosom of my love,
+    Forgot all memory of night or you!
+
+Let us follow up these glorious lines with a conception worthy of
+Æschylus--indeed an abstract of his master-subject. It were out of place
+here to dilate upon the mythical grandeur of Prometheus, and the heroic
+endurance of his character, as depicted by the ancient poet. To our mind
+and ear, the modern is scarcely inferior.
+
+
+PROMETHEUS.
+
+    Curtain thy heavens, thou Jove, with clouds and mist,
+    And, like a boy that moweth thistles down,
+    Unloose thy spleen on oaks and mountain-tops;
+    Yet canst thou not deprive me of my earth,
+    Nor of my hut, the which thou didst not build,
+    Nor of my hearth, whose little cheerful flame
+    Thou enviest me!
+
+    I know not aught within the universe
+    More slight, more pitiful than you, ye Gods!
+    Who nurse your majesty with scant supplies
+    Of offerings wrung from fear, and mutter'd prayers,
+    And needs must starve, were't not that babes and beggars
+    Are hope-besotted fools!
+
+    When I was yet a child, and knew not whence
+    My being came, nor where to turn its powers,
+    Up to the sun I bent my wilder'd eye,
+    As though above, within its glorious orb,
+    There dwelt an ear to listen to my plaint,
+    A heart, like mine, to pity the oppress'd.
+
+    Who gave me succour
+    Against the Titans in their tyrannous might?
+    Who rescued me from death--from slavery?
+    Thou!--thou, my soul, burning with hallow'd fire,
+    Thou hast thyself alone achieved it all!
+    Yet didst thou, in thy young simplicity,
+    Glow with misguided thankfulness to him
+    That slumbers on in idlesse there above!
+
+    I reverence thee?
+    Wherefore? Hast thou ever
+    Lighten'd the sorrows of the heavy-laden?
+    _Thou_ ever stretch'd thy hand to still the tears
+    Of the perplex'd in spirit?
+    Was it not
+    Almighty Time, and ever-during Fate--
+    My lords and thine--that shaped and fashion'd me
+    Into the MAN I am?
+
+    Belike it was thy dream,
+    That I should hate life--fly to wastes and wilds,
+    For that the buds of visionary thought
+    Did not all ripen into goodly flowers?
+
+    Here do I sit, and mould
+    Men after mine own image--
+    A race that may be like unto myself,
+    To suffer, weep; to enjoy, and to rejoice;
+    And, like myself, unheeding all of thee!
+
+We shall close this Number with a ballad of a different cast, but, lest
+the transition should be too violent, we shall interpolate the space
+with a very beautiful lyric. We claim no merit for this translation,
+for, to say the truth, we could not have done it half so well. Perhaps
+the fair hand that penned it, will turn over the pages of Maga in
+distant Wales, and a happy blush over-spread her cheek when she sees,
+enshrined in these columns, the effort of her maiden Muse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+NEW LOVE, NEW LIFE.
+
+    Heart--my heart! what means this feeling?
+    Say what weighs thee down so sore?
+    What new life is this revealing!
+    What thou wert, thou art no more.
+    All once dear to thee is vanish'd,
+    All that marr'd thy peace is banish'd,
+    Gone thy trouble and thine ease--
+    Ah! whence come such woes as these?
+
+    Does the bloom of youth bright-gleaming--
+    Does that form of purest light--
+    Do these eyes so sweetly beaming,
+    Chain thee with resistless might?
+    When the charm I'd wildly sever--
+    Man myself to fly for ever--
+    Ah! or yet the thought can stir,
+    Back my footsteps fly to her.
+
+    With such magic meshes laden,
+    All too closely round me cast,
+    Holds me that bewitching maiden,
+    An unwilling captive fast.
+    In her charméd sphere delaying,
+    Must I live, her will obeying--
+    Ah! how great the change in me!
+    Love--O love, do set me free!
+
+One other mood of love, and we leave the apprentice of Cornelius Agrippa
+to bring up the rear. Goethe is said to have been somewhat fickle in his
+attachments--most poets are--but here is one instance where passion
+appears to have prevailed over absence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SEPARATION.
+
+    I think of thee whene'er the sun is glowing
+              Upon the lake;
+    Of thee, when in the crystal fountain flowing
+              The moonbeams shake.
+
+    I see thee when the wanton wind is busy,
+              And dust-clouds rise;
+    In the deep night, when o'er the bridge so dizzy
+              The wanderer hies.
+
+    I hear thee when the waves, with hollow roaring,
+              Gush forth their fill;
+    Often along the heath I go exploring,
+              When all is still.
+
+    I am with thee! Though far thou art and darkling,
+              Yet art thou near.
+    The sun goes down, the stars will soon be sparkling--
+              Oh, wert thou here!
+
+If we recollect right--for it is a long time since we studied the occult
+sciences--Wierius, in his erudite volume "De Prestigiis Demonum,"
+recounts the story which is celebrated in the following ballad.
+Something like it is to be found in the biography of every magician; for
+the household staff of a wizard was not complete without a _famulus_,
+who usually proved to be a fellow of considerable humour, but endowed
+with the meddling propensities of a monkey. Thus, Doctor Faustus of
+Wittenburg--not at all to be confounded with the illustrious
+printer--had a perfect jewel in the person of his attendant Wagner; and
+our English Friar Bacon was equally fortunate in Miles, his trusty
+squire. Each of these gentlemen, in their master's absence, attempted a
+little conjuring on their own account; but with no better success than
+the nameless attendant of Agrippa, whom Goethe has sought to
+immortalize. There is a great deal of grotesque humour in the
+manufacture, agility, and multiplication of the domestic Kobold.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE.
+
+    Huzzah, huzzah! His back is fairly
+      Turn'd about, the wizard old;
+    And I'll now his spirits rarely
+      To my will and pleasure mould!
+    His spells and orgies--ha'n't I
+      Mark'd them all aright?
+    And I'll do wonders, sha'n't I?
+      And deeds of mickle might.
+          Bubble, bubble;
+          Fast and faster!
+          Hear your master,
+          Hear his calling--
+          Water! flow in measures double,
+          To the bath in torrents falling!
+
+    Ho, thou batter'd broomstick! take ye
+      This old seedy coat, and wear it--
+    Ah, thou household drudge, I'll make ye
+      Do my bidding; ay, and fear it.
+    Stand on legs, old tramper!
+      Here's a head--I've stuck it--
+    Now be off--hey, scamper
+      With the water-bucket!
+          Bubble, bubble;
+          Fast and faster!
+          Hear your master,
+          Hear his calling--
+          Water! flow in measure double,
+          To the bath in torrents falling!
+
+    See, 'tis off--'tis at the river--
+      In the stream the bucket flashes;
+    Now 'tis back--and down, or ever
+      You can wink; the burden dashes.
+    Again, again, and quicker!
+      The floor is in a swim,
+    And every stoup and bicker
+      Is running o'er the brim.
+          Stop, now stop!
+          For you've granted
+          All I wanted
+          Well and neatly--
+          Gracious me! I'm like to drop--
+          I've forgot the word completely!
+
+    Oh, the word, so strong and baleful,
+      To make it what it was before!
+    There it skips with pail on pailful--
+      Would thou wert a broom once more!
+    Still new streams he scatters,
+      Round and ever round me--
+    Oh, a hundred waters
+      Rushing in have bound me!
+          No--no longer
+          Can I bear it.
+          No, I swear it!
+          Gifts and graces!
+          Woe is me, my fears grow stronger,
+          Look what grinnings, what grimaces!
+
+    Wilt thou, offspring of the devil,
+      Soak the house to please thy funning?
+    Even now, above the level
+      Of the door the water's running.
+    Broom accurst, that will not
+      Hear, although I roar!
+    Stick! be now, and fail not,
+      What thou wert before!
+          You will joke me?
+          I'll not bear it,
+          No, I swear it!
+          I will catch you;
+          And with axe, if you provoke me,
+          In a twinkling I'll dispatch you.
+
+    Back it comes--will nought prevent it?
+      If I only turn me to thee,
+    Soon, O Kobold! thou'lt repent it,
+      When the steel goes crashing through thee.
+    Bravely struck, and surely!
+      There it goes in twain;
+    Now I move securely,
+      And I breathe again!
+          Woe and wonder!
+          As it parted,
+          Up there started,
+          'Quipp'd aright,
+          Goblins twain that rush asunder.
+          Help, oh help, ye powers of might!
+
+    Deep and deeper grows the water
+      On the stairs and in the hall,
+    Rushing in with roar and clatter--
+      Lord and master, hear me call!
+    Ah, here comes the master--
+      Sore, sir, is my straight;
+    I raised this spirit faster
+      Far than I can lay't.
+          "To your hole!
+          As you were, be
+          Broom! and there be
+          Still; for none
+          But the wizard can control,
+          And make you on his errands run!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT DROUGHT.
+
+
+In the spring and summer of 1844 rain began to fail, and the first
+things that perished for want of water died that year. But the moisture
+of the earth was still abundant, and the plants which took deep root
+found sustenance below; so that the forest trees showed an abundance of
+foliage, and the harvest in some kinds was plentiful. Towards the autumn
+rain returned again, and every thing appeared to be recovering its
+former order; but the dry winter, the dry spring, dry summer of the next
+year, told upon the face of creation. Many trees put forth small and
+scanty leaves, and many perished altogether; whole species were cut off;
+for instance, except where they were artificially preserved, one could
+not find a living ash or beech--few were kept alive by means of man; for
+water began to be hoarded for the necessaries of life. The wheat was
+watered, and, where such a thing was possible, the hay-fields also; but
+numbers of animals died, and numbers were killed this year--the first
+from thirst, and the last to reduce the consumers of the precious
+element. Still the rich commanded the necessaries, and many of the
+luxuries of life; and the arts which required a consumption of water
+were carried on as yet, and continued in practice even longer than
+prudence warranted: so strong was the force of habit, and the pressure
+of the artificial necessities which they supplied. The railroads were as
+yet in activity, and when water failed along the line, it was brought
+from the sea by the rich companies concerned in the traffic; only the
+fares were raised, and the trains which ran for pleasure merely, were
+suspended. But, in the midst of business and interest, there was a deep
+gloom. Projects which affected the fortunes of nations were in suspense,
+because there was no rain. Cares for the succession of crowns, and the
+formation of constitutions, might all be futile, if there should be no
+rain: and it seemed as if there never would be any; for this was now the
+third year, and the earth had not received a shower. And now, ceasing to
+be supplied from their usual sources, the springs and rivers withered
+and shrank. Water became in many places not dear, but unattainable. The
+greatest people of the land left it, and used their wealth in chasing
+the retreating element from place to place on the earth. In some cases,
+among these luxurious spirits there were scenes of extravagant revelry
+still; they had no employment except to live, and they endeavoured to
+make the act of living as exciting as their old amusements had been. But
+accounts of foreign countries came more and more rarely to England; for
+when the fourth rainless year arrived, drought and famine had slain
+three-fourths of its inhabitants, and commerce and agriculture were
+alike suspended. When a vessel came as far up in the mouth of a river as
+the sinking waters permitted, it brought tidings of desolation from
+whatever port it had left. Stories began to spread of dry land in parts
+of the ocean where it had never been seen before; marks which had stood
+in the deep of the sea might now be walked round at all times of the
+tide, and thick crusts of salt were beginning to spread upon tracts of
+the great deep. These tidings from foreign lands came at long intervals,
+and at long intervals was a ship sent from any English haven. The few
+dwellers of the coast knew not if there were still any dwellers of the
+interior: for England was become like the desert; and there were no
+beasts to carry one across it, and no water to be hoarded in skins for
+the passage. Traffic of every kind ceased; industry was gone; the
+secrets of science, and the cultivated mind of the philosopher, were all
+bent to the production of water; and many a precious object was resolved
+back into its elements, and afforded a scanty supply to a few parched
+mouths. The lingering inhabitants had the produce of past years only to
+live upon, which nothing replenished as it diminished, and to renew
+which the baked earth was wholly incompetent.
+
+In the heart of this desert, there was a family which had hitherto
+survived the destruction of life around them. It consisted of a father
+and mother, and two young children, Charles and Alice; the last of whom,
+the girl, was but a few months old when the Great Drought began. They
+had lived in Derbyshire, near the range of low hills called the Peak;
+and they and other inhabitants of that region had found water longer
+than many others, from the sides of the hills, and from excavations
+which they had made in the rocks. The strong hope and expectation of
+rain had kept them lingering on as long as any supply lasted; and
+Paulett, who in the days when ranks existed, had been a great landlord,
+had used both his knowledge and his influence to supply the wants of the
+people, and to postpone their destruction. But those days were gone by;
+his possessions were so much dust: he wanted water, and nobody wanted
+any thing else. He was a mere man now, like those who are born naked and
+die naked, and had to struggle with the needs of nature, even as every
+one else. Meantime his education availed him; and the resources which it
+taught him prolonged the lives of his family and himself. But he was
+soon obliged to limit himself to this sole care; for the supply he
+obtained was scanty, and he knew how precarious it must be. He had
+explored the cavern of the Peak with great attention, and he bored the
+rock in various places, and used means suggested by his knowledge of
+natural causes, which had procured a slender flow of water into a basin
+which he had made. The fury of thirsty men for water was so great, that
+he was obliged to keep his secret with the utmost care; and towards the
+end of the fourth year, he removed his wife and children to the cavern
+itself, and blocked up the entrance, in such a manner that he could
+defend it against any chance survivor. There was no want of the luxuries
+of furniture in the cavern--all the splendours of the land were at the
+command of those who would take them; and Paulett brought there whatever
+had adorned his home when the earth was a fit dwelling-place for man.
+There was velvet and down to lie upon; there were carpets on which the
+little Alice could roll; there were warm dresses, and luxurious
+ornaments of the toilette; whatever could be used for comfort he had
+brought, and all other precious things he had left in his open house,
+locking himself and his family up with only water. At first there would
+come sometimes a miserable man or woman, tracing the presence of living
+creatures, and crying for water. Paulett or his wife supplied several,
+and when they had been refreshed, they revealed the secret to others;
+or, being strengthened themselves, felt the desperate desire of life
+revive, and attempted violence to get at the treasure. After this the
+inhabitants of the cavern fell back to mere self-preservation; and the
+father and mother were able to harden their hearts against others, by
+looking at the two creatures whom they had born into the world, and who
+depended upon them. But, indeed, life seemed to shrink rapidly to
+nothing over the face of the country. It was very rare to see a moving
+form of any kind--skeletons of beasts and men were in plenty, and their
+white bones lay on the arid soil; or even their withered shapes, dried
+by the air and the sun, were stretched out on the places where they had
+ceased to suffer: but life was most rare, and it became scarcely
+necessary to use any precaution against an invader of their store. The
+dreadful misery was, that this store diminished. The heart of the earth
+seemed drying, and was ceasing to be capable of yielding moisture, even
+to the utmost wrenching of science. There was so little one hot day,
+that Paulett and Ellen scarcely moistened their lips after their meal of
+baked corn, and warned their children that the draught they received was
+the only one that could be given them. Charles was now seven years old,
+and had learned to submit, but his longing eyes pleaded for more; little
+Alice was clamorous, and the mother felt tears overflow her eyes to
+think that there was no possibility of yielding to that childish
+peevishness, and that the absolute non-existence of water must punish
+her poor child's wilfulness. When Paulett had set his instruments to
+work, to renew if possible the supply, and when Ellen had removed the
+silver cups and dishes which had held their corn and water, he and she
+sat down at the mouth of the cavern, and the little ones got their
+playthings, and placed them on piece of rock not far off. The mouth of
+the cave is lofty, and there is a sort of terrace running along one
+side, at the foot of which lay the channel of the stream, that was now
+dry. The view is down the first reach of a narrow valley, which turns
+presently afterwards, and so shuts out the world beyond from sight; and
+the hill on each side rises high, and from its perpendicularity seems
+even higher than it is. The shade of the cavern was deep and cool, but
+the sky glowed with the heat and light of the sun, and there was not a
+cloud to hinder him from burning up the earth. The hill-sides, the
+channel where the brook had flowed, the stones of the cave, were all
+equally bare; there was no sound of voice, or bird, or insect--no cool
+drop from the ceiling of the cave--no moisture even in the coolness of
+the shadow. Ellen leaned her head on her husband, and Paulett pressed
+his arm round her--both of them were thinking of the basin empty of
+water.
+
+"Ellen," said Paulett, "I think the time is come when the elements shall
+melt with fervent heat. It seems like the conflagration of the world;
+not indeed as we have always fancied it, with flames and visible fire,
+but not the less on that account the action of heat. It is perhaps the
+Last Day."
+
+"I hope it is," said Ellen, "I hope it is; I wish those precious
+creatures may be among those that are alive and remain, and may be
+spared the torments of this thirsty death."
+
+"You and I could bear it, if they were gone," said Paulett, glancing at
+them and withdrawing his eyes.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said Ellen, pressing near to him, and taking his hand in both
+hers. They were silent, and they heard the children talking as they
+played.
+
+"There is King Alexander," said Charles, setting up a pebble--"he is
+going to dinner. Put the dinner, Alice."
+
+Alice set out several other pebbles before King Alexander.
+
+"And he has got a great feast. There is plenty of water, more than he
+can drink; and he drinks, drinks, as much as he likes, and still there
+is plenty of water when he goes to bed."
+
+"Poor children! I can't bear it," said Ellen.
+
+"Oh, Ellen, it would have been better never to have given them birth!"
+said Paulett.
+
+"No--not that," said Ellen, sitting down again; "though they must
+suffer, they are better to be; when this suffering has dissolved their
+bodies--on the other side of these mortal pains there is ease and
+happiness."
+
+"True, true, dear Ellen," said Paulett; "it is only difficult to die."
+
+He held her hand; and while he did so, his eye fastened on a diamond
+ring which she wore. She observed his fixed look.
+
+"You gave me that when we little thought how it was we should part--when
+I was a bride--and there was all the pleasure and business of the world
+round us. It hardly seems as if we were the same creatures."
+
+"No, we are not; for I am thinking, concerning that ring which you were
+never to part with, whether I could not convert the diamond into water."
+
+"How, Paulett?"
+
+"I can't explain it to you; but it has just crossed my mind that it is
+possible; and if so, there are still plenty of jewels in the world to
+keep us alive."
+
+He drew off the ring as he spoke, and went into the interior of the
+cave, whither Ellen followed him. There was a fire, and some apparatus
+belonging to Paulett, which he had used in experiments upon the
+decreasing water of the basin. He knocked the stone out of its setting,
+and applied himself to decompose it over the fire. He put forth all his
+skill and all his power, and was successful; the diamond disappeared,
+and there remained a few drops of water. He looked at his wife and
+smiled; she raised her eyes to his, astonished and pleased, took the cup
+from his hand, and looked at the precious metamorphosis.
+
+"I'll give it the children," she said, and was going away; but he
+stopped her. "No, Ellen, there is not enough to do any good; you and I
+will drink each other's health in it; and he put the cup first to her
+lips and then to his own. God bless you, my Ellen!" he said, "my wife--I
+pledge you again with that diamond. The first drop of water comes from
+the stone that plighted my faith to you, and may it bring you health and
+happiness yet."
+
+"God bless you, my husband! If we could but die now!"
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Paulett now exerted himself to collect all the diamonds that remained
+without owners in the neighbourhood. First he visited his own forsaken
+home, and took thence the jewels, which he had neglected in his retreat
+from it, but which were now as precious as water. He found no great
+store even after ransacking all the houses within reach, and determined
+to undertake a longer journey in search of more. The basin in the cavern
+continued to yield a scanty supply of water; and Paulett extracted a
+small quantity from his stones. He made what provision he could for his
+family before setting out; and for his own necessities took the smallest
+possible portion, in a silver vessel, which was most preciously secured,
+and concealed about his person. It was a strange parting between his
+wife and him, both of them feeling and saying, that alive they should
+probably not meet again: yet death was so near them constantly, and was
+so far better than life, that his presence had grown familiar; and it
+was only the mode in which he would come that made them anxious. Paulett
+perishing alone of thirst was the fearful image to Ellen, and Ellen and
+her children waiting for him in vain, and dying one after the other for
+want of his help, was the dread of Paulett. They stood in the cavern,
+and embraced each other silently, and blessed their children with the
+same prayer for the last time. The little ones received and returned his
+caress, and Paulett quitted the cavern and set out on his uncertain
+expedition.
+
+The face of the country was so much changed that he had some difficulty
+in making his way. The vivid colours of the earth were all gone, and in
+place of them was the painful greyness of the dead trees, and the yellow
+of the parched soil. Nothing was overthrown in ruin, but all stood dead
+in its place. The shapes of men and animals only lay strewn upon the
+earth. The human beings were comparatively rare; they were the last
+survivors of the destroying drought whom there had been none to bury;
+but these at length had died by hundreds, and in places their bones were
+seen whiter than any other object; or if any where over the surface
+there hung a vapour, it came from some collection of dead bodies which
+had not yet been resolved into the elements. Those whom he found there
+were mostly in heaps--the beasts had died singly; near what had been
+water-courses he saw more than once signs of struggle, and the last
+battles of earth had been fought for possession of its waters. He traced
+out many a pathetic story among the dry bones and faded garments.
+Women's dresses were there; and fallen into a shapeless heap on what had
+been their bosom, were little forms, and the raiment of children. Where
+the dry air and the sun had preserved the face, he beheld the fallen
+estate of those who had been men in the uncovered shame of death; the
+wide open lips, the sunken eyes, over which the eyelid was undrawn, the
+swollen tongue, the frame writhed into an expression of anguish,
+revealed all the pain and shame of death. But here and there, the hand
+of some one who had been a survivor, was visible in the attempt to
+conceal all this. In one place there was a shallow grave, into which a
+body had been rolled, and lay on its side; and close by, on a heap of
+clothes, out of which bones appeared, there was a spade with which the
+unfinished work had been attempted. In another, a female body was
+covered from sun and moon by a man's cloak; and a few paces off lay a
+man, whom nothing shielded. There was an infant's skeleton wrapped in a
+woman's shawl, under what had been a hawthorn hedge; the mother had
+either perished attempting to find water, or had laid her child down,
+and gone away, like Hagar in the desert, not to see it die. The poor
+innocent's skull was turned on its shoulder; its cheek must have rested
+there while the face remained. It was too young to have struggled much.
+Paulett thought of his little Alice; of her unconsciousness to the fate
+around her; of what would be her and Charles's and poor Ellen's fate, if
+he failed in his search, or perished by the way. He roused himself from
+looking on all these sorrowful objects, and went on his dreary way. The
+second day after he left the cavern, he came to a stately pile of
+building, which he determined to explore for the life-giving stones he
+was in search of. It stood upon its terraces, surrounded by its
+colonnades and garden-steps, in all its old pride and beauty. Its
+forests were withered indeed, its gardens burned, its fountains dry; but
+the palace glanced back the sunlight, and was as steadfast and perfect
+as in the days of the living. Paulett drew near, and found, as he came
+close, signs of the last days of life in it. The doors were opened to
+the air; and a few marks of objects removed, remained in the outer
+rooms. There was scoring and dragging on the marble floor; and Paulett
+doubted for a moment what had left these marks, till he saw on one side
+of a gilded table, a barrel, lying there empty, from which the top, as
+it seemed, had been accidentally knocked, and the liquor had flowed out.
+The marble bore the stain of wine, and where it had flowed, the slabs
+were broken in two places, perhaps from the violence of the struggle of
+those who saw the liquid flow, to wet each one his own parched lips.
+Paulett thought the lord of the castle had probably deserted it before
+the worst crisis arrived, and had tried to remove what was most valuable
+in his possession. He went on through long galleries and magnificent
+rooms, all silent as death, statues, which represented man in his glory
+and his strength; books, which were the work of that high spirit, now
+extinguished under the pressure of bodily wants; luxurious
+superfluities, which were for better days of the world--all was
+valueless, all open; he might go where he would, till at length one door
+resisted his efforts, and seemed to have been barred with a certain care
+from within. Paulett's heart beat high. Was there some one still living
+like himself; another human creature struggling for existence in this
+great world, and guarding, as he had done in his cavern, his treasure of
+water? Should he have another companion to speak with; another, with
+whom, perhaps, to get over the evil days; to whom to communicate his
+secret of producing water from diamonds? For the first time since he
+left the cavern, he spoke aloud--he called--he called in the great
+silence of the earth, but nothing answered him. If any one were still
+alive, he might be afraid of another living creature--had not he himself
+left pistols loaded for his poor Ellen, to defend her life and her
+children, if any human being should come near her? He gently shook the
+door; then proceeded to more violence, and forced it open. It was the
+door of a great dining-room, on whose lofty ceiling, as he entered it,
+wreaths of smoke rolled, which the air had put in motion, and a heavy
+smell, as of burned charcoal, struck him as he entered. There were no
+living creatures--the inhabitants were all dead in the last posture of
+life. The table was covered with silver and gold vessels, and among them
+were dead flowers and fruits, dried by the close chamber. It should seem
+they had drunk deeply before they died here--perhaps they had collected
+the last liquids, and resolved to perish when they had once more
+feasted: for there was wine still in some of the vessels, nay, in one
+there was water; and the ghostly shapes were adorned and fantastically
+covered with jewels and velvet, and all sort of rare and exquisite
+ornaments. Some were still on chairs, some fallen forward on the table,
+some prostrate, as if they had lain down to sleep. There were fragments
+of shivered glass on the floor; there was a statue broken to pieces on
+the table, on the pedestal of which was written "Patience;" there were
+pieces of torn paper in the hands of one, which seemed a letter; all
+these faint shadowings of long stories, and of a scene of which there
+remained no witness, struck Paulett's eye. One had sunk down by the
+silver tripod in which the charcoal had burned, and the match that fired
+it was amongst his garments. One face was there, resting on a sofa,
+still perfect enough to show it had been a beautiful woman; and roses,
+artfully made close to nature, crowned the long hair which fell upon
+arms from which the flesh had withered. On the neck were diamonds, on
+the hands diamonds--diamonds had confined the ringlets--diamonds
+sparkled on the feet. Paulett shuddered as he took them away. The
+spirit, indeed, was gone; but here was the last act of the spirit before
+it plunged into an unknown region, it knew not where. Paulett asked
+himself where. "A little longer," said he, "and they must have died;
+could not they wait their time, and take patience with death? Must they
+die in drunkenness, in madness; worse than beasts?" Then his own thirsty
+eyes fixed on the table, where, in the light of the sun, the water
+sparkled, and gave rainbow rays. He forgot all beside, in the impulse
+which urged him to seize and drink--to drink the first draught--to
+satiate his throat with water. He drank and revived; and then blamed
+himself for yielding so passionately to the impulse which was now passed
+away; and as it passed, the horror of the scene around him acquired
+greater force, and he longed to be out of its influence. He made haste
+to collect all the jewels around him, and when he had done, found that
+his burden was as much as he could safely carry. He went hastily out of
+the room, as if any of these figures could rise and follow him, and
+fastened the door again, where the crime had been wrought. He hastily
+crossed the marble halls and gilded rooms, and came out in the
+sunlight--the splendid, solemn sunlight that looked upon a burnt-up
+world!
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Meantime, poor Ellen waited anxiously in the cavern, and as soon as the
+first possible moment for Paulett's return was passed, her fears grew
+strong. There was so much danger for him in the bare desert, with his
+scanty supply of water, that she might well listen to fear as soon as it
+had any reason to make itself heard; and with this dread, when she next
+drew water from her scanty supply, came the horrible torment of the
+anticipated death by thirst, which seemed descending upon her children
+and her. The day she had thought he would return rose and set, and so
+did another and another; and from fearing, she had begun to believe,
+indeed, that Paulett's earthly hours were passed. Yet hope would not be
+subdued entirely; and then she felt that perhaps by prolonging their
+lives another day only, she should save them to welcome him, and to
+profit by his hard-earned treasure. The store of water was sacredly
+precious. She dealt it out in the smallest portions to her children, and
+she herself scarcely wetted her lips; she hardened her heart to see her
+boy's pale face, her girl's feverish eye; she checked even the motherly
+tenderness of her habits, lest the softening of her heart should
+overcome her resolution; and so she laid them in their beds the third
+night of her dread, when indeed there was scarce another day's supply.
+She herself lay on hers, but deadly anxiety kept her from sleeping, and
+her ears ached with the silence which ought to have been broken by a
+step. And at last, oh joy! there was a foot--yes, a few moments made
+that certain, which from the first indeed she believed, but which was so
+faint that it wanted confirmation to her bodily sense. Up sprang Ellen,
+and darted to meet him. She held forward the candle into the air, and,
+lo! it was a woman. Ellen screamed aloud; the woman had seen her before
+and said nothing, only pressed forward. "Who are you?" cried Ellen; "are
+you alive?" "Yes, just alive; and see here," said the woman, uncovering
+the face of her young child--"my child is just alive too; give me water
+before it dies." "Then my children will perish," said Ellen. "No, no,"
+said the woman; "how are you alive now unless you have plenty? All mine
+are gone but this one; my husband died yesterday; ours has been gone for
+days." "My husband is dead, too," said Ellen, "and I have only one
+draught left." "Then I will take it," said the mother, rushing forward.
+Ellen caught her and struggled with her; the poor child moaned in its
+mother's arms, and a pang shot through the heart of Ellen. "For God's
+sake, miserable woman," she said, "do not go near that basin! You are
+mad with want; you will leave none for my children. Stay here, and I
+will bring your child water. You and I can want, and yours and mine
+shall drink." But the desperate woman pressed on; her eyes fixed on the
+water, and dilated with intense desire; her lips wide open, dying almost
+for the draught. Ellen's soul was concentred in the fear, that the last
+hope of her boy and girl's life was about to be lost; she struggled with
+the woman with all her might; she screamed aloud; she lost her hold; she
+seized a pistol from the table, and close as she was to her adversary,
+fired it full at her. The mother fell, with a shriek. Ellen started
+forward and broke her fall, and laid hold on the child to free it from
+her dying grasp. "Give him me, give him me!" said the mother, struggling
+to lift herself up, and stretching her hands out for the boy. The
+trembling Ellen stooped to give him to her, but the child's head dropped
+on one side as she held him out; he made no effort to get into his
+mother's arms. Ellen wildly raised his face, and he was dead too. The
+shot had gone through his breast to his mother's, and a little blood
+began to steal from his lips. "He's dead!" said the mother, who was
+herself passing away. "Oh, my boy!" and then feebly, with her
+fast-failing strength, she raised him, after more than one effort, in
+her arms, and pressed her lips to his twice, with all the passion that
+death left in her. The wasted form of the child lay there, all pale and
+withered, the straight brown hair was parted on his thin forehead; the
+mother's uncovered breast, where his head rested, was white, and the
+hands delicate; the raiment was luxurious; that head had not been reared
+in the expectation of dying on a bed of rock. Ellen burst into floods of
+tears, and wrung her hands as she stood by, looking on what she had
+done. The woman lifted her eyes, and tried to form her lips into a
+smile; she no longer felt any vehement passion, and the torment of
+thirst was now only one of the pangs of death. Her eyes wandered to the
+water, but when Ellen moved to fetch some, she stopped her.
+
+"No; it was for him. He is at ease now. You did right. Don't grieve."
+
+"Forgive me," said Ellen, kneeling down at her side.
+
+"Oh yes! the poor precious babe suffers no more. I was mad; you said
+truly in that. I nursed him at my breast till his lips grew dry even
+there; we lived not far from your cavern, and I have seen you, and been
+glad you had water. We had some. _We?_ Yes, is not my husband dead; and
+my boy is dead too! See, there is blood on his face; wipe it away; he
+will die else." Ellen's sobs caught her wandering attention. "I remember
+now, you killed him; oh, good angel, guardian angel! you have killed
+him, and there is only I to suffer. He is gone from this dear, dear
+body; I wish it did not look so like him still--and it looks in pain
+too--it looks thirsty."
+
+Ellen hid her own face on the mother's shoulder for an instant.--Her
+children had awakened at the noise of the pistol, and they were out of
+bed and clinging around her; her sorrow roused theirs, and the sound of
+their lamentation reached the dying woman's ear.
+
+"There are my children crying. Alas! I thought they had all been dead."
+
+"They are mine," said Ellen. "Yours are at rest, yours _are_ all dead."
+
+"Thank God!" said the mother; and though the words were earnest, the
+voice was faint; all the effort of nature was in them, but they came
+feebly from her lips. After that, indistinct sounds and murmured names
+only were heard; her breath came in gasps, and at longer and longer
+intervals; till the faint shuddering of her limbs ceased by degrees,
+and after it had been insensible to the world for a while, the spirit
+quitted it for ever. Ellen's heart died within her; her senses were
+troubled, and she pressed herself in Paulett's arms without knowing when
+he came, or being surprised that he was there. "Oh, Paulett!" she said
+at last, "I have not done wrong, but it is so dreadful!" Paulett soon
+gathered from her all that had happened; and gazed with pity on what had
+once been a beautiful form, but rejoiced that it suffered no longer.
+Ellen, shuddering, arranged the dress, composed the limbs, and, with a
+thousand tears, placed the infant on that breast which had been so
+faithfully its mother to the last. And there they slept, mother and
+child--the day of trouble ended for both.
+
+"My poor Ellen," said Paulett, "I wish it were thou and my children who
+were there at rest!" and Ellen pressed her Charles and her Alice to her
+heart, and would have been glad if they had indeed been dead.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In that time of trouble and of unexampled events, the mind received
+impressions in a different manner from what it had ever done before. The
+stern gloom that hung over the future, the hazard upon which life was
+suspended, the close contact with universal death, and the desperate
+struggle by which it was staved off, gave to all things a new character;
+and the scene of the last chapter was but one of the series of deadly
+and dreadful excitements which were now the habit of every day. The
+solemn frame of mind which it induced in Ellen, was of a piece with the
+solemn nature of their existence; and she could talk of it with her
+husband at any time, and not disturb the natural bent which their
+conversation took. They searched the immediate neighbourhood for the
+habitation of the unhappy mother and her family; and the marks of her
+footsteps on the dust of the soil enabled them to trace her to Hope, a
+village in the plain, two miles, or rather more, from the Peak. She and
+her husband had used the church for their habitation, and it seemed had
+employed the same kind of precaution as Paulett to defend it and conceal
+that it was their dwelling. One entrance only was left, and the other
+apertures blocked up; but all care was useless now, for death had set
+them free from pain and fear. On a bed beside the altar lay the body of
+a man, over which as spread a cloak of fur and velvet, which in the
+lifetime of the world would have been most precious. His eyes were
+decently closed, the curtains of the bed drawn round him, and the pillow
+which supported his head was marked with the pressure of another head,
+and with moisture which could have been only the tears of his wife. The
+floor of the church was in confusion, like the dwelling of one too much
+distracted with trouble to attend to what did not relate to it; but
+there was corn which had served for food, and fuel heaped on the stone
+which had been a hearth--there was the drawing of a lovely woman and of
+a beautiful place: but these were cast into a corner, probably by the
+irritable hand of despair. On a table stood empty cups, which had long,
+perhaps, been dry--the glass of one had been shivered, and the fragments
+lay on the floor; there were also a few books, neglected and covered
+with dust. In the churchyard were the marks of three recent graves--one
+of them had a stone at its head, on which was carved with care the name
+of Alfred, and the soil was fenced and supported with sticks, so as to
+preserve its shape over the body--probably it was that of the first
+child whom the parents had committed to dust. Another was more hastily
+prepared, and no superfluous labour had been bestowed on it. This must
+be the last, when heart and health were both failing. Paulett and Ellen
+kneeled and prayed beside them, and rejoiced that the mother, too, was
+at rest after the long misery of this scene. They returned to their
+cave, and, under the shadow of the rock near the old course of the
+brook, laid both mother and child, covering their bodies with stones,
+and thinking more of the probable reunion, in some unknown scene, of
+the spirits of that family, than of the distance which separated their
+graves on this earth.
+
+And now, with good store of diamonds, and with increasing skill and
+success in the resolution of them into water, both Paulett and Ellen
+looked upon the lives of all as safe for the present, and their thoughts
+were at liberty to wander to some other subject. They believed that they
+and their children were alone in the world, for every sign of life from
+other countries, as well as their own, had ceased. It was very long
+since any human tidings had come, and though, after men had done with
+each other, birds continued their migrations, these had now long been
+over, and the years passed away without bringing or sending a single
+wing. The course of the seasons, too, was strange and unnatural. It
+seemed as if the earth performed its usual course in the heavens, and
+kept its place and functions in the movements of the planets; days and
+nights varied in their length according to the season, and the heat of
+the sun was at one time of the year great and at another weak: but much
+that depended hitherto upon the constitution of the globe was suspended.
+There were no clouds in the sky, no dews dropping from the air, no
+reproduction in the earth. It seemed decayed and dying of old age. Yet
+Paulett said, a new existence would, perhaps, arise on this same scene,
+and from these same elements. Once before, the earth had been reduced to
+eight persons by the action of water; and now the absence of the same
+element had brought it to four. Charles and Alice might be the destined
+parents of a new race, and those names that were so familiar now, might
+become the venerable appellations of the founders of the third race of
+man. Ellen smiled and shook her head, looking at the boy and girl, who
+were building a house of pebbles; and both parents listened for a while
+to what they were saying. Charles recollected the house he had dwelt in
+before the great shipwreck of human life drove then to the cavern; and
+he was teaching Alice that there were rooms below and rooms above, and
+that he had heard how people like their father had carried great stones,
+and put them one on another to make these rooms. Alice persisted in
+making her house one hollow cavern; and the other she called Charles's
+house, and did not understand his recommendation.
+
+"Charles is taking the part already of a teacher, in whom remains the
+traditionary knowledge of an old world," said Paulett; "and Alice
+represents the new inhabitants, who have their own rude copies of
+natural objects, but who will be open to the training of the learned
+man."
+
+"The learned man will be their father," said Ellen; "they will gladly
+take their notions from him."
+
+"Yes; but if it should be so destined, the first generation must work
+hard merely to live--they must be very long ignorant of every thing
+except a paternal government, and such habitations as can be raised or
+appropriated most easily. They will be children in comparison to Charles
+all their lives, if we can but succeed in giving him the ideas of the
+age we have lived in. Fancy them, Ellen, increased to perhaps fifty
+inhabitants before he dies, a very old man, coming round his chair to
+hear of the wonderful steam-engine, and the use of the telescope, and to
+learn the art of printing, and the list of different languages which
+Romans, Frenchmen, Germans, Greeks, used; and what lions were, and
+horses."
+
+"Or tell them how he and Alice escaped from the great drought," said
+Ellen. "But, alas! it is far more likely he and she will perish in it,
+and then of what use is this knowledge to him?"
+
+"Why--his soul. 'It is a thing immortal like thyself;' and if what he
+knows is of no use here, it will be useful elsewhere."
+
+"What!" said Ellen, smiling--"are there railroads and telescopes in
+another world?"
+
+"For aught I can tell. At all events, the powers that contrive them here
+may contrive something from the same principles hereafter."
+
+"But we can tell nothing about the other world," said Ellen.
+
+"Nay, this is _another world_ to the stars; and, if we know nothing
+about our destiny, the only way we have to judge is by what we actually
+are, and tend to be, now. So, while life remains, I will teach my boy
+all I know, and go on as a man of this world ought to do; then we shall
+be ready for every thing."
+
+Accordingly, Paulett every day carried on his son's education, as far as
+the boy's age permitted, and instructed him in all that he would have
+learned had the world been as it was formerly. Only, like a man in a
+shipwreck looking forward to a desert island as his best hope, he dwelt
+most upon what would be usefullest, supposing Charles (being preserved)
+to have to provide for the physical necessities of a new race of man.
+Next in order came science and arts; and it was easier to make him feel
+the merits of these than of the exploits of men, especially when they
+consisted of valour, and of the deeds of conquerors; for the heroic
+virtues seemed to take a new character in the present circumstances of
+the world; and whereas they used to kindle and blaze in personal danger,
+and at the sound of the applause of men, they now burned brightly in the
+endurance of a world's dissolution, which, with all its terrors and
+prolonged impressions, must be met by the calm, self-sustaining spirit,
+rising superior to the greatest excess of physical injury. The boy's
+soul replied to the call upon it. He learned to look on the dangers
+before him, and to consider the possibility of escape with quiet
+calculation of chances. He inured himself to privation readily, and
+eagerly tried to spare his mother and Alice from it. He and his father,
+hand in hand, walked over the desolate land, realizing the idea that
+they were in fact spirits, superior to all physical things, and divided
+from spirits and their sphere only by their frail connexion with a body.
+They talked of virtue and duty, and how good it was to dwell in these
+painful bodies, since they were the place wherein virtue was practised
+and duty learned; and the father taught the son that the opportunities
+occurred, not only in enduring the dissolution of the frame of present
+things, and in the untiring exertion to aid and support life in those
+who were of weaker sex than they, but in abiding with even and cheerful
+temper the vexations of every day, and in adorning as far as possible,
+as well as preserving, life. The mother was heroic, good, and patient,
+too. She brought her children, night and morning, to the mouth of the
+cavern, and there they all kneeled by Paulett, who prayed aloud with
+them and for them. Then Ellen made ready their meal, which must all be
+prepared without water, and which consisted of the stores from former
+harvests, of which there was abundance laid up in various houses; and
+the little Alice, who could run at her mother's side, learned to be
+useful in some matters, and patient and obedient. Charles played with
+her and taught her; and he himself, mere child as he was, grew merry in
+his play, and earnest; and many a time the profound silence of the earth
+was broken by the hearty laugh of children, which would ring out through
+the cavern, and reverberate against its walls. They grew, and were
+perfect and beautiful in shape; their minds developed, and talents and
+virtues filled them. They were types of man and woman--the one bold and
+protecting, the other seeking for affection and defence. They flourished
+when means appeared inadequate to their support; and, amid a paralysed
+world, it was in them only that body and spirit seemed to unfold.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Time passed on, and there was no change in the state of things. Still an
+unclouded sun--still the deep, intense blue sky--winds on the earth but
+no moisture; and the whole frame of nature seemed crumbling into chaos.
+Paulett felt the strife with fate to be unequal indeed, and could
+scarcely comprehend that he and his family were truly survivors amid
+such destruction; but he resolved not to give in, while the means
+remained to him, but to fight the fight out till overpowered by the
+material universe. He told Ellen that they must move to some place
+where they might hope to find more diamonds, and Ellen agreed--wishing
+with Paulett that the strife were over and the last agony suffered, and
+that they were among the free and disembodied spirits. London was their
+object; for there they might hope to find most of the materials of what
+was now the most precious of all things, water; and providing as well as
+they could for their necessities by the way, they quitted the cavern,
+and set off on their journey.
+
+First came the father, carrying the little Alice in his arms; the boy
+held his mother by the hand; and they followed Paulett on his path.
+There was the delicate woman, the mother of all that remained alive of
+the human race, setting out on the desert, which she remembered, but a
+few years before, the scene of luxury and abundance. On her shoulder she
+carried a burthen containing corn for their sustenance; and the brave
+boy took his share by bearing the jar of water which had been provided
+for their support on the journey; and thus the last family of mankind
+set out on their pilgrimage over the desolated earth. The unmitigated
+sun had made great rents in the sides of the hills, and, together with
+the wind, had broken up the roads, between which and the parched fields
+there was scarcely now any difference. Where there had been inclosures
+and hedges, the withered sticks had in most places yielded to the winds,
+and were scattered about the spot where they had stood. Here and there
+were the marks of fire, which had run along the country till some
+interval of previous desolation had stopped it; and where this had been
+the case, the black unsightly remains lay strewn over the surface, one
+further step advanced in dissolution than the dead world around. There
+was no want of habitations for their nightly shelter. Palaces and
+cottages, all alike, were open; all alike were silent and tenantless
+habitations. They might choose where they would. And the first day they
+did not go far, for Ellen and her children, with stout hearts, had not
+bodily strength for great fatigue, and were unused to the strong
+exertion they were now compelled to make. Towards evening, therefore,
+when they reached a house with which Paulett and Ellen had once been
+familiar, they determined to rest there for the night. They pushed open
+the gates, which still swung on their hinges, and which admitted them to
+what had been a park, filled once with trees, and bathed with waters. A
+large wood covered the hill which rose on one side, and which now, under
+a summer sun, stood perfectly bare, and all of one uniform grey colour
+as far as the view extended. On the other side, the eye looked over a
+tract of country varied with hill and dale, but desolate of every colour
+that used to shine forth in light and shade. The setting sun shone among
+the leafless branches, casting long brilliant rays of light. The
+unclouded sky met the sparkling earth, and both glittered with unnatural
+brilliancy. To Paulett and Ellen, every thing spoke of desolation and
+death; and an exclamation escaped Ellen, in a low tone, that it was a
+piteous and horrible spectacle. But Charles, standing still at their
+side as they looked on the scene, cried it was beautiful; the colours of
+the sun were so splendid on the fine white trees, and one could see so
+far, and every thing was so white and shining on the earth. The parents
+felt that ideas were ceasing to be in common between the last and the
+first members of the old and the new generation; and far from
+contradicting their boy, they tried to partake his pleasure and enter
+into his impressions. They moved on up to the old familiar door and
+entered the open silent hall, where they remembered the ceremonies and
+the courtesies of life. They chose among the rooms which had been those
+of friends, and recognised familiar objects of their everyday existence.
+It was a conceit of Paulett's, for which he smiled at himself, to wind
+up the clock in the hall, and set it to tell out the time again for
+another week. There were musical instruments in a room adjoining, and
+over one of these Ellen timidly passed her fingers. It was out of tune,
+and the sounds, though sweet in themselves, all jarred with one another.
+
+"That's the last music of the world, perhaps," said Ellen; "and all
+discord too."
+
+They found some small store of corn in one of the rooms; they prepared
+and ate it, and lay down to sleep; forgetting in fatigue all their
+dismal feelings, and in their dreams seeing the old state of things and
+dead persons--nay, a dead world--without wondering that they were come
+to life again. All the days of their journey wore an uniform character;
+and they kept on and on through waste and ruin, glad to leave the
+country behind them, and expecting, as some relief, the aspect of
+streets and a town. They halted, at length, within a few miles of
+London, and lay down to rest, thankful to be so near their bourne; for
+they had suffered as much fatigue as they could well bear, and their
+stock of diamonds was waxing very low and needed replenishment. Paulett
+continued busy preparing water from part of those that remained, after
+his wife and children were asleep. His own frame scarcely felt the
+exertion of the journey, and he was full of the thoughts with which the
+approaching sight of what had been once the great metropolis filled him.
+The vast untenanted dwelling-place, the solitude of the habitation of
+crowds, the absence of mind and talent from the scene they had so
+filled; all these things excited his feelings, and gaining ground in the
+solitude of the night he felt at last that he could not willingly delay
+his first meeting with the bereaved city, and that he should be pleased
+to have an opportunity of indulging alone the highly-wrought emotion
+with which he expected the sight of it. Accordingly, when the light
+began to break, he wrote word to Ellen that she should wait for him a
+few hours, and that he would be back again in that time to lead her and
+the children to their journey's end; and then, softly leaving the house,
+set forward eagerly on his way.
+
+It was evening before he returned. He came in pale and excited; he took
+his children in his arms as usual, and seemed like one upon whom a thing
+which he has seen has made a deep impression, but who either doubts the
+power of words to convey the same impression, or thinks that he himself
+is over-excited by it.
+
+"Ellen," he said at last, "London is burned to the ground."
+
+The sudden flush on her face, and her clasped hands, while she spoke
+not, showed that the event touched her, too, as deeply as him; and then
+he went on freely--
+
+"Oh, Ellen! if you had seen it! It stands there, all in ruins--the whole
+city in ruins! It has been the work of some great storm which fired it
+when all were gone or dead; for there has been no pulling down, no
+pillage, no aid, no attempt to stop the fire! All the palaces, all the
+museums, all the stores of learning and art, the streets, the crowded
+houses; they are gone, Ellen--they are all gone!"
+
+His wife had never before in all their misery seen him so deeply
+moved--so nearly overpowered by any thing that had occurred. His
+excitement communicated itself to her, and she caught the full bearing
+of his narration. She felt for the long ages of story, and the monuments
+of human skill, buried in the great city. Irretrievable ruin! The work
+which men, and years, and glowing knowledge, had slowly raised up, all
+dead, all annihilated so suddenly. They sat talking of it very long
+before Ellen said,
+
+"And what must _we_ do now, Paulett?"
+
+"We must go on, Ellen; we must travel further. The rest we hoped for is
+destroyed with the city, and we must press forward if we are to save our
+lives."
+
+"That seems less and less possible," said Ellen; "and in all this
+destruction why should we be preserved?"
+
+"Perhaps because we have as yet avoided the stroke, by using all our
+human skill; perhaps because a new race is to spring from us, who shall
+reign in another mighty London! Alas, London!--alas, the great city!"
+
+Several times during the night Ellen heard Paulett murmur to himself
+words of lament over the fallen city; and when he slept, his rest was
+agitated, and his frame seemed trembling under the emotions of the day.
+
+It was resolved that Ellen should rest a little while in their present
+habitation, before undertaking the toils of further travel. They
+intended to make for the coast, sure of a dry channel to the opposite
+shore, and hoping to reach some of the great continental towns before
+their store of diamonds should be utterly exhausted. In the meantime,
+Paulett was bent upon taking his boy through the ruins of London, and
+impressing upon him the memory of the place, and its great events. So
+the next day, leaving Ellen and the little Alice together, he and
+Charles began their pilgrimage through the mighty ruins. The event must
+have occurred very many months ago, for the ruins were perfectly cold,
+and the winds had toppled down the walls of all the more fragile
+buildings; so that the streets lay in confusion over one another, and it
+was impossible, except by other marks, to recognise the localities.
+Paulett and Charles clambered over the fallen walls, and would have been
+bewildered among heaps of masonry, and houses shaken from their base and
+blackened by fire--only that over the desolate prospect they saw, and
+Paulett marked the bearings of St Paul's, the chief part of whose dome
+rose high in the air, though a huge rent let the daylight through it,
+and threatened a speedy fall. There was here and there a spire, rising
+perfect over the ruins; there were remains of Whitehall, strong though
+blackened, seen over a long view of prostrate streets; and in the
+distance beyond, fragments of Westminster Abbey showed themselves in the
+sunlight, though defaced and crumbled, as if the frame had been too
+ancient to resist the fire. Guided by these landmarks, Paulett traced
+out the plan of the city, and by degrees recognised where the great
+streets had run, where the palaces had stood, where the river had
+flowed. And all was silent, all an absolute stillness, where there had
+been such ceaseless voices, and sounds of life; the libraries were
+burned, the statues calcined, the museums in ashes; the mind of man,
+which triumphs over the body, had here been subdued by matter, and left
+no trace of itself.
+
+"Oh! London, London! So much talent, so much glory and beauty; such
+mighty hearts, such mighty works; such ages of story--all buried in one
+black mass! Piteous spectacle!" cried Paulett, striking his breast, and
+stretching forth his arms over the skeleton of what was once a sovereign
+in the world.
+
+He took his son by the hand, and led him over the confused masses,
+telling him as they went along what were the ruins by which they passed.
+
+"This great heap of building which has fallen into a square, must be the
+palace of our kings. It is that St James's, where they dwelt till nobler
+buildings rose with the improving times. See here, Charles--there is
+less ruin here. This opener space was park and garden; and time has been
+that I have heard the buzz of men filling all this place, when the
+sovereigns came to hold their courts in that building. I think that this
+dreadful fire must have taken place before life was quite extinct; for
+see, there are heaps of bones here, as though men had fled together to
+avoid it; and it either overtook them with long tongues of fire, such as
+a burning city would send forth, or smothered them before they could
+escape, with its smoke. Ha! I see almost a palace there--a wonder of
+modern art. It is the house I once saw, and only once, for it was built
+during the years of the great drought."
+
+"Who could build in those days, father?" said Charles; "I thought no one
+had any heart for doing more than we do, and that is but just keeping
+ourselves alive."
+
+"Nay, it was very long before the persuasion came that those were the
+last days. We all believed that rain would come again and restore the
+earth to its old order, and whoever possessed the means, builded and
+projected still. You may see this magnificent place suffered violence
+before the fire; for its ornaments are torn from the walls, and its
+statues mutilated by other means than the bare fall. It was the property
+of a man called Jephcot, who, when the water began to fail, contrived
+means to bring it into London from great distances, and thus to secure a
+supply when the ordinary means were useless. He kept his contrivance
+secret, and supplied the city when other men's resources were exhausted;
+and he grew exceedingly rich by this exercise of his ingenuity, and
+built himself the palace which you see there. But when the failure of
+water amounted to absolute famine, the rich people naturally were the
+last who wanted; they gave his price, and he supplied them before he
+would supply others who had no money to bring. This was endured with
+murmurs, which might have gone on a little longer, had not Jephcot, in
+the midst of this distress, given a banquet to the great people of
+London.
+
+"It was in the second year of the drought, when little thinking what the
+end was to be, we all continued to live, as far as possible, as we had
+done before. I was in London where the parliament was then sitting, and
+among others I was invited to this house, and still remember the scene
+of luxury and profusion of these bare rooms. In the midst of the noise
+of a crowded assembly, some of us heard sounds outside, which were such
+as you will never hear, even if you live--sounds of the feet and voices
+of thousands of human beings. Among this tumult, we began to distinguish
+individual voices, chiefly those of women, crying out, "water!" We paid
+little attention, and those who did, said the police and soldiers were
+called out and would prevent violence; but before long it was whispered
+that these forces, pressed by extreme want, and seeing their families
+perishing, had joined the mob, and were exciting violence. There fell a
+silence over all the assembly; every one left the tables, and gathered
+together to hear and to consult: and while we did so, there came an
+assault on the front of the house, and the voices of the populace all
+broke out at once into shouting. They were irresistible; they forced
+their way in, and came pouring up the staircase; they uttered cries of
+vengeance for imaginary wrongs, saying that the waters of London had
+been kept for the rich, and that there was abundance for both rich and
+poor, and threatened the lives of Jephcot and his family, even more
+eagerly than they demanded water. He tried to address them, but they
+caught him down from the head of the staircase where he stood, and flung
+him at once over the marble banisters. This was the signal for attack on
+all sides. We rushed forward to rescue his body and revenge him, they to
+possess themselves of the treasure they so much coveted. Of course we
+were overpowered, for we were one to fifty; and that night there fell a
+hundred of the nobles of England. The women were respected by the mob,
+and except one lady who was shot accidentally, and another who saw her
+son fall, and stood over him till he ceased to breathe, then fell
+wounded and dying herself, all escaped. Your mother was not there. When
+our party was quite vanquished, I found myself in the midst of the mob,
+bleeding to death as I thought; but they flung me on one side, and I
+recovered. They pulled the house to the ground, after they had satiated
+themselves with drinking. And that was the first great calamity which
+overthrew the government of the country."
+
+"And how did that come about, father?" said Charles, eagerly holding him
+by the hand, and sharing his excitement.
+
+Paulett led him on, telling him, at one ruined monument after another,
+what steps had been taken at each, in the destruction of the order of
+things. They came to the dry channel of the Thames, a deep and wide
+trench, whose bottom showed objects that had lain there when the waters
+flowed above, and which would once have been as precious as now they
+were unregarded. Here as a bridge from side to side; and a little way
+above, stood part of the walls of a noble building, partly black with
+smoke, partly white with the polish and beauty of stones newly built
+together.
+
+"These are the Houses of Parliament," said Paulett, "the work of many
+years, which were to replace those burned in 1834. See how beautiful
+they were, what excellent design, what exquisite finish; how strong and
+stable, to last for a thousand ages, and to crown the river which then
+flowed in this dusty channel. When matters were come almost to the
+worst, and there were convulsions all over the country in consequence of
+the famine, the queen, for the first time, came to these houses to open
+the last parliament that ever assembled. There were no beasts of
+burthen left alive in the country; it had been found impossible to
+appropriate water enough to those which had been reserved in the royal
+stables; and the queen, surrounded by a certain number of the court,
+walked along yonder street to the House. The sight of so young a woman,
+and so great a sovereign, thus leveled by physical necessity with the
+meanest, excited some of the old enthusiasm with which she used to be
+greeted: the populace themselves, with their squalid faces, and in their
+extreme misery, greeted her; but the greatest feeling was aroused among
+the nobles and gentry who surrounded her, and who seemed to make a point
+of offering more homage, the less outer circumstances commanded it.
+There was assembled in the House all that remained alive of the nobles
+of England, and the sovereign; and they proposed to deliberate upon the
+possibility of any means remaining to provide water. But a demagogue of
+the people, Matthison by name, roused their fury and their madness, and
+they burst in, accusing their superiors of their calamities. The queen's
+life was in danger;--and then occurred a gallant action, which is worthy
+to live if man lives. A Churchill, a descendant of that Marlborough who
+fought Blenheim, came to the hall whither they had broken in, and
+required in the queen's name to know what they wanted. He meant to gain
+time; for other nobles had effected an exit at a private door for her,
+and were hurrying her away to a place of security, till she could escape
+from England. They answered Churchill, that water was monopolized; that
+Matthison must be minister; that they must speak to the queen face to
+face, and have her hostage for the accomplishment of what they wished.
+Churchill pretended to deliberate for an instant with some one in the
+adjoining chamber; and then returning, said, 'If the queen do not speak
+with you in ten minutes, you may tear me in pieces.' Some of the mob
+cried that he was saying this to give her time to escape. Others said,
+if it were so, he should assuredly suffer the penalty. Churchill
+answered nothing, only smiled; and then the majority said he could not
+be so foolhardy, and they would grant the queen ten minutes.
+
+"The time passed, and Matthison eagerly cried, 'The time is gone, yet we
+don't see the queen.'
+
+"'Then tear me in pieces,' said Churchill; and the mob, finding their
+prey had escaped, did so indeed; the gallant man falling where he stood,
+and not another word came from his lips."
+
+"The brave man!" cried Charles; "the good man! Were there many such
+brave, good men in the old world, father?"
+
+"Ay, that there were," said Paulett; "many a glorious one; some known
+and some unknown, who did things which made one know one's-self a
+glorious, an immortal creature. See there that ruined abbey--there lie
+the ashes of brave and good; these are their crumbled monuments--'that
+fane where fame is A spectral resident!' Alas, there is no fame, no name
+left!"
+
+Paulett and Charles went down among the ruins of the abbey, and there,
+amidst the fallen stones and broken aisles, saw monumental marbles, old
+known names, and funeral inscriptions, contrasting strongly by their
+quiet character with the confusion around.
+
+"Never forget them, Charles," said Paulett. "These are names which the
+world has trembled at, and which are now like to be such as those before
+the Flood, barbarous to those who are building up a new order of things,
+and known merely as a barren catalogue of names. Yet, if you live,
+remember Edward the king here; remember the Black Prince; remember the
+days and heroes of Elizabeth; remember the poetry and the romance of the
+old world."
+
+"Ay, father, and I'll remember the great name of him who taught you to
+print, and of Wicliffe the reformer, and of the man who gave you the
+steam-engine."
+
+Paulett smiled and sighed; he felt that his own ideas of things heroic
+were as much contrasted with those of Charles, as their notions of the
+beautiful. But he thought not to stem the stream.
+
+"See here," he said, pointing to some new monuments, which, like the
+old, were cracked by fire; "there were many brave and good actions
+done, and one of those who did best was laid here. He was a clergyman,
+his name Host, and during the pestilence which came on in the fourth
+year, he was more like an inspired messenger of good than any mortal
+creature. You must know, Charles, that the teachers of religion at this
+time were greatly divided among themselves, and they had led a great
+portion of the lay world into their disputes. One party, in an age of
+reasoning, and when nothing in science was taken upon trust, gave up
+their reason altogether, and followed authority as blindly as they
+could--still, however, feeling the influence of the age; for they would
+argue upon the existence or non-existence of authority, and would fit it
+unconsciously each man to his own conceit. Indeed, superstition was the
+disease of the age, and while the healthy part of the community employed
+and enjoyed the freest use of their reason, this same infirmity appeared
+among other people in other forms; so that some men took up the notion
+that the human mind might act independently of sense, and see without
+eyes, and know intuitively what existed at a distance. Other parties,
+among professors of religion, allowed nothing in religion that they
+allowed daily in the evidence of other matters. They gave no weight to
+research, and thought, about religious facts; and dreamed that each one
+among themselves gained a kind of spiritual knowledge by inspiration. It
+was a time of conceits and quackery; but there was a better spirit
+abroad, of which this good man Host was the representative. He began in
+the pestilence, and went to all houses indifferently, whether they were
+princes or peasants; and there was a common-sense in what he did and
+said, a universal character in his religion, which struck men in these
+evil days. They drew nearer to each other under his influence; and I
+recollect this great building thronged in one of the last months that
+men continued here, with a congregation of all orders and all divisions
+of opinion, who met to pray together, and listen to Host. He stood
+yonder, Charles, as nearly there, I think, as I can tell from the ruins;
+he was rapt by his own discourse, and his face was as the face of an
+angel. And truly three days after, he was dead; and here they buried
+him--the last sound of the organ, the last service of this church, being
+for him. Here is his name still on the tombstone--
+
+         'Host.
+    Pio. dilecto. beato.
+    Populus miserrimus.'"
+
+Charles's memory was deeply impressed with this history, and he followed
+his father, much engrossed and animated by what he had heard. Not so
+Paulett; for the ruins of London occupied his mind, and filled him with
+deep pity and regret for the fair world destroyed: and so they returned
+to their temporary habitation, the father sorrowful, the son exulting;
+one full of the old world, one dreaming great actions for the new.
+
+After another day's rest, the sole surviving family of mankind set forth
+again on their pilgrimage. Paulett again carried his Alice, and Ellen
+and Charles walked hand in hand with such a basket of necessaries as
+they could support. Paulett secured about his person a large packet of
+diamonds, collected in palaces and noble dwellings near London, and the
+apparatus he required for transmuting them into water; and searching for
+and finding the remains of the railroad to the coast, at Dover, they
+kept on in that track, which, from its evenness, offered facility to
+their journey. But in several places it had been purposely broken up,
+during the commotions which preceded the final triumph of the drought,
+and the tunnel near Folkestone had fallen in the middle from want of the
+necessary attention to the masonry. These difficulties seemed harder to
+bear than those which they had met with in the beginning of their
+pilgrimage, when their hopes of reaching a certain bourne were more
+secure. The destruction of London had thrown a deep gloom over all their
+expectations; and besides that help was removed to a much greater
+distance, they could not but feel it very probable that a similar fate
+might have befallen the other places they looked to. Nevertheless, none
+of them murmured. They went steadfastly though sadly on; and the two
+children, with less knowledge of what was to be feared, were encouraged
+by their parents whenever they broke into a merrier strain. Alice was
+the happiest of the party, for she knew least. She was the one who
+suffered least also; for every one spared her suffering, and contrived
+that what remained on earth of luxury should be hers. She had the first
+draught of water; she was carried on her father's shoulder; she ran to
+find pebbles, and whatever shone and glittered on their path; and when
+the others were silent, they heard with joy her infant voice singing,
+without words like a bird, in a covered tone, as they got wearily over
+mile by mile of their way. Ellen suffered most, though Paulett tried, by
+all means that remained, to lighten her fatigue and cheer her spirit.
+She bore up steadfastly; but her frame was slight, and her feelings were
+oppressed by the fearful aspect of things around her. They made a deep
+and deeper impression, and she was fain to look steadfastly on the faces
+of the few living, to recover from the effects of such universal death.
+
+Paulett himself was shaken more than he knew, though he was as energetic
+as ever; but Charles was vigorous and advanced beyond his years, and
+took more than his share in aiding and in comforting. They came at last
+to what had been sea-coast, and to that part of the road which ran along
+the face of the cliff overlooking the sea; and here they paused, and
+gazed upon the wild and strange view before them. Where the sea had
+stretched all glorious in motion, expanse, and colour, there was now a
+deep valley, the bottom of which was rough with rocks, black for the
+most part, but in places glittering with the white salt from which the
+water had evaporated, and which the winds had rolled together. Further
+out from the coast, where the sea had been deepest, there seemed tracks
+of sand; and far away over this newly exposed desert, rose other hills,
+clearly seen through the unclouded atmosphere, and which they knew to be
+the rocks of France. And if they should arrive there, what was the hope
+they offered? Scarce any. Nothing but more pilgrimage, further
+wandering. Paulett and Ellen sat apart, while the children lay sleeping
+side by side, for an hour or two, at this point of their journey, and
+talked over the desolation before them.
+
+"Yet," said Paulett, "the more terrible is the appearance which material
+things put on, the greater I feel the triumph of the spirit to be. The
+worse it looks, the more immortal I feel; and when a perishing world
+shows itself most perishable, I exult most that you and I, Ellen, have
+borne it so far."
+
+"Yes, I am glad too," said Ellen; "your strength strengthens me. In the
+midst of this desolation the mind rises, for an hour at least, higher
+perhaps than it would have ever done if we had been prosperous."
+
+"Yet we might have used our prosperity to the same good end," said
+Paulett. "It is not necessary to be miserable in order to be noble.
+Millions have died before us, some in agony, some before the struggle
+began; some hardly, some at ease: they had all their chances; all had
+their occasions of virtue, if they used them; and some used them, some
+failed: ours is not over yet; we have to struggle on still; and let us
+do it, dear Ellen, and be ready for the good day when we too may be
+allowed to die." And thus talking for a while, they rested themselves in
+sight of the desert they had to traverse; then with renewed strength and
+steadfast resolution, when the children woke, descended the cliffs, and
+prepared to trace out a path through what had been the bottom of the
+sea. The first part of the journey was infinitely difficult: the rocks
+over which foot of man had never passed; the abrupt precipices over
+which had flowed the even surface of the ocean, and then the height to
+climb again, again to find themselves on ledges and shelves of
+rocks--all these seemed at times hardly passable impediments. And when
+they got to a distance from what had been the shore, the unnatural place
+where they found themselves pressed upon the imagination. There was a
+plain of sand, about which at irregular distances rose rocks, which,
+north and south, stretched out beyond the reach of the eye; and this
+sand, which had been at such a depth that it never felt the influence
+of the waves, was covered in places with shells, the inhabitants of
+which had perished when the waters gradually dried away. There lay mixed
+with these some skeletons of fishes; here a huge heap, and there small
+bones which looked less terrible; and masses of sea-weed, dried and
+colourless, under which, as it seemed, the creeping things of the ocean
+had sheltered for a while, and some had crawled to the surface when
+about to perish. But it was not only the brute creation which had died
+here: there was in the middle a pile of rocks, on one side of which they
+came suddenly to a pit, so deep and dark that they perceived no bottom;
+and here probably there had been seawater longer than elsewhere, for
+there were human bones about it, and skulls of men, and human garbs,
+which the sun had faded, but which were not disturbed by waves. There
+was a cord and a metal jar attached to it, for lowering into the pit;
+but Paulett, as he looked at the attitudes of the remaining skeletons,
+and observed how they seemed distorted in death, fancied that they must
+have brought up either poisoned water, or waters so intensely salt as to
+drive them mad with the additional thirst; and that some had died on the
+instant, some had lingered, some had sought to succour others, and
+yielded sooner or later to the same influence. Ellen and he would not
+dwell on the sight after the first contemplation of it; they passed on,
+shuddering, and made toward the great wall of rock which they saw rising
+to the south, and which must be their way to the land of France. But
+before they reached it the sun began to decline, and without light it
+was in vain to attempt to seek a path. There was a wind keener than they
+had felt of late, which came from the west, and the little Alice pressed
+on her father's bosom to shield her from it. He wrapped her closer in a
+cloak, and they resolved to put themselves under the shelter of the
+first rock they reached, and pass the night in the channel of the sea.
+They pressed on, and found at last the place they sought; a cliff which
+must once have raised its head above the waves, and which now stood like
+some vast palace wall, bare and huge, upon the ocean sand. Screened from
+the wind, they collected an abundance of the dried vegetation of the
+sea, partly for warmth and to roast their corn, partly for Paulett to
+dissolve some of the diamonds into water; and here they rested, here
+they slept, many fathoms below that level over which navies used to
+sail. At times during the night Paulett fancied, when the wind abated,
+that he heard a sound like thunder, or like what used to be the rushing
+of a distant torrent; and occasionally he thought he felt a vibration in
+the earth as if it were shaken by some moving body. The region he was in
+was so strange that he knew not what might be here, or what about to
+happen; the sounds so imperfect that he tormented himself to be sure of
+them, or to be sure they were not; and when the time for action came he
+was beginning to disbelieve them altogether; but Alice brought all back
+again by saying, "My rock" (for her cradle was a rock) "shook my head,
+father." The child could explain herself no further; but the vibration
+he had fancied seemed to be what she had felt. And now they climbed
+again, and again descended weary rock after rock; it was a strange
+chaos, which the tides had swept and moulded, and which had in places
+risen to the surface, and caused the wreck of many a vessel. Fragments
+of these lay under the rocks they had split upon, but the wandering
+family had no thoughts for them; wonder and pity had been exhausted
+among exciting and terrific scenes. They thought only of forcing their
+way over the rocks, and feared to think how much of this they had to
+traverse before they should come to what had been the shore, and to
+towns.
+
+Suddenly, as they toiled forward, Paulett said in a low voice to Ellen,
+"Don't you hear it?"
+
+"I have heard it a long time," said Ellen in the same tone; and Charles
+stopping as well as they, said, "Father, what is that?"
+
+"I can't tell, my boy," said Paulett, listening.
+
+"Water?" asked Ellen.
+
+Paulett shook his head, yet they all pressed forward, and there grew a
+thundering sullen sound. There was a valley and a ridge of rock before
+them, and they had to clamber first down the rugged precipice they were
+upon, then to cross the valley, and then to struggle up the opposite
+side, a trembling motion growing perceptible as they advanced, before
+they stood on a sort of broad ledge, which they perceived at the angles
+that jutted out, went down straight into a depth, and opposite which was
+another broad table-land of rock, between which and that they were upon
+was a rent, wider and narrower in various parts, and running along as
+far as they could see to right and left. Paulett rushed on to the brink,
+and stood looking. He put his hand out to keep Ellen back when he heard
+her close behind; but she also sprang to the edge, and when she had seen
+turned to catch Charles in her arms. Rushing past was a torrent, but not
+water. It was dark, thick, pitchy; it sent up hot steams to the edge: it
+was one of the secrets of nature, laid bare when the ocean was taken
+away. Fire seemed to be at work below, for occasionally it would boil
+with more violence, and rush on with an increased, increasing noise,
+then sullenly fall back to the first gloomy sound. It bewildered the
+sense; and though it could threaten no more than death, yet it was death
+with so many horrors around it, that the body and mind both shrank from
+it. How was it possible, too, to cross it? Yet their way lay over it;
+for behind was certain destruction, and before it was not yet proved
+impossible that they might find the element of water. Paulett felt that
+it would not do to linger on the brink; he drew his family away from the
+sight, and he himself went up and down to find some narrower place, and
+some means by which to make a bridge over the abyss; and it was not till
+their assistance could avail him that he returned for them, and brought
+them to the place where he hoped to get over. It was a fearful point,
+for in order to reach a space narrow enough to have a chance of throwing
+a plank over, it was necessary to go down the broken side of the
+precipice some twenty feet, and there, high above the seething lava, to
+cross on such a piece of wood as could be got to span the abyss, and
+then clamber up the rugged opposite side. Paulett had been down to the
+point he selected, and had got timber, which a wrecked vessel had
+supplied, to the edge, so that Ellen and Charles might push a plank down
+to him, and he might try, at least, to cast it to the opposite bank. His
+head was steady, his hand strong; no one of them spoke a word while he
+stood below, steadying himself to receive the plank. Ellen's weak arm
+grew powerful; her wit was ready with expedients, to aid him in this
+necessity. Her frame and spirit were strung to the very uttermost, and
+she was brave and silent, doing all that could be done. No word was
+spoken till Paulett said, "I have done it;" and Ellen and Charles had
+seen him place the plank, and secure it on his own side of the abyss
+with stones. Then they held their breath, beholding him cross it; but
+his firm foot carried him safely, and he heaped stones on the other side
+also. He came over again, sprang up the side, and now smiled and spoke.
+
+"After all it is but a mountain torrent, Ellen," he said, "and the water
+would have destroyed us like yonder seething flood; yet we have crossed
+many a one and feared nothing. Now Charles shall go over; then Alice,
+and he shall take care of her; and then my Ellen. The ground beyond is
+better; we shall get on well after this."
+
+Ellen took the girl in her arms, and stood, not trembling, not weeping;
+seeing and feeling every motion; all was safe that time again, Charles
+was on the opposite bank, and his father waved his hand to Ellen. He
+came back for Alice, whom her mother tied on his shoulders, for hands as
+well as feet were wanted to scramble down and up the banks. And now
+Ellen followed to the brink, and forgot, in watching her husband and
+child pass over, that the black torrent was seething beneath her eyes.
+When they were quite safe, she felt again that it was there, and that
+her eyes were growing dizzy, and her hands involuntarily grasping about
+for support. She did not take time to feel more, but sprang upon the
+plank, and over it, and found Paulett's hand seizing hers, and drawing
+her up the opposite bank.
+
+And once there, with all the three round her, she burst into
+tears--tears which had not overcome her through many miseries--and
+embracing them alternately, blessed them that they were all so far safe.
+Paulett suffered this emotion to spend itself before he said that he
+must cross the plank again. To be more at liberty to assist them, he had
+left the diamonds on the other side, till they should be over. Ellen
+offered no remonstrance. The times had so schooled them all, that
+selfish or unreasonable thoughts either did not come at all, or were
+suppressed at once; and she did not oppose, even with a word, this
+necessary step. But the renewal of fear, after the excited energy had
+subsided, did her more harm than all that had gone before; and she stood
+on the brink exhausted, yet palpitating again, while Paulett made the
+passage. He himself was wearied; but he had reached the plank, and was
+upon it on his way back to safety, when one of those ebullitions which
+stirred the dark fluid began roaring down the cleft rock, and with
+stunning noise sent up dark and clouding vapour. Paulett seemed
+suffocating--he could not be heard--he could but just be seen--he
+reeled! Has he fallen? Oh, he has fallen! No--no! he has got his footing
+again; he forces himself up the bank; he is safe--but the diamonds are
+in the bottom of the pit.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The exhausted family toiled with difficulty over the remaining passage
+to what had been the mainland, and reached a village on the former
+coast, under a roof of which they entered, and lay down on the floor of
+the first room they came to. Their supply of water was almost out; the
+materials for producing more were gone; and there seemed little chance
+of finding any in the neighbourhood. "Death was here;" and yet the
+exhaustion of their frames led them to sleep before they died, and to
+seek and enjoy a taste of that oblivion which was soon to fall upon them
+with an impenetrable shroud. All but Ellen were soon asleep; but she,
+the most wearied of all, could not close her eyes and admit rest to her
+overwrought frame. There was a burning thirst in her throat, which the
+small portion of water she and the rest had shared--being all that
+remained for them--had failed to slake. She had not complained of it;
+but she rejoiced when she heard them asleep, that she could rise and
+move restlessly about. The night was hot, and yet the west wind
+continued to blow strongly; the moon shone, but scarcely with so bright
+a light as usual--there was a film upon it, or perhaps, Ellen thought,
+it was the dimness of her own weary eyes. She came softly up to Paulett,
+and watched his frame, half naked in the unconsciousness of sleep, and
+upon which none of the ravages of want and exertion were now concealed.
+The flesh was wasted; the strong chest showed the bones of the skeleton;
+the arms which had so strained their powers were thin, and lay in an
+attitude of extreme exhaustion. His sleep was deep; his lips open; his
+eyelids blue; he would wake in want; and soon he would be able to sleep
+no more, till the last sleep of all came in torment and anguish. Poor
+Charles lay by him, his head on his father's body for a pillow, his
+limbs drawn somewhat together, his clusters of brown hair parted off his
+pale thin cheek; and Alice, the darling Alice, with more colour in her
+face than any of them, slept in deep repose, destined, perhaps, to live
+last, and to call in vain on those whose cares had hitherto kept her
+healthier and happier than themselves. The mother groaned with anguish;
+she measured what these were about to suffer, by all she began to suffer
+herself; and the sight of them seemed to sear the burning eyes which
+could no longer weep. She sat down on the floor by Alice; her head fell
+against the wall; she caught at a little rosary which hung near her, and
+pressed it in her mouth, the comparative coolness of the beads giving
+her a little ease; her face fell on her bosom.
+
+When Paulett woke out of his deep sleep, and as soon as he stirred, the
+little Alice came on tiptoe across the floor to him, and said, "Hush,
+father! my mother is asleep at last."
+
+"At last, my Alice! What! Could not she sleep?"
+
+"I think she could not sleep. I woke up, and there was my mother; and
+Charles woke presently, and she said Charles should go out and try to
+bring back some cold stones in a cup, and then presently she sat down
+again, and went to sleep."
+
+He rose softly, and taking the little girl by the hand, came up to
+Ellen's side, and looked upon her. She was lying at full length on the
+floor; her head was toward him, but her face was turned upon the ground,
+and her hair further hid it; her right arm was fallen forward, and the
+back of that hand lay in the palm of the other. He did not hear nor see
+her breathe. "Is it so, my Ellen?" he said. "Art thou at rest? Is there
+no farewell for me?" He kneeled and stooped lower and lower. His lip did
+not venture to feel hers; he longed that she might be free, yet shrank
+from knowing that she was gone. But no; she had not ceased to suffer; a
+low sigh came at last, and her parched mouth opened.
+
+"Water!" she said; then lifted her eyes and saw Paulett, and remembered
+all by degrees. "Is not there a little? Oh, no--none! Nay, I shall not
+want it soon!" She turned her face on Paulett's breast, and soon after
+tried to rise and push herself from him. "Leave me, dear husband; kiss
+me once, and leave me; try to save _them_!"
+
+But Paulett folded his arms round her. "Not so, my Ellen; the chances of
+life are so little, that it is lawful for me to give them up, unless we
+can all seek them together. Alas! all I can do is but to see thee die!
+Oh, if I could give thee one minute's ease!"
+
+"Alas! you must all die like this," said Ellen, who was perishing like
+one of the flowers that had died in the drought for want of rain. Water
+would have saved that life, spared those sufferings. That burning hand,
+those gasping lips, those anxious eyes, revealed what the spirit passing
+away in that torment would fain have concealed. "Alice, come near me;
+hold my hand, Alice. Are you thirsty, poor child? Oh, do not grieve your
+father! It will be but a short time, my little girl--be patient." Ellen
+tried to kiss her; her husband kneeled and raised her head on his
+shoulder, bending his face on her forehead, and murmuring the last
+farewell--the last thanks--the agony of his pity for her suffering. The
+poor child threw herself on her mother, gazing upward in want, and
+grief, and bewilderment, in her face. "My Charles," said the mother,
+feeling about with the other hand, but she did not find his head to
+bless it. "My Charles," she repeated in a fainter tone, and her eyelids
+drooped over the hot eyes.
+
+Paulett saw nothing but his suffering wife, heard nothing except her
+painful breath. At that moment the door opened, and Charles stood there,
+paler than ever, with glittering eyes. He held the cup towards his
+father. "Father," he said, "there is water coming down from heaven!"
+
+Paulett looked up and cried, "O God, it rains!"
+
+
+
+
+A TENDER CONSCIENCE.
+
+
+I have a story to tell you, my dear Eusebius, of a tender conscience. It
+will please you; for you delight to extract good out of evil, and find
+something ever to say in favour of the "poor wretches of this world's
+coinage," as you call them; thus gently throwing half their errors, and
+scattering them among a pretty large society to be responsible for them;
+provided only they be wretches by confession, that dare not hide
+themselves in hypocrisy. In all such cases you show that you were born
+with the genius of a beadle, and (strange conjunction) the tenderest of
+hearts. I believe that you would stand an hour at a pillory, and see
+full justice done to a delinquent of that caste; and would as willingly,
+in your own person, receive the missiles that you would attempt to ward
+off from the contrite wretch, whose sins might not have been woefully
+against human kindness. Could you choose your seat in the eternal
+mansions, it would be among the angels that rejoice over one sinner that
+repenteth. You can distinguish in another the feeblest light of
+conscience that ever dimly burned, and see in it the germ of a beautiful
+light, that may one day, by a little fanning and fostering, shine as a
+star, and shed a vital heat that may set the machinery of the heart in
+motion to throw off glorious actions. But let not the man that shams a
+conscience come in your way. I have seen you play off such an one till
+he has burst forth--up, up, up, aiming at the skies, nothing less, in
+his self-glorification; and how have you despised him, and exhibited him
+to all bystanders as nothing but a poor stick in his descent! These
+human rockets are at their best but falling stars--cinders incapable of
+being rekindled. Commend me to the modest glow-worms, that shine only
+when they think the gazing world is asleep, and dwell in green hedges,
+and fancy themselves invisible to all eyes but those of love.
+
+There are persons, and of grave judgments too, who verily believe that
+the quantity of conscience amongst mankind is not worth speaking of, and
+treat of human actions as entirely independent of it. And this fault
+honest Montaigne finds with Guicciardini:--"I have also," says he,
+"observed this in him, that of so many persons and so many effects, so
+many motives and so many counsels as he judges of, he never attributes
+any one of them to virtue, religion, or conscience, as if all those were
+utterly extinct in the world; and of all the actions, however brave an
+outward show they make, he always throws the cause and motive upon some
+vicious occasion, or some prospect of profit. It is impossible to
+imagine but that, amongst such an infinite number of actions as he makes
+mention of, there must be some one produced by the way of reason. No
+corruption could so universally have affected men, that some of them
+would not have escaped the contagion, which makes me suspect that his
+own taste was vicious; from whence it might happen that he judged other
+men by himself." You, Eusebius, will be perfectly of Montaigne's
+opinion. We would rather trust that there are few in whom this moral
+principle has no vitality whatever. The wayside beggar, when he divides
+his meal--which, perhaps, he has stolen--with his dog, acts from its
+kind impulse; and see how uncharitable I am at my first impulse, to
+suppose, to suggest that the meal is stolen--so ready are we to steal
+away virtues, one after the other, and in our judgments to be thieves
+upon a large scale. And so a better feeling pricks me to charity. I
+doubt if we ought even to say that the parliamentary reprobate, who
+openly confessed "that he could not afford to keep a conscience," had
+none--he was but dead to some of its motions. If it were not that it
+must be something annexed to an immortal condition, would you not,
+Eusebius, say that the beggar's dog conscientiously makes his return of
+service and gratitude for the scraps thrown to him? See him by the
+gipsies' tent: how safely can the infant children be left to his sole
+care by the roadside! It is a beautiful sight to see the sagacious, the
+faithful creature, watching while they sleep, and lying upon the outer
+fold of the blanket that enwraps them. Has he not a sense of duty--a
+sort of bastard conscience? And what is truly wonderful, is, that
+animals have often a sense of duty against their instincts. If it be
+said that they act through fear of punishment, it is a punishment their
+instincts would teach them to avoid; and, after all, this fear of
+punishment may be a mighty ingredient in most men's consciences. We
+learn that immense numbers of ducks are reared by that part of the
+Chinese population who spend their lives in boats upon the rivers; and
+these birds, salted and dried, form one of the chief articles of diet in
+the celestial land. They are kept in large cages or crates, from which,
+in the morning, they are sent forth to seek their food upon the river
+banks. A whistle from their keeper brings them back in the evening; and
+as, according to Tradescent Lay, the last to return receives a flogging
+for his tardiness, their hurry to get back to the boats, when they hear
+the accustomed call, is in no small degree amusing. I cannot but think
+that there must be something like a sense of duty in these poor
+creatures, that they thus of themselves, and of good-will return to the
+certainty of being salted and dried. This may sound very ridiculous,
+Eusebius, but there is matter in it to muse upon; and if we want to know
+man, we must speculate a little beyond him, and learn him by similities
+and differences. He has best knowledge of his own home and country who
+has wandered into a _terra incognita_, and studied the differences of
+soil and climate. And besides that every man is a world to himself, and
+may find a _terra incognita_ in his own breast, it is not amiss to look
+abroad into other wildernesses, where he will find instincts that are
+not so much any creature's but that they have something divine in them,
+and so, in their origin at least, akin to his own. He will find
+conscience of some sort growing in the soil of every heart. It is not
+amiss to discover where it grows most healthily, and by what deadly
+nightshade its virtue may be suffocated, and its nicer sense not thrive.
+
+Surprising is the diversity;--were not nature corrupted, there would be
+no diversity. Now, truth and right is one; and yet we judge not one
+thing, we think not aright. Yet is the original impulse true to its
+purpose, but, in its passage through the many channels of the mind, is
+strangely perverted. It is eloquently said by a modern writer, a deep
+thinker, "Thus does the conscience of man project itself athwart
+whatsoever of knowledge, or surmise, or imagination, understanding,
+faculty, acquirement, or natural disposition he has in him; and, like
+light through coloured glass, paint strange pictures on the rim of the
+horizon and elsewhere. Truly this same sense of the infinite nature of
+duty, is the central part of all within us; a ray as of eternity and
+immortality immured in dusky many-coloured Time, and its deaths and
+births. Your coloured glass varies so much from century to century--and
+in certain money-making, game-preserving centuries, it gets terribly
+opaque. Not a heaven with cherubim surrounds you then, but a kind of
+vacant, leaden, cold hell. One day it will again cease to be opaque,
+this coloured glass; now, may it not become at once translucent and
+uncoloured? Painting no pictures more for us, but only the everlasting
+azure itself. That will be a right glorious consummation." If it were
+only the painting pictures! but we act the painted scenes. And strange
+they are, and of diversity enough. It was the confession of an apostle,
+that he "thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary"
+to his master. There are national consciences how unlike each other;
+there are consciences of tribes and guilds, which, strange to say,
+though they be composed of individuals, bear not the stamp of any one
+individual conscience among them. They apologise to themselves for
+iniquity by a division and subdivision of the responsibility; and thus,
+by each owning to but a little share collectively, they commit a great
+enormity. It is the whole and sole responsibility of the individual,
+responsibility to that inner arbiter sitting _foro conscientiæ_, and the
+sight of those frowning attendants of the court, Nemesis and Adraste,
+ready with the scourge to follow crime, that keep the man honest. Put
+not confidence, Eusebius, in bodies, in guilds, and committees. Trust
+not to them property or person; they may be all individually good
+Samaritans, but collectively they will rather change places with the
+thieves than bind up your wounds. In this matter, "Experto crede
+Roberto."
+
+But of this diversity.--The Turk will split his sides with laughter,
+against the very nature, too, of his Turkish gravity, should he witness
+the remorse of the subdued polygamist. We read of nations who, from a
+sense of duty, eat their parents, and would shudder at the crime of
+burying them in the earth, or burning them. So is there a cannibalism of
+love as well as of hatred. Sinbad's terror at the duty of being buried
+alive with his deceased wife, the king's daughter, was no invention
+beyond the probability of custom. The Scythians, as Herodotus tells us,
+thought it an honourable act and no _murders_ committed, when they
+slaughtered the king's councillors and officers of state, and guards and
+their horses, on which they stuck them upright by skewers, to be in
+death the king's attendants. The suttee is still thought no wrong. There
+is habit of thought that justifies habit of deed. Southey, in his
+_History of the Brazils_, tells a sad tale of a dying _converted_
+Indian. In her dying moments, cannibalism prevailed over Christian
+conscience; and was the Pagan conscience silent? She was asked by those
+standing about her, if they could do any thing for her. She replied,
+that she thought she _could_ pick the bones of a little child's hand,
+but that she had no one now who would go and kill her one. I dare to
+say, Eusebius, she died in peace. The greater part of the world die in
+peace. Their conscience may be the first part of then that departs--it
+is dead before the man--most say, I have done no harm. I have known a
+man die in the very effort of triumphant chuckling over his unfortunate
+neighbours, by his successful fraud and over-reaching; yet, perhaps,
+this man's conscience was only dead as to any sense of right and wrong
+in this particular line; very possibly he had "compunctious visitings"
+about "mint and cumine"--and oh! human inconsistency, some such have
+been known to found hospitals--some spark of conscience working its way
+into the very rottenness of their hearts, that, like tinder, have let
+out all their kindred and latent fire, till that moment invisible, all
+but _in posse_ non-existent. But for any thing like a public conscience
+so kindling since the repentance of the Ninevites, it is not to be
+thought of. The pretence of such a thing is a sign of the last state of
+national hypocrisy. It was not that sense which emancipated the Negroes
+and forbade the slave trade. Take, for example, the Portuguese, and
+their "board of conscience" at Lisbon, which they set up to quiet the
+remorse, if any should exist, of those who had bought the miserable
+natives of Reoxcave, when they sold themselves and their children for
+food. This very convenient scruple was started in "the court, to
+sanction the purchase, that if these so purchased slaves were set free,
+they might _apostatize_!" Now, who were the judges in such a court? Oh!
+the villany of the whole conclave!--yet was each individual, perhaps, of
+demure and sanctimonious manners, to whom the moral eye of a people
+looked--villains all in the guise of goodness:--
+
+    "Vir bonus, omne forum quem spectat et omne tribunal,
+    Quandocuncque Deos vel porco vel bove placat,
+    Jane Pater, clare, clare, cum dixit, Apollo,
+    Labra movet metuens audiri--Pulchra Laverna,
+    Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri,
+    Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem."
+
+We are told that there is such a disease as a cannibal madness, and that
+it was common among the North American savages; that those seized with
+it have a raving desire for human flesh, and rush like wolves upon all
+they meet. Now, in what was this court of conscience better than these
+cannibals? Better! a thousand times worse--for wolves are honest. Now I
+well know, Eusebius, how I have put a coal under the very fountain of
+your blood--and it is boiling at a fine rate. Let me allay it, and
+follow the stage directions of "soft music;" only on this occasion we
+omit the music, and take the rhyme. So here do I exhibit conscience in
+its playful vein. Our friend S., the other day, repeated me off the
+following lines; he cannot remember where he had them--he says it was
+when a boy that he met with them somewhere. Call it the Conscientious
+Toper; yet that is too common--it is the characteristic of all
+topers--never was one that could not find an excuse. Drink wonderfully
+elicits moral words, to compound for immoral deeds. Call it then--
+
+
+THE CONTROVERSY.
+
+    No plate had John and Joan to hoard--
+      Plain folks in humble plight--
+    One only tankard graced their board,
+      But that was fill'd each night;
+
+    Upon whose inner bottom, sketch'd
+      In pride of chubby grace,
+    Some rude engraver's hand had etch'd
+      A baby angel's face.
+
+    John took at first a moderate sup--
+      But Joan was not like John--
+    For when her lips once touch'd the cup,
+      She swill'd till all was gone.
+
+    John often urged her to drink fair,
+      But she cared not a jot--
+    She loved to see that angel there,
+      And therefore drain'd the pot.
+
+    When John found all remonstrance vain,
+      Another card he play'd,
+    And where the angel stood so plain
+      He had a devil portray'd.
+
+    Joan saw the horns, Joan saw the tail,
+      Yet still she stoutly quaff'd,
+    And when her lips once touch'd the ale,
+      She clear'd it at a draught.
+
+    John stood with wonder petrified,
+      His hair stood on his pate,
+    "And why dost guzzle now," he cried,
+      "At that enormous rate?"
+
+    "Oh, John!" she said, "I'm not to blame--
+      I _can't in conscience_ stop--
+    For sure 'twould be a burning shame
+      To leave the devil a drop."
+
+Changeable, versatile, inconstant Eusebius, where is now your burst of
+philanthropy--where is all your rage? Pretty havoc you would but now have
+made, had you been armed with thunder--thunder, I say, for yours would
+have been no silent devastation among the villains. No Warnerian silent
+blazeless destruction would suit your indignation--in open day, and with
+a shout, would you do it, and in such wise would you suffer, if needs
+must, with Ajax's prayer in your mouth--"+En de Phaei kai olesson+."
+But for a grand picture of a sweeping indignation, there is nothing so
+grand as that fine passage in the Psalms--"Let them be as the dust before
+the wind, and the angel of the Lord scattering them." Men and all their
+iniquities, once so mighty, so vast, but as grains less than grains of
+dust--all the clouds of hypocrisy dispersed in atoms before the fury of
+the storm of vengeance. You were, as you read, Eusebius, in honest rage.
+I could see you as in a picture, like the figure with the scourge in hand
+flying off the very ground, in Raffaelle's noble fresco, the Heliodorus;
+and now are you far more like a merryandrew in your mirth, and the
+quaint sly humour of the tale in verse has made you blind to the
+delinquencies of the quaffing Joan. Blind to their delinquencies! Stay
+your mirth a moment, Eusebius--are you not blind to your own? Now I
+remember me, you are a thief, Eusebius, however you may have settled
+that matter with your conscience. Have you read the proposed "Dog-bill?"
+Here's a pretty to do!--Eusebius convicted of dog-stealing--subject to
+the penalty of misdemeanour! "I!" you will say. Yes, you. You put it
+down, doubtless, in the catalogue of your virtues, as you did when you
+boasted to me that you had, by a lucky detection in probably the
+criminal's first offence, saved a fellow-creature from a course of
+crime. Do you remember your dog Chance? yes, _your_ dog, for so you
+called him--and, pray, how came you by him? This was your version. A
+regiment was marching by your neighbourhood, at the fag-end of which a
+soldier led a very fine spaniel by a piece of cord. You always loved
+dogs--did you not, you cunning Eusebius? You can put two and two
+together as well as most people. The dog had no collar. Oh, oh! thought
+you--the master of so fine a dog would have collar and chain, too, for
+him. This fellow must have stolen him--it is my duty (your virtuous
+duty, indeed) to rescue this fine creature, and perchance save this
+wretched man from such wicked courses. So thus you proceed--you look
+indignant, and accost the soldier, "Holloa, you fellow--whose dog's
+that?" Soldier--"What's that to you?" Eusebius--"What's the name of your
+captain, that I may instantly appeal to him on the subject?" Soldier
+alarmed--"I beg your honour's pardon, but the dog followed me. I don't
+know to whom he belongs." What made you, then, so particularly enquire
+where he came from, and whereabouts he met with him? Your virtue
+whispered to you, "Ask these questions, that you may be able to find out
+the owner." Another imp whispered, "It might be useful." So you seize
+the rope, lecture the man upon the enormity of his intentions, quietly
+take the dog to your stable, and walk away with, as you flatter
+yourself, the heartfelt satisfaction of having saved a fellow-creature
+from the commission of a theft. To do you justice, you did, I verily
+believe, for two whole days make decent enquiries, and _endeavour_, if
+that be not too strong a word--_endeavour_ to find out the owner. But at
+the close of every day question Rover himself; and questioning Rover led
+you to look into each other's faces--and so you liked Rover's looks, and
+Rover liked your looks--and when you said to Rover, I should like to
+know who your master is? Rover looked with all his eyes, as much as to
+say, "Well now, if ever I heard the like of that! If my name is Rover,
+yours must be Bouncer"--then you patted him for a true and truth-telling
+dog; and he wagged his tail, and looked again at you, till you perfectly
+mesmerized each other, and understood each other, and he acknowledged
+that you, and no other, could be his master--and so you mastered him,
+and he mastered your conscience--and then you and your conscience began
+to have a parley. I fear you had sent her to a bad boarding-school, and
+had just brought her home for the holidays, with a pretty many more
+niceties and distinctions than she took with her--and had come back
+"more nice than wise." "Have you found the owner?" quoth she. "It is
+time he were found," replied you. "Why?" quoth she. "Because," you
+rejoin, "the shooting season is fast approaching." "That is true." "The
+dog will be spoiled for want of practice." "That will be a pity." "Thank
+you, conscience--won't it be a sin?" Conscience is silent, so you take
+that for granted. "Hadn't I better take out a license this year?" "Oh!
+it wouldn't be right you should go without one." "Certainly not,
+(somewhat boldly;) I _will_ get my license directly. Poor
+Rover!--well--how very fond that dog is of me--it would be highly
+ungrateful not to make a return even to a dog. I ought to be fond of
+him. I--am--very fond of him." Then you confess, Eusebius, that you
+should be very sorry to part with him. Conscience says, "Do you mean to
+say you should be sorry to find out the real owner?" "Really,
+conscience," you reply, "there can be no harm in being sorry; but you
+are becoming very impertinent, and asking too many questions." Here
+conscience nods--is asleep--is in a coma, Eusebius--fairly mesmerized by
+you, and follows you at your beck wherever you choose to lead her. And
+so you take her to your stable to look at Rover: and you want a
+suggestion how you can stop Rover's wandering propensities; and
+conscience, being in a state of _clairvoyance_, bids you tie him up. You
+ask how--"by the teeth;" so you order him a good plate of meat inside,
+your stable-door locked, and you replenish that plate for a week or
+more, and have a few conferences with Rover in your parlour--and the dog
+is tied. Then you didn't like the name of Rover--but liked Chance.
+Conscience suggested the name as a palliative, as something between true
+proprietorship and theft--it gave you a protective right, and took away
+the sting of the possession. You fortified yourself in this position, as
+cunningly as the French at Tahiti. But how happened it, Eusebius, that
+when any friend asked you if you had found the owner, you turned off the
+subject always so ingeniously, or denied that you had a Rover, but one
+Chance, certainly a fine dog?--and how came it that you never took him
+in the direction of the country from whence the regiment had come? And
+yet, if the truth could be known, would it not turn out, Eusebius, that
+fears did often come across your pleasures, and your affection for
+Chance? and had a child but asked you, as you might have been crossing a
+stile, in quest, with Chance before you, as you did the soldier, "whose
+dog's that?" you would have stammered a little--and almost, in your
+affection, have gone down upon your knees to have begged him as a gift;
+and it is fearful to think what a sum any knave as cunning as yourself
+had been, would have got out of you. Now, my dear Eusebius, I entreat
+you, when you shall read or hear read--"Is thy servant a dog, that he
+should do this thing," that you think of Chance, and not of _his doing_,
+but _yours_. I dare to say, you have never quite looked at the affair in
+this light; we all are apt to wash our hands of a troublesome affair,
+and think we come with them clean into court.
+
+Take care you don't resemble the monkey with the meal-tub. His master
+thrashed him when he caught him at the theft, and showed him his hands
+covered with meal, that he might understand the reason of his
+punishment. Monkey, after the next theft, took care to wash his hands,
+and when his master came to punish him, extended them to show how clean
+they were. His master smiled, and immediately brought him a
+looking-glass--his face and whiskers were powdered with meal: and there
+you have the origin of the adage, "You have washed your hands but not
+your face." There will still be a monitor, Eusebius, to hold the
+looking-glass to you, and the like of you: and look to your face; and
+whenever you find that you have _put a good face_ upon any doubtful
+matter, take the trouble then to look at your hands; and if they be
+clean, look again and see if your face and hands are clean together. And
+that will be the best _tableau-vivant_ you or any one else can study.
+
+Now, however, that conscience seems so thoroughly gone to the dogs,
+without any personal allusion to your case, Eusebius, I cannot resist
+telling you an anecdote by which you will see how Neighbour Grace of
+M----n ingeniously touched the conscience of Attorney B., who was
+supposed to have none--upon the matter of a dog-theft, and how Attorney
+B. was a match for Neighbour Grace.
+
+"I am come to thee, Friend B.," said Grace, "to ask thee a question.
+Suppose my dog should go into thy kitchen, and run off with a neck of
+mutton, dost thee think I ought to pay thee for the neck of mutton?"
+
+"Without doubt," said Lawyer B.
+
+"Then I'd thank thee to pay me three and fourpence; for it was thy dog
+stole my neck of mutton, and that's the cost of it."
+
+"Perfectly right," said Attorney B., coolly drawing out a bill and
+receipt. "So, Neighbour Grace, you must pay me three and fourpence, and
+that settles the matter."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, as you asked my opinion, my charge for that is six and
+eightpence--deduct value of neck of mutton, three and fourpence, and
+just so much remains." And Lawyer B. got the best of it, and made him
+pay too. Now this it was to probe another's conscience, without knowing
+the nature of the beast you stir up; not considering that when
+conscience thus comes down, as it were, with "a power of attorney," it
+is powerful indeed--"recalcitrat undique tutus." There are many such big
+swelling consciences, that grow up and cover the whole man--like the
+gourd of Jonah, up in a night and down in a night--a fine shelter for a
+time from the too-searching sun; but there is a _worm_ in it, Eusebius,
+and it won't last.
+
+It is a very odd thing that people commonly think they can have their
+consciences at command, and can set them as they do their watches, and
+it is generally behind time: yet will they go irregularly, and sometimes
+all of a run; and when they come to set them again, they will bear no
+sort of regulation. Some set them as they would an alarum, to awaken
+them at a given time; and when this answers at all, they are awakened in
+such an amazement that they know not what they are about. Such was the
+case with the notorious Parisian pawnbroker, who all in a hurry sent for
+the priest; but when the crucifix was presented to him, stammered out
+that he could lend but a very small matter upon it. So consciences go by
+latitudes and longitudes--slow here and fast there. They have, too,
+their antipodes--it is night here and sunshine there. And so of ages and
+eras: and thus the same things make men laugh and tremble by turns. What
+unextinguishable laughter would arise should Dr Howley, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, go in procession with his clergy to Windsor, each armed with
+scissors, to clip the moustaches of the prince and his court! Yet a like
+absurdity has in other days pricked the consciences of king and
+courtiers to a sudden and bitter remorse. I read the other day in that
+very amusing volume, the _Literary Conglomerate_, in an "Essay on Hair,"
+how Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, went so far as to pronounce an
+anathema of excommunication on all who wore long hair, for which pious
+zeal he was much commended; and how "Serlo, a Norman bishop, acquired
+great honour by a sermon which he preached before Henry I. in 1104,
+against long curled hair, with which the king and his courtiers were so
+much affected, that they consented to resign their flowing ringlets of
+which they had been so vain. The prudent prelate gave them no time to
+change their minds, but immediately pulled a pair of shears out of his
+sleeve, and performed the operation with his own hand." A canon is still
+extant, of the date of 1096, importing that such as wore long hair
+should be excluded from the church whilst living, or being prayed for
+when dead. Now, the very curates rejoice in ringlets and macassar. It
+would be curious to trace the heresy to its complete triumph in
+full-bottomed wigs, in which, it was ignorantly supposed, wisdom finally
+settled, when it was not discovered elsewhere. Thus it is, Eusebius,
+that folly, the vile insect, flies about--just drops a few eggs in the
+very nest of conscience, and is off, and a corruption of the flesh
+followeth. Those, therefore, who take out license to shoot folly as it
+flies, should be made to look after the eggs likewise.
+
+Alas, Eusebius, that any thing should take the name of this nice sense
+that is not replete with goodness, that is not the true _ductor
+substantium_! The prophet of an evil which wounds his very soul will
+take offence if it come not to pass and spare not. Was not Jonah grieved
+that the whole city was not destroyed as he had said? That nice and
+inner sense was more ingenious on the side of bold justice, than
+prodigal to mercy; and so had he not "a conscience void of offence;"
+and thus this honourable feeling not always acts unfettered, but is
+intercepted and hurried on, spite of itself, into courses of action in
+which there is too much of passion, and, plunging into error with this
+outward violence, is forced upon ingenious defences. The story of Piso
+is in point. He thought to act the conscientious judge, when he
+condemned the soldier to death who had returned from forage without his
+companion, under the impression that he had killed him; but as he is
+upon the point of execution, the man supposed to have been murdered
+returns, all the soldiery present rejoice, and the executioner brings
+them both to the presence of Piso. And what did the conscientious Piso?
+His conscience would not so let him put by justice; so, with a
+surprising ingenuity of that nice faculty in its delirium, he orders
+execution upon all three--the first soldier, because he had been
+condemned--the second, who had lost his way, because he was the cause of
+his companion's death--and the executioner, because he had disobeyed his
+orders. He had but to pretend to be greatly grieved at his vagary, to
+have the act lauded as an instance of Roman virtue. I look upon the
+famed Brutus, when he thought it a matter of conscience to witness, as
+well as order, his sons' execution, to have been a vain unfeeling fool
+or a madman. Let us have no prate about conscience proceeding from a
+hard heart; these are frightful notions when they become infectious. A
+handful of such madmen are enough, if allowed to have their way, to
+enact the horrors of a French Revolution. All this you know, Eusebius,
+better than I do, and will knit your brows at this too serious vein of
+thought. I will come, therefore, a little nearer our common homes. You
+shall have a scene from domestic life, as I had it the other day, from a
+lady with whom I was conversing upon this subject, who tells me it is a
+veritable fact, and took place some seventy years back. "It will want
+its true power," said my friend, "because that one solitary trait could
+give you no idea of the rich humour of the lady, the subject of this
+incident--her simplicity, shrewdness, art, ignorance, quickness,
+mischief, made lovely by exceeding beauty, and a most amusing
+consciousness of it. Seventy years ago, too, it happened--there are no
+such ladies in the better ranks of society now. She lived at Margate. It
+came to pass that the topping upholsterer there got a new-shaped chest
+of drawers from London--the very first that had appeared in Margate--and
+gave madam, she being one of the high top-families, the first sight of
+it. With the article she fell in love, and entreated her husband to buy
+it; but the sensible gentleman, having his house capitally and fully
+furnished, would not. The lady still longed, but had not money enough to
+make the purchase--begged to have her _quarter_ advanced. This was not
+granted. She pouted a little, and then, like a wise woman, made up her
+mind to be disappointed, and resumed her more than wonted cheerfulness;
+but, alas! she was a daughter of Eve, as it will be seen. Christmas-day
+came--it was the invariable custom of the family to receive the
+sacrament. Before church-time she sent for her husband. She had a sin on
+her conscience--she must confess before she could go to the altar. Her
+husband was surprised. "What is it?" "You must promise not to be very
+angry." "But what is it? Have you broken my grandmother's china
+tea-pot?" "Oh! worse than that." "Have you thrown a bank-note in the
+fire?" "Worse than that." "Have you run in debt to your abominable
+smuggling lace-woman?" "Worse than that." "Woman!" quoth he sternly, and
+taking down an old broadsword that hung over the chimney-piece, "confess
+this instant;" and he gave the weapon a portentous flourish. "Oh! dear
+Richard, don't kill me, and I'll tell you all at once. Then I, (sob,) I,
+(sob,) have cribbed (sob) out of the house-money every week to buy that
+chest of drawers, and you've had bad dinners and suppers this month for
+it; and (sobbing) that's all." He could just keep his countenance to
+say--"And where have you hid this accursed thing?" "Oh, Richard! I have
+never been able to use it; for I have covered it over with a blanket
+ever since I had it, for fear of your seeing it. Oh! pray, forgive me!"
+You need not be told how she went to church with a "clean breast," as
+the saying is. It is an unadorned fact. Her husband used to tell it
+every merry Christmas to his old friend-guests." Here you have the
+story, Eusebius, as I had it thus dramatically (for I could not mend it)
+from the lips of the narrator.
+
+Is it your fault or your virtue, Eusebius, that you positively love
+these errors of human nature? You ever say, you have no sympathy with or
+for a perfect monster--if such there be--which you deny, and aver that
+if you detect not the blot, it is but too well covered; and by that very
+covering, for aught you know to the contrary, may be all blot. You would
+have catalogued this good lady among your "right estimable and lovely
+women!" and if you did not think that chest of drawers must be an
+heirloom in the family, you would set about many odd means to get
+possession of it. Yet I do verily believe that there are brutes that
+would not have forgiven in their wives this error--that would argue
+thus, You may sin, madam, against your Maker; but you shall not sin
+against me. Is there not a story somewhere, of a wretched vagabond at
+the confessional--dreadful were the crimes for which he was promised
+absolution; but after all his compunctions, contortions, self-cursings,
+breast-beatings, hand-wringings, out came the sin of sins--he had once
+spit by accident upon the priest's robe, though he only meant to spit
+upon the altar steps. Unpardonable offence! Never-to-be-forgiven wretch!
+His life could not atone for it. And what had the friars, blue and grey,
+been daily, hourly doing? You have been in Italy, Eusebius.
+
+I have not yet told you the story for the telling which I began this
+letter; and why I have kept it back I know not--it is not for the
+importance of it; for it is of a poor simple creature. But I must stay
+my hand from it again; for here has one passed before my window that can
+have no conscience. It is a great booby--six foot man-boy of about
+nineteen years. He has just stalked by with his insect-catcher on his
+shoulder; the fellow has been with his green net into the innocent
+fields, to catch butterflies and other poor insects. Many an hour have I
+seen you, Eusebius, with your head half-buried in the long blades of
+grass and pleasant field-weeds, partially edged by the slanting and
+pervading sunbeams, while the little stream has played its song of
+varied gentleness, watching the little insect world, and the golden
+beetles climbing up the long stalks, performing wondrous feats for your
+and their own amusement--for your delight was to participate in all
+their pleasures; and some would, with a familiarity that made you feel
+akin to all about you, walk over the page of the book you were reading,
+and look up, and pause, and trust their honest legs upon your hand,
+confiding that there was one human creature that would not hurt them.
+Think of those hours, my gentle friend, and consider the object for
+which that wretch of a booby is out. How many of your playmates has he
+stuck through with pins, upon which they are now writhing! And when the
+wretch goes home murder-laden, his parents or guardians will greet him
+as a most amiable and sweet youth, who wouldn't for the world misspend
+his time as other boys do, but is ever on the search after knowledge;
+and so they swagger and boast of his love of entomology. I'd rather my
+children should grow up like cucumbers--more to belly than head--than
+have these scientific curiosity-noddles upon their poles of bodies, that
+haven't room for hearts, and look cold and cruel, like the pins they
+stick through the poor moths and butterflies, and all innocent insects.
+Good would it be to hear you lecture the parents of these heartless
+bodies for their bringing up, and picture, in your eloquent manner, the
+torments that devils may be doomed to inflict in the other world on the
+cruel in this; and to fix them writhing upon their forks as they pin the
+poor insects. What would they do but call you a wicked blasphemer, and
+prate about the merciful goodness of their Maker, as if one Maker did
+not make all creatures? Yet what do such as they know of mercy but the
+name? These are they that kill conscience in the bud.
+
+Men's bosoms are like their dwellings--mansions, magnificent and
+gorgeous--full of all noble and generous thoughts, with room to
+expand--or dwellings of pretensions, show, and meanness--or hovels of
+all dirt and slovenliness; yet is there scarcely one in which conscience
+does not walk in and out boldly, or steal in cautiously, though she may
+not always have room to move her arms about her, and assert her
+presence. Yet even when circumscribed by narrowness, and immured in all
+unseemly things, will she patiently watch her time for some appropriate
+touch, or some quiet sound of her voice. Her most difficult scene of
+action, however, is in the bosom of pretension; for there the trumpet of
+self-praise is ever sounding to overwhelm her voice, and she is kept at
+arm's-length from the touch of the guilty hearts, by the padding and the
+furniture that surround them. But oh! the hypocrites of this life--they
+almost make one weary of it; they who walk with their hands as if ever
+weighing, by invisible scales, with their scruples of conscience their
+every thought, word, and action. Shall I portray the disgusting effigies
+of one? "Niger est--hunc tu, Romane, caveto." I will, however, tell you
+somewhat of one that has lately come across my path, and I will call him
+Peter Pure; for he is one of those that, though assuming a quietness, is
+really rabid in politics, and has ever upon his lips "purity of
+election," and the like cant words. A few years ago his circumstances not
+being very flourishing, he got the ear of our generous friend of the
+Grange; through his timely assistance, and a pretty considerable loan, he
+overcame his difficulties, and is now pretty well to do. At the last
+contest for the borough, our friend T. of the Grange, with others, waited
+upon Peter Pure; and Peter, with large professions of gratitude--as how
+could he do less for so kind a benefactor?--unhesitatingly promised his
+vote. At this time, be it observed, there was not the slightest
+appearance of the contest which afterwards came, and with that storm a
+pretty good shower of bribery. What quantity of this shower fell to Peter
+Pure's share, was never discovered; but it is easy to conjecture that so
+nice, so grateful a conscience was not overcome for nothing. Peter never
+liked cheap sins. The contest came, the election takes place, and Peter
+Pure's plumper weighs down the adversary's scale. Soon after this he had
+the impudence to accost his benefactor thus:--"My dear friend and
+benefactor, and worthy sir, I wished for this opportunity of explaining
+to you, with the utmost sincerity and confidence, what may have appeared
+to you like--yes--really like a breaking of my word. It is true I did
+promise you my vote: but then, you know, voting being a very serious
+matter, I thought it necessary to read my oath which I should be called
+upon to take; and I found, my good friend, to my astonishment, that I was
+bound by it not to vote from '_favour and affection_.' Yes, those are the
+words. Now, it unfortunately--only unfortunately in this instance, mind
+me--happens, that there is not a man in the world so much in my
+affection and my favour as yourself; to vote, therefore, as you had
+wished me to vote, would, after reading the oath, have been downright
+perjury; for I certainly should have voted 'through favour and
+affection.' That would have been a fearful weight upon my conscience."
+Here was a pretty scoundrel, Eusebius. I should be sorry to have you
+encounter him in a crowd, and trust his sides to your elbows, lest you
+should be taken with one of those sudden fits of juvenility that are not
+quite in accordance with the sedateness of your years. You will not be
+inclined to agree with an apologist I met the other day, who simply said
+that Satan had thrown the temptation in his way. There is no occasion
+for such superfluous labour, nor does the arch-fiend throw any of his
+labour away. Your Peter Pures may be very well left to themselves, and
+are left to themselves; their own inventions are quite sufficient for
+all their trading purposes; there is no need to put temptations in their
+way--they will seek them of themselves.
+
+You will certainly lay me under the censure that Montaigne throws upon
+Guicciardini. Let me then make amends, and ascribe one action to a
+generous, a conscientious motive. There cannot be found a better example
+than I have met with in reading some memoirs of the great and good
+Colston, the founder of those excellent charities in London, Bristol,
+and elsewhere. I find this passage in his life. It happened that one of
+his most richly-laden vessels was so long missing, and the violent
+storms having given every reason to suppose she had perished, that
+Colston gave her up for lost. Upon this occasion, it is said, he did not
+lament his unhappiness as many are apt to do, and perpetually count up
+the serious amount of his losses; but, with dutiful submission, fell
+upon his knees, and with thankfulness for what Providence had been
+pleased to leave him, and with the utmost resignation relinquished even
+the smallest hope of her recovery. When, therefore, his people came soon
+afterwards to tell him that his ship had safely come to port, he did not
+show the signs of self-gratulation which his friends expected to see. He
+was devoutly thankful for the preservation of the lives of so many
+seamen; but as for the vessel and her cargo, they were no longer his--he
+had resigned them--he could not in conscience take them back. He looked
+upon all as the gift of Providence to the poor; and, as such, he sold
+the ship and merchandize--and most valuable they were--and, praying for
+a right guidance, distributed the proceeds among the poor. How beautiful
+is such charity! Here is no false lustre thrown upon the riches and
+goods of this world, that, reflected, blind the eyes that they see not
+aright. The conscience of such a man as Colston was an arbiter even
+against himself, sat within him in judgment to put aside his worldly
+interest, and made a steady light for itself to see by, where naturally
+was either a glare or an obscurity, that alike might bewilder less
+honest vision.
+
+Some such idea is gloriously thus expressed by Sir Thomas Browne in his
+admirable _Religio Medici_.{A} "Conscience only, that can see without
+light, sits in the areopagy and dark tribunal of our hearts, surveys our
+thoughts, and condemns our obliquities. Happy is that state of vision
+that can see without light, though all should look as before the
+creation, when there was not an eye to see, or light to actuate a
+vision--wherein, notwithstanding, obscurity is only imaginable
+respectively unto eyes. For unto God there was none. Eternal light was
+for ever--created light was for the creation, not himself; and as He saw
+before the sun, He may still also see without it."
+
+A case of conscience came to be discussed not long since, in which I
+took a part. We had been speaking of the beauty of truth, and that
+nothing could justify the slightest deviation from the plain letter of
+it. This was doubted; and the case supposed was, that of a ruffian or a
+madman pursuing an innocent person with intent to murder. You see the
+flight and pursuit; the pursuer is at fault, and questions you as to the
+way taken by the fugitive. Are you justified in deceiving the pursuer by
+a false direction of the way his intended victim had taken? Are you to
+say the person went to the right, when the way taken was the left? The
+advocate for the downright truth maintained that you were not to
+deceive--though you felt quite sure that by your telling the truth, or
+by your silence altogether, immediate murder would ensue. The advocate
+declared, that without a moment's hesitation he should act upon his
+decision. He would have done no such thing. People are better than their
+creeds, and, it should seem, sometimes _better_ than _their_ principles.
+In which case would his conscience prick him most, when the heat was
+over--as accessory to the murder or as the utterer of untruth? I cannot
+but think it a case of instinct, which, acting before conscience, _pro
+hac vice_ supersedes it. The matter is altogether and at once, by an
+irresistible decree, taken out of the secondary "Court of Conscience"
+and put into the primary "Court of Nature."
+
+Truth, truth! well may Bacon speak of it thus--"'What is truth?' said
+laughing Pilate, and wouldn't wait for an answer." If there be danger in
+the deviation shown in the case stated, what a state are we all in? All,
+as we do daily in some way or other, putting our best legs foremost.
+Look at the whole advertising, puffing, quacking, world--the flattering,
+the soothing, the complimenting. Virtues and vices alike driving us more
+or less out of the straight line; and, blindfolded by habit, we know not
+that we are walking circuitously. And they are not the worst among us,
+perhaps, who walk so deviatingly--seeing, knowing--those that stammer
+out nightly ere they rest, in confession, their fears that they have
+been acting if not speaking the untrue thing, and praying for strength
+in their infirmity, and more simplicity of heart; and would in their
+penitence shun the concourse that besets them, and hide their heads in
+some retired quiet spot of peace, out of reach of this assault of
+temptation. And this, Eusebius, is the best prelude I can devise to the
+story I have to tell you. It is of a poor old woman; shall I magnify her
+offence? It was magnified indeed in her eyes. Smaller, therefore, shall
+it be--because of its very largeness to her. But it will not do to
+soften offences, Eusebius. I see already you are determined to do so. I
+will call it her crime. Yes, she lived a life of daily untruth. She
+wrote it, she put her name to it--"litera scripta manet." We must not
+mince the matter; she spoke it, she acted it hourly, she took payment
+for it--it was her food, her raiment. Oh! all you that love to stamp the
+foot at poor human nature, here is an object for your contempt, your
+sarcasm, your abuse, your punishment; drag her away by the hair of her
+head. But stay, take care you do not "strain at a gnat and swallow a
+camel;" examine yourselves a little first. She has confessed, perhaps
+you have not. Remember, no one knew it; no one guessed it. It is she
+herself has lifted up the lantern into the dark recesses of her own
+heart; or rather, it is true religion in her hath done it: and dark
+though it was there, you ought to see clearly enough that her heart is
+not now the den wherein falsehood and hypocrisy lurk; search well--you
+see none. She has made a "clean breast of it," and you had better do the
+same, and drop the stone you were about to fling so mercilessly at her
+dying head. Are you out of patience, Eusebius? and cry--Out with it,
+what did she do? You shall hear; 'tis but a simple anecdote after all. I
+have learned it from a parish priest. He was sent for to attend the
+deathbed of poor old village dame, or schoolmistress. She had a sin to
+confess; she could not die in peace till she had confessed it. With
+broken speech, she sobbed, and hesitated, and sobbed again.
+
+"I--I--I," she stammered out, and hid her face again. "There, I must, I
+must tell it; and may I be forgiven! You know, sir, I have kept school
+forty years--yes, forty years--a poor sinful creature--I--I"----
+
+"My good woman," said the parish priest, "take comfort; it will be
+pardoned if you are thus penitent. I hope it is not a very great sin."
+
+"Oh yes!" said she, "and pray call me not _good_ woman. I
+am--not--good;" sobbing, "alas, alas!--there, I--will out with it! I put
+down that I taught grammar--and (sobbing) I, I, _did not know it
+myself_."
+
+Eusebius, Eusebius, had you been there, you would have embraced the old
+dame. The father of lies was not near her pillow. This little sin, she
+had put it foremost, and, like the little figure before many nothings,
+she had made a million of it; and one word, nay one thought, before
+confession was uttered, had breathed upon and obliterated the whole
+amount. Where will you see so great truth? And this, you will agree with
+me, was a case of _Tender Conscience_.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Religio Medici_, a new edition, with its sequel, _Christian Morals_,
+and resemblant passages from Cowper's _Task_. By Mr Peace, Bristol. The
+text of this inestimable author is here cleared of its many errors, and
+the volume contains a useful verbal index.
+
+
+
+
+THIERRY'S HISTORY OF THE GAULS.{A}
+
+
+'Tis a pleasant thing to turn from the present, with its turmoil and its
+noise, its clank of engines and its pallid artizans, its political
+strife and its social disorganization, to the calm and quiet records of
+the past--to the contemplation of bygone greatness: of kingdoms which
+have passed away,--of cities whose site is marked only by the mouldering
+column and the time-worn wall--of men with whose name the world once
+rang, but whose very tombs are now unknown. If there is any thing
+calculated to enlarge the mind, it is this; for it is only by a careful
+study of the past that we come to know how duly to appreciate the
+present. Without this we magnify the present; we imagine that the future
+will be like unto it; we form our ideas, we base our calculations upon
+it alone; we forget the maxim of the Eastern sage, that "this too shall
+pass away." It is by the study of history that we overcome this
+otherwise inevitable tendency; we learn from it, that other nations have
+been as great as we, and that they are now forgotten--that a former
+civilization, a fair and costly edifice which seemed to be perfect of
+its kind, has crumbled before the assaults of time, and left not a trace
+behind. There is a still small voice issuing forth from the ruins of
+Babylon, which will teach more to the thinking mind than all the dogmas
+and theories of modern speculators.
+
+When we turn to the study of ancient history, our attention is
+immediately riveted on the mighty name of Rome. Even the history of
+Greece cannot compare with it in interest. Greece was always great in
+the arts, and for long she was eminent in arms: but the arms of her
+citizens were too often turned against each other; and the mind gets
+fatigued and perplexed in attempting to follow the endless maze of
+politics, and the constant succession of unimportant wars. There are,
+indeed, many splendid episodes in her history--such as the Persian war,
+the retreat of the Ten Thousand, a few actions in the Peloponnesian
+contest, and the whole of the Theban campaigns of Epaminondas; but the
+intervening periods have but a faint interest to the general reader,
+till we come down to the period of the Macedonian monarchy. This,
+indeed, is the great act in the drama of Grecian history. Who can peruse
+without interest the accounts of the glorious reign of Alexander; of
+that man who, issuing from the mountains of Macedonia, riveted the
+fetters of despotism on Greece, which had grown unworthy of freedom, and
+carried his victorious arms over the fertile plains of Palestine, till
+he stood a conqueror amidst the palaces of Persepolis, and finally
+halted only on the frontiers of Hindostan, arrested in his progress not
+by the arms of his enemies but by the revolt of his soldiers? He flung a
+halo of glory around the last days of Greece, like the bright light of a
+meteor, whose course he resembled equally in the rapidity and brilliancy
+of his career. With him dies the interest of Grecian story: the
+intrigues and disputes of his successors, destitute of general interest,
+served but to pave the way for the progress of a mightier power.
+
+Of greater interest even than this is the history of Rome. Her conquests
+were not merely the glorious and dazzling achievements of one man, which
+owed their existence to his talents, and crumbled to pieces at his
+death; they were slow and gradual in their progress--the effects of a
+deep and firm policy: they were not made in a day, but they endured for
+a thousand years. No country presents such interest to the politician
+and the soldier. To the one, the rise and progress of her constitution;
+her internal struggles; the balance of political power in the state; her
+policy, her principles of government; the administration and treatment
+of the many nations which composed her vast empire, must ever be the
+subject of deep and careful study: while to the other, the campaigns of
+Hannibal, the wars of Cæsar, and the long line of her military annals,
+present a wide field for investigation and instruction--an inexhaustible
+topic for philosophic reflection.
+
+But there is one subject connected with the progress of the Roman empire
+which has been unduly neglected, and without a perfect understanding of
+which we cannot justly appreciate either the civil or military policy of
+that state. We mean the history of the nations who came in contact with
+her--viz. the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Spaniards. The ancient
+historians belonged exclusively to Greece or Rome: they looked upon all
+other nations except themselves as barbarous; and they never related
+their history except incidentally, and in so far as it was connected
+with that of those two countries. Modern historians, following in their
+track, and attracted by the splendour of their names, deviated not from
+the beaten path; and a thick veil still hung over the semi-barbarous
+neighbours and enemies of Rome. The history of no one of those nations
+was more interesting, or in many points involved in greater obscurity,
+than that of the GAULS.
+
+Nowhere amongst the ancient writers could any connected account of the
+origin or progress of this nation be found; scattered notices of them
+alone could be discovered interspersed incidentally amongst other
+matter, and these notices were frequently inconsistent. This is
+particularly the case as regards their early history: in later times,
+when they came into more immediate contact with the Romans, a more
+connected and minute account of them has been preserved. In the lively
+pages of Livy, and in the more accurate narrative of Polybius, a
+considerable mass of information on this subject maybe found; while a
+clear light has been thrown on many parts of their latter history by the
+narrative of Appian, the Lives of Plutarch, and, above all, by the
+Commentaries of Cæsar. But all this information, scattered over a
+multiplicity of authors, could give us no conception of their history as
+a people. An author was still wanting to collect all these together, so
+as to present us with something like a continuous history. But to do
+this was no easy task: the materials were scanty and often
+contradictory; they were all written in a spirit hostile to the Gauls; a
+deep vein of prejudice and national partiality ran through and tarnished
+them all; the motives of that people were misrepresented, their actions
+falsified, the historians often understood little of their institutions
+and their character. From such materials it required no common man to be
+able to deduce a clear and impartial narrative; it required great talent
+and deep research--the accuracy of the scholar and the spirit of the
+philosopher, the acuteness of the critic joined to the eye of the
+painter. Such a man has been found in Amadée Thierry. His _History of
+the Gauls_ is a work of rare merit--a work which must ever be in the
+hand of every one who would understand the history of antiquity. It is
+little to the credit of the literature of this country, that his work
+has not yet appeared in an English translation.
+
+He has traced the progress of the Gauls, from their earliest appearance
+on the stage of the world till their final subjection to the Roman
+power, in a manner worthy of a scholar and a philosopher. His narrative
+is clear, animated, and distinct; he possesses in an eminent degree the
+power of giving breadth to his pictures; of drawing the attention of his
+readers to the important events, whilst the remainder are thrown into
+shade. His mode of treating his authorities is perhaps the best that can
+be imagined; he neither clogs his pages with long extracts, nor does he
+leave them unsupported by a reference to the original authors. At the
+end of each paragraph a reference is given to the authorities followed,
+to whom the reader may at once turn if he wish to verify the conclusions
+arrived at; and where the points are involved in obscurity, the passages
+founded on are quoted generally in a note, and never in the text, except
+when their importance really justified such an interruption of the
+narrative. His style is always animated and graphic, occasionally rising
+to elevated flights of eloquence, while his subject is one of a deep and
+varied interest; for in following the checkered fortunes of the Gauls,
+he is brought in contact with almost every nation of the earth. To
+whatever country of the ancient world we turn, we find that the Gaul has
+preceded us, either as the savage conqueror or the little less savage
+mercenary. Issuing originally from the East, that boundless cradle of
+the human race, we soon find him contending with the German for his
+morass, with the Spaniard for his gold--traversing the sands of Africa,
+and pillaging the plains of Greece--founding a kingdom in the midst of
+Asiatic luxury, and bearing his conquering lance beneath the Capitol of
+Rome. But a mightier spirit soon rose to rule the storm. In vain the
+courage of the Gaul, allied with the power of Carthage, and directed by
+the genius of Hannibal, maintained for years a desperate and doubtful
+contest in the heart of Italy. The power of Rome kept steadily
+advancing: Greece soon fell beneath her conquering arm; and the fleets
+of Carthage no longer ruled the wave. The Spaniard, after many a
+hard-fought field, at last sank into sullen submission; and the
+Galatians, degenerating under the influence of Asiatic manners, proved
+unequal to the contest; the Gaul, instead of inundating the land of the
+foreigner, could with difficulty maintain his own; and soon the eagle of
+the Capitol spread its wings over a Transalpine province. But the free
+spirit of the Gaul now made a mighty effort to rend asunder the bonds
+which encircled it; and a countless multitude, after ravaging Spain,
+poured down into Italy: the Roman empire rocked to its foundation, when
+Marius, hastening over from his African conquests, saved his country by
+the glorious and bloody victory of Aquæ Sextiæ. Yet a little while and
+the legions of Rome, under the orders of Cæsar, traversing with fire and
+sword their country, retaliated on the Gaul the calamities he had often
+inflicted on others, subdued his proud spirit, and forged for him,
+amidst seas of blood, those fetters which were finally riveted by the
+policy of Augustus. Such is a brief outline of the heart-stirring story
+of this singular and interesting race.
+
+One of the most interesting parts of Thierry's work is the Introduction.
+He there gives a brief view of the character of the Gaulish race; its
+division into two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry, and the
+periods into which the history of this people naturally divides itself.
+A considerable part of it is taken up in proving that this people do in
+reality consist of two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry. This, we
+think, he has clearly and satisfactorily shown, by evidence drawn both
+from the language and from the historical accounts which have been
+preserved to us regarding them. His character of the Gauls as a people
+is ably and well given; but here we must let him speak for himself:--
+
+     "The salient characteristics of the Gaulish family--those which
+     distinguish it the most, in my opinion, from the other races of
+     men--may be thus summed up:--A personal bravery unequaled amongst
+     the people of antiquity; a spirit frank, impetuous, open to every
+     impression, eminently intelligent; but joined to that an extreme
+     frivolity, want of constancy, a marked repugnance to the ideas of
+     discipline and order so strong in the German race, much
+     ostentation--in fine, a perpetual disunion, the consequence of
+     excessive vanity. If we wish to compare, in a few words, the
+     Gaulish family with that German family to whom we have just
+     alluded, we may say that the personal sentiment, the individual I,
+     is too much developed amongst the former, and that amongst the
+     latter it is not sufficiently so. Thus we find, in every page of
+     Gaulish story, original characters who strongly excite and
+     concentrate upon themselves our sympathy, causing us to forget the
+     masses; whilst, in the history of the Germans, it is generally the
+     masses who produce the effect. Such is the general character of the
+     people of the Gaulish blood; but in that character itself, an
+     observation of facts leads us to recognise two distinct shades
+     corresponding to two distinct branches of the family, or to use the
+     expression consecrated by history, to two distinct races. One of
+     those races--that which I designate by the name of the
+     Gauls--presents in the most marked manner all the natural
+     dispositions, all the faults and all the virtues, of the family; to
+     it belong, in their purest state, the individual types of the Gaul.
+     The other, the Kimry, less active, less spiritual perhaps,
+     possesses in return more weight and stability: it is in its bosom
+     principally that we remark the institutions of classification and
+     order; it is there that the ideas of theocracy and monarchy longest
+     maintain their sway."--(I. iv. vi.)
+
+How important and how little attended to is this character of the
+different races of men! How perfectly is it preserved under all
+situations and under all circumstances! No lapse of time can change, no
+distance can efface it. Nowhere do we see this more distinctly than in
+America: there how marked is the difference of the Spanish race in the
+south and the Anglo-Saxon in the north! And from this we may draw a
+deeply important practical lesson; viz. the danger of attempting to
+force on one race institutions fitted to another. Under a free
+government, the Anglo-Saxon in the north flourished and increased, and
+became a mighty people. Under a despotic sway, the Spaniard in the south
+was slowly but surely treading that path which would ultimately have led
+to national greatness, when a revolution, nourished by English gold, and
+rendered victorious by English arms, inflicted what was to him the curse
+of free institutions. Under their influence, commerce has fled from the
+shores of New Spain; the gold-mines of Peru lie unworked; population has
+retrograded; the fertile land has returned to a state of nature; and
+anarchy, usurping the place of government, has involved the country in
+ruin and desolation. Nor is this the only instance of the effect of free
+institutions on the Spanish race. In Old Spain the same experiment has
+been tried, and has produced the same result. Under their withering
+effect, the empire of Spain and the Indies has passed away; the mother
+country, torn by internal dissensions, has fallen from her proud estate,
+and can with difficulty drag on a precarious existence amidst all the
+tumult and blood of incessant revolutions. How long will it be ere we
+learn that free institutions are the Amreeta cup of nations--the
+greatest of all blessings or the greatest of all curses, according to
+the race on which it is conferred!
+
+The history of the Gauls, in Thierry's opinion, divides itself naturally
+into four great periods: his brief _resumé_ of the state of the nation,
+during each of those periods, is so animated that we cannot refrain from
+quoting his own words:--
+
+     "The first period contains the adventures of the Gaulish nations in
+     the nomad state. No race of the West has accomplished a more
+     agitated and brilliant career. Its wanderings embrace Europe, Asia,
+     and Africa: its name is inscribed with terror in the annals of
+     almost every people. It burned Rome: it conquered Macedonia from
+     the veteran phalanxes of Alexander, forced Thermopylæ, and pillaged
+     Delphi: afterwards it planted its tents on the ruins of ancient
+     Troy, in the public places of Miletus, on the banks of the
+     Sangarius, and on those of the Nile: it besieged Carthage,
+     threatened Memphis, reckoned among its tributaries the most
+     powerful monarchs of the East: on two occasions it founded in Upper
+     Italy a mighty dominion, and it raised up in the bosom of Phrygia
+     that other empire of the Galatians which so long ruled Asia Minor.
+
+     "In the second period--that of the sedentary state--we observe the
+     same race every where developing itself, or permanently settled,
+     with social, religious, and political institutions, suited to its
+     particular character--original institutions, and civilization full
+     of life and movement, of which Transalpine Gaul offers a model the
+     purest and the most complete. One would say, to follow the animated
+     scenes of that picture, that the theocracy of India, the feudality
+     of the Middle Ages, and the Athenian democracy, had resorted to the
+     same soil, there to combat and rule over one and other in turn.
+     Soon that civilization mixes and alters: foreign elements introduce
+     themselves, imported by commerce, by the relations of vicinity, by
+     the reaction of the conquered population. Hence various and other
+     strange combinations: in Italy it is the Roman influence which
+     makes itself felt in the manners of the Cisalpines: in the south of
+     Transalpine Gaul it is at first the influence of the Greeks of
+     Massalia, afterwards that of the Italian colonies: and in Galatia
+     there springs up the most singular combination of Gaulish, Phrygian
+     and Greek civilization.
+
+     "Next follows the period of national strife and of conquest. By a
+     chance worthy of notice, it is always under the sword of the Roman
+     that the power of the Gaulish nations falls: in proportion as the
+     Roman dominion extends, the Gaulish dominion, up to that time
+     firmly established, recoils and declines: one would say that the
+     conquerors and the conquered from the Allia followed one and other
+     to all points of the earth to decide the old quarrel of the
+     Capitol. In Italy the Cisalpines are subjugated, but only after two
+     centuries of the most determined resistance: when the rest of Asia
+     accepted the yoke, the Galatians defended still, against Rome, the
+     independence of the East. Gaul yields, but only from exhaustion,
+     after a century of partial contests, and nine years of a general
+     war under Cæsar: in fine, the names of Caractac and Galgac render
+     illustrious the last and fruitless efforts of British liberty. It
+     is every where the unequal combat of a military spirit, ardent and
+     heroic, but simple and unskilful, against the same spirit
+     disciplined and persevering. Few nations show in their annals so
+     beautiful a page as that last Gaulish war, written nevertheless by
+     an enemy. Every effort of heroism, every prodigy of valour, which
+     the love of liberty and of country ever produced, there displayed
+     themselves in spite of a thousand contrary and fatal passions:
+     discords between the cities, discords in the cities, enterprises of
+     the nobles against the people, licentiousness of democracy,
+     hereditary enmities of race. What men were those Bitunyes who in
+     one day burned twenty of their towns! What men were those Camutes,
+     fugitives, pursued by the sword, by famine, by winter, and whom
+     nothing could conquer! What variety of character is there amongst
+     their chiefs--from the druid Divitiac, the good and honest
+     enthusiast of the Roman civilization, to the savage Ambio-rix,
+     crafty, vindictive, implacable, who admired and imitated nothing
+     save the savageness of the German: from Dumno-rix, that ambitious
+     but fierce agitator, who wished to make the conqueror of the Gauls
+     an instrument, but not a master, to that Vercingeto-rix, so pure,
+     so eloquent, so true, so magnanimous in misfortune, and who wanted
+     nothing to take a place amongst the greatest men, but to have had
+     another enemy, above all another historian, than Cæsar!
+
+     "The fourth period comprises the organization of Gaul into a Roman
+     province, and the slow and successive assimilation of Transalpine
+     manners to the manners and institutions of Italy--a labour
+     commenced by Augustus, continued with success by Claudius,
+     completed in latter times. That transference from one civilization
+     to another was not made without violence and without checks:
+     numerous revolts are suppressed by Augustus--a great insurrection
+     fails against Tiberius. The distractions and the impending ruin of
+     Rome during the civil wars of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of
+     Vespasian, gave room for a sudden explosion of the spirit of
+     independence to the north of the Alps. The Gaulish nations again
+     took up arms, the senates reformed themselves, the proscribed
+     druids reappeared, the Roman legions cantoned on the Rhine are
+     defeated or gained over, an empire of the Gauls is constructed in
+     haste: but soon Gaul perceives that it is already at bottom
+     entirely Roman, and that a return to the ancient order of things is
+     no longer either desirable for its happiness, or even possible; it
+     resigns itself therefore to its irrevocable destiny, and reunites
+     without a murmur into the community of the Roman empire."--(I.
+     6-10)
+
+Here indeed is a noble field for history--many such exist not in the
+world; it joins the colours of romance to the truth of narrative--it
+embraces within its range all countries, from the snow-clad mountains of
+the north to the waterless deserts of the south.
+
+When the first light of history dawns upon the Gallic race, we find them
+settled in that territory which is bounded by the Rhine, the Alps, the
+Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, and the ocean, and in the British isles.
+There they lived, leading a pastoral life, wandering about from place to
+place, and ready to descend with their flocks and herds wherever
+cupidity might lead, or fancy direct them. They first turned their
+footsteps towards Spain; tribe after tribe crossed the Pyrenees, and
+either expelled or amalgamated with the aboriginal inhabitants. Their
+efforts were principally directed towards the centre and west; in
+consequence of which, the native Spaniards, displaced and driven back
+upon the Mediterranean coast, soon opened a way for themselves across
+the eastern passes of the mountains, and, traversing the shores of
+southern Gaul, entered Italy. There they took the name of the Ligures,
+and established themselves along the whole line of sea-coast from the
+Pyrenees to the mouth of the Arno. The road to Italy being thus laid
+bare by the Spaniards, the Gauls soon followed on their footsteps, and,
+crossing the Alps, poured down into the fertile plains and vine-clad
+hills of the smiling south: but they were encountered and overcome by
+the Etruscans. Internal convulsions in the centre of Gaul, however,
+hurled new hordes across the Alps. The Kimry, from the Palus Moeotis,
+entered the north-eastern portion of Gaul, and expelled from their
+territory many of the tribes who were settled there: these, uniting in
+large hordes, precipitated themselves upon Italy. The Kimry, too, joined
+in the incursion; race followed race, and the whole of northern Italy
+was soon peopled by the Gaulish race, who long threatened the nations of
+the south with entire subjugation and destruction. The empire of the
+Gauls in Italy, known by the name of Cisalpine Gaul, was productive of
+the greatest calamities to that unhappy country; every year there issued
+forth from it bands of adventurers, who wasted the fields and stormed
+the cities of Etruria, of Campania, and of Magna Græcia. But an
+expedition on a larger scale was at last undertaken. Pressed by the
+increasing population in their rear, a large band determined to abandon
+their present homes, and seek new conquests, and acquire new booty. They
+first directed their march to Clusium; but soon the torrent rolled with
+resistless force upon the walls of Rome. Defeated at the Allia, the
+Romans abandoned their city, leaving, however, a garrison in the
+Capitol; this garrison, reduced to the last extremities by famine, was
+obliged to capitulate, and to purchase the departure of their foes by an
+enormous ransom. The Gauls, crowned with success and loaded with
+plunder, departed; and the Romans, taking courage at their retreat,
+harassed their rear and cut off their supplies.
+
+Such is the truth regarding this famous invasion, which has been the
+subject of a falsification probably without a parallel in the annals of
+history; by it defeat was transformed into victory, and the day when
+Rome suffered her greatest humiliation by the ransom of her capital, was
+turned into almost the most famous day of her existence, when her most
+successful enemy was humbled to the dust. In the pages of a Greek
+historian the truth has been preserved; while the annals of the state
+are filled with a very different tale, embellished with all the
+eloquence and genius of the national historian. Such a sacrifice of
+historical veracity, in order to appease the insatiable cravings of
+national vanity, naturally casts a shade of doubt and suspicion on all
+the early records of her victories and triumphs. Freed from her enemies,
+Rome revived and emerged unconquered from the strife; she had been
+forced to bend before misfortune, but she was not broken by adversity: a
+new city sprung up on the ruins of the old, and the legions once more
+issued from the ramparts to carry her victorious banners to the capitals
+of a conquered world. We have not space to trace the various fortunes of
+Cisalpine Gaul during the early struggles which it carried on with the
+now increasing power of Rome. Suffice it to say, that when the Latins
+united in a league against her, the Cisalpines joined them; an
+engagement took place at Sentinum, where victory crowned the efforts of
+the Romans; but though defeated, the Gauls maintained their high
+character for valour during that fatal day. This success was followed up
+by a vigorous attack on the powerful Gaulish tribe of the Senones, who
+were almost exterminated, and on their territory was established a Roman
+colony: this was the first permanent settlement made by that people
+amongst the Gaulish tribes of Italy.
+
+We must refer the reader to M. Thierry's work for the account of the
+causes which led the Gauls and Kimry to press upon, and finally invade
+northern Greece, and the relation of the defeat of their first attack
+under the Brenn. We shall dwell somewhat longer on their second
+invasion, which forms one of the most interesting episodes of their
+history:--
+
+     "In the year 280 B.C., the Gauls, under a celebrated chief whose
+     title was the Brenn, prepared to invade Greece. Their army,
+     composed of various tribes of Gauls and Kimry, amounted to 152,000
+     infantry and 61,000 cavalry. When this immense array reached the
+     frontiers of Macedonia, a division broke out amongst their chiefs,
+     and 20,000 men, detaching themselves from the main army, advanced
+     into Thrace. The remainder, under the Brenn, precipitated
+     themselves on Macedonia, routed the army which endeavoured to
+     arrest their progress, and forced the remnant of the regular forces
+     who survived, to take refuge in the fortified cities. During six
+     months they ravaged with fire and sword the open country, and
+     destroyed the unfortified towns of Macedonia and Thessaly. At the
+     approach of winter, the Brenn collected his forces and established
+     his camp in Thessaly, at a position near Mount Olympus. Thessaly is
+     separated from Epirus and Ætolia by the chain of Pindus; and on the
+     south, the almost impenetrable range of Mount Oeta divides it
+     from the provinces of Hellas. The only pass by which an army can
+     march into Greece is that of Thermopylæ, which is a long narrow
+     defile, overhung on the right by the rocks of Mount Oeta, and
+     flanked on the left by impassable morasses, which finally lose
+     themselves in the waters of the gulf of Mulia. A few narrow and
+     difficult tracts traverse the ridge of Oeta; but these, though
+     passable to a small body of infantry, present insurmountable
+     obstacles to the advance of an army. To the pass of Thermopylæ, in
+     the spring of the year 280 B.C., the Brenn directed his march.
+     Aware of its vital importance, the Athenians, Boeotians,
+     Locrians, Phocians, and Megarians, who had formed a league against
+     the northern invaders, collected a force of about 26,000 men, who,
+     under the orders of Calippus, advanced to and occupied the strait,
+     whilst 305 Athenian galleys, anchored in the bay of Mulia, were
+     ready to operate upon the flank of the enemy. In his approach to
+     this position, the Brenn had to pass the river Sperchius, to defend
+     which Calippus had detached a small force: the Brenn, by a
+     stratagem, directed their attention from the real point of attack,
+     and crossed the river without loss. He then advanced to Heraclea,
+     and laid waste the surrounding country. The day after his arrival
+     at this place, he marched upon Thermopylæ. Hardly had the Gauls
+     begun to involve themselves in the pass, when they were encountered
+     by the Greeks in its classic defile. With loud cries, and in one
+     enormous mass, the Gauls rushed impetuously on; in silence, and in
+     perfect order, the Greeks advanced to the charge. The phalanx of
+     the south proved impenetrable to the sabre of the north; the pass
+     was soon covered with their dead bodies; the Gallic standards were
+     unable to advance. Meanwhile the Athenian galleys, forcing their
+     way through the marshes, poured in an incessant volley of arrows
+     and darts on the long and unprotected flank of the invaders. Unable
+     to withstand this double attack, the Gauls were forced to retreat.
+     This they did in the utmost confusion; large numbers perished,
+     trodden to death by their companions--still more were drowned in
+     the morasses. Seven days after this severe check, a small party
+     having attempted to cross Mount Oeta, they were attacked when
+     involved in a narrow and difficult pass, and cut to pieces. To
+     raise the drooping spirits of his men, and to separate the forces
+     of his adversaries, the Brenn detached a corps of 40,000 men, under
+     the command of Comlutis, with orders to force their way into
+     Ætolia. This diversion proved eminently successful. Comlutis,
+     finding the passes of Mount Pindus unguarded, traversed that range,
+     and entered Ætolia, the whole of which he laid waste with fire and
+     sword without opposition, as the whole military force of that
+     country had marched to the defence of Thermopylæ. On hearing of
+     this invasion, the Ætolians immediately separated from the allied
+     army, and hastened to the defence of their country. On their
+     approach Comlutis retreated; but whilst involved in the mountain
+     passes, his rear was overtaken by the regulars, and his flanks were
+     assailed by the enraged peasantry; so severe was his loss, that
+     hardly one-half of his force rallied at the camp of Heraclea. The
+     day after the departure of the Ætolians, the Brenn led on the main
+     body of his troops to attack the pass of Thermopylæ; whilst a
+     strong detachment received orders to force one of the mountain
+     paths, the knowledge of which had been betrayed to him by the
+     inhabitants; being guided by one of whom, and their movements being
+     concealed from view by a thick mist, which enveloped them, this
+     detachment succeeded in surprising the troops who were entrusted
+     with its defence, and, moving rapidly on, they fell on the rear of
+     the main body of the allies, who were engaged at Thermopylæ.
+     Assaulted both in front and rear, the Greeks would have been
+     totally destroyed, had it not been for the presence of the Athenian
+     fleet, who afforded a safe refuge to their shattered ranks. Freed
+     from the presence of his opponents, the Brenn immediately pushed on
+     to Elatia at the head of 65,000 men, from whence he directed his
+     march on Delphi. The town of Delphi was built on the slope of one
+     of the peaks of Parnassus, in the midst of a natural excavation,
+     and being almost entirely surrounded with precipices, it was left
+     unprotected by any artificial fortifications: above the town, on
+     the north, was situated the magnificent temple of Apollo, filled
+     with native offerings of the Greeks. The possession of this
+     treasure was the main object of the Brenn. The Gaulish army, on
+     their arrival before Delphi, dispersed over, and pillaged the
+     surrounding country for the remainder of the day; thus losing the
+     most favourable opportunity of assaulting the town."
+
+The _dénouement_ of the tragedy we shall give in Thierry's own words:--
+
+     "During the night, Delphi received from all sides, by the mountain
+     paths, numerous reinforcements from the neighbouring people. There
+     arrived successively 1200 well-armed Ætolians, 400 heavy-armed men
+     from Amplussa, and a detachment of Phocians, who, with the citizens
+     of Delphi, formed a body of 4000 men. At the same time, they
+     learned that the brave Ætolian army, after having defeated
+     Comlutis, had retaken the road to Elatia, and, increased by bands
+     of the Phocians and Boeotians, laboured to prevent the junction
+     of the Gaulish army of Heraclea with the division which besieged
+     Delphi.
+
+     "During the same night, the camp of the Gauls was the theatre of
+     the greatest debauchery; and when day dawned, the greater portion
+     of them were still intoxicated: nevertheless, it was necessary to
+     make the assault without loss of time, for the Brenn already
+     perceived how much the delay of a few hours had cost him. He drew
+     out his troops then in battle array, enumerating to them anew all
+     the treasures which they had before their eyes, and those which
+     awaited them in the temple: he then gave the signal for the
+     escalade. The attack was vigorous, and was sustained by the Greeks
+     with firmness. From the summit of the narrow and steep slope by
+     which the assailants had to ascend in order to approach the town,
+     the besieged poured down a multitude of arrows and stones, not one
+     of which fell harmless. Several times the Gauls covered the ascent
+     with their dead; but every time they returned to the charge with
+     courage, and at last forced the passage. The besieged, obliged to
+     beat a retreat, withdrew to the nearest streets of the town,
+     leaving the approach which conducted to the temple free: the
+     Gaulish race rushed on: soon the whole multitude was occupied in
+     pillaging the oratories which adjoined the temple, and, in fine,
+     the temple itself.
+
+     "It was then autumn, and during the combat one of those sudden
+     storms so frequent in the lofty chains of Hellas had gathered;
+     suddenly it burst, discharging on the mountain torrents of rain and
+     hail. The priests attached to the temple of Apollo, seized upon an
+     incident so fitted to strike the superstitious spirit of the
+     Greeks. With haggard eyes, with disheveled locks, with frenzied
+     minds, they spread out through the town, and through the ranks of
+     the army, crying that the god had arrived. 'He is here!' said they;
+     'we have seen him pass across the vault of the temple, which is
+     cloven beneath his feet; two armed virgins, Minerva and Diana,
+     accompany him. We have heard the whistling of their bows, and the
+     clang of their lances. Hasten, O Greeks! upon the steps of your
+     gods, if you wish to partake of their victory!' That spectacle,
+     those exhortations pronounced amidst the rolling of the thunder,
+     and by the glare of the lightning, filled the Hellenes with a
+     supernatural enthusiasm; they reformed in battle array, and
+     precipitated themselves sword in hand upon the enemy. The same
+     circumstances operated not less strongly, but in a contrary way,
+     upon the victorious bands; the Gauls believed that they recognised
+     the power of a divinity, but of an enraged divinity. The
+     thunderbolts had frequently struck their battalions, and its
+     reports, repeated by the echoes, produced around them such a
+     reverberation, that they no longer heard the commands of their
+     chiefs. Those who penetrated into the interior of the temple, had
+     felt the pavement tremble under their steps; they had been seized
+     by a thick and mephitic vapour, which overpowered them, and threw
+     them into a violent delirium. The historians relate, that amidst
+     this tumult they beheld three warriors of a sinister aspect, of
+     more than human stature, covered with old armour, and who
+     slaughtered the Gauls with their lances, appear. The Delphians
+     recognised, say they, the shades of three heroes, Hyperochus and
+     Zorodocus, whose tombs adjoined the temple, and Pyrrhus the son of
+     Achilles. As to the Gauls, a wild panic hurried them in disorder to
+     their camp, which they attained only with great difficulty,
+     overwhelmed by the arrows of the Greeks, and by the fall of
+     enormous rocks, which rolled over upon them from the summit of
+     Parnassus. In the ranks of the besiegers, the loss was doubtless
+     considerable.
+
+     "To that disastrous day succeeded, for the Kimry-Gauls, a night not
+     less terrible; the cold was excessive, and snow fell in abundance;
+     besides, fragments of rock falling incessantly in their camp, which
+     was situated too near the mountain, crushed the soldiers not by one
+     or two at a time, but by bodies of thirty and forty, as often as
+     they assembled to maintain guard or to seek repose. The sun no
+     sooner rose, than the Greeks who were within the town made a
+     vigorous sally, whilst those who were in the country fell upon the
+     rear of the enemy. At the same time, the Phocians, crossing the
+     snow by paths known but to themselves, took them in flank, and
+     assailed them with arrows and stones, without exposing themselves
+     to the slightest danger. Hemmed in on all sides, discouraged, and,
+     moreover, extremely incommoded by the cold, which had cut off many
+     of their number during the night, the Gauls began to yield. They
+     were sustained for some time by the intrepidity of the chosen band
+     who combated around the Brenn, and acted as his guard. The
+     strength, the stature, the courage of that guard, struck the Greeks
+     with astonishment. In the end, the Brenn having been dangerously
+     wounded, those brave men dreamed only of making a rampart of their
+     bodies for him, and of carrying him from the field. The chiefs then
+     gave the signal of retreat, and to prevent the wounded from falling
+     into the hands of the enemy, they caused those who were not in a
+     condition to follow, to be put to death. The army halted when the
+     night overtook it.
+
+     "The first watch of that second night had hardly commenced, when
+     the soldiers who were on guard imagined that they heard the tumult
+     of a night march, and the distant tramp of horses. The darkness,
+     already profound, did not permit them to discover their mistake;
+     they gave the alarm, and cried out that they were surprised--that
+     the enemy was upon them. The famine, the dangers, and the
+     extraordinary occurrences which had befallen them during the last
+     two days, had much shattered all their imaginations. At that cry,
+     'The enemy is at hand!' the Gauls, suddenly aroused, seized their
+     arms, and believing the camp already entered, they threw themselves
+     upon, and mutually slaughtered, each other. Their consternation was
+     so great, that they believed that each word which struck their ears
+     was uttered in Greek; as if they had forgotten their own proper
+     tongue. Besides, the darkness of the night did not permit them
+     either to recognise each other, or to distinguish the shape of
+     their bucklers. Day put an end to that frightful _mêlée_; but
+     during the night the Phocian shepherds, who remained in the fields
+     to watch their flocks, ran to inform the Greeks of the disorder
+     which was evident in the Gaulish camp. They attributed so
+     unexpected an event to the intervention of the god Pan, from whom,
+     according to the religious faith of the Greeks, alarms without any
+     real cause proceeded; full of ardour and of confidence, they
+     attacked the rearguard of the enemy. The Gauls had already resumed
+     their march, but with languor, as men discouraged, worn out by
+     diseases, famine, and fatigue. On their line of march the
+     population carried off the cattle and provisions, so that they
+     could not procure any subsistence without the utmost difficulty,
+     and at the point of the sword. The historians reckon at 10,000 the
+     number of those who sank under these misfortunes; the cold and the
+     nocturnal combat had cut off as many more, and 6000 had perished at
+     the assault of Delphi: there remained then to the Brenn no more
+     than 35,000 men when he rejoined the main body of his army, in the
+     plains watered by the Cephisus, on the day after his departure from
+     Thermopylæ."--(I. 171-178.)
+
+The Brenn, overwhelmed with grief at his misfortune, no sooner saw his
+army free from immediate danger than he put himself to death. His
+successor, following his dying advice, slaughtered 10,000 of the
+wounded, and continued his retreat:--
+
+     "As he approached Thermopylæ, the Greeks, issuing forth from an
+     ambuscade, threw themselves on his rearguard, which they cut to
+     pieces. It was in this miserable state that the Gauls gained the
+     camp of Heraclea. They remained there for a few days before setting
+     out on their northward route. All the bridges of the Sperchius had
+     been broken down, and the left bank of the river was occupied by
+     the Thessalians, who had collected _en masse_; nevertheless, the
+     Gaulish army forced a passage. It was in the midst of a population
+     all armed, and thirsting for vengeance, that they traversed, from
+     one extremity to the other, Thessaly and Macedonia, exposed to
+     perils, to sufferings, to privations, daily increasing, combating
+     without intermission during the day, and at night having no other
+     shelter than a cold and watery sky. They gained at last the
+     northern frontier of Macedonia. There the distribution of the body
+     took place: afterwards the Kimry-Gauls divided into many bands;
+     some returned to their country, others sought in different
+     directions new food for their turbulent activity."--(I. 180.)
+
+A band of Tectosages joined to the Tolistoboies, and a horde of Gauls,
+united, and traversing Thrace with fire and sword, passed over into Asia
+Minor. They found it distracted by the quarrels of Alexander's
+successors. Summoned in an evil hour by Nicomedes to aid him and the
+Greek states of Asia Minor in their struggle against the Seleucidæ, they
+soon established him on the throne of Bithynia. But they now turned
+their victorious arms against the nations of that unhappy country. Their
+armies, increased by reinforcements drawn from Thrace, had divided
+themselves into three hordes: the Tectosages, the Tolistoboies, and the
+Trocmes. To avoid dispute, they distributed the whole of Asia Minor into
+three parts: of these the Trocmes possessed the Hellespont and Troas;
+the Tolistoboies, Æolida and Ionia; the Tectosages, the coast of the
+Mediterranean from the west of Mount Taurus. They now overran and
+subdued all Asia Minor; every country, every town, was obliged to pay
+them tribute; or soon the fertile land was reduced to an arid desert,
+watered only by the blood of its inhabitants, and the costly city,
+stormed by the fierce warriors of the north, became a heap of smoking
+ruins. At last the Tectosages came in contact with Antiochus, king of
+Syria, and were totally defeated at the battle of the Taurus; the Syrian
+king, following up his victory, compelled them to resign their
+conquests, and to establish themselves on the banks of the Halys, near
+the town of Ancyra, in Upper Phrygia, where they dwelt, too weak again
+to enter on the career of conquest. Internal war prevented the Asiatics
+for some time from pursuing their successes, and the Trocmes and
+Tolistoboies continued still to pillage and oppress all the maritime
+provinces. Nay, their power was actually increased by those wars, as
+each of the contending parties purchased the mercenary services of large
+bands of those brave, though turbulent warriors. But the end of the
+Gaulish rule in Asia Minor was at hand. The small state of Pergamus,
+under the able rule of Eumenes, emerged from its obscurity, and
+inflicted a severe wound upon the Gauls by the defeat of Antiochus, king
+of Syria, with whom a great number of them served as mercenaries. His
+son Attalus, on his accession to the throne, immediately marched against
+and defeated the Tolistoboies. Ionia, which had long groaned under their
+oppression, seizing the opportunity, rose up against them; the
+Tolistoboies, beaten in several engagements, were driven beyond Mount
+Taurus; and the Trocmes, after a vain attempt to maintain themselves in
+Troas, were forced to retreat and unite with their defeated countrymen.
+Attacked now by the whole population of Asia Minor, the two hordes were
+driven by degrees into Upper Phrygia, where the Tectosages had formerly
+settled. Here the three hordes united, and here they founded the empire
+of Galatia.
+
+     "Thus ended in Asia Minor the dominion of this people in their
+     character of nomad conquerors; another period of existence now
+     commenced for them. Abandoning their wandering life, they mixed
+     with the indigenous population, who were themselves a mixture of
+     Greek colonists and Asiatics. That blending together of three
+     races, unequal in power and in civilization, produced a mixed
+     nation, that of the Gallo-Greeks, whose civil, political, and
+     religious institutions, carry the triple stamp of Gaulish, Greek,
+     and Phrygian manners. The regular influence which the Gauls are
+     destined to act in Asia Minor, as an Asiatic power, will prove not
+     to be inferior to that of which they have been deprived; and we
+     shall see them defend, almost to the last, the liberty of the East
+     against the Roman arms."--(I. 203-204.)
+
+We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his very interesting account
+of the exploits of the Gaulish mercenaries in Greece--in particular of
+those who served in the army of Pyrrhus; or who, acting in the pay of
+Carthage, contributed so much to the victories of that powerful and
+wealthy people, and who took that lead in the famous insurrection of the
+mercenaries, which so nearly brought about their ruin. We must pass over
+too, unnoticed, the desperate struggle between the Romans and Gauls in
+Cisalpine Gaul, which ended in the defeat of the Boian confederacy at
+the battle of the Telama, and their submission, and the subjugation of
+the Insubrians by Marcellus. The whole of Cisalpine Gaul thus seemed to
+be finally subdued, when a new enemy suddenly appeared in the field, and
+again led the Gaulish standards into the heart of southern Italy.
+
+Hardly had the Cisalpines laid down their arms, when there arrived
+amongst them emissaries sent by Hannibal to excite them to a renewal of
+the war, and to engage them in an alliance with Carthage, by promising
+to guarantee to them the liberty of their country, and by exciting their
+cupidity with the prospect of the spoils of Rome and southern Italy.
+They were well received, and secret armaments soon began to take place,
+especially amongst the Boian confederacy. But what immediately caused
+the outbreak was an attempt of the Romans to found two colonies, one at
+Cremona, and the other at Placentia. Enraged at this, the Boians took up
+arms, and attacking the colonists of Placentia, dispersed them, whilst
+the Insubrians expelled those who had advanced to Cremona. The Boians
+and Insubrians now uniting their forces, laid siege to Mutina, but in
+vain. This check, however, was more than counterbalanced by the defeat
+of a Roman army under the orders of Manlius. While affairs were in this
+state, the columns of Hannibal, descending from the Alps, arrived on the
+Insubrian territory. The result of the late successes of the Gauls in
+their disposition towards Hannibal, is well explained by Thierry:--
+
+     "Two factions then divided all Cisalpine Gaul. The one composed of
+     the Venetes, the Cremonas, and the Ligures of the Alps, gained over
+     to the Roman cause, opposed with vigour every movement in favour of
+     Hannibal. The other, which included the Ligures of the Apennines,
+     the Insubrians, and the people of the Boian confederation, had
+     embraced the Carthaginian side, but without much ardour. The
+     affairs of Gaul had undergone a great change. At the time when the
+     propositions of Hannibal were received with enthusiasm, Gaul was
+     humiliated and conquered; Roman troops occupied her
+     territory--Roman colonies assembled in her towns. But since the
+     dispersion of the colonies of Cremona and Placentia--since the
+     defeat of L. Manlius in the forest of Mutina, the Boians and
+     Insubrians, satisfied at having recovered their independence with
+     their own forces, cared little to compromise themselves for the
+     advantage of strangers, whose appearance and numbers inspired them
+     with but slight confidence."--(I. 284-285.)
+
+Hannibal felt all the importance of deciding the wavering sentiments of
+this people; on them his future success or defeat depended; to do this
+nothing but victory was requisite. He accordingly advanced rapidly
+against the Romans, and first engaged them in a cavalry action at the
+Ticinus. Victory declared for the Carthaginians. The horse of Numidia
+routed the cavalry of Rome. This success, unimportant as it was,
+revealed Hannibal to the eyes of the Gauls; influenced by it, the
+Insubrian chiefs hastened to supply him with provisions and troops.
+Hardly had the Carthaginians arrived in sight of the Roman camp at
+Placentia, when a large body of the Gaulish contingent revolted from
+Scipio, and contrived, though much reduced in numbers, to cut their way
+through in spite of all opposition, and join Hannibal. The famous battle
+of the Trebia--the first of those great victories which have rendered
+immortal the genius of the Carthaginian chief--soon followed; it at once
+decided the course of Cisalpine Gaul. Its immediate and ultimate effects
+on the power and operations of Hannibal are well developed by our
+author:--
+
+     "The fortune of Hannibal was then consolidated; more than 60,000
+     Boians, Insubrians, and Ligures flocked in a few days to his
+     standards, and raised his forces to 100,000 men. With such a
+     disproportion between the nucleus of the Carthaginian army and its
+     auxiliaries, Hannibal was in reality but a Gaulish chief; and if,
+     in the moments of danger, he had no cause to repent his new
+     situation, more than once, nevertheless, he cursed with bitterness
+     its inconveniences. Nothing could equal the courage and devotion of
+     the Gaulish soldier in the dangers of the battle-field; but under
+     the tent he had neither the habit nor the taste of military
+     subordination. The lofty conceptions of Hannibal surpassed his
+     comprehension; he could not understand war, unless such as he
+     himself carried it on--as a bold and rapid plundering excursion, of
+     which the present moment reaped the whole advantage. He would have
+     wished to march instantly on Rome, or at least to pass the winter
+     in some of the allied or subject provinces--in Etruria or in
+     Umbria--there to live at discretion in pillage and license. Did
+     Hannibal represent that it was necessary to spare the provinces in
+     order to gain them over to the common cause, the Cisalpines broke
+     forth into murmurs; the combinations of prudence and genius
+     appeared in their eyes but a vile pretext to deprive them of the
+     advantages which they had legitimately won."--(I. 292-293.)
+
+We cannot follow the steps of the great conqueror in his memorable
+campaigns--in his fatal march over the fens of Etruria, or through the
+glorious field of Thrasymene. But the share which the Gauls had in the
+mighty victory of Cannæ, and the change of the seat of war, with the
+results which followed from it, are of such importance, and the remarks
+made upon them by M. Thierry are so just, that we shall give the whole
+of his account of this event at full length:--
+
+     "From the field of Thrasymene Hannibal passed into southern Italy,
+     and gave battle a third time to the Romans, near the village of
+     Cannæ, on the banks of the Aufidus, now called the Offanto. He had
+     then under his banners 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; and of
+     these 50,000 combatants, at least 30,000 were Gauls. In his order
+     of battle, he placed their cavalry on the right wing, and in the
+     centre their infantry, whom he united to the Spanish infantry, and
+     whom he commanded in person: the Gaulish foot, as was their custom
+     on all occasions when they were determined to conquer or die, threw
+     off their tunic and sagum, and fought naked from their waist
+     upwards, armed with their long and pointless sabres. They commenced
+     the action; and their cavalry and that of the Numidians terminated
+     it. We know how dreadful the carnage was in that celebrated
+     battle--the most glorious of the victories of Hannibal--the most
+     disastrous of the defeat of Rome. When the Carthaginian general,
+     moved with pity, called to his soldiers 'to halt, and to spare the
+     vanquished,' without doubt the Gauls, bloodthirsty in the
+     destruction of their mortal enemies, carried to that butchery more
+     than the ordinary irritation of wars, the satisfaction of a
+     vengeance ardently wished for, and long deferred. There 70,000
+     Romans perished; the loss on the side of the conquerors was 5500,
+     of which 4000 were Gauls. Out of 60,000 Gauls, whom Hannibal had
+     enumerated around him after the combat of the Trebia, 25,000 only
+     remained; battle, sickness, above all, the fatal passage over the
+     marshes of Etruria, had cut off all the rest; for up to this period
+     they had supported almost exclusively the weight of the war. The
+     victory of Cannæ brought to the Carthaginians other auxiliaries; a
+     crowd of men from Campania, Lucania, Brutium, and Apulia, filled
+     his camp; but it was not that warlike race which he formerly
+     recruited on the banks of the Po. Cannæ was the term of his
+     success; and assuredly the fault ought not to be imputed to his
+     genius, more admirable even in adverse than in good fortune--his
+     army only had changed. For two thousand years history has accused
+     him with bitterness for his inaction after the battle of Aufidus,
+     and for his delay at Capua; perhaps it might reproach him more
+     justly for having removed from the north of Italy, and for having
+     allowed his communications with the soldiers who had conquered
+     under him at Thrasymene and Cannæ, to be cut off. Rome perceived
+     the fault of Hannibal, and hastened to profit by it. Two armies in
+     _échelon_, the one to the north, and the other to the south,
+     intercepted the communication between the Cisalpines and Magna
+     Græcia. That of the north, by its incursions and by its threatening
+     attitude, occupied the Gauls at their own hearths, whilst the
+     second made head against the Carthaginians."--(I. 297-300.)
+
+It has been said by the most renowned conqueror of modern times, that,
+give him but the Gallic infantry and the Mameluke cavalry, and he would
+subdue the world. And it cannot fail to strike the attentive reader with
+astonishment, to learn that the severest blow ever given to the power of
+Rome was inflicted by the Gaulish foot and the Numidian horse. It is
+curious, as exemplifying the unchanging characters of race, to observe
+that the greatest general of antiquity triumphed at the head of an army,
+composed of those very nations whom Napoleon, after the lapse of two
+thousand years, declared best fitted to pursue the blood-stained paths
+of military greatness.
+
+The efforts of the Gauls did not cease with the battle of Cannæ; they
+defeated an army under Posthumius, which invaded their territory. When
+Hasdrubal led his ill-fated expedition to strew their bodies on the
+Italian plains, he was accompanied by large bands of those brave
+adventurers; and when Carthage, making a last effort to succour her
+general, disembarked 14,000 men under the command of Mago, Hannibal's
+brother, at Genoa, numerous bodies of Gauls flocked to his standards.
+And this general, though unable to effect his junction with Hannibal,
+yet maintained his ground for ten years, till at last, defeated in the
+territory of the Insubrians, he retired to Genoa. There he received
+orders to return to the defence of Africa:--
+
+     "His brother also, recalled by the Carthaginian senate, was obliged
+     to embark at the other extremity of Italy. The Gaulish and Ligurian
+     soldiers, who had faithfully served Hannibal during seventeen
+     years, abandoned him not in his days of misfortune; re-united to
+     their compatriots who had followed Mago, they formed still a third
+     part of the Carthaginian army at Zama, in the celebrated day which
+     terminated that long war to the advantage of the Romans, and
+     displayed to the world the genius of Hannibal humbled before the
+     fortune of Scipio. The ferocity with which the Gauls fought has
+     been recorded by the historian: 'They showed themselves,' says
+     Titus Livy, 'inflamed with that inborn hate against the Roman
+     people, peculiar to their race.'"--(I. 310-311.)
+
+The war in Cisalpine Gaul did not cease with the departure of Hannibal.
+Under the orders of Carthaginian officer, the Gauls again took the
+field--Placentia fell beneath their arms; but they received a severe
+defeat from L. Furius, in the year 200 B.C., when the Carthaginian
+general Amilcar perished. From this period till the year 191 B.C., the
+Gaulish nations were involved in a constant succession of wars, in
+which, though occasionally victorious, they were upon the whole
+unsuccessful. Exposed to the incessant incursions of the Romans, their
+strength gradually wasted away; each year left them in a state more
+exhausted and unfit to renew the war than the preceding. Nation after
+nation laid down their arms in despair, till at last the Boian
+confederacy stood alone in its resistance of a foreign yoke; but their
+ravaged lands and reduced numbers were unequal to the struggle, and
+when, in the year 190 B.C., the Roman armies advanced into the heart of
+their exhausted territory, the few remaining inhabitants determined to
+abandon the land of their birth, and to seek, amidst ruder nations, and
+beneath a more ungenial sky, for that liberty in defence of which their
+fathers had so often bled. Accordingly, the wreck of a hundred and
+twelve Boian tribes, rising _en masse_, united, and wending their weary
+steps over the snow-clad summits of the Alps, and through the pathless
+forests of Germany, they found at last, on the banks of the distant
+Danube, a resting-place far removed from the hated name of Rome.
+
+All resistance from Cisalpine Gaul now ceased. Occasionally, indeed, a
+few tribes from the Transalpine would cross the Alps and descend into
+Italy, but they could not withstand the shock of the legions. The
+conquered territory was declared a Roman province, which it ever
+afterwards remained.
+
+We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his account of the progress
+and fall of that strange Gaulish kingdom of Galatia. From the year 241
+to the year 190 B.C., it maintained its independence unshaken, amidst
+the degenerate sons of Greece and the effeminate Asiatics. But the Roman
+power, beneath which the Gaulish race was ever doomed to bend, overtook
+them even amidst the mountains of Asia Minor. The Galatians had
+furnished some troops to Antiochus the Great, and then, for the first
+time, they came in contact with the eagle of the Capitol. The first
+encounter is thus alluded to by our author:--
+
+     "The Romans had annihilated, at Magnesia, the Asiatic and Greek
+     forces: yet the conquest of the country appeared to them still
+     incomplete. They had encountered, beneath the banners of Antiochus,
+     some bands of a force less easily conquered than the Syrians or the
+     Phrygians: by the armour, by the lofty stature, by the yellow or
+     reddish locks, by the war-cry, by the rattling clash of arms, by
+     the dauntless valour above all, the legions had easily recognised
+     that old enemy of Rome whom they had been brought up to fear.
+     Before deciding any thing as to the lot of the vanquished, the
+     Roman generals then determined to carry the war into Galatia."--(I.
+     360-361.)
+
+Accordingly, in the spring of 189 B.C., Cn. Manlius, with 22,000
+legionaries and an auxiliary army furnished by the King of Pergamus,
+invaded Galatia: at his approach the Tolistoboies and Tectosages
+intrenched themselves upon Mount Olympus, and the Trocmes upon Mount
+Megalon, and there awaited the attack. The consul first advanced to
+Mount Olympus. He led his troops to attack the Gaulish position in three
+columns; the principal column, under his own orders, was to advance on
+the Gauls in front, the other two were to try and turn their position on
+either flank. The column which he led first engaged.
+
+     "His _velites_ advanced in front of the standards, with the Cretan
+     archers of Attalus, the slingers, and the corps of Trulles and of
+     the Thracians. The infantry of the legions followed with slow
+     steps, as the steepness of the declivity rendered necessary,
+     sheltered beneath their bucklers, so as to avoid stones and arrows.
+     At a considerable distance the combat began with discharges of
+     arrows, and at first with equal success. The Gauls had the
+     advantage in position, the Romans in the number and variety of
+     their arms. The action continued, the equality no longer remained.
+     The narrow and flat bucklers of the Gauls protected them
+     insufficiently: soon having expended their darts and javelins, they
+     found themselves altogether disarmed: for at that distance their
+     sabres were useless. As they had made no selection of flints and
+     stones beforehand, they seized the first which chance threw in
+     their way, which were for the most part too large to be easily
+     wielded, or for inexperienced arms to throw with effect. The
+     Romans, meanwhile, poured down upon them a murderous hail of
+     arrows, javelins, and leaden balls, which wounded them, without
+     their having any possibility of avoiding the approach. * * * * A
+     great number had bit the dust, others adopted the course of rushing
+     right on the enemy, and they, at least, did not perish unavenged.
+     It was the corps of the Roman _velites_ who did them most harm.
+     These _velites_ carried on their left arm a buckler three feet in
+     size, in their right hand javelins, which they threw from afar, at
+     their girdle a Spanish sword; when it was necessary to engage in
+     close contact, they transferred their javelins to the left hand,
+     and drew their sword. Few Gauls now remained on foot: seeing then
+     the legions advance to the charge, they fled precipitately to their
+     camp, which the alarm of the multitude of women, children and old
+     men who were shut up within it, already filled with tumult and
+     confusion."--(I. 373-376.)
+
+The other two columns had, from the difficult nature of the ground, been
+unable to make any progress. Manlius now led on his legionaries to
+assault the intrenchment, which they carried at the sword's point. A few
+days after this victory, Manlius advanced with his triumphant army to
+attack the Trocmes, who were intrenched on Mount Megalon. This battle
+resembled much, both in its progress and in its termination, the one
+which preceded it. The Trocmes were driven with slaughter from the
+field, and their camp taken. Dispirited by this double defeat, the
+Galatians, who had rallied their scattered forces behind the Halys, sued
+for peace. The Romans, desiring rather to conciliate than to irritate
+this warlike people, merely exacted that they should surrender the land
+which they had taken from the allies of Rome, and that they should give
+up their wandering and predatory habits, so injurious to all their
+neighbours. Under the influence of the forced peace in which the
+subjection of Asia to the Romans kept the Galatians, their manners
+rapidly changed. Asiatic luxury took the place of northern barbarity;
+the worship of the national gods was abandoned, and the idols of the
+stranger were substituted in their room; the coarse garments of ancient
+days, gave place to vestments of purple and gold: yet a little while,
+and the loss of national manners was followed by the loss of political
+privileges; the magistracies, formerly elective, now became hereditary;
+the families who usurped this privilege formed, in course of time, a
+bright and all-powerful aristocracy. Ambition limited the number of
+these magistracies; from twelve they were reduced to four; at last they
+were centred in a single hand: so that when Galatia was united as a
+province to the Roman empire, it was governed by a hereditary king. Yet,
+amidst this usurpation of the sovereign power, the national council of
+the Three Hundred still continued to exist, and assist in the government
+of the state.
+
+During twenty years peace subsisted between the Galatians and their
+Asiatic neighbours. At the end of that period, however, a war broke out,
+and pillaging bands once more began to traverse the plains of Asia
+Minor; when Rome interposed, and by her mediation peace was restored.
+Mithridates, uniting beneath his sway all the powers of the East, drove
+back for a while the Roman eagles, and seemed about to restore their
+ancient glory to the Asiatics. The Galatians joined with him; but their
+fidelity became suspected, and he seized upon sixty of their nobles as
+hostages. Enraged at this treatment, they formed a plot to assassinate
+him; it was frustrated, and the conspirators were almost all
+treacherously put to death at a banquet. His troops then advancing, took
+possession of Galatia, which was governed by one of his officers with
+insolence and oppression for twelve years. At last a revolt broke out;
+his armies were driven from the country; Galatia was once more free. The
+defeat of Mithridates by the Roman arms ensured their independence for a
+short time; but the rest of Asia was now subject to the Romans.
+Surrounded, enveloped on all sides by their power, Galatia yielded at
+last, and was reduced to the form of a Roman province in the time of
+Augustus.
+
+Here M. Thierry ends the first part of his History of the Gauls; and
+thus far we have followed him step by step, because we considered this
+both the least known and the most interesting portion of Gaulish
+history. The two periods which follow are more familiar to historical
+readers: because, during them, Rome was the great enemy of the Gauls;
+and if she has often palliated her defeats, she has at least never
+failed to chronicle her victories. Henceforth, therefore, we shall no
+longer attempt to follow the thread of his narrative. The victories of
+Marius, the campaigns of Cæsar, stand in no need of our attention being
+directed to them, as to the wars of the Brenn in Greece, or the
+conquests of the horde in Asia Minor. Here we take leave of the Gaul as
+the conquering nomad; we have seen him wandering through the land of the
+stranger with fire and sword; but the hour of vengeance has now come,
+and we shall see him bleed in vain on his native soil for that liberty
+of which he had so often deprived others.
+
+M. Thierry opens his history of the second period with an exceedingly
+interesting account of the state of Gaul during the second and third
+centuries before our era. Gaul was then inhabited by three distinct
+families or races. By the Iberian family--divided into the Aquitains and
+the Ligures. By the Gaulish family--divided into the Gauls, the Kimry,
+and the Belgians. And by the Ionian-Greek family, or the inhabitants of
+the powerful and flourishing maritime and commercial state of Massalia.
+The Iberian and Ionian-Greeks, families occupying comparatively but a
+small portion of Gaul, need not detain us. With the Gauls we have more
+to do. Our author gives the following account of the way in which their
+territory was divided amongst the three different bands of this
+family:--
+
+     "A line which, setting out from the mouth of the Tann, follows the
+     course of that river, then that of the Rhone, the Iser, the Alps,
+     the Rhine, the Vosges, the Ædnian hills, the Loire, the Vienne, and
+     comes at last to rejoin the Garonne, by turning the plateau of
+     Arvernia: that line would nearly circumscribe the possessions of
+     the Gallic race. The territory situated to the east of that limit
+     belonged to the race of the Kimry; it was in time divided into two
+     portions by the line of the Seine and the Marne, the one northern
+     and the other southern. To the south, between the Seine and the
+     Garonne, lived the Kimry of the first invasion, intermingled with
+     Gallic blood, or the Gallo-Kimry. To the north, between the Seine
+     and the Rhine, the Kimry of the second invasion, or Belgians. The
+     Gauls numbered twenty-two nations; the Gallo-Kimry, seventeen; and
+     the Belgians, twenty-three. These sixty-two nations were subdivided
+     into many hundred tribes."--(I. 28.)
+
+He then enters into a long and most interesting description of the
+domestic manners, and political and religious institutions, of the
+Gauls.
+
+After having traced the Gaul for so long in the field, we love to follow
+him into his cabin--to observe his appearance, his pursuits, his
+habits--to mark the manly figure, the fair complexion, the flowing
+yellow locks, the glittering helmet surmounted with the antlers of the
+stag, the buckler covered with all the colours of the rainbow, the
+polished cuirass flashing back the rays of the morning sun, the heavy
+sabre hanging from the gold-bespangled belt, the precious necklace, the
+rich armlets, the bright and variegated hues of the martial sagum or
+mantle, of the noble Gaulish warrior. We follow him as he turns away
+from his clay-built mansion, and, regardless of the silent tears and
+entreating looks of his submissive, perhaps ill-used wife, hurries into
+the noise and excitement of the battle-field. Observe the wild frenzy
+that there seems to seize him, as he rushes with dauntless courage on
+the bristling phalanx of his enemies; as, amidst the clouds of dust
+which float overhead, and the horrid cries which resound on all sides,
+he tears and widens with savage ferocity the fearful gash he has just
+received; as, a moment after, overcoming in personal conflict yon
+stalwart chief, he decapitates, with one blow of his heavy sabre, the
+yet palpitating corpse, and waves the gory head with demoniac triumph in
+the air; and as he returns home, yet reeking with blood and intoxicated
+with victory, and suspends above his threshold the ghastly trophy. Look
+again--the scene is changed--the glittering arms are flung aside. With
+his mantle floating in the breeze, his light spear quivering in his
+hand, he plunges into the pathless forest; with fearless step he pursues
+his way through the leafy shade, and traverses the treacherous surface
+of the morass. Beneath yon giant oak he has encountered the fiercest
+inhabitant of those solitudes--the wild bull; but it has fallen beneath
+his javelin, which yet protrudes from it bushy neck, and, as it lies
+struggling on the greensward, making the wood ring again with its
+bellowings, his dagger is raised to give it the final stroke.--Observe
+him once more in the council of his nation. The warriors stand in an
+attentive circle leaning on their arms; he has risen to address them;
+his action is animated, his words are vehement; the polished accents,
+the finished periods of the Greek, flow not from his lips, but there is
+eagerness in his eye, there is earnestness in his speech, his language
+is figurative in the extreme, a thousand picturesque and striking images
+illustrate his meaning; his metaphors, drawn from the battle and the
+chase, thrill to the bosom of all his listeners; and the clash and clang
+of their arms, amidst which he sits down, proclaims alike their assent
+to his proposition and their admiration of his eloquence. It is amidst
+scenes like these that we love to follow the Gaul, to picture to
+ourselves an old race and an old civilization, which combined in so
+strange a way the greatness and the savageness, the heroism in danger
+and weakness under temptation, of primeval and half-civilized man.
+
+To comprehend clearly the internal and external history of the Gauls, we
+must understand the political condition of their country. This is
+unfolded in a clear and masterly manner by our author, in the following
+passage:--
+
+     "In Gaul, two privileged orders ruled the rest of the people--the
+     elective order of the priests, who recruited themselves
+     indiscriminately from all ranks, and the hereditary order of the
+     nobles or knights. This latter was composed of the ancient royal
+     families of the tribes, and of those men who had been recently
+     ennobled, either by war or by the influence of riches. The
+     multitudes were divided into two classes--the people of the
+     country, and the people of the town. The first formed the tribes or
+     the clans of the noble families. The client belonged to his patron,
+     whose domains he cultivated, whose standard he followed in war,
+     under whom he was a member of a little patriarchal aristocracy; his
+     duty was to defend him to the death from, and against all: to
+     abandon his patron in circumstances of danger, passed for the
+     consummation of disgrace, and even for a crime. The people of the
+     towns, from their situation, removed from the influence of the old
+     hierarchy of the tribes, enjoyed greater liberty, and fortunately
+     found themselves in a situation to maintain and to defend it.
+     Beneath the mass of the people came the slaves, who do not appear
+     to have been very numerous. The two privileged orders caused the
+     yoke of their despotism to weigh, turn by turn, upon Gaul. Turn by
+     turn they exercised absolute authority, and lost it by a series of
+     political revolutions. The history of the government of the Gauls
+     offers, then, three very distinct periods: that of the reign of the
+     priests, or of the theocracy--that of the reign of the chiefs of
+     the tribes, or of the military aristocracy--lastly, that of the
+     popular constitutions, founded on the principle of election, and on
+     the will of the majority. The epoch which we are about to treat of,
+     accomplished that last and great revolution; and popular
+     constitutions, although still ill assured, at last ruled over all
+     Gaul at the commencement of the first age."--(II. 71-73.)
+
+M. Thierry recognises in the Gauls the traces of two distinct religions.
+He says--
+
+     "When we examine attentively the character of the facts relative to
+     the religious belief of the Gauls, we are led to recognise two
+     systems of ideas, two bodies of symbols and superstitions
+     altogether distinct--in a word, two religions: the one altogether
+     sensible, derived from the adoration of natural phenomena, and by
+     its forms, as well as by its literal development, reminding us of
+     the polytheism of the Greeks; the other founded upon a material
+     pantheism, metaphysical, mysterious, sacerdotal, and presenting the
+     most astonishing conformity with the religions of the East. That
+     last has received the name of druidism, from the druids who were
+     its founders and priests. We shall give to the first the name of
+     the Gaulish polytheism."--(II. 73-74.)
+
+Thierry thinks that this polytheism originally prevailed amongst the
+Gauls, but that the Kimry introduced druidism, which soon became the
+dominant religion over the whole of Gaul, though the original polytheism
+ingrafted upon it more or less, in different places, some of its tenets
+and ceremonies. The great seat of the religion of the druids was
+Armorika, and, above all, Britain; there existed the most powerful of
+their sacerdotal colleges--there were celebrated the most secret of
+their mysteries.
+
+It is wondrous thing, that religion of the ancient druids! A solemn
+mystery enshrouds it--all the efforts of modern science cannot lift the
+veil. When we look on yon circle of stones which, grey with the lapse of
+ages, stands in lonely majesty upon the dreary moor, near which no sound
+is ever heard, save the distant and sullen roar of the ocean, as it
+breaks in sheets of foam on the rock-bound coast--the fitful cry of
+curlew, as it wings over them its solitary way--or the occasional low
+moaning of the wind, as, stealing through amidst the rocks, it seems to
+pour forth a mournful dirge for the shades of departed greatness:--when
+we look on a scene like this, we have before our gaze all that is known
+of these men of the olden time. Their blood-stained rites, their solemn
+mysteries, are forgotten; but their simple temples still stand
+imperishable as the God to whom they were erected. From the study of the
+ancient authors little or no information can be gleaned; a few
+descriptions of their bloody sacrifices, an account of some of their
+more public ceremonials, is all that they have handed down to us. But
+the real nature of their religion is unknown: more of its spirit is
+taught to us by those silent stones than by all other accounts put
+together. The choice of the situations for those sacred monuments amidst
+the melancholy waste, or buried deep in the recesses of some vast
+forest, where the wide-spreading branches of their sacred tree (the oak)
+casts its deep shadows over the consecrated spot, with no canopy save
+the heavens, shows the dark and gloomy spirit of their faith. They
+worshipped the God of the thunder-storm, not the God of peace; and it
+was amidst the thunder-storm that their horrid rites appeared most
+horrid. When, illuminated by the lurid glare of the lightning, the
+gigantic osier figure filled with human beings sank into the
+flames--when the shouts of the multitude who stood in a dense circle
+around the spot, the frenzied chants of the druids, and the despairing
+shrieks of the dying victims, were drowned in the sullen roar of the
+thunder--then must the fearful nature of their creed have stood forth in
+all its horrors. Yet with all this, there was a sort of grandeur in the
+seclusion and simplicity of their worship. All was not blood; and though
+they bowed down to the Unknown God in an erring and mistaken spirit, yet
+must their conception of him been fine. The God of nature and the
+wilderness--the God of the tempest and the storm--was a nobler idea than
+the immortalized humanities of Greek and Roman mythology, though both
+had wandered equally far from the true God of Mercy and of Peace.
+
+When Massalia was hard pressed by two Gaulish nations, she summoned, in
+an evil hour, Rome to her aid. By the Roman arms her assailants were
+repelled, but these allies maintained their footing in the country. They
+soon subdued Liguria, and founded the town of Aquæ Sextiæ; the Gaulish
+nation of the Ædues united with the strangers; a defensive league
+entered into by the Allobroges and the Arvernes to drive them from their
+shores, was defeated. The territory acquired by these victories was
+organized into a Transalpine province; this province gradually went on
+increasing; its communications with Italy were assured, by the Romans
+obtaining possession of the passes of the Alps. In the year 118 B.C.,
+the first Roman colony in Gaul was founded at Narbonne; hither, in
+course of time, came the great maritime commerce which had raised
+Massalia to her greatness; hither, too, flowed much of the internal
+traffic of Gaul. The ships of Massalia lay rotting in her harbours, her
+extensive quays lost their busy multitudes. In the fall of her naval
+power, in the loss of her commercial policy, she received a just reward
+for having wafted to her shores, and assisted with her forces, the
+stranger who was destined to rule over the Gaulish people. The
+organization of the province was completed; and from Narbonne, Roman
+emissaries issuing forth, laboured, by augmenting the quarrels and
+dissensions of the native tribes, to afford an opportunity for her to
+extend the limits of the empire.
+
+Driven from the shores of the Baltic by an inroad of the ocean, the two
+tribes of the Kimry and the Teutones uniting, precipitated themselves,
+to the number of 300,000 fighting men, upon the more southern countries.
+In the course of their wanderings they came upon the Roman province of
+Norica, which they laid waste with fire and sword, and where they
+defeated the consul, Papirius Carbon, with great loss. Without taking
+advantage of this opportunity to enter Italy, which now lay open to
+their attack, they entered the country of the Helvetii, where they were
+joined by the tribes of that people, the Ambrones, the Tigurines, and
+the Teutones; descending now upon Gaul like a devastating torrent, they
+wasted it as far as the Belgian frontier; here, however, the resistance
+of the inhabitants prevented them from advancing further. Turning now
+upon the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, they defeated three Roman
+armies under Silanus, Cassius, and Scaurus; and here they were joined by
+that portion of the Tectosages who had formerly returned from the
+disastrous invasion of Greece. The Roman generals, Cepio and Manlius,
+who had advanced against them, were utterly routed, and great part of
+the province laid waste. From hence the Kimry penetrated into Spain,
+where they remained for two years, pillaging and wasting the country,
+till, having received a check from the Celtiberians, they repassed the
+Pyrenees, and united with their confederated in the plains of Gaul. The
+united bands now prepared to march upon Italy; this they did in two
+divisions: one, consisting of the Kimry and the Tigurines, directed its
+steps through Helvetia and Norica and by the Tridentine Alps; while the
+other, consisting of the Ambrones and the Teutones, moved on the route
+which leads to Italy by the Maritime Alps: both divisions had appointed
+a common rendezvous on the banks of the Po.
+
+Rome was not unprepared for this invasion; to meet it, Marius had been
+recalled from his command in Africa, and invested with the consular
+power. When the division of the Ambrones and the Teutones reached the
+Maritime Alps, they found that general encamped in a position which lay
+directly in their line of march. Assaulted for three successive days,
+the Romans maintained themselves in their intrenchments: at last the
+Gauls, giving up the attempt to force them, passed on and soon reached
+Aquæ Sextiæ, whither they were followed by Marius. Marius encamped on a
+hill opposite the quarter of the Ambrones; between them flowed a river.
+The sutlers of the Roman army having descended to obtain water,
+encountered, in the bed of the torrent, some Gauls. A skirmish began;
+the Ambrones flocked in great numbers to support their comrades; soon
+they assembled their whole force and advanced upon the Romans. In
+crossing the stream they were vigorously opposed by the auxiliaries.
+Marius, seeing the favourable opportunity, led down his legions to the
+attack. Unable to withstand the shock, the Ambrones were driven back
+with great loss; the river ran red with their blood; the plain was
+covered with fugitives; and their routed forces halted not till they
+reached the neighbouring quarter of the Teutones. In their camp the
+Romans experienced more resistance from the women, who, rather than fall
+into the hands of their enemies, flung themselves on the hostile ranks,
+or perished by their own hands. Marius drew off his troops before night,
+and retreated to his former position on the hill. The next night he sent
+round 3000 men to occupy a wood in the rear of the position of the
+Teutones. The following morning he drew out his legions in battle array
+upon the slope of the hill, and sent forward his cavalry to skirmish
+with the enemy, and induce them to engage with him. They fell into the
+snare: pursuing his cavalry, they advanced to the river's edge, and
+there, in an evil hour, crossed it and attacked the Roman army. The
+contest which ensued was long and desperate; the Gauls had the advantage
+in numbers, the Romans in discipline and position. But while victory
+still hung in the balance, the 3000 Romans, issuing forth from their
+ambuscade, fell upon the rear of the Teutones: this produced
+irremediable confusion in the ranks of the Gauls. The Romans redoubled
+the energy of their attack, and the victory was no longer doubtful. Many
+perished in the field, more in the pursuit; the remainder were cut off
+in detail by the peasants, who assailed them on all sides.
+
+Meanwhile the other divisions of the Gauls, consisting of the Kimry and
+the Tigurines, after traversing Helvetia and Norica, arrived at the
+Tridentine passes of the Alps at the end of winter. To keep possession
+of these passes the Tigurines halted upon the summits of the ridge,
+while the Kimry, continuing their march, descended into the valley of
+the Adige. On their approach the consul Catulus, who was charged with
+the defence of this part of Italy, retreated behind the Adige; and when
+the Gauls advanced to attack him, his legions were seized with such a
+panic, that, abandoning their camp, they fled, and halted not till they
+had placed the Po between themselves and the enemy. The Kimry now spread
+themselves over the whole territory beyond the Po, and occupied the land
+without opposition: here they determined to await the arrival of the
+other column. This delay saved Italy; for it afforded time for Marius
+and his army to cross the Alps, and effect a junction with Catulus and
+his troops. In the July of 101 B.C., Marius and Catulus advanced to meet
+the Kimry on the banks of the Po. On the 30th of July the hostile armies
+met to decide the fate of Italy in the Campus Ranolius. The battle which
+ensued was long and bloody; but overcome by the heat of the day and the
+immense clouds of dust, and exposed by their imperfect defensive armour
+to all the strokes of the enemy, the Kimry were in the end totally
+defeated. When the Romans, in the course of the pursuit, came to their
+camp, the same scene occurred as that which took place at Aquæ Sextiæ;
+as the women, after defending themselves for some time, at last put an
+end to their existence with their own hands. On receiving news of this
+defeat, the Tigurines abandoned the passes of the Alps, and retreated to
+their native country, Helvetia. Thus ended the last invasion of Italy by
+the Gauls. Rome acknowledged the danger she had run by the gratitude she
+displayed to Marius, who received the title of the third Romulus, and
+his triumph was celebrated with all the enthusiasm of a grateful
+country.
+
+We pass in silence over the various occurrences in Gaul till we come to
+the year 58 B.C. This was the year when Cæsar commenced his career of
+victory. His first achievement was the defeat of the Helvetii, who,
+rising _en masse_, wished to abandon their sterile country, and gain by
+the sword a more fertile land. He next advanced against Ariovistus and
+his Germans, who were ravaging with fire and sword the eastern portions
+of Gaul: these he likewise totally routed--thus delivering the
+inhabitants from a withering scourge. But their joy at this event was
+soon changed into sadness, when they saw that the Romans had no
+intention of retreating from their territory. Establishing himself
+amongst the Sequanes, Cæsar levied contributions and collected
+provisions from all the neighbouring nations. Their discontent soon
+burst forth; they flew to arms, and prepared to make a desperate fight
+in defence of their liberties. We have no room to follow the Roman
+through his various campaigns; to trace the long and gallant stand made
+by the Gauls in defence of their native land; or the great and admirable
+genius of Cæsar, nowhere displayed so greatly as in his Gaulish
+campaigns, though perfidy sometimes tainted his councils, and torrents
+of innocent blood too often stained his arms. Suffice it to say, that
+after three campaigns, the north and west had submitted to his forces,
+and he had made his first descent on the British shores. In his fourth
+campaign he undertook his second expedition against Britain, and subdued
+some more of the continental tribes. But a general movement now took
+place over nearly the whole of Gaul against the Romans, who at first
+suffered some severe checks; but the military skill of Cæsar, in the
+course of a fifth campaign, again triumphed. Though so often vanquished,
+these brave people were not yet subdued. A new league was entered into
+by their cities; the war broke out afresh; and an able general,
+Vercingeto-rix, now directed their movements. It was during the course
+of his sixth campaign, which now followed, that Cæsar ran the greatest
+danger and achieved the greatest triumphs. The surprise of Genatum, the
+capture of Avaricum, seemed at first to promise a speedy victory to his
+arms; but a repulse which he suffered before the walls of Geronia was
+the signal for the whole of Gaul to unite with the insurgents. A victory
+which he gained over Vercingeto-rix soon afterwards, checked for the
+moment, but did not dispirit, the Gauls; and the whole weight of the war
+was soon collected around the ramparts of Alexia. Both parties felt that
+the contest which would now ensue must decide the fate of the campaign,
+and both made the most strenuous exertions to prepare for it. The
+gigantic lines of Cæsar were soon surrounded by the whole force of the
+enemy, and a combined attack was made upon them both from within and
+without. Great and imminent was the peril; but the steadiness of the
+legions, and the gallantry of their chief, surmounted it, and the
+banners of Rome finally waved triumphant over the hard-fought field. The
+fruits of this victory were immense. Alexia capitulated; the Gaulish
+nations who had been most active in the war submitted; and
+Vercingeto-rix was given up to the conquerors. Yet was a great part of
+the country still unsubdued; and when in the ensuing year, B.C. 51,
+Cæsar took the field in his seventh and last campaign in this country,
+he found a powerful and numerous confederacy in arms. Taught by the
+experience of the past, they no longer attempted to unite their whole
+forces and defeat him in general engagements, but endeavoured to exhaust
+his resources, and wear out his troops by a protracted defensive
+warfare. They fortified and garrisoned their towns so as to impose on
+him the necessity of innumerable sieges; whilst the country, on his
+line of march, was laid waste, and his troops were harassed by the
+incessant attacks of their skirmishers. But Cæsar overcame all
+difficulties: if they met him in battle, they were vanquished; if they
+retreated to their fortifications, they were driven from them by
+escalade; if they took refuge in their marshes, he pursued and overtook
+them even there. Dispirited by these constant defeats, the Gauls, for
+the last time, laid down their arms. The conquered territory was
+organized as a new province of the Roman empire, and Cæsar laboured to
+attach it to his person by the lenity and moderation of his government.
+In this he succeeded; nor had he ever reason to repent of having done
+so; for, during the civil wars which raised him to the imperial power,
+he received no inconsiderable assistance from the courage and devotion
+of its inhabitants. Here, as a free people, ends the history of the
+Gauls. We shall not follow M. Thierry in his account of the last period
+of their annals, which embraces the subjugation of the Britons; the
+organization of Gaul into a subject province; the gradual loss of their
+nationality by its inhabitants; the spread of Roman manners and Roman
+civilization amongst them; their transition from an independent people
+to an integral part of the Roman empire. Here we take leave of them:
+their arms have just dropped from their hands; liberty has just fled
+from their shores; the fetters of conquest sit strangely on their
+free-born limbs; they have not yet learned the vices of a subject race:
+after having followed them in their career of conquest, and through the
+hard-fought struggle in their native land, we love not to dwell on the
+crushing of their haughty spirit.
+
+Throughout the whole of his history, Thierry sustains the interest well;
+but nowhere is his narrative more animated than in his account of the
+wars of Cæsar; and no wonder, for a nobler field could not lie before
+him. His book is altogether one of the most curious and interesting
+which we possess on the history of ancient times. A great work it cannot
+be called. M. Thierry is more a man of talent than of genius; and
+accordingly, in his work, we are more struck with the interest of his
+narrative than with the profoundness of his reflections: it contains not
+the philosophy of Guizot, nor the originality of Michelet, yet it is a
+valuable addition to modern literature. Would that we saw a few more
+such in our own country!
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Histoire des Gaulois_, par M. AMADÉE THIERRY. 3 tomes. Paris: 1835.
+
+
+
+
+THE WITCHFINDER.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+At the upper end of the large Gothic room, forming the interior of the
+town-hall of Hammelburg, which was formally prepared as a court of
+trial, sat upon a raised part of the flooring in his chair of state, the
+Ober-Amtmann; before him were placed, at a velvet-behung table, his
+_schreibers_ or secretaries; beside him sat, upon a low cushioned stool,
+his daughter, the fair Fraulein Bertha, surrounded by her tirewomen, who
+remained standing behind her.
+
+The presence of the young Fraulein was of rare occurrence upon occasions
+of judicial ceremony in the old town-hall. But a solemn appeal to her
+testimony had been made by the witchfinder; and her father, whose sense
+of justice considered that a matter of accusation of so heavy and
+serious a nature as that of witchcraft, should be investigated in all
+its bearings, had commanded her presence. Her heart, full of the purest
+milk of human kindness, revolted, however, from witnessing the progress
+of such terrible proceedings--the justice of which her simple mind,
+tutored according to the dark prejudices of the age, never once doubted,
+but which curdled her blood with horror. And she sat pale and sad, with
+downcast eyes, scarcely daring to raise them upon the crowd that filled
+the hall, much less upon the most conspicuous object in the scene before
+her--the unhappy being against whom all curses, all evil feelings, all
+insane desires of blood and death, were then directed. Perhaps there was
+another reason also, which, almost unconsciously, caused her to keep her
+eyes fixed upon the earth; perhaps she feared that they might meet two
+other mild blue eyes, the expression of which was that of a deep--far
+too deep--an interest; for it caused her heart to beat, and her spirit
+to be troubled; and her bosom to heave and sigh, she knew not wherefore:
+unless, indeed, she were, in truth, bewitched.
+
+In the centre of the hall was placed the accused woman. She was seated
+upon a rude three-legged stool, which was firmly fixed upon a raised
+flooring, elevated about three feet from the ground--her face turned
+towards her judge. A slight chain passed round the middle of her body,
+and fastened her down to her seat. She was still attired in the dark
+hood and cloak which had been her customary dress, and sat, with head
+bent downwards, and her hands clasped languidly upon her knees, as if
+resigned, in the bitterness of her despair, to meet the cruel fate that
+awaited her.
+
+Below, was a compact and turbulent crowd of the lower orders of the
+town, which was with difficulty kept, by the pikemen, within the limits
+assigned to it; and which, from time to time, let forth low howls
+against the supposed sorceress, that increased, like the _crescendo_ of
+distant thunder, and then died away again.
+
+On either side, towards the upper end, were ranged upon benches some of
+the more reputable _bourgeois_ and their spouses, all decked out in
+their finest braveries, as if they were present at a theatrical show, or
+a church mystery: and, in truth, the representation about to be given,
+was but little more in their own eyes, than a sort of show got up for
+their especial gratification.
+
+Guarded by two pikemen, stood the cripple--his teeth set firmly,
+although his lips quivered with excitement--his light eyes glaring
+fiercely around with an air of savage exultation, and gleaming, as it
+were, with a pale phosphoric fire, from out of the dark ground of his
+swarthy face and lank black hair. He moved restlessly and uneasily upon
+his withered limbs, clenching by fits and starts his rosary from his
+bosom, and murmuring a hasty, and--to judge by the wildness of his eyes,
+that showed how his mind was fixed upon far other thoughts--a vain
+prayer. He rolled also his head and the upper part of his body
+continually backwards and forwards, like a wild beast fretting in his
+cage.
+
+Among the more prominent of the crowd, whom the favour of the guards
+had allowed to push beyond the assigned limits, or whom reasons,
+connected with the trial, required to come forwards, stood "Gentle
+Gottlob." His brow was overclouded with sadness, for he felt in how
+fearful a pass this horrible denunciation had placed the woman whom he
+had so long regarded with attachment. His mild blue eye was more
+melancholy than of wont; and yet, in spite of the trouble of his mind,
+he was unable to withdraw his looks from that bright loadstone of his
+affections, whose sadness seemed to sympathize with his own. At least,
+his heart would fain persuade him that there was mysterious sympathy in
+their mutual dejection.
+
+The principal personages concerned in the awful question at issue,
+occupied, thus, their respective positions in the old town-hall; when,
+after a long and troubled pause, during which silence was with
+difficulty obtained among the more tumultuous portion of the crowd at
+the lower end of the hall, one of the _schreibers_ rose, and read, from
+an interminable strip of parchment which he held in his hand, the act of
+accusation against the female known under the popular designation of
+"Mother Magdalena," as attainted of the foul crime of witchcraft, of the
+casting of spells and malefices to the annoyance and destruction of her
+fellow-creatures, of consorting with spirits of darkness, and of
+lascivious intercourse with the arch-fiend himself. For so ran, at that
+time, the tenor of the accusation directed against the unhappy women
+suspected of this imaginary crime.
+
+The act of accusation was long, and richly interlarded with all those
+interminable complications of legal phraseology, which seem ever, at all
+times, and in all nations, to have been the necessary concomitants of
+all legal proceedings. The reading of the act, however, being at last
+terminated, the town-beggar, commonly known by the familiar name of
+Black Claus the witchfinder, Schwartzer-Claus, or Claus Schwartz, as he
+was usually designated among the people, was summoned to stand forward
+as the denouncer of the aforesaid Magdalena, and to substantiate his
+charge.
+
+Thus called upon, the cripple gave a start forward, like a lion let
+loose upon the gladiator's arena, through the barred gates of which he
+has already sniffed the odour of blood; and then, raising one of his
+long arms towards the stool of penitence, on which the criminal had been
+placed, he again repeated, with an eagerness amounting to frenzy, his
+accusation against her.
+
+As the witchfinder's hoarse voice was heard, a visible shudder passed
+through Magdalena's frame; but she raised not her head, moved not a
+limb, spoke not; and it was only when called upon by the chief
+_schreiber_ to declare what she had to say against this accusation, that
+she lowly murmured--"God's will be done!" but still with bowed head and
+downcast eyes.
+
+In support of his denunciation, the cripple proceeded to state how he
+had watched the mysterious female called "Mother Magdalena," and had
+observed that she never would enter any consecrated building; how she
+would daily advance up the steps of the church, and then pause before
+the threshold, as if she feared to pass it, and then throw herself down
+upon the stones before the gate, where she would lie in strange
+convulsions, and at last return without having penetrated into the
+building--an evident proof that the devil she served had forbidden her
+to put her foot into any sacred dwelling, but had taught her,
+nevertheless, to approach near enough to treat the awful mysteries of
+the Christian religion, performed within, with mockery and contempt. To
+this accusation, which was confirmed by the acclamation of several
+persons present in the court, Magdalena, when called upon to speak,
+proffered no denial; she contented herself with the meek reply, that God
+alone knew the motives of the heart--that it was for him alone to judge.
+The words were still uttered in the same low despairing tone, and
+without the slightest movement of her head from its sunken posture.
+
+The partially monastic dress, which was her habitual attire, was next
+brought forward against her as a proof of her desire to treat with
+contempt the dress of the religious orders: and to this absurd
+accusation, when asked why she had adopted a costume resembling that of
+the holy sisterhood of penitents, the old woman still refused any reply.
+
+The events of the previous afternoon, when she had been openly seen to
+throw her staff at the Amtmann's unoffending daughter, and wound her on
+the neck, and then break into pieces the image of the Holy Cross, were
+then recapitulated, as facts known upon the positive evidence of a
+hundred witnesses.
+
+These matters disposed of, the cripple proceeded to detail his own
+peculiar grievances, and attributed, as he had done in the cases of the
+seven unhappy women who had already fallen victims of his frantic
+delusion, the severe pains that had racked his poor distorted limbs to
+the malefic charms of the sorceress. He related how, on the last night
+on which he had met Mother Magdalena, he had found her sitting by the
+well in the market-place, casting a spell upon the spring, and turning
+the waters to poison and blood--as a proof of which, he swore to have
+himself tasted in the water of the bucket the taste of blood; how, in
+revenge for his warning to her to desist from her foul practices, she
+had pointed up her finger to the sky, and immediately brought down upon
+his head all the combined waters of heaven; how she had vanished from
+his sight in this storm, he knew not how; and how immediately intense
+pains began to torture his joints, until he became half frantic with
+agony, and had been compelled, by hideous visions, to quit the shelter
+he had sought, in order to be exposed to all the peltings of the storm.
+He had since suffered, he declared, the tortures of the damned in all
+his limbs, with occasional fits of shuddering, sometimes of hot fever,
+sometimes of the most freezing cold, which were evidently torments
+worked upon him by the powers of darkness. And as he spoke, the unhappy
+wretch was again seized by one of his fearful fits of ague, during the
+convulsions of which the clamours of the crowd grew terrible against the
+sorceress.
+
+"What sayest thou to this accusation, woman?" said the chief
+_schreiber_. "Thou see'st how even now he suffers."
+
+"I have never willed evil to any man--not even to him," was Magdalena's
+only reply.
+
+When recovered from his fit, the cripple again raised his head--it was
+to cast a glance at the object of his denunciation, in which hatred and
+triumph were blended together, in one of those occasional flashes of
+wildness which showed that there was a vein of insanity running through
+all the frenzied zeal of the witchfinder. He had now arrived at a period
+of his narration, when the most damning proof of all was to overwhelm
+the accused woman.
+
+It was not without an unaffected expression of horror, that he went on
+to relate how he had wandered around the building by the Watergate, in a
+lower cell of which he had discovered that she dwelt, seeking in vain to
+find an entrance or a peep-hole, that might enable him to penetrate into
+the interior; how he had, at last, dragged his crippled limbs up into a
+tree upon the river's bank, overlooking an upper chamber of the
+building; how he had, at first, seen Mother Magdalena in conversation
+with the young illuminator; how, upon his departure, she had flung
+herself down upon her knees, and after spitting upon one of the books of
+holy writ upon the table, had made wild gestures of conjuration, upon
+which the demon himself, attired in a dark robe, had suddenly appeared
+by supernatural means, for he had not entered by the door; how the foul
+hag had fallen down and worshipped the arch-fiend; and how, after a
+conference of short duration, during which the woman at his feet
+appeared to supplicate with earnestness, probably a prolongation of her
+wretched term of power to work ill, and afterwards kissed his hand in
+token of adoration and submission, the demon had vanished as suddenly as
+he had appeared.
+
+A low murmur of horror ran through the assembly, as Black Claus related
+this fearful story. All eyes were turned upon the handmaiden of Satan.
+For a moment she had raised her head, horror-struck at this
+interpretation of the interview she had in Gottlob's chamber with the
+stranger--for a moment she seemed to have a desire to speak. But then,
+clasping her hands before her face, she murmured--"O God! it cannot be!
+But this is terrible!"
+
+Gottlob, who, during the whole accusation, had listened with much
+impatience, could now no longer restrain his generous feelings. He
+started forward with the words--"No, no, it is impossible! Speak,
+Magdalena--say how false is this man's tale."
+
+"God knows that it is false!" said Magdalena.
+
+"I knew it could not be. There could be no one with thee in my chamber,
+and he lies."
+
+"No," replied Magdalena sadly, "thus far is true:--There was a stranger
+by me in your chamber."
+
+"But who then?--speak, Magdalena," urged Gottlob. "Clear yourself of the
+foul stigma of his tale."
+
+"I may not say!" replied the unhappy woman. "But God will prove my
+innocence in His own right time."
+
+"Why hesitate," again cried the eager young man, "when with a word you
+could disprove him?"
+
+"I have already said it cannot be," said the accused woman, sinking her
+head upon her breast.
+
+Gottlob himself drew back with a shudder; for a moment he knew not what
+to think; the strange answers of Magdalena perplexed and troubled him.
+He began himself to doubt of the woman, who, in return for his
+benevolence, had showed him the attachment of a mother. He pulled his
+cloak over his face with both his hands, and stood for a time
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It needs no further questions upon this point, I presume," said the
+chief _schreiber_, turning to the Ober-Amtmann. "The wretched woman has
+already admitted a part of the truth;" and, with a sign to the
+denouncer, he bade him proceed.
+
+The witchfinder paused for a moment, and gave one long look of
+tenderness and pity--as far, indeed, as his harsh, rudely-stamped
+features could express such feelings--at the pale face of Bertha. Then,
+fixing his eye keenly upon the Ober-Amtmann, as if to fascinate his
+attention, he burst into a fresh accusation against the sorceress, as
+having, in the first place, cast her spells upon the noble Fraulein
+Bertha, for the purpose of sowing the seeds of death within her frame;
+and as having, in the second place, employed the young man called
+"Gentle Gottlob" to be an involuntary agent in her work of ill.
+
+Upon hearing the first part of this charge, Magdalena had raised her
+head to give, unconsciously as it were, a deprecating look at the fair
+girl--as if to assure her, with that one long concentrated look of deep
+feeling, that, far from desiring her evil, she contended only with the
+overpourings of kindness and love for her; and then, as though she had
+already expressed more than her conscience could approve, she bowed
+again her head, murmuring only--"O God! support me. Thou knowest how
+false is the raving of that wretched man." The second part of the charge
+excited other and very varied feelings among those present. Magdalena
+again started, but with evident surprise, and made a hasty gesture of
+denial. Gottlob sprang forward, horrified at being thus involved, even
+as an involuntary agent, in the hideous denunciation, and indignant at
+the supposition that he could work ill to the Amtmann's lovely daughter;
+and he protested, with all the vehemence which gentle natures, when
+roused into excitement, will display, against so unfounded and
+calumnious an accusation; whilst Bertha, joining together her small
+hands, as if in supplication, turned her face, with anxious expression,
+to her father, crying--"No, no--it cannot be!"
+
+Astounded at so unexpected a revelation, the Ober-Amtmann seemed at
+first not to know what to think. He gazed alternately upon Gottlob and
+Bertha, as if to read upon their faces the secret of a connexion between
+them; and then, satisfied of the impossibility that the noble
+Ober-Amtmann's daughter could have the slightest affinity with the
+unknown youth before him, he drew a long breath, and passed his hand
+over his brow, as if to drive away ideas so absurd.
+
+"Peace, youth--peace!" he cried to Gottlob; "we will hear thee anon. It
+is not thou who art accused. And thou, my child be calm. Cripple! what
+mean thy words? What proof bringest thou of their truth?"
+
+"Ask of the suffering angel by thy side, my noble lord," replied the
+cripple with emotion. "Let her tell how, of late, her cheek has grown
+pale, her limbs have become weary, her very life's-blood languid and
+oppressed. I have watched her day by day, and I have seen these changes.
+I have watched her with a careful and a cunning eye; and I have
+felt--there, in my heart--that the spell was upon her: and this it was
+that urged me to denounce that wretched hag."
+
+"Speak, my child," said the Ober-Amtmann, in trouble and anxiety. "What
+this man says, is it true? Hast thou suffered lately? Indeed, I do
+remember thy cheek has been paler than of wont--thy appetite has left
+thee--thou hast been no longer so cheerful or so active as of old.
+Speak, my child--hast thou really suffered?"
+
+"Oh, no! my father, I have not suffered," replied the agitated girl in
+much confusion; "and yet I have not been as formerly I was. I have been
+sad, I knew not why, and wept in the silence of my chamber without
+cause; and I have found no pleasure in my embroidery, nor in my flowers,
+nor in my falcons. I have felt my foot fall weary. I have sought to
+rest, and yet, when reposing, I have felt unable to remain in quiet, and
+I have longed for exercise abroad. But yet I have not suffered; and
+sometimes I have even hugged with pleasure the trouble of my mind and
+body."
+
+"These seem, indeed, the symptoms of a deadly spell upon thee, my poor
+child," exclaimed her father. "Such, they say, are the first evidences
+of the working of those charms that witches breathe over their victims."
+
+"And let the Fraulein Bertha tell," cried the witchfinder, "how it has
+been yonder youth who has seemed to exercise this influence of ill upon
+her."
+
+Again Gottlob sought to spring forward and speak; but a sign from the
+Ober-Amtmann to the guards caused them to place their pikes before him,
+and arrest him in his impulse.
+
+"How and what is this, my child?" said the Ober-Amtmann. "Knowest thou
+that youth? and in what has he, consciously or unconsciously, done thee
+ill?"
+
+"He has done me no ill," replied the innocent girl in still greater
+confusion, as her bosom heaved, and the blood suffused her cheeks. "I am
+sure he would not do me ill for all the treasures of the world!"
+
+"Thou knowest him then?" said her father, somewhat more sternly.
+
+"No, I know him not," replied Bertha in trouble; "but I have met him
+sometimes in my path, and I have seen him"--she hesitated for a moment,
+and then added, with downcast eyes, "at his window, which overlooks our
+garden."
+
+"Why then this trouble, Bertha?" continued the Ober-Amtmann, in a tone
+that rendered their conversation inaudible beyond their own immediate
+circle.
+
+"I cannot tell myself, my father. I feel troubled and sad, it is true;
+and yet I know not why. I have no cause"----
+
+"And when thou hast met yonder youth, as thou sayest, hast thou felt
+this trouble before?"
+
+"Alas! yes, my father. I remember now that at his aspect my heart would
+beat; my head grow giddy, and my ears would tingle; and then a faintness
+would come over me, as though it were a pain I felt, and yet it was a
+pleasant pain. There was nothing in him that could cause me ill; was
+there, father?"
+
+The Ober-Amtmann's brow grew dark as Bertha proceeded; but, after a
+moment's reflection, he murmured to himself--"Love! oh, no! It is
+impossible! She and he! The noble's daughter and the low-born youngster.
+It could not be! There is no doubt! Witchcraft has been at work! How
+long has it been thus with thee, my child?" he added with solicitude.
+
+"I cannot tell, my father. Some five or six months past it came upon me.
+I know not when or how!"
+
+"Bears he no charm upon him?" exclaimed the Ober-Amtmann aloud.
+
+"He bears a charm upon him!" cried the witchfinder in triumph. "And ask
+who bound it round his neck?"
+
+"It is false! I bear no charm!" cried Gottlob eagerly. "She herself
+denied that it was such."
+
+"Of what does he speak?" cried the Ober-Amtmann.
+
+"It was but a gift of affection, and no charm. She gave me this ring,"
+said Gottlob, pointing to the ring hung by a small riband round his
+neck; "and I have worn it, as she requested, in remembrance of some
+unworthy kindness I had shown her."
+
+"And how long since was it," enquired the Ober-Amtmann, "that she
+bestowed this supposed gift upon you?"
+
+"Some five or six months past," was Gottlob's unlucky answer; "not long
+after I first brought her to reside with me in my poor dwelling."
+
+During this examination the agitation of Magdalena had become extreme;
+and when, upon the Ober-Amtmann's command that the ring should be handed
+up to him, Gottlob removed it from his neck, and gave it into the hands
+of one of the guards, she cried, in much excitement, "No, no; give it
+not, Gottlob!"
+
+The ring, however, was passed on to the Ober-Amtmann; and Magdalena,
+covering her face with her hands, fell back, with a stifled groan, into
+her former crouching position.
+
+The sight of the ring seemed indeed to have the power of a necromancer's
+charm upon the Ober-Amtmann. No sooner had his eyes fallen upon it, than
+his cheek grew pale--his usually severe and stern face was convulsed
+with agitation--and he sank back in his chair with the low cry, "That
+ring! O God! After so many years of dearly-sought oblivion!"
+
+At the sight of the Ober-Amtmann's agitation and apparent swoon, a howl
+of execration burst from the crowd below, mingled with the cries of
+"Tear the wretch in pieces! She has poisoned him! Tear her in pieces!"
+Consternation prevailed through the whole assembly. Bertha sprang to her
+father's side; but the Ober-Amtmann quickly rallied. He waved his
+daughter back with the remark, "It was nothing--it is past;" and raising
+himself in his chair, looked again upon the ring.
+
+"There is no doubt," he murmured, "it is that same ring--that Arabic
+ring, brought me from the East, and which I gave--oh, no!--impossible!"
+he hurriedly exclaimed, as a horrible thought seemed to cross him. "She
+has been dead many years since. Did not my own brother assure me of her
+death? It cannot be!"
+
+After a moment's pause to recover from his agitation, he gave orders to
+one of the guards to remove the hood from Magdalena's head, that he
+might see her features. With the crooked end of a pike's head, one of
+them tore back her hood; while another, with the staff of his pike,
+forced her hands asunder. Magdalena's careworn and prematurely withered
+face was exposed to the gaze of all, distorted with emotion.
+
+"Less rudely, varlets!" cried the Ober-Amtmann, with a feeling of sudden
+forbearance towards the wretched woman which surprised all present; for
+they could not but marvel at the slightest symptom of consideration
+toward such an abhorred outcast of humanity as a convicted witch; and as
+such the miserable Magdalena was already regarded.
+
+For a moment the Ober-Amtmann considered Magdalena's careworn, withered,
+and agitated face with painful attention; and then, as if relieved from
+some terrible apprehension, he heaved a bitter sigh, and murmured to
+himself--"No, no, there is no trace of that once well-known face. I knew
+it could not be. She is no more. It was a wild and foolish thought! but
+this ring--'tis strange! Woman, dost thou know me?" he asked aloud, with
+some remaining agitation.
+
+"I know you not," replied Magdalena with a low and choked voice; for she
+now trembled violently, and the tears gushed from her eyes.
+
+"How camest thou then by this ring? Speak! I command thee," continued
+the Ober-Amtmann.
+
+Magdalena bowed her head with a gesture of refusal to answer any further
+question.
+
+"Wretched woman! Hast thou violated the repose of the dead? Hast thou
+torn it from the grave? How else came it in thy possession?"
+
+The unhappy woman replied not. She had again covered her face with her
+hands, and the tears streamed through her meagre fingers.
+
+"Speak, I tell thee! This ring has conjured up such recollections, that
+were there but one human link between thee and one who has long since
+rested from all sorrow in the grave, it might ensure thy safety."
+
+No answer was returned by Magdalena; although, to judge by the convulsed
+movement of her body, the struggle within must have been bitter and
+heavy to bear.
+
+"Die then in thy obstinacy, miserable woman," cried the Ober-Amtmann in
+a suppressed voice--"Let justice take its course!"
+
+"Denouncer!" said the chief _schreiber_ to the witchfinder, "hast thou
+further evidence to offer?"
+
+"Needs it more to convict a criminal of the foul and infernal practices
+of witchcraft?" cried Black Claus with bitterness.
+
+The chief _schreiber_ turned to the Ober-Amtmann, as if to consult his
+will. For a moment the Ober-Amtmann passed one hand across his brow, as
+though to sweep away the dark visions that were hovering about it; and
+then, waving the other, as if he had come to a resolution which had cost
+him pain, said with stern solemnity--"Let the workers of the evil deeds
+of Satan perish, until the earth be purged of them all."
+
+This customary formula implied the condemnation of the supposed
+sorceress.
+
+"To the stake! to the stake!" howled the crowd, upon hearing the
+delivery of this expected sentence.
+
+After enjoining silence, which was with difficulty enforced, the chief
+_schreiber_ rose, and addressed to Magdalena the accustomed question,
+"Woman, dost thou demand the trial by water, and God's issue by that
+trial?"
+
+"I demand but to die in peace," replied the miserable woman; "and God's
+will be done!"
+
+"She refuses the trial by water," said the chief _schreiber_, in order
+to establish the fact, which was put down in writing by the adjuncts.
+
+"To the stake! to the stake!" howled the crowd.
+
+"And hast thou nothing to urge against the justice of thy sentence?"
+asked the official questioner.
+
+"Justice!" cried Magdalena, with a start, which caused the chain around
+her waist to clank upon the wretched stool on which she sat. "Justice!"
+she cried in a tone of indignation. For a moment the earthly spirit
+revolted. But it gleamed only for an instant. "May God pardon my unjust
+judge the sins of his youth,"--she paused, and added, "as I forgive him
+my cruel death!" With these words, the last spark of angry feeling was
+extinguished for ever. "May God pardon him, as well as those who have
+thus cruelly witnessed against me; and may He bless him, and all those
+who are most near and dear to him," she continued--her voice, as she
+spoke, growing gradually more subdued, until it was lost and choked in
+convulsive sobbings.
+
+Again a thrill of horror passed through the Ober-Amtmann; for the sound
+of the voice seemed to revive in his mind memories of the past, and
+recall a vision he had already striven to dispel from it. His frame
+shuddered, and again he fell back in his chair.
+
+"It is a delusion of Satan!" he muttered, pressing his hands to his
+ears, and closing his eyes.
+
+Bertha's eyes streamed with tears; her pitying heart was tortured by
+this scene of sadness.
+
+"Blessings instead of curses upon those who have condemned her! Can that
+be guilt?" said gentle Gottlob to himself. "Can that be the spirit of
+the malicious and revengeful agent of the dark deeds of Satan? No--she
+is innocent; and I will still save her, if human means can save!"
+
+After thus parleying with himself, Gottlob began to struggle to make his
+way from the court.
+
+"The blessings of the servants of the fiend are bitter curses," said the
+infatuated witchfinder, on the other hand; "and she has blessed me. God
+stand by me!"
+
+"To the stake!--to the stake!" still howled the pitiless, the
+bloodthirsty crowd.
+
+The refusal of the unhappy Magdalena to abide by the issue of the
+well-known trial by water, had so much abridged the customary
+proceedings, that orders were given, and preparations made, for the
+execution of the ultimate punishment for the crime of witchcraft--burning
+at the stake--shortly after daybreak on the morrow.
+
+It was yet night--a short hour before the breaking of the dawn. The pile
+had been already heaped in the market-place of Hammelburg--the stake
+fixed. All was in readiness for the hideous performance about to take
+place. The guards paced backwards and forwards before the grated
+doorway, which opened under the terrace of the old town-hall; for there,
+in that miserable hole, was confined the wretched victim of popular
+delusion. The soldiers kept watch, however, upon their prisoner at such
+a distance as to be as far as possible out of the reach of her malefic
+spells. The heavy clanking of their pikes, as they rested them from time
+to time upon the pavement, or paused to interchange a word, alone broke
+the silence of the still sleeping town--sleeping, to awake shortly like
+a tiger thirsty for blood. The light of a waning moon showed
+indistinctly the dark mass in the centre of the market-place--the stage
+upon which the frightful tragedy was about to be enacted--when one of
+the sentinels all at once turning his head in that direction, descried a
+dark form creeping around the pile, as if examining it on all sides.
+
+"What's that?" he cried in alarm to his comrade, pointing to this dark
+object. "Is it the demon himself, whom she has conjured up, and who now
+comes to deliver her? All good spirits"--and he crossed himself with
+hurried zeal.
+
+"Praise the Lord!" continued the other, completing the usual German form
+of exorcism, and crossing himself no less devoutly.
+
+"Challenge him, Hans!" said the first; "at the sound of a Christian
+voice, mayhap, he may vanish away; and thou art ever boasting to Father
+Peter that thou are the most Christian man of thy company."
+
+"Challenge him thyself," replied Hans, in a voice that did not say much
+for the firmness of his conscience as a Christian.
+
+"Let's challenge him both at once," proposed the other soldier.
+"Perhaps, between us, we may muster up goodness enough to drive the foul
+fiend before us."
+
+"Agreed!" replied Hans, with somewhat better courage; and upon this
+joint-stock company principle of piety, both the soldiers raised their
+voices at once, and cried, in a somewhat quavering duet, "Who goes
+there?"
+
+A hoarse laugh was the only answer received to this challenge; and the
+dark form seemed to advance towards them across the market-place.
+
+So great appeared the modesty of each of the soldiers with regard to his
+appreciation of his own merits as a good Christian--so little his
+confidence in his own powers of holiness to wrestle with the fiend of
+darkness in the shape which now approached them--that they seemed
+disposed rather humbly to quit the field, than encounter Sir Apollyon in
+so glorious a contest; when the dim light of the moon revealed the
+figure, as it came forward, to be that of the witchfinder.
+
+"It is Claus Schwartz!" said Hans, taking breath.
+
+"Or the devil in his form," pursued his fellow-sentinel with more
+caution. "Stand back!" he shouted, as the witchfinder came within a few
+yards, "and declare who thou art."
+
+"Has the foul hag within there bewitched thee?" cried Black Claus; "or
+has she smitten thee with blindness? Canst thou not see? The night is
+not so dark but good men may know each other."
+
+"What wouldst thou here?" said Master Hans, completely recovered from
+his spiritual alarm.
+
+"I cannot rest," replied the witchfinder with bitterness. "Until her
+last ashes shall have mingled with the wind, I shall take no repose,
+body or mind. I cannot sleep; or, if I close my eyes, visions of the
+hideous hags, who have already perished there, float before my
+distracted eyes. It is she that murders my rest, as she has tormented my
+poor limbs--curses on her! But a short hour, a short hour more, and she
+too shall feel all the tortures of hell--tortures worse than those she
+has inflicted on the poor cripple. The flames shall rise, and lap her
+body round--the bright red flames. Her members shall writhe upon the
+stake. The screams of death shall issue from her blackened lips; until
+the lurid smoke shall have wrapped her it its dark winding-sheet, and
+stifled the last cry of her parting soul, as it flies to meet its
+infernal master in the realms of darkness. Oh, it will be a glorious
+sight!" And the cripple laughed, with an insane laugh of malice and
+revenge, which made the soldiers shudder in every limb, and draw back
+from him with horror.
+
+It seemed as if the fever of his excitement had pressed so powerfully on
+his brain as to have driven him completely into madness. After a moment,
+however, he pulled his rosary from his bosom, and kissed it, adding, in
+a calmer tone, "Yes, it will be a glorious sight--for it will be for the
+cause of the Lord, and of his holy church."
+
+Little as they comprehended the witchfinder's raving, the soldiers again
+crossed themselves, and looked upon him with a sort of awe.
+
+"What wouldst thou?" said one of them, as Claus advanced towards the
+prison door.
+
+"I would look upon her, there--in her prison," said the cripple, with an
+expression that denoted a malicious eagerness to gloat upon his victim.
+
+The soldiers interchanged glances with one another, as if they doubted
+whether such a permission ought to be allowed to the witchfinder.
+
+"Ah, bah!" said Hans. "It is not he that will aid her to escape. Let him
+pass. They'll make a fine sport with one another, the witchfinder and
+the witch--dog and cat. Zist, zist!" continued the young soldier,
+laughing and making a movement and a sound as if setting on the two
+above-mentioned animals to worry each other.
+
+"Take care," said his more scrupulous companion. "Jest not with such
+awful work. Who knows but it may be blasphemy; and what would Father
+Peter say?"
+
+The two sentinels continued their pacing up and down, but still at some
+distance from the prison doorway, in order, as Hans's companion
+expressed it, "to keep as much as possible out of the devil's clutches;"
+while Black Claus approached the grating of the door.
+
+As the witchfinder peered, with knitted brow, through the bars of the
+grating, it seemed to him at first, so complete was the darkness within,
+as though the cell was tenantless; and his first movement was to turn,
+in order to warn the guards of the escape of their prisoner. But as he
+again strained his eyes, he became at last aware of the existence of a
+dark form upon the floor of the cell; and as by degrees his sight became
+more able to penetrate the obscurity within, he began plainly to
+perceive the form of the miserable woman, crouched on her knees upon the
+damp slimy pavement of the wretched hole. She was already dressed in the
+sackcloth robe of the penitents condemned to the stake, and her poor
+grey hairs were without covering. So motionless was her form that for a
+moment the witchfinder thought she was dead, and had fallen together in
+the position in which she had knelt down; and the thought was like a
+knife in his revengeful heart, that she might thus have escaped the
+tortures prepared for her, and thwarted the gratification of his insane
+and hideous longings. A second thought suggested to him that she was
+sleeping. But this conjecture was scarcely less agonizing to him than
+the former. That she, the sorceress, should sleep and be at rest, whilst
+he, her victim, could find no sleep, no rest, no peace, body or mind,
+was more than his bitter spirit could bear. He shook the bars of the
+door with violence, and called aloud, "Magdalena!"
+
+"Is my hour already come?" said the wretched woman, raising her head so
+immediately as to show how far sleep was from her eyelids.
+
+"No, thou hast got an hour to enjoy the torments of thy own despair,"
+laughed the witchfinder, with bitter irony.
+
+"Let me, then, be left in peace, and my last prayers be undisturbed,"
+said Magdalena.
+
+"In order that thou mayst pray to the devil thou servest to deliver
+thee!" pursued Black Claus, with another mocking laugh. "Ay--pray--pray;
+but it will be in vain. He is an arch-deceiver, the fiend, thy master.
+He promises and fulfils not. He offers tempting wages to those who sell
+to him their souls, and then deserts his servants in the hour of
+trouble. So prayed all the filthy hags who sat there before thee,
+Magdalena; but they prayed in vain."
+
+"Leave me, wretched man!" said Magdalena, who now became aware that it
+was the cripple who addressed her. "Hast thou not sufficiently sated thy
+thirst for evil, that thou shouldst come to torment me in my last
+moments? Go! tempt not the bitterness of my spirit in this supreme hour
+of penitence and prayer. Go! for I have forgiven thee; and I would not
+curse thee now."
+
+"I defy thy curses, witch of hell!" cried the cripple with frantic
+energy. "Already the first pale streaks of dawn begin to flicker in the
+east. A little time, and thy power to curse will be no more; a little
+time, and nothing will remain of thee but a heap of noisome ashes; and a
+name, which will be mingled with that of the arch-enemy of mankind, in
+the execrations of thy victims--a name to be remembered with horror and
+disgust--as that of the foul serpent--in the thoughts of the tormented
+cripple, and of the pure angel of brightness, upon whom thou hast sought
+to work evil and death."
+
+"O God! make not this hour of trial too hard for me to bear!" exclaimed
+the unhappy woman; and then, raising her clasped hands to Claus in
+bitter expostulation, she cried, "Man! what have I done to harm thee,
+that thou shouldst heap these coals of fire on my soul?"
+
+"What thou hast done to harm me?" cried the witchfinder. "Hast thou not
+tormented my poor cripple limbs with thy infernal spells? Hast thou not
+caused me to suffer the tortures of the damned? But it is not vengeance
+that I seek. No--no. I have vowed a holy vow--I have sworn to spend my
+life in the good task of purging from the earth such workers of evil as
+thou, and those who served the fiend by their foul sorceries, were it
+even at the risk of exposing my body to pain and suffering, and even
+death, from the revengeful malice of their witchcrafts. And God knows I
+have suffered in the holy cause."
+
+And the cripple clenched again within his right hand, the image attached
+to the rosary in his bosom, as if to satisfy himself by its contact of
+the truth and right of those deeds, which he strove to qualify as holy.
+
+"What thou, or such as thou, have done to harm me!" he continued with
+bitter spite. "I will tell thee, hag! I was once a young and happy boy.
+I was strong and well-favoured then. I had a father--a passionate but a
+kind man; and I had a mother, whom I loved beyond all created things.
+She was the joy of my soul--the pride of my boyish dreams. I was happy
+then, I tell thee. I called myself by another name. No matter what it
+was. Black Claus is the avenger's name, and he will cleave to it. One
+day there came an aged beggar-woman to our cottage, and begged. My
+mother heeded her not. I know not why; for she was ever kind. My father
+drove her from the door; and, as she turned away, she cursed us all. I
+never can forget that moment, nor the terror of my youthful mind, as I
+heard that curse. And the curse clave to us; for she--_was a witch_; and
+it came upon us soon and bitterly. My mother was in the pride of her
+beauty still, when a gay noble saw her in her loveliness, and paid her
+court. Then came a horrible night, when the witch's curse was fearfully
+fulfilled. My father was jealous. He attacked the young noble as he came
+by the darkness of night; and it was he--my father--who was killed. I
+saw him die, weltering in his blood. My poor mother, too, was spirited
+away; the fell powers of witchcraft dragged her from that bloody hearth.
+Yes; witchcraft it was--it must have been; for she was too pure and good
+to listen to the voice of the seducer--to follow her husband's murderer.
+She died, probably, of grief--my poor wretched mother; for I never saw
+her more. For days and nights I sought her, but in vain; suffering cold
+and hunger, and sleeping oft-times in the cold woods and dank morasses.
+Then fell the witches curse on _me_ also; and I began to suffer these
+pains, which thy foul tribe have never ceased to inflict upon me since.
+The tortures of the body were added to the tortures of the mind. My
+limbs grew distorted and withered. I became the outcast of humanity I
+now am; and then it was I vowed a vow to pursue, even unto death, all
+those hideous lemans of Satan, who, like her who cursed us, sell their
+wretched souls but to work evil, and destruction, and death to their
+fellow-creatures. And I have kept my vow!"
+
+In spite of herself, Magdalena had been obliged to listen to the
+witchfinder's tale, which, with his face pressed against the iron bars
+of the grating, he poured, with harsh voice, into her unwilling ear. As
+he proceeded, however, she appeared fascinated by the words he uttered,
+as the poor quivering bird is fascinated by the serpent's eye. Her
+eyeballs were distended--her arms still outstretched towards him, as she
+had first raised them to him in her cry of expostulation; but the hands
+were desperately clenched together--the arms stiffened with the extreme
+tension of the nerves.
+
+"Oh no!" she murmured to herself as he yet spoke; "that were too
+horrible!" and when he paused, it was with a smothered scream of agony,
+still mixed with doubt, that she cried "Karl!"
+
+"Karl!" repeated the witchfinder, clenching the bars with still firmer
+grasp, and raising himself with the effort to the full height of his
+stature, as though his limbs had on a sudden recovered all their
+strength--"Karl! Ay, that was my name! How dost thou know it, woman?"
+
+"O God!" exclaimed the wretched tenant of the cell, "was my cup of
+bitterness not yet full? Hast thou reserved me this?" She wrung her
+hands in agony, and then, looking again at the cripple, cried in a tone
+of concentrated misery, "Karl! they told me that thou wast dead--that
+thou, too, hadst died after that night of horrors!"
+
+"Who art thou, woman?" cried the cripple again, with an accent of
+horror, as if a frightful thought had for the first time forced itself
+upon his brain. "Who art thou, that thou speakest to me thus, and
+freezest the very marrow of my bones with fear? Who art thou that criest
+'Karl' with such a voice--a voice that now comes back upon my ear, as if
+it were a damning memory of times gone by? Who art thou woman?--speak!
+Let not this dreadful thought, that blasts me like lightning, strike me
+utterly to the earth."
+
+"Who I am?" sobbed the miserable woman. "Thy wretched and guilty mother,
+Karl!"
+
+"Guilty!" shouted the cripple. "Then thou art not she! My mother was not
+guilty--she was all innocence and truth!"
+
+"I am thy guilty mother, Karl," repeated the kneeling woman, "who has
+striven, by long years of penitence and prayer, to expiate the past.
+Alas, in vain! for Heaven refuses the expiation, since it has reserved
+the wretched penitent this last, most fearful blow of all!"
+
+"Thou!--oh no!--say it not! Thou my mother!" cried the witchfinder.
+
+"Thy mother--Margaret Weilheim!"
+
+"Horrible!--most horrible!" repeated the agonized son, letting go the
+bars, and clasping his bony hands over his face. "Thou, my once beloved
+mother, the wretched being of misery and sin--the accomplice of the
+spirits of darkness--and _I_ thy denouncer! O God! This is some fearful
+delusion!"
+
+"The delusion is in thy own heart, my poor, distracted, infatuated son,"
+pursued the miserable mother. "Happy and blessed were I, were no greater
+guilt upon my soul than that of the crime for which I am this day
+condemned to die. Bitter it is to die; but I had accepted all as the
+will of Him above, and he knows my innocence of all dealings with the
+powers of hell."
+
+"Innocent!" cried the witchfinder in frightful agitation. "Were it
+possible! And is it I, thy own child, who strikes the blow--I, who am
+thy murderer--I, who, to avenge the mother, have condemned the mother to
+the stake? Horrible! And yet those proofs--those fearful proofs!"
+
+"Hear me, for my time is short now in this world," said the poor woman,
+known by the name of Magdalena. "I will not tell thee how I listened to
+the voice of the serpent, and how I fell. My pride in my fatal beauty
+was my pitfall. All that the honied words of passion and persuasion
+could effect was used to lure me on to my destruction--and at last I
+fled with my seducer. I knew not then, I swear to thee, Karl--God knows
+how bitterly it costs the mother to reveal her shame to her own son; but
+bitter if it be, she accepts is as an expiation, and she will not
+deceive him--I swear to thee, I knew not then that thy father had fallen
+in that unhappy night, and had fallen by the hand of him whom I madly
+followed. It was long after that the news reached me, and had nearly
+driven me distracted. The same tale told me, but falsely, the death of
+my first-born--my Karl. Remorse had long since tortured my heart. I was
+not happy with the lover of my choice--I never had been happy with him;
+but now the stings of my conscience became too strong to bear. Tormented
+by my bitter self-reproaches, I decided upon quitting my seducer, who
+had long proved cold and heartless. But I had borne him a child--a
+daughter; and to quit my offspring, the only child left to me, was
+agony; to take it with me, to bear it away to partake a life of poverty
+and wretchedness, was still greater agony to the mother's mind. The
+great man who was its father--for he was of noble rank, and highly
+placed--when he found me determined to leave him and the world for
+ever--and he saw me part from him, the heartless one, without
+regret--offered to adopt my darling infant as his legitimate child; to
+bring it up to all the honours, wealth, and consideration of the world;
+to ensure it that earthly happiness the mother's heart yearned to give
+it. But, as I have told thee, he was cold and worldly-minded, and he
+exacted from me an oath--a cruel oath--that I never should own my child
+again--that I never should address it as my offspring--that I never
+should utter the word 'daughter,' never hear the cry of 'mother' from
+its lips. He would not that his daughter, the noble Fraulein, should be
+brought to shame, by being acknowledged as the offspring of a peasant
+wife. All I desired was the welfare--the happiness--of my child.
+
+"I stifled all the more selfish feelings of a mother's heart and I
+consented. I took that oath. I kissed my child for the last time, and
+tore myself away. I hoped to die; but God reserved me for a long and
+bitter expiation of my sin. I still found upon earth, however, one kind
+and pitying friend. He was the brother of my noble lover, and himself
+among the highest in the land. He was a priest; and, in his compassion,
+he found me refuge in a convent, where, though I deemed myself unworthy
+to receive the veil, I assumed the dress of the humblest penitent, and
+took the name of the repentant one--the name of Magdalen. I desired to
+cut myself off completely from the world; and I permitted the father of
+my child to believe a report that I was no more. In the humility of my
+bitter repentance, I vowed never to pass the gates of the holy house of
+God--never to put my foot upon the sacred ground--never to profane the
+sanctuary with my soul of sin--to worship only without, and at the
+threshold, until such time as it should seem to me that God had heard my
+repentance, and accepted my expiation. Now, thou knowest why I have
+never dared to enter the holy building."
+
+The witchfinder groaned bitterly, clenching, in agony, the folds of his
+garment, and tearing his breast.
+
+"My spiritual adviser was benevolent and kind; but he was also stern in
+his calling. He imposed upon me such penitence as, in his wisdom, he
+thought most fit to wash out my crime; and I obeyed with humble
+reverence. But there was one penance more cruel than the rest--the
+mortification of my only earthly affection--the driving out from my
+heart all thought of the child of my folly and sin--the vow never to
+seek, to look upon her more. But the love of the world was still too
+strong upon the wretched mother. At the risk of her soul's salvation,
+she fled the convent to see her child once again. It was in the frenzy
+of a fever-fit, when I thought to die. I forgot all--all but my oath--I
+never sought to speak to my darling child; but I followed her wherever I
+could--I watched for her as she passed--I gazed upon her with love--I
+prayed for blessings on her head."
+
+"Alas! I see it all now. It is, as it were, a bandage fallen from my
+eyes. Fool--infatuated fool!--monster that I was!" cried the
+witchfinder. "Bertha was your daughter--my sister; and I have smitten
+the mother for the love she bore her child. And he--her father--he was
+that villain! Curses on him!"
+
+"Peace! Peace! my son!" continued Magdalena, "and curse no more. Nor can
+I tell thee that it was so. I have sworn that oath never to divulge my
+daughter's birth; and cruel, heartless, as was the feeling that forced
+it on me, I must observe it ever. And thus I continued to live
+on--absorbed in the one thought of my child and her happiness--heedless
+of the present--forgetful of my duty; when suddenly, but two days ago,
+he who has been the kind guardian of my spiritual weal, appeared before
+me in the chamber where, alone and unobserved, I wept over the picture
+of my child. He came, I presume, by a passage seldom opened, from the
+monastery, whither his duties had called him. He chid me for my
+flight--recalled me to my task of expiation--and, bidding me return to
+the convent, left me, with an injunction not to say that I had seen him.
+Nor could I reveal the fact of my mysterious interview with him, or tell
+his name, without giving a clue to the truth of my own existence, and
+the discovery of all I had sworn so binding an oath ever to conceal.
+Thou sawest him also--but, alas! with other thoughts."
+
+"Madman that I have been!" exclaimed the witchfinder. "Or is it now that
+I am mad? Am I not raving? Is not all this insane delusion? No--thou are
+there before me--closed from my embraces by these cruel bars that I have
+placed between us. Thou! my mother--my long-lost--my beloved--most
+wretched mother, in that dreadful garb!--condemned to die by thy own
+infatuated son! Would that I _were_ mad, and that I could close my brain
+to so much horror! But thou shalt not die, my mother--thou shalt not
+die! Thou are innocent! I will proclaim thy innocence to all! They will
+believe my word--will they not? For it was I who testified against thee.
+I, the matricide! I will tell them that I lied. Thou shalt not die, my
+mother! Already! already!--horror!--the day is come!"
+
+The day _was_ come. The first faint doubtful streaks of early dawn had
+gradually spread, in a cold heavy grey light, over the sky. By degrees
+the darkness had fled, and the market-place, the surrounding gables of
+the houses, the black pile in the midst, had become clearer and clearer
+in harsh distinctness. The day _was_ come! Already a few narrow
+casements had been pushed back in their sliding grooves, and strange
+faces, with sleepy eyes, had peered out, in night attire, to forestall
+impatient curiosity. Already indistinct noises, a vague rumbling, an
+uncertain sound from here or there had broken up the utter silence of
+the night, and told that the drowsy town was waking from its sleep, and
+stirring with the faint movement of new life. The day _was_ come! The
+sentinels paced up and down more quickly, to dissipate that feeling of
+shivering cold which runs through the night-watcher during the first
+hour of the morn. During the colloquy between the cripple and the
+prisoner, they had been more than once disturbed by the loud tones of
+passionate exclamation that had burst from the former; but Hans had
+contrived to dispel his comrade's scruples as to what was going forward
+at the prison door, by making light of the matter.
+
+"Let them alone. They are only having a tuzzle together--the witchfinder
+and the witch! And if the man, as the weaker vessel in matters of
+witchcraft, do come off minus a nose or so, it will never spoil Black
+Claus's beauty, that's certain. Hark! hark! they are at it again! To it,
+devil! To it, devil-hunter! Let them fight it out between them, man. Let
+them fight it out. It's fine sport, and it will never spoil the show."
+And Hans stamped with his feet, and hooted at a distance, and hissed
+between his teeth, with all the zest of a modern cockfighter in the
+sport, rather to the scandal and shame of his more cautious and
+scrupulous companion. But when the cripple, in his despair, shook, in
+his nervous grasp, the bars of the grating in the door, as if he would
+wrench it from its staples, and flung himself in desperation against the
+strongly-ironed wooden mass, with a violence that threatened, in spite
+of its great strength, to burst it open, the matter seemed to become
+more serious in their eyes.
+
+"Hollo, man! witchfinder! Black Claus! What art thou doing?" cried the
+sentinels, hurrying to the spot. "Does the devil possess thee? Art thou
+bewitched? Wait! wait! they'll let her out quick enough to make her
+mount the pile. Have patience, man!"
+
+"She is innocent!" cried the cripple, still grappling with the bars in
+his despair. "She is innocent! Let her go free!"
+
+"He is bewitched," said the one soldier. "See what comes of letting them
+be together."
+
+"He has had the worst of it, sure enough," said Hans.
+
+"I am not bewitched, fools!" cried the frantic man. "There's no
+witchcraft here! She is innocent, I tell ye! O God! these bells! they
+announce their coming! Bid them cease! bid them cease! they drive me
+mad!"
+
+At that moment a merry chime from the church-bells burst out joyously
+upon the morning air, to announce that a fête was about to take place in
+the town; for such a gratifying show as the burning of a witch, was a
+fête for the inhabitants of Hammelburg.
+
+"These bells! these bells!" again cried Claus in agony, as their merry
+chime came in gusts along the rising wind, as if to mock his misery and
+despair. "How often, during this long night, I have longed to hear their
+joyous sound; and now they ring in my ears like the howlings of fiends!
+But she shall not die! I will yet save her," continued the distracted
+man; and he again shook the prison door with a force which his crippled
+limbs could scarcely have been supposed to possess.
+
+With difficulty could the now alarmed sentinels, who shouted for help,
+cause the cripple to release his hold. Fresh guards rushed to the spot,
+and assisted to seize the desperate man. But in vain he protested the
+innocence of the supposed sorceress--in vain he cried to them to release
+her. He was treated as bewitched; and it was only when at last, overcome
+by the violence of his struggles, he ceased to resist with so much
+energy, that they allowed him to remain unbound, and let fall the cords
+with which they had already commenced to tie his arms.
+
+"The Ober-Amtmann will come," he said at last, with a sort of sullen
+resignation. "He must--he shall hear me. He shall know all--he will
+believe her innocent."
+
+In the meanwhile, the market-place had already begin to fill with an
+anxious crowd. In a short time, the press of spectators come to witness
+the bloody spectacle, began to be great. The throng flowed on through
+street and lane. There were persons of all ages, all ranks, of both
+sexes--all hurrying, crowding, squeezing to the fête of horror and
+death. Manifold and various were the hundreds of faces congregated in a
+dense mass, as near as the guards would admit them round the pile--all
+moved by one feeling of hideous curiosity. Little by little, all the
+windows of the surrounding houses were jammed with faces--each window a
+strange picture in its quaintly-carved wooden frame. The crowd was
+there--the living crowd eager for death--palpitating with
+excitement--each heart beating with one pitiless feeling of greedy
+cruelty. And the bells still rang ceaselessly their merry, joyous,
+fête-like peal.
+
+And now with difficulty the soldiers forced a way through the throng for
+the approaching officer of justice; the great officiating dignitary of
+the town, who was to preside over the ceremony. He neared the town-hall,
+to order the unlocking of the prison-door, when the wretched witchfinder
+again sprang forward, crying, "Mercy! mercy! she is innocent. Hear me,
+noble Ober-Amtmann!" But he again started back with a cry of despair--it
+was not the Ober-Amtmann. He had been obliged, by indisposition, to give
+up the office of superintending the execution, and the chief _schreiber_
+had been deputed to take his place.
+
+"Where is the Ober-Amtmann?" cried Claus in agony. "I must see him--I
+must speak with him! She is innocent--I swear she is! He will save her,
+villain as he has been, when he hears all."
+
+The general cry that Black Claus had been bewitched by the sorceress,
+was a sufficient explanation to the chief _schreiber_ of his seemingly
+frantic words.
+
+"Poor man!" was his only reply. "She has worked her last spell upon him.
+Her death alone can save his reason."
+
+In spite of the struggles and cries of the infuriated cripple, the door
+was opened, and the unhappy Magdalena was forced to come forwards by the
+guards. She looked wretchedly haggard and careworn in her sackcloth
+robe, with her short-cut grey hairs left bare. A chain was already bound
+around her waist, and clanked as she advanced. As her eyes fell upon her
+miserable son she gave one convulsive shudder of despair; and then,
+clasping her hands towards him with a look of pity and forgiveness, she
+murmured with a tone of resignation--"It is too late. Farewell!
+farewell! until we meet again, where there shall be no sorrow, no care,
+no pain--only mercy and forgiveness!"
+
+"No, no--thou shalt not die!" screamed the cripple, whom several
+bystanders, as well as guards, now held back with force, in awe as well
+as pity at his distracted state.--"Thou shalt not die! She is my
+mother!" he cried like a maniac to the crowd around. "My mother--do ye
+hear? She is innocent. What I said yesterday was false--utterly false--a
+damning lie! She is not guilty--you would murder her! Fools! wretches,
+assassins! You believed me when I witnessed against her; why will ye not
+believe me now? She is innocent, I tell you. Ye shall not kill her!"
+
+"He is bewitched! he is bewitched! To the stake with the sorceress!--to
+the stake!" was the only reply returned to his cries by the crowd.
+
+In truth the miserable man bore all the outward signs of a person who,
+in those times, might be supposed to be smitten by the spells of
+witchcraft. His eyes rolled in his head. His every feature was distorted
+in the agony of his passion. His mouth foamed like that of a mad dog.
+His struggles became desperate convulsions.
+
+But he struggled in vain. The procession advanced towards the stake.
+Between two bodies of guards, the condemned woman dragged her suffering
+bare feet over the rough stones of the market-place. On one side of her
+walked the executioner of the town; on the other, his assistant, with a
+lighted torch of tow, besmeared with resin and pitch, shedding around in
+a small cloud, the lurid smoke that was soon about to arise in a heavy
+volume from the pile. The chief _schreiber_ had mounted, with his
+adjuncts, the terrace before the door of the town-hall, whence it was
+customary for the chief dignitary of the town to superintend such
+executions. The bells rang on their merry peal.
+
+And now the unhappy woman was forced on to the pile. The executioner
+followed. He bound her resistless to the stake, and then himself
+descended. At each of the four corners of the pile, a guard on horseback
+kept off the crowd. There was a pause. Then appeared, at one end of the
+mass of wood and fagots, a slight curling smoke--a faint light. The
+executioner had applied the torch. A few seconds--and a bright glaring
+flame licked upwards with a forked tongue, and a heavier gush of smoke
+burst upwards in the air. The miserable woman crossed her hands over her
+breast--raised her eyes for a moment to heaven, and then, closing them
+upon the scene around her, moved her lips in prayer--in the last prayer
+of the soul's agony. The crowd, which, during the time when the
+procession had advanced towards the pile, had howled with its usual
+pitiless howl, was now silent, breathless, motionless, in the extreme
+tension of its excitement. But still the merry peal of bells rang on.
+
+The smoke grew thicker and thicker. The flame already darted forward, as
+if to snatch at the miserable garment of its victim, and claim her as
+its own, when there was heard a struggle--a cry--a shout of frantic
+despair. The cripple, in that moment when all were occupied with the
+fearful sight, had broken on those who held him, and before another hand
+could seize him, had staggered through the crowd, and now swung himself
+with force upon the pile. A cry of horror burst from the mass of
+spectators. They thought him utterly deprived of reason, and determined,
+in his madness, to die with the sorceress. But in a moment his bony
+hands had torn the link that bound the chain--had unwound the chain
+itself--had snatched the woman from the stake. Before, in the surprise
+of the moment, a single person had stirred, his arm seized, with firm
+and heavy gripe, the collar of the nearest horseman, who found himself
+in his seat on horseback upon a level with the elevation of the pile. He
+knocked him with violence from the saddle. The guard reeled and fell;
+and in the next instant Claus had flung himself on to the horse, and in
+his arms he bore the form of the half-fainting Magdalena.
+
+With a cry--a yell--a wild scream--he shouted, "To the sanctuary! to the
+sanctuary! she shall not die--room! room!" Trampling right and left to
+the earth the dense crowd, who fled from his passage as from an
+infuriated tiger in its spring, he dashed upon the animal over the
+market-place, and darted in full gallop down the street leading to the
+Bridge-gate of the town.
+
+"After him!" cried a thousand voices. The three other horsemen had
+already sprung after the fugitive. The guards hastened in the same
+direction. Several of the crowd rushed down the narrow street. All was
+confusion. Part of those who passed on impeded the others. Groans arose
+from those who had been thrown down by the frantic passage of Claus, and
+who, lying on the stones, prevented the pushing forwards of the others.
+
+"Follow! After him! to the sanctuary!" still cried a thousand voices of
+the crowd.
+
+At the same moment a noise of horsemen was heard coming from the
+entrance of the town in the opposite direction to that leading to the
+bridge. Those who stood nearest turned their heads eagerly that way. The
+first person who issued on the street, at full gallop, was Gottlob,
+without a covering to his head--his fair hair streaming to the wind--his
+handsome face pale with fatigue and excitement.
+
+"Stop! stop!" he shouted as he advanced, and his eye fell upon the
+burning pile. "I bring the prince's pardon! Save her!"
+
+In a few moments, followed by a scanty train of attendants, appeared the
+Prince Bishop of Fulda himself, in the dress--half religious, half
+secular--that he wore in travelling. His mild benevolent face looked
+haggard and anxious, and he also was very pale; for he had evidently
+ridden hard through a part of the night; and the exertion was too much
+for his years and habits. As he advanced through the crowd, who drew
+back with respect from the passage of their sovereign, he eagerly
+demanded if the execution had taken place. The general rumour told him
+confusedly the tale of the events that had just occurred. Gottlob was
+soon again by his side, and related to him all that he had heard.
+
+"Where is my brother?" cried the bishop. "Is he not here?"
+
+A few words told him that he had not appeared on this occasion.
+
+"I will to the palace, then," he continued. "And the poor wretched
+woman, which way has that maniac conveyed her?"
+
+"To the sanctuary upon the mountain-side, in the path leading to your
+highness's castle of Saaleck, as he was heard to cry," was the answer.
+
+"But the torrents have come down from the hills," exclaimed others, "and
+the inundations sweep so heavily upon the bridge, that it is impossible
+to pass it without the utmost danger."
+
+"Save that unhappy woman!" exclaimed the bishop in agitation. "A reward
+for him who saves her!" and followed by his attendants, he took the
+direction of the street leading to the palace.
+
+It was true. The torrents had come down from the hills during the night,
+and the waters swept over the bridge with fury. The planked flooring of
+the bridge, raised in ordinary circumstances some feet above the stream,
+was now covered by the raging flood; and the side parapets, which
+consisted partly of solid enclosure, partly of railing, tottered,
+quivered, and bent beneath the rushing mass of dark, dun-coloured,
+whirling waters. The river itself, swelled far beyond the usual extent
+of the customary inundations, for the passage of which the extreme
+length of the bridge had been provided, hurried in wild eddies round the
+walls of the town, like an invading army seeking to tear them down. But
+the frantic Claus heeded not the violence of the waters, and dashed
+through the town-gate towards the bridge with desperation. The
+frightened horse shied at the foaming stream, struggled, snorted; but
+the cripple seemed to possess the resistless power of a demon--a power
+which gave him sway over the brute creation. He urged the unwilling
+animal, with almost superhuman force, on to the tottering bridge.
+
+The guards who had galloped after him, stopped suddenly as they saw the
+roaring torrent. None dared advance, none dared pursue. Others, on foot,
+clogged the gateway, and stood appalled at the sight of the rushing
+flood. The more eager of the crowd soon mounted on to those parts of the
+town-walls that flanked the gate, and watched, with excited gesture, and
+shouts of wonder or terror, the desperate course of the cripple.
+
+Pressing his mother in his arms, with his body stretched forward in wild
+impatience upon the struggling horse, Black Claus had urged his way into
+the middle of the stream. The bridge shook fearfully beneath the burden:
+he heeded it not. It cracked and groaned still louder than the roaring
+of the stream: he heard it not. He strove to dash on against the almost
+resistless force of the sweeping current. His eye was strained upon the
+first point of the dry path on the highway beyond. Before him lay, at a
+short distance, the road towards the castle of Saaleck, up the mountain
+side. Halfway up the height stood, embowered in trees, the chapel he
+sought to reach--the sanctuary of refuge for the condemned. That was his
+haven--there his wretched mother would be in safety. He pressed her more
+tightly to his breast, and shouted wildly. His shout was followed by a
+loud fearful crash, a roaring of waters, and a straining of breaking
+timbers. In another instant, the centre of the bridge was fiercely borne
+away by the torrent, and all was wild confusion around him.
+
+A general cry of horror burst from the crowd at the gate and on the
+walls. All was for a moment lost to sight in the whirl of waters. Then
+was first seen the snorting head of the poor horse rising from the
+stream. The animal was struggling in desperation to reach the land.
+Again were whirled upwards the forms of the cripple and the female,
+still tightly pressed within his arms; and then a rush of waters, more
+powerful than the son's frantic grasp, tore them asunder. Nothing now
+was visible but a floating body, which again disappeared in the eddying
+flood; and now again the form of the witchfinder rose above the mass of
+waters. His long arms were tossed aloft; his desperate cries were heard
+above the roaring of the torrent.
+
+"Mercy! mercy!" he screamed. "Save me from these flames! this stifling
+smoke. I burn, I burn!"
+
+As he shouted these last words of mad despair, the icy cold waters swept
+over him for ever.
+
+All had disappeared. Upon the boiling surface of the hurrying flood was
+now seen nothing more than spars and fragments of timber, remnants of
+the bridge, whirled up and down, and here and there, and dashing along
+the stream.
+
+Among the foremost of the crowd, who had pressed down the narrow lane
+leading to the water's edge, between the premises of the Benedictine
+monastery and the palace garden, eager to gain an unoccupied point
+whence they might watch the flight, stood "Gentle Gottlob."
+
+From under the small water-gate, the stone passage of which was
+partially flooded by the unusually rising waters, he had seen the
+frightful catastrophe which had accompanied the sweeping away of the
+bridge. He stood overwhelmed with grief at the fate of the poor woman,
+whom he had uselessly striven to save; his eye fixed upon the roaring
+waters, without seeing distinctly any thing but a sort of wild turmoil,
+which accorded well with his own troubled reflections; when a cry from
+the crowd, which still lingered on the spot, recalled him to himself.
+
+"Look, look!" cried several voices. "There it is again! It is a body!"
+
+On the dark surface of the waters, Gottlob saw a form whirled by the
+force of the current towards the water-gate.
+
+"It is the witch! it is the witch!" again cried the crowd, as the
+sackcloth garment of the unhappy Magdalena showed itself above the
+stream.
+
+In another moment Gottlob had rushed into the water, to seize the body
+as it was whirled past the water-gate, and was almost dashed against the
+stone-piles.
+
+"Touch her not!" screamed again the bystanders. "It is the witch! it is
+the witch!"
+
+But Gottlob heeded not the shouts of the crowd. Holding by one hand on
+the trunk of a tree overhanging the water, in order to bear up against
+the violence of the stream, he grasped with the other the dress of the
+floating female before it again sank beneath the whirling eddy. He
+pulled it towards him with force; and, after with difficulty struggling
+against the force of the current, at length succeeded in bearing the
+lifeless form of Magdalena under the gateway.
+
+Streaming himself with water, he laid the cold wet body down upon the
+stones, and bent over it, to see whether life had fled from it for ever.
+The crown drew back with horror, uttering cries of vain expostulation.
+
+"Thank Heaven! she still breathes," said Gottlob at last, as, after some
+moments, a slight convulsive movement passed over the frame of the poor
+woman. "Aid me, my friends. She still lives. Help me to transport her to
+some house." But the crowd drew back in horror. "I will convey her to my
+own chamber close by. Send for a leech! Are ye without pity?" he
+continued, as, instead of assisting him, the crowd held back, and
+answered his entreaties only with exclamations of disgust and scorn.
+"Are ye Christian men, that ye would see the poor woman die before your
+eyes for want of aid? She is no witch. Good God! will no one show a
+heart of bare humanity?" But the crowd still held back; and if they did
+not still scoff at him, were silent.
+
+The kind youth, finding all hope of assistance vain, from the miserable
+prejudices of the people, had at last contrived to raise the still
+senseless Magdalena in his arms, with the intention of conveying her
+into his own dwelling; and already murmurs began to arise among the
+crowd, as if they intended to oppose his purpose; when a door,
+communicating from the palace-gardens with the narrow lane, opened, and
+the stately form of an aged man, of benevolent aspect, stood between
+Gottlob, who remained alone under the water-gate with the lifeless form
+of Magdalena on his arm, and the murmuring crowd which had drawn back
+into the lane. He stood like a guardian spirit between the fair youth
+and the senseless mass of angry men. All snatched off their furred hats,
+and bowed their bodies with respect. It was their sovereign, the Prince
+Bishop of Fulda. His attendants followed him to the threshold of the
+garden gate.
+
+"Thank God!" was his first simple exclamation at the sight of Magdalena
+in Gottlob's arms. "You have contrived to save her, have you? I was
+myself hurrying hither to see what could be done. Does she still live?"
+
+Upon an affirmative exclamation from Gottlob, he raised his eyes to
+heaven with a short thanksgiving; and then, turning to the crowd with a
+stern air, he asked--
+
+"What were these cries and murmurs that I heard? Why were those
+threatening looks I saw? Would ye oppose a Christian act of charity due
+to that unhappy woman, even were she the miserable criminal she is not?
+Have ye yet to be taught your Christian duties in this land? God forgive
+me; for then _I_ have much to answer for!"
+
+After this meek self-rebuke, he again looked seriously upon the
+bystanders, and waved his hand to disperse the crowd, who slunk away
+before him; then, hastily giving orders that Magdalena should be
+conveyed into the palace, he himself stopped to see her borne into the
+garden, and followed anxiously.
+
+Every means with which the leech-craft of the times was acquainted for
+the recovery of the apparently drowned, was applied in the case of
+Magdalena, and with some success; for, after a time, breath and warmth
+were restored--her eyes opened. But the respiration was hurried and
+impeded--the eyes glazed and dim--the sense of what was passing around
+her, confused and troubled. A nervous tremour ran through her whole
+frame. She lay upon a mattrass, propped up with a pile of cushions, in
+a lower apartment of the palace. By her side knelt the kind Bishop of
+Fulda, watching with evident solicitude the variation of the symptoms in
+the unfortunate woman's frame. Behind her stood the stately form of the
+Ober-Amtmann--every muscle of his usually stern face now struggling with
+emotion--his hands clenched together--his head bowed down; for he had
+learned from his brother the Prince, that the female lying before
+him--the woman whom he had himself condemned to the stake, was really
+the mistress of his younger years--the seduced wife of the man whom he
+had killed--his victim, Margaret Weilheim. On the other side of the
+prostrate form of Magdalena bent a grave personage in dark attire, who
+held her wrist, and counted the beating of her pulse with an air of
+serious attention. In answer to an enquiring look from the Prince
+Bishop, the physician shook his head.
+
+"There is life, it is true," he said; "but it is ebbing fast. The
+fatigue and emotions of the past day were in themselves too much for a
+frame already shattered by macerations, and privations, and grief; this
+catastrophe has exhausted her last force of vitality. She cannot live
+long."
+
+The Ober-Amtmann wrung his hands with a still firmer gripe. The tears
+trembled upon the good old bishop's eyelids.
+
+"See!" said the leech; "she again opens her eyes. There is more sense in
+them now."
+
+The dying Magdalena in truth looked around her, as if she at length
+became conscious of the objects on which her vision fell. She seemed to
+comprehend with difficulty where she was, and how she had come into the
+position in which she lay. Feebly and with exertion she raised her
+emaciated arm, and passed her skinny hand over her brow and eyes. But at
+length her gaze rested upon the mild face of the benevolent bishop, and
+a faint smile passed over her sunken features.
+
+"Where am I?" she murmured lowly. "Am I in paradise?--and you, reverend
+father, are also with me?"
+
+In a few kind words, the bishop strove to recall her wandering senses,
+and explain to her what had happened. At last a consciousness of the
+past seemed to come over her; and she shuddered in every limb at the
+fearful recollection.
+
+"And he! where is he?" she asked with an imploring look. "He! Karl!"
+
+The old man looked at her with surprise, as though he thought her senses
+were still wavering.
+
+"He carried me off, did he not?" she continued feebly; "or was it a
+dream? Was it only a strange dream? No, no! I remember all--how we flew
+through the air; and then the rushing waters. Oh! tell me; where is he?"
+
+The bishop now comprehended that she spoke of the witchfinder; and said,
+"He is gone for ever, to his last great account."
+
+Magdalena groaned bitterly, and again closed her eyes. But it was
+evident that she still retained her consciousness; for her lips were
+moving faintly, as if in prayer.
+
+"Is there no hope?" enquired the bishop in a whisper of the physician.
+"Nothing can be done?"
+
+"No hope!" replied the leech. "I have done all that medical skill can
+do; _I_ can do no more, your highness."
+
+At a sign from the bishop, the physician withdrew.
+
+Shortly after, the dying woman again unclosed her eyes, and looked
+around her at the strange room in which she lay. A recollection of the
+past seemed to come across her, slowly and painfully; and she again
+pressed her feeble hand to her brow.
+
+"Why am I here?" she murmured. "Why do I again see this scene of folly
+and sin? O Lord! why bring before my thus, in this last hour, the living
+memory of my past transgressions?"
+
+As if to complete the painful illusion of the past, a voice now murmured
+"Margaret" in her ear. The poor woman started, turned her head with
+difficulty, and saw, kneeling by her side, the heartless lover of her
+youth. She gave him one look of fear and shame, and then turning again
+her eyes to the bishop's face, exclaimed, "May God forgive me!--Pray for
+me, my father!"
+
+"It is I who seek for mercy, Margaret!" cried the Ober-Amtmann. "I who
+need thy forgiveness for all the wrong I have done thee!"
+
+"Mercy and forgiveness are with God," said the dying woman solemnly.
+"All the wrong thou hast done me I have long since forgiven, as far as
+such a sinner as myself can forgive. My time is short; my breath is fast
+leaving me. I feel that I am dying," she added after a pause. "Father, I
+would make my shrift; and, if God and your reverence permit one earthly
+thought to mingle with my last hopes of salvation, I would confide to
+you a secret on which depends the happiness of her I love, and you
+perhaps might secure her peace of mind. Alas, I cannot speak! O God!
+give me still breath."
+
+These words were uttered in a low and feeble tone. With a hasty gesture
+the bishop signed to his brother to retire, and bent his ear over the
+mouth of the gasping woman.
+
+After some time he rose, and first reassuring the dying mother that all
+he could do for her child's welfare should be done, pronounced the
+sublime words of the church that give the promise of forgiveness and
+salvation to the truly penitent sinner.
+
+"Oh, might I look upon her once more!" sobbed Magdalena with convulsive
+effort. "One last look! not a word shall tell her--it is--her unhappy
+mother--who gives her--a last blessing!"
+
+The Ober-Amtmann left the room. In a few minutes he returned, leading
+Bertha by the hand. But Magdalena was already speechless. The fair girl
+knelt by the side of the mattrass, sobbing bitterly--she herself
+scarcely knew why. Was it only the sight of death, of the last parting
+of the soul, that thus affected her? Was it affliction that her own
+error should have contributed to hasten that unhappy woman's end? Or was
+not there rather a powerful instinct within her, that, in that awful
+moment, bound her by a sympathetic tie to her unknown mother, and
+conveyed a portion of that last agony of the departing woman to her own
+heart?
+
+Magdalena, although she could not speak, was evidently aware of the
+presence of the gentle girl. She still moved her lips, as if begging a
+blessing on her head, and fixed upon that mild face, now bathed in
+tears, the last look of her fading eyes. And now the eyes grew dim and
+senseless, although the spirit seemed still to struggle within for
+sight; now they closed--the whole frame of the prostrate woman
+shuddered, and Margaret Weilheim--the repentant Magdalena--was a corpse.
+
+Some time after these events, the Ober-Amtmann retired from his high
+office, and after a seclusion of some duration with his brother, at
+Fulda, finally betook himself to a monastery, where he remained until
+his death.
+
+Before his retirement from the world, however, he had consented, not
+without some difficulty, to the union of Bertha and Gottlob. The Prince
+Bishop, unforgetful of the claims of the unfortunate Magdalena, had
+urged upon his brother the duty of making this concession to the dying
+wishes of the wronged mother, as well as to the evident affection of
+Bertha for the young artist, which, although unknown even to herself,
+was no less powerful. As Gottlob, although of a ruined and impoverished
+family, was not otherwise than of noble birth, the greatest difficulty
+of these times was surmounted; and the Prince Bishop, by bestowing upon
+the young man a post of honour and rank about his person, in which the
+gentle youth could still continue the pursuit of his glorious art, and
+march on unhindered in his progress to that eminence which he finally
+attained, smoothed the road to the Ober-Amtmann's consent.
+
+On the day of Bertha's marriage, the good Prince Bishop promulgated an
+edict, that for the future no one should suffer the punishment of death
+for the crime of witchcraft in his dominions. But, after his decease,
+the edict again fell into disuse; and the town of Hammelburg, as if the
+spirit of Black Claus, the witchfinder, still hovered about its walls,
+again commenced to assert its odious reputation, and maintain its
+hideous boast, of having burned more witches than any other town in
+Germany.
+
+
+
+
+MY LAST COURTSHIP; OR, LIFE IN LOUISIANA.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE FIRST.
+
+A VOYAGE ON THE RED RIVER.
+
+It was on a sultry sunny June morning that I stepped on board the Red
+River steamboat. The sun was blazing with unusual power out of its
+setting of deep-blue enamel; no wind stirred, only the huge mass of
+water in the Mississippi seemed to exhale an agreeable freshness. I gave
+a last nod to Richards and his wife who had accompanied me to the shore,
+and then went down into the cabin.
+
+I was by no means in the most amiable of humours. Although I had pretty
+well forgotten my New York disappointment, two months' contemplation of
+the happiness enjoyed by Richards in the society of his young and
+charming wife, had done little towards reconciling me to my
+bachelorship; and it was with small pleasure that I looked forward to a
+return to my solitary plantation, where I could reckon on no better
+welcome than the cold, and perhaps scowling, glance of slaves and
+hirelings. In no very pleasant mood I walked across the cabin, without
+even looking at the persons assembled there, and leaned out of the open
+window. I had been some three or four minutes in this position, chewing
+the cud of unpleasant reflections, when a friendly voice spoke close to
+my ear--
+
+"_Qu'est ce qu'il y a donc, Monsieur Howard? Etes-vous indisposé? Allons
+voir du monde._"
+
+I turned round. The speaker was a respectable-looking elderly man; but
+his features were entirely unknown to me, and I stared at him, a little
+astonished at the familiar tone of his address, and at his knowledge of
+my name. I was at that moment not at all disposed to make new
+acquaintances; and, after a slight bow, I was about to turn my back upon
+the old gentleman, when he took my hand, and drew me gently towards the
+ladies' cabin.
+
+"_Allons voir, Monsieur Howard._"
+
+"_Mais que voulez-vous donc?_ What do you want with me?" said I somewhat
+peevishly to the importunate stranger.
+
+"_Faire votre connaissance_," he replied with a benign smile, at the
+same time opening the door of the ladies' saloon. "Monsieur Howard,"
+said he to two young girls who were occupied in tying up a bundle of
+pine-apples and bananas to one of the cabin pillars, just as in the
+northern States, or in England, people hang up strings of onions, "_Mes
+filles, voici notre voisin, Monsieur Howard._"
+
+The damsels tripped lightly towards me, welcoming me as cordially as if
+I had been an old acquaintance, and hastened to offer me some of their
+fragrant and delicious fruit. Their greeting and manners were really
+highly agreeable. Had they been two of my own dear countrywomen, I might
+have lived ten years with them without being so well and frankly
+received, or invited to spoil my dinner in so agreeable a manner, as by
+these fair Pomonas. I could not refuse an invitation so cordially given.
+I sat down, and, notwithstanding my dull and fretful humour, soon found
+myself amused in my own despite by the lively chatter of the Creoles. An
+hour passed rapidly in this manner, and a second and third might
+possibly have been wiled away as agreeably, had not my stiff Virginian
+feeling of etiquette made me apprehensive that a longer stay might be
+deemed intrusive.
+
+"You will come back and take tea with us?" said the young ladies as I
+left the cabin.
+
+I bowed a willing assent; and truly, on reaching the deck, I found
+reason to congratulate myself on having done so. The company there
+assembled was any thing but the best. A strange set of fellows! I could
+almost have fancied myself in old Kentuck. Drovers and cattle-dealers
+from New Orleans proceeding to the north-western countries; half-wild
+hunters and trappers, on their way to the country beyond Nacogdoches,
+with the laudable intention of civilizing, or, in other words, of
+cheating the Indians; traders and storekeepers from Alexandria and its
+neighbourhood; such was the respectable composition of the society on
+board the steamer. A rough lot they were, thick-booted, hoarse-voiced,
+hard-fisted fellows, who walked up and down, chewing and smoking, and
+spitting with as much exactness of aim as if their throats had been
+rifle-barrels.
+
+We were just coming in sight of a large clump of foliage. It was the
+mouth of the Red River, which is half overarched by the huge trees that
+incline forward over its waters from either bank. What a contrast to the
+Mississippi, which flows along, broad, powerful, and majestic, like some
+barbarian conqueror bursting forth at the head of his stinking hordes to
+overrun half a world! The Red River on the other hand, which we are
+accustomed to call the Nile of Louisiana--with about as much right and
+propriety as the Massachusetts cobbler who christened his son Alexander
+Cæsar Napoleon--sneaks stealthily along through forest and plain, like
+some lurking and venomous copper-snake. Cocytus would be a far better
+name for it. Here we are at the entrance of the first swamp, out of
+which the infernal scarlet ditch flows. It is any thing but a pleasant
+sight, that swamp, which is formed by the junction of the Tensaw, the
+White and Red Rivers, and at the first glance appears like a huge mirror
+of vivid green, apparently affording solid footing, and scattered over
+with trees, from which rank creepers and a greasy slime hang in long
+festoons. One would swear it was a huge meadow, until, on looking rather
+longer, one sees the dark-green swamp lilies gently moving, while from
+amongst them are protruded numerous snouts or jaws, of a sickly
+greyish-brown, discoursing music which is any thing but sweet to a
+stranger's ears. These are thousands of alligators, darting out from
+amongst the rank luxuriance of their marshy abode. It is their breeding
+time, and the horrible bellowing they make is really hideous to listen
+to. One might fancy this swamp the headquarters of death, whence he
+shoots forth his envenomed darts in the thousand varied forms of fever
+and pestilence.
+
+We had proceeded some distance up the Red River, when the friendly old
+Creole came to summon me to the tea-table. We found one of his daughters
+reading Bernardin de St Pierre's novel, a favourite study with Creole
+ladies; while the other was chatting with her black-skinned,
+ivory-toothed waiting-maid, with a degree of familiarity that would have
+thrown a New York _élégante_ into a swoon. They were on their way home,
+their father told me, from the Ursuline Convent at New Orleans, where
+they had been educated. It can hardly have been from the holy sisters,
+one would think, that they acquired the self-possessed and scrutinizing,
+although not immodest gaze, with which I at times observed them to be
+examining me. The eldest is apparently about nineteen years of age,
+slightly inclined to _embonpoint_. It was really amusing to observe the
+cool, comfortable manner, in which she inspected me in a large mirror
+that hangs opposite to us, as if she had been desirous of seeing how
+long I could stand my ground and keep my countenance.
+
+It would fill a book to enumerate all the items of baggage and effects
+which my new friends the Creoles had crowded into the state-cabin.
+Luckily, they were the only inmates of the latter, and had,
+consequently, full power in their temporary dominions. Had there been
+co-occupants, a civil war must have been the inevitable result. The
+ladies had a whole boat-load of citrons, oranges, bananas, and
+pine-apples; and their father had at least three dozen cases of
+Chambertin, Laffitte, and Medoc. I at first thought he must be a
+wine-merchant. At any rate he showed his good taste in stocking himself
+with such elegant and salutary drinkables, instead of the gin, and
+whisky, and Hollands to which many of my countrymen would have given the
+preference--those green and brown compounds, elixirs of sin and disease,
+concocted by rascally distillers for the corruption and ruin of Brother
+Jonathan.
+
+The tea was now ready. Monsieur Ménou (that was the name of my new
+friend) seemed inclined to reject the sober beverage, and stick to his
+Chambertin. I was disposed to try both. The young ladies were all that
+was gay and agreeable. They were really charming girls, merry and
+lively, full of ready wit, and with bright eyes and pleasant voices,
+that might have cheered the heart of the veriest misanthrope. But there
+are moments in one's life when the mind and spirits seem oppressed by a
+sort of dead dull calm, as enervating and disheartening as that which
+succeeds a West Indian hurricane in the month of August. At those times
+every thing loses its interest, and one appears to become as helpless as
+the ship that lies becalmed and motionless on the glassy surface of a
+tropical sea. I was just in one of those moments. I had consulted any
+thing but my own inclination in leaving the hospitable roof and pleasant
+companionship of my friend Richards, to return to my own neglected and
+long-unvisited plantation, where I should find no society, and should be
+compelled to occupy myself with matters that for me had little or no
+interest. Had I, as I hoped to do when in New York, taken back a partner
+of my joys and sorrows, some gentle creature who would have cheered my
+solitude and sympathized with all my feelings, I should have experienced
+far less repugnance or difficulty in returning to my home in the
+wilderness; but as it was, I felt oppressed by a sense of loneliness
+that seemed to paralyse my energies, and that certainly rendered me any
+thing but fit society for the lively, talkative party of which I now
+found myself a member. I strove to shake off the feeling, but in vain;
+and at last, abandoning the attempt, I left the cabin and went on deck.
+
+The night was bright and starlight; the atmosphere perfectly clear, with
+the exception of a slight white mist that hung over the river. The
+hollow blows of the steam-engine seemed to be echoed in the far distance
+by the bellowing of the alligators; while the plaintive tones of the
+whip-poor-will were heard at intervals in the forest through which we
+were passing. There was no sign of life on the banks of the river; it
+was a desert; not a light to be seen, save that of millions of
+fireflies, which threw a magical kind of _chiaroscuro_ over the trees
+and bushes. At times we passed so near the shore that the branches
+rattled and snapped against the side of the boat. Our motion was rapid.
+Twelve hours more, and I should be in my Tusculum. Just then the captain
+came up to me to say, that if I were disposed to retire to rest, the
+noisy smokers and drinkers had discontinued their revels, and I might
+now have some chance of sleeping. I had nothing better to do, so
+descended the stairs and installed myself in my berth.
+
+When I rose the next morning, a breeze had sprung up, and we were
+proceeding merrily along under sail as well as steam. The first person I
+met was Monsieur Ménou, who wished me a _bon-jour_ in, as I thought, a
+somewhat colder tone than he had hitherto used towards me, and looked me
+at the same time enquiringly in the face. It seemed as if he wished to
+read there whether his courtesy and kindness were likely to be requited
+by the same ungracious stiffness that I had shown him on the preceding
+day. Well, I will do my best to obliterate the bad impression I have
+apparently made. They are good people, these Creoles--not particularly
+bashful or discreet; but yet I like their forwardness and volatility
+better than the sly smartness of the Yankees, in spite of their
+ridiculous love of dancing, which even the first emigrants could not lay
+aside, amidst all the difficulties of their settlement in America. It
+must have been absurd enough to see them capering about, and dancing
+minuets and gavottes in blanket coats and moccasins.
+
+Whilst I was talking to the Ménous, and doing my best to be amiable, the
+bell rang, the steam was let off, and we stopped to take in firing.
+
+"_Monsieur, voilà votre terre!_" said the father pointing to the shore,
+upon which a large quantity of wood was stacked. I looked through the
+cabin window; the Creole was right. I had been chatting so diligently
+with the young ladies that the hours had flown like minutes, and it was
+already noon. During my absence, my overseer had established a depot of
+wood for the steamboats. So far so good. And yonder is the worthy Mr
+Bleaks himself. The Creole seems inclined to accompany me to my house.
+I cannot hinder him certainly, but I sincerely hope he will not carry
+his politeness quite so far. Nothing I dread more than such a visit,
+when I have been for years away from house and home. A bachelor's Lares
+and Penates are the most careless of all gods.
+
+"Mr Bleaks," said I, stepping up to the overseer, who, in his Guernsey
+shirt, calico inexpressibles, and straw hat, his hands in his pockets
+and a cigar in his mouth, was lounging about, and apparently troubling
+himself very little about his employer. "Mr Bleaks, will you be so good
+as to have the gig and my luggage brought on shore?"
+
+"Ha! Mr Howard!" said the man, "is it you? Didn't expect ye so soon."
+
+"I hope that, if unexpected, I am not unwelcome," replied I, a little
+vexed at this specimen of genuine Pennsylvanian dryness.
+
+"You ain't come alone, are you?" continued Bleaks, examining me at the
+same time out of the corners of his eyes. "Thought you'd have brought us
+a dozen blackies. We want 'em bad enough."
+
+"_Est-il permis, Monsieur?_" now interposed the Creole, taking my hand,
+and pointing towards the house.
+
+"And the steamer?" said I, in a tone as drawling as I could make it, and
+without moving a pace in the direction indicated.
+
+"Oh! that will wait," replied Ménou, smiling.
+
+What could I do with such a persevering fellow? There was nothing for it
+but to walk up with him to the house, however unpleasant I found it so
+to do. And unpleasant to me it certainly was, in the then state of my
+habitation and domain. It was a melancholy sight--a perfect abomination
+of desolation. Every thing looked so ruined, decayed, and rotten, that I
+felt sick and disgusted at the prospect before me. I had not expected to
+find matters half so bad. Of the hedge round the garden only a few
+sticks were here and there standing; in the garden itself some
+unwholesome-looking pigs were rooting and grubbing. As to the house!
+Merciful heavens! Not a whole pane in the windows! all the frames
+stopped and crammed with old rags and bunches of Indian corn leaves! I
+could not expect groves of orange and citron trees--I had planted none;
+but this! no, it was really too bad. Every picture must have its shady
+side, but here there was no bright one; all was darkness and gloom. We
+did not meet a living creature as we walked up from the shore, winding
+our way amongst the prostrate and decaying tree-trunks that encumbered
+the ground. At last, near the house, we stumbled upon a trio of black
+little monsters, that were rolling in the mud with the dogs, half a
+shirt upon their bodies, and dirty as only the children of men possibly
+can be. The quadrupeds, for such they looked, jumped up on our approach,
+stared at us with their rolling eyes, and then scuttled away to hide
+themselves behind the house. Ha! Old Sybille! Is it you? She was
+standing before a caldron, suspended, gipsy-fashion, from a triangle of
+sticks--looking, for all the world, like a dingy parody of one of
+Macbeth's witches. She, too, stared at us, but without moving. I must
+introduce myself, I suppose. Now she has recognised me, and comes
+towards us with her enormous spoon in her hand. I wonder that her
+shriveled old turkey's neck--which cost me seventy-five dollars, by the
+by--has not got twisted before now. She runs up to me, screaming and
+crying for joy. There _is_ one creature, then, glad to see me. It is
+amusing to observe the anxiety with which she looks at the caldron, and
+at three pans in which ham and dried buffalo are stewing and grizzling;
+she is evidently quite unable to decide whether she shall abandon me to
+my fate, or the fleshpots to theirs. She sets up her pipe and makes a
+most awful outcry, but nobody answers the call. "_Et les chambres_,"
+howls she, "_et la maison, et tout, tout!_" I could not make out what
+the deuce she would be at. She looked at my companion, evidently much
+embarrassed.
+
+"_Mais, mon Dieu!_" croaked she, "_pourrai-je seulement un moment? Tenez
+là_, Massa!" she continued in an imploring tone, holding out the spoon
+to me, and making a movement as if she were stirring something, and
+then again pointing to the house.
+
+"_Que diable as tu?_" cried I, out of all patience at this
+unintelligible pantomime.
+
+The rooms wanted airing and sweeping, she said; they were not fit to
+receive a stranger in. She only required a quarter of an hour to put
+every thing to rights; and mean time, if I would be so good, for the
+sake of the honour of the house, just to stir the soup, and keep an eye
+upon the ham and buffalo flesh.
+
+Mentally consigning the old Guinea-fowl to the keeping of the infernal
+deities, I walked towards the house. My only consolation was, that
+probably my companion's residence was not in a much better state than
+mine, if in so good a one; those Creoles above Alexandria still live
+half like Redskins. Monsieur Ménou did not appear at all astonished at
+my slovenly housekeeping. When we entered the parlour, we found, instead
+of sofas and chairs, a quantity of Mexican cotton-seed in heaps upon the
+floor; in one corner was a dirty tattered blanket, in another a
+washing-tub. The other rooms were in a still worse state: one of the
+negroes had taken up his quarters in my bed-chamber, from which the
+musquitto curtains had disappeared, having passed, probably, into the
+possession of the amiable Mrs Bleaks. I hastened to leave this scene of
+disorder, and walked out into the court, my indignation and disgust
+raised to the highest pitch.
+
+"_Mais tout cela est bien charmant!_" exclaimed the Creole.
+
+I looked at the man; he appeared in sober earnest, but I could not
+believe that he was so; and I shook my head, for I was in no jesting
+humour. The wearisome fellow again took my arm, and led me towards the
+huts of my negroes and the cotton-fields. The soil of the latter was of
+the richest and best description, and in spite of negligent cultivation,
+its natural fertility and fatness had caused the plants to spring up
+already nearly to the height of a man, though we were only in the month
+of June. The Creole looked around him with the air of a connoisseur, and
+in his turn shook his head. Just then, the bell on board the steamer
+rang out the signal for departure.
+
+"Thank Heaven!" thought I.
+
+"_Monsieur_," said Ménou, "the plantation is _très charmante, mais ce_
+Mistère Bleak is nothing worth, and you--you are _trop gentilhomme_."
+
+I swallowed this equivocal compliment, nearly choking as I did so.
+
+"_Ecoutez_," continued my companion; "you shall go with me."
+
+"Go with you!" I repeated, in unbounded astonishment. "Is the man mad,"
+I thought, "to make me such a proposition within ten minutes after my
+return home?"
+
+"_Oui, oui, Monsieur_, you shall go with me. I have some very important
+things to communicate to you."
+
+"_Mais, Monsieur_," replied I, pretty stiffly, "I do not know what you
+can have to communicate to me. I am a good deal surprised at so strange
+a proposition"----
+
+"From a stranger," interrupted the Creole, smiling. "But I am serious,
+Mr Howard; you have come here without taking the necessary precautions.
+Your house is scarcely ready for your reception--the fever very
+dangerous--in short, you had better come with me."
+
+I looked at the man, astonished at his perseverance.
+
+"Well," said he, "yes or no?"
+
+I stood hesitating and embarrassed.
+
+"I accept your offer," I exclaimed at last, scarcely knowing what I
+said, and starting off at a brisk pace in the direction of the steamer.
+Mr Bleaks looked on in astonishment. I bid him pay more attention to the
+plantation, and with that brief injunction was about to step on board,
+when my five-and-twenty negroes came howling from behind the house.
+
+"Massa, Gor-a-mighty! Massa, Massa, stop with us!" cried the men.
+
+"Massa, dear good Massa! Not go!--Mr Bleaks!" yelled the women.
+
+I made sign to the captain to wait a moment.
+
+"What do you want?" said I, a little moved.
+
+One of the slaves stepped forward and bared his shoulders. Two others
+followed his example. They were hideously scarred and seamed by the
+whip.
+
+I cast stern glance at Bleaks, who grinned a cruel smile. It was a
+right fortunate thing for my honour and conscience that my poor negroes
+had thus appealed to me. In the thoughtlessness of my nature, I should
+have followed the Creole, without troubling myself in the least about
+the condition or treatment of the five-and-twenty human beings whom I
+had left in such evil hands. I excused myself hastily to Monsieur Ménou,
+promised an early visit, to hear whatever he might have to say to me,
+and bade him farewell. Without making me any answer, he hurried on
+board, whispered something to the captain, and disappeared down the
+cabin-stairs. I thought no more about him, and was walking towards the
+house, surrounded by my blacks, when I heard the splashing of the
+paddles, and the steamer resumed its voyage. At the same instant,
+somebody laid hold of my arm. I looked round--it was the Creole.
+
+"This is insupportable!" thought I. "I wonder he did not bring his two
+daughters with him. That would have completed my annoyance."
+
+"You will want my assistance with that _coquin_," said Ménou, quietly.
+"We will arrange every thing to-day; to-morrow my son will be here; and
+the day after you will go home with me."
+
+I said nothing. What would have been the use if I had? I was no longer
+my own master. This unaccountable Creole had evidently taken the
+direction of my affairs entirely into his own hands.
+
+My poor negroes and negresses were crying and laughing for joy, and
+gazing at me with expectant looks. I bid then go to their huts; that I
+would have them called when I wanted them.
+
+"D--n those blackies!" said Mr Bleaks as they walked away: "they want
+the whip; it's too long since they've had it."
+
+Without replying to his remark, I told old Sybille to fetch Beppo and
+Mirza, and signed to the overseer to leave me. He showed no disposition
+to obey.
+
+"This looks like an examination," said he sneeringly, "and I shall take
+leave to be present at it."
+
+"None of your insolence, Mr Bleaks," said I; "be so good as to take
+yourself off and wait my orders."
+
+"And none of your fine airs," replied the Mister. "We're in a free
+country, and you ain't got a nigger afore ye."
+
+This was rather more than I could stomach.
+
+"Mr Bleaks," said I, "from this hour you are no longer in my employment.
+Your engagement is out on the 1st of July; you shall be paid up to that
+date."
+
+"I don't set a foot over the threshold till I have received the amount
+of my salary and advances," replied the man dryly.
+
+"Bring me your account," said I. My blood was beginning to boil at the
+fellow's cool impudence.
+
+Bleaks called to his wife, who presently came to the room door. They
+exchanged a few words, and she went away again. Meanwhile I opened my
+portmanteau, and ran my eye over some accounts, letters, and receipts.
+Before I had finished, Mrs Bleaks reappeared with the account-books,
+which she laid upon the table, and planting herself, with arms akimbo,
+in the middle of the room, seemed prepared to witness whatever passed.
+Her husband lounged into the next apartment and brought a couple of
+chairs, upon which he and his better half seated themselves. Truly,
+thought I, our much-cherished liberty and equality have sometimes their
+inconveniences and disagreeables.
+
+"The 20th December, twenty-five bales cotton, four hogsheads tobacco in
+leaf, delivered to Mr Merton," began the overseer; "the 24th January,
+twenty-five bales cotton and one hogshead tobacco-leaves."
+
+"Right," said I.
+
+"That was our whole crop," said the man.
+
+"A tolerable falling off from the former year," I observed. "There were
+ninety-five bales and fifty hogsheads."
+
+"If it doesn't please the gentleman, he ought to have stopped at home,
+and not gone wandering over half the world instead of minding his
+affairs," retorted Mr Bleaks.
+
+"And leaving us to rot in this fever hole, without money or any thing
+else," added his moiety.
+
+"And further?" said I to the man.
+
+"That's all. I've received from Mr Merton 600 dollars: 300 more are
+still comin' to me."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"And moreover," continued Bleaks, "for Indian corn, meal, and hams, and
+salt pork, and blankets, and cotton stuffs, I have laid out 400 dollars,
+making 700, and 4000 hedge-stakes for mending fences, makes a total of
+740 dollars."
+
+I ran into the next room, found a pen and ink upon my dilapidated
+writing-table, wrote an order on my banker, and came back again. At any
+price I was resolved to get rid of this man.
+
+"Allow me," said the Creole, who had been a silent witness of all that
+had passed, but who now attempted to take the paper from my hand.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," said I, vexed at the man's meddling; "on this occasion
+I wish to be my own counsellor and master."
+
+"Wait but one moment, and allow me to ask a few questions of your
+overseer," continued the Creole, no way repulsed by my words or manner.
+"Will Mr Bleaks be so good as to read over his account once more?"
+
+"Don't know why I should. Mind your own business," was the churlish
+answer.
+
+"Then I will do it for you," said Ménou. "The 20th December, twenty-five
+bales cotton, and four hogsheads tobacco-leaves, delivered to Mr Merton.
+Is it not so?"
+
+Mr Bleaks made no answer.
+
+"The 23d December, twenty bales cotton, and one hogshead tobacco, to
+Messrs Goring. Is it not so?"
+
+The overseer cast a fierce but embarrassed look at the Creole. His wife
+changed colour.
+
+"The 24th January, twenty-five bales and one hogshead to Mr Groves, and
+again, on the 10th February, twenty-two bales and seven hogsheads to
+Messrs Goring. Is not that the correct account?"
+
+"D----d lies!" stammered the overseer.
+
+"Which I shall soon prove to be truth," said the other. "Mr Howard, you
+have a claim on this man for upwards of 2000 dollars, of which he has
+shamefully cheated you. I shall also be able to point out another fraud
+to the extent of 500 dollars."
+
+My faithless servants were pale with rage and confusion; I was struck
+dumb with surprise at this unexpected discovery, and at the way in which
+it was made.
+
+"We must lose no time with these people," whispered the Creole to me,
+"or they will be off before you can look round you. Send immediately to
+Justice T---- for a warrant, and give the sheriff and constables a hint
+to be on the look-out. He cannot well escape if he goes down stream, but
+he will no doubt try to go up."
+
+I immediately took the needful measures, and sent off Bangor, one of my
+smartest negroes, to the justice of peace. "We must write immediately to
+Goring's house," said the Creole.
+
+In an hour all was ready. At the end of that time the Montezuma steamer
+came smoking down the river. We got the captain to come on shore, told
+him briefly what had happened, gave him our letters, and were just
+accompanying him back to his vessel, when we saw a figure creep
+stealthily along behind the hedge and wood-stack, and go on board the
+steamer. It was Mr Bleaks, who had imagined that, under existing
+circumstances, a trip to New Orleans might be of service to his health.
+We found the worthy gentleman concealed amongst the crew, busily
+converting himself into a negro by the assistance of a handful of soot.
+His intended excursion was, of course, put an end to, and he was
+conveyed back to his dwelling. We took precautions against a second
+attempt at flight; and the following morning he was placed in safe
+custody of the authorities.
+
+"But, my dear Monsieur Ménou," said I to the Creole, as we sat after
+dinner discussing the second bottle of his Chambertin, of which the
+excellent man had not forgotten to bring a provision on shore with
+him--"whence comes it that you have shown me so much, and such
+undeserved sympathy and interest?"
+
+"Ha, ha! You citizen aristocrats cannot understand that a man should
+take an interest in any one, or any thing, but himself," replied Ménou,
+half laughing, half in earnest. "It is incomprehensible to your stiff,
+proud, republican egotism, which makes you look down upon us Creoles,
+and upon all the rest of the world, as beings of an inferior order. We,
+on the other hand, take care of ourselves, but we also occasionally
+think of our neighbours. Your affairs are perfectly well known to me,
+and I hope you do not think I have made a bad use of my knowledge of
+them."
+
+I shook the worthy man heartily by the hand.
+
+"We are not, in general, particularly fond of you northern gentlemen,"
+continued he; "but you form an exception. You have a good deal of our
+French _étourderie_ in your blood, and a good deal also of our
+generosity."
+
+I could not help smiling at the _naïve_ frankness with which this sketch
+of my character was placed before me.
+
+"You have stopped too long away from your own house, and from people who
+would willingly be your friends; and if all that is said be true, you
+have no particular reason to congratulate yourself upon the result of
+your wanderings."
+
+I bit my lips. The allusion was pretty plainly to my misfortune at New
+York.
+
+"Better as it is," resumed the Creole, with a very slight and
+good-humoured smile. "A New York fine lady would be strangely out of her
+element on a Red River plantation. But to talk of something else. My son
+will be here to-morrow; your estate only wants attention, and a small
+capital of seven or eight thousand dollars, to become in a year or two
+as thriving a one as any in Louisiana. My son will put it all in order
+for you; and, meanwhile, you must come and stop a few months with me."
+
+"But, Monsieur Ménou"----
+
+"No _buts_, Monsieur Howard! You have got the money, you must buy a
+score more negroes; we will pick out some good ones for you. To-morrow
+every thing shall be arranged."
+
+On the morrow came young Ménou, an active intelligent youth of twenty.
+The day was passed in visiting the plantation, and in a very few hours
+the young man had gained my full confidence. I recommended my interests
+and the negroes to his care; and the same evening his father and myself
+went on board the Ploughboy steamer, which was to convey us to the
+residence of the Ménous.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE SECOND.
+
+CREOLE LIFE.
+
+The good Creole had certainly behaved to me in a more Christian-like
+manner than most of my own countrymen would have done; and of this I had
+before long abundant proof. A little after nightfall, the steamboat
+paused opposite the house of the justice of peace; and I went on shore
+to communicate with him concerning my faithless steward. Although so
+early, the functionary was already going to bed, and came out to me in
+his nightshirt.
+
+"Knew it all, dear Mr Howard," said he with the utmost _naïveté_; "saw
+every bale that they stole from you, or tried to steal from you."
+
+"And for Heaven's sake, man!" I exclaimed, "why did you not put a stop
+to it?"
+
+"It was nothing to me," was the dry answer.
+
+"If you had only given information to my attorney!"
+
+"No business of mine," returned the man. Then fixing his eyes hard upon
+me, he commenced a sort of lecture, for which I was by no means
+prepared.
+
+"Ah!" said he, pushing his nightcap a little over his left ear, "you
+young gentlemen come out of the north with your dozen blackies or so,
+lay out some two or three thousand dollars in house and land, and then
+think you can play the absentee as much as you like, and that you do us
+a deal of honour when you allow us to collect and remit your income, for
+you to spend out of the country. I'm almost sorry, Mr Howard, that you
+didn't come six months later."
+
+"In order to leave the scoundrel time to secure his booty, eh?"
+
+"At any rate, he has worked, and has wife and child, and has been
+useful to the land and country."
+
+"The devil!" I exclaimed, mighty indignant. "Well--for a judge, you have
+a singular idea of law!"
+
+"It mayn't be Bony's code, nor yet Livingston's, but I reckon it's
+justice," replied the man earnestly, tapping his forehead with his
+forefinger.
+
+I stared at him, but he returned my gaze with interest. There was a deal
+of backwoods justice in his rough reasoning, although its morality was
+indefensible. It was the law of property expounded _à la_ Lynch. What is
+very certain is, that in a new country especially, absenteeism ought to
+be scouted as a crime against the community. In my case my ramblings had
+been very near costing me three thousand hard dollars. As it was,
+however, they were saved--thanks to Ménou--and the money still in the
+hands of Messrs Goring, whose standard of morality on such subjects was
+probably not much more rigid than that of the worthy Squire Turnips, and
+who would, I doubt not, have bought my cotton of the Evil One himself,
+if they could have got it half-a-cent a pound cheaper by so doing. I
+gave the squire the necessary papers and powers for the adjustment of my
+affairs with Bleaks; we shook hands, and I returned on board.
+
+In the grey of the morning the steamboat stopped again. I accompanied
+Ménou on shore, and we found a carriage waiting, which, in spite of its
+singularly antique construction, set off with us at a brisk pace. I had
+just fallen asleep in my corner, when I was awakened by a musical voice
+not ten paces off, exclaiming, "_Les voilà!_" I looked up, rubbed my
+eyes--it was Louise, the Creole's youngest daughter, who had come out
+under the verandah to welcome us. Where should we find one of our
+northern beauties who would turn out of her warm bed at six in the
+morning, to welcome her papa and a stranger guest, and to keep hot
+coffee ready for them, to counteract the bad effects of the morning air
+on the river? Monsieur Ménou, however, did not seem to find any thing
+extraordinary in his daughter's early rising, but began enquiring if the
+people had had their breakfasts, and were at work. On this and various
+other subjects, Louise was able to give him all the information he
+desired. She must have made astonishingly good use of the twenty-four
+hours that had elapsed since her return home, to be versed in all
+particulars concerning her sable liege subjects, and to be able to
+relate so fluently how Cato had run a splinter into his foot, Pompey had
+a touch of fever, and fifty other details, which, although doubtless
+very interesting to Ménou, made me gape a little. I amused myself by
+looking round the dining-room, in which we then were, the furniture and
+appearance of which rather improved my opinion of Creole civilization
+and comfort. The matting that covered the floor was new and of an
+elegant design--the sideboard solid and handsome, although prodigiously
+old-fashioned--tables, chairs, and sofas were of French manufacture. On
+the walls were suspended two or three engravings; not the fight at New
+Orleans, or Perry and Bainbridge's victories over the British on
+Champlain and Erie, but curiosities dating from the reigns of Louis the
+Fifteenth and Sixteenth. There was a Frenchified air about the whole
+room, nothing of the republic, the empire, or the restoration, but a
+sort of odour of the genuine old royalist days.
+
+By the time I had completed my inspection, Louise had answered all her
+father's enquiries; and we went out to take a look at the exterior of
+the house. It was snugly situated at the foot of a conical hillock, the
+only elevation of any kind to be found for miles around. South, east,
+and west, it was enclosed in a broad frame of acacia and cotton trees;
+but to the north it lay open, the breath of Boreas being especially
+acceptable in our climate. A rivulet, very bright and clear, at least
+for Louisiana, poured its waters from the elevation before mentioned,
+and supplied a tannery, which doubtless contributed much to the
+healthiness of the neighbourhood. The house consisted of three parts,
+built at different times by grandfather, father, and son, and now united
+into one. The last and largest portion had been built by the present
+proprietor; and it would have been as easy, it struck me, to have
+pulled down the earlier erections and have built one compact house. The
+reason the Creole gave for not having done so, did honour, I thought, to
+his heart. "I wish my children constantly to remember," said he, "how
+hard their ancestors toiled, and how poorly they lived, in order to
+ensure better days to those who should come after them."
+
+"And they will remember it," said a voice close behind us. I turned
+round.
+
+"_Madame Ménou, j'ai l'honneur de vous présenter notre voisin, Monsieur
+Howard._"
+
+"_Qui restera longtems chez nous_," cried the two girls, skipping
+forward, and before I had time to make my bow to the lady, taking me by
+both hands and dragging me into the house, and through half a dozen
+zigzag passages and corridors, to show me my room. This was a sexagonal
+apartment, situated immediately over a small artificial lake, through
+which flowed the rivulet before mentioned. It was the coolest and most
+agreeable chamber in the house, on which account it had been allotted to
+me. After I had declared my unqualified approval of it, my fair
+conductresses took me down stairs again to papa and mamma, the latter of
+whom I found to be a ladylike woman, with a countenance expressive of
+good nature, and manners that at once made one feel quite at home. She
+received me as if she had known me for years, without compliments or
+ceremonious speeches, and without even troubling herself to screw her
+features into the sort of holiday expression which many persons think it
+necessary to assume on first acquaintance. I was soon engaged in a
+conversation with her, in the middle of which a lady and two gentlemen
+came out under the verandah and joined us. Their olive complexions and
+foreign appearance at once attracted my attention, and I set them down
+as Spaniards or of Spanish extraction. In this I was not mistaken. The
+men were introduced to me as Señor Silveira and Don Pablo. The lady, who
+was the wife of the former, was a remarkably lovely creature, tall and
+elegant in person, with dark eyes, an aquiline and delicately-formed
+nose, a beautiful mouth, enclosing pearl-like teeth. Hitherto I had held
+our American fair ones to be the prettiest women in the world; but I now
+almost felt inclined to alter my opinion. I was so struck by the fair
+stranger's appearance that I could not take my eyes off her for some
+moments; until a sharp glance from her husband, and (as I fancied) the
+somewhat uneasy looks of the other ladies, made me aware that my gaze
+might be deemed somewhat too free and republican in its duration. I
+transferred my attention, therefore, to the breakfast, which, to my no
+small satisfaction, was now smoking on the table, and to which we at
+once sat down. The strangers appeared grave and thoughtful, and ate
+little, although the steaks were delicious, the young quails
+incomparable, and the Chambertin worthy of an imperial table.
+
+"Who are those foreigners?" said I to Ménou, when the meal was over, and
+we were leaving the room.
+
+"Mexicans," was the reply; "but who they are I cannot tell you."
+
+"What! do you not know them?"
+
+"I know them perfectly well," he answered, "or they would not be in my
+house. But even my family," whispered he, "does not know them."
+
+Poor wretches! thought I, some more sacrifices on freedom's altar;
+driven from house and home by the internal commotions of their country.
+Things were going on badly enough in Mexico just then. On the one hand,
+Guerrero, Bustamente, Santa Anna; on the other, a race of men to whom,
+if one wished them their deserts, one could desire nothing better than
+an Austrian schlague or a Russian knout, to make them sensible of the
+value of that liberty which they do not know how to appreciate.
+
+Meanwhile Julie and Louise were busy, in the next room, passing in
+review, for the third or fourth time at least, the thousand-and-one
+purchases they had made at New Orleans. It was a perfect picture of
+Creole comfort to see the mamma presiding at this examination of the
+laces, gros de Naples, Indiennes, gauze, and other fripperies, which
+were passed rapidly through the slender fingers of her daughters, and
+handed to her for approval. She found every thing charming; every
+thing, too, had its destination; and my only wonder was, how it would be
+possible for those ladies to use the hundreds of ells of stuffs that
+were soon spread out over chairs, tables, and sofas, and that, as it
+appeared to me, would have been sufficient to supply half the women of
+Louisiana with finery for the next five years. This Creole family was
+really a model of a joyous innocent existence; nothing constrained or
+artificial; but a light and cheerful tone of conversation, which,
+however, never degenerated into license, or threatened to overstep the
+limits of the strictest propriety. Each person fulfilled his or her
+allotted task thoroughly well, and without appearing to find it an
+exertion. The housekeeping was admirable; to that point the excellence
+of the breakfast had borne witness. I recollect once falling violently
+in love with a Massachusetts beauty, possessed of a charming face, a
+sylph-like figure, and as much sentimentality as would have stocked half
+a dozen flaxen-haired Germans. It was my ninth serious attachment if I
+remember rightly, and desperately smitten I was and remained, until one
+unlucky day when the mamma of my _adorata_ invited me to a dinner _en
+famille_. The toughness of the mutton-chops took the edge off my teeth
+for forty-eight hours, and off my love for ever. As regards the Ménous,
+however, I have hardly known them long enough to form a very decided
+opinion concerning them. In a few days I shall be able to judge better.
+Meanwhile we will leave the ladies, and accompany Monsieur Ménou over
+his plantation. It is in excellent order, admirably situated, and
+capitally irrigated by trenches cut through the cotton and maize fields.
+There are above three hundred acres in cultivation--the yearly crop two
+hundred and fifty bales: a very pretty income. Only three children, and
+the plantation comprising nearly four thousand acres. Not so bad--might
+be worth thinking of. But what would the world say to it? The
+aristocratic Howard to marry a Creole, with, perhaps, a dash of Indian
+blood in her veins! Yet Ménou has threescore negroes and negresses,
+besides a whole colony of ebony children, and the two girls are not so
+ill to look at. Roses and lilies--especially Louise. Well, we will think
+about it.
+
+"Apropos!" said the Creole, as we were walking along a field path. "You
+have three thousand dollars with Gorings?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"And eight thousand with Mr Richards?"
+
+"How do you know that, my dear M. Ménou?"
+
+I must observe, by way of parenthesis, that I had lent these eight
+thousand dollars to Richards some five years previously; and although,
+on more than one occasion during that time, the money would have been of
+considerable use to me, I had been restrained from asking it back by my
+natural indolence and laziness of character, added to the nonsensical
+notion of generosity and devotion in friendship that I had picked out of
+waggon-loads of novels. Richards, I must observe, had never hinted at
+returning the money. I now felt rather vexed, I cannot exactly say why,
+at Ménou's being acquainted with the fact of this debt, which I had
+fancied a secret between Richards and myself.
+
+"And how do you know that, my dear M. Ménou?"
+
+Ménou smiled at my question. "You forget," said he, "that I am only just
+returned from New Orleans. One hears and learns many things when one
+opens one's ears to the gossip of the _haut-ton_ of the capital."
+
+"Ha, ha!" said I, a little sarcastically, and glancing at the man's
+straw hat, and unbleached trousers and jacket; "Monsieur Ménou--the
+plain and unsophisticated Monsieur Ménou, also a _haut-ton_ man?"
+
+"My wife was a M----y; my grandfather was president of the Toulouse
+parliament," replied the Creole quietly, to my somewhat impertinent
+remark.
+
+I bowed. My suspicions concerning Indian blood were unfounded then.
+
+"And have my proceedings and follies really served as tea-table talk to
+the New Orleans' gossips?" said I.
+
+"Don't let that annoy you," replied Ménou. "Let the world talk; and you,
+on your part, prove to it that you are a more sensible man than it
+takes you for. Will you put yourself for a while entirely under my
+guidance?"
+
+"Very willingly," said I.
+
+"And promise to abide by my advice."
+
+"I promise to do so."
+
+"Then," continued Ménou, "you must let me have, to use as I think
+proper, eight out of the eleven thousand dollars which you have lying
+idle."
+
+"And Richards?" said I.
+
+"Can do without them better than you can. It is very well to be
+generous, but not to the extent of injuring yourself. Here is a receipt
+for the sum in question. I will account to you for its expenditure."
+
+And with these words he handed me the receipt. He had evidently laid a
+little plot to force me to my own good. It went decidedly against the
+grain with me to requite Richards' hospitality and friendship by
+claiming back the money I had lent him, and for which he no doubt had
+good use. At the same time, it would have been rather Quixotic to let my
+own plantation go to rack and ruin for want of the funds by which he was
+profiting; and moreover, I had given Ménou my word to be guided by him;
+so I put the receipt and my romantics in my pocket, and returned to the
+house to give my adviser an order for the money.
+
+Julie and Louise scarcely seemed to observe our entrance. Both had their
+hands full--the one with cookery and domestic matters, the other with
+the ginghams and muslins, which she was rending and tearing with a
+vigour that caused the noise to be heard fifty yards off. At supper,
+however, they were as merry as ever, and there was no end to their mirth
+and liveliness. It seemed as if they had thrown off the burden of the
+day's toils, and awakened to a new and more joyous existence. The three
+Mexicans, with their gravity and grandeur, did not seem to be the least
+restraint upon the girls, who at last, however, towards eight o'clock,
+appeared to grow impatient at sitting so long still. They exchanged a
+whisper, and then, rising from table, tripped into a adjoining room.
+Presently the harmonious tones of a pianoforte were audible.
+
+"We must not linger here," said the Creole. "_Les dames nous en
+voudraient._"
+
+And we all repaired to the drawing-room, an elegant apartment, where the
+Mexican lady was already seated at the piano, while the two girls were
+only waiting partners to begin the dance. Julie took possession of her
+father, Silveira stood up with Madame Ménou, Louise fell to my share;
+and a cotillon was danced with as much glee and spirit as if both
+dancers and lookers-on had been more numerous. Between dancing, music,
+and lively conversation, eleven o'clock came before we were aware of it.
+
+"_Voici notre manière Créole_," said Ménou, as he left me at my bed-room
+door. "With us every thing has its time; laughing, talking, working,
+praying, and dancing: each its appointed season. We endeavour so to
+arrange our lives that no one occupation or amusement should interfere
+with another. It is only by that means that our secluded domestic
+existence can be rendered agreeable and happy. As it is, _nous ne nous
+ennuyons jamais_. Good-night."
+
+
+CHAPTER THE THIRD.
+
+QUITE UNEXPECTED.
+
+Eight weeks had flown by like so many hours. I had become domesticated
+in the family circle of the Ménous, and was getting so frugal and
+economical, that I scarcely knew what a dollar or a bank-note looked
+like. Time passed so lightly and pleasantly, and there was something so
+patriarchal and delightful in this mode of life, that it was no
+difficult matter to forget the world, with its excitements, its
+pleasures, and its cares. I, at least, rarely bestowed a thought upon
+any thing but what was passing immediately around me; whole piles of
+newspapers lay unread upon my table, and I became every day more and
+more of a backwoodsman. I rose early, slipped into my linen jacket and
+trousers, and accompanied M. Ménou about his fields and cotton presses.
+The afternoon passed in looking over accounts, or in reading and
+laughing at the discussions and opinions of Colonel Stone and Major
+Noah, as set forth in the well-known papers, the _Morning Courier_ and
+_Commercial Gazette_, while the evening of each day was filled up by an
+_impromptu_ of some kind, a dance, or a merry chat.
+
+We were sitting one night at supper, when M. Ménou proposed a stag-hunt
+by torchlight. I caught eagerly at the idea, and he at once gave orders
+to make the needful preparations. The two Mexicans begged to be allowed
+to accompany us; but almost before they had proffered the request, the
+lady interfered to oppose it.
+
+"Don Lop----!" she exclaimed, and then checked herself in the middle of
+the word she was about to utter. "_Te suplico_," she continued in
+Spanish, after a momentary pause, "I implore you not to go to-night."
+
+There was something inexpressibly anxious and affectionate in her manner
+and tone. Her husband begged her not to make herself uneasy, and
+promised he would not go; at the same time, it was evident that he was
+vexed not to accompany us. I assured the lady there was no danger.
+
+"No danger!" repeated she, in her sonorous Castilian. "No danger! Is
+nobody aware of the intended hunt?" said she to Ménou.
+
+"Nobody," was the reply.
+
+It just then occurred to me, that during the whole period of my
+residence with the Ménous, neither the Mexican nor his wife had ever
+gone out of the house and garden. This circumstance, in combination with
+the anxiety now shown by the lady, struck me forcibly, and I gazed at
+Silveira, while I vainly endeavoured to conjecture whence arose the
+mystery that evidently environed him. He was a man of about thirty years
+of age, with handsome features, a high forehead, and a pale, but not
+unhealthy complexion. The expression of his eyes particularly struck me;
+at times there flashed from them a fire, indicative of high purposes and
+strong resolution. There was a military and commanding air about him,
+which was very apparent, though he evidently did his utmost to conceal
+it; and it was this same manner which had hitherto caused me to treat
+him rather coolly, and rendered me little disposed to cultivate his
+intimacy. His companion, Don Pablo, was a tolerably insignificant
+person, who seemed to look up to Silveira and his wife with a respect
+and reverence almost amounting to idolatry. Beside him, their suite was
+composed of four attendants.
+
+"And is there really no danger?" said the Señora to Ménou. The Creole
+assured her there was none. She whispered a few words to her husband,
+who kissed her hand, and repeated his request to be of our party--this
+time without any opposition on his wife's part.
+
+Supper over, we put on our shooting coats, took our guns, and mounted
+the horses that had been prepared for us. Six negroes with pitch-pans,
+and a couple of dogs, had gone on before. The clock struck ten as we set
+out. It was a dark sultry night; towards the south distant thunder was
+heard, betokening the approach of one of those storms that occur almost
+daily at that season and in that country. During the first twenty
+minutes of our ride, the atmosphere became stiflingly oppressive; then
+suddenly a strong wind rushed amongst the trees and bushes, the thunder
+drew nearer, and from time to time a flash of forked lightning
+momentarily illumined the forest. Again a flash, more vivid than the
+preceding ones, and a clap, compared to which our northern thunder would
+sound like the mere roll of a drum; the dogs began to whine, and kept as
+near to the horses as they could. We pushed onward, and were close to a
+laurel thicket, when the leading hound suddenly came to a stand, and
+pricked up his ears. We dismounted, and walked forward--the negroes
+preceding us with the pitch-pans. Some twenty pace before us we
+perceived four small stars, that glittered like diminutive
+fire-balls--they were the eyes of two stags that awaited our approach,
+in astonishment at the unusual spectacle offered to them. We took
+aim--the Creole and myself at one, two Mexicans at the other. "_Feu!_"
+cried Ménou. There was the crack of the four rifles, then a crashing
+noise amongst the branches, and the clatter of hoofs, succeeded by cries
+of _Sacre!_ and Damn ye! and _Diabolo!_ and _San Jago!_ The six
+pitch-pans lay smoking and flaring on the ground; the Creole and I had
+sprung on one side, the negroes had thrown themselves on their faces in
+great terror, and the two Dons lay beside them, overthrown by the rush
+of one of the stags.
+
+"_Santa Virgen!_" shouted Don Pablo, mightily alarmed and angry;
+"_Maldito bobo, Señor don Manuel!_"
+
+And scrambling to his feet, he proceeded in desperate haste to raise his
+companion from the ground, on which he lay motionless, and apparently
+much hurt.
+
+"_Maldito sea el dia! Nuestro Libertador! Santa Anna! Ay de mi!_"
+
+"_Calla te_--hold your tongue!" said Silveira to his alarmed adherent.
+
+On the first appearance of danger, M. Ménou had jumped behind a tree,
+which had afforded a sufficient shelter against the mad rush of the
+terrified stag; but his cry of warning had come too late for the young
+Mexican, who had less experience in this kind of chase, and who,
+standing full in the path of the furious beast, was knocked down, and
+run over. I pushed Pablo, who was howling and wringing his hands, on one
+side, and with Ménou, proceeded to investigate the hurts which the other
+Mexican had received. His coat was torn, and both legs were bleeding,
+having been rent by the deer's antlers. Fortunately the wounds were not
+deep, or he might have had serious reason to regret the bad aim he had
+taken. We placed him on his horse, and turned towards home.
+
+It was midnight when we reached the house with the wounded man, and the
+carcass of the deer that Ménou and I had shot. The sight of a white
+figure at the window of the apartment occupied by the Mexican, warned us
+that his wife was watching for his arrival. At the sound of our horses'
+feet, she came hurrying down stairs, and out of the house to meet us;
+and upon beholding her husband, pale, exhausted, and supported on his
+horse by couple of negroes, she uttered a shrill cry, and with the word
+"_Perdido!_" sank, almost fainting, on the door steps.
+
+"Gracious God!" cried a second female voice at that moment. "A
+misfortune! Is it Howard?"
+
+It was Louise, who at that moment made her appearance in her nightdress,
+breathless with terror.
+
+"_Mon Dieu_, it is only the Mexican! Thank God!" lisped she, in an
+accent of infinite joy and relief.
+
+"Thanks, dearest Louise! for those words," said I; "they make me very
+happy."
+
+I caught her in my arms, and pressed a kiss upon her lips. She struggled
+from my embrace, and, blushing deeply, hurried back into her chamber.
+
+I now followed Ménou into the apartment of the Mexican, whose wife was
+hanging over him, speechless with grief and anxiety. Ménou had much
+trouble to get her away from him, in order that he might examine and
+dress his hurts. I do not know where the worthy Creole had learned his
+surgery, but he was evidently no tyro in the healing art; and he cut out
+the flesh injured by the antler, washed and bandaged the wounds, with a
+dexterity that really inspired me with confidence in him. The wounds
+were not dangerous, but might easily have become so, taking into
+consideration the heat of the weather, (the thermometer stood at
+eighty-six,) and the circumstance of their having been inflicted by a
+stag's horn. In a short half hour the patient was comfortably put to
+bed, and the afflicted Donna Isabella consoled by Ménou's positive
+assurance, that in a very few days her husband would be well again. She
+received this piece of comfort with such a thoroughly Roman Catholic
+uplifting of her magnificent eyes, that I could scarcely help envying
+the saints for whom that look was intended.
+
+I had held the candle for Ménou during the operation; and as I put it
+down upon the table, my eyes fell upon a beautifully executed miniature
+of the Mexican set in brilliants. Beside it were lying letters addressed
+to Don Lopez di Santa Anna, Marischal de Campo; one or two had the
+superscription, Lieutenant-general. It was no other than the celebrated
+Mexican leader, the second in rank in the would-be republic, who had
+been sojourning in Monsieur Ménou's house under the assumed name of
+Silveira. This discovery afforded me matter for reflection as I repaired
+to my bed-chamber; reflections, however, which were soon forced to make
+way for other thoughts of a more personally interesting nature. It was
+the graceful form of Louise that now glided forward out of the
+background of my imagination. She had watched, then, anxiously for our
+return; and the first rumour of a mishap had drawn from her lips the
+name of him for whom her heart felt most interested. During the whole
+time of my residence with the Ménous, I had never once dreamed of
+falling in love with either of the sisters. There was so much activity
+and occupation in and out of the house, that I seemed to have had no
+time to indulge in sentimental reveries. Now, however, they came
+crowding upon me. It was so consolatory to an unlucky bachelor, only
+just recovering from a recent disappointment, to find himself an object
+of tender interest a lovely and innocent girl of seventeen.
+
+At breakfast, the next morning, Louise did not dare to look me in the
+face. Without distressing her, however, I managed to look at her more
+than I had ever before done; and I really wondered what I had been
+thinking about, during the preceding two months, not to have sooner
+found out her manifold charms and perfections. Her elder sister was too
+stout for my taste, altogether on too large a scale, and with too little
+of the intellectual in the expression of her features; but Louise is
+unquestionably a charming creature, slender and graceful, with a sweet
+archness in her countenance, and hands and feet that might serve for
+models. In short, I began to think seriously that all past
+disappointments would be more than compensated by the affection of such
+a woman. I must see first about setting my house in order, thought I.
+
+"Will you be so kind as to lend me your carriage to go as far as the
+river?" said I to the Creole.
+
+"With much pleasure. A mere ride, I suppose?"
+
+"No; a little more. I wish to see how things are getting on at my
+plantation."
+
+"You are going away?" exclaimed Madame Ménou and Julie. Louise said
+nothing, but she raised her eyes to mine for the first time that
+morning.
+
+"It is necessary that I should do so; but, if you will allow me, I will
+pay you another visit before very long."
+
+The roses had left the cheeks of poor Louise, and I fancied I saw a tear
+glittering in her eyes. Several minutes elapsed without any body's
+speaking. At last the silence was broken by the Creole.
+
+"You seemed very happy here, I thought," said he. "Has any thing
+happened?"
+
+"Yes; something of great importance to me. I must really leave you
+immediately," was my answer.
+
+Mean time, Louise had left the room. I hurried after her, and overtook
+her before she reached her chamber.
+
+"Louise!" said I. She was weeping. "I leave you to-day."
+
+"So I heard."
+
+"In order to arrange my house."
+
+"My brother is doing that already," said she. "Why leave us?"
+
+"Because I would fain see with my own eyes if all is ready and fitting
+for the reception of my Louise. When I have done so, will you follow me
+home as my beloved wife?"
+
+For one second she looked in my face, her features lighted up with a
+beam of confiding joy, and then her gaze fell in timid confusion on the
+ground.
+
+"Take her, dear Howard!" said her father, who had followed us
+unperceived. "She is the best of daughters, and will make as good a
+wife."
+
+Louise sank into my arms. An hour later I was on my way homewards.
+
+At last, then, I was irrevocably pledged, and my bachelorship drew near
+its close. I felt that I had made a judicious choice. Louise was an
+excellent girl, sensible, prudent, active, and cheerful--uniting, in
+short, all the qualities desirable in a backwoodsman's wife. It was
+strange enough that all this should only have occurred to me within a
+few hours. I had been living two months under the same roof with her,
+and yet the idea of her becoming my wife had never entered my head till
+the preceding night.
+
+It was four in the afternoon when I reached my plantation, which I was
+very near passing without recognising it, so great was the change that
+had taken place since my last visit. The rubbish and tree-trunks that
+had then encumbered the vicinity of the house had disappeared--the
+garden had been increased in size, and surrounded by a new and elegant
+fence--a verandah, under which two negro carpenters were at work, ran
+along the front and sides of the house. As I walked up from the boat,
+young Ménou came to meet me. I shook him heartily by the hand, and
+expressed my gratitude for the trouble he had taken, and my wonder at
+the astonishing progress the improvements of all kinds had made.
+
+"How have you possibly managed to effect all these miracles?" said I.
+
+"Very easily," replied Ménou. "You sent us fifteen negroes; my father
+lent me ten of his. With these, and the twenty-five you had before, we
+were able to make progress. We are now putting the finishing-stroke to
+your cotton press, which was fearfully out of order."
+
+I walked with a thankful heart through the garden, and stepped into the
+verandah. The rooms that looked out upon it were all fitted up in the
+most comfortable manner. In the principal bedroom, a negro girl was
+working at the elegant musquitto curtains. Old Sybille, in a calico gown
+of the most glaring colours, her face shining with contentment, was
+brushing away some invisible dust from the furniture in the parlour.
+
+"By the by," said young Ménou, opening a writing-desk, "here are several
+letters that have come for you within the last few days, and that amidst
+my various occupations I have quite forgotten to forward."
+
+I sat down and opened them. Two were from Richards, the earliest in
+date, inviting me to go and stay with him again. The more recent one
+renewed the invitation, and expressed the writer's surprise at my having
+become on a sudden so domestic a character. In a postscript he added, as
+a sort of inducement to me to visit him, that he was daily expecting a
+friend of his wife's, the beautiful Emily Warren. Not a syllable,
+however, about the eight thousand dollars, which surprised me not a
+little; for Richards was by no means a man to remain silent on a subject
+affecting his worldly interest, and I fully expected he would have felt
+and expressed some pique or resentment at my sudden withdrawal of my
+funds. But, on the contrary, the letter I had given to Ménou, in which I
+requested Richards to pay over the money in question to the Creole, was
+not even alluded to.
+
+"There are matters in these letters," said I to young Ménou, "which
+oblige me to return immediately to your father's house."
+
+"Indeed!" cried the young man, much astonished.
+
+"Yes," replied I. "I hear a steamboat coming down the river--I will be
+off at once."
+
+He looked at me in great surprise; Sybille shook her head. But my
+character is so impatient and impetuous, that when I have resolved on
+any thing, I can never bear to defer its execution a moment. Besides,
+there was really nothing to detain me at my plantation. The arrangements
+and improvements that I had reckoned on finding only half effected were
+complete; and every moment that now elapsed before I could welcome
+Louise as mistress of my house and heart, seemed to me worse than
+wasted. I hurried down to the river and hailed the steamer. It was the
+same that had brought me home two months previously.
+
+"Mr Howard," said the captain joyously, as I stepped on board the
+vessel, "I am right glad to see you on my deck again. Your plantation
+looks quite another thing. You are really a worker of wonders."
+
+I hardly knew how to accept this undeserved praise. One of the best
+points in our American character is the universal respect paid to
+industry and intellect. The wealthy idler who carries thousands in his
+pocket-book, may, amongst us, look in vain for the respect and flattery
+which a tithe of his riches would procure him in many other countries;
+while the less fortunate man, who makes his way and earns his living by
+hand and head work, may always reckon on the consideration of his
+fellow-citizens. On my return to Louisiana I had been thought nothing
+of. I was a drone in the hive--with money, but without skill or
+perseverance. My overseer was more looked up to than myself; but the
+recent change in the state of my plantation, attributed, however
+wrongly, to my presence, had caused a revolution in people's ideas; and
+I was now met on all sides with open hands and smiling countenances. The
+change, I must confess, was a gratifying one for me.
+
+The Ménous were at breakfast the next morning, when I arrived, heated by
+my walk from the river, opposite to the parlour window. I was received
+with a cry of welcome.
+
+"So soon back! Nothing wrong, I hope?" said Ménou.
+
+"Nothing," replied I dryly; "I have only forgotten something."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"My Louise," was my answer, as I seated myself beside the blushing girl.
+"On arriving at my wilderness," I continued, "I found it converted into
+so blooming a paradise, that I should really be heartbroken if it were
+to remain any longer without its Eve. To-morrow, please God, we will
+start for New Orleans, to put in requisition the service of Père Antoine
+and the worthy rector."
+
+There was a cry of consternation from the papa and mamma.
+
+"There is nothing ready--_point de trousseau_--nothing in the world. Do
+not be so unreasonable, dear Howard."
+
+"Our Yankee damsels," replied I, laughing, "if they have only got a pair
+of shoes and a gown and a half, consider themselves perfectly ready to
+be married."
+
+"Well, let him have his way," said Ménou. "We can manage, I daresay, to
+equip the bride a little better than that."
+
+"Apropos," said I to Ménou, while the ladies were consulting together,
+and recovering from the flurry into which my precipitation had thrown
+them--"the eight thousand dollars? Richards says nothing about them."
+
+"It was only an experiment I tried with you," replied my future
+father-in-law, smiling. "I wished to see if you have sufficient firmness
+of character to ensure your own happiness. Had you not come victoriously
+out of the little ordeal, Louise should never have been wife of yours,
+if all the plantations on the Mississippi had called you master. As to
+the money, I advanced what was wanted. You can settle with Mr Richards
+in the way most agreeable to yourself."
+
+The next morning we set off for New Orleans--Ménou and Louise, Julie,
+who was to act as bridesmaid, and myself. Madame Ménou remained at home.
+I could have wished to have had young Ménou as my bridesman; but his
+presence was necessary at the plantation, and we were obliged to content
+ourselves with receiving his good wishes as we passed. After a twenty
+hours' voyage we reached the capital, and took up our quarters in the
+house of a sister of Ménou's.
+
+I was hurrying to find Father Antoine, when, in turning the corner of
+the cathedral, I ran bolt up against Richards. After the first greeting,
+and without giving him time to ask me questions--
+
+"Wait for me at the Merchant's Coffeehouse," said I; "in a quarter of an
+hour I will meet you there."
+
+And I left him in considerable astonishment at my desperate haste. I
+found Father Antoine and the rector, and then hurried off to keep my
+appointment.
+
+"Do you know," said I to Richards, as I dragged him through the streets,
+"that I am thinking seriously of becoming a Benedict?"
+
+"Well," said he, "you must come home with me then. Emily Warren is
+arrived. She is a charming girl, and a great friend of my wife's. You
+will be sure of Clara's good word, and I really think Emily will exactly
+suit you."
+
+"I am afraid not," replied I, as I turned into the church.
+
+Richards opened his eyes in amazement when he saw Louise, with her aunt,
+sister, and the whole of the bridal party, walking up the aisle, and
+Father Antoine standing at the altar in his robes.
+
+"What does this mean?" said he.
+
+I made no answer, but let matters explain themselves. Ten minutes after,
+Louise Ménou was my wife.
+
+
+
+
+GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.{A}
+
+
+What is called _Philosophical History_ we believe to be yet in its
+infancy. It is the profound remark of Mr Finlay--profound as we
+ourselves understand it, _i.e._, in relation to this philosophical
+treatment, "That history will ever remain inexhaustible." How
+inexhaustible? Are the _facts_ of history inexhaustible? In regard to
+the _ancient_ division of history with which he is there dealing, this
+would be in no sense true; and in any case it would be a lifeless truth.
+So entirely have the mere facts of Pagan history been disinterred,
+ransacked, sifted, that except by means of some chance medal that may be
+unearthed in the illiterate East, (as of late towards Bokhara,) or by
+means of some mysterious inscription, such as those which still mock the
+learned traveller in Persia, northwards near Hamadan, (Ecbatana,) and
+southwards at Persepolis, or those which distract him amongst the
+shadowy ruins of Yucatan (Uxmal, suppose, and Palenque,)--once for all,
+barring these pure godsends, it is hardly "in the dice" that any
+downright novelty of fact should remain in reversion for this 19th
+century. The merest possibility exists, that in Armenia, or in a
+Græco-Russian monastery on Mount Athos, or in Pompeii, &c., some authors
+hitherto +anekdotoi+ may yet be concealed; and by a channel in that
+degree improbable, it is possible that certain new facts of history may
+still reach us. But else, and failing these cryptical or subterraneous
+currents of communication, for us the record is closed. History in that
+sense is come to an end, and sealed up as by the angel in the
+Apocalypse. What then? The facts _so_ understood are but the dry bones
+of the mighty past. And the question arises here also, not less than in
+that sublimest of prophetic visions, "Can these dry bones live?" Not
+only they can live, but by an infinite variety of life. The same
+historic facts, viewed in different lights, or brought into connexion
+with other facts, according to endless diversities of permutation and
+combination, furnish grounds for such eternal successions of new
+speculations as make the facts themselves virtually new. The same Hebrew
+words are read by different sets of vowel points, and the same
+hieroglyphics are deciphered by keys everlastingly varied.
+
+To us we repeat that oftentimes it seems as though the _science_ of
+history were yet scarcely founded. There will be such a science, if at
+present there is not; and in one feature of its capacities it will
+resemble chemistry. What is so familiar to the perceptions of man as the
+common chemical agents of water, air, and the soil on which we tread?
+Yet each one of these elements is a mystery to this day; handled, used,
+tried, searched experimentally, in ten thousand ways--it is still
+unknown; fathomed by recent science down to a certain depth, it is still
+probably by its destiny unfathomable. Even to the end of days, it is
+pretty certain that the minutest particle of earth--that a dewdrop,
+scarcely distinguishable as a separate object--that the slenderest
+filament of a plant will include within itself secrets inaccessible to
+man. And yet, compared with the mystery of man himself, these physical
+worlds of mystery are but as a radix of infinity. Chemistry is in this
+view mysterious and spinosistically sublime--that it is the science of
+the latent in all things, of all things as lurking in all. Within the
+lifeless flint, within the silent pyrites, slumbers an agony of
+potential combustion. Iron is imprisoned in blood. With cold water (as
+every child is now-a-days aware) you may lash a fluid into angry
+ebullitions of heat; with hot water, as with the rod of Amram's son, you
+may freeze a fluid down to the temperature of the Sarsar wind, provided
+only that you regulate the pressure of the air. The sultry and
+dissolving fluid shall bake into a solid, the petrific fluid shall melt
+into a liquid. Heat shall freeze, frost shall thaw; and wherefore?
+Simply because old things are brought together in new modes of
+combination. And in endless instances beside we see the same Panlike
+latency of forms and powers, which gives to the external world a
+capacity of self-transformation, and of _polymorphosis_ absolutely
+inexhaustible.
+
+But the same capacity belongs to the facts of history. And we do not
+mean merely that, from subjective differences in the minds reviewing
+them, such facts assume endless varieties of interpretation and
+estimate, but that objectively, from lights still increasing in the
+science of government and of social philosophy, all the primary facts of
+history become liable continually to new theories, to new combinations,
+and to new valuations of their moral relations. We have seen some kinds
+of marble, where the veinings happened to be unusually multiplied, in
+which human faces, figures, processions, or fragments of natural scenery
+seemed absolutely illimitable, under the endless variations or
+inversions of the order, according to which they might be combined and
+grouped. Something analogous takes effect in reviewing the remote parts
+of history. Rome, for instance, has been the object of historic pens for
+twenty centuries (dating from Polybius); and yet hardly so much as
+twenty years have elapsed since Niebuhr opened upon us almost a new
+revelation, by recombining the same eternal facts, according to a
+different set of principles. The same thing may be said, though not with
+the same degree of emphasis, upon the Grecian researches of the late
+Ottfried Mueller. Egyptian history again, even at this moment, is seen
+stealing upon us through the dusky twilight in its first distinct
+lineaments. Before Young, Champollion, and the others who have followed
+on their traces in this field of history, all was outer darkness; and
+whatsoever we _do_ know or _shall_ know of Egyptian Thebes will now be
+recovered as if from the unswathing of a mummy. Not until a flight of
+three thousand years has left Thebes the Hekatompylos a dusky speck
+in the far distance, have we even _begun_ to read her annals, or to
+understand her revolutions.
+
+Another instance we have now before us of this new historic faculty for
+resuscitating the buried, and for calling back the breath to the frozen
+features of death, in Mr Finlay's work upon the Greeks as related to the
+Roman empire. He presents us with old facts, but under the purpose of
+clothing them with a new life. He rehearses ancient stories, not with
+the humble ambition of better adorning them, of more perspicuously
+narrating, or even of more forcibly pointing their moral, but of
+extracting from them some new meaning, and thus forcing them to arrange
+themselves, under some latent connexion, with other phenomena now first
+detected, as illustrations of some great principle or agency now first
+revealing its importance. Mr Finlay's style of intellect is appropriate
+to such a task; for it is subtle and Machiavelian. But there is this
+difficulty in doing justice to the novelty, and at times we may say with
+truth to the profundity of his views, that they are by necessity thrown
+out in continued successions of details, are insulated, and in one word
+_sporadic_. This follows from the very nature of his work; for it is a
+perpetual commentary on the incidents of Grecian history, from the era
+of the Roman conquest to the commencement of what Mr Finlay, in a
+peculiar sense, calls the Byzantine empire. These incidents have nowhere
+been systematically or continuously recorded; they come forward by
+casual flashes in the annals, perhaps, of some church historian, as they
+happen to connect themselves with his momentary theme; or they betray
+themselves in the embarrassments of the central government, whether at
+Rome or at Constantinople, when arguing at one time a pestilence, at
+another an insurrection, or an inroad of barbarians. It is not the fault
+of Mr Finlay, but his great disadvantage, that the affairs of Greece
+have been thus discontinuously exhibited, and that its internal changes
+of condition have been never treated except obliquely, and by men _aliud
+agentibus_. The Grecian _race_ had a primary importance on our planet;
+but the Grecian name, represented by Greece considered as a territory,
+or as the original seat of the Hellenic people, ceased to have much
+importance, in the eyes of historians, from the time when it became a
+conquered province; and it declined into absolute insignificance after
+the conquest of so many other provinces had degraded Hellas into an
+arithmetical unit, standing amongst a total amount of figures, so vast
+and so much more dazzling to the ordinary mind. Hence it was that in
+ancient times no complete history of Greece, through all her phases and
+stages, was ever attempted. The greatness of her later revolutions,
+simply as changes, would have attracted the historian; but, as changes
+associated with calamity and loss of power, they repelled his curiosity,
+and alienated his interest. It is the very necessity, therefore, of Mr
+Finlay's position, when coming into such an inheritance, that he must
+splinter his philosophy into separate individual notices; for the
+records of history furnish no grounds for more. _Spartam, quam nactus
+est, ornavit._ But this does not remedy the difficulty for ourselves, in
+attempting to give a representative view of his philosophy. General
+abstractions he had no opportunity for presenting; consequently we have
+no opportunity for valuing; and, on the other hand, single cases
+selected from a succession of hundreds would not justify any
+_representative_ criticism, more than the single brick, in the anecdote
+of Hierocles, would serve representatively to describe or to appraise
+the house.
+
+Under this difficulty as to the possible for ourselves, and the just for
+Mr Finlay, we shall adopt the following course. So far as the Greek
+people connected themselves in any splendid manner with the Roman
+empire, they did so with the eastern horn of that empire, and in point
+of time from the foundation of Constantinople as an eastern Rome in the
+fourth century, to a period not fully agreed on; but for the moment we
+will say with Mr Finlay, up to the early part of the eighth century. A
+reason given by Mr Finlay for this latter state is--that about that time
+the Grecian blood, so widely diffused in Asia, and even in Africa,
+became finally detached by the progress of Mahometanism and Mahometan
+systems of power from all further concurrence or coalition with the
+views of the Byzantine Cæsar. Constantinople was from that date thrown
+back more upon its own peculiar heritage and jurisdiction, of which the
+main resources for war and peace lay in Europe and (speaking by the
+narrowest terms) in Thrace. Henceforth, therefore, for the city and
+throne of Constantine, resuming its old Grecian name of Byzantium, there
+succeeded a theatre less diffusive, a population more concentrated, a
+character of action more determinate and jealous, a style of courtly
+ceremonial more elaborate as well as more haughtily repulsive, and
+universally a system of interests, as much more definite and selfish, as
+might naturally be looked for in a nation now every where surrounded by
+new thrones gloomy with malice, and swelling with the consciousness of
+youthful power. This new and final state of the eastern Rome Mr Finlay
+denominates the Byzantine empire. Possibly this use of the term may be
+capable of justification; but more questions would arise in the
+discussion than Mr Finlay has thought it of importance to notice. And
+for the present we shall take the word _Byzantine_ in its most ordinary
+acceptation, as denoting the local empire founded by Constantine in
+Byzantium early in the fourth century, under the idea of a translation
+from the old western Rome, and overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in the
+year 1453. In the fortunes and main stages of this empire, what are the
+chief arresting phenomena, aspects, or relations, to the greatest of
+modern interests? We select by preference these.
+
+I. First, this was the earliest among the kingdoms of our planet _which
+connected itself with Christianity_. In Armenia, there had been a
+previous _state_ recognition of Christianity. But _that_ was neither
+splendid nor distinct. Whereas the Byzantine Rome built avowedly upon
+Christianity as its own basis, and consecrated its own nativity by the
+sublime act of founding the first provision ever attempted for the
+poor, considered simply as poor, (_i.e._ as objects of pity, not as
+instruments of ambition.)
+
+II. _Secondly, as the great ægis of western Christendom_, nay, the
+barrier which made it possible that any Christendom should ever exist,
+this Byzantine empire is entitled to a very different station in the
+enlightened gratitude of us western Europeans from any which it has yet
+held. We do not scruple to say--that, by comparison with the services of
+the Byzantine people to Europe, no nation on record has ever stood in
+the same relation to any other single nation, much less to a whole
+family of nations, whether as regards the opportunity and means of
+conferring benefits, or as regards the astonishing perseverance in
+supporting the succession of these benefits, or as regards the ultimate
+event of these benefits. A great wrong has been done for ages; for we
+have all been accustomed to speak of the Byzantine empire with scorn,{B}
+as chiefly known by its effeminacy; and the greater is the call for a
+fervent palinode.
+
+III. _Thirdly._ In a reflex way, as the one great danger which
+overshadowed Europe for generations, and against which the Byzantine
+empire proved the capital bulwark, Mahometanism may rank as one of the
+Byzantine aspects or counterforces. And if there is any popular error
+applying to the history of that great convulsion, as a political effort
+for revolutionizing the world, some notice of it will find a natural
+place in connexion with these present trains of speculation.
+
+Let us, therefore, have permission to throw together a few remarks on
+these three subjects--1st, on the remarkable distinction by which the
+eldest of Christian rulers proclaimed and inaugurated the Christian
+basis of his empire: 2dly, on the true but forgotten relation of this
+great empire to our modern Christendom, under which idea we comprehend
+Europe and the whole continent of America: 3dly, on the false
+pretensions of Mahometanism, whether advanced by itself or by
+inconsiderate Christian speculators on its behalf. We shall thus obtain
+this advantage, that some sort of unity will be given to our own glances
+at Mr Finlay's theme; and, at the same time, by gathering under these
+general heads any dispersed comments of Mr Finlay, whether for
+confirmation of our own views, or for any purpose of objection to his,
+we shall give to those comments also that kind of unity, by means of a
+reference to a common purpose, which we could not have given them by
+citing each independently for itself.
+
+I. First, then, as to that memorable act by which Constantinople (_i.e._
+the Eastern empire) connected herself for ever with Christianity; viz.
+the recognition of pauperism as an element in the state entitled to the
+maternal guardianship of the state. In this new principle, introduced by
+Christianity, we behold a far-seeing or proleptic wisdom, making
+provision for evils before they had arisen; for it is certain that great
+expansions of pauperism did not exist in the ancient world. A pauper
+population is a disease peculiar to the modern or Christian world.
+Various causes latent in the social systems of the ancients prevented
+such developments of surplus people. But does not this argue a
+superiority in the social arrangements of these ancients? Not at all;
+they were atrociously worse. They evaded this one morbid affection by
+means of others far more injurious to the moral advance of man. The case
+was then every where as at this day it is in Persia. A Persian
+ambassador to London or Paris might boast that, in his native Irân no
+such spectacles existed of hunger-bitten myriads as may be seen every
+where during seasons of distress in the crowded cities of Christian
+Europe. "No," would be the answer, "most certainly not; but why? The
+reason is, that your accursed form of society and government
+_intercepts_ such surplus people, does not suffer them to be born. What
+is the result? You ought, in Persia, to have three hundred millions of
+people; your vast territory is easily capacious of that number. You
+_have_--how many have you? Something less than eight millions." Think of
+this, startled reader. But, if _that_ be a good state of things, then
+any barbarous soldier who makes a wilderness, is entitled to call
+himself a great philosopher and public benefactor. This is to cure the
+headache by amputating the head. Now, the same principle of limitation
+to population _à parte ante_, though not in the same savage excess as in
+Mahometan Persia, operated upon Greece and Rome. The whole Pagan world
+escaped the evils of a redundant population by vicious repressions of it
+beforehand. But under Christianity a new state of things was destined to
+take effect. Many protections and excitements to population were laid in
+the framework of this new religion, which, by its new code of rules and
+impulses, in so many ways extended the free-agency of human beings.
+Manufacturing industry was destined first to arise on any great scale
+under Christianity. Except in Tyre and Alexandria, (see the Emperor
+Hadrian's account of this last,) there was no town or district in the
+ancient world where the populace could be said properly to work. The
+rural labourers worked a little--not much; and sailors worked a little;
+nobody else worked at all. Even slaves had little more work distributed
+amongst each ten than now settles upon one. And in many other ways, by
+protecting the principle of life, as a mysterious sanctity, Christianity
+has favoured the development of an excessive population. There it is
+that Christianity, being answerable for the mischief, is answerable for
+its redress. Therefore it is that, breeding the disease, Christianity
+breeds the cure. Extending the vast lines of poverty, Christianity it
+was that first laid down the principle of a relief for poverty.
+Constantine, the first Christian potentate, laid the first stone of the
+mighty overshadowing institution since reared in Christian lands to
+poverty, disease, orphanage, and mutilation. Christian instincts, moving
+and speaking through that Cæsar, first carried out that great idea of
+Christianity. Six years was Christianity in building Constantinople, and
+in the seventh she rested from her labours, saying, "Henceforward let
+the poor man have a haven of rest for ever; a rest from his work for one
+day in seven; a rest from his anxieties by a legal and a fixed relief."
+Being legal, it could not be open to disturbances of caprice in the
+giver; being fixed, it was not open to disturbances of miscalculation in
+the receiver. Now, first, when first Christianity was installed as a
+public organ of government, (and first owned a distinct political
+responsibility,) did it become the duty of a religion which assumed, as
+it were, the _official_ tutelage of poverty, to proclaim and consecrate
+that function by some great memorial precedent. And, accordingly, in
+testimony of that obligation, the first Christian Cæsar, on behalf of
+Christianity, founded the first system of relief for pauperism. It is
+true, that largesses from the public treasury, gratuitous coin, or corn
+sold at diminished rates, not to mention the _sportulæ_ or stated doles
+of private Roman nobles, had been distributed amongst the indigent
+citizens of Western Rome for centuries before Constantine; but all these
+had been the selfish bounties of factious ambition or intrigue.
+
+To Christianity was reserved the inaugural act of public charity in the
+spirit of charity. We must remember that no charitable or beneficent
+institutions of any kind, grounded on disinterested kindness, existed
+amongst the Pagan Romans, and still less amongst the Pagan Greeks. Mr
+Coleridge, in one of his lay sermons, advanced the novel doctrine--that
+in the Scriptures is contained all genuine and profound statesmanship.
+Of course he must be understood to mean--in its capital principles:
+for, as to subordinate and executive rules for applying such principles,
+these, doubtless, are in part suggested by the local circumstances in
+each separate case. Now, amongst the political theories of the Bible is
+this--that pauperism is not an accident in the constitution of states,
+but an indefeasible necessity; or, in the scriptural words, that "the
+poor shall never cease out of the land." This theory, or great canon of
+social philosophy, during many centuries, drew no especial attention
+from philosophers. It passed for a truism, bearing no particular
+emphasis or meaning beyond some general purpose of sanction to the
+impulses of charity. But there is good reason to believe, that it
+slumbered, and was meant to slumber, until Christianity arising and
+moving forwards should call it into a new life, as a principle suited to
+a new order of things. Accordingly, we have seen of late that this
+scriptural dictum--"The poor shall never cease out of the land"--has
+terminated its career as a truism, (that is, as a truth, either obvious
+on one hand, or inert on the other,) and has wakened into a polemic or
+controversial life. People arose who took upon them utterly to deny this
+scriptural doctrine. Peremptorily they challenged the assertion that
+poverty must always exist. The Bible said that it was an affection of
+human society which could not be exterminated: the economists of 1800
+said that it was a foul disease, which must and should be exterminated.
+The scriptural philosophy said, that pauperism was inalienable from
+man's social condition in the same way that decay was inalienable from
+his flesh. "I shall soon see _that_," said the economist of 1800, "for
+as sure as my name is M----, I will have this poverty put down by law
+within one generation, if there's law to be had in the courts at
+Westminster." The Scriptures had left word--that, if any man should come
+to the national banquet declaring himself unable to pay his
+contribution, that man should be accounted the guest of Christianity,
+and should be privileged to sit at the table in thankful remembrance of
+what Christianity had done for man. But Mr M---- left word with all the
+servants, that, if any man should present himself under those
+circumstances, he was to be told, "The table is full"--(_his_ words, not
+ours;) "go away, good man." Go away! Mr M----? Where was he to go to?
+Whither? In what direction?--"Why, if you come to _that_," said the man
+of 1800, "to any ditch that he prefers: surely there's good choice of
+ditches for the most fastidious taste." During twenty years, viz. from
+1800 to 1820, this new philosophy, which substituted a ditch for a
+dinner, and a paving-stone for a loaf, prevailed and prospered. At one
+time it seemed likely enough to prove a snare to our own
+aristocracy--the noblest of all ages. But that peril was averted, and
+the further history of the case was this: By the year 1820, much
+discussion having passed to and fro, serious doubts had arisen in many
+quarters: scepticism had begun to arm itself against the sceptic: the
+economist of 1800 was no longer quite sure of his ground. He was now
+suspected of being fallible; and, what seemed of worse augury, he was
+beginning himself to suspect as much. To one capital blunder he was
+obliged publicly to plead guilty. What it was, we shall have occasion to
+mention immediately. Meantime it was justly thought that, in a dispute
+loaded with such prodigious practical consequences, good sense and
+prudence demanded a more extended enquiry than had yet been instituted.
+Whether poverty would ever cease from the land, might be doubted by
+those who balanced their faith in Scripture against their faith in the
+man of 1800. But this at least could not be doubted--that as yet poverty
+_had_ not ceased, nor indeed had made any sensible preparations for
+ceasing, from any land in Europe. It was a clear case, therefore, that,
+howsoever Europe might please to dream upon the matter when pauperism
+should have reached that glorious euthanasy predicted by the alchemist
+of old and the economist of 1800, for the present she must deal actively
+with her own pauperism on some avowed plan and principle, good or
+evil--gentle or harsh. Accordingly, in the train of years between 1820
+and 1830, enquiries were made of every separate state in Europe, what
+_were_ those plans and principles. For it was justly said--"As one step
+towards judging rightly of our own system, now that it has been so
+clamorously challenged for a bad system, let us learn what it is that
+other nations think upon the subject, but above all what it is that they
+_do_." The answers to our many enquiries varied considerably; and some
+amongst the most enlightened nations appeared to have adopted the good
+old plan of _laissez faire_, giving nothing from any public fund to the
+pauper, but authorizing him to levy contributions on that gracious
+allegoric lady, Private Charity, wherever he could meet her taking the
+air with her babes. This reference appeared to be the main one in reply
+to any application of the pauper; and for all the rest they referred him
+generally to the "ditch," or to his own unlimited choice of ditches,
+according to the approved method of public benevolence published in 4to
+and in 8vo by the man of 1800. But there were other and humbler states
+in Europe, whose very pettiness had brought more fully within their
+vision the whole machinery and watchwork of pauperism, as it acted and
+re-acted on the industrious poverty of the land, and on other interests,
+by means of the system adopted in relieving it. From these states came
+many interesting reports, all tending to some good purpose. But at last,
+and before the year 1830, amongst other results of more or less value,
+three capital points were established, not more decisive for the
+justification of the English system in administering national relief to
+paupers, and of all systems that reverenced the authority of Scripture,
+than they were for the overthrow of Mr M----, the man of 1800. These
+three points are worthy of being used as buoys in mapping out the true
+channels, or indicating the breakers on this difficult line of
+navigation; and we now rehearse them. They may seem plain almost to
+obviousness; but it is enough that they involve all the disputed
+questions of the case.
+
+_First_, That, in spite of the assurances from economists, no progress
+whatever had been made by England or by any state which lent any
+sanction to the hope of ever eradicating poverty from society.
+
+_Secondly_, That, in absolute contradiction of the whole hypothesis
+relied on by M---- and his brethren, in its most fundamental doctrine, a
+legal provision for poverty did _not_ act as a bounty on marriage. The
+experience of England, where the trial had been made on the largest
+scale, was decisive on this point; and the opposite experience of
+Ireland, under the opposite circumstances, was equally decisive. And
+this result had made itself so clear by 1820, that even M---- (as we have
+already noticed by anticipation) was compelled to publish a recantation
+as to this particular error, which in effect was a recantation of his
+entire theory.
+
+_Thirdly_, That, according to the concurring experience of all the most
+enlightened states of Christendom, the public suffered least, (not
+merely in molestation but in money,) pauperism benefited most, and the
+growth of pauperism was retarded most, precisely as the provision for
+the poor had been legalized as to its obligation, and fixed as to its
+amount. Left to individual discretion the burden was found to press most
+unequally; and, on the other hand, the evil itself of pauperism, whilst
+much less effectually relieved, nevertheless through the irregular
+action of this relief was much more powerfully stimulated.
+
+Such is the abstract of our latest public warfare on this great question
+through a period of nearly fifty years. And the issue is this--starting
+from the contemptuous defiance of the scriptural doctrine upon the
+necessity of making provision for poverty as an indispensable element in
+civil communities, the economy of the age has lowered its tone by
+graduated descents, in each one successively of the four last
+_decennia_. The philosophy of the day as to this point at least is at
+length in coincidence with Scripture. And thus the very extensive
+researches of this nineteenth century, as to pauperism, have re-acted
+with the effect of a full justification upon Constantine's attempt to
+connect the foundation of his empire with that new theory of
+Christianity upon the imperishableness of poverty, and upon the duties
+corresponding to it.
+
+Meantime Mr Finlay denies that Christianity had been raised by
+Constantine into the religion of the state; and others have denied that,
+in the extensive money privileges conceded to Constantinople, he
+contemplated any but political principles. As to the first point, we
+apprehend that Constantine will be found not so much to have shrunk back
+in fear from installing Christianity in the seat of supremacy, as to
+have diverged in policy from our modern _methods_ of such an
+installation. Our belief is, that according to _his_ notion of a state
+religion, he supposed himself to have conferred that distinction upon
+Christianity. With respect to the endowments and privileges of
+Constantinople, they were various; some lay in positive donations,
+others in immunities and exemptions; some again were designed to attract
+strangers, others to attract nobles from old Rome. But, with fuller
+opportunities for pursuing that discussion, we think it would be easy to
+show, that in more than one of his institutions and his decrees he had
+contemplated the special advantage of the poor as such; and that, next
+after the august distinction of having founded the first Christian
+throne, he had meant to challenge and fix the gaze of future ages upon
+this glorious pretension--that he first had executed the scriptural
+injunction to make a provision for the poor, as an order of society that
+by laws immutable should "never cease out of the land."
+
+_Secondly_, Let us advert to the value and functions of Constantinople
+as the tutelary genius of western or dawning Christianity.
+
+The history of Constantinople, or more generally of the Eastern Roman
+empire, wears a peculiar interest to the children of Christendom; and
+for two separate reasons--_first_, as being the narrow isthmus or bridge
+which connects the two continents of ancient and modern history, and
+_that_ is a philosophic interest; but, _secondly_ which in the very
+highest degree is a practical interest, as the record of our earthly
+salvation from Mahometanism. On two horns was Europe assaulted by the
+Moslems; first, last, and through the largest tract of time, on the horn
+of Constantinople; there the contest raged for more than eight hundred
+years, and by the time that the mighty bulwark fell (1453,) Vienna and
+other cities upon or near the Danube had found leisure for growing up;
+so that, if one range of Alps had slowly been surmounted, another had
+now slowly reared and embattled itself against the westward progress of
+the Crescent. On the western horn, _in_ France, but _by_ Germans, once
+for all Charles Martel had arrested the progress of the fanatical Moslem
+almost in a single battle; certainly a single generation saw the whole
+danger dispersed, inasmuch as within that space the Saracens were
+effectually forced back into their original Spanish lair. This
+demonstrates pretty forcibly the difference of the Mahometan resources
+as applied to the western and the eastern struggle. To throw the whole
+weight of that difference, a difference in the result as between eight
+centuries and thirty years, upon the mere difference of energy in German
+and Byzantine forces, as though the first did, by a rapturous fervour,
+in a few revolutions of summer what the other had protracted through
+nearly a millennium, is a representation which defeats itself by its own
+extravagance. To prove too much is more dangerous than to prove too
+little. The fact is, that vast armies and mighty nations were
+continually disposable for the war upon the city of Constantine; nations
+had time to arise in juvenile vigour, to grow old and superannuated, to
+melt away, and totally to disappear, in that long struggle on the
+Hellespont and Propontis. It was a struggle which might often intermit
+and slumber; armistices there might be, truces, or unproclaimed
+suspensions of war out of mutual exhaustion, but peace there could _not_
+be, because any resting from the duty of hatred towards those who
+reciprocally seemed to lay the foundations of their creed in a
+dishonouring of God, was impossible to aspiring human nature. Malice and
+mutual hatred, we repeat, became a duty in those circumstances. Why had
+they _begun_ to fight? Personal feuds there had been none between the
+parties. For the early caliphs did not conquer Syria and other vast
+provinces of the Roman empire, because they had a quarrel with the
+Cæsars who represented Christendom; but, on the contrary, they had a
+quarrel with the Cæsars because they had conquered Syria, or, at the
+most, the conquest and the feud (if not always lying in that exact
+succession as cause and effect) were joint effects from a common cause,
+which cause was imperishable as death, or the ocean, and as deep as are
+the fountains of animal life. Could the ocean be altered by a sea fight?
+or the atmosphere be tainted for ever by an earthquake? As little could
+any single reign or its events affect the feud of the Moslem and the
+Christian; a feud which could not cease unless God could change, or
+unless man (becoming careless of spiritual things) should sink to the
+level of a brute.
+
+These are considerations of great importance in weighing the value of
+the Eastern Empire. If the cause and interest of Islamism, as against
+Christianity, were undying--then we may be assured that the Moorish
+infidels of Spain did not reiterate their trans-Pyrenean expeditions
+after one generation--simply because they _could_ not. But we know that
+on the south-eastern horn of Europe they _could_, upon the plain
+argument that for many centuries they _did_. Over and above this, we are
+of opinion that the Saracens were unequal to the sort of hardships bred
+by cold climates; and there lay another repulsion for Saracens from
+France, &c., and not merely the Carlovingian sword. We children of
+Christendom show our innate superiority to the children of the Orient
+upon this scale or tariff of acclimatizing powers. We travel as wheat
+travels through all reasonable ranges of temperature; they, like rice,
+can migrate only to warm latitudes. They cannot support our cold, but we
+_can_ support the countervailing hardships of their heat. This cause
+alone would have weatherbound the Mussulmans for ever within the
+Pyrenean cloisters. Mussulmans in cold latitudes look as blue and as
+absurd as sailors on horseback. Apart from which cause, we see that the
+fine old Visigothic races in Spain found them full employment up to the
+reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, which reign first created a kingdom of
+Spain; in that reign the whole fabric of their power thawed away, and
+was confounded with forgotten things. Columbus, according to a local
+tradition, was personally present at some of the latter campaigns in
+Grenada: he saw the last of them. So that the discovery of America may
+be used as a convertible date with that of extinction for the Saracen
+power in western Europe. True that the overthrow of Constantinople had
+forerun this event by nearly half a century. But then we insist upon the
+different proportions of the struggle. Whilst in Spain a province had
+fought against a province, all Asia militant had fought against the
+eastern Roman empire. Amongst the many races whom dimly we descry in
+those shadowy hosts, tilting for ages in the vast plains of Angora, are
+seen, latterly pressing on to the van, two mighty powers, the children
+of Persia and the Ottoman family of the Turks. Upon these nations, both
+now rapidly decaying, the faith of Mahomet has ever leaned as upon her
+eldest sons; and these powers the Byzantine Cæsars had to face in every
+phasis of their energy, as it revolved from perfect barbarism, through
+semi-barbarism, to that crude form of civilization which Mahometans can
+support. And through all these transmigrations of their power we must
+remember that they were under a martial training and discipline, never
+suffered to become effeminate. One set of warriors after another _did_,
+it is true, become effeminate in Persia: but upon that advantage
+opening, always another set stepped in from Torkistan or from the Imaus.
+The nation, the individuals melted away; the Moslem armies were
+immortal.
+
+Here, therefore, it is, and standing at this point of our review, that
+we complain of Mr Finlay's too facile compliance with historians far
+beneath himself. He has a fine understanding: oftentimes his
+commentaries on the past are ebullient with subtlety; and his fault
+strikes us as lying even in the excess of his sagacity applying itself
+too often to a basis of facts, quite insufficient for supporting the
+superincumbent weight of his speculations. But in this instance he
+surrenders himself too readily to the ordinary current of history. How
+would _he_ like it, if he happened to be a Turk himself, finding his
+nation thus implicitly undervalued? For clearly, in undervaluing the
+Byzantine resistance, he _does_ undervalue the Mahometan assault.
+Advantages of local situation cannot _eternally_ make good the
+deficiencies of man. If the Byzantines (being as weak as historians
+would represent them) yet for ages resisted the whole impetus of
+Mahometan Asia, then it follows, either that the Crescent was
+correspondingly weak, or that, not being weak, she must have found the
+Cross pretty strong. The _facit_ of history does not here correspond
+with the numerical items.
+
+Nothing has ever surprised us more, we will frankly own, than this
+coincidence of authors in treating the Byzantine empire as feeble and
+crazy. On the contrary, to us it is clear that some secret and
+preternatural strength it must have had, lurking where the eye of man
+did not in those days penetrate, or by what miracle did it undertake our
+universal Christian cause, fight for us all, keep the waters open from
+freezing us up, and through nine centuries prevent the ice of
+Mahometanism from closing over our heads for ever? Yet does Mr Finlay
+(p. 424) describe this empire as labouring, in A.D. 623, equally with
+Persia, under "internal weakness," and as "equally incapable of offering
+any popular or national resistance to an active or enterprising enemy."
+In this Mr Finlay does but agree with other able writers; but he and
+they should have recollected, that hardly had that very year 623
+departed, even yet the knell of its last hour was sounding upon the
+winds, when this effeminate empire had occasion to show that she could
+clothe herself with consuming terrors, as a belligerent both defensive
+and aggressive. In the absence of her great emperor, and of the main
+imperial forces, the golden capital herself, by her own resources,
+routed and persecuted into wrecks a Persian army that had come down upon
+her by stealth and a fraudulent circuit. Even at that same period, she
+advanced into Persia more than a thousand miles from her own metropolis
+in Europe, under the blazing ensigns of the cross, kicked the crown of
+Persia to and fro like a tennis-ball, upset the throne of Artaxerxes,
+countersigned haughtily the elevation of a new _Basileus_ more friendly
+to herself, and then recrossed the Tigris homewards, after having torn
+forcibly out of the heart and palpitating entrails of Persia, whatever
+trophies that idolatrous empire had formerly wrested from herself. These
+were not the acts of an effeminate kingdom. In the language of
+Wordsworth we may say--
+
+    "All power was giv'n her in the dreadful trance;
+    Infidel kings she wither'd like a flame."
+
+Indeed, no image that we remember can do justice to the first of these
+acts, except that Spanish legend of the Cid, which assures us that, long
+after the death of the mighty cavalier, when the children of those Moors
+who had fled from his face whilst living, were insulting the marble
+statue above his grave, suddenly the statue raised its right arm,
+stretched out its marble lance, and drifted the heathen dogs like snow.
+The mere sanctity of the Christian champion's sepulchre was its own
+protection; and so we must suppose, that, when the Persian hosts came by
+surprise upon Constantinople--her natural protector being absent by
+three months' march--simply the golden statues of the mighty Cæsars,
+half rising on their thrones, must have caused that sudden panic which
+dissipated the danger. Hardly fifty years later, Mr Finlay well knows
+that Constantinople again stood an assault--not from a Persian hourrah,
+or tempestuous surprise, but from a vast expedition, armaments by land
+and sea, fitted out elaborately in the early noontide of Mahometan
+vigour--and that assault, also, in the presence of the caliph and the
+crescent, was gloriously discomfited. Now if, in the moment of triumph,
+some voice in the innumerable crowd had cried out, "How long shall this
+great Christian breakwater, against which are shattered into surge and
+foam all the mountainous billows of idolaters and misbelievers, stand up
+on behalf of infant Christendom?" and if from the clouds some trumpet of
+prophecy had replied, "Even yet for eight hundred years!" could any man
+have persuaded himself that such a fortress against such
+antagonists--such a monument against a millennium of fury--was to be
+classed amongst the weak things of this earth? This oriental Rome, it is
+true, equally with Persia, was liable to sudden inroads and incursions.
+But the difference was this--Persia was strongly protected in all ages
+by the wilderness on her main western frontier; if this were passed, and
+a hand-to-hand conflict succeeded, where light cavalry or fugitive
+archers could be of little value, the essential weakness of the Persian
+empire then betrayed itself. Her sovereign was assassinated, and peace
+was obtained from the condescension of the invader. But the enemies of
+Constantinople, Goths, Avars, Bulgarians, or even Persians, were strong
+only by their weakness. Being contemptible, they were neglected; being
+chased, they made no stand; and _thus_ only they escaped. They entered
+like thieves by means of darkness, and escaped like sheep by means of
+dispersion. But, if caught, they were annihilated. No; we resume our
+thesis; we close this head by reiterating our correction of history; we
+re-affirm our position--that in Eastern Rome lay the salvation of
+Western and Central Europe; in Constantinople and the Propontis lay the
+_sine-quâ-non_ condition of any future Christendom. Emperor and people
+_must_ have done their duty; the result, the vast extent of generations
+surmounted, furnish the triumphant argument. Finally, indeed, they fell,
+king and people, shepherd and flock; but by that time their mission was
+fulfilled. And doubtless, as the noble Palæologus lay on heaps of
+carnage, with his noble people, as life was ebbing away, a voice from
+heaven sounded in his ears the great words of the Hebrew prophet,
+"Behold! YOUR WORK IS DONE; your warfare is accomplished."
+
+III. Such, then, being the unmerited disparagement of the Byzantine
+government, and so great the ingratitude of later Christendom to that
+sheltering power under which themselves enjoyed the leisure of a
+thousand years for knitting and expanding into strong nations; on the
+other hand, what is to be thought of the Saracen revolutionists? Every
+where it has passed for a lawful postulate, that the Saracen conquests
+prevailed, half by the feebleness of the Roman government at
+Constantinople, and half by the preternatural energy infused into the
+Arabs by their false prophet and legislator. In either of its faces,
+this theory is falsified by a steady review of facts. With regard to the
+Saracens, Mr Finlay thinks as we do, and argues that they prevailed
+through the _local_, or sometimes the _casual_, weakness of their
+immediate enemies, and rarely through any strength of their own. We must
+remember one fatal weakness of the Imperial administration in those
+days, not due to men or to principles, but entirely to nature and the
+slow growth of scientific improvements--viz. the difficulties of
+locomotion. As respected Syria, Egypt, Cyrenaica, and so on to the most
+western provinces of Africa, the Saracens had advantages for moving
+rapidly which the Cæsar had not. But is not a water movement speedier
+than a land movement, which for an army never has much exceeded fourteen
+miles a-day? Certainly it is; but in this case there were two desperate
+defects in the Imperial control over that water service. To use a fleet,
+you must have a fleet; but their whole naval interest had been starved
+by the intolerable costs of the Persian war. Immense had been the
+expenses of Heraclius, and annually decaying had been his Asiatic
+revenues. Secondly, the original position of the Arabs had been better
+than that of the emperor, in every stage of the warfare which so
+suddenly arose. In Arabia they stood nearest to Syria, in Syria nearest
+to Egypt, in Egypt nearest to Cyrenaica. What reason had there been for
+expecting a martial legislator at that moment in Arabia, who should fuse
+and sternly combine her distracted tribes? What blame, therefore, to
+Heraclius, that Syria--the first object of assault, being also by much
+the weakest part of the empire, and immediately after the close of a
+desolating war--should in four campaigns be found indefensible? We must
+remember the unexampled abruptness of the Arabian revolution. The year
+622, by its very name of Hegira, does not record a triumph but a
+humiliation. In that year, therefore, and at the very moment when
+Heraclius was entering upon his long Persian struggle, Mahomet was yet
+prostrate, and his destiny was doubtful. Eleven years after, viz. in
+633, the prophet was dead and gone; but his first successor was already
+in Syria as a conqueror. Such had been the velocity of events. The
+Persian war had then been finished by three years, but the exhaustion of
+the empire had perhaps, at that moment, reached its maximum. We are
+satisfied, that ten years' repose from this extreme state of collapse
+would have shown us another result. Even as it was, and caught at this
+enormous disadvantage, Heraclius taught the robbers to tremble, and
+would have exterminated them, if not baffled by two irremediable
+calamities, neither of them due to any act or neglect of his own. The
+first lay in the treason of his lieutenants. The governors of Damascus,
+of Aleppo, of Emesa, of Bostra, of Kinnisrin, all proved traitors. The
+root of this evil lay, probably, in the disorders following the Persian
+invasion, which had made it the perilous interest of the emperor to
+appoint great officers from amongst those who had a local influence.
+Such persons it might have been ruinous too suddenly to set aside, as,
+in the event, it proved ruinous to employ them. A dilemma of this kind,
+offering but a choice of evils, belonged to the nature of any Persian
+war; and that particular war was bequeathed to Heraclius by the
+mismanagement of his predecessors. But the second calamity was even more
+fatal; it lay in the composition of the Syrian population, and its
+original want of vital cohesion. For no purpose could this population be
+united: they formed a rope of sand. There was the distraction of
+religion, (Jacobites, Nestorians, &c.;) there was the distraction of
+races--slaves and masters, conquered and conquerors, modern intruders
+mixed, but not blended with, aboriginal mountaineers. Property became
+the one principle of choice between the two governments. Where was
+protection to be had for _that_? Barbarous as were the Arabs, they saw
+their present advantage. Often it would happen from the position of the
+armies, that they could, whilst the emperor could not, guarantee the
+instant security of land or of personal treasures; the Arabs could also
+promise, sometimes, a total immunity from taxes, very often a diminished
+scale of taxation, always a remission of arrears; none of which demands
+could be listened to by the emperor, partly on account of the public
+necessities, partly from jealousy of establishing operative precedents.
+For religion, again, protection was more easily obtained in that day
+from the Arab, who made war on Christianity, than from the Byzantine
+emperor, who was its champion. What were the different sects and
+subdivisions of Christianity to the barbarian? Monophysite, Monothelite,
+Eutychian, or Jacobite, all were to him as the scholastic disputes of
+noble and intellectual Europe to the camps of gypsies. The Arab felt
+himself to be the depository of one sublime truth, the unity of God. His
+mission therefore, was principally against idolaters. Yet even to _them_
+his policy was to sell toleration for tribute. Clearly, as Mr Finlay
+hints, this was merely a provisional moderation, meant to be laid aside
+when sufficient power was obtained; and it _was_ laid aside, in after
+ages, by many a wretch like Timour or Nadir Shah. Religion, therefore,
+and property once secured, what more had the Syrians to seek? And if to
+these advantages for the Saracens we add the fact, that a considerable
+Arab population was dispersed through Syria, who became so many
+emissaries, spies, and decoys for their countrymen, it does great honour
+to the emperor, that through so many campaigns he should at all have
+maintained his ground, which at last he resigned only under the
+despondency caused by almost universal treachery.
+
+The Saracens, therefore, had no great merit even in their earliest
+exploits; and the _impetus_ of their movement forwards, that principle
+of proselytism which carried them so strongly "ahead" through a few
+generations, was very soon brought to a stop. Mr Finlay, in our mind,
+does right to class these barbarians as "socially and politically little
+better than the Gothic, Hunnish, and Avar monarchies." But, on
+consideration, the Gothic monarchy embosomed the germs of a noble
+civilization; whereas the Saracens have never propagated great
+principles of any kind, nor attained even a momentary grandeur in their
+institutions, except where coalescing with a higher or more ancient
+civilization.
+
+Meantime, ascending from the earliest Mahometans to their prophet, what
+are we to think of _him_? Was Mahomet a great man? We think not. The
+case was thus: the Arabian tribes had long stood ready, like dogs held
+in a leash, for a start after distant game. It was not Mahomet who gave
+them that impulse. But next, what was it that had hindered the Arab
+tribes from obeying the impulse? Simply this, that they were always in
+feud with each other; so that their expeditions, beginning in harmony,
+were sure to break up in anger on the road. What they needed was, some
+one grand compressing and unifying principle, such as the Roman found in
+the destinies of his city. True; but this, you say, they found in the
+sublime principle that God was one, and had appointed them to be the
+scourges of all who denied it. Their mission was to cleanse the earth
+from Polytheism; and, as ambassadors from God, to tell the nations--"Ye
+shall have no other gods but me." That was grand; and _that_ surely they
+had from Mahomet? Perhaps so; but where did he get it? He stole it from
+the Jewish Scriptures, and from the Scriptures no less than from the
+traditions of the Christians. Assuredly, then, the first projecting
+impetus was not impressed upon Islamism by Mahomet. This lay in a
+revealed truth; and by Mahomet it was furtively translated to his own
+use from those oracles which held it in keeping. But possibly, if not
+the _principle_ of motion, yet at least the steady conservation of this
+motion was secured to Islamism by Mahomet. Granting (you will say) that
+the launch of this religion might be due to an alien inspiration, yet
+still the steady movement onwards of this religion through some
+centuries, might be due exclusively to the code of laws bequeathed by
+Mahomet in the Koran. And this has been the opinion of many European
+scholars. They fancy that Mahomet, however worldly and sensual as the
+founder of a pretended revelation, was wise in the wisdom of this world;
+and that, if ridiculous as a prophet, he was worthy of veneration as a
+statesman. He legislated well and presciently, they imagine, for the
+interests of a remote posterity. Now, upon that question let us hear Mr
+Finlay. He, when commenting upon the steady resistance offered to the
+Saracens by the African Christians of the seventh and eighth
+centuries--a resistance which terminated disastrously for both
+sides--the poor Christians being exterminated, and the Moslem invaders
+being robbed of an indigenous working population, naturally enquires
+what it was that led to so tragical a result? The Christian natives of
+those provinces were, in a political condition, little favourable to
+belligerent efforts; and there cannot be much doubt, that, with any
+wisdom or any forbearance on the part of the intruders, both parties
+might soon have settled down into a pacific compromise of their feuds.
+Instead of this, the cimeter was invoked and worshipped as the sole
+possible arbitrator; and truce there was none until the silence of
+desolation brooded over those once fertile fields. How savage was the
+fanaticism, and how blind the worldly wisdom, which could have
+co-operated to such a result! The cause must have lain in the
+unaccommodating nature of the Mahometan institutions, in the bigotry of
+the Mahometan leaders, and in the defect of expansive views on the part
+of their legislator. He had not provided even for other climates than
+that of his own sweltering sty in the Hedjas, or for manners more
+polished, or for institutions more philosophic, than those of his own
+sun-baked Ishmaelites. "The construction of the political government of
+the Saracen empire"--says Mr Finlay, (p. 462-3)--"was imperfect, and
+shows that Mahomet had neither contemplated extensive foreign conquests,
+nor devoted the energies of his powerful mind to the consideration of
+the questions of administration which would arise out of the difficult
+task of ruling a numerous and wealthy population, possessed of property,
+but deprived of civil rights." He then shows how the whole power of the
+state settled into the hands of a chief priest--systematically
+irresponsible. When, therefore, that momentary state of responsibility
+had passed away, which was created (like the state of martial law) "by
+national feelings, military companionship, and exalted enthusiasm," the
+administration of the caliphs became "far more oppressive than that of
+the Roman empire." It is in fact an insult to the majestic Romans, if we
+should place them seriously in the balance with savages like the
+Saracens. The Romans were essentially the leaders of civilization,
+according to the possibilities then existing; for their earliest usages
+and social forms involved a high civilization, whilst promising a
+higher: whereas all Moslem nations have described a petty arch of
+national civility--soon reaching its apex, and rapidly barbarizing
+backwards. This fatal gravitation towards decay and decomposition in
+Mahometan institutions, which, at this day, exhibits to the gaze of
+mankind one uniform spectacle of Mahometan ruins, all the great Moslem
+nations being already in a _Strulbrug_ state, and held erect only by the
+colossal support of Christian powers, could not, as a _reversionary_
+evil, have been healed by the Arabian prophet. His own religious
+principles would have prevented _that_, for they offer a permanent
+bounty on sensuality; so that every man who serves a Mahometan state
+faithfully and brilliantly at twenty-five, is incapacitated at
+thirty-five for any further service, by the very nature of the rewards
+which he receives from the state. Within a very few years, every public
+servant is usually emasculated by that unlimited voluptuousness which
+equally the Moslem princes and the common Prophet of all Moslems
+countenance as the proper object of human pursuit. Here is the mortal
+ulcer of Islamism, which can never cleanse itself from death and the
+odour of death. A political ulcer would or might have found restoration
+for itself; but this ulcer is higher and deeper:--it lies in the
+religion, which is incapable of reform: it is an ulcer reaching as high
+as the paradise which Islamism promises, and deep as the hell which it
+creates. We repeat, that Mahomet could not effectually have neutralized
+a poison which he himself had introduced into the circulation and
+life-blood of his Moslem economy. The false prophet was forced to reap
+as he had sown. But an evil which is certain, may be retarded; and
+ravages which tend finally to confusion, may be limited for many
+generations. Now, in the case of the African provincials which we have
+noticed, we see an original incapacity of Islamism, even in its palmy
+condition, for amalgamating with any _superior_ culture. And the
+specific action of Mahometanism in the African case, as contrasted with
+the Roman economy which it supplanted, is thus exhibited by Mr Finlay in
+a most instructive passage, where every negation on the Mahometan side
+is made to suggest the countervailing usage positively on the side of
+the Romans. O children of Romulus! how noble do you appear when thus
+fiercely contrasted with the wild boars who desolated your vineyards!
+"No local magistrates elected by the people, and no parish priests
+connected by their feelings and interests both with their superiors and
+inferiors, bound society together by common ties; and no system of legal
+administration, independent of the military and financial authorities,
+preserved the property of the people from the rapacity of the
+government."
+
+Such, we are to understand, was _not_ the Mahometan system: such _had_
+been the system of Rome. "Socially and politically," proceeds the
+passage, "the Saracen empire was little better than the Gothic, Hunnish,
+and Avar monarchies; and that it proved more durable, with almost equal
+oppression, is to be attributed to the powerful enthusiasm of Mahomet's
+religion, which tempered for some time its avarice and tyranny." The
+same sentiment is repeated still more emphatically at p. 468--"The
+political policy of the Saracens was of itself utterly barbarous; and it
+only caught a passing gleam of justice from the religious feeling of
+their prophet's doctrines."
+
+Thus far, therefore, it appears that Mahometanism is not much indebted
+to its too famous founder: it owes to him a principle, viz. the unity of
+God, which, merely through a capital blunder, it fancies peculiar to
+itself. Nothing but the grossest ignorance in Mahomet, nothing but the
+grossest non-acquaintance with Greek authors on the part of the Arabs,
+could have created or sustained the delusion current amongst that
+illiterate people--that it was themselves only who rejected Polytheism.
+Had but one amongst the personal enemies of Mahomet been acquainted with
+Greek, _there_ was an end of the new religion in the first moon of its
+existence. Once open the eyes of Arabs to the fact, that Christians had
+anticipated them in this great truth of the divine unity, and
+Mahometanism could only have ranked as a subdivision of Christianity.
+Mahomet would have ranked only as a Christian heresiarch or schismatic;
+such as Nestorius or Marcian at one time, such as Arius or Pelagius at
+another. In his character of _theologian_, therefore, Mahomet was simply
+the most memorable of blunderers, supported in his blunders by the most
+unlettered of nations. In his other character of _legislator_, we have
+seen, that already the earliest stages of Mahometan experience exposed
+decisively his ruinous imbecility. Where a rude tribe offered no
+resistance to his system, for the simple reason that their barbarism
+suggested no motive for resistance, it could be no honour to prevail.
+And where, on the other hand, a higher civilization had furnished strong
+points of repulsion to his system, it appears plainly that this
+pretended apostle of social improvement had devised or hinted no readier
+mode of conciliation than by putting to the sword all dissentients. He
+starts as a theological reformer, with a fancied defiance to the world
+which was no defiance at all, being exactly what Christians had believed
+for six centuries, and Jews for six-and-twenty. He starts as a political
+reformer, with a fancied conciliation to the world which was no
+conciliation at all, but was sure to provoke imperishable hostility
+wheresoever it had any effect at all.
+
+We have thus reviewed some of the more splendid aspects connected with
+Mr Finlay's theme; but that theme, in its entire compass, is worthy of a
+far more extended investigation than our own limits will allow, or than
+the historical curiosity of the world (misdirected here as in so many
+other cases) has hitherto demanded. The Greek race, suffering a long
+occultation under the blaze of the Roman empire, into which for a time
+it had been absorbed, but again emerging from this blaze and reassuming
+a distinct Greek agency and influence, offers a subject great by its own
+inherent attractions, and separately interesting by the unaccountable
+neglect which it has suffered. To have overlooked this subject, is one
+amongst the capital oversights of Gibbon. To have rescued it from utter
+oblivion, and to have traced an outline for its better illumination, is
+the peculiar merit of Mr Finlay. His greatest fault is to have been
+careless or slovenly in the niceties of classical and philological
+precision. His greatest praise, and a very great one indeed, is--to have
+thrown the light of an _original_ philosophic sagacity upon a neglected
+province of history, indispensable to the _arrondissement_ of Pagan
+archæology.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Greece under the Romans._ BY GEORGE FINLAY, K.R.G. William Blackwood
+& Sons. Edinburgh and London. 1844.
+
+{B} "_With scorn._"--This has arisen from two causes: one is the habit of
+regarding the whole Roman empire as in its "decline" from so early a
+period as that of Commodus; agreeably to which conceit, it would
+naturally follow that, during its latter stages, the Eastern empire must
+have been absolutely in its dotage. If already declining in the second
+century, then, from the tenth to the fifteenth it must have been
+paralytic and bed-ridden. The other cause may be found in the accidental
+but reasonable hostility of the Byzantine court to the first Crusaders,
+as also in the disadvantageous comparison with respect to manly virtues
+between the simplicity of these western children, and the refined
+dissimulation of the Byzantines.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+56, Number 348, by Various
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56,
+Number 348, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: April 13, 2008 [EBook #25066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan O'Connor, Jonathan Ingram, Louise Pryor
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h4>Transcriber's Note</h4>
+<p>Spellings are sometimes erratic. A few obvious
+misprints have been corrected, but in general the original spelling has
+been retained. Accents in the French phrases are inconsistent, and have
+not been standardised.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD&rsquo;S<br />
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+<h3><span class="rspace">No CCCXLVIII.</span>
+<span class="btbb">OCTOBER, 1844.</span>
+<span class="lspace">VOL. LVI.</span></h3>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table summary="Table of contents">
+<tr><td class="toc">The Life of a Diplomatist</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">Poems and Ballads of Goethe. No. II.</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_417">417</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">The Great Drought</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">A Tender Conscience</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_454">454</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">Thierry&rsquo;s History of the Gauls</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_466">466</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">The Witchfinder. Conclusion</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_487">487</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">My Last Courtship; or, Life in Louisiana,</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_507">507</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc">Greece under the Romans.</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_524">524</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+EDINBURGH:<br />
+
+<span class="little">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;<br />
+AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.<br />
+
+<i>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.</i></span><br />
+
+<span class="littler">SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="littler center">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</p>
+
+<h1>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="401">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401"></a>
+BLACKWOOD&rsquo;S<br />
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+<h3><span class="rspace">No CCCXLVIII.</span>
+<span class="btbb">OCTOBER, 1844.</span>
+<span class="lspace">VOL. LVI.</span></h3>
+
+<h2>THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">A</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>This is one of those curious memoirs which, from time to time, start
+forth from the family archives of public men, for the illustration of
+the past and the wisdom of the future. Nothing can be more important to
+either the man of office or the man of reflection. Avoiding all the
+theoretical portion of history, on which all men may be mistaken, they
+give us its facts, on which no one can be deceived; detailing the course
+of personal events, they supply us with the views of the most
+intelligent minds directly employed in the transactions, exhibit the
+portraits of those minds, and point out to those who are to follow, the
+effect of vigour, intrepidity, and knowledge, in overcoming the
+difficulties of nations.</p>
+
+<p>The work on which we are about to make some remarks, is one of those
+productions which do especial honour to the English aristocracy. It is
+the diplomatic career of the founder of a peerage; compiled and
+published by the third in succession to the earldom. The noble editor,
+professing to have done but little in this office of reverence and duty,
+has done much&mdash;he has paid due honour to a manly, wise, and vigorous
+ancestor; and he has set a striking example to the young nobility of his
+time. The libraries of every noble family of England contain similar
+records of the highest value; and nothing could be at once more
+honourable to the memory of the gallant and renowned who have passed
+away, or more important to posterity, than to give those documents to
+the light, illustrated by the recollections of their noble descendants,
+and brought before the public with the natural advantages of
+authenticity and authority.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Malmesbury&rsquo;s career continued through one of the most interesting
+portions of the last century; that which was the preparative for the
+great catastrophe of its close, the overthrow of the French monarchy. He
+was in the service of his country, as a diplomatist, from 1768 to 1797;
+and for many succeeding years was in connexion with all the leading
+political characters of a time singularly fertile in remarkable men. He
+was born at Salisbury in 1746, the descendant of an old English family,
+possessed of property in Wiltshire. His father was an eminent scholar,
+the author of <i>Hermes</i>, and other well known treatises on literary and
+philosophical subjects. But the scholar was also a man of active public
+life. Entering into parliament, he was appointed a lord of the treasury
+in 1763, and secretary and comptroller of the Queen&rsquo;s household some
+<span class="pagebreak" title="402">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402"></a>
+years after. A <i>bon-mot</i> of one of the Townsends is recorded, on his
+taking his seat.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who is the new member?&rdquo; asked Townsend.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A Mr Harris, who has written on grammar and harmony.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then what brings him here, where he will hear <i>neither</i>?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The son of such a man had public life before him as his natural source
+of distinction; and Lord Malmesbury, late in life, (in 1800,) thus
+gracefully commemorated his gratitude. &ldquo;To my father&rsquo;s precepts and
+example I owe every good quality I have. To his reputation and his
+character, I attribute my more than common success in life. It was those
+that introduced me with peculiar advantage into the world. It was as his
+son that I first obtained friends and patrons. I had nothing in myself;
+and I speak, at the distance of thirty-five years, not from affected
+modesty, but from a powerful recollection of what there was to entitle
+me to notice. Once, indeed, placed in a conspicuous and responsible
+situation, I was anxious to act becomingly in it. And even here I recur
+with pleasure to the same grateful source; for while my father lived,
+which was during the first twelve years of my public life, the strongest
+incentive I had to exert myself was in the satisfaction I knew he would
+derive from any credit I might acquire; and the many and distinguished
+honours which I have since received, have suffered a great diminution in
+my esteem, from his being no longer a witness to them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was sent to Winchester, where he remained till he was sixteen. From
+Winchester he was transferred to Oxford, where the discipline at that
+period was so relaxed, that his only surprise in after life was at the
+success of so many of his companions, among whom were Charles Fox,
+North, Bishop of Winchester, Lord Robert Spenser, Lord Auckland, and
+others, who had risen to rank of various kinds. He left Oxford in 1765,
+and passed thirty-five years on the Continent. His lordship here makes a
+striking observation on his own experience, which has been authenticated
+by every intelligent and honest mind under the same
+circumstances&mdash;remarking that his foreign residence was so far from
+making him undervalue England, that it raised it still higher in his
+estimation. He adds&mdash;&ldquo;Here I will make an assertion, grounded on
+experience and conviction, and which may be applied as a never-failing
+test, that an Englishman who, after a long absence from England, returns
+to it with feelings and sentiments partial to other countries, and
+adverse to his own, has no <i>real</i> mind&mdash;is without the powers of
+discernment and plain easy comparison&mdash;and has no title to enjoy the
+superior moral and local advantages to which he is born, but of which he
+is insensible and unworthy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As diplomacy was evidently the career marked out for him by his father,
+he was sent to study at Leyden, where he remained a year. In the
+commencement of the century, Holland was the central point of all
+European negotiations; and its schools became famous for languages and
+the study of international law. The society among the higher orders of
+the country was the most intelligent in Europe, consisting of
+ambassadors and scholars of the first character. After this year of
+vigorous study, and some brief stay at home, he returned to the
+Continent, and made an extensive tour of the north. In the autumn of
+this year he received his first diplomatic appointment, in the mission
+to Spain. His success in the Falkland Island negotiation recommended him
+to government, and he was appointed minister at Berlin&mdash;a very unusual
+distinction for a diplomatist only twenty-four years old. But a still
+more important distinction now awaited him. In 1777 he was sent as
+minister to the court of the Empress Catharine, where he found himself
+involved in all the craft of diplomacy with two of the most artful
+sovereigns that ever lived, Frederick and Catharine. But difficulties
+only place talents in a more conspicuous point of view, and he received
+from his government the highest reward then conferred upon a foreign
+minister, the Order of the Bath, in 1780. The climate of Russia was at
+length found too severe for his health, and he petitioned for his
+recall, which was granted, but with the honourable offer of his choice
+of a mission either to Spain or the Hague; the former was the higher in
+rank, but the latter the more important in activity.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="403">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403"></a>
+He unhesitatingly,
+and wisely, chose the embassy to the Hague. In 1784, the Foxite
+administration fell, and Pitt was in the ascendant. Harris had been at
+all times connected with Fox, and had constantly voted with him in the
+House; but so high was the public sense of his ability, and such was the
+impartiality of Pitt&rsquo;s sense of public duty, that he offered him the
+re-appointment to the Hague, which Harris, after consulting Fox and the
+Duke of Portland as his political leaders, accepted. His services were
+peculiarly required at this period, from the violent discussions which
+had arisen in Holland; and he either originated, or perfected, the
+treaty of alliance between England, Holland, and Prussia, which saved
+the Stadtholder for the time, and Holland probably from being made a
+French province. His conduct was regarded with so much approbation by
+the allies, that he received from the Prussian king leave to add the
+Prussian eagle to his arms, and from the Stadtholder, his motto, &ldquo;<i>Je
+maintiendrai</i>.&rdquo; From England he received the more substantial rewards of
+the peerage, by the title of Baron Malmesbury, and the appointment of
+ambassador. But though he was a Whig, he was one on the old English
+principle, and not on the new. In 1793, when in the midst of
+revolutionary horrors, and after the murder of the unfortunate French
+king, Fox, in the spirit of infatuation, declared himself ready to
+acknowledge the French republic, all the chief leaders of the Whigs
+retired from the Opposition bench. The Duke of Portland, Lord
+Loughborough, Sir Gilbert Elliott, Lord Spenser, and Lord Malmesbury,
+joined those distinguished persons; yet without any apparent loss of
+friendship with Fox, whose manners retained personal friends even when
+he had lost their political confidence. Frederick William, king of
+Prussia, a prince of singularly undecided character, though of loud
+professions, being at this time suspected of a leaning towards the
+revolutionists, Lord Malmesbury was immediately sent by Pitt to Berlin,
+for the purpose of holding him to his good faith. He succeeded, to the
+extent of making the king sign an additional treaty with England and
+Holland.</p>
+
+<p>His next mission, if not one of more importance, was of still greater
+delicacy&mdash;it was to ask the hand of the Duke of Brunswick&rsquo;s daughter for
+the Prince of Wales. This was a marriage by compulsion, and the wrath of
+the prince fell upon the noble negotiator. He never forgave Lord
+Malmesbury, and he quickly alienated himself from the princess: the
+unfortunate result is fully known. In 1796, and 1797, Lord Malmesbury
+was engaged in the most important negotiation of his life. The French
+Directory, probably for the purpose of exciting dissensions between
+Austria and England, made a secret proposal of peace, which led to the
+mission of an ambassador. But while Napoleon was pursuing his conquests
+in Italy, France had no actual desire of pacification. The purpose was
+evidently to gain time; and Lord Malmesbury, on discovering the true
+nature of the transaction, demanded his passports, and returned to
+England. It cannot be imputed to Pitt, that he was ever negligent of
+those who had done the state service. Lord Malmesbury had already
+obtained the Order of the Bath, and a barony; he was now raised to an
+earldom, with a viscounty, by the title of Lord Fitzharris; and it was
+in Pitt&rsquo;s contemplation to send him once more to Paris, when his
+ministry was suddenly brought to a conclusion, and Mr Addington was
+appointed premier; by whom the peace, or rather the unlucky truce of
+Amiens, was made. His political life was now at an end. He had been for
+some time suffering under deafness, which increased so much, that he
+regarded it as incapacitating him from public employment; yet he still
+loved society, and, dividing his time between London and his seat near
+Henley, he passed a pleasant and cheerful time, mingling with the chief
+characters of the rising political generation. For the last ten years of
+his life, his thoughts seem to have been much directed to religious
+subjects; and he kept what he entitled a &ldquo;self-controlling journal,&rdquo; in
+which he registered his thoughts. We have probably reason to regret that
+the scrupulous delicacy of his biographer has hitherto withheld it from
+the public. The few sentences transcribed from it, give a strong
+conception of the piety and clear-headedness of the noble author. They
+were written within a
+<span class="pagebreak" title="404">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404"></a>
+fortnight of his death. They describe him as
+&ldquo;having completed his 74th year, and having thus lived longer than any
+of his ancestors for the last two centuries; that his existence had been
+without any great misfortune, and without any acute disease, and that he
+owed all praise and thanksgiving to the Supreme Being; that the next
+step would probably be his last; that he was now too much exhausted,
+both in mind and body, to be of service to his country, but was
+fortunate in leaving his children well and happy; and that he now waited
+the Divine will with becoming resignation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He died without disease, and through mere exhaustion of nature, in his
+75th year, in 1820, and was buried in Salisbury cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Malmesbury&rsquo;s reputation ranked very high in the diplomatic circles
+of the Continent. He was a clear-headed, well-informed, and active
+minister&mdash;sagacious enough to see his way through difficulties which
+would have perplexed inferior men, and bold enough to act according to
+his own opinion, where feebler minds would have ruined all, by waiting
+for the tardy wisdom of others. Talleyrand, a first-rate judge on such
+subjects, said of him, in his epigrammatic style&mdash;&ldquo;I think that Lord
+Malmesbury was the ablest minister whom you had in his time. It was
+hopeless to get before him; all that could be done was to follow him
+close. If one let him have the last word, he contrived always to have
+the best of the argument.&rdquo; He seems to have been a thorough Englishman
+in the highest sense of the word, and to have had the loftiest opinion
+of the power and principles of England; not from any fantastic
+prejudice, but from the experience of a long life, with the best
+opportunities of forming an unprejudiced judgment. We have already
+mentioned his declared opinion after living long abroad, and as a great
+diplomatic functionary, living under the most advantageous circumstances
+of foreign society; that any Englishman who, after a residence abroad,
+prefers the Continent to his own country, is beyond all question a man
+of gross and contemptible mind, and incapable of taking a &ldquo;common-sense
+view&rdquo; of the subject. We have his constant testimony, that &ldquo;as there is
+nothing equal to England on the face of the earth, so no exertion on the
+part of her people can be too great in defence of her freedom and
+honour.&rdquo; In conformity with this matured conviction, and reigning
+principle of his heart, he chose as the motto for his coronet&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Ubique patriam reminisci.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">B</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mr Harris&rsquo;s first visit to the Continent was in 1767, when he set out on
+a tour to Holland, Prussia, and Poland, remaining for some time at
+Berlin, where he had the advantage of seeing the cleverest, though the
+most eccentric, of all sovereigns, Frederick the Great. A number of
+traits of character are given, of various degrees of force, but all
+expressive. The king&rsquo;s chief amusement was playing on the flute, on
+which he performed very well for an amateur, though, compared with the
+professional performers, he necessarily made rather an unkingly figure.
+Frederick, who was afraid of nothing else, was so much afraid of failure
+in his flute playing, that whenever he had a new piece of music, he shut
+himself up in his closet some hours beforehand, to practise it; and
+although no one was permitted to be present at those concerts except a
+very few select friends, he was always observed to be remarkably nervous
+at the commencement. He had a fine collection of flutes, all made by the
+same man, and for which he paid a hundred ducats a-piece. He had an
+attendant whose sole office was to keep those flutes in order. During
+the war, when his finances were reduced to so low an ebb that he paid
+bad coin to every one, he took care that his flute-maker should be paid
+in good coin, lest, for bad money, he should give him bad flutes. Royal
+architecture is not always fortunate. It is observed that Louis XIV.
+built his famous Versailles in a swampy hollow, when he had the noble
+terrace of St Germain before him. Frederick built his Sans-Souci in a
+marshy meadow, while he had a fine hill within sight. Unhappily
+<span class="pagebreak" title="405">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405"></a>
+<i>we</i>
+have but little to boast of in the location of our modern palaces. The
+site of Buckingham Palace seems to have been chosen with no other object
+than to discover which was the superior annoyance, the smoke of
+steam-engines or the vapours of a swamp; and this was chosen with one of
+the finest possible situations within half a mile of it, in the centre
+of Hyde Park. Her Majesty&rsquo;s palace at Brighton has been located with
+exactly the same curious perversion of taste; the hills to the north of
+that very handsome town offering one of the noblest situations that can
+be conceived&mdash;a fine land view, and an unobstructed sweep of the ocean:
+but the evil genius of building prevailed, and the palace is fixed in a
+gloomy bottom, from which it can be overlooked by every body, and from
+which nothing can be seen. Frederick, though sometimes superb in his
+expenses, was habitually penurious. He seems to have thought that war
+was the only thing on which it was worth his while to spend money. The
+salaries of his gentlemen and attendants were all on the narrowest
+scale. Lord Malmesbury observes that even the Prince of Dessau&rsquo;s
+marriage, at which he was present, exhibited this penury. All the
+apartments, except those immediately used for supper or cards, were
+lighted with a single candle. The supper had no dessert; the wines were
+bad; their quantity stinted. On his asking, after dancing, for some wine
+and water, he was answered&mdash;&ldquo;the wine is all gone, but you may have some
+tea;&rdquo; and this was a peculiarly distinguished party. He saw the king
+himself directing the servants in lighting up the ball-room, and telling
+them where to put the candles. Whilst this operation was performing, the
+queen, the royal family, and the company, were waiting literally in the
+dark; as the king did not begin this ceremony till supper was finished,
+and no one dared to give orders to have it done. Frederick, when a young
+man, was intended for the husband of a British princess. This was a
+match of his mother&rsquo;s construction. But the old king, who hated George
+II., threatened to cut off his son&rsquo;s head for his presumption. The
+English king called the Prussian &ldquo;my brother the sergeant;&rdquo; the Prussian
+retaliated by calling the English king &ldquo;my brother the dancing-master.&rdquo;
+This hostility amounted to a mixture of the profane and the ludicrous.
+When the old king was seized with his mortal illness, he asked whether
+&ldquo;it was necessary to forgive all his enemies.&rdquo; On receiving the proper
+answer, he said to the Queen&mdash;&ldquo;Dorothy, write to your brother that I
+forgive him all the evil that he has done me; but wait till I&rsquo;m dead
+first.&rdquo; A good repartee of Sir Andrew Mitchell on the battle of Quebec,
+is mentioned. &ldquo;Is it true,&rdquo; said the king to him, &ldquo;that, after all, you
+have taken Quebec?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, sire,&rdquo; said Sir Andrew Mitchell the envoy, &ldquo;by
+the help of Providence.&rdquo; &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said the king, &ldquo;is Providence among
+your allies?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the envoy, &ldquo;and the only one among then who
+demands <i>no subsidy</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles Williams wrote to one of the queen&rsquo;s marshals a letter
+introducing Lord Essex, ludicrously finishing with&mdash;&ldquo;You may be sure
+that it is not he who had his head cut off in the time of Elizabeth.&rdquo;
+The marshal, not perfectly understanding this, but depending on his
+information, introduced him in this style to her majesty&mdash;&ldquo;Madam, my
+Lord Essex; and I assure your majesty it is not he who was decapitated
+by Queen Elizabeth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Frederick, sending a minister to Denmark who complained of the smallness
+of his salary, and said that he could keep neither an equipage nor a
+table; the king&rsquo;s remark to him was&mdash;&ldquo;You are a prodigal; you ought to
+know that it is more healthy to go on foot than it is to go in a
+carriage; and that, so far as eating is concerned, another man&rsquo;s table
+is always the best.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At this period Poland was in a state of great confusion. The Empress of
+Russia had marched an army into it for the purpose, as she declared, of
+allowing the popular representatives to act freely, while the king
+regarded himself as little better than her prisoner. Repnin, the Russian
+ambassador, actually commanded every thing; and the principal nobility
+of Poland were compelled to be his agents. Of course, this state of
+things never could have occurred in any country where the tone of
+manners was high; and Poland, though the people were brave, and the
+nobility in general patriotic,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="406">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406"></a>
+unquestionably fell by its own vices.
+The portrait drawn of Prince Radzivil is the reverse of flattering, but
+it is characteristic:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Prince Radzivil, the marshal of the confederation, was one of the most
+powerful princes of Poland. His revenues were nearly equal to half a
+million sterling a-year, though they were at this period much diminished
+by Russian ravages. He had at one time an army of eight thousand man,
+with which he opposed the Imperial progress. He afterwards became the
+tool of the Russian policy, and was rewarded with the first palatinate
+of the kingdom. He gave a masquerade on the empress&rsquo;s birthday to near
+three thousand masks; and it was calculated that, besides the other
+wines, they drank a thousand bottles of champagne.&rdquo; The prodigality of a
+Polish feast exceeds all comprehension. This prince kept open house on
+such a scale, that his five-and-twenty cooks were scarcely able to
+supply his table. The great article of luxury in Poland was Hungary
+wine, which they had in great perfection, but which was very costly.
+Champagne was drunk as cider. The multitude of servants in a Polish
+establishment must have been ruinous. Prince Czartoriski&rsquo;s personal
+attendants and servants amounted to three hundred and seventy-five.
+Those in his country-house were still more numerous. His troops amounted
+to four thousand men. Prince Repnin, though of the Greek church, which
+abounds in forms and ceremonies, and in fasts exceeds all others, had so
+little regard for the forms of his religion, that he ordered a play to
+be acted on Ash Wednesday at Warsaw. Towards Christmas 1767, Lord
+Malmesbury, then Mr Harris, was at the house of a Polish nobleman in the
+hunting season. He observed to the king that he had never seen him in
+better spirits. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; was the royal answer, &ldquo;it is very pleasant to
+delude one&rsquo;s self sometimes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In 1768 Mr Harris began his diplomatic life as secretary of legation
+under Sir James Gray, then British minister at the court of Madrid.</p>
+
+<p>He set out from Paris on the last day of the year, and after
+six-and-twenty days&rsquo; journey, in which he loitered but two days on the
+road, accomplished the eleven hundred miles without accident.</p>
+
+<p>Though accustomed to Popish countries, the Spanish ceremonials of the
+Holy Week seem to have surprised him. In the streets was kept a second
+carnival, with a peculiar costume. The court and the higher orders wore
+black velvet, with flame-coloured waistcoats and sleeves trimmed with
+gold; the citizens left their shops, and spent the day in the streets.
+The king on Holy Thursday visited seven churches, washed the feet of
+twelve paupers, and afterwards served them at dinner. From Friday till
+Saturday all was silence, and no coaches were permitted in the streets.
+On Saturday at noon the bells rang, the people shouted, the coaches
+moved again, and all was clamour. From a personal knowledge of the
+people, Mr Harris pronounced that their defects arose from their
+religion and from their priests; both of which, by keeping the lower
+orders in a state of mendicity and the higher in a state of ignorance,
+prevent the progress of the nation. Even at this period, their dislike
+of the French was contemptuous and strongly marked.</p>
+
+<p>The life of a diplomatic man is not unlike the life of a naval officer.
+He has frequent opportunities of signalizing himself in a small way. The
+cabinet is the admiral, commanding a large force, and acting on a large
+scale. The diplomatist is the captain of the frigate, thrown out at a
+distance to make his observations, and enabled to exhibit his
+intrepidity and talent, through, from the smallness of his means, the
+results may be equally small. In 1769, Sir James Gray returning to
+England, left Mr Harris behind him as <i>charg&eacute; d&rsquo;affaires</i>. In the next
+year Spain, always jealous of any foreign approach to her South American
+possessions, fitted out a fleet for the purpose of expelling the British
+colony from the Falkland Isles. Harris acted spiritedly on this
+occasion. He instantly made so strong a representation to the Spanish
+minister, the Marquis Grimaldi, that he threw him into evident alarm.
+The letter to the British ministry which Harris wrote on the subject,
+satisfied them of the advantage of making a vigorous remonstrance. The
+result to the country was, that the colony, which had
+<span class="pagebreak" title="407">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a>
+been seized, was
+restored, and that the officer who seized it was disgraced by the
+Spanish government. To Harris the whole transaction was regarded as
+honourable, and entitling him to the favour of his government. The
+result was, his being appointed, in 1771, as minister at the court of
+the most subtle and busy monarch of Europe, Frederick the Second.</p>
+
+<p>We now come to the partition of Poland, the most momentous transaction
+of modern times; excepting the French Revolution, if even that
+revolution was not its consequence. Mr Harris makes his first
+communication on this important subject in March 1772. If we read his
+whole letter, the brevity of his announcement is a model even to
+diplomacy. He thus states the event to Lord Suffolk, then secretary of
+state.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Just as I am going to make up my packet, I am informed that a treaty of
+partition, disposing of several parts of Poland, was signed at
+Petersburg on the 15th of last month, and that as soon as the
+certificates can be exchanged between the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and
+Russia, a congress will be held at Warsaw.&rdquo; A few statements respecting
+the Prussian officers dispatched to the Polish frontier are given; and
+this seems to be the whole announcement of one of the most atrocious
+acts of perfidy and blood in the memory of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The French Revolution was begun on grounds independent of foreign
+disturbances. But no man can read the annals of the French war, without
+a conviction, that one of its providential purposes was the punishment
+of the three monarchies which had perpetrated this atrocity. Within a
+brief period from the first ruin of Polish independence, the French
+armies began those sweeping conquests which were destined especially to
+ravage Prussia, Austria, and Russia. The punishment seemed even to bear
+something like a proportion to the degree of guilt in each of the
+parties. The original proposer of the partition was Frederick, the
+strenuous participator was Catharine, and the unwilling, though
+consenting accomplice, was Joseph. Before that war was over, Napoleon
+reduced Prussia to the lowest condition of a conquered country,
+plundered her of millions of gold, held her fortresses by his garrisons,
+and treated her like a province. His invasion of Russia was next in
+havoc: the ravage of the country, the repulse and slaughter of her brave
+and patriotic armies, and the destruction of her ancient capital, were
+<i>her</i> share of the punishment. Austria suffered, but her suffering was
+of a lighter order&mdash;defeat in the field, havoc of the people, and the
+double capture of her capital; yet those wounds were rapidly healed, and
+the close of the war saw Austria taking a higher rank in Europe. Those
+struggles and sufferings extended over nearly a quarter of a century of
+unexampled bloodshed. It is remarkable that a project so fully entitled
+to excite the vigilance of all courts, seems to have been almost wholly
+overlooked by the English ministry; Lord Suffolk, in his confidential
+answer to the ambassador, simply styling it a curious transaction; and
+even in the more advanced stage of the affair, when the attention of the
+cabinet was called to it by the memorials of the Polish king and people,
+all that could be obtained was a verbal answer, evidently declining any
+interference on the subject, and contenting itself with the avoidance of
+approbation. The result of this singular negligence distinctly points
+out the course which should be taken by England in her continental
+policy. Her natural office is that of mediator and protector.
+Entertaining no views of conquest for herself, it is her duty to repress
+them in all others. If, in 1772, she had instantly issued a strong
+remonstrance to the three governments, it would have acted as an appeal
+to the reason of Europe. A fleet sent to the Baltic in support of that
+remonstrance would have acted upon the fears of the aggressors, and
+Poland would have been saved. The blood of the thousands shed in the war
+of independence would have been spared&mdash;the great crime of the century
+would have been partially avoided&mdash;and its punishment, in the shape of
+the revolutionary war, might never have been inflicted. The diplomatic
+and formal portion of this fatal event was thus announced by the
+ambassador to the British cabinet:&mdash;&ldquo;Berlin, 19th September 1772.&mdash;I
+received a message from Count Finckenstein yesterday morning, desiring
+<span class="pagebreak" title="408">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408"></a>
+to speak to me between twelve and one. On my waiting on him, he
+informed me that his Prussian majesty having come to an agreement with
+the courts of Vienna and Petersburg to renew certain ancient claims they
+had on parts of the kingdom of Poland, they had instructed their
+respective ministers at the court of Warsaw to signify their intentions
+to the king and republic, by presenting him with a declaration on this
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That his Prussian majesty, desirous of seizing every opportunity of
+showing his friendship and attention to the king, had ordered him, Count
+Finckenstein, to take the earliest moment of acquainting me with this
+event, and at the same time to give me a copy of the declaration, which
+I here enclose&mdash;that his <i>charg&eacute; d&rsquo;affaires</i> in London had likewise
+received orders to inform the king&rsquo;s ministers on this subject, and to
+communicate to them the declaration.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The reply of the English minister to this momentous announcement,
+exhibits, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary instances of
+ministerial negligence on record. On a subject which might have moved
+the very stones to mutiny, and which, in its consequences, involved the
+interests of all Europe, the only answer of the King of England was
+contained in the following note, written in French:&mdash;&ldquo;The king is
+willing to suppose that the three courts have convinced themselves of
+the justice of their respective pretensions, although his majesty is not
+informed of the motives of their conduct.&rdquo; &ldquo;You will observe,&rdquo; adds Lord
+Suffolk, &ldquo;in the terns in which I express myself, that though this mode
+of expression was preferable to an absolute silence, the utmost caution
+has been used.&rdquo; The caution was indeed sufficiently circumspect, for it
+was wholly useless; and the consequence was perfect impunity to the
+perpetrators.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick was the great infidel of his day. He had been so long involved
+in hostilities with Austria, the most superstitious court in Europe,
+that he adopted &ldquo;free-thinking&rdquo; as a part of his policy; and his
+eagerness for European fame connected him with Voltaire and the French
+infidels, whose wit and wickedness had made them the leaders of
+philosophical fashion. But there is a principle of belief in human
+nature which revenges itself on the infidel. There are no men more
+liable to groundless fears, than those who reject the object of
+legitimate awe. The man who will not believe in a deity, has often
+believed in witchcraft; and those who will not acknowledge a Providence,
+have often trembled before a conjurer. At this period, Frederick had
+grown peculiarly anxious and irascible&mdash;a temper for which the
+ambassador accounts by a sudden impulse of superstition. He
+says&mdash;&ldquo;Amongst several other incredible follies in so great a character,
+he has that of not entirely disbelieving judicial astrology; and I am
+told, from one whose authority is not despicable, that the fear of a
+prediction being this year fulfilled, which was pronounced by a Saxon
+fortune-teller whom his majesty was weak enough some time ago to
+consult, dwells on his mind, and augments the sourness of a disposition
+naturally crabbed. I should have paid no attention to these reports,
+which savour so much of the nursery, had I not myself observed him
+displeased at a mourning coat at his levee, and seen his countenance
+visibly alter on being informed of any man&rsquo;s dying a sudden death.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We then have a curious letter from Lord Grantham, the ambassador at
+Madrid, giving an account of an expedition to Algiers, which derives an
+interest from the present state of African affairs.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will learn that a very unsuccessful attempt has been made at
+Algiers, and that the Spanish troops have been repulsed with a loss and
+disablement of upwards of 5000 men. The fleet, consisting of 450 sail,
+and carrying about 40,000 men, sailed from Carthagena, and reached
+Algiers the 1st inst., (July 1775.) On the night of the 7th, the
+infantry, and two detachments of about 8000 men each, landed. The first
+detachment advanced too eagerly, could not be supported to any purpose,
+and, after thirteen hours&rsquo; engagement, all that could regained the
+ships. But the loss of killed and wounded, first estimated at 3000,
+certainly exceeded five or six. The transports with the army are
+returned to Carthagena and Alicante. I leave you to judge how
+<span class="pagebreak" title="409">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"></a>
+deep an
+impression this severe failure makes here. The Marquis de la Romana is
+killed&mdash;all the generals, except Buck, are wounded. Among the wounded
+are twenty-eight officers of the Spanish guards, and twelve out of
+seventeen engineers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The court of Frederick would form a singular contrast to what is called
+the British Household, composed of the great officers of state. &ldquo;You are
+not ignorant,&rdquo; says Harris, writing to William Eden, &ldquo;that the great
+officers of the court are merely titular, and never allowed to have any
+authority annexed to their office. This is given to some menial
+servants, who are constantly about the king&rsquo;s person, and his treasurer
+was a Russian named Deiss, in whom his Majesty placed more confidence
+than he appears to have deserved; since for maladministration, or some
+equally notorious fault, his majesty a few days ago, dismissed him from
+his high post, and ordered him to be employed as a drummer in a marching
+regiment. Deiss affected to submit patiently to his sentence, and, on
+being arrested, begged leave of the officer only to go into his room,
+adjoining the king&rsquo;s writing-closet, to fetch his hat. This being
+granted, he immediately locked the door, took a pistol from his pocket,
+and shot himself through the head. The king heard and was alarmed by the
+report of a pistol so near him, and being told what had happened, he
+pitied Deiss, said that he was out of his senses, and ordered all that
+he died worth to be distributed equally among his children. Deiss had
+charged the pistol with small-shot and crooked nails, and put the muzzle
+of it into his mouth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A striking anecdote is given of General Seidlitz, the officer who formed
+the Prussian cavalry. When only a lieutenant, he happened to be near the
+king on a bridge which crossed the Oder. The king asked him, &ldquo;if both
+the avenues of the bridge were possessed by the enemy, what he would do
+to disengage himself.&rdquo; Seidlitz, without making an answer, immediately
+leaped his horse over the rails into the river, and notwithstanding its
+breadth and rapidity, swam safe ashore. The king, who took it for
+granted that he must be drowned, on seeing him come towards him, said in
+French, &ldquo;<i>Major</i>, I beg of you not to run such hazards in future.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Despotic power has certainly great advantages, in its rapid
+administration of justice, and sometimes in its reaching offences which
+would altogether baffle trial by jury. Frederick was ridiculously fond
+of exhibiting his musical attainments; and among the other preparatives
+for the reception of the Russian grand-duke (afterwards the Emperor
+Paul) at Berlin, was a piece of music composed by the king. The husband
+of the first singer at the opera, the well-known Madame Mara, was
+imprudent enough to observe of this performance, that &ldquo;the composer knew
+more about soldiers than music.&rdquo; The king ordered him to be instantly
+made over to the <i>corps-de-garde</i>, with orders to punish him, enough to
+make him more cautious of criticism in future. The soldiers accordingly,
+as there happened to be no punishment in the military regulations for
+impertinent remarks on royal amateurs, took the affair into their own
+hands. They began by dressing him in a uniform, covering his face with a
+huge pair of whiskers, and loading him with the heaviest firelock which
+they could find, they then made him perform the manual exercise for two
+hours&mdash;accompanying the lesson with all the usual discipline of the
+cane&mdash;then ordered him to dance and sing, finishing their discipline by
+making the surgeon take from him a large quantity of blood, obviously to
+reduce the heat of temper which had given rise to such impertinence.
+After this lesson he was sent back to his wife. Severe as it may have
+appeared, Harris regarded it as earned by many previous impertinences of
+the same kind, but of which it may fairly be presumed this was the last.</p>
+
+<p>At last the grand-duke arrived, and was received with the most unusual
+pomp and ceremony by the Prussian court. By some curious instance of
+choice, Sunday is selected on the Continent as the day for every thing
+in the shape of show. The Russian prince made his public entry into
+Berlin on Sunday, and was met by the trading companies in uniform, by
+escorts of cavalry, and the equipages of the king and royal family. In
+the evening, after a sumptuous dinner, there was a concert and ball.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="410">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410"></a>
+The rest of the week was similarly occupied. The grand-duke had come to
+demand the Princess of Wirtemberg in marriage. When we recollect the
+fate of this unhappy monarch, murdered on the Russian throne, and
+contrast it with the brilliancy of his early reception in the world, and
+his actual powers when master of the diadem, a deeper lesson of the
+instability of human fortune has seldom been given to man.</p>
+
+<p>A laughable anecdote of Russian and Prussian discipline is told. All the
+domestics belonging to the Imperial family of Russia have military rank;
+the grand-duke&rsquo;s coachman and the king&rsquo;s going one evening to drink
+together, a dispute arose about precedence. &ldquo;What is your rank?&rdquo; said
+the Prussian. &ldquo;A lieutenant-colonel,&rdquo; said the other. &ldquo;Ay, but I am a
+colonel,&rdquo; said the German, and walked first into the ale-house. This
+came to the king&rsquo;s ears. The <i>colonel</i> was sent for three days to
+prison, and received fifty blows of the cane.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador now obtained a new instance of the favour of his court.
+He was recalled from Prussia in 1776, and shortly after was appointed to
+the most important of our embassies at that period, the embassy to
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>The politics of England at this period bore an appearance of perplexity,
+which evidently alarmed her cabinet, and which as evidently excited the
+hopes of her enemies. At this period she had two enemies in Europe,
+hostile in every thing except to the extent of open war&mdash;France, always
+jealous and irreconcilable; and Prussia, which, from her dread of
+England&rsquo;s interference in her Polish usurpations, pretended to believe
+that England was conspiring with Austria against the safety of her
+dominions. The feebleness with which the American war was carried on,
+had deceived Europe into the belief that the power of England was really
+on the point of decay. Foreigners are never capable of appreciating the
+reality of English power. In the first place, because they prefer the
+romantic to the real; and in the next, because, living under despotisms,
+they have never seen, nor can comprehend, the effect of liberty upon
+national resources. Thus, when they see a nation unwilling to go to
+war&mdash;or, what is the next thing to reluctance, waging it tardily&mdash;they
+imagine that this tardiness has its origin in national weakness; and it
+is not until the palpable necessity of self-defence calls out the whole
+energy of the people, that the foreigner ever sees the genuine strength
+of England. The capture of two small armies in America, neither of them
+more numerous than the advanced guard of a continental army, had given
+the impression that the military strength of England was gone for ever.
+Thus the European courts thought themselves entitled to insult her; and
+thus so diminutive a power as Prussia, however guided by an able and
+politic prince, was suffered to despise her opinion. But the English
+ministry themselves of that day palpably shared the general delusion;
+and, to judge from their diplomatic correspondence, they seemed actually
+to rely for the safety of England on the aid of the foreign courts. They
+had yet to learn the lesson, taught them by the Revolutionary war, that
+England is degraded by dependence of any kind; that she is a match for
+the world in arms; that the cause of Europe is dependent on <i>her</i>; and
+that the more boldly, directly, and resolutely she defies France, and
+its allies and slaves, the more secure she is of victory. In the pursuit
+of this false policy of conciliation and supplication, Harris was sent
+to Petersburg, to counteract Prussia with the empress, and to form an
+offensive and defensive alliance with Catharine. Count Panin was at that
+time prime minister&mdash;a man of the old ministerial school, who regarded
+diplomacy as the legitimate science of chicane, was a master of all the
+littleness of his art, and was wholly under the influence of the King of
+Prussia. The count was all consent, and yet contrived to keep the
+ambassador at arm&rsquo;s-length; while the empress, equally crafty, and
+equally determined not to commit herself, managed him with still greater
+subtlety.</p>
+
+<p>In speaking of the Empress Catharine, it is impossible to avoid alluding
+to the scandals of her court. The death of her husband, suspicious as it
+was, had left her sole mistress of an empire, and of the power of public
+opinion, in a country where a sneer
+<span class="pagebreak" title="411">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411"></a>
+might send the offender to Siberia.
+The wretchedly relaxed religion of the Greek church, where a trivial
+penance atones for every thing, and ceremonial takes the place of
+morals, as it inevitably does wherever a religion is encumbered with
+unnecessary forms, could be no restraint on the conduct of a daring and
+imperious woman. By some of that easy casuistry which reconciles the
+powerful to vice, she had fully convinced herself that she ought, for
+the sake of her throne, never to submit to matrimonial ties again; and
+she adopted the notorious and guilty alternative of living with a
+succession of partners. The ambassador&rsquo;s letters frequently allude to
+this disgraceful topic, and always with the contempt and reprobation
+which were so amply its due. &ldquo;The worst enemies&rdquo;&mdash;such is his
+expression&mdash;&ldquo;which the empress has, are flattery and her own passions.
+She never turns a deaf ear to the first, let it be ever so gross; and
+her inclination to gratify the latter appears to grow upon her with
+age.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The policy of Russia had two grand objects, both of them wholly
+inconsistent with the policy of England; and therefore rendering the
+ambassador&rsquo;s zeal wholly useless. The King of Prussia favoured both, and
+therefore commanded the highest influence with the empress. It was thus
+the impossible task of the unfortunate diplomatist, to convince a
+haughty and self-sufficient woman against her will. Of course, failure
+was the necessary consequence. But in the mean time, dining and dancing,
+feasting and frivolity, went on with Asiatic splendour. The birth of the
+grand-duke&rsquo;s son, &ldquo;Constantine,&rdquo; (expressly so named with a view to
+Turkish objects,) gave occasion to f&ecirc;tes which it tasked the whole power
+of Russian panegyric to describe. The empress gave one in the period of
+the Carnival, ultra-imperially magnificent. The dessert and supper were
+set out with jewels to the amount of upwards of two millions sterling!
+and at the tables of macao, the fashionable game, besides the stake in
+money, a diamond of fifty rubles&rsquo; value was given by her majesty to each
+of those who got <i>nine</i>, the highest point of the game. One hundred and
+fifty diamonds were distributed in this manner.</p>
+
+<p>But a new event occurred to stir the lazy politics of Europe&mdash;that act
+of infinite treachery on the part of the French government&mdash;the breach
+of treaty with England, and the alliance with America. The menaces of
+war which are held out at this moment by the Jacobin party, and its
+insolent eagerness to turn every trivial incident into a mortal quarrel,
+give a new and additional interest to this former act of desperate
+perfidy. But let it be remembered with what tremendous vengeance that
+perfidy was punished&mdash;that the American alliance was the precursor of
+the French republic; and that the long train of hideous calamities which
+broke down the French throne, banished the nobility, and decimated the
+population, dates its origin from the day when that fatal treaty was
+signed. A letter from Sir Gilbert Elliott (afterwards Lord Minto) to the
+ambassador, (March 20, 1778,) thus briefly communicates the
+intelligence:&mdash;&ldquo;We had just passed the bills for repealing some of the
+obnoxious American acts, and for enabling the king to appoint his
+commissioners to treat with America with very large powers, when the
+report of the French treaty with the colonies became very prevalent, and
+obtained credit here. Government, however, had certainly obtained no
+authentic account of it which is singular enough; and Lord North
+positively disclaimed all knowledge of it. A loan of six millions was
+made on very hard terms for the public, much owing to the report of the
+French treaty; the three per cent consols being at
+66&frac12;&mdash;monstrously low. The first payment was fixed for Tuesday
+last. On the Friday before, the Marquis de Noailles delivered a paper to
+Lord Weymouth, communicating the &lsquo;treaty of commerce and alliance&rsquo; with
+the colonies, and acknowledging their independency. The manner and style
+of the communication were inexpressibly insolent, and were no doubt
+meant as a studied affront and challenge. On Saturday, all the French in
+London were sent to the opera, plays, clubs, coffee-houses, and
+ale-houses, to publish the intelligence, which they did with their
+natural impertinence. On Tuesday, the two Houses received a message from
+the king, informing them of the communication from the French
+<span class="pagebreak" title="412">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412"></a>
+ambassador&mdash;that he had recalled his ambassador from Versailles; and
+assuring them that he would exert every means in his power to protect
+the honour and interest of his kingdom. In answer to which, the two
+Houses voted an address, promising to support him with our lives and
+fortunes. Opposition, like <i>good patriots</i>, in answer to this message,
+proposed to address the king to remove his ministers; and C. Fox assured
+us, &lsquo;he thought an invasion a <i>much better thing</i> than the continuance
+of the present administration.&rsquo; When this proposal was negatived, they
+therefore refused their assent to our address. There is no declaration
+of war yet; but as it is quite certain, and as France will undoubtedly
+act immediately, I do not see what we gain by delaying it. I hope at
+least we shall begin taking their ships immediately. The militia is to
+be called out; credit is dreadfully low&mdash;stock was a few days ago at 60.
+The French are poorer than we&mdash;that&rsquo;s something.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Exaggeration is a propensity which seems common to ambassadors. We
+certainly have never seen an ambassadorial correspondence, in which the
+most groundless views did not make a large part of its communications.
+The British diplomatist in Russia was unquestionably a shrewd man, and
+yet his letters abound in predictions of Russian ruin. His descriptions
+run in this style:&mdash;&ldquo;Great expenses, and nothing to show for them. The
+army in a state of decay; the navy incomplete and ill-equipped; the
+political system languid, and such as, if pursued, must ultimately
+reduce this immense mass of power to that state of Asiatic
+insignificancy from which it so lately emerged.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And this high-coloured and rash statement, it is to be remembered, was
+not a page in a popular novel or in a summer&rsquo;s &ldquo;Tour,&rdquo; but was given as
+the deliberate opinion of a statesman conversant in continental
+politics, and addressed to the government of this country. He seems to
+have altogether overlooked the boundless territory and growing
+population of Russia, her forty millions of men&mdash;a number already
+exceeding that of any other kingdom in Europe&mdash;the inaccessible nature
+of her dominions, the implicit and Asiatic devotion of her subjects, the
+unrivaled vigour of her despotism, and the fact that she had but that
+moment secured an immense tract of Polish territory, and was stripping
+the Turks on the other side&mdash;that to the north she was touching on the
+Vistula, and to the south had nearly reached the Danube. The subsequent
+career of Russia is a still stronger refutation. Every war, instead of
+shaking her power, has only given it additional strength and stability.
+Like England, she has gone on with almost involuntary but rapid
+progress; and the period may arrive when there will be but two nations
+left in Europe&mdash;England the ruler of the seas, and Russia holding the
+kingdoms of the Continent in vassalage. It is true, that the ambassador
+adverts now and then to the inaccessible nature of the Russian
+territory, and the success of the national arms; but the former would be
+but a negative source of power, and the latter he uniformly attributed
+to good-luck. He ought to lave attributed them to the causes which would
+have produced the same effect in any age of the world&mdash;to the mastery of
+an immense population; to the daring of a head of empire possessed of
+remarkable ability, and filled with projects of unbounded supremacy; and
+to the growth of a new generation of soldiers and statesmen, encouraged
+to the highest exertion of their talents by the most munificent
+rewards&mdash;the policy of the empress making the evidence of courage and
+genius in the soldier the only requisite for promotion; and exhibiting
+the strongest personal interest of the sovereign in the elevation of
+those able servants of the crown. The consequence was, success in all
+the enterprises of Catharine, the rapid advance of the nation in
+European influence, the establishment of an insecure throne on the
+strongest footing of public security, the popularity of a despotism, the
+comparative civilization of a people half Asiatic, and who but half a
+century before had been barbarians, and the personal attachment of the
+nation to Catharine in a degree scarcely less than adoration. The chief
+cause of this triumphant state of things, beyond all question, was the
+high spirit, the generosity, and the affability of the empress. The
+unhappy
+<span class="pagebreak" title="413">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413"></a>
+transactions of her private life are matters of painful record;
+and the letters of the ambassador are full of the reprobation which the
+memoirs of the time authenticate. But we have no gratification in
+dwelling on such topics. We infinitely prefer paying the tribute due to
+great talents splendidly exercised, to the public achievements of a
+powerful intellect, and to the superiority which this munificent
+promoter of the genius of all classes of her people exhibited to all the
+haughty, exclusive, and selfish sovereigns of her time.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador now found it necessary to look for support against the
+Prussian propensities of the minister; and he had recourse to Potemkin
+and the Orloffs, as the antagonists of Panin. Potemkin was one of the
+most extraordinary men whom the especial circumstances of the court and
+country raised into public distinction. He had been but a cornet of
+cavalry on the memorable night when Catharine, uncertain whether she was
+mounting a throne or a scaffold, put herself at the head of the guards,
+and deposed her husband. As she rode along, observing that she had not a
+military plume in her hat, she turned to ask for one; the cornet
+instantly plucked out his own, and presented it to her&mdash;as Raleigh threw
+his cloak on the ground for Elizabeth to walk over. These gallant acts
+are never lost upon a woman of the superior order of mind. The favour of
+the throne followed alike in both instances; and Potemkin soon became
+the guide of the Russian councils. It was the custom of the French
+memoir writers&mdash;a race who always aimed at pungency of narrative in
+preference to truth, and who, for their generation, performed the part
+of general libellers&mdash;to represent Potemkin as a savage, devoted to
+drinking, and whose influence was solely the result of his grossness.
+But the conferences which he held with this British ambassador, and the
+extracts of his opinions given in these letters, show him to have been a
+man of remarkable clearness of comprehension, dexterity of resource, and
+readiness of knowledge. It is obvious that nothing but the exertion of
+distinguished skill in the ways of courts, could have accomplished the
+objects which no other man of his time attained with such complete
+success. In a court of contention and favouritism, he retained supreme
+influence to the last; released from the labours of office, he possessed
+more than the power of a minister&mdash;and nominally a subject, he was
+scarcely less than emperor. Boundless wealth, the highest rank, and
+every honour which the empire could lavish on its first noble, were the
+prizes of Potemkin.</p>
+
+<p>People at home are in the habit of looking upon the diplomatic body
+abroad as a collection of very subtle and sagacious personages&mdash;a
+collection of sages. A nearer view sometimes strips the idea down to
+humble dimensions. Sir James Harris (he had now obtained the Order of
+the Bath, which he seems to have deserved by his diligence) thus
+sketches the new ambassadorial body&mdash;a general change having just taken
+place. &ldquo;The Imperial, Danish, French, Prussian, and Spanish ministers
+are all altered, and one from Naples is added to our corps.&rdquo; The
+Neapolitan he describes as &ldquo;utterly unfit for business;&rdquo; Count Cobenzel,
+the Austrian ambassador, &ldquo;as a man of excellent parts and great
+activity;&rdquo; Goertz, the Prussian, &ldquo;a very able and artful man.&rdquo; So far as
+this point, the honour of the corps is sustained; but then come the
+ciphers. Monsieur Verac, the cunning French envoy, is &ldquo;more amiable in
+company than formidable in cabinet.&rdquo; The Swede and the Saxon ministers,
+&ldquo;most perfectly insignificant and overpowered with debts.&rdquo; The Dutch
+resident, Swartz, &ldquo;a man neither of birth nor character, totally
+improper for the post he fills. The Swiss resident, having no other
+business than the lawsuits of his countrymen,&rdquo; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Of the culpable habits of the empress we shall say no more. The respect
+which this country feels for the character of Emperor Nicholas, and the
+total contrast which that character presents to the especial failings of
+his ancestor, justly prevent our wandering into those observations. But
+we have a curious instance of the skill and adroitness of this memorable
+woman, in an interview in which she was wholly left to herself, and yet
+succeeded perfectly in what is presumed to be the <i>chef-d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre</i> of
+<span class="pagebreak" title="414">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414"></a>
+diplomacy&mdash;the art of disguising her intentions. The British
+ambassador, after a long period of comparative failure, had succeeded in
+obtaining an audience through Potemkin&mdash;who always pretended to be
+powerless, yet who could do every thing which he desired. The
+appointment to meet the ambassador was made, and Potemkin prefaced his
+service by the following singular sketch of his sovereign. &ldquo;Do not
+expect that it is in the power of any living being to prevent her from
+concluding her favourite plan of armed neutrality. Content yourself with
+destroying the effects&mdash;the resolution is immovable. As it was conceived
+by <i>mistake</i> and perfected by <i>vanity</i>, it is maintained by <i>pride</i> and
+<i>obstinacy</i>. You well know the hold of those passions on a <i>female
+mind</i>; and if you attempt to slacken, you will only tighten the knot.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>One of the imperial valets then came to lead the ambassador to the
+interview; which he gives in French, and which he commenced in a strain
+which we hope will never be imitated again by any cabinet of England.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have come to represent to your imperial majesty the <i>critical
+situation</i> in which our affairs are at present. You know our reliance on
+you. We venture to <i>flatter</i> ourselves that you will <i>avert the storm</i>,
+and reassure us as to our fears of having lost your friendship.&rdquo; If the
+expressions were not in print, we should scarcely have thought it
+possible that such crouching language could have been used. The
+ambassador, of course, is but the mouthpiece of his government. The
+blame must fall, not on the intelligent servant, but on the feeble
+masters. Who can wonder if the daring and haughty spirit of Catharine
+scoffed at the remonstrances, and despised the interests of a country,
+whose cabinet adopted language so unfitting the dignity and real power
+of the mighty British empire? The expressions of this dialogue would
+have been humiliating to the smallest of the &ldquo;square-league&rdquo;
+sovereignties of the Continent. The answer of the empress was precisely
+what she might have addressed to the envoy of Poland or the Crimea.
+&ldquo;Sir, you are aware of my sentiments relative to your nation; they are
+equally sincere and invariable. But I have found so little return on
+your part, that I feel I ought not to consider you any longer among my
+friends.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>To this haughty tone, what is the reply of the ambassador?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is in the hope that those sentiments were not <i>entirely effaced</i>,
+that I wished to address myself directly to your Majesty. But it was not
+<i>without fear</i> that I approached you. Appearances only too strongly
+prove the impressions which you have received from our enemies.&rdquo; And so
+goes on the dialogue, like a scene in a play, see-sawing through six
+intolerable pages. How differently would Pitt&rsquo;s cabinet have acted, and
+how differently did it act! When the Russian councils menaced the
+seizure of even a paltry Turkish fortress on the Black Sea, the great
+minister ordered a fleet to be ready as <i>his</i> negotiators; and though
+the factiousness of Opposition at the time prevented this manly
+demonstration of policy and justice, the evidence was given, in the
+reign of Paul, when a British fleet crushed the armed neutrality&mdash;that
+trick of French mountebanks imposing on the ambition of the north&mdash;and
+restored Russia to so full a sense of the power and the honour of
+England, that she sent her fleet into her safe keeping at the approach
+of Napoleon&rsquo;s invasion, and has been her fast and honourable ally ever
+since. &ldquo;Cromwell&rsquo;s ambassador&rdquo; is the true one for England at all times.
+A stout British squadron sent to the Baltic in 1780 would have
+wonderfully solved the difficulties of the British negotiation, have
+completely cleared the empress&rsquo;s conscience, have enlightened Count
+Panin&rsquo;s brains, and have convinced even the wily Potemkin himself that
+the art of political delusion was too dangerous a game to be tried
+against England.</p>
+
+<p>But the true value of history is to instruct the future. We are now in
+nearly the same relative position to France in which we were sixty-four
+years ago relative to Russia. We are exhibiting the same dilatoriness
+which we exhibited then, and we shall be fortunate if we escape the same
+consequences. A strong fleet sent to the Mediterranean would do more to
+calm the elements of strife effectually, than all the remonstrances of
+all our negotiators. Or, if the French were foolish enough to provoke a
+battle, a repetition of the 1st of June or the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="415">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415"></a>
+21st of October would be
+the tranquillizer of a restless people, who can never suffer Europe to
+rest in peace but when they themselves have been taught the miseries of
+war.</p>
+
+<p>In justice to the cabinet of 1780, it must be acknowledged that the
+personal tone of the ambassador was criticised; and we thus find him
+making his diplomatic apology to Lord Stormont, then secretary for
+foreign affairs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have often been conscious of the remark your lordship makes, and have
+myself felt that I was not acting up to the character of an English
+minister, in bestowing such <i>fulsome incense</i> on the empress. But here,
+too, I was drawn from my system and principles by the conduct of my
+adversaries. They ever addressed her as a being of a superior nature;
+and as she goes near to think herself infallible, she expects to be
+approached with all the reverence due to a divinity.&rdquo; No excuse could be
+more unsatisfactory. If other men chose to bow down, there would have
+only been the more manliness, and the more effect too, in refusing to
+follow such an example.</p>
+
+<p>In 1783, the ambassador obtained permission to return to England. His
+correspondence at the period immediately previous, is remarkably
+interesting; and it is striking to see that the successive secretaries
+for the foreign department, under all changes of administration, formed
+the same view of the substantial policy of England. When, in 1783, Fox
+assumed the foreign seals, he thus writes to Harris, in the course of a
+long letter on the foreign policy of the cabinet:&mdash;&ldquo;You will readily
+believe me, that my system of foreign politics was too deeply rooted to
+make it likely that I should have changed it. Alliances with the
+northern powers <i>ever have been, and ever will be, the system of every
+enlightened Englishman</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the year following, Sir James Harris was appointed by Pitt to the
+Dutch embassy, to which he had been previously nominated by Fox, his
+friend and political leader. The appointment by the new cabinet was thus
+the strongest testimony to his talents. His letters from the Hague
+contain a very intelligent statement of the parties and principles which
+agitated Holland in 1787. The object was the establishment of a
+democracy and the extinction of the Stadtholderate, or at least its
+suppression as a hereditary dignity. The court of France was busy in
+this democratic intrigue; and its partial success unquestionably added
+new combustibles to the pile on which that unfortunate monarchy, in the
+hour of infatuation, was preparing to throw itself. The ambassador&rsquo;s
+language on this occasion is characteristic and memorable. In one of his
+despatches to the Marquis of Carmarthen, then secretary of state, he
+thus says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The infamy and profligacy of the French make me long to change my
+profession, and to fight them with a sharper instrument than a pen. It
+must be with those (not our pens, but our swords) that we must carry the
+mediation through, if we mean it should be attended with any success.
+There are strong reports of a popular insurrection in France:&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Si</i>
+Dieu voulait les punir par o&ugrave; ils ont pech&eacute;, comme j&rsquo;admirerais la
+justice divine!&rdquo; The remark was natural; it was almost prophetic; and it
+was on the eve of realization. In 1789, but two years after, the
+Revolution began.</p>
+
+<p>These volumes contain a great deal of extremely curious material,
+especially important to every man who may in future be employed in the
+foreign service of our diplomacy. They supply a model of the manner in
+which those offices may be most effectively sustained. We have already
+expressed dissatisfaction at the submissive style used in addressing the
+Russian empress. But in other instances, the language of the ambassador
+seems to have been prompt and plain. It is remarkable that England has,
+at the present time, arrived at a condition of European affairs bearing
+no slight resemblance to that of the period between 1783 and 1789. It is
+true that there will be no second French Revolution; one catastrophe of
+that terrible extent is enough for the world. But there are strong
+symptoms of those hostilities which the Bourbons were endeavouring to
+kindle against this country, for at least a dozen years before the
+Revolution which crushed their monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Without any provocation on the part of England, any actual claim, or
+<span class="pagebreak" title="416">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a>
+any desire whatever of war, this country finds itself suddenly made an
+object of perpetual insult on the part of all the active mind of France.
+The cry from every organ of public opinion seems to be, war with
+England, whether with or without cause. A violent clamour is raised for
+our national ruin; the resources of France are blazoned in all quarters;
+and the only contemplation popular in France is, how most suddenly and
+effectually French armies may be poured on our shores, our fields
+ravaged, our maritime cities burned, and our people massacred! It must
+be hoped that this detestable spirit does not reach higher than the
+Jacobin papers, and the villains by whom that principal part of the
+French press is conducted. Yet we find but little contradiction to it in
+even the more serious and authentic portion of the national sentiments.
+In such circumstances, it is only right to be prepared. We find also the
+still more expressive evidence of this spirit of evil, in the general
+conduct of the agents of France in her colonies&mdash;a habit of sudden
+encroachment, a growing arrogance, and a full exhibition of that bitter
+and sneering petulance, which was supposed to have been scourged out of
+the French by their desperate defeats towards the close of the war. All
+this insolence may, by possibility, pass away; but it also may go on to
+further inflammation, and it may be necessary to scourge it again; and
+this discipline, if once begun, must be carried through more effectually
+than when the Allies last visited Paris. The respect felt for the French
+king and his prime minister, as the friends of peace, naturally
+restrains the language with which aggression deserves to be reprobated.
+But the French government, if it desires to retain that respect, must
+exhibit its sincerity in making some substantial effort to preserve
+peace. No man of sense in Europe can believe in the necessity of the
+seizure of Algiers, nor in the necessity of the war with Morocco. But
+every man can see the influence of both on the freedom of the
+Mediterranean. The seizure of the British consul at Otaheite shows a
+spirit which must be summarily extinguished, or the preservation of
+peace will be impossible. In the mean time, we hear from France nothing
+but a cry for steam-ships, and threats of invasion. We ask, what has
+England done? Nothing to offend or injure: there is not even an
+allegation of any thing of the kind. But if war must come, woe be to
+those by whom it is begun! The history of all the wars of England with
+France, is one of French defeat. We have beaten the French by land, we
+have beaten them by sea; and, with the blessing of Heaven on the
+righteous cause and our own stout hands, we shall always beat them. We
+have beaten them on the soil of the stranger&mdash;we have beaten them on
+their own. From the fourteenth century, when English soldiers were
+masters of the half of France, down to Waterloo, we have always beaten
+France; and if we beat her under Napoleon, there can be no fear of our
+not beating her under a race so palpably his inferiors. All England
+deprecates war as useless, unnatural, and criminal. But the crime is
+solely on the head of the aggressor. Woe to those who begin the next
+war! It may be final.</p>
+
+<p>The late visit of the Emperor of Russia to this country, which so much
+perplexed the political circles of both France and England, now probably
+admits of elucidation. The emperor&rsquo;s visit has been followed by that of
+the ablest and most powerful diplomatist in his dominions, the Count
+Nesselrode, his foreign minister. For this visit, too, a speedy
+elucidation may be found. The visits of the King of Saxony, and the
+Princes of Prussia and Holland, also have their importance in this point
+of view; and the malignant insults of the French journals may have had a
+very influential share in contributing to the increased closeness of our
+connexion with the sovereignties of Germany and Russia. The maxim of
+Fox, that the northern alliances are the true policy of England, is as
+sound as ever. Still, we deprecate war&mdash;all rational men deprecate war;
+and we speak in a feeling which we fully believe to be universal in
+England, that nothing would be a higher source of rejoicing in Great
+Britain, than a <i>safe</i> peace with France, and harmony with all the
+nations of the world.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_A_1">A</a></span> <i>Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of
+Malmesbury.</i> Edited by his <span class="smcap">Grandson</span>, the Third Earl. 2 vols.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_B_2">B</a></span> &ldquo;Every where to remember his country.&rdquo;</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="417">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417"></a>
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.</h2>
+
+<h3>No. II.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Goethe&rsquo;s love for the Fine Arts amounted almost to a passion. In his
+earlier years, he performed the painter&rsquo;s customary pilgrimage through
+Italy, and not merely surveyed, but studied with intense anxiety, the
+works of the great modern masters. A poet, if he understands the theory
+of his own calling, may learn much from pictures; for the analogy
+between the sister arts is very strong. The secret of preserving
+richness without glare, fulness without pruriency, and strength without
+exaggeration, must be attained alike by poet and painter, before either
+of them can take their rank among the chosen children of immortality. It
+is a common but most erroneous idea, that an artist is more indebted for
+success to inspiration, than to severe study. Unquestionably he must
+possess some portion of the former&mdash;that is, he must have within him the
+power to imagine and to create; for if he has not that, the fundamental
+faculty is wanting. But how different are the crude shapeless fancies,
+how meagre and uncertain the outlines of the mental sketch, from the
+warm, vivid, and glowing perfection of the matured and finished work! It
+is in the strange and indescribable process of moulding the rude idea,
+of giving due proportion to each individual part, and combining the
+whole into symmetry, that the test of excellence lies. <i>There</i>
+inspiration will help but little; and labour, the common doom of man in
+the loftiest as well as the lowest walks of life, is requisite to
+consummate the triumph.</p>
+
+<p>No man better understood, or more thoroughly acted upon the knowledge of
+this analogy, than Goethe. He wrought rigidly by the rule of the artist.
+Not one poem, however trifling might be the subject, did he suffer to
+escape from his hands, until it had received the final touches, and
+undergone the most thorough revision. So far did he carry this
+principle, that many of his lesser works seem absolutely mere
+transcripts or descriptions of pictures, where the sentiment is rather
+inferred than expressed; and in some, for example that which we are
+about to quote, he even brings before the reader what may be called the
+process of mental painting.</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>Cupid As a Landscape Painter</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">Once I sate upon a mountain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gazing on the mist before me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like a great grey sheet of canvass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shrouding all things in its cover,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did it float &rsquo;twixt earth and heaven.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">Then a child appear&rsquo;d beside me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Saying, &ldquo;Friend, it is not seemly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus to gaze in idle wonder,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With that noble breadth before thee.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hast thou lost thine inspiration?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath the spirit of the painter<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Died within thee utterly?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">But I turn&rsquo;d and look&rsquo;d upon him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Speaking not, but thinking inly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Will he read a lesson now!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">&ldquo;Folded hands,&rdquo; pursued the infant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Never yet have won a triumph.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Look! I&rsquo;ll paint for thee a picture<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such as none have seen before.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="418">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418"></a>
+<span class="i1">And he pointed with his finger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which like any rose was ruddy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And upon the breadth of vapour<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With that finger &rsquo;gan to draw.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">First a glorious sun he painted,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dazzling when I look&rsquo;d upon it;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he made the inner border<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the clouds around it golden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With the light rays through the masses<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pouring down in streams of splendour.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the tender taper summits<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the trees, all leaf and glitter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Started from the sullen void;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the slopes behind them rising,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Graceful-lined in undulation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glided backwards one by one.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Underneath, be sure, was water;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the stream was drawn so truly<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That it seem&rsquo;d to break and shimmer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That it seem&rsquo;d as if cascading<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From the lofty rolling wheel.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">There were flowers beside the brooklet;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There were colours on the meadow&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gold and azure, green and purple,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Emerald and bright carbuncle.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Clear and pure he work&rsquo;d the ether<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As with lapis-lazuli,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the mountains in the distance<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stretching blue and far away&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All so well, that I, in rapture<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At this second revelation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Turn&rsquo;d to gaze upon the painter<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From the picture which he drew.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">&ldquo;Have I not,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;convinced thee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That I know the painter&rsquo;s secret?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet the greatest is to come.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">Then he drew with gentle finger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still more delicately pointed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the wood, about its margin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where the sun within the water<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glanced as from the clearest mirror,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such a maiden&rsquo;s form!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perfect shape in perfect raiment,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fair young cheeks &rsquo;neath glossy ringlets,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the cheeks were of the colour<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the finger whence they came.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">&ldquo;Child,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;what wond&rsquo;rous master<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In his school of art hath form&rsquo;d thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That so deftly and so truly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From the sketch unto the burnish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou hast finish&rsquo;d such a gem?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">As I spoke, a breeze arising<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stirr&rsquo;d the tree-tops in the picture,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ruffled every pool of water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Waved the garments of the maiden;<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="419">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419"></a>
+<span class="i0">And, what more than all amazed me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her small feet took motion also,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And she came towards the station<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where I sat beside the boy.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">So, when every thing was moving,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leaves and water, flowers and raiment,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the footsteps of the darling&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Think you I remain&rsquo;d as lifeless<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As the rock on which I rested?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No, I trow&mdash;not I!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is as perfect a landscape as one of Berghem&rsquo;s sunniest.</p>
+
+<p>An artist is, to our mind, one of the happiest creatures in God&rsquo;s
+creation. Now that the race of wandering minstrels has passed away, your
+painter is the only free joyous denizen of the earth, who can give way
+to his natural impulses without fear of reproach, and who can indulge
+his enthusiasm for the bright and beautiful to the utmost. He has his
+troubles, no doubt; for he is ambitious, and too often he is poor; but
+it is something to pursue ambition along the natural path with unwarped
+energies, and ardent and sincere devotion. As to poverty, that is a
+fault that must daily mend, if he is only true to himself. In a few
+years, the foot-sore wanderer of the Alps, with little more worldly
+goods than the wallet and sketch-book he carries, will be the royal
+academician, the Rubens or the Reynolds of his day, with the most
+<i>recherch&eacute;</i> studio in London, and more orders upon his list than he has
+either time or inclination to execute. Goethe has let us into the secret
+of the young German artist&rsquo;s life. Let us look upon him in the dawnings
+of his fame, before he is summoned to adorn the stately halls of Munich
+with frescoes from the Niebelungen Lied.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The Artist&rsquo;s Morning Song.</h4>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My dwelling is the Muses&rsquo; home&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">What matters it how small?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And here, within my heart, is set<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The holiest place of all.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When, waken&rsquo;d by the early sun,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I rise from slumbers sound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I see the ever-living forms<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In radiance group&rsquo;d around.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I pray, and songs of thanks and praise<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Are more than half my prayer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With simple notes of music, tuned<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To some harmonious air.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I bow before the altar then,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And read, as well I may,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From noble Homer&rsquo;s master-work,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The lesson for the day.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He takes me to the furious fight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where lion warriors throng;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where god-descended heroes whirl<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In iron cars along.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="420">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a>
+<span class="i0">And steeds go down before the cars;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And round the cumber&rsquo;d wheel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Both friend and foe are rolling now,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">All blood from head to heel!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then comes the champion of them all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Pelides&rsquo; friend is he,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And crashes through the dense array,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Though thousands ten they be!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ever smites that fiery sword<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Through helmet, shield, and mail;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until he falls by craft divine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where might could not prevail.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Down from the glorious pile he rolls,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Which he himself had made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And foemen trample on the limbs<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">From which they shrank afraid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then start I up, with arms in hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">What arms the painter bears;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And soon along my kindling wall<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The fight at Troy appears.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">On! on again! The wrath is here<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of battle rolling red;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shield strikes on shield, and sword on helm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And dead men fall on dead!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I throng into the inner press,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where loudest rings the din;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For there, around their hero&rsquo;s corpse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Fight on his furious kin!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A rescue! rescue! bear him hence<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Into the leaguer near;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pour balsam in his glorious wounds,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And weep above his bier.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And when from that hot trance I pass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Great Love, I feel thy charm;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There hangs my lady&rsquo;s picture near&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A picture yet so warm!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How fair she was, reclining there;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">What languish in her look!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How thrill&rsquo;d her glance through all my frame!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The very pencil shook.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Her eyes, her cheeks, her lovely lips,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Were all the world to me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in my breast a younger life<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Rose wild and wantonly.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh! turn again, and bide thee here,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Nor fear such rude alarms;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How could I think of battles more<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With thee within my arms!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="421">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421"></a>
+<span class="i0">But thou shalt lend thy perfect form<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To all I fashion best;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I&rsquo;ll paint thee first, Madonna-wise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The infant on thy breast.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I&rsquo;ll paint thee as a startled nymph,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Myself a following fawn;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And still pursue thy flying feet<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Across the woodland lawn.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With helm on head, like Mars, I&rsquo;ll lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">By thee, the Queen of Love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And draw a net around us twain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And smile on heaven above.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And every god that comes shall pour<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">His blessings on thy head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And envious eyes be far away<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">From that dear marriage-bed!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There is abundance of spirit here. For once, in describing the battle
+and fall of Patroclus, Goethe seems to have caught a spark of Homeric
+inspiration, and the lines ring out as clearly as the stroke of the
+hammer on the anvil. There is no rhyme in the original, which, we
+confess, appears to us a fault; more especially as the rhythm is that of
+the ordinary ballad. We have, therefore, ventured to supply it, with as
+little deviation otherwise as possible. It is for the reader to judge
+whether the effect is diminished.</p>
+
+<p>Our next selection shall be &ldquo;The God and the Bayader&eacute;&rdquo;&mdash;a poem which is
+little inferior in beauty to the Bride of Corinth, and which, from its
+structure, opposes to the translator quite as serious a difficulty. The
+subject is taken from the Hindoo mythology, and conveys a very touching
+moral of humanity and forbearance; somewhat daring, perhaps, from its
+novelty, and the peculiar customs and religious faith of an eastern
+land, yet, withal, most delicately handled.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The God and the Bayader&eacute;.<br />
+
+An Indian Legend.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<h5>I.</h5>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Mahadeh, earth&rsquo;s lord, descending<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">To its mansions comes again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That, like man with mortals blending,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">He may feel their joy and pain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Stoops to try life&rsquo;s varied changes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And with human eyes to see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ere he praises or avenges,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">What their fitful lot may be.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He has pass&rsquo;d through the city, has look&rsquo;d on them all;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He has watch&rsquo;d o&rsquo;er the great, nor forgotten the small,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And at evening went forth on his journey so free.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>II.</h5>
+<span class="i2">In the outskirts of the city,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Where the straggling huts are piled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">At a casement stood a pretty<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Painted thing, almost a child.<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="422">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422"></a>
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;Greet thee, maiden!&rdquo; &ldquo;Thanks&mdash;art weary?<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Wait, and quickly I&rsquo;ll appear!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;What art thou?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;A Bayader&eacute;,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And the home of love is here.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She rises; the cymbals she strikes as she dances,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And whirling, and bending with grace, she advances,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And offers him flowers as she undulates near.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>III.</h5>
+<span class="i2">O&rsquo;er the threshold gliding lightly<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">In she leads him to her room.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;Fear not, gentle stranger; brightly<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Shall my lamp dispel the gloom.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Art thou weary? I&rsquo;ll relieve thee&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Bathe thy feet, and soothe their smart;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All thou askest I can give thee&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Rest, or song, or joy impart.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She labours to soothe him, she labours to please;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Deity smiles; for with pleasure he sees<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through deep degradation a right-loving heart.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>IV.</h5>
+<span class="i2">And he asks for service menial,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And she only strives the more,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nature&rsquo;s impulse now is genial<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Where but art prevail&rsquo;d before.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As the fruit succeeds the blossom,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Swells and ripens day by day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So, where kindness fills the bosom,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Love is never far away.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But he, whose vast motive was deeper and higher,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Selected, more keenly and clearly to try her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love, follow&rsquo;d by anguish, and death, and dismay.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>V.</h5>
+<span class="i2">And her rosy cheeks he presses,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And she feels love&rsquo;s torment sore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, thrill&rsquo;d through by his caresses,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Weeps, that never wept before.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Droops beside him, not dissembling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Or for passion or for gain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But her limbs grow faint and trembling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And no more their strength retain.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Meanwhile the still hours of the night stealing by,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spread their shadowy woof o&rsquo;er the face of the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bringing love and its festival joys in their train.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>VI.</h5>
+<span class="i2">Lately roused, her arms around him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Waking up from broken rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Dead upon her breast she found him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Dead&mdash;that dearly-cherish&rsquo;d guest!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Shrieking loud, she flings her o&rsquo;er him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">But he answers not her cry;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And unto the pile they bore him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Stark of limb and cold of eye.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She hears the priests chanting&mdash;she hears the death-song,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And frantic she rises, and bursts through the throng.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Who is she? what seeks she? why comes she so nigh?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="423">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423"></a>
+<h5>VII.</h5>
+<span class="i2">But the bier she falleth over,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And her shrieks are loud and shrill&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;I <i>will</i> have my lord, my lover!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">In the grave I seek him still.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Shall that godlike frame be wasted<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">By the fire&rsquo;s consuming blight?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mine it was&mdash;yea mine! though tasted<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Only one delicious night!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the priests, they chant ever&mdash;&ldquo;We carry the old,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When their watching is over, their journeys are told;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We carry the young, when they pass from the light!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>VIII.</h5>
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;Hear us, woman! Him we carry<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Was not, could not be, thy spouse.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Art thou not a Bayader&eacute;?<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">So hast thou no nuptial vows.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Only to death&rsquo;s silent hollow<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">With the body goes the shade;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Only wives their husbands follow:<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Thus alone is duty paid.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Strike loud the wild turmoil of drum and of gong!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Receive him, ye gods, in your glorious throng&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Receive him in garments of burning array&rsquo;d!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>IX.</h5>
+<span class="i2">Harsh their words, and unavailing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Swift she threaded through the quire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And with arms outstretch&rsquo;d, unquailing<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Leap&rsquo;d into the crackling fire.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But the deed alone sufficeth&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Robed in might and majesty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From the pile the god ariseth<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">With the ransom&rsquo;d one on high.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Divinity joys in a sinner repenting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the lost ones of earth, by immortals relenting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are borne upon pinions of fire to the sky!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+<p>Let us now take a poem of the Hartz mountains, containing no common
+allegory. Every man is more or less a Treasure-seeker&mdash;a hater of
+labour&mdash;until he has received the important truth, that labour alone can
+bring content and happiness. There is an affinity, strange as it may
+appear, between those whose lot in life is the most exalted, and the
+haggard hollow-eyed wretch who prowls incessantly around the crumbling
+ruins of the past, in the belief that there lies beneath their
+mysterious foundations a mighty treasure, over which some jealous demon
+keeps watch for evermore. But Goethe shall read the moral to us himself.</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The Treasure-seeker.</h4>
+
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<h5>I.</h5>
+<span class="i0">Many weary days I suffer&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sick of heart and poor of purse;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Riches are the greatest blessing&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Poverty the deepest curse!<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="424">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424"></a>
+<span class="i0">Till at last to dig a treasure<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Forth I went into the wood&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Fiend! my soul is thine for ever!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And I sign&rsquo;d the scroll with blood.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>II.</h5>
+<span class="i0">Then I drew the magic circles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Kindled the mysterious fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Placed the herbs and bones in order,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Spoke the incantation dire.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I sought the buried metal<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With a spell of mickle might&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sought it as my master taught me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Black and stormy was the night.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>III.</h5>
+<span class="i0">And I saw a light appearing<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In the distance, like a star;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the midnight hour was tolling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Came it waxing from afar:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Came it flashing, swift and sudden;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As if fiery wine it were,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flowing from an open chalice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Which a beauteous boy did bear.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>IV.</h5>
+<span class="i0">And he wore a lustrous chaplet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And his eyes were full of thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he stepp&rsquo;d into the circle<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With the radiance that he brought.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he bade me taste the goblet;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And I thought&mdash;&ldquo;It cannot be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That this boy should be the bearer<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of the Demon&rsquo;s gifts to me!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<h5>V.</h5>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Taste the draught of pure existence<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sparkling in this golden urn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And no more with baneful magic<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Shalt thou hitherward return.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do not dig for treasures longer;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Let thy future spellwords be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Days of labour, nights of resting;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">So shall peace return to thee!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+<p>Pass we away now from the Hartz to Heidelberg, in the company of our
+glorious poet. We all know the magnificent ruins of the Neckar, the
+feudal turrets which look down upon one of the sweetest spots that ever
+filled the soul of a weary man with yearning for a long repose. Many a
+year has gone by since the helmet of the warder was seen glancing on
+these lofty battlements, since the tramp of the steed was heard in the
+court-yard, and the banner floated proudly from the topmost turret; but
+fancy has a power to call them back, and the shattered stone is restored
+in an instant by the touch of that sublimest architect:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span class="pagebreak" title="425">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425"></a>
+<h4>The Castle on the Mountain.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There stands an ancient castle<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">On yonder mountain height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where, fenced with door and portal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Once tarried steed and knight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But gone are door and portal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And all is hush&rsquo;d and still;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O&rsquo;er ruin&rsquo;d wall and rafter<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I clamber as I will.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A cellar with many a vintage<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Once lay in yonder nook;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where now are the cellarer&rsquo;s flagons,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And where is his jovial look?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No more he sets the beakers<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For the guests at the wassail feast;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor fills a flask from the oldest cask<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For the duties of the priest.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No more he gives on the staircase<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The stoup to the thirsty squires,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a hurried thanks for the hurried gift<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Receives, nor more requires.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For burn&rsquo;d are roof and rafter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And they hang begrimed and black;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And stair, and hall, and chapel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Are turn&rsquo;d to dust and wrack.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yet, as with song and cittern,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">One day when the sun was bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw my love ascending<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With me the rocky height;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From the hush and desolation<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sweet fancies did unfold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And it seem&rsquo;d as we were living<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In the merry days of old.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As if the stateliest chambers<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For noble guests were spread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And out from the prime of that glorious time<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A youth a maiden led.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And, standing in the chapel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The good old priest did say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Will ye wed with one another?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And we smiled and we answer&rsquo;d &ldquo;Yea!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We sung, and our hearts they bounded<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To the thrilling lays we sung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And every note was doubled<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">By the echo&rsquo;s catching tongue.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And when, as eve descended,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">We left the silence still,<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="426">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426"></a>
+<span class="i0">And the setting sun look&rsquo;d upward<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">On that great castled hill;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then far and wide, like lord and bride,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In the radiant light we shone&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It sank; and again the ruins<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Stood desolate and lone!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+<p>We shall now select, from the songs that are scattered throughout the
+tale of Wilhelm Meister, one of the most genial and sweet. It is an
+in-door picture of evening, and of those odorous flowers of life which
+expand their petals only at the approach of Hesperus.</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>Philine&rsquo;s Song.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sing not thus in notes of sadness<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of the loneliness of night;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No! &rsquo;tis made for social gladness,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Converse sweet, and love&rsquo;s delight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As to rugged man his wife is,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As his fairest half decreed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So dear night the half of life is,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the fairest half indeed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Canst thou in the day have pleasure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Which but breaks on rapture in,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scares us from our dreams of leisure<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With its glare and irksome din?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But when night is come, and glowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is the lamp&rsquo;s attemper&rsquo;d ray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And from lip to lip are flowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Love and mirth, in sparkling play;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When the fiery boy, that wildly<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Rushes in his wayward mood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Calms to rest, disporting mildly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">By some trivial gift subdued;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When the nightingale is trilling<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Songs of love to lovers&rsquo; ears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which, to hearts with sorrow thrilling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Seem but sighs and waken tears;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then, with bosom lightly springing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Dost thou listen to the bell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That, with midnight&rsquo;s number ringing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Speaks of rest and joy so well?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then, dear heart, this comfort borrow<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">From the long day&rsquo;s lingering light&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Every day hath its own sorrow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Gladness cometh with the night!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="427">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427"></a>
+We are somewhat puzzled as to the title which we ought to prefix to our
+next specimen. Goethe rather maliciously calls it &ldquo;Gegenwart,&rdquo; which may
+be equivalent to the word &ldquo;Presentiality,&rdquo; if, indeed, such a word
+belongs to the English language. We, therefore, prefer dedicating it to
+our own ladye love; and we could not find for her any where a sweeter
+strain, unless we were to commit depredation upon the minor poems of Ben
+Jonson or of Shakspeare.</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>To my Mistress.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All that&rsquo;s lovely speaks of thee!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When the glorious sun appeareth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&rsquo;Tis thy harbinger to me:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Only thus he cheereth.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In the garden where thou go&rsquo;st,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">There art thou the rose of roses,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">First of lilies, fragrant most<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of the fragrant posies.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When thou movest in the dance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">All the stars with thee are moving,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And around thee gleam and glance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Never tired of loving.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Night!&mdash;and would the night were here!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet the moon would lose her duty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though her sheen be soft and clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Softer is thy beauty!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Fair, and kind, and gentle one!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Do not moon, and stars, and flowers<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pay that homage to their sun<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">That we pay to ours?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sun of mine, that art so dear&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sun, that art above all sorrow!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shine, I pray thee, on me here<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Till the eternal morrow.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Another little poem makes us think of &ldquo;poor Ophelia.&rdquo; We suspect that
+Goethe had the music of her broken ballad floating in his mind, when he
+composed the following verses:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The Wild Rose.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A boy espied, in morning light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A little rosebud blowing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&rsquo;Twas so delicate and bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That he came to feast his sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And wonder at its growing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rosebud brightly blowing!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I will gather thee&mdash;he cried&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rosebud brightly blowing!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then I&rsquo;ll sting thee, it replied,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And you&rsquo;ll quickly start aside<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With the prickle glowing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rosebud brightly blowing!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="428">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428"></a>
+<span class="i0">But he pluck&rsquo;d it from the plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The rosebud brightly blowing!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It turn&rsquo;d and stung him, but in vain&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He regarded not the pain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Homewards with it going.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rosebud brightly blowing!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We are sure that the votaries of Wordsworth will thank us for the next
+translation, which embodies a most noble idea. See how the eye of the
+poet is scanning the silent march of the heavens, and mark with what
+solemn music he invests the stately thought!</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>A Night Thought.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I do not envy you, ye joyless stars,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though fair ye be, and glorious to the sight&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The seaman&rsquo;s hope amidst the &rsquo;whelming storm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When help from God or man there cometh none.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No! for ye love not, nor have ever loved!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the broad fields of heaven, the eternal hours<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lead on your circling spheres unceasingly.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How vast a journey have ye travell&rsquo;d o&rsquo;er,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since I, upon the bosom of my love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgot all memory of night or you!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Let us follow up these glorious lines with a conception worthy of
+&AElig;schylus&mdash;indeed an abstract of his master-subject. It were out of place
+here to dilate upon the mythical grandeur of Prometheus, and the heroic
+endurance of his character, as depicted by the ancient poet. To our mind
+and ear, the modern is scarcely inferior.</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>Prometheus.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Curtain thy heavens, thou Jove, with clouds and mist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, like a boy that moweth thistles down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unloose thy spleen on oaks and mountain-tops;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet canst thou not deprive me of my earth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor of my hut, the which thou didst not build,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor of my hearth, whose little cheerful flame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou enviest me!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I know not aught within the universe<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">More slight, more pitiful than you, ye Gods!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who nurse your majesty with scant supplies<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of offerings wrung from fear, and mutter&rsquo;d prayers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And needs must starve, were&rsquo;t not that babes and beggars<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are hope-besotted fools!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When I was yet a child, and knew not whence<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My being came, nor where to turn its powers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up to the sun I bent my wilder&rsquo;d eye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As though above, within its glorious orb,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There dwelt an ear to listen to my plaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A heart, like mine, to pity the oppress&rsquo;d.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who gave me succour<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against the Titans in their tyrannous might?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who rescued me from death&mdash;from slavery?<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="429">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429"></a>
+<span class="i0">Thou!&mdash;thou, my soul, burning with hallow&rsquo;d fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou hast thyself alone achieved it all!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet didst thou, in thy young simplicity,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glow with misguided thankfulness to him<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That slumbers on in idlesse there above!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I reverence thee?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherefore? Hast thou ever<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lighten&rsquo;d the sorrows of the heavy-laden?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Thou</i> ever stretch&rsquo;d thy hand to still the tears<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the perplex&rsquo;d in spirit?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was it not<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Almighty Time, and ever-during Fate&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My lords and thine&mdash;that shaped and fashion&rsquo;d me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into the <span class="smcap">man</span> I am?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Belike it was thy dream,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That I should hate life&mdash;fly to wastes and wilds,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For that the buds of visionary thought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did not all ripen into goodly flowers?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Here do I sit, and mould<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Men after mine own image&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A race that may be like unto myself,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To suffer, weep; to enjoy, and to rejoice;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, like myself, unheeding all of thee!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We shall close this Number with a ballad of a different cast, but, lest
+the transition should be too violent, we shall interpolate the space
+with a very beautiful lyric. We claim no merit for this translation,
+for, to say the truth, we could not have done it half so well. Perhaps
+the fair hand that penned it, will turn over the pages of Maga in
+distant Wales, and a happy blush over-spread her cheek when she sees,
+enshrined in these columns, the effort of her maiden Muse.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>New Love, New Life.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Heart&mdash;my heart! what means this feeling?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Say what weighs thee down so sore?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What new life is this revealing!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What thou wert, thou art no more.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All once dear to thee is vanish&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All that marr&rsquo;d thy peace is banish&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gone thy trouble and thine ease&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah! whence come such woes as these?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Does the bloom of youth bright-gleaming&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Does that form of purest light&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do these eyes so sweetly beaming,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Chain thee with resistless might?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the charm I&rsquo;d wildly sever&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Man myself to fly for ever&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah! or yet the thought can stir,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Back my footsteps fly to her.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With such magic meshes laden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All too closely round me cast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Holds me that bewitching maiden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An unwilling captive fast.<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="430">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430"></a>
+<span class="i0">In her charm&eacute;d sphere delaying,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Must I live, her will obeying&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah! how great the change in me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love&mdash;O love, do set me free!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One other mood of love, and we leave the apprentice of Cornelius Agrippa
+to bring up the rear. Goethe is said to have been somewhat fickle in his
+attachments&mdash;most poets are&mdash;but here is one instance where passion
+appears to have prevailed over absence.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>Separation.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I think of thee whene&rsquo;er the sun is glowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">Upon the lake;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of thee, when in the crystal fountain flowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">The moonbeams shake.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I see thee when the wanton wind is busy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">And dust-clouds rise;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the deep night, when o&rsquo;er the bridge so dizzy<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">The wanderer hies.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I hear thee when the waves, with hollow roaring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">Gush forth their fill;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Often along the heath I go exploring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">When all is still.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I am with thee! Though far thou art and darkling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">Yet art thou near.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The sun goes down, the stars will soon be sparkling&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">Oh, wert thou here!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If we recollect right&mdash;for it is a long time since we studied the occult
+sciences&mdash;Wierius, in his erudite volume &ldquo;De Prestigiis Demonum,&rdquo;
+recounts the story which is celebrated in the following ballad.
+Something like it is to be found in the biography of every magician; for
+the household staff of a wizard was not complete without a <i>famulus</i>,
+who usually proved to be a fellow of considerable humour, but endowed
+with the meddling propensities of a monkey. Thus, Doctor Faustus of
+Wittenburg&mdash;not at all to be confounded with the illustrious
+printer&mdash;had a perfect jewel in the person of his attendant Wagner; and
+our English Friar Bacon was equally fortunate in Miles, his trusty
+squire. Each of these gentlemen, in their master&rsquo;s absence, attempted a
+little conjuring on their own account; but with no better success than
+the nameless attendant of Agrippa, whom Goethe has sought to
+immortalize. There is a great deal of grotesque humour in the
+manufacture, agility, and multiplication of the domestic Kobold.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The Magician&rsquo;s Apprentice.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Huzzah, huzzah! His back is fairly<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Turn&rsquo;d about, the wizard old;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I&rsquo;ll now his spirits rarely<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To my will and pleasure mould!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His spells and orgies&mdash;ha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t I<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Mark&rsquo;d them all aright?<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="431">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431"></a>
+<span class="i0">And I&rsquo;ll do wonders, sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t I?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And deeds of mickle might.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Bubble, bubble;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Fast and faster!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Hear your master,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Hear his calling&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Water! flow in measures double,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">To the bath in torrents falling!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ho, thou batter&rsquo;d broomstick! take ye<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">This old seedy coat, and wear it&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, thou household drudge, I&rsquo;ll make ye<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Do my bidding; ay, and fear it.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stand on legs, old tramper!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Here&rsquo;s a head&mdash;I&rsquo;ve stuck it&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now be off&mdash;hey, scamper<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With the water-bucket!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Bubble, bubble;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Fast and faster!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Hear your master,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Hear his calling&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Water! flow in measure double,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">To the bath in torrents falling!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">See, &rsquo;tis off&mdash;&rsquo;tis at the river&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In the stream the bucket flashes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now &rsquo;tis back&mdash;and down, or ever<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">You can wink; the burden dashes.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Again, again, and quicker!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The floor is in a swim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And every stoup and bicker<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is running o&rsquo;er the brim.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Stop, now stop!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For you&rsquo;ve granted<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">All I wanted<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Well and neatly&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Gracious me! I&rsquo;m like to drop&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">I&rsquo;ve forgot the word completely!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, the word, so strong and baleful,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To make it what it was before!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There it skips with pail on pailful&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Would thou wert a broom once more!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still new streams he scatters,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Round and ever round me&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, a hundred waters<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Rushing in have bound me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">No&mdash;no longer<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Can I bear it.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">No, I swear it!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Gifts and graces!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Woe is me, my fears grow stronger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Look what grinnings, what grimaces!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wilt thou, offspring of the devil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Soak the house to please thy funning?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even now, above the level<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of the door the water&rsquo;s running.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Broom accurst, that will not<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Hear, although I roar!<br /></span>
+
+<span class="pagebreak" title="432">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432"></a>
+<span class="i0">Stick! be now, and fail not,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">What thou wert before!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">You will joke me?<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">I&rsquo;ll not bear it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">No, I swear it!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">I will catch you;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And with axe, if you provoke me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">In a twinkling I&rsquo;ll dispatch you.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Back it comes&mdash;will nought prevent it?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">If I only turn me to thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soon, O Kobold! thou&rsquo;lt repent it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When the steel goes crashing through thee.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bravely struck, and surely!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">There it goes in twain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now I move securely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And I breathe again!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Woe and wonder!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">As it parted,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Up there started,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">&rsquo;Quipp&rsquo;d aright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Goblins twain that rush asunder.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Help, oh help, ye powers of might!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Deep and deeper grows the water<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">On the stairs and in the hall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rushing in with roar and clatter&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Lord and master, hear me call!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, here comes the master&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sore, sir, is my straight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I raised this spirit faster<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Far than I can lay&rsquo;t.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">&ldquo;To your hole!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">As you were, be<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Broom! and there be<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Still; for none<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">But the wizard can control,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And make you on his errands run!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="433">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433"></a>
+THE GREAT DROUGHT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the spring and summer of 1844 rain began to fail, and the first
+things that perished for want of water died that year. But the moisture
+of the earth was still abundant, and the plants which took deep root
+found sustenance below; so that the forest trees showed an abundance of
+foliage, and the harvest in some kinds was plentiful. Towards the autumn
+rain returned again, and every thing appeared to be recovering its
+former order; but the dry winter, the dry spring, dry summer of the next
+year, told upon the face of creation. Many trees put forth small and
+scanty leaves, and many perished altogether; whole species were cut off;
+for instance, except where they were artificially preserved, one could
+not find a living ash or beech&mdash;few were kept alive by means of man; for
+water began to be hoarded for the necessaries of life. The wheat was
+watered, and, where such a thing was possible, the hay-fields also; but
+numbers of animals died, and numbers were killed this year&mdash;the first
+from thirst, and the last to reduce the consumers of the precious
+element. Still the rich commanded the necessaries, and many of the
+luxuries of life; and the arts which required a consumption of water
+were carried on as yet, and continued in practice even longer than
+prudence warranted: so strong was the force of habit, and the pressure
+of the artificial necessities which they supplied. The railroads were as
+yet in activity, and when water failed along the line, it was brought
+from the sea by the rich companies concerned in the traffic; only the
+fares were raised, and the trains which ran for pleasure merely, were
+suspended. But, in the midst of business and interest, there was a deep
+gloom. Projects which affected the fortunes of nations were in suspense,
+because there was no rain. Cares for the succession of crowns, and the
+formation of constitutions, might all be futile, if there should be no
+rain: and it seemed as if there never would be any; for this was now the
+third year, and the earth had not received a shower. And now, ceasing to
+be supplied from their usual sources, the springs and rivers withered
+and shrank. Water became in many places not dear, but unattainable. The
+greatest people of the land left it, and used their wealth in chasing
+the retreating element from place to place on the earth. In some cases,
+among these luxurious spirits there were scenes of extravagant revelry
+still; they had no employment except to live, and they endeavoured to
+make the act of living as exciting as their old amusements had been. But
+accounts of foreign countries came more and more rarely to England; for
+when the fourth rainless year arrived, drought and famine had slain
+three-fourths of its inhabitants, and commerce and agriculture were
+alike suspended. When a vessel came as far up in the mouth of a river as
+the sinking waters permitted, it brought tidings of desolation from
+whatever port it had left. Stories began to spread of dry land in parts
+of the ocean where it had never been seen before; marks which had stood
+in the deep of the sea might now be walked round at all times of the
+tide, and thick crusts of salt were beginning to spread upon tracts of
+the great deep. These tidings from foreign lands came at long intervals,
+and at long intervals was a ship sent from any English haven. The few
+dwellers of the coast knew not if there were still any dwellers of the
+interior: for England was become like the desert; and there were no
+beasts to carry one across it, and no water to be hoarded in skins for
+the passage. Traffic of every kind ceased; industry was gone; the
+secrets of science, and the cultivated mind of the philosopher, were all
+bent to the production of water; and many a precious object was resolved
+back into its elements, and afforded a scanty supply to a few parched
+mouths. The lingering inhabitants had the produce of past years only to
+live upon, which nothing replenished as it diminished, and to
+<span class="pagebreak" title="434">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434"></a>
+renew
+which the baked earth was wholly incompetent.</p>
+
+<p>In the heart of this desert, there was a family which had hitherto
+survived the destruction of life around them. It consisted of a father
+and mother, and two young children, Charles and Alice; the last of whom,
+the girl, was but a few months old when the Great Drought began. They
+had lived in Derbyshire, near the range of low hills called the Peak;
+and they and other inhabitants of that region had found water longer
+than many others, from the sides of the hills, and from excavations
+which they had made in the rocks. The strong hope and expectation of
+rain had kept them lingering on as long as any supply lasted; and
+Paulett, who in the days when ranks existed, had been a great landlord,
+had used both his knowledge and his influence to supply the wants of the
+people, and to postpone their destruction. But those days were gone by;
+his possessions were so much dust: he wanted water, and nobody wanted
+any thing else. He was a mere man now, like those who are born naked and
+die naked, and had to struggle with the needs of nature, even as every
+one else. Meantime his education availed him; and the resources which it
+taught him prolonged the lives of his family and himself. But he was
+soon obliged to limit himself to this sole care; for the supply he
+obtained was scanty, and he knew how precarious it must be. He had
+explored the cavern of the Peak with great attention, and he bored the
+rock in various places, and used means suggested by his knowledge of
+natural causes, which had procured a slender flow of water into a basin
+which he had made. The fury of thirsty men for water was so great, that
+he was obliged to keep his secret with the utmost care; and towards the
+end of the fourth year, he removed his wife and children to the cavern
+itself, and blocked up the entrance, in such a manner that he could
+defend it against any chance survivor. There was no want of the luxuries
+of furniture in the cavern&mdash;all the splendours of the land were at the
+command of those who would take them; and Paulett brought there whatever
+had adorned his home when the earth was a fit dwelling-place for man.
+There was velvet and down to lie upon; there were carpets on which the
+little Alice could roll; there were warm dresses, and luxurious
+ornaments of the toilette; whatever could be used for comfort he had
+brought, and all other precious things he had left in his open house,
+locking himself and his family up with only water. At first there would
+come sometimes a miserable man or woman, tracing the presence of living
+creatures, and crying for water. Paulett or his wife supplied several,
+and when they had been refreshed, they revealed the secret to others;
+or, being strengthened themselves, felt the desperate desire of life
+revive, and attempted violence to get at the treasure. After this the
+inhabitants of the cavern fell back to mere self-preservation; and the
+father and mother were able to harden their hearts against others, by
+looking at the two creatures whom they had born into the world, and who
+depended upon them. But, indeed, life seemed to shrink rapidly to
+nothing over the face of the country. It was very rare to see a moving
+form of any kind&mdash;skeletons of beasts and men were in plenty, and their
+white bones lay on the arid soil; or even their withered shapes, dried
+by the air and the sun, were stretched out on the places where they had
+ceased to suffer: but life was most rare, and it became scarcely
+necessary to use any precaution against an invader of their store. The
+dreadful misery was, that this store diminished. The heart of the earth
+seemed drying, and was ceasing to be capable of yielding moisture, even
+to the utmost wrenching of science. There was so little one hot day,
+that Paulett and Ellen scarcely moistened their lips after their meal of
+baked corn, and warned their children that the draught they received was
+the only one that could be given them. Charles was now seven years old,
+and had learned to submit, but his longing eyes pleaded for more; little
+Alice was clamorous, and the mother felt tears overflow her eyes to
+think that there was no possibility of yielding to that childish
+peevishness, and that the absolute non-existence of water must punish
+her poor child&rsquo;s wilfulness. When Paulett had set his
+<span class="pagebreak" title="435">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435"></a>
+instruments to
+work, to renew if possible the supply, and when Ellen had removed the
+silver cups and dishes which had held their corn and water, he and she
+sat down at the mouth of the cavern, and the little ones got their
+playthings, and placed them on piece of rock not far off. The mouth of
+the cave is lofty, and there is a sort of terrace running along one
+side, at the foot of which lay the channel of the stream, that was now
+dry. The view is down the first reach of a narrow valley, which turns
+presently afterwards, and so shuts out the world beyond from sight; and
+the hill on each side rises high, and from its perpendicularity seems
+even higher than it is. The shade of the cavern was deep and cool, but
+the sky glowed with the heat and light of the sun, and there was not a
+cloud to hinder him from burning up the earth. The hill-sides, the
+channel where the brook had flowed, the stones of the cave, were all
+equally bare; there was no sound of voice, or bird, or insect&mdash;no cool
+drop from the ceiling of the cave&mdash;no moisture even in the coolness of
+the shadow. Ellen leaned her head on her husband, and Paulett pressed
+his arm round her&mdash;both of them were thinking of the basin empty of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ellen,&rdquo; said Paulett, &ldquo;I think the time is come when the elements shall
+melt with fervent heat. It seems like the conflagration of the world;
+not indeed as we have always fancied it, with flames and visible fire,
+but not the less on that account the action of heat. It is perhaps the
+Last Day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I hope it is,&rdquo; said Ellen, &ldquo;I hope it is; I wish those precious
+creatures may be among those that are alive and remain, and may be
+spared the torments of this thirsty death.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You and I could bear it, if they were gone,&rdquo; said Paulett, glancing at
+them and withdrawing his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes!&rdquo; said Ellen, pressing near to him, and taking his hand in both
+hers. They were silent, and they heard the children talking as they
+played.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is King Alexander,&rdquo; said Charles, setting up a pebble&mdash;&ldquo;he is
+going to dinner. Put the dinner, Alice.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Alice set out several other pebbles before King Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And he has got a great feast. There is plenty of water, more than he
+can drink; and he drinks, drinks, as much as he likes, and still there
+is plenty of water when he goes to bed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Poor children! I can&rsquo;t bear it,&rdquo; said Ellen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Ellen, it would have been better never to have given them birth!&rdquo;
+said Paulett.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No&mdash;not that,&rdquo; said Ellen, sitting down again; &ldquo;though they must
+suffer, they are better to be; when this suffering has dissolved their
+bodies&mdash;on the other side of these mortal pains there is ease and
+happiness.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;True, true, dear Ellen,&rdquo; said Paulett; &ldquo;it is only difficult to die.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He held her hand; and while he did so, his eye fastened on a diamond
+ring which she wore. She observed his fixed look.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You gave me that when we little thought how it was we should part&mdash;when
+I was a bride&mdash;and there was all the pleasure and business of the world
+round us. It hardly seems as if we were the same creatures.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, we are not; for I am thinking, concerning that ring which you were
+never to part with, whether I could not convert the diamond into water.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How, Paulett?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t explain it to you; but it has just crossed my mind that it is
+possible; and if so, there are still plenty of jewels in the world to
+keep us alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He drew off the ring as he spoke, and went into the interior of the
+cave, whither Ellen followed him. There was a fire, and some apparatus
+belonging to Paulett, which he had used in experiments upon the
+decreasing water of the basin. He knocked the stone out of its setting,
+and applied himself to decompose it over the fire. He put forth all his
+skill and all his power, and was successful; the diamond disappeared,
+and there remained a few drops of water. He looked at his wife and
+smiled; she raised her eyes to his, astonished and pleased, took the cup
+from his hand, and looked at the precious metamorphosis.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give it the children,&rdquo; she said,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="436">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436"></a>
+and was going away; but he
+stopped her. &ldquo;No, Ellen, there is not enough to do any good; you and I
+will drink each other&rsquo;s health in it; and he put the cup first to her
+lips and then to his own. God bless you, my Ellen!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;my wife&mdash;I
+pledge you again with that diamond. The first drop of water comes from
+the stone that plighted my faith to you, and may it bring you health and
+happiness yet.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;God bless you, my husband! If we could but die now!&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter II.</h4>
+
+<p>Paulett now exerted himself to collect all the diamonds that remained
+without owners in the neighbourhood. First he visited his own forsaken
+home, and took thence the jewels, which he had neglected in his retreat
+from it, but which were now as precious as water. He found no great
+store even after ransacking all the houses within reach, and determined
+to undertake a longer journey in search of more. The basin in the cavern
+continued to yield a scanty supply of water; and Paulett extracted a
+small quantity from his stones. He made what provision he could for his
+family before setting out; and for his own necessities took the smallest
+possible portion, in a silver vessel, which was most preciously secured,
+and concealed about his person. It was a strange parting between his
+wife and him, both of them feeling and saying, that alive they should
+probably not meet again: yet death was so near them constantly, and was
+so far better than life, that his presence had grown familiar; and it
+was only the mode in which he would come that made them anxious. Paulett
+perishing alone of thirst was the fearful image to Ellen, and Ellen and
+her children waiting for him in vain, and dying one after the other for
+want of his help, was the dread of Paulett. They stood in the cavern,
+and embraced each other silently, and blessed their children with the
+same prayer for the last time. The little ones received and returned his
+caress, and Paulett quitted the cavern and set out on his uncertain
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>The face of the country was so much changed that he had some difficulty
+in making his way. The vivid colours of the earth were all gone, and in
+place of them was the painful greyness of the dead trees, and the yellow
+of the parched soil. Nothing was overthrown in ruin, but all stood dead
+in its place. The shapes of men and animals only lay strewn upon the
+earth. The human beings were comparatively rare; they were the last
+survivors of the destroying drought whom there had been none to bury;
+but these at length had died by hundreds, and in places their bones were
+seen whiter than any other object; or if any where over the surface
+there hung a vapour, it came from some collection of dead bodies which
+had not yet been resolved into the elements. Those whom he found there
+were mostly in heaps&mdash;the beasts had died singly; near what had been
+water-courses he saw more than once signs of struggle, and the last
+battles of earth had been fought for possession of its waters. He traced
+out many a pathetic story among the dry bones and faded garments.
+Women&rsquo;s dresses were there; and fallen into a shapeless heap on what had
+been their bosom, were little forms, and the raiment of children. Where
+the dry air and the sun had preserved the face, he beheld the fallen
+estate of those who had been men in the uncovered shame of death; the
+wide open lips, the sunken eyes, over which the eyelid was undrawn, the
+swollen tongue, the frame writhed into an expression of anguish,
+revealed all the pain and shame of death. But here and there, the hand
+of some one who had been a survivor, was visible in the attempt to
+conceal all this. In one place there was a shallow grave, into which a
+body had been rolled, and lay on its side; and close by, on a heap of
+clothes, out of which bones appeared, there was a spade with which the
+unfinished work had been attempted. In another, a female body was
+covered from sun and moon by a man
+<span class="pagebreak" title="437">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437"></a>
+&rsquo;s cloak; and a few paces off lay a
+man, whom nothing shielded. There was an infant&rsquo;s skeleton wrapped in a
+woman&rsquo;s shawl, under what had been a hawthorn hedge; the mother had
+either perished attempting to find water, or had laid her child down,
+and gone away, like Hagar in the desert, not to see it die. The poor
+innocent&rsquo;s skull was turned on its shoulder; its cheek must have rested
+there while the face remained. It was too young to have struggled much.
+Paulett thought of his little Alice; of her unconsciousness to the fate
+around her; of what would be her and Charles&rsquo;s and poor Ellen&rsquo;s fate, if
+he failed in his search, or perished by the way. He roused himself from
+looking on all these sorrowful objects, and went on his dreary way. The
+second day after he left the cavern, he came to a stately pile of
+building, which he determined to explore for the life-giving stones he
+was in search of. It stood upon its terraces, surrounded by its
+colonnades and garden-steps, in all its old pride and beauty. Its
+forests were withered indeed, its gardens burned, its fountains dry; but
+the palace glanced back the sunlight, and was as steadfast and perfect
+as in the days of the living. Paulett drew near, and found, as he came
+close, signs of the last days of life in it. The doors were opened to
+the air; and a few marks of objects removed, remained in the outer
+rooms. There was scoring and dragging on the marble floor; and Paulett
+doubted for a moment what had left these marks, till he saw on one side
+of a gilded table, a barrel, lying there empty, from which the top, as
+it seemed, had been accidentally knocked, and the liquor had flowed out.
+The marble bore the stain of wine, and where it had flowed, the slabs
+were broken in two places, perhaps from the violence of the struggle of
+those who saw the liquid flow, to wet each one his own parched lips.
+Paulett thought the lord of the castle had probably deserted it before
+the worst crisis arrived, and had tried to remove what was most valuable
+in his possession. He went on through long galleries and magnificent
+rooms, all silent as death, statues, which represented man in his glory
+and his strength; books, which were the work of that high spirit, now
+extinguished under the pressure of bodily wants; luxurious
+superfluities, which were for better days of the world&mdash;all was
+valueless, all open; he might go where he would, till at length one door
+resisted his efforts, and seemed to have been barred with a certain care
+from within. Paulett&rsquo;s heart beat high. Was there some one still living
+like himself; another human creature struggling for existence in this
+great world, and guarding, as he had done in his cavern, his treasure of
+water? Should he have another companion to speak with; another, with
+whom, perhaps, to get over the evil days; to whom to communicate his
+secret of producing water from diamonds? For the first time since he
+left the cavern, he spoke aloud&mdash;he called&mdash;he called in the great
+silence of the earth, but nothing answered him. If any one were still
+alive, he might be afraid of another living creature&mdash;had not he himself
+left pistols loaded for his poor Ellen, to defend her life and her
+children, if any human being should come near her? He gently shook the
+door; then proceeded to more violence, and forced it open. It was the
+door of a great dining-room, on whose lofty ceiling, as he entered it,
+wreaths of smoke rolled, which the air had put in motion, and a heavy
+smell, as of burned charcoal, struck him as he entered. There were no
+living creatures&mdash;the inhabitants were all dead in the last posture of
+life. The table was covered with silver and gold vessels, and among them
+were dead flowers and fruits, dried by the close chamber. It should seem
+they had drunk deeply before they died here&mdash;perhaps they had collected
+the last liquids, and resolved to perish when they had once more
+feasted: for there was wine still in some of the vessels, nay, in one
+there was water; and the ghostly shapes were adorned and fantastically
+covered with jewels and velvet, and all sort of rare and exquisite
+ornaments. Some were still on chairs, some fallen forward on the table,
+some prostrate, as if they had lain down to sleep. There were fragments
+of shivered glass on the floor; there was a statue broken to pieces on
+the table, on the pedestal of which was written &ldquo;Patience;&rdquo; there were
+pieces of torn
+<span class="pagebreak" title="438">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438"></a>
+paper in the hands of one, which seemed a letter; all
+these faint shadowings of long stories, and of a scene of which there
+remained no witness, struck Paulett&rsquo;s eye. One had sunk down by the
+silver tripod in which the charcoal had burned, and the match that fired
+it was amongst his garments. One face was there, resting on a sofa,
+still perfect enough to show it had been a beautiful woman; and roses,
+artfully made close to nature, crowned the long hair which fell upon
+arms from which the flesh had withered. On the neck were diamonds, on
+the hands diamonds&mdash;diamonds had confined the ringlets&mdash;diamonds
+sparkled on the feet. Paulett shuddered as he took them away. The
+spirit, indeed, was gone; but here was the last act of the spirit before
+it plunged into an unknown region, it knew not where. Paulett asked
+himself where. &ldquo;A little longer,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and they must have died;
+could not they wait their time, and take patience with death? Must they
+die in drunkenness, in madness; worse than beasts?&rdquo; Then his own thirsty
+eyes fixed on the table, where, in the light of the sun, the water
+sparkled, and gave rainbow rays. He forgot all beside, in the impulse
+which urged him to seize and drink&mdash;to drink the first draught&mdash;to
+satiate his throat with water. He drank and revived; and then blamed
+himself for yielding so passionately to the impulse which was now passed
+away; and as it passed, the horror of the scene around him acquired
+greater force, and he longed to be out of its influence. He made haste
+to collect all the jewels around him, and when he had done, found that
+his burden was as much as he could safely carry. He went hastily out of
+the room, as if any of these figures could rise and follow him, and
+fastened the door again, where the crime had been wrought. He hastily
+crossed the marble halls and gilded rooms, and came out in the
+sunlight&mdash;the splendid, solemn sunlight that looked upon a burnt-up
+world!</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter III.</h4>
+
+<p>Meantime, poor Ellen waited anxiously in the cavern, and as soon as the
+first possible moment for Paulett&rsquo;s return was passed, her fears grew
+strong. There was so much danger for him in the bare desert, with his
+scanty supply of water, that she might well listen to fear as soon as it
+had any reason to make itself heard; and with this dread, when she next
+drew water from her scanty supply, came the horrible torment of the
+anticipated death by thirst, which seemed descending upon her children
+and her. The day she had thought he would return rose and set, and so
+did another and another; and from fearing, she had begun to believe,
+indeed, that Paulett&rsquo;s earthly hours were passed. Yet hope would not be
+subdued entirely; and then she felt that perhaps by prolonging their
+lives another day only, she should save them to welcome him, and to
+profit by his hard-earned treasure. The store of water was sacredly
+precious. She dealt it out in the smallest portions to her children, and
+she herself scarcely wetted her lips; she hardened her heart to see her
+boy&rsquo;s pale face, her girl&rsquo;s feverish eye; she checked even the motherly
+tenderness of her habits, lest the softening of her heart should
+overcome her resolution; and so she laid them in their beds the third
+night of her dread, when indeed there was scarce another day&rsquo;s supply.
+She herself lay on hers, but deadly anxiety kept her from sleeping, and
+her ears ached with the silence which ought to have been broken by a
+step. And at last, oh joy! there was a foot&mdash;yes, a few moments made
+that certain, which from the first indeed she believed, but which was so
+faint that it wanted confirmation to her bodily sense. Up sprang Ellen,
+and darted to meet him. She held forward the candle into the air, and,
+lo! it was a woman. Ellen screamed aloud; the woman had seen her before
+and said nothing, only pressed forward. &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; cried Ellen; &ldquo;are
+you alive?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, just alive; and see here,&rdquo; said the woman, uncovering
+the face of her young child&mdash;&ldquo;my child is just alive too; give me water
+before it dies.&rdquo; &ldquo;Then my children will perish,&rdquo; said Ellen.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="439">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439"></a>
+ &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo;
+said the woman; &ldquo;how are you alive now unless you have plenty? All mine
+are gone but this one; my husband died yesterday; ours has been gone for
+days.&rdquo; &ldquo;My husband is dead, too,&rdquo; said Ellen, &ldquo;and I have only one
+draught left.&rdquo; &ldquo;Then I will take it,&rdquo; said the mother, rushing forward.
+Ellen caught her and struggled with her; the poor child moaned in its
+mother&rsquo;s arms, and a pang shot through the heart of Ellen. &ldquo;For God&rsquo;s
+sake, miserable woman,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;do not go near that basin! You are
+mad with want; you will leave none for my children. Stay here, and I
+will bring your child water. You and I can want, and yours and mine
+shall drink.&rdquo; But the desperate woman pressed on; her eyes fixed on the
+water, and dilated with intense desire; her lips wide open, dying almost
+for the draught. Ellen&rsquo;s soul was concentred in the fear, that the last
+hope of her boy and girl&rsquo;s life was about to be lost; she struggled with
+the woman with all her might; she screamed aloud; she lost her hold; she
+seized a pistol from the table, and close as she was to her adversary,
+fired it full at her. The mother fell, with a shriek. Ellen started
+forward and broke her fall, and laid hold on the child to free it from
+her dying grasp. &ldquo;Give him me, give him me!&rdquo; said the mother, struggling
+to lift herself up, and stretching her hands out for the boy. The
+trembling Ellen stooped to give him to her, but the child&rsquo;s head dropped
+on one side as she held him out; he made no effort to get into his
+mother&rsquo;s arms. Ellen wildly raised his face, and he was dead too. The
+shot had gone through his breast to his mother&rsquo;s, and a little blood
+began to steal from his lips. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s dead!&rdquo; said the mother, who was
+herself passing away. &ldquo;Oh, my boy!&rdquo; and then feebly, with her
+fast-failing strength, she raised him, after more than one effort, in
+her arms, and pressed her lips to his twice, with all the passion that
+death left in her. The wasted form of the child lay there, all pale and
+withered, the straight brown hair was parted on his thin forehead; the
+mother&rsquo;s uncovered breast, where his head rested, was white, and the
+hands delicate; the raiment was luxurious; that head had not been reared
+in the expectation of dying on a bed of rock. Ellen burst into floods of
+tears, and wrung her hands as she stood by, looking on what she had
+done. The woman lifted her eyes, and tried to form her lips into a
+smile; she no longer felt any vehement passion, and the torment of
+thirst was now only one of the pangs of death. Her eyes wandered to the
+water, but when Ellen moved to fetch some, she stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No; it was for him. He is at ease now. You did right. Don&rsquo;t grieve.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said Ellen, kneeling down at her side.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh yes! the poor precious babe suffers no more. I was mad; you said
+truly in that. I nursed him at my breast till his lips grew dry even
+there; we lived not far from your cavern, and I have seen you, and been
+glad you had water. We had some. <i>We?</i> Yes, is not my husband dead; and
+my boy is dead too! See, there is blood on his face; wipe it away; he
+will die else.&rdquo; Ellen&rsquo;s sobs caught her wandering attention. &ldquo;I remember
+now, you killed him; oh, good angel, guardian angel! you have killed
+him, and there is only I to suffer. He is gone from this dear, dear
+body; I wish it did not look so like him still&mdash;and it looks in pain
+too&mdash;it looks thirsty.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ellen hid her own face on the mother&rsquo;s shoulder for an instant.&mdash;Her
+children had awakened at the noise of the pistol, and they were out of
+bed and clinging around her; her sorrow roused theirs, and the sound of
+their lamentation reached the dying woman&rsquo;s ear.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There are my children crying. Alas! I thought they had all been dead.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;They are mine,&rdquo; said Ellen. &ldquo;Yours are at rest, yours <i>are</i> all dead.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; said the mother; and though the words were earnest, the
+voice was faint; all the effort of nature was in them, but they came
+feebly from her lips. After that, indistinct sounds and murmured names
+only were heard; her breath came in gasps, and at longer and longer
+intervals; till the faint shuddering of her limbs ceased
+<span class="pagebreak" title="440">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440"></a>
+by degrees,
+and after it had been insensible to the world for a while, the spirit
+quitted it for ever. Ellen&rsquo;s heart died within her; her senses were
+troubled, and she pressed herself in Paulett&rsquo;s arms without knowing when
+he came, or being surprised that he was there. &ldquo;Oh, Paulett!&rdquo; she said
+at last, &ldquo;I have not done wrong, but it is so dreadful!&rdquo; Paulett soon
+gathered from her all that had happened; and gazed with pity on what had
+once been a beautiful form, but rejoiced that it suffered no longer.
+Ellen, shuddering, arranged the dress, composed the limbs, and, with a
+thousand tears, placed the infant on that breast which had been so
+faithfully its mother to the last. And there they slept, mother and
+child&mdash;the day of trouble ended for both.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My poor Ellen,&rdquo; said Paulett, &ldquo;I wish it were thou and my children who
+were there at rest!&rdquo; and Ellen pressed her Charles and her Alice to her
+heart, and would have been glad if they had indeed been dead.</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter IV.</h4>
+
+<p>In that time of trouble and of unexampled events, the mind received
+impressions in a different manner from what it had ever done before. The
+stern gloom that hung over the future, the hazard upon which life was
+suspended, the close contact with universal death, and the desperate
+struggle by which it was staved off, gave to all things a new character;
+and the scene of the last chapter was but one of the series of deadly
+and dreadful excitements which were now the habit of every day. The
+solemn frame of mind which it induced in Ellen, was of a piece with the
+solemn nature of their existence; and she could talk of it with her
+husband at any time, and not disturb the natural bent which their
+conversation took. They searched the immediate neighbourhood for the
+habitation of the unhappy mother and her family; and the marks of her
+footsteps on the dust of the soil enabled them to trace her to Hope, a
+village in the plain, two miles, or rather more, from the Peak. She and
+her husband had used the church for their habitation, and it seemed had
+employed the same kind of precaution as Paulett to defend it and conceal
+that it was their dwelling. One entrance only was left, and the other
+apertures blocked up; but all care was useless now, for death had set
+them free from pain and fear. On a bed beside the altar lay the body of
+a man, over which as spread a cloak of fur and velvet, which in the
+lifetime of the world would have been most precious. His eyes were
+decently closed, the curtains of the bed drawn round him, and the pillow
+which supported his head was marked with the pressure of another head,
+and with moisture which could have been only the tears of his wife. The
+floor of the church was in confusion, like the dwelling of one too much
+distracted with trouble to attend to what did not relate to it; but
+there was corn which had served for food, and fuel heaped on the stone
+which had been a hearth&mdash;there was the drawing of a lovely woman and of
+a beautiful place: but these were cast into a corner, probably by the
+irritable hand of despair. On a table stood empty cups, which had long,
+perhaps, been dry&mdash;the glass of one had been shivered, and the fragments
+lay on the floor; there were also a few books, neglected and covered
+with dust. In the churchyard were the marks of three recent graves&mdash;one
+of them had a stone at its head, on which was carved with care the name
+of Alfred, and the soil was fenced and supported with sticks, so as to
+preserve its shape over the body&mdash;probably it was that of the first
+child whom the parents had committed to dust. Another was more hastily
+prepared, and no superfluous labour had been bestowed on it. This must
+be the last, when heart and health were both failing. Paulett and Ellen
+kneeled and prayed beside them, and rejoiced that the mother, too, was
+at rest after the long misery of this scene. They returned to their
+cave, and, under the shadow of the rock near the old course of the
+brook, laid both mother and child, covering their bodies with stones,
+and thinking more of the probable
+<span class="pagebreak" title="441">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441"></a>
+reunion, in some unknown scene, of
+the spirits of that family, than of the distance which separated their
+graves on this earth.</p>
+
+<p>And now, with good store of diamonds, and with increasing skill and
+success in the resolution of them into water, both Paulett and Ellen
+looked upon the lives of all as safe for the present, and their thoughts
+were at liberty to wander to some other subject. They believed that they
+and their children were alone in the world, for every sign of life from
+other countries, as well as their own, had ceased. It was very long
+since any human tidings had come, and though, after men had done with
+each other, birds continued their migrations, these had now long been
+over, and the years passed away without bringing or sending a single
+wing. The course of the seasons, too, was strange and unnatural. It
+seemed as if the earth performed its usual course in the heavens, and
+kept its place and functions in the movements of the planets; days and
+nights varied in their length according to the season, and the heat of
+the sun was at one time of the year great and at another weak: but much
+that depended hitherto upon the constitution of the globe was suspended.
+There were no clouds in the sky, no dews dropping from the air, no
+reproduction in the earth. It seemed decayed and dying of old age. Yet
+Paulett said, a new existence would, perhaps, arise on this same scene,
+and from these same elements. Once before, the earth had been reduced to
+eight persons by the action of water; and now the absence of the same
+element had brought it to four. Charles and Alice might be the destined
+parents of a new race, and those names that were so familiar now, might
+become the venerable appellations of the founders of the third race of
+man. Ellen smiled and shook her head, looking at the boy and girl, who
+were building a house of pebbles; and both parents listened for a while
+to what they were saying. Charles recollected the house he had dwelt in
+before the great shipwreck of human life drove then to the cavern; and
+he was teaching Alice that there were rooms below and rooms above, and
+that he had heard how people like their father had carried great stones,
+and put them one on another to make these rooms. Alice persisted in
+making her house one hollow cavern; and the other she called Charles&rsquo;s
+house, and did not understand his recommendation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Charles is taking the part already of a teacher, in whom remains the
+traditionary knowledge of an old world,&rdquo; said Paulett; &ldquo;and Alice
+represents the new inhabitants, who have their own rude copies of
+natural objects, but who will be open to the training of the learned
+man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The learned man will be their father,&rdquo; said Ellen; &ldquo;they will gladly
+take their notions from him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes; but if it should be so destined, the first generation must work
+hard merely to live&mdash;they must be very long ignorant of every thing
+except a paternal government, and such habitations as can be raised or
+appropriated most easily. They will be children in comparison to Charles
+all their lives, if we can but succeed in giving him the ideas of the
+age we have lived in. Fancy them, Ellen, increased to perhaps fifty
+inhabitants before he dies, a very old man, coming round his chair to
+hear of the wonderful steam-engine, and the use of the telescope, and to
+learn the art of printing, and the list of different languages which
+Romans, Frenchmen, Germans, Greeks, used; and what lions were, and
+horses.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Or tell them how he and Alice escaped from the great drought,&rdquo; said
+Ellen. &ldquo;But, alas! it is far more likely he and she will perish in it,
+and then of what use is this knowledge to him?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why&mdash;his soul. &lsquo;It is a thing immortal like thyself;&rsquo; and if what he
+knows is of no use here, it will be useful elsewhere.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What!&rdquo; said Ellen, smiling&mdash;&ldquo;are there railroads and telescopes in
+another world?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For aught I can tell. At all events, the powers that contrive them here
+may contrive something from the same principles hereafter.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But we can tell nothing about the other world,&rdquo; said Ellen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, this is <i>another world</i> to the stars; and, if we know nothing
+about our destiny, the only way we have to
+<span class="pagebreak" title="442">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442"></a>
+judge is by what we actually
+are, and tend to be, now. So, while life remains, I will teach my boy
+all I know, and go on as a man of this world ought to do; then we shall
+be ready for every thing.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, Paulett every day carried on his son&rsquo;s education, as far as
+the boy&rsquo;s age permitted, and instructed him in all that he would have
+learned had the world been as it was formerly. Only, like a man in a
+shipwreck looking forward to a desert island as his best hope, he dwelt
+most upon what would be usefullest, supposing Charles (being preserved)
+to have to provide for the physical necessities of a new race of man.
+Next in order came science and arts; and it was easier to make him feel
+the merits of these than of the exploits of men, especially when they
+consisted of valour, and of the deeds of conquerors; for the heroic
+virtues seemed to take a new character in the present circumstances of
+the world; and whereas they used to kindle and blaze in personal danger,
+and at the sound of the applause of men, they now burned brightly in the
+endurance of a world&rsquo;s dissolution, which, with all its terrors and
+prolonged impressions, must be met by the calm, self-sustaining spirit,
+rising superior to the greatest excess of physical injury. The boy&rsquo;s
+soul replied to the call upon it. He learned to look on the dangers
+before him, and to consider the possibility of escape with quiet
+calculation of chances. He inured himself to privation readily, and
+eagerly tried to spare his mother and Alice from it. He and his father,
+hand in hand, walked over the desolate land, realizing the idea that
+they were in fact spirits, superior to all physical things, and divided
+from spirits and their sphere only by their frail connexion with a body.
+They talked of virtue and duty, and how good it was to dwell in these
+painful bodies, since they were the place wherein virtue was practised
+and duty learned; and the father taught the son that the opportunities
+occurred, not only in enduring the dissolution of the frame of present
+things, and in the untiring exertion to aid and support life in those
+who were of weaker sex than they, but in abiding with even and cheerful
+temper the vexations of every day, and in adorning as far as possible,
+as well as preserving, life. The mother was heroic, good, and patient,
+too. She brought her children, night and morning, to the mouth of the
+cavern, and there they all kneeled by Paulett, who prayed aloud with
+them and for them. Then Ellen made ready their meal, which must all be
+prepared without water, and which consisted of the stores from former
+harvests, of which there was abundance laid up in various houses; and
+the little Alice, who could run at her mother&rsquo;s side, learned to be
+useful in some matters, and patient and obedient. Charles played with
+her and taught her; and he himself, mere child as he was, grew merry in
+his play, and earnest; and many a time the profound silence of the earth
+was broken by the hearty laugh of children, which would ring out through
+the cavern, and reverberate against its walls. They grew, and were
+perfect and beautiful in shape; their minds developed, and talents and
+virtues filled them. They were types of man and woman&mdash;the one bold and
+protecting, the other seeking for affection and defence. They flourished
+when means appeared inadequate to their support; and, amid a paralysed
+world, it was in them only that body and spirit seemed to unfold.</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter V.</h4>
+
+<p>Time passed on, and there was no change in the state of things. Still an
+unclouded sun&mdash;still the deep, intense blue sky&mdash;winds on the earth but
+no moisture; and the whole frame of nature seemed crumbling into chaos.
+Paulett felt the strife with fate to be unequal indeed, and could
+scarcely comprehend that he and his family were truly survivors amid
+such destruction; but he resolved not to give in, while the means
+remained to him, but to fight the fight out till overpowered by the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="443">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443"></a>
+material universe. He told Ellen that they must move to some place
+where they might hope to find more diamonds, and Ellen agreed&mdash;wishing
+with Paulett that the strife were over and the last agony suffered, and
+that they were among the free and disembodied spirits. London was their
+object; for there they might hope to find most of the materials of what
+was now the most precious of all things, water; and providing as well as
+they could for their necessities by the way, they quitted the cavern,
+and set off on their journey.</p>
+
+<p>First came the father, carrying the little Alice in his arms; the boy
+held his mother by the hand; and they followed Paulett on his path.
+There was the delicate woman, the mother of all that remained alive of
+the human race, setting out on the desert, which she remembered, but a
+few years before, the scene of luxury and abundance. On her shoulder she
+carried a burthen containing corn for their sustenance; and the brave
+boy took his share by bearing the jar of water which had been provided
+for their support on the journey; and thus the last family of mankind
+set out on their pilgrimage over the desolated earth. The unmitigated
+sun had made great rents in the sides of the hills, and, together with
+the wind, had broken up the roads, between which and the parched fields
+there was scarcely now any difference. Where there had been inclosures
+and hedges, the withered sticks had in most places yielded to the winds,
+and were scattered about the spot where they had stood. Here and there
+were the marks of fire, which had run along the country till some
+interval of previous desolation had stopped it; and where this had been
+the case, the black unsightly remains lay strewn over the surface, one
+further step advanced in dissolution than the dead world around. There
+was no want of habitations for their nightly shelter. Palaces and
+cottages, all alike, were open; all alike were silent and tenantless
+habitations. They might choose where they would. And the first day they
+did not go far, for Ellen and her children, with stout hearts, had not
+bodily strength for great fatigue, and were unused to the strong
+exertion they were now compelled to make. Towards evening, therefore,
+when they reached a house with which Paulett and Ellen had once been
+familiar, they determined to rest there for the night. They pushed open
+the gates, which still swung on their hinges, and which admitted them to
+what had been a park, filled once with trees, and bathed with waters. A
+large wood covered the hill which rose on one side, and which now, under
+a summer sun, stood perfectly bare, and all of one uniform grey colour
+as far as the view extended. On the other side, the eye looked over a
+tract of country varied with hill and dale, but desolate of every colour
+that used to shine forth in light and shade. The setting sun shone among
+the leafless branches, casting long brilliant rays of light. The
+unclouded sky met the sparkling earth, and both glittered with unnatural
+brilliancy. To Paulett and Ellen, every thing spoke of desolation and
+death; and an exclamation escaped Ellen, in a low tone, that it was a
+piteous and horrible spectacle. But Charles, standing still at their
+side as they looked on the scene, cried it was beautiful; the colours of
+the sun were so splendid on the fine white trees, and one could see so
+far, and every thing was so white and shining on the earth. The parents
+felt that ideas were ceasing to be in common between the last and the
+first members of the old and the new generation; and far from
+contradicting their boy, they tried to partake his pleasure and enter
+into his impressions. They moved on up to the old familiar door and
+entered the open silent hall, where they remembered the ceremonies and
+the courtesies of life. They chose among the rooms which had been those
+of friends, and recognised familiar objects of their everyday existence.
+It was a conceit of Paulett&rsquo;s, for which he smiled at himself, to wind
+up the clock in the hall, and set it to tell out the time again for
+another week. There were musical instruments in a room adjoining, and
+over one of these Ellen timidly passed her fingers. It was out of tune,
+and the sounds, though sweet in themselves, all jarred with one another.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="444">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444"></a>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the last music of the world, perhaps,&rdquo; said Ellen; &ldquo;and all
+discord too.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>They found some small store of corn in one of the rooms; they prepared
+and ate it, and lay down to sleep; forgetting in fatigue all their
+dismal feelings, and in their dreams seeing the old state of things and
+dead persons&mdash;nay, a dead world&mdash;without wondering that they were come
+to life again. All the days of their journey wore an uniform character;
+and they kept on and on through waste and ruin, glad to leave the
+country behind them, and expecting, as some relief, the aspect of
+streets and a town. They halted, at length, within a few miles of
+London, and lay down to rest, thankful to be so near their bourne; for
+they had suffered as much fatigue as they could well bear, and their
+stock of diamonds was waxing very low and needed replenishment. Paulett
+continued busy preparing water from part of those that remained, after
+his wife and children were asleep. His own frame scarcely felt the
+exertion of the journey, and he was full of the thoughts with which the
+approaching sight of what had been once the great metropolis filled him.
+The vast untenanted dwelling-place, the solitude of the habitation of
+crowds, the absence of mind and talent from the scene they had so
+filled; all these things excited his feelings, and gaining ground in the
+solitude of the night he felt at last that he could not willingly delay
+his first meeting with the bereaved city, and that he should be pleased
+to have an opportunity of indulging alone the highly-wrought emotion
+with which he expected the sight of it. Accordingly, when the light
+began to break, he wrote word to Ellen that she should wait for him a
+few hours, and that he would be back again in that time to lead her and
+the children to their journey&rsquo;s end; and then, softly leaving the house,
+set forward eagerly on his way.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening before he returned. He came in pale and excited; he took
+his children in his arms as usual, and seemed like one upon whom a thing
+which he has seen has made a deep impression, but who either doubts the
+power of words to convey the same impression, or thinks that he himself
+is over-excited by it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ellen,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;London is burned to the ground.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The sudden flush on her face, and her clasped hands, while she spoke
+not, showed that the event touched her, too, as deeply as him; and then
+he went on freely&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Ellen! if you had seen it! It stands there, all in ruins&mdash;the whole
+city in ruins! It has been the work of some great storm which fired it
+when all were gone or dead; for there has been no pulling down, no
+pillage, no aid, no attempt to stop the fire! All the palaces, all the
+museums, all the stores of learning and art, the streets, the crowded
+houses; they are gone, Ellen&mdash;they are all gone!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His wife had never before in all their misery seen him so deeply
+moved&mdash;so nearly overpowered by any thing that had occurred. His
+excitement communicated itself to her, and she caught the full bearing
+of his narration. She felt for the long ages of story, and the monuments
+of human skill, buried in the great city. Irretrievable ruin! The work
+which men, and years, and glowing knowledge, had slowly raised up, all
+dead, all annihilated so suddenly. They sat talking of it very long
+before Ellen said,</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And what must <i>we</i> do now, Paulett?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We must go on, Ellen; we must travel further. The rest we hoped for is
+destroyed with the city, and we must press forward if we are to save our
+lives.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That seems less and less possible,&rdquo; said Ellen; &ldquo;and in all this
+destruction why should we be preserved?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps because we have as yet avoided the stroke, by using all our
+human skill; perhaps because a new race is to spring from us, who shall
+reign in another mighty London! Alas, London!&mdash;alas, the great city!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Several times during the night Ellen heard Paulett murmur to himself
+words of lament over the fallen city; and when he slept, his rest was
+agitated, and his frame seemed trembling under the emotions of the day.</p>
+
+<p>It was resolved that Ellen should rest a little while in their present
+<span class="pagebreak" title="445">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445"></a>
+habitation, before undertaking the toils of further travel. They
+intended to make for the coast, sure of a dry channel to the opposite
+shore, and hoping to reach some of the great continental towns before
+their store of diamonds should be utterly exhausted. In the meantime,
+Paulett was bent upon taking his boy through the ruins of London, and
+impressing upon him the memory of the place, and its great events. So
+the next day, leaving Ellen and the little Alice together, he and
+Charles began their pilgrimage through the mighty ruins. The event must
+have occurred very many months ago, for the ruins were perfectly cold,
+and the winds had toppled down the walls of all the more fragile
+buildings; so that the streets lay in confusion over one another, and it
+was impossible, except by other marks, to recognise the localities.
+Paulett and Charles clambered over the fallen walls, and would have been
+bewildered among heaps of masonry, and houses shaken from their base and
+blackened by fire&mdash;only that over the desolate prospect they saw, and
+Paulett marked the bearings of St Paul&rsquo;s, the chief part of whose dome
+rose high in the air, though a huge rent let the daylight through it,
+and threatened a speedy fall. There was here and there a spire, rising
+perfect over the ruins; there were remains of Whitehall, strong though
+blackened, seen over a long view of prostrate streets; and in the
+distance beyond, fragments of Westminster Abbey showed themselves in the
+sunlight, though defaced and crumbled, as if the frame had been too
+ancient to resist the fire. Guided by these landmarks, Paulett traced
+out the plan of the city, and by degrees recognised where the great
+streets had run, where the palaces had stood, where the river had
+flowed. And all was silent, all an absolute stillness, where there had
+been such ceaseless voices, and sounds of life; the libraries were
+burned, the statues calcined, the museums in ashes; the mind of man,
+which triumphs over the body, had here been subdued by matter, and left
+no trace of itself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! London, London! So much talent, so much glory and beauty; such
+mighty hearts, such mighty works; such ages of story&mdash;all buried in one
+black mass! Piteous spectacle!&rdquo; cried Paulett, striking his breast, and
+stretching forth his arms over the skeleton of what was once a sovereign
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>He took his son by the hand, and led him over the confused masses,
+telling him as they went along what were the ruins by which they passed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This great heap of building which has fallen into a square, must be the
+palace of our kings. It is that St James&rsquo;s, where they dwelt till nobler
+buildings rose with the improving times. See here, Charles&mdash;there is
+less ruin here. This opener space was park and garden; and time has been
+that I have heard the buzz of men filling all this place, when the
+sovereigns came to hold their courts in that building. I think that this
+dreadful fire must have taken place before life was quite extinct; for
+see, there are heaps of bones here, as though men had fled together to
+avoid it; and it either overtook them with long tongues of fire, such as
+a burning city would send forth, or smothered them before they could
+escape, with its smoke. Ha! I see almost a palace there&mdash;a wonder of
+modern art. It is the house I once saw, and only once, for it was built
+during the years of the great drought.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who could build in those days, father?&rdquo; said Charles; &ldquo;I thought no one
+had any heart for doing more than we do, and that is but just keeping
+ourselves alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, it was very long before the persuasion came that those were the
+last days. We all believed that rain would come again and restore the
+earth to its old order, and whoever possessed the means, builded and
+projected still. You may see this magnificent place suffered violence
+before the fire; for its ornaments are torn from the walls, and its
+statues mutilated by other means than the bare fall. It was the property
+of a man called Jephcot, who, when the water began to fail, contrived
+means to bring it into London from great distances, and thus to secure a
+supply when the ordinary means were useless. He kept his contrivance
+secret, and supplied the city when other men&rsquo;s resources were exhausted;
+and he
+<span class="pagebreak" title="446">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446"></a>
+grew exceedingly rich by this exercise of his ingenuity, and
+built himself the palace which you see there. But when the failure of
+water amounted to absolute famine, the rich people naturally were the
+last who wanted; they gave his price, and he supplied them before he
+would supply others who had no money to bring. This was endured with
+murmurs, which might have gone on a little longer, had not Jephcot, in
+the midst of this distress, given a banquet to the great people of
+London.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was in the second year of the drought, when little thinking what the
+end was to be, we all continued to live, as far as possible, as we had
+done before. I was in London where the parliament was then sitting, and
+among others I was invited to this house, and still remember the scene
+of luxury and profusion of these bare rooms. In the midst of the noise
+of a crowded assembly, some of us heard sounds outside, which were such
+as you will never hear, even if you live&mdash;sounds of the feet and voices
+of thousands of human beings. Among this tumult, we began to distinguish
+individual voices, chiefly those of women, crying out, &ldquo;water!&rdquo; We paid
+little attention, and those who did, said the police and soldiers were
+called out and would prevent violence; but before long it was whispered
+that these forces, pressed by extreme want, and seeing their families
+perishing, had joined the mob, and were exciting violence. There fell a
+silence over all the assembly; every one left the tables, and gathered
+together to hear and to consult: and while we did so, there came an
+assault on the front of the house, and the voices of the populace all
+broke out at once into shouting. They were irresistible; they forced
+their way in, and came pouring up the staircase; they uttered cries of
+vengeance for imaginary wrongs, saying that the waters of London had
+been kept for the rich, and that there was abundance for both rich and
+poor, and threatened the lives of Jephcot and his family, even more
+eagerly than they demanded water. He tried to address them, but they
+caught him down from the head of the staircase where he stood, and flung
+him at once over the marble banisters. This was the signal for attack on
+all sides. We rushed forward to rescue his body and revenge him, they to
+possess themselves of the treasure they so much coveted. Of course we
+were overpowered, for we were one to fifty; and that night there fell a
+hundred of the nobles of England. The women were respected by the mob,
+and except one lady who was shot accidentally, and another who saw her
+son fall, and stood over him till he ceased to breathe, then fell
+wounded and dying herself, all escaped. Your mother was not there. When
+our party was quite vanquished, I found myself in the midst of the mob,
+bleeding to death as I thought; but they flung me on one side, and I
+recovered. They pulled the house to the ground, after they had satiated
+themselves with drinking. And that was the first great calamity which
+overthrew the government of the country.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And how did that come about, father?&rdquo; said Charles, eagerly holding him
+by the hand, and sharing his excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Paulett led him on, telling him, at one ruined monument after another,
+what steps had been taken at each, in the destruction of the order of
+things. They came to the dry channel of the Thames, a deep and wide
+trench, whose bottom showed objects that had lain there when the waters
+flowed above, and which would once have been as precious as now they
+were unregarded. Here as a bridge from side to side; and a little way
+above, stood part of the walls of a noble building, partly black with
+smoke, partly white with the polish and beauty of stones newly built
+together.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;These are the Houses of Parliament,&rdquo; said Paulett, &ldquo;the work of many
+years, which were to replace those burned in 1834. See how beautiful
+they were, what excellent design, what exquisite finish; how strong and
+stable, to last for a thousand ages, and to crown the river which then
+flowed in this dusty channel. When matters were come almost to the
+worst, and there were convulsions all over the country in consequence of
+the famine, the queen, for the first time, came to these houses to open
+the last parliament that ever assembled.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="447">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447"></a>
+There were no beasts of
+burthen left alive in the country; it had been found impossible to
+appropriate water enough to those which had been reserved in the royal
+stables; and the queen, surrounded by a certain number of the court,
+walked along yonder street to the House. The sight of so young a woman,
+and so great a sovereign, thus leveled by physical necessity with the
+meanest, excited some of the old enthusiasm with which she used to be
+greeted: the populace themselves, with their squalid faces, and in their
+extreme misery, greeted her; but the greatest feeling was aroused among
+the nobles and gentry who surrounded her, and who seemed to make a point
+of offering more homage, the less outer circumstances commanded it.
+There was assembled in the House all that remained alive of the nobles
+of England, and the sovereign; and they proposed to deliberate upon the
+possibility of any means remaining to provide water. But a demagogue of
+the people, Matthison by name, roused their fury and their madness, and
+they burst in, accusing their superiors of their calamities. The queen&rsquo;s
+life was in danger;&mdash;and then occurred a gallant action, which is worthy
+to live if man lives. A Churchill, a descendant of that Marlborough who
+fought Blenheim, came to the hall whither they had broken in, and
+required in the queen&rsquo;s name to know what they wanted. He meant to gain
+time; for other nobles had effected an exit at a private door for her,
+and were hurrying her away to a place of security, till she could escape
+from England. They answered Churchill, that water was monopolized; that
+Matthison must be minister; that they must speak to the queen face to
+face, and have her hostage for the accomplishment of what they wished.
+Churchill pretended to deliberate for an instant with some one in the
+adjoining chamber; and then returning, said, &lsquo;If the queen do not speak
+with you in ten minutes, you may tear me in pieces.&rsquo; Some of the mob
+cried that he was saying this to give her time to escape. Others said,
+if it were so, he should assuredly suffer the penalty. Churchill
+answered nothing, only smiled; and then the majority said he could not
+be so foolhardy, and they would grant the queen ten minutes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The time passed, and Matthison eagerly cried, &lsquo;The time is gone, yet we
+don&rsquo;t see the queen.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Then tear me in pieces,&rsquo; said Churchill; and the mob, finding their
+prey had escaped, did so indeed; the gallant man falling where he stood,
+and not another word came from his lips.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The brave man!&rdquo; cried Charles; &ldquo;the good man! Were there many such
+brave, good men in the old world, father?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, that there were,&rdquo; said Paulett; &ldquo;many a glorious one; some known
+and some unknown, who did things which made one know one&rsquo;s-self a
+glorious, an immortal creature. See there that ruined abbey&mdash;there lie
+the ashes of brave and good; these are their crumbled monuments&mdash;&lsquo;that
+fane where fame is A spectral resident!&rsquo; Alas, there is no fame, no name
+left!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Paulett and Charles went down among the ruins of the abbey, and there,
+amidst the fallen stones and broken aisles, saw monumental marbles, old
+known names, and funeral inscriptions, contrasting strongly by their
+quiet character with the confusion around.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never forget them, Charles,&rdquo; said Paulett. &ldquo;These are names which the
+world has trembled at, and which are now like to be such as those before
+the Flood, barbarous to those who are building up a new order of things,
+and known merely as a barren catalogue of names. Yet, if you live,
+remember Edward the king here; remember the Black Prince; remember the
+days and heroes of Elizabeth; remember the poetry and the romance of the
+old world.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, father, and I&rsquo;ll remember the great name of him who taught you to
+print, and of Wicliffe the reformer, and of the man who gave you the
+steam-engine.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Paulett smiled and sighed; he felt that his own ideas of things heroic
+were as much contrasted with those of Charles, as their notions of the
+beautiful. But he thought not to stem the stream.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;See here,&rdquo; he said, pointing to some new monuments, which, like the
+old,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="448">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448"></a>
+were cracked by fire; &ldquo;there were many brave and good actions
+done, and one of those who did best was laid here. He was a clergyman,
+his name Host, and during the pestilence which came on in the fourth
+year, he was more like an inspired messenger of good than any mortal
+creature. You must know, Charles, that the teachers of religion at this
+time were greatly divided among themselves, and they had led a great
+portion of the lay world into their disputes. One party, in an age of
+reasoning, and when nothing in science was taken upon trust, gave up
+their reason altogether, and followed authority as blindly as they
+could&mdash;still, however, feeling the influence of the age; for they would
+argue upon the existence or non-existence of authority, and would fit it
+unconsciously each man to his own conceit. Indeed, superstition was the
+disease of the age, and while the healthy part of the community employed
+and enjoyed the freest use of their reason, this same infirmity appeared
+among other people in other forms; so that some men took up the notion
+that the human mind might act independently of sense, and see without
+eyes, and know intuitively what existed at a distance. Other parties,
+among professors of religion, allowed nothing in religion that they
+allowed daily in the evidence of other matters. They gave no weight to
+research, and thought, about religious facts; and dreamed that each one
+among themselves gained a kind of spiritual knowledge by inspiration. It
+was a time of conceits and quackery; but there was a better spirit
+abroad, of which this good man Host was the representative. He began in
+the pestilence, and went to all houses indifferently, whether they were
+princes or peasants; and there was a common-sense in what he did and
+said, a universal character in his religion, which struck men in these
+evil days. They drew nearer to each other under his influence; and I
+recollect this great building thronged in one of the last months that
+men continued here, with a congregation of all orders and all divisions
+of opinion, who met to pray together, and listen to Host. He stood
+yonder, Charles, as nearly there, I think, as I can tell from the ruins;
+he was rapt by his own discourse, and his face was as the face of an
+angel. And truly three days after, he was dead; and here they buried
+him&mdash;the last sound of the organ, the last service of this church, being
+for him. Here is his name still on the tombstone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">&lsquo;Host.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pio. dilecto. beato.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Populus miserrimus.&rsquo;&rdquo;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Charles&rsquo;s memory was deeply impressed with this history, and he followed
+his father, much engrossed and animated by what he had heard. Not so
+Paulett; for the ruins of London occupied his mind, and filled him with
+deep pity and regret for the fair world destroyed: and so they returned
+to their temporary habitation, the father sorrowful, the son exulting;
+one full of the old world, one dreaming great actions for the new.</p>
+
+<p>After another day&rsquo;s rest, the sole surviving family of mankind set forth
+again on their pilgrimage. Paulett again carried his Alice, and Ellen
+and Charles walked hand in hand with such a basket of necessaries as
+they could support. Paulett secured about his person a large packet of
+diamonds, collected in palaces and noble dwellings near London, and the
+apparatus he required for transmuting them into water; and searching for
+and finding the remains of the railroad to the coast, at Dover, they
+kept on in that track, which, from its evenness, offered facility to
+their journey. But in several places it had been purposely broken up,
+during the commotions which preceded the final triumph of the drought,
+and the tunnel near Folkestone had fallen in the middle from want of the
+necessary attention to the masonry. These difficulties seemed harder to
+bear than those which they had met with in the beginning of their
+pilgrimage, when their hopes of reaching a certain bourne were more
+secure. The destruction of London had thrown a deep gloom over all their
+expectations; and besides that help was removed to a much greater
+distance, they could not but feel it very probable that a similar fate
+might have befallen the other places they looked to. Nevertheless, none
+of them murmured. They went steadfastly though sadly on; and the two
+children, with
+<span class="pagebreak" title="449">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449"></a>
+less knowledge of what was to be feared, were encouraged
+by their parents whenever they broke into a merrier strain. Alice was
+the happiest of the party, for she knew least. She was the one who
+suffered least also; for every one spared her suffering, and contrived
+that what remained on earth of luxury should be hers. She had the first
+draught of water; she was carried on her father&rsquo;s shoulder; she ran to
+find pebbles, and whatever shone and glittered on their path; and when
+the others were silent, they heard with joy her infant voice singing,
+without words like a bird, in a covered tone, as they got wearily over
+mile by mile of their way. Ellen suffered most, though Paulett tried, by
+all means that remained, to lighten her fatigue and cheer her spirit.
+She bore up steadfastly; but her frame was slight, and her feelings were
+oppressed by the fearful aspect of things around her. They made a deep
+and deeper impression, and she was fain to look steadfastly on the faces
+of the few living, to recover from the effects of such universal death.</p>
+
+<p>Paulett himself was shaken more than he knew, though he was as energetic
+as ever; but Charles was vigorous and advanced beyond his years, and
+took more than his share in aiding and in comforting. They came at last
+to what had been sea-coast, and to that part of the road which ran along
+the face of the cliff overlooking the sea; and here they paused, and
+gazed upon the wild and strange view before them. Where the sea had
+stretched all glorious in motion, expanse, and colour, there was now a
+deep valley, the bottom of which was rough with rocks, black for the
+most part, but in places glittering with the white salt from which the
+water had evaporated, and which the winds had rolled together. Further
+out from the coast, where the sea had been deepest, there seemed tracks
+of sand; and far away over this newly exposed desert, rose other hills,
+clearly seen through the unclouded atmosphere, and which they knew to be
+the rocks of France. And if they should arrive there, what was the hope
+they offered? Scarce any. Nothing but more pilgrimage, further
+wandering. Paulett and Ellen sat apart, while the children lay sleeping
+side by side, for an hour or two, at this point of their journey, and
+talked over the desolation before them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; said Paulett, &ldquo;the more terrible is the appearance which material
+things put on, the greater I feel the triumph of the spirit to be. The
+worse it looks, the more immortal I feel; and when a perishing world
+shows itself most perishable, I exult most that you and I, Ellen, have
+borne it so far.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, I am glad too,&rdquo; said Ellen; &ldquo;your strength strengthens me. In the
+midst of this desolation the mind rises, for an hour at least, higher
+perhaps than it would have ever done if we had been prosperous.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yet we might have used our prosperity to the same good end,&rdquo; said
+Paulett. &ldquo;It is not necessary to be miserable in order to be noble.
+Millions have died before us, some in agony, some before the struggle
+began; some hardly, some at ease: they had all their chances; all had
+their occasions of virtue, if they used them; and some used them, some
+failed: ours is not over yet; we have to struggle on still; and let us
+do it, dear Ellen, and be ready for the good day when we too may be
+allowed to die.&rdquo; And thus talking for a while, they rested themselves in
+sight of the desert they had to traverse; then with renewed strength and
+steadfast resolution, when the children woke, descended the cliffs, and
+prepared to trace out a path through what had been the bottom of the
+sea. The first part of the journey was infinitely difficult: the rocks
+over which foot of man had never passed; the abrupt precipices over
+which had flowed the even surface of the ocean, and then the height to
+climb again, again to find themselves on ledges and shelves of
+rocks&mdash;all these seemed at times hardly passable impediments. And when
+they got to a distance from what had been the shore, the unnatural place
+where they found themselves pressed upon the imagination. There was a
+plain of sand, about which at irregular distances rose rocks, which,
+north and south, stretched out beyond the reach of the eye; and this
+sand, which had been at such a depth that it never
+<span class="pagebreak" title="450">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450"></a>
+felt the influence
+of the waves, was covered in places with shells, the inhabitants of
+which had perished when the waters gradually dried away. There lay mixed
+with these some skeletons of fishes; here a huge heap, and there small
+bones which looked less terrible; and masses of sea-weed, dried and
+colourless, under which, as it seemed, the creeping things of the ocean
+had sheltered for a while, and some had crawled to the surface when
+about to perish. But it was not only the brute creation which had died
+here: there was in the middle a pile of rocks, on one side of which they
+came suddenly to a pit, so deep and dark that they perceived no bottom;
+and here probably there had been seawater longer than elsewhere, for
+there were human bones about it, and skulls of men, and human garbs,
+which the sun had faded, but which were not disturbed by waves. There
+was a cord and a metal jar attached to it, for lowering into the pit;
+but Paulett, as he looked at the attitudes of the remaining skeletons,
+and observed how they seemed distorted in death, fancied that they must
+have brought up either poisoned water, or waters so intensely salt as to
+drive them mad with the additional thirst; and that some had died on the
+instant, some had lingered, some had sought to succour others, and
+yielded sooner or later to the same influence. Ellen and he would not
+dwell on the sight after the first contemplation of it; they passed on,
+shuddering, and made toward the great wall of rock which they saw rising
+to the south, and which must be their way to the land of France. But
+before they reached it the sun began to decline, and without light it
+was in vain to attempt to seek a path. There was a wind keener than they
+had felt of late, which came from the west, and the little Alice pressed
+on her father&rsquo;s bosom to shield her from it. He wrapped her closer in a
+cloak, and they resolved to put themselves under the shelter of the
+first rock they reached, and pass the night in the channel of the sea.
+They pressed on, and found at last the place they sought; a cliff which
+must once have raised its head above the waves, and which now stood like
+some vast palace wall, bare and huge, upon the ocean sand. Screened from
+the wind, they collected an abundance of the dried vegetation of the
+sea, partly for warmth and to roast their corn, partly for Paulett to
+dissolve some of the diamonds into water; and here they rested, here
+they slept, many fathoms below that level over which navies used to
+sail. At times during the night Paulett fancied, when the wind abated,
+that he heard a sound like thunder, or like what used to be the rushing
+of a distant torrent; and occasionally he thought he felt a vibration in
+the earth as if it were shaken by some moving body. The region he was in
+was so strange that he knew not what might be here, or what about to
+happen; the sounds so imperfect that he tormented himself to be sure of
+them, or to be sure they were not; and when the time for action came he
+was beginning to disbelieve them altogether; but Alice brought all back
+again by saying, &ldquo;My rock&rdquo; (for her cradle was a rock) &ldquo;shook my head,
+father.&rdquo; The child could explain herself no further; but the vibration
+he had fancied seemed to be what she had felt. And now they climbed
+again, and again descended weary rock after rock; it was a strange
+chaos, which the tides had swept and moulded, and which had in places
+risen to the surface, and caused the wreck of many a vessel. Fragments
+of these lay under the rocks they had split upon, but the wandering
+family had no thoughts for them; wonder and pity had been exhausted
+among exciting and terrific scenes. They thought only of forcing their
+way over the rocks, and feared to think how much of this they had to
+traverse before they should come to what had been the shore, and to
+towns.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, as they toiled forward, Paulett said in a low voice to Ellen,
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you hear it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have heard it a long time,&rdquo; said Ellen in the same tone; and Charles
+stopping as well as they, said, &ldquo;Father, what is that?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell, my boy,&rdquo; said Paulett, listening.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Water?&rdquo; asked Ellen.</p>
+
+<p>Paulett shook his head, yet they all pressed forward, and there grew a
+thundering sullen sound. There was
+<span class="pagebreak" title="451">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451"></a>
+a valley and a ridge of rock before
+them, and they had to clamber first down the rugged precipice they were
+upon, then to cross the valley, and then to struggle up the opposite
+side, a trembling motion growing perceptible as they advanced, before
+they stood on a sort of broad ledge, which they perceived at the angles
+that jutted out, went down straight into a depth, and opposite which was
+another broad table-land of rock, between which and that they were upon
+was a rent, wider and narrower in various parts, and running along as
+far as they could see to right and left. Paulett rushed on to the brink,
+and stood looking. He put his hand out to keep Ellen back when he heard
+her close behind; but she also sprang to the edge, and when she had seen
+turned to catch Charles in her arms. Rushing past was a torrent, but not
+water. It was dark, thick, pitchy; it sent up hot steams to the edge: it
+was one of the secrets of nature, laid bare when the ocean was taken
+away. Fire seemed to be at work below, for occasionally it would boil
+with more violence, and rush on with an increased, increasing noise,
+then sullenly fall back to the first gloomy sound. It bewildered the
+sense; and though it could threaten no more than death, yet it was death
+with so many horrors around it, that the body and mind both shrank from
+it. How was it possible, too, to cross it? Yet their way lay over it;
+for behind was certain destruction, and before it was not yet proved
+impossible that they might find the element of water. Paulett felt that
+it would not do to linger on the brink; he drew his family away from the
+sight, and he himself went up and down to find some narrower place, and
+some means by which to make a bridge over the abyss; and it was not till
+their assistance could avail him that he returned for them, and brought
+them to the place where he hoped to get over. It was a fearful point,
+for in order to reach a space narrow enough to have a chance of throwing
+a plank over, it was necessary to go down the broken side of the
+precipice some twenty feet, and there, high above the seething lava, to
+cross on such a piece of wood as could be got to span the abyss, and
+then clamber up the rugged opposite side. Paulett had been down to the
+point he selected, and had got timber, which a wrecked vessel had
+supplied, to the edge, so that Ellen and Charles might push a plank down
+to him, and he might try, at least, to cast it to the opposite bank. His
+head was steady, his hand strong; no one of them spoke a word while he
+stood below, steadying himself to receive the plank. Ellen&rsquo;s weak arm
+grew powerful; her wit was ready with expedients, to aid him in this
+necessity. Her frame and spirit were strung to the very uttermost, and
+she was brave and silent, doing all that could be done. No word was
+spoken till Paulett said, &ldquo;I have done it;&rdquo; and Ellen and Charles had
+seen him place the plank, and secure it on his own side of the abyss
+with stones. Then they held their breath, beholding him cross it; but
+his firm foot carried him safely, and he heaped stones on the other side
+also. He came over again, sprang up the side, and now smiled and spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;After all it is but a mountain torrent, Ellen,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the water
+would have destroyed us like yonder seething flood; yet we have crossed
+many a one and feared nothing. Now Charles shall go over; then Alice,
+and he shall take care of her; and then my Ellen. The ground beyond is
+better; we shall get on well after this.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ellen took the girl in her arms, and stood, not trembling, not weeping;
+seeing and feeling every motion; all was safe that time again, Charles
+was on the opposite bank, and his father waved his hand to Ellen. He
+came back for Alice, whom her mother tied on his shoulders, for hands as
+well as feet were wanted to scramble down and up the banks. And now
+Ellen followed to the brink, and forgot, in watching her husband and
+child pass over, that the black torrent was seething beneath her eyes.
+When they were quite safe, she felt again that it was there, and that
+her eyes were growing dizzy, and her hands involuntarily grasping about
+for support. She did not take time to feel more, but sprang upon the
+plank, and
+<span class="pagebreak" title="452">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452"></a>
+over it, and found Paulett&rsquo;s hand seizing hers, and drawing
+her up the opposite bank.</p>
+
+<p>And once there, with all the three round her, she burst into
+tears&mdash;tears which had not overcome her through many miseries&mdash;and
+embracing them alternately, blessed them that they were all so far safe.
+Paulett suffered this emotion to spend itself before he said that he
+must cross the plank again. To be more at liberty to assist them, he had
+left the diamonds on the other side, till they should be over. Ellen
+offered no remonstrance. The times had so schooled them all, that
+selfish or unreasonable thoughts either did not come at all, or were
+suppressed at once; and she did not oppose, even with a word, this
+necessary step. But the renewal of fear, after the excited energy had
+subsided, did her more harm than all that had gone before; and she stood
+on the brink exhausted, yet palpitating again, while Paulett made the
+passage. He himself was wearied; but he had reached the plank, and was
+upon it on his way back to safety, when one of those ebullitions which
+stirred the dark fluid began roaring down the cleft rock, and with
+stunning noise sent up dark and clouding vapour. Paulett seemed
+suffocating&mdash;he could not be heard&mdash;he could but just be seen&mdash;he
+reeled! Has he fallen? Oh, he has fallen! No&mdash;no! he has got his footing
+again; he forces himself up the bank; he is safe&mdash;but the diamonds are
+in the bottom of the pit.</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter VI.</h4>
+
+<p>The exhausted family toiled with difficulty over the remaining passage
+to what had been the mainland, and reached a village on the former
+coast, under a roof of which they entered, and lay down on the floor of
+the first room they came to. Their supply of water was almost out; the
+materials for producing more were gone; and there seemed little chance
+of finding any in the neighbourhood. &ldquo;Death was here;&rdquo; and yet the
+exhaustion of their frames led them to sleep before they died, and to
+seek and enjoy a taste of that oblivion which was soon to fall upon them
+with an impenetrable shroud. All but Ellen were soon asleep; but she,
+the most wearied of all, could not close her eyes and admit rest to her
+overwrought frame. There was a burning thirst in her throat, which the
+small portion of water she and the rest had shared&mdash;being all that
+remained for them&mdash;had failed to slake. She had not complained of it;
+but she rejoiced when she heard them asleep, that she could rise and
+move restlessly about. The night was hot, and yet the west wind
+continued to blow strongly; the moon shone, but scarcely with so bright
+a light as usual&mdash;there was a film upon it, or perhaps, Ellen thought,
+it was the dimness of her own weary eyes. She came softly up to Paulett,
+and watched his frame, half naked in the unconsciousness of sleep, and
+upon which none of the ravages of want and exertion were now concealed.
+The flesh was wasted; the strong chest showed the bones of the skeleton;
+the arms which had so strained their powers were thin, and lay in an
+attitude of extreme exhaustion. His sleep was deep; his lips open; his
+eyelids blue; he would wake in want; and soon he would be able to sleep
+no more, till the last sleep of all came in torment and anguish. Poor
+Charles lay by him, his head on his father&rsquo;s body for a pillow, his
+limbs drawn somewhat together, his clusters of brown hair parted off his
+pale thin cheek; and Alice, the darling Alice, with more colour in her
+face than any of them, slept in deep repose, destined, perhaps, to live
+last, and to call in vain on those whose cares had hitherto kept her
+healthier and happier than themselves. The mother groaned with anguish;
+she measured what these were about to suffer, by all she began to suffer
+herself; and the sight of them seemed to sear the burning eyes which
+could no longer weep. She sat down on the floor by Alice; her head fell
+against the wall; she caught at a little rosary which hung near her, and
+pressed it in her mouth,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="453">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453"></a>
+the comparative coolness of the beads giving
+her a little ease; her face fell on her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>When Paulett woke out of his deep sleep, and as soon as he stirred, the
+little Alice came on tiptoe across the floor to him, and said, &ldquo;Hush,
+father! my mother is asleep at last.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;At last, my Alice! What! Could not she sleep?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think she could not sleep. I woke up, and there was my mother; and
+Charles woke presently, and she said Charles should go out and try to
+bring back some cold stones in a cup, and then presently she sat down
+again, and went to sleep.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He rose softly, and taking the little girl by the hand, came up to
+Ellen&rsquo;s side, and looked upon her. She was lying at full length on the
+floor; her head was toward him, but her face was turned upon the ground,
+and her hair further hid it; her right arm was fallen forward, and the
+back of that hand lay in the palm of the other. He did not hear nor see
+her breathe. &ldquo;Is it so, my Ellen?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Art thou at rest? Is there
+no farewell for me?&rdquo; He kneeled and stooped lower and lower. His lip did
+not venture to feel hers; he longed that she might be free, yet shrank
+from knowing that she was gone. But no; she had not ceased to suffer; a
+low sigh came at last, and her parched mouth opened.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Water!&rdquo; she said; then lifted her eyes and saw Paulett, and remembered
+all by degrees. &ldquo;Is not there a little? Oh, no&mdash;none! Nay, I shall not
+want it soon!&rdquo; She turned her face on Paulett&rsquo;s breast, and soon after
+tried to rise and push herself from him. &ldquo;Leave me, dear husband; kiss
+me once, and leave me; try to save <i>them</i>!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Paulett folded his arms round her. &ldquo;Not so, my Ellen; the chances of
+life are so little, that it is lawful for me to give them up, unless we
+can all seek them together. Alas! all I can do is but to see thee die!
+Oh, if I could give thee one minute&rsquo;s ease!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Alas! you must all die like this,&rdquo; said Ellen, who was perishing like
+one of the flowers that had died in the drought for want of rain. Water
+would have saved that life, spared those sufferings. That burning hand,
+those gasping lips, those anxious eyes, revealed what the spirit passing
+away in that torment would fain have concealed. &ldquo;Alice, come near me;
+hold my hand, Alice. Are you thirsty, poor child? Oh, do not grieve your
+father! It will be but a short time, my little girl&mdash;be patient.&rdquo; Ellen
+tried to kiss her; her husband kneeled and raised her head on his
+shoulder, bending his face on her forehead, and murmuring the last
+farewell&mdash;the last thanks&mdash;the agony of his pity for her suffering. The
+poor child threw herself on her mother, gazing upward in want, and
+grief, and bewilderment, in her face. &ldquo;My Charles,&rdquo; said the mother,
+feeling about with the other hand, but she did not find his head to
+bless it. &ldquo;My Charles,&rdquo; she repeated in a fainter tone, and her eyelids
+drooped over the hot eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Paulett saw nothing but his suffering wife, heard nothing except her
+painful breath. At that moment the door opened, and Charles stood there,
+paler than ever, with glittering eyes. He held the cup towards his
+father. &ldquo;Father,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;there is water coming down from heaven!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Paulett looked up and cried, &ldquo;O God, it rains!&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="454">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454"></a>
+A TENDER CONSCIENCE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I have a story to tell you, my dear Eusebius, of a tender conscience. It
+will please you; for you delight to extract good out of evil, and find
+something ever to say in favour of the &ldquo;poor wretches of this world&rsquo;s
+coinage,&rdquo; as you call them; thus gently throwing half their errors, and
+scattering them among a pretty large society to be responsible for them;
+provided only they be wretches by confession, that dare not hide
+themselves in hypocrisy. In all such cases you show that you were born
+with the genius of a beadle, and (strange conjunction) the tenderest of
+hearts. I believe that you would stand an hour at a pillory, and see
+full justice done to a delinquent of that caste; and would as willingly,
+in your own person, receive the missiles that you would attempt to ward
+off from the contrite wretch, whose sins might not have been woefully
+against human kindness. Could you choose your seat in the eternal
+mansions, it would be among the angels that rejoice over one sinner that
+repenteth. You can distinguish in another the feeblest light of
+conscience that ever dimly burned, and see in it the germ of a beautiful
+light, that may one day, by a little fanning and fostering, shine as a
+star, and shed a vital heat that may set the machinery of the heart in
+motion to throw off glorious actions. But let not the man that shams a
+conscience come in your way. I have seen you play off such an one till
+he has burst forth&mdash;up, up, up, aiming at the skies, nothing less, in
+his self-glorification; and how have you despised him, and exhibited him
+to all bystanders as nothing but a poor stick in his descent! These
+human rockets are at their best but falling stars&mdash;cinders incapable of
+being rekindled. Commend me to the modest glow-worms, that shine only
+when they think the gazing world is asleep, and dwell in green hedges,
+and fancy themselves invisible to all eyes but those of love.</p>
+
+<p>There are persons, and of grave judgments too, who verily believe that
+the quantity of conscience amongst mankind is not worth speaking of, and
+treat of human actions as entirely independent of it. And this fault
+honest Montaigne finds with Guicciardini:&mdash;&ldquo;I have also,&rdquo; says he,
+&ldquo;observed this in him, that of so many persons and so many effects, so
+many motives and so many counsels as he judges of, he never attributes
+any one of them to virtue, religion, or conscience, as if all those were
+utterly extinct in the world; and of all the actions, however brave an
+outward show they make, he always throws the cause and motive upon some
+vicious occasion, or some prospect of profit. It is impossible to
+imagine but that, amongst such an infinite number of actions as he makes
+mention of, there must be some one produced by the way of reason. No
+corruption could so universally have affected men, that some of them
+would not have escaped the contagion, which makes me suspect that his
+own taste was vicious; from whence it might happen that he judged other
+men by himself.&rdquo; You, Eusebius, will be perfectly of Montaigne&rsquo;s
+opinion. We would rather trust that there are few in whom this moral
+principle has no vitality whatever. The wayside beggar, when he divides
+his meal&mdash;which, perhaps, he has stolen&mdash;with his dog, acts from its
+kind impulse; and see how uncharitable I am at my first impulse, to
+suppose, to suggest that the meal is stolen&mdash;so ready are we to steal
+away virtues, one after the other, and in our judgments to be thieves
+upon a large scale. And so a better feeling pricks me to charity. I
+doubt if we ought even to say that the parliamentary reprobate, who
+openly confessed &ldquo;that he could not afford to keep a conscience,&rdquo; had
+none&mdash;he was but dead to some of its motions. If it were not that it
+must be something annexed to an immortal condition, would you not,
+Eusebius, say that the beggar&rsquo;s dog conscientiously makes his return of
+service and gratitude for the scraps thrown to him? See him by the
+gipsies&rsquo; tent: how safely can the infant children be left to his sole
+care by the roadside! It is a beautiful sight to see the sagacious, the
+faithful creature, watching
+<span class="pagebreak" title="455">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455"></a>
+while they sleep, and lying upon the outer
+fold of the blanket that enwraps them. Has he not a sense of duty&mdash;a
+sort of bastard conscience? And what is truly wonderful, is, that
+animals have often a sense of duty against their instincts. If it be
+said that they act through fear of punishment, it is a punishment their
+instincts would teach them to avoid; and, after all, this fear of
+punishment may be a mighty ingredient in most men&rsquo;s consciences. We
+learn that immense numbers of ducks are reared by that part of the
+Chinese population who spend their lives in boats upon the rivers; and
+these birds, salted and dried, form one of the chief articles of diet in
+the celestial land. They are kept in large cages or crates, from which,
+in the morning, they are sent forth to seek their food upon the river
+banks. A whistle from their keeper brings them back in the evening; and
+as, according to Tradescent Lay, the last to return receives a flogging
+for his tardiness, their hurry to get back to the boats, when they hear
+the accustomed call, is in no small degree amusing. I cannot but think
+that there must be something like a sense of duty in these poor
+creatures, that they thus of themselves, and of good-will return to the
+certainty of being salted and dried. This may sound very ridiculous,
+Eusebius, but there is matter in it to muse upon; and if we want to know
+man, we must speculate a little beyond him, and learn him by similities
+and differences. He has best knowledge of his own home and country who
+has wandered into a <i>terra incognita</i>, and studied the differences of
+soil and climate. And besides that every man is a world to himself, and
+may find a <i>terra incognita</i> in his own breast, it is not amiss to look
+abroad into other wildernesses, where he will find instincts that are
+not so much any creature&rsquo;s but that they have something divine in them,
+and so, in their origin at least, akin to his own. He will find
+conscience of some sort growing in the soil of every heart. It is not
+amiss to discover where it grows most healthily, and by what deadly
+nightshade its virtue may be suffocated, and its nicer sense not thrive.</p>
+
+<p>Surprising is the diversity;&mdash;were not nature corrupted, there would be
+no diversity. Now, truth and right is one; and yet we judge not one
+thing, we think not aright. Yet is the original impulse true to its
+purpose, but, in its passage through the many channels of the mind, is
+strangely perverted. It is eloquently said by a modern writer, a deep
+thinker, &ldquo;Thus does the conscience of man project itself athwart
+whatsoever of knowledge, or surmise, or imagination, understanding,
+faculty, acquirement, or natural disposition he has in him; and, like
+light through coloured glass, paint strange pictures on the rim of the
+horizon and elsewhere. Truly this same sense of the infinite nature of
+duty, is the central part of all within us; a ray as of eternity and
+immortality immured in dusky many-coloured Time, and its deaths and
+births. Your coloured glass varies so much from century to century&mdash;and
+in certain money-making, game-preserving centuries, it gets terribly
+opaque. Not a heaven with cherubim surrounds you then, but a kind of
+vacant, leaden, cold hell. One day it will again cease to be opaque,
+this coloured glass; now, may it not become at once translucent and
+uncoloured? Painting no pictures more for us, but only the everlasting
+azure itself. That will be a right glorious consummation.&rdquo; If it were
+only the painting pictures! but we act the painted scenes. And strange
+they are, and of diversity enough. It was the confession of an apostle,
+that he &ldquo;thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary&rdquo;
+to his master. There are national consciences how unlike each other;
+there are consciences of tribes and guilds, which, strange to say,
+though they be composed of individuals, bear not the stamp of any one
+individual conscience among them. They apologise to themselves for
+iniquity by a division and subdivision of the responsibility; and thus,
+by each owning to but a little share collectively, they commit a great
+enormity. It is the whole and sole responsibility of the individual,
+responsibility to that inner arbiter sitting <i>foro conscienti&aelig;</i>, and the
+sight of those frowning attendants of the court, Nemesis and Adraste,
+ready with the scourge to follow crime,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="456">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456"></a>
+that keep the man honest. Put
+not confidence, Eusebius, in bodies, in guilds, and committees. Trust
+not to them property or person; they may be all individually good
+Samaritans, but collectively they will rather change places with the
+thieves than bind up your wounds. In this matter, &ldquo;Experto crede
+Roberto.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But of this diversity.&mdash;The Turk will split his sides with laughter,
+against the very nature, too, of his Turkish gravity, should he witness
+the remorse of the subdued polygamist. We read of nations who, from a
+sense of duty, eat their parents, and would shudder at the crime of
+burying them in the earth, or burning them. So is there a cannibalism of
+love as well as of hatred. Sinbad&rsquo;s terror at the duty of being buried
+alive with his deceased wife, the king&rsquo;s daughter, was no invention
+beyond the probability of custom. The Scythians, as Herodotus tells us,
+thought it an honourable act and no <i>murders</i> committed, when they
+slaughtered the king&rsquo;s councillors and officers of state, and guards and
+their horses, on which they stuck them upright by skewers, to be in
+death the king&rsquo;s attendants. The suttee is still thought no wrong. There
+is habit of thought that justifies habit of deed. Southey, in his
+<i>History of the Brazils</i>, tells a sad tale of a dying <i>converted</i>
+Indian. In her dying moments, cannibalism prevailed over Christian
+conscience; and was the Pagan conscience silent? She was asked by those
+standing about her, if they could do any thing for her. She replied,
+that she thought she <i>could</i> pick the bones of a little child&rsquo;s hand,
+but that she had no one now who would go and kill her one. I dare to
+say, Eusebius, she died in peace. The greater part of the world die in
+peace. Their conscience may be the first part of then that departs&mdash;it
+is dead before the man&mdash;most say, I have done no harm. I have known a
+man die in the very effort of triumphant chuckling over his unfortunate
+neighbours, by his successful fraud and over-reaching; yet, perhaps,
+this man&rsquo;s conscience was only dead as to any sense of right and wrong
+in this particular line; very possibly he had &ldquo;compunctious visitings&rdquo;
+about &ldquo;mint and cumine&rdquo;&mdash;and oh! human inconsistency, some such have
+been known to found hospitals&mdash;some spark of conscience working its way
+into the very rottenness of their hearts, that, like tinder, have let
+out all their kindred and latent fire, till that moment invisible, all
+but <i>in posse</i> non-existent. But for any thing like a public conscience
+so kindling since the repentance of the Ninevites, it is not to be
+thought of. The pretence of such a thing is a sign of the last state of
+national hypocrisy. It was not that sense which emancipated the Negroes
+and forbade the slave trade. Take, for example, the Portuguese, and
+their &ldquo;board of conscience&rdquo; at Lisbon, which they set up to quiet the
+remorse, if any should exist, of those who had bought the miserable
+natives of Reoxcave, when they sold themselves and their children for
+food. This very convenient scruple was started in &ldquo;the court, to
+sanction the purchase, that if these so purchased slaves were set free,
+they might <i>apostatize</i>!&rdquo; Now, who were the judges in such a court? Oh!
+the villany of the whole conclave!&mdash;yet was each individual, perhaps, of
+demure and sanctimonious manners, to whom the moral eye of a people
+looked&mdash;villains all in the guise of goodness:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Vir bonus, omne forum quem spectat et omne tribunal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Quandocuncque Deos vel porco vel bove placat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jane Pater, clare, clare, cum dixit, Apollo,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Labra movet metuens audiri&mdash;Pulchra Laverna,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We are told that there is such a disease as a cannibal madness, and that
+it was common among the North American savages; that those seized with
+it have a raving desire for human flesh, and rush like wolves upon all
+they meet. Now, in what was this court of conscience better than these
+cannibals? Better! a thousand times worse&mdash;for wolves are honest. Now
+<span class="pagebreak" title="457">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457"></a>
+I
+well know, Eusebius, how I have put a coal under the very fountain of
+your blood&mdash;and it is boiling at a fine rate. Let me allay it, and
+follow the stage directions of &ldquo;soft music;&rdquo; only on this occasion we
+omit the music, and take the rhyme. So here do I exhibit conscience in
+its playful vein. Our friend S., the other day, repeated me off the
+following lines; he cannot remember where he had them&mdash;he says it was
+when a boy that he met with them somewhere. Call it the Conscientious
+Toper; yet that is too common&mdash;it is the characteristic of all
+topers&mdash;never was one that could not find an excuse. Drink wonderfully
+elicits moral words, to compound for immoral deeds. Call it then&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<h4>The Controversy.</h4>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No plate had John and Joan to hoard&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Plain folks in humble plight&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One only tankard graced their board,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But that was fill&rsquo;d each night;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Upon whose inner bottom, sketch&rsquo;d<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In pride of chubby grace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some rude engraver&rsquo;s hand had etch&rsquo;d<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A baby angel&rsquo;s face.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">John took at first a moderate sup&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But Joan was not like John&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For when her lips once touch&rsquo;d the cup,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">She swill&rsquo;d till all was gone.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">John often urged her to drink fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But she cared not a jot&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She loved to see that angel there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And therefore drain&rsquo;d the pot.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When John found all remonstrance vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Another card he play&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And where the angel stood so plain<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">He had a devil portray&rsquo;d.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Joan saw the horns, Joan saw the tail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet still she stoutly quaff&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And when her lips once touch&rsquo;d the ale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">She clear&rsquo;d it at a draught.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">John stood with wonder petrified,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">His hair stood on his pate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;And why dost guzzle now,&rdquo; he cried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&ldquo;At that enormous rate?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Oh, John!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not to blame&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I <i>can&rsquo;t in conscience</i> stop&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For sure &rsquo;twould be a burning shame<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To leave the devil a drop.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Changeable, versatile, inconstant Eusebius, where is now your burst of
+philanthropy&mdash;where is all your rage? Pretty havoc you would but now
+have made, had you been armed with thunder&mdash;thunder, I say, for yours
+would have been no silent devastation among the villains. No Warnerian
+silent blazeless destruction would suit your indignation&mdash;in open day,
+and with a shout, would you do it, and in such wise would you suffer, if
+needs must,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="458">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458"></a>
+with Ajax&rsquo;s prayer in your
+mouth&mdash;&ldquo;<span class="translit" title="En de Phaei kai olesson">&#917;&#957;
+&#948;&#949; &#934;&#945;&#949;&#953;
+&#954;&#945;&#953; &#959;&#955;&#949;&#963;&#963;&#959;&#957;</span>.&rdquo; But for a grand picture of a sweeping indignation, there is
+nothing so grand as that fine passage in the Psalms&mdash;&ldquo;Let them be as the
+dust before the wind, and the angel of the Lord scattering them.&rdquo; Men
+and all their iniquities, once so mighty, so vast, but as grains less
+than grains of dust&mdash;all the clouds of hypocrisy dispersed in atoms
+before the fury of the storm of vengeance. You were, as you read,
+Eusebius, in honest rage. I could see you as in a picture, like the
+figure with the scourge in hand flying off the very ground, in
+Raffaelle&rsquo;s noble fresco, the Heliodorus; and now are you far more like
+a merryandrew in your mirth, and the quaint sly humour of the tale in
+verse has made you blind to the delinquencies of the quaffing Joan.
+Blind to their delinquencies! Stay your mirth a moment, Eusebius&mdash;are
+you not blind to your own? Now I remember me, you are a thief, Eusebius,
+however you may have settled that matter with your conscience. Have you
+read the proposed &ldquo;Dog-bill?&rdquo; Here&rsquo;s a pretty to do!&mdash;Eusebius convicted
+of dog-stealing&mdash;subject to the penalty of misdemeanour! &ldquo;I!&rdquo; you will
+say. Yes, you. You put it down, doubtless, in the catalogue of your
+virtues, as you did when you boasted to me that you had, by a lucky
+detection in probably the criminal&rsquo;s first offence, saved a
+fellow-creature from a course of crime. Do you remember your dog Chance?
+yes, <i>your</i> dog, for so you called him&mdash;and, pray, how came you by him?
+This was your version. A regiment was marching by your neighbourhood, at
+the fag-end of which a soldier led a very fine spaniel by a piece of
+cord. You always loved dogs&mdash;did you not, you cunning Eusebius? You can
+put two and two together as well as most people. The dog had no collar.
+Oh, oh! thought you&mdash;the master of so fine a dog would have collar and
+chain, too, for him. This fellow must have stolen him&mdash;it is my duty
+(your virtuous duty, indeed) to rescue this fine creature, and perchance
+save this wretched man from such wicked courses. So thus you
+proceed&mdash;you look indignant, and accost the soldier, &ldquo;Holloa, you
+fellow&mdash;whose dog&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; Soldier&mdash;&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that to you?&rdquo;
+Eusebius&mdash;&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the name of your captain, that I may instantly appeal
+to him on the subject?&rdquo; Soldier alarmed&mdash;&ldquo;I beg your honour&rsquo;s pardon,
+but the dog followed me. I don&rsquo;t know to whom he belongs.&rdquo; What made
+you, then, so particularly enquire where he came from, and whereabouts
+he met with him? Your virtue whispered to you, &ldquo;Ask these questions,
+that you may be able to find out the owner.&rdquo; Another imp whispered, &ldquo;It
+might be useful.&rdquo; So you seize the rope, lecture the man upon the
+enormity of his intentions, quietly take the dog to your stable, and
+walk away with, as you flatter yourself, the heartfelt satisfaction of
+having saved a fellow-creature from the commission of a theft. To do you
+justice, you did, I verily believe, for two whole days make decent
+enquiries, and <i>endeavour</i>, if that be not too strong a
+word&mdash;<i>endeavour</i> to find out the owner. But at the close of every day
+you thought proper to question Rover himself; and questioning Rover led
+you to look into each other&rsquo;s faces&mdash;and so you liked Rover&rsquo;s looks, and
+Rover liked your looks&mdash;and when you said to Rover, I should like to
+know who your master is? Rover looked with all his eyes, as much as to
+say, &ldquo;Well now, if ever I heard the like of that! If my name is Rover,
+yours must be Bouncer&rdquo;&mdash;then you patted him for a true and truth-telling
+dog; and he wagged his tail, and looked again at you, till you perfectly
+mesmerized each other, and understood each other, and he acknowledged
+that you, and no other, could be his master&mdash;and so you mastered him,
+and he mastered your conscience&mdash;and then you and your conscience began
+to have a parley. I fear you had sent her to a bad boarding-school, and
+had just brought her home for the holidays, with a pretty many more
+niceties and distinctions than she took with her&mdash;and had come back
+&ldquo;more nice than wise.&rdquo; &ldquo;Have you found the owner?&rdquo; quoth she. &ldquo;It is
+time he were found,&rdquo; replied you. &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; quoth she. &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; you
+rejoin, &ldquo;the shooting season is fast approaching.&rdquo; &ldquo;That is true.&rdquo; &ldquo;The
+dog will be spoiled for want of practice.&rdquo; &ldquo;That will be a pity.&rdquo; &ldquo;Thank
+you, conscience&mdash;won
+&rsquo;t
+<span class="pagebreak" title="459">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459"></a>
+it be a sin?&rdquo; Conscience is silent, so you take
+that for granted. &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t I better take out a license this year?&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh!
+it wouldn&rsquo;t be right you should go without one.&rdquo; &ldquo;Certainly not,
+(somewhat boldly;) I <i>will</i> get my license directly. Poor
+Rover!&mdash;well&mdash;how very fond that dog is of me&mdash;it would be highly
+ungrateful not to make a return even to a dog. I ought to be fond of
+him. I&mdash;am&mdash;very fond of him.&rdquo; Then you confess, Eusebius, that you
+should be very sorry to part with him. Conscience says, &ldquo;Do you mean to
+say you should be sorry to find out the real owner?&rdquo; &ldquo;Really,
+conscience,&rdquo; you reply, &ldquo;there can be no harm in being sorry; but you
+are becoming very impertinent, and asking too many questions.&rdquo; Here
+conscience nods&mdash;is asleep&mdash;is in a coma, Eusebius&mdash;fairly mesmerized by
+you, and follows you at your beck wherever you choose to lead her. And
+so you take her to your stable to look at Rover: and you want a
+suggestion how you can stop Rover&rsquo;s wandering propensities; and
+conscience, being in a state of <i>clairvoyance</i>, bids you tie him up. You
+ask how&mdash;&ldquo;by the teeth;&rdquo; so you order him a good plate of meat inside,
+your stable-door locked, and you replenish that plate for a week or
+more, and have a few conferences with Rover in your parlour&mdash;and the dog
+is tied. Then you didn&rsquo;t like the name of Rover&mdash;but liked Chance.
+Conscience suggested the name as a palliative, as something between true
+proprietorship and theft&mdash;it gave you a protective right, and took away
+the sting of the possession. You fortified yourself in this position, as
+cunningly as the French at Tahiti. But how happened it, Eusebius, that
+when any friend asked you if you had found the owner, you turned off the
+subject always so ingeniously, or denied that you had a Rover, but one
+Chance, certainly a fine dog?&mdash;and how came it that you never took him
+in the direction of the country from whence the regiment had come? And
+yet, if the truth could be known, would it not turn out, Eusebius, that
+fears did often come across your pleasures, and your affection for
+Chance? and had a child but asked you, as you might have been crossing a
+stile, in quest, with Chance before you, as you did the soldier, &ldquo;whose
+dog&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; you would have stammered a little&mdash;and almost, in your
+affection, have gone down upon your knees to have begged him as a gift;
+and it is fearful to think what a sum any knave as cunning as yourself
+had been, would have got out of you. Now, my dear Eusebius, I entreat
+you, when you shall read or hear read&mdash;&ldquo;Is thy servant a dog, that he
+should do this thing,&rdquo; that you think of Chance, and not of <i>his doing</i>,
+but <i>yours</i>. I dare to say, you have never quite looked at the affair in
+this light; we all are apt to wash our hands of a troublesome affair,
+and think we come with them clean into court.</p>
+
+<p>Take care you don&rsquo;t resemble the monkey with the meal-tub. His master
+thrashed him when he caught him at the theft, and showed him his hands
+covered with meal, that he might understand the reason of his
+punishment. Monkey, after the next theft, took care to wash his hands,
+and when his master came to punish him, extended them to show how clean
+they were. His master smiled, and immediately brought him a
+looking-glass&mdash;his face and whiskers were powdered with meal: and there
+you have the origin of the adage, &ldquo;You have washed your hands but not
+your face.&rdquo; There will still be a monitor, Eusebius, to hold the
+looking-glass to you, and the like of you: and look to your face; and
+whenever you find that you have <i>put a good face</i> upon any doubtful
+matter, take the trouble then to look at your hands; and if they be
+clean, look again and see if your face and hands are clean together. And
+that will be the best <i>tableau-vivant</i> you or any one else can study.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, that conscience seems so thoroughly gone to the dogs,
+without any personal allusion to your case, Eusebius, I cannot resist
+telling you an anecdote by which you will see how Neighbour Grace of
+M&mdash;&mdash;n ingeniously touched the conscience of Attorney B., who was
+supposed to have none&mdash;upon the matter of a dog-theft, and how Attorney
+B. was a match for Neighbour Grace.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am come to thee, Friend B.,&rdquo; said Grace, &ldquo;to ask thee a question.
+Suppose my dog should go into thy kitchen, and run off with a neck of
+<span class="pagebreak" title="460">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460"></a>
+mutton, dost thee think I ought to pay thee for the neck of mutton?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Without doubt,&rdquo; said Lawyer B.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then I&rsquo;d thank thee to pay me three and fourpence; for it was thy dog
+stole my neck of mutton, and that&rsquo;s the cost of it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perfectly right,&rdquo; said Attorney B., coolly drawing out a bill and
+receipt. &ldquo;So, Neighbour Grace, you must pay me three and fourpence, and
+that settles the matter.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How so?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, as you asked my opinion, my charge for that is six and
+eightpence&mdash;deduct value of neck of mutton, three and fourpence, and
+just so much remains.&rdquo; And Lawyer B. got the best of it, and made him
+pay too. Now this it was to probe another&rsquo;s conscience, without knowing
+the nature of the beast you stir up; not considering that when
+conscience thus comes down, as it were, with &ldquo;a power of attorney,&rdquo; it
+is powerful indeed&mdash;&ldquo;recalcitrat undique tutus.&rdquo; There are many such big
+swelling consciences, that grow up and cover the whole man&mdash;like the
+gourd of Jonah, up in a night and down in a night&mdash;a fine shelter for a
+time from the too-searching sun; but there is a <i>worm</i> in it, Eusebius,
+and it won&rsquo;t last.</p>
+
+<p>It is a very odd thing that people commonly think they can have their
+consciences at command, and can set them as they do their watches, and
+it is generally behind time: yet will they go irregularly, and sometimes
+all of a run; and when they come to set them again, they will bear no
+sort of regulation. Some set them as they would an alarum, to awaken
+them at a given time; and when this answers at all, they are awakened in
+such an amazement that they know not what they are about. Such was the
+case with the notorious Parisian pawnbroker, who all in a hurry sent for
+the priest; but when the crucifix was presented to him, stammered out
+that he could lend but a very small matter upon it. So consciences go by
+latitudes and longitudes&mdash;slow here and fast there. They have, too,
+their antipodes&mdash;it is night here and sunshine there. And so of ages and
+eras: and thus the same things make men laugh and tremble by turns. What
+unextinguishable laughter would arise should Dr Howley, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, go in procession with his clergy to Windsor, each armed with
+scissors, to clip the moustaches of the prince and his court! Yet a like
+absurdity has in other days pricked the consciences of king and
+courtiers to a sudden and bitter remorse. I read the other day in that
+very amusing volume, the <i>Literary Conglomerate</i>, in an &ldquo;Essay on Hair,&rdquo;
+how Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, went so far as to pronounce an
+anathema of excommunication on all who wore long hair, for which pious
+zeal he was much commended; and how &ldquo;Serlo, a Norman bishop, acquired
+great honour by a sermon which he preached before Henry I. in 1104,
+against long curled hair, with which the king and his courtiers were so
+much affected, that they consented to resign their flowing ringlets of
+which they had been so vain. The prudent prelate gave them no time to
+change their minds, but immediately pulled a pair of shears out of his
+sleeve, and performed the operation with his own hand.&rdquo; A canon is still
+extant, of the date of 1096, importing that such as wore long hair
+should be excluded from the church whilst living, or being prayed for
+when dead. Now, the very curates rejoice in ringlets and macassar. It
+would be curious to trace the heresy to its complete triumph in
+full-bottomed wigs, in which, it was ignorantly supposed, wisdom finally
+settled, when it was not discovered elsewhere. Thus it is, Eusebius,
+that folly, the vile insect, flies about&mdash;just drops a few eggs in the
+very nest of conscience, and is off, and a corruption of the flesh
+followeth. Those, therefore, who take out license to shoot folly as it
+flies, should be made to look after the eggs likewise.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, Eusebius, that any thing should take the name of this nice sense
+that is not replete with goodness, that is not the true <i>ductor
+substantium</i>! The prophet of an evil which wounds his very soul will
+take offence if it come not to pass and spare not. Was not Jonah grieved
+that the whole city was not destroyed as he had said? That nice and
+inner sense was more ingenious on the side of bold justice, than
+prodigal to mercy;
+<span class="pagebreak" title="461">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461"></a>
+and so had he not &ldquo;a conscience void of offence;&rdquo;
+and thus this honourable feeling not always acts unfettered, but is
+intercepted and hurried on, spite of itself, into courses of action in
+which there is too much of passion, and, plunging into error with this
+outward violence, is forced upon ingenious defences. The story of Piso
+is in point. He thought to act the conscientious judge, when he
+condemned the soldier to death who had returned from forage without his
+companion, under the impression that he had killed him; but as he is
+upon the point of execution, the man supposed to have been murdered
+returns, all the soldiery present rejoice, and the executioner brings
+them both to the presence of Piso. And what did the conscientious Piso?
+His conscience would not so let him put by justice; so, with a
+surprising ingenuity of that nice faculty in its delirium, he orders
+execution upon all three&mdash;the first soldier, because he had been
+condemned&mdash;the second, who had lost his way, because he was the cause of
+his companion&rsquo;s death&mdash;and the executioner, because he had disobeyed his
+orders. He had but to pretend to be greatly grieved at his vagary, to
+have the act lauded as an instance of Roman virtue. I look upon the
+famed Brutus, when he thought it a matter of conscience to witness, as
+well as order, his sons&rsquo; execution, to have been a vain unfeeling fool
+or a madman. Let us have no prate about conscience proceeding from a
+hard heart; these are frightful notions when they become infectious. A
+handful of such madmen are enough, if allowed to have their way, to
+enact the horrors of a French Revolution. All this you know, Eusebius,
+better than I do, and will knit your brows at this too serious vein of
+thought. I will come, therefore, a little nearer our common homes. You
+shall have a scene from domestic life, as I had it the other day, from a
+lady with whom I was conversing upon this subject, who tells me it is a
+veritable fact, and took place some seventy years back. &ldquo;It will want
+its true power,&rdquo; said my friend, &ldquo;because that one solitary trait could
+give you no idea of the rich humour of the lady, the subject of this
+incident&mdash;her simplicity, shrewdness, art, ignorance, quickness,
+mischief, made lovely by exceeding beauty, and a most amusing
+consciousness of it. Seventy years ago, too, it happened&mdash;there are no
+such ladies in the better ranks of society now. She lived at Margate. It
+came to pass that the topping upholsterer there got a new-shaped chest
+of drawers from London&mdash;the very first that had appeared in Margate&mdash;and
+gave madam, she being one of the high top-families, the first sight of
+it. With the article she fell in love, and entreated her husband to buy
+it; but the sensible gentleman, having his house capitally and fully
+furnished, would not. The lady still longed, but had not money enough to
+make the purchase&mdash;begged to have her <i>quarter</i> advanced. This was not
+granted. She pouted a little, and then, like a wise woman, made up her
+mind to be disappointed, and resumed her more than wonted cheerfulness;
+but, alas! she was a daughter of Eve, as it will be seen. Christmas-day
+came&mdash;it was the invariable custom of the family to receive the
+sacrament. Before church-time she sent for her husband. She had a sin on
+her conscience&mdash;she must confess before she could go to the altar. Her
+husband was surprised. &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; &ldquo;You must promise not to be very
+angry.&rdquo; &ldquo;But what is it? Have you broken my grandmother&rsquo;s china
+tea-pot?&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh! worse than that.&rdquo; &ldquo;Have you thrown a bank-note in the
+fire?&rdquo; &ldquo;Worse than that.&rdquo; &ldquo;Have you run in debt to your abominable
+smuggling lace-woman?&rdquo; &ldquo;Worse than that.&rdquo; &ldquo;Woman!&rdquo; quoth he sternly, and
+taking down an old broadsword that hung over the chimney-piece, &ldquo;confess
+this instant;&rdquo; and he gave the weapon a portentous flourish. &ldquo;Oh! dear
+Richard, don&rsquo;t kill me, and I&rsquo;ll tell you all at once. Then I, (sob,) I,
+(sob,) have cribbed (sob) out of the house-money every week to buy that
+chest of drawers, and you&rsquo;ve had bad dinners and suppers this month for
+it; and (sobbing) that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo; He could just keep his countenance to
+say&mdash;&ldquo;And where have you hid this accursed thing?&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh, Richard! I have
+never been able to use it; for I have covered it over with a blanket
+ever since I had it, for fear of your seeing it. Oh! pray, forgive me!&rdquo;
+<span class="pagebreak" title="462">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462"></a>
+You need not be told how she went to church with a &ldquo;clean breast,&rdquo; as
+the saying is. It is an unadorned fact. Her husband used to tell it
+every merry Christmas to his old friend-guests.&rdquo; Here you have the
+story, Eusebius, as I had it thus dramatically (for I could not mend it)
+from the lips of the narrator.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your fault or your virtue, Eusebius, that you positively love
+these errors of human nature? You ever say, you have no sympathy with or
+for a perfect monster&mdash;if such there be&mdash;which you deny, and aver that
+if you detect not the blot, it is but too well covered; and by that very
+covering, for aught you know to the contrary, may be all blot. You would
+have catalogued this good lady among your &ldquo;right estimable and lovely
+women!&rdquo; and if you did not think that chest of drawers must be an
+heirloom in the family, you would set about many odd means to get
+possession of it. Yet I do verily believe that there are brutes that
+would not have forgiven in their wives this error&mdash;that would argue
+thus, You may sin, madam, against your Maker; but you shall not sin
+against me. Is there not a story somewhere, of a wretched vagabond at
+the confessional&mdash;dreadful were the crimes for which he was promised
+absolution; but after all his compunctions, contortions, self-cursings,
+breast-beatings, hand-wringings, out came the sin of sins&mdash;he had once
+spit by accident upon the priest&rsquo;s robe, though he only meant to spit
+upon the altar steps. Unpardonable offence! Never-to-be-forgiven wretch!
+His life could not atone for it. And what had the friars, blue and grey,
+been daily, hourly doing? You have been in Italy, Eusebius.</p>
+
+<p>I have not yet told you the story for the telling which I began this
+letter; and why I have kept it back I know not&mdash;it is not for the
+importance of it; for it is of a poor simple creature. But I must stay
+my hand from it again; for here has one passed before my window that can
+have no conscience. It is a great booby&mdash;six foot man-boy of about
+nineteen years. He has just stalked by with his insect-catcher on his
+shoulder; the fellow has been with his green net into the innocent
+fields, to catch butterflies and other poor insects. Many an hour have I
+seen you, Eusebius, with your head half-buried in the long blades of
+grass and pleasant field-weeds, partially edged by the slanting and
+pervading sunbeams, while the little stream has played its song of
+varied gentleness, watching the little insect world, and the golden
+beetles climbing up the long stalks, performing wondrous feats for your
+and their own amusement&mdash;for your delight was to participate in all
+their pleasures; and some would, with a familiarity that made you feel
+akin to all about you, walk over the page of the book you were reading,
+and look up, and pause, and trust their honest legs upon your hand,
+confiding that there was one human creature that would not hurt them.
+Think of those hours, my gentle friend, and consider the object for
+which that wretch of a booby is out. How many of your playmates has he
+stuck through with pins, upon which they are now writhing! And when the
+wretch goes home murder-laden, his parents or guardians will greet him
+as a most amiable and sweet youth, who wouldn&rsquo;t for the world misspend
+his time as other boys do, but is ever on the search after knowledge;
+and so they swagger and boast of his love of entomology. I&rsquo;d rather my
+children should grow up like cucumbers&mdash;more to belly than head&mdash;than
+have these scientific curiosity-noddles upon their poles of bodies, that
+haven&rsquo;t room for hearts, and look cold and cruel, like the pins they
+stick through the poor moths and butterflies, and all innocent insects.
+Good would it be to hear you lecture the parents of these heartless
+bodies for their bringing up, and picture, in your eloquent manner, the
+torments that devils may be doomed to inflict in the other world on the
+cruel in this; and to fix them writhing upon their forks as they pin the
+poor insects. What would they do but call you a wicked blasphemer, and
+prate about the merciful goodness of their Maker, as if one Maker did
+not make all creatures? Yet what do such as they know of mercy but the
+name? These are they that kill conscience in the bud.</p>
+
+<p>Men&rsquo;s bosoms are like their dwellings&mdash;mansions, magnificent and
+gorgeous&mdash;full of all noble and generous
+<span class="pagebreak" title="463">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463"></a>
+thoughts, with room to
+expand&mdash;or dwellings of pretensions, show, and meanness&mdash;or hovels of
+all dirt and slovenliness; yet is there scarcely one in which conscience
+does not walk in and out boldly, or steal in cautiously, though she may
+not always have room to move her arms about her, and assert her
+presence. Yet even when circumscribed by narrowness, and immured in all
+unseemly things, will she patiently watch her time for some appropriate
+touch, or some quiet sound of her voice. Her most difficult scene of
+action, however, is in the bosom of pretension; for there the trumpet of
+self-praise is ever sounding to overwhelm her voice, and she is kept at
+arm&rsquo;s-length from the touch of the guilty hearts, by the padding and the
+furniture that surround them. But oh! the hypocrites of this life&mdash;they
+almost make one weary of it; they who walk with their hands as if ever
+weighing, by invisible scales, with their scruples of conscience their
+every thought, word, and action. Shall I portray the disgusting effigies
+of one? &ldquo;Niger est&mdash;hunc tu, Romane, caveto.&rdquo; I will, however, tell you
+somewhat of one that has lately come across my path, and I will call him
+Peter Pure; for he is one of those that, though assuming a quietness, is
+really rabid in politics, and has ever upon his lips &ldquo;purity of
+election,&rdquo; and the like cant words. A few years ago his circumstances
+not being very flourishing, he got the ear of our generous friend of the
+Grange; through his timely assistance, and a pretty considerable loan,
+he overcame his difficulties, and is now pretty well to do. At the last
+contest for the borough, our friend T. of the Grange, with others,
+waited upon Peter Pure; and Peter, with large professions of
+gratitude&mdash;as how could he do less for so kind a
+benefactor?&mdash;unhesitatingly promised his vote. At this time, be it
+observed, there was not the slightest appearance of the contest which
+afterwards came, and with that storm a pretty good shower of bribery.
+What quantity of this shower fell to Peter Pure&rsquo;s share, was never
+discovered; but it is easy to conjecture that so nice, so grateful a
+conscience was not overcome for nothing. Peter never liked cheap sins.
+The contest came, the election takes place, and Peter Pure&rsquo;s plumper
+weighs down the adversary&rsquo;s scale. Soon after this he had the impudence
+to accost his benefactor thus:&mdash;&ldquo;My dear friend and benefactor, and
+worthy sir, I wished for this opportunity of explaining to you, with the
+utmost sincerity and confidence, what may have appeared to you
+like&mdash;yes&mdash;really like a breaking of my word. It is true I did promise
+you my vote: but then, you know, voting being a very serious matter, I
+thought it necessary to read my oath which I should be called upon to
+take; and I found, my good friend, to my astonishment, that I was bound
+by it not to vote from &lsquo;<i>favour and affection</i>.&rsquo; Yes, those are the
+words. Now, it unfortunately&mdash;only unfortunately in this instance, mind
+me&mdash;happens, that there is not a man in the world so much in my
+affection and my favour as yourself; to vote, therefore, as you had
+wished me to vote, would, after reading the oath, have been downright
+perjury; for I certainly should have voted &lsquo;through favour and
+affection.&rsquo; That would have been a fearful weight upon my conscience.&rdquo;
+Here was a pretty scoundrel, Eusebius. I should be sorry to have you
+encounter him in a crowd, and trust his sides to your elbows, lest you
+should be taken with one of those sudden fits of juvenility that are not
+quite in accordance with the sedateness of your years. You will not be
+inclined to agree with an apologist I met the other day, who simply said
+that Satan had thrown the temptation in his way. There is no occasion
+for such superfluous labour, nor does the arch-fiend throw any of his
+labour away. Your Peter Pures may be very well left to themselves, and
+are left to themselves; their own inventions are quite sufficient for
+all their trading purposes; there is no need to put temptations in their
+way&mdash;they will seek them of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>You will certainly lay me under the censure that Montaigne throws upon
+Guicciardini. Let me then make amends, and ascribe one action to a
+generous, a conscientious motive. There cannot be found a better example
+than I have met with in reading some memoirs of the great and good
+Colston, the founder of those excellent charities
+<span class="pagebreak" title="464">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464"></a>
+in London, Bristol,
+and elsewhere. I find this passage in his life. It happened that one of
+his most richly-laden vessels was so long missing, and the violent
+storms having given every reason to suppose she had perished, that
+Colston gave her up for lost. Upon this occasion, it is said, he did not
+lament his unhappiness as many are apt to do, and perpetually count up
+the serious amount of his losses; but, with dutiful submission, fell
+upon his knees, and with thankfulness for what Providence had been
+pleased to leave him, and with the utmost resignation relinquished even
+the smallest hope of her recovery. When, therefore, his people came soon
+afterwards to tell him that his ship had safely come to port, he did not
+show the signs of self-gratulation which his friends expected to see. He
+was devoutly thankful for the preservation of the lives of so many
+seamen; but as for the vessel and her cargo, they were no longer his&mdash;he
+had resigned them&mdash;he could not in conscience take them back. He looked
+upon all as the gift of Providence to the poor; and, as such, he sold
+the ship and merchandize&mdash;and most valuable they were&mdash;and, praying for
+a right guidance, distributed the proceeds among the poor. How beautiful
+is such charity! Here is no false lustre thrown upon the riches and
+goods of this world, that, reflected, blind the eyes that they see not
+aright. The conscience of such a man as Colston was an arbiter even
+against himself, sat within him in judgment to put aside his worldly
+interest, and made a steady light for itself to see by, where naturally
+was either a glare or an obscurity, that alike might bewilder less
+honest vision.</p>
+
+<p>Some such idea is gloriously thus expressed by Sir Thomas Browne in his
+admirable <i>Religio Medici</i>.<a name="FNanchor_A_3" id="FNanchor_A_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_3" class="fnanchor">A</a> &ldquo;Conscience only, that can see without
+light, sits in the areopagy and dark tribunal of our hearts, surveys our
+thoughts, and condemns our obliquities. Happy is that state of vision
+that can see without light, though all should look as before the
+creation, when there was not an eye to see, or light to actuate a
+vision&mdash;wherein, notwithstanding, obscurity is only imaginable
+respectively unto eyes. For unto God there was none. Eternal light was
+for ever&mdash;created light was for the creation, not himself; and as He saw
+before the sun, He may still also see without it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A case of conscience came to be discussed not long since, in which I
+took a part. We had been speaking of the beauty of truth, and that
+nothing could justify the slightest deviation from the plain letter of
+it. This was doubted; and the case supposed was, that of a ruffian or a
+madman pursuing an innocent person with intent to murder. You see the
+flight and pursuit; the pursuer is at fault, and questions you as to the
+way taken by the fugitive. Are you justified in deceiving the pursuer by
+a false direction of the way his intended victim had taken? Are you to
+say the person went to the right, when the way taken was the left? The
+advocate for the downright truth maintained that you were not to
+deceive&mdash;though you felt quite sure that by your telling the truth, or
+by your silence altogether, immediate murder would ensue. The advocate
+declared, that without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation he should act upon his
+decision. He would have done no such thing. People are better than their
+creeds, and, it should seem, sometimes <i>better</i> than <i>their</i> principles.
+In which case would his conscience prick him most, when the heat was
+over&mdash;as accessory to the murder or as the utterer of untruth? I cannot
+but think it a case of instinct, which, acting before conscience, <i>pro
+hac vice</i> supersedes it. The matter is altogether and at once, by an
+irresistible decree, taken out of the secondary &ldquo;Court of Conscience&rdquo;
+and put into the primary &ldquo;Court of Nature.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Truth, truth! well may Bacon
+<span class="pagebreak" title="465">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465"></a>
+speak of it thus&mdash;&ldquo;&lsquo;What is truth?&rsquo; said
+laughing Pilate, and wouldn&rsquo;t wait for an answer.&rdquo; If there be danger in
+the deviation shown in the case stated, what a state are we all in? All,
+as we do daily in some way or other, putting our best legs foremost.
+Look at the whole advertising, puffing, quacking, world&mdash;the flattering,
+the soothing, the complimenting. Virtues and vices alike driving us more
+or less out of the straight line; and, blindfolded by habit, we know not
+that we are walking circuitously. And they are not the worst among us,
+perhaps, who walk so deviatingly&mdash;seeing, knowing&mdash;those that stammer
+out nightly ere they rest, in confession, their fears that they have
+been acting if not speaking the untrue thing, and praying for strength
+in their infirmity, and more simplicity of heart; and would in their
+penitence shun the concourse that besets them, and hide their heads in
+some retired quiet spot of peace, out of reach of this assault of
+temptation. And this, Eusebius, is the best prelude I can devise to the
+story I have to tell you. It is of a poor old woman; shall I magnify her
+offence? It was magnified indeed in her eyes. Smaller, therefore, shall
+it be&mdash;because of its very largeness to her. But it will not do to
+soften offences, Eusebius. I see already you are determined to do so. I
+will call it her crime. Yes, she lived a life of daily untruth. She
+wrote it, she put her name to it&mdash;&ldquo;litera scripta manet.&rdquo; We must not
+mince the matter; she spoke it, she acted it hourly, she took payment
+for it&mdash;it was her food, her raiment. Oh! all you that love to stamp the
+foot at poor human nature, here is an object for your contempt, your
+sarcasm, your abuse, your punishment; drag her away by the hair of her
+head. But stay, take care you do not &ldquo;strain at a gnat and swallow a
+camel;&rdquo; examine yourselves a little first. She has confessed, perhaps
+you have not. Remember, no one knew it; no one guessed it. It is she
+herself has lifted up the lantern into the dark recesses of her own
+heart; or rather, it is true religion in her hath done it: and dark
+though it was there, you ought to see clearly enough that her heart is
+not now the den wherein falsehood and hypocrisy lurk; search well&mdash;you
+see none. She has made a &ldquo;clean breast of it,&rdquo; and you had better do the
+same, and drop the stone you were about to fling so mercilessly at her
+dying head. Are you out of patience, Eusebius? and cry&mdash;Out with it,
+what did she do? You shall hear; &rsquo;tis but a simple anecdote after all. I
+have learned it from a parish priest. He was sent for to attend the
+deathbed of poor old village dame, or schoolmistress. She had a sin to
+confess; she could not die in peace till she had confessed it. With
+broken speech, she sobbed, and hesitated, and sobbed again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&mdash;I&mdash;I,&rdquo; she stammered out, and hid her face again. &ldquo;There, I must, I
+must tell it; and may I be forgiven! You know, sir, I have kept school
+forty years&mdash;yes, forty years&mdash;a poor sinful creature&mdash;I&mdash;I&rdquo;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My good woman,&rdquo; said the parish priest, &ldquo;take comfort; it will be
+pardoned if you are thus penitent. I hope it is not a very great sin.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh yes!&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and pray call me not <i>good</i> woman. I
+am&mdash;not&mdash;good;&rdquo; sobbing, &ldquo;alas, alas!&mdash;there, I&mdash;will out with it! I put
+down that I taught grammar&mdash;and (sobbing) I, I, <i>did not know it
+myself</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Eusebius, Eusebius, had you been there, you would have embraced the old
+dame. The father of lies was not near her pillow. This little sin, she
+had put it foremost, and, like the little figure before many nothings,
+she had made a million of it; and one word, nay one thought, before
+confession was uttered, had breathed upon and obliterated the whole
+amount. Where will you see so great truth? And this, you will agree with
+me, was a case of <i>Tender Conscience</i>.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_3" id="Footnote_A_3"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_A_3">A</a></span> <i>Religio Medici</i>, a new edition, with its sequel,
+<i>Christian Morals</i>, and resemblant passages from Cowper&rsquo;s <i>Task</i>. By Mr
+Peace, Bristol. The text of this inestimable author is here cleared of
+its many errors, and the volume contains a useful verbal index.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="466">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466"></a>
+THIERRY&rsquo;S HISTORY OF THE GAULS.<a name="FNanchor_A_4" id="FNanchor_A_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_4" class="fnanchor">A</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>&rsquo;Tis a pleasant thing to turn from the present, with its turmoil and its
+noise, its clank of engines and its pallid artizans, its political
+strife and its social disorganization, to the calm and quiet records of
+the past&mdash;to the contemplation of bygone greatness: of kingdoms which
+have passed away,&mdash;of cities whose site is marked only by the mouldering
+column and the time-worn wall&mdash;of men with whose name the world once
+rang, but whose very tombs are now unknown. If there is any thing
+calculated to enlarge the mind, it is this; for it is only by a careful
+study of the past that we come to know how duly to appreciate the
+present. Without this we magnify the present; we imagine that the future
+will be like unto it; we form our ideas, we base our calculations upon
+it alone; we forget the maxim of the Eastern sage, that &ldquo;this too shall
+pass away.&rdquo; It is by the study of history that we overcome this
+otherwise inevitable tendency; we learn from it, that other nations have
+been as great as we, and that they are now forgotten&mdash;that a former
+civilization, a fair and costly edifice which seemed to be perfect of
+its kind, has crumbled before the assaults of time, and left not a trace
+behind. There is a still small voice issuing forth from the ruins of
+Babylon, which will teach more to the thinking mind than all the dogmas
+and theories of modern speculators.</p>
+
+<p>When we turn to the study of ancient history, our attention is
+immediately riveted on the mighty name of Rome. Even the history of
+Greece cannot compare with it in interest. Greece was always great in
+the arts, and for long she was eminent in arms: but the arms of her
+citizens were too often turned against each other; and the mind gets
+fatigued and perplexed in attempting to follow the endless maze of
+politics, and the constant succession of unimportant wars. There are,
+indeed, many splendid episodes in her history&mdash;such as the Persian war,
+the retreat of the Ten Thousand, a few actions in the Peloponnesian
+contest, and the whole of the Theban campaigns of Epaminondas; but the
+intervening periods have but a faint interest to the general reader,
+till we come down to the period of the Macedonian monarchy. This,
+indeed, is the great act in the drama of Grecian history. Who can peruse
+without interest the accounts of the glorious reign of Alexander; of
+that man who, issuing from the mountains of Macedonia, riveted the
+fetters of despotism on Greece, which had grown unworthy of freedom, and
+carried his victorious arms over the fertile plains of Palestine, till
+he stood a conqueror amidst the palaces of Persepolis, and finally
+halted only on the frontiers of Hindostan, arrested in his progress not
+by the arms of his enemies but by the revolt of his soldiers? He flung a
+halo of glory around the last days of Greece, like the bright light of a
+meteor, whose course he resembled equally in the rapidity and brilliancy
+of his career. With him dies the interest of Grecian story: the
+intrigues and disputes of his successors, destitute of general interest,
+served but to pave the way for the progress of a mightier power.</p>
+
+<p>Of greater interest even than this is the history of Rome. Her conquests
+were not merely the glorious and dazzling achievements of one man, which
+owed their existence to his talents, and crumbled to pieces at his
+death; they were slow and gradual in their progress&mdash;the effects of a
+deep and firm policy: they were not made in a day, but they endured for
+a thousand years. No country presents such interest to the politician
+and the soldier. To the one, the rise and progress of her constitution;
+her internal struggles; the balance of political power in the state; her
+policy, her principles of government; the administration and treatment
+of the many nations which composed her vast empire, must ever be the
+subject of deep and careful study: while to the other, the campaigns of
+Hannibal, the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="467">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467"></a>
+wars of C&aelig;sar, and the long line of her military annals,
+present a wide field for investigation and instruction&mdash;an inexhaustible
+topic for philosophic reflection.</p>
+
+<p>But there is one subject connected with the progress of the Roman empire
+which has been unduly neglected, and without a perfect understanding of
+which we cannot justly appreciate either the civil or military policy of
+that state. We mean the history of the nations who came in contact with
+her&mdash;viz. the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Spaniards. The ancient
+historians belonged exclusively to Greece or Rome: they looked upon all
+other nations except themselves as barbarous; and they never related
+their history except incidentally, and in so far as it was connected
+with that of those two countries. Modern historians, following in their
+track, and attracted by the splendour of their names, deviated not from
+the beaten path; and a thick veil still hung over the semi-barbarous
+neighbours and enemies of Rome. The history of no one of those nations
+was more interesting, or in many points involved in greater obscurity,
+than that of the <span class="smcap">Gauls</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere amongst the ancient writers could any connected account of the
+origin or progress of this nation be found; scattered notices of them
+alone could be discovered interspersed incidentally amongst other
+matter, and these notices were frequently inconsistent. This is
+particularly the case as regards their early history: in later times,
+when they came into more immediate contact with the Romans, a more
+connected and minute account of them has been preserved. In the lively
+pages of Livy, and in the more accurate narrative of Polybius, a
+considerable mass of information on this subject maybe found; while a
+clear light has been thrown on many parts of their latter history by the
+narrative of Appian, the Lives of Plutarch, and, above all, by the
+Commentaries of C&aelig;sar. But all this information, scattered over a
+multiplicity of authors, could give us no conception of their history as
+a people. An author was still wanting to collect all these together, so
+as to present us with something like a continuous history. But to do
+this was no easy task: the materials were scanty and often
+contradictory; they were all written in a spirit hostile to the Gauls; a
+deep vein of prejudice and national partiality ran through and tarnished
+them all; the motives of that people were misrepresented, their actions
+falsified, the historians often understood little of their institutions
+and their character. From such materials it required no common man to be
+able to deduce a clear and impartial narrative; it required great talent
+and deep research&mdash;the accuracy of the scholar and the spirit of the
+philosopher, the acuteness of the critic joined to the eye of the
+painter. Such a man has been found in Amad&eacute;e Thierry. His <i>History of
+the Gauls</i> is a work of rare merit&mdash;a work which must ever be in the
+hand of every one who would understand the history of antiquity. It is
+little to the credit of the literature of this country, that his work
+has not yet appeared in an English translation.</p>
+
+<p>He has traced the progress of the Gauls, from their earliest appearance
+on the stage of the world till their final subjection to the Roman
+power, in a manner worthy of a scholar and a philosopher. His narrative
+is clear, animated, and distinct; he possesses in an eminent degree the
+power of giving breadth to his pictures; of drawing the attention of his
+readers to the important events, whilst the remainder are thrown into
+shade. His mode of treating his authorities is perhaps the best that can
+be imagined; he neither clogs his pages with long extracts, nor does he
+leave them unsupported by a reference to the original authors. At the
+end of each paragraph a reference is given to the authorities followed,
+to whom the reader may at once turn if he wish to verify the conclusions
+arrived at; and where the points are involved in obscurity, the passages
+founded on are quoted generally in a note, and never in the text, except
+when their importance really justified such an interruption of the
+narrative. His style is always animated and graphic, occasionally rising
+to elevated flights of eloquence, while his subject is one of a deep and
+varied interest; for in following the checkered fortunes of the Gauls,
+he is brought in contact with
+<span class="pagebreak" title="468">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468"></a>
+almost every nation of the earth. To
+whatever country of the ancient world we turn, we find that the Gaul has
+preceded us, either as the savage conqueror or the little less savage
+mercenary. Issuing originally from the East, that boundless cradle of
+the human race, we soon find him contending with the German for his
+morass, with the Spaniard for his gold&mdash;traversing the sands of Africa,
+and pillaging the plains of Greece&mdash;founding a kingdom in the midst of
+Asiatic luxury, and bearing his conquering lance beneath the Capitol of
+Rome. But a mightier spirit soon rose to rule the storm. In vain the
+courage of the Gaul, allied with the power of Carthage, and directed by
+the genius of Hannibal, maintained for years a desperate and doubtful
+contest in the heart of Italy. The power of Rome kept steadily
+advancing: Greece soon fell beneath her conquering arm; and the fleets
+of Carthage no longer ruled the wave. The Spaniard, after many a
+hard-fought field, at last sank into sullen submission; and the
+Galatians, degenerating under the influence of Asiatic manners, proved
+unequal to the contest; the Gaul, instead of inundating the land of the
+foreigner, could with difficulty maintain his own; and soon the eagle of
+the Capitol spread its wings over a Transalpine province. But the free
+spirit of the Gaul now made a mighty effort to rend asunder the bonds
+which encircled it; and a countless multitude, after ravaging Spain,
+poured down into Italy: the Roman empire rocked to its foundation, when
+Marius, hastening over from his African conquests, saved his country by
+the glorious and bloody victory of Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig;. Yet a little while and
+the legions of Rome, under the orders of C&aelig;sar, traversing with fire and
+sword their country, retaliated on the Gaul the calamities he had often
+inflicted on others, subdued his proud spirit, and forged for him,
+amidst seas of blood, those fetters which were finally riveted by the
+policy of Augustus. Such is a brief outline of the heart-stirring story
+of this singular and interesting race.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting parts of Thierry&rsquo;s work is the Introduction.
+He there gives a brief view of the character of the Gaulish race; its
+division into two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry, and the
+periods into which the history of this people naturally divides itself.
+A considerable part of it is taken up in proving that this people do in
+reality consist of two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry. This, we
+think, he has clearly and satisfactorily shown, by evidence drawn both
+from the language and from the historical accounts which have been
+preserved to us regarding them. His character of the Gauls as a people
+is ably and well given; but here we must let him speak for himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;The salient characteristics of the Gaulish family&mdash;those which
+distinguish it the most, in my opinion, from the other races of
+men&mdash;may be thus summed up:&mdash;A personal bravery unequaled amongst
+the people of antiquity; a spirit frank, impetuous, open to every
+impression, eminently intelligent; but joined to that an extreme
+frivolity, want of constancy, a marked repugnance to the ideas of
+discipline and order so strong in the German race, much
+ostentation&mdash;in fine, a perpetual disunion, the consequence of
+excessive vanity. If we wish to compare, in a few words, the
+Gaulish family with that German family to whom we have just
+alluded, we may say that the personal sentiment, the individual I,
+is too much developed amongst the former, and that amongst the
+latter it is not sufficiently so. Thus we find, in every page of
+Gaulish story, original characters who strongly excite and
+concentrate upon themselves our sympathy, causing us to forget the
+masses; whilst, in the history of the Germans, it is generally the
+masses who produce the effect. Such is the general character of the
+people of the Gaulish blood; but in that character itself, an
+observation of facts leads us to recognise two distinct shades
+corresponding to two distinct branches of the family, or to use the
+expression consecrated by history, to two distinct races. One of
+those races&mdash;that which I designate by the name of the
+Gauls&mdash;presents in the most marked manner all the natural
+dispositions, all the faults and all the virtues, of the family; to
+it belong, in their purest state, the individual types of the Gaul.
+The other, the Kimry, less active, less spiritual perhaps,
+possesses in return more weight and stability: it is in its bosom
+principally that we remark the institutions of classification
+<span class="pagebreak" title="469">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469"></a>
+and
+order; it is there that the ideas of theocracy and monarchy longest
+maintain their sway.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. iv. vi.)</p></div>
+
+<p>How important and how little attended to is this character of the
+different races of men! How perfectly is it preserved under all
+situations and under all circumstances! No lapse of time can change, no
+distance can efface it. Nowhere do we see this more distinctly than in
+America: there how marked is the difference of the Spanish race in the
+south and the Anglo-Saxon in the north! And from this we may draw a
+deeply important practical lesson; viz. the danger of attempting to
+force on one race institutions fitted to another. Under a free
+government, the Anglo-Saxon in the north flourished and increased, and
+became a mighty people. Under a despotic sway, the Spaniard in the south
+was slowly but surely treading that path which would ultimately have led
+to national greatness, when a revolution, nourished by English gold, and
+rendered victorious by English arms, inflicted what was to him the curse
+of free institutions. Under their influence, commerce has fled from the
+shores of New Spain; the gold-mines of Peru lie unworked; population has
+retrograded; the fertile land has returned to a state of nature; and
+anarchy, usurping the place of government, has involved the country in
+ruin and desolation. Nor is this the only instance of the effect of free
+institutions on the Spanish race. In Old Spain the same experiment has
+been tried, and has produced the same result. Under their withering
+effect, the empire of Spain and the Indies has passed away; the mother
+country, torn by internal dissensions, has fallen from her proud estate,
+and can with difficulty drag on a precarious existence amidst all the
+tumult and blood of incessant revolutions. How long will it be ere we
+learn that free institutions are the Amreeta cup of nations&mdash;the
+greatest of all blessings or the greatest of all curses, according to
+the race on which it is conferred!</p>
+
+<p>The history of the Gauls, in Thierry&rsquo;s opinion, divides itself naturally
+into four great periods: his brief <i>resum&eacute;</i> of the state of the nation,
+during each of those periods, is so animated that we cannot refrain from
+quoting his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;The first period contains the adventures of the Gaulish nations in
+the nomad state. No race of the West has accomplished a more
+agitated and brilliant career. Its wanderings embrace Europe, Asia,
+and Africa: its name is inscribed with terror in the annals of
+almost every people. It burned Rome: it conquered Macedonia from
+the veteran phalanxes of Alexander, forced Thermopyl&aelig;, and pillaged
+Delphi: afterwards it planted its tents on the ruins of ancient
+Troy, in the public places of Miletus, on the banks of the
+Sangarius, and on those of the Nile: it besieged Carthage,
+threatened Memphis, reckoned among its tributaries the most
+powerful monarchs of the East: on two occasions it founded in Upper
+Italy a mighty dominion, and it raised up in the bosom of Phrygia
+that other empire of the Galatians which so long ruled Asia Minor.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In the second period&mdash;that of the sedentary state&mdash;we observe the
+same race every where developing itself, or permanently settled,
+with social, religious, and political institutions, suited to its
+particular character&mdash;original institutions, and civilization full
+of life and movement, of which Transalpine Gaul offers a model the
+purest and the most complete. One would say, to follow the animated
+scenes of that picture, that the theocracy of India, the feudality
+of the Middle Ages, and the Athenian democracy, had resorted to the
+same soil, there to combat and rule over one and other in turn.
+Soon that civilization mixes and alters: foreign elements introduce
+themselves, imported by commerce, by the relations of vicinity, by
+the reaction of the conquered population. Hence various and other
+strange combinations: in Italy it is the Roman influence which
+makes itself felt in the manners of the Cisalpines: in the south of
+Transalpine Gaul it is at first the influence of the Greeks of
+Massalia, afterwards that of the Italian colonies: and in Galatia
+there springs up the most singular combination of Gaulish, Phrygian
+and Greek civilization.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Next follows the period of national strife and of conquest. By a
+chance worthy of notice, it is always under the sword of the Roman
+that the power of the Gaulish nations falls: in proportion as the
+Roman dominion extends, the Gaulish dominion, up to that time
+firmly established, recoils and declines: one would say that the
+conquerors and the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="470">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470"></a>
+conquered from the Allia followed one and other
+to all points of the earth to decide the old quarrel of the
+Capitol. In Italy the Cisalpines are subjugated, but only after two
+centuries of the most determined resistance: when the rest of Asia
+accepted the yoke, the Galatians defended still, against Rome, the
+independence of the East. Gaul yields, but only from exhaustion,
+after a century of partial contests, and nine years of a general
+war under C&aelig;sar: in fine, the names of Caractac and Galgac render
+illustrious the last and fruitless efforts of British liberty. It
+is every where the unequal combat of a military spirit, ardent and
+heroic, but simple and unskilful, against the same spirit
+disciplined and persevering. Few nations show in their annals so
+beautiful a page as that last Gaulish war, written nevertheless by
+an enemy. Every effort of heroism, every prodigy of valour, which
+the love of liberty and of country ever produced, there displayed
+themselves in spite of a thousand contrary and fatal passions:
+discords between the cities, discords in the cities, enterprises of
+the nobles against the people, licentiousness of democracy,
+hereditary enmities of race. What men were those Bitunyes who in
+one day burned twenty of their towns! What men were those Camutes,
+fugitives, pursued by the sword, by famine, by winter, and whom
+nothing could conquer! What variety of character is there amongst
+their chiefs&mdash;from the druid Divitiac, the good and honest
+enthusiast of the Roman civilization, to the savage Ambio-rix,
+crafty, vindictive, implacable, who admired and imitated nothing
+save the savageness of the German: from Dumno-rix, that ambitious
+but fierce agitator, who wished to make the conqueror of the Gauls
+an instrument, but not a master, to that Vercingeto-rix, so pure,
+so eloquent, so true, so magnanimous in misfortune, and who wanted
+nothing to take a place amongst the greatest men, but to have had
+another enemy, above all another historian, than C&aelig;sar!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The fourth period comprises the organization of Gaul into a Roman
+province, and the slow and successive assimilation of Transalpine
+manners to the manners and institutions of Italy&mdash;a labour
+commenced by Augustus, continued with success by Claudius,
+completed in latter times. That transference from one civilization
+to another was not made without violence and without checks:
+numerous revolts are suppressed by Augustus&mdash;a great insurrection
+fails against Tiberius. The distractions and the impending ruin of
+Rome during the civil wars of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of
+Vespasian, gave room for a sudden explosion of the spirit of
+independence to the north of the Alps. The Gaulish nations again
+took up arms, the senates reformed themselves, the proscribed
+druids reappeared, the Roman legions cantoned on the Rhine are
+defeated or gained over, an empire of the Gauls is constructed in
+haste: but soon Gaul perceives that it is already at bottom
+entirely Roman, and that a return to the ancient order of things is
+no longer either desirable for its happiness, or even possible; it
+resigns itself therefore to its irrevocable destiny, and reunites
+without a murmur into the community of the Roman empire.&rdquo;&mdash;(I.
+6-10)</p></div>
+
+<p>Here indeed is a noble field for history&mdash;many such exist not in the
+world; it joins the colours of romance to the truth of narrative&mdash;it
+embraces within its range all countries, from the snow-clad mountains of
+the north to the waterless deserts of the south.</p>
+
+<p>When the first light of history dawns upon the Gallic race, we find them
+settled in that territory which is bounded by the Rhine, the Alps, the
+Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, and the ocean, and in the British isles.
+There they lived, leading a pastoral life, wandering about from place to
+place, and ready to descend with their flocks and herds wherever
+cupidity might lead, or fancy direct them. They first turned their
+footsteps towards Spain; tribe after tribe crossed the Pyrenees, and
+either expelled or amalgamated with the aboriginal inhabitants. Their
+efforts were principally directed towards the centre and west; in
+consequence of which, the native Spaniards, displaced and driven back
+upon the Mediterranean coast, soon opened a way for themselves across
+the eastern passes of the mountains, and, traversing the shores of
+southern Gaul, entered Italy. There they took the name of the Ligures,
+and established themselves along the whole line of sea-coast from the
+Pyrenees to the mouth of the Arno. The road to Italy being thus laid
+bare by the Spaniards, the Gauls soon followed on their footsteps, and,
+crossing the Alps, poured down into
+<span class="pagebreak" title="471">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471"></a>
+the fertile plains and vine-clad
+hills of the smiling south: but they were encountered and overcome by
+the Etruscans. Internal convulsions in the centre of Gaul, however,
+hurled new hordes across the Alps. The Kimry, from the Palus M&oelig;otis,
+entered the north-eastern portion of Gaul, and expelled from their
+territory many of the tribes who were settled there: these, uniting in
+large hordes, precipitated themselves upon Italy. The Kimry, too, joined
+in the incursion; race followed race, and the whole of northern Italy
+was soon peopled by the Gaulish race, who long threatened the nations of
+the south with entire subjugation and destruction. The empire of the
+Gauls in Italy, known by the name of Cisalpine Gaul, was productive of
+the greatest calamities to that unhappy country; every year there issued
+forth from it bands of adventurers, who wasted the fields and stormed
+the cities of Etruria, of Campania, and of Magna Gr&aelig;cia. But an
+expedition on a larger scale was at last undertaken. Pressed by the
+increasing population in their rear, a large band determined to abandon
+their present homes, and seek new conquests, and acquire new booty. They
+first directed their march to Clusium; but soon the torrent rolled with
+resistless force upon the walls of Rome. Defeated at the Allia, the
+Romans abandoned their city, leaving, however, a garrison in the
+Capitol; this garrison, reduced to the last extremities by famine, was
+obliged to capitulate, and to purchase the departure of their foes by an
+enormous ransom. The Gauls, crowned with success and loaded with
+plunder, departed; and the Romans, taking courage at their retreat,
+harassed their rear and cut off their supplies.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the truth regarding this famous invasion, which has been the
+subject of a falsification probably without a parallel in the annals of
+history; by it defeat was transformed into victory, and the day when
+Rome suffered her greatest humiliation by the ransom of her capital, was
+turned into almost the most famous day of her existence, when her most
+successful enemy was humbled to the dust. In the pages of a Greek
+historian the truth has been preserved; while the annals of the state
+are filled with a very different tale, embellished with all the
+eloquence and genius of the national historian. Such a sacrifice of
+historical veracity, in order to appease the insatiable cravings of
+national vanity, naturally casts a shade of doubt and suspicion on all
+the early records of her victories and triumphs. Freed from her enemies,
+Rome revived and emerged unconquered from the strife; she had been
+forced to bend before misfortune, but she was not broken by adversity: a
+new city sprung up on the ruins of the old, and the legions once more
+issued from the ramparts to carry her victorious banners to the capitals
+of a conquered world. We have not space to trace the various fortunes of
+Cisalpine Gaul during the early struggles which it carried on with the
+now increasing power of Rome. Suffice it to say, that when the Latins
+united in a league against her, the Cisalpines joined them; an
+engagement took place at Sentinum, where victory crowned the efforts of
+the Romans; but though defeated, the Gauls maintained their high
+character for valour during that fatal day. This success was followed up
+by a vigorous attack on the powerful Gaulish tribe of the Senones, who
+were almost exterminated, and on their territory was established a Roman
+colony: this was the first permanent settlement made by that people
+amongst the Gaulish tribes of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>We must refer the reader to M. Thierry&rsquo;s work for the account of the
+causes which led the Gauls and Kimry to press upon, and finally invade
+northern Greece, and the relation of the defeat of their first attack
+under the Brenn. We shall dwell somewhat longer on their second
+invasion, which forms one of the most interesting episodes of their
+history:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;In the year 280 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, the Gauls, under a celebrated chief whose
+title was the Brenn, prepared to invade Greece. Their army,
+composed of various tribes of Gauls and Kimry, amounted to 152,000
+infantry and 61,000 cavalry. When this immense array reached the
+frontiers of Macedonia, a division broke out amongst their chiefs,
+and 20,000 men, detaching themselves from the main army, advanced
+into Thrace. The remainder, under the Brenn,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="472">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472"></a>
+precipitated
+themselves on Macedonia, routed the army which endeavoured to
+arrest their progress, and forced the remnant of the regular forces
+who survived, to take refuge in the fortified cities. During six
+months they ravaged with fire and sword the open country, and
+destroyed the unfortified towns of Macedonia and Thessaly. At the
+approach of winter, the Brenn collected his forces and established
+his camp in Thessaly, at a position near Mount Olympus. Thessaly is
+separated from Epirus and &AElig;tolia by the chain of Pindus; and on the
+south, the almost impenetrable range of Mount &OElig;ta divides it
+from the provinces of Hellas. The only pass by which an army can
+march into Greece is that of Thermopyl&aelig;, which is a long narrow
+defile, overhung on the right by the rocks of Mount &OElig;ta, and
+flanked on the left by impassable morasses, which finally lose
+themselves in the waters of the gulf of Mulia. A few narrow and
+difficult tracts traverse the ridge of &OElig;ta; but these, though
+passable to a small body of infantry, present insurmountable
+obstacles to the advance of an army. To the pass of Thermopyl&aelig;, in
+the spring of the year 280 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, the Brenn directed his march.
+Aware of its vital importance, the Athenians, B&oelig;otians,
+Locrians, Phocians, and Megarians, who had formed a league against
+the northern invaders, collected a force of about 26,000 men, who,
+under the orders of Calippus, advanced to and occupied the strait,
+whilst 305 Athenian galleys, anchored in the bay of Mulia, were
+ready to operate upon the flank of the enemy. In his approach to
+this position, the Brenn had to pass the river Sperchius, to defend
+which Calippus had detached a small force: the Brenn, by a
+stratagem, directed their attention from the real point of attack,
+and crossed the river without loss. He then advanced to Heraclea,
+and laid waste the surrounding country. The day after his arrival
+at this place, he marched upon Thermopyl&aelig;. Hardly had the Gauls
+begun to involve themselves in the pass, when they were encountered
+by the Greeks in its classic defile. With loud cries, and in one
+enormous mass, the Gauls rushed impetuously on; in silence, and in
+perfect order, the Greeks advanced to the charge. The phalanx of
+the south proved impenetrable to the sabre of the north; the pass
+was soon covered with their dead bodies; the Gallic standards were
+unable to advance. Meanwhile the Athenian galleys, forcing their
+way through the marshes, poured in an incessant volley of arrows
+and darts on the long and unprotected flank of the invaders. Unable
+to withstand this double attack, the Gauls were forced to retreat.
+This they did in the utmost confusion; large numbers perished,
+trodden to death by their companions&mdash;still more were drowned in
+the morasses. Seven days after this severe check, a small party
+having attempted to cross Mount &OElig;ta, they were attacked when
+involved in a narrow and difficult pass, and cut to pieces. To
+raise the drooping spirits of his men, and to separate the forces
+of his adversaries, the Brenn detached a corps of 40,000 men, under
+the command of Comlutis, with orders to force their way into
+&AElig;tolia. This diversion proved eminently successful. Comlutis,
+finding the passes of Mount Pindus unguarded, traversed that range,
+and entered &AElig;tolia, the whole of which he laid waste with fire and
+sword without opposition, as the whole military force of that
+country had marched to the defence of Thermopyl&aelig;. On hearing of
+this invasion, the &AElig;tolians immediately separated from the allied
+army, and hastened to the defence of their country. On their
+approach Comlutis retreated; but whilst involved in the mountain
+passes, his rear was overtaken by the regulars, and his flanks were
+assailed by the enraged peasantry; so severe was his loss, that
+hardly one-half of his force rallied at the camp of Heraclea. The
+day after the departure of the &AElig;tolians, the Brenn led on the main
+body of his troops to attack the pass of Thermopyl&aelig;; whilst a
+strong detachment received orders to force one of the mountain
+paths, the knowledge of which had been betrayed to him by the
+inhabitants; being guided by one of whom, and their movements being
+concealed from view by a thick mist, which enveloped them, this
+detachment succeeded in surprising the troops who were entrusted
+with its defence, and, moving rapidly on, they fell on the rear of
+the main body of the allies, who were engaged at Thermopyl&aelig;.
+Assaulted both in front and rear, the Greeks would have been
+totally destroyed, had it not been for the presence of the Athenian
+fleet, who afforded a safe refuge to their shattered ranks. Freed
+from the presence of his opponents, the Brenn immediately pushed on
+to Elatia at the head of 65,000 men, from whence he directed his
+march on Delphi. The town of Delphi was built on the slope
+<span class="pagebreak" title="473">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473"></a>
+of one
+of the peaks of Parnassus, in the midst of a natural excavation,
+and being almost entirely surrounded with precipices, it was left
+unprotected by any artificial fortifications: above the town, on
+the north, was situated the magnificent temple of Apollo, filled
+with native offerings of the Greeks. The possession of this
+treasure was the main object of the Brenn. The Gaulish army, on
+their arrival before Delphi, dispersed over, and pillaged the
+surrounding country for the remainder of the day; thus losing the
+most favourable opportunity of assaulting the town.&rdquo;</p></div>
+
+<p>The <i>d&eacute;nouement</i> of the tragedy we shall give in Thierry&rsquo;s own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;During the night, Delphi received from all sides, by the mountain
+paths, numerous reinforcements from the neighbouring people. There
+arrived successively 1200 well-armed &AElig;tolians, 400 heavy-armed men
+from Amplussa, and a detachment of Phocians, who, with the citizens
+of Delphi, formed a body of 4000 men. At the same time, they
+learned that the brave &AElig;tolian army, after having defeated
+Comlutis, had retaken the road to Elatia, and, increased by bands
+of the Phocians and B&oelig;otians, laboured to prevent the junction
+of the Gaulish army of Heraclea with the division which besieged
+Delphi.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;During the same night, the camp of the Gauls was the theatre of
+the greatest debauchery; and when day dawned, the greater portion
+of them were still intoxicated: nevertheless, it was necessary to
+make the assault without loss of time, for the Brenn already
+perceived how much the delay of a few hours had cost him. He drew
+out his troops then in battle array, enumerating to them anew all
+the treasures which they had before their eyes, and those which
+awaited them in the temple: he then gave the signal for the
+escalade. The attack was vigorous, and was sustained by the Greeks
+with firmness. From the summit of the narrow and steep slope by
+which the assailants had to ascend in order to approach the town,
+the besieged poured down a multitude of arrows and stones, not one
+of which fell harmless. Several times the Gauls covered the ascent
+with their dead; but every time they returned to the charge with
+courage, and at last forced the passage. The besieged, obliged to
+beat a retreat, withdrew to the nearest streets of the town,
+leaving the approach which conducted to the temple free: the
+Gaulish race rushed on: soon the whole multitude was occupied in
+pillaging the oratories which adjoined the temple, and, in fine,
+the temple itself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was then autumn, and during the combat one of those sudden
+storms so frequent in the lofty chains of Hellas had gathered;
+suddenly it burst, discharging on the mountain torrents of rain and
+hail. The priests attached to the temple of Apollo, seized upon an
+incident so fitted to strike the superstitious spirit of the
+Greeks. With haggard eyes, with disheveled locks, with frenzied
+minds, they spread out through the town, and through the ranks of
+the army, crying that the god had arrived. &lsquo;He is here!&rsquo; said they;
+&lsquo;we have seen him pass across the vault of the temple, which is
+cloven beneath his feet; two armed virgins, Minerva and Diana,
+accompany him. We have heard the whistling of their bows, and the
+clang of their lances. Hasten, O Greeks! upon the steps of your
+gods, if you wish to partake of their victory!&rsquo; That spectacle,
+those exhortations pronounced amidst the rolling of the thunder,
+and by the glare of the lightning, filled the Hellenes with a
+supernatural enthusiasm; they reformed in battle array, and
+precipitated themselves sword in hand upon the enemy. The same
+circumstances operated not less strongly, but in a contrary way,
+upon the victorious bands; the Gauls believed that they recognised
+the power of a divinity, but of an enraged divinity. The
+thunderbolts had frequently struck their battalions, and its
+reports, repeated by the echoes, produced around them such a
+reverberation, that they no longer heard the commands of their
+chiefs. Those who penetrated into the interior of the temple, had
+felt the pavement tremble under their steps; they had been seized
+by a thick and mephitic vapour, which overpowered them, and threw
+them into a violent delirium. The historians relate, that amidst
+this tumult they beheld three warriors of a sinister aspect, of
+more than human stature, covered with old armour, and who
+slaughtered the Gauls with their lances, appear. The Delphians
+recognised, say they, the shades of three heroes, Hyperochus and
+Zorodocus, whose tombs adjoined the temple, and Pyrrhus the son of
+Achilles. As to the Gauls, a wild panic hurried them in disorder to
+their camp, which they attained only with great difficulty,
+overwhelmed by the arrows of the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="474">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474"></a>
+Greeks, and by the fall of
+enormous rocks, which rolled over upon them from the summit of
+Parnassus. In the ranks of the besiegers, the loss was doubtless
+considerable.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To that disastrous day succeeded, for the Kimry-Gauls, a night not
+less terrible; the cold was excessive, and snow fell in abundance;
+besides, fragments of rock falling incessantly in their camp, which
+was situated too near the mountain, crushed the soldiers not by one
+or two at a time, but by bodies of thirty and forty, as often as
+they assembled to maintain guard or to seek repose. The sun no
+sooner rose, than the Greeks who were within the town made a
+vigorous sally, whilst those who were in the country fell upon the
+rear of the enemy. At the same time, the Phocians, crossing the
+snow by paths known but to themselves, took them in flank, and
+assailed them with arrows and stones, without exposing themselves
+to the slightest danger. Hemmed in on all sides, discouraged, and,
+moreover, extremely incommoded by the cold, which had cut off many
+of their number during the night, the Gauls began to yield. They
+were sustained for some time by the intrepidity of the chosen band
+who combated around the Brenn, and acted as his guard. The
+strength, the stature, the courage of that guard, struck the Greeks
+with astonishment. In the end, the Brenn having been dangerously
+wounded, those brave men dreamed only of making a rampart of their
+bodies for him, and of carrying him from the field. The chiefs then
+gave the signal of retreat, and to prevent the wounded from falling
+into the hands of the enemy, they caused those who were not in a
+condition to follow, to be put to death. The army halted when the
+night overtook it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The first watch of that second night had hardly commenced, when
+the soldiers who were on guard imagined that they heard the tumult
+of a night march, and the distant tramp of horses. The darkness,
+already profound, did not permit them to discover their mistake;
+they gave the alarm, and cried out that they were surprised&mdash;that
+the enemy was upon them. The famine, the dangers, and the
+extraordinary occurrences which had befallen them during the last
+two days, had much shattered all their imaginations. At that cry,
+&lsquo;The enemy is at hand!&rsquo; the Gauls, suddenly aroused, seized their
+arms, and believing the camp already entered, they threw themselves
+upon, and mutually slaughtered, each other. Their consternation was
+so great, that they believed that each word which struck their ears
+was uttered in Greek; as if they had forgotten their own proper
+tongue. Besides, the darkness of the night did not permit them
+either to recognise each other, or to distinguish the shape of
+their bucklers. Day put an end to that frightful <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i>; but
+during the night the Phocian shepherds, who remained in the fields
+to watch their flocks, ran to inform the Greeks of the disorder
+which was evident in the Gaulish camp. They attributed so
+unexpected an event to the intervention of the god Pan, from whom,
+according to the religious faith of the Greeks, alarms without any
+real cause proceeded; full of ardour and of confidence, they
+attacked the rearguard of the enemy. The Gauls had already resumed
+their march, but with languor, as men discouraged, worn out by
+diseases, famine, and fatigue. On their line of march the
+population carried off the cattle and provisions, so that they
+could not procure any subsistence without the utmost difficulty,
+and at the point of the sword. The historians reckon at 10,000 the
+number of those who sank under these misfortunes; the cold and the
+nocturnal combat had cut off as many more, and 6000 had perished at
+the assault of Delphi: there remained then to the Brenn no more
+than 35,000 men when he rejoined the main body of his army, in the
+plains watered by the Cephisus, on the day after his departure from
+Thermopyl&aelig;.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 171-178.)</p></div>
+
+<p>The Brenn, overwhelmed with grief at his misfortune, no sooner saw his
+army free from immediate danger than he put himself to death. His
+successor, following his dying advice, slaughtered 10,000 of the
+wounded, and continued his retreat:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;As he approached Thermopyl&aelig;, the Greeks, issuing forth from an
+ambuscade, threw themselves on his rearguard, which they cut to
+pieces. It was in this miserable state that the Gauls gained the
+camp of Heraclea. They remained there for a few days before setting
+out on their northward route. All the bridges of the Sperchius had
+been broken down, and the left bank of the river was occupied by
+the Thessalians, who had collected <i>en masse</i>;
+<span class="pagebreak" title="475">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475"></a>
+nevertheless, the
+Gaulish army forced a passage. It was in the midst of a population
+all armed, and thirsting for vengeance, that they traversed, from
+one extremity to the other, Thessaly and Macedonia, exposed to
+perils, to sufferings, to privations, daily increasing, combating
+without intermission during the day, and at night having no other
+shelter than a cold and watery sky. They gained at last the
+northern frontier of Macedonia. There the distribution of the body
+took place: afterwards the Kimry-Gauls divided into many bands;
+some returned to their country, others sought in different
+directions new food for their turbulent activity.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 180.)</p></div>
+
+<p>A band of Tectosages joined to the Tolistoboies, and a horde of Gauls,
+united, and traversing Thrace with fire and sword, passed over into Asia
+Minor. They found it distracted by the quarrels of Alexander&rsquo;s
+successors. Summoned in an evil hour by Nicomedes to aid him and the
+Greek states of Asia Minor in their struggle against the Seleucid&aelig;, they
+soon established him on the throne of Bithynia. But they now turned
+their victorious arms against the nations of that unhappy country. Their
+armies, increased by reinforcements drawn from Thrace, had divided
+themselves into three hordes: the Tectosages, the Tolistoboies, and the
+Trocmes. To avoid dispute, they distributed the whole of Asia Minor into
+three parts: of these the Trocmes possessed the Hellespont and Troas;
+the Tolistoboies, &AElig;olida and Ionia; the Tectosages, the coast of the
+Mediterranean from the west of Mount Taurus. They now overran and
+subdued all Asia Minor; every country, every town, was obliged to pay
+them tribute; or soon the fertile land was reduced to an arid desert,
+watered only by the blood of its inhabitants, and the costly city,
+stormed by the fierce warriors of the north, became a heap of smoking
+ruins. At last the Tectosages came in contact with Antiochus, king of
+Syria, and were totally defeated at the battle of the Taurus; the Syrian
+king, following up his victory, compelled them to resign their
+conquests, and to establish themselves on the banks of the Halys, near
+the town of Ancyra, in Upper Phrygia, where they dwelt, too weak again
+to enter on the career of conquest. Internal war prevented the Asiatics
+for some time from pursuing their successes, and the Trocmes and
+Tolistoboies continued still to pillage and oppress all the maritime
+provinces. Nay, their power was actually increased by those wars, as
+each of the contending parties purchased the mercenary services of large
+bands of those brave, though turbulent warriors. But the end of the
+Gaulish rule in Asia Minor was at hand. The small state of Pergamus,
+under the able rule of Eumenes, emerged from its obscurity, and
+inflicted a severe wound upon the Gauls by the defeat of Antiochus, king
+of Syria, with whom a great number of them served as mercenaries. His
+son Attalus, on his accession to the throne, immediately marched against
+and defeated the Tolistoboies. Ionia, which had long groaned under their
+oppression, seizing the opportunity, rose up against them; the
+Tolistoboies, beaten in several engagements, were driven beyond Mount
+Taurus; and the Trocmes, after a vain attempt to maintain themselves in
+Troas, were forced to retreat and unite with their defeated countrymen.
+Attacked now by the whole population of Asia Minor, the two hordes were
+driven by degrees into Upper Phrygia, where the Tectosages had formerly
+settled. Here the three hordes united, and here they founded the empire
+of Galatia.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;Thus ended in Asia Minor the dominion of this people in their
+character of nomad conquerors; another period of existence now
+commenced for them. Abandoning their wandering life, they mixed
+with the indigenous population, who were themselves a mixture of
+Greek colonists and Asiatics. That blending together of three
+races, unequal in power and in civilization, produced a mixed
+nation, that of the Gallo-Greeks, whose civil, political, and
+religious institutions, carry the triple stamp of Gaulish, Greek,
+and Phrygian manners. The regular influence which the Gauls are
+destined to act in Asia Minor, as an Asiatic power, will prove not
+to be inferior to that of which they have been deprived; and we
+shall see them defend, almost to the last, the liberty of the East
+against the Roman arms.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 203-204.)</p></div>
+
+<p>We have not space to follow M.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="476">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476"></a>
+Thierry in his very interesting account
+of the exploits of the Gaulish mercenaries in Greece&mdash;in particular of
+those who served in the army of Pyrrhus; or who, acting in the pay of
+Carthage, contributed so much to the victories of that powerful and
+wealthy people, and who took that lead in the famous insurrection of the
+mercenaries, which so nearly brought about their ruin. We must pass over
+too, unnoticed, the desperate struggle between the Romans and Gauls in
+Cisalpine Gaul, which ended in the defeat of the Boian confederacy at
+the battle of the Telama, and their submission, and the subjugation of
+the Insubrians by Marcellus. The whole of Cisalpine Gaul thus seemed to
+be finally subdued, when a new enemy suddenly appeared in the field, and
+again led the Gaulish standards into the heart of southern Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had the Cisalpines laid down their arms, when there arrived
+amongst them emissaries sent by Hannibal to excite them to a renewal of
+the war, and to engage them in an alliance with Carthage, by promising
+to guarantee to them the liberty of their country, and by exciting their
+cupidity with the prospect of the spoils of Rome and southern Italy.
+They were well received, and secret armaments soon began to take place,
+especially amongst the Boian confederacy. But what immediately caused
+the outbreak was an attempt of the Romans to found two colonies, one at
+Cremona, and the other at Placentia. Enraged at this, the Boians took up
+arms, and attacking the colonists of Placentia, dispersed them, whilst
+the Insubrians expelled those who had advanced to Cremona. The Boians
+and Insubrians now uniting their forces, laid siege to Mutina, but in
+vain. This check, however, was more than counterbalanced by the defeat
+of a Roman army under the orders of Manlius. While affairs were in this
+state, the columns of Hannibal, descending from the Alps, arrived on the
+Insubrian territory. The result of the late successes of the Gauls in
+their disposition towards Hannibal, is well explained by Thierry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;Two factions then divided all Cisalpine Gaul. The one composed of
+the Venetes, the Cremonas, and the Ligures of the Alps, gained over
+to the Roman cause, opposed with vigour every movement in favour of
+Hannibal. The other, which included the Ligures of the Apennines,
+the Insubrians, and the people of the Boian confederation, had
+embraced the Carthaginian side, but without much ardour. The
+affairs of Gaul had undergone a great change. At the time when the
+propositions of Hannibal were received with enthusiasm, Gaul was
+humiliated and conquered; Roman troops occupied her
+territory&mdash;Roman colonies assembled in her towns. But since the
+dispersion of the colonies of Cremona and Placentia&mdash;since the
+defeat of L. Manlius in the forest of Mutina, the Boians and
+Insubrians, satisfied at having recovered their independence with
+their own forces, cared little to compromise themselves for the
+advantage of strangers, whose appearance and numbers inspired them
+with but slight confidence.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 284-285.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Hannibal felt all the importance of deciding the wavering sentiments of
+this people; on them his future success or defeat depended; to do this
+nothing but victory was requisite. He accordingly advanced rapidly
+against the Romans, and first engaged them in a cavalry action at the
+Ticinus. Victory declared for the Carthaginians. The horse of Numidia
+routed the cavalry of Rome. This success, unimportant as it was,
+revealed Hannibal to the eyes of the Gauls; influenced by it, the
+Insubrian chiefs hastened to supply him with provisions and troops.
+Hardly had the Carthaginians arrived in sight of the Roman camp at
+Placentia, when a large body of the Gaulish contingent revolted from
+Scipio, and contrived, though much reduced in numbers, to cut their way
+through in spite of all opposition, and join Hannibal. The famous battle
+of the Trebia&mdash;the first of those great victories which have rendered
+immortal the genius of the Carthaginian chief&mdash;soon followed; it at once
+decided the course of Cisalpine Gaul. Its immediate and ultimate effects
+on the power and operations of Hannibal are well developed by our
+author:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;The fortune of Hannibal was then consolidated; more than 60,000
+Boians, Insubrians, and Ligures flocked in a few days to his
+standards, and raised his forces to 100,000 men. With such a
+disproportion between the nucleus of the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="477">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477"></a>
+Carthaginian army and its
+auxiliaries, Hannibal was in reality but a Gaulish chief; and if,
+in the moments of danger, he had no cause to repent his new
+situation, more than once, nevertheless, he cursed with bitterness
+its inconveniences. Nothing could equal the courage and devotion of
+the Gaulish soldier in the dangers of the battle-field; but under
+the tent he had neither the habit nor the taste of military
+subordination. The lofty conceptions of Hannibal surpassed his
+comprehension; he could not understand war, unless such as he
+himself carried it on&mdash;as a bold and rapid plundering excursion, of
+which the present moment reaped the whole advantage. He would have
+wished to march instantly on Rome, or at least to pass the winter
+in some of the allied or subject provinces&mdash;in Etruria or in
+Umbria&mdash;there to live at discretion in pillage and license. Did
+Hannibal represent that it was necessary to spare the provinces in
+order to gain them over to the common cause, the Cisalpines broke
+forth into murmurs; the combinations of prudence and genius
+appeared in their eyes but a vile pretext to deprive them of the
+advantages which they had legitimately won.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 292-293.)</p></div>
+
+<p>We cannot follow the steps of the great conqueror in his memorable
+campaigns&mdash;in his fatal march over the fens of Etruria, or through the
+glorious field of Thrasymene. But the share which the Gauls had in the
+mighty victory of Cann&aelig;, and the change of the seat of war, with the
+results which followed from it, are of such importance, and the remarks
+made upon them by M. Thierry are so just, that we shall give the whole
+of his account of this event at full length:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;From the field of Thrasymene Hannibal passed into southern Italy,
+and gave battle a third time to the Romans, near the village of
+Cann&aelig;, on the banks of the Aufidus, now called the Offanto. He had
+then under his banners 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; and of
+these 50,000 combatants, at least 30,000 were Gauls. In his order
+of battle, he placed their cavalry on the right wing, and in the
+centre their infantry, whom he united to the Spanish infantry, and
+whom he commanded in person: the Gaulish foot, as was their custom
+on all occasions when they were determined to conquer or die, threw
+off their tunic and sagum, and fought naked from their waist
+upwards, armed with their long and pointless sabres. They commenced
+the action; and their cavalry and that of the Numidians terminated
+it. We know how dreadful the carnage was in that celebrated
+battle&mdash;the most glorious of the victories of Hannibal&mdash;the most
+disastrous of the defeat of Rome. When the Carthaginian general,
+moved with pity, called to his soldiers &lsquo;to halt, and to spare the
+vanquished,&rsquo; without doubt the Gauls, bloodthirsty in the
+destruction of their mortal enemies, carried to that butchery more
+than the ordinary irritation of wars, the satisfaction of a
+vengeance ardently wished for, and long deferred. There 70,000
+Romans perished; the loss on the side of the conquerors was 5500,
+of which 4000 were Gauls. Out of 60,000 Gauls, whom Hannibal had
+enumerated around him after the combat of the Trebia, 25,000 only
+remained; battle, sickness, above all, the fatal passage over the
+marshes of Etruria, had cut off all the rest; for up to this period
+they had supported almost exclusively the weight of the war. The
+victory of Cann&aelig; brought to the Carthaginians other auxiliaries; a
+crowd of men from Campania, Lucania, Brutium, and Apulia, filled
+his camp; but it was not that warlike race which he formerly
+recruited on the banks of the Po. Cann&aelig; was the term of his
+success; and assuredly the fault ought not to be imputed to his
+genius, more admirable even in adverse than in good fortune&mdash;his
+army only had changed. For two thousand years history has accused
+him with bitterness for his inaction after the battle of Aufidus,
+and for his delay at Capua; perhaps it might reproach him more
+justly for having removed from the north of Italy, and for having
+allowed his communications with the soldiers who had conquered
+under him at Thrasymene and Cann&aelig;, to be cut off. Rome perceived
+the fault of Hannibal, and hastened to profit by it. Two armies in
+<i>&eacute;chelon</i>, the one to the north, and the other to the south,
+intercepted the communication between the Cisalpines and Magna
+Gr&aelig;cia. That of the north, by its incursions and by its threatening
+attitude, occupied the Gauls at their own hearths, whilst the
+second made head against the Carthaginians.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 297-300.)</p></div>
+
+<p>It has been said by the most renowned conqueror of modern times, that,
+give him but the Gallic infantry
+<span class="pagebreak" title="478">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478"></a>
+and the Mameluke cavalry, and he would
+subdue the world. And it cannot fail to strike the attentive reader with
+astonishment, to learn that the severest blow ever given to the power of
+Rome was inflicted by the Gaulish foot and the Numidian horse. It is
+curious, as exemplifying the unchanging characters of race, to observe
+that the greatest general of antiquity triumphed at the head of an army,
+composed of those very nations whom Napoleon, after the lapse of two
+thousand years, declared best fitted to pursue the blood-stained paths
+of military greatness.</p>
+
+<p>The efforts of the Gauls did not cease with the battle of Cann&aelig;; they
+defeated an army under Posthumius, which invaded their territory. When
+Hasdrubal led his ill-fated expedition to strew their bodies on the
+Italian plains, he was accompanied by large bands of those brave
+adventurers; and when Carthage, making a last effort to succour her
+general, disembarked 14,000 men under the command of Mago, Hannibal&rsquo;s
+brother, at Genoa, numerous bodies of Gauls flocked to his standards.
+And this general, though unable to effect his junction with Hannibal,
+yet maintained his ground for ten years, till at last, defeated in the
+territory of the Insubrians, he retired to Genoa. There he received
+orders to return to the defence of Africa:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;His brother also, recalled by the Carthaginian senate, was obliged
+to embark at the other extremity of Italy. The Gaulish and Ligurian
+soldiers, who had faithfully served Hannibal during seventeen
+years, abandoned him not in his days of misfortune; re-united to
+their compatriots who had followed Mago, they formed still a third
+part of the Carthaginian army at Zama, in the celebrated day which
+terminated that long war to the advantage of the Romans, and
+displayed to the world the genius of Hannibal humbled before the
+fortune of Scipio. The ferocity with which the Gauls fought has
+been recorded by the historian: &lsquo;They showed themselves,&rsquo; says
+Titus Livy, &lsquo;inflamed with that inborn hate against the Roman
+people, peculiar to their race.&rsquo;&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 310-311.)</p></div>
+
+<p>The war in Cisalpine Gaul did not cease with the departure of Hannibal.
+Under the orders of Carthaginian officer, the Gauls again took the
+field&mdash;Placentia fell beneath their arms; but they received a severe
+defeat from L. Furius, in the year 200 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, when the Carthaginian
+general Amilcar perished. From this period till the year 191 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, the
+Gaulish nations were involved in a constant succession of wars, in
+which, though occasionally victorious, they were upon the whole
+unsuccessful. Exposed to the incessant incursions of the Romans, their
+strength gradually wasted away; each year left them in a state more
+exhausted and unfit to renew the war than the preceding. Nation after
+nation laid down their arms in despair, till at last the Boian
+confederacy stood alone in its resistance of a foreign yoke; but their
+ravaged lands and reduced numbers were unequal to the struggle, and
+when, in the year 190 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, the Roman armies advanced into the heart of
+their exhausted territory, the few remaining inhabitants determined to
+abandon the land of their birth, and to seek, amidst ruder nations, and
+beneath a more ungenial sky, for that liberty in defence of which their
+fathers had so often bled. Accordingly, the wreck of a hundred and
+twelve Boian tribes, rising <i>en masse</i>, united, and wending their weary
+steps over the snow-clad summits of the Alps, and through the pathless
+forests of Germany, they found at last, on the banks of the distant
+Danube, a resting-place far removed from the hated name of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>All resistance from Cisalpine Gaul now ceased. Occasionally, indeed, a
+few tribes from the Transalpine would cross the Alps and descend into
+Italy, but they could not withstand the shock of the legions. The
+conquered territory was declared a Roman province, which it ever
+afterwards remained.</p>
+
+<p>We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his account of the progress
+and fall of that strange Gaulish kingdom of Galatia. From the year 241
+to the year 190 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, it maintained its independence unshaken, amidst
+the degenerate sons of Greece and the effeminate Asiatics. But the Roman
+power, beneath which the Gaulish race was ever doomed to bend, overtook
+them even amidst the mountains
+<span class="pagebreak" title="479">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479"></a>
+of Asia Minor. The Galatians had
+furnished some troops to Antiochus the Great, and then, for the first
+time, they came in contact with the eagle of the Capitol. The first
+encounter is thus alluded to by our author:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;The Romans had annihilated, at Magnesia, the Asiatic and Greek
+forces: yet the conquest of the country appeared to them still
+incomplete. They had encountered, beneath the banners of Antiochus,
+some bands of a force less easily conquered than the Syrians or the
+Phrygians: by the armour, by the lofty stature, by the yellow or
+reddish locks, by the war-cry, by the rattling clash of arms, by
+the dauntless valour above all, the legions had easily recognised
+that old enemy of Rome whom they had been brought up to fear.
+Before deciding any thing as to the lot of the vanquished, the
+Roman generals then determined to carry the war into Galatia.&rdquo;&mdash;(I.
+360-361.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Accordingly, in the spring of 189 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, Cn. Manlius, with 22,000
+legionaries and an auxiliary army furnished by the King of Pergamus,
+invaded Galatia: at his approach the Tolistoboies and Tectosages
+intrenched themselves upon Mount Olympus, and the Trocmes upon Mount
+Megalon, and there awaited the attack. The consul first advanced to
+Mount Olympus. He led his troops to attack the Gaulish position in three
+columns; the principal column, under his own orders, was to advance on
+the Gauls in front, the other two were to try and turn their position on
+either flank. The column which he led first engaged.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;His <i>velites</i> advanced in front of the standards, with the Cretan
+archers of Attalus, the slingers, and the corps of Trulles and of
+the Thracians. The infantry of the legions followed with slow
+steps, as the steepness of the declivity rendered necessary,
+sheltered beneath their bucklers, so as to avoid stones and arrows.
+At a considerable distance the combat began with discharges of
+arrows, and at first with equal success. The Gauls had the
+advantage in position, the Romans in the number and variety of
+their arms. The action continued, the equality no longer remained.
+The narrow and flat bucklers of the Gauls protected them
+insufficiently: soon having expended their darts and javelins, they
+found themselves altogether disarmed: for at that distance their
+sabres were useless. As they had made no selection of flints and
+stones beforehand, they seized the first which chance threw in
+their way, which were for the most part too large to be easily
+wielded, or for inexperienced arms to throw with effect. The
+Romans, meanwhile, poured down upon them a murderous hail of
+arrows, javelins, and leaden balls, which wounded them, without
+their having any possibility of avoiding the approach. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* A
+great number had bit the dust, others adopted the course of rushing
+right on the enemy, and they, at least, did not perish unavenged.
+It was the corps of the Roman <i>velites</i> who did them most harm.
+These <i>velites</i> carried on their left arm a buckler three feet in
+size, in their right hand javelins, which they threw from afar, at
+their girdle a Spanish sword; when it was necessary to engage in
+close contact, they transferred their javelins to the left hand,
+and drew their sword. Few Gauls now remained on foot: seeing then
+the legions advance to the charge, they fled precipitately to their
+camp, which the alarm of the multitude of women, children and old
+men who were shut up within it, already filled with tumult and
+confusion.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 373-376.)</p></div>
+
+<p>The other two columns had, from the difficult nature of the ground, been
+unable to make any progress. Manlius now led on his legionaries to
+assault the intrenchment, which they carried at the sword&rsquo;s point. A few
+days after this victory, Manlius advanced with his triumphant army to
+attack the Trocmes, who were intrenched on Mount Megalon. This battle
+resembled much, both in its progress and in its termination, the one
+which preceded it. The Trocmes were driven with slaughter from the
+field, and their camp taken. Dispirited by this double defeat, the
+Galatians, who had rallied their scattered forces behind the Halys, sued
+for peace. The Romans, desiring rather to conciliate than to irritate
+this warlike people, merely exacted that they should surrender the land
+which they had taken from the allies of Rome, and that they should give
+up their wandering and predatory habits, so injurious to all their
+neighbours. Under the influence of the forced peace in which the
+subjection of Asia to the Romans kept
+<span class="pagebreak" title="480">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480"></a>
+the Galatians, their manners
+rapidly changed. Asiatic luxury took the place of northern barbarity;
+the worship of the national gods was abandoned, and the idols of the
+stranger were substituted in their room; the coarse garments of ancient
+days, gave place to vestments of purple and gold: yet a little while,
+and the loss of national manners was followed by the loss of political
+privileges; the magistracies, formerly elective, now became hereditary;
+the families who usurped this privilege formed, in course of time, a
+bright and all-powerful aristocracy. Ambition limited the number of
+these magistracies; from twelve they were reduced to four; at last they
+were centred in a single hand: so that when Galatia was united as a
+province to the Roman empire, it was governed by a hereditary king. Yet,
+amidst this usurpation of the sovereign power, the national council of
+the Three Hundred still continued to exist, and assist in the government
+of the state.</p>
+
+<p>During twenty years peace subsisted between the Galatians and their
+Asiatic neighbours. At the end of that period, however, a war broke out,
+and pillaging bands once more began to traverse the plains of Asia
+Minor; when Rome interposed, and by her mediation peace was restored.
+Mithridates, uniting beneath his sway all the powers of the East, drove
+back for a while the Roman eagles, and seemed about to restore their
+ancient glory to the Asiatics. The Galatians joined with him; but their
+fidelity became suspected, and he seized upon sixty of their nobles as
+hostages. Enraged at this treatment, they formed a plot to assassinate
+him; it was frustrated, and the conspirators were almost all
+treacherously put to death at a banquet. His troops then advancing, took
+possession of Galatia, which was governed by one of his officers with
+insolence and oppression for twelve years. At last a revolt broke out;
+his armies were driven from the country; Galatia was once more free. The
+defeat of Mithridates by the Roman arms ensured their independence for a
+short time; but the rest of Asia was now subject to the Romans.
+Surrounded, enveloped on all sides by their power, Galatia yielded at
+last, and was reduced to the form of a Roman province in the time of
+Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>Here M. Thierry ends the first part of his History of the Gauls; and
+thus far we have followed him step by step, because we considered this
+both the least known and the most interesting portion of Gaulish
+history. The two periods which follow are more familiar to historical
+readers: because, during them, Rome was the great enemy of the Gauls;
+and if she has often palliated her defeats, she has at least never
+failed to chronicle her victories. Henceforth, therefore, we shall no
+longer attempt to follow the thread of his narrative. The victories of
+Marius, the campaigns of C&aelig;sar, stand in no need of our attention being
+directed to them, as to the wars of the Brenn in Greece, or the
+conquests of the horde in Asia Minor. Here we take leave of the Gaul as
+the conquering nomad; we have seen him wandering through the land of the
+stranger with fire and sword; but the hour of vengeance has now come,
+and we shall see him bleed in vain on his native soil for that liberty
+of which he had so often deprived others.</p>
+
+<p>M. Thierry opens his history of the second period with an exceedingly
+interesting account of the state of Gaul during the second and third
+centuries before our era. Gaul was then inhabited by three distinct
+families or races. By the Iberian family&mdash;divided into the Aquitains and
+the Ligures. By the Gaulish family&mdash;divided into the Gauls, the Kimry,
+and the Belgians. And by the Ionian-Greek family, or the inhabitants of
+the powerful and flourishing maritime and commercial state of Massalia.
+The Iberian and Ionian-Greeks, families occupying comparatively but a
+small portion of Gaul, need not detain us. With the Gauls we have more
+to do. Our author gives the following account of the way in which their
+territory was divided amongst the three different bands of this
+family:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;A line which, setting out from the mouth of the Tann, follows the
+course of that river, then that of the Rhone, the Iser, the Alps,
+the Rhine, the Vosges, the &AElig;dnian hills, the Loire, the Vienne, and
+comes at last to rejoin the Garonne, by turning the plateau of
+Arvernia: that line would nearly circumscribe
+<span class="pagebreak" title="481">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481"></a>
+the possessions of
+the Gallic race. The territory situated to the east of that limit
+belonged to the race of the Kimry; it was in time divided into two
+portions by the line of the Seine and the Marne, the one northern
+and the other southern. To the south, between the Seine and the
+Garonne, lived the Kimry of the first invasion, intermingled with
+Gallic blood, or the Gallo-Kimry. To the north, between the Seine
+and the Rhine, the Kimry of the second invasion, or Belgians. The
+Gauls numbered twenty-two nations; the Gallo-Kimry, seventeen; and
+the Belgians, twenty-three. These sixty-two nations were subdivided
+into many hundred tribes.&rdquo;&mdash;(I. 28.)</p></div>
+
+<p>He then enters into a long and most interesting description of the
+domestic manners, and political and religious institutions, of the
+Gauls.</p>
+
+<p>After having traced the Gaul for so long in the field, we love to follow
+him into his cabin&mdash;to observe his appearance, his pursuits, his
+habits&mdash;to mark the manly figure, the fair complexion, the flowing
+yellow locks, the glittering helmet surmounted with the antlers of the
+stag, the buckler covered with all the colours of the rainbow, the
+polished cuirass flashing back the rays of the morning sun, the heavy
+sabre hanging from the gold-bespangled belt, the precious necklace, the
+rich armlets, the bright and variegated hues of the martial sagum or
+mantle, of the noble Gaulish warrior. We follow him as he turns away
+from his clay-built mansion, and, regardless of the silent tears and
+entreating looks of his submissive, perhaps ill-used wife, hurries into
+the noise and excitement of the battle-field. Observe the wild frenzy
+that there seems to seize him, as he rushes with dauntless courage on
+the bristling phalanx of his enemies; as, amidst the clouds of dust
+which float overhead, and the horrid cries which resound on all sides,
+he tears and widens with savage ferocity the fearful gash he has just
+received; as, a moment after, overcoming in personal conflict yon
+stalwart chief, he decapitates, with one blow of his heavy sabre, the
+yet palpitating corpse, and waves the gory head with demoniac triumph in
+the air; and as he returns home, yet reeking with blood and intoxicated
+with victory, and suspends above his threshold the ghastly trophy. Look
+again&mdash;the scene is changed&mdash;the glittering arms are flung aside. With
+his mantle floating in the breeze, his light spear quivering in his
+hand, he plunges into the pathless forest; with fearless step he pursues
+his way through the leafy shade, and traverses the treacherous surface
+of the morass. Beneath yon giant oak he has encountered the fiercest
+inhabitant of those solitudes&mdash;the wild bull; but it has fallen beneath
+his javelin, which yet protrudes from it bushy neck, and, as it lies
+struggling on the greensward, making the wood ring again with its
+bellowings, his dagger is raised to give it the final stroke.&mdash;Observe
+him once more in the council of his nation. The warriors stand in an
+attentive circle leaning on their arms; he has risen to address them;
+his action is animated, his words are vehement; the polished accents,
+the finished periods of the Greek, flow not from his lips, but there is
+eagerness in his eye, there is earnestness in his speech, his language
+is figurative in the extreme, a thousand picturesque and striking images
+illustrate his meaning; his metaphors, drawn from the battle and the
+chase, thrill to the bosom of all his listeners; and the clash and clang
+of their arms, amidst which he sits down, proclaims alike their assent
+to his proposition and their admiration of his eloquence. It is amidst
+scenes like these that we love to follow the Gaul, to picture to
+ourselves an old race and an old civilization, which combined in so
+strange a way the greatness and the savageness, the heroism in danger
+and weakness under temptation, of primeval and half-civilized man.</p>
+
+<p>To comprehend clearly the internal and external history of the Gauls, we
+must understand the political condition of their country. This is
+unfolded in a clear and masterly manner by our author, in the following
+passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;In Gaul, two privileged orders ruled the rest of the people&mdash;the
+elective order of the priests, who recruited themselves
+indiscriminately from all ranks, and the hereditary order of the
+nobles or knights. This latter was composed of the ancient royal
+families of the tribes, and of those men who had been
+<span class="pagebreak" title="482">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482"></a>
+recently
+ennobled, either by war or by the influence of riches. The
+multitudes were divided into two classes&mdash;the people of the
+country, and the people of the town. The first formed the tribes or
+the clans of the noble families. The client belonged to his patron,
+whose domains he cultivated, whose standard he followed in war,
+under whom he was a member of a little patriarchal aristocracy; his
+duty was to defend him to the death from, and against all: to
+abandon his patron in circumstances of danger, passed for the
+consummation of disgrace, and even for a crime. The people of the
+towns, from their situation, removed from the influence of the old
+hierarchy of the tribes, enjoyed greater liberty, and fortunately
+found themselves in a situation to maintain and to defend it.
+Beneath the mass of the people came the slaves, who do not appear
+to have been very numerous. The two privileged orders caused the
+yoke of their despotism to weigh, turn by turn, upon Gaul. Turn by
+turn they exercised absolute authority, and lost it by a series of
+political revolutions. The history of the government of the Gauls
+offers, then, three very distinct periods: that of the reign of the
+priests, or of the theocracy&mdash;that of the reign of the chiefs of
+the tribes, or of the military aristocracy&mdash;lastly, that of the
+popular constitutions, founded on the principle of election, and on
+the will of the majority. The epoch which we are about to treat of,
+accomplished that last and great revolution; and popular
+constitutions, although still ill assured, at last ruled over all
+Gaul at the commencement of the first age.&rdquo;&mdash;(II. 71-73.)</p></div>
+
+<p>M. Thierry recognises in the Gauls the traces of two distinct religions.
+He says&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&ldquo;When we examine attentively the character of the facts relative to
+the religious belief of the Gauls, we are led to recognise two
+systems of ideas, two bodies of symbols and superstitions
+altogether distinct&mdash;in a word, two religions: the one altogether
+sensible, derived from the adoration of natural phenomena, and by
+its forms, as well as by its literal development, reminding us of
+the polytheism of the Greeks; the other founded upon a material
+pantheism, metaphysical, mysterious, sacerdotal, and presenting the
+most astonishing conformity with the religions of the East. That
+last has received the name of druidism, from the druids who were
+its founders and priests. We shall give to the first the name of
+the Gaulish polytheism.&rdquo;&mdash;(II. 73-74.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Thierry thinks that this polytheism originally prevailed amongst the
+Gauls, but that the Kimry introduced druidism, which soon became the
+dominant religion over the whole of Gaul, though the original polytheism
+ingrafted upon it more or less, in different places, some of its tenets
+and ceremonies. The great seat of the religion of the druids was
+Armorika, and, above all, Britain; there existed the most powerful of
+their sacerdotal colleges&mdash;there were celebrated the most secret of
+their mysteries.</p>
+
+<p>It is wondrous thing, that religion of the ancient druids! A solemn
+mystery enshrouds it&mdash;all the efforts of modern science cannot lift the
+veil. When we look on yon circle of stones which, grey with the lapse of
+ages, stands in lonely majesty upon the dreary moor, near which no sound
+is ever heard, save the distant and sullen roar of the ocean, as it
+breaks in sheets of foam on the rock-bound coast&mdash;the fitful cry of
+curlew, as it wings over them its solitary way&mdash;or the occasional low
+moaning of the wind, as, stealing through amidst the rocks, it seems to
+pour forth a mournful dirge for the shades of departed greatness:&mdash;when
+we look on a scene like this, we have before our gaze all that is known
+of these men of the olden time. Their blood-stained rites, their solemn
+mysteries, are forgotten; but their simple temples still stand
+imperishable as the God to whom they were erected. From the study of the
+ancient authors little or no information can be gleaned; a few
+descriptions of their bloody sacrifices, an account of some of their
+more public ceremonials, is all that they have handed down to us. But
+the real nature of their religion is unknown: more of its spirit is
+taught to us by those silent stones than by all other accounts put
+together. The choice of the situations for those sacred monuments amidst
+the melancholy waste, or buried deep in the recesses of some vast
+forest, where the wide-spreading branches of their sacred tree (the oak)
+casts its deep shadows
+<span class="pagebreak" title="483">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483"></a>
+over the consecrated spot, with no canopy save
+the heavens, shows the dark and gloomy spirit of their faith. They
+worshipped the God of the thunder-storm, not the God of peace; and it
+was amidst the thunder-storm that their horrid rites appeared most
+horrid. When, illuminated by the lurid glare of the lightning, the
+gigantic osier figure filled with human beings sank into the
+flames&mdash;when the shouts of the multitude who stood in a dense circle
+around the spot, the frenzied chants of the druids, and the despairing
+shrieks of the dying victims, were drowned in the sullen roar of the
+thunder&mdash;then must the fearful nature of their creed have stood forth in
+all its horrors. Yet with all this, there was a sort of grandeur in the
+seclusion and simplicity of their worship. All was not blood; and though
+they bowed down to the Unknown God in an erring and mistaken spirit, yet
+must their conception of him been fine. The God of nature and the
+wilderness&mdash;the God of the tempest and the storm&mdash;was a nobler idea than
+the immortalized humanities of Greek and Roman mythology, though both
+had wandered equally far from the true God of Mercy and of Peace.</p>
+
+<p>When Massalia was hard pressed by two Gaulish nations, she summoned, in
+an evil hour, Rome to her aid. By the Roman arms her assailants were
+repelled, but these allies maintained their footing in the country. They
+soon subdued Liguria, and founded the town of Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig;; the Gaulish
+nation of the &AElig;dues united with the strangers; a defensive league
+entered into by the Allobroges and the Arvernes to drive them from their
+shores, was defeated. The territory acquired by these victories was
+organized into a Transalpine province; this province gradually went on
+increasing; its communications with Italy were assured, by the Romans
+obtaining possession of the passes of the Alps. In the year 118 <span class="little">B.C.</span>,
+the first Roman colony in Gaul was founded at Narbonne; hither, in
+course of time, came the great maritime commerce which had raised
+Massalia to her greatness; hither, too, flowed much of the internal
+traffic of Gaul. The ships of Massalia lay rotting in her harbours, her
+extensive quays lost their busy multitudes. In the fall of her naval
+power, in the loss of her commercial policy, she received a just reward
+for having wafted to her shores, and assisted with her forces, the
+stranger who was destined to rule over the Gaulish people. The
+organization of the province was completed; and from Narbonne, Roman
+emissaries issuing forth, laboured, by augmenting the quarrels and
+dissensions of the native tribes, to afford an opportunity for her to
+extend the limits of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>Driven from the shores of the Baltic by an inroad of the ocean, the two
+tribes of the Kimry and the Teutones uniting, precipitated themselves,
+to the number of 300,000 fighting men, upon the more southern countries.
+In the course of their wanderings they came upon the Roman province of
+Norica, which they laid waste with fire and sword, and where they
+defeated the consul, Papirius Carbon, with great loss. Without taking
+advantage of this opportunity to enter Italy, which now lay open to
+their attack, they entered the country of the Helvetii, where they were
+joined by the tribes of that people, the Ambrones, the Tigurines, and
+the Teutones; descending now upon Gaul like a devastating torrent, they
+wasted it as far as the Belgian frontier; here, however, the resistance
+of the inhabitants prevented them from advancing further. Turning now
+upon the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, they defeated three Roman
+armies under Silanus, Cassius, and Scaurus; and here they were joined by
+that portion of the Tectosages who had formerly returned from the
+disastrous invasion of Greece. The Roman generals, Cepio and Manlius,
+who had advanced against them, were utterly routed, and great part of
+the province laid waste. From hence the Kimry penetrated into Spain,
+where they remained for two years, pillaging and wasting the country,
+till, having received a check from the Celtiberians, they repassed the
+Pyrenees, and united with their confederated in the plains of Gaul. The
+united bands now prepared to march upon Italy; this they did in two
+divisions: one, consisting of the Kimry and the Tigurines, directed its
+steps
+<span class="pagebreak" title="484">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484"></a>
+through Helvetia and Norica and by the Tridentine Alps; while the
+other, consisting of the Ambrones and the Teutones, moved on the route
+which leads to Italy by the Maritime Alps: both divisions had appointed
+a common rendezvous on the banks of the Po.</p>
+
+<p>Rome was not unprepared for this invasion; to meet it, Marius had been
+recalled from his command in Africa, and invested with the consular
+power. When the division of the Ambrones and the Teutones reached the
+Maritime Alps, they found that general encamped in a position which lay
+directly in their line of march. Assaulted for three successive days,
+the Romans maintained themselves in their intrenchments: at last the
+Gauls, giving up the attempt to force them, passed on and soon reached
+Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig;, whither they were followed by Marius. Marius encamped on a
+hill opposite the quarter of the Ambrones; between them flowed a river.
+The sutlers of the Roman army having descended to obtain water,
+encountered, in the bed of the torrent, some Gauls. A skirmish began;
+the Ambrones flocked in great numbers to support their comrades; soon
+they assembled their whole force and advanced upon the Romans. In
+crossing the stream they were vigorously opposed by the auxiliaries.
+Marius, seeing the favourable opportunity, led down his legions to the
+attack. Unable to withstand the shock, the Ambrones were driven back
+with great loss; the river ran red with their blood; the plain was
+covered with fugitives; and their routed forces halted not till they
+reached the neighbouring quarter of the Teutones. In their camp the
+Romans experienced more resistance from the women, who, rather than fall
+into the hands of their enemies, flung themselves on the hostile ranks,
+or perished by their own hands. Marius drew off his troops before night,
+and retreated to his former position on the hill. The next night he sent
+round 3000 men to occupy a wood in the rear of the position of the
+Teutones. The following morning he drew out his legions in battle array
+upon the slope of the hill, and sent forward his cavalry to skirmish
+with the enemy, and induce them to engage with him. They fell into the
+snare: pursuing his cavalry, they advanced to the river&rsquo;s edge, and
+there, in an evil hour, crossed it and attacked the Roman army. The
+contest which ensued was long and desperate; the Gauls had the advantage
+in numbers, the Romans in discipline and position. But while victory
+still hung in the balance, the 3000 Romans, issuing forth from their
+ambuscade, fell upon the rear of the Teutones: this produced
+irremediable confusion in the ranks of the Gauls. The Romans redoubled
+the energy of their attack, and the victory was no longer doubtful. Many
+perished in the field, more in the pursuit; the remainder were cut off
+in detail by the peasants, who assailed them on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the other divisions of the Gauls, consisting of the Kimry and
+the Tigurines, after traversing Helvetia and Norica, arrived at the
+Tridentine passes of the Alps at the end of winter. To keep possession
+of these passes the Tigurines halted upon the summits of the ridge,
+while the Kimry, continuing their march, descended into the valley of
+the Adige. On their approach the consul Catulus, who was charged with
+the defence of this part of Italy, retreated behind the Adige; and when
+the Gauls advanced to attack him, his legions were seized with such a
+panic, that, abandoning their camp, they fled, and halted not till they
+had placed the Po between themselves and the enemy. The Kimry now spread
+themselves over the whole territory beyond the Po, and occupied the land
+without opposition: here they determined to await the arrival of the
+other column. This delay saved Italy; for it afforded time for Marius
+and his army to cross the Alps, and effect a junction with Catulus and
+his troops. In the July of 101 <span class="little">B.C.</span>, Marius and Catulus advanced to meet
+the Kimry on the banks of the Po. On the 30th of July the hostile armies
+met to decide the fate of Italy in the Campus Ranolius. The battle which
+ensued was long and bloody; but overcome by the heat of the day and the
+immense clouds of dust, and exposed by their imperfect defensive armour
+to all the strokes of the enemy, the Kimry were in the end totally
+defeated. When the Romans, in the course of the pursuit, came to their
+camp, the same
+<span class="pagebreak" title="485">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485"></a>
+scene occurred as that which took place at Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig;;
+as the women, after defending themselves for some time, at last put an
+end to their existence with their own hands. On receiving news of this
+defeat, the Tigurines abandoned the passes of the Alps, and retreated to
+their native country, Helvetia. Thus ended the last invasion of Italy by
+the Gauls. Rome acknowledged the danger she had run by the gratitude she
+displayed to Marius, who received the title of the third Romulus, and
+his triumph was celebrated with all the enthusiasm of a grateful
+country.</p>
+
+<p>We pass in silence over the various occurrences in Gaul till we come to
+the year 58 <span class="little">B.C.</span> This was the year when C&aelig;sar commenced his career of
+victory. His first achievement was the defeat of the Helvetii, who,
+rising <i>en masse</i>, wished to abandon their sterile country, and gain by
+the sword a more fertile land. He next advanced against Ariovistus and
+his Germans, who were ravaging with fire and sword the eastern portions
+of Gaul: these he likewise totally routed&mdash;thus delivering the
+inhabitants from a withering scourge. But their joy at this event was
+soon changed into sadness, when they saw that the Romans had no
+intention of retreating from their territory. Establishing himself
+amongst the Sequanes, C&aelig;sar levied contributions and collected
+provisions from all the neighbouring nations. Their discontent soon
+burst forth; they flew to arms, and prepared to make a desperate fight
+in defence of their liberties. We have no room to follow the Roman
+through his various campaigns; to trace the long and gallant stand made
+by the Gauls in defence of their native land; or the great and admirable
+genius of C&aelig;sar, nowhere displayed so greatly as in his Gaulish
+campaigns, though perfidy sometimes tainted his councils, and torrents
+of innocent blood too often stained his arms. Suffice it to say, that
+after three campaigns, the north and west had submitted to his forces,
+and he had made his first descent on the British shores. In his fourth
+campaign he undertook his second expedition against Britain, and subdued
+some more of the continental tribes. But a general movement now took
+place over nearly the whole of Gaul against the Romans, who at first
+suffered some severe checks; but the military skill of C&aelig;sar, in the
+course of a fifth campaign, again triumphed. Though so often vanquished,
+these brave people were not yet subdued. A new league was entered into
+by their cities; the war broke out afresh; and an able general,
+Vercingeto-rix, now directed their movements. It was during the course
+of his sixth campaign, which now followed, that C&aelig;sar ran the greatest
+danger and achieved the greatest triumphs. The surprise of Genatum, the
+capture of Avaricum, seemed at first to promise a speedy victory to his
+arms; but a repulse which he suffered before the walls of Geronia was
+the signal for the whole of Gaul to unite with the insurgents. A victory
+which he gained over Vercingeto-rix soon afterwards, checked for the
+moment, but did not dispirit, the Gauls; and the whole weight of the war
+was soon collected around the ramparts of Alexia. Both parties felt that
+the contest which would now ensue must decide the fate of the campaign,
+and both made the most strenuous exertions to prepare for it. The
+gigantic lines of C&aelig;sar were soon surrounded by the whole force of the
+enemy, and a combined attack was made upon them both from within and
+without. Great and imminent was the peril; but the steadiness of the
+legions, and the gallantry of their chief, surmounted it, and the
+banners of Rome finally waved triumphant over the hard-fought field. The
+fruits of this victory were immense. Alexia capitulated; the Gaulish
+nations who had been most active in the war submitted; and
+Vercingeto-rix was given up to the conquerors. Yet was a great part of
+the country still unsubdued; and when in the ensuing year, <span class="little">B.C.</span> 51,
+C&aelig;sar took the field in his seventh and last campaign in this country,
+he found a powerful and numerous confederacy in arms. Taught by the
+experience of the past, they no longer attempted to unite their whole
+forces and defeat him in general engagements, but endeavoured to exhaust
+his resources, and wear out his troops by a protracted defensive
+warfare. They fortified and garrisoned their towns so as to impose on
+him the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="486">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486"></a>
+necessity of innumerable sieges; whilst the country, on his
+line of march, was laid waste, and his troops were harassed by the
+incessant attacks of their skirmishers. But C&aelig;sar overcame all
+difficulties: if they met him in battle, they were vanquished; if they
+retreated to their fortifications, they were driven from them by
+escalade; if they took refuge in their marshes, he pursued and overtook
+them even there. Dispirited by these constant defeats, the Gauls, for
+the last time, laid down their arms. The conquered territory was
+organized as a new province of the Roman empire, and C&aelig;sar laboured to
+attach it to his person by the lenity and moderation of his government.
+In this he succeeded; nor had he ever reason to repent of having done
+so; for, during the civil wars which raised him to the imperial power,
+he received no inconsiderable assistance from the courage and devotion
+of its inhabitants. Here, as a free people, ends the history of the
+Gauls. We shall not follow M. Thierry in his account of the last period
+of their annals, which embraces the subjugation of the Britons; the
+organization of Gaul into a subject province; the gradual loss of their
+nationality by its inhabitants; the spread of Roman manners and Roman
+civilization amongst them; their transition from an independent people
+to an integral part of the Roman empire. Here we take leave of them:
+their arms have just dropped from their hands; liberty has just fled
+from their shores; the fetters of conquest sit strangely on their
+free-born limbs; they have not yet learned the vices of a subject race:
+after having followed them in their career of conquest, and through the
+hard-fought struggle in their native land, we love not to dwell on the
+crushing of their haughty spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the whole of his history, Thierry sustains the interest well;
+but nowhere is his narrative more animated than in his account of the
+wars of C&aelig;sar; and no wonder, for a nobler field could not lie before
+him. His book is altogether one of the most curious and interesting
+which we possess on the history of ancient times. A great work it cannot
+be called. M. Thierry is more a man of talent than of genius; and
+accordingly, in his work, we are more struck with the interest of his
+narrative than with the profoundness of his reflections: it contains not
+the philosophy of Guizot, nor the originality of Michelet, yet it is a
+valuable addition to modern literature. Would that we saw a few more
+such in our own country!</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_4" id="Footnote_A_4"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_A_4">A</a></span> <i>Histoire des Gaulois</i>, par M. <span class="smcap">Amad&eacute;e Thierry</span>. 3 tomes.
+Paris: 1835.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="487">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487"></a>
+THE WITCHFINDER.</h2>
+
+<h3>Conclusion.</h3>
+
+
+<p>At the upper end of the large Gothic room, forming the interior of the
+town-hall of Hammelburg, which was formally prepared as a court of
+trial, sat upon a raised part of the flooring in his chair of state, the
+Ober-Amtmann; before him were placed, at a velvet-behung table, his
+<i>schreibers</i> or secretaries; beside him sat, upon a low cushioned stool,
+his daughter, the fair Fraulein Bertha, surrounded by her tirewomen, who
+remained standing behind her.</p>
+
+<p>The presence of the young Fraulein was of rare occurrence upon occasions
+of judicial ceremony in the old town-hall. But a solemn appeal to her
+testimony had been made by the witchfinder; and her father, whose sense
+of justice considered that a matter of accusation of so heavy and
+serious a nature as that of witchcraft, should be investigated in all
+its bearings, had commanded her presence. Her heart, full of the purest
+milk of human kindness, revolted, however, from witnessing the progress
+of such terrible proceedings&mdash;the justice of which her simple mind,
+tutored according to the dark prejudices of the age, never once doubted,
+but which curdled her blood with horror. And she sat pale and sad, with
+downcast eyes, scarcely daring to raise them upon the crowd that filled
+the hall, much less upon the most conspicuous object in the scene before
+her&mdash;the unhappy being against whom all curses, all evil feelings, all
+insane desires of blood and death, were then directed. Perhaps there was
+another reason also, which, almost unconsciously, caused her to keep her
+eyes fixed upon the earth; perhaps she feared that they might meet two
+other mild blue eyes, the expression of which was that of a deep&mdash;far
+too deep&mdash;an interest; for it caused her heart to beat, and her spirit
+to be troubled; and her bosom to heave and sigh, she knew not wherefore:
+unless, indeed, she were, in truth, bewitched.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the hall was placed the accused woman. She was seated
+upon a rude three-legged stool, which was firmly fixed upon a raised
+flooring, elevated about three feet from the ground&mdash;her face turned
+towards her judge. A slight chain passed round the middle of her body,
+and fastened her down to her seat. She was still attired in the dark
+hood and cloak which had been her customary dress, and sat, with head
+bent downwards, and her hands clasped languidly upon her knees, as if
+resigned, in the bitterness of her despair, to meet the cruel fate that
+awaited her.</p>
+
+<p>Below, was a compact and turbulent crowd of the lower orders of the
+town, which was with difficulty kept, by the pikemen, within the limits
+assigned to it; and which, from time to time, let forth low howls
+against the supposed sorceress, that increased, like the <i>crescendo</i> of
+distant thunder, and then died away again.</p>
+
+<p>On either side, towards the upper end, were ranged upon benches some of
+the more reputable <i>bourgeois</i> and their spouses, all decked out in
+their finest braveries, as if they were present at a theatrical show, or
+a church mystery: and, in truth, the representation about to be given,
+was but little more in their own eyes, than a sort of show got up for
+their especial gratification.</p>
+
+<p>Guarded by two pikemen, stood the cripple&mdash;his teeth set firmly,
+although his lips quivered with excitement&mdash;his light eyes glaring
+fiercely around with an air of savage exultation, and gleaming, as it
+were, with a pale phosphoric fire, from out of the dark ground of his
+swarthy face and lank black hair. He moved restlessly and uneasily upon
+his withered limbs, clenching by fits and starts his rosary from his
+bosom, and murmuring a hasty, and&mdash;to judge by the wildness of his eyes,
+that showed how his mind was fixed upon far other thoughts&mdash;a vain
+prayer. He rolled also his head and the upper part of his body
+continually backwards and forwards, like a wild beast fretting in his
+cage.</p>
+
+<p>Among the more prominent of the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="488">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488"></a>
+crowd, whom the favour of the guards
+had allowed to push beyond the assigned limits, or whom reasons,
+connected with the trial, required to come forwards, stood &ldquo;Gentle
+Gottlob.&rdquo; His brow was overclouded with sadness, for he felt in how
+fearful a pass this horrible denunciation had placed the woman whom he
+had so long regarded with attachment. His mild blue eye was more
+melancholy than of wont; and yet, in spite of the trouble of his mind,
+he was unable to withdraw his looks from that bright loadstone of his
+affections, whose sadness seemed to sympathize with his own. At least,
+his heart would fain persuade him that there was mysterious sympathy in
+their mutual dejection.</p>
+
+<p>The principal personages concerned in the awful question at issue,
+occupied, thus, their respective positions in the old town-hall; when,
+after a long and troubled pause, during which silence was with
+difficulty obtained among the more tumultuous portion of the crowd at
+the lower end of the hall, one of the <i>schreibers</i> rose, and read, from
+an interminable strip of parchment which he held in his hand, the act of
+accusation against the female known under the popular designation of
+&ldquo;Mother Magdalena,&rdquo; as attainted of the foul crime of witchcraft, of the
+casting of spells and malefices to the annoyance and destruction of her
+fellow-creatures, of consorting with spirits of darkness, and of
+lascivious intercourse with the arch-fiend himself. For so ran, at that
+time, the tenor of the accusation directed against the unhappy women
+suspected of this imaginary crime.</p>
+
+<p>The act of accusation was long, and richly interlarded with all those
+interminable complications of legal phraseology, which seem ever, at all
+times, and in all nations, to have been the necessary concomitants of
+all legal proceedings. The reading of the act, however, being at last
+terminated, the town-beggar, commonly known by the familiar name of
+Black Claus the witchfinder, Schwartzer-Claus, or Claus Schwartz, as he
+was usually designated among the people, was summoned to stand forward
+as the denouncer of the aforesaid Magdalena, and to substantiate his
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>Thus called upon, the cripple gave a start forward, like a lion let
+loose upon the gladiator&rsquo;s arena, through the barred gates of which he
+has already sniffed the odour of blood; and then, raising one of his
+long arms towards the stool of penitence, on which the criminal had been
+placed, he again repeated, with an eagerness amounting to frenzy, his
+accusation against her.</p>
+
+<p>As the witchfinder&rsquo;s hoarse voice was heard, a visible shudder passed
+through Magdalena&rsquo;s frame; but she raised not her head, moved not a
+limb, spoke not; and it was only when called upon by the chief
+<i>schreiber</i> to declare what she had to say against this accusation, that
+she lowly murmured&mdash;&ldquo;God&rsquo;s will be done!&rdquo; but still with bowed head and
+downcast eyes.</p>
+
+<p>In support of his denunciation, the cripple proceeded to state how he
+had watched the mysterious female called &ldquo;Mother Magdalena,&rdquo; and had
+observed that she never would enter any consecrated building; how she
+would daily advance up the steps of the church, and then pause before
+the threshold, as if she feared to pass it, and then throw herself down
+upon the stones before the gate, where she would lie in strange
+convulsions, and at last return without having penetrated into the
+building&mdash;an evident proof that the devil she served had forbidden her
+to put her foot into any sacred dwelling, but had taught her,
+nevertheless, to approach near enough to treat the awful mysteries of
+the Christian religion, performed within, with mockery and contempt. To
+this accusation, which was confirmed by the acclamation of several
+persons present in the court, Magdalena, when called upon to speak,
+proffered no denial; she contented herself with the meek reply, that God
+alone knew the motives of the heart&mdash;that it was for him alone to judge.
+The words were still uttered in the same low despairing tone, and
+without the slightest movement of her head from its sunken posture.</p>
+
+<p>The partially monastic dress, which was her habitual attire, was next
+brought forward against her as a proof of her desire to treat with
+contempt the dress of the religious orders: and to this absurd
+accusation, when asked
+<span class="pagebreak" title="489">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489"></a>
+why she had adopted a costume resembling that of
+the holy sisterhood of penitents, the old woman still refused any reply.</p>
+
+<p>The events of the previous afternoon, when she had been openly seen to
+throw her staff at the Amtmann&rsquo;s unoffending daughter, and wound her on
+the neck, and then break into pieces the image of the Holy Cross, were
+then recapitulated, as facts known upon the positive evidence of a
+hundred witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>These matters disposed of, the cripple proceeded to detail his own
+peculiar grievances, and attributed, as he had done in the cases of the
+seven unhappy women who had already fallen victims of his frantic
+delusion, the severe pains that had racked his poor distorted limbs to
+the malefic charms of the sorceress. He related how, on the last night
+on which he had met Mother Magdalena, he had found her sitting by the
+well in the market-place, casting a spell upon the spring, and turning
+the waters to poison and blood&mdash;as a proof of which, he swore to have
+himself tasted in the water of the bucket the taste of blood; how, in
+revenge for his warning to her to desist from her foul practices, she
+had pointed up her finger to the sky, and immediately brought down upon
+his head all the combined waters of heaven; how she had vanished from
+his sight in this storm, he knew not how; and how immediately intense
+pains began to torture his joints, until he became half frantic with
+agony, and had been compelled, by hideous visions, to quit the shelter
+he had sought, in order to be exposed to all the peltings of the storm.
+He had since suffered, he declared, the tortures of the damned in all
+his limbs, with occasional fits of shuddering, sometimes of hot fever,
+sometimes of the most freezing cold, which were evidently torments
+worked upon him by the powers of darkness. And as he spoke, the unhappy
+wretch was again seized by one of his fearful fits of ague, during the
+convulsions of which the clamours of the crowd grew terrible against the
+sorceress.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What sayest thou to this accusation, woman?&rdquo; said the chief
+<i>schreiber</i>. &ldquo;Thou see&rsquo;st how even now he suffers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have never willed evil to any man&mdash;not even to him,&rdquo; was Magdalena&rsquo;s
+only reply.</p>
+
+<p>When recovered from his fit, the cripple again raised his head&mdash;it was
+to cast a glance at the object of his denunciation, in which hatred and
+triumph were blended together, in one of those occasional flashes of
+wildness which showed that there was a vein of insanity running through
+all the frenzied zeal of the witchfinder. He had now arrived at a period
+of his narration, when the most damning proof of all was to overwhelm
+the accused woman.</p>
+
+<p>It was not without an unaffected expression of horror, that he went on
+to relate how he had wandered around the building by the Watergate, in a
+lower cell of which he had discovered that she dwelt, seeking in vain to
+find an entrance or a peep-hole, that might enable him to penetrate into
+the interior; how he had, at last, dragged his crippled limbs up into a
+tree upon the river&rsquo;s bank, overlooking an upper chamber of the
+building; how he had, at first, seen Mother Magdalena in conversation
+with the young illuminator; how, upon his departure, she had flung
+herself down upon her knees, and after spitting upon one of the books of
+holy writ upon the table, had made wild gestures of conjuration, upon
+which the demon himself, attired in a dark robe, had suddenly appeared
+by supernatural means, for he had not entered by the door; how the foul
+hag had fallen down and worshipped the arch-fiend; and how, after a
+conference of short duration, during which the woman at his feet
+appeared to supplicate with earnestness, probably a prolongation of her
+wretched term of power to work ill, and afterwards kissed his hand in
+token of adoration and submission, the demon had vanished as suddenly as
+he had appeared.</p>
+
+<p>A low murmur of horror ran through the assembly, as Black Claus related
+this fearful story. All eyes were turned upon the handmaiden of Satan.
+For a moment she had raised her head, horror-struck at this
+interpretation of the interview she had in Gottlob&rsquo;s chamber with the
+stranger&mdash;for a moment she seemed to have a desire to speak. But then,
+clasping her
+<span class="pagebreak" title="490">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490"></a>
+hands before her face, she murmured&mdash;&ldquo;O God! it cannot be!
+But this is terrible!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gottlob, who, during the whole accusation, had listened with much
+impatience, could now no longer restrain his generous feelings. He
+started forward with the words&mdash;&ldquo;No, no, it is impossible! Speak,
+Magdalena&mdash;say how false is this man&rsquo;s tale.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;God knows that it is false!&rdquo; said Magdalena.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I knew it could not be. There could be no one with thee in my chamber,
+and he lies.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied Magdalena sadly, &ldquo;thus far is true:&mdash;There was a stranger
+by me in your chamber.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But who then?&mdash;speak, Magdalena,&rdquo; urged Gottlob. &ldquo;Clear yourself of the
+foul stigma of his tale.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I may not say!&rdquo; replied the unhappy woman. &ldquo;But God will prove my
+innocence in His own right time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why hesitate,&rdquo; again cried the eager young man, &ldquo;when with a word you
+could disprove him?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have already said it cannot be,&rdquo; said the accused woman, sinking her
+head upon her breast.</p>
+
+<p>Gottlob himself drew back with a shudder; for a moment he knew not what
+to think; the strange answers of Magdalena perplexed and troubled him.
+He began himself to doubt of the woman, who, in return for his
+benevolence, had showed him the attachment of a mother. He pulled his
+cloak over his face with both his hands, and stood for a time
+overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It needs no further questions upon this point, I presume,&rdquo; said the
+chief <i>schreiber</i>, turning to the Ober-Amtmann. &ldquo;The wretched woman has
+already admitted a part of the truth;&rdquo; and, with a sign to the
+denouncer, he bade him proceed.</p>
+
+<p>The witchfinder paused for a moment, and gave one long look of
+tenderness and pity&mdash;as far, indeed, as his harsh, rudely-stamped
+features could express such feelings&mdash;at the pale face of Bertha. Then,
+fixing his eye keenly upon the Ober-Amtmann, as if to fascinate his
+attention, he burst into a fresh accusation against the sorceress, as
+having, in the first place, cast her spells upon the noble Fraulein
+Bertha, for the purpose of sowing the seeds of death within her frame;
+and as having, in the second place, employed the young man called
+&ldquo;Gentle Gottlob&rdquo; to be an involuntary agent in her work of ill.</p>
+
+<p>Upon hearing the first part of this charge, Magdalena had raised her
+head to give, unconsciously as it were, a deprecating look at the fair
+girl&mdash;as if to assure her, with that one long concentrated look of deep
+feeling, that, far from desiring her evil, she contended only with the
+overpourings of kindness and love for her; and then, as though she had
+already expressed more than her conscience could approve, she bowed
+again her head, murmuring only&mdash;&ldquo;O God! support me. Thou knowest how
+false is the raving of that wretched man.&rdquo; The second part of the charge
+excited other and very varied feelings among those present. Magdalena
+again started, but with evident surprise, and made a hasty gesture of
+denial. Gottlob sprang forward, horrified at being thus involved, even
+as an involuntary agent, in the hideous denunciation, and indignant at
+the supposition that he could work ill to the Amtmann&rsquo;s lovely daughter;
+and he protested, with all the vehemence which gentle natures, when
+roused into excitement, will display, against so unfounded and
+calumnious an accusation; whilst Bertha, joining together her small
+hands, as if in supplication, turned her face, with anxious expression,
+to her father, crying&mdash;&ldquo;No, no&mdash;it cannot be!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Astounded at so unexpected a revelation, the Ober-Amtmann seemed at
+first not to know what to think. He gazed alternately upon Gottlob and
+Bertha, as if to read upon their faces the secret of a connexion between
+them; and then, satisfied of the impossibility that the noble
+Ober-Amtmann&rsquo;s daughter could have the slightest affinity with the
+unknown youth before him, he drew a long breath, and passed his hand
+over his brow, as if to drive away ideas so absurd.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Peace, youth&mdash;peace!&rdquo; he cried to Gottlob; &ldquo;we will hear thee anon. It
+is not thou who art accused. And thou, my child be calm. Cripple! what
+mean thy words? What proof bringest thou of their truth?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="491">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491"></a>
+&ldquo;Ask of the suffering angel by thy side, my noble lord,&rdquo; replied the
+cripple with emotion. &ldquo;Let her tell how, of late, her cheek has grown
+pale, her limbs have become weary, her very life&rsquo;s-blood languid and
+oppressed. I have watched her day by day, and I have seen these changes.
+I have watched her with a careful and a cunning eye; and I have
+felt&mdash;there, in my heart&mdash;that the spell was upon her: and this it was
+that urged me to denounce that wretched hag.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Speak, my child,&rdquo; said the Ober-Amtmann, in trouble and anxiety. &ldquo;What
+this man says, is it true? Hast thou suffered lately? Indeed, I do
+remember thy cheek has been paler than of wont&mdash;thy appetite has left
+thee&mdash;thou hast been no longer so cheerful or so active as of old.
+Speak, my child&mdash;hast thou really suffered?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no! my father, I have not suffered,&rdquo; replied the agitated girl in
+much confusion; &ldquo;and yet I have not been as formerly I was. I have been
+sad, I knew not why, and wept in the silence of my chamber without
+cause; and I have found no pleasure in my embroidery, nor in my flowers,
+nor in my falcons. I have felt my foot fall weary. I have sought to
+rest, and yet, when reposing, I have felt unable to remain in quiet, and
+I have longed for exercise abroad. But yet I have not suffered; and
+sometimes I have even hugged with pleasure the trouble of my mind and
+body.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;These seem, indeed, the symptoms of a deadly spell upon thee, my poor
+child,&rdquo; exclaimed her father. &ldquo;Such, they say, are the first evidences
+of the working of those charms that witches breathe over their victims.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And let the Fraulein Bertha tell,&rdquo; cried the witchfinder, &ldquo;how it has
+been yonder youth who has seemed to exercise this influence of ill upon
+her.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Again Gottlob sought to spring forward and speak; but a sign from the
+Ober-Amtmann to the guards caused them to place their pikes before him,
+and arrest him in his impulse.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How and what is this, my child?&rdquo; said the Ober-Amtmann. &ldquo;Knowest thou
+that youth? and in what has he, consciously or unconsciously, done thee
+ill?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He has done me no ill,&rdquo; replied the innocent girl in still greater
+confusion, as her bosom heaved, and the blood suffused her cheeks. &ldquo;I am
+sure he would not do me ill for all the treasures of the world!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thou knowest him then?&rdquo; said her father, somewhat more sternly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, I know him not,&rdquo; replied Bertha in trouble; &ldquo;but I have met him
+sometimes in my path, and I have seen him&rdquo;&mdash;she hesitated for a moment,
+and then added, with downcast eyes, &ldquo;at his window, which overlooks our
+garden.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why then this trouble, Bertha?&rdquo; continued the Ober-Amtmann, in a tone
+that rendered their conversation inaudible beyond their own immediate
+circle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot tell myself, my father. I feel troubled and sad, it is true;
+and yet I know not why. I have no cause&rdquo;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And when thou hast met yonder youth, as thou sayest, hast thou felt
+this trouble before?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Alas! yes, my father. I remember now that at his aspect my heart would
+beat; my head grow giddy, and my ears would tingle; and then a faintness
+would come over me, as though it were a pain I felt, and yet it was a
+pleasant pain. There was nothing in him that could cause me ill; was
+there, father?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Ober-Amtmann&rsquo;s brow grew dark as Bertha proceeded; but, after a
+moment&rsquo;s reflection, he murmured to himself&mdash;&ldquo;Love! oh, no! It is
+impossible! She and he! The noble&rsquo;s daughter and the low-born youngster.
+It could not be! There is no doubt! Witchcraft has been at work! How
+long has it been thus with thee, my child?&rdquo; he added with solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot tell, my father. Some five or six months past it came upon me.
+I know not when or how!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bears he no charm upon him?&rdquo; exclaimed the Ober-Amtmann aloud.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He bears a charm upon him!&rdquo; cried the witchfinder in triumph. &ldquo;And ask
+who bound it round his neck?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is false! I bear no charm!
+<span class="pagebreak" title="492">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492"></a>
+&rdquo; cried Gottlob eagerly. &ldquo;She herself
+denied that it was such.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of what does he speak?&rdquo; cried the Ober-Amtmann.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was but a gift of affection, and no charm. She gave me this ring,&rdquo;
+said Gottlob, pointing to the ring hung by a small riband round his
+neck; &ldquo;and I have worn it, as she requested, in remembrance of some
+unworthy kindness I had shown her.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And how long since was it,&rdquo; enquired the Ober-Amtmann, &ldquo;that she
+bestowed this supposed gift upon you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Some five or six months past,&rdquo; was Gottlob&rsquo;s unlucky answer; &ldquo;not long
+after I first brought her to reside with me in my poor dwelling.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>During this examination the agitation of Magdalena had become extreme;
+and when, upon the Ober-Amtmann&rsquo;s command that the ring should be handed
+up to him, Gottlob removed it from his neck, and gave it into the hands
+of one of the guards, she cried, in much excitement, &ldquo;No, no; give it
+not, Gottlob!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The ring, however, was passed on to the Ober-Amtmann; and Magdalena,
+covering her face with her hands, fell back, with a stifled groan, into
+her former crouching position.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the ring seemed indeed to have the power of a necromancer&rsquo;s
+charm upon the Ober-Amtmann. No sooner had his eyes fallen upon it, than
+his cheek grew pale&mdash;his usually severe and stern face was convulsed
+with agitation&mdash;and he sank back in his chair with the low cry, &ldquo;That
+ring! O God! After so many years of dearly-sought oblivion!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of the Ober-Amtmann&rsquo;s agitation and apparent swoon, a howl
+of execration burst from the crowd below, mingled with the cries of
+&ldquo;Tear the wretch in pieces! She has poisoned him! Tear her in pieces!&rdquo;
+Consternation prevailed through the whole assembly. Bertha sprang to her
+father&rsquo;s side; but the Ober-Amtmann quickly rallied. He waved his
+daughter back with the remark, &ldquo;It was nothing&mdash;it is past;&rdquo; and raising
+himself in his chair, looked again upon the ring.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is no doubt,&rdquo; he murmured, &ldquo;it is that same ring&mdash;that Arabic
+ring, brought me from the East, and which I gave&mdash;oh, no!&mdash;impossible!&rdquo;
+he hurriedly exclaimed, as a horrible thought seemed to cross him. &ldquo;She
+has been dead many years since. Did not my own brother assure me of her
+death? It cannot be!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After a moment&rsquo;s pause to recover from his agitation, he gave orders to
+one of the guards to remove the hood from Magdalena&rsquo;s head, that he
+might see her features. With the crooked end of a pike&rsquo;s head, one of
+them tore back her hood; while another, with the staff of his pike,
+forced her hands asunder. Magdalena&rsquo;s careworn and prematurely withered
+face was exposed to the gaze of all, distorted with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Less rudely, varlets!&rdquo; cried the Ober-Amtmann, with a feeling of sudden
+forbearance towards the wretched woman which surprised all present; for
+they could not but marvel at the slightest symptom of consideration
+toward such an abhorred outcast of humanity as a convicted witch; and as
+such the miserable Magdalena was already regarded.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the Ober-Amtmann considered Magdalena&rsquo;s careworn, withered,
+and agitated face with painful attention; and then, as if relieved from
+some terrible apprehension, he heaved a bitter sigh, and murmured to
+himself&mdash;&ldquo;No, no, there is no trace of that once well-known face. I knew
+it could not be. She is no more. It was a wild and foolish thought! but
+this ring&mdash;&rsquo;tis strange! Woman, dost thou know me?&rdquo; he asked aloud, with
+some remaining agitation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I know you not,&rdquo; replied Magdalena with a low and choked voice; for she
+now trembled violently, and the tears gushed from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How camest thou then by this ring? Speak! I command thee,&rdquo; continued
+the Ober-Amtmann.</p>
+
+<p>Magdalena bowed her head with a gesture of refusal to answer any further
+question.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wretched woman! Hast thou violated the repose of the dead? Hast thou
+torn it from the grave? How else came it in thy possession?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy woman replied not. She had again covered her face with her
+hands, and the tears streamed through her meagre fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Speak, I tell thee! This ring has
+<span class="pagebreak" title="493">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493"></a>
+conjured up such recollections, that
+were there but one human link between thee and one who has long since
+rested from all sorrow in the grave, it might ensure thy safety.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>No answer was returned by Magdalena; although, to judge by the convulsed
+movement of her body, the struggle within must have been bitter and
+heavy to bear.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Die then in thy obstinacy, miserable woman,&rdquo; cried the Ober-Amtmann in
+a suppressed voice&mdash;&ldquo;Let justice take its course!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Denouncer!&rdquo; said the chief <i>schreiber</i> to the witchfinder, &ldquo;hast thou
+further evidence to offer?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Needs it more to convict a criminal of the foul and infernal practices
+of witchcraft?&rdquo; cried Black Claus with bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>The chief <i>schreiber</i> turned to the Ober-Amtmann, as if to consult his
+will. For a moment the Ober-Amtmann passed one hand across his brow, as
+though to sweep away the dark visions that were hovering about it; and
+then, waving the other, as if he had come to a resolution which had cost
+him pain, said with stern solemnity&mdash;&ldquo;Let the workers of the evil deeds
+of Satan perish, until the earth be purged of them all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This customary formula implied the condemnation of the supposed
+sorceress.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To the stake! to the stake!&rdquo; howled the crowd, upon hearing the
+delivery of this expected sentence.</p>
+
+<p>After enjoining silence, which was with difficulty enforced, the chief
+<i>schreiber</i> rose, and addressed to Magdalena the accustomed question,
+&ldquo;Woman, dost thou demand the trial by water, and God&rsquo;s issue by that
+trial?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I demand but to die in peace,&rdquo; replied the miserable woman; &ldquo;and God&rsquo;s
+will be done!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She refuses the trial by water,&rdquo; said the chief <i>schreiber</i>, in order
+to establish the fact, which was put down in writing by the adjuncts.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To the stake! to the stake!&rdquo; howled the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And hast thou nothing to urge against the justice of thy sentence?&rdquo;
+asked the official questioner.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Justice!&rdquo; cried Magdalena, with a start, which caused the chain around
+her waist to clank upon the wretched stool on which she sat. &ldquo;Justice!&rdquo;
+she cried in a tone of indignation. For a moment the earthly spirit
+revolted. But it gleamed only for an instant. &ldquo;May God pardon my unjust
+judge the sins of his youth,&rdquo;&mdash;she paused, and added, &ldquo;as I forgive him
+my cruel death!&rdquo; With these words, the last spark of angry feeling was
+extinguished for ever. &ldquo;May God pardon him, as well as those who have
+thus cruelly witnessed against me; and may He bless him, and all those
+who are most near and dear to him,&rdquo; she continued&mdash;her voice, as she
+spoke, growing gradually more subdued, until it was lost and choked in
+convulsive sobbings.</p>
+
+<p>Again a thrill of horror passed through the Ober-Amtmann; for the sound
+of the voice seemed to revive in his mind memories of the past, and
+recall a vision he had already striven to dispel from it. His frame
+shuddered, and again he fell back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a delusion of Satan!&rdquo; he muttered, pressing his hands to his
+ears, and closing his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha&rsquo;s eyes streamed with tears; her pitying heart was tortured by
+this scene of sadness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Blessings instead of curses upon those who have condemned her! Can that
+be guilt?&rdquo; said gentle Gottlob to himself. &ldquo;Can that be the spirit of
+the malicious and revengeful agent of the dark deeds of Satan? No&mdash;she
+is innocent; and I will still save her, if human means can save!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After thus parleying with himself, Gottlob began to struggle to make his
+way from the court.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The blessings of the servants of the fiend are bitter curses,&rdquo; said the
+infatuated witchfinder, on the other hand; &ldquo;and she has blessed me. God
+stand by me!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To the stake!&mdash;to the stake!&rdquo; still howled the pitiless, the
+bloodthirsty crowd.</p>
+
+<p>The refusal of the unhappy Magdalena to abide by the issue of the
+well-known trial by water, had so much abridged the customary
+proceedings, that orders were given, and preparations made, for the
+execution of the ultimate punishment for the crime of
+witchcraft&mdash;burning at the stake&mdash;shortly
+<span class="pagebreak" title="494">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494"></a>
+after daybreak on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>It was yet night&mdash;a short hour before the breaking of the dawn. The pile
+had been already heaped in the market-place of Hammelburg&mdash;the stake
+fixed. All was in readiness for the hideous performance about to take
+place. The guards paced backwards and forwards before the grated
+doorway, which opened under the terrace of the old town-hall; for there,
+in that miserable hole, was confined the wretched victim of popular
+delusion. The soldiers kept watch, however, upon their prisoner at such
+a distance as to be as far as possible out of the reach of her malefic
+spells. The heavy clanking of their pikes, as they rested them from time
+to time upon the pavement, or paused to interchange a word, alone broke
+the silence of the still sleeping town&mdash;sleeping, to awake shortly like
+a tiger thirsty for blood. The light of a waning moon showed
+indistinctly the dark mass in the centre of the market-place&mdash;the stage
+upon which the frightful tragedy was about to be enacted&mdash;when one of
+the sentinels all at once turning his head in that direction, descried a
+dark form creeping around the pile, as if examining it on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; he cried in alarm to his comrade, pointing to this dark
+object. &ldquo;Is it the demon himself, whom she has conjured up, and who now
+comes to deliver her? All good spirits&rdquo;&mdash;and he crossed himself with
+hurried zeal.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Praise the Lord!&rdquo; continued the other, completing the usual German form
+of exorcism, and crossing himself no less devoutly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Challenge him, Hans!&rdquo; said the first; &ldquo;at the sound of a Christian
+voice, mayhap, he may vanish away; and thou art ever boasting to Father
+Peter that thou are the most Christian man of thy company.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Challenge him thyself,&rdquo; replied Hans, in a voice that did not say much
+for the firmness of his conscience as a Christian.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s challenge him both at once,&rdquo; proposed the other soldier.
+&ldquo;Perhaps, between us, we may muster up goodness enough to drive the foul
+fiend before us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Agreed!&rdquo; replied Hans, with somewhat better courage; and upon this
+joint-stock company principle of piety, both the soldiers raised their
+voices at once, and cried, in a somewhat quavering duet, &ldquo;Who goes
+there?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A hoarse laugh was the only answer received to this challenge; and the
+dark form seemed to advance towards them across the market-place.</p>
+
+<p>So great appeared the modesty of each of the soldiers with regard to his
+appreciation of his own merits as a good Christian&mdash;so little his
+confidence in his own powers of holiness to wrestle with the fiend of
+darkness in the shape which now approached them&mdash;that they seemed
+disposed rather humbly to quit the field, than encounter Sir Apollyon in
+so glorious a contest; when the dim light of the moon revealed the
+figure, as it came forward, to be that of the witchfinder.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is Claus Schwartz!&rdquo; said Hans, taking breath.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Or the devil in his form,&rdquo; pursued his fellow-sentinel with more
+caution. &ldquo;Stand back!&rdquo; he shouted, as the witchfinder came within a few
+yards, &ldquo;and declare who thou art.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Has the foul hag within there bewitched thee?&rdquo; cried Black Claus; &ldquo;or
+has she smitten thee with blindness? Canst thou not see? The night is
+not so dark but good men may know each other.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What wouldst thou here?&rdquo; said Master Hans, completely recovered from
+his spiritual alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot rest,&rdquo; replied the witchfinder with bitterness. &ldquo;Until her
+last ashes shall have mingled with the wind, I shall take no repose,
+body or mind. I cannot sleep; or, if I close my eyes, visions of the
+hideous hags, who have already perished there, float before my
+distracted eyes. It is she that murders my rest, as she has tormented my
+poor limbs&mdash;curses on her! But a short hour, a short hour more, and she
+too shall feel all the tortures of hell&mdash;tortures worse than those she
+has inflicted on the poor cripple. The flames shall rise, and lap her
+body round&mdash;the bright red flames. Her members shall writhe upon the
+stake. The screams of death shall issue from her blackened lips; until
+the lurid smoke shall
+<span class="pagebreak" title="495">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495"></a>
+have wrapped her it its dark winding-sheet, and
+stifled the last cry of her parting soul, as it flies to meet its
+infernal master in the realms of darkness. Oh, it will be a glorious
+sight!&rdquo; And the cripple laughed, with an insane laugh of malice and
+revenge, which made the soldiers shudder in every limb, and draw back
+from him with horror.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if the fever of his excitement had pressed so powerfully on
+his brain as to have driven him completely into madness. After a moment,
+however, he pulled his rosary from his bosom, and kissed it, adding, in
+a calmer tone, &ldquo;Yes, it will be a glorious sight&mdash;for it will be for the
+cause of the Lord, and of his holy church.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Little as they comprehended the witchfinder&rsquo;s raving, the soldiers again
+crossed themselves, and looked upon him with a sort of awe.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What wouldst thou?&rdquo; said one of them, as Claus advanced towards the
+prison door.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I would look upon her, there&mdash;in her prison,&rdquo; said the cripple, with an
+expression that denoted a malicious eagerness to gloat upon his victim.</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers interchanged glances with one another, as if they doubted
+whether such a permission ought to be allowed to the witchfinder.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, bah!&rdquo; said Hans. &ldquo;It is not he that will aid her to escape. Let him
+pass. They&rsquo;ll make a fine sport with one another, the witchfinder and
+the witch&mdash;dog and cat. Zist, zist!&rdquo; continued the young soldier,
+laughing and making a movement and a sound as if setting on the two
+above-mentioned animals to worry each other.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take care,&rdquo; said his more scrupulous companion. &ldquo;Jest not with such
+awful work. Who knows but it may be blasphemy; and what would Father
+Peter say?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The two sentinels continued their pacing up and down, but still at some
+distance from the prison doorway, in order, as Hans&rsquo;s companion
+expressed it, &ldquo;to keep as much as possible out of the devil&rsquo;s clutches;&rdquo;
+while Black Claus approached the grating of the door.</p>
+
+<p>As the witchfinder peered, with knitted brow, through the bars of the
+grating, it seemed to him at first, so complete was the darkness within,
+as though the cell was tenantless; and his first movement was to turn,
+in order to warn the guards of the escape of their prisoner. But as he
+again strained his eyes, he became at last aware of the existence of a
+dark form upon the floor of the cell; and as by degrees his sight became
+more able to penetrate the obscurity within, he began plainly to
+perceive the form of the miserable woman, crouched on her knees upon the
+damp slimy pavement of the wretched hole. She was already dressed in the
+sackcloth robe of the penitents condemned to the stake, and her poor
+grey hairs were without covering. So motionless was her form that for a
+moment the witchfinder thought she was dead, and had fallen together in
+the position in which she had knelt down; and the thought was like a
+knife in his revengeful heart, that she might thus have escaped the
+tortures prepared for her, and thwarted the gratification of his insane
+and hideous longings. A second thought suggested to him that she was
+sleeping. But this conjecture was scarcely less agonizing to him than
+the former. That she, the sorceress, should sleep and be at rest, whilst
+he, her victim, could find no sleep, no rest, no peace, body or mind,
+was more than his bitter spirit could bear. He shook the bars of the
+door with violence, and called aloud, &ldquo;Magdalena!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is my hour already come?&rdquo; said the wretched woman, raising her head so
+immediately as to show how far sleep was from her eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, thou hast got an hour to enjoy the torments of thy own despair,&rdquo;
+laughed the witchfinder, with bitter irony.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Let me, then, be left in peace, and my last prayers be undisturbed,&rdquo;
+said Magdalena.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In order that thou mayst pray to the devil thou servest to deliver
+thee!&rdquo; pursued Black Claus, with another mocking laugh. &ldquo;Ay&mdash;pray&mdash;pray;
+but it will be in vain. He is an arch-deceiver, the fiend, thy master.
+He promises and fulfils not. He offers tempting wages to those who sell
+to him their souls, and then
+<span class="pagebreak" title="496">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496"></a>
+deserts his servants in the hour of
+trouble. So prayed all the filthy hags who sat there before thee,
+Magdalena; but they prayed in vain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Leave me, wretched man!&rdquo; said Magdalena, who now became aware that it
+was the cripple who addressed her. &ldquo;Hast thou not sufficiently sated thy
+thirst for evil, that thou shouldst come to torment me in my last
+moments? Go! tempt not the bitterness of my spirit in this supreme hour
+of penitence and prayer. Go! for I have forgiven thee; and I would not
+curse thee now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I defy thy curses, witch of hell!&rdquo; cried the cripple with frantic
+energy. &ldquo;Already the first pale streaks of dawn begin to flicker in the
+east. A little time, and thy power to curse will be no more; a little
+time, and nothing will remain of thee but a heap of noisome ashes; and a
+name, which will be mingled with that of the arch-enemy of mankind, in
+the execrations of thy victims&mdash;a name to be remembered with horror and
+disgust&mdash;as that of the foul serpent&mdash;in the thoughts of the tormented
+cripple, and of the pure angel of brightness, upon whom thou hast sought
+to work evil and death.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;O God! make not this hour of trial too hard for me to bear!&rdquo; exclaimed
+the unhappy woman; and then, raising her clasped hands to Claus in
+bitter expostulation, she cried, &ldquo;Man! what have I done to harm thee,
+that thou shouldst heap these coals of fire on my soul?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What thou hast done to harm me?&rdquo; cried the witchfinder. &ldquo;Hast thou not
+tormented my poor cripple limbs with thy infernal spells? Hast thou not
+caused me to suffer the tortures of the damned? But it is not vengeance
+that I seek. No&mdash;no. I have vowed a holy vow&mdash;I have sworn to spend my
+life in the good task of purging from the earth such workers of evil as
+thou, and those who served the fiend by their foul sorceries, were it
+even at the risk of exposing my body to pain and suffering, and even
+death, from the revengeful malice of their witchcrafts. And God knows I
+have suffered in the holy cause.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And the cripple clenched again within his right hand, the image attached
+to the rosary in his bosom, as if to satisfy himself by its contact of
+the truth and right of those deeds, which he strove to qualify as holy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What thou, or such as thou, have done to harm me!&rdquo; he continued with
+bitter spite. &ldquo;I will tell thee, hag! I was once a young and happy boy.
+I was strong and well-favoured then. I had a father&mdash;a passionate but a
+kind man; and I had a mother, whom I loved beyond all created things.
+She was the joy of my soul&mdash;the pride of my boyish dreams. I was happy
+then, I tell thee. I called myself by another name. No matter what it
+was. Black Claus is the avenger&rsquo;s name, and he will cleave to it. One
+day there came an aged beggar-woman to our cottage, and begged. My
+mother heeded her not. I know not why; for she was ever kind. My father
+drove her from the door; and, as she turned away, she cursed us all. I
+never can forget that moment, nor the terror of my youthful mind, as I
+heard that curse. And the curse clave to us; for she&mdash;<i>was a witch</i>; and
+it came upon us soon and bitterly. My mother was in the pride of her
+beauty still, when a gay noble saw her in her loveliness, and paid her
+court. Then came a horrible night, when the witch&rsquo;s curse was fearfully
+fulfilled. My father was jealous. He attacked the young noble as he came
+by the darkness of night; and it was he&mdash;my father&mdash;who was killed. I
+saw him die, weltering in his blood. My poor mother, too, was spirited
+away; the fell powers of witchcraft dragged her from that bloody hearth.
+Yes; witchcraft it was&mdash;it must have been; for she was too pure and good
+to listen to the voice of the seducer&mdash;to follow her husband&rsquo;s murderer.
+She died, probably, of grief&mdash;my poor wretched mother; for I never saw
+her more. For days and nights I sought her, but in vain; suffering cold
+and hunger, and sleeping oft-times in the cold woods and dank morasses.
+Then fell the witches curse on <i>me</i> also; and I began to suffer these
+pains, which thy foul tribe have never ceased to inflict upon me since.
+The tortures of the body were added to the tortures of the mind. My
+limbs grew distorted and withered. I became
+<span class="pagebreak" title="497">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497"></a>
+the outcast of humanity I
+now am; and then it was I vowed a vow to pursue, even unto death, all
+those hideous lemans of Satan, who, like her who cursed us, sell their
+wretched souls but to work evil, and destruction, and death to their
+fellow-creatures. And I have kept my vow!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In spite of herself, Magdalena had been obliged to listen to the
+witchfinder&rsquo;s tale, which, with his face pressed against the iron bars
+of the grating, he poured, with harsh voice, into her unwilling ear. As
+he proceeded, however, she appeared fascinated by the words he uttered,
+as the poor quivering bird is fascinated by the serpent&rsquo;s eye. Her
+eyeballs were distended&mdash;her arms still outstretched towards him, as she
+had first raised them to him in her cry of expostulation; but the hands
+were desperately clenched together&mdash;the arms stiffened with the extreme
+tension of the nerves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh no!&rdquo; she murmured to herself as he yet spoke; &ldquo;that were too
+horrible!&rdquo; and when he paused, it was with a smothered scream of agony,
+still mixed with doubt, that she cried &ldquo;Karl!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Karl!&rdquo; repeated the witchfinder, clenching the bars with still firmer
+grasp, and raising himself with the effort to the full height of his
+stature, as though his limbs had on a sudden recovered all their
+strength&mdash;&ldquo;Karl! Ay, that was my name! How dost thou know it, woman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;O God!&rdquo; exclaimed the wretched tenant of the cell, &ldquo;was my cup of
+bitterness not yet full? Hast thou reserved me this?&rdquo; She wrung her
+hands in agony, and then, looking again at the cripple, cried in a tone
+of concentrated misery, &ldquo;Karl! they told me that thou wast dead&mdash;that
+thou, too, hadst died after that night of horrors!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who art thou, woman?&rdquo; cried the cripple again, with an accent of
+horror, as if a frightful thought had for the first time forced itself
+upon his brain. &ldquo;Who art thou, that thou speakest to me thus, and
+freezest the very marrow of my bones with fear? Who art thou that criest
+&lsquo;Karl&rsquo; with such a voice&mdash;a voice that now comes back upon my ear, as if
+it were a damning memory of times gone by? Who art thou woman?&mdash;speak!
+Let not this dreadful thought, that blasts me like lightning, strike me
+utterly to the earth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who I am?&rdquo; sobbed the miserable woman. &ldquo;Thy wretched and guilty mother,
+Karl!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Guilty!&rdquo; shouted the cripple. &ldquo;Then thou art not she! My mother was not
+guilty&mdash;she was all innocence and truth!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am thy guilty mother, Karl,&rdquo; repeated the kneeling woman, &ldquo;who has
+striven, by long years of penitence and prayer, to expiate the past.
+Alas, in vain! for Heaven refuses the expiation, since it has reserved
+the wretched penitent this last, most fearful blow of all!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thou!&mdash;oh no!&mdash;say it not! Thou my mother!&rdquo; cried the witchfinder.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thy mother&mdash;Margaret Weilheim!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Horrible!&mdash;most horrible!&rdquo; repeated the agonized son, letting go the
+bars, and clasping his bony hands over his face. &ldquo;Thou, my once beloved
+mother, the wretched being of misery and sin&mdash;the accomplice of the
+spirits of darkness&mdash;and <i>I</i> thy denouncer! O God! This is some fearful
+delusion!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The delusion is in thy own heart, my poor, distracted, infatuated son,&rdquo;
+pursued the miserable mother. &ldquo;Happy and blessed were I, were no greater
+guilt upon my soul than that of the crime for which I am this day
+condemned to die. Bitter it is to die; but I had accepted all as the
+will of Him above, and he knows my innocence of all dealings with the
+powers of hell.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Innocent!&rdquo; cried the witchfinder in frightful agitation. &ldquo;Were it
+possible! And is it I, thy own child, who strikes the blow&mdash;I, who am
+thy murderer&mdash;I, who, to avenge the mother, have condemned the mother to
+the stake? Horrible! And yet those proofs&mdash;those fearful proofs!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hear me, for my time is short now in this world,&rdquo; said the poor woman,
+known by the name of Magdalena. &ldquo;I will not tell thee how I listened to
+the voice of the serpent, and how I fell. My pride in my fatal beauty
+was my pitfall. All that the honied words of passion and persuasion
+could effect was used to lure me
+<span class="pagebreak" title="498">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498"></a>
+on to my destruction&mdash;and at last I
+fled with my seducer. I knew not then, I swear to thee, Karl&mdash;God knows
+how bitterly it costs the mother to reveal her shame to her own son; but
+bitter if it be, she accepts is as an expiation, and she will not
+deceive him&mdash;I swear to thee, I knew not then that thy father had fallen
+in that unhappy night, and had fallen by the hand of him whom I madly
+followed. It was long after that the news reached me, and had nearly
+driven me distracted. The same tale told me, but falsely, the death of
+my first-born&mdash;my Karl. Remorse had long since tortured my heart. I was
+not happy with the lover of my choice&mdash;I never had been happy with him;
+but now the stings of my conscience became too strong to bear. Tormented
+by my bitter self-reproaches, I decided upon quitting my seducer, who
+had long proved cold and heartless. But I had borne him a child&mdash;a
+daughter; and to quit my offspring, the only child left to me, was
+agony; to take it with me, to bear it away to partake a life of poverty
+and wretchedness, was still greater agony to the mother&rsquo;s mind. The
+great man who was its father&mdash;for he was of noble rank, and highly
+placed&mdash;when he found me determined to leave him and the world for
+ever&mdash;and he saw me part from him, the heartless one, without
+regret&mdash;offered to adopt my darling infant as his legitimate child; to
+bring it up to all the honours, wealth, and consideration of the world;
+to ensure it that earthly happiness the mother&rsquo;s heart yearned to give
+it. But, as I have told thee, he was cold and worldly-minded, and he
+exacted from me an oath&mdash;a cruel oath&mdash;that I never should own my child
+again&mdash;that I never should address it as my offspring&mdash;that I never
+should utter the word &lsquo;daughter,&rsquo; never hear the cry of &lsquo;mother&rsquo; from
+its lips. He would not that his daughter, the noble Fraulein, should be
+brought to shame, by being acknowledged as the offspring of a peasant
+wife. All I desired was the welfare&mdash;the happiness&mdash;of my child.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I stifled all the more selfish feelings of a mother&rsquo;s heart and I
+consented. I took that oath. I kissed my child for the last time, and
+tore myself away. I hoped to die; but God reserved me for a long and
+bitter expiation of my sin. I still found upon earth, however, one kind
+and pitying friend. He was the brother of my noble lover, and himself
+among the highest in the land. He was a priest; and, in his compassion,
+he found me refuge in a convent, where, though I deemed myself unworthy
+to receive the veil, I assumed the dress of the humblest penitent, and
+took the name of the repentant one&mdash;the name of Magdalen. I desired to
+cut myself off completely from the world; and I permitted the father of
+my child to believe a report that I was no more. In the humility of my
+bitter repentance, I vowed never to pass the gates of the holy house of
+God&mdash;never to put my foot upon the sacred ground&mdash;never to profane the
+sanctuary with my soul of sin&mdash;to worship only without, and at the
+threshold, until such time as it should seem to me that God had heard my
+repentance, and accepted my expiation. Now, thou knowest why I have
+never dared to enter the holy building.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The witchfinder groaned bitterly, clenching, in agony, the folds of his
+garment, and tearing his breast.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My spiritual adviser was benevolent and kind; but he was also stern in
+his calling. He imposed upon me such penitence as, in his wisdom, he
+thought most fit to wash out my crime; and I obeyed with humble
+reverence. But there was one penance more cruel than the rest&mdash;the
+mortification of my only earthly affection&mdash;the driving out from my
+heart all thought of the child of my folly and sin&mdash;the vow never to
+seek, to look upon her more. But the love of the world was still too
+strong upon the wretched mother. At the risk of her soul&rsquo;s salvation,
+she fled the convent to see her child once again. It was in the frenzy
+of a fever-fit, when I thought to die. I forgot all&mdash;all but my oath&mdash;I
+never sought to speak to my darling child; but I followed her wherever I
+could&mdash;I watched for her as she passed&mdash;I gazed upon her with love&mdash;I
+prayed for blessings on her head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Alas! I see it all now. It is, as it were, a bandage fallen from my
+eyes. Fool&mdash;infatuated fool!&mdash;monster
+<span class="pagebreak" title="499">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499"></a>
+that I was!&rdquo; cried the
+witchfinder. &ldquo;Bertha was your daughter&mdash;my sister; and I have smitten
+the mother for the love she bore her child. And he&mdash;her father&mdash;he was
+that villain! Curses on him!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Peace! Peace! my son!&rdquo; continued Magdalena, &ldquo;and curse no more. Nor can
+I tell thee that it was so. I have sworn that oath never to divulge my
+daughter&rsquo;s birth; and cruel, heartless, as was the feeling that forced
+it on me, I must observe it ever. And thus I continued to live
+on&mdash;absorbed in the one thought of my child and her happiness&mdash;heedless
+of the present&mdash;forgetful of my duty; when suddenly, but two days ago,
+he who has been the kind guardian of my spiritual weal, appeared before
+me in the chamber where, alone and unobserved, I wept over the picture
+of my child. He came, I presume, by a passage seldom opened, from the
+monastery, whither his duties had called him. He chid me for my
+flight&mdash;recalled me to my task of expiation&mdash;and, bidding me return to
+the convent, left me, with an injunction not to say that I had seen him.
+Nor could I reveal the fact of my mysterious interview with him, or tell
+his name, without giving a clue to the truth of my own existence, and
+the discovery of all I had sworn so binding an oath ever to conceal.
+Thou sawest him also&mdash;but, alas! with other thoughts.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Madman that I have been!&rdquo; exclaimed the witchfinder. &ldquo;Or is it now that
+I am mad? Am I not raving? Is not all this insane delusion? No&mdash;thou are
+there before me&mdash;closed from my embraces by these cruel bars that I have
+placed between us. Thou! my mother&mdash;my long-lost&mdash;my beloved&mdash;most
+wretched mother, in that dreadful garb!&mdash;condemned to die by thy own
+infatuated son! Would that I <i>were</i> mad, and that I could close my brain
+to so much horror! But thou shalt not die, my mother&mdash;thou shalt not
+die! Thou are innocent! I will proclaim thy innocence to all! They will
+believe my word&mdash;will they not? For it was I who testified against thee.
+I, the matricide! I will tell them that I lied. Thou shalt not die, my
+mother! Already! already!&mdash;horror!&mdash;the day is come!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The day <i>was</i> come. The first faint doubtful streaks of early dawn had
+gradually spread, in a cold heavy grey light, over the sky. By degrees
+the darkness had fled, and the market-place, the surrounding gables of
+the houses, the black pile in the midst, had become clearer and clearer
+in harsh distinctness. The day <i>was</i> come! Already a few narrow
+casements had been pushed back in their sliding grooves, and strange
+faces, with sleepy eyes, had peered out, in night attire, to forestall
+impatient curiosity. Already indistinct noises, a vague rumbling, an
+uncertain sound from here or there had broken up the utter silence of
+the night, and told that the drowsy town was waking from its sleep, and
+stirring with the faint movement of new life. The day <i>was</i> come! The
+sentinels paced up and down more quickly, to dissipate that feeling of
+shivering cold which runs through the night-watcher during the first
+hour of the morn. During the colloquy between the cripple and the
+prisoner, they had been more than once disturbed by the loud tones of
+passionate exclamation that had burst from the former; but Hans had
+contrived to dispel his comrade&rsquo;s scruples as to what was going forward
+at the prison door, by making light of the matter.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Let them alone. They are only having a tuzzle together&mdash;the witchfinder
+and the witch! And if the man, as the weaker vessel in matters of
+witchcraft, do come off minus a nose or so, it will never spoil Black
+Claus&rsquo;s beauty, that&rsquo;s certain. Hark! hark! they are at it again! To it,
+devil! To it, devil-hunter! Let them fight it out between them, man. Let
+them fight it out. It&rsquo;s fine sport, and it will never spoil the show.&rdquo;
+And Hans stamped with his feet, and hooted at a distance, and hissed
+between his teeth, with all the zest of a modern cockfighter in the
+sport, rather to the scandal and shame of his more cautious and
+scrupulous companion. But when the cripple, in his despair, shook, in
+his nervous grasp, the bars of the grating in the door, as if he would
+wrench it from its staples, and flung himself in desperation against the
+strongly-ironed wooden mass, with a
+<span class="pagebreak" title="500">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500"></a>
+violence that threatened, in spite
+of its great strength, to burst it open, the matter seemed to become
+more serious in their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hollo, man! witchfinder! Black Claus! What art thou doing?&rdquo; cried the
+sentinels, hurrying to the spot. &ldquo;Does the devil possess thee? Art thou
+bewitched? Wait! wait! they&rsquo;ll let her out quick enough to make her
+mount the pile. Have patience, man!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She is innocent!&rdquo; cried the cripple, still grappling with the bars in
+his despair. &ldquo;She is innocent! Let her go free!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He is bewitched,&rdquo; said the one soldier. &ldquo;See what comes of letting them
+be together.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He has had the worst of it, sure enough,&rdquo; said Hans.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am not bewitched, fools!&rdquo; cried the frantic man. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no
+witchcraft here! She is innocent, I tell ye! O God! these bells! they
+announce their coming! Bid them cease! bid them cease! they drive me
+mad!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a merry chime from the church-bells burst out joyously
+upon the morning air, to announce that a f&ecirc;te was about to take place in
+the town; for such a gratifying show as the burning of a witch, was a
+f&ecirc;te for the inhabitants of Hammelburg.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;These bells! these bells!&rdquo; again cried Claus in agony, as their merry
+chime came in gusts along the rising wind, as if to mock his misery and
+despair. &ldquo;How often, during this long night, I have longed to hear their
+joyous sound; and now they ring in my ears like the howlings of fiends!
+But she shall not die! I will yet save her,&rdquo; continued the distracted
+man; and he again shook the prison door with a force which his crippled
+limbs could scarcely have been supposed to possess.</p>
+
+<p>With difficulty could the now alarmed sentinels, who shouted for help,
+cause the cripple to release his hold. Fresh guards rushed to the spot,
+and assisted to seize the desperate man. But in vain he protested the
+innocence of the supposed sorceress&mdash;in vain he cried to them to release
+her. He was treated as bewitched; and it was only when at last, overcome
+by the violence of his struggles, he ceased to resist with so much
+energy, that they allowed him to remain unbound, and let fall the cords
+with which they had already commenced to tie his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Ober-Amtmann will come,&rdquo; he said at last, with a sort of sullen
+resignation. &ldquo;He must&mdash;he shall hear me. He shall know all&mdash;he will
+believe her innocent.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, the market-place had already begin to fill with an
+anxious crowd. In a short time, the press of spectators come to witness
+the bloody spectacle, began to be great. The throng flowed on through
+street and lane. There were persons of all ages, all ranks, of both
+sexes&mdash;all hurrying, crowding, squeezing to the f&ecirc;te of horror and
+death. Manifold and various were the hundreds of faces congregated in a
+dense mass, as near as the guards would admit them round the pile&mdash;all
+moved by one feeling of hideous curiosity. Little by little, all the
+windows of the surrounding houses were jammed with faces&mdash;each window a
+strange picture in its quaintly-carved wooden frame. The crowd was
+there&mdash;the living crowd eager for death&mdash;palpitating with
+excitement&mdash;each heart beating with one pitiless feeling of greedy
+cruelty. And the bells still rang ceaselessly their merry, joyous,
+f&ecirc;te-like peal.</p>
+
+<p>And now with difficulty the soldiers forced a way through the throng for
+the approaching officer of justice; the great officiating dignitary of
+the town, who was to preside over the ceremony. He neared the town-hall,
+to order the unlocking of the prison-door, when the wretched witchfinder
+again sprang forward, crying, &ldquo;Mercy! mercy! she is innocent. Hear me,
+noble Ober-Amtmann!&rdquo; But he again started back with a cry of despair&mdash;it
+was not the Ober-Amtmann. He had been obliged, by indisposition, to give
+up the office of superintending the execution, and the chief <i>schreiber</i>
+had been deputed to take his place.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where is the Ober-Amtmann?&rdquo; cried Claus in agony. &ldquo;I must see him&mdash;I
+must speak with him! She is innocent&mdash;I swear she is! He will save her,
+villain as he has been, when he hears all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The general cry that Black Claus had been bewitched by the sorceress,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="501">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501"></a>
+was a sufficient explanation to the chief <i>schreiber</i> of his seemingly
+frantic words.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Poor man!&rdquo; was his only reply. &ldquo;She has worked her last spell upon him.
+Her death alone can save his reason.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the struggles and cries of the infuriated cripple, the door
+was opened, and the unhappy Magdalena was forced to come forwards by the
+guards. She looked wretchedly haggard and careworn in her sackcloth
+robe, with her short-cut grey hairs left bare. A chain was already bound
+around her waist, and clanked as she advanced. As her eyes fell upon her
+miserable son she gave one convulsive shudder of despair; and then,
+clasping her hands towards him with a look of pity and forgiveness, she
+murmured with a tone of resignation&mdash;&ldquo;It is too late. Farewell!
+farewell! until we meet again, where there shall be no sorrow, no care,
+no pain&mdash;only mercy and forgiveness!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, no&mdash;thou shalt not die!&rdquo; screamed the cripple, whom several
+bystanders, as well as guards, now held back with force, in awe as well
+as pity at his distracted state.&mdash;&ldquo;Thou shalt not die! She is my
+mother!&rdquo; he cried like a maniac to the crowd around. &ldquo;My mother&mdash;do ye
+hear? She is innocent. What I said yesterday was false&mdash;utterly false&mdash;a
+damning lie! She is not guilty&mdash;you would murder her! Fools! wretches,
+assassins! You believed me when I witnessed against her; why will ye not
+believe me now? She is innocent, I tell you. Ye shall not kill her!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He is bewitched! he is bewitched! To the stake with the sorceress!&mdash;to
+the stake!&rdquo; was the only reply returned to his cries by the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>In truth the miserable man bore all the outward signs of a person who,
+in those times, might be supposed to be smitten by the spells of
+witchcraft. His eyes rolled in his head. His every feature was distorted
+in the agony of his passion. His mouth foamed like that of a mad dog.
+His struggles became desperate convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>But he struggled in vain. The procession advanced towards the stake.
+Between two bodies of guards, the condemned woman dragged her suffering
+bare feet over the rough stones of the market-place. On one side of her
+walked the executioner of the town; on the other, his assistant, with a
+lighted torch of tow, besmeared with resin and pitch, shedding around in
+a small cloud, the lurid smoke that was soon about to arise in a heavy
+volume from the pile. The chief <i>schreiber</i> had mounted, with his
+adjuncts, the terrace before the door of the town-hall, whence it was
+customary for the chief dignitary of the town to superintend such
+executions. The bells rang on their merry peal.</p>
+
+<p>And now the unhappy woman was forced on to the pile. The executioner
+followed. He bound her resistless to the stake, and then himself
+descended. At each of the four corners of the pile, a guard on horseback
+kept off the crowd. There was a pause. Then appeared, at one end of the
+mass of wood and fagots, a slight curling smoke&mdash;a faint light. The
+executioner had applied the torch. A few seconds&mdash;and a bright glaring
+flame licked upwards with a forked tongue, and a heavier gush of smoke
+burst upwards in the air. The miserable woman crossed her hands over her
+breast&mdash;raised her eyes for a moment to heaven, and then, closing them
+upon the scene around her, moved her lips in prayer&mdash;in the last prayer
+of the soul&rsquo;s agony. The crowd, which, during the time when the
+procession had advanced towards the pile, had howled with its usual
+pitiless howl, was now silent, breathless, motionless, in the extreme
+tension of its excitement. But still the merry peal of bells rang on.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke grew thicker and thicker. The flame already darted forward, as
+if to snatch at the miserable garment of its victim, and claim her as
+its own, when there was heard a struggle&mdash;a cry&mdash;a shout of frantic
+despair. The cripple, in that moment when all were occupied with the
+fearful sight, had broken on those who held him, and before another hand
+could seize him, had staggered through the crowd, and now swung himself
+with force upon the pile. A cry of horror burst from the mass of
+spectators. They thought him utterly deprived of reason, and determined,
+in his madness, to die with the sorceress. But in a
+<span class="pagebreak" title="502">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502"></a>
+moment his bony
+hands had torn the link that bound the chain&mdash;had unwound the chain
+itself&mdash;had snatched the woman from the stake. Before, in the surprise
+of the moment, a single person had stirred, his arm seized, with firm
+and heavy gripe, the collar of the nearest horseman, who found himself
+in his seat on horseback upon a level with the elevation of the pile. He
+knocked him with violence from the saddle. The guard reeled and fell;
+and in the next instant Claus had flung himself on to the horse, and in
+his arms he bore the form of the half-fainting Magdalena.</p>
+
+<p>With a cry&mdash;a yell&mdash;a wild scream&mdash;he shouted, &ldquo;To the sanctuary! to the
+sanctuary! she shall not die&mdash;room! room!&rdquo; Trampling right and left to
+the earth the dense crowd, who fled from his passage as from an
+infuriated tiger in its spring, he dashed upon the animal over the
+market-place, and darted in full gallop down the street leading to the
+Bridge-gate of the town.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;After him!&rdquo; cried a thousand voices. The three other horsemen had
+already sprung after the fugitive. The guards hastened in the same
+direction. Several of the crowd rushed down the narrow street. All was
+confusion. Part of those who passed on impeded the others. Groans arose
+from those who had been thrown down by the frantic passage of Claus, and
+who, lying on the stones, prevented the pushing forwards of the others.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Follow! After him! to the sanctuary!&rdquo; still cried a thousand voices of
+the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment a noise of horsemen was heard coming from the
+entrance of the town in the opposite direction to that leading to the
+bridge. Those who stood nearest turned their heads eagerly that way. The
+first person who issued on the street, at full gallop, was Gottlob,
+without a covering to his head&mdash;his fair hair streaming to the wind&mdash;his
+handsome face pale with fatigue and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Stop! stop!&rdquo; he shouted as he advanced, and his eye fell upon the
+burning pile. &ldquo;I bring the prince&rsquo;s pardon! Save her!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments, followed by a scanty train of attendants, appeared the
+Prince Bishop of Fulda himself, in the dress&mdash;half religious, half
+secular&mdash;that he wore in travelling. His mild benevolent face looked
+haggard and anxious, and he also was very pale; for he had evidently
+ridden hard through a part of the night; and the exertion was too much
+for his years and habits. As he advanced through the crowd, who drew
+back with respect from the passage of their sovereign, he eagerly
+demanded if the execution had taken place. The general rumour told him
+confusedly the tale of the events that had just occurred. Gottlob was
+soon again by his side, and related to him all that he had heard.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where is my brother?&rdquo; cried the bishop. &ldquo;Is he not here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A few words told him that he had not appeared on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will to the palace, then,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;And the poor wretched
+woman, which way has that maniac conveyed her?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To the sanctuary upon the mountain-side, in the path leading to your
+highness&rsquo;s castle of Saaleck, as he was heard to cry,&rdquo; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But the torrents have come down from the hills,&rdquo; exclaimed others, &ldquo;and
+the inundations sweep so heavily upon the bridge, that it is impossible
+to pass it without the utmost danger.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Save that unhappy woman!&rdquo; exclaimed the bishop in agitation. &ldquo;A reward
+for him who saves her!&rdquo; and followed by his attendants, he took the
+direction of the street leading to the palace.</p>
+
+<p>It was true. The torrents had come down from the hills during the night,
+and the waters swept over the bridge with fury. The planked flooring of
+the bridge, raised in ordinary circumstances some feet above the stream,
+was now covered by the raging flood; and the side parapets, which
+consisted partly of solid enclosure, partly of railing, tottered,
+quivered, and bent beneath the rushing mass of dark, dun-coloured,
+whirling waters. The river itself, swelled far beyond the usual extent
+of the customary inundations, for the passage of which the extreme
+length of the bridge had been provided, hurried in wild eddies round the
+walls of the town, like an invading army seeking to tear them down.
+<span class="pagebreak" title="503">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503"></a>
+But
+the frantic Claus heeded not the violence of the waters, and dashed
+through the town-gate towards the bridge with desperation. The
+frightened horse shied at the foaming stream, struggled, snorted; but
+the cripple seemed to possess the resistless power of a demon&mdash;a power
+which gave him sway over the brute creation. He urged the unwilling
+animal, with almost superhuman force, on to the tottering bridge.</p>
+
+<p>The guards who had galloped after him, stopped suddenly as they saw the
+roaring torrent. None dared advance, none dared pursue. Others, on foot,
+clogged the gateway, and stood appalled at the sight of the rushing
+flood. The more eager of the crowd soon mounted on to those parts of the
+town-walls that flanked the gate, and watched, with excited gesture, and
+shouts of wonder or terror, the desperate course of the cripple.</p>
+
+<p>Pressing his mother in his arms, with his body stretched forward in wild
+impatience upon the struggling horse, Black Claus had urged his way into
+the middle of the stream. The bridge shook fearfully beneath the burden:
+he heeded it not. It cracked and groaned still louder than the roaring
+of the stream: he heard it not. He strove to dash on against the almost
+resistless force of the sweeping current. His eye was strained upon the
+first point of the dry path on the highway beyond. Before him lay, at a
+short distance, the road towards the castle of Saaleck, up the mountain
+side. Halfway up the height stood, embowered in trees, the chapel he
+sought to reach&mdash;the sanctuary of refuge for the condemned. That was his
+haven&mdash;there his wretched mother would be in safety. He pressed her more
+tightly to his breast, and shouted wildly. His shout was followed by a
+loud fearful crash, a roaring of waters, and a straining of breaking
+timbers. In another instant, the centre of the bridge was fiercely borne
+away by the torrent, and all was wild confusion around him.</p>
+
+<p>A general cry of horror burst from the crowd at the gate and on the
+walls. All was for a moment lost to sight in the whirl of waters. Then
+was first seen the snorting head of the poor horse rising from the
+stream. The animal was struggling in desperation to reach the land.
+Again were whirled upwards the forms of the cripple and the female,
+still tightly pressed within his arms; and then a rush of waters, more
+powerful than the son&rsquo;s frantic grasp, tore them asunder. Nothing now
+was visible but a floating body, which again disappeared in the eddying
+flood; and now again the form of the witchfinder rose above the mass of
+waters. His long arms were tossed aloft; his desperate cries were heard
+above the roaring of the torrent.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mercy! mercy!&rdquo; he screamed. &ldquo;Save me from these flames! this stifling
+smoke. I burn, I burn!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As he shouted these last words of mad despair, the icy cold waters swept
+over him for ever.</p>
+
+<p>All had disappeared. Upon the boiling surface of the hurrying flood was
+now seen nothing more than spars and fragments of timber, remnants of
+the bridge, whirled up and down, and here and there, and dashing along
+the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Among the foremost of the crowd, who had pressed down the narrow lane
+leading to the water&rsquo;s edge, between the premises of the Benedictine
+monastery and the palace garden, eager to gain an unoccupied point
+whence they might watch the flight, stood &ldquo;Gentle Gottlob.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>From under the small water-gate, the stone passage of which was
+partially flooded by the unusually rising waters, he had seen the
+frightful catastrophe which had accompanied the sweeping away of the
+bridge. He stood overwhelmed with grief at the fate of the poor woman,
+whom he had uselessly striven to save; his eye fixed upon the roaring
+waters, without seeing distinctly any thing but a sort of wild turmoil,
+which accorded well with his own troubled reflections; when a cry from
+the crowd, which still lingered on the spot, recalled him to himself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look, look!&rdquo; cried several voices. &ldquo;There it is again! It is a body!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On the dark surface of the waters, Gottlob saw a form whirled by the
+force of the current towards the water-gate.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is the witch! it is the witch!&rdquo; again cried the crowd, as the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="504">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504"></a>
+sackcloth garment of the unhappy Magdalena showed itself above the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>In another moment Gottlob had rushed into the water, to seize the body
+as it was whirled past the water-gate, and was almost dashed against the
+stone-piles.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Touch her not!&rdquo; screamed again the bystanders. &ldquo;It is the witch! it is
+the witch!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Gottlob heeded not the shouts of the crowd. Holding by one hand on
+the trunk of a tree overhanging the water, in order to bear up against
+the violence of the stream, he grasped with the other the dress of the
+floating female before it again sank beneath the whirling eddy. He
+pulled it towards him with force; and, after with difficulty struggling
+against the force of the current, at length succeeded in bearing the
+lifeless form of Magdalena under the gateway.</p>
+
+<p>Streaming himself with water, he laid the cold wet body down upon the
+stones, and bent over it, to see whether life had fled from it for ever.
+The crown drew back with horror, uttering cries of vain expostulation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank Heaven! she still breathes,&rdquo; said Gottlob at last, as, after some
+moments, a slight convulsive movement passed over the frame of the poor
+woman. &ldquo;Aid me, my friends. She still lives. Help me to transport her to
+some house.&rdquo; But the crowd drew back in horror. &ldquo;I will convey her to my
+own chamber close by. Send for a leech! Are ye without pity?&rdquo; he
+continued, as, instead of assisting him, the crowd held back, and
+answered his entreaties only with exclamations of disgust and scorn.
+&ldquo;Are ye Christian men, that ye would see the poor woman die before your
+eyes for want of aid? She is no witch. Good God! will no one show a
+heart of bare humanity?&rdquo; But the crowd still held back; and if they did
+not still scoff at him, were silent.</p>
+
+<p>The kind youth, finding all hope of assistance vain, from the miserable
+prejudices of the people, had at last contrived to raise the still
+senseless Magdalena in his arms, with the intention of conveying her
+into his own dwelling; and already murmurs began to arise among the
+crowd, as if they intended to oppose his purpose; when a door,
+communicating from the palace-gardens with the narrow lane, opened, and
+the stately form of an aged man, of benevolent aspect, stood between
+Gottlob, who remained alone under the water-gate with the lifeless form
+of Magdalena on his arm, and the murmuring crowd which had drawn back
+into the lane. He stood like a guardian spirit between the fair youth
+and the senseless mass of angry men. All snatched off their furred hats,
+and bowed their bodies with respect. It was their sovereign, the Prince
+Bishop of Fulda. His attendants followed him to the threshold of the
+garden gate.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; was his first simple exclamation at the sight of Magdalena
+in Gottlob&rsquo;s arms. &ldquo;You have contrived to save her, have you? I was
+myself hurrying hither to see what could be done. Does she still live?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Upon an affirmative exclamation from Gottlob, he raised his eyes to
+heaven with a short thanksgiving; and then, turning to the crowd with a
+stern air, he asked&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What were these cries and murmurs that I heard? Why were those
+threatening looks I saw? Would ye oppose a Christian act of charity due
+to that unhappy woman, even were she the miserable criminal she is not?
+Have ye yet to be taught your Christian duties in this land? God forgive
+me; for then <i>I</i> have much to answer for!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After this meek self-rebuke, he again looked seriously upon the
+bystanders, and waved his hand to disperse the crowd, who slunk away
+before him; then, hastily giving orders that Magdalena should be
+conveyed into the palace, he himself stopped to see her borne into the
+garden, and followed anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Every means with which the leech-craft of the times was acquainted for
+the recovery of the apparently drowned, was applied in the case of
+Magdalena, and with some success; for, after a time, breath and warmth
+were restored&mdash;her eyes opened. But the respiration was hurried and
+impeded&mdash;the eyes glazed and dim&mdash;the sense of what was passing around
+her, confused and troubled. A nervous tremour ran through her whole
+frame. She lay
+<span class="pagebreak" title="505">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505"></a>
+upon a mattrass, propped up with a pile of cushions, in
+a lower apartment of the palace. By her side knelt the kind Bishop of
+Fulda, watching with evident solicitude the variation of the symptoms in
+the unfortunate woman&rsquo;s frame. Behind her stood the stately form of the
+Ober-Amtmann&mdash;every muscle of his usually stern face now struggling with
+emotion&mdash;his hands clenched together&mdash;his head bowed down; for he had
+learned from his brother the Prince, that the female lying before
+him&mdash;the woman whom he had himself condemned to the stake, was really
+the mistress of his younger years&mdash;the seduced wife of the man whom he
+had killed&mdash;his victim, Margaret Weilheim. On the other side of the
+prostrate form of Magdalena bent a grave personage in dark attire, who
+held her wrist, and counted the beating of her pulse with an air of
+serious attention. In answer to an enquiring look from the Prince
+Bishop, the physician shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is life, it is true,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but it is ebbing fast. The
+fatigue and emotions of the past day were in themselves too much for a
+frame already shattered by macerations, and privations, and grief; this
+catastrophe has exhausted her last force of vitality. She cannot live
+long.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Ober-Amtmann wrung his hands with a still firmer gripe. The tears
+trembled upon the good old bishop&rsquo;s eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;See!&rdquo; said the leech; &ldquo;she again opens her eyes. There is more sense in
+them now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The dying Magdalena in truth looked around her, as if she at length
+became conscious of the objects on which her vision fell. She seemed to
+comprehend with difficulty where she was, and how she had come into the
+position in which she lay. Feebly and with exertion she raised her
+emaciated arm, and passed her skinny hand over her brow and eyes. But at
+length her gaze rested upon the mild face of the benevolent bishop, and
+a faint smile passed over her sunken features.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where am I?&rdquo; she murmured lowly. &ldquo;Am I in paradise?&mdash;and you, reverend
+father, are also with me?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In a few kind words, the bishop strove to recall her wandering senses,
+and explain to her what had happened. At last a consciousness of the
+past seemed to come over her; and she shuddered in every limb at the
+fearful recollection.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And he! where is he?&rdquo; she asked with an imploring look. &ldquo;He! Karl!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The old man looked at her with surprise, as though he thought her senses
+were still wavering.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He carried me off, did he not?&rdquo; she continued feebly; &ldquo;or was it a
+dream? Was it only a strange dream? No, no! I remember all&mdash;how we flew
+through the air; and then the rushing waters. Oh! tell me; where is he?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The bishop now comprehended that she spoke of the witchfinder; and said,
+&ldquo;He is gone for ever, to his last great account.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Magdalena groaned bitterly, and again closed her eyes. But it was
+evident that she still retained her consciousness; for her lips were
+moving faintly, as if in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is there no hope?&rdquo; enquired the bishop in a whisper of the physician.
+&ldquo;Nothing can be done?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No hope!&rdquo; replied the leech. &ldquo;I have done all that medical skill can
+do; <i>I</i> can do no more, your highness.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At a sign from the bishop, the physician withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, the dying woman again unclosed her eyes, and looked
+around her at the strange room in which she lay. A recollection of the
+past seemed to come across her, slowly and painfully; and she again
+pressed her feeble hand to her brow.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why am I here?&rdquo; she murmured. &ldquo;Why do I again see this scene of folly
+and sin? O Lord! why bring before my thus, in this last hour, the living
+memory of my past transgressions?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As if to complete the painful illusion of the past, a voice now murmured
+&ldquo;Margaret&rdquo; in her ear. The poor woman started, turned her head with
+difficulty, and saw, kneeling by her side, the heartless lover of her
+youth. She gave him one look of fear and shame, and then turning again
+her eyes to the bishop&rsquo;s face, exclaimed, &ldquo;May God forgive me!&mdash;Pray for
+me, my father!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is I who seek for mercy,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="506">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506"></a>
+Margaret!&rdquo; cried the Ober-Amtmann. &ldquo;I who
+need thy forgiveness for all the wrong I have done thee!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mercy and forgiveness are with God,&rdquo; said the dying woman solemnly.
+&ldquo;All the wrong thou hast done me I have long since forgiven, as far as
+such a sinner as myself can forgive. My time is short; my breath is fast
+leaving me. I feel that I am dying,&rdquo; she added after a pause. &ldquo;Father, I
+would make my shrift; and, if God and your reverence permit one earthly
+thought to mingle with my last hopes of salvation, I would confide to
+you a secret on which depends the happiness of her I love, and you
+perhaps might secure her peace of mind. Alas, I cannot speak! O God!
+give me still breath.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>These words were uttered in a low and feeble tone. With a hasty gesture
+the bishop signed to his brother to retire, and bent his ear over the
+mouth of the gasping woman.</p>
+
+<p>After some time he rose, and first reassuring the dying mother that all
+he could do for her child&rsquo;s welfare should be done, pronounced the
+sublime words of the church that give the promise of forgiveness and
+salvation to the truly penitent sinner.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, might I look upon her once more!&rdquo; sobbed Magdalena with convulsive
+effort. &ldquo;One last look! not a word shall tell her&mdash;it is&mdash;her unhappy
+mother&mdash;who gives her&mdash;a last blessing!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Ober-Amtmann left the room. In a few minutes he returned, leading
+Bertha by the hand. But Magdalena was already speechless. The fair girl
+knelt by the side of the mattrass, sobbing bitterly&mdash;she herself
+scarcely knew why. Was it only the sight of death, of the last parting
+of the soul, that thus affected her? Was it affliction that her own
+error should have contributed to hasten that unhappy woman&rsquo;s end? Or was
+not there rather a powerful instinct within her, that, in that awful
+moment, bound her by a sympathetic tie to her unknown mother, and
+conveyed a portion of that last agony of the departing woman to her own
+heart?</p>
+
+<p>Magdalena, although she could not speak, was evidently aware of the
+presence of the gentle girl. She still moved her lips, as if begging a
+blessing on her head, and fixed upon that mild face, now bathed in
+tears, the last look of her fading eyes. And now the eyes grew dim and
+senseless, although the spirit seemed still to struggle within for
+sight; now they closed&mdash;the whole frame of the prostrate woman
+shuddered, and Margaret Weilheim&mdash;the repentant Magdalena&mdash;was a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after these events, the Ober-Amtmann retired from his high
+office, and after a seclusion of some duration with his brother, at
+Fulda, finally betook himself to a monastery, where he remained until
+his death.</p>
+
+<p>Before his retirement from the world, however, he had consented, not
+without some difficulty, to the union of Bertha and Gottlob. The Prince
+Bishop, unforgetful of the claims of the unfortunate Magdalena, had
+urged upon his brother the duty of making this concession to the dying
+wishes of the wronged mother, as well as to the evident affection of
+Bertha for the young artist, which, although unknown even to herself,
+was no less powerful. As Gottlob, although of a ruined and impoverished
+family, was not otherwise than of noble birth, the greatest difficulty
+of these times was surmounted; and the Prince Bishop, by bestowing upon
+the young man a post of honour and rank about his person, in which the
+gentle youth could still continue the pursuit of his glorious art, and
+march on unhindered in his progress to that eminence which he finally
+attained, smoothed the road to the Ober-Amtmann&rsquo;s consent.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of Bertha&rsquo;s marriage, the good Prince Bishop promulgated an
+edict, that for the future no one should suffer the punishment of death
+for the crime of witchcraft in his dominions. But, after his decease,
+the edict again fell into disuse; and the town of Hammelburg, as if the
+spirit of Black Claus, the witchfinder, still hovered about its walls,
+again commenced to assert its odious reputation, and maintain its
+hideous boast, of having burned more witches than any other town in
+Germany.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="507">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507"></a>
+MY LAST COURTSHIP; OR, LIFE IN LOUISIANA.</h2>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter the First.<br />
+
+A Voyage on the Red River.</h4>
+
+<p>It was on a sultry sunny June morning that I stepped on board the Red
+River steamboat. The sun was blazing with unusual power out of its
+setting of deep-blue enamel; no wind stirred, only the huge mass of
+water in the Mississippi seemed to exhale an agreeable freshness. I gave
+a last nod to Richards and his wife who had accompanied me to the shore,
+and then went down into the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>I was by no means in the most amiable of humours. Although I had pretty
+well forgotten my New York disappointment, two months&rsquo; contemplation of
+the happiness enjoyed by Richards in the society of his young and
+charming wife, had done little towards reconciling me to my
+bachelorship; and it was with small pleasure that I looked forward to a
+return to my solitary plantation, where I could reckon on no better
+welcome than the cold, and perhaps scowling, glance of slaves and
+hirelings. In no very pleasant mood I walked across the cabin, without
+even looking at the persons assembled there, and leaned out of the open
+window. I had been some three or four minutes in this position, chewing
+the cud of unpleasant reflections, when a friendly voice spoke close to
+my ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Qu&rsquo;est ce qu&rsquo;il y a donc, Monsieur Howard? Etes-vous indispos&eacute;? Allons
+voir du monde.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I turned round. The speaker was a respectable-looking elderly man; but
+his features were entirely unknown to me, and I stared at him, a little
+astonished at the familiar tone of his address, and at his knowledge of
+my name. I was at that moment not at all disposed to make new
+acquaintances; and, after a slight bow, I was about to turn my back upon
+the old gentleman, when he took my hand, and drew me gently towards the
+ladies&rsquo; cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Allons voir, Monsieur Howard.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Mais que voulez-vous donc?</i> What do you want with me?&rdquo; said I somewhat
+peevishly to the importunate stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Faire votre connaissance</i>,&rdquo; he replied with a benign smile, at the
+same time opening the door of the ladies&rsquo; saloon. &ldquo;Monsieur Howard,&rdquo;
+said he to two young girls who were occupied in tying up a bundle of
+pine-apples and bananas to one of the cabin pillars, just as in the
+northern States, or in England, people hang up strings of onions, &ldquo;<i>Mes
+filles, voici notre voisin, Monsieur Howard.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The damsels tripped lightly towards me, welcoming me as cordially as if
+I had been an old acquaintance, and hastened to offer me some of their
+fragrant and delicious fruit. Their greeting and manners were really
+highly agreeable. Had they been two of my own dear countrywomen, I might
+have lived ten years with them without being so well and frankly
+received, or invited to spoil my dinner in so agreeable a manner, as by
+these fair Pomonas. I could not refuse an invitation so cordially given.
+I sat down, and, notwithstanding my dull and fretful humour, soon found
+myself amused in my own despite by the lively chatter of the Creoles. An
+hour passed rapidly in this manner, and a second and third might
+possibly have been wiled away as agreeably, had not my stiff Virginian
+feeling of etiquette made me apprehensive that a longer stay might be
+deemed intrusive.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will come back and take tea with us?&rdquo; said the young ladies as I
+left the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>I bowed a willing assent; and truly, on reaching the deck, I found
+reason to congratulate myself on having done so. The company there
+assembled was any thing but the best. A strange set of fellows! I could
+almost have fancied myself in old Kentuck. Drovers and cattle-dealers
+from New Orleans proceeding to the north-western countries; half-wild
+hunters and trappers, on their way to the country beyond Nacogdoches,
+with the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="508">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508"></a>
+laudable intention of civilizing, or, in other words, of
+cheating the Indians; traders and storekeepers from Alexandria and its
+neighbourhood; such was the respectable composition of the society on
+board the steamer. A rough lot they were, thick-booted, hoarse-voiced,
+hard-fisted fellows, who walked up and down, chewing and smoking, and
+spitting with as much exactness of aim as if their throats had been
+rifle-barrels.</p>
+
+<p>We were just coming in sight of a large clump of foliage. It was the
+mouth of the Red River, which is half overarched by the huge trees that
+incline forward over its waters from either bank. What a contrast to the
+Mississippi, which flows along, broad, powerful, and majestic, like some
+barbarian conqueror bursting forth at the head of his stinking hordes to
+overrun half a world! The Red River on the other hand, which we are
+accustomed to call the Nile of Louisiana&mdash;with about as much right and
+propriety as the Massachusetts cobbler who christened his son Alexander
+C&aelig;sar Napoleon&mdash;sneaks stealthily along through forest and plain, like
+some lurking and venomous copper-snake. Cocytus would be a far better
+name for it. Here we are at the entrance of the first swamp, out of
+which the infernal scarlet ditch flows. It is any thing but a pleasant
+sight, that swamp, which is formed by the junction of the Tensaw, the
+White and Red Rivers, and at the first glance appears like a huge mirror
+of vivid green, apparently affording solid footing, and scattered over
+with trees, from which rank creepers and a greasy slime hang in long
+festoons. One would swear it was a huge meadow, until, on looking rather
+longer, one sees the dark-green swamp lilies gently moving, while from
+amongst them are protruded numerous snouts or jaws, of a sickly
+greyish-brown, discoursing music which is any thing but sweet to a
+stranger&rsquo;s ears. These are thousands of alligators, darting out from
+amongst the rank luxuriance of their marshy abode. It is their breeding
+time, and the horrible bellowing they make is really hideous to listen
+to. One might fancy this swamp the headquarters of death, whence he
+shoots forth his envenomed darts in the thousand varied forms of fever
+and pestilence.</p>
+
+<p>We had proceeded some distance up the Red River, when the friendly old
+Creole came to summon me to the tea-table. We found one of his daughters
+reading Bernardin de St Pierre&rsquo;s novel, a favourite study with Creole
+ladies; while the other was chatting with her black-skinned,
+ivory-toothed waiting-maid, with a degree of familiarity that would have
+thrown a New York <i>&eacute;l&eacute;gante</i> into a swoon. They were on their way home,
+their father told me, from the Ursuline Convent at New Orleans, where
+they had been educated. It can hardly have been from the holy sisters,
+one would think, that they acquired the self-possessed and scrutinizing,
+although not immodest gaze, with which I at times observed them to be
+examining me. The eldest is apparently about nineteen years of age,
+slightly inclined to <i>embonpoint</i>. It was really amusing to observe the
+cool, comfortable manner, in which she inspected me in a large mirror
+that hangs opposite to us, as if she had been desirous of seeing how
+long I could stand my ground and keep my countenance.</p>
+
+<p>It would fill a book to enumerate all the items of baggage and effects
+which my new friends the Creoles had crowded into the state-cabin.
+Luckily, they were the only inmates of the latter, and had,
+consequently, full power in their temporary dominions. Had there been
+co-occupants, a civil war must have been the inevitable result. The
+ladies had a whole boat-load of citrons, oranges, bananas, and
+pine-apples; and their father had at least three dozen cases of
+Chambertin, Laffitte, and Medoc. I at first thought he must be a
+wine-merchant. At any rate he showed his good taste in stocking himself
+with such elegant and salutary drinkables, instead of the gin, and
+whisky, and Hollands to which many of my countrymen would have given the
+preference&mdash;those green and brown compounds, elixirs of sin and disease,
+concocted by rascally distillers for the corruption and ruin of Brother
+Jonathan.</p>
+
+<p>The tea was now ready. Monsieur M&eacute;nou (that was the name of my new
+friend) seemed inclined to reject
+<span class="pagebreak" title="509">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509"></a>
+the sober beverage, and stick to his
+Chambertin. I was disposed to try both. The young ladies were all that
+was gay and agreeable. They were really charming girls, merry and
+lively, full of ready wit, and with bright eyes and pleasant voices,
+that might have cheered the heart of the veriest misanthrope. But there
+are moments in one&rsquo;s life when the mind and spirits seem oppressed by a
+sort of dead dull calm, as enervating and disheartening as that which
+succeeds a West Indian hurricane in the month of August. At those times
+every thing loses its interest, and one appears to become as helpless as
+the ship that lies becalmed and motionless on the glassy surface of a
+tropical sea. I was just in one of those moments. I had consulted any
+thing but my own inclination in leaving the hospitable roof and pleasant
+companionship of my friend Richards, to return to my own neglected and
+long-unvisited plantation, where I should find no society, and should be
+compelled to occupy myself with matters that for me had little or no
+interest. Had I, as I hoped to do when in New York, taken back a partner
+of my joys and sorrows, some gentle creature who would have cheered my
+solitude and sympathized with all my feelings, I should have experienced
+far less repugnance or difficulty in returning to my home in the
+wilderness; but as it was, I felt oppressed by a sense of loneliness
+that seemed to paralyse my energies, and that certainly rendered me any
+thing but fit society for the lively, talkative party of which I now
+found myself a member. I strove to shake off the feeling, but in vain;
+and at last, abandoning the attempt, I left the cabin and went on deck.</p>
+
+<p>The night was bright and starlight; the atmosphere perfectly clear, with
+the exception of a slight white mist that hung over the river. The
+hollow blows of the steam-engine seemed to be echoed in the far distance
+by the bellowing of the alligators; while the plaintive tones of the
+whip-poor-will were heard at intervals in the forest through which we
+were passing. There was no sign of life on the banks of the river; it
+was a desert; not a light to be seen, save that of millions of
+fireflies, which threw a magical kind of <i>chiaroscuro</i> over the trees
+and bushes. At times we passed so near the shore that the branches
+rattled and snapped against the side of the boat. Our motion was rapid.
+Twelve hours more, and I should be in my Tusculum. Just then the captain
+came up to me to say, that if I were disposed to retire to rest, the
+noisy smokers and drinkers had discontinued their revels, and I might
+now have some chance of sleeping. I had nothing better to do, so
+descended the stairs and installed myself in my berth.</p>
+
+<p>When I rose the next morning, a breeze had sprung up, and we were
+proceeding merrily along under sail as well as steam. The first person I
+met was Monsieur M&eacute;nou, who wished me a <i>bon-jour</i> in, as I thought, a
+somewhat colder tone than he had hitherto used towards me, and looked me
+at the same time enquiringly in the face. It seemed as if he wished to
+read there whether his courtesy and kindness were likely to be requited
+by the same ungracious stiffness that I had shown him on the preceding
+day. Well, I will do my best to obliterate the bad impression I have
+apparently made. They are good people, these Creoles&mdash;not particularly
+bashful or discreet; but yet I like their forwardness and volatility
+better than the sly smartness of the Yankees, in spite of their
+ridiculous love of dancing, which even the first emigrants could not lay
+aside, amidst all the difficulties of their settlement in America. It
+must have been absurd enough to see them capering about, and dancing
+minuets and gavottes in blanket coats and moccasins.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I was talking to the M&eacute;nous, and doing my best to be amiable, the
+bell rang, the steam was let off, and we stopped to take in firing.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Monsieur, voil&agrave; votre terre!</i>&rdquo; said the father pointing to the shore,
+upon which a large quantity of wood was stacked. I looked through the
+cabin window; the Creole was right. I had been chatting so diligently
+with the young ladies that the hours had flown like minutes, and it was
+already noon. During my absence, my overseer had established a depot of
+wood for the steamboats. So far so good. And yonder is the worthy Mr
+Bleaks
+<span class="pagebreak" title="510">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510"></a>
+himself. The Creole seems inclined to accompany me to my house.
+I cannot hinder him certainly, but I sincerely hope he will not carry
+his politeness quite so far. Nothing I dread more than such a visit,
+when I have been for years away from house and home. A bachelor&rsquo;s Lares
+and Penates are the most careless of all gods.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr Bleaks,&rdquo; said I, stepping up to the overseer, who, in his Guernsey
+shirt, calico inexpressibles, and straw hat, his hands in his pockets
+and a cigar in his mouth, was lounging about, and apparently troubling
+himself very little about his employer. &ldquo;Mr Bleaks, will you be so good
+as to have the gig and my luggage brought on shore?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! Mr Howard!&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;is it you? Didn&rsquo;t expect ye so soon.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I hope that, if unexpected, I am not unwelcome,&rdquo; replied I, a little
+vexed at this specimen of genuine Pennsylvanian dryness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You ain&rsquo;t come alone, are you?&rdquo; continued Bleaks, examining me at the
+same time out of the corners of his eyes. &ldquo;Thought you&rsquo;d have brought us
+a dozen blackies. We want &rsquo;em bad enough.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Est-il permis, Monsieur?</i>&rdquo; now interposed the Creole, taking my hand,
+and pointing towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And the steamer?&rdquo; said I, in a tone as drawling as I could make it, and
+without moving a pace in the direction indicated.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! that will wait,&rdquo; replied M&eacute;nou, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>What could I do with such a persevering fellow? There was nothing for it
+but to walk up with him to the house, however unpleasant I found it so
+to do. And unpleasant to me it certainly was, in the then state of my
+habitation and domain. It was a melancholy sight&mdash;a perfect abomination
+of desolation. Every thing looked so ruined, decayed, and rotten, that I
+felt sick and disgusted at the prospect before me. I had not expected to
+find matters half so bad. Of the hedge round the garden only a few
+sticks were here and there standing; in the garden itself some
+unwholesome-looking pigs were rooting and grubbing. As to the house!
+Merciful heavens! Not a whole pane in the windows! all the frames
+stopped and crammed with old rags and bunches of Indian corn leaves! I
+could not expect groves of orange and citron trees&mdash;I had planted none;
+but this! no, it was really too bad. Every picture must have its shady
+side, but here there was no bright one; all was darkness and gloom. We
+did not meet a living creature as we walked up from the shore, winding
+our way amongst the prostrate and decaying tree-trunks that encumbered
+the ground. At last, near the house, we stumbled upon a trio of black
+little monsters, that were rolling in the mud with the dogs, half a
+shirt upon their bodies, and dirty as only the children of men possibly
+can be. The quadrupeds, for such they looked, jumped up on our approach,
+stared at us with their rolling eyes, and then scuttled away to hide
+themselves behind the house. Ha! Old Sybille! Is it you? She was
+standing before a caldron, suspended, gipsy-fashion, from a triangle of
+sticks&mdash;looking, for all the world, like a dingy parody of one of
+Macbeth&rsquo;s witches. She, too, stared at us, but without moving. I must
+introduce myself, I suppose. Now she has recognised me, and comes
+towards us with her enormous spoon in her hand. I wonder that her
+shriveled old turkey&rsquo;s neck&mdash;which cost me seventy-five dollars, by the
+by&mdash;has not got twisted before now. She runs up to me, screaming and
+crying for joy. There <i>is</i> one creature, then, glad to see me. It is
+amusing to observe the anxiety with which she looks at the caldron, and
+at three pans in which ham and dried buffalo are stewing and grizzling;
+she is evidently quite unable to decide whether she shall abandon me to
+my fate, or the fleshpots to theirs. She sets up her pipe and makes a
+most awful outcry, but nobody answers the call. &ldquo;<i>Et les chambres</i>,&rdquo;
+howls she, &ldquo;<i>et la maison, et tout, tout!</i>&rdquo; I could not make out what
+the deuce she would be at. She looked at my companion, evidently much
+embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Mais, mon Dieu!</i>&rdquo; croaked she, &ldquo;<i>pourrai-je seulement un moment? Tenez
+l&agrave;</i>, Massa!&rdquo; she continued in an imploring tone, holding out the spoon
+to me, and making a movement
+<span class="pagebreak" title="511">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511"></a>
+as if she were stirring something, and
+then again pointing to the house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Que diable as tu?</i>&rdquo; cried I, out of all patience at this
+unintelligible pantomime.</p>
+
+<p>The rooms wanted airing and sweeping, she said; they were not fit to
+receive a stranger in. She only required a quarter of an hour to put
+every thing to rights; and mean time, if I would be so good, for the
+sake of the honour of the house, just to stir the soup, and keep an eye
+upon the ham and buffalo flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Mentally consigning the old Guinea-fowl to the keeping of the infernal
+deities, I walked towards the house. My only consolation was, that
+probably my companion&rsquo;s residence was not in a much better state than
+mine, if in so good a one; those Creoles above Alexandria still live
+half like Redskins. Monsieur M&eacute;nou did not appear at all astonished at
+my slovenly housekeeping. When we entered the parlour, we found, instead
+of sofas and chairs, a quantity of Mexican cotton-seed in heaps upon the
+floor; in one corner was a dirty tattered blanket, in another a
+washing-tub. The other rooms were in a still worse state: one of the
+negroes had taken up his quarters in my bed-chamber, from which the
+musquitto curtains had disappeared, having passed, probably, into the
+possession of the amiable Mrs Bleaks. I hastened to leave this scene of
+disorder, and walked out into the court, my indignation and disgust
+raised to the highest pitch.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Mais tout cela est bien charmant!</i>&rdquo; exclaimed the Creole.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at the man; he appeared in sober earnest, but I could not
+believe that he was so; and I shook my head, for I was in no jesting
+humour. The wearisome fellow again took my arm, and led me towards the
+huts of my negroes and the cotton-fields. The soil of the latter was of
+the richest and best description, and in spite of negligent cultivation,
+its natural fertility and fatness had caused the plants to spring up
+already nearly to the height of a man, though we were only in the month
+of June. The Creole looked around him with the air of a connoisseur, and
+in his turn shook his head. Just then, the bell on board the steamer
+rang out the signal for departure.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank Heaven!&rdquo; thought I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Monsieur</i>,&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou, &ldquo;the plantation is <i>tr&egrave;s charmante, mais ce</i>
+Mist&egrave;re Bleak is nothing worth, and you&mdash;you are <i>trop gentilhomme</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I swallowed this equivocal compliment, nearly choking as I did so.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Ecoutez</i>,&rdquo; continued my companion; &ldquo;you shall go with me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go with you!&rdquo; I repeated, in unbounded astonishment. &ldquo;Is the man mad,&rdquo;
+I thought, &ldquo;to make me such a proposition within ten minutes after my
+return home?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Oui, oui, Monsieur</i>, you shall go with me. I have some very important
+things to communicate to you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Mais, Monsieur</i>,&rdquo; replied I, pretty stiffly, &ldquo;I do not know what you
+can have to communicate to me. I am a good deal surprised at so strange
+a proposition&rdquo;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;From a stranger,&rdquo; interrupted the Creole, smiling. &ldquo;But I am serious,
+Mr Howard; you have come here without taking the necessary precautions.
+Your house is scarcely ready for your reception&mdash;the fever very
+dangerous&mdash;in short, you had better come with me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I looked at the man, astonished at his perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;yes or no?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I stood hesitating and embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I accept your offer,&rdquo; I exclaimed at last, scarcely knowing what I
+said, and starting off at a brisk pace in the direction of the steamer.
+Mr Bleaks looked on in astonishment. I bid him pay more attention to the
+plantation, and with that brief injunction was about to step on board,
+when my five-and-twenty negroes came howling from behind the house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Massa, Gor-a-mighty! Massa, Massa, stop with us!&rdquo; cried the men.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Massa, dear good Massa! Not go!&mdash;Mr Bleaks!&rdquo; yelled the women.</p>
+
+<p>I made sign to the captain to wait a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; said I, a little moved.</p>
+
+<p>One of the slaves stepped forward and bared his shoulders. Two others
+followed his example. They were hideously scarred and seamed by the
+whip.</p>
+
+<p>I cast stern glance at Bleaks,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="512">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512"></a>
+who grinned a cruel smile. It was a
+right fortunate thing for my honour and conscience that my poor negroes
+had thus appealed to me. In the thoughtlessness of my nature, I should
+have followed the Creole, without troubling myself in the least about
+the condition or treatment of the five-and-twenty human beings whom I
+had left in such evil hands. I excused myself hastily to Monsieur M&eacute;nou,
+promised an early visit, to hear whatever he might have to say to me,
+and bade him farewell. Without making me any answer, he hurried on
+board, whispered something to the captain, and disappeared down the
+cabin-stairs. I thought no more about him, and was walking towards the
+house, surrounded by my blacks, when I heard the splashing of the
+paddles, and the steamer resumed its voyage. At the same instant,
+somebody laid hold of my arm. I looked round&mdash;it was the Creole.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This is insupportable!&rdquo; thought I. &ldquo;I wonder he did not bring his two
+daughters with him. That would have completed my annoyance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will want my assistance with that <i>coquin</i>,&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou, quietly.
+&ldquo;We will arrange every thing to-day; to-morrow my son will be here; and
+the day after you will go home with me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I said nothing. What would have been the use if I had? I was no longer
+my own master. This unaccountable Creole had evidently taken the
+direction of my affairs entirely into his own hands.</p>
+
+<p>My poor negroes and negresses were crying and laughing for joy, and
+gazing at me with expectant looks. I bid then go to their huts; that I
+would have them called when I wanted them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;D&mdash;n those blackies!&rdquo; said Mr Bleaks as they walked away: &ldquo;they want
+the whip; it&rsquo;s too long since they&rsquo;ve had it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Without replying to his remark, I told old Sybille to fetch Beppo and
+Mirza, and signed to the overseer to leave me. He showed no disposition
+to obey.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This looks like an examination,&rdquo; said he sneeringly, &ldquo;and I shall take
+leave to be present at it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;None of your insolence, Mr Bleaks,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;be so good as to take
+yourself off and wait my orders.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And none of your fine airs,&rdquo; replied the Mister. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a free
+country, and you ain&rsquo;t got a nigger afore ye.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was rather more than I could stomach.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr Bleaks,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;from this hour you are no longer in my employment.
+Your engagement is out on the 1st of July; you shall be paid up to that
+date.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t set a foot over the threshold till I have received the amount
+of my salary and advances,&rdquo; replied the man dryly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bring me your account,&rdquo; said I. My blood was beginning to boil at the
+fellow&rsquo;s cool impudence.</p>
+
+<p>Bleaks called to his wife, who presently came to the room door. They
+exchanged a few words, and she went away again. Meanwhile I opened my
+portmanteau, and ran my eye over some accounts, letters, and receipts.
+Before I had finished, Mrs Bleaks reappeared with the account-books,
+which she laid upon the table, and planting herself, with arms akimbo,
+in the middle of the room, seemed prepared to witness whatever passed.
+Her husband lounged into the next apartment and brought a couple of
+chairs, upon which he and his better half seated themselves. Truly,
+thought I, our much-cherished liberty and equality have sometimes their
+inconveniences and disagreeables.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The 20th December, twenty-five bales cotton, four hogsheads tobacco in
+leaf, delivered to Mr Merton,&rdquo; began the overseer; &ldquo;the 24th January,
+twenty-five bales cotton and one hogshead tobacco-leaves.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Right,&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That was our whole crop,&rdquo; said the man.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A tolerable falling off from the former year,&rdquo; I observed. &ldquo;There were
+ninety-five bales and fifty hogsheads.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If it doesn&rsquo;t please the gentleman, he ought to have stopped at home,
+and not gone wandering over half the world instead of minding his
+affairs,&rdquo; retorted Mr Bleaks.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And leaving us to rot in this fever hole, without money or any thing
+else,&rdquo; added his moiety.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="513">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513"></a>
+&ldquo;And further?&rdquo; said I to the man.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all. I&rsquo;ve received from Mr Merton 600 dollars: 300 more are
+still comin&rsquo; to me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very good.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And moreover,&rdquo; continued Bleaks, &ldquo;for Indian corn, meal, and hams, and
+salt pork, and blankets, and cotton stuffs, I have laid out 400 dollars,
+making 700, and 4000 hedge-stakes for mending fences, makes a total of
+740 dollars.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I ran into the next room, found a pen and ink upon my dilapidated
+writing-table, wrote an order on my banker, and came back again. At any
+price I was resolved to get rid of this man.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Allow me,&rdquo; said the Creole, who had been a silent witness of all that
+had passed, but who now attempted to take the paper from my hand.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Pardon me, sir,&rdquo; said I, vexed at the man&rsquo;s meddling; &ldquo;on this occasion
+I wish to be my own counsellor and master.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wait but one moment, and allow me to ask a few questions of your
+overseer,&rdquo; continued the Creole, no way repulsed by my words or manner.
+&ldquo;Will Mr Bleaks be so good as to read over his account once more?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know why I should. Mind your own business,&rdquo; was the churlish
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then I will do it for you,&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou. &ldquo;The 20th December, twenty-five
+bales cotton, and four hogsheads tobacco-leaves, delivered to Mr Merton.
+Is it not so?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr Bleaks made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The 23d December, twenty bales cotton, and one hogshead tobacco, to
+Messrs Goring. Is it not so?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The overseer cast a fierce but embarrassed look at the Creole. His wife
+changed colour.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The 24th January, twenty-five bales and one hogshead to Mr Groves, and
+again, on the 10th February, twenty-two bales and seven hogsheads to
+Messrs Goring. Is not that the correct account?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;D&mdash;&mdash;d lies!&rdquo; stammered the overseer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Which I shall soon prove to be truth,&rdquo; said the other. &ldquo;Mr Howard, you
+have a claim on this man for upwards of 2000 dollars, of which he has
+shamefully cheated you. I shall also be able to point out another fraud
+to the extent of 500 dollars.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My faithless servants were pale with rage and confusion; I was struck
+dumb with surprise at this unexpected discovery, and at the way in which
+it was made.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We must lose no time with these people,&rdquo; whispered the Creole to me,
+&ldquo;or they will be off before you can look round you. Send immediately to
+Justice T&mdash;&mdash; for a warrant, and give the sheriff and constables a hint
+to be on the look-out. He cannot well escape if he goes down stream, but
+he will no doubt try to go up.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I immediately took the needful measures, and sent off Bangor, one of my
+smartest negroes, to the justice of peace. &ldquo;We must write immediately to
+Goring&rsquo;s house,&rdquo; said the Creole.</p>
+
+<p>In an hour all was ready. At the end of that time the Montezuma steamer
+came smoking down the river. We got the captain to come on shore, told
+him briefly what had happened, gave him our letters, and were just
+accompanying him back to his vessel, when we saw a figure creep
+stealthily along behind the hedge and wood-stack, and go on board the
+steamer. It was Mr Bleaks, who had imagined that, under existing
+circumstances, a trip to New Orleans might be of service to his health.
+We found the worthy gentleman concealed amongst the crew, busily
+converting himself into a negro by the assistance of a handful of soot.
+His intended excursion was, of course, put an end to, and he was
+conveyed back to his dwelling. We took precautions against a second
+attempt at flight; and the following morning he was placed in safe
+custody of the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But, my dear Monsieur M&eacute;nou,&rdquo; said I to the Creole, as we sat after
+dinner discussing the second bottle of his Chambertin, of which the
+excellent man had not forgotten to bring a provision on shore with
+him&mdash;&ldquo;whence comes it that you have shown me so much, and such
+undeserved sympathy and interest?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ha, ha! You citizen aristocrats cannot understand that a man should
+take an interest in any one, or any thing, but himself,&rdquo; replied M&eacute;nou,
+half laughing, half in earnest. &ldquo;It is incomprehensible to your stiff,
+proud,
+<span class="pagebreak" title="514">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514"></a>
+republican egotism, which makes you look down upon us Creoles,
+and upon all the rest of the world, as beings of an inferior order. We,
+on the other hand, take care of ourselves, but we also occasionally
+think of our neighbours. Your affairs are perfectly well known to me,
+and I hope you do not think I have made a bad use of my knowledge of
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I shook the worthy man heartily by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We are not, in general, particularly fond of you northern gentlemen,&rdquo;
+continued he; &ldquo;but you form an exception. You have a good deal of our
+French <i>&eacute;tourderie</i> in your blood, and a good deal also of our
+generosity.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I could not help smiling at the <i>na&iuml;ve</i> frankness with which this sketch
+of my character was placed before me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have stopped too long away from your own house, and from people who
+would willingly be your friends; and if all that is said be true, you
+have no particular reason to congratulate yourself upon the result of
+your wanderings.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I bit my lips. The allusion was pretty plainly to my misfortune at New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Better as it is,&rdquo; resumed the Creole, with a very slight and
+good-humoured smile. &ldquo;A New York fine lady would be strangely out of her
+element on a Red River plantation. But to talk of something else. My son
+will be here to-morrow; your estate only wants attention, and a small
+capital of seven or eight thousand dollars, to become in a year or two
+as thriving a one as any in Louisiana. My son will put it all in order
+for you; and, meanwhile, you must come and stop a few months with me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But, Monsieur M&eacute;nou&rdquo;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No <i>buts</i>, Monsieur Howard! You have got the money, you must buy a
+score more negroes; we will pick out some good ones for you. To-morrow
+every thing shall be arranged.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow came young M&eacute;nou, an active intelligent youth of twenty.
+The day was passed in visiting the plantation, and in a very few hours
+the young man had gained my full confidence. I recommended my interests
+and the negroes to his care; and the same evening his father and myself
+went on board the Ploughboy steamer, which was to convey us to the
+residence of the M&eacute;nous.</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter the Second.<br />
+
+Creole Life.</h4>
+
+<p>The good Creole had certainly behaved to me in a more Christian-like
+manner than most of my own countrymen would have done; and of this I had
+before long abundant proof. A little after nightfall, the steamboat
+paused opposite the house of the justice of peace; and I went on shore
+to communicate with him concerning my faithless steward. Although so
+early, the functionary was already going to bed, and came out to me in
+his nightshirt.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Knew it all, dear Mr Howard,&rdquo; said he with the utmost <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i>; &ldquo;saw
+every bale that they stole from you, or tried to steal from you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And for Heaven&rsquo;s sake, man!&rdquo; I exclaimed, &ldquo;why did you not put a stop
+to it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was nothing to me,&rdquo; was the dry answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you had only given information to my attorney!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No business of mine,&rdquo; returned the man. Then fixing his eyes hard upon
+me, he commenced a sort of lecture, for which I was by no means
+prepared.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said he, pushing his nightcap a little over his left ear, &ldquo;you
+young gentlemen come out of the north with your dozen blackies or so,
+lay out some two or three thousand dollars in house and land, and then
+think you can play the absentee as much as you like, and that you do us
+a deal of honour when you allow us to collect and remit your income, for
+you to spend out of the country. I&rsquo;m almost sorry, Mr Howard, that you
+didn&rsquo;t come six months later.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In order to leave the scoundrel time to secure his booty, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="515">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515"></a>
+</p>
+<p>&ldquo;At any rate, he has worked, and has wife and child, and has been
+useful to the land and country.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The devil!&rdquo; I exclaimed, mighty indignant. &ldquo;Well&mdash;for a judge, you have
+a singular idea of law!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It mayn&rsquo;t be Bony&rsquo;s code, nor yet Livingston&rsquo;s, but I reckon it&rsquo;s
+justice,&rdquo; replied the man earnestly, tapping his forehead with his
+forefinger.</p>
+
+<p>I stared at him, but he returned my gaze with interest. There was a deal
+of backwoods justice in his rough reasoning, although its morality was
+indefensible. It was the law of property expounded <i>&agrave; la</i> Lynch. What is
+very certain is, that in a new country especially, absenteeism ought to
+be scouted as a crime against the community. In my case my ramblings had
+been very near costing me three thousand hard dollars. As it was,
+however, they were saved&mdash;thanks to M&eacute;nou&mdash;and the money still in the
+hands of Messrs Goring, whose standard of morality on such subjects was
+probably not much more rigid than that of the worthy Squire Turnips, and
+who would, I doubt not, have bought my cotton of the Evil One himself,
+if they could have got it half-a-cent a pound cheaper by so doing. I
+gave the squire the necessary papers and powers for the adjustment of my
+affairs with Bleaks; we shook hands, and I returned on board.</p>
+
+<p>In the grey of the morning the steamboat stopped again. I accompanied
+M&eacute;nou on shore, and we found a carriage waiting, which, in spite of its
+singularly antique construction, set off with us at a brisk pace. I had
+just fallen asleep in my corner, when I was awakened by a musical voice
+not ten paces off, exclaiming, &ldquo;<i>Les voil&agrave;!</i>&rdquo; I looked up, rubbed my
+eyes&mdash;it was Louise, the Creole&rsquo;s youngest daughter, who had come out
+under the verandah to welcome us. Where should we find one of our
+northern beauties who would turn out of her warm bed at six in the
+morning, to welcome her papa and a stranger guest, and to keep hot
+coffee ready for them, to counteract the bad effects of the morning air
+on the river? Monsieur M&eacute;nou, however, did not seem to find any thing
+extraordinary in his daughter&rsquo;s early rising, but began enquiring if the
+people had had their breakfasts, and were at work. On this and various
+other subjects, Louise was able to give him all the information he
+desired. She must have made astonishingly good use of the twenty-four
+hours that had elapsed since her return home, to be versed in all
+particulars concerning her sable liege subjects, and to be able to
+relate so fluently how Cato had run a splinter into his foot, Pompey had
+a touch of fever, and fifty other details, which, although doubtless
+very interesting to M&eacute;nou, made me gape a little. I amused myself by
+looking round the dining-room, in which we then were, the furniture and
+appearance of which rather improved my opinion of Creole civilization
+and comfort. The matting that covered the floor was new and of an
+elegant design&mdash;the sideboard solid and handsome, although prodigiously
+old-fashioned&mdash;tables, chairs, and sofas were of French manufacture. On
+the walls were suspended two or three engravings; not the fight at New
+Orleans, or Perry and Bainbridge&rsquo;s victories over the British on
+Champlain and Erie, but curiosities dating from the reigns of Louis the
+Fifteenth and Sixteenth. There was a Frenchified air about the whole
+room, nothing of the republic, the empire, or the restoration, but a
+sort of odour of the genuine old royalist days.</p>
+
+<p>By the time I had completed my inspection, Louise had answered all her
+father&rsquo;s enquiries; and we went out to take a look at the exterior of
+the house. It was snugly situated at the foot of a conical hillock, the
+only elevation of any kind to be found for miles around. South, east,
+and west, it was enclosed in a broad frame of acacia and cotton trees;
+but to the north it lay open, the breath of Boreas being especially
+acceptable in our climate. A rivulet, very bright and clear, at least
+for Louisiana, poured its waters from the elevation before mentioned,
+and supplied a tannery, which doubtless contributed much to the
+healthiness of the neighbourhood. The house consisted of three parts,
+built at different times by grandfather, father, and son, and now united
+into one. The last and largest portion had been built by the present
+proprietor;
+<span class="pagebreak" title="516">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516"></a>
+and it would have been as easy, it struck me, to have
+pulled down the earlier erections and have built one compact house. The
+reason the Creole gave for not having done so, did honour, I thought, to
+his heart. &ldquo;I wish my children constantly to remember,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;how
+hard their ancestors toiled, and how poorly they lived, in order to
+ensure better days to those who should come after them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And they will remember it,&rdquo; said a voice close behind us. I turned
+round.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Madame M&eacute;nou, j&rsquo;ai l&rsquo;honneur de vous pr&eacute;senter notre voisin, Monsieur
+Howard.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Qui restera longtems chez nous</i>,&rdquo; cried the two girls, skipping
+forward, and before I had time to make my bow to the lady, taking me by
+both hands and dragging me into the house, and through half a dozen
+zigzag passages and corridors, to show me my room. This was a sexagonal
+apartment, situated immediately over a small artificial lake, through
+which flowed the rivulet before mentioned. It was the coolest and most
+agreeable chamber in the house, on which account it had been allotted to
+me. After I had declared my unqualified approval of it, my fair
+conductresses took me down stairs again to papa and mamma, the latter of
+whom I found to be a ladylike woman, with a countenance expressive of
+good nature, and manners that at once made one feel quite at home. She
+received me as if she had known me for years, without compliments or
+ceremonious speeches, and without even troubling herself to screw her
+features into the sort of holiday expression which many persons think it
+necessary to assume on first acquaintance. I was soon engaged in a
+conversation with her, in the middle of which a lady and two gentlemen
+came out under the verandah and joined us. Their olive complexions and
+foreign appearance at once attracted my attention, and I set them down
+as Spaniards or of Spanish extraction. In this I was not mistaken. The
+men were introduced to me as Se&ntilde;or Silveira and Don Pablo. The lady, who
+was the wife of the former, was a remarkably lovely creature, tall and
+elegant in person, with dark eyes, an aquiline and delicately-formed
+nose, a beautiful mouth, enclosing pearl-like teeth. Hitherto I had held
+our American fair ones to be the prettiest women in the world; but I now
+almost felt inclined to alter my opinion. I was so struck by the fair
+stranger&rsquo;s appearance that I could not take my eyes off her for some
+moments; until a sharp glance from her husband, and (as I fancied) the
+somewhat uneasy looks of the other ladies, made me aware that my gaze
+might be deemed somewhat too free and republican in its duration. I
+transferred my attention, therefore, to the breakfast, which, to my no
+small satisfaction, was now smoking on the table, and to which we at
+once sat down. The strangers appeared grave and thoughtful, and ate
+little, although the steaks were delicious, the young quails
+incomparable, and the Chambertin worthy of an imperial table.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who are those foreigners?&rdquo; said I to M&eacute;nou, when the meal was over, and
+we were leaving the room.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mexicans,&rdquo; was the reply; &ldquo;but who they are I cannot tell you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! do you not know them?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I know them perfectly well,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;or they would not be in my
+house. But even my family,&rdquo; whispered he, &ldquo;does not know them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Poor wretches! thought I, some more sacrifices on freedom&rsquo;s altar;
+driven from house and home by the internal commotions of their country.
+Things were going on badly enough in Mexico just then. On the one hand,
+Guerrero, Bustamente, Santa Anna; on the other, a race of men to whom,
+if one wished them their deserts, one could desire nothing better than
+an Austrian schlague or a Russian knout, to make them sensible of the
+value of that liberty which they do not know how to appreciate.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Julie and Louise were busy, in the next room, passing in
+review, for the third or fourth time at least, the thousand-and-one
+purchases they had made at New Orleans. It was a perfect picture of
+Creole comfort to see the mamma presiding at this examination of the
+laces, gros de Naples, Indiennes, gauze, and other fripperies, which
+were passed rapidly through the slender fingers of her daughters, and
+handed to her for
+<span class="pagebreak" title="517">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517"></a>
+approval. She found every thing charming; every
+thing, too, had its destination; and my only wonder was, how it would be
+possible for those ladies to use the hundreds of ells of stuffs that
+were soon spread out over chairs, tables, and sofas, and that, as it
+appeared to me, would have been sufficient to supply half the women of
+Louisiana with finery for the next five years. This Creole family was
+really a model of a joyous innocent existence; nothing constrained or
+artificial; but a light and cheerful tone of conversation, which,
+however, never degenerated into license, or threatened to overstep the
+limits of the strictest propriety. Each person fulfilled his or her
+allotted task thoroughly well, and without appearing to find it an
+exertion. The housekeeping was admirable; to that point the excellence
+of the breakfast had borne witness. I recollect once falling violently
+in love with a Massachusetts beauty, possessed of a charming face, a
+sylph-like figure, and as much sentimentality as would have stocked half
+a dozen flaxen-haired Germans. It was my ninth serious attachment if I
+remember rightly, and desperately smitten I was and remained, until one
+unlucky day when the mamma of my <i>adorata</i> invited me to a dinner <i>en
+famille</i>. The toughness of the mutton-chops took the edge off my teeth
+for forty-eight hours, and off my love for ever. As regards the M&eacute;nous,
+however, I have hardly known them long enough to form a very decided
+opinion concerning them. In a few days I shall be able to judge better.
+Meanwhile we will leave the ladies, and accompany Monsieur M&eacute;nou over
+his plantation. It is in excellent order, admirably situated, and
+capitally irrigated by trenches cut through the cotton and maize fields.
+There are above three hundred acres in cultivation&mdash;the yearly crop two
+hundred and fifty bales: a very pretty income. Only three children, and
+the plantation comprising nearly four thousand acres. Not so bad&mdash;might
+be worth thinking of. But what would the world say to it? The
+aristocratic Howard to marry a Creole, with, perhaps, a dash of Indian
+blood in her veins! Yet M&eacute;nou has threescore negroes and negresses,
+besides a whole colony of ebony children, and the two girls are not so
+ill to look at. Roses and lilies&mdash;especially Louise. Well, we will think
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Apropos!&rdquo; said the Creole, as we were walking along a field path. &ldquo;You
+have three thousand dollars with Gorings?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And eight thousand with Mr Richards?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How do you know that, my dear M. M&eacute;nou?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I must observe, by way of parenthesis, that I had lent these eight
+thousand dollars to Richards some five years previously; and although,
+on more than one occasion during that time, the money would have been of
+considerable use to me, I had been restrained from asking it back by my
+natural indolence and laziness of character, added to the nonsensical
+notion of generosity and devotion in friendship that I had picked out of
+waggon-loads of novels. Richards, I must observe, had never hinted at
+returning the money. I now felt rather vexed, I cannot exactly say why,
+at M&eacute;nou&rsquo;s being acquainted with the fact of this debt, which I had
+fancied a secret between Richards and myself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And how do you know that, my dear M. M&eacute;nou?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>M&eacute;nou smiled at my question. &ldquo;You forget,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that I am only just
+returned from New Orleans. One hears and learns many things when one
+opens one&rsquo;s ears to the gossip of the <i>haut-ton</i> of the capital.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ha, ha!&rdquo; said I, a little sarcastically, and glancing at the man&rsquo;s
+straw hat, and unbleached trousers and jacket; &ldquo;Monsieur M&eacute;nou&mdash;the
+plain and unsophisticated Monsieur M&eacute;nou, also a <i>haut-ton</i> man?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My wife was a M&mdash;&mdash;y; my grandfather was president of the Toulouse
+parliament,&rdquo; replied the Creole quietly, to my somewhat impertinent
+remark.</p>
+
+<p>I bowed. My suspicions concerning Indian blood were unfounded then.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And have my proceedings and follies really served as tea-table talk to
+the New Orleans&rsquo; gossips?&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let that annoy you,&rdquo; replied M&eacute;nou. &ldquo;Let the world talk; and you,
+on your part, prove to it that you are a more sensible man than it
+<span class="pagebreak" title="518">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518"></a>
+takes you for. Will you put yourself for a while entirely under my
+guidance?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very willingly,&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And promise to abide by my advice.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I promise to do so.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then,&rdquo; continued M&eacute;nou, &ldquo;you must let me have, to use as I think
+proper, eight out of the eleven thousand dollars which you have lying
+idle.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And Richards?&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Can do without them better than you can. It is very well to be
+generous, but not to the extent of injuring yourself. Here is a receipt
+for the sum in question. I will account to you for its expenditure.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And with these words he handed me the receipt. He had evidently laid a
+little plot to force me to my own good. It went decidedly against the
+grain with me to requite Richards&rsquo; hospitality and friendship by
+claiming back the money I had lent him, and for which he no doubt had
+good use. At the same time, it would have been rather Quixotic to let my
+own plantation go to rack and ruin for want of the funds by which he was
+profiting; and moreover, I had given M&eacute;nou my word to be guided by him;
+so I put the receipt and my romantics in my pocket, and returned to the
+house to give my adviser an order for the money.</p>
+
+<p>Julie and Louise scarcely seemed to observe our entrance. Both had their
+hands full&mdash;the one with cookery and domestic matters, the other with
+the ginghams and muslins, which she was rending and tearing with a
+vigour that caused the noise to be heard fifty yards off. At supper,
+however, they were as merry as ever, and there was no end to their mirth
+and liveliness. It seemed as if they had thrown off the burden of the
+day&rsquo;s toils, and awakened to a new and more joyous existence. The three
+Mexicans, with their gravity and grandeur, did not seem to be the least
+restraint upon the girls, who at last, however, towards eight o&rsquo;clock,
+appeared to grow impatient at sitting so long still. They exchanged a
+whisper, and then, rising from table, tripped into a adjoining room.
+Presently the harmonious tones of a pianoforte were audible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We must not linger here,&rdquo; said the Creole. &ldquo;<i>Les dames nous en
+voudraient.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And we all repaired to the drawing-room, an elegant apartment, where the
+Mexican lady was already seated at the piano, while the two girls were
+only waiting partners to begin the dance. Julie took possession of her
+father, Silveira stood up with Madame M&eacute;nou, Louise fell to my share;
+and a cotillon was danced with as much glee and spirit as if both
+dancers and lookers-on had been more numerous. Between dancing, music,
+and lively conversation, eleven o&rsquo;clock came before we were aware of it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Voici notre mani&egrave;re Cr&eacute;ole</i>,&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou, as he left me at my bed-room
+door. &ldquo;With us every thing has its time; laughing, talking, working,
+praying, and dancing: each its appointed season. We endeavour so to
+arrange our lives that no one occupation or amusement should interfere
+with another. It is only by that means that our secluded domestic
+existence can be rendered agreeable and happy. As it is, <i>nous ne nous
+ennuyons jamais</i>. Good-night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<h4>Chapter the Third.<br />
+
+Quite Unexpected.</h4>
+
+<p>Eight weeks had flown by like so many hours. I had become domesticated
+in the family circle of the M&eacute;nous, and was getting so frugal and
+economical, that I scarcely knew what a dollar or a bank-note looked
+like. Time passed so lightly and pleasantly, and there was something so
+patriarchal and delightful in this mode of life, that it was no
+difficult matter to forget the world, with its excitements, its
+pleasures, and its cares. I, at least, rarely bestowed a thought upon
+any thing but what was passing immediately around me; whole piles of
+newspapers lay unread upon my table, and I became every day more and
+more of a backwoodsman. I
+<span class="pagebreak" title="519">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519"></a>
+rose early, slipped into my linen jacket and
+trousers, and accompanied M. M&eacute;nou about his fields and cotton presses.
+The afternoon passed in looking over accounts, or in reading and
+laughing at the discussions and opinions of Colonel Stone and Major
+Noah, as set forth in the well-known papers, the <i>Morning Courier</i> and
+<i>Commercial Gazette</i>, while the evening of each day was filled up by an
+<i>impromptu</i> of some kind, a dance, or a merry chat.</p>
+
+<p>We were sitting one night at supper, when M. M&eacute;nou proposed a stag-hunt
+by torchlight. I caught eagerly at the idea, and he at once gave orders
+to make the needful preparations. The two Mexicans begged to be allowed
+to accompany us; but almost before they had proffered the request, the
+lady interfered to oppose it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don Lop&mdash;&mdash;!&rdquo; she exclaimed, and then checked herself in the middle of
+the word she was about to utter. &ldquo;<i>Te suplico</i>,&rdquo; she continued in
+Spanish, after a momentary pause, &ldquo;I implore you not to go to-night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was something inexpressibly anxious and affectionate in her manner
+and tone. Her husband begged her not to make herself uneasy, and
+promised he would not go; at the same time, it was evident that he was
+vexed not to accompany us. I assured the lady there was no danger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No danger!&rdquo; repeated she, in her sonorous Castilian. &ldquo;No danger! Is
+nobody aware of the intended hunt?&rdquo; said she to M&eacute;nou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nobody,&rdquo; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>It just then occurred to me, that during the whole period of my
+residence with the M&eacute;nous, neither the Mexican nor his wife had ever
+gone out of the house and garden. This circumstance, in combination with
+the anxiety now shown by the lady, struck me forcibly, and I gazed at
+Silveira, while I vainly endeavoured to conjecture whence arose the
+mystery that evidently environed him. He was a man of about thirty years
+of age, with handsome features, a high forehead, and a pale, but not
+unhealthy complexion. The expression of his eyes particularly struck me;
+at times there flashed from them a fire, indicative of high purposes and
+strong resolution. There was a military and commanding air about him,
+which was very apparent, though he evidently did his utmost to conceal
+it; and it was this same manner which had hitherto caused me to treat
+him rather coolly, and rendered me little disposed to cultivate his
+intimacy. His companion, Don Pablo, was a tolerably insignificant
+person, who seemed to look up to Silveira and his wife with a respect
+and reverence almost amounting to idolatry. Beside him, their suite was
+composed of four attendants.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And is there really no danger?&rdquo; said the Se&ntilde;ora to M&eacute;nou. The Creole
+assured her there was none. She whispered a few words to her husband,
+who kissed her hand, and repeated his request to be of our party&mdash;this
+time without any opposition on his wife&rsquo;s part.</p>
+
+<p>Supper over, we put on our shooting coats, took our guns, and mounted
+the horses that had been prepared for us. Six negroes with pitch-pans,
+and a couple of dogs, had gone on before. The clock struck ten as we set
+out. It was a dark sultry night; towards the south distant thunder was
+heard, betokening the approach of one of those storms that occur almost
+daily at that season and in that country. During the first twenty
+minutes of our ride, the atmosphere became stiflingly oppressive; then
+suddenly a strong wind rushed amongst the trees and bushes, the thunder
+drew nearer, and from time to time a flash of forked lightning
+momentarily illumined the forest. Again a flash, more vivid than the
+preceding ones, and a clap, compared to which our northern thunder would
+sound like the mere roll of a drum; the dogs began to whine, and kept as
+near to the horses as they could. We pushed onward, and were close to a
+laurel thicket, when the leading hound suddenly came to a stand, and
+pricked up his ears. We dismounted, and walked forward&mdash;the negroes
+preceding us with the pitch-pans. Some twenty pace before us we
+perceived four small stars, that glittered like diminutive
+fire-balls&mdash;they were the eyes of two stags that awaited our approach,
+in astonishment at the unusual spectacle offered to them. We took
+aim&mdash;the Creole and myself at one, two Mexicans at
+<span class="pagebreak" title="520">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520"></a>
+the other. &ldquo;<i>Feu!</i>&rdquo;
+cried M&eacute;nou. There was the crack of the four rifles, then a crashing
+noise amongst the branches, and the clatter of hoofs, succeeded by cries
+of <i>Sacre!</i> and Damn ye! and <i>Diabolo!</i> and <i>San Jago!</i> The six
+pitch-pans lay smoking and flaring on the ground; the Creole and I had
+sprung on one side, the negroes had thrown themselves on their faces in
+great terror, and the two Dons lay beside them, overthrown by the rush
+of one of the stags.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Santa Virgen!</i>&rdquo; shouted Don Pablo, mightily alarmed and angry;
+&ldquo;<i>Maldito bobo, Se&ntilde;or don Manuel!</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And scrambling to his feet, he proceeded in desperate haste to raise his
+companion from the ground, on which he lay motionless, and apparently
+much hurt.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Maldito sea el dia! Nuestro Libertador! Santa Anna! Ay de mi!</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Calla te</i>&mdash;hold your tongue!&rdquo; said Silveira to his alarmed adherent.</p>
+
+<p>On the first appearance of danger, M. M&eacute;nou had jumped behind a tree,
+which had afforded a sufficient shelter against the mad rush of the
+terrified stag; but his cry of warning had come too late for the young
+Mexican, who had less experience in this kind of chase, and who,
+standing full in the path of the furious beast, was knocked down, and
+run over. I pushed Pablo, who was howling and wringing his hands, on one
+side, and with M&eacute;nou, proceeded to investigate the hurts which the other
+Mexican had received. His coat was torn, and both legs were bleeding,
+having been rent by the deer&rsquo;s antlers. Fortunately the wounds were not
+deep, or he might have had serious reason to regret the bad aim he had
+taken. We placed him on his horse, and turned towards home.</p>
+
+<p>It was midnight when we reached the house with the wounded man, and the
+carcass of the deer that M&eacute;nou and I had shot. The sight of a white
+figure at the window of the apartment occupied by the Mexican, warned us
+that his wife was watching for his arrival. At the sound of our horses&rsquo;
+feet, she came hurrying down stairs, and out of the house to meet us;
+and upon beholding her husband, pale, exhausted, and supported on his
+horse by couple of negroes, she uttered a shrill cry, and with the word
+&ldquo;<i>Perdido!</i>&rdquo; sank, almost fainting, on the door steps.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gracious God!&rdquo; cried a second female voice at that moment. &ldquo;A
+misfortune! Is it Howard?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was Louise, who at that moment made her appearance in her nightdress,
+breathless with terror.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Mon Dieu</i>, it is only the Mexican! Thank God!&rdquo; lisped she, in an
+accent of infinite joy and relief.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thanks, dearest Louise! for those words,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;they make me very
+happy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I caught her in my arms, and pressed a kiss upon her lips. She struggled
+from my embrace, and, blushing deeply, hurried back into her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>I now followed M&eacute;nou into the apartment of the Mexican, whose wife was
+hanging over him, speechless with grief and anxiety. M&eacute;nou had much
+trouble to get her away from him, in order that he might examine and
+dress his hurts. I do not know where the worthy Creole had learned his
+surgery, but he was evidently no tyro in the healing art; and he cut out
+the flesh injured by the antler, washed and bandaged the wounds, with a
+dexterity that really inspired me with confidence in him. The wounds
+were not dangerous, but might easily have become so, taking into
+consideration the heat of the weather, (the thermometer stood at
+eighty-six,) and the circumstance of their having been inflicted by a
+stag&rsquo;s horn. In a short half hour the patient was comfortably put to
+bed, and the afflicted Donna Isabella consoled by M&eacute;nou&rsquo;s positive
+assurance, that in a very few days her husband would be well again. She
+received this piece of comfort with such a thoroughly Roman Catholic
+uplifting of her magnificent eyes, that I could scarcely help envying
+the saints for whom that look was intended.</p>
+
+<p>I had held the candle for M&eacute;nou during the operation; and as I put it
+down upon the table, my eyes fell upon a beautifully executed miniature
+of the Mexican set in brilliants. Beside it were lying letters addressed
+to Don Lopez di Santa Anna, Marischal de Campo; one or two had the
+superscription, Lieutenant-general. It was no other than the celebrated
+Mexican
+<span class="pagebreak" title="521">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521"></a>
+leader, the second in rank in the would-be republic, who had
+been sojourning in Monsieur M&eacute;nou&rsquo;s house under the assumed name of
+Silveira. This discovery afforded me matter for reflection as I repaired
+to my bed-chamber; reflections, however, which were soon forced to make
+way for other thoughts of a more personally interesting nature. It was
+the graceful form of Louise that now glided forward out of the
+background of my imagination. She had watched, then, anxiously for our
+return; and the first rumour of a mishap had drawn from her lips the
+name of him for whom her heart felt most interested. During the whole
+time of my residence with the M&eacute;nous, I had never once dreamed of
+falling in love with either of the sisters. There was so much activity
+and occupation in and out of the house, that I seemed to have had no
+time to indulge in sentimental reveries. Now, however, they came
+crowding upon me. It was so consolatory to an unlucky bachelor, only
+just recovering from a recent disappointment, to find himself an object
+of tender interest a lovely and innocent girl of seventeen.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast, the next morning, Louise did not dare to look me in the
+face. Without distressing her, however, I managed to look at her more
+than I had ever before done; and I really wondered what I had been
+thinking about, during the preceding two months, not to have sooner
+found out her manifold charms and perfections. Her elder sister was too
+stout for my taste, altogether on too large a scale, and with too little
+of the intellectual in the expression of her features; but Louise is
+unquestionably a charming creature, slender and graceful, with a sweet
+archness in her countenance, and hands and feet that might serve for
+models. In short, I began to think seriously that all past
+disappointments would be more than compensated by the affection of such
+a woman. I must see first about setting my house in order, thought I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you be so kind as to lend me your carriage to go as far as the
+river?&rdquo; said I to the Creole.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;With much pleasure. A mere ride, I suppose?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No; a little more. I wish to see how things are getting on at my
+plantation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are going away?&rdquo; exclaimed Madame M&eacute;nou and Julie. Louise said
+nothing, but she raised her eyes to mine for the first time that
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is necessary that I should do so; but, if you will allow me, I will
+pay you another visit before very long.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The roses had left the cheeks of poor Louise, and I fancied I saw a tear
+glittering in her eyes. Several minutes elapsed without any body&rsquo;s
+speaking. At last the silence was broken by the Creole.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You seemed very happy here, I thought,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Has any thing
+happened?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes; something of great importance to me. I must really leave you
+immediately,&rdquo; was my answer.</p>
+
+<p>Mean time, Louise had left the room. I hurried after her, and overtook
+her before she reached her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Louise!&rdquo; said I. She was weeping. &ldquo;I leave you to-day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So I heard.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In order to arrange my house.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My brother is doing that already,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Why leave us?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because I would fain see with my own eyes if all is ready and fitting
+for the reception of my Louise. When I have done so, will you follow me
+home as my beloved wife?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>For one second she looked in my face, her features lighted up with a
+beam of confiding joy, and then her gaze fell in timid confusion on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take her, dear Howard!&rdquo; said her father, who had followed us
+unperceived. &ldquo;She is the best of daughters, and will make as good a
+wife.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Louise sank into my arms. An hour later I was on my way homewards.</p>
+
+<p>At last, then, I was irrevocably pledged, and my bachelorship drew near
+its close. I felt that I had made a judicious choice. Louise was an
+excellent girl, sensible, prudent, active, and cheerful&mdash;uniting, in
+short, all the qualities desirable in a backwoodsman&rsquo;s wife. It was
+strange enough that all this should only have occurred to me within a
+few hours. I had been living two months under the same roof with her,
+and yet the idea of her becoming my wife had never entered my head till
+the preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="522">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522"></a>
+It was four in the afternoon when I reached my plantation, which I was
+very near passing without recognising it, so great was the change that
+had taken place since my last visit. The rubbish and tree-trunks that
+had then encumbered the vicinity of the house had disappeared&mdash;the
+garden had been increased in size, and surrounded by a new and elegant
+fence&mdash;a verandah, under which two negro carpenters were at work, ran
+along the front and sides of the house. As I walked up from the boat,
+young M&eacute;nou came to meet me. I shook him heartily by the hand, and
+expressed my gratitude for the trouble he had taken, and my wonder at
+the astonishing progress the improvements of all kinds had made.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How have you possibly managed to effect all these miracles?&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very easily,&rdquo; replied M&eacute;nou. &ldquo;You sent us fifteen negroes; my father
+lent me ten of his. With these, and the twenty-five you had before, we
+were able to make progress. We are now putting the finishing-stroke to
+your cotton press, which was fearfully out of order.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I walked with a thankful heart through the garden, and stepped into the
+verandah. The rooms that looked out upon it were all fitted up in the
+most comfortable manner. In the principal bedroom, a negro girl was
+working at the elegant musquitto curtains. Old Sybille, in a calico gown
+of the most glaring colours, her face shining with contentment, was
+brushing away some invisible dust from the furniture in the parlour.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;By the by,&rdquo; said young M&eacute;nou, opening a writing-desk, &ldquo;here are several
+letters that have come for you within the last few days, and that amidst
+my various occupations I have quite forgotten to forward.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I sat down and opened them. Two were from Richards, the earliest in
+date, inviting me to go and stay with him again. The more recent one
+renewed the invitation, and expressed the writer&rsquo;s surprise at my having
+become on a sudden so domestic a character. In a postscript he added, as
+a sort of inducement to me to visit him, that he was daily expecting a
+friend of his wife&rsquo;s, the beautiful Emily Warren. Not a syllable,
+however, about the eight thousand dollars, which surprised me not a
+little; for Richards was by no means a man to remain silent on a subject
+affecting his worldly interest, and I fully expected he would have felt
+and expressed some pique or resentment at my sudden withdrawal of my
+funds. But, on the contrary, the letter I had given to M&eacute;nou, in which I
+requested Richards to pay over the money in question to the Creole, was
+not even alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There are matters in these letters,&rdquo; said I to young M&eacute;nou, &ldquo;which
+oblige me to return immediately to your father&rsquo;s house.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; cried the young man, much astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied I. &ldquo;I hear a steamboat coming down the river&mdash;I will be
+off at once.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me in great surprise; Sybille shook her head. But my
+character is so impatient and impetuous, that when I have resolved on
+any thing, I can never bear to defer its execution a moment. Besides,
+there was really nothing to detain me at my plantation. The arrangements
+and improvements that I had reckoned on finding only half effected were
+complete; and every moment that now elapsed before I could welcome
+Louise as mistress of my house and heart, seemed to me worse than
+wasted. I hurried down to the river and hailed the steamer. It was the
+same that had brought me home two months previously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr Howard,&rdquo; said the captain joyously, as I stepped on board the
+vessel, &ldquo;I am right glad to see you on my deck again. Your plantation
+looks quite another thing. You are really a worker of wonders.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I hardly knew how to accept this undeserved praise. One of the best
+points in our American character is the universal respect paid to
+industry and intellect. The wealthy idler who carries thousands in his
+pocket-book, may, amongst us, look in vain for the respect and flattery
+which a tithe of his riches would procure him in many other countries;
+while the less fortunate man, who makes his way and earns his living by
+hand and head work, may always reckon on the consideration of his
+fellow-citizens. On
+<span class="pagebreak" title="523">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523"></a>
+my return to Louisiana I had been thought nothing
+of. I was a drone in the hive&mdash;with money, but without skill or
+perseverance. My overseer was more looked up to than myself; but the
+recent change in the state of my plantation, attributed, however
+wrongly, to my presence, had caused a revolution in people&rsquo;s ideas; and
+I was now met on all sides with open hands and smiling countenances. The
+change, I must confess, was a gratifying one for me.</p>
+
+<p>The M&eacute;nous were at breakfast the next morning, when I arrived, heated by
+my walk from the river, opposite to the parlour window. I was received
+with a cry of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So soon back! Nothing wrong, I hope?&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; replied I dryly; &ldquo;I have only forgotten something.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And what is that?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My Louise,&rdquo; was my answer, as I seated myself beside the blushing girl.
+&ldquo;On arriving at my wilderness,&rdquo; I continued, &ldquo;I found it converted into
+so blooming a paradise, that I should really be heartbroken if it were
+to remain any longer without its Eve. To-morrow, please God, we will
+start for New Orleans, to put in requisition the service of P&egrave;re Antoine
+and the worthy rector.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was a cry of consternation from the papa and mamma.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is nothing ready&mdash;<i>point de trousseau</i>&mdash;nothing in the world. Do
+not be so unreasonable, dear Howard.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our Yankee damsels,&rdquo; replied I, laughing, &ldquo;if they have only got a pair
+of shoes and a gown and a half, consider themselves perfectly ready to
+be married.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, let him have his way,&rdquo; said M&eacute;nou. &ldquo;We can manage, I daresay, to
+equip the bride a little better than that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Apropos,&rdquo; said I to M&eacute;nou, while the ladies were consulting together,
+and recovering from the flurry into which my precipitation had thrown
+them&mdash;&ldquo;the eight thousand dollars? Richards says nothing about them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was only an experiment I tried with you,&rdquo; replied my future
+father-in-law, smiling. &ldquo;I wished to see if you have sufficient firmness
+of character to ensure your own happiness. Had you not come victoriously
+out of the little ordeal, Louise should never have been wife of yours,
+if all the plantations on the Mississippi had called you master. As to
+the money, I advanced what was wanted. You can settle with Mr Richards
+in the way most agreeable to yourself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The next morning we set off for New Orleans&mdash;M&eacute;nou and Louise, Julie,
+who was to act as bridesmaid, and myself. Madame M&eacute;nou remained at home.
+I could have wished to have had young M&eacute;nou as my bridesman; but his
+presence was necessary at the plantation, and we were obliged to content
+ourselves with receiving his good wishes as we passed. After a twenty
+hours&rsquo; voyage we reached the capital, and took up our quarters in the
+house of a sister of M&eacute;nou&rsquo;s.</p>
+
+<p>I was hurrying to find Father Antoine, when, in turning the corner of
+the cathedral, I ran bolt up against Richards. After the first greeting,
+and without giving him time to ask me questions&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wait for me at the Merchant&rsquo;s Coffeehouse,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;in a quarter of an
+hour I will meet you there.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And I left him in considerable astonishment at my desperate haste. I
+found Father Antoine and the rector, and then hurried off to keep my
+appointment.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; said I to Richards, as I dragged him through the streets,
+&ldquo;that I am thinking seriously of becoming a Benedict?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you must come home with me then. Emily Warren is
+arrived. She is a charming girl, and a great friend of my wife&rsquo;s. You
+will be sure of Clara&rsquo;s good word, and I really think Emily will exactly
+suit you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid not,&rdquo; replied I, as I turned into the church.</p>
+
+<p>Richards opened his eyes in amazement when he saw Louise, with her aunt,
+sister, and the whole of the bridal party, walking up the aisle, and
+Father Antoine standing at the altar in his robes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What does this mean?&rdquo; said he.</p>
+
+<p>I made no answer, but let matters explain themselves. Ten minutes after,
+Louise M&eacute;nou was my wife.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="524">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524"></a>
+GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.<a name="FNanchor_A_5" id="FNanchor_A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_5" class="fnanchor">A</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>What is called <i>Philosophical History</i> we believe to be yet in its
+infancy. It is the profound remark of Mr Finlay&mdash;profound as we
+ourselves understand it, <i>i.e.</i>, in relation to this philosophical
+treatment, &ldquo;That history will ever remain inexhaustible.&rdquo; How
+inexhaustible? Are the <i>facts</i> of history inexhaustible? In regard to
+the <i>ancient</i> division of history with which he is there dealing, this
+would be in no sense true; and in any case it would be a lifeless truth.
+So entirely have the mere facts of Pagan history been disinterred,
+ransacked, sifted, that except by means of some chance medal that may be
+unearthed in the illiterate East, (as of late towards Bokhara,) or by
+means of some mysterious inscription, such as those which still mock the
+learned traveller in Persia, northwards near Hamadan, (Ecbatana,) and
+southwards at Persepolis, or those which distract him amongst the
+shadowy ruins of Yucatan (Uxmal, suppose, and Palenque,)&mdash;once for all,
+barring these pure godsends, it is hardly &ldquo;in the dice&rdquo; that any
+downright novelty of fact should remain in reversion for this 19th
+century. The merest possibility exists, that in Armenia, or in a
+Gr&aelig;co-Russian monastery on Mount Athos, or in Pompeii, &amp;c., some authors
+hitherto <span class="translit" title="anekdotoi">&#945;&#957;&#949;&#954;&#948;&#959;&#964;&#959;&#953;</span>
+may yet be concealed; and by a channel in
+that degree improbable, it is possible that certain new facts of history
+may still reach us. But else, and failing these cryptical or
+subterraneous currents of communication, for us the record is closed.
+History in that sense is come to an end, and sealed up as by the angel
+in the Apocalypse. What then? The facts <i>so</i> understood are but the dry
+bones of the mighty past. And the question arises here also, not less
+than in that sublimest of prophetic visions, &ldquo;Can these dry bones live?&rdquo;
+Not only they can live, but by an infinite variety of life. The same
+historic facts, viewed in different lights, or brought into connexion
+with other facts, according to endless diversities of permutation and
+combination, furnish grounds for such eternal successions of new
+speculations as make the facts themselves virtually new. The same Hebrew
+words are read by different sets of vowel points, and the same
+hieroglyphics are deciphered by keys everlastingly varied.</p>
+
+<p>To us we repeat that oftentimes it seems as though the <i>science</i> of
+history were yet scarcely founded. There will be such a science, if at
+present there is not; and in one feature of its capacities it will
+resemble chemistry. What is so familiar to the perceptions of man as the
+common chemical agents of water, air, and the soil on which we tread?
+Yet each one of these elements is a mystery to this day; handled, used,
+tried, searched experimentally, in ten thousand ways&mdash;it is still
+unknown; fathomed by recent science down to a certain depth, it is still
+probably by its destiny unfathomable. Even to the end of days, it is
+pretty certain that the minutest particle of earth&mdash;that a dewdrop,
+scarcely distinguishable as a separate object&mdash;that the slenderest
+filament of a plant will include within itself secrets inaccessible to
+man. And yet, compared with the mystery of man himself, these physical
+worlds of mystery are but as a radix of infinity. Chemistry is in this
+view mysterious and spinosistically sublime&mdash;that it is the science of
+the latent in all things, of all things as lurking in all. Within the
+lifeless flint, within the silent pyrites, slumbers an agony of
+potential combustion. Iron is imprisoned in blood. With cold water (as
+every child is now-a-days aware) you may lash a fluid into angry
+ebullitions of heat; with hot water, as with the rod of Amram&rsquo;s son, you
+may freeze a fluid down to the temperature of the Sarsar wind, provided
+only that you regulate
+<span class="pagebreak" title="525">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525"></a>
+the pressure of the air. The sultry and
+dissolving fluid shall bake into a solid, the petrific fluid shall melt
+into a liquid. Heat shall freeze, frost shall thaw; and wherefore?
+Simply because old things are brought together in new modes of
+combination. And in endless instances beside we see the same Panlike
+latency of forms and powers, which gives to the external world a
+capacity of self-transformation, and of <i>polymorphosis</i> absolutely
+inexhaustible.</p>
+
+<p>But the same capacity belongs to the facts of history. And we do not
+mean merely that, from subjective differences in the minds reviewing
+them, such facts assume endless varieties of interpretation and
+estimate, but that objectively, from lights still increasing in the
+science of government and of social philosophy, all the primary facts of
+history become liable continually to new theories, to new combinations,
+and to new valuations of their moral relations. We have seen some kinds
+of marble, where the veinings happened to be unusually multiplied, in
+which human faces, figures, processions, or fragments of natural scenery
+seemed absolutely illimitable, under the endless variations or
+inversions of the order, according to which they might be combined and
+grouped. Something analogous takes effect in reviewing the remote parts
+of history. Rome, for instance, has been the object of historic pens for
+twenty centuries (dating from Polybius); and yet hardly so much as
+twenty years have elapsed since Niebuhr opened upon us almost a new
+revelation, by recombining the same eternal facts, according to a
+different set of principles. The same thing may be said, though not with
+the same degree of emphasis, upon the Grecian researches of the late
+Ottfried Mueller. Egyptian history again, even at this moment, is seen
+stealing upon us through the dusky twilight in its first distinct
+lineaments. Before Young, Champollion, and the others who have followed
+on their traces in this field of history, all was outer darkness; and
+whatsoever we <i>do</i> know or <i>shall</i> know of Egyptian Thebes will now be
+recovered as if from the unswathing of a mummy. Not until a flight of
+three thousand years has left Thebes the Hekatompy&#774;los a dusky speck
+in the far distance, have we even <i>begun</i> to read her annals, or to
+understand her revolutions.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance we have now before us of this new historic faculty for
+resuscitating the buried, and for calling back the breath to the frozen
+features of death, in Mr Finlay&rsquo;s work upon the Greeks as related to the
+Roman empire. He presents us with old facts, but under the purpose of
+clothing them with a new life. He rehearses ancient stories, not with
+the humble ambition of better adorning them, of more perspicuously
+narrating, or even of more forcibly pointing their moral, but of
+extracting from them some new meaning, and thus forcing them to arrange
+themselves, under some latent connexion, with other phenomena now first
+detected, as illustrations of some great principle or agency now first
+revealing its importance. Mr Finlay&rsquo;s style of intellect is appropriate
+to such a task; for it is subtle and Machiavelian. But there is this
+difficulty in doing justice to the novelty, and at times we may say with
+truth to the profundity of his views, that they are by necessity thrown
+out in continued successions of details, are insulated, and in one word
+<i>sporadic</i>. This follows from the very nature of his work; for it is a
+perpetual commentary on the incidents of Grecian history, from the era
+of the Roman conquest to the commencement of what Mr Finlay, in a
+peculiar sense, calls the Byzantine empire. These incidents have nowhere
+been systematically or continuously recorded; they come forward by
+casual flashes in the annals, perhaps, of some church historian, as they
+happen to connect themselves with his momentary theme; or they betray
+themselves in the embarrassments of the central government, whether at
+Rome or at Constantinople, when arguing at one time a pestilence, at
+another an insurrection, or an inroad of barbarians. It is not the fault
+of Mr Finlay, but his great disadvantage, that the affairs of Greece
+have been thus discontinuously exhibited, and that its internal changes
+of condition have been never treated except obliquely, and by men <i>aliud
+agentibus</i>. The Grecian <i>race</i> had a primary importance on our
+<span class="pagebreak" title="526">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526"></a>
+planet;
+but the Grecian name, represented by Greece considered as a territory,
+or as the original seat of the Hellenic people, ceased to have much
+importance, in the eyes of historians, from the time when it became a
+conquered province; and it declined into absolute insignificance after
+the conquest of so many other provinces had degraded Hellas into an
+arithmetical unit, standing amongst a total amount of figures, so vast
+and so much more dazzling to the ordinary mind. Hence it was that in
+ancient times no complete history of Greece, through all her phases and
+stages, was ever attempted. The greatness of her later revolutions,
+simply as changes, would have attracted the historian; but, as changes
+associated with calamity and loss of power, they repelled his curiosity,
+and alienated his interest. It is the very necessity, therefore, of Mr
+Finlay&rsquo;s position, when coming into such an inheritance, that he must
+splinter his philosophy into separate individual notices; for the
+records of history furnish no grounds for more. <i>Spartam, quam nactus
+est, ornavit.</i> But this does not remedy the difficulty for ourselves, in
+attempting to give a representative view of his philosophy. General
+abstractions he had no opportunity for presenting; consequently we have
+no opportunity for valuing; and, on the other hand, single cases
+selected from a succession of hundreds would not justify any
+<i>representative</i> criticism, more than the single brick, in the anecdote
+of Hierocles, would serve representatively to describe or to appraise
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>Under this difficulty as to the possible for ourselves, and the just for
+Mr Finlay, we shall adopt the following course. So far as the Greek
+people connected themselves in any splendid manner with the Roman
+empire, they did so with the eastern horn of that empire, and in point
+of time from the foundation of Constantinople as an eastern Rome in the
+fourth century, to a period not fully agreed on; but for the moment we
+will say with Mr Finlay, up to the early part of the eighth century. A
+reason given by Mr Finlay for this latter state is&mdash;that about that time
+the Grecian blood, so widely diffused in Asia, and even in Africa,
+became finally detached by the progress of Mahometanism and Mahometan
+systems of power from all further concurrence or coalition with the
+views of the Byzantine C&aelig;sar. Constantinople was from that date thrown
+back more upon its own peculiar heritage and jurisdiction, of which the
+main resources for war and peace lay in Europe and (speaking by the
+narrowest terms) in Thrace. Henceforth, therefore, for the city and
+throne of Constantine, resuming its old Grecian name of Byzantium, there
+succeeded a theatre less diffusive, a population more concentrated, a
+character of action more determinate and jealous, a style of courtly
+ceremonial more elaborate as well as more haughtily repulsive, and
+universally a system of interests, as much more definite and selfish, as
+might naturally be looked for in a nation now every where surrounded by
+new thrones gloomy with malice, and swelling with the consciousness of
+youthful power. This new and final state of the eastern Rome Mr Finlay
+denominates the Byzantine empire. Possibly this use of the term may be
+capable of justification; but more questions would arise in the
+discussion than Mr Finlay has thought it of importance to notice. And
+for the present we shall take the word <i>Byzantine</i> in its most ordinary
+acceptation, as denoting the local empire founded by Constantine in
+Byzantium early in the fourth century, under the idea of a translation
+from the old western Rome, and overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in the
+year 1453. In the fortunes and main stages of this empire, what are the
+chief arresting phenomena, aspects, or relations, to the greatest of
+modern interests? We select by preference these.</p>
+
+<p>I. First, this was the earliest among the kingdoms of our planet <i>which
+connected itself with Christianity</i>. In Armenia, there had been a
+previous <i>state</i> recognition of Christianity. But <i>that</i> was neither
+splendid nor distinct. Whereas the Byzantine Rome built avowedly upon
+Christianity as its own basis, and consecrated its own nativity by the
+sublime act of founding the first provision ever attempted for
+<span class="pagebreak" title="527">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527"></a>
+the
+poor, considered simply as poor, (<i>i.e.</i> as objects of pity, not as
+instruments of ambition.)</p>
+
+<p>II. <i>Secondly, as the great &aelig;gis of western Christendom</i>, nay, the
+barrier which made it possible that any Christendom should ever exist,
+this Byzantine empire is entitled to a very different station in the
+enlightened gratitude of us western Europeans from any which it has yet
+held. We do not scruple to say&mdash;that, by comparison with the services of
+the Byzantine people to Europe, no nation on record has ever stood in
+the same relation to any other single nation, much less to a whole
+family of nations, whether as regards the opportunity and means of
+conferring benefits, or as regards the astonishing perseverance in
+supporting the succession of these benefits, or as regards the ultimate
+event of these benefits. A great wrong has been done for ages; for we
+have all been accustomed to speak of the Byzantine empire with scorn,<a name="FNanchor_B_6" id="FNanchor_B_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_6" class="fnanchor">B</a>
+as chiefly known by its effeminacy; and the greater is the call for a
+fervent palinode.</p>
+
+<p>III. <i>Thirdly.</i> In a reflex way, as the one great danger which
+overshadowed Europe for generations, and against which the Byzantine
+empire proved the capital bulwark, Mahometanism may rank as one of the
+Byzantine aspects or counterforces. And if there is any popular error
+applying to the history of that great convulsion, as a political effort
+for revolutionizing the world, some notice of it will find a natural
+place in connexion with these present trains of speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Let us, therefore, have permission to throw together a few remarks on
+these three subjects&mdash;1st, on the remarkable distinction by which the
+eldest of Christian rulers proclaimed and inaugurated the Christian
+basis of his empire: 2dly, on the true but forgotten relation of this
+great empire to our modern Christendom, under which idea we comprehend
+Europe and the whole continent of America: 3dly, on the false
+pretensions of Mahometanism, whether advanced by itself or by
+inconsiderate Christian speculators on its behalf. We shall thus obtain
+this advantage, that some sort of unity will be given to our own glances
+at Mr Finlay&rsquo;s theme; and, at the same time, by gathering under these
+general heads any dispersed comments of Mr Finlay, whether for
+confirmation of our own views, or for any purpose of objection to his,
+we shall give to those comments also that kind of unity, by means of a
+reference to a common purpose, which we could not have given them by
+citing each independently for itself.</p>
+
+<p>I. First, then, as to that memorable act by which Constantinople (<i>i.e.</i>
+the Eastern empire) connected herself for ever with Christianity; viz.
+the recognition of pauperism as an element in the state entitled to the
+maternal guardianship of the state. In this new principle, introduced by
+Christianity, we behold a far-seeing or proleptic wisdom, making
+provision for evils before they had arisen; for it is certain that great
+expansions of pauperism did not exist in the ancient world. A pauper
+population is a disease peculiar to the modern or Christian world.
+Various causes latent in the social systems of the ancients prevented
+such developments of surplus people. But does not this argue a
+superiority in the social arrangements of these ancients? Not at all;
+they were atrociously worse. They evaded this one morbid affection by
+means of others far more injurious to the moral advance of man. The case
+<span class="pagebreak" title="528">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528"></a>
+was then every where as at this day it is in Persia. A Persian
+ambassador to London or Paris might boast that, in his native Ir&acirc;n no
+such spectacles existed of hunger-bitten myriads as may be seen every
+where during seasons of distress in the crowded cities of Christian
+Europe. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; would be the answer, &ldquo;most certainly not; but why? The
+reason is, that your accursed form of society and government
+<i>intercepts</i> such surplus people, does not suffer them to be born. What
+is the result? You ought, in Persia, to have three hundred millions of
+people; your vast territory is easily capacious of that number. You
+<i>have</i>&mdash;how many have you? Something less than eight millions.&rdquo; Think of
+this, startled reader. But, if <i>that</i> be a good state of things, then
+any barbarous soldier who makes a wilderness, is entitled to call
+himself a great philosopher and public benefactor. This is to cure the
+headache by amputating the head. Now, the same principle of limitation
+to population <i>&agrave; parte ante</i>, though not in the same savage excess as in
+Mahometan Persia, operated upon Greece and Rome. The whole Pagan world
+escaped the evils of a redundant population by vicious repressions of it
+beforehand. But under Christianity a new state of things was destined to
+take effect. Many protections and excitements to population were laid in
+the framework of this new religion, which, by its new code of rules and
+impulses, in so many ways extended the free-agency of human beings.
+Manufacturing industry was destined first to arise on any great scale
+under Christianity. Except in Tyre and Alexandria, (see the Emperor
+Hadrian&rsquo;s account of this last,) there was no town or district in the
+ancient world where the populace could be said properly to work. The
+rural labourers worked a little&mdash;not much; and sailors worked a little;
+nobody else worked at all. Even slaves had little more work distributed
+amongst each ten than now settles upon one. And in many other ways, by
+protecting the principle of life, as a mysterious sanctity, Christianity
+has favoured the development of an excessive population. There it is
+that Christianity, being answerable for the mischief, is answerable for
+its redress. Therefore it is that, breeding the disease, Christianity
+breeds the cure. Extending the vast lines of poverty, Christianity it
+was that first laid down the principle of a relief for poverty.
+Constantine, the first Christian potentate, laid the first stone of the
+mighty overshadowing institution since reared in Christian lands to
+poverty, disease, orphanage, and mutilation. Christian instincts, moving
+and speaking through that C&aelig;sar, first carried out that great idea of
+Christianity. Six years was Christianity in building Constantinople, and
+in the seventh she rested from her labours, saying, &ldquo;Henceforward let
+the poor man have a haven of rest for ever; a rest from his work for one
+day in seven; a rest from his anxieties by a legal and a fixed relief.&rdquo;
+Being legal, it could not be open to disturbances of caprice in the
+giver; being fixed, it was not open to disturbances of miscalculation in
+the receiver. Now, first, when first Christianity was installed as a
+public organ of government, (and first owned a distinct political
+responsibility,) did it become the duty of a religion which assumed, as
+it were, the <i>official</i> tutelage of poverty, to proclaim and consecrate
+that function by some great memorial precedent. And, accordingly, in
+testimony of that obligation, the first Christian C&aelig;sar, on behalf of
+Christianity, founded the first system of relief for pauperism. It is
+true, that largesses from the public treasury, gratuitous coin, or corn
+sold at diminished rates, not to mention the <i>sportul&aelig;</i> or stated doles
+of private Roman nobles, had been distributed amongst the indigent
+citizens of Western Rome for centuries before Constantine; but all these
+had been the selfish bounties of factious ambition or intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>To Christianity was reserved the inaugural act of public charity in the
+spirit of charity. We must remember that no charitable or beneficent
+institutions of any kind, grounded on disinterested kindness, existed
+amongst the Pagan Romans, and still less amongst the Pagan Greeks. Mr
+Coleridge, in one of his lay sermons, advanced the novel doctrine&mdash;that
+in the Scriptures is contained all genuine and profound statesmanship.
+Of course he must be understood to mean&mdash;in
+<span class="pagebreak" title="529">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529"></a>
+its capital principles:
+for, as to subordinate and executive rules for applying such principles,
+these, doubtless, are in part suggested by the local circumstances in
+each separate case. Now, amongst the political theories of the Bible is
+this&mdash;that pauperism is not an accident in the constitution of states,
+but an indefeasible necessity; or, in the scriptural words, that &ldquo;the
+poor shall never cease out of the land.&rdquo; This theory, or great canon of
+social philosophy, during many centuries, drew no especial attention
+from philosophers. It passed for a truism, bearing no particular
+emphasis or meaning beyond some general purpose of sanction to the
+impulses of charity. But there is good reason to believe, that it
+slumbered, and was meant to slumber, until Christianity arising and
+moving forwards should call it into a new life, as a principle suited to
+a new order of things. Accordingly, we have seen of late that this
+scriptural dictum&mdash;&ldquo;The poor shall never cease out of the land&rdquo;&mdash;has
+terminated its career as a truism, (that is, as a truth, either obvious
+on one hand, or inert on the other,) and has wakened into a polemic or
+controversial life. People arose who took upon them utterly to deny this
+scriptural doctrine. Peremptorily they challenged the assertion that
+poverty must always exist. The Bible said that it was an affection of
+human society which could not be exterminated: the economists of 1800
+said that it was a foul disease, which must and should be exterminated.
+The scriptural philosophy said, that pauperism was inalienable from
+man&rsquo;s social condition in the same way that decay was inalienable from
+his flesh. &ldquo;I shall soon see <i>that</i>,&rdquo; said the economist of 1800, &ldquo;for
+as sure as my name is M&mdash;&mdash;, I will have this poverty put down by law
+within one generation, if there&rsquo;s law to be had in the courts at
+Westminster.&rdquo; The Scriptures had left word&mdash;that, if any man should come
+to the national banquet declaring himself unable to pay his
+contribution, that man should be accounted the guest of Christianity,
+and should be privileged to sit at the table in thankful remembrance of
+what Christianity had done for man. But Mr M&mdash;&mdash; left word with all the
+servants, that, if any man should present himself under those
+circumstances, he was to be told, &ldquo;The table is full&rdquo;&mdash;(<i>his</i> words, not
+ours;) &ldquo;go away, good man.&rdquo; Go away! Mr M&mdash;&mdash;? Where was he to go to?
+Whither? In what direction?&mdash;&ldquo;Why, if you come to <i>that</i>,&rdquo; said the man
+of 1800, &ldquo;to any ditch that he prefers: surely there&rsquo;s good choice of
+ditches for the most fastidious taste.&rdquo; During twenty years, viz. from
+1800 to 1820, this new philosophy, which substituted a ditch for a
+dinner, and a paving-stone for a loaf, prevailed and prospered. At one
+time it seemed likely enough to prove a snare to our own
+aristocracy&mdash;the noblest of all ages. But that peril was averted, and
+the further history of the case was this: By the year 1820, much
+discussion having passed to and fro, serious doubts had arisen in many
+quarters: scepticism had begun to arm itself against the sceptic: the
+economist of 1800 was no longer quite sure of his ground. He was now
+suspected of being fallible; and, what seemed of worse augury, he was
+beginning himself to suspect as much. To one capital blunder he was
+obliged publicly to plead guilty. What it was, we shall have occasion to
+mention immediately. Meantime it was justly thought that, in a dispute
+loaded with such prodigious practical consequences, good sense and
+prudence demanded a more extended enquiry than had yet been instituted.
+Whether poverty would ever cease from the land, might be doubted by
+those who balanced their faith in Scripture against their faith in the
+man of 1800. But this at least could not be doubted&mdash;that as yet poverty
+<i>had</i> not ceased, nor indeed had made any sensible preparations for
+ceasing, from any land in Europe. It was a clear case, therefore, that,
+howsoever Europe might please to dream upon the matter when pauperism
+should have reached that glorious euthanasy predicted by the alchemist
+of old and the economist of 1800, for the present she must deal actively
+with her own pauperism on some avowed plan and principle, good or
+evil&mdash;gentle or harsh. Accordingly, in the train of years between 1820
+and 1830, enquiries were made of every separate state
+<span class="pagebreak" title="530">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530"></a>
+in Europe, what
+<i>were</i> those plans and principles. For it was justly said&mdash;&ldquo;As one step
+towards judging rightly of our own system, now that it has been so
+clamorously challenged for a bad system, let us learn what it is that
+other nations think upon the subject, but above all what it is that they
+<i>do</i>.&rdquo; The answers to our many enquiries varied considerably; and some
+amongst the most enlightened nations appeared to have adopted the good
+old plan of <i>laissez faire</i>, giving nothing from any public fund to the
+pauper, but authorizing him to levy contributions on that gracious
+allegoric lady, Private Charity, wherever he could meet her taking the
+air with her babes. This reference appeared to be the main one in reply
+to any application of the pauper; and for all the rest they referred him
+generally to the &ldquo;ditch,&rdquo; or to his own unlimited choice of ditches,
+according to the approved method of public benevolence published in 4to
+and in 8vo by the man of 1800. But there were other and humbler states
+in Europe, whose very pettiness had brought more fully within their
+vision the whole machinery and watchwork of pauperism, as it acted and
+re-acted on the industrious poverty of the land, and on other interests,
+by means of the system adopted in relieving it. From these states came
+many interesting reports, all tending to some good purpose. But at last,
+and before the year 1830, amongst other results of more or less value,
+three capital points were established, not more decisive for the
+justification of the English system in administering national relief to
+paupers, and of all systems that reverenced the authority of Scripture,
+than they were for the overthrow of Mr M&mdash;&mdash;, the man of 1800. These
+three points are worthy of being used as buoys in mapping out the true
+channels, or indicating the breakers on this difficult line of
+navigation; and we now rehearse them. They may seem plain almost to
+obviousness; but it is enough that they involve all the disputed
+questions of the case.</p>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, That, in spite of the assurances from economists, no progress
+whatever had been made by England or by any state which lent any
+sanction to the hope of ever eradicating poverty from society.</p>
+
+<p><i>Secondly</i>, That, in absolute contradiction of the whole hypothesis
+relied on by M&mdash;&mdash; and his brethren, in its most fundamental doctrine, a
+legal provision for poverty did <i>not</i> act as a bounty on marriage. The
+experience of England, where the trial had been made on the largest
+scale, was decisive on this point; and the opposite experience of
+Ireland, under the opposite circumstances, was equally decisive. And
+this result had made itself so clear by 1820, that even M&mdash;&mdash; (as we have
+already noticed by anticipation) was compelled to publish a recantation
+as to this particular error, which in effect was a recantation of his
+entire theory.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thirdly</i>, That, according to the concurring experience of all the most
+enlightened states of Christendom, the public suffered least, (not
+merely in molestation but in money,) pauperism benefited most, and the
+growth of pauperism was retarded most, precisely as the provision for
+the poor had been legalized as to its obligation, and fixed as to its
+amount. Left to individual discretion the burden was found to press most
+unequally; and, on the other hand, the evil itself of pauperism, whilst
+much less effectually relieved, nevertheless through the irregular
+action of this relief was much more powerfully stimulated.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the abstract of our latest public warfare on this great question
+through a period of nearly fifty years. And the issue is this&mdash;starting
+from the contemptuous defiance of the scriptural doctrine upon the
+necessity of making provision for poverty as an indispensable element in
+civil communities, the economy of the age has lowered its tone by
+graduated descents, in each one successively of the four last
+<i>decennia</i>. The philosophy of the day as to this point at least is at
+length in coincidence with Scripture. And thus the very extensive
+researches of this nineteenth century, as to pauperism, have re-acted
+with the effect of a full justification upon Constantine&rsquo;s attempt to
+connect the foundation of his empire with that new theory of
+Christianity upon the imperishableness of poverty, and upon the duties
+corresponding to it.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagebreak" title="531">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531"></a>
+Meantime Mr Finlay denies that Christianity had been raised by
+Constantine into the religion of the state; and others have denied that,
+in the extensive money privileges conceded to Constantinople, he
+contemplated any but political principles. As to the first point, we
+apprehend that Constantine will be found not so much to have shrunk back
+in fear from installing Christianity in the seat of supremacy, as to
+have diverged in policy from our modern <i>methods</i> of such an
+installation. Our belief is, that according to <i>his</i> notion of a state
+religion, he supposed himself to have conferred that distinction upon
+Christianity. With respect to the endowments and privileges of
+Constantinople, they were various; some lay in positive donations,
+others in immunities and exemptions; some again were designed to attract
+strangers, others to attract nobles from old Rome. But, with fuller
+opportunities for pursuing that discussion, we think it would be easy to
+show, that in more than one of his institutions and his decrees he had
+contemplated the special advantage of the poor as such; and that, next
+after the august distinction of having founded the first Christian
+throne, he had meant to challenge and fix the gaze of future ages upon
+this glorious pretension&mdash;that he first had executed the scriptural
+injunction to make a provision for the poor, as an order of society that
+by laws immutable should &ldquo;never cease out of the land.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><i>Secondly</i>, Let us advert to the value and functions of Constantinople
+as the tutelary genius of western or dawning Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Constantinople, or more generally of the Eastern Roman
+empire, wears a peculiar interest to the children of Christendom; and
+for two separate reasons&mdash;<i>first</i>, as being the narrow isthmus or bridge
+which connects the two continents of ancient and modern history, and
+<i>that</i> is a philosophic interest; but, <i>secondly</i> which in the very
+highest degree is a practical interest, as the record of our earthly
+salvation from Mahometanism. On two horns was Europe assaulted by the
+Moslems; first, last, and through the largest tract of time, on the horn
+of Constantinople; there the contest raged for more than eight hundred
+years, and by the time that the mighty bulwark fell (1453,) Vienna and
+other cities upon or near the Danube had found leisure for growing up;
+so that, if one range of Alps had slowly been surmounted, another had
+now slowly reared and embattled itself against the westward progress of
+the Crescent. On the western horn, <i>in</i> France, but <i>by</i> Germans, once
+for all Charles Martel had arrested the progress of the fanatical Moslem
+almost in a single battle; certainly a single generation saw the whole
+danger dispersed, inasmuch as within that space the Saracens were
+effectually forced back into their original Spanish lair. This
+demonstrates pretty forcibly the difference of the Mahometan resources
+as applied to the western and the eastern struggle. To throw the whole
+weight of that difference, a difference in the result as between eight
+centuries and thirty years, upon the mere difference of energy in German
+and Byzantine forces, as though the first did, by a rapturous fervour,
+in a few revolutions of summer what the other had protracted through
+nearly a millennium, is a representation which defeats itself by its own
+extravagance. To prove too much is more dangerous than to prove too
+little. The fact is, that vast armies and mighty nations were
+continually disposable for the war upon the city of Constantine; nations
+had time to arise in juvenile vigour, to grow old and superannuated, to
+melt away, and totally to disappear, in that long struggle on the
+Hellespont and Propontis. It was a struggle which might often intermit
+and slumber; armistices there might be, truces, or unproclaimed
+suspensions of war out of mutual exhaustion, but peace there could <i>not</i>
+be, because any resting from the duty of hatred towards those who
+reciprocally seemed to lay the foundations of their creed in a
+dishonouring of God, was impossible to aspiring human nature. Malice and
+mutual hatred, we repeat, became a duty in those circumstances. Why had
+they <i>begun</i> to fight? Personal feuds there had been none between the
+parties. For the early caliphs did not conquer Syria and other vast
+provinces of the Roman empire, because they had a quarrel with the
+C&aelig;sars
+<span class="pagebreak" title="532">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532"></a>
+who represented Christendom; but, on the contrary, they had a
+quarrel with the C&aelig;sars because they had conquered Syria, or, at the
+most, the conquest and the feud (if not always lying in that exact
+succession as cause and effect) were joint effects from a common cause,
+which cause was imperishable as death, or the ocean, and as deep as are
+the fountains of animal life. Could the ocean be altered by a sea fight?
+or the atmosphere be tainted for ever by an earthquake? As little could
+any single reign or its events affect the feud of the Moslem and the
+Christian; a feud which could not cease unless God could change, or
+unless man (becoming careless of spiritual things) should sink to the
+level of a brute.</p>
+
+<p>These are considerations of great importance in weighing the value of
+the Eastern Empire. If the cause and interest of Islamism, as against
+Christianity, were undying&mdash;then we may be assured that the Moorish
+infidels of Spain did not reiterate their trans-Pyrenean expeditions
+after one generation&mdash;simply because they <i>could</i> not. But we know that
+on the south-eastern horn of Europe they <i>could</i>, upon the plain
+argument that for many centuries they <i>did</i>. Over and above this, we are
+of opinion that the Saracens were unequal to the sort of hardships bred
+by cold climates; and there lay another repulsion for Saracens from
+France, &amp;c., and not merely the Carlovingian sword. We children of
+Christendom show our innate superiority to the children of the Orient
+upon this scale or tariff of acclimatizing powers. We travel as wheat
+travels through all reasonable ranges of temperature; they, like rice,
+can migrate only to warm latitudes. They cannot support our cold, but we
+<i>can</i> support the countervailing hardships of their heat. This cause
+alone would have weatherbound the Mussulmans for ever within the
+Pyrenean cloisters. Mussulmans in cold latitudes look as blue and as
+absurd as sailors on horseback. Apart from which cause, we see that the
+fine old Visigothic races in Spain found them full employment up to the
+reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, which reign first created a kingdom of
+Spain; in that reign the whole fabric of their power thawed away, and
+was confounded with forgotten things. Columbus, according to a local
+tradition, was personally present at some of the latter campaigns in
+Grenada: he saw the last of them. So that the discovery of America may
+be used as a convertible date with that of extinction for the Saracen
+power in western Europe. True that the overthrow of Constantinople had
+forerun this event by nearly half a century. But then we insist upon the
+different proportions of the struggle. Whilst in Spain a province had
+fought against a province, all Asia militant had fought against the
+eastern Roman empire. Amongst the many races whom dimly we descry in
+those shadowy hosts, tilting for ages in the vast plains of Angora, are
+seen, latterly pressing on to the van, two mighty powers, the children
+of Persia and the Ottoman family of the Turks. Upon these nations, both
+now rapidly decaying, the faith of Mahomet has ever leaned as upon her
+eldest sons; and these powers the Byzantine C&aelig;sars had to face in every
+phasis of their energy, as it revolved from perfect barbarism, through
+semi-barbarism, to that crude form of civilization which Mahometans can
+support. And through all these transmigrations of their power we must
+remember that they were under a martial training and discipline, never
+suffered to become effeminate. One set of warriors after another <i>did</i>,
+it is true, become effeminate in Persia: but upon that advantage
+opening, always another set stepped in from Torkistan or from the Imaus.
+The nation, the individuals melted away; the Moslem armies were
+immortal.</p>
+
+<p>Here, therefore, it is, and standing at this point of our review, that
+we complain of Mr Finlay&rsquo;s too facile compliance with historians far
+beneath himself. He has a fine understanding: oftentimes his
+commentaries on the past are ebullient with subtlety; and his fault
+strikes us as lying even in the excess of his sagacity applying itself
+too often to a basis of facts, quite insufficient for supporting the
+superincumbent weight of his speculations. But in this instance he
+surrenders himself too readily to the ordinary current of history. How
+would <i>he</i> like it, if he happened to be a Turk himself, finding his
+nation thus
+<span class="pagebreak" title="533">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533"></a>
+implicitly undervalued? For clearly, in undervaluing the
+Byzantine resistance, he <i>does</i> undervalue the Mahometan assault.
+Advantages of local situation cannot <i>eternally</i> make good the
+deficiencies of man. If the Byzantines (being as weak as historians
+would represent them) yet for ages resisted the whole impetus of
+Mahometan Asia, then it follows, either that the Crescent was
+correspondingly weak, or that, not being weak, she must have found the
+Cross pretty strong. The <i>facit</i> of history does not here correspond
+with the numerical items.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing has ever surprised us more, we will frankly own, than this
+coincidence of authors in treating the Byzantine empire as feeble and
+crazy. On the contrary, to us it is clear that some secret and
+preternatural strength it must have had, lurking where the eye of man
+did not in those days penetrate, or by what miracle did it undertake our
+universal Christian cause, fight for us all, keep the waters open from
+freezing us up, and through nine centuries prevent the ice of
+Mahometanism from closing over our heads for ever? Yet does Mr Finlay
+(p. 424) describe this empire as labouring, in <span class="little">A.D.</span> 623, equally with
+Persia, under &ldquo;internal weakness,&rdquo; and as &ldquo;equally incapable of offering
+any popular or national resistance to an active or enterprising enemy.&rdquo;
+In this Mr Finlay does but agree with other able writers; but he and
+they should have recollected, that hardly had that very year 623
+departed, even yet the knell of its last hour was sounding upon the
+winds, when this effeminate empire had occasion to show that she could
+clothe herself with consuming terrors, as a belligerent both defensive
+and aggressive. In the absence of her great emperor, and of the main
+imperial forces, the golden capital herself, by her own resources,
+routed and persecuted into wrecks a Persian army that had come down upon
+her by stealth and a fraudulent circuit. Even at that same period, she
+advanced into Persia more than a thousand miles from her own metropolis
+in Europe, under the blazing ensigns of the cross, kicked the crown of
+Persia to and fro like a tennis-ball, upset the throne of Artaxerxes,
+countersigned haughtily the elevation of a new <i>Basileus</i> more friendly
+to herself, and then recrossed the Tigris homewards, after having torn
+forcibly out of the heart and palpitating entrails of Persia, whatever
+trophies that idolatrous empire had formerly wrested from herself. These
+were not the acts of an effeminate kingdom. In the language of
+Wordsworth we may say&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;All power was giv&rsquo;n her in the dreadful trance;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Infidel kings she wither&rsquo;d like a flame.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Indeed, no image that we remember can do justice to the first of these
+acts, except that Spanish legend of the Cid, which assures us that, long
+after the death of the mighty cavalier, when the children of those Moors
+who had fled from his face whilst living, were insulting the marble
+statue above his grave, suddenly the statue raised its right arm,
+stretched out its marble lance, and drifted the heathen dogs like snow.
+The mere sanctity of the Christian champion&rsquo;s sepulchre was its own
+protection; and so we must suppose, that, when the Persian hosts came by
+surprise upon Constantinople&mdash;her natural protector being absent by
+three months&rsquo; march&mdash;simply the golden statues of the mighty C&aelig;sars,
+half rising on their thrones, must have caused that sudden panic which
+dissipated the danger. Hardly fifty years later, Mr Finlay well knows
+that Constantinople again stood an assault&mdash;not from a Persian hourrah,
+or tempestuous surprise, but from a vast expedition, armaments by land
+and sea, fitted out elaborately in the early noontide of Mahometan
+vigour&mdash;and that assault, also, in the presence of the caliph and the
+crescent, was gloriously discomfited. Now if, in the moment of triumph,
+some voice in the innumerable crowd had cried out, &ldquo;How long shall this
+great Christian breakwater, against which are shattered into surge and
+foam all the mountainous billows of idolaters and misbelievers, stand up
+on behalf of infant Christendom?&rdquo; and if from the clouds some trumpet of
+prophecy had replied, &ldquo;Even yet for eight hundred years!&rdquo; could any man
+have persuaded himself that such a fortress against such
+antagonists&mdash;such
+<span class="pagebreak" title="534">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534"></a>
+a monument against a millennium of fury&mdash;was to be
+classed amongst the weak things of this earth? This oriental Rome, it is
+true, equally with Persia, was liable to sudden inroads and incursions.
+But the difference was this&mdash;Persia was strongly protected in all ages
+by the wilderness on her main western frontier; if this were passed, and
+a hand-to-hand conflict succeeded, where light cavalry or fugitive
+archers could be of little value, the essential weakness of the Persian
+empire then betrayed itself. Her sovereign was assassinated, and peace
+was obtained from the condescension of the invader. But the enemies of
+Constantinople, Goths, Avars, Bulgarians, or even Persians, were strong
+only by their weakness. Being contemptible, they were neglected; being
+chased, they made no stand; and <i>thus</i> only they escaped. They entered
+like thieves by means of darkness, and escaped like sheep by means of
+dispersion. But, if caught, they were annihilated. No; we resume our
+thesis; we close this head by reiterating our correction of history; we
+re-affirm our position&mdash;that in Eastern Rome lay the salvation of
+Western and Central Europe; in Constantinople and the Propontis lay the
+<i>sine-qu&acirc;-non</i> condition of any future Christendom. Emperor and people
+<i>must</i> have done their duty; the result, the vast extent of generations
+surmounted, furnish the triumphant argument. Finally, indeed, they fell,
+king and people, shepherd and flock; but by that time their mission was
+fulfilled. And doubtless, as the noble Pal&aelig;ologus lay on heaps of
+carnage, with his noble people, as life was ebbing away, a voice from
+heaven sounded in his ears the great words of the Hebrew prophet,
+&ldquo;Behold! <span class="smcap">your work is done</span>; your warfare is accomplished.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>III. Such, then, being the unmerited disparagement of the Byzantine
+government, and so great the ingratitude of later Christendom to that
+sheltering power under which themselves enjoyed the leisure of a
+thousand years for knitting and expanding into strong nations; on the
+other hand, what is to be thought of the Saracen revolutionists? Every
+where it has passed for a lawful postulate, that the Saracen conquests
+prevailed, half by the feebleness of the Roman government at
+Constantinople, and half by the preternatural energy infused into the
+Arabs by their false prophet and legislator. In either of its faces,
+this theory is falsified by a steady review of facts. With regard to the
+Saracens, Mr Finlay thinks as we do, and argues that they prevailed
+through the <i>local</i>, or sometimes the <i>casual</i>, weakness of their
+immediate enemies, and rarely through any strength of their own. We must
+remember one fatal weakness of the Imperial administration in those
+days, not due to men or to principles, but entirely to nature and the
+slow growth of scientific improvements&mdash;viz. the difficulties of
+locomotion. As respected Syria, Egypt, Cyrenaica, and so on to the most
+western provinces of Africa, the Saracens had advantages for moving
+rapidly which the C&aelig;sar had not. But is not a water movement speedier
+than a land movement, which for an army never has much exceeded fourteen
+miles a-day? Certainly it is; but in this case there were two desperate
+defects in the Imperial control over that water service. To use a fleet,
+you must have a fleet; but their whole naval interest had been starved
+by the intolerable costs of the Persian war. Immense had been the
+expenses of Heraclius, and annually decaying had been his Asiatic
+revenues. Secondly, the original position of the Arabs had been better
+than that of the emperor, in every stage of the warfare which so
+suddenly arose. In Arabia they stood nearest to Syria, in Syria nearest
+to Egypt, in Egypt nearest to Cyrenaica. What reason had there been for
+expecting a martial legislator at that moment in Arabia, who should fuse
+and sternly combine her distracted tribes? What blame, therefore, to
+Heraclius, that Syria&mdash;the first object of assault, being also by much
+the weakest part of the empire, and immediately after the close of a
+desolating war&mdash;should in four campaigns be found indefensible? We must
+remember the unexampled abruptness of the Arabian revolution. The year
+622, by its very name of Hegira, does not record a triumph but a
+humiliation. In that year, therefore, and at the very moment when
+<span class="pagebreak" title="535">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535"></a>
+Heraclius was entering upon his long Persian struggle, Mahomet was yet
+prostrate, and his destiny was doubtful. Eleven years after, viz. in
+633, the prophet was dead and gone; but his first successor was already
+in Syria as a conqueror. Such had been the velocity of events. The
+Persian war had then been finished by three years, but the exhaustion of
+the empire had perhaps, at that moment, reached its maximum. We are
+satisfied, that ten years&rsquo; repose from this extreme state of collapse
+would have shown us another result. Even as it was, and caught at this
+enormous disadvantage, Heraclius taught the robbers to tremble, and
+would have exterminated them, if not baffled by two irremediable
+calamities, neither of them due to any act or neglect of his own. The
+first lay in the treason of his lieutenants. The governors of Damascus,
+of Aleppo, of Emesa, of Bostra, of Kinnisrin, all proved traitors. The
+root of this evil lay, probably, in the disorders following the Persian
+invasion, which had made it the perilous interest of the emperor to
+appoint great officers from amongst those who had a local influence.
+Such persons it might have been ruinous too suddenly to set aside, as,
+in the event, it proved ruinous to employ them. A dilemma of this kind,
+offering but a choice of evils, belonged to the nature of any Persian
+war; and that particular war was bequeathed to Heraclius by the
+mismanagement of his predecessors. But the second calamity was even more
+fatal; it lay in the composition of the Syrian population, and its
+original want of vital cohesion. For no purpose could this population be
+united: they formed a rope of sand. There was the distraction of
+religion, (Jacobites, Nestorians, &amp;c.;) there was the distraction of
+races&mdash;slaves and masters, conquered and conquerors, modern intruders
+mixed, but not blended with, aboriginal mountaineers. Property became
+the one principle of choice between the two governments. Where was
+protection to be had for <i>that</i>? Barbarous as were the Arabs, they saw
+their present advantage. Often it would happen from the position of the
+armies, that they could, whilst the emperor could not, guarantee the
+instant security of land or of personal treasures; the Arabs could also
+promise, sometimes, a total immunity from taxes, very often a diminished
+scale of taxation, always a remission of arrears; none of which demands
+could be listened to by the emperor, partly on account of the public
+necessities, partly from jealousy of establishing operative precedents.
+For religion, again, protection was more easily obtained in that day
+from the Arab, who made war on Christianity, than from the Byzantine
+emperor, who was its champion. What were the different sects and
+subdivisions of Christianity to the barbarian? Monophysite, Monothelite,
+Eutychian, or Jacobite, all were to him as the scholastic disputes of
+noble and intellectual Europe to the camps of gypsies. The Arab felt
+himself to be the depository of one sublime truth, the unity of God. His
+mission therefore, was principally against idolaters. Yet even to <i>them</i>
+his policy was to sell toleration for tribute. Clearly, as Mr Finlay
+hints, this was merely a provisional moderation, meant to be laid aside
+when sufficient power was obtained; and it <i>was</i> laid aside, in after
+ages, by many a wretch like Timour or Nadir Shah. Religion, therefore,
+and property once secured, what more had the Syrians to seek? And if to
+these advantages for the Saracens we add the fact, that a considerable
+Arab population was dispersed through Syria, who became so many
+emissaries, spies, and decoys for their countrymen, it does great honour
+to the emperor, that through so many campaigns he should at all have
+maintained his ground, which at last he resigned only under the
+despondency caused by almost universal treachery.</p>
+
+<p>The Saracens, therefore, had no great merit even in their earliest
+exploits; and the <i>impetus</i> of their movement forwards, that principle
+of proselytism which carried them so strongly &ldquo;ahead&rdquo; through a few
+generations, was very soon brought to a stop. Mr Finlay, in our mind,
+does right to class these barbarians as &ldquo;socially and politically little
+better than the Gothic, Hunnish, and Avar monarchies.&rdquo; But, on
+consideration, the Gothic monarchy embosomed the germs of a noble
+civilization; whereas the
+<span class="pagebreak" title="536">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536"></a>
+Saracens have never propagated great
+principles of any kind, nor attained even a momentary grandeur in their
+institutions, except where coalescing with a higher or more ancient
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, ascending from the earliest Mahometans to their prophet, what
+are we to think of <i>him</i>? Was Mahomet a great man? We think not. The
+case was thus: the Arabian tribes had long stood ready, like dogs held
+in a leash, for a start after distant game. It was not Mahomet who gave
+them that impulse. But next, what was it that had hindered the Arab
+tribes from obeying the impulse? Simply this, that they were always in
+feud with each other; so that their expeditions, beginning in harmony,
+were sure to break up in anger on the road. What they needed was, some
+one grand compressing and unifying principle, such as the Roman found in
+the destinies of his city. True; but this, you say, they found in the
+sublime principle that God was one, and had appointed them to be the
+scourges of all who denied it. Their mission was to cleanse the earth
+from Polytheism; and, as ambassadors from God, to tell the nations&mdash;&ldquo;Ye
+shall have no other gods but me.&rdquo; That was grand; and <i>that</i> surely they
+had from Mahomet? Perhaps so; but where did he get it? He stole it from
+the Jewish Scriptures, and from the Scriptures no less than from the
+traditions of the Christians. Assuredly, then, the first projecting
+impetus was not impressed upon Islamism by Mahomet. This lay in a
+revealed truth; and by Mahomet it was furtively translated to his own
+use from those oracles which held it in keeping. But possibly, if not
+the <i>principle</i> of motion, yet at least the steady conservation of this
+motion was secured to Islamism by Mahomet. Granting (you will say) that
+the launch of this religion might be due to an alien inspiration, yet
+still the steady movement onwards of this religion through some
+centuries, might be due exclusively to the code of laws bequeathed by
+Mahomet in the Koran. And this has been the opinion of many European
+scholars. They fancy that Mahomet, however worldly and sensual as the
+founder of a pretended revelation, was wise in the wisdom of this world;
+and that, if ridiculous as a prophet, he was worthy of veneration as a
+statesman. He legislated well and presciently, they imagine, for the
+interests of a remote posterity. Now, upon that question let us hear Mr
+Finlay. He, when commenting upon the steady resistance offered to the
+Saracens by the African Christians of the seventh and eighth
+centuries&mdash;a resistance which terminated disastrously for both
+sides&mdash;the poor Christians being exterminated, and the Moslem invaders
+being robbed of an indigenous working population, naturally enquires
+what it was that led to so tragical a result? The Christian natives of
+those provinces were, in a political condition, little favourable to
+belligerent efforts; and there cannot be much doubt, that, with any
+wisdom or any forbearance on the part of the intruders, both parties
+might soon have settled down into a pacific compromise of their feuds.
+Instead of this, the cimeter was invoked and worshipped as the sole
+possible arbitrator; and truce there was none until the silence of
+desolation brooded over those once fertile fields. How savage was the
+fanaticism, and how blind the worldly wisdom, which could have
+co-operated to such a result! The cause must have lain in the
+unaccommodating nature of the Mahometan institutions, in the bigotry of
+the Mahometan leaders, and in the defect of expansive views on the part
+of their legislator. He had not provided even for other climates than
+that of his own sweltering sty in the Hedjas, or for manners more
+polished, or for institutions more philosophic, than those of his own
+sun-baked Ishmaelites. &ldquo;The construction of the political government of
+the Saracen empire&rdquo;&mdash;says Mr Finlay, (p. 462-3)&mdash;&ldquo;was imperfect, and
+shows that Mahomet had neither contemplated extensive foreign conquests,
+nor devoted the energies of his powerful mind to the consideration of
+the questions of administration which would arise out of the difficult
+task of ruling a numerous and wealthy population, possessed of property,
+but deprived of civil rights.&rdquo; He then shows how the whole power of the
+state settled into the hands of a chief priest&mdash;systematically
+<span class="pagebreak" title="537">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537"></a>
+irresponsible. When, therefore, that momentary state of responsibility
+had passed away, which was created (like the state of martial law) &ldquo;by
+national feelings, military companionship, and exalted enthusiasm,&rdquo; the
+administration of the caliphs became &ldquo;far more oppressive than that of
+the Roman empire.&rdquo; It is in fact an insult to the majestic Romans, if we
+should place them seriously in the balance with savages like the
+Saracens. The Romans were essentially the leaders of civilization,
+according to the possibilities then existing; for their earliest usages
+and social forms involved a high civilization, whilst promising a
+higher: whereas all Moslem nations have described a petty arch of
+national civility&mdash;soon reaching its apex, and rapidly barbarizing
+backwards. This fatal gravitation towards decay and decomposition in
+Mahometan institutions, which, at this day, exhibits to the gaze of
+mankind one uniform spectacle of Mahometan ruins, all the great Moslem
+nations being already in a <i>Strulbrug</i> state, and held erect only by the
+colossal support of Christian powers, could not, as a <i>reversionary</i>
+evil, have been healed by the Arabian prophet. His own religious
+principles would have prevented <i>that</i>, for they offer a permanent
+bounty on sensuality; so that every man who serves a Mahometan state
+faithfully and brilliantly at twenty-five, is incapacitated at
+thirty-five for any further service, by the very nature of the rewards
+which he receives from the state. Within a very few years, every public
+servant is usually emasculated by that unlimited voluptuousness which
+equally the Moslem princes and the common Prophet of all Moslems
+countenance as the proper object of human pursuit. Here is the mortal
+ulcer of Islamism, which can never cleanse itself from death and the
+odour of death. A political ulcer would or might have found restoration
+for itself; but this ulcer is higher and deeper:&mdash;it lies in the
+religion, which is incapable of reform: it is an ulcer reaching as high
+as the paradise which Islamism promises, and deep as the hell which it
+creates. We repeat, that Mahomet could not effectually have neutralized
+a poison which he himself had introduced into the circulation and
+life-blood of his Moslem economy. The false prophet was forced to reap
+as he had sown. But an evil which is certain, may be retarded; and
+ravages which tend finally to confusion, may be limited for many
+generations. Now, in the case of the African provincials which we have
+noticed, we see an original incapacity of Islamism, even in its palmy
+condition, for amalgamating with any <i>superior</i> culture. And the
+specific action of Mahometanism in the African case, as contrasted with
+the Roman economy which it supplanted, is thus exhibited by Mr Finlay in
+a most instructive passage, where every negation on the Mahometan side
+is made to suggest the countervailing usage positively on the side of
+the Romans. O children of Romulus! how noble do you appear when thus
+fiercely contrasted with the wild boars who desolated your vineyards!
+&ldquo;No local magistrates elected by the people, and no parish priests
+connected by their feelings and interests both with their superiors and
+inferiors, bound society together by common ties; and no system of legal
+administration, independent of the military and financial authorities,
+preserved the property of the people from the rapacity of the
+government.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Such, we are to understand, was <i>not</i> the Mahometan system: such <i>had</i>
+been the system of Rome. &ldquo;Socially and politically,&rdquo; proceeds the
+passage, &ldquo;the Saracen empire was little better than the Gothic, Hunnish,
+and Avar monarchies; and that it proved more durable, with almost equal
+oppression, is to be attributed to the powerful enthusiasm of Mahomet&rsquo;s
+religion, which tempered for some time its avarice and tyranny.&rdquo; The
+same sentiment is repeated still more emphatically at p. 468&mdash;&ldquo;The
+political policy of the Saracens was of itself utterly barbarous; and it
+only caught a passing gleam of justice from the religious feeling of
+their prophet&rsquo;s doctrines.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Thus far, therefore, it appears that Mahometanism is not much indebted
+to its too famous founder: it owes to him a principle, viz. the unity of
+God, which, merely through a capital
+<span class="pagebreak" title="538">&nbsp;</span><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538"></a>
+itself. Nothing but the grossest ignorance in Mahomet, nothing but the
+grossest non-acquaintance with Greek authors on the part of the Arabs,
+could have created or sustained the delusion current amongst that
+illiterate people&mdash;that it was themselves only who rejected Polytheism.
+Had but one amongst the personal enemies of Mahomet been acquainted with
+Greek, <i>there</i> was an end of the new religion in the first moon of its
+existence. Once open the eyes of Arabs to the fact, that Christians had
+anticipated them in this great truth of the divine unity, and
+Mahometanism could only have ranked as a subdivision of Christianity.
+Mahomet would have ranked only as a Christian heresiarch or schismatic;
+such as Nestorius or Marcian at one time, such as Arius or Pelagius at
+another. In his character of <i>theologian</i>, therefore, Mahomet was simply
+the most memorable of blunderers, supported in his blunders by the most
+unlettered of nations. In his other character of <i>legislator</i>, we have
+seen, that already the earliest stages of Mahometan experience exposed
+decisively his ruinous imbecility. Where a rude tribe offered no
+resistance to his system, for the simple reason that their barbarism
+suggested no motive for resistance, it could be no honour to prevail.
+And where, on the other hand, a higher civilization had furnished strong
+points of repulsion to his system, it appears plainly that this
+pretended apostle of social improvement had devised or hinted no readier
+mode of conciliation than by putting to the sword all dissentients. He
+starts as a theological reformer, with a fancied defiance to the world
+which was no defiance at all, being exactly what Christians had believed
+for six centuries, and Jews for six-and-twenty. He starts as a political
+reformer, with a fancied conciliation to the world which was no
+conciliation at all, but was sure to provoke imperishable hostility
+wheresoever it had any effect at all.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus reviewed some of the more splendid aspects connected with
+Mr Finlay&rsquo;s theme; but that theme, in its entire compass, is worthy of a
+far more extended investigation than our own limits will allow, or than
+the historical curiosity of the world (misdirected here as in so many
+other cases) has hitherto demanded. The Greek race, suffering a long
+occultation under the blaze of the Roman empire, into which for a time
+it had been absorbed, but again emerging from this blaze and reassuming
+a distinct Greek agency and influence, offers a subject great by its own
+inherent attractions, and separately interesting by the unaccountable
+neglect which it has suffered. To have overlooked this subject, is one
+amongst the capital oversights of Gibbon. To have rescued it from utter
+oblivion, and to have traced an outline for its better illumination, is
+the peculiar merit of Mr Finlay. His greatest fault is to have been
+careless or slovenly in the niceties of classical and philological
+precision. His greatest praise, and a very great one indeed, is&mdash;to have
+thrown the light of an <i>original</i> philosophic sagacity upon a neglected
+province of history, indispensable to the <i>arrondissement</i> of Pagan
+arch&aelig;ology.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_5" id="Footnote_A_5"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_A_5">A</a></span> <i>Greece under the Romans.</i> <span class="smcap">By George Finlay</span>, K.R.G. William
+Blackwood &amp; Sons. Edinburgh and London. 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_6" id="Footnote_B_6"></a><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_B_6">B</a></span> &ldquo;<i>With scorn.</i>&rdquo;&mdash;This has arisen from two causes: one is
+the habit of regarding the whole Roman empire as in its &ldquo;decline&rdquo; from
+so early a period as that of Commodus; agreeably to which conceit, it
+would naturally follow that, during its latter stages, the Eastern
+empire must have been absolutely in its dotage. If already declining in
+the second century, then, from the tenth to the fifteenth it must have
+been paralytic and bed-ridden. The other cause may be found in the
+accidental but reasonable hostility of the Byzantine court to the first
+Crusaders, as also in the disadvantageous comparison with respect to
+manly virtues between the simplicity of these western children, and the
+refined dissimulation of the Byzantines.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center biggap"><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul&rsquo;s Work.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56,
+Number 348, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: April 13, 2008 [EBook #25066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan O'Connor, Jonathan Ingram, Louise Pryor
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+{Transcriber's note: Spellings are sometimes erratic. A few obvious
+misprints have been corrected, but in general the original spelling has
+been retained. Accents in the French phrases are inconsistent, and have
+not been standardised. Greek phrases have been transliterated, and are
+enclosed in + signs +anekdotoi+.}
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+No. CCCXLVIII.    OCTOBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+    THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST,                              401
+
+    POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE. NO. II.,                   417
+
+    THE GREAT DROUGHT,                                      433
+
+    A TENDER CONSCIENCE,                                    454
+
+    THIERRY'S HISTORY OF THE GAULS,                         466
+
+    THE WITCHFINDER. CONCLUSION,                            487
+
+    MY LAST COURTSHIP; OR, LIFE IN LOUISIANA,               507
+
+    GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.                                524
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    EDINBURGH:
+    WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;
+    AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+NO. CCCXLVIII.    OCTOBER, 1844.    VOL. LVI.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST.{A}
+
+
+This is one of those curious memoirs which, from time to time, start
+forth from the family archives of public men, for the illustration of
+the past and the wisdom of the future. Nothing can be more important to
+either the man of office or the man of reflection. Avoiding all the
+theoretical portion of history, on which all men may be mistaken, they
+give us its facts, on which no one can be deceived; detailing the course
+of personal events, they supply us with the views of the most
+intelligent minds directly employed in the transactions, exhibit the
+portraits of those minds, and point out to those who are to follow, the
+effect of vigour, intrepidity, and knowledge, in overcoming the
+difficulties of nations.
+
+The work on which we are about to make some remarks, is one of those
+productions which do especial honour to the English aristocracy. It is
+the diplomatic career of the founder of a peerage; compiled and
+published by the third in succession to the earldom. The noble editor,
+professing to have done but little in this office of reverence and duty,
+has done much--he has paid due honour to a manly, wise, and vigorous
+ancestor; and he has set a striking example to the young nobility of his
+time. The libraries of every noble family of England contain similar
+records of the highest value; and nothing could be at once more
+honourable to the memory of the gallant and renowned who have passed
+away, or more important to posterity, than to give those documents to
+the light, illustrated by the recollections of their noble descendants,
+and brought before the public with the natural advantages of
+authenticity and authority.
+
+Lord Malmesbury's career continued through one of the most interesting
+portions of the last century; that which was the preparative for the
+great catastrophe of its close, the overthrow of the French monarchy. He
+was in the service of his country, as a diplomatist, from 1768 to 1797;
+and for many succeeding years was in connexion with all the leading
+political characters of a time singularly fertile in remarkable men. He
+was born at Salisbury in 1746, the descendant of an old English family,
+possessed of property in Wiltshire. His father was an eminent scholar,
+the author of _Hermes_, and other well known treatises on literary and
+philosophical subjects. But the scholar was also a man of active public
+life. Entering into parliament, he was appointed a lord of the treasury
+in 1763, and secretary and comptroller of the Queen's household some
+years after. A _bon-mot_ of one of the Townsends is recorded, on his
+taking his seat.
+
+"Who is the new member?" asked Townsend.
+
+"A Mr Harris, who has written on grammar and harmony."
+
+"Then what brings him here, where he will hear _neither_?"
+
+The son of such a man had public life before him as his natural source
+of distinction; and Lord Malmesbury, late in life, (in 1800,) thus
+gracefully commemorated his gratitude. "To my father's precepts and
+example I owe every good quality I have. To his reputation and his
+character, I attribute my more than common success in life. It was those
+that introduced me with peculiar advantage into the world. It was as his
+son that I first obtained friends and patrons. I had nothing in myself;
+and I speak, at the distance of thirty-five years, not from affected
+modesty, but from a powerful recollection of what there was to entitle
+me to notice. Once, indeed, placed in a conspicuous and responsible
+situation, I was anxious to act becomingly in it. And even here I recur
+with pleasure to the same grateful source; for while my father lived,
+which was during the first twelve years of my public life, the strongest
+incentive I had to exert myself was in the satisfaction I knew he would
+derive from any credit I might acquire; and the many and distinguished
+honours which I have since received, have suffered a great diminution in
+my esteem, from his being no longer a witness to them."
+
+He was sent to Winchester, where he remained till he was sixteen. From
+Winchester he was transferred to Oxford, where the discipline at that
+period was so relaxed, that his only surprise in after life was at the
+success of so many of his companions, among whom were Charles Fox, North,
+Bishop of Winchester, Lord Robert Spenser, Lord Auckland, and others, who
+had risen to rank of various kinds. He left Oxford in 1765, and passed
+thirty-five years on the Continent. His lordship here makes a striking
+observation on his own experience, which has been authenticated by every
+intelligent and honest mind under the same circumstances--remarking that
+his foreign residence was so far from making him undervalue England, that
+it raised it still higher in his estimation. He adds--"Here I will make
+an assertion, grounded on experience and conviction, and which may be
+applied as a never-failing test, that an Englishman who, after a long
+absence from England, returns to it with feelings and sentiments partial
+to other countries, and adverse to his own, has no _real_ mind--is
+without the powers of discernment and plain easy comparison--and has no
+title to enjoy the superior moral and local advantages to which he is
+born, but of which he is insensible and unworthy."
+
+As diplomacy was evidently the career marked out for him by his father,
+he was sent to study at Leyden, where he remained a year. In the
+commencement of the century, Holland was the central point of all
+European negotiations; and its schools became famous for languages and
+the study of international law. The society among the higher orders of
+the country was the most intelligent in Europe, consisting of
+ambassadors and scholars of the first character. After this year of
+vigorous study, and some brief stay at home, he returned to the
+Continent, and made an extensive tour of the north. In the autumn of
+this year he received his first diplomatic appointment, in the mission
+to Spain. His success in the Falkland Island negotiation recommended him
+to government, and he was appointed minister at Berlin--a very unusual
+distinction for a diplomatist only twenty-four years old. But a still
+more important distinction now awaited him. In 1777 he was sent as
+minister to the court of the Empress Catharine, where he found himself
+involved in all the craft of diplomacy with two of the most artful
+sovereigns that ever lived, Frederick and Catharine. But difficulties
+only place talents in a more conspicuous point of view, and he received
+from his government the highest reward then conferred upon a foreign
+minister, the Order of the Bath, in 1780. The climate of Russia was at
+length found too severe for his health, and he petitioned for his
+recall, which was granted, but with the honourable offer of his choice
+of a mission either to Spain or the Hague; the former was the higher in
+rank, but the latter the more important in activity. He unhesitatingly,
+and wisely, chose the embassy to the Hague. In 1784, the Foxite
+administration fell, and Pitt was in the ascendant. Harris had been at
+all times connected with Fox, and had constantly voted with him in the
+House; but so high was the public sense of his ability, and such was the
+impartiality of Pitt's sense of public duty, that he offered him the
+re-appointment to the Hague, which Harris, after consulting Fox and the
+Duke of Portland as his political leaders, accepted. His services were
+peculiarly required at this period, from the violent discussions which
+had arisen in Holland; and he either originated, or perfected, the
+treaty of alliance between England, Holland, and Prussia, which saved
+the Stadtholder for the time, and Holland probably from being made a
+French province. His conduct was regarded with so much approbation by
+the allies, that he received from the Prussian king leave to add the
+Prussian eagle to his arms, and from the Stadtholder, his motto, "_Je
+maintiendrai_." From England he received the more substantial rewards of
+the peerage, by the title of Baron Malmesbury, and the appointment of
+ambassador. But though he was a Whig, he was one on the old English
+principle, and not on the new. In 1793, when in the midst of
+revolutionary horrors, and after the murder of the unfortunate French
+king, Fox, in the spirit of infatuation, declared himself ready to
+acknowledge the French republic, all the chief leaders of the Whigs
+retired from the Opposition bench. The Duke of Portland, Lord
+Loughborough, Sir Gilbert Elliott, Lord Spenser, and Lord Malmesbury,
+joined those distinguished persons; yet without any apparent loss of
+friendship with Fox, whose manners retained personal friends even when
+he had lost their political confidence. Frederick William, king of
+Prussia, a prince of singularly undecided character, though of loud
+professions, being at this time suspected of a leaning towards the
+revolutionists, Lord Malmesbury was immediately sent by Pitt to Berlin,
+for the purpose of holding him to his good faith. He succeeded, to the
+extent of making the king sign an additional treaty with England and
+Holland.
+
+His next mission, if not one of more importance, was of still greater
+delicacy--it was to ask the hand of the Duke of Brunswick's daughter for
+the Prince of Wales. This was a marriage by compulsion, and the wrath of
+the prince fell upon the noble negotiator. He never forgave Lord
+Malmesbury, and he quickly alienated himself from the princess: the
+unfortunate result is fully known. In 1796, and 1797, Lord Malmesbury
+was engaged in the most important negotiation of his life. The French
+Directory, probably for the purpose of exciting dissensions between
+Austria and England, made a secret proposal of peace, which led to the
+mission of an ambassador. But while Napoleon was pursuing his conquests
+in Italy, France had no actual desire of pacification. The purpose was
+evidently to gain time; and Lord Malmesbury, on discovering the true
+nature of the transaction, demanded his passports, and returned to
+England. It cannot be imputed to Pitt, that he was ever negligent of
+those who had done the state service. Lord Malmesbury had already
+obtained the Order of the Bath, and a barony; he was now raised to an
+earldom, with a viscounty, by the title of Lord Fitzharris; and it was
+in Pitt's contemplation to send him once more to Paris, when his
+ministry was suddenly brought to a conclusion, and Mr Addington was
+appointed premier; by whom the peace, or rather the unlucky truce of
+Amiens, was made. His political life was now at an end. He had been for
+some time suffering under deafness, which increased so much, that he
+regarded it as incapacitating him from public employment; yet he still
+loved society, and, dividing his time between London and his seat near
+Henley, he passed a pleasant and cheerful time, mingling with the chief
+characters of the rising political generation. For the last ten years of
+his life, his thoughts seem to have been much directed to religious
+subjects; and he kept what he entitled a "self-controlling journal," in
+which he registered his thoughts. We have probably reason to regret that
+the scrupulous delicacy of his biographer has hitherto withheld it from
+the public. The few sentences transcribed from it, give a strong
+conception of the piety and clear-headedness of the noble author. They
+were written within a fortnight of his death. They describe him as
+"having completed his 74th year, and having thus lived longer than any
+of his ancestors for the last two centuries; that his existence had been
+without any great misfortune, and without any acute disease, and that he
+owed all praise and thanksgiving to the Supreme Being; that the next
+step would probably be his last; that he was now too much exhausted,
+both in mind and body, to be of service to his country, but was
+fortunate in leaving his children well and happy; and that he now waited
+the Divine will with becoming resignation."
+
+He died without disease, and through mere exhaustion of nature, in his
+75th year, in 1820, and was buried in Salisbury cathedral.
+
+Lord Malmesbury's reputation ranked very high in the diplomatic circles
+of the Continent. He was a clear-headed, well-informed, and active
+minister--sagacious enough to see his way through difficulties which
+would have perplexed inferior men, and bold enough to act according to
+his own opinion, where feebler minds would have ruined all, by waiting
+for the tardy wisdom of others. Talleyrand, a first-rate judge on such
+subjects, said of him, in his epigrammatic style--"I think that Lord
+Malmesbury was the ablest minister whom you had in his time. It was
+hopeless to get before him; all that could be done was to follow him
+close. If one let him have the last word, he contrived always to have
+the best of the argument." He seems to have been a thorough Englishman
+in the highest sense of the word, and to have had the loftiest opinion
+of the power and principles of England; not from any fantastic
+prejudice, but from the experience of a long life, with the best
+opportunities of forming an unprejudiced judgment. We have already
+mentioned his declared opinion after living long abroad, and as a great
+diplomatic functionary, living under the most advantageous circumstances
+of foreign society; that any Englishman who, after a residence abroad,
+prefers the Continent to his own country, is beyond all question a man
+of gross and contemptible mind, and incapable of taking a "common-sense
+view" of the subject. We have his constant testimony, that "as there is
+nothing equal to England on the face of the earth, so no exertion on the
+part of her people can be too great in defence of her freedom and
+honour." In conformity with this matured conviction, and reigning
+principle of his heart, he chose as the motto for his coronet--
+
+    "Ubique patriam reminisci."{B}
+
+Mr Harris's first visit to the Continent was in 1767, when he set out on
+a tour to Holland, Prussia, and Poland, remaining for some time at
+Berlin, where he had the advantage of seeing the cleverest, though the
+most eccentric, of all sovereigns, Frederick the Great. A number of
+traits of character are given, of various degrees of force, but all
+expressive. The king's chief amusement was playing on the flute, on
+which he performed very well for an amateur, though, compared with the
+professional performers, he necessarily made rather an unkingly figure.
+Frederick, who was afraid of nothing else, was so much afraid of failure
+in his flute playing, that whenever he had a new piece of music, he shut
+himself up in his closet some hours beforehand, to practise it; and
+although no one was permitted to be present at those concerts except a
+very few select friends, he was always observed to be remarkably nervous
+at the commencement. He had a fine collection of flutes, all made by the
+same man, and for which he paid a hundred ducats a-piece. He had an
+attendant whose sole office was to keep those flutes in order. During
+the war, when his finances were reduced to so low an ebb that he paid
+bad coin to every one, he took care that his flute-maker should be paid
+in good coin, lest, for bad money, he should give him bad flutes. Royal
+architecture is not always fortunate. It is observed that Louis XIV.
+built his famous Versailles in a swampy hollow, when he had the noble
+terrace of St Germain before him. Frederick built his Sans-Souci in a
+marshy meadow, while he had a fine hill within sight. Unhappily _we_
+have but little to boast of in the location of our modern palaces. The
+site of Buckingham Palace seems to have been chosen with no other object
+than to discover which was the superior annoyance, the smoke of
+steam-engines or the vapours of a swamp; and this was chosen with one of
+the finest possible situations within half a mile of it, in the centre
+of Hyde Park. Her Majesty's palace at Brighton has been located with
+exactly the same curious perversion of taste; the hills to the north of
+that very handsome town offering one of the noblest situations that can
+be conceived--a fine land view, and an unobstructed sweep of the ocean:
+but the evil genius of building prevailed, and the palace is fixed in a
+gloomy bottom, from which it can be overlooked by every body, and from
+which nothing can be seen. Frederick, though sometimes superb in his
+expenses, was habitually penurious. He seems to have thought that war
+was the only thing on which it was worth his while to spend money. The
+salaries of his gentlemen and attendants were all on the narrowest
+scale. Lord Malmesbury observes that even the Prince of Dessau's
+marriage, at which he was present, exhibited this penury. All the
+apartments, except those immediately used for supper or cards, were
+lighted with a single candle. The supper had no dessert; the wines were
+bad; their quantity stinted. On his asking, after dancing, for some wine
+and water, he was answered--"the wine is all gone, but you may have some
+tea;" and this was a peculiarly distinguished party. He saw the king
+himself directing the servants in lighting up the ball-room, and telling
+them where to put the candles. Whilst this operation was performing, the
+queen, the royal family, and the company, were waiting literally in the
+dark; as the king did not begin this ceremony till supper was finished,
+and no one dared to give orders to have it done. Frederick, when a young
+man, was intended for the husband of a British princess. This was a
+match of his mother's construction. But the old king, who hated George
+II., threatened to cut off his son's head for his presumption. The
+English king called the Prussian "my brother the sergeant;" the Prussian
+retaliated by calling the English king "my brother the dancing-master."
+This hostility amounted to a mixture of the profane and the ludicrous.
+When the old king was seized with his mortal illness, he asked whether
+"it was necessary to forgive all his enemies." On receiving the proper
+answer, he said to the Queen--"Dorothy, write to your brother that I
+forgive him all the evil that he has done me; but wait till I'm dead
+first." A good repartee of Sir Andrew Mitchell on the battle of Quebec,
+is mentioned. "Is it true," said the king to him, "that, after all, you
+have taken Quebec?" "Yes, sire," said Sir Andrew Mitchell the envoy, "by
+the help of Providence." "What!" said the king, "is Providence among
+your allies?" "Yes," said the envoy, "and the only one among then who
+demands _no subsidy_."
+
+Sir Charles Williams wrote to one of the queen's marshals a letter
+introducing Lord Essex, ludicrously finishing with--"You may be sure
+that it is not he who had his head cut off in the time of Elizabeth."
+The marshal, not perfectly understanding this, but depending on his
+information, introduced him in this style to her majesty--"Madam, my
+Lord Essex; and I assure your majesty it is not he who was decapitated
+by Queen Elizabeth."
+
+Frederick, sending a minister to Denmark who complained of the smallness
+of his salary, and said that he could keep neither an equipage nor a
+table; the king's remark to him was--"You are a prodigal; you ought to
+know that it is more healthy to go on foot than it is to go in a
+carriage; and that, so far as eating is concerned, another man's table
+is always the best."
+
+At this period Poland was in a state of great confusion. The Empress of
+Russia had marched an army into it for the purpose, as she declared, of
+allowing the popular representatives to act freely, while the king
+regarded himself as little better than her prisoner. Repnin, the Russian
+ambassador, actually commanded every thing; and the principal nobility
+of Poland were compelled to be his agents. Of course, this state of
+things never could have occurred in any country where the tone of
+manners was high; and Poland, though the people were brave, and the
+nobility in general patriotic, unquestionably fell by its own vices.
+The portrait drawn of Prince Radzivil is the reverse of flattering, but
+it is characteristic:--
+
+"Prince Radzivil, the marshal of the confederation, was one of the most
+powerful princes of Poland. His revenues were nearly equal to half a
+million sterling a-year, though they were at this period much diminished
+by Russian ravages. He had at one time an army of eight thousand man,
+with which he opposed the Imperial progress. He afterwards became the
+tool of the Russian policy, and was rewarded with the first palatinate
+of the kingdom. He gave a masquerade on the empress's birthday to near
+three thousand masks; and it was calculated that, besides the other
+wines, they drank a thousand bottles of champagne." The prodigality of a
+Polish feast exceeds all comprehension. This prince kept open house on
+such a scale, that his five-and-twenty cooks were scarcely able to
+supply his table. The great article of luxury in Poland was Hungary
+wine, which they had in great perfection, but which was very costly.
+Champagne was drunk as cider. The multitude of servants in a Polish
+establishment must have been ruinous. Prince Czartoriski's personal
+attendants and servants amounted to three hundred and seventy-five.
+Those in his country-house were still more numerous. His troops amounted
+to four thousand men. Prince Repnin, though of the Greek church, which
+abounds in forms and ceremonies, and in fasts exceeds all others, had so
+little regard for the forms of his religion, that he ordered a play to
+be acted on Ash Wednesday at Warsaw. Towards Christmas 1767, Lord
+Malmesbury, then Mr Harris, was at the house of a Polish nobleman in the
+hunting season. He observed to the king that he had never seen him in
+better spirits. "Ah!" was the royal answer, "it is very pleasant to
+delude one's self sometimes."
+
+In 1768 Mr Harris began his diplomatic life as secretary of legation
+under Sir James Gray, then British minister at the court of Madrid.
+
+He set out from Paris on the last day of the year, and after
+six-and-twenty days' journey, in which he loitered but two days on the
+road, accomplished the eleven hundred miles without accident.
+
+Though accustomed to Popish countries, the Spanish ceremonials of the
+Holy Week seem to have surprised him. In the streets was kept a second
+carnival, with a peculiar costume. The court and the higher orders wore
+black velvet, with flame-coloured waistcoats and sleeves trimmed with
+gold; the citizens left their shops, and spent the day in the streets.
+The king on Holy Thursday visited seven churches, washed the feet of
+twelve paupers, and afterwards served them at dinner. From Friday till
+Saturday all was silence, and no coaches were permitted in the streets.
+On Saturday at noon the bells rang, the people shouted, the coaches
+moved again, and all was clamour. From a personal knowledge of the
+people, Mr Harris pronounced that their defects arose from their
+religion and from their priests; both of which, by keeping the lower
+orders in a state of mendicity and the higher in a state of ignorance,
+prevent the progress of the nation. Even at this period, their dislike
+of the French was contemptuous and strongly marked.
+
+The life of a diplomatic man is not unlike the life of a naval officer.
+He has frequent opportunities of signalizing himself in a small way. The
+cabinet is the admiral, commanding a large force, and acting on a large
+scale. The diplomatist is the captain of the frigate, thrown out at a
+distance to make his observations, and enabled to exhibit his
+intrepidity and talent, through, from the smallness of his means, the
+results may be equally small. In 1769, Sir James Gray returning to
+England, left Mr Harris behind him as _charge d'affaires_. In the next
+year Spain, always jealous of any foreign approach to her South American
+possessions, fitted out a fleet for the purpose of expelling the British
+colony from the Falkland Isles. Harris acted spiritedly on this
+occasion. He instantly made so strong a representation to the Spanish
+minister, the Marquis Grimaldi, that he threw him into evident alarm.
+The letter to the British ministry which Harris wrote on the subject,
+satisfied them of the advantage of making a vigorous remonstrance. The
+result to the country was, that the colony, which had been seized, was
+restored, and that the officer who seized it was disgraced by the
+Spanish government. To Harris the whole transaction was regarded as
+honourable, and entitling him to the favour of his government. The
+result was, his being appointed, in 1771, as minister at the court of
+the most subtle and busy monarch of Europe, Frederick the Second.
+
+We now come to the partition of Poland, the most momentous transaction
+of modern times; excepting the French Revolution, if even that
+revolution was not its consequence. Mr Harris makes his first
+communication on this important subject in March 1772. If we read his
+whole letter, the brevity of his announcement is a model even to
+diplomacy. He thus states the event to Lord Suffolk, then secretary of
+state.
+
+"Just as I am going to make up my packet, I am informed that a treaty of
+partition, disposing of several parts of Poland, was signed at
+Petersburg on the 15th of last month, and that as soon as the
+certificates can be exchanged between the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and
+Russia, a congress will be held at Warsaw." A few statements respecting
+the Prussian officers dispatched to the Polish frontier are given; and
+this seems to be the whole announcement of one of the most atrocious
+acts of perfidy and blood in the memory of Europe.
+
+The French Revolution was begun on grounds independent of foreign
+disturbances. But no man can read the annals of the French war, without
+a conviction, that one of its providential purposes was the punishment
+of the three monarchies which had perpetrated this atrocity. Within a
+brief period from the first ruin of Polish independence, the French
+armies began those sweeping conquests which were destined especially to
+ravage Prussia, Austria, and Russia. The punishment seemed even to bear
+something like a proportion to the degree of guilt in each of the
+parties. The original proposer of the partition was Frederick, the
+strenuous participator was Catharine, and the unwilling, though
+consenting accomplice, was Joseph. Before that war was over, Napoleon
+reduced Prussia to the lowest condition of a conquered country,
+plundered her of millions of gold, held her fortresses by his garrisons,
+and treated her like a province. His invasion of Russia was next in
+havoc: the ravage of the country, the repulse and slaughter of her brave
+and patriotic armies, and the destruction of her ancient capital, were
+_her_ share of the punishment. Austria suffered, but her suffering was
+of a lighter order--defeat in the field, havoc of the people, and the
+double capture of her capital; yet those wounds were rapidly healed, and
+the close of the war saw Austria taking a higher rank in Europe. Those
+struggles and sufferings extended over nearly a quarter of a century of
+unexampled bloodshed. It is remarkable that a project so fully entitled
+to excite the vigilance of all courts, seems to have been almost wholly
+overlooked by the English ministry; Lord Suffolk, in his confidential
+answer to the ambassador, simply styling it a curious transaction; and
+even in the more advanced stage of the affair, when the attention of the
+cabinet was called to it by the memorials of the Polish king and people,
+all that could be obtained was a verbal answer, evidently declining any
+interference on the subject, and contenting itself with the avoidance of
+approbation. The result of this singular negligence distinctly points
+out the course which should be taken by England in her continental
+policy. Her natural office is that of mediator and protector.
+Entertaining no views of conquest for herself, it is her duty to repress
+them in all others. If, in 1772, she had instantly issued a strong
+remonstrance to the three governments, it would have acted as an appeal
+to the reason of Europe. A fleet sent to the Baltic in support of that
+remonstrance would have acted upon the fears of the aggressors, and
+Poland would have been saved. The blood of the thousands shed in the war
+of independence would have been spared--the great crime of the century
+would have been partially avoided--and its punishment, in the shape of
+the revolutionary war, might never have been inflicted. The diplomatic
+and formal portion of this fatal event was thus announced by the
+ambassador to the British cabinet:--"Berlin, 19th September 1772.--I
+received a message from Count Finckenstein yesterday morning, desiring
+to speak to me between twelve and one. On my waiting on him, he
+informed me that his Prussian majesty having come to an agreement with
+the courts of Vienna and Petersburg to renew certain ancient claims they
+had on parts of the kingdom of Poland, they had instructed their
+respective ministers at the court of Warsaw to signify their intentions
+to the king and republic, by presenting him with a declaration on this
+subject.
+
+"That his Prussian majesty, desirous of seizing every opportunity of
+showing his friendship and attention to the king, had ordered him, Count
+Finckenstein, to take the earliest moment of acquainting me with this
+event, and at the same time to give me a copy of the declaration, which
+I here enclose--that his _charge d'affaires_ in London had likewise
+received orders to inform the king's ministers on this subject, and to
+communicate to them the declaration."
+
+The reply of the English minister to this momentous announcement,
+exhibits, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary instances of
+ministerial negligence on record. On a subject which might have moved
+the very stones to mutiny, and which, in its consequences, involved the
+interests of all Europe, the only answer of the King of England was
+contained in the following note, written in French:--"The king is
+willing to suppose that the three courts have convinced themselves of
+the justice of their respective pretensions, although his majesty is not
+informed of the motives of their conduct." "You will observe," adds Lord
+Suffolk, "in the terns in which I express myself, that though this mode
+of expression was preferable to an absolute silence, the utmost caution
+has been used." The caution was indeed sufficiently circumspect, for it
+was wholly useless; and the consequence was perfect impunity to the
+perpetrators.
+
+Frederick was the great infidel of his day. He had been so long involved
+in hostilities with Austria, the most superstitious court in Europe,
+that he adopted "free-thinking" as a part of his policy; and his
+eagerness for European fame connected him with Voltaire and the French
+infidels, whose wit and wickedness had made them the leaders of
+philosophical fashion. But there is a principle of belief in human
+nature which revenges itself on the infidel. There are no men more
+liable to groundless fears, than those who reject the object of
+legitimate awe. The man who will not believe in a deity, has often
+believed in witchcraft; and those who will not acknowledge a Providence,
+have often trembled before a conjurer. At this period, Frederick had
+grown peculiarly anxious and irascible--a temper for which the
+ambassador accounts by a sudden impulse of superstition. He
+says--"Amongst several other incredible follies in so great a character,
+he has that of not entirely disbelieving judicial astrology; and I am
+told, from one whose authority is not despicable, that the fear of a
+prediction being this year fulfilled, which was pronounced by a Saxon
+fortune-teller whom his majesty was weak enough some time ago to
+consult, dwells on his mind, and augments the sourness of a disposition
+naturally crabbed. I should have paid no attention to these reports,
+which savour so much of the nursery, had I not myself observed him
+displeased at a mourning coat at his levee, and seen his countenance
+visibly alter on being informed of any man's dying a sudden death."
+
+We then have a curious letter from Lord Grantham, the ambassador at
+Madrid, giving an account of an expedition to Algiers, which derives an
+interest from the present state of African affairs.
+
+"You will learn that a very unsuccessful attempt has been made at
+Algiers, and that the Spanish troops have been repulsed with a loss and
+disablement of upwards of 5000 men. The fleet, consisting of 450 sail,
+and carrying about 40,000 men, sailed from Carthagena, and reached
+Algiers the 1st inst., (July 1775.) On the night of the 7th, the
+infantry, and two detachments of about 8000 men each, landed. The first
+detachment advanced too eagerly, could not be supported to any purpose,
+and, after thirteen hours' engagement, all that could regained the
+ships. But the loss of killed and wounded, first estimated at 3000,
+certainly exceeded five or six. The transports with the army are
+returned to Carthagena and Alicante. I leave you to judge how deep an
+impression this severe failure makes here. The Marquis de la Romana is
+killed--all the generals, except Buck, are wounded. Among the wounded
+are twenty-eight officers of the Spanish guards, and twelve out of
+seventeen engineers."
+
+The court of Frederick would form a singular contrast to what is called
+the British Household, composed of the great officers of state. "You are
+not ignorant," says Harris, writing to William Eden, "that the great
+officers of the court are merely titular, and never allowed to have any
+authority annexed to their office. This is given to some menial
+servants, who are constantly about the king's person, and his treasurer
+was a Russian named Deiss, in whom his Majesty placed more confidence
+than he appears to have deserved; since for maladministration, or some
+equally notorious fault, his majesty a few days ago, dismissed him from
+his high post, and ordered him to be employed as a drummer in a marching
+regiment. Deiss affected to submit patiently to his sentence, and, on
+being arrested, begged leave of the officer only to go into his room,
+adjoining the king's writing-closet, to fetch his hat. This being
+granted, he immediately locked the door, took a pistol from his pocket,
+and shot himself through the head. The king heard and was alarmed by the
+report of a pistol so near him, and being told what had happened, he
+pitied Deiss, said that he was out of his senses, and ordered all that
+he died worth to be distributed equally among his children. Deiss had
+charged the pistol with small-shot and crooked nails, and put the muzzle
+of it into his mouth."
+
+A striking anecdote is given of General Seidlitz, the officer who formed
+the Prussian cavalry. When only a lieutenant, he happened to be near the
+king on a bridge which crossed the Oder. The king asked him, "if both
+the avenues of the bridge were possessed by the enemy, what he would do
+to disengage himself." Seidlitz, without making an answer, immediately
+leaped his horse over the rails into the river, and notwithstanding its
+breadth and rapidity, swam safe ashore. The king, who took it for
+granted that he must be drowned, on seeing him come towards him, said in
+French, "_Major_, I beg of you not to run such hazards in future."
+
+Despotic power has certainly great advantages, in its rapid
+administration of justice, and sometimes in its reaching offences which
+would altogether baffle trial by jury. Frederick was ridiculously fond
+of exhibiting his musical attainments; and among the other preparatives
+for the reception of the Russian grand-duke (afterwards the Emperor
+Paul) at Berlin, was a piece of music composed by the king. The husband
+of the first singer at the opera, the well-known Madame Mara, was
+imprudent enough to observe of this performance, that "the composer knew
+more about soldiers than music." The king ordered him to be instantly
+made over to the _corps-de-garde_, with orders to punish him, enough to
+make him more cautious of criticism in future. The soldiers accordingly,
+as there happened to be no punishment in the military regulations for
+impertinent remarks on royal amateurs, took the affair into their own
+hands. They began by dressing him in a uniform, covering his face with a
+huge pair of whiskers, and loading him with the heaviest firelock which
+they could find, they then made him perform the manual exercise for two
+hours--accompanying the lesson with all the usual discipline of the
+cane--then ordered him to dance and sing, finishing their discipline by
+making the surgeon take from him a large quantity of blood, obviously to
+reduce the heat of temper which had given rise to such impertinence.
+After this lesson he was sent back to his wife. Severe as it may have
+appeared, Harris regarded it as earned by many previous impertinences of
+the same kind, but of which it may fairly be presumed this was the last.
+
+At last the grand-duke arrived, and was received with the most unusual
+pomp and ceremony by the Prussian court. By some curious instance of
+choice, Sunday is selected on the Continent as the day for every thing
+in the shape of show. The Russian prince made his public entry into
+Berlin on Sunday, and was met by the trading companies in uniform, by
+escorts of cavalry, and the equipages of the king and royal family. In
+the evening, after a sumptuous dinner, there was a concert and ball.
+The rest of the week was similarly occupied. The grand-duke had come to
+demand the Princess of Wirtemberg in marriage. When we recollect the
+fate of this unhappy monarch, murdered on the Russian throne, and
+contrast it with the brilliancy of his early reception in the world, and
+his actual powers when master of the diadem, a deeper lesson of the
+instability of human fortune has seldom been given to man.
+
+A laughable anecdote of Russian and Prussian discipline is told. All the
+domestics belonging to the Imperial family of Russia have military rank;
+the grand-duke's coachman and the king's going one evening to drink
+together, a dispute arose about precedence. "What is your rank?" said
+the Prussian. "A lieutenant-colonel," said the other. "Ay, but I am a
+colonel," said the German, and walked first into the ale-house. This
+came to the king's ears. The _colonel_ was sent for three days to
+prison, and received fifty blows of the cane.
+
+The ambassador now obtained a new instance of the favour of his court.
+He was recalled from Prussia in 1776, and shortly after was appointed to
+the most important of our embassies at that period, the embassy to
+Russia.
+
+The politics of England at this period bore an appearance of perplexity,
+which evidently alarmed her cabinet, and which as evidently excited the
+hopes of her enemies. At this period she had two enemies in Europe,
+hostile in every thing except to the extent of open war--France, always
+jealous and irreconcilable; and Prussia, which, from her dread of
+England's interference in her Polish usurpations, pretended to believe
+that England was conspiring with Austria against the safety of her
+dominions. The feebleness with which the American war was carried on,
+had deceived Europe into the belief that the power of England was really
+on the point of decay. Foreigners are never capable of appreciating the
+reality of English power. In the first place, because they prefer the
+romantic to the real; and in the next, because, living under despotisms,
+they have never seen, nor can comprehend, the effect of liberty upon
+national resources. Thus, when they see a nation unwilling to go to
+war--or, what is the next thing to reluctance, waging it tardily--they
+imagine that this tardiness has its origin in national weakness; and it
+is not until the palpable necessity of self-defence calls out the whole
+energy of the people, that the foreigner ever sees the genuine strength
+of England. The capture of two small armies in America, neither of them
+more numerous than the advanced guard of a continental army, had given
+the impression that the military strength of England was gone for ever.
+Thus the European courts thought themselves entitled to insult her; and
+thus so diminutive a power as Prussia, however guided by an able and
+politic prince, was suffered to despise her opinion. But the English
+ministry themselves of that day palpably shared the general delusion;
+and, to judge from their diplomatic correspondence, they seemed actually
+to rely for the safety of England on the aid of the foreign courts. They
+had yet to learn the lesson, taught them by the Revolutionary war, that
+England is degraded by dependence of any kind; that she is a match for
+the world in arms; that the cause of Europe is dependent on _her_; and
+that the more boldly, directly, and resolutely she defies France, and
+its allies and slaves, the more secure she is of victory. In the pursuit
+of this false policy of conciliation and supplication, Harris was sent
+to Petersburg, to counteract Prussia with the empress, and to form an
+offensive and defensive alliance with Catharine. Count Panin was at that
+time prime minister--a man of the old ministerial school, who regarded
+diplomacy as the legitimate science of chicane, was a master of all the
+littleness of his art, and was wholly under the influence of the King of
+Prussia. The count was all consent, and yet contrived to keep the
+ambassador at arm's-length; while the empress, equally crafty, and
+equally determined not to commit herself, managed him with still greater
+subtlety.
+
+In speaking of the Empress Catharine, it is impossible to avoid alluding
+to the scandals of her court. The death of her husband, suspicious as it
+was, had left her sole mistress of an empire, and of the power of public
+opinion, in a country where a sneer might send the offender to Siberia.
+The wretchedly relaxed religion of the Greek church, where a trivial
+penance atones for every thing, and ceremonial takes the place of
+morals, as it inevitably does wherever a religion is encumbered with
+unnecessary forms, could be no restraint on the conduct of a daring and
+imperious woman. By some of that easy casuistry which reconciles the
+powerful to vice, she had fully convinced herself that she ought, for
+the sake of her throne, never to submit to matrimonial ties again; and
+she adopted the notorious and guilty alternative of living with a
+succession of partners. The ambassador's letters frequently allude to
+this disgraceful topic, and always with the contempt and reprobation
+which were so amply its due. "The worst enemies"--such is his
+expression--"which the empress has, are flattery and her own passions.
+She never turns a deaf ear to the first, let it be ever so gross; and
+her inclination to gratify the latter appears to grow upon her with
+age."
+
+The policy of Russia had two grand objects, both of them wholly
+inconsistent with the policy of England; and therefore rendering the
+ambassador's zeal wholly useless. The King of Prussia favoured both, and
+therefore commanded the highest influence with the empress. It was thus
+the impossible task of the unfortunate diplomatist, to convince a
+haughty and self-sufficient woman against her will. Of course, failure
+was the necessary consequence. But in the mean time, dining and dancing,
+feasting and frivolity, went on with Asiatic splendour. The birth of the
+grand-duke's son, "Constantine," (expressly so named with a view to
+Turkish objects,) gave occasion to fetes which it tasked the whole power
+of Russian panegyric to describe. The empress gave one in the period of
+the Carnival, ultra-imperially magnificent. The dessert and supper were
+set out with jewels to the amount of upwards of two millions sterling!
+and at the tables of macao, the fashionable game, besides the stake in
+money, a diamond of fifty rubles' value was given by her majesty to each
+of those who got _nine_, the highest point of the game. One hundred and
+fifty diamonds were distributed in this manner.
+
+But a new event occurred to stir the lazy politics of Europe--that act of
+infinite treachery on the part of the French government--the breach of
+treaty with England, and the alliance with America. The menaces of war
+which are held out at this moment by the Jacobin party, and its insolent
+eagerness to turn every trivial incident into a mortal quarrel, give a
+new and additional interest to this former act of desperate perfidy. But
+let it be remembered with what tremendous vengeance that perfidy was
+punished--that the American alliance was the precursor of the French
+republic; and that the long train of hideous calamities which broke down
+the French throne, banished the nobility, and decimated the population,
+dates its origin from the day when that fatal treaty was signed. A letter
+from Sir Gilbert Elliott (afterwards Lord Minto) to the ambassador,
+(March 20, 1778,) thus briefly communicates the intelligence:--"We had
+just passed the bills for repealing some of the obnoxious American acts,
+and for enabling the king to appoint his commissioners to treat with
+America with very large powers, when the report of the French treaty with
+the colonies became very prevalent, and obtained credit here. Government,
+however, had certainly obtained no authentic account of it which is
+singular enough; and Lord North positively disclaimed all knowledge of
+it. A loan of six millions was made on very hard terms for the public,
+much owing to the report of the French treaty; the three per cent consols
+being at 661/2--monstrously low. The first payment was fixed for Tuesday
+last. On the Friday before, the Marquis de Noailles delivered a paper to
+Lord Weymouth, communicating the 'treaty of commerce and alliance' with
+the colonies, and acknowledging their independency. The manner and style
+of the communication were inexpressibly insolent, and were no doubt
+meant as a studied affront and challenge. On Saturday, all the French in
+London were sent to the opera, plays, clubs, coffee-houses, and
+ale-houses, to publish the intelligence, which they did with their
+natural impertinence. On Tuesday, the two Houses received a message from
+the king, informing them of the communication from the French
+ambassador--that he had recalled his ambassador from Versailles; and
+assuring them that he would exert every means in his power to protect
+the honour and interest of his kingdom. In answer to which, the two
+Houses voted an address, promising to support him with our lives and
+fortunes. Opposition, like _good patriots_, in answer to this message,
+proposed to address the king to remove his ministers; and C. Fox assured
+us, 'he thought an invasion a _much better thing_ than the continuance
+of the present administration.' When this proposal was negatived, they
+therefore refused their assent to our address. There is no declaration
+of war yet; but as it is quite certain, and as France will undoubtedly
+act immediately, I do not see what we gain by delaying it. I hope at
+least we shall begin taking their ships immediately. The militia is to
+be called out; credit is dreadfully low--stock was a few days ago at 60.
+The French are poorer than we--that's something."
+
+Exaggeration is a propensity which seems common to ambassadors. We
+certainly have never seen an ambassadorial correspondence, in which the
+most groundless views did not make a large part of its communications.
+The British diplomatist in Russia was unquestionably a shrewd man, and
+yet his letters abound in predictions of Russian ruin. His descriptions
+run in this style:--"Great expenses, and nothing to show for them. The
+army in a state of decay; the navy incomplete and ill-equipped; the
+political system languid, and such as, if pursued, must ultimately
+reduce this immense mass of power to that state of Asiatic
+insignificancy from which it so lately emerged."
+
+And this high-coloured and rash statement, it is to be remembered, was
+not a page in a popular novel or in a summer's "Tour," but was given as
+the deliberate opinion of a statesman conversant in continental
+politics, and addressed to the government of this country. He seems to
+have altogether overlooked the boundless territory and growing
+population of Russia, her forty millions of men--a number already
+exceeding that of any other kingdom in Europe--the inaccessible nature
+of her dominions, the implicit and Asiatic devotion of her subjects, the
+unrivaled vigour of her despotism, and the fact that she had but that
+moment secured an immense tract of Polish territory, and was stripping
+the Turks on the other side--that to the north she was touching on the
+Vistula, and to the south had nearly reached the Danube. The subsequent
+career of Russia is a still stronger refutation. Every war, instead of
+shaking her power, has only given it additional strength and stability.
+Like England, she has gone on with almost involuntary but rapid
+progress; and the period may arrive when there will be but two nations
+left in Europe--England the ruler of the seas, and Russia holding the
+kingdoms of the Continent in vassalage. It is true, that the ambassador
+adverts now and then to the inaccessible nature of the Russian
+territory, and the success of the national arms; but the former would be
+but a negative source of power, and the latter he uniformly attributed
+to good-luck. He ought to lave attributed them to the causes which would
+have produced the same effect in any age of the world--to the mastery of
+an immense population; to the daring of a head of empire possessed of
+remarkable ability, and filled with projects of unbounded supremacy; and
+to the growth of a new generation of soldiers and statesmen, encouraged
+to the highest exertion of their talents by the most munificent
+rewards--the policy of the empress making the evidence of courage and
+genius in the soldier the only requisite for promotion; and exhibiting
+the strongest personal interest of the sovereign in the elevation of
+those able servants of the crown. The consequence was, success in all
+the enterprises of Catharine, the rapid advance of the nation in
+European influence, the establishment of an insecure throne on the
+strongest footing of public security, the popularity of a despotism, the
+comparative civilization of a people half Asiatic, and who but half a
+century before had been barbarians, and the personal attachment of the
+nation to Catharine in a degree scarcely less than adoration. The chief
+cause of this triumphant state of things, beyond all question, was the
+high spirit, the generosity, and the affability of the empress. The
+unhappy transactions of her private life are matters of painful record;
+and the letters of the ambassador are full of the reprobation which the
+memoirs of the time authenticate. But we have no gratification in
+dwelling on such topics. We infinitely prefer paying the tribute due to
+great talents splendidly exercised, to the public achievements of a
+powerful intellect, and to the superiority which this munificent
+promoter of the genius of all classes of her people exhibited to all the
+haughty, exclusive, and selfish sovereigns of her time.
+
+The ambassador now found it necessary to look for support against the
+Prussian propensities of the minister; and he had recourse to Potemkin
+and the Orloffs, as the antagonists of Panin. Potemkin was one of the
+most extraordinary men whom the especial circumstances of the court and
+country raised into public distinction. He had been but a cornet of
+cavalry on the memorable night when Catharine, uncertain whether she was
+mounting a throne or a scaffold, put herself at the head of the guards,
+and deposed her husband. As she rode along, observing that she had not a
+military plume in her hat, she turned to ask for one; the cornet
+instantly plucked out his own, and presented it to her--as Raleigh threw
+his cloak on the ground for Elizabeth to walk over. These gallant acts
+are never lost upon a woman of the superior order of mind. The favour of
+the throne followed alike in both instances; and Potemkin soon became
+the guide of the Russian councils. It was the custom of the French
+memoir writers--a race who always aimed at pungency of narrative in
+preference to truth, and who, for their generation, performed the part
+of general libellers--to represent Potemkin as a savage, devoted to
+drinking, and whose influence was solely the result of his grossness.
+But the conferences which he held with this British ambassador, and the
+extracts of his opinions given in these letters, show him to have been a
+man of remarkable clearness of comprehension, dexterity of resource, and
+readiness of knowledge. It is obvious that nothing but the exertion of
+distinguished skill in the ways of courts, could have accomplished the
+objects which no other man of his time attained with such complete
+success. In a court of contention and favouritism, he retained supreme
+influence to the last; released from the labours of office, he possessed
+more than the power of a minister--and nominally a subject, he was
+scarcely less than emperor. Boundless wealth, the highest rank, and
+every honour which the empire could lavish on its first noble, were the
+prizes of Potemkin.
+
+People at home are in the habit of looking upon the diplomatic body
+abroad as a collection of very subtle and sagacious personages--a
+collection of sages. A nearer view sometimes strips the idea down to
+humble dimensions. Sir James Harris (he had now obtained the Order of
+the Bath, which he seems to have deserved by his diligence) thus
+sketches the new ambassadorial body--a general change having just taken
+place. "The Imperial, Danish, French, Prussian, and Spanish ministers
+are all altered, and one from Naples is added to our corps." The
+Neapolitan he describes as "utterly unfit for business;" Count Cobenzel,
+the Austrian ambassador, "as a man of excellent parts and great
+activity;" Goertz, the Prussian, "a very able and artful man." So far as
+this point, the honour of the corps is sustained; but then come the
+ciphers. Monsieur Verac, the cunning French envoy, is "more amiable in
+company than formidable in cabinet." The Swede and the Saxon ministers,
+"most perfectly insignificant and overpowered with debts." The Dutch
+resident, Swartz, "a man neither of birth nor character, totally
+improper for the post he fills. The Swiss resident, having no other
+business than the lawsuits of his countrymen," &c.
+
+Of the culpable habits of the empress we shall say no more. The respect
+which this country feels for the character of Emperor Nicholas, and the
+total contrast which that character presents to the especial failings of
+his ancestor, justly prevent our wandering into those observations. But
+we have a curious instance of the skill and adroitness of this memorable
+woman, in an interview in which she was wholly left to herself, and yet
+succeeded perfectly in what is presumed to be the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of
+diplomacy--the art of disguising her intentions. The British
+ambassador, after a long period of comparative failure, had succeeded in
+obtaining an audience through Potemkin--who always pretended to be
+powerless, yet who could do every thing which he desired. The
+appointment to meet the ambassador was made, and Potemkin prefaced his
+service by the following singular sketch of his sovereign. "Do not
+expect that it is in the power of any living being to prevent her from
+concluding her favourite plan of armed neutrality. Content yourself with
+destroying the effects--the resolution is immovable. As it was conceived
+by _mistake_ and perfected by _vanity_, it is maintained by _pride_ and
+_obstinacy_. You well know the hold of those passions on a _female
+mind_; and if you attempt to slacken, you will only tighten the knot."
+
+One of the imperial valets then came to lead the ambassador to the
+interview; which he gives in French, and which he commenced in a strain
+which we hope will never be imitated again by any cabinet of England.
+
+"I have come to represent to your imperial majesty the _critical
+situation_ in which our affairs are at present. You know our reliance on
+you. We venture to _flatter_ ourselves that you will _avert the storm_,
+and reassure us as to our fears of having lost your friendship." If the
+expressions were not in print, we should scarcely have thought it
+possible that such crouching language could have been used. The
+ambassador, of course, is but the mouthpiece of his government. The
+blame must fall, not on the intelligent servant, but on the feeble
+masters. Who can wonder if the daring and haughty spirit of Catharine
+scoffed at the remonstrances, and despised the interests of a country,
+whose cabinet adopted language so unfitting the dignity and real power
+of the mighty British empire? The expressions of this dialogue would
+have been humiliating to the smallest of the "square-league"
+sovereignties of the Continent. The answer of the empress was precisely
+what she might have addressed to the envoy of Poland or the Crimea.
+"Sir, you are aware of my sentiments relative to your nation; they are
+equally sincere and invariable. But I have found so little return on
+your part, that I feel I ought not to consider you any longer among my
+friends."
+
+To this haughty tone, what is the reply of the ambassador?
+
+"It is in the hope that those sentiments were not _entirely effaced_,
+that I wished to address myself directly to your Majesty. But it was not
+_without fear_ that I approached you. Appearances only too strongly
+prove the impressions which you have received from our enemies." And so
+goes on the dialogue, like a scene in a play, see-sawing through six
+intolerable pages. How differently would Pitt's cabinet have acted, and
+how differently did it act! When the Russian councils menaced the
+seizure of even a paltry Turkish fortress on the Black Sea, the great
+minister ordered a fleet to be ready as _his_ negotiators; and though
+the factiousness of Opposition at the time prevented this manly
+demonstration of policy and justice, the evidence was given, in the
+reign of Paul, when a British fleet crushed the armed neutrality--that
+trick of French mountebanks imposing on the ambition of the north--and
+restored Russia to so full a sense of the power and the honour of
+England, that she sent her fleet into her safe keeping at the approach
+of Napoleon's invasion, and has been her fast and honourable ally ever
+since. "Cromwell's ambassador" is the true one for England at all times.
+A stout British squadron sent to the Baltic in 1780 would have
+wonderfully solved the difficulties of the British negotiation, have
+completely cleared the empress's conscience, have enlightened Count
+Panin's brains, and have convinced even the wily Potemkin himself that
+the art of political delusion was too dangerous a game to be tried
+against England.
+
+But the true value of history is to instruct the future. We are now in
+nearly the same relative position to France in which we were sixty-four
+years ago relative to Russia. We are exhibiting the same dilatoriness
+which we exhibited then, and we shall be fortunate if we escape the same
+consequences. A strong fleet sent to the Mediterranean would do more to
+calm the elements of strife effectually, than all the remonstrances of
+all our negotiators. Or, if the French were foolish enough to provoke a
+battle, a repetition of the 1st of June or the 21st of October would be
+the tranquillizer of a restless people, who can never suffer Europe to
+rest in peace but when they themselves have been taught the miseries of
+war.
+
+In justice to the cabinet of 1780, it must be acknowledged that the
+personal tone of the ambassador was criticised; and we thus find him
+making his diplomatic apology to Lord Stormont, then secretary for
+foreign affairs:--
+
+"I have often been conscious of the remark your lordship makes, and have
+myself felt that I was not acting up to the character of an English
+minister, in bestowing such _fulsome incense_ on the empress. But here,
+too, I was drawn from my system and principles by the conduct of my
+adversaries. They ever addressed her as a being of a superior nature;
+and as she goes near to think herself infallible, she expects to be
+approached with all the reverence due to a divinity." No excuse could be
+more unsatisfactory. If other men chose to bow down, there would have
+only been the more manliness, and the more effect too, in refusing to
+follow such an example.
+
+In 1783, the ambassador obtained permission to return to England. His
+correspondence at the period immediately previous, is remarkably
+interesting; and it is striking to see that the successive secretaries
+for the foreign department, under all changes of administration, formed
+the same view of the substantial policy of England. When, in 1783, Fox
+assumed the foreign seals, he thus writes to Harris, in the course of a
+long letter on the foreign policy of the cabinet:--"You will readily
+believe me, that my system of foreign politics was too deeply rooted to
+make it likely that I should have changed it. Alliances with the
+northern powers _ever have been, and ever will be, the system of every
+enlightened Englishman_."
+
+In the year following, Sir James Harris was appointed by Pitt to the
+Dutch embassy, to which he had been previously nominated by Fox, his
+friend and political leader. The appointment by the new cabinet was thus
+the strongest testimony to his talents. His letters from the Hague
+contain a very intelligent statement of the parties and principles which
+agitated Holland in 1787. The object was the establishment of a
+democracy and the extinction of the Stadtholderate, or at least its
+suppression as a hereditary dignity. The court of France was busy in
+this democratic intrigue; and its partial success unquestionably added
+new combustibles to the pile on which that unfortunate monarchy, in the
+hour of infatuation, was preparing to throw itself. The ambassador's
+language on this occasion is characteristic and memorable. In one of his
+despatches to the Marquis of Carmarthen, then secretary of state, he
+thus says:--
+
+"The infamy and profligacy of the French make me long to change my
+profession, and to fight them with a sharper instrument than a pen. It
+must be with those (not our pens, but our swords) that we must carry the
+mediation through, if we mean it should be attended with any success.
+There are strong reports of a popular insurrection in France:"--"_Si_
+Dieu voulait les punir par ou ils ont peche, comme j'admirerais la
+justice divine!" The remark was natural; it was almost prophetic; and it
+was on the eve of realization. In 1789, but two years after, the
+Revolution began.
+
+These volumes contain a great deal of extremely curious material,
+especially important to every man who may in future be employed in the
+foreign service of our diplomacy. They supply a model of the manner in
+which those offices may be most effectively sustained. We have already
+expressed dissatisfaction at the submissive style used in addressing the
+Russian empress. But in other instances, the language of the ambassador
+seems to have been prompt and plain. It is remarkable that England has,
+at the present time, arrived at a condition of European affairs bearing
+no slight resemblance to that of the period between 1783 and 1789. It is
+true that there will be no second French Revolution; one catastrophe of
+that terrible extent is enough for the world. But there are strong
+symptoms of those hostilities which the Bourbons were endeavouring to
+kindle against this country, for at least a dozen years before the
+Revolution which crushed their monarchy.
+
+Without any provocation on the part of England, any actual claim, or
+any desire whatever of war, this country finds itself suddenly made an
+object of perpetual insult on the part of all the active mind of France.
+The cry from every organ of public opinion seems to be, war with
+England, whether with or without cause. A violent clamour is raised for
+our national ruin; the resources of France are blazoned in all quarters;
+and the only contemplation popular in France is, how most suddenly and
+effectually French armies may be poured on our shores, our fields
+ravaged, our maritime cities burned, and our people massacred! It must
+be hoped that this detestable spirit does not reach higher than the
+Jacobin papers, and the villains by whom that principal part of the
+French press is conducted. Yet we find but little contradiction to it in
+even the more serious and authentic portion of the national sentiments.
+In such circumstances, it is only right to be prepared. We find also the
+still more expressive evidence of this spirit of evil, in the general
+conduct of the agents of France in her colonies--a habit of sudden
+encroachment, a growing arrogance, and a full exhibition of that bitter
+and sneering petulance, which was supposed to have been scourged out of
+the French by their desperate defeats towards the close of the war. All
+this insolence may, by possibility, pass away; but it also may go on to
+further inflammation, and it may be necessary to scourge it again; and
+this discipline, if once begun, must be carried through more effectually
+than when the Allies last visited Paris. The respect felt for the French
+king and his prime minister, as the friends of peace, naturally
+restrains the language with which aggression deserves to be reprobated.
+But the French government, if it desires to retain that respect, must
+exhibit its sincerity in making some substantial effort to preserve
+peace. No man of sense in Europe can believe in the necessity of the
+seizure of Algiers, nor in the necessity of the war with Morocco. But
+every man can see the influence of both on the freedom of the
+Mediterranean. The seizure of the British consul at Otaheite shows a
+spirit which must be summarily extinguished, or the preservation of
+peace will be impossible. In the mean time, we hear from France nothing
+but a cry for steam-ships, and threats of invasion. We ask, what has
+England done? Nothing to offend or injure: there is not even an
+allegation of any thing of the kind. But if war must come, woe be to
+those by whom it is begun! The history of all the wars of England with
+France, is one of French defeat. We have beaten the French by land, we
+have beaten them by sea; and, with the blessing of Heaven on the
+righteous cause and our own stout hands, we shall always beat them. We
+have beaten them on the soil of the stranger--we have beaten them on
+their own. From the fourteenth century, when English soldiers were
+masters of the half of France, down to Waterloo, we have always beaten
+France; and if we beat her under Napoleon, there can be no fear of our
+not beating her under a race so palpably his inferiors. All England
+deprecates war as useless, unnatural, and criminal. But the crime is
+solely on the head of the aggressor. Woe to those who begin the next
+war! It may be final.
+
+The late visit of the Emperor of Russia to this country, which so much
+perplexed the political circles of both France and England, now probably
+admits of elucidation. The emperor's visit has been followed by that of
+the ablest and most powerful diplomatist in his dominions, the Count
+Nesselrode, his foreign minister. For this visit, too, a speedy
+elucidation may be found. The visits of the King of Saxony, and the
+Princes of Prussia and Holland, also have their importance in this point
+of view; and the malignant insults of the French journals may have had a
+very influential share in contributing to the increased closeness of our
+connexion with the sovereignties of Germany and Russia. The maxim of
+Fox, that the northern alliances are the true policy of England, is as
+sound as ever. Still, we deprecate war--all rational men deprecate war;
+and we speak in a feeling which we fully believe to be universal in
+England, that nothing would be a higher source of rejoicing in Great
+Britain, than a _safe_ peace with France, and harmony with all the
+nations of the world.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of
+Malmesbury._ Edited by his GRANDSON, the Third Earl. 2 vols.
+
+{B} "Every where to remember his country."
+
+
+
+
+POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.
+
+No. II.
+
+
+Goethe's love for the Fine Arts amounted almost to a passion. In his
+earlier years, he performed the painter's customary pilgrimage through
+Italy, and not merely surveyed, but studied with intense anxiety, the
+works of the great modern masters. A poet, if he understands the theory
+of his own calling, may learn much from pictures; for the analogy
+between the sister arts is very strong. The secret of preserving
+richness without glare, fulness without pruriency, and strength without
+exaggeration, must be attained alike by poet and painter, before either
+of them can take their rank among the chosen children of immortality. It
+is a common but most erroneous idea, that an artist is more indebted for
+success to inspiration, than to severe study. Unquestionably he must
+possess some portion of the former--that is, he must have within him the
+power to imagine and to create; for if he has not that, the fundamental
+faculty is wanting. But how different are the crude shapeless fancies,
+how meagre and uncertain the outlines of the mental sketch, from the
+warm, vivid, and glowing perfection of the matured and finished work! It
+is in the strange and indescribable process of moulding the rude idea,
+of giving due proportion to each individual part, and combining the
+whole into symmetry, that the test of excellence lies. _There_
+inspiration will help but little; and labour, the common doom of man in
+the loftiest as well as the lowest walks of life, is requisite to
+consummate the triumph.
+
+No man better understood, or more thoroughly acted upon the knowledge of
+this analogy, than Goethe. He wrought rigidly by the rule of the artist.
+Not one poem, however trifling might be the subject, did he suffer to
+escape from his hands, until it had received the final touches, and
+undergone the most thorough revision. So far did he carry this
+principle, that many of his lesser works seem absolutely mere
+transcripts or descriptions of pictures, where the sentiment is rather
+inferred than expressed; and in some, for example that which we are
+about to quote, he even brings before the reader what may be called the
+process of mental painting.
+
+
+CUPID AS A LANDSCAPE PAINTER
+
+      Once I sate upon a mountain,
+    Gazing on the mist before me;
+    Like a great grey sheet of canvass,
+    Shrouding all things in its cover,
+    Did it float 'twixt earth and heaven.
+
+      Then a child appear'd beside me;
+    Saying, "Friend, it is not seemly,
+    Thus to gaze in idle wonder,
+    With that noble breadth before thee.
+    Hast thou lost thine inspiration?
+    Hath the spirit of the painter
+    Died within thee utterly?"
+
+      But I turn'd and look'd upon him,
+    Speaking not, but thinking inly,
+    "Will he read a lesson now!"
+
+      "Folded hands," pursued the infant,
+    "Never yet have won a triumph.
+    Look! I'll paint for thee a picture
+    Such as none have seen before."
+
+      And he pointed with his finger,
+    Which like any rose was ruddy,
+    And upon the breadth of vapour
+    With that finger 'gan to draw.
+
+      First a glorious sun he painted,
+    Dazzling when I look'd upon it;
+    And he made the inner border
+    Of the clouds around it golden,
+    With the light rays through the masses
+    Pouring down in streams of splendour.
+    Then the tender taper summits
+    Of the trees, all leaf and glitter,
+    Started from the sullen void;
+    And the slopes behind them rising,
+    Graceful-lined in undulation,
+    Glided backwards one by one.
+    Underneath, be sure, was water;
+    And the stream was drawn so truly
+    That it seem'd to break and shimmer,
+    That it seem'd as if cascading
+    From the lofty rolling wheel.
+
+      There were flowers beside the brooklet;
+    There were colours on the meadow--
+    Gold and azure, green and purple,
+    Emerald and bright carbuncle.
+    Clear and pure he work'd the ether
+    As with lapis-lazuli,
+    And the mountains in the distance
+    Stretching blue and far away--
+    All so well, that I, in rapture
+    At this second revelation,
+    Turn'd to gaze upon the painter
+    From the picture which he drew.
+
+      "Have I not," he said, "convinced thee
+    That I know the painter's secret?
+    Yet the greatest is to come."
+
+      Then he drew with gentle finger,
+    Still more delicately pointed,
+    In the wood, about its margin,
+    Where the sun within the water
+    Glanced as from the clearest mirror,
+    Such a maiden's form!
+    Perfect shape in perfect raiment,
+    Fair young cheeks 'neath glossy ringlets,
+    And the cheeks were of the colour
+    Of the finger whence they came.
+
+      "Child," I cried, "what wond'rous master
+    In his school of art hath form'd thee,
+    That so deftly and so truly,
+    From the sketch unto the burnish,
+    Thou hast finish'd such a gem?"
+
+      As I spoke, a breeze arising
+    Stirr'd the tree-tops in the picture,
+    Ruffled every pool of water,
+    Waved the garments of the maiden;
+    And, what more than all amazed me,
+    Her small feet took motion also,
+    And she came towards the station
+    Where I sat beside the boy.
+
+      So, when every thing was moving,
+    Leaves and water, flowers and raiment,
+    And the footsteps of the darling--
+    Think you I remain'd as lifeless
+    As the rock on which I rested?
+    No, I trow--not I!
+
+This is as perfect a landscape as one of Berghem's sunniest.
+
+An artist is, to our mind, one of the happiest creatures in God's
+creation. Now that the race of wandering minstrels has passed away, your
+painter is the only free joyous denizen of the earth, who can give way
+to his natural impulses without fear of reproach, and who can indulge
+his enthusiasm for the bright and beautiful to the utmost. He has his
+troubles, no doubt; for he is ambitious, and too often he is poor; but
+it is something to pursue ambition along the natural path with unwarped
+energies, and ardent and sincere devotion. As to poverty, that is a
+fault that must daily mend, if he is only true to himself. In a few
+years, the foot-sore wanderer of the Alps, with little more worldly
+goods than the wallet and sketch-book he carries, will be the royal
+academician, the Rubens or the Reynolds of his day, with the most
+_recherche_ studio in London, and more orders upon his list than he has
+either time or inclination to execute. Goethe has let us into the secret
+of the young German artist's life. Let us look upon him in the dawnings
+of his fame, before he is summoned to adorn the stately halls of Munich
+with frescoes from the Niebelungen Lied.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE ARTIST'S MORNING SONG.
+
+    My dwelling is the Muses' home--
+      What matters it how small?
+    And here, within my heart, is set
+      The holiest place of all.
+
+    When, waken'd by the early sun,
+      I rise from slumbers sound,
+    I see the ever-living forms
+      In radiance group'd around.
+
+    I pray, and songs of thanks and praise
+      Are more than half my prayer,
+    With simple notes of music, tuned
+      To some harmonious air.
+
+    I bow before the altar then,
+      And read, as well I may,
+    From noble Homer's master-work,
+      The lesson for the day.
+
+    He takes me to the furious fight,
+      Where lion warriors throng;
+    Where god-descended heroes whirl
+      In iron cars along.
+
+    And steeds go down before the cars;
+      And round the cumber'd wheel,
+    Both friend and foe are rolling now,
+      All blood from head to heel!
+
+    Then comes the champion of them all,
+      Pelides' friend is he,
+    And crashes through the dense array,
+      Though thousands ten they be!
+
+    And ever smites that fiery sword
+      Through helmet, shield, and mail;
+    Until he falls by craft divine,
+      Where might could not prevail.
+
+    Down from the glorious pile he rolls,
+      Which he himself had made,
+    And foemen trample on the limbs
+      From which they shrank afraid.
+
+    Then start I up, with arms in hand,
+      What arms the painter bears;
+    And soon along my kindling wall
+      The fight at Troy appears.
+
+    On! on again! The wrath is here
+      Of battle rolling red;
+    Shield strikes on shield, and sword on helm,
+      And dead men fall on dead!
+
+    I throng into the inner press,
+      Where loudest rings the din;
+    For there, around their hero's corpse,
+      Fight on his furious kin!
+
+    A rescue! rescue! bear him hence
+      Into the leaguer near;
+    Pour balsam in his glorious wounds,
+      And weep above his bier.
+
+    And when from that hot trance I pass,
+      Great Love, I feel thy charm;
+    There hangs my lady's picture near--
+      A picture yet so warm!
+
+    How fair she was, reclining there;
+      What languish in her look!
+    How thrill'd her glance through all my frame!
+      The very pencil shook.
+
+    Her eyes, her cheeks, her lovely lips,
+      Were all the world to me;
+    And in my breast a younger life
+      Rose wild and wantonly.
+
+    Oh! turn again, and bide thee here,
+      Nor fear such rude alarms;
+    How could I think of battles more
+      With thee within my arms!
+
+    But thou shalt lend thy perfect form
+      To all I fashion best;
+    I'll paint thee first, Madonna-wise,
+      The infant on thy breast.
+
+    I'll paint thee as a startled nymph,
+      Myself a following fawn;
+    And still pursue thy flying feet
+      Across the woodland lawn.
+
+    With helm on head, like Mars, I'll lie
+      By thee, the Queen of Love,
+    And draw a net around us twain,
+      And smile on heaven above.
+
+    And every god that comes shall pour
+      His blessings on thy head,
+    And envious eyes be far away
+      From that dear marriage-bed!
+
+There is abundance of spirit here. For once, in describing the battle
+and fall of Patroclus, Goethe seems to have caught a spark of Homeric
+inspiration, and the lines ring out as clearly as the stroke of the
+hammer on the anvil. There is no rhyme in the original, which, we
+confess, appears to us a fault; more especially as the rhythm is that of
+the ordinary ballad. We have, therefore, ventured to supply it, with as
+little deviation otherwise as possible. It is for the reader to judge
+whether the effect is diminished.
+
+Our next selection shall be "The God and the Bayadere"--a poem which is
+little inferior in beauty to the Bride of Corinth, and which, from its
+structure, opposes to the translator quite as serious a difficulty. The
+subject is taken from the Hindoo mythology, and conveys a very touching
+moral of humanity and forbearance; somewhat daring, perhaps, from its
+novelty, and the peculiar customs and religious faith of an eastern
+land, yet, withal, most delicately handled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE GOD AND THE BAYADERE.
+
+AN INDIAN LEGEND.
+
+    I.
+
+        Mahadeh, earth's lord, descending
+          To its mansions comes again,
+        That, like man with mortals blending,
+          He may feel their joy and pain;
+        Stoops to try life's varied changes,
+          And with human eyes to see,
+        Ere he praises or avenges,
+          What their fitful lot may be.
+    He has pass'd through the city, has look'd on them all;
+    He has watch'd o'er the great, nor forgotten the small,
+    And at evening went forth on his journey so free.
+
+    II.
+
+        In the outskirts of the city,
+          Where the straggling huts are piled,
+        At a casement stood a pretty
+          Painted thing, almost a child.
+        "Greet thee, maiden!" "Thanks--art weary?
+          Wait, and quickly I'll appear!"
+        "What art thou?"--"A Bayadere,
+          And the home of love is here."
+    She rises; the cymbals she strikes as she dances,
+    And whirling, and bending with grace, she advances,
+    And offers him flowers as she undulates near.
+
+    III.
+
+        O'er the threshold gliding lightly
+          In she leads him to her room.
+        "Fear not, gentle stranger; brightly
+          Shall my lamp dispel the gloom.
+        Art thou weary? I'll relieve thee--
+          Bathe thy feet, and soothe their smart;
+        All thou askest I can give thee--
+          Rest, or song, or joy impart."
+    She labours to soothe him, she labours to please;
+    The Deity smiles; for with pleasure he sees
+    Through deep degradation a right-loving heart.
+
+    IV.
+
+        And he asks for service menial,
+          And she only strives the more,
+        Nature's impulse now is genial
+          Where but art prevail'd before.
+        As the fruit succeeds the blossom,
+          Swells and ripens day by day,
+        So, where kindness fills the bosom,
+          Love is never far away.
+    But he, whose vast motive was deeper and higher,
+    Selected, more keenly and clearly to try her,
+    Love, follow'd by anguish, and death, and dismay.
+
+    V.
+
+        And her rosy cheeks he presses,
+          And she feels love's torment sore,
+        And, thrill'd through by his caresses,
+          Weeps, that never wept before.
+        Droops beside him, not dissembling,
+          Or for passion or for gain,
+        But her limbs grow faint and trembling,
+          And no more their strength retain.
+    Meanwhile the still hours of the night stealing by,
+    Spread their shadowy woof o'er the face of the sky,
+    Bringing love and its festival joys in their train.
+
+    VI.
+
+        Lately roused, her arms around him,
+          Waking up from broken rest,
+        Dead upon her breast she found him,
+          Dead--that dearly-cherish'd guest!
+        Shrieking loud, she flings her o'er him,
+          But he answers not her cry;
+        And unto the pile they bore him,
+          Stark of limb and cold of eye.
+    She hears the priests chanting--she hears the death-song,
+    And frantic she rises, and bursts through the throng.
+    "Who is she? what seeks she? why comes she so nigh?"
+
+    VII.
+
+        But the bier she falleth over,
+          And her shrieks are loud and shrill--
+        "I _will_ have my lord, my lover!
+          In the grave I seek him still.
+        Shall that godlike frame be wasted
+          By the fire's consuming blight?
+        Mine it was--yea mine! though tasted
+          Only one delicious night!"
+    But the priests, they chant ever--"We carry the old,
+    When their watching is over, their journeys are told;
+    We carry the young, when they pass from the light!
+
+    VIII.
+
+        "Hear us, woman! Him we carry
+          Was not, could not be, thy spouse.
+        Art thou not a Bayadere?
+          So hast thou no nuptial vows.
+        Only to death's silent hollow
+          With the body goes the shade;
+        Only wives their husbands follow:
+          Thus alone is duty paid.
+    Strike loud the wild turmoil of drum and of gong!
+    Receive him, ye gods, in your glorious throng--
+    Receive him in garments of burning array'd!"
+
+    IX.
+
+        Harsh their words, and unavailing,
+          Swift she threaded through the quire,
+        And with arms outstretch'd, unquailing
+          Leap'd into the crackling fire.
+        But the deed alone sufficeth--
+          Robed in might and majesty,
+        From the pile the god ariseth
+          With the ransom'd one on high.
+    Divinity joys in a sinner repenting,
+    And the lost ones of earth, by immortals relenting,
+    Are borne upon pinions of fire to the sky!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us now take a poem of the Hartz mountains, containing no common
+allegory. Every man is more or less a Treasure-seeker--a hater of
+labour--until he has received the important truth, that labour alone can
+bring content and happiness. There is an affinity, strange as it may
+appear, between those whose lot in life is the most exalted, and the
+haggard hollow-eyed wretch who prowls incessantly around the crumbling
+ruins of the past, in the belief that there lies beneath their
+mysterious foundations a mighty treasure, over which some jealous demon
+keeps watch for evermore. But Goethe shall read the moral to us himself.
+
+
+THE TREASURE-SEEKER.
+
+    I.
+
+    Many weary days I suffer'd,
+      Sick of heart and poor of purse;
+    Riches are the greatest blessing--
+      Poverty the deepest curse!
+    Till at last to dig a treasure
+      Forth I went into the wood--
+    "Fiend! my soul is thine for ever!"
+      And I sign'd the scroll with blood.
+
+    II.
+
+    Then I drew the magic circles,
+      Kindled the mysterious fire,
+    Placed the herbs and bones in order,
+      Spoke the incantation dire.
+    And I sought the buried metal
+      With a spell of mickle might--
+    Sought it as my master taught me;
+      Black and stormy was the night.
+
+    III.
+
+    And I saw a light appearing
+      In the distance, like a star;
+    When the midnight hour was tolling,
+      Came it waxing from afar:
+    Came it flashing, swift and sudden;
+      As if fiery wine it were,
+    Flowing from an open chalice,
+      Which a beauteous boy did bear.
+
+    IV.
+
+    And he wore a lustrous chaplet,
+      And his eyes were full of thought,
+    As he stepp'd into the circle
+      With the radiance that he brought.
+    And he bade me taste the goblet;
+      And I thought--"It cannot be,
+    That this boy should be the bearer
+      Of the Demon's gifts to me!"
+
+    V.
+
+    "Taste the draught of pure existence
+      Sparkling in this golden urn,
+    And no more with baneful magic
+      Shalt thou hitherward return.
+    Do not dig for treasures longer;
+      Let thy future spellwords be
+    Days of labour, nights of resting;
+      So shall peace return to thee!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pass we away now from the Hartz to Heidelberg, in the company of our
+glorious poet. We all know the magnificent ruins of the Neckar, the
+feudal turrets which look down upon one of the sweetest spots that ever
+filled the soul of a weary man with yearning for a long repose. Many a
+year has gone by since the helmet of the warder was seen glancing on
+these lofty battlements, since the tramp of the steed was heard in the
+court-yard, and the banner floated proudly from the topmost turret; but
+fancy has a power to call them back, and the shattered stone is restored
+in an instant by the touch of that sublimest architect:--
+
+
+THE CASTLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+    There stands an ancient castle
+      On yonder mountain height,
+    Where, fenced with door and portal,
+      Once tarried steed and knight.
+
+    But gone are door and portal,
+      And all is hush'd and still;
+    O'er ruin'd wall and rafter
+      I clamber as I will.
+
+    A cellar with many a vintage
+      Once lay in yonder nook;
+    Where now are the cellarer's flagons,
+      And where is his jovial look?
+
+    No more he sets the beakers
+      For the guests at the wassail feast;
+    Nor fills a flask from the oldest cask
+      For the duties of the priest.
+
+    No more he gives on the staircase
+      The stoup to the thirsty squires,
+    And a hurried thanks for the hurried gift
+      Receives, nor more requires.
+
+    For burn'd are roof and rafter,
+      And they hang begrimed and black;
+    And stair, and hall, and chapel,
+      Are turn'd to dust and wrack.
+
+    Yet, as with song and cittern,
+      One day when the sun was bright,
+    I saw my love ascending
+      With me the rocky height;
+
+    From the hush and desolation
+      Sweet fancies did unfold,
+    And it seem'd as we were living
+      In the merry days of old.
+
+    As if the stateliest chambers
+      For noble guests were spread,
+    And out from the prime of that glorious time
+      A youth a maiden led.
+
+    And, standing in the chapel,
+      The good old priest did say,
+    "Will ye wed with one another?"
+      And we smiled and we answer'd "Yea!"
+
+    We sung, and our hearts they bounded
+      To the thrilling lays we sung,
+    And every note was doubled
+      By the echo's catching tongue.
+
+    And when, as eve descended,
+      We left the silence still,
+    And the setting sun look'd upward
+      On that great castled hill;
+
+    Then far and wide, like lord and bride,
+      In the radiant light we shone--
+    It sank; and again the ruins
+      Stood desolate and lone!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We shall now select, from the songs that are scattered throughout the
+tale of Wilhelm Meister, one of the most genial and sweet. It is an
+in-door picture of evening, and of those odorous flowers of life which
+expand their petals only at the approach of Hesperus.
+
+
+PHILINE'S SONG.
+
+    Sing not thus in notes of sadness
+      Of the loneliness of night;
+    No! 'tis made for social gladness,
+      Converse sweet, and love's delight.
+
+    As to rugged man his wife is,
+      As his fairest half decreed,
+    So dear night the half of life is,
+      And the fairest half indeed.
+
+    Canst thou in the day have pleasure,
+      Which but breaks on rapture in,
+    Scares us from our dreams of leisure
+      With its glare and irksome din?
+
+    But when night is come, and glowing
+      Is the lamp's attemper'd ray,
+    And from lip to lip are flowing
+      Love and mirth, in sparkling play;
+
+    When the fiery boy, that wildly
+      Rushes in his wayward mood,
+    Calms to rest, disporting mildly,
+      By some trivial gift subdued;
+
+    When the nightingale is trilling
+      Songs of love to lovers' ears,
+    Which, to hearts with sorrow thrilling,
+      Seem but sighs and waken tears;
+
+    Then, with bosom lightly springing,
+      Dost thou listen to the bell,
+    That, with midnight's number ringing,
+      Speaks of rest and joy so well?
+
+    Then, dear heart, this comfort borrow
+      From the long day's lingering light--
+    Every day hath its own sorrow,
+      Gladness cometh with the night!
+
+We are somewhat puzzled as to the title which we ought to prefix to our
+next specimen. Goethe rather maliciously calls it "Gegenwart," which may
+be equivalent to the word "Presentiality," if, indeed, such a word
+belongs to the English language. We, therefore, prefer dedicating it to
+our own ladye love; and we could not find for her any where a sweeter
+strain, unless we were to commit depredation upon the minor poems of Ben
+Jonson or of Shakspeare.
+
+
+TO MY MISTRESS.
+
+    All that's lovely speaks of thee!
+      When the glorious sun appeareth,
+    'Tis thy harbinger to me:
+      Only thus he cheereth.
+
+    In the garden where thou go'st,
+      There art thou the rose of roses,
+    First of lilies, fragrant most
+      Of the fragrant posies.
+
+    When thou movest in the dance,
+      All the stars with thee are moving,
+    And around thee gleam and glance,
+      Never tired of loving.
+
+    Night!--and would the night were here!
+      Yet the moon would lose her duty,
+    Though her sheen be soft and clear,
+      Softer is thy beauty!
+
+    Fair, and kind, and gentle one!
+      Do not moon, and stars, and flowers
+    Pay that homage to their sun
+      That we pay to ours?
+
+    Sun of mine, that art so dear--
+      Sun, that art above all sorrow!
+    Shine, I pray thee, on me here
+      Till the eternal morrow.
+
+Another little poem makes us think of "poor Ophelia." We suspect that
+Goethe had the music of her broken ballad floating in his mind, when he
+composed the following verses:--
+
+
+THE WILD ROSE.
+
+    A boy espied, in morning light,
+        A little rosebud blowing.
+    'Twas so delicate and bright,
+    That he came to feast his sight,
+        And wonder at its growing.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+    I will gather thee--he cried--
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+    Then I'll sting thee, it replied,
+    And you'll quickly start aside
+        With the prickle glowing.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+    But he pluck'd it from the plain,
+        The rosebud brightly blowing!
+    It turn'd and stung him, but in vain--
+    He regarded not the pain,
+        Homewards with it going.
+    Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
+        Rosebud brightly blowing!
+
+We are sure that the votaries of Wordsworth will thank us for the next
+translation, which embodies a most noble idea. See how the eye of the
+poet is scanning the silent march of the heavens, and mark with what
+solemn music he invests the stately thought!
+
+
+A NIGHT THOUGHT.
+
+    I do not envy you, ye joyless stars,
+    Though fair ye be, and glorious to the sight--
+    The seaman's hope amidst the 'whelming storm,
+    When help from God or man there cometh none.
+    No! for ye love not, nor have ever loved!
+    Through the broad fields of heaven, the eternal hours
+    Lead on your circling spheres unceasingly.
+    How vast a journey have ye travell'd o'er,
+    Since I, upon the bosom of my love,
+    Forgot all memory of night or you!
+
+Let us follow up these glorious lines with a conception worthy of
+AEschylus--indeed an abstract of his master-subject. It were out of place
+here to dilate upon the mythical grandeur of Prometheus, and the heroic
+endurance of his character, as depicted by the ancient poet. To our mind
+and ear, the modern is scarcely inferior.
+
+
+PROMETHEUS.
+
+    Curtain thy heavens, thou Jove, with clouds and mist,
+    And, like a boy that moweth thistles down,
+    Unloose thy spleen on oaks and mountain-tops;
+    Yet canst thou not deprive me of my earth,
+    Nor of my hut, the which thou didst not build,
+    Nor of my hearth, whose little cheerful flame
+    Thou enviest me!
+
+    I know not aught within the universe
+    More slight, more pitiful than you, ye Gods!
+    Who nurse your majesty with scant supplies
+    Of offerings wrung from fear, and mutter'd prayers,
+    And needs must starve, were't not that babes and beggars
+    Are hope-besotted fools!
+
+    When I was yet a child, and knew not whence
+    My being came, nor where to turn its powers,
+    Up to the sun I bent my wilder'd eye,
+    As though above, within its glorious orb,
+    There dwelt an ear to listen to my plaint,
+    A heart, like mine, to pity the oppress'd.
+
+    Who gave me succour
+    Against the Titans in their tyrannous might?
+    Who rescued me from death--from slavery?
+    Thou!--thou, my soul, burning with hallow'd fire,
+    Thou hast thyself alone achieved it all!
+    Yet didst thou, in thy young simplicity,
+    Glow with misguided thankfulness to him
+    That slumbers on in idlesse there above!
+
+    I reverence thee?
+    Wherefore? Hast thou ever
+    Lighten'd the sorrows of the heavy-laden?
+    _Thou_ ever stretch'd thy hand to still the tears
+    Of the perplex'd in spirit?
+    Was it not
+    Almighty Time, and ever-during Fate--
+    My lords and thine--that shaped and fashion'd me
+    Into the MAN I am?
+
+    Belike it was thy dream,
+    That I should hate life--fly to wastes and wilds,
+    For that the buds of visionary thought
+    Did not all ripen into goodly flowers?
+
+    Here do I sit, and mould
+    Men after mine own image--
+    A race that may be like unto myself,
+    To suffer, weep; to enjoy, and to rejoice;
+    And, like myself, unheeding all of thee!
+
+We shall close this Number with a ballad of a different cast, but, lest
+the transition should be too violent, we shall interpolate the space
+with a very beautiful lyric. We claim no merit for this translation,
+for, to say the truth, we could not have done it half so well. Perhaps
+the fair hand that penned it, will turn over the pages of Maga in
+distant Wales, and a happy blush over-spread her cheek when she sees,
+enshrined in these columns, the effort of her maiden Muse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+NEW LOVE, NEW LIFE.
+
+    Heart--my heart! what means this feeling?
+    Say what weighs thee down so sore?
+    What new life is this revealing!
+    What thou wert, thou art no more.
+    All once dear to thee is vanish'd,
+    All that marr'd thy peace is banish'd,
+    Gone thy trouble and thine ease--
+    Ah! whence come such woes as these?
+
+    Does the bloom of youth bright-gleaming--
+    Does that form of purest light--
+    Do these eyes so sweetly beaming,
+    Chain thee with resistless might?
+    When the charm I'd wildly sever--
+    Man myself to fly for ever--
+    Ah! or yet the thought can stir,
+    Back my footsteps fly to her.
+
+    With such magic meshes laden,
+    All too closely round me cast,
+    Holds me that bewitching maiden,
+    An unwilling captive fast.
+    In her charmed sphere delaying,
+    Must I live, her will obeying--
+    Ah! how great the change in me!
+    Love--O love, do set me free!
+
+One other mood of love, and we leave the apprentice of Cornelius Agrippa
+to bring up the rear. Goethe is said to have been somewhat fickle in his
+attachments--most poets are--but here is one instance where passion
+appears to have prevailed over absence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SEPARATION.
+
+    I think of thee whene'er the sun is glowing
+              Upon the lake;
+    Of thee, when in the crystal fountain flowing
+              The moonbeams shake.
+
+    I see thee when the wanton wind is busy,
+              And dust-clouds rise;
+    In the deep night, when o'er the bridge so dizzy
+              The wanderer hies.
+
+    I hear thee when the waves, with hollow roaring,
+              Gush forth their fill;
+    Often along the heath I go exploring,
+              When all is still.
+
+    I am with thee! Though far thou art and darkling,
+              Yet art thou near.
+    The sun goes down, the stars will soon be sparkling--
+              Oh, wert thou here!
+
+If we recollect right--for it is a long time since we studied the occult
+sciences--Wierius, in his erudite volume "De Prestigiis Demonum,"
+recounts the story which is celebrated in the following ballad.
+Something like it is to be found in the biography of every magician; for
+the household staff of a wizard was not complete without a _famulus_,
+who usually proved to be a fellow of considerable humour, but endowed
+with the meddling propensities of a monkey. Thus, Doctor Faustus of
+Wittenburg--not at all to be confounded with the illustrious
+printer--had a perfect jewel in the person of his attendant Wagner; and
+our English Friar Bacon was equally fortunate in Miles, his trusty
+squire. Each of these gentlemen, in their master's absence, attempted a
+little conjuring on their own account; but with no better success than
+the nameless attendant of Agrippa, whom Goethe has sought to
+immortalize. There is a great deal of grotesque humour in the
+manufacture, agility, and multiplication of the domestic Kobold.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE.
+
+    Huzzah, huzzah! His back is fairly
+      Turn'd about, the wizard old;
+    And I'll now his spirits rarely
+      To my will and pleasure mould!
+    His spells and orgies--ha'n't I
+      Mark'd them all aright?
+    And I'll do wonders, sha'n't I?
+      And deeds of mickle might.
+          Bubble, bubble;
+          Fast and faster!
+          Hear your master,
+          Hear his calling--
+          Water! flow in measures double,
+          To the bath in torrents falling!
+
+    Ho, thou batter'd broomstick! take ye
+      This old seedy coat, and wear it--
+    Ah, thou household drudge, I'll make ye
+      Do my bidding; ay, and fear it.
+    Stand on legs, old tramper!
+      Here's a head--I've stuck it--
+    Now be off--hey, scamper
+      With the water-bucket!
+          Bubble, bubble;
+          Fast and faster!
+          Hear your master,
+          Hear his calling--
+          Water! flow in measure double,
+          To the bath in torrents falling!
+
+    See, 'tis off--'tis at the river--
+      In the stream the bucket flashes;
+    Now 'tis back--and down, or ever
+      You can wink; the burden dashes.
+    Again, again, and quicker!
+      The floor is in a swim,
+    And every stoup and bicker
+      Is running o'er the brim.
+          Stop, now stop!
+          For you've granted
+          All I wanted
+          Well and neatly--
+          Gracious me! I'm like to drop--
+          I've forgot the word completely!
+
+    Oh, the word, so strong and baleful,
+      To make it what it was before!
+    There it skips with pail on pailful--
+      Would thou wert a broom once more!
+    Still new streams he scatters,
+      Round and ever round me--
+    Oh, a hundred waters
+      Rushing in have bound me!
+          No--no longer
+          Can I bear it.
+          No, I swear it!
+          Gifts and graces!
+          Woe is me, my fears grow stronger,
+          Look what grinnings, what grimaces!
+
+    Wilt thou, offspring of the devil,
+      Soak the house to please thy funning?
+    Even now, above the level
+      Of the door the water's running.
+    Broom accurst, that will not
+      Hear, although I roar!
+    Stick! be now, and fail not,
+      What thou wert before!
+          You will joke me?
+          I'll not bear it,
+          No, I swear it!
+          I will catch you;
+          And with axe, if you provoke me,
+          In a twinkling I'll dispatch you.
+
+    Back it comes--will nought prevent it?
+      If I only turn me to thee,
+    Soon, O Kobold! thou'lt repent it,
+      When the steel goes crashing through thee.
+    Bravely struck, and surely!
+      There it goes in twain;
+    Now I move securely,
+      And I breathe again!
+          Woe and wonder!
+          As it parted,
+          Up there started,
+          'Quipp'd aright,
+          Goblins twain that rush asunder.
+          Help, oh help, ye powers of might!
+
+    Deep and deeper grows the water
+      On the stairs and in the hall,
+    Rushing in with roar and clatter--
+      Lord and master, hear me call!
+    Ah, here comes the master--
+      Sore, sir, is my straight;
+    I raised this spirit faster
+      Far than I can lay't.
+          "To your hole!
+          As you were, be
+          Broom! and there be
+          Still; for none
+          But the wizard can control,
+          And make you on his errands run!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT DROUGHT.
+
+
+In the spring and summer of 1844 rain began to fail, and the first
+things that perished for want of water died that year. But the moisture
+of the earth was still abundant, and the plants which took deep root
+found sustenance below; so that the forest trees showed an abundance of
+foliage, and the harvest in some kinds was plentiful. Towards the autumn
+rain returned again, and every thing appeared to be recovering its
+former order; but the dry winter, the dry spring, dry summer of the next
+year, told upon the face of creation. Many trees put forth small and
+scanty leaves, and many perished altogether; whole species were cut off;
+for instance, except where they were artificially preserved, one could
+not find a living ash or beech--few were kept alive by means of man; for
+water began to be hoarded for the necessaries of life. The wheat was
+watered, and, where such a thing was possible, the hay-fields also; but
+numbers of animals died, and numbers were killed this year--the first
+from thirst, and the last to reduce the consumers of the precious
+element. Still the rich commanded the necessaries, and many of the
+luxuries of life; and the arts which required a consumption of water
+were carried on as yet, and continued in practice even longer than
+prudence warranted: so strong was the force of habit, and the pressure
+of the artificial necessities which they supplied. The railroads were as
+yet in activity, and when water failed along the line, it was brought
+from the sea by the rich companies concerned in the traffic; only the
+fares were raised, and the trains which ran for pleasure merely, were
+suspended. But, in the midst of business and interest, there was a deep
+gloom. Projects which affected the fortunes of nations were in suspense,
+because there was no rain. Cares for the succession of crowns, and the
+formation of constitutions, might all be futile, if there should be no
+rain: and it seemed as if there never would be any; for this was now the
+third year, and the earth had not received a shower. And now, ceasing to
+be supplied from their usual sources, the springs and rivers withered
+and shrank. Water became in many places not dear, but unattainable. The
+greatest people of the land left it, and used their wealth in chasing
+the retreating element from place to place on the earth. In some cases,
+among these luxurious spirits there were scenes of extravagant revelry
+still; they had no employment except to live, and they endeavoured to
+make the act of living as exciting as their old amusements had been. But
+accounts of foreign countries came more and more rarely to England; for
+when the fourth rainless year arrived, drought and famine had slain
+three-fourths of its inhabitants, and commerce and agriculture were
+alike suspended. When a vessel came as far up in the mouth of a river as
+the sinking waters permitted, it brought tidings of desolation from
+whatever port it had left. Stories began to spread of dry land in parts
+of the ocean where it had never been seen before; marks which had stood
+in the deep of the sea might now be walked round at all times of the
+tide, and thick crusts of salt were beginning to spread upon tracts of
+the great deep. These tidings from foreign lands came at long intervals,
+and at long intervals was a ship sent from any English haven. The few
+dwellers of the coast knew not if there were still any dwellers of the
+interior: for England was become like the desert; and there were no
+beasts to carry one across it, and no water to be hoarded in skins for
+the passage. Traffic of every kind ceased; industry was gone; the
+secrets of science, and the cultivated mind of the philosopher, were all
+bent to the production of water; and many a precious object was resolved
+back into its elements, and afforded a scanty supply to a few parched
+mouths. The lingering inhabitants had the produce of past years only to
+live upon, which nothing replenished as it diminished, and to renew
+which the baked earth was wholly incompetent.
+
+In the heart of this desert, there was a family which had hitherto
+survived the destruction of life around them. It consisted of a father
+and mother, and two young children, Charles and Alice; the last of whom,
+the girl, was but a few months old when the Great Drought began. They
+had lived in Derbyshire, near the range of low hills called the Peak;
+and they and other inhabitants of that region had found water longer
+than many others, from the sides of the hills, and from excavations
+which they had made in the rocks. The strong hope and expectation of
+rain had kept them lingering on as long as any supply lasted; and
+Paulett, who in the days when ranks existed, had been a great landlord,
+had used both his knowledge and his influence to supply the wants of the
+people, and to postpone their destruction. But those days were gone by;
+his possessions were so much dust: he wanted water, and nobody wanted
+any thing else. He was a mere man now, like those who are born naked and
+die naked, and had to struggle with the needs of nature, even as every
+one else. Meantime his education availed him; and the resources which it
+taught him prolonged the lives of his family and himself. But he was
+soon obliged to limit himself to this sole care; for the supply he
+obtained was scanty, and he knew how precarious it must be. He had
+explored the cavern of the Peak with great attention, and he bored the
+rock in various places, and used means suggested by his knowledge of
+natural causes, which had procured a slender flow of water into a basin
+which he had made. The fury of thirsty men for water was so great, that
+he was obliged to keep his secret with the utmost care; and towards the
+end of the fourth year, he removed his wife and children to the cavern
+itself, and blocked up the entrance, in such a manner that he could
+defend it against any chance survivor. There was no want of the luxuries
+of furniture in the cavern--all the splendours of the land were at the
+command of those who would take them; and Paulett brought there whatever
+had adorned his home when the earth was a fit dwelling-place for man.
+There was velvet and down to lie upon; there were carpets on which the
+little Alice could roll; there were warm dresses, and luxurious
+ornaments of the toilette; whatever could be used for comfort he had
+brought, and all other precious things he had left in his open house,
+locking himself and his family up with only water. At first there would
+come sometimes a miserable man or woman, tracing the presence of living
+creatures, and crying for water. Paulett or his wife supplied several,
+and when they had been refreshed, they revealed the secret to others;
+or, being strengthened themselves, felt the desperate desire of life
+revive, and attempted violence to get at the treasure. After this the
+inhabitants of the cavern fell back to mere self-preservation; and the
+father and mother were able to harden their hearts against others, by
+looking at the two creatures whom they had born into the world, and who
+depended upon them. But, indeed, life seemed to shrink rapidly to
+nothing over the face of the country. It was very rare to see a moving
+form of any kind--skeletons of beasts and men were in plenty, and their
+white bones lay on the arid soil; or even their withered shapes, dried
+by the air and the sun, were stretched out on the places where they had
+ceased to suffer: but life was most rare, and it became scarcely
+necessary to use any precaution against an invader of their store. The
+dreadful misery was, that this store diminished. The heart of the earth
+seemed drying, and was ceasing to be capable of yielding moisture, even
+to the utmost wrenching of science. There was so little one hot day,
+that Paulett and Ellen scarcely moistened their lips after their meal of
+baked corn, and warned their children that the draught they received was
+the only one that could be given them. Charles was now seven years old,
+and had learned to submit, but his longing eyes pleaded for more; little
+Alice was clamorous, and the mother felt tears overflow her eyes to
+think that there was no possibility of yielding to that childish
+peevishness, and that the absolute non-existence of water must punish
+her poor child's wilfulness. When Paulett had set his instruments to
+work, to renew if possible the supply, and when Ellen had removed the
+silver cups and dishes which had held their corn and water, he and she
+sat down at the mouth of the cavern, and the little ones got their
+playthings, and placed them on piece of rock not far off. The mouth of
+the cave is lofty, and there is a sort of terrace running along one
+side, at the foot of which lay the channel of the stream, that was now
+dry. The view is down the first reach of a narrow valley, which turns
+presently afterwards, and so shuts out the world beyond from sight; and
+the hill on each side rises high, and from its perpendicularity seems
+even higher than it is. The shade of the cavern was deep and cool, but
+the sky glowed with the heat and light of the sun, and there was not a
+cloud to hinder him from burning up the earth. The hill-sides, the
+channel where the brook had flowed, the stones of the cave, were all
+equally bare; there was no sound of voice, or bird, or insect--no cool
+drop from the ceiling of the cave--no moisture even in the coolness of
+the shadow. Ellen leaned her head on her husband, and Paulett pressed
+his arm round her--both of them were thinking of the basin empty of
+water.
+
+"Ellen," said Paulett, "I think the time is come when the elements shall
+melt with fervent heat. It seems like the conflagration of the world;
+not indeed as we have always fancied it, with flames and visible fire,
+but not the less on that account the action of heat. It is perhaps the
+Last Day."
+
+"I hope it is," said Ellen, "I hope it is; I wish those precious
+creatures may be among those that are alive and remain, and may be
+spared the torments of this thirsty death."
+
+"You and I could bear it, if they were gone," said Paulett, glancing at
+them and withdrawing his eyes.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said Ellen, pressing near to him, and taking his hand in both
+hers. They were silent, and they heard the children talking as they
+played.
+
+"There is King Alexander," said Charles, setting up a pebble--"he is
+going to dinner. Put the dinner, Alice."
+
+Alice set out several other pebbles before King Alexander.
+
+"And he has got a great feast. There is plenty of water, more than he
+can drink; and he drinks, drinks, as much as he likes, and still there
+is plenty of water when he goes to bed."
+
+"Poor children! I can't bear it," said Ellen.
+
+"Oh, Ellen, it would have been better never to have given them birth!"
+said Paulett.
+
+"No--not that," said Ellen, sitting down again; "though they must
+suffer, they are better to be; when this suffering has dissolved their
+bodies--on the other side of these mortal pains there is ease and
+happiness."
+
+"True, true, dear Ellen," said Paulett; "it is only difficult to die."
+
+He held her hand; and while he did so, his eye fastened on a diamond
+ring which she wore. She observed his fixed look.
+
+"You gave me that when we little thought how it was we should part--when
+I was a bride--and there was all the pleasure and business of the world
+round us. It hardly seems as if we were the same creatures."
+
+"No, we are not; for I am thinking, concerning that ring which you were
+never to part with, whether I could not convert the diamond into water."
+
+"How, Paulett?"
+
+"I can't explain it to you; but it has just crossed my mind that it is
+possible; and if so, there are still plenty of jewels in the world to
+keep us alive."
+
+He drew off the ring as he spoke, and went into the interior of the
+cave, whither Ellen followed him. There was a fire, and some apparatus
+belonging to Paulett, which he had used in experiments upon the
+decreasing water of the basin. He knocked the stone out of its setting,
+and applied himself to decompose it over the fire. He put forth all his
+skill and all his power, and was successful; the diamond disappeared,
+and there remained a few drops of water. He looked at his wife and
+smiled; she raised her eyes to his, astonished and pleased, took the cup
+from his hand, and looked at the precious metamorphosis.
+
+"I'll give it the children," she said, and was going away; but he
+stopped her. "No, Ellen, there is not enough to do any good; you and I
+will drink each other's health in it; and he put the cup first to her
+lips and then to his own. God bless you, my Ellen!" he said, "my wife--I
+pledge you again with that diamond. The first drop of water comes from
+the stone that plighted my faith to you, and may it bring you health and
+happiness yet."
+
+"God bless you, my husband! If we could but die now!"
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Paulett now exerted himself to collect all the diamonds that remained
+without owners in the neighbourhood. First he visited his own forsaken
+home, and took thence the jewels, which he had neglected in his retreat
+from it, but which were now as precious as water. He found no great
+store even after ransacking all the houses within reach, and determined
+to undertake a longer journey in search of more. The basin in the cavern
+continued to yield a scanty supply of water; and Paulett extracted a
+small quantity from his stones. He made what provision he could for his
+family before setting out; and for his own necessities took the smallest
+possible portion, in a silver vessel, which was most preciously secured,
+and concealed about his person. It was a strange parting between his
+wife and him, both of them feeling and saying, that alive they should
+probably not meet again: yet death was so near them constantly, and was
+so far better than life, that his presence had grown familiar; and it
+was only the mode in which he would come that made them anxious. Paulett
+perishing alone of thirst was the fearful image to Ellen, and Ellen and
+her children waiting for him in vain, and dying one after the other for
+want of his help, was the dread of Paulett. They stood in the cavern,
+and embraced each other silently, and blessed their children with the
+same prayer for the last time. The little ones received and returned his
+caress, and Paulett quitted the cavern and set out on his uncertain
+expedition.
+
+The face of the country was so much changed that he had some difficulty
+in making his way. The vivid colours of the earth were all gone, and in
+place of them was the painful greyness of the dead trees, and the yellow
+of the parched soil. Nothing was overthrown in ruin, but all stood dead
+in its place. The shapes of men and animals only lay strewn upon the
+earth. The human beings were comparatively rare; they were the last
+survivors of the destroying drought whom there had been none to bury;
+but these at length had died by hundreds, and in places their bones were
+seen whiter than any other object; or if any where over the surface
+there hung a vapour, it came from some collection of dead bodies which
+had not yet been resolved into the elements. Those whom he found there
+were mostly in heaps--the beasts had died singly; near what had been
+water-courses he saw more than once signs of struggle, and the last
+battles of earth had been fought for possession of its waters. He traced
+out many a pathetic story among the dry bones and faded garments.
+Women's dresses were there; and fallen into a shapeless heap on what had
+been their bosom, were little forms, and the raiment of children. Where
+the dry air and the sun had preserved the face, he beheld the fallen
+estate of those who had been men in the uncovered shame of death; the
+wide open lips, the sunken eyes, over which the eyelid was undrawn, the
+swollen tongue, the frame writhed into an expression of anguish,
+revealed all the pain and shame of death. But here and there, the hand
+of some one who had been a survivor, was visible in the attempt to
+conceal all this. In one place there was a shallow grave, into which a
+body had been rolled, and lay on its side; and close by, on a heap of
+clothes, out of which bones appeared, there was a spade with which the
+unfinished work had been attempted. In another, a female body was
+covered from sun and moon by a man's cloak; and a few paces off lay a
+man, whom nothing shielded. There was an infant's skeleton wrapped in a
+woman's shawl, under what had been a hawthorn hedge; the mother had
+either perished attempting to find water, or had laid her child down,
+and gone away, like Hagar in the desert, not to see it die. The poor
+innocent's skull was turned on its shoulder; its cheek must have rested
+there while the face remained. It was too young to have struggled much.
+Paulett thought of his little Alice; of her unconsciousness to the fate
+around her; of what would be her and Charles's and poor Ellen's fate, if
+he failed in his search, or perished by the way. He roused himself from
+looking on all these sorrowful objects, and went on his dreary way. The
+second day after he left the cavern, he came to a stately pile of
+building, which he determined to explore for the life-giving stones he
+was in search of. It stood upon its terraces, surrounded by its
+colonnades and garden-steps, in all its old pride and beauty. Its
+forests were withered indeed, its gardens burned, its fountains dry; but
+the palace glanced back the sunlight, and was as steadfast and perfect
+as in the days of the living. Paulett drew near, and found, as he came
+close, signs of the last days of life in it. The doors were opened to
+the air; and a few marks of objects removed, remained in the outer
+rooms. There was scoring and dragging on the marble floor; and Paulett
+doubted for a moment what had left these marks, till he saw on one side
+of a gilded table, a barrel, lying there empty, from which the top, as
+it seemed, had been accidentally knocked, and the liquor had flowed out.
+The marble bore the stain of wine, and where it had flowed, the slabs
+were broken in two places, perhaps from the violence of the struggle of
+those who saw the liquid flow, to wet each one his own parched lips.
+Paulett thought the lord of the castle had probably deserted it before
+the worst crisis arrived, and had tried to remove what was most valuable
+in his possession. He went on through long galleries and magnificent
+rooms, all silent as death, statues, which represented man in his glory
+and his strength; books, which were the work of that high spirit, now
+extinguished under the pressure of bodily wants; luxurious
+superfluities, which were for better days of the world--all was
+valueless, all open; he might go where he would, till at length one door
+resisted his efforts, and seemed to have been barred with a certain care
+from within. Paulett's heart beat high. Was there some one still living
+like himself; another human creature struggling for existence in this
+great world, and guarding, as he had done in his cavern, his treasure of
+water? Should he have another companion to speak with; another, with
+whom, perhaps, to get over the evil days; to whom to communicate his
+secret of producing water from diamonds? For the first time since he
+left the cavern, he spoke aloud--he called--he called in the great
+silence of the earth, but nothing answered him. If any one were still
+alive, he might be afraid of another living creature--had not he himself
+left pistols loaded for his poor Ellen, to defend her life and her
+children, if any human being should come near her? He gently shook the
+door; then proceeded to more violence, and forced it open. It was the
+door of a great dining-room, on whose lofty ceiling, as he entered it,
+wreaths of smoke rolled, which the air had put in motion, and a heavy
+smell, as of burned charcoal, struck him as he entered. There were no
+living creatures--the inhabitants were all dead in the last posture of
+life. The table was covered with silver and gold vessels, and among them
+were dead flowers and fruits, dried by the close chamber. It should seem
+they had drunk deeply before they died here--perhaps they had collected
+the last liquids, and resolved to perish when they had once more
+feasted: for there was wine still in some of the vessels, nay, in one
+there was water; and the ghostly shapes were adorned and fantastically
+covered with jewels and velvet, and all sort of rare and exquisite
+ornaments. Some were still on chairs, some fallen forward on the table,
+some prostrate, as if they had lain down to sleep. There were fragments
+of shivered glass on the floor; there was a statue broken to pieces on
+the table, on the pedestal of which was written "Patience;" there were
+pieces of torn paper in the hands of one, which seemed a letter; all
+these faint shadowings of long stories, and of a scene of which there
+remained no witness, struck Paulett's eye. One had sunk down by the
+silver tripod in which the charcoal had burned, and the match that fired
+it was amongst his garments. One face was there, resting on a sofa,
+still perfect enough to show it had been a beautiful woman; and roses,
+artfully made close to nature, crowned the long hair which fell upon
+arms from which the flesh had withered. On the neck were diamonds, on
+the hands diamonds--diamonds had confined the ringlets--diamonds
+sparkled on the feet. Paulett shuddered as he took them away. The
+spirit, indeed, was gone; but here was the last act of the spirit before
+it plunged into an unknown region, it knew not where. Paulett asked
+himself where. "A little longer," said he, "and they must have died;
+could not they wait their time, and take patience with death? Must they
+die in drunkenness, in madness; worse than beasts?" Then his own thirsty
+eyes fixed on the table, where, in the light of the sun, the water
+sparkled, and gave rainbow rays. He forgot all beside, in the impulse
+which urged him to seize and drink--to drink the first draught--to
+satiate his throat with water. He drank and revived; and then blamed
+himself for yielding so passionately to the impulse which was now passed
+away; and as it passed, the horror of the scene around him acquired
+greater force, and he longed to be out of its influence. He made haste
+to collect all the jewels around him, and when he had done, found that
+his burden was as much as he could safely carry. He went hastily out of
+the room, as if any of these figures could rise and follow him, and
+fastened the door again, where the crime had been wrought. He hastily
+crossed the marble halls and gilded rooms, and came out in the
+sunlight--the splendid, solemn sunlight that looked upon a burnt-up
+world!
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Meantime, poor Ellen waited anxiously in the cavern, and as soon as the
+first possible moment for Paulett's return was passed, her fears grew
+strong. There was so much danger for him in the bare desert, with his
+scanty supply of water, that she might well listen to fear as soon as it
+had any reason to make itself heard; and with this dread, when she next
+drew water from her scanty supply, came the horrible torment of the
+anticipated death by thirst, which seemed descending upon her children
+and her. The day she had thought he would return rose and set, and so
+did another and another; and from fearing, she had begun to believe,
+indeed, that Paulett's earthly hours were passed. Yet hope would not be
+subdued entirely; and then she felt that perhaps by prolonging their
+lives another day only, she should save them to welcome him, and to
+profit by his hard-earned treasure. The store of water was sacredly
+precious. She dealt it out in the smallest portions to her children, and
+she herself scarcely wetted her lips; she hardened her heart to see her
+boy's pale face, her girl's feverish eye; she checked even the motherly
+tenderness of her habits, lest the softening of her heart should
+overcome her resolution; and so she laid them in their beds the third
+night of her dread, when indeed there was scarce another day's supply.
+She herself lay on hers, but deadly anxiety kept her from sleeping, and
+her ears ached with the silence which ought to have been broken by a
+step. And at last, oh joy! there was a foot--yes, a few moments made
+that certain, which from the first indeed she believed, but which was so
+faint that it wanted confirmation to her bodily sense. Up sprang Ellen,
+and darted to meet him. She held forward the candle into the air, and,
+lo! it was a woman. Ellen screamed aloud; the woman had seen her before
+and said nothing, only pressed forward. "Who are you?" cried Ellen; "are
+you alive?" "Yes, just alive; and see here," said the woman, uncovering
+the face of her young child--"my child is just alive too; give me water
+before it dies." "Then my children will perish," said Ellen. "No, no,"
+said the woman; "how are you alive now unless you have plenty? All mine
+are gone but this one; my husband died yesterday; ours has been gone for
+days." "My husband is dead, too," said Ellen, "and I have only one
+draught left." "Then I will take it," said the mother, rushing forward.
+Ellen caught her and struggled with her; the poor child moaned in its
+mother's arms, and a pang shot through the heart of Ellen. "For God's
+sake, miserable woman," she said, "do not go near that basin! You are
+mad with want; you will leave none for my children. Stay here, and I
+will bring your child water. You and I can want, and yours and mine
+shall drink." But the desperate woman pressed on; her eyes fixed on the
+water, and dilated with intense desire; her lips wide open, dying almost
+for the draught. Ellen's soul was concentred in the fear, that the last
+hope of her boy and girl's life was about to be lost; she struggled with
+the woman with all her might; she screamed aloud; she lost her hold; she
+seized a pistol from the table, and close as she was to her adversary,
+fired it full at her. The mother fell, with a shriek. Ellen started
+forward and broke her fall, and laid hold on the child to free it from
+her dying grasp. "Give him me, give him me!" said the mother, struggling
+to lift herself up, and stretching her hands out for the boy. The
+trembling Ellen stooped to give him to her, but the child's head dropped
+on one side as she held him out; he made no effort to get into his
+mother's arms. Ellen wildly raised his face, and he was dead too. The
+shot had gone through his breast to his mother's, and a little blood
+began to steal from his lips. "He's dead!" said the mother, who was
+herself passing away. "Oh, my boy!" and then feebly, with her
+fast-failing strength, she raised him, after more than one effort, in
+her arms, and pressed her lips to his twice, with all the passion that
+death left in her. The wasted form of the child lay there, all pale and
+withered, the straight brown hair was parted on his thin forehead; the
+mother's uncovered breast, where his head rested, was white, and the
+hands delicate; the raiment was luxurious; that head had not been reared
+in the expectation of dying on a bed of rock. Ellen burst into floods of
+tears, and wrung her hands as she stood by, looking on what she had
+done. The woman lifted her eyes, and tried to form her lips into a
+smile; she no longer felt any vehement passion, and the torment of
+thirst was now only one of the pangs of death. Her eyes wandered to the
+water, but when Ellen moved to fetch some, she stopped her.
+
+"No; it was for him. He is at ease now. You did right. Don't grieve."
+
+"Forgive me," said Ellen, kneeling down at her side.
+
+"Oh yes! the poor precious babe suffers no more. I was mad; you said
+truly in that. I nursed him at my breast till his lips grew dry even
+there; we lived not far from your cavern, and I have seen you, and been
+glad you had water. We had some. _We?_ Yes, is not my husband dead; and
+my boy is dead too! See, there is blood on his face; wipe it away; he
+will die else." Ellen's sobs caught her wandering attention. "I remember
+now, you killed him; oh, good angel, guardian angel! you have killed
+him, and there is only I to suffer. He is gone from this dear, dear
+body; I wish it did not look so like him still--and it looks in pain
+too--it looks thirsty."
+
+Ellen hid her own face on the mother's shoulder for an instant.--Her
+children had awakened at the noise of the pistol, and they were out of
+bed and clinging around her; her sorrow roused theirs, and the sound of
+their lamentation reached the dying woman's ear.
+
+"There are my children crying. Alas! I thought they had all been dead."
+
+"They are mine," said Ellen. "Yours are at rest, yours _are_ all dead."
+
+"Thank God!" said the mother; and though the words were earnest, the
+voice was faint; all the effort of nature was in them, but they came
+feebly from her lips. After that, indistinct sounds and murmured names
+only were heard; her breath came in gasps, and at longer and longer
+intervals; till the faint shuddering of her limbs ceased by degrees,
+and after it had been insensible to the world for a while, the spirit
+quitted it for ever. Ellen's heart died within her; her senses were
+troubled, and she pressed herself in Paulett's arms without knowing when
+he came, or being surprised that he was there. "Oh, Paulett!" she said
+at last, "I have not done wrong, but it is so dreadful!" Paulett soon
+gathered from her all that had happened; and gazed with pity on what had
+once been a beautiful form, but rejoiced that it suffered no longer.
+Ellen, shuddering, arranged the dress, composed the limbs, and, with a
+thousand tears, placed the infant on that breast which had been so
+faithfully its mother to the last. And there they slept, mother and
+child--the day of trouble ended for both.
+
+"My poor Ellen," said Paulett, "I wish it were thou and my children who
+were there at rest!" and Ellen pressed her Charles and her Alice to her
+heart, and would have been glad if they had indeed been dead.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In that time of trouble and of unexampled events, the mind received
+impressions in a different manner from what it had ever done before. The
+stern gloom that hung over the future, the hazard upon which life was
+suspended, the close contact with universal death, and the desperate
+struggle by which it was staved off, gave to all things a new character;
+and the scene of the last chapter was but one of the series of deadly
+and dreadful excitements which were now the habit of every day. The
+solemn frame of mind which it induced in Ellen, was of a piece with the
+solemn nature of their existence; and she could talk of it with her
+husband at any time, and not disturb the natural bent which their
+conversation took. They searched the immediate neighbourhood for the
+habitation of the unhappy mother and her family; and the marks of her
+footsteps on the dust of the soil enabled them to trace her to Hope, a
+village in the plain, two miles, or rather more, from the Peak. She and
+her husband had used the church for their habitation, and it seemed had
+employed the same kind of precaution as Paulett to defend it and conceal
+that it was their dwelling. One entrance only was left, and the other
+apertures blocked up; but all care was useless now, for death had set
+them free from pain and fear. On a bed beside the altar lay the body of
+a man, over which as spread a cloak of fur and velvet, which in the
+lifetime of the world would have been most precious. His eyes were
+decently closed, the curtains of the bed drawn round him, and the pillow
+which supported his head was marked with the pressure of another head,
+and with moisture which could have been only the tears of his wife. The
+floor of the church was in confusion, like the dwelling of one too much
+distracted with trouble to attend to what did not relate to it; but
+there was corn which had served for food, and fuel heaped on the stone
+which had been a hearth--there was the drawing of a lovely woman and of
+a beautiful place: but these were cast into a corner, probably by the
+irritable hand of despair. On a table stood empty cups, which had long,
+perhaps, been dry--the glass of one had been shivered, and the fragments
+lay on the floor; there were also a few books, neglected and covered
+with dust. In the churchyard were the marks of three recent graves--one
+of them had a stone at its head, on which was carved with care the name
+of Alfred, and the soil was fenced and supported with sticks, so as to
+preserve its shape over the body--probably it was that of the first
+child whom the parents had committed to dust. Another was more hastily
+prepared, and no superfluous labour had been bestowed on it. This must
+be the last, when heart and health were both failing. Paulett and Ellen
+kneeled and prayed beside them, and rejoiced that the mother, too, was
+at rest after the long misery of this scene. They returned to their
+cave, and, under the shadow of the rock near the old course of the
+brook, laid both mother and child, covering their bodies with stones,
+and thinking more of the probable reunion, in some unknown scene, of
+the spirits of that family, than of the distance which separated their
+graves on this earth.
+
+And now, with good store of diamonds, and with increasing skill and
+success in the resolution of them into water, both Paulett and Ellen
+looked upon the lives of all as safe for the present, and their thoughts
+were at liberty to wander to some other subject. They believed that they
+and their children were alone in the world, for every sign of life from
+other countries, as well as their own, had ceased. It was very long
+since any human tidings had come, and though, after men had done with
+each other, birds continued their migrations, these had now long been
+over, and the years passed away without bringing or sending a single
+wing. The course of the seasons, too, was strange and unnatural. It
+seemed as if the earth performed its usual course in the heavens, and
+kept its place and functions in the movements of the planets; days and
+nights varied in their length according to the season, and the heat of
+the sun was at one time of the year great and at another weak: but much
+that depended hitherto upon the constitution of the globe was suspended.
+There were no clouds in the sky, no dews dropping from the air, no
+reproduction in the earth. It seemed decayed and dying of old age. Yet
+Paulett said, a new existence would, perhaps, arise on this same scene,
+and from these same elements. Once before, the earth had been reduced to
+eight persons by the action of water; and now the absence of the same
+element had brought it to four. Charles and Alice might be the destined
+parents of a new race, and those names that were so familiar now, might
+become the venerable appellations of the founders of the third race of
+man. Ellen smiled and shook her head, looking at the boy and girl, who
+were building a house of pebbles; and both parents listened for a while
+to what they were saying. Charles recollected the house he had dwelt in
+before the great shipwreck of human life drove then to the cavern; and
+he was teaching Alice that there were rooms below and rooms above, and
+that he had heard how people like their father had carried great stones,
+and put them one on another to make these rooms. Alice persisted in
+making her house one hollow cavern; and the other she called Charles's
+house, and did not understand his recommendation.
+
+"Charles is taking the part already of a teacher, in whom remains the
+traditionary knowledge of an old world," said Paulett; "and Alice
+represents the new inhabitants, who have their own rude copies of
+natural objects, but who will be open to the training of the learned
+man."
+
+"The learned man will be their father," said Ellen; "they will gladly
+take their notions from him."
+
+"Yes; but if it should be so destined, the first generation must work
+hard merely to live--they must be very long ignorant of every thing
+except a paternal government, and such habitations as can be raised or
+appropriated most easily. They will be children in comparison to Charles
+all their lives, if we can but succeed in giving him the ideas of the
+age we have lived in. Fancy them, Ellen, increased to perhaps fifty
+inhabitants before he dies, a very old man, coming round his chair to
+hear of the wonderful steam-engine, and the use of the telescope, and to
+learn the art of printing, and the list of different languages which
+Romans, Frenchmen, Germans, Greeks, used; and what lions were, and
+horses."
+
+"Or tell them how he and Alice escaped from the great drought," said
+Ellen. "But, alas! it is far more likely he and she will perish in it,
+and then of what use is this knowledge to him?"
+
+"Why--his soul. 'It is a thing immortal like thyself;' and if what he
+knows is of no use here, it will be useful elsewhere."
+
+"What!" said Ellen, smiling--"are there railroads and telescopes in
+another world?"
+
+"For aught I can tell. At all events, the powers that contrive them here
+may contrive something from the same principles hereafter."
+
+"But we can tell nothing about the other world," said Ellen.
+
+"Nay, this is _another world_ to the stars; and, if we know nothing
+about our destiny, the only way we have to judge is by what we actually
+are, and tend to be, now. So, while life remains, I will teach my boy
+all I know, and go on as a man of this world ought to do; then we shall
+be ready for every thing."
+
+Accordingly, Paulett every day carried on his son's education, as far as
+the boy's age permitted, and instructed him in all that he would have
+learned had the world been as it was formerly. Only, like a man in a
+shipwreck looking forward to a desert island as his best hope, he dwelt
+most upon what would be usefullest, supposing Charles (being preserved)
+to have to provide for the physical necessities of a new race of man.
+Next in order came science and arts; and it was easier to make him feel
+the merits of these than of the exploits of men, especially when they
+consisted of valour, and of the deeds of conquerors; for the heroic
+virtues seemed to take a new character in the present circumstances of
+the world; and whereas they used to kindle and blaze in personal danger,
+and at the sound of the applause of men, they now burned brightly in the
+endurance of a world's dissolution, which, with all its terrors and
+prolonged impressions, must be met by the calm, self-sustaining spirit,
+rising superior to the greatest excess of physical injury. The boy's
+soul replied to the call upon it. He learned to look on the dangers
+before him, and to consider the possibility of escape with quiet
+calculation of chances. He inured himself to privation readily, and
+eagerly tried to spare his mother and Alice from it. He and his father,
+hand in hand, walked over the desolate land, realizing the idea that
+they were in fact spirits, superior to all physical things, and divided
+from spirits and their sphere only by their frail connexion with a body.
+They talked of virtue and duty, and how good it was to dwell in these
+painful bodies, since they were the place wherein virtue was practised
+and duty learned; and the father taught the son that the opportunities
+occurred, not only in enduring the dissolution of the frame of present
+things, and in the untiring exertion to aid and support life in those
+who were of weaker sex than they, but in abiding with even and cheerful
+temper the vexations of every day, and in adorning as far as possible,
+as well as preserving, life. The mother was heroic, good, and patient,
+too. She brought her children, night and morning, to the mouth of the
+cavern, and there they all kneeled by Paulett, who prayed aloud with
+them and for them. Then Ellen made ready their meal, which must all be
+prepared without water, and which consisted of the stores from former
+harvests, of which there was abundance laid up in various houses; and
+the little Alice, who could run at her mother's side, learned to be
+useful in some matters, and patient and obedient. Charles played with
+her and taught her; and he himself, mere child as he was, grew merry in
+his play, and earnest; and many a time the profound silence of the earth
+was broken by the hearty laugh of children, which would ring out through
+the cavern, and reverberate against its walls. They grew, and were
+perfect and beautiful in shape; their minds developed, and talents and
+virtues filled them. They were types of man and woman--the one bold and
+protecting, the other seeking for affection and defence. They flourished
+when means appeared inadequate to their support; and, amid a paralysed
+world, it was in them only that body and spirit seemed to unfold.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Time passed on, and there was no change in the state of things. Still an
+unclouded sun--still the deep, intense blue sky--winds on the earth but
+no moisture; and the whole frame of nature seemed crumbling into chaos.
+Paulett felt the strife with fate to be unequal indeed, and could
+scarcely comprehend that he and his family were truly survivors amid
+such destruction; but he resolved not to give in, while the means
+remained to him, but to fight the fight out till overpowered by the
+material universe. He told Ellen that they must move to some place
+where they might hope to find more diamonds, and Ellen agreed--wishing
+with Paulett that the strife were over and the last agony suffered, and
+that they were among the free and disembodied spirits. London was their
+object; for there they might hope to find most of the materials of what
+was now the most precious of all things, water; and providing as well as
+they could for their necessities by the way, they quitted the cavern,
+and set off on their journey.
+
+First came the father, carrying the little Alice in his arms; the boy
+held his mother by the hand; and they followed Paulett on his path.
+There was the delicate woman, the mother of all that remained alive of
+the human race, setting out on the desert, which she remembered, but a
+few years before, the scene of luxury and abundance. On her shoulder she
+carried a burthen containing corn for their sustenance; and the brave
+boy took his share by bearing the jar of water which had been provided
+for their support on the journey; and thus the last family of mankind
+set out on their pilgrimage over the desolated earth. The unmitigated
+sun had made great rents in the sides of the hills, and, together with
+the wind, had broken up the roads, between which and the parched fields
+there was scarcely now any difference. Where there had been inclosures
+and hedges, the withered sticks had in most places yielded to the winds,
+and were scattered about the spot where they had stood. Here and there
+were the marks of fire, which had run along the country till some
+interval of previous desolation had stopped it; and where this had been
+the case, the black unsightly remains lay strewn over the surface, one
+further step advanced in dissolution than the dead world around. There
+was no want of habitations for their nightly shelter. Palaces and
+cottages, all alike, were open; all alike were silent and tenantless
+habitations. They might choose where they would. And the first day they
+did not go far, for Ellen and her children, with stout hearts, had not
+bodily strength for great fatigue, and were unused to the strong
+exertion they were now compelled to make. Towards evening, therefore,
+when they reached a house with which Paulett and Ellen had once been
+familiar, they determined to rest there for the night. They pushed open
+the gates, which still swung on their hinges, and which admitted them to
+what had been a park, filled once with trees, and bathed with waters. A
+large wood covered the hill which rose on one side, and which now, under
+a summer sun, stood perfectly bare, and all of one uniform grey colour
+as far as the view extended. On the other side, the eye looked over a
+tract of country varied with hill and dale, but desolate of every colour
+that used to shine forth in light and shade. The setting sun shone among
+the leafless branches, casting long brilliant rays of light. The
+unclouded sky met the sparkling earth, and both glittered with unnatural
+brilliancy. To Paulett and Ellen, every thing spoke of desolation and
+death; and an exclamation escaped Ellen, in a low tone, that it was a
+piteous and horrible spectacle. But Charles, standing still at their
+side as they looked on the scene, cried it was beautiful; the colours of
+the sun were so splendid on the fine white trees, and one could see so
+far, and every thing was so white and shining on the earth. The parents
+felt that ideas were ceasing to be in common between the last and the
+first members of the old and the new generation; and far from
+contradicting their boy, they tried to partake his pleasure and enter
+into his impressions. They moved on up to the old familiar door and
+entered the open silent hall, where they remembered the ceremonies and
+the courtesies of life. They chose among the rooms which had been those
+of friends, and recognised familiar objects of their everyday existence.
+It was a conceit of Paulett's, for which he smiled at himself, to wind
+up the clock in the hall, and set it to tell out the time again for
+another week. There were musical instruments in a room adjoining, and
+over one of these Ellen timidly passed her fingers. It was out of tune,
+and the sounds, though sweet in themselves, all jarred with one another.
+
+"That's the last music of the world, perhaps," said Ellen; "and all
+discord too."
+
+They found some small store of corn in one of the rooms; they prepared
+and ate it, and lay down to sleep; forgetting in fatigue all their
+dismal feelings, and in their dreams seeing the old state of things and
+dead persons--nay, a dead world--without wondering that they were come
+to life again. All the days of their journey wore an uniform character;
+and they kept on and on through waste and ruin, glad to leave the
+country behind them, and expecting, as some relief, the aspect of
+streets and a town. They halted, at length, within a few miles of
+London, and lay down to rest, thankful to be so near their bourne; for
+they had suffered as much fatigue as they could well bear, and their
+stock of diamonds was waxing very low and needed replenishment. Paulett
+continued busy preparing water from part of those that remained, after
+his wife and children were asleep. His own frame scarcely felt the
+exertion of the journey, and he was full of the thoughts with which the
+approaching sight of what had been once the great metropolis filled him.
+The vast untenanted dwelling-place, the solitude of the habitation of
+crowds, the absence of mind and talent from the scene they had so
+filled; all these things excited his feelings, and gaining ground in the
+solitude of the night he felt at last that he could not willingly delay
+his first meeting with the bereaved city, and that he should be pleased
+to have an opportunity of indulging alone the highly-wrought emotion
+with which he expected the sight of it. Accordingly, when the light
+began to break, he wrote word to Ellen that she should wait for him a
+few hours, and that he would be back again in that time to lead her and
+the children to their journey's end; and then, softly leaving the house,
+set forward eagerly on his way.
+
+It was evening before he returned. He came in pale and excited; he took
+his children in his arms as usual, and seemed like one upon whom a thing
+which he has seen has made a deep impression, but who either doubts the
+power of words to convey the same impression, or thinks that he himself
+is over-excited by it.
+
+"Ellen," he said at last, "London is burned to the ground."
+
+The sudden flush on her face, and her clasped hands, while she spoke
+not, showed that the event touched her, too, as deeply as him; and then
+he went on freely--
+
+"Oh, Ellen! if you had seen it! It stands there, all in ruins--the whole
+city in ruins! It has been the work of some great storm which fired it
+when all were gone or dead; for there has been no pulling down, no
+pillage, no aid, no attempt to stop the fire! All the palaces, all the
+museums, all the stores of learning and art, the streets, the crowded
+houses; they are gone, Ellen--they are all gone!"
+
+His wife had never before in all their misery seen him so deeply
+moved--so nearly overpowered by any thing that had occurred. His
+excitement communicated itself to her, and she caught the full bearing
+of his narration. She felt for the long ages of story, and the monuments
+of human skill, buried in the great city. Irretrievable ruin! The work
+which men, and years, and glowing knowledge, had slowly raised up, all
+dead, all annihilated so suddenly. They sat talking of it very long
+before Ellen said,
+
+"And what must _we_ do now, Paulett?"
+
+"We must go on, Ellen; we must travel further. The rest we hoped for is
+destroyed with the city, and we must press forward if we are to save our
+lives."
+
+"That seems less and less possible," said Ellen; "and in all this
+destruction why should we be preserved?"
+
+"Perhaps because we have as yet avoided the stroke, by using all our
+human skill; perhaps because a new race is to spring from us, who shall
+reign in another mighty London! Alas, London!--alas, the great city!"
+
+Several times during the night Ellen heard Paulett murmur to himself
+words of lament over the fallen city; and when he slept, his rest was
+agitated, and his frame seemed trembling under the emotions of the day.
+
+It was resolved that Ellen should rest a little while in their present
+habitation, before undertaking the toils of further travel. They
+intended to make for the coast, sure of a dry channel to the opposite
+shore, and hoping to reach some of the great continental towns before
+their store of diamonds should be utterly exhausted. In the meantime,
+Paulett was bent upon taking his boy through the ruins of London, and
+impressing upon him the memory of the place, and its great events. So
+the next day, leaving Ellen and the little Alice together, he and
+Charles began their pilgrimage through the mighty ruins. The event must
+have occurred very many months ago, for the ruins were perfectly cold,
+and the winds had toppled down the walls of all the more fragile
+buildings; so that the streets lay in confusion over one another, and it
+was impossible, except by other marks, to recognise the localities.
+Paulett and Charles clambered over the fallen walls, and would have been
+bewildered among heaps of masonry, and houses shaken from their base and
+blackened by fire--only that over the desolate prospect they saw, and
+Paulett marked the bearings of St Paul's, the chief part of whose dome
+rose high in the air, though a huge rent let the daylight through it,
+and threatened a speedy fall. There was here and there a spire, rising
+perfect over the ruins; there were remains of Whitehall, strong though
+blackened, seen over a long view of prostrate streets; and in the
+distance beyond, fragments of Westminster Abbey showed themselves in the
+sunlight, though defaced and crumbled, as if the frame had been too
+ancient to resist the fire. Guided by these landmarks, Paulett traced
+out the plan of the city, and by degrees recognised where the great
+streets had run, where the palaces had stood, where the river had
+flowed. And all was silent, all an absolute stillness, where there had
+been such ceaseless voices, and sounds of life; the libraries were
+burned, the statues calcined, the museums in ashes; the mind of man,
+which triumphs over the body, had here been subdued by matter, and left
+no trace of itself.
+
+"Oh! London, London! So much talent, so much glory and beauty; such
+mighty hearts, such mighty works; such ages of story--all buried in one
+black mass! Piteous spectacle!" cried Paulett, striking his breast, and
+stretching forth his arms over the skeleton of what was once a sovereign
+in the world.
+
+He took his son by the hand, and led him over the confused masses,
+telling him as they went along what were the ruins by which they passed.
+
+"This great heap of building which has fallen into a square, must be the
+palace of our kings. It is that St James's, where they dwelt till nobler
+buildings rose with the improving times. See here, Charles--there is
+less ruin here. This opener space was park and garden; and time has been
+that I have heard the buzz of men filling all this place, when the
+sovereigns came to hold their courts in that building. I think that this
+dreadful fire must have taken place before life was quite extinct; for
+see, there are heaps of bones here, as though men had fled together to
+avoid it; and it either overtook them with long tongues of fire, such as
+a burning city would send forth, or smothered them before they could
+escape, with its smoke. Ha! I see almost a palace there--a wonder of
+modern art. It is the house I once saw, and only once, for it was built
+during the years of the great drought."
+
+"Who could build in those days, father?" said Charles; "I thought no one
+had any heart for doing more than we do, and that is but just keeping
+ourselves alive."
+
+"Nay, it was very long before the persuasion came that those were the
+last days. We all believed that rain would come again and restore the
+earth to its old order, and whoever possessed the means, builded and
+projected still. You may see this magnificent place suffered violence
+before the fire; for its ornaments are torn from the walls, and its
+statues mutilated by other means than the bare fall. It was the property
+of a man called Jephcot, who, when the water began to fail, contrived
+means to bring it into London from great distances, and thus to secure a
+supply when the ordinary means were useless. He kept his contrivance
+secret, and supplied the city when other men's resources were exhausted;
+and he grew exceedingly rich by this exercise of his ingenuity, and
+built himself the palace which you see there. But when the failure of
+water amounted to absolute famine, the rich people naturally were the
+last who wanted; they gave his price, and he supplied them before he
+would supply others who had no money to bring. This was endured with
+murmurs, which might have gone on a little longer, had not Jephcot, in
+the midst of this distress, given a banquet to the great people of
+London.
+
+"It was in the second year of the drought, when little thinking what the
+end was to be, we all continued to live, as far as possible, as we had
+done before. I was in London where the parliament was then sitting, and
+among others I was invited to this house, and still remember the scene
+of luxury and profusion of these bare rooms. In the midst of the noise
+of a crowded assembly, some of us heard sounds outside, which were such
+as you will never hear, even if you live--sounds of the feet and voices
+of thousands of human beings. Among this tumult, we began to distinguish
+individual voices, chiefly those of women, crying out, "water!" We paid
+little attention, and those who did, said the police and soldiers were
+called out and would prevent violence; but before long it was whispered
+that these forces, pressed by extreme want, and seeing their families
+perishing, had joined the mob, and were exciting violence. There fell a
+silence over all the assembly; every one left the tables, and gathered
+together to hear and to consult: and while we did so, there came an
+assault on the front of the house, and the voices of the populace all
+broke out at once into shouting. They were irresistible; they forced
+their way in, and came pouring up the staircase; they uttered cries of
+vengeance for imaginary wrongs, saying that the waters of London had
+been kept for the rich, and that there was abundance for both rich and
+poor, and threatened the lives of Jephcot and his family, even more
+eagerly than they demanded water. He tried to address them, but they
+caught him down from the head of the staircase where he stood, and flung
+him at once over the marble banisters. This was the signal for attack on
+all sides. We rushed forward to rescue his body and revenge him, they to
+possess themselves of the treasure they so much coveted. Of course we
+were overpowered, for we were one to fifty; and that night there fell a
+hundred of the nobles of England. The women were respected by the mob,
+and except one lady who was shot accidentally, and another who saw her
+son fall, and stood over him till he ceased to breathe, then fell
+wounded and dying herself, all escaped. Your mother was not there. When
+our party was quite vanquished, I found myself in the midst of the mob,
+bleeding to death as I thought; but they flung me on one side, and I
+recovered. They pulled the house to the ground, after they had satiated
+themselves with drinking. And that was the first great calamity which
+overthrew the government of the country."
+
+"And how did that come about, father?" said Charles, eagerly holding him
+by the hand, and sharing his excitement.
+
+Paulett led him on, telling him, at one ruined monument after another,
+what steps had been taken at each, in the destruction of the order of
+things. They came to the dry channel of the Thames, a deep and wide
+trench, whose bottom showed objects that had lain there when the waters
+flowed above, and which would once have been as precious as now they
+were unregarded. Here as a bridge from side to side; and a little way
+above, stood part of the walls of a noble building, partly black with
+smoke, partly white with the polish and beauty of stones newly built
+together.
+
+"These are the Houses of Parliament," said Paulett, "the work of many
+years, which were to replace those burned in 1834. See how beautiful
+they were, what excellent design, what exquisite finish; how strong and
+stable, to last for a thousand ages, and to crown the river which then
+flowed in this dusty channel. When matters were come almost to the
+worst, and there were convulsions all over the country in consequence of
+the famine, the queen, for the first time, came to these houses to open
+the last parliament that ever assembled. There were no beasts of
+burthen left alive in the country; it had been found impossible to
+appropriate water enough to those which had been reserved in the royal
+stables; and the queen, surrounded by a certain number of the court,
+walked along yonder street to the House. The sight of so young a woman,
+and so great a sovereign, thus leveled by physical necessity with the
+meanest, excited some of the old enthusiasm with which she used to be
+greeted: the populace themselves, with their squalid faces, and in their
+extreme misery, greeted her; but the greatest feeling was aroused among
+the nobles and gentry who surrounded her, and who seemed to make a point
+of offering more homage, the less outer circumstances commanded it.
+There was assembled in the House all that remained alive of the nobles
+of England, and the sovereign; and they proposed to deliberate upon the
+possibility of any means remaining to provide water. But a demagogue of
+the people, Matthison by name, roused their fury and their madness, and
+they burst in, accusing their superiors of their calamities. The queen's
+life was in danger;--and then occurred a gallant action, which is worthy
+to live if man lives. A Churchill, a descendant of that Marlborough who
+fought Blenheim, came to the hall whither they had broken in, and
+required in the queen's name to know what they wanted. He meant to gain
+time; for other nobles had effected an exit at a private door for her,
+and were hurrying her away to a place of security, till she could escape
+from England. They answered Churchill, that water was monopolized; that
+Matthison must be minister; that they must speak to the queen face to
+face, and have her hostage for the accomplishment of what they wished.
+Churchill pretended to deliberate for an instant with some one in the
+adjoining chamber; and then returning, said, 'If the queen do not speak
+with you in ten minutes, you may tear me in pieces.' Some of the mob
+cried that he was saying this to give her time to escape. Others said,
+if it were so, he should assuredly suffer the penalty. Churchill
+answered nothing, only smiled; and then the majority said he could not
+be so foolhardy, and they would grant the queen ten minutes.
+
+"The time passed, and Matthison eagerly cried, 'The time is gone, yet we
+don't see the queen.'
+
+"'Then tear me in pieces,' said Churchill; and the mob, finding their
+prey had escaped, did so indeed; the gallant man falling where he stood,
+and not another word came from his lips."
+
+"The brave man!" cried Charles; "the good man! Were there many such
+brave, good men in the old world, father?"
+
+"Ay, that there were," said Paulett; "many a glorious one; some known
+and some unknown, who did things which made one know one's-self a
+glorious, an immortal creature. See there that ruined abbey--there lie
+the ashes of brave and good; these are their crumbled monuments--'that
+fane where fame is A spectral resident!' Alas, there is no fame, no name
+left!"
+
+Paulett and Charles went down among the ruins of the abbey, and there,
+amidst the fallen stones and broken aisles, saw monumental marbles, old
+known names, and funeral inscriptions, contrasting strongly by their
+quiet character with the confusion around.
+
+"Never forget them, Charles," said Paulett. "These are names which the
+world has trembled at, and which are now like to be such as those before
+the Flood, barbarous to those who are building up a new order of things,
+and known merely as a barren catalogue of names. Yet, if you live,
+remember Edward the king here; remember the Black Prince; remember the
+days and heroes of Elizabeth; remember the poetry and the romance of the
+old world."
+
+"Ay, father, and I'll remember the great name of him who taught you to
+print, and of Wicliffe the reformer, and of the man who gave you the
+steam-engine."
+
+Paulett smiled and sighed; he felt that his own ideas of things heroic
+were as much contrasted with those of Charles, as their notions of the
+beautiful. But he thought not to stem the stream.
+
+"See here," he said, pointing to some new monuments, which, like the
+old, were cracked by fire; "there were many brave and good actions
+done, and one of those who did best was laid here. He was a clergyman,
+his name Host, and during the pestilence which came on in the fourth
+year, he was more like an inspired messenger of good than any mortal
+creature. You must know, Charles, that the teachers of religion at this
+time were greatly divided among themselves, and they had led a great
+portion of the lay world into their disputes. One party, in an age of
+reasoning, and when nothing in science was taken upon trust, gave up
+their reason altogether, and followed authority as blindly as they
+could--still, however, feeling the influence of the age; for they would
+argue upon the existence or non-existence of authority, and would fit it
+unconsciously each man to his own conceit. Indeed, superstition was the
+disease of the age, and while the healthy part of the community employed
+and enjoyed the freest use of their reason, this same infirmity appeared
+among other people in other forms; so that some men took up the notion
+that the human mind might act independently of sense, and see without
+eyes, and know intuitively what existed at a distance. Other parties,
+among professors of religion, allowed nothing in religion that they
+allowed daily in the evidence of other matters. They gave no weight to
+research, and thought, about religious facts; and dreamed that each one
+among themselves gained a kind of spiritual knowledge by inspiration. It
+was a time of conceits and quackery; but there was a better spirit
+abroad, of which this good man Host was the representative. He began in
+the pestilence, and went to all houses indifferently, whether they were
+princes or peasants; and there was a common-sense in what he did and
+said, a universal character in his religion, which struck men in these
+evil days. They drew nearer to each other under his influence; and I
+recollect this great building thronged in one of the last months that
+men continued here, with a congregation of all orders and all divisions
+of opinion, who met to pray together, and listen to Host. He stood
+yonder, Charles, as nearly there, I think, as I can tell from the ruins;
+he was rapt by his own discourse, and his face was as the face of an
+angel. And truly three days after, he was dead; and here they buried
+him--the last sound of the organ, the last service of this church, being
+for him. Here is his name still on the tombstone--
+
+         'Host.
+    Pio. dilecto. beato.
+    Populus miserrimus.'"
+
+Charles's memory was deeply impressed with this history, and he followed
+his father, much engrossed and animated by what he had heard. Not so
+Paulett; for the ruins of London occupied his mind, and filled him with
+deep pity and regret for the fair world destroyed: and so they returned
+to their temporary habitation, the father sorrowful, the son exulting;
+one full of the old world, one dreaming great actions for the new.
+
+After another day's rest, the sole surviving family of mankind set forth
+again on their pilgrimage. Paulett again carried his Alice, and Ellen
+and Charles walked hand in hand with such a basket of necessaries as
+they could support. Paulett secured about his person a large packet of
+diamonds, collected in palaces and noble dwellings near London, and the
+apparatus he required for transmuting them into water; and searching for
+and finding the remains of the railroad to the coast, at Dover, they
+kept on in that track, which, from its evenness, offered facility to
+their journey. But in several places it had been purposely broken up,
+during the commotions which preceded the final triumph of the drought,
+and the tunnel near Folkestone had fallen in the middle from want of the
+necessary attention to the masonry. These difficulties seemed harder to
+bear than those which they had met with in the beginning of their
+pilgrimage, when their hopes of reaching a certain bourne were more
+secure. The destruction of London had thrown a deep gloom over all their
+expectations; and besides that help was removed to a much greater
+distance, they could not but feel it very probable that a similar fate
+might have befallen the other places they looked to. Nevertheless, none
+of them murmured. They went steadfastly though sadly on; and the two
+children, with less knowledge of what was to be feared, were encouraged
+by their parents whenever they broke into a merrier strain. Alice was
+the happiest of the party, for she knew least. She was the one who
+suffered least also; for every one spared her suffering, and contrived
+that what remained on earth of luxury should be hers. She had the first
+draught of water; she was carried on her father's shoulder; she ran to
+find pebbles, and whatever shone and glittered on their path; and when
+the others were silent, they heard with joy her infant voice singing,
+without words like a bird, in a covered tone, as they got wearily over
+mile by mile of their way. Ellen suffered most, though Paulett tried, by
+all means that remained, to lighten her fatigue and cheer her spirit.
+She bore up steadfastly; but her frame was slight, and her feelings were
+oppressed by the fearful aspect of things around her. They made a deep
+and deeper impression, and she was fain to look steadfastly on the faces
+of the few living, to recover from the effects of such universal death.
+
+Paulett himself was shaken more than he knew, though he was as energetic
+as ever; but Charles was vigorous and advanced beyond his years, and
+took more than his share in aiding and in comforting. They came at last
+to what had been sea-coast, and to that part of the road which ran along
+the face of the cliff overlooking the sea; and here they paused, and
+gazed upon the wild and strange view before them. Where the sea had
+stretched all glorious in motion, expanse, and colour, there was now a
+deep valley, the bottom of which was rough with rocks, black for the
+most part, but in places glittering with the white salt from which the
+water had evaporated, and which the winds had rolled together. Further
+out from the coast, where the sea had been deepest, there seemed tracks
+of sand; and far away over this newly exposed desert, rose other hills,
+clearly seen through the unclouded atmosphere, and which they knew to be
+the rocks of France. And if they should arrive there, what was the hope
+they offered? Scarce any. Nothing but more pilgrimage, further
+wandering. Paulett and Ellen sat apart, while the children lay sleeping
+side by side, for an hour or two, at this point of their journey, and
+talked over the desolation before them.
+
+"Yet," said Paulett, "the more terrible is the appearance which material
+things put on, the greater I feel the triumph of the spirit to be. The
+worse it looks, the more immortal I feel; and when a perishing world
+shows itself most perishable, I exult most that you and I, Ellen, have
+borne it so far."
+
+"Yes, I am glad too," said Ellen; "your strength strengthens me. In the
+midst of this desolation the mind rises, for an hour at least, higher
+perhaps than it would have ever done if we had been prosperous."
+
+"Yet we might have used our prosperity to the same good end," said
+Paulett. "It is not necessary to be miserable in order to be noble.
+Millions have died before us, some in agony, some before the struggle
+began; some hardly, some at ease: they had all their chances; all had
+their occasions of virtue, if they used them; and some used them, some
+failed: ours is not over yet; we have to struggle on still; and let us
+do it, dear Ellen, and be ready for the good day when we too may be
+allowed to die." And thus talking for a while, they rested themselves in
+sight of the desert they had to traverse; then with renewed strength and
+steadfast resolution, when the children woke, descended the cliffs, and
+prepared to trace out a path through what had been the bottom of the
+sea. The first part of the journey was infinitely difficult: the rocks
+over which foot of man had never passed; the abrupt precipices over
+which had flowed the even surface of the ocean, and then the height to
+climb again, again to find themselves on ledges and shelves of
+rocks--all these seemed at times hardly passable impediments. And when
+they got to a distance from what had been the shore, the unnatural place
+where they found themselves pressed upon the imagination. There was a
+plain of sand, about which at irregular distances rose rocks, which,
+north and south, stretched out beyond the reach of the eye; and this
+sand, which had been at such a depth that it never felt the influence
+of the waves, was covered in places with shells, the inhabitants of
+which had perished when the waters gradually dried away. There lay mixed
+with these some skeletons of fishes; here a huge heap, and there small
+bones which looked less terrible; and masses of sea-weed, dried and
+colourless, under which, as it seemed, the creeping things of the ocean
+had sheltered for a while, and some had crawled to the surface when
+about to perish. But it was not only the brute creation which had died
+here: there was in the middle a pile of rocks, on one side of which they
+came suddenly to a pit, so deep and dark that they perceived no bottom;
+and here probably there had been seawater longer than elsewhere, for
+there were human bones about it, and skulls of men, and human garbs,
+which the sun had faded, but which were not disturbed by waves. There
+was a cord and a metal jar attached to it, for lowering into the pit;
+but Paulett, as he looked at the attitudes of the remaining skeletons,
+and observed how they seemed distorted in death, fancied that they must
+have brought up either poisoned water, or waters so intensely salt as to
+drive them mad with the additional thirst; and that some had died on the
+instant, some had lingered, some had sought to succour others, and
+yielded sooner or later to the same influence. Ellen and he would not
+dwell on the sight after the first contemplation of it; they passed on,
+shuddering, and made toward the great wall of rock which they saw rising
+to the south, and which must be their way to the land of France. But
+before they reached it the sun began to decline, and without light it
+was in vain to attempt to seek a path. There was a wind keener than they
+had felt of late, which came from the west, and the little Alice pressed
+on her father's bosom to shield her from it. He wrapped her closer in a
+cloak, and they resolved to put themselves under the shelter of the
+first rock they reached, and pass the night in the channel of the sea.
+They pressed on, and found at last the place they sought; a cliff which
+must once have raised its head above the waves, and which now stood like
+some vast palace wall, bare and huge, upon the ocean sand. Screened from
+the wind, they collected an abundance of the dried vegetation of the
+sea, partly for warmth and to roast their corn, partly for Paulett to
+dissolve some of the diamonds into water; and here they rested, here
+they slept, many fathoms below that level over which navies used to
+sail. At times during the night Paulett fancied, when the wind abated,
+that he heard a sound like thunder, or like what used to be the rushing
+of a distant torrent; and occasionally he thought he felt a vibration in
+the earth as if it were shaken by some moving body. The region he was in
+was so strange that he knew not what might be here, or what about to
+happen; the sounds so imperfect that he tormented himself to be sure of
+them, or to be sure they were not; and when the time for action came he
+was beginning to disbelieve them altogether; but Alice brought all back
+again by saying, "My rock" (for her cradle was a rock) "shook my head,
+father." The child could explain herself no further; but the vibration
+he had fancied seemed to be what she had felt. And now they climbed
+again, and again descended weary rock after rock; it was a strange
+chaos, which the tides had swept and moulded, and which had in places
+risen to the surface, and caused the wreck of many a vessel. Fragments
+of these lay under the rocks they had split upon, but the wandering
+family had no thoughts for them; wonder and pity had been exhausted
+among exciting and terrific scenes. They thought only of forcing their
+way over the rocks, and feared to think how much of this they had to
+traverse before they should come to what had been the shore, and to
+towns.
+
+Suddenly, as they toiled forward, Paulett said in a low voice to Ellen,
+"Don't you hear it?"
+
+"I have heard it a long time," said Ellen in the same tone; and Charles
+stopping as well as they, said, "Father, what is that?"
+
+"I can't tell, my boy," said Paulett, listening.
+
+"Water?" asked Ellen.
+
+Paulett shook his head, yet they all pressed forward, and there grew a
+thundering sullen sound. There was a valley and a ridge of rock before
+them, and they had to clamber first down the rugged precipice they were
+upon, then to cross the valley, and then to struggle up the opposite
+side, a trembling motion growing perceptible as they advanced, before
+they stood on a sort of broad ledge, which they perceived at the angles
+that jutted out, went down straight into a depth, and opposite which was
+another broad table-land of rock, between which and that they were upon
+was a rent, wider and narrower in various parts, and running along as
+far as they could see to right and left. Paulett rushed on to the brink,
+and stood looking. He put his hand out to keep Ellen back when he heard
+her close behind; but she also sprang to the edge, and when she had seen
+turned to catch Charles in her arms. Rushing past was a torrent, but not
+water. It was dark, thick, pitchy; it sent up hot steams to the edge: it
+was one of the secrets of nature, laid bare when the ocean was taken
+away. Fire seemed to be at work below, for occasionally it would boil
+with more violence, and rush on with an increased, increasing noise,
+then sullenly fall back to the first gloomy sound. It bewildered the
+sense; and though it could threaten no more than death, yet it was death
+with so many horrors around it, that the body and mind both shrank from
+it. How was it possible, too, to cross it? Yet their way lay over it;
+for behind was certain destruction, and before it was not yet proved
+impossible that they might find the element of water. Paulett felt that
+it would not do to linger on the brink; he drew his family away from the
+sight, and he himself went up and down to find some narrower place, and
+some means by which to make a bridge over the abyss; and it was not till
+their assistance could avail him that he returned for them, and brought
+them to the place where he hoped to get over. It was a fearful point,
+for in order to reach a space narrow enough to have a chance of throwing
+a plank over, it was necessary to go down the broken side of the
+precipice some twenty feet, and there, high above the seething lava, to
+cross on such a piece of wood as could be got to span the abyss, and
+then clamber up the rugged opposite side. Paulett had been down to the
+point he selected, and had got timber, which a wrecked vessel had
+supplied, to the edge, so that Ellen and Charles might push a plank down
+to him, and he might try, at least, to cast it to the opposite bank. His
+head was steady, his hand strong; no one of them spoke a word while he
+stood below, steadying himself to receive the plank. Ellen's weak arm
+grew powerful; her wit was ready with expedients, to aid him in this
+necessity. Her frame and spirit were strung to the very uttermost, and
+she was brave and silent, doing all that could be done. No word was
+spoken till Paulett said, "I have done it;" and Ellen and Charles had
+seen him place the plank, and secure it on his own side of the abyss
+with stones. Then they held their breath, beholding him cross it; but
+his firm foot carried him safely, and he heaped stones on the other side
+also. He came over again, sprang up the side, and now smiled and spoke.
+
+"After all it is but a mountain torrent, Ellen," he said, "and the water
+would have destroyed us like yonder seething flood; yet we have crossed
+many a one and feared nothing. Now Charles shall go over; then Alice,
+and he shall take care of her; and then my Ellen. The ground beyond is
+better; we shall get on well after this."
+
+Ellen took the girl in her arms, and stood, not trembling, not weeping;
+seeing and feeling every motion; all was safe that time again, Charles
+was on the opposite bank, and his father waved his hand to Ellen. He
+came back for Alice, whom her mother tied on his shoulders, for hands as
+well as feet were wanted to scramble down and up the banks. And now
+Ellen followed to the brink, and forgot, in watching her husband and
+child pass over, that the black torrent was seething beneath her eyes.
+When they were quite safe, she felt again that it was there, and that
+her eyes were growing dizzy, and her hands involuntarily grasping about
+for support. She did not take time to feel more, but sprang upon the
+plank, and over it, and found Paulett's hand seizing hers, and drawing
+her up the opposite bank.
+
+And once there, with all the three round her, she burst into
+tears--tears which had not overcome her through many miseries--and
+embracing them alternately, blessed them that they were all so far safe.
+Paulett suffered this emotion to spend itself before he said that he
+must cross the plank again. To be more at liberty to assist them, he had
+left the diamonds on the other side, till they should be over. Ellen
+offered no remonstrance. The times had so schooled them all, that
+selfish or unreasonable thoughts either did not come at all, or were
+suppressed at once; and she did not oppose, even with a word, this
+necessary step. But the renewal of fear, after the excited energy had
+subsided, did her more harm than all that had gone before; and she stood
+on the brink exhausted, yet palpitating again, while Paulett made the
+passage. He himself was wearied; but he had reached the plank, and was
+upon it on his way back to safety, when one of those ebullitions which
+stirred the dark fluid began roaring down the cleft rock, and with
+stunning noise sent up dark and clouding vapour. Paulett seemed
+suffocating--he could not be heard--he could but just be seen--he
+reeled! Has he fallen? Oh, he has fallen! No--no! he has got his footing
+again; he forces himself up the bank; he is safe--but the diamonds are
+in the bottom of the pit.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The exhausted family toiled with difficulty over the remaining passage
+to what had been the mainland, and reached a village on the former
+coast, under a roof of which they entered, and lay down on the floor of
+the first room they came to. Their supply of water was almost out; the
+materials for producing more were gone; and there seemed little chance
+of finding any in the neighbourhood. "Death was here;" and yet the
+exhaustion of their frames led them to sleep before they died, and to
+seek and enjoy a taste of that oblivion which was soon to fall upon them
+with an impenetrable shroud. All but Ellen were soon asleep; but she,
+the most wearied of all, could not close her eyes and admit rest to her
+overwrought frame. There was a burning thirst in her throat, which the
+small portion of water she and the rest had shared--being all that
+remained for them--had failed to slake. She had not complained of it;
+but she rejoiced when she heard them asleep, that she could rise and
+move restlessly about. The night was hot, and yet the west wind
+continued to blow strongly; the moon shone, but scarcely with so bright
+a light as usual--there was a film upon it, or perhaps, Ellen thought,
+it was the dimness of her own weary eyes. She came softly up to Paulett,
+and watched his frame, half naked in the unconsciousness of sleep, and
+upon which none of the ravages of want and exertion were now concealed.
+The flesh was wasted; the strong chest showed the bones of the skeleton;
+the arms which had so strained their powers were thin, and lay in an
+attitude of extreme exhaustion. His sleep was deep; his lips open; his
+eyelids blue; he would wake in want; and soon he would be able to sleep
+no more, till the last sleep of all came in torment and anguish. Poor
+Charles lay by him, his head on his father's body for a pillow, his
+limbs drawn somewhat together, his clusters of brown hair parted off his
+pale thin cheek; and Alice, the darling Alice, with more colour in her
+face than any of them, slept in deep repose, destined, perhaps, to live
+last, and to call in vain on those whose cares had hitherto kept her
+healthier and happier than themselves. The mother groaned with anguish;
+she measured what these were about to suffer, by all she began to suffer
+herself; and the sight of them seemed to sear the burning eyes which
+could no longer weep. She sat down on the floor by Alice; her head fell
+against the wall; she caught at a little rosary which hung near her, and
+pressed it in her mouth, the comparative coolness of the beads giving
+her a little ease; her face fell on her bosom.
+
+When Paulett woke out of his deep sleep, and as soon as he stirred, the
+little Alice came on tiptoe across the floor to him, and said, "Hush,
+father! my mother is asleep at last."
+
+"At last, my Alice! What! Could not she sleep?"
+
+"I think she could not sleep. I woke up, and there was my mother; and
+Charles woke presently, and she said Charles should go out and try to
+bring back some cold stones in a cup, and then presently she sat down
+again, and went to sleep."
+
+He rose softly, and taking the little girl by the hand, came up to
+Ellen's side, and looked upon her. She was lying at full length on the
+floor; her head was toward him, but her face was turned upon the ground,
+and her hair further hid it; her right arm was fallen forward, and the
+back of that hand lay in the palm of the other. He did not hear nor see
+her breathe. "Is it so, my Ellen?" he said. "Art thou at rest? Is there
+no farewell for me?" He kneeled and stooped lower and lower. His lip did
+not venture to feel hers; he longed that she might be free, yet shrank
+from knowing that she was gone. But no; she had not ceased to suffer; a
+low sigh came at last, and her parched mouth opened.
+
+"Water!" she said; then lifted her eyes and saw Paulett, and remembered
+all by degrees. "Is not there a little? Oh, no--none! Nay, I shall not
+want it soon!" She turned her face on Paulett's breast, and soon after
+tried to rise and push herself from him. "Leave me, dear husband; kiss
+me once, and leave me; try to save _them_!"
+
+But Paulett folded his arms round her. "Not so, my Ellen; the chances of
+life are so little, that it is lawful for me to give them up, unless we
+can all seek them together. Alas! all I can do is but to see thee die!
+Oh, if I could give thee one minute's ease!"
+
+"Alas! you must all die like this," said Ellen, who was perishing like
+one of the flowers that had died in the drought for want of rain. Water
+would have saved that life, spared those sufferings. That burning hand,
+those gasping lips, those anxious eyes, revealed what the spirit passing
+away in that torment would fain have concealed. "Alice, come near me;
+hold my hand, Alice. Are you thirsty, poor child? Oh, do not grieve your
+father! It will be but a short time, my little girl--be patient." Ellen
+tried to kiss her; her husband kneeled and raised her head on his
+shoulder, bending his face on her forehead, and murmuring the last
+farewell--the last thanks--the agony of his pity for her suffering. The
+poor child threw herself on her mother, gazing upward in want, and
+grief, and bewilderment, in her face. "My Charles," said the mother,
+feeling about with the other hand, but she did not find his head to
+bless it. "My Charles," she repeated in a fainter tone, and her eyelids
+drooped over the hot eyes.
+
+Paulett saw nothing but his suffering wife, heard nothing except her
+painful breath. At that moment the door opened, and Charles stood there,
+paler than ever, with glittering eyes. He held the cup towards his
+father. "Father," he said, "there is water coming down from heaven!"
+
+Paulett looked up and cried, "O God, it rains!"
+
+
+
+
+A TENDER CONSCIENCE.
+
+
+I have a story to tell you, my dear Eusebius, of a tender conscience. It
+will please you; for you delight to extract good out of evil, and find
+something ever to say in favour of the "poor wretches of this world's
+coinage," as you call them; thus gently throwing half their errors, and
+scattering them among a pretty large society to be responsible for them;
+provided only they be wretches by confession, that dare not hide
+themselves in hypocrisy. In all such cases you show that you were born
+with the genius of a beadle, and (strange conjunction) the tenderest of
+hearts. I believe that you would stand an hour at a pillory, and see
+full justice done to a delinquent of that caste; and would as willingly,
+in your own person, receive the missiles that you would attempt to ward
+off from the contrite wretch, whose sins might not have been woefully
+against human kindness. Could you choose your seat in the eternal
+mansions, it would be among the angels that rejoice over one sinner that
+repenteth. You can distinguish in another the feeblest light of
+conscience that ever dimly burned, and see in it the germ of a beautiful
+light, that may one day, by a little fanning and fostering, shine as a
+star, and shed a vital heat that may set the machinery of the heart in
+motion to throw off glorious actions. But let not the man that shams a
+conscience come in your way. I have seen you play off such an one till
+he has burst forth--up, up, up, aiming at the skies, nothing less, in
+his self-glorification; and how have you despised him, and exhibited him
+to all bystanders as nothing but a poor stick in his descent! These
+human rockets are at their best but falling stars--cinders incapable of
+being rekindled. Commend me to the modest glow-worms, that shine only
+when they think the gazing world is asleep, and dwell in green hedges,
+and fancy themselves invisible to all eyes but those of love.
+
+There are persons, and of grave judgments too, who verily believe that
+the quantity of conscience amongst mankind is not worth speaking of, and
+treat of human actions as entirely independent of it. And this fault
+honest Montaigne finds with Guicciardini:--"I have also," says he,
+"observed this in him, that of so many persons and so many effects, so
+many motives and so many counsels as he judges of, he never attributes
+any one of them to virtue, religion, or conscience, as if all those were
+utterly extinct in the world; and of all the actions, however brave an
+outward show they make, he always throws the cause and motive upon some
+vicious occasion, or some prospect of profit. It is impossible to
+imagine but that, amongst such an infinite number of actions as he makes
+mention of, there must be some one produced by the way of reason. No
+corruption could so universally have affected men, that some of them
+would not have escaped the contagion, which makes me suspect that his
+own taste was vicious; from whence it might happen that he judged other
+men by himself." You, Eusebius, will be perfectly of Montaigne's
+opinion. We would rather trust that there are few in whom this moral
+principle has no vitality whatever. The wayside beggar, when he divides
+his meal--which, perhaps, he has stolen--with his dog, acts from its
+kind impulse; and see how uncharitable I am at my first impulse, to
+suppose, to suggest that the meal is stolen--so ready are we to steal
+away virtues, one after the other, and in our judgments to be thieves
+upon a large scale. And so a better feeling pricks me to charity. I
+doubt if we ought even to say that the parliamentary reprobate, who
+openly confessed "that he could not afford to keep a conscience," had
+none--he was but dead to some of its motions. If it were not that it
+must be something annexed to an immortal condition, would you not,
+Eusebius, say that the beggar's dog conscientiously makes his return of
+service and gratitude for the scraps thrown to him? See him by the
+gipsies' tent: how safely can the infant children be left to his sole
+care by the roadside! It is a beautiful sight to see the sagacious, the
+faithful creature, watching while they sleep, and lying upon the outer
+fold of the blanket that enwraps them. Has he not a sense of duty--a
+sort of bastard conscience? And what is truly wonderful, is, that
+animals have often a sense of duty against their instincts. If it be
+said that they act through fear of punishment, it is a punishment their
+instincts would teach them to avoid; and, after all, this fear of
+punishment may be a mighty ingredient in most men's consciences. We
+learn that immense numbers of ducks are reared by that part of the
+Chinese population who spend their lives in boats upon the rivers; and
+these birds, salted and dried, form one of the chief articles of diet in
+the celestial land. They are kept in large cages or crates, from which,
+in the morning, they are sent forth to seek their food upon the river
+banks. A whistle from their keeper brings them back in the evening; and
+as, according to Tradescent Lay, the last to return receives a flogging
+for his tardiness, their hurry to get back to the boats, when they hear
+the accustomed call, is in no small degree amusing. I cannot but think
+that there must be something like a sense of duty in these poor
+creatures, that they thus of themselves, and of good-will return to the
+certainty of being salted and dried. This may sound very ridiculous,
+Eusebius, but there is matter in it to muse upon; and if we want to know
+man, we must speculate a little beyond him, and learn him by similities
+and differences. He has best knowledge of his own home and country who
+has wandered into a _terra incognita_, and studied the differences of
+soil and climate. And besides that every man is a world to himself, and
+may find a _terra incognita_ in his own breast, it is not amiss to look
+abroad into other wildernesses, where he will find instincts that are
+not so much any creature's but that they have something divine in them,
+and so, in their origin at least, akin to his own. He will find
+conscience of some sort growing in the soil of every heart. It is not
+amiss to discover where it grows most healthily, and by what deadly
+nightshade its virtue may be suffocated, and its nicer sense not thrive.
+
+Surprising is the diversity;--were not nature corrupted, there would be
+no diversity. Now, truth and right is one; and yet we judge not one
+thing, we think not aright. Yet is the original impulse true to its
+purpose, but, in its passage through the many channels of the mind, is
+strangely perverted. It is eloquently said by a modern writer, a deep
+thinker, "Thus does the conscience of man project itself athwart
+whatsoever of knowledge, or surmise, or imagination, understanding,
+faculty, acquirement, or natural disposition he has in him; and, like
+light through coloured glass, paint strange pictures on the rim of the
+horizon and elsewhere. Truly this same sense of the infinite nature of
+duty, is the central part of all within us; a ray as of eternity and
+immortality immured in dusky many-coloured Time, and its deaths and
+births. Your coloured glass varies so much from century to century--and
+in certain money-making, game-preserving centuries, it gets terribly
+opaque. Not a heaven with cherubim surrounds you then, but a kind of
+vacant, leaden, cold hell. One day it will again cease to be opaque,
+this coloured glass; now, may it not become at once translucent and
+uncoloured? Painting no pictures more for us, but only the everlasting
+azure itself. That will be a right glorious consummation." If it were
+only the painting pictures! but we act the painted scenes. And strange
+they are, and of diversity enough. It was the confession of an apostle,
+that he "thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary"
+to his master. There are national consciences how unlike each other;
+there are consciences of tribes and guilds, which, strange to say,
+though they be composed of individuals, bear not the stamp of any one
+individual conscience among them. They apologise to themselves for
+iniquity by a division and subdivision of the responsibility; and thus,
+by each owning to but a little share collectively, they commit a great
+enormity. It is the whole and sole responsibility of the individual,
+responsibility to that inner arbiter sitting _foro conscientiae_, and the
+sight of those frowning attendants of the court, Nemesis and Adraste,
+ready with the scourge to follow crime, that keep the man honest. Put
+not confidence, Eusebius, in bodies, in guilds, and committees. Trust
+not to them property or person; they may be all individually good
+Samaritans, but collectively they will rather change places with the
+thieves than bind up your wounds. In this matter, "Experto crede
+Roberto."
+
+But of this diversity.--The Turk will split his sides with laughter,
+against the very nature, too, of his Turkish gravity, should he witness
+the remorse of the subdued polygamist. We read of nations who, from a
+sense of duty, eat their parents, and would shudder at the crime of
+burying them in the earth, or burning them. So is there a cannibalism of
+love as well as of hatred. Sinbad's terror at the duty of being buried
+alive with his deceased wife, the king's daughter, was no invention
+beyond the probability of custom. The Scythians, as Herodotus tells us,
+thought it an honourable act and no _murders_ committed, when they
+slaughtered the king's councillors and officers of state, and guards and
+their horses, on which they stuck them upright by skewers, to be in
+death the king's attendants. The suttee is still thought no wrong. There
+is habit of thought that justifies habit of deed. Southey, in his
+_History of the Brazils_, tells a sad tale of a dying _converted_
+Indian. In her dying moments, cannibalism prevailed over Christian
+conscience; and was the Pagan conscience silent? She was asked by those
+standing about her, if they could do any thing for her. She replied,
+that she thought she _could_ pick the bones of a little child's hand,
+but that she had no one now who would go and kill her one. I dare to
+say, Eusebius, she died in peace. The greater part of the world die in
+peace. Their conscience may be the first part of then that departs--it
+is dead before the man--most say, I have done no harm. I have known a
+man die in the very effort of triumphant chuckling over his unfortunate
+neighbours, by his successful fraud and over-reaching; yet, perhaps,
+this man's conscience was only dead as to any sense of right and wrong
+in this particular line; very possibly he had "compunctious visitings"
+about "mint and cumine"--and oh! human inconsistency, some such have
+been known to found hospitals--some spark of conscience working its way
+into the very rottenness of their hearts, that, like tinder, have let
+out all their kindred and latent fire, till that moment invisible, all
+but _in posse_ non-existent. But for any thing like a public conscience
+so kindling since the repentance of the Ninevites, it is not to be
+thought of. The pretence of such a thing is a sign of the last state of
+national hypocrisy. It was not that sense which emancipated the Negroes
+and forbade the slave trade. Take, for example, the Portuguese, and
+their "board of conscience" at Lisbon, which they set up to quiet the
+remorse, if any should exist, of those who had bought the miserable
+natives of Reoxcave, when they sold themselves and their children for
+food. This very convenient scruple was started in "the court, to
+sanction the purchase, that if these so purchased slaves were set free,
+they might _apostatize_!" Now, who were the judges in such a court? Oh!
+the villany of the whole conclave!--yet was each individual, perhaps, of
+demure and sanctimonious manners, to whom the moral eye of a people
+looked--villains all in the guise of goodness:--
+
+    "Vir bonus, omne forum quem spectat et omne tribunal,
+    Quandocuncque Deos vel porco vel bove placat,
+    Jane Pater, clare, clare, cum dixit, Apollo,
+    Labra movet metuens audiri--Pulchra Laverna,
+    Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri,
+    Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem."
+
+We are told that there is such a disease as a cannibal madness, and that
+it was common among the North American savages; that those seized with
+it have a raving desire for human flesh, and rush like wolves upon all
+they meet. Now, in what was this court of conscience better than these
+cannibals? Better! a thousand times worse--for wolves are honest. Now I
+well know, Eusebius, how I have put a coal under the very fountain of
+your blood--and it is boiling at a fine rate. Let me allay it, and
+follow the stage directions of "soft music;" only on this occasion we
+omit the music, and take the rhyme. So here do I exhibit conscience in
+its playful vein. Our friend S., the other day, repeated me off the
+following lines; he cannot remember where he had them--he says it was
+when a boy that he met with them somewhere. Call it the Conscientious
+Toper; yet that is too common--it is the characteristic of all
+topers--never was one that could not find an excuse. Drink wonderfully
+elicits moral words, to compound for immoral deeds. Call it then--
+
+
+THE CONTROVERSY.
+
+    No plate had John and Joan to hoard--
+      Plain folks in humble plight--
+    One only tankard graced their board,
+      But that was fill'd each night;
+
+    Upon whose inner bottom, sketch'd
+      In pride of chubby grace,
+    Some rude engraver's hand had etch'd
+      A baby angel's face.
+
+    John took at first a moderate sup--
+      But Joan was not like John--
+    For when her lips once touch'd the cup,
+      She swill'd till all was gone.
+
+    John often urged her to drink fair,
+      But she cared not a jot--
+    She loved to see that angel there,
+      And therefore drain'd the pot.
+
+    When John found all remonstrance vain,
+      Another card he play'd,
+    And where the angel stood so plain
+      He had a devil portray'd.
+
+    Joan saw the horns, Joan saw the tail,
+      Yet still she stoutly quaff'd,
+    And when her lips once touch'd the ale,
+      She clear'd it at a draught.
+
+    John stood with wonder petrified,
+      His hair stood on his pate,
+    "And why dost guzzle now," he cried,
+      "At that enormous rate?"
+
+    "Oh, John!" she said, "I'm not to blame--
+      I _can't in conscience_ stop--
+    For sure 'twould be a burning shame
+      To leave the devil a drop."
+
+Changeable, versatile, inconstant Eusebius, where is now your burst of
+philanthropy--where is all your rage? Pretty havoc you would but now have
+made, had you been armed with thunder--thunder, I say, for yours would
+have been no silent devastation among the villains. No Warnerian silent
+blazeless destruction would suit your indignation--in open day, and with
+a shout, would you do it, and in such wise would you suffer, if needs
+must, with Ajax's prayer in your mouth--"+En de Phaei kai olesson+."
+But for a grand picture of a sweeping indignation, there is nothing so
+grand as that fine passage in the Psalms--"Let them be as the dust before
+the wind, and the angel of the Lord scattering them." Men and all their
+iniquities, once so mighty, so vast, but as grains less than grains of
+dust--all the clouds of hypocrisy dispersed in atoms before the fury of
+the storm of vengeance. You were, as you read, Eusebius, in honest rage.
+I could see you as in a picture, like the figure with the scourge in hand
+flying off the very ground, in Raffaelle's noble fresco, the Heliodorus;
+and now are you far more like a merryandrew in your mirth, and the
+quaint sly humour of the tale in verse has made you blind to the
+delinquencies of the quaffing Joan. Blind to their delinquencies! Stay
+your mirth a moment, Eusebius--are you not blind to your own? Now I
+remember me, you are a thief, Eusebius, however you may have settled
+that matter with your conscience. Have you read the proposed "Dog-bill?"
+Here's a pretty to do!--Eusebius convicted of dog-stealing--subject to
+the penalty of misdemeanour! "I!" you will say. Yes, you. You put it
+down, doubtless, in the catalogue of your virtues, as you did when you
+boasted to me that you had, by a lucky detection in probably the
+criminal's first offence, saved a fellow-creature from a course of
+crime. Do you remember your dog Chance? yes, _your_ dog, for so you
+called him--and, pray, how came you by him? This was your version. A
+regiment was marching by your neighbourhood, at the fag-end of which a
+soldier led a very fine spaniel by a piece of cord. You always loved
+dogs--did you not, you cunning Eusebius? You can put two and two
+together as well as most people. The dog had no collar. Oh, oh! thought
+you--the master of so fine a dog would have collar and chain, too, for
+him. This fellow must have stolen him--it is my duty (your virtuous
+duty, indeed) to rescue this fine creature, and perchance save this
+wretched man from such wicked courses. So thus you proceed--you look
+indignant, and accost the soldier, "Holloa, you fellow--whose dog's
+that?" Soldier--"What's that to you?" Eusebius--"What's the name of your
+captain, that I may instantly appeal to him on the subject?" Soldier
+alarmed--"I beg your honour's pardon, but the dog followed me. I don't
+know to whom he belongs." What made you, then, so particularly enquire
+where he came from, and whereabouts he met with him? Your virtue
+whispered to you, "Ask these questions, that you may be able to find out
+the owner." Another imp whispered, "It might be useful." So you seize
+the rope, lecture the man upon the enormity of his intentions, quietly
+take the dog to your stable, and walk away with, as you flatter
+yourself, the heartfelt satisfaction of having saved a fellow-creature
+from the commission of a theft. To do you justice, you did, I verily
+believe, for two whole days make decent enquiries, and _endeavour_, if
+that be not too strong a word--_endeavour_ to find out the owner. But at
+the close of every day question Rover himself; and questioning Rover led
+you to look into each other's faces--and so you liked Rover's looks, and
+Rover liked your looks--and when you said to Rover, I should like to
+know who your master is? Rover looked with all his eyes, as much as to
+say, "Well now, if ever I heard the like of that! If my name is Rover,
+yours must be Bouncer"--then you patted him for a true and truth-telling
+dog; and he wagged his tail, and looked again at you, till you perfectly
+mesmerized each other, and understood each other, and he acknowledged
+that you, and no other, could be his master--and so you mastered him,
+and he mastered your conscience--and then you and your conscience began
+to have a parley. I fear you had sent her to a bad boarding-school, and
+had just brought her home for the holidays, with a pretty many more
+niceties and distinctions than she took with her--and had come back
+"more nice than wise." "Have you found the owner?" quoth she. "It is
+time he were found," replied you. "Why?" quoth she. "Because," you
+rejoin, "the shooting season is fast approaching." "That is true." "The
+dog will be spoiled for want of practice." "That will be a pity." "Thank
+you, conscience--won't it be a sin?" Conscience is silent, so you take
+that for granted. "Hadn't I better take out a license this year?" "Oh!
+it wouldn't be right you should go without one." "Certainly not,
+(somewhat boldly;) I _will_ get my license directly. Poor
+Rover!--well--how very fond that dog is of me--it would be highly
+ungrateful not to make a return even to a dog. I ought to be fond of
+him. I--am--very fond of him." Then you confess, Eusebius, that you
+should be very sorry to part with him. Conscience says, "Do you mean to
+say you should be sorry to find out the real owner?" "Really,
+conscience," you reply, "there can be no harm in being sorry; but you
+are becoming very impertinent, and asking too many questions." Here
+conscience nods--is asleep--is in a coma, Eusebius--fairly mesmerized by
+you, and follows you at your beck wherever you choose to lead her. And
+so you take her to your stable to look at Rover: and you want a
+suggestion how you can stop Rover's wandering propensities; and
+conscience, being in a state of _clairvoyance_, bids you tie him up. You
+ask how--"by the teeth;" so you order him a good plate of meat inside,
+your stable-door locked, and you replenish that plate for a week or
+more, and have a few conferences with Rover in your parlour--and the dog
+is tied. Then you didn't like the name of Rover--but liked Chance.
+Conscience suggested the name as a palliative, as something between true
+proprietorship and theft--it gave you a protective right, and took away
+the sting of the possession. You fortified yourself in this position, as
+cunningly as the French at Tahiti. But how happened it, Eusebius, that
+when any friend asked you if you had found the owner, you turned off the
+subject always so ingeniously, or denied that you had a Rover, but one
+Chance, certainly a fine dog?--and how came it that you never took him
+in the direction of the country from whence the regiment had come? And
+yet, if the truth could be known, would it not turn out, Eusebius, that
+fears did often come across your pleasures, and your affection for
+Chance? and had a child but asked you, as you might have been crossing a
+stile, in quest, with Chance before you, as you did the soldier, "whose
+dog's that?" you would have stammered a little--and almost, in your
+affection, have gone down upon your knees to have begged him as a gift;
+and it is fearful to think what a sum any knave as cunning as yourself
+had been, would have got out of you. Now, my dear Eusebius, I entreat
+you, when you shall read or hear read--"Is thy servant a dog, that he
+should do this thing," that you think of Chance, and not of _his doing_,
+but _yours_. I dare to say, you have never quite looked at the affair in
+this light; we all are apt to wash our hands of a troublesome affair,
+and think we come with them clean into court.
+
+Take care you don't resemble the monkey with the meal-tub. His master
+thrashed him when he caught him at the theft, and showed him his hands
+covered with meal, that he might understand the reason of his
+punishment. Monkey, after the next theft, took care to wash his hands,
+and when his master came to punish him, extended them to show how clean
+they were. His master smiled, and immediately brought him a
+looking-glass--his face and whiskers were powdered with meal: and there
+you have the origin of the adage, "You have washed your hands but not
+your face." There will still be a monitor, Eusebius, to hold the
+looking-glass to you, and the like of you: and look to your face; and
+whenever you find that you have _put a good face_ upon any doubtful
+matter, take the trouble then to look at your hands; and if they be
+clean, look again and see if your face and hands are clean together. And
+that will be the best _tableau-vivant_ you or any one else can study.
+
+Now, however, that conscience seems so thoroughly gone to the dogs,
+without any personal allusion to your case, Eusebius, I cannot resist
+telling you an anecdote by which you will see how Neighbour Grace of
+M----n ingeniously touched the conscience of Attorney B., who was
+supposed to have none--upon the matter of a dog-theft, and how Attorney
+B. was a match for Neighbour Grace.
+
+"I am come to thee, Friend B.," said Grace, "to ask thee a question.
+Suppose my dog should go into thy kitchen, and run off with a neck of
+mutton, dost thee think I ought to pay thee for the neck of mutton?"
+
+"Without doubt," said Lawyer B.
+
+"Then I'd thank thee to pay me three and fourpence; for it was thy dog
+stole my neck of mutton, and that's the cost of it."
+
+"Perfectly right," said Attorney B., coolly drawing out a bill and
+receipt. "So, Neighbour Grace, you must pay me three and fourpence, and
+that settles the matter."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, as you asked my opinion, my charge for that is six and
+eightpence--deduct value of neck of mutton, three and fourpence, and
+just so much remains." And Lawyer B. got the best of it, and made him
+pay too. Now this it was to probe another's conscience, without knowing
+the nature of the beast you stir up; not considering that when
+conscience thus comes down, as it were, with "a power of attorney," it
+is powerful indeed--"recalcitrat undique tutus." There are many such big
+swelling consciences, that grow up and cover the whole man--like the
+gourd of Jonah, up in a night and down in a night--a fine shelter for a
+time from the too-searching sun; but there is a _worm_ in it, Eusebius,
+and it won't last.
+
+It is a very odd thing that people commonly think they can have their
+consciences at command, and can set them as they do their watches, and
+it is generally behind time: yet will they go irregularly, and sometimes
+all of a run; and when they come to set them again, they will bear no
+sort of regulation. Some set them as they would an alarum, to awaken
+them at a given time; and when this answers at all, they are awakened in
+such an amazement that they know not what they are about. Such was the
+case with the notorious Parisian pawnbroker, who all in a hurry sent for
+the priest; but when the crucifix was presented to him, stammered out
+that he could lend but a very small matter upon it. So consciences go by
+latitudes and longitudes--slow here and fast there. They have, too,
+their antipodes--it is night here and sunshine there. And so of ages and
+eras: and thus the same things make men laugh and tremble by turns. What
+unextinguishable laughter would arise should Dr Howley, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, go in procession with his clergy to Windsor, each armed with
+scissors, to clip the moustaches of the prince and his court! Yet a like
+absurdity has in other days pricked the consciences of king and
+courtiers to a sudden and bitter remorse. I read the other day in that
+very amusing volume, the _Literary Conglomerate_, in an "Essay on Hair,"
+how Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, went so far as to pronounce an
+anathema of excommunication on all who wore long hair, for which pious
+zeal he was much commended; and how "Serlo, a Norman bishop, acquired
+great honour by a sermon which he preached before Henry I. in 1104,
+against long curled hair, with which the king and his courtiers were so
+much affected, that they consented to resign their flowing ringlets of
+which they had been so vain. The prudent prelate gave them no time to
+change their minds, but immediately pulled a pair of shears out of his
+sleeve, and performed the operation with his own hand." A canon is still
+extant, of the date of 1096, importing that such as wore long hair
+should be excluded from the church whilst living, or being prayed for
+when dead. Now, the very curates rejoice in ringlets and macassar. It
+would be curious to trace the heresy to its complete triumph in
+full-bottomed wigs, in which, it was ignorantly supposed, wisdom finally
+settled, when it was not discovered elsewhere. Thus it is, Eusebius,
+that folly, the vile insect, flies about--just drops a few eggs in the
+very nest of conscience, and is off, and a corruption of the flesh
+followeth. Those, therefore, who take out license to shoot folly as it
+flies, should be made to look after the eggs likewise.
+
+Alas, Eusebius, that any thing should take the name of this nice sense
+that is not replete with goodness, that is not the true _ductor
+substantium_! The prophet of an evil which wounds his very soul will
+take offence if it come not to pass and spare not. Was not Jonah grieved
+that the whole city was not destroyed as he had said? That nice and
+inner sense was more ingenious on the side of bold justice, than
+prodigal to mercy; and so had he not "a conscience void of offence;"
+and thus this honourable feeling not always acts unfettered, but is
+intercepted and hurried on, spite of itself, into courses of action in
+which there is too much of passion, and, plunging into error with this
+outward violence, is forced upon ingenious defences. The story of Piso
+is in point. He thought to act the conscientious judge, when he
+condemned the soldier to death who had returned from forage without his
+companion, under the impression that he had killed him; but as he is
+upon the point of execution, the man supposed to have been murdered
+returns, all the soldiery present rejoice, and the executioner brings
+them both to the presence of Piso. And what did the conscientious Piso?
+His conscience would not so let him put by justice; so, with a
+surprising ingenuity of that nice faculty in its delirium, he orders
+execution upon all three--the first soldier, because he had been
+condemned--the second, who had lost his way, because he was the cause of
+his companion's death--and the executioner, because he had disobeyed his
+orders. He had but to pretend to be greatly grieved at his vagary, to
+have the act lauded as an instance of Roman virtue. I look upon the
+famed Brutus, when he thought it a matter of conscience to witness, as
+well as order, his sons' execution, to have been a vain unfeeling fool
+or a madman. Let us have no prate about conscience proceeding from a
+hard heart; these are frightful notions when they become infectious. A
+handful of such madmen are enough, if allowed to have their way, to
+enact the horrors of a French Revolution. All this you know, Eusebius,
+better than I do, and will knit your brows at this too serious vein of
+thought. I will come, therefore, a little nearer our common homes. You
+shall have a scene from domestic life, as I had it the other day, from a
+lady with whom I was conversing upon this subject, who tells me it is a
+veritable fact, and took place some seventy years back. "It will want
+its true power," said my friend, "because that one solitary trait could
+give you no idea of the rich humour of the lady, the subject of this
+incident--her simplicity, shrewdness, art, ignorance, quickness,
+mischief, made lovely by exceeding beauty, and a most amusing
+consciousness of it. Seventy years ago, too, it happened--there are no
+such ladies in the better ranks of society now. She lived at Margate. It
+came to pass that the topping upholsterer there got a new-shaped chest
+of drawers from London--the very first that had appeared in Margate--and
+gave madam, she being one of the high top-families, the first sight of
+it. With the article she fell in love, and entreated her husband to buy
+it; but the sensible gentleman, having his house capitally and fully
+furnished, would not. The lady still longed, but had not money enough to
+make the purchase--begged to have her _quarter_ advanced. This was not
+granted. She pouted a little, and then, like a wise woman, made up her
+mind to be disappointed, and resumed her more than wonted cheerfulness;
+but, alas! she was a daughter of Eve, as it will be seen. Christmas-day
+came--it was the invariable custom of the family to receive the
+sacrament. Before church-time she sent for her husband. She had a sin on
+her conscience--she must confess before she could go to the altar. Her
+husband was surprised. "What is it?" "You must promise not to be very
+angry." "But what is it? Have you broken my grandmother's china
+tea-pot?" "Oh! worse than that." "Have you thrown a bank-note in the
+fire?" "Worse than that." "Have you run in debt to your abominable
+smuggling lace-woman?" "Worse than that." "Woman!" quoth he sternly, and
+taking down an old broadsword that hung over the chimney-piece, "confess
+this instant;" and he gave the weapon a portentous flourish. "Oh! dear
+Richard, don't kill me, and I'll tell you all at once. Then I, (sob,) I,
+(sob,) have cribbed (sob) out of the house-money every week to buy that
+chest of drawers, and you've had bad dinners and suppers this month for
+it; and (sobbing) that's all." He could just keep his countenance to
+say--"And where have you hid this accursed thing?" "Oh, Richard! I have
+never been able to use it; for I have covered it over with a blanket
+ever since I had it, for fear of your seeing it. Oh! pray, forgive me!"
+You need not be told how she went to church with a "clean breast," as
+the saying is. It is an unadorned fact. Her husband used to tell it
+every merry Christmas to his old friend-guests." Here you have the
+story, Eusebius, as I had it thus dramatically (for I could not mend it)
+from the lips of the narrator.
+
+Is it your fault or your virtue, Eusebius, that you positively love
+these errors of human nature? You ever say, you have no sympathy with or
+for a perfect monster--if such there be--which you deny, and aver that
+if you detect not the blot, it is but too well covered; and by that very
+covering, for aught you know to the contrary, may be all blot. You would
+have catalogued this good lady among your "right estimable and lovely
+women!" and if you did not think that chest of drawers must be an
+heirloom in the family, you would set about many odd means to get
+possession of it. Yet I do verily believe that there are brutes that
+would not have forgiven in their wives this error--that would argue
+thus, You may sin, madam, against your Maker; but you shall not sin
+against me. Is there not a story somewhere, of a wretched vagabond at
+the confessional--dreadful were the crimes for which he was promised
+absolution; but after all his compunctions, contortions, self-cursings,
+breast-beatings, hand-wringings, out came the sin of sins--he had once
+spit by accident upon the priest's robe, though he only meant to spit
+upon the altar steps. Unpardonable offence! Never-to-be-forgiven wretch!
+His life could not atone for it. And what had the friars, blue and grey,
+been daily, hourly doing? You have been in Italy, Eusebius.
+
+I have not yet told you the story for the telling which I began this
+letter; and why I have kept it back I know not--it is not for the
+importance of it; for it is of a poor simple creature. But I must stay
+my hand from it again; for here has one passed before my window that can
+have no conscience. It is a great booby--six foot man-boy of about
+nineteen years. He has just stalked by with his insect-catcher on his
+shoulder; the fellow has been with his green net into the innocent
+fields, to catch butterflies and other poor insects. Many an hour have I
+seen you, Eusebius, with your head half-buried in the long blades of
+grass and pleasant field-weeds, partially edged by the slanting and
+pervading sunbeams, while the little stream has played its song of
+varied gentleness, watching the little insect world, and the golden
+beetles climbing up the long stalks, performing wondrous feats for your
+and their own amusement--for your delight was to participate in all
+their pleasures; and some would, with a familiarity that made you feel
+akin to all about you, walk over the page of the book you were reading,
+and look up, and pause, and trust their honest legs upon your hand,
+confiding that there was one human creature that would not hurt them.
+Think of those hours, my gentle friend, and consider the object for
+which that wretch of a booby is out. How many of your playmates has he
+stuck through with pins, upon which they are now writhing! And when the
+wretch goes home murder-laden, his parents or guardians will greet him
+as a most amiable and sweet youth, who wouldn't for the world misspend
+his time as other boys do, but is ever on the search after knowledge;
+and so they swagger and boast of his love of entomology. I'd rather my
+children should grow up like cucumbers--more to belly than head--than
+have these scientific curiosity-noddles upon their poles of bodies, that
+haven't room for hearts, and look cold and cruel, like the pins they
+stick through the poor moths and butterflies, and all innocent insects.
+Good would it be to hear you lecture the parents of these heartless
+bodies for their bringing up, and picture, in your eloquent manner, the
+torments that devils may be doomed to inflict in the other world on the
+cruel in this; and to fix them writhing upon their forks as they pin the
+poor insects. What would they do but call you a wicked blasphemer, and
+prate about the merciful goodness of their Maker, as if one Maker did
+not make all creatures? Yet what do such as they know of mercy but the
+name? These are they that kill conscience in the bud.
+
+Men's bosoms are like their dwellings--mansions, magnificent and
+gorgeous--full of all noble and generous thoughts, with room to
+expand--or dwellings of pretensions, show, and meanness--or hovels of
+all dirt and slovenliness; yet is there scarcely one in which conscience
+does not walk in and out boldly, or steal in cautiously, though she may
+not always have room to move her arms about her, and assert her
+presence. Yet even when circumscribed by narrowness, and immured in all
+unseemly things, will she patiently watch her time for some appropriate
+touch, or some quiet sound of her voice. Her most difficult scene of
+action, however, is in the bosom of pretension; for there the trumpet of
+self-praise is ever sounding to overwhelm her voice, and she is kept at
+arm's-length from the touch of the guilty hearts, by the padding and the
+furniture that surround them. But oh! the hypocrites of this life--they
+almost make one weary of it; they who walk with their hands as if ever
+weighing, by invisible scales, with their scruples of conscience their
+every thought, word, and action. Shall I portray the disgusting effigies
+of one? "Niger est--hunc tu, Romane, caveto." I will, however, tell you
+somewhat of one that has lately come across my path, and I will call him
+Peter Pure; for he is one of those that, though assuming a quietness, is
+really rabid in politics, and has ever upon his lips "purity of
+election," and the like cant words. A few years ago his circumstances not
+being very flourishing, he got the ear of our generous friend of the
+Grange; through his timely assistance, and a pretty considerable loan, he
+overcame his difficulties, and is now pretty well to do. At the last
+contest for the borough, our friend T. of the Grange, with others, waited
+upon Peter Pure; and Peter, with large professions of gratitude--as how
+could he do less for so kind a benefactor?--unhesitatingly promised his
+vote. At this time, be it observed, there was not the slightest
+appearance of the contest which afterwards came, and with that storm a
+pretty good shower of bribery. What quantity of this shower fell to Peter
+Pure's share, was never discovered; but it is easy to conjecture that so
+nice, so grateful a conscience was not overcome for nothing. Peter never
+liked cheap sins. The contest came, the election takes place, and Peter
+Pure's plumper weighs down the adversary's scale. Soon after this he had
+the impudence to accost his benefactor thus:--"My dear friend and
+benefactor, and worthy sir, I wished for this opportunity of explaining
+to you, with the utmost sincerity and confidence, what may have appeared
+to you like--yes--really like a breaking of my word. It is true I did
+promise you my vote: but then, you know, voting being a very serious
+matter, I thought it necessary to read my oath which I should be called
+upon to take; and I found, my good friend, to my astonishment, that I was
+bound by it not to vote from '_favour and affection_.' Yes, those are the
+words. Now, it unfortunately--only unfortunately in this instance, mind
+me--happens, that there is not a man in the world so much in my
+affection and my favour as yourself; to vote, therefore, as you had
+wished me to vote, would, after reading the oath, have been downright
+perjury; for I certainly should have voted 'through favour and
+affection.' That would have been a fearful weight upon my conscience."
+Here was a pretty scoundrel, Eusebius. I should be sorry to have you
+encounter him in a crowd, and trust his sides to your elbows, lest you
+should be taken with one of those sudden fits of juvenility that are not
+quite in accordance with the sedateness of your years. You will not be
+inclined to agree with an apologist I met the other day, who simply said
+that Satan had thrown the temptation in his way. There is no occasion
+for such superfluous labour, nor does the arch-fiend throw any of his
+labour away. Your Peter Pures may be very well left to themselves, and
+are left to themselves; their own inventions are quite sufficient for
+all their trading purposes; there is no need to put temptations in their
+way--they will seek them of themselves.
+
+You will certainly lay me under the censure that Montaigne throws upon
+Guicciardini. Let me then make amends, and ascribe one action to a
+generous, a conscientious motive. There cannot be found a better example
+than I have met with in reading some memoirs of the great and good
+Colston, the founder of those excellent charities in London, Bristol,
+and elsewhere. I find this passage in his life. It happened that one of
+his most richly-laden vessels was so long missing, and the violent
+storms having given every reason to suppose she had perished, that
+Colston gave her up for lost. Upon this occasion, it is said, he did not
+lament his unhappiness as many are apt to do, and perpetually count up
+the serious amount of his losses; but, with dutiful submission, fell
+upon his knees, and with thankfulness for what Providence had been
+pleased to leave him, and with the utmost resignation relinquished even
+the smallest hope of her recovery. When, therefore, his people came soon
+afterwards to tell him that his ship had safely come to port, he did not
+show the signs of self-gratulation which his friends expected to see. He
+was devoutly thankful for the preservation of the lives of so many
+seamen; but as for the vessel and her cargo, they were no longer his--he
+had resigned them--he could not in conscience take them back. He looked
+upon all as the gift of Providence to the poor; and, as such, he sold
+the ship and merchandize--and most valuable they were--and, praying for
+a right guidance, distributed the proceeds among the poor. How beautiful
+is such charity! Here is no false lustre thrown upon the riches and
+goods of this world, that, reflected, blind the eyes that they see not
+aright. The conscience of such a man as Colston was an arbiter even
+against himself, sat within him in judgment to put aside his worldly
+interest, and made a steady light for itself to see by, where naturally
+was either a glare or an obscurity, that alike might bewilder less
+honest vision.
+
+Some such idea is gloriously thus expressed by Sir Thomas Browne in his
+admirable _Religio Medici_.{A} "Conscience only, that can see without
+light, sits in the areopagy and dark tribunal of our hearts, surveys our
+thoughts, and condemns our obliquities. Happy is that state of vision
+that can see without light, though all should look as before the
+creation, when there was not an eye to see, or light to actuate a
+vision--wherein, notwithstanding, obscurity is only imaginable
+respectively unto eyes. For unto God there was none. Eternal light was
+for ever--created light was for the creation, not himself; and as He saw
+before the sun, He may still also see without it."
+
+A case of conscience came to be discussed not long since, in which I
+took a part. We had been speaking of the beauty of truth, and that
+nothing could justify the slightest deviation from the plain letter of
+it. This was doubted; and the case supposed was, that of a ruffian or a
+madman pursuing an innocent person with intent to murder. You see the
+flight and pursuit; the pursuer is at fault, and questions you as to the
+way taken by the fugitive. Are you justified in deceiving the pursuer by
+a false direction of the way his intended victim had taken? Are you to
+say the person went to the right, when the way taken was the left? The
+advocate for the downright truth maintained that you were not to
+deceive--though you felt quite sure that by your telling the truth, or
+by your silence altogether, immediate murder would ensue. The advocate
+declared, that without a moment's hesitation he should act upon his
+decision. He would have done no such thing. People are better than their
+creeds, and, it should seem, sometimes _better_ than _their_ principles.
+In which case would his conscience prick him most, when the heat was
+over--as accessory to the murder or as the utterer of untruth? I cannot
+but think it a case of instinct, which, acting before conscience, _pro
+hac vice_ supersedes it. The matter is altogether and at once, by an
+irresistible decree, taken out of the secondary "Court of Conscience"
+and put into the primary "Court of Nature."
+
+Truth, truth! well may Bacon speak of it thus--"'What is truth?' said
+laughing Pilate, and wouldn't wait for an answer." If there be danger in
+the deviation shown in the case stated, what a state are we all in? All,
+as we do daily in some way or other, putting our best legs foremost.
+Look at the whole advertising, puffing, quacking, world--the flattering,
+the soothing, the complimenting. Virtues and vices alike driving us more
+or less out of the straight line; and, blindfolded by habit, we know not
+that we are walking circuitously. And they are not the worst among us,
+perhaps, who walk so deviatingly--seeing, knowing--those that stammer
+out nightly ere they rest, in confession, their fears that they have
+been acting if not speaking the untrue thing, and praying for strength
+in their infirmity, and more simplicity of heart; and would in their
+penitence shun the concourse that besets them, and hide their heads in
+some retired quiet spot of peace, out of reach of this assault of
+temptation. And this, Eusebius, is the best prelude I can devise to the
+story I have to tell you. It is of a poor old woman; shall I magnify her
+offence? It was magnified indeed in her eyes. Smaller, therefore, shall
+it be--because of its very largeness to her. But it will not do to
+soften offences, Eusebius. I see already you are determined to do so. I
+will call it her crime. Yes, she lived a life of daily untruth. She
+wrote it, she put her name to it--"litera scripta manet." We must not
+mince the matter; she spoke it, she acted it hourly, she took payment
+for it--it was her food, her raiment. Oh! all you that love to stamp the
+foot at poor human nature, here is an object for your contempt, your
+sarcasm, your abuse, your punishment; drag her away by the hair of her
+head. But stay, take care you do not "strain at a gnat and swallow a
+camel;" examine yourselves a little first. She has confessed, perhaps
+you have not. Remember, no one knew it; no one guessed it. It is she
+herself has lifted up the lantern into the dark recesses of her own
+heart; or rather, it is true religion in her hath done it: and dark
+though it was there, you ought to see clearly enough that her heart is
+not now the den wherein falsehood and hypocrisy lurk; search well--you
+see none. She has made a "clean breast of it," and you had better do the
+same, and drop the stone you were about to fling so mercilessly at her
+dying head. Are you out of patience, Eusebius? and cry--Out with it,
+what did she do? You shall hear; 'tis but a simple anecdote after all. I
+have learned it from a parish priest. He was sent for to attend the
+deathbed of poor old village dame, or schoolmistress. She had a sin to
+confess; she could not die in peace till she had confessed it. With
+broken speech, she sobbed, and hesitated, and sobbed again.
+
+"I--I--I," she stammered out, and hid her face again. "There, I must, I
+must tell it; and may I be forgiven! You know, sir, I have kept school
+forty years--yes, forty years--a poor sinful creature--I--I"----
+
+"My good woman," said the parish priest, "take comfort; it will be
+pardoned if you are thus penitent. I hope it is not a very great sin."
+
+"Oh yes!" said she, "and pray call me not _good_ woman. I
+am--not--good;" sobbing, "alas, alas!--there, I--will out with it! I put
+down that I taught grammar--and (sobbing) I, I, _did not know it
+myself_."
+
+Eusebius, Eusebius, had you been there, you would have embraced the old
+dame. The father of lies was not near her pillow. This little sin, she
+had put it foremost, and, like the little figure before many nothings,
+she had made a million of it; and one word, nay one thought, before
+confession was uttered, had breathed upon and obliterated the whole
+amount. Where will you see so great truth? And this, you will agree with
+me, was a case of _Tender Conscience_.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Religio Medici_, a new edition, with its sequel, _Christian Morals_,
+and resemblant passages from Cowper's _Task_. By Mr Peace, Bristol. The
+text of this inestimable author is here cleared of its many errors, and
+the volume contains a useful verbal index.
+
+
+
+
+THIERRY'S HISTORY OF THE GAULS.{A}
+
+
+'Tis a pleasant thing to turn from the present, with its turmoil and its
+noise, its clank of engines and its pallid artizans, its political
+strife and its social disorganization, to the calm and quiet records of
+the past--to the contemplation of bygone greatness: of kingdoms which
+have passed away,--of cities whose site is marked only by the mouldering
+column and the time-worn wall--of men with whose name the world once
+rang, but whose very tombs are now unknown. If there is any thing
+calculated to enlarge the mind, it is this; for it is only by a careful
+study of the past that we come to know how duly to appreciate the
+present. Without this we magnify the present; we imagine that the future
+will be like unto it; we form our ideas, we base our calculations upon
+it alone; we forget the maxim of the Eastern sage, that "this too shall
+pass away." It is by the study of history that we overcome this
+otherwise inevitable tendency; we learn from it, that other nations have
+been as great as we, and that they are now forgotten--that a former
+civilization, a fair and costly edifice which seemed to be perfect of
+its kind, has crumbled before the assaults of time, and left not a trace
+behind. There is a still small voice issuing forth from the ruins of
+Babylon, which will teach more to the thinking mind than all the dogmas
+and theories of modern speculators.
+
+When we turn to the study of ancient history, our attention is
+immediately riveted on the mighty name of Rome. Even the history of
+Greece cannot compare with it in interest. Greece was always great in
+the arts, and for long she was eminent in arms: but the arms of her
+citizens were too often turned against each other; and the mind gets
+fatigued and perplexed in attempting to follow the endless maze of
+politics, and the constant succession of unimportant wars. There are,
+indeed, many splendid episodes in her history--such as the Persian war,
+the retreat of the Ten Thousand, a few actions in the Peloponnesian
+contest, and the whole of the Theban campaigns of Epaminondas; but the
+intervening periods have but a faint interest to the general reader,
+till we come down to the period of the Macedonian monarchy. This,
+indeed, is the great act in the drama of Grecian history. Who can peruse
+without interest the accounts of the glorious reign of Alexander; of
+that man who, issuing from the mountains of Macedonia, riveted the
+fetters of despotism on Greece, which had grown unworthy of freedom, and
+carried his victorious arms over the fertile plains of Palestine, till
+he stood a conqueror amidst the palaces of Persepolis, and finally
+halted only on the frontiers of Hindostan, arrested in his progress not
+by the arms of his enemies but by the revolt of his soldiers? He flung a
+halo of glory around the last days of Greece, like the bright light of a
+meteor, whose course he resembled equally in the rapidity and brilliancy
+of his career. With him dies the interest of Grecian story: the
+intrigues and disputes of his successors, destitute of general interest,
+served but to pave the way for the progress of a mightier power.
+
+Of greater interest even than this is the history of Rome. Her conquests
+were not merely the glorious and dazzling achievements of one man, which
+owed their existence to his talents, and crumbled to pieces at his
+death; they were slow and gradual in their progress--the effects of a
+deep and firm policy: they were not made in a day, but they endured for
+a thousand years. No country presents such interest to the politician
+and the soldier. To the one, the rise and progress of her constitution;
+her internal struggles; the balance of political power in the state; her
+policy, her principles of government; the administration and treatment
+of the many nations which composed her vast empire, must ever be the
+subject of deep and careful study: while to the other, the campaigns of
+Hannibal, the wars of Caesar, and the long line of her military annals,
+present a wide field for investigation and instruction--an inexhaustible
+topic for philosophic reflection.
+
+But there is one subject connected with the progress of the Roman empire
+which has been unduly neglected, and without a perfect understanding of
+which we cannot justly appreciate either the civil or military policy of
+that state. We mean the history of the nations who came in contact with
+her--viz. the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Spaniards. The ancient
+historians belonged exclusively to Greece or Rome: they looked upon all
+other nations except themselves as barbarous; and they never related
+their history except incidentally, and in so far as it was connected
+with that of those two countries. Modern historians, following in their
+track, and attracted by the splendour of their names, deviated not from
+the beaten path; and a thick veil still hung over the semi-barbarous
+neighbours and enemies of Rome. The history of no one of those nations
+was more interesting, or in many points involved in greater obscurity,
+than that of the GAULS.
+
+Nowhere amongst the ancient writers could any connected account of the
+origin or progress of this nation be found; scattered notices of them
+alone could be discovered interspersed incidentally amongst other
+matter, and these notices were frequently inconsistent. This is
+particularly the case as regards their early history: in later times,
+when they came into more immediate contact with the Romans, a more
+connected and minute account of them has been preserved. In the lively
+pages of Livy, and in the more accurate narrative of Polybius, a
+considerable mass of information on this subject maybe found; while a
+clear light has been thrown on many parts of their latter history by the
+narrative of Appian, the Lives of Plutarch, and, above all, by the
+Commentaries of Caesar. But all this information, scattered over a
+multiplicity of authors, could give us no conception of their history as
+a people. An author was still wanting to collect all these together, so
+as to present us with something like a continuous history. But to do
+this was no easy task: the materials were scanty and often
+contradictory; they were all written in a spirit hostile to the Gauls; a
+deep vein of prejudice and national partiality ran through and tarnished
+them all; the motives of that people were misrepresented, their actions
+falsified, the historians often understood little of their institutions
+and their character. From such materials it required no common man to be
+able to deduce a clear and impartial narrative; it required great talent
+and deep research--the accuracy of the scholar and the spirit of the
+philosopher, the acuteness of the critic joined to the eye of the
+painter. Such a man has been found in Amadee Thierry. His _History of
+the Gauls_ is a work of rare merit--a work which must ever be in the
+hand of every one who would understand the history of antiquity. It is
+little to the credit of the literature of this country, that his work
+has not yet appeared in an English translation.
+
+He has traced the progress of the Gauls, from their earliest appearance
+on the stage of the world till their final subjection to the Roman
+power, in a manner worthy of a scholar and a philosopher. His narrative
+is clear, animated, and distinct; he possesses in an eminent degree the
+power of giving breadth to his pictures; of drawing the attention of his
+readers to the important events, whilst the remainder are thrown into
+shade. His mode of treating his authorities is perhaps the best that can
+be imagined; he neither clogs his pages with long extracts, nor does he
+leave them unsupported by a reference to the original authors. At the
+end of each paragraph a reference is given to the authorities followed,
+to whom the reader may at once turn if he wish to verify the conclusions
+arrived at; and where the points are involved in obscurity, the passages
+founded on are quoted generally in a note, and never in the text, except
+when their importance really justified such an interruption of the
+narrative. His style is always animated and graphic, occasionally rising
+to elevated flights of eloquence, while his subject is one of a deep and
+varied interest; for in following the checkered fortunes of the Gauls,
+he is brought in contact with almost every nation of the earth. To
+whatever country of the ancient world we turn, we find that the Gaul has
+preceded us, either as the savage conqueror or the little less savage
+mercenary. Issuing originally from the East, that boundless cradle of
+the human race, we soon find him contending with the German for his
+morass, with the Spaniard for his gold--traversing the sands of Africa,
+and pillaging the plains of Greece--founding a kingdom in the midst of
+Asiatic luxury, and bearing his conquering lance beneath the Capitol of
+Rome. But a mightier spirit soon rose to rule the storm. In vain the
+courage of the Gaul, allied with the power of Carthage, and directed by
+the genius of Hannibal, maintained for years a desperate and doubtful
+contest in the heart of Italy. The power of Rome kept steadily
+advancing: Greece soon fell beneath her conquering arm; and the fleets
+of Carthage no longer ruled the wave. The Spaniard, after many a
+hard-fought field, at last sank into sullen submission; and the
+Galatians, degenerating under the influence of Asiatic manners, proved
+unequal to the contest; the Gaul, instead of inundating the land of the
+foreigner, could with difficulty maintain his own; and soon the eagle of
+the Capitol spread its wings over a Transalpine province. But the free
+spirit of the Gaul now made a mighty effort to rend asunder the bonds
+which encircled it; and a countless multitude, after ravaging Spain,
+poured down into Italy: the Roman empire rocked to its foundation, when
+Marius, hastening over from his African conquests, saved his country by
+the glorious and bloody victory of Aquae Sextiae. Yet a little while and
+the legions of Rome, under the orders of Caesar, traversing with fire and
+sword their country, retaliated on the Gaul the calamities he had often
+inflicted on others, subdued his proud spirit, and forged for him,
+amidst seas of blood, those fetters which were finally riveted by the
+policy of Augustus. Such is a brief outline of the heart-stirring story
+of this singular and interesting race.
+
+One of the most interesting parts of Thierry's work is the Introduction.
+He there gives a brief view of the character of the Gaulish race; its
+division into two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry, and the
+periods into which the history of this people naturally divides itself.
+A considerable part of it is taken up in proving that this people do in
+reality consist of two great branches, the Gaul and the Kimry. This, we
+think, he has clearly and satisfactorily shown, by evidence drawn both
+from the language and from the historical accounts which have been
+preserved to us regarding them. His character of the Gauls as a people
+is ably and well given; but here we must let him speak for himself:--
+
+     "The salient characteristics of the Gaulish family--those which
+     distinguish it the most, in my opinion, from the other races of
+     men--may be thus summed up:--A personal bravery unequaled amongst
+     the people of antiquity; a spirit frank, impetuous, open to every
+     impression, eminently intelligent; but joined to that an extreme
+     frivolity, want of constancy, a marked repugnance to the ideas of
+     discipline and order so strong in the German race, much
+     ostentation--in fine, a perpetual disunion, the consequence of
+     excessive vanity. If we wish to compare, in a few words, the
+     Gaulish family with that German family to whom we have just
+     alluded, we may say that the personal sentiment, the individual I,
+     is too much developed amongst the former, and that amongst the
+     latter it is not sufficiently so. Thus we find, in every page of
+     Gaulish story, original characters who strongly excite and
+     concentrate upon themselves our sympathy, causing us to forget the
+     masses; whilst, in the history of the Germans, it is generally the
+     masses who produce the effect. Such is the general character of the
+     people of the Gaulish blood; but in that character itself, an
+     observation of facts leads us to recognise two distinct shades
+     corresponding to two distinct branches of the family, or to use the
+     expression consecrated by history, to two distinct races. One of
+     those races--that which I designate by the name of the
+     Gauls--presents in the most marked manner all the natural
+     dispositions, all the faults and all the virtues, of the family; to
+     it belong, in their purest state, the individual types of the Gaul.
+     The other, the Kimry, less active, less spiritual perhaps,
+     possesses in return more weight and stability: it is in its bosom
+     principally that we remark the institutions of classification and
+     order; it is there that the ideas of theocracy and monarchy longest
+     maintain their sway."--(I. iv. vi.)
+
+How important and how little attended to is this character of the
+different races of men! How perfectly is it preserved under all
+situations and under all circumstances! No lapse of time can change, no
+distance can efface it. Nowhere do we see this more distinctly than in
+America: there how marked is the difference of the Spanish race in the
+south and the Anglo-Saxon in the north! And from this we may draw a
+deeply important practical lesson; viz. the danger of attempting to
+force on one race institutions fitted to another. Under a free
+government, the Anglo-Saxon in the north flourished and increased, and
+became a mighty people. Under a despotic sway, the Spaniard in the south
+was slowly but surely treading that path which would ultimately have led
+to national greatness, when a revolution, nourished by English gold, and
+rendered victorious by English arms, inflicted what was to him the curse
+of free institutions. Under their influence, commerce has fled from the
+shores of New Spain; the gold-mines of Peru lie unworked; population has
+retrograded; the fertile land has returned to a state of nature; and
+anarchy, usurping the place of government, has involved the country in
+ruin and desolation. Nor is this the only instance of the effect of free
+institutions on the Spanish race. In Old Spain the same experiment has
+been tried, and has produced the same result. Under their withering
+effect, the empire of Spain and the Indies has passed away; the mother
+country, torn by internal dissensions, has fallen from her proud estate,
+and can with difficulty drag on a precarious existence amidst all the
+tumult and blood of incessant revolutions. How long will it be ere we
+learn that free institutions are the Amreeta cup of nations--the
+greatest of all blessings or the greatest of all curses, according to
+the race on which it is conferred!
+
+The history of the Gauls, in Thierry's opinion, divides itself naturally
+into four great periods: his brief _resume_ of the state of the nation,
+during each of those periods, is so animated that we cannot refrain from
+quoting his own words:--
+
+     "The first period contains the adventures of the Gaulish nations in
+     the nomad state. No race of the West has accomplished a more
+     agitated and brilliant career. Its wanderings embrace Europe, Asia,
+     and Africa: its name is inscribed with terror in the annals of
+     almost every people. It burned Rome: it conquered Macedonia from
+     the veteran phalanxes of Alexander, forced Thermopylae, and pillaged
+     Delphi: afterwards it planted its tents on the ruins of ancient
+     Troy, in the public places of Miletus, on the banks of the
+     Sangarius, and on those of the Nile: it besieged Carthage,
+     threatened Memphis, reckoned among its tributaries the most
+     powerful monarchs of the East: on two occasions it founded in Upper
+     Italy a mighty dominion, and it raised up in the bosom of Phrygia
+     that other empire of the Galatians which so long ruled Asia Minor.
+
+     "In the second period--that of the sedentary state--we observe the
+     same race every where developing itself, or permanently settled,
+     with social, religious, and political institutions, suited to its
+     particular character--original institutions, and civilization full
+     of life and movement, of which Transalpine Gaul offers a model the
+     purest and the most complete. One would say, to follow the animated
+     scenes of that picture, that the theocracy of India, the feudality
+     of the Middle Ages, and the Athenian democracy, had resorted to the
+     same soil, there to combat and rule over one and other in turn.
+     Soon that civilization mixes and alters: foreign elements introduce
+     themselves, imported by commerce, by the relations of vicinity, by
+     the reaction of the conquered population. Hence various and other
+     strange combinations: in Italy it is the Roman influence which
+     makes itself felt in the manners of the Cisalpines: in the south of
+     Transalpine Gaul it is at first the influence of the Greeks of
+     Massalia, afterwards that of the Italian colonies: and in Galatia
+     there springs up the most singular combination of Gaulish, Phrygian
+     and Greek civilization.
+
+     "Next follows the period of national strife and of conquest. By a
+     chance worthy of notice, it is always under the sword of the Roman
+     that the power of the Gaulish nations falls: in proportion as the
+     Roman dominion extends, the Gaulish dominion, up to that time
+     firmly established, recoils and declines: one would say that the
+     conquerors and the conquered from the Allia followed one and other
+     to all points of the earth to decide the old quarrel of the
+     Capitol. In Italy the Cisalpines are subjugated, but only after two
+     centuries of the most determined resistance: when the rest of Asia
+     accepted the yoke, the Galatians defended still, against Rome, the
+     independence of the East. Gaul yields, but only from exhaustion,
+     after a century of partial contests, and nine years of a general
+     war under Caesar: in fine, the names of Caractac and Galgac render
+     illustrious the last and fruitless efforts of British liberty. It
+     is every where the unequal combat of a military spirit, ardent and
+     heroic, but simple and unskilful, against the same spirit
+     disciplined and persevering. Few nations show in their annals so
+     beautiful a page as that last Gaulish war, written nevertheless by
+     an enemy. Every effort of heroism, every prodigy of valour, which
+     the love of liberty and of country ever produced, there displayed
+     themselves in spite of a thousand contrary and fatal passions:
+     discords between the cities, discords in the cities, enterprises of
+     the nobles against the people, licentiousness of democracy,
+     hereditary enmities of race. What men were those Bitunyes who in
+     one day burned twenty of their towns! What men were those Camutes,
+     fugitives, pursued by the sword, by famine, by winter, and whom
+     nothing could conquer! What variety of character is there amongst
+     their chiefs--from the druid Divitiac, the good and honest
+     enthusiast of the Roman civilization, to the savage Ambio-rix,
+     crafty, vindictive, implacable, who admired and imitated nothing
+     save the savageness of the German: from Dumno-rix, that ambitious
+     but fierce agitator, who wished to make the conqueror of the Gauls
+     an instrument, but not a master, to that Vercingeto-rix, so pure,
+     so eloquent, so true, so magnanimous in misfortune, and who wanted
+     nothing to take a place amongst the greatest men, but to have had
+     another enemy, above all another historian, than Caesar!
+
+     "The fourth period comprises the organization of Gaul into a Roman
+     province, and the slow and successive assimilation of Transalpine
+     manners to the manners and institutions of Italy--a labour
+     commenced by Augustus, continued with success by Claudius,
+     completed in latter times. That transference from one civilization
+     to another was not made without violence and without checks:
+     numerous revolts are suppressed by Augustus--a great insurrection
+     fails against Tiberius. The distractions and the impending ruin of
+     Rome during the civil wars of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of
+     Vespasian, gave room for a sudden explosion of the spirit of
+     independence to the north of the Alps. The Gaulish nations again
+     took up arms, the senates reformed themselves, the proscribed
+     druids reappeared, the Roman legions cantoned on the Rhine are
+     defeated or gained over, an empire of the Gauls is constructed in
+     haste: but soon Gaul perceives that it is already at bottom
+     entirely Roman, and that a return to the ancient order of things is
+     no longer either desirable for its happiness, or even possible; it
+     resigns itself therefore to its irrevocable destiny, and reunites
+     without a murmur into the community of the Roman empire."--(I.
+     6-10)
+
+Here indeed is a noble field for history--many such exist not in the
+world; it joins the colours of romance to the truth of narrative--it
+embraces within its range all countries, from the snow-clad mountains of
+the north to the waterless deserts of the south.
+
+When the first light of history dawns upon the Gallic race, we find them
+settled in that territory which is bounded by the Rhine, the Alps, the
+Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, and the ocean, and in the British isles.
+There they lived, leading a pastoral life, wandering about from place to
+place, and ready to descend with their flocks and herds wherever
+cupidity might lead, or fancy direct them. They first turned their
+footsteps towards Spain; tribe after tribe crossed the Pyrenees, and
+either expelled or amalgamated with the aboriginal inhabitants. Their
+efforts were principally directed towards the centre and west; in
+consequence of which, the native Spaniards, displaced and driven back
+upon the Mediterranean coast, soon opened a way for themselves across
+the eastern passes of the mountains, and, traversing the shores of
+southern Gaul, entered Italy. There they took the name of the Ligures,
+and established themselves along the whole line of sea-coast from the
+Pyrenees to the mouth of the Arno. The road to Italy being thus laid
+bare by the Spaniards, the Gauls soon followed on their footsteps, and,
+crossing the Alps, poured down into the fertile plains and vine-clad
+hills of the smiling south: but they were encountered and overcome by
+the Etruscans. Internal convulsions in the centre of Gaul, however,
+hurled new hordes across the Alps. The Kimry, from the Palus Moeotis,
+entered the north-eastern portion of Gaul, and expelled from their
+territory many of the tribes who were settled there: these, uniting in
+large hordes, precipitated themselves upon Italy. The Kimry, too, joined
+in the incursion; race followed race, and the whole of northern Italy
+was soon peopled by the Gaulish race, who long threatened the nations of
+the south with entire subjugation and destruction. The empire of the
+Gauls in Italy, known by the name of Cisalpine Gaul, was productive of
+the greatest calamities to that unhappy country; every year there issued
+forth from it bands of adventurers, who wasted the fields and stormed
+the cities of Etruria, of Campania, and of Magna Graecia. But an
+expedition on a larger scale was at last undertaken. Pressed by the
+increasing population in their rear, a large band determined to abandon
+their present homes, and seek new conquests, and acquire new booty. They
+first directed their march to Clusium; but soon the torrent rolled with
+resistless force upon the walls of Rome. Defeated at the Allia, the
+Romans abandoned their city, leaving, however, a garrison in the
+Capitol; this garrison, reduced to the last extremities by famine, was
+obliged to capitulate, and to purchase the departure of their foes by an
+enormous ransom. The Gauls, crowned with success and loaded with
+plunder, departed; and the Romans, taking courage at their retreat,
+harassed their rear and cut off their supplies.
+
+Such is the truth regarding this famous invasion, which has been the
+subject of a falsification probably without a parallel in the annals of
+history; by it defeat was transformed into victory, and the day when
+Rome suffered her greatest humiliation by the ransom of her capital, was
+turned into almost the most famous day of her existence, when her most
+successful enemy was humbled to the dust. In the pages of a Greek
+historian the truth has been preserved; while the annals of the state
+are filled with a very different tale, embellished with all the
+eloquence and genius of the national historian. Such a sacrifice of
+historical veracity, in order to appease the insatiable cravings of
+national vanity, naturally casts a shade of doubt and suspicion on all
+the early records of her victories and triumphs. Freed from her enemies,
+Rome revived and emerged unconquered from the strife; she had been
+forced to bend before misfortune, but she was not broken by adversity: a
+new city sprung up on the ruins of the old, and the legions once more
+issued from the ramparts to carry her victorious banners to the capitals
+of a conquered world. We have not space to trace the various fortunes of
+Cisalpine Gaul during the early struggles which it carried on with the
+now increasing power of Rome. Suffice it to say, that when the Latins
+united in a league against her, the Cisalpines joined them; an
+engagement took place at Sentinum, where victory crowned the efforts of
+the Romans; but though defeated, the Gauls maintained their high
+character for valour during that fatal day. This success was followed up
+by a vigorous attack on the powerful Gaulish tribe of the Senones, who
+were almost exterminated, and on their territory was established a Roman
+colony: this was the first permanent settlement made by that people
+amongst the Gaulish tribes of Italy.
+
+We must refer the reader to M. Thierry's work for the account of the
+causes which led the Gauls and Kimry to press upon, and finally invade
+northern Greece, and the relation of the defeat of their first attack
+under the Brenn. We shall dwell somewhat longer on their second
+invasion, which forms one of the most interesting episodes of their
+history:--
+
+     "In the year 280 B.C., the Gauls, under a celebrated chief whose
+     title was the Brenn, prepared to invade Greece. Their army,
+     composed of various tribes of Gauls and Kimry, amounted to 152,000
+     infantry and 61,000 cavalry. When this immense array reached the
+     frontiers of Macedonia, a division broke out amongst their chiefs,
+     and 20,000 men, detaching themselves from the main army, advanced
+     into Thrace. The remainder, under the Brenn, precipitated
+     themselves on Macedonia, routed the army which endeavoured to
+     arrest their progress, and forced the remnant of the regular forces
+     who survived, to take refuge in the fortified cities. During six
+     months they ravaged with fire and sword the open country, and
+     destroyed the unfortified towns of Macedonia and Thessaly. At the
+     approach of winter, the Brenn collected his forces and established
+     his camp in Thessaly, at a position near Mount Olympus. Thessaly is
+     separated from Epirus and AEtolia by the chain of Pindus; and on the
+     south, the almost impenetrable range of Mount Oeta divides it
+     from the provinces of Hellas. The only pass by which an army can
+     march into Greece is that of Thermopylae, which is a long narrow
+     defile, overhung on the right by the rocks of Mount Oeta, and
+     flanked on the left by impassable morasses, which finally lose
+     themselves in the waters of the gulf of Mulia. A few narrow and
+     difficult tracts traverse the ridge of Oeta; but these, though
+     passable to a small body of infantry, present insurmountable
+     obstacles to the advance of an army. To the pass of Thermopylae, in
+     the spring of the year 280 B.C., the Brenn directed his march.
+     Aware of its vital importance, the Athenians, Boeotians,
+     Locrians, Phocians, and Megarians, who had formed a league against
+     the northern invaders, collected a force of about 26,000 men, who,
+     under the orders of Calippus, advanced to and occupied the strait,
+     whilst 305 Athenian galleys, anchored in the bay of Mulia, were
+     ready to operate upon the flank of the enemy. In his approach to
+     this position, the Brenn had to pass the river Sperchius, to defend
+     which Calippus had detached a small force: the Brenn, by a
+     stratagem, directed their attention from the real point of attack,
+     and crossed the river without loss. He then advanced to Heraclea,
+     and laid waste the surrounding country. The day after his arrival
+     at this place, he marched upon Thermopylae. Hardly had the Gauls
+     begun to involve themselves in the pass, when they were encountered
+     by the Greeks in its classic defile. With loud cries, and in one
+     enormous mass, the Gauls rushed impetuously on; in silence, and in
+     perfect order, the Greeks advanced to the charge. The phalanx of
+     the south proved impenetrable to the sabre of the north; the pass
+     was soon covered with their dead bodies; the Gallic standards were
+     unable to advance. Meanwhile the Athenian galleys, forcing their
+     way through the marshes, poured in an incessant volley of arrows
+     and darts on the long and unprotected flank of the invaders. Unable
+     to withstand this double attack, the Gauls were forced to retreat.
+     This they did in the utmost confusion; large numbers perished,
+     trodden to death by their companions--still more were drowned in
+     the morasses. Seven days after this severe check, a small party
+     having attempted to cross Mount Oeta, they were attacked when
+     involved in a narrow and difficult pass, and cut to pieces. To
+     raise the drooping spirits of his men, and to separate the forces
+     of his adversaries, the Brenn detached a corps of 40,000 men, under
+     the command of Comlutis, with orders to force their way into
+     AEtolia. This diversion proved eminently successful. Comlutis,
+     finding the passes of Mount Pindus unguarded, traversed that range,
+     and entered AEtolia, the whole of which he laid waste with fire and
+     sword without opposition, as the whole military force of that
+     country had marched to the defence of Thermopylae. On hearing of
+     this invasion, the AEtolians immediately separated from the allied
+     army, and hastened to the defence of their country. On their
+     approach Comlutis retreated; but whilst involved in the mountain
+     passes, his rear was overtaken by the regulars, and his flanks were
+     assailed by the enraged peasantry; so severe was his loss, that
+     hardly one-half of his force rallied at the camp of Heraclea. The
+     day after the departure of the AEtolians, the Brenn led on the main
+     body of his troops to attack the pass of Thermopylae; whilst a
+     strong detachment received orders to force one of the mountain
+     paths, the knowledge of which had been betrayed to him by the
+     inhabitants; being guided by one of whom, and their movements being
+     concealed from view by a thick mist, which enveloped them, this
+     detachment succeeded in surprising the troops who were entrusted
+     with its defence, and, moving rapidly on, they fell on the rear of
+     the main body of the allies, who were engaged at Thermopylae.
+     Assaulted both in front and rear, the Greeks would have been
+     totally destroyed, had it not been for the presence of the Athenian
+     fleet, who afforded a safe refuge to their shattered ranks. Freed
+     from the presence of his opponents, the Brenn immediately pushed on
+     to Elatia at the head of 65,000 men, from whence he directed his
+     march on Delphi. The town of Delphi was built on the slope of one
+     of the peaks of Parnassus, in the midst of a natural excavation,
+     and being almost entirely surrounded with precipices, it was left
+     unprotected by any artificial fortifications: above the town, on
+     the north, was situated the magnificent temple of Apollo, filled
+     with native offerings of the Greeks. The possession of this
+     treasure was the main object of the Brenn. The Gaulish army, on
+     their arrival before Delphi, dispersed over, and pillaged the
+     surrounding country for the remainder of the day; thus losing the
+     most favourable opportunity of assaulting the town."
+
+The _denouement_ of the tragedy we shall give in Thierry's own words:--
+
+     "During the night, Delphi received from all sides, by the mountain
+     paths, numerous reinforcements from the neighbouring people. There
+     arrived successively 1200 well-armed AEtolians, 400 heavy-armed men
+     from Amplussa, and a detachment of Phocians, who, with the citizens
+     of Delphi, formed a body of 4000 men. At the same time, they
+     learned that the brave AEtolian army, after having defeated
+     Comlutis, had retaken the road to Elatia, and, increased by bands
+     of the Phocians and Boeotians, laboured to prevent the junction
+     of the Gaulish army of Heraclea with the division which besieged
+     Delphi.
+
+     "During the same night, the camp of the Gauls was the theatre of
+     the greatest debauchery; and when day dawned, the greater portion
+     of them were still intoxicated: nevertheless, it was necessary to
+     make the assault without loss of time, for the Brenn already
+     perceived how much the delay of a few hours had cost him. He drew
+     out his troops then in battle array, enumerating to them anew all
+     the treasures which they had before their eyes, and those which
+     awaited them in the temple: he then gave the signal for the
+     escalade. The attack was vigorous, and was sustained by the Greeks
+     with firmness. From the summit of the narrow and steep slope by
+     which the assailants had to ascend in order to approach the town,
+     the besieged poured down a multitude of arrows and stones, not one
+     of which fell harmless. Several times the Gauls covered the ascent
+     with their dead; but every time they returned to the charge with
+     courage, and at last forced the passage. The besieged, obliged to
+     beat a retreat, withdrew to the nearest streets of the town,
+     leaving the approach which conducted to the temple free: the
+     Gaulish race rushed on: soon the whole multitude was occupied in
+     pillaging the oratories which adjoined the temple, and, in fine,
+     the temple itself.
+
+     "It was then autumn, and during the combat one of those sudden
+     storms so frequent in the lofty chains of Hellas had gathered;
+     suddenly it burst, discharging on the mountain torrents of rain and
+     hail. The priests attached to the temple of Apollo, seized upon an
+     incident so fitted to strike the superstitious spirit of the
+     Greeks. With haggard eyes, with disheveled locks, with frenzied
+     minds, they spread out through the town, and through the ranks of
+     the army, crying that the god had arrived. 'He is here!' said they;
+     'we have seen him pass across the vault of the temple, which is
+     cloven beneath his feet; two armed virgins, Minerva and Diana,
+     accompany him. We have heard the whistling of their bows, and the
+     clang of their lances. Hasten, O Greeks! upon the steps of your
+     gods, if you wish to partake of their victory!' That spectacle,
+     those exhortations pronounced amidst the rolling of the thunder,
+     and by the glare of the lightning, filled the Hellenes with a
+     supernatural enthusiasm; they reformed in battle array, and
+     precipitated themselves sword in hand upon the enemy. The same
+     circumstances operated not less strongly, but in a contrary way,
+     upon the victorious bands; the Gauls believed that they recognised
+     the power of a divinity, but of an enraged divinity. The
+     thunderbolts had frequently struck their battalions, and its
+     reports, repeated by the echoes, produced around them such a
+     reverberation, that they no longer heard the commands of their
+     chiefs. Those who penetrated into the interior of the temple, had
+     felt the pavement tremble under their steps; they had been seized
+     by a thick and mephitic vapour, which overpowered them, and threw
+     them into a violent delirium. The historians relate, that amidst
+     this tumult they beheld three warriors of a sinister aspect, of
+     more than human stature, covered with old armour, and who
+     slaughtered the Gauls with their lances, appear. The Delphians
+     recognised, say they, the shades of three heroes, Hyperochus and
+     Zorodocus, whose tombs adjoined the temple, and Pyrrhus the son of
+     Achilles. As to the Gauls, a wild panic hurried them in disorder to
+     their camp, which they attained only with great difficulty,
+     overwhelmed by the arrows of the Greeks, and by the fall of
+     enormous rocks, which rolled over upon them from the summit of
+     Parnassus. In the ranks of the besiegers, the loss was doubtless
+     considerable.
+
+     "To that disastrous day succeeded, for the Kimry-Gauls, a night not
+     less terrible; the cold was excessive, and snow fell in abundance;
+     besides, fragments of rock falling incessantly in their camp, which
+     was situated too near the mountain, crushed the soldiers not by one
+     or two at a time, but by bodies of thirty and forty, as often as
+     they assembled to maintain guard or to seek repose. The sun no
+     sooner rose, than the Greeks who were within the town made a
+     vigorous sally, whilst those who were in the country fell upon the
+     rear of the enemy. At the same time, the Phocians, crossing the
+     snow by paths known but to themselves, took them in flank, and
+     assailed them with arrows and stones, without exposing themselves
+     to the slightest danger. Hemmed in on all sides, discouraged, and,
+     moreover, extremely incommoded by the cold, which had cut off many
+     of their number during the night, the Gauls began to yield. They
+     were sustained for some time by the intrepidity of the chosen band
+     who combated around the Brenn, and acted as his guard. The
+     strength, the stature, the courage of that guard, struck the Greeks
+     with astonishment. In the end, the Brenn having been dangerously
+     wounded, those brave men dreamed only of making a rampart of their
+     bodies for him, and of carrying him from the field. The chiefs then
+     gave the signal of retreat, and to prevent the wounded from falling
+     into the hands of the enemy, they caused those who were not in a
+     condition to follow, to be put to death. The army halted when the
+     night overtook it.
+
+     "The first watch of that second night had hardly commenced, when
+     the soldiers who were on guard imagined that they heard the tumult
+     of a night march, and the distant tramp of horses. The darkness,
+     already profound, did not permit them to discover their mistake;
+     they gave the alarm, and cried out that they were surprised--that
+     the enemy was upon them. The famine, the dangers, and the
+     extraordinary occurrences which had befallen them during the last
+     two days, had much shattered all their imaginations. At that cry,
+     'The enemy is at hand!' the Gauls, suddenly aroused, seized their
+     arms, and believing the camp already entered, they threw themselves
+     upon, and mutually slaughtered, each other. Their consternation was
+     so great, that they believed that each word which struck their ears
+     was uttered in Greek; as if they had forgotten their own proper
+     tongue. Besides, the darkness of the night did not permit them
+     either to recognise each other, or to distinguish the shape of
+     their bucklers. Day put an end to that frightful _melee_; but
+     during the night the Phocian shepherds, who remained in the fields
+     to watch their flocks, ran to inform the Greeks of the disorder
+     which was evident in the Gaulish camp. They attributed so
+     unexpected an event to the intervention of the god Pan, from whom,
+     according to the religious faith of the Greeks, alarms without any
+     real cause proceeded; full of ardour and of confidence, they
+     attacked the rearguard of the enemy. The Gauls had already resumed
+     their march, but with languor, as men discouraged, worn out by
+     diseases, famine, and fatigue. On their line of march the
+     population carried off the cattle and provisions, so that they
+     could not procure any subsistence without the utmost difficulty,
+     and at the point of the sword. The historians reckon at 10,000 the
+     number of those who sank under these misfortunes; the cold and the
+     nocturnal combat had cut off as many more, and 6000 had perished at
+     the assault of Delphi: there remained then to the Brenn no more
+     than 35,000 men when he rejoined the main body of his army, in the
+     plains watered by the Cephisus, on the day after his departure from
+     Thermopylae."--(I. 171-178.)
+
+The Brenn, overwhelmed with grief at his misfortune, no sooner saw his
+army free from immediate danger than he put himself to death. His
+successor, following his dying advice, slaughtered 10,000 of the
+wounded, and continued his retreat:--
+
+     "As he approached Thermopylae, the Greeks, issuing forth from an
+     ambuscade, threw themselves on his rearguard, which they cut to
+     pieces. It was in this miserable state that the Gauls gained the
+     camp of Heraclea. They remained there for a few days before setting
+     out on their northward route. All the bridges of the Sperchius had
+     been broken down, and the left bank of the river was occupied by
+     the Thessalians, who had collected _en masse_; nevertheless, the
+     Gaulish army forced a passage. It was in the midst of a population
+     all armed, and thirsting for vengeance, that they traversed, from
+     one extremity to the other, Thessaly and Macedonia, exposed to
+     perils, to sufferings, to privations, daily increasing, combating
+     without intermission during the day, and at night having no other
+     shelter than a cold and watery sky. They gained at last the
+     northern frontier of Macedonia. There the distribution of the body
+     took place: afterwards the Kimry-Gauls divided into many bands;
+     some returned to their country, others sought in different
+     directions new food for their turbulent activity."--(I. 180.)
+
+A band of Tectosages joined to the Tolistoboies, and a horde of Gauls,
+united, and traversing Thrace with fire and sword, passed over into Asia
+Minor. They found it distracted by the quarrels of Alexander's
+successors. Summoned in an evil hour by Nicomedes to aid him and the
+Greek states of Asia Minor in their struggle against the Seleucidae, they
+soon established him on the throne of Bithynia. But they now turned
+their victorious arms against the nations of that unhappy country. Their
+armies, increased by reinforcements drawn from Thrace, had divided
+themselves into three hordes: the Tectosages, the Tolistoboies, and the
+Trocmes. To avoid dispute, they distributed the whole of Asia Minor into
+three parts: of these the Trocmes possessed the Hellespont and Troas;
+the Tolistoboies, AEolida and Ionia; the Tectosages, the coast of the
+Mediterranean from the west of Mount Taurus. They now overran and
+subdued all Asia Minor; every country, every town, was obliged to pay
+them tribute; or soon the fertile land was reduced to an arid desert,
+watered only by the blood of its inhabitants, and the costly city,
+stormed by the fierce warriors of the north, became a heap of smoking
+ruins. At last the Tectosages came in contact with Antiochus, king of
+Syria, and were totally defeated at the battle of the Taurus; the Syrian
+king, following up his victory, compelled them to resign their
+conquests, and to establish themselves on the banks of the Halys, near
+the town of Ancyra, in Upper Phrygia, where they dwelt, too weak again
+to enter on the career of conquest. Internal war prevented the Asiatics
+for some time from pursuing their successes, and the Trocmes and
+Tolistoboies continued still to pillage and oppress all the maritime
+provinces. Nay, their power was actually increased by those wars, as
+each of the contending parties purchased the mercenary services of large
+bands of those brave, though turbulent warriors. But the end of the
+Gaulish rule in Asia Minor was at hand. The small state of Pergamus,
+under the able rule of Eumenes, emerged from its obscurity, and
+inflicted a severe wound upon the Gauls by the defeat of Antiochus, king
+of Syria, with whom a great number of them served as mercenaries. His
+son Attalus, on his accession to the throne, immediately marched against
+and defeated the Tolistoboies. Ionia, which had long groaned under their
+oppression, seizing the opportunity, rose up against them; the
+Tolistoboies, beaten in several engagements, were driven beyond Mount
+Taurus; and the Trocmes, after a vain attempt to maintain themselves in
+Troas, were forced to retreat and unite with their defeated countrymen.
+Attacked now by the whole population of Asia Minor, the two hordes were
+driven by degrees into Upper Phrygia, where the Tectosages had formerly
+settled. Here the three hordes united, and here they founded the empire
+of Galatia.
+
+     "Thus ended in Asia Minor the dominion of this people in their
+     character of nomad conquerors; another period of existence now
+     commenced for them. Abandoning their wandering life, they mixed
+     with the indigenous population, who were themselves a mixture of
+     Greek colonists and Asiatics. That blending together of three
+     races, unequal in power and in civilization, produced a mixed
+     nation, that of the Gallo-Greeks, whose civil, political, and
+     religious institutions, carry the triple stamp of Gaulish, Greek,
+     and Phrygian manners. The regular influence which the Gauls are
+     destined to act in Asia Minor, as an Asiatic power, will prove not
+     to be inferior to that of which they have been deprived; and we
+     shall see them defend, almost to the last, the liberty of the East
+     against the Roman arms."--(I. 203-204.)
+
+We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his very interesting account
+of the exploits of the Gaulish mercenaries in Greece--in particular of
+those who served in the army of Pyrrhus; or who, acting in the pay of
+Carthage, contributed so much to the victories of that powerful and
+wealthy people, and who took that lead in the famous insurrection of the
+mercenaries, which so nearly brought about their ruin. We must pass over
+too, unnoticed, the desperate struggle between the Romans and Gauls in
+Cisalpine Gaul, which ended in the defeat of the Boian confederacy at
+the battle of the Telama, and their submission, and the subjugation of
+the Insubrians by Marcellus. The whole of Cisalpine Gaul thus seemed to
+be finally subdued, when a new enemy suddenly appeared in the field, and
+again led the Gaulish standards into the heart of southern Italy.
+
+Hardly had the Cisalpines laid down their arms, when there arrived
+amongst them emissaries sent by Hannibal to excite them to a renewal of
+the war, and to engage them in an alliance with Carthage, by promising
+to guarantee to them the liberty of their country, and by exciting their
+cupidity with the prospect of the spoils of Rome and southern Italy.
+They were well received, and secret armaments soon began to take place,
+especially amongst the Boian confederacy. But what immediately caused
+the outbreak was an attempt of the Romans to found two colonies, one at
+Cremona, and the other at Placentia. Enraged at this, the Boians took up
+arms, and attacking the colonists of Placentia, dispersed them, whilst
+the Insubrians expelled those who had advanced to Cremona. The Boians
+and Insubrians now uniting their forces, laid siege to Mutina, but in
+vain. This check, however, was more than counterbalanced by the defeat
+of a Roman army under the orders of Manlius. While affairs were in this
+state, the columns of Hannibal, descending from the Alps, arrived on the
+Insubrian territory. The result of the late successes of the Gauls in
+their disposition towards Hannibal, is well explained by Thierry:--
+
+     "Two factions then divided all Cisalpine Gaul. The one composed of
+     the Venetes, the Cremonas, and the Ligures of the Alps, gained over
+     to the Roman cause, opposed with vigour every movement in favour of
+     Hannibal. The other, which included the Ligures of the Apennines,
+     the Insubrians, and the people of the Boian confederation, had
+     embraced the Carthaginian side, but without much ardour. The
+     affairs of Gaul had undergone a great change. At the time when the
+     propositions of Hannibal were received with enthusiasm, Gaul was
+     humiliated and conquered; Roman troops occupied her
+     territory--Roman colonies assembled in her towns. But since the
+     dispersion of the colonies of Cremona and Placentia--since the
+     defeat of L. Manlius in the forest of Mutina, the Boians and
+     Insubrians, satisfied at having recovered their independence with
+     their own forces, cared little to compromise themselves for the
+     advantage of strangers, whose appearance and numbers inspired them
+     with but slight confidence."--(I. 284-285.)
+
+Hannibal felt all the importance of deciding the wavering sentiments of
+this people; on them his future success or defeat depended; to do this
+nothing but victory was requisite. He accordingly advanced rapidly
+against the Romans, and first engaged them in a cavalry action at the
+Ticinus. Victory declared for the Carthaginians. The horse of Numidia
+routed the cavalry of Rome. This success, unimportant as it was,
+revealed Hannibal to the eyes of the Gauls; influenced by it, the
+Insubrian chiefs hastened to supply him with provisions and troops.
+Hardly had the Carthaginians arrived in sight of the Roman camp at
+Placentia, when a large body of the Gaulish contingent revolted from
+Scipio, and contrived, though much reduced in numbers, to cut their way
+through in spite of all opposition, and join Hannibal. The famous battle
+of the Trebia--the first of those great victories which have rendered
+immortal the genius of the Carthaginian chief--soon followed; it at once
+decided the course of Cisalpine Gaul. Its immediate and ultimate effects
+on the power and operations of Hannibal are well developed by our
+author:--
+
+     "The fortune of Hannibal was then consolidated; more than 60,000
+     Boians, Insubrians, and Ligures flocked in a few days to his
+     standards, and raised his forces to 100,000 men. With such a
+     disproportion between the nucleus of the Carthaginian army and its
+     auxiliaries, Hannibal was in reality but a Gaulish chief; and if,
+     in the moments of danger, he had no cause to repent his new
+     situation, more than once, nevertheless, he cursed with bitterness
+     its inconveniences. Nothing could equal the courage and devotion of
+     the Gaulish soldier in the dangers of the battle-field; but under
+     the tent he had neither the habit nor the taste of military
+     subordination. The lofty conceptions of Hannibal surpassed his
+     comprehension; he could not understand war, unless such as he
+     himself carried it on--as a bold and rapid plundering excursion, of
+     which the present moment reaped the whole advantage. He would have
+     wished to march instantly on Rome, or at least to pass the winter
+     in some of the allied or subject provinces--in Etruria or in
+     Umbria--there to live at discretion in pillage and license. Did
+     Hannibal represent that it was necessary to spare the provinces in
+     order to gain them over to the common cause, the Cisalpines broke
+     forth into murmurs; the combinations of prudence and genius
+     appeared in their eyes but a vile pretext to deprive them of the
+     advantages which they had legitimately won."--(I. 292-293.)
+
+We cannot follow the steps of the great conqueror in his memorable
+campaigns--in his fatal march over the fens of Etruria, or through the
+glorious field of Thrasymene. But the share which the Gauls had in the
+mighty victory of Cannae, and the change of the seat of war, with the
+results which followed from it, are of such importance, and the remarks
+made upon them by M. Thierry are so just, that we shall give the whole
+of his account of this event at full length:--
+
+     "From the field of Thrasymene Hannibal passed into southern Italy,
+     and gave battle a third time to the Romans, near the village of
+     Cannae, on the banks of the Aufidus, now called the Offanto. He had
+     then under his banners 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; and of
+     these 50,000 combatants, at least 30,000 were Gauls. In his order
+     of battle, he placed their cavalry on the right wing, and in the
+     centre their infantry, whom he united to the Spanish infantry, and
+     whom he commanded in person: the Gaulish foot, as was their custom
+     on all occasions when they were determined to conquer or die, threw
+     off their tunic and sagum, and fought naked from their waist
+     upwards, armed with their long and pointless sabres. They commenced
+     the action; and their cavalry and that of the Numidians terminated
+     it. We know how dreadful the carnage was in that celebrated
+     battle--the most glorious of the victories of Hannibal--the most
+     disastrous of the defeat of Rome. When the Carthaginian general,
+     moved with pity, called to his soldiers 'to halt, and to spare the
+     vanquished,' without doubt the Gauls, bloodthirsty in the
+     destruction of their mortal enemies, carried to that butchery more
+     than the ordinary irritation of wars, the satisfaction of a
+     vengeance ardently wished for, and long deferred. There 70,000
+     Romans perished; the loss on the side of the conquerors was 5500,
+     of which 4000 were Gauls. Out of 60,000 Gauls, whom Hannibal had
+     enumerated around him after the combat of the Trebia, 25,000 only
+     remained; battle, sickness, above all, the fatal passage over the
+     marshes of Etruria, had cut off all the rest; for up to this period
+     they had supported almost exclusively the weight of the war. The
+     victory of Cannae brought to the Carthaginians other auxiliaries; a
+     crowd of men from Campania, Lucania, Brutium, and Apulia, filled
+     his camp; but it was not that warlike race which he formerly
+     recruited on the banks of the Po. Cannae was the term of his
+     success; and assuredly the fault ought not to be imputed to his
+     genius, more admirable even in adverse than in good fortune--his
+     army only had changed. For two thousand years history has accused
+     him with bitterness for his inaction after the battle of Aufidus,
+     and for his delay at Capua; perhaps it might reproach him more
+     justly for having removed from the north of Italy, and for having
+     allowed his communications with the soldiers who had conquered
+     under him at Thrasymene and Cannae, to be cut off. Rome perceived
+     the fault of Hannibal, and hastened to profit by it. Two armies in
+     _echelon_, the one to the north, and the other to the south,
+     intercepted the communication between the Cisalpines and Magna
+     Graecia. That of the north, by its incursions and by its threatening
+     attitude, occupied the Gauls at their own hearths, whilst the
+     second made head against the Carthaginians."--(I. 297-300.)
+
+It has been said by the most renowned conqueror of modern times, that,
+give him but the Gallic infantry and the Mameluke cavalry, and he would
+subdue the world. And it cannot fail to strike the attentive reader with
+astonishment, to learn that the severest blow ever given to the power of
+Rome was inflicted by the Gaulish foot and the Numidian horse. It is
+curious, as exemplifying the unchanging characters of race, to observe
+that the greatest general of antiquity triumphed at the head of an army,
+composed of those very nations whom Napoleon, after the lapse of two
+thousand years, declared best fitted to pursue the blood-stained paths
+of military greatness.
+
+The efforts of the Gauls did not cease with the battle of Cannae; they
+defeated an army under Posthumius, which invaded their territory. When
+Hasdrubal led his ill-fated expedition to strew their bodies on the
+Italian plains, he was accompanied by large bands of those brave
+adventurers; and when Carthage, making a last effort to succour her
+general, disembarked 14,000 men under the command of Mago, Hannibal's
+brother, at Genoa, numerous bodies of Gauls flocked to his standards.
+And this general, though unable to effect his junction with Hannibal,
+yet maintained his ground for ten years, till at last, defeated in the
+territory of the Insubrians, he retired to Genoa. There he received
+orders to return to the defence of Africa:--
+
+     "His brother also, recalled by the Carthaginian senate, was obliged
+     to embark at the other extremity of Italy. The Gaulish and Ligurian
+     soldiers, who had faithfully served Hannibal during seventeen
+     years, abandoned him not in his days of misfortune; re-united to
+     their compatriots who had followed Mago, they formed still a third
+     part of the Carthaginian army at Zama, in the celebrated day which
+     terminated that long war to the advantage of the Romans, and
+     displayed to the world the genius of Hannibal humbled before the
+     fortune of Scipio. The ferocity with which the Gauls fought has
+     been recorded by the historian: 'They showed themselves,' says
+     Titus Livy, 'inflamed with that inborn hate against the Roman
+     people, peculiar to their race.'"--(I. 310-311.)
+
+The war in Cisalpine Gaul did not cease with the departure of Hannibal.
+Under the orders of Carthaginian officer, the Gauls again took the
+field--Placentia fell beneath their arms; but they received a severe
+defeat from L. Furius, in the year 200 B.C., when the Carthaginian
+general Amilcar perished. From this period till the year 191 B.C., the
+Gaulish nations were involved in a constant succession of wars, in
+which, though occasionally victorious, they were upon the whole
+unsuccessful. Exposed to the incessant incursions of the Romans, their
+strength gradually wasted away; each year left them in a state more
+exhausted and unfit to renew the war than the preceding. Nation after
+nation laid down their arms in despair, till at last the Boian
+confederacy stood alone in its resistance of a foreign yoke; but their
+ravaged lands and reduced numbers were unequal to the struggle, and
+when, in the year 190 B.C., the Roman armies advanced into the heart of
+their exhausted territory, the few remaining inhabitants determined to
+abandon the land of their birth, and to seek, amidst ruder nations, and
+beneath a more ungenial sky, for that liberty in defence of which their
+fathers had so often bled. Accordingly, the wreck of a hundred and
+twelve Boian tribes, rising _en masse_, united, and wending their weary
+steps over the snow-clad summits of the Alps, and through the pathless
+forests of Germany, they found at last, on the banks of the distant
+Danube, a resting-place far removed from the hated name of Rome.
+
+All resistance from Cisalpine Gaul now ceased. Occasionally, indeed, a
+few tribes from the Transalpine would cross the Alps and descend into
+Italy, but they could not withstand the shock of the legions. The
+conquered territory was declared a Roman province, which it ever
+afterwards remained.
+
+We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his account of the progress
+and fall of that strange Gaulish kingdom of Galatia. From the year 241
+to the year 190 B.C., it maintained its independence unshaken, amidst
+the degenerate sons of Greece and the effeminate Asiatics. But the Roman
+power, beneath which the Gaulish race was ever doomed to bend, overtook
+them even amidst the mountains of Asia Minor. The Galatians had
+furnished some troops to Antiochus the Great, and then, for the first
+time, they came in contact with the eagle of the Capitol. The first
+encounter is thus alluded to by our author:--
+
+     "The Romans had annihilated, at Magnesia, the Asiatic and Greek
+     forces: yet the conquest of the country appeared to them still
+     incomplete. They had encountered, beneath the banners of Antiochus,
+     some bands of a force less easily conquered than the Syrians or the
+     Phrygians: by the armour, by the lofty stature, by the yellow or
+     reddish locks, by the war-cry, by the rattling clash of arms, by
+     the dauntless valour above all, the legions had easily recognised
+     that old enemy of Rome whom they had been brought up to fear.
+     Before deciding any thing as to the lot of the vanquished, the
+     Roman generals then determined to carry the war into Galatia."--(I.
+     360-361.)
+
+Accordingly, in the spring of 189 B.C., Cn. Manlius, with 22,000
+legionaries and an auxiliary army furnished by the King of Pergamus,
+invaded Galatia: at his approach the Tolistoboies and Tectosages
+intrenched themselves upon Mount Olympus, and the Trocmes upon Mount
+Megalon, and there awaited the attack. The consul first advanced to
+Mount Olympus. He led his troops to attack the Gaulish position in three
+columns; the principal column, under his own orders, was to advance on
+the Gauls in front, the other two were to try and turn their position on
+either flank. The column which he led first engaged.
+
+     "His _velites_ advanced in front of the standards, with the Cretan
+     archers of Attalus, the slingers, and the corps of Trulles and of
+     the Thracians. The infantry of the legions followed with slow
+     steps, as the steepness of the declivity rendered necessary,
+     sheltered beneath their bucklers, so as to avoid stones and arrows.
+     At a considerable distance the combat began with discharges of
+     arrows, and at first with equal success. The Gauls had the
+     advantage in position, the Romans in the number and variety of
+     their arms. The action continued, the equality no longer remained.
+     The narrow and flat bucklers of the Gauls protected them
+     insufficiently: soon having expended their darts and javelins, they
+     found themselves altogether disarmed: for at that distance their
+     sabres were useless. As they had made no selection of flints and
+     stones beforehand, they seized the first which chance threw in
+     their way, which were for the most part too large to be easily
+     wielded, or for inexperienced arms to throw with effect. The
+     Romans, meanwhile, poured down upon them a murderous hail of
+     arrows, javelins, and leaden balls, which wounded them, without
+     their having any possibility of avoiding the approach. * * * * A
+     great number had bit the dust, others adopted the course of rushing
+     right on the enemy, and they, at least, did not perish unavenged.
+     It was the corps of the Roman _velites_ who did them most harm.
+     These _velites_ carried on their left arm a buckler three feet in
+     size, in their right hand javelins, which they threw from afar, at
+     their girdle a Spanish sword; when it was necessary to engage in
+     close contact, they transferred their javelins to the left hand,
+     and drew their sword. Few Gauls now remained on foot: seeing then
+     the legions advance to the charge, they fled precipitately to their
+     camp, which the alarm of the multitude of women, children and old
+     men who were shut up within it, already filled with tumult and
+     confusion."--(I. 373-376.)
+
+The other two columns had, from the difficult nature of the ground, been
+unable to make any progress. Manlius now led on his legionaries to
+assault the intrenchment, which they carried at the sword's point. A few
+days after this victory, Manlius advanced with his triumphant army to
+attack the Trocmes, who were intrenched on Mount Megalon. This battle
+resembled much, both in its progress and in its termination, the one
+which preceded it. The Trocmes were driven with slaughter from the
+field, and their camp taken. Dispirited by this double defeat, the
+Galatians, who had rallied their scattered forces behind the Halys, sued
+for peace. The Romans, desiring rather to conciliate than to irritate
+this warlike people, merely exacted that they should surrender the land
+which they had taken from the allies of Rome, and that they should give
+up their wandering and predatory habits, so injurious to all their
+neighbours. Under the influence of the forced peace in which the
+subjection of Asia to the Romans kept the Galatians, their manners
+rapidly changed. Asiatic luxury took the place of northern barbarity;
+the worship of the national gods was abandoned, and the idols of the
+stranger were substituted in their room; the coarse garments of ancient
+days, gave place to vestments of purple and gold: yet a little while,
+and the loss of national manners was followed by the loss of political
+privileges; the magistracies, formerly elective, now became hereditary;
+the families who usurped this privilege formed, in course of time, a
+bright and all-powerful aristocracy. Ambition limited the number of
+these magistracies; from twelve they were reduced to four; at last they
+were centred in a single hand: so that when Galatia was united as a
+province to the Roman empire, it was governed by a hereditary king. Yet,
+amidst this usurpation of the sovereign power, the national council of
+the Three Hundred still continued to exist, and assist in the government
+of the state.
+
+During twenty years peace subsisted between the Galatians and their
+Asiatic neighbours. At the end of that period, however, a war broke out,
+and pillaging bands once more began to traverse the plains of Asia
+Minor; when Rome interposed, and by her mediation peace was restored.
+Mithridates, uniting beneath his sway all the powers of the East, drove
+back for a while the Roman eagles, and seemed about to restore their
+ancient glory to the Asiatics. The Galatians joined with him; but their
+fidelity became suspected, and he seized upon sixty of their nobles as
+hostages. Enraged at this treatment, they formed a plot to assassinate
+him; it was frustrated, and the conspirators were almost all
+treacherously put to death at a banquet. His troops then advancing, took
+possession of Galatia, which was governed by one of his officers with
+insolence and oppression for twelve years. At last a revolt broke out;
+his armies were driven from the country; Galatia was once more free. The
+defeat of Mithridates by the Roman arms ensured their independence for a
+short time; but the rest of Asia was now subject to the Romans.
+Surrounded, enveloped on all sides by their power, Galatia yielded at
+last, and was reduced to the form of a Roman province in the time of
+Augustus.
+
+Here M. Thierry ends the first part of his History of the Gauls; and
+thus far we have followed him step by step, because we considered this
+both the least known and the most interesting portion of Gaulish
+history. The two periods which follow are more familiar to historical
+readers: because, during them, Rome was the great enemy of the Gauls;
+and if she has often palliated her defeats, she has at least never
+failed to chronicle her victories. Henceforth, therefore, we shall no
+longer attempt to follow the thread of his narrative. The victories of
+Marius, the campaigns of Caesar, stand in no need of our attention being
+directed to them, as to the wars of the Brenn in Greece, or the
+conquests of the horde in Asia Minor. Here we take leave of the Gaul as
+the conquering nomad; we have seen him wandering through the land of the
+stranger with fire and sword; but the hour of vengeance has now come,
+and we shall see him bleed in vain on his native soil for that liberty
+of which he had so often deprived others.
+
+M. Thierry opens his history of the second period with an exceedingly
+interesting account of the state of Gaul during the second and third
+centuries before our era. Gaul was then inhabited by three distinct
+families or races. By the Iberian family--divided into the Aquitains and
+the Ligures. By the Gaulish family--divided into the Gauls, the Kimry,
+and the Belgians. And by the Ionian-Greek family, or the inhabitants of
+the powerful and flourishing maritime and commercial state of Massalia.
+The Iberian and Ionian-Greeks, families occupying comparatively but a
+small portion of Gaul, need not detain us. With the Gauls we have more
+to do. Our author gives the following account of the way in which their
+territory was divided amongst the three different bands of this
+family:--
+
+     "A line which, setting out from the mouth of the Tann, follows the
+     course of that river, then that of the Rhone, the Iser, the Alps,
+     the Rhine, the Vosges, the AEdnian hills, the Loire, the Vienne, and
+     comes at last to rejoin the Garonne, by turning the plateau of
+     Arvernia: that line would nearly circumscribe the possessions of
+     the Gallic race. The territory situated to the east of that limit
+     belonged to the race of the Kimry; it was in time divided into two
+     portions by the line of the Seine and the Marne, the one northern
+     and the other southern. To the south, between the Seine and the
+     Garonne, lived the Kimry of the first invasion, intermingled with
+     Gallic blood, or the Gallo-Kimry. To the north, between the Seine
+     and the Rhine, the Kimry of the second invasion, or Belgians. The
+     Gauls numbered twenty-two nations; the Gallo-Kimry, seventeen; and
+     the Belgians, twenty-three. These sixty-two nations were subdivided
+     into many hundred tribes."--(I. 28.)
+
+He then enters into a long and most interesting description of the
+domestic manners, and political and religious institutions, of the
+Gauls.
+
+After having traced the Gaul for so long in the field, we love to follow
+him into his cabin--to observe his appearance, his pursuits, his
+habits--to mark the manly figure, the fair complexion, the flowing
+yellow locks, the glittering helmet surmounted with the antlers of the
+stag, the buckler covered with all the colours of the rainbow, the
+polished cuirass flashing back the rays of the morning sun, the heavy
+sabre hanging from the gold-bespangled belt, the precious necklace, the
+rich armlets, the bright and variegated hues of the martial sagum or
+mantle, of the noble Gaulish warrior. We follow him as he turns away
+from his clay-built mansion, and, regardless of the silent tears and
+entreating looks of his submissive, perhaps ill-used wife, hurries into
+the noise and excitement of the battle-field. Observe the wild frenzy
+that there seems to seize him, as he rushes with dauntless courage on
+the bristling phalanx of his enemies; as, amidst the clouds of dust
+which float overhead, and the horrid cries which resound on all sides,
+he tears and widens with savage ferocity the fearful gash he has just
+received; as, a moment after, overcoming in personal conflict yon
+stalwart chief, he decapitates, with one blow of his heavy sabre, the
+yet palpitating corpse, and waves the gory head with demoniac triumph in
+the air; and as he returns home, yet reeking with blood and intoxicated
+with victory, and suspends above his threshold the ghastly trophy. Look
+again--the scene is changed--the glittering arms are flung aside. With
+his mantle floating in the breeze, his light spear quivering in his
+hand, he plunges into the pathless forest; with fearless step he pursues
+his way through the leafy shade, and traverses the treacherous surface
+of the morass. Beneath yon giant oak he has encountered the fiercest
+inhabitant of those solitudes--the wild bull; but it has fallen beneath
+his javelin, which yet protrudes from it bushy neck, and, as it lies
+struggling on the greensward, making the wood ring again with its
+bellowings, his dagger is raised to give it the final stroke.--Observe
+him once more in the council of his nation. The warriors stand in an
+attentive circle leaning on their arms; he has risen to address them;
+his action is animated, his words are vehement; the polished accents,
+the finished periods of the Greek, flow not from his lips, but there is
+eagerness in his eye, there is earnestness in his speech, his language
+is figurative in the extreme, a thousand picturesque and striking images
+illustrate his meaning; his metaphors, drawn from the battle and the
+chase, thrill to the bosom of all his listeners; and the clash and clang
+of their arms, amidst which he sits down, proclaims alike their assent
+to his proposition and their admiration of his eloquence. It is amidst
+scenes like these that we love to follow the Gaul, to picture to
+ourselves an old race and an old civilization, which combined in so
+strange a way the greatness and the savageness, the heroism in danger
+and weakness under temptation, of primeval and half-civilized man.
+
+To comprehend clearly the internal and external history of the Gauls, we
+must understand the political condition of their country. This is
+unfolded in a clear and masterly manner by our author, in the following
+passage:--
+
+     "In Gaul, two privileged orders ruled the rest of the people--the
+     elective order of the priests, who recruited themselves
+     indiscriminately from all ranks, and the hereditary order of the
+     nobles or knights. This latter was composed of the ancient royal
+     families of the tribes, and of those men who had been recently
+     ennobled, either by war or by the influence of riches. The
+     multitudes were divided into two classes--the people of the
+     country, and the people of the town. The first formed the tribes or
+     the clans of the noble families. The client belonged to his patron,
+     whose domains he cultivated, whose standard he followed in war,
+     under whom he was a member of a little patriarchal aristocracy; his
+     duty was to defend him to the death from, and against all: to
+     abandon his patron in circumstances of danger, passed for the
+     consummation of disgrace, and even for a crime. The people of the
+     towns, from their situation, removed from the influence of the old
+     hierarchy of the tribes, enjoyed greater liberty, and fortunately
+     found themselves in a situation to maintain and to defend it.
+     Beneath the mass of the people came the slaves, who do not appear
+     to have been very numerous. The two privileged orders caused the
+     yoke of their despotism to weigh, turn by turn, upon Gaul. Turn by
+     turn they exercised absolute authority, and lost it by a series of
+     political revolutions. The history of the government of the Gauls
+     offers, then, three very distinct periods: that of the reign of the
+     priests, or of the theocracy--that of the reign of the chiefs of
+     the tribes, or of the military aristocracy--lastly, that of the
+     popular constitutions, founded on the principle of election, and on
+     the will of the majority. The epoch which we are about to treat of,
+     accomplished that last and great revolution; and popular
+     constitutions, although still ill assured, at last ruled over all
+     Gaul at the commencement of the first age."--(II. 71-73.)
+
+M. Thierry recognises in the Gauls the traces of two distinct religions.
+He says--
+
+     "When we examine attentively the character of the facts relative to
+     the religious belief of the Gauls, we are led to recognise two
+     systems of ideas, two bodies of symbols and superstitions
+     altogether distinct--in a word, two religions: the one altogether
+     sensible, derived from the adoration of natural phenomena, and by
+     its forms, as well as by its literal development, reminding us of
+     the polytheism of the Greeks; the other founded upon a material
+     pantheism, metaphysical, mysterious, sacerdotal, and presenting the
+     most astonishing conformity with the religions of the East. That
+     last has received the name of druidism, from the druids who were
+     its founders and priests. We shall give to the first the name of
+     the Gaulish polytheism."--(II. 73-74.)
+
+Thierry thinks that this polytheism originally prevailed amongst the
+Gauls, but that the Kimry introduced druidism, which soon became the
+dominant religion over the whole of Gaul, though the original polytheism
+ingrafted upon it more or less, in different places, some of its tenets
+and ceremonies. The great seat of the religion of the druids was
+Armorika, and, above all, Britain; there existed the most powerful of
+their sacerdotal colleges--there were celebrated the most secret of
+their mysteries.
+
+It is wondrous thing, that religion of the ancient druids! A solemn
+mystery enshrouds it--all the efforts of modern science cannot lift the
+veil. When we look on yon circle of stones which, grey with the lapse of
+ages, stands in lonely majesty upon the dreary moor, near which no sound
+is ever heard, save the distant and sullen roar of the ocean, as it
+breaks in sheets of foam on the rock-bound coast--the fitful cry of
+curlew, as it wings over them its solitary way--or the occasional low
+moaning of the wind, as, stealing through amidst the rocks, it seems to
+pour forth a mournful dirge for the shades of departed greatness:--when
+we look on a scene like this, we have before our gaze all that is known
+of these men of the olden time. Their blood-stained rites, their solemn
+mysteries, are forgotten; but their simple temples still stand
+imperishable as the God to whom they were erected. From the study of the
+ancient authors little or no information can be gleaned; a few
+descriptions of their bloody sacrifices, an account of some of their
+more public ceremonials, is all that they have handed down to us. But
+the real nature of their religion is unknown: more of its spirit is
+taught to us by those silent stones than by all other accounts put
+together. The choice of the situations for those sacred monuments amidst
+the melancholy waste, or buried deep in the recesses of some vast
+forest, where the wide-spreading branches of their sacred tree (the oak)
+casts its deep shadows over the consecrated spot, with no canopy save
+the heavens, shows the dark and gloomy spirit of their faith. They
+worshipped the God of the thunder-storm, not the God of peace; and it
+was amidst the thunder-storm that their horrid rites appeared most
+horrid. When, illuminated by the lurid glare of the lightning, the
+gigantic osier figure filled with human beings sank into the
+flames--when the shouts of the multitude who stood in a dense circle
+around the spot, the frenzied chants of the druids, and the despairing
+shrieks of the dying victims, were drowned in the sullen roar of the
+thunder--then must the fearful nature of their creed have stood forth in
+all its horrors. Yet with all this, there was a sort of grandeur in the
+seclusion and simplicity of their worship. All was not blood; and though
+they bowed down to the Unknown God in an erring and mistaken spirit, yet
+must their conception of him been fine. The God of nature and the
+wilderness--the God of the tempest and the storm--was a nobler idea than
+the immortalized humanities of Greek and Roman mythology, though both
+had wandered equally far from the true God of Mercy and of Peace.
+
+When Massalia was hard pressed by two Gaulish nations, she summoned, in
+an evil hour, Rome to her aid. By the Roman arms her assailants were
+repelled, but these allies maintained their footing in the country. They
+soon subdued Liguria, and founded the town of Aquae Sextiae; the Gaulish
+nation of the AEdues united with the strangers; a defensive league
+entered into by the Allobroges and the Arvernes to drive them from their
+shores, was defeated. The territory acquired by these victories was
+organized into a Transalpine province; this province gradually went on
+increasing; its communications with Italy were assured, by the Romans
+obtaining possession of the passes of the Alps. In the year 118 B.C.,
+the first Roman colony in Gaul was founded at Narbonne; hither, in
+course of time, came the great maritime commerce which had raised
+Massalia to her greatness; hither, too, flowed much of the internal
+traffic of Gaul. The ships of Massalia lay rotting in her harbours, her
+extensive quays lost their busy multitudes. In the fall of her naval
+power, in the loss of her commercial policy, she received a just reward
+for having wafted to her shores, and assisted with her forces, the
+stranger who was destined to rule over the Gaulish people. The
+organization of the province was completed; and from Narbonne, Roman
+emissaries issuing forth, laboured, by augmenting the quarrels and
+dissensions of the native tribes, to afford an opportunity for her to
+extend the limits of the empire.
+
+Driven from the shores of the Baltic by an inroad of the ocean, the two
+tribes of the Kimry and the Teutones uniting, precipitated themselves,
+to the number of 300,000 fighting men, upon the more southern countries.
+In the course of their wanderings they came upon the Roman province of
+Norica, which they laid waste with fire and sword, and where they
+defeated the consul, Papirius Carbon, with great loss. Without taking
+advantage of this opportunity to enter Italy, which now lay open to
+their attack, they entered the country of the Helvetii, where they were
+joined by the tribes of that people, the Ambrones, the Tigurines, and
+the Teutones; descending now upon Gaul like a devastating torrent, they
+wasted it as far as the Belgian frontier; here, however, the resistance
+of the inhabitants prevented them from advancing further. Turning now
+upon the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, they defeated three Roman
+armies under Silanus, Cassius, and Scaurus; and here they were joined by
+that portion of the Tectosages who had formerly returned from the
+disastrous invasion of Greece. The Roman generals, Cepio and Manlius,
+who had advanced against them, were utterly routed, and great part of
+the province laid waste. From hence the Kimry penetrated into Spain,
+where they remained for two years, pillaging and wasting the country,
+till, having received a check from the Celtiberians, they repassed the
+Pyrenees, and united with their confederated in the plains of Gaul. The
+united bands now prepared to march upon Italy; this they did in two
+divisions: one, consisting of the Kimry and the Tigurines, directed its
+steps through Helvetia and Norica and by the Tridentine Alps; while the
+other, consisting of the Ambrones and the Teutones, moved on the route
+which leads to Italy by the Maritime Alps: both divisions had appointed
+a common rendezvous on the banks of the Po.
+
+Rome was not unprepared for this invasion; to meet it, Marius had been
+recalled from his command in Africa, and invested with the consular
+power. When the division of the Ambrones and the Teutones reached the
+Maritime Alps, they found that general encamped in a position which lay
+directly in their line of march. Assaulted for three successive days,
+the Romans maintained themselves in their intrenchments: at last the
+Gauls, giving up the attempt to force them, passed on and soon reached
+Aquae Sextiae, whither they were followed by Marius. Marius encamped on a
+hill opposite the quarter of the Ambrones; between them flowed a river.
+The sutlers of the Roman army having descended to obtain water,
+encountered, in the bed of the torrent, some Gauls. A skirmish began;
+the Ambrones flocked in great numbers to support their comrades; soon
+they assembled their whole force and advanced upon the Romans. In
+crossing the stream they were vigorously opposed by the auxiliaries.
+Marius, seeing the favourable opportunity, led down his legions to the
+attack. Unable to withstand the shock, the Ambrones were driven back
+with great loss; the river ran red with their blood; the plain was
+covered with fugitives; and their routed forces halted not till they
+reached the neighbouring quarter of the Teutones. In their camp the
+Romans experienced more resistance from the women, who, rather than fall
+into the hands of their enemies, flung themselves on the hostile ranks,
+or perished by their own hands. Marius drew off his troops before night,
+and retreated to his former position on the hill. The next night he sent
+round 3000 men to occupy a wood in the rear of the position of the
+Teutones. The following morning he drew out his legions in battle array
+upon the slope of the hill, and sent forward his cavalry to skirmish
+with the enemy, and induce them to engage with him. They fell into the
+snare: pursuing his cavalry, they advanced to the river's edge, and
+there, in an evil hour, crossed it and attacked the Roman army. The
+contest which ensued was long and desperate; the Gauls had the advantage
+in numbers, the Romans in discipline and position. But while victory
+still hung in the balance, the 3000 Romans, issuing forth from their
+ambuscade, fell upon the rear of the Teutones: this produced
+irremediable confusion in the ranks of the Gauls. The Romans redoubled
+the energy of their attack, and the victory was no longer doubtful. Many
+perished in the field, more in the pursuit; the remainder were cut off
+in detail by the peasants, who assailed them on all sides.
+
+Meanwhile the other divisions of the Gauls, consisting of the Kimry and
+the Tigurines, after traversing Helvetia and Norica, arrived at the
+Tridentine passes of the Alps at the end of winter. To keep possession
+of these passes the Tigurines halted upon the summits of the ridge,
+while the Kimry, continuing their march, descended into the valley of
+the Adige. On their approach the consul Catulus, who was charged with
+the defence of this part of Italy, retreated behind the Adige; and when
+the Gauls advanced to attack him, his legions were seized with such a
+panic, that, abandoning their camp, they fled, and halted not till they
+had placed the Po between themselves and the enemy. The Kimry now spread
+themselves over the whole territory beyond the Po, and occupied the land
+without opposition: here they determined to await the arrival of the
+other column. This delay saved Italy; for it afforded time for Marius
+and his army to cross the Alps, and effect a junction with Catulus and
+his troops. In the July of 101 B.C., Marius and Catulus advanced to meet
+the Kimry on the banks of the Po. On the 30th of July the hostile armies
+met to decide the fate of Italy in the Campus Ranolius. The battle which
+ensued was long and bloody; but overcome by the heat of the day and the
+immense clouds of dust, and exposed by their imperfect defensive armour
+to all the strokes of the enemy, the Kimry were in the end totally
+defeated. When the Romans, in the course of the pursuit, came to their
+camp, the same scene occurred as that which took place at Aquae Sextiae;
+as the women, after defending themselves for some time, at last put an
+end to their existence with their own hands. On receiving news of this
+defeat, the Tigurines abandoned the passes of the Alps, and retreated to
+their native country, Helvetia. Thus ended the last invasion of Italy by
+the Gauls. Rome acknowledged the danger she had run by the gratitude she
+displayed to Marius, who received the title of the third Romulus, and
+his triumph was celebrated with all the enthusiasm of a grateful
+country.
+
+We pass in silence over the various occurrences in Gaul till we come to
+the year 58 B.C. This was the year when Caesar commenced his career of
+victory. His first achievement was the defeat of the Helvetii, who,
+rising _en masse_, wished to abandon their sterile country, and gain by
+the sword a more fertile land. He next advanced against Ariovistus and
+his Germans, who were ravaging with fire and sword the eastern portions
+of Gaul: these he likewise totally routed--thus delivering the
+inhabitants from a withering scourge. But their joy at this event was
+soon changed into sadness, when they saw that the Romans had no
+intention of retreating from their territory. Establishing himself
+amongst the Sequanes, Caesar levied contributions and collected
+provisions from all the neighbouring nations. Their discontent soon
+burst forth; they flew to arms, and prepared to make a desperate fight
+in defence of their liberties. We have no room to follow the Roman
+through his various campaigns; to trace the long and gallant stand made
+by the Gauls in defence of their native land; or the great and admirable
+genius of Caesar, nowhere displayed so greatly as in his Gaulish
+campaigns, though perfidy sometimes tainted his councils, and torrents
+of innocent blood too often stained his arms. Suffice it to say, that
+after three campaigns, the north and west had submitted to his forces,
+and he had made his first descent on the British shores. In his fourth
+campaign he undertook his second expedition against Britain, and subdued
+some more of the continental tribes. But a general movement now took
+place over nearly the whole of Gaul against the Romans, who at first
+suffered some severe checks; but the military skill of Caesar, in the
+course of a fifth campaign, again triumphed. Though so often vanquished,
+these brave people were not yet subdued. A new league was entered into
+by their cities; the war broke out afresh; and an able general,
+Vercingeto-rix, now directed their movements. It was during the course
+of his sixth campaign, which now followed, that Caesar ran the greatest
+danger and achieved the greatest triumphs. The surprise of Genatum, the
+capture of Avaricum, seemed at first to promise a speedy victory to his
+arms; but a repulse which he suffered before the walls of Geronia was
+the signal for the whole of Gaul to unite with the insurgents. A victory
+which he gained over Vercingeto-rix soon afterwards, checked for the
+moment, but did not dispirit, the Gauls; and the whole weight of the war
+was soon collected around the ramparts of Alexia. Both parties felt that
+the contest which would now ensue must decide the fate of the campaign,
+and both made the most strenuous exertions to prepare for it. The
+gigantic lines of Caesar were soon surrounded by the whole force of the
+enemy, and a combined attack was made upon them both from within and
+without. Great and imminent was the peril; but the steadiness of the
+legions, and the gallantry of their chief, surmounted it, and the
+banners of Rome finally waved triumphant over the hard-fought field. The
+fruits of this victory were immense. Alexia capitulated; the Gaulish
+nations who had been most active in the war submitted; and
+Vercingeto-rix was given up to the conquerors. Yet was a great part of
+the country still unsubdued; and when in the ensuing year, B.C. 51,
+Caesar took the field in his seventh and last campaign in this country,
+he found a powerful and numerous confederacy in arms. Taught by the
+experience of the past, they no longer attempted to unite their whole
+forces and defeat him in general engagements, but endeavoured to exhaust
+his resources, and wear out his troops by a protracted defensive
+warfare. They fortified and garrisoned their towns so as to impose on
+him the necessity of innumerable sieges; whilst the country, on his
+line of march, was laid waste, and his troops were harassed by the
+incessant attacks of their skirmishers. But Caesar overcame all
+difficulties: if they met him in battle, they were vanquished; if they
+retreated to their fortifications, they were driven from them by
+escalade; if they took refuge in their marshes, he pursued and overtook
+them even there. Dispirited by these constant defeats, the Gauls, for
+the last time, laid down their arms. The conquered territory was
+organized as a new province of the Roman empire, and Caesar laboured to
+attach it to his person by the lenity and moderation of his government.
+In this he succeeded; nor had he ever reason to repent of having done
+so; for, during the civil wars which raised him to the imperial power,
+he received no inconsiderable assistance from the courage and devotion
+of its inhabitants. Here, as a free people, ends the history of the
+Gauls. We shall not follow M. Thierry in his account of the last period
+of their annals, which embraces the subjugation of the Britons; the
+organization of Gaul into a subject province; the gradual loss of their
+nationality by its inhabitants; the spread of Roman manners and Roman
+civilization amongst them; their transition from an independent people
+to an integral part of the Roman empire. Here we take leave of them:
+their arms have just dropped from their hands; liberty has just fled
+from their shores; the fetters of conquest sit strangely on their
+free-born limbs; they have not yet learned the vices of a subject race:
+after having followed them in their career of conquest, and through the
+hard-fought struggle in their native land, we love not to dwell on the
+crushing of their haughty spirit.
+
+Throughout the whole of his history, Thierry sustains the interest well;
+but nowhere is his narrative more animated than in his account of the
+wars of Caesar; and no wonder, for a nobler field could not lie before
+him. His book is altogether one of the most curious and interesting
+which we possess on the history of ancient times. A great work it cannot
+be called. M. Thierry is more a man of talent than of genius; and
+accordingly, in his work, we are more struck with the interest of his
+narrative than with the profoundness of his reflections: it contains not
+the philosophy of Guizot, nor the originality of Michelet, yet it is a
+valuable addition to modern literature. Would that we saw a few more
+such in our own country!
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Histoire des Gaulois_, par M. AMADEE THIERRY. 3 tomes. Paris: 1835.
+
+
+
+
+THE WITCHFINDER.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+At the upper end of the large Gothic room, forming the interior of the
+town-hall of Hammelburg, which was formally prepared as a court of
+trial, sat upon a raised part of the flooring in his chair of state, the
+Ober-Amtmann; before him were placed, at a velvet-behung table, his
+_schreibers_ or secretaries; beside him sat, upon a low cushioned stool,
+his daughter, the fair Fraulein Bertha, surrounded by her tirewomen, who
+remained standing behind her.
+
+The presence of the young Fraulein was of rare occurrence upon occasions
+of judicial ceremony in the old town-hall. But a solemn appeal to her
+testimony had been made by the witchfinder; and her father, whose sense
+of justice considered that a matter of accusation of so heavy and
+serious a nature as that of witchcraft, should be investigated in all
+its bearings, had commanded her presence. Her heart, full of the purest
+milk of human kindness, revolted, however, from witnessing the progress
+of such terrible proceedings--the justice of which her simple mind,
+tutored according to the dark prejudices of the age, never once doubted,
+but which curdled her blood with horror. And she sat pale and sad, with
+downcast eyes, scarcely daring to raise them upon the crowd that filled
+the hall, much less upon the most conspicuous object in the scene before
+her--the unhappy being against whom all curses, all evil feelings, all
+insane desires of blood and death, were then directed. Perhaps there was
+another reason also, which, almost unconsciously, caused her to keep her
+eyes fixed upon the earth; perhaps she feared that they might meet two
+other mild blue eyes, the expression of which was that of a deep--far
+too deep--an interest; for it caused her heart to beat, and her spirit
+to be troubled; and her bosom to heave and sigh, she knew not wherefore:
+unless, indeed, she were, in truth, bewitched.
+
+In the centre of the hall was placed the accused woman. She was seated
+upon a rude three-legged stool, which was firmly fixed upon a raised
+flooring, elevated about three feet from the ground--her face turned
+towards her judge. A slight chain passed round the middle of her body,
+and fastened her down to her seat. She was still attired in the dark
+hood and cloak which had been her customary dress, and sat, with head
+bent downwards, and her hands clasped languidly upon her knees, as if
+resigned, in the bitterness of her despair, to meet the cruel fate that
+awaited her.
+
+Below, was a compact and turbulent crowd of the lower orders of the
+town, which was with difficulty kept, by the pikemen, within the limits
+assigned to it; and which, from time to time, let forth low howls
+against the supposed sorceress, that increased, like the _crescendo_ of
+distant thunder, and then died away again.
+
+On either side, towards the upper end, were ranged upon benches some of
+the more reputable _bourgeois_ and their spouses, all decked out in
+their finest braveries, as if they were present at a theatrical show, or
+a church mystery: and, in truth, the representation about to be given,
+was but little more in their own eyes, than a sort of show got up for
+their especial gratification.
+
+Guarded by two pikemen, stood the cripple--his teeth set firmly,
+although his lips quivered with excitement--his light eyes glaring
+fiercely around with an air of savage exultation, and gleaming, as it
+were, with a pale phosphoric fire, from out of the dark ground of his
+swarthy face and lank black hair. He moved restlessly and uneasily upon
+his withered limbs, clenching by fits and starts his rosary from his
+bosom, and murmuring a hasty, and--to judge by the wildness of his eyes,
+that showed how his mind was fixed upon far other thoughts--a vain
+prayer. He rolled also his head and the upper part of his body
+continually backwards and forwards, like a wild beast fretting in his
+cage.
+
+Among the more prominent of the crowd, whom the favour of the guards
+had allowed to push beyond the assigned limits, or whom reasons,
+connected with the trial, required to come forwards, stood "Gentle
+Gottlob." His brow was overclouded with sadness, for he felt in how
+fearful a pass this horrible denunciation had placed the woman whom he
+had so long regarded with attachment. His mild blue eye was more
+melancholy than of wont; and yet, in spite of the trouble of his mind,
+he was unable to withdraw his looks from that bright loadstone of his
+affections, whose sadness seemed to sympathize with his own. At least,
+his heart would fain persuade him that there was mysterious sympathy in
+their mutual dejection.
+
+The principal personages concerned in the awful question at issue,
+occupied, thus, their respective positions in the old town-hall; when,
+after a long and troubled pause, during which silence was with
+difficulty obtained among the more tumultuous portion of the crowd at
+the lower end of the hall, one of the _schreibers_ rose, and read, from
+an interminable strip of parchment which he held in his hand, the act of
+accusation against the female known under the popular designation of
+"Mother Magdalena," as attainted of the foul crime of witchcraft, of the
+casting of spells and malefices to the annoyance and destruction of her
+fellow-creatures, of consorting with spirits of darkness, and of
+lascivious intercourse with the arch-fiend himself. For so ran, at that
+time, the tenor of the accusation directed against the unhappy women
+suspected of this imaginary crime.
+
+The act of accusation was long, and richly interlarded with all those
+interminable complications of legal phraseology, which seem ever, at all
+times, and in all nations, to have been the necessary concomitants of
+all legal proceedings. The reading of the act, however, being at last
+terminated, the town-beggar, commonly known by the familiar name of
+Black Claus the witchfinder, Schwartzer-Claus, or Claus Schwartz, as he
+was usually designated among the people, was summoned to stand forward
+as the denouncer of the aforesaid Magdalena, and to substantiate his
+charge.
+
+Thus called upon, the cripple gave a start forward, like a lion let
+loose upon the gladiator's arena, through the barred gates of which he
+has already sniffed the odour of blood; and then, raising one of his
+long arms towards the stool of penitence, on which the criminal had been
+placed, he again repeated, with an eagerness amounting to frenzy, his
+accusation against her.
+
+As the witchfinder's hoarse voice was heard, a visible shudder passed
+through Magdalena's frame; but she raised not her head, moved not a
+limb, spoke not; and it was only when called upon by the chief
+_schreiber_ to declare what she had to say against this accusation, that
+she lowly murmured--"God's will be done!" but still with bowed head and
+downcast eyes.
+
+In support of his denunciation, the cripple proceeded to state how he
+had watched the mysterious female called "Mother Magdalena," and had
+observed that she never would enter any consecrated building; how she
+would daily advance up the steps of the church, and then pause before
+the threshold, as if she feared to pass it, and then throw herself down
+upon the stones before the gate, where she would lie in strange
+convulsions, and at last return without having penetrated into the
+building--an evident proof that the devil she served had forbidden her
+to put her foot into any sacred dwelling, but had taught her,
+nevertheless, to approach near enough to treat the awful mysteries of
+the Christian religion, performed within, with mockery and contempt. To
+this accusation, which was confirmed by the acclamation of several
+persons present in the court, Magdalena, when called upon to speak,
+proffered no denial; she contented herself with the meek reply, that God
+alone knew the motives of the heart--that it was for him alone to judge.
+The words were still uttered in the same low despairing tone, and
+without the slightest movement of her head from its sunken posture.
+
+The partially monastic dress, which was her habitual attire, was next
+brought forward against her as a proof of her desire to treat with
+contempt the dress of the religious orders: and to this absurd
+accusation, when asked why she had adopted a costume resembling that of
+the holy sisterhood of penitents, the old woman still refused any reply.
+
+The events of the previous afternoon, when she had been openly seen to
+throw her staff at the Amtmann's unoffending daughter, and wound her on
+the neck, and then break into pieces the image of the Holy Cross, were
+then recapitulated, as facts known upon the positive evidence of a
+hundred witnesses.
+
+These matters disposed of, the cripple proceeded to detail his own
+peculiar grievances, and attributed, as he had done in the cases of the
+seven unhappy women who had already fallen victims of his frantic
+delusion, the severe pains that had racked his poor distorted limbs to
+the malefic charms of the sorceress. He related how, on the last night
+on which he had met Mother Magdalena, he had found her sitting by the
+well in the market-place, casting a spell upon the spring, and turning
+the waters to poison and blood--as a proof of which, he swore to have
+himself tasted in the water of the bucket the taste of blood; how, in
+revenge for his warning to her to desist from her foul practices, she
+had pointed up her finger to the sky, and immediately brought down upon
+his head all the combined waters of heaven; how she had vanished from
+his sight in this storm, he knew not how; and how immediately intense
+pains began to torture his joints, until he became half frantic with
+agony, and had been compelled, by hideous visions, to quit the shelter
+he had sought, in order to be exposed to all the peltings of the storm.
+He had since suffered, he declared, the tortures of the damned in all
+his limbs, with occasional fits of shuddering, sometimes of hot fever,
+sometimes of the most freezing cold, which were evidently torments
+worked upon him by the powers of darkness. And as he spoke, the unhappy
+wretch was again seized by one of his fearful fits of ague, during the
+convulsions of which the clamours of the crowd grew terrible against the
+sorceress.
+
+"What sayest thou to this accusation, woman?" said the chief
+_schreiber_. "Thou see'st how even now he suffers."
+
+"I have never willed evil to any man--not even to him," was Magdalena's
+only reply.
+
+When recovered from his fit, the cripple again raised his head--it was
+to cast a glance at the object of his denunciation, in which hatred and
+triumph were blended together, in one of those occasional flashes of
+wildness which showed that there was a vein of insanity running through
+all the frenzied zeal of the witchfinder. He had now arrived at a period
+of his narration, when the most damning proof of all was to overwhelm
+the accused woman.
+
+It was not without an unaffected expression of horror, that he went on
+to relate how he had wandered around the building by the Watergate, in a
+lower cell of which he had discovered that she dwelt, seeking in vain to
+find an entrance or a peep-hole, that might enable him to penetrate into
+the interior; how he had, at last, dragged his crippled limbs up into a
+tree upon the river's bank, overlooking an upper chamber of the
+building; how he had, at first, seen Mother Magdalena in conversation
+with the young illuminator; how, upon his departure, she had flung
+herself down upon her knees, and after spitting upon one of the books of
+holy writ upon the table, had made wild gestures of conjuration, upon
+which the demon himself, attired in a dark robe, had suddenly appeared
+by supernatural means, for he had not entered by the door; how the foul
+hag had fallen down and worshipped the arch-fiend; and how, after a
+conference of short duration, during which the woman at his feet
+appeared to supplicate with earnestness, probably a prolongation of her
+wretched term of power to work ill, and afterwards kissed his hand in
+token of adoration and submission, the demon had vanished as suddenly as
+he had appeared.
+
+A low murmur of horror ran through the assembly, as Black Claus related
+this fearful story. All eyes were turned upon the handmaiden of Satan.
+For a moment she had raised her head, horror-struck at this
+interpretation of the interview she had in Gottlob's chamber with the
+stranger--for a moment she seemed to have a desire to speak. But then,
+clasping her hands before her face, she murmured--"O God! it cannot be!
+But this is terrible!"
+
+Gottlob, who, during the whole accusation, had listened with much
+impatience, could now no longer restrain his generous feelings. He
+started forward with the words--"No, no, it is impossible! Speak,
+Magdalena--say how false is this man's tale."
+
+"God knows that it is false!" said Magdalena.
+
+"I knew it could not be. There could be no one with thee in my chamber,
+and he lies."
+
+"No," replied Magdalena sadly, "thus far is true:--There was a stranger
+by me in your chamber."
+
+"But who then?--speak, Magdalena," urged Gottlob. "Clear yourself of the
+foul stigma of his tale."
+
+"I may not say!" replied the unhappy woman. "But God will prove my
+innocence in His own right time."
+
+"Why hesitate," again cried the eager young man, "when with a word you
+could disprove him?"
+
+"I have already said it cannot be," said the accused woman, sinking her
+head upon her breast.
+
+Gottlob himself drew back with a shudder; for a moment he knew not what
+to think; the strange answers of Magdalena perplexed and troubled him.
+He began himself to doubt of the woman, who, in return for his
+benevolence, had showed him the attachment of a mother. He pulled his
+cloak over his face with both his hands, and stood for a time
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It needs no further questions upon this point, I presume," said the
+chief _schreiber_, turning to the Ober-Amtmann. "The wretched woman has
+already admitted a part of the truth;" and, with a sign to the
+denouncer, he bade him proceed.
+
+The witchfinder paused for a moment, and gave one long look of
+tenderness and pity--as far, indeed, as his harsh, rudely-stamped
+features could express such feelings--at the pale face of Bertha. Then,
+fixing his eye keenly upon the Ober-Amtmann, as if to fascinate his
+attention, he burst into a fresh accusation against the sorceress, as
+having, in the first place, cast her spells upon the noble Fraulein
+Bertha, for the purpose of sowing the seeds of death within her frame;
+and as having, in the second place, employed the young man called
+"Gentle Gottlob" to be an involuntary agent in her work of ill.
+
+Upon hearing the first part of this charge, Magdalena had raised her
+head to give, unconsciously as it were, a deprecating look at the fair
+girl--as if to assure her, with that one long concentrated look of deep
+feeling, that, far from desiring her evil, she contended only with the
+overpourings of kindness and love for her; and then, as though she had
+already expressed more than her conscience could approve, she bowed
+again her head, murmuring only--"O God! support me. Thou knowest how
+false is the raving of that wretched man." The second part of the charge
+excited other and very varied feelings among those present. Magdalena
+again started, but with evident surprise, and made a hasty gesture of
+denial. Gottlob sprang forward, horrified at being thus involved, even
+as an involuntary agent, in the hideous denunciation, and indignant at
+the supposition that he could work ill to the Amtmann's lovely daughter;
+and he protested, with all the vehemence which gentle natures, when
+roused into excitement, will display, against so unfounded and
+calumnious an accusation; whilst Bertha, joining together her small
+hands, as if in supplication, turned her face, with anxious expression,
+to her father, crying--"No, no--it cannot be!"
+
+Astounded at so unexpected a revelation, the Ober-Amtmann seemed at
+first not to know what to think. He gazed alternately upon Gottlob and
+Bertha, as if to read upon their faces the secret of a connexion between
+them; and then, satisfied of the impossibility that the noble
+Ober-Amtmann's daughter could have the slightest affinity with the
+unknown youth before him, he drew a long breath, and passed his hand
+over his brow, as if to drive away ideas so absurd.
+
+"Peace, youth--peace!" he cried to Gottlob; "we will hear thee anon. It
+is not thou who art accused. And thou, my child be calm. Cripple! what
+mean thy words? What proof bringest thou of their truth?"
+
+"Ask of the suffering angel by thy side, my noble lord," replied the
+cripple with emotion. "Let her tell how, of late, her cheek has grown
+pale, her limbs have become weary, her very life's-blood languid and
+oppressed. I have watched her day by day, and I have seen these changes.
+I have watched her with a careful and a cunning eye; and I have
+felt--there, in my heart--that the spell was upon her: and this it was
+that urged me to denounce that wretched hag."
+
+"Speak, my child," said the Ober-Amtmann, in trouble and anxiety. "What
+this man says, is it true? Hast thou suffered lately? Indeed, I do
+remember thy cheek has been paler than of wont--thy appetite has left
+thee--thou hast been no longer so cheerful or so active as of old.
+Speak, my child--hast thou really suffered?"
+
+"Oh, no! my father, I have not suffered," replied the agitated girl in
+much confusion; "and yet I have not been as formerly I was. I have been
+sad, I knew not why, and wept in the silence of my chamber without
+cause; and I have found no pleasure in my embroidery, nor in my flowers,
+nor in my falcons. I have felt my foot fall weary. I have sought to
+rest, and yet, when reposing, I have felt unable to remain in quiet, and
+I have longed for exercise abroad. But yet I have not suffered; and
+sometimes I have even hugged with pleasure the trouble of my mind and
+body."
+
+"These seem, indeed, the symptoms of a deadly spell upon thee, my poor
+child," exclaimed her father. "Such, they say, are the first evidences
+of the working of those charms that witches breathe over their victims."
+
+"And let the Fraulein Bertha tell," cried the witchfinder, "how it has
+been yonder youth who has seemed to exercise this influence of ill upon
+her."
+
+Again Gottlob sought to spring forward and speak; but a sign from the
+Ober-Amtmann to the guards caused them to place their pikes before him,
+and arrest him in his impulse.
+
+"How and what is this, my child?" said the Ober-Amtmann. "Knowest thou
+that youth? and in what has he, consciously or unconsciously, done thee
+ill?"
+
+"He has done me no ill," replied the innocent girl in still greater
+confusion, as her bosom heaved, and the blood suffused her cheeks. "I am
+sure he would not do me ill for all the treasures of the world!"
+
+"Thou knowest him then?" said her father, somewhat more sternly.
+
+"No, I know him not," replied Bertha in trouble; "but I have met him
+sometimes in my path, and I have seen him"--she hesitated for a moment,
+and then added, with downcast eyes, "at his window, which overlooks our
+garden."
+
+"Why then this trouble, Bertha?" continued the Ober-Amtmann, in a tone
+that rendered their conversation inaudible beyond their own immediate
+circle.
+
+"I cannot tell myself, my father. I feel troubled and sad, it is true;
+and yet I know not why. I have no cause"----
+
+"And when thou hast met yonder youth, as thou sayest, hast thou felt
+this trouble before?"
+
+"Alas! yes, my father. I remember now that at his aspect my heart would
+beat; my head grow giddy, and my ears would tingle; and then a faintness
+would come over me, as though it were a pain I felt, and yet it was a
+pleasant pain. There was nothing in him that could cause me ill; was
+there, father?"
+
+The Ober-Amtmann's brow grew dark as Bertha proceeded; but, after a
+moment's reflection, he murmured to himself--"Love! oh, no! It is
+impossible! She and he! The noble's daughter and the low-born youngster.
+It could not be! There is no doubt! Witchcraft has been at work! How
+long has it been thus with thee, my child?" he added with solicitude.
+
+"I cannot tell, my father. Some five or six months past it came upon me.
+I know not when or how!"
+
+"Bears he no charm upon him?" exclaimed the Ober-Amtmann aloud.
+
+"He bears a charm upon him!" cried the witchfinder in triumph. "And ask
+who bound it round his neck?"
+
+"It is false! I bear no charm!" cried Gottlob eagerly. "She herself
+denied that it was such."
+
+"Of what does he speak?" cried the Ober-Amtmann.
+
+"It was but a gift of affection, and no charm. She gave me this ring,"
+said Gottlob, pointing to the ring hung by a small riband round his
+neck; "and I have worn it, as she requested, in remembrance of some
+unworthy kindness I had shown her."
+
+"And how long since was it," enquired the Ober-Amtmann, "that she
+bestowed this supposed gift upon you?"
+
+"Some five or six months past," was Gottlob's unlucky answer; "not long
+after I first brought her to reside with me in my poor dwelling."
+
+During this examination the agitation of Magdalena had become extreme;
+and when, upon the Ober-Amtmann's command that the ring should be handed
+up to him, Gottlob removed it from his neck, and gave it into the hands
+of one of the guards, she cried, in much excitement, "No, no; give it
+not, Gottlob!"
+
+The ring, however, was passed on to the Ober-Amtmann; and Magdalena,
+covering her face with her hands, fell back, with a stifled groan, into
+her former crouching position.
+
+The sight of the ring seemed indeed to have the power of a necromancer's
+charm upon the Ober-Amtmann. No sooner had his eyes fallen upon it, than
+his cheek grew pale--his usually severe and stern face was convulsed
+with agitation--and he sank back in his chair with the low cry, "That
+ring! O God! After so many years of dearly-sought oblivion!"
+
+At the sight of the Ober-Amtmann's agitation and apparent swoon, a howl
+of execration burst from the crowd below, mingled with the cries of
+"Tear the wretch in pieces! She has poisoned him! Tear her in pieces!"
+Consternation prevailed through the whole assembly. Bertha sprang to her
+father's side; but the Ober-Amtmann quickly rallied. He waved his
+daughter back with the remark, "It was nothing--it is past;" and raising
+himself in his chair, looked again upon the ring.
+
+"There is no doubt," he murmured, "it is that same ring--that Arabic
+ring, brought me from the East, and which I gave--oh, no!--impossible!"
+he hurriedly exclaimed, as a horrible thought seemed to cross him. "She
+has been dead many years since. Did not my own brother assure me of her
+death? It cannot be!"
+
+After a moment's pause to recover from his agitation, he gave orders to
+one of the guards to remove the hood from Magdalena's head, that he
+might see her features. With the crooked end of a pike's head, one of
+them tore back her hood; while another, with the staff of his pike,
+forced her hands asunder. Magdalena's careworn and prematurely withered
+face was exposed to the gaze of all, distorted with emotion.
+
+"Less rudely, varlets!" cried the Ober-Amtmann, with a feeling of sudden
+forbearance towards the wretched woman which surprised all present; for
+they could not but marvel at the slightest symptom of consideration
+toward such an abhorred outcast of humanity as a convicted witch; and as
+such the miserable Magdalena was already regarded.
+
+For a moment the Ober-Amtmann considered Magdalena's careworn, withered,
+and agitated face with painful attention; and then, as if relieved from
+some terrible apprehension, he heaved a bitter sigh, and murmured to
+himself--"No, no, there is no trace of that once well-known face. I knew
+it could not be. She is no more. It was a wild and foolish thought! but
+this ring--'tis strange! Woman, dost thou know me?" he asked aloud, with
+some remaining agitation.
+
+"I know you not," replied Magdalena with a low and choked voice; for she
+now trembled violently, and the tears gushed from her eyes.
+
+"How camest thou then by this ring? Speak! I command thee," continued
+the Ober-Amtmann.
+
+Magdalena bowed her head with a gesture of refusal to answer any further
+question.
+
+"Wretched woman! Hast thou violated the repose of the dead? Hast thou
+torn it from the grave? How else came it in thy possession?"
+
+The unhappy woman replied not. She had again covered her face with her
+hands, and the tears streamed through her meagre fingers.
+
+"Speak, I tell thee! This ring has conjured up such recollections, that
+were there but one human link between thee and one who has long since
+rested from all sorrow in the grave, it might ensure thy safety."
+
+No answer was returned by Magdalena; although, to judge by the convulsed
+movement of her body, the struggle within must have been bitter and
+heavy to bear.
+
+"Die then in thy obstinacy, miserable woman," cried the Ober-Amtmann in
+a suppressed voice--"Let justice take its course!"
+
+"Denouncer!" said the chief _schreiber_ to the witchfinder, "hast thou
+further evidence to offer?"
+
+"Needs it more to convict a criminal of the foul and infernal practices
+of witchcraft?" cried Black Claus with bitterness.
+
+The chief _schreiber_ turned to the Ober-Amtmann, as if to consult his
+will. For a moment the Ober-Amtmann passed one hand across his brow, as
+though to sweep away the dark visions that were hovering about it; and
+then, waving the other, as if he had come to a resolution which had cost
+him pain, said with stern solemnity--"Let the workers of the evil deeds
+of Satan perish, until the earth be purged of them all."
+
+This customary formula implied the condemnation of the supposed
+sorceress.
+
+"To the stake! to the stake!" howled the crowd, upon hearing the
+delivery of this expected sentence.
+
+After enjoining silence, which was with difficulty enforced, the chief
+_schreiber_ rose, and addressed to Magdalena the accustomed question,
+"Woman, dost thou demand the trial by water, and God's issue by that
+trial?"
+
+"I demand but to die in peace," replied the miserable woman; "and God's
+will be done!"
+
+"She refuses the trial by water," said the chief _schreiber_, in order
+to establish the fact, which was put down in writing by the adjuncts.
+
+"To the stake! to the stake!" howled the crowd.
+
+"And hast thou nothing to urge against the justice of thy sentence?"
+asked the official questioner.
+
+"Justice!" cried Magdalena, with a start, which caused the chain around
+her waist to clank upon the wretched stool on which she sat. "Justice!"
+she cried in a tone of indignation. For a moment the earthly spirit
+revolted. But it gleamed only for an instant. "May God pardon my unjust
+judge the sins of his youth,"--she paused, and added, "as I forgive him
+my cruel death!" With these words, the last spark of angry feeling was
+extinguished for ever. "May God pardon him, as well as those who have
+thus cruelly witnessed against me; and may He bless him, and all those
+who are most near and dear to him," she continued--her voice, as she
+spoke, growing gradually more subdued, until it was lost and choked in
+convulsive sobbings.
+
+Again a thrill of horror passed through the Ober-Amtmann; for the sound
+of the voice seemed to revive in his mind memories of the past, and
+recall a vision he had already striven to dispel from it. His frame
+shuddered, and again he fell back in his chair.
+
+"It is a delusion of Satan!" he muttered, pressing his hands to his
+ears, and closing his eyes.
+
+Bertha's eyes streamed with tears; her pitying heart was tortured by
+this scene of sadness.
+
+"Blessings instead of curses upon those who have condemned her! Can that
+be guilt?" said gentle Gottlob to himself. "Can that be the spirit of
+the malicious and revengeful agent of the dark deeds of Satan? No--she
+is innocent; and I will still save her, if human means can save!"
+
+After thus parleying with himself, Gottlob began to struggle to make his
+way from the court.
+
+"The blessings of the servants of the fiend are bitter curses," said the
+infatuated witchfinder, on the other hand; "and she has blessed me. God
+stand by me!"
+
+"To the stake!--to the stake!" still howled the pitiless, the
+bloodthirsty crowd.
+
+The refusal of the unhappy Magdalena to abide by the issue of the
+well-known trial by water, had so much abridged the customary
+proceedings, that orders were given, and preparations made, for the
+execution of the ultimate punishment for the crime of witchcraft--burning
+at the stake--shortly after daybreak on the morrow.
+
+It was yet night--a short hour before the breaking of the dawn. The pile
+had been already heaped in the market-place of Hammelburg--the stake
+fixed. All was in readiness for the hideous performance about to take
+place. The guards paced backwards and forwards before the grated
+doorway, which opened under the terrace of the old town-hall; for there,
+in that miserable hole, was confined the wretched victim of popular
+delusion. The soldiers kept watch, however, upon their prisoner at such
+a distance as to be as far as possible out of the reach of her malefic
+spells. The heavy clanking of their pikes, as they rested them from time
+to time upon the pavement, or paused to interchange a word, alone broke
+the silence of the still sleeping town--sleeping, to awake shortly like
+a tiger thirsty for blood. The light of a waning moon showed
+indistinctly the dark mass in the centre of the market-place--the stage
+upon which the frightful tragedy was about to be enacted--when one of
+the sentinels all at once turning his head in that direction, descried a
+dark form creeping around the pile, as if examining it on all sides.
+
+"What's that?" he cried in alarm to his comrade, pointing to this dark
+object. "Is it the demon himself, whom she has conjured up, and who now
+comes to deliver her? All good spirits"--and he crossed himself with
+hurried zeal.
+
+"Praise the Lord!" continued the other, completing the usual German form
+of exorcism, and crossing himself no less devoutly.
+
+"Challenge him, Hans!" said the first; "at the sound of a Christian
+voice, mayhap, he may vanish away; and thou art ever boasting to Father
+Peter that thou are the most Christian man of thy company."
+
+"Challenge him thyself," replied Hans, in a voice that did not say much
+for the firmness of his conscience as a Christian.
+
+"Let's challenge him both at once," proposed the other soldier.
+"Perhaps, between us, we may muster up goodness enough to drive the foul
+fiend before us."
+
+"Agreed!" replied Hans, with somewhat better courage; and upon this
+joint-stock company principle of piety, both the soldiers raised their
+voices at once, and cried, in a somewhat quavering duet, "Who goes
+there?"
+
+A hoarse laugh was the only answer received to this challenge; and the
+dark form seemed to advance towards them across the market-place.
+
+So great appeared the modesty of each of the soldiers with regard to his
+appreciation of his own merits as a good Christian--so little his
+confidence in his own powers of holiness to wrestle with the fiend of
+darkness in the shape which now approached them--that they seemed
+disposed rather humbly to quit the field, than encounter Sir Apollyon in
+so glorious a contest; when the dim light of the moon revealed the
+figure, as it came forward, to be that of the witchfinder.
+
+"It is Claus Schwartz!" said Hans, taking breath.
+
+"Or the devil in his form," pursued his fellow-sentinel with more
+caution. "Stand back!" he shouted, as the witchfinder came within a few
+yards, "and declare who thou art."
+
+"Has the foul hag within there bewitched thee?" cried Black Claus; "or
+has she smitten thee with blindness? Canst thou not see? The night is
+not so dark but good men may know each other."
+
+"What wouldst thou here?" said Master Hans, completely recovered from
+his spiritual alarm.
+
+"I cannot rest," replied the witchfinder with bitterness. "Until her
+last ashes shall have mingled with the wind, I shall take no repose,
+body or mind. I cannot sleep; or, if I close my eyes, visions of the
+hideous hags, who have already perished there, float before my
+distracted eyes. It is she that murders my rest, as she has tormented my
+poor limbs--curses on her! But a short hour, a short hour more, and she
+too shall feel all the tortures of hell--tortures worse than those she
+has inflicted on the poor cripple. The flames shall rise, and lap her
+body round--the bright red flames. Her members shall writhe upon the
+stake. The screams of death shall issue from her blackened lips; until
+the lurid smoke shall have wrapped her it its dark winding-sheet, and
+stifled the last cry of her parting soul, as it flies to meet its
+infernal master in the realms of darkness. Oh, it will be a glorious
+sight!" And the cripple laughed, with an insane laugh of malice and
+revenge, which made the soldiers shudder in every limb, and draw back
+from him with horror.
+
+It seemed as if the fever of his excitement had pressed so powerfully on
+his brain as to have driven him completely into madness. After a moment,
+however, he pulled his rosary from his bosom, and kissed it, adding, in
+a calmer tone, "Yes, it will be a glorious sight--for it will be for the
+cause of the Lord, and of his holy church."
+
+Little as they comprehended the witchfinder's raving, the soldiers again
+crossed themselves, and looked upon him with a sort of awe.
+
+"What wouldst thou?" said one of them, as Claus advanced towards the
+prison door.
+
+"I would look upon her, there--in her prison," said the cripple, with an
+expression that denoted a malicious eagerness to gloat upon his victim.
+
+The soldiers interchanged glances with one another, as if they doubted
+whether such a permission ought to be allowed to the witchfinder.
+
+"Ah, bah!" said Hans. "It is not he that will aid her to escape. Let him
+pass. They'll make a fine sport with one another, the witchfinder and
+the witch--dog and cat. Zist, zist!" continued the young soldier,
+laughing and making a movement and a sound as if setting on the two
+above-mentioned animals to worry each other.
+
+"Take care," said his more scrupulous companion. "Jest not with such
+awful work. Who knows but it may be blasphemy; and what would Father
+Peter say?"
+
+The two sentinels continued their pacing up and down, but still at some
+distance from the prison doorway, in order, as Hans's companion
+expressed it, "to keep as much as possible out of the devil's clutches;"
+while Black Claus approached the grating of the door.
+
+As the witchfinder peered, with knitted brow, through the bars of the
+grating, it seemed to him at first, so complete was the darkness within,
+as though the cell was tenantless; and his first movement was to turn,
+in order to warn the guards of the escape of their prisoner. But as he
+again strained his eyes, he became at last aware of the existence of a
+dark form upon the floor of the cell; and as by degrees his sight became
+more able to penetrate the obscurity within, he began plainly to
+perceive the form of the miserable woman, crouched on her knees upon the
+damp slimy pavement of the wretched hole. She was already dressed in the
+sackcloth robe of the penitents condemned to the stake, and her poor
+grey hairs were without covering. So motionless was her form that for a
+moment the witchfinder thought she was dead, and had fallen together in
+the position in which she had knelt down; and the thought was like a
+knife in his revengeful heart, that she might thus have escaped the
+tortures prepared for her, and thwarted the gratification of his insane
+and hideous longings. A second thought suggested to him that she was
+sleeping. But this conjecture was scarcely less agonizing to him than
+the former. That she, the sorceress, should sleep and be at rest, whilst
+he, her victim, could find no sleep, no rest, no peace, body or mind,
+was more than his bitter spirit could bear. He shook the bars of the
+door with violence, and called aloud, "Magdalena!"
+
+"Is my hour already come?" said the wretched woman, raising her head so
+immediately as to show how far sleep was from her eyelids.
+
+"No, thou hast got an hour to enjoy the torments of thy own despair,"
+laughed the witchfinder, with bitter irony.
+
+"Let me, then, be left in peace, and my last prayers be undisturbed,"
+said Magdalena.
+
+"In order that thou mayst pray to the devil thou servest to deliver
+thee!" pursued Black Claus, with another mocking laugh. "Ay--pray--pray;
+but it will be in vain. He is an arch-deceiver, the fiend, thy master.
+He promises and fulfils not. He offers tempting wages to those who sell
+to him their souls, and then deserts his servants in the hour of
+trouble. So prayed all the filthy hags who sat there before thee,
+Magdalena; but they prayed in vain."
+
+"Leave me, wretched man!" said Magdalena, who now became aware that it
+was the cripple who addressed her. "Hast thou not sufficiently sated thy
+thirst for evil, that thou shouldst come to torment me in my last
+moments? Go! tempt not the bitterness of my spirit in this supreme hour
+of penitence and prayer. Go! for I have forgiven thee; and I would not
+curse thee now."
+
+"I defy thy curses, witch of hell!" cried the cripple with frantic
+energy. "Already the first pale streaks of dawn begin to flicker in the
+east. A little time, and thy power to curse will be no more; a little
+time, and nothing will remain of thee but a heap of noisome ashes; and a
+name, which will be mingled with that of the arch-enemy of mankind, in
+the execrations of thy victims--a name to be remembered with horror and
+disgust--as that of the foul serpent--in the thoughts of the tormented
+cripple, and of the pure angel of brightness, upon whom thou hast sought
+to work evil and death."
+
+"O God! make not this hour of trial too hard for me to bear!" exclaimed
+the unhappy woman; and then, raising her clasped hands to Claus in
+bitter expostulation, she cried, "Man! what have I done to harm thee,
+that thou shouldst heap these coals of fire on my soul?"
+
+"What thou hast done to harm me?" cried the witchfinder. "Hast thou not
+tormented my poor cripple limbs with thy infernal spells? Hast thou not
+caused me to suffer the tortures of the damned? But it is not vengeance
+that I seek. No--no. I have vowed a holy vow--I have sworn to spend my
+life in the good task of purging from the earth such workers of evil as
+thou, and those who served the fiend by their foul sorceries, were it
+even at the risk of exposing my body to pain and suffering, and even
+death, from the revengeful malice of their witchcrafts. And God knows I
+have suffered in the holy cause."
+
+And the cripple clenched again within his right hand, the image attached
+to the rosary in his bosom, as if to satisfy himself by its contact of
+the truth and right of those deeds, which he strove to qualify as holy.
+
+"What thou, or such as thou, have done to harm me!" he continued with
+bitter spite. "I will tell thee, hag! I was once a young and happy boy.
+I was strong and well-favoured then. I had a father--a passionate but a
+kind man; and I had a mother, whom I loved beyond all created things.
+She was the joy of my soul--the pride of my boyish dreams. I was happy
+then, I tell thee. I called myself by another name. No matter what it
+was. Black Claus is the avenger's name, and he will cleave to it. One
+day there came an aged beggar-woman to our cottage, and begged. My
+mother heeded her not. I know not why; for she was ever kind. My father
+drove her from the door; and, as she turned away, she cursed us all. I
+never can forget that moment, nor the terror of my youthful mind, as I
+heard that curse. And the curse clave to us; for she--_was a witch_; and
+it came upon us soon and bitterly. My mother was in the pride of her
+beauty still, when a gay noble saw her in her loveliness, and paid her
+court. Then came a horrible night, when the witch's curse was fearfully
+fulfilled. My father was jealous. He attacked the young noble as he came
+by the darkness of night; and it was he--my father--who was killed. I
+saw him die, weltering in his blood. My poor mother, too, was spirited
+away; the fell powers of witchcraft dragged her from that bloody hearth.
+Yes; witchcraft it was--it must have been; for she was too pure and good
+to listen to the voice of the seducer--to follow her husband's murderer.
+She died, probably, of grief--my poor wretched mother; for I never saw
+her more. For days and nights I sought her, but in vain; suffering cold
+and hunger, and sleeping oft-times in the cold woods and dank morasses.
+Then fell the witches curse on _me_ also; and I began to suffer these
+pains, which thy foul tribe have never ceased to inflict upon me since.
+The tortures of the body were added to the tortures of the mind. My
+limbs grew distorted and withered. I became the outcast of humanity I
+now am; and then it was I vowed a vow to pursue, even unto death, all
+those hideous lemans of Satan, who, like her who cursed us, sell their
+wretched souls but to work evil, and destruction, and death to their
+fellow-creatures. And I have kept my vow!"
+
+In spite of herself, Magdalena had been obliged to listen to the
+witchfinder's tale, which, with his face pressed against the iron bars
+of the grating, he poured, with harsh voice, into her unwilling ear. As
+he proceeded, however, she appeared fascinated by the words he uttered,
+as the poor quivering bird is fascinated by the serpent's eye. Her
+eyeballs were distended--her arms still outstretched towards him, as she
+had first raised them to him in her cry of expostulation; but the hands
+were desperately clenched together--the arms stiffened with the extreme
+tension of the nerves.
+
+"Oh no!" she murmured to herself as he yet spoke; "that were too
+horrible!" and when he paused, it was with a smothered scream of agony,
+still mixed with doubt, that she cried "Karl!"
+
+"Karl!" repeated the witchfinder, clenching the bars with still firmer
+grasp, and raising himself with the effort to the full height of his
+stature, as though his limbs had on a sudden recovered all their
+strength--"Karl! Ay, that was my name! How dost thou know it, woman?"
+
+"O God!" exclaimed the wretched tenant of the cell, "was my cup of
+bitterness not yet full? Hast thou reserved me this?" She wrung her
+hands in agony, and then, looking again at the cripple, cried in a tone
+of concentrated misery, "Karl! they told me that thou wast dead--that
+thou, too, hadst died after that night of horrors!"
+
+"Who art thou, woman?" cried the cripple again, with an accent of
+horror, as if a frightful thought had for the first time forced itself
+upon his brain. "Who art thou, that thou speakest to me thus, and
+freezest the very marrow of my bones with fear? Who art thou that criest
+'Karl' with such a voice--a voice that now comes back upon my ear, as if
+it were a damning memory of times gone by? Who art thou woman?--speak!
+Let not this dreadful thought, that blasts me like lightning, strike me
+utterly to the earth."
+
+"Who I am?" sobbed the miserable woman. "Thy wretched and guilty mother,
+Karl!"
+
+"Guilty!" shouted the cripple. "Then thou art not she! My mother was not
+guilty--she was all innocence and truth!"
+
+"I am thy guilty mother, Karl," repeated the kneeling woman, "who has
+striven, by long years of penitence and prayer, to expiate the past.
+Alas, in vain! for Heaven refuses the expiation, since it has reserved
+the wretched penitent this last, most fearful blow of all!"
+
+"Thou!--oh no!--say it not! Thou my mother!" cried the witchfinder.
+
+"Thy mother--Margaret Weilheim!"
+
+"Horrible!--most horrible!" repeated the agonized son, letting go the
+bars, and clasping his bony hands over his face. "Thou, my once beloved
+mother, the wretched being of misery and sin--the accomplice of the
+spirits of darkness--and _I_ thy denouncer! O God! This is some fearful
+delusion!"
+
+"The delusion is in thy own heart, my poor, distracted, infatuated son,"
+pursued the miserable mother. "Happy and blessed were I, were no greater
+guilt upon my soul than that of the crime for which I am this day
+condemned to die. Bitter it is to die; but I had accepted all as the
+will of Him above, and he knows my innocence of all dealings with the
+powers of hell."
+
+"Innocent!" cried the witchfinder in frightful agitation. "Were it
+possible! And is it I, thy own child, who strikes the blow--I, who am
+thy murderer--I, who, to avenge the mother, have condemned the mother to
+the stake? Horrible! And yet those proofs--those fearful proofs!"
+
+"Hear me, for my time is short now in this world," said the poor woman,
+known by the name of Magdalena. "I will not tell thee how I listened to
+the voice of the serpent, and how I fell. My pride in my fatal beauty
+was my pitfall. All that the honied words of passion and persuasion
+could effect was used to lure me on to my destruction--and at last I
+fled with my seducer. I knew not then, I swear to thee, Karl--God knows
+how bitterly it costs the mother to reveal her shame to her own son; but
+bitter if it be, she accepts is as an expiation, and she will not
+deceive him--I swear to thee, I knew not then that thy father had fallen
+in that unhappy night, and had fallen by the hand of him whom I madly
+followed. It was long after that the news reached me, and had nearly
+driven me distracted. The same tale told me, but falsely, the death of
+my first-born--my Karl. Remorse had long since tortured my heart. I was
+not happy with the lover of my choice--I never had been happy with him;
+but now the stings of my conscience became too strong to bear. Tormented
+by my bitter self-reproaches, I decided upon quitting my seducer, who
+had long proved cold and heartless. But I had borne him a child--a
+daughter; and to quit my offspring, the only child left to me, was
+agony; to take it with me, to bear it away to partake a life of poverty
+and wretchedness, was still greater agony to the mother's mind. The
+great man who was its father--for he was of noble rank, and highly
+placed--when he found me determined to leave him and the world for
+ever--and he saw me part from him, the heartless one, without
+regret--offered to adopt my darling infant as his legitimate child; to
+bring it up to all the honours, wealth, and consideration of the world;
+to ensure it that earthly happiness the mother's heart yearned to give
+it. But, as I have told thee, he was cold and worldly-minded, and he
+exacted from me an oath--a cruel oath--that I never should own my child
+again--that I never should address it as my offspring--that I never
+should utter the word 'daughter,' never hear the cry of 'mother' from
+its lips. He would not that his daughter, the noble Fraulein, should be
+brought to shame, by being acknowledged as the offspring of a peasant
+wife. All I desired was the welfare--the happiness--of my child.
+
+"I stifled all the more selfish feelings of a mother's heart and I
+consented. I took that oath. I kissed my child for the last time, and
+tore myself away. I hoped to die; but God reserved me for a long and
+bitter expiation of my sin. I still found upon earth, however, one kind
+and pitying friend. He was the brother of my noble lover, and himself
+among the highest in the land. He was a priest; and, in his compassion,
+he found me refuge in a convent, where, though I deemed myself unworthy
+to receive the veil, I assumed the dress of the humblest penitent, and
+took the name of the repentant one--the name of Magdalen. I desired to
+cut myself off completely from the world; and I permitted the father of
+my child to believe a report that I was no more. In the humility of my
+bitter repentance, I vowed never to pass the gates of the holy house of
+God--never to put my foot upon the sacred ground--never to profane the
+sanctuary with my soul of sin--to worship only without, and at the
+threshold, until such time as it should seem to me that God had heard my
+repentance, and accepted my expiation. Now, thou knowest why I have
+never dared to enter the holy building."
+
+The witchfinder groaned bitterly, clenching, in agony, the folds of his
+garment, and tearing his breast.
+
+"My spiritual adviser was benevolent and kind; but he was also stern in
+his calling. He imposed upon me such penitence as, in his wisdom, he
+thought most fit to wash out my crime; and I obeyed with humble
+reverence. But there was one penance more cruel than the rest--the
+mortification of my only earthly affection--the driving out from my
+heart all thought of the child of my folly and sin--the vow never to
+seek, to look upon her more. But the love of the world was still too
+strong upon the wretched mother. At the risk of her soul's salvation,
+she fled the convent to see her child once again. It was in the frenzy
+of a fever-fit, when I thought to die. I forgot all--all but my oath--I
+never sought to speak to my darling child; but I followed her wherever I
+could--I watched for her as she passed--I gazed upon her with love--I
+prayed for blessings on her head."
+
+"Alas! I see it all now. It is, as it were, a bandage fallen from my
+eyes. Fool--infatuated fool!--monster that I was!" cried the
+witchfinder. "Bertha was your daughter--my sister; and I have smitten
+the mother for the love she bore her child. And he--her father--he was
+that villain! Curses on him!"
+
+"Peace! Peace! my son!" continued Magdalena, "and curse no more. Nor can
+I tell thee that it was so. I have sworn that oath never to divulge my
+daughter's birth; and cruel, heartless, as was the feeling that forced
+it on me, I must observe it ever. And thus I continued to live
+on--absorbed in the one thought of my child and her happiness--heedless
+of the present--forgetful of my duty; when suddenly, but two days ago,
+he who has been the kind guardian of my spiritual weal, appeared before
+me in the chamber where, alone and unobserved, I wept over the picture
+of my child. He came, I presume, by a passage seldom opened, from the
+monastery, whither his duties had called him. He chid me for my
+flight--recalled me to my task of expiation--and, bidding me return to
+the convent, left me, with an injunction not to say that I had seen him.
+Nor could I reveal the fact of my mysterious interview with him, or tell
+his name, without giving a clue to the truth of my own existence, and
+the discovery of all I had sworn so binding an oath ever to conceal.
+Thou sawest him also--but, alas! with other thoughts."
+
+"Madman that I have been!" exclaimed the witchfinder. "Or is it now that
+I am mad? Am I not raving? Is not all this insane delusion? No--thou are
+there before me--closed from my embraces by these cruel bars that I have
+placed between us. Thou! my mother--my long-lost--my beloved--most
+wretched mother, in that dreadful garb!--condemned to die by thy own
+infatuated son! Would that I _were_ mad, and that I could close my brain
+to so much horror! But thou shalt not die, my mother--thou shalt not
+die! Thou are innocent! I will proclaim thy innocence to all! They will
+believe my word--will they not? For it was I who testified against thee.
+I, the matricide! I will tell them that I lied. Thou shalt not die, my
+mother! Already! already!--horror!--the day is come!"
+
+The day _was_ come. The first faint doubtful streaks of early dawn had
+gradually spread, in a cold heavy grey light, over the sky. By degrees
+the darkness had fled, and the market-place, the surrounding gables of
+the houses, the black pile in the midst, had become clearer and clearer
+in harsh distinctness. The day _was_ come! Already a few narrow
+casements had been pushed back in their sliding grooves, and strange
+faces, with sleepy eyes, had peered out, in night attire, to forestall
+impatient curiosity. Already indistinct noises, a vague rumbling, an
+uncertain sound from here or there had broken up the utter silence of
+the night, and told that the drowsy town was waking from its sleep, and
+stirring with the faint movement of new life. The day _was_ come! The
+sentinels paced up and down more quickly, to dissipate that feeling of
+shivering cold which runs through the night-watcher during the first
+hour of the morn. During the colloquy between the cripple and the
+prisoner, they had been more than once disturbed by the loud tones of
+passionate exclamation that had burst from the former; but Hans had
+contrived to dispel his comrade's scruples as to what was going forward
+at the prison door, by making light of the matter.
+
+"Let them alone. They are only having a tuzzle together--the witchfinder
+and the witch! And if the man, as the weaker vessel in matters of
+witchcraft, do come off minus a nose or so, it will never spoil Black
+Claus's beauty, that's certain. Hark! hark! they are at it again! To it,
+devil! To it, devil-hunter! Let them fight it out between them, man. Let
+them fight it out. It's fine sport, and it will never spoil the show."
+And Hans stamped with his feet, and hooted at a distance, and hissed
+between his teeth, with all the zest of a modern cockfighter in the
+sport, rather to the scandal and shame of his more cautious and
+scrupulous companion. But when the cripple, in his despair, shook, in
+his nervous grasp, the bars of the grating in the door, as if he would
+wrench it from its staples, and flung himself in desperation against the
+strongly-ironed wooden mass, with a violence that threatened, in spite
+of its great strength, to burst it open, the matter seemed to become
+more serious in their eyes.
+
+"Hollo, man! witchfinder! Black Claus! What art thou doing?" cried the
+sentinels, hurrying to the spot. "Does the devil possess thee? Art thou
+bewitched? Wait! wait! they'll let her out quick enough to make her
+mount the pile. Have patience, man!"
+
+"She is innocent!" cried the cripple, still grappling with the bars in
+his despair. "She is innocent! Let her go free!"
+
+"He is bewitched," said the one soldier. "See what comes of letting them
+be together."
+
+"He has had the worst of it, sure enough," said Hans.
+
+"I am not bewitched, fools!" cried the frantic man. "There's no
+witchcraft here! She is innocent, I tell ye! O God! these bells! they
+announce their coming! Bid them cease! bid them cease! they drive me
+mad!"
+
+At that moment a merry chime from the church-bells burst out joyously
+upon the morning air, to announce that a fete was about to take place in
+the town; for such a gratifying show as the burning of a witch, was a
+fete for the inhabitants of Hammelburg.
+
+"These bells! these bells!" again cried Claus in agony, as their merry
+chime came in gusts along the rising wind, as if to mock his misery and
+despair. "How often, during this long night, I have longed to hear their
+joyous sound; and now they ring in my ears like the howlings of fiends!
+But she shall not die! I will yet save her," continued the distracted
+man; and he again shook the prison door with a force which his crippled
+limbs could scarcely have been supposed to possess.
+
+With difficulty could the now alarmed sentinels, who shouted for help,
+cause the cripple to release his hold. Fresh guards rushed to the spot,
+and assisted to seize the desperate man. But in vain he protested the
+innocence of the supposed sorceress--in vain he cried to them to release
+her. He was treated as bewitched; and it was only when at last, overcome
+by the violence of his struggles, he ceased to resist with so much
+energy, that they allowed him to remain unbound, and let fall the cords
+with which they had already commenced to tie his arms.
+
+"The Ober-Amtmann will come," he said at last, with a sort of sullen
+resignation. "He must--he shall hear me. He shall know all--he will
+believe her innocent."
+
+In the meanwhile, the market-place had already begin to fill with an
+anxious crowd. In a short time, the press of spectators come to witness
+the bloody spectacle, began to be great. The throng flowed on through
+street and lane. There were persons of all ages, all ranks, of both
+sexes--all hurrying, crowding, squeezing to the fete of horror and
+death. Manifold and various were the hundreds of faces congregated in a
+dense mass, as near as the guards would admit them round the pile--all
+moved by one feeling of hideous curiosity. Little by little, all the
+windows of the surrounding houses were jammed with faces--each window a
+strange picture in its quaintly-carved wooden frame. The crowd was
+there--the living crowd eager for death--palpitating with
+excitement--each heart beating with one pitiless feeling of greedy
+cruelty. And the bells still rang ceaselessly their merry, joyous,
+fete-like peal.
+
+And now with difficulty the soldiers forced a way through the throng for
+the approaching officer of justice; the great officiating dignitary of
+the town, who was to preside over the ceremony. He neared the town-hall,
+to order the unlocking of the prison-door, when the wretched witchfinder
+again sprang forward, crying, "Mercy! mercy! she is innocent. Hear me,
+noble Ober-Amtmann!" But he again started back with a cry of despair--it
+was not the Ober-Amtmann. He had been obliged, by indisposition, to give
+up the office of superintending the execution, and the chief _schreiber_
+had been deputed to take his place.
+
+"Where is the Ober-Amtmann?" cried Claus in agony. "I must see him--I
+must speak with him! She is innocent--I swear she is! He will save her,
+villain as he has been, when he hears all."
+
+The general cry that Black Claus had been bewitched by the sorceress,
+was a sufficient explanation to the chief _schreiber_ of his seemingly
+frantic words.
+
+"Poor man!" was his only reply. "She has worked her last spell upon him.
+Her death alone can save his reason."
+
+In spite of the struggles and cries of the infuriated cripple, the door
+was opened, and the unhappy Magdalena was forced to come forwards by the
+guards. She looked wretchedly haggard and careworn in her sackcloth
+robe, with her short-cut grey hairs left bare. A chain was already bound
+around her waist, and clanked as she advanced. As her eyes fell upon her
+miserable son she gave one convulsive shudder of despair; and then,
+clasping her hands towards him with a look of pity and forgiveness, she
+murmured with a tone of resignation--"It is too late. Farewell!
+farewell! until we meet again, where there shall be no sorrow, no care,
+no pain--only mercy and forgiveness!"
+
+"No, no--thou shalt not die!" screamed the cripple, whom several
+bystanders, as well as guards, now held back with force, in awe as well
+as pity at his distracted state.--"Thou shalt not die! She is my
+mother!" he cried like a maniac to the crowd around. "My mother--do ye
+hear? She is innocent. What I said yesterday was false--utterly false--a
+damning lie! She is not guilty--you would murder her! Fools! wretches,
+assassins! You believed me when I witnessed against her; why will ye not
+believe me now? She is innocent, I tell you. Ye shall not kill her!"
+
+"He is bewitched! he is bewitched! To the stake with the sorceress!--to
+the stake!" was the only reply returned to his cries by the crowd.
+
+In truth the miserable man bore all the outward signs of a person who,
+in those times, might be supposed to be smitten by the spells of
+witchcraft. His eyes rolled in his head. His every feature was distorted
+in the agony of his passion. His mouth foamed like that of a mad dog.
+His struggles became desperate convulsions.
+
+But he struggled in vain. The procession advanced towards the stake.
+Between two bodies of guards, the condemned woman dragged her suffering
+bare feet over the rough stones of the market-place. On one side of her
+walked the executioner of the town; on the other, his assistant, with a
+lighted torch of tow, besmeared with resin and pitch, shedding around in
+a small cloud, the lurid smoke that was soon about to arise in a heavy
+volume from the pile. The chief _schreiber_ had mounted, with his
+adjuncts, the terrace before the door of the town-hall, whence it was
+customary for the chief dignitary of the town to superintend such
+executions. The bells rang on their merry peal.
+
+And now the unhappy woman was forced on to the pile. The executioner
+followed. He bound her resistless to the stake, and then himself
+descended. At each of the four corners of the pile, a guard on horseback
+kept off the crowd. There was a pause. Then appeared, at one end of the
+mass of wood and fagots, a slight curling smoke--a faint light. The
+executioner had applied the torch. A few seconds--and a bright glaring
+flame licked upwards with a forked tongue, and a heavier gush of smoke
+burst upwards in the air. The miserable woman crossed her hands over her
+breast--raised her eyes for a moment to heaven, and then, closing them
+upon the scene around her, moved her lips in prayer--in the last prayer
+of the soul's agony. The crowd, which, during the time when the
+procession had advanced towards the pile, had howled with its usual
+pitiless howl, was now silent, breathless, motionless, in the extreme
+tension of its excitement. But still the merry peal of bells rang on.
+
+The smoke grew thicker and thicker. The flame already darted forward, as
+if to snatch at the miserable garment of its victim, and claim her as
+its own, when there was heard a struggle--a cry--a shout of frantic
+despair. The cripple, in that moment when all were occupied with the
+fearful sight, had broken on those who held him, and before another hand
+could seize him, had staggered through the crowd, and now swung himself
+with force upon the pile. A cry of horror burst from the mass of
+spectators. They thought him utterly deprived of reason, and determined,
+in his madness, to die with the sorceress. But in a moment his bony
+hands had torn the link that bound the chain--had unwound the chain
+itself--had snatched the woman from the stake. Before, in the surprise
+of the moment, a single person had stirred, his arm seized, with firm
+and heavy gripe, the collar of the nearest horseman, who found himself
+in his seat on horseback upon a level with the elevation of the pile. He
+knocked him with violence from the saddle. The guard reeled and fell;
+and in the next instant Claus had flung himself on to the horse, and in
+his arms he bore the form of the half-fainting Magdalena.
+
+With a cry--a yell--a wild scream--he shouted, "To the sanctuary! to the
+sanctuary! she shall not die--room! room!" Trampling right and left to
+the earth the dense crowd, who fled from his passage as from an
+infuriated tiger in its spring, he dashed upon the animal over the
+market-place, and darted in full gallop down the street leading to the
+Bridge-gate of the town.
+
+"After him!" cried a thousand voices. The three other horsemen had
+already sprung after the fugitive. The guards hastened in the same
+direction. Several of the crowd rushed down the narrow street. All was
+confusion. Part of those who passed on impeded the others. Groans arose
+from those who had been thrown down by the frantic passage of Claus, and
+who, lying on the stones, prevented the pushing forwards of the others.
+
+"Follow! After him! to the sanctuary!" still cried a thousand voices of
+the crowd.
+
+At the same moment a noise of horsemen was heard coming from the
+entrance of the town in the opposite direction to that leading to the
+bridge. Those who stood nearest turned their heads eagerly that way. The
+first person who issued on the street, at full gallop, was Gottlob,
+without a covering to his head--his fair hair streaming to the wind--his
+handsome face pale with fatigue and excitement.
+
+"Stop! stop!" he shouted as he advanced, and his eye fell upon the
+burning pile. "I bring the prince's pardon! Save her!"
+
+In a few moments, followed by a scanty train of attendants, appeared the
+Prince Bishop of Fulda himself, in the dress--half religious, half
+secular--that he wore in travelling. His mild benevolent face looked
+haggard and anxious, and he also was very pale; for he had evidently
+ridden hard through a part of the night; and the exertion was too much
+for his years and habits. As he advanced through the crowd, who drew
+back with respect from the passage of their sovereign, he eagerly
+demanded if the execution had taken place. The general rumour told him
+confusedly the tale of the events that had just occurred. Gottlob was
+soon again by his side, and related to him all that he had heard.
+
+"Where is my brother?" cried the bishop. "Is he not here?"
+
+A few words told him that he had not appeared on this occasion.
+
+"I will to the palace, then," he continued. "And the poor wretched
+woman, which way has that maniac conveyed her?"
+
+"To the sanctuary upon the mountain-side, in the path leading to your
+highness's castle of Saaleck, as he was heard to cry," was the answer.
+
+"But the torrents have come down from the hills," exclaimed others, "and
+the inundations sweep so heavily upon the bridge, that it is impossible
+to pass it without the utmost danger."
+
+"Save that unhappy woman!" exclaimed the bishop in agitation. "A reward
+for him who saves her!" and followed by his attendants, he took the
+direction of the street leading to the palace.
+
+It was true. The torrents had come down from the hills during the night,
+and the waters swept over the bridge with fury. The planked flooring of
+the bridge, raised in ordinary circumstances some feet above the stream,
+was now covered by the raging flood; and the side parapets, which
+consisted partly of solid enclosure, partly of railing, tottered,
+quivered, and bent beneath the rushing mass of dark, dun-coloured,
+whirling waters. The river itself, swelled far beyond the usual extent
+of the customary inundations, for the passage of which the extreme
+length of the bridge had been provided, hurried in wild eddies round the
+walls of the town, like an invading army seeking to tear them down. But
+the frantic Claus heeded not the violence of the waters, and dashed
+through the town-gate towards the bridge with desperation. The
+frightened horse shied at the foaming stream, struggled, snorted; but
+the cripple seemed to possess the resistless power of a demon--a power
+which gave him sway over the brute creation. He urged the unwilling
+animal, with almost superhuman force, on to the tottering bridge.
+
+The guards who had galloped after him, stopped suddenly as they saw the
+roaring torrent. None dared advance, none dared pursue. Others, on foot,
+clogged the gateway, and stood appalled at the sight of the rushing
+flood. The more eager of the crowd soon mounted on to those parts of the
+town-walls that flanked the gate, and watched, with excited gesture, and
+shouts of wonder or terror, the desperate course of the cripple.
+
+Pressing his mother in his arms, with his body stretched forward in wild
+impatience upon the struggling horse, Black Claus had urged his way into
+the middle of the stream. The bridge shook fearfully beneath the burden:
+he heeded it not. It cracked and groaned still louder than the roaring
+of the stream: he heard it not. He strove to dash on against the almost
+resistless force of the sweeping current. His eye was strained upon the
+first point of the dry path on the highway beyond. Before him lay, at a
+short distance, the road towards the castle of Saaleck, up the mountain
+side. Halfway up the height stood, embowered in trees, the chapel he
+sought to reach--the sanctuary of refuge for the condemned. That was his
+haven--there his wretched mother would be in safety. He pressed her more
+tightly to his breast, and shouted wildly. His shout was followed by a
+loud fearful crash, a roaring of waters, and a straining of breaking
+timbers. In another instant, the centre of the bridge was fiercely borne
+away by the torrent, and all was wild confusion around him.
+
+A general cry of horror burst from the crowd at the gate and on the
+walls. All was for a moment lost to sight in the whirl of waters. Then
+was first seen the snorting head of the poor horse rising from the
+stream. The animal was struggling in desperation to reach the land.
+Again were whirled upwards the forms of the cripple and the female,
+still tightly pressed within his arms; and then a rush of waters, more
+powerful than the son's frantic grasp, tore them asunder. Nothing now
+was visible but a floating body, which again disappeared in the eddying
+flood; and now again the form of the witchfinder rose above the mass of
+waters. His long arms were tossed aloft; his desperate cries were heard
+above the roaring of the torrent.
+
+"Mercy! mercy!" he screamed. "Save me from these flames! this stifling
+smoke. I burn, I burn!"
+
+As he shouted these last words of mad despair, the icy cold waters swept
+over him for ever.
+
+All had disappeared. Upon the boiling surface of the hurrying flood was
+now seen nothing more than spars and fragments of timber, remnants of
+the bridge, whirled up and down, and here and there, and dashing along
+the stream.
+
+Among the foremost of the crowd, who had pressed down the narrow lane
+leading to the water's edge, between the premises of the Benedictine
+monastery and the palace garden, eager to gain an unoccupied point
+whence they might watch the flight, stood "Gentle Gottlob."
+
+From under the small water-gate, the stone passage of which was
+partially flooded by the unusually rising waters, he had seen the
+frightful catastrophe which had accompanied the sweeping away of the
+bridge. He stood overwhelmed with grief at the fate of the poor woman,
+whom he had uselessly striven to save; his eye fixed upon the roaring
+waters, without seeing distinctly any thing but a sort of wild turmoil,
+which accorded well with his own troubled reflections; when a cry from
+the crowd, which still lingered on the spot, recalled him to himself.
+
+"Look, look!" cried several voices. "There it is again! It is a body!"
+
+On the dark surface of the waters, Gottlob saw a form whirled by the
+force of the current towards the water-gate.
+
+"It is the witch! it is the witch!" again cried the crowd, as the
+sackcloth garment of the unhappy Magdalena showed itself above the
+stream.
+
+In another moment Gottlob had rushed into the water, to seize the body
+as it was whirled past the water-gate, and was almost dashed against the
+stone-piles.
+
+"Touch her not!" screamed again the bystanders. "It is the witch! it is
+the witch!"
+
+But Gottlob heeded not the shouts of the crowd. Holding by one hand on
+the trunk of a tree overhanging the water, in order to bear up against
+the violence of the stream, he grasped with the other the dress of the
+floating female before it again sank beneath the whirling eddy. He
+pulled it towards him with force; and, after with difficulty struggling
+against the force of the current, at length succeeded in bearing the
+lifeless form of Magdalena under the gateway.
+
+Streaming himself with water, he laid the cold wet body down upon the
+stones, and bent over it, to see whether life had fled from it for ever.
+The crown drew back with horror, uttering cries of vain expostulation.
+
+"Thank Heaven! she still breathes," said Gottlob at last, as, after some
+moments, a slight convulsive movement passed over the frame of the poor
+woman. "Aid me, my friends. She still lives. Help me to transport her to
+some house." But the crowd drew back in horror. "I will convey her to my
+own chamber close by. Send for a leech! Are ye without pity?" he
+continued, as, instead of assisting him, the crowd held back, and
+answered his entreaties only with exclamations of disgust and scorn.
+"Are ye Christian men, that ye would see the poor woman die before your
+eyes for want of aid? She is no witch. Good God! will no one show a
+heart of bare humanity?" But the crowd still held back; and if they did
+not still scoff at him, were silent.
+
+The kind youth, finding all hope of assistance vain, from the miserable
+prejudices of the people, had at last contrived to raise the still
+senseless Magdalena in his arms, with the intention of conveying her
+into his own dwelling; and already murmurs began to arise among the
+crowd, as if they intended to oppose his purpose; when a door,
+communicating from the palace-gardens with the narrow lane, opened, and
+the stately form of an aged man, of benevolent aspect, stood between
+Gottlob, who remained alone under the water-gate with the lifeless form
+of Magdalena on his arm, and the murmuring crowd which had drawn back
+into the lane. He stood like a guardian spirit between the fair youth
+and the senseless mass of angry men. All snatched off their furred hats,
+and bowed their bodies with respect. It was their sovereign, the Prince
+Bishop of Fulda. His attendants followed him to the threshold of the
+garden gate.
+
+"Thank God!" was his first simple exclamation at the sight of Magdalena
+in Gottlob's arms. "You have contrived to save her, have you? I was
+myself hurrying hither to see what could be done. Does she still live?"
+
+Upon an affirmative exclamation from Gottlob, he raised his eyes to
+heaven with a short thanksgiving; and then, turning to the crowd with a
+stern air, he asked--
+
+"What were these cries and murmurs that I heard? Why were those
+threatening looks I saw? Would ye oppose a Christian act of charity due
+to that unhappy woman, even were she the miserable criminal she is not?
+Have ye yet to be taught your Christian duties in this land? God forgive
+me; for then _I_ have much to answer for!"
+
+After this meek self-rebuke, he again looked seriously upon the
+bystanders, and waved his hand to disperse the crowd, who slunk away
+before him; then, hastily giving orders that Magdalena should be
+conveyed into the palace, he himself stopped to see her borne into the
+garden, and followed anxiously.
+
+Every means with which the leech-craft of the times was acquainted for
+the recovery of the apparently drowned, was applied in the case of
+Magdalena, and with some success; for, after a time, breath and warmth
+were restored--her eyes opened. But the respiration was hurried and
+impeded--the eyes glazed and dim--the sense of what was passing around
+her, confused and troubled. A nervous tremour ran through her whole
+frame. She lay upon a mattrass, propped up with a pile of cushions, in
+a lower apartment of the palace. By her side knelt the kind Bishop of
+Fulda, watching with evident solicitude the variation of the symptoms in
+the unfortunate woman's frame. Behind her stood the stately form of the
+Ober-Amtmann--every muscle of his usually stern face now struggling with
+emotion--his hands clenched together--his head bowed down; for he had
+learned from his brother the Prince, that the female lying before
+him--the woman whom he had himself condemned to the stake, was really
+the mistress of his younger years--the seduced wife of the man whom he
+had killed--his victim, Margaret Weilheim. On the other side of the
+prostrate form of Magdalena bent a grave personage in dark attire, who
+held her wrist, and counted the beating of her pulse with an air of
+serious attention. In answer to an enquiring look from the Prince
+Bishop, the physician shook his head.
+
+"There is life, it is true," he said; "but it is ebbing fast. The
+fatigue and emotions of the past day were in themselves too much for a
+frame already shattered by macerations, and privations, and grief; this
+catastrophe has exhausted her last force of vitality. She cannot live
+long."
+
+The Ober-Amtmann wrung his hands with a still firmer gripe. The tears
+trembled upon the good old bishop's eyelids.
+
+"See!" said the leech; "she again opens her eyes. There is more sense in
+them now."
+
+The dying Magdalena in truth looked around her, as if she at length
+became conscious of the objects on which her vision fell. She seemed to
+comprehend with difficulty where she was, and how she had come into the
+position in which she lay. Feebly and with exertion she raised her
+emaciated arm, and passed her skinny hand over her brow and eyes. But at
+length her gaze rested upon the mild face of the benevolent bishop, and
+a faint smile passed over her sunken features.
+
+"Where am I?" she murmured lowly. "Am I in paradise?--and you, reverend
+father, are also with me?"
+
+In a few kind words, the bishop strove to recall her wandering senses,
+and explain to her what had happened. At last a consciousness of the
+past seemed to come over her; and she shuddered in every limb at the
+fearful recollection.
+
+"And he! where is he?" she asked with an imploring look. "He! Karl!"
+
+The old man looked at her with surprise, as though he thought her senses
+were still wavering.
+
+"He carried me off, did he not?" she continued feebly; "or was it a
+dream? Was it only a strange dream? No, no! I remember all--how we flew
+through the air; and then the rushing waters. Oh! tell me; where is he?"
+
+The bishop now comprehended that she spoke of the witchfinder; and said,
+"He is gone for ever, to his last great account."
+
+Magdalena groaned bitterly, and again closed her eyes. But it was
+evident that she still retained her consciousness; for her lips were
+moving faintly, as if in prayer.
+
+"Is there no hope?" enquired the bishop in a whisper of the physician.
+"Nothing can be done?"
+
+"No hope!" replied the leech. "I have done all that medical skill can
+do; _I_ can do no more, your highness."
+
+At a sign from the bishop, the physician withdrew.
+
+Shortly after, the dying woman again unclosed her eyes, and looked
+around her at the strange room in which she lay. A recollection of the
+past seemed to come across her, slowly and painfully; and she again
+pressed her feeble hand to her brow.
+
+"Why am I here?" she murmured. "Why do I again see this scene of folly
+and sin? O Lord! why bring before my thus, in this last hour, the living
+memory of my past transgressions?"
+
+As if to complete the painful illusion of the past, a voice now murmured
+"Margaret" in her ear. The poor woman started, turned her head with
+difficulty, and saw, kneeling by her side, the heartless lover of her
+youth. She gave him one look of fear and shame, and then turning again
+her eyes to the bishop's face, exclaimed, "May God forgive me!--Pray for
+me, my father!"
+
+"It is I who seek for mercy, Margaret!" cried the Ober-Amtmann. "I who
+need thy forgiveness for all the wrong I have done thee!"
+
+"Mercy and forgiveness are with God," said the dying woman solemnly.
+"All the wrong thou hast done me I have long since forgiven, as far as
+such a sinner as myself can forgive. My time is short; my breath is fast
+leaving me. I feel that I am dying," she added after a pause. "Father, I
+would make my shrift; and, if God and your reverence permit one earthly
+thought to mingle with my last hopes of salvation, I would confide to
+you a secret on which depends the happiness of her I love, and you
+perhaps might secure her peace of mind. Alas, I cannot speak! O God!
+give me still breath."
+
+These words were uttered in a low and feeble tone. With a hasty gesture
+the bishop signed to his brother to retire, and bent his ear over the
+mouth of the gasping woman.
+
+After some time he rose, and first reassuring the dying mother that all
+he could do for her child's welfare should be done, pronounced the
+sublime words of the church that give the promise of forgiveness and
+salvation to the truly penitent sinner.
+
+"Oh, might I look upon her once more!" sobbed Magdalena with convulsive
+effort. "One last look! not a word shall tell her--it is--her unhappy
+mother--who gives her--a last blessing!"
+
+The Ober-Amtmann left the room. In a few minutes he returned, leading
+Bertha by the hand. But Magdalena was already speechless. The fair girl
+knelt by the side of the mattrass, sobbing bitterly--she herself
+scarcely knew why. Was it only the sight of death, of the last parting
+of the soul, that thus affected her? Was it affliction that her own
+error should have contributed to hasten that unhappy woman's end? Or was
+not there rather a powerful instinct within her, that, in that awful
+moment, bound her by a sympathetic tie to her unknown mother, and
+conveyed a portion of that last agony of the departing woman to her own
+heart?
+
+Magdalena, although she could not speak, was evidently aware of the
+presence of the gentle girl. She still moved her lips, as if begging a
+blessing on her head, and fixed upon that mild face, now bathed in
+tears, the last look of her fading eyes. And now the eyes grew dim and
+senseless, although the spirit seemed still to struggle within for
+sight; now they closed--the whole frame of the prostrate woman
+shuddered, and Margaret Weilheim--the repentant Magdalena--was a corpse.
+
+Some time after these events, the Ober-Amtmann retired from his high
+office, and after a seclusion of some duration with his brother, at
+Fulda, finally betook himself to a monastery, where he remained until
+his death.
+
+Before his retirement from the world, however, he had consented, not
+without some difficulty, to the union of Bertha and Gottlob. The Prince
+Bishop, unforgetful of the claims of the unfortunate Magdalena, had
+urged upon his brother the duty of making this concession to the dying
+wishes of the wronged mother, as well as to the evident affection of
+Bertha for the young artist, which, although unknown even to herself,
+was no less powerful. As Gottlob, although of a ruined and impoverished
+family, was not otherwise than of noble birth, the greatest difficulty
+of these times was surmounted; and the Prince Bishop, by bestowing upon
+the young man a post of honour and rank about his person, in which the
+gentle youth could still continue the pursuit of his glorious art, and
+march on unhindered in his progress to that eminence which he finally
+attained, smoothed the road to the Ober-Amtmann's consent.
+
+On the day of Bertha's marriage, the good Prince Bishop promulgated an
+edict, that for the future no one should suffer the punishment of death
+for the crime of witchcraft in his dominions. But, after his decease,
+the edict again fell into disuse; and the town of Hammelburg, as if the
+spirit of Black Claus, the witchfinder, still hovered about its walls,
+again commenced to assert its odious reputation, and maintain its
+hideous boast, of having burned more witches than any other town in
+Germany.
+
+
+
+
+MY LAST COURTSHIP; OR, LIFE IN LOUISIANA.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE FIRST.
+
+A VOYAGE ON THE RED RIVER.
+
+It was on a sultry sunny June morning that I stepped on board the Red
+River steamboat. The sun was blazing with unusual power out of its
+setting of deep-blue enamel; no wind stirred, only the huge mass of
+water in the Mississippi seemed to exhale an agreeable freshness. I gave
+a last nod to Richards and his wife who had accompanied me to the shore,
+and then went down into the cabin.
+
+I was by no means in the most amiable of humours. Although I had pretty
+well forgotten my New York disappointment, two months' contemplation of
+the happiness enjoyed by Richards in the society of his young and
+charming wife, had done little towards reconciling me to my
+bachelorship; and it was with small pleasure that I looked forward to a
+return to my solitary plantation, where I could reckon on no better
+welcome than the cold, and perhaps scowling, glance of slaves and
+hirelings. In no very pleasant mood I walked across the cabin, without
+even looking at the persons assembled there, and leaned out of the open
+window. I had been some three or four minutes in this position, chewing
+the cud of unpleasant reflections, when a friendly voice spoke close to
+my ear--
+
+"_Qu'est ce qu'il y a donc, Monsieur Howard? Etes-vous indispose? Allons
+voir du monde._"
+
+I turned round. The speaker was a respectable-looking elderly man; but
+his features were entirely unknown to me, and I stared at him, a little
+astonished at the familiar tone of his address, and at his knowledge of
+my name. I was at that moment not at all disposed to make new
+acquaintances; and, after a slight bow, I was about to turn my back upon
+the old gentleman, when he took my hand, and drew me gently towards the
+ladies' cabin.
+
+"_Allons voir, Monsieur Howard._"
+
+"_Mais que voulez-vous donc?_ What do you want with me?" said I somewhat
+peevishly to the importunate stranger.
+
+"_Faire votre connaissance_," he replied with a benign smile, at the
+same time opening the door of the ladies' saloon. "Monsieur Howard,"
+said he to two young girls who were occupied in tying up a bundle of
+pine-apples and bananas to one of the cabin pillars, just as in the
+northern States, or in England, people hang up strings of onions, "_Mes
+filles, voici notre voisin, Monsieur Howard._"
+
+The damsels tripped lightly towards me, welcoming me as cordially as if
+I had been an old acquaintance, and hastened to offer me some of their
+fragrant and delicious fruit. Their greeting and manners were really
+highly agreeable. Had they been two of my own dear countrywomen, I might
+have lived ten years with them without being so well and frankly
+received, or invited to spoil my dinner in so agreeable a manner, as by
+these fair Pomonas. I could not refuse an invitation so cordially given.
+I sat down, and, notwithstanding my dull and fretful humour, soon found
+myself amused in my own despite by the lively chatter of the Creoles. An
+hour passed rapidly in this manner, and a second and third might
+possibly have been wiled away as agreeably, had not my stiff Virginian
+feeling of etiquette made me apprehensive that a longer stay might be
+deemed intrusive.
+
+"You will come back and take tea with us?" said the young ladies as I
+left the cabin.
+
+I bowed a willing assent; and truly, on reaching the deck, I found
+reason to congratulate myself on having done so. The company there
+assembled was any thing but the best. A strange set of fellows! I could
+almost have fancied myself in old Kentuck. Drovers and cattle-dealers
+from New Orleans proceeding to the north-western countries; half-wild
+hunters and trappers, on their way to the country beyond Nacogdoches,
+with the laudable intention of civilizing, or, in other words, of
+cheating the Indians; traders and storekeepers from Alexandria and its
+neighbourhood; such was the respectable composition of the society on
+board the steamer. A rough lot they were, thick-booted, hoarse-voiced,
+hard-fisted fellows, who walked up and down, chewing and smoking, and
+spitting with as much exactness of aim as if their throats had been
+rifle-barrels.
+
+We were just coming in sight of a large clump of foliage. It was the
+mouth of the Red River, which is half overarched by the huge trees that
+incline forward over its waters from either bank. What a contrast to the
+Mississippi, which flows along, broad, powerful, and majestic, like some
+barbarian conqueror bursting forth at the head of his stinking hordes to
+overrun half a world! The Red River on the other hand, which we are
+accustomed to call the Nile of Louisiana--with about as much right and
+propriety as the Massachusetts cobbler who christened his son Alexander
+Caesar Napoleon--sneaks stealthily along through forest and plain, like
+some lurking and venomous copper-snake. Cocytus would be a far better
+name for it. Here we are at the entrance of the first swamp, out of
+which the infernal scarlet ditch flows. It is any thing but a pleasant
+sight, that swamp, which is formed by the junction of the Tensaw, the
+White and Red Rivers, and at the first glance appears like a huge mirror
+of vivid green, apparently affording solid footing, and scattered over
+with trees, from which rank creepers and a greasy slime hang in long
+festoons. One would swear it was a huge meadow, until, on looking rather
+longer, one sees the dark-green swamp lilies gently moving, while from
+amongst them are protruded numerous snouts or jaws, of a sickly
+greyish-brown, discoursing music which is any thing but sweet to a
+stranger's ears. These are thousands of alligators, darting out from
+amongst the rank luxuriance of their marshy abode. It is their breeding
+time, and the horrible bellowing they make is really hideous to listen
+to. One might fancy this swamp the headquarters of death, whence he
+shoots forth his envenomed darts in the thousand varied forms of fever
+and pestilence.
+
+We had proceeded some distance up the Red River, when the friendly old
+Creole came to summon me to the tea-table. We found one of his daughters
+reading Bernardin de St Pierre's novel, a favourite study with Creole
+ladies; while the other was chatting with her black-skinned,
+ivory-toothed waiting-maid, with a degree of familiarity that would have
+thrown a New York _elegante_ into a swoon. They were on their way home,
+their father told me, from the Ursuline Convent at New Orleans, where
+they had been educated. It can hardly have been from the holy sisters,
+one would think, that they acquired the self-possessed and scrutinizing,
+although not immodest gaze, with which I at times observed them to be
+examining me. The eldest is apparently about nineteen years of age,
+slightly inclined to _embonpoint_. It was really amusing to observe the
+cool, comfortable manner, in which she inspected me in a large mirror
+that hangs opposite to us, as if she had been desirous of seeing how
+long I could stand my ground and keep my countenance.
+
+It would fill a book to enumerate all the items of baggage and effects
+which my new friends the Creoles had crowded into the state-cabin.
+Luckily, they were the only inmates of the latter, and had,
+consequently, full power in their temporary dominions. Had there been
+co-occupants, a civil war must have been the inevitable result. The
+ladies had a whole boat-load of citrons, oranges, bananas, and
+pine-apples; and their father had at least three dozen cases of
+Chambertin, Laffitte, and Medoc. I at first thought he must be a
+wine-merchant. At any rate he showed his good taste in stocking himself
+with such elegant and salutary drinkables, instead of the gin, and
+whisky, and Hollands to which many of my countrymen would have given the
+preference--those green and brown compounds, elixirs of sin and disease,
+concocted by rascally distillers for the corruption and ruin of Brother
+Jonathan.
+
+The tea was now ready. Monsieur Menou (that was the name of my new
+friend) seemed inclined to reject the sober beverage, and stick to his
+Chambertin. I was disposed to try both. The young ladies were all that
+was gay and agreeable. They were really charming girls, merry and
+lively, full of ready wit, and with bright eyes and pleasant voices,
+that might have cheered the heart of the veriest misanthrope. But there
+are moments in one's life when the mind and spirits seem oppressed by a
+sort of dead dull calm, as enervating and disheartening as that which
+succeeds a West Indian hurricane in the month of August. At those times
+every thing loses its interest, and one appears to become as helpless as
+the ship that lies becalmed and motionless on the glassy surface of a
+tropical sea. I was just in one of those moments. I had consulted any
+thing but my own inclination in leaving the hospitable roof and pleasant
+companionship of my friend Richards, to return to my own neglected and
+long-unvisited plantation, where I should find no society, and should be
+compelled to occupy myself with matters that for me had little or no
+interest. Had I, as I hoped to do when in New York, taken back a partner
+of my joys and sorrows, some gentle creature who would have cheered my
+solitude and sympathized with all my feelings, I should have experienced
+far less repugnance or difficulty in returning to my home in the
+wilderness; but as it was, I felt oppressed by a sense of loneliness
+that seemed to paralyse my energies, and that certainly rendered me any
+thing but fit society for the lively, talkative party of which I now
+found myself a member. I strove to shake off the feeling, but in vain;
+and at last, abandoning the attempt, I left the cabin and went on deck.
+
+The night was bright and starlight; the atmosphere perfectly clear, with
+the exception of a slight white mist that hung over the river. The
+hollow blows of the steam-engine seemed to be echoed in the far distance
+by the bellowing of the alligators; while the plaintive tones of the
+whip-poor-will were heard at intervals in the forest through which we
+were passing. There was no sign of life on the banks of the river; it
+was a desert; not a light to be seen, save that of millions of
+fireflies, which threw a magical kind of _chiaroscuro_ over the trees
+and bushes. At times we passed so near the shore that the branches
+rattled and snapped against the side of the boat. Our motion was rapid.
+Twelve hours more, and I should be in my Tusculum. Just then the captain
+came up to me to say, that if I were disposed to retire to rest, the
+noisy smokers and drinkers had discontinued their revels, and I might
+now have some chance of sleeping. I had nothing better to do, so
+descended the stairs and installed myself in my berth.
+
+When I rose the next morning, a breeze had sprung up, and we were
+proceeding merrily along under sail as well as steam. The first person I
+met was Monsieur Menou, who wished me a _bon-jour_ in, as I thought, a
+somewhat colder tone than he had hitherto used towards me, and looked me
+at the same time enquiringly in the face. It seemed as if he wished to
+read there whether his courtesy and kindness were likely to be requited
+by the same ungracious stiffness that I had shown him on the preceding
+day. Well, I will do my best to obliterate the bad impression I have
+apparently made. They are good people, these Creoles--not particularly
+bashful or discreet; but yet I like their forwardness and volatility
+better than the sly smartness of the Yankees, in spite of their
+ridiculous love of dancing, which even the first emigrants could not lay
+aside, amidst all the difficulties of their settlement in America. It
+must have been absurd enough to see them capering about, and dancing
+minuets and gavottes in blanket coats and moccasins.
+
+Whilst I was talking to the Menous, and doing my best to be amiable, the
+bell rang, the steam was let off, and we stopped to take in firing.
+
+"_Monsieur, voila votre terre!_" said the father pointing to the shore,
+upon which a large quantity of wood was stacked. I looked through the
+cabin window; the Creole was right. I had been chatting so diligently
+with the young ladies that the hours had flown like minutes, and it was
+already noon. During my absence, my overseer had established a depot of
+wood for the steamboats. So far so good. And yonder is the worthy Mr
+Bleaks himself. The Creole seems inclined to accompany me to my house.
+I cannot hinder him certainly, but I sincerely hope he will not carry
+his politeness quite so far. Nothing I dread more than such a visit,
+when I have been for years away from house and home. A bachelor's Lares
+and Penates are the most careless of all gods.
+
+"Mr Bleaks," said I, stepping up to the overseer, who, in his Guernsey
+shirt, calico inexpressibles, and straw hat, his hands in his pockets
+and a cigar in his mouth, was lounging about, and apparently troubling
+himself very little about his employer. "Mr Bleaks, will you be so good
+as to have the gig and my luggage brought on shore?"
+
+"Ha! Mr Howard!" said the man, "is it you? Didn't expect ye so soon."
+
+"I hope that, if unexpected, I am not unwelcome," replied I, a little
+vexed at this specimen of genuine Pennsylvanian dryness.
+
+"You ain't come alone, are you?" continued Bleaks, examining me at the
+same time out of the corners of his eyes. "Thought you'd have brought us
+a dozen blackies. We want 'em bad enough."
+
+"_Est-il permis, Monsieur?_" now interposed the Creole, taking my hand,
+and pointing towards the house.
+
+"And the steamer?" said I, in a tone as drawling as I could make it, and
+without moving a pace in the direction indicated.
+
+"Oh! that will wait," replied Menou, smiling.
+
+What could I do with such a persevering fellow? There was nothing for it
+but to walk up with him to the house, however unpleasant I found it so
+to do. And unpleasant to me it certainly was, in the then state of my
+habitation and domain. It was a melancholy sight--a perfect abomination
+of desolation. Every thing looked so ruined, decayed, and rotten, that I
+felt sick and disgusted at the prospect before me. I had not expected to
+find matters half so bad. Of the hedge round the garden only a few
+sticks were here and there standing; in the garden itself some
+unwholesome-looking pigs were rooting and grubbing. As to the house!
+Merciful heavens! Not a whole pane in the windows! all the frames
+stopped and crammed with old rags and bunches of Indian corn leaves! I
+could not expect groves of orange and citron trees--I had planted none;
+but this! no, it was really too bad. Every picture must have its shady
+side, but here there was no bright one; all was darkness and gloom. We
+did not meet a living creature as we walked up from the shore, winding
+our way amongst the prostrate and decaying tree-trunks that encumbered
+the ground. At last, near the house, we stumbled upon a trio of black
+little monsters, that were rolling in the mud with the dogs, half a
+shirt upon their bodies, and dirty as only the children of men possibly
+can be. The quadrupeds, for such they looked, jumped up on our approach,
+stared at us with their rolling eyes, and then scuttled away to hide
+themselves behind the house. Ha! Old Sybille! Is it you? She was
+standing before a caldron, suspended, gipsy-fashion, from a triangle of
+sticks--looking, for all the world, like a dingy parody of one of
+Macbeth's witches. She, too, stared at us, but without moving. I must
+introduce myself, I suppose. Now she has recognised me, and comes
+towards us with her enormous spoon in her hand. I wonder that her
+shriveled old turkey's neck--which cost me seventy-five dollars, by the
+by--has not got twisted before now. She runs up to me, screaming and
+crying for joy. There _is_ one creature, then, glad to see me. It is
+amusing to observe the anxiety with which she looks at the caldron, and
+at three pans in which ham and dried buffalo are stewing and grizzling;
+she is evidently quite unable to decide whether she shall abandon me to
+my fate, or the fleshpots to theirs. She sets up her pipe and makes a
+most awful outcry, but nobody answers the call. "_Et les chambres_,"
+howls she, "_et la maison, et tout, tout!_" I could not make out what
+the deuce she would be at. She looked at my companion, evidently much
+embarrassed.
+
+"_Mais, mon Dieu!_" croaked she, "_pourrai-je seulement un moment? Tenez
+la_, Massa!" she continued in an imploring tone, holding out the spoon
+to me, and making a movement as if she were stirring something, and
+then again pointing to the house.
+
+"_Que diable as tu?_" cried I, out of all patience at this
+unintelligible pantomime.
+
+The rooms wanted airing and sweeping, she said; they were not fit to
+receive a stranger in. She only required a quarter of an hour to put
+every thing to rights; and mean time, if I would be so good, for the
+sake of the honour of the house, just to stir the soup, and keep an eye
+upon the ham and buffalo flesh.
+
+Mentally consigning the old Guinea-fowl to the keeping of the infernal
+deities, I walked towards the house. My only consolation was, that
+probably my companion's residence was not in a much better state than
+mine, if in so good a one; those Creoles above Alexandria still live
+half like Redskins. Monsieur Menou did not appear at all astonished at
+my slovenly housekeeping. When we entered the parlour, we found, instead
+of sofas and chairs, a quantity of Mexican cotton-seed in heaps upon the
+floor; in one corner was a dirty tattered blanket, in another a
+washing-tub. The other rooms were in a still worse state: one of the
+negroes had taken up his quarters in my bed-chamber, from which the
+musquitto curtains had disappeared, having passed, probably, into the
+possession of the amiable Mrs Bleaks. I hastened to leave this scene of
+disorder, and walked out into the court, my indignation and disgust
+raised to the highest pitch.
+
+"_Mais tout cela est bien charmant!_" exclaimed the Creole.
+
+I looked at the man; he appeared in sober earnest, but I could not
+believe that he was so; and I shook my head, for I was in no jesting
+humour. The wearisome fellow again took my arm, and led me towards the
+huts of my negroes and the cotton-fields. The soil of the latter was of
+the richest and best description, and in spite of negligent cultivation,
+its natural fertility and fatness had caused the plants to spring up
+already nearly to the height of a man, though we were only in the month
+of June. The Creole looked around him with the air of a connoisseur, and
+in his turn shook his head. Just then, the bell on board the steamer
+rang out the signal for departure.
+
+"Thank Heaven!" thought I.
+
+"_Monsieur_," said Menou, "the plantation is _tres charmante, mais ce_
+Mistere Bleak is nothing worth, and you--you are _trop gentilhomme_."
+
+I swallowed this equivocal compliment, nearly choking as I did so.
+
+"_Ecoutez_," continued my companion; "you shall go with me."
+
+"Go with you!" I repeated, in unbounded astonishment. "Is the man mad,"
+I thought, "to make me such a proposition within ten minutes after my
+return home?"
+
+"_Oui, oui, Monsieur_, you shall go with me. I have some very important
+things to communicate to you."
+
+"_Mais, Monsieur_," replied I, pretty stiffly, "I do not know what you
+can have to communicate to me. I am a good deal surprised at so strange
+a proposition"----
+
+"From a stranger," interrupted the Creole, smiling. "But I am serious,
+Mr Howard; you have come here without taking the necessary precautions.
+Your house is scarcely ready for your reception--the fever very
+dangerous--in short, you had better come with me."
+
+I looked at the man, astonished at his perseverance.
+
+"Well," said he, "yes or no?"
+
+I stood hesitating and embarrassed.
+
+"I accept your offer," I exclaimed at last, scarcely knowing what I
+said, and starting off at a brisk pace in the direction of the steamer.
+Mr Bleaks looked on in astonishment. I bid him pay more attention to the
+plantation, and with that brief injunction was about to step on board,
+when my five-and-twenty negroes came howling from behind the house.
+
+"Massa, Gor-a-mighty! Massa, Massa, stop with us!" cried the men.
+
+"Massa, dear good Massa! Not go!--Mr Bleaks!" yelled the women.
+
+I made sign to the captain to wait a moment.
+
+"What do you want?" said I, a little moved.
+
+One of the slaves stepped forward and bared his shoulders. Two others
+followed his example. They were hideously scarred and seamed by the
+whip.
+
+I cast stern glance at Bleaks, who grinned a cruel smile. It was a
+right fortunate thing for my honour and conscience that my poor negroes
+had thus appealed to me. In the thoughtlessness of my nature, I should
+have followed the Creole, without troubling myself in the least about
+the condition or treatment of the five-and-twenty human beings whom I
+had left in such evil hands. I excused myself hastily to Monsieur Menou,
+promised an early visit, to hear whatever he might have to say to me,
+and bade him farewell. Without making me any answer, he hurried on
+board, whispered something to the captain, and disappeared down the
+cabin-stairs. I thought no more about him, and was walking towards the
+house, surrounded by my blacks, when I heard the splashing of the
+paddles, and the steamer resumed its voyage. At the same instant,
+somebody laid hold of my arm. I looked round--it was the Creole.
+
+"This is insupportable!" thought I. "I wonder he did not bring his two
+daughters with him. That would have completed my annoyance."
+
+"You will want my assistance with that _coquin_," said Menou, quietly.
+"We will arrange every thing to-day; to-morrow my son will be here; and
+the day after you will go home with me."
+
+I said nothing. What would have been the use if I had? I was no longer
+my own master. This unaccountable Creole had evidently taken the
+direction of my affairs entirely into his own hands.
+
+My poor negroes and negresses were crying and laughing for joy, and
+gazing at me with expectant looks. I bid then go to their huts; that I
+would have them called when I wanted them.
+
+"D--n those blackies!" said Mr Bleaks as they walked away: "they want
+the whip; it's too long since they've had it."
+
+Without replying to his remark, I told old Sybille to fetch Beppo and
+Mirza, and signed to the overseer to leave me. He showed no disposition
+to obey.
+
+"This looks like an examination," said he sneeringly, "and I shall take
+leave to be present at it."
+
+"None of your insolence, Mr Bleaks," said I; "be so good as to take
+yourself off and wait my orders."
+
+"And none of your fine airs," replied the Mister. "We're in a free
+country, and you ain't got a nigger afore ye."
+
+This was rather more than I could stomach.
+
+"Mr Bleaks," said I, "from this hour you are no longer in my employment.
+Your engagement is out on the 1st of July; you shall be paid up to that
+date."
+
+"I don't set a foot over the threshold till I have received the amount
+of my salary and advances," replied the man dryly.
+
+"Bring me your account," said I. My blood was beginning to boil at the
+fellow's cool impudence.
+
+Bleaks called to his wife, who presently came to the room door. They
+exchanged a few words, and she went away again. Meanwhile I opened my
+portmanteau, and ran my eye over some accounts, letters, and receipts.
+Before I had finished, Mrs Bleaks reappeared with the account-books,
+which she laid upon the table, and planting herself, with arms akimbo,
+in the middle of the room, seemed prepared to witness whatever passed.
+Her husband lounged into the next apartment and brought a couple of
+chairs, upon which he and his better half seated themselves. Truly,
+thought I, our much-cherished liberty and equality have sometimes their
+inconveniences and disagreeables.
+
+"The 20th December, twenty-five bales cotton, four hogsheads tobacco in
+leaf, delivered to Mr Merton," began the overseer; "the 24th January,
+twenty-five bales cotton and one hogshead tobacco-leaves."
+
+"Right," said I.
+
+"That was our whole crop," said the man.
+
+"A tolerable falling off from the former year," I observed. "There were
+ninety-five bales and fifty hogsheads."
+
+"If it doesn't please the gentleman, he ought to have stopped at home,
+and not gone wandering over half the world instead of minding his
+affairs," retorted Mr Bleaks.
+
+"And leaving us to rot in this fever hole, without money or any thing
+else," added his moiety.
+
+"And further?" said I to the man.
+
+"That's all. I've received from Mr Merton 600 dollars: 300 more are
+still comin' to me."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"And moreover," continued Bleaks, "for Indian corn, meal, and hams, and
+salt pork, and blankets, and cotton stuffs, I have laid out 400 dollars,
+making 700, and 4000 hedge-stakes for mending fences, makes a total of
+740 dollars."
+
+I ran into the next room, found a pen and ink upon my dilapidated
+writing-table, wrote an order on my banker, and came back again. At any
+price I was resolved to get rid of this man.
+
+"Allow me," said the Creole, who had been a silent witness of all that
+had passed, but who now attempted to take the paper from my hand.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," said I, vexed at the man's meddling; "on this occasion
+I wish to be my own counsellor and master."
+
+"Wait but one moment, and allow me to ask a few questions of your
+overseer," continued the Creole, no way repulsed by my words or manner.
+"Will Mr Bleaks be so good as to read over his account once more?"
+
+"Don't know why I should. Mind your own business," was the churlish
+answer.
+
+"Then I will do it for you," said Menou. "The 20th December, twenty-five
+bales cotton, and four hogsheads tobacco-leaves, delivered to Mr Merton.
+Is it not so?"
+
+Mr Bleaks made no answer.
+
+"The 23d December, twenty bales cotton, and one hogshead tobacco, to
+Messrs Goring. Is it not so?"
+
+The overseer cast a fierce but embarrassed look at the Creole. His wife
+changed colour.
+
+"The 24th January, twenty-five bales and one hogshead to Mr Groves, and
+again, on the 10th February, twenty-two bales and seven hogsheads to
+Messrs Goring. Is not that the correct account?"
+
+"D----d lies!" stammered the overseer.
+
+"Which I shall soon prove to be truth," said the other. "Mr Howard, you
+have a claim on this man for upwards of 2000 dollars, of which he has
+shamefully cheated you. I shall also be able to point out another fraud
+to the extent of 500 dollars."
+
+My faithless servants were pale with rage and confusion; I was struck
+dumb with surprise at this unexpected discovery, and at the way in which
+it was made.
+
+"We must lose no time with these people," whispered the Creole to me,
+"or they will be off before you can look round you. Send immediately to
+Justice T---- for a warrant, and give the sheriff and constables a hint
+to be on the look-out. He cannot well escape if he goes down stream, but
+he will no doubt try to go up."
+
+I immediately took the needful measures, and sent off Bangor, one of my
+smartest negroes, to the justice of peace. "We must write immediately to
+Goring's house," said the Creole.
+
+In an hour all was ready. At the end of that time the Montezuma steamer
+came smoking down the river. We got the captain to come on shore, told
+him briefly what had happened, gave him our letters, and were just
+accompanying him back to his vessel, when we saw a figure creep
+stealthily along behind the hedge and wood-stack, and go on board the
+steamer. It was Mr Bleaks, who had imagined that, under existing
+circumstances, a trip to New Orleans might be of service to his health.
+We found the worthy gentleman concealed amongst the crew, busily
+converting himself into a negro by the assistance of a handful of soot.
+His intended excursion was, of course, put an end to, and he was
+conveyed back to his dwelling. We took precautions against a second
+attempt at flight; and the following morning he was placed in safe
+custody of the authorities.
+
+"But, my dear Monsieur Menou," said I to the Creole, as we sat after
+dinner discussing the second bottle of his Chambertin, of which the
+excellent man had not forgotten to bring a provision on shore with
+him--"whence comes it that you have shown me so much, and such
+undeserved sympathy and interest?"
+
+"Ha, ha! You citizen aristocrats cannot understand that a man should
+take an interest in any one, or any thing, but himself," replied Menou,
+half laughing, half in earnest. "It is incomprehensible to your stiff,
+proud, republican egotism, which makes you look down upon us Creoles,
+and upon all the rest of the world, as beings of an inferior order. We,
+on the other hand, take care of ourselves, but we also occasionally
+think of our neighbours. Your affairs are perfectly well known to me,
+and I hope you do not think I have made a bad use of my knowledge of
+them."
+
+I shook the worthy man heartily by the hand.
+
+"We are not, in general, particularly fond of you northern gentlemen,"
+continued he; "but you form an exception. You have a good deal of our
+French _etourderie_ in your blood, and a good deal also of our
+generosity."
+
+I could not help smiling at the _naive_ frankness with which this sketch
+of my character was placed before me.
+
+"You have stopped too long away from your own house, and from people who
+would willingly be your friends; and if all that is said be true, you
+have no particular reason to congratulate yourself upon the result of
+your wanderings."
+
+I bit my lips. The allusion was pretty plainly to my misfortune at New
+York.
+
+"Better as it is," resumed the Creole, with a very slight and
+good-humoured smile. "A New York fine lady would be strangely out of her
+element on a Red River plantation. But to talk of something else. My son
+will be here to-morrow; your estate only wants attention, and a small
+capital of seven or eight thousand dollars, to become in a year or two
+as thriving a one as any in Louisiana. My son will put it all in order
+for you; and, meanwhile, you must come and stop a few months with me."
+
+"But, Monsieur Menou"----
+
+"No _buts_, Monsieur Howard! You have got the money, you must buy a
+score more negroes; we will pick out some good ones for you. To-morrow
+every thing shall be arranged."
+
+On the morrow came young Menou, an active intelligent youth of twenty.
+The day was passed in visiting the plantation, and in a very few hours
+the young man had gained my full confidence. I recommended my interests
+and the negroes to his care; and the same evening his father and myself
+went on board the Ploughboy steamer, which was to convey us to the
+residence of the Menous.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE SECOND.
+
+CREOLE LIFE.
+
+The good Creole had certainly behaved to me in a more Christian-like
+manner than most of my own countrymen would have done; and of this I had
+before long abundant proof. A little after nightfall, the steamboat
+paused opposite the house of the justice of peace; and I went on shore
+to communicate with him concerning my faithless steward. Although so
+early, the functionary was already going to bed, and came out to me in
+his nightshirt.
+
+"Knew it all, dear Mr Howard," said he with the utmost _naivete_; "saw
+every bale that they stole from you, or tried to steal from you."
+
+"And for Heaven's sake, man!" I exclaimed, "why did you not put a stop
+to it?"
+
+"It was nothing to me," was the dry answer.
+
+"If you had only given information to my attorney!"
+
+"No business of mine," returned the man. Then fixing his eyes hard upon
+me, he commenced a sort of lecture, for which I was by no means
+prepared.
+
+"Ah!" said he, pushing his nightcap a little over his left ear, "you
+young gentlemen come out of the north with your dozen blackies or so,
+lay out some two or three thousand dollars in house and land, and then
+think you can play the absentee as much as you like, and that you do us
+a deal of honour when you allow us to collect and remit your income, for
+you to spend out of the country. I'm almost sorry, Mr Howard, that you
+didn't come six months later."
+
+"In order to leave the scoundrel time to secure his booty, eh?"
+
+"At any rate, he has worked, and has wife and child, and has been
+useful to the land and country."
+
+"The devil!" I exclaimed, mighty indignant. "Well--for a judge, you have
+a singular idea of law!"
+
+"It mayn't be Bony's code, nor yet Livingston's, but I reckon it's
+justice," replied the man earnestly, tapping his forehead with his
+forefinger.
+
+I stared at him, but he returned my gaze with interest. There was a deal
+of backwoods justice in his rough reasoning, although its morality was
+indefensible. It was the law of property expounded _a la_ Lynch. What is
+very certain is, that in a new country especially, absenteeism ought to
+be scouted as a crime against the community. In my case my ramblings had
+been very near costing me three thousand hard dollars. As it was,
+however, they were saved--thanks to Menou--and the money still in the
+hands of Messrs Goring, whose standard of morality on such subjects was
+probably not much more rigid than that of the worthy Squire Turnips, and
+who would, I doubt not, have bought my cotton of the Evil One himself,
+if they could have got it half-a-cent a pound cheaper by so doing. I
+gave the squire the necessary papers and powers for the adjustment of my
+affairs with Bleaks; we shook hands, and I returned on board.
+
+In the grey of the morning the steamboat stopped again. I accompanied
+Menou on shore, and we found a carriage waiting, which, in spite of its
+singularly antique construction, set off with us at a brisk pace. I had
+just fallen asleep in my corner, when I was awakened by a musical voice
+not ten paces off, exclaiming, "_Les voila!_" I looked up, rubbed my
+eyes--it was Louise, the Creole's youngest daughter, who had come out
+under the verandah to welcome us. Where should we find one of our
+northern beauties who would turn out of her warm bed at six in the
+morning, to welcome her papa and a stranger guest, and to keep hot
+coffee ready for them, to counteract the bad effects of the morning air
+on the river? Monsieur Menou, however, did not seem to find any thing
+extraordinary in his daughter's early rising, but began enquiring if the
+people had had their breakfasts, and were at work. On this and various
+other subjects, Louise was able to give him all the information he
+desired. She must have made astonishingly good use of the twenty-four
+hours that had elapsed since her return home, to be versed in all
+particulars concerning her sable liege subjects, and to be able to
+relate so fluently how Cato had run a splinter into his foot, Pompey had
+a touch of fever, and fifty other details, which, although doubtless
+very interesting to Menou, made me gape a little. I amused myself by
+looking round the dining-room, in which we then were, the furniture and
+appearance of which rather improved my opinion of Creole civilization
+and comfort. The matting that covered the floor was new and of an
+elegant design--the sideboard solid and handsome, although prodigiously
+old-fashioned--tables, chairs, and sofas were of French manufacture. On
+the walls were suspended two or three engravings; not the fight at New
+Orleans, or Perry and Bainbridge's victories over the British on
+Champlain and Erie, but curiosities dating from the reigns of Louis the
+Fifteenth and Sixteenth. There was a Frenchified air about the whole
+room, nothing of the republic, the empire, or the restoration, but a
+sort of odour of the genuine old royalist days.
+
+By the time I had completed my inspection, Louise had answered all her
+father's enquiries; and we went out to take a look at the exterior of
+the house. It was snugly situated at the foot of a conical hillock, the
+only elevation of any kind to be found for miles around. South, east,
+and west, it was enclosed in a broad frame of acacia and cotton trees;
+but to the north it lay open, the breath of Boreas being especially
+acceptable in our climate. A rivulet, very bright and clear, at least
+for Louisiana, poured its waters from the elevation before mentioned,
+and supplied a tannery, which doubtless contributed much to the
+healthiness of the neighbourhood. The house consisted of three parts,
+built at different times by grandfather, father, and son, and now united
+into one. The last and largest portion had been built by the present
+proprietor; and it would have been as easy, it struck me, to have
+pulled down the earlier erections and have built one compact house. The
+reason the Creole gave for not having done so, did honour, I thought, to
+his heart. "I wish my children constantly to remember," said he, "how
+hard their ancestors toiled, and how poorly they lived, in order to
+ensure better days to those who should come after them."
+
+"And they will remember it," said a voice close behind us. I turned
+round.
+
+"_Madame Menou, j'ai l'honneur de vous presenter notre voisin, Monsieur
+Howard._"
+
+"_Qui restera longtems chez nous_," cried the two girls, skipping
+forward, and before I had time to make my bow to the lady, taking me by
+both hands and dragging me into the house, and through half a dozen
+zigzag passages and corridors, to show me my room. This was a sexagonal
+apartment, situated immediately over a small artificial lake, through
+which flowed the rivulet before mentioned. It was the coolest and most
+agreeable chamber in the house, on which account it had been allotted to
+me. After I had declared my unqualified approval of it, my fair
+conductresses took me down stairs again to papa and mamma, the latter of
+whom I found to be a ladylike woman, with a countenance expressive of
+good nature, and manners that at once made one feel quite at home. She
+received me as if she had known me for years, without compliments or
+ceremonious speeches, and without even troubling herself to screw her
+features into the sort of holiday expression which many persons think it
+necessary to assume on first acquaintance. I was soon engaged in a
+conversation with her, in the middle of which a lady and two gentlemen
+came out under the verandah and joined us. Their olive complexions and
+foreign appearance at once attracted my attention, and I set them down
+as Spaniards or of Spanish extraction. In this I was not mistaken. The
+men were introduced to me as Senor Silveira and Don Pablo. The lady, who
+was the wife of the former, was a remarkably lovely creature, tall and
+elegant in person, with dark eyes, an aquiline and delicately-formed
+nose, a beautiful mouth, enclosing pearl-like teeth. Hitherto I had held
+our American fair ones to be the prettiest women in the world; but I now
+almost felt inclined to alter my opinion. I was so struck by the fair
+stranger's appearance that I could not take my eyes off her for some
+moments; until a sharp glance from her husband, and (as I fancied) the
+somewhat uneasy looks of the other ladies, made me aware that my gaze
+might be deemed somewhat too free and republican in its duration. I
+transferred my attention, therefore, to the breakfast, which, to my no
+small satisfaction, was now smoking on the table, and to which we at
+once sat down. The strangers appeared grave and thoughtful, and ate
+little, although the steaks were delicious, the young quails
+incomparable, and the Chambertin worthy of an imperial table.
+
+"Who are those foreigners?" said I to Menou, when the meal was over, and
+we were leaving the room.
+
+"Mexicans," was the reply; "but who they are I cannot tell you."
+
+"What! do you not know them?"
+
+"I know them perfectly well," he answered, "or they would not be in my
+house. But even my family," whispered he, "does not know them."
+
+Poor wretches! thought I, some more sacrifices on freedom's altar;
+driven from house and home by the internal commotions of their country.
+Things were going on badly enough in Mexico just then. On the one hand,
+Guerrero, Bustamente, Santa Anna; on the other, a race of men to whom,
+if one wished them their deserts, one could desire nothing better than
+an Austrian schlague or a Russian knout, to make them sensible of the
+value of that liberty which they do not know how to appreciate.
+
+Meanwhile Julie and Louise were busy, in the next room, passing in
+review, for the third or fourth time at least, the thousand-and-one
+purchases they had made at New Orleans. It was a perfect picture of
+Creole comfort to see the mamma presiding at this examination of the
+laces, gros de Naples, Indiennes, gauze, and other fripperies, which
+were passed rapidly through the slender fingers of her daughters, and
+handed to her for approval. She found every thing charming; every
+thing, too, had its destination; and my only wonder was, how it would be
+possible for those ladies to use the hundreds of ells of stuffs that
+were soon spread out over chairs, tables, and sofas, and that, as it
+appeared to me, would have been sufficient to supply half the women of
+Louisiana with finery for the next five years. This Creole family was
+really a model of a joyous innocent existence; nothing constrained or
+artificial; but a light and cheerful tone of conversation, which,
+however, never degenerated into license, or threatened to overstep the
+limits of the strictest propriety. Each person fulfilled his or her
+allotted task thoroughly well, and without appearing to find it an
+exertion. The housekeeping was admirable; to that point the excellence
+of the breakfast had borne witness. I recollect once falling violently
+in love with a Massachusetts beauty, possessed of a charming face, a
+sylph-like figure, and as much sentimentality as would have stocked half
+a dozen flaxen-haired Germans. It was my ninth serious attachment if I
+remember rightly, and desperately smitten I was and remained, until one
+unlucky day when the mamma of my _adorata_ invited me to a dinner _en
+famille_. The toughness of the mutton-chops took the edge off my teeth
+for forty-eight hours, and off my love for ever. As regards the Menous,
+however, I have hardly known them long enough to form a very decided
+opinion concerning them. In a few days I shall be able to judge better.
+Meanwhile we will leave the ladies, and accompany Monsieur Menou over
+his plantation. It is in excellent order, admirably situated, and
+capitally irrigated by trenches cut through the cotton and maize fields.
+There are above three hundred acres in cultivation--the yearly crop two
+hundred and fifty bales: a very pretty income. Only three children, and
+the plantation comprising nearly four thousand acres. Not so bad--might
+be worth thinking of. But what would the world say to it? The
+aristocratic Howard to marry a Creole, with, perhaps, a dash of Indian
+blood in her veins! Yet Menou has threescore negroes and negresses,
+besides a whole colony of ebony children, and the two girls are not so
+ill to look at. Roses and lilies--especially Louise. Well, we will think
+about it.
+
+"Apropos!" said the Creole, as we were walking along a field path. "You
+have three thousand dollars with Gorings?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"And eight thousand with Mr Richards?"
+
+"How do you know that, my dear M. Menou?"
+
+I must observe, by way of parenthesis, that I had lent these eight
+thousand dollars to Richards some five years previously; and although,
+on more than one occasion during that time, the money would have been of
+considerable use to me, I had been restrained from asking it back by my
+natural indolence and laziness of character, added to the nonsensical
+notion of generosity and devotion in friendship that I had picked out of
+waggon-loads of novels. Richards, I must observe, had never hinted at
+returning the money. I now felt rather vexed, I cannot exactly say why,
+at Menou's being acquainted with the fact of this debt, which I had
+fancied a secret between Richards and myself.
+
+"And how do you know that, my dear M. Menou?"
+
+Menou smiled at my question. "You forget," said he, "that I am only just
+returned from New Orleans. One hears and learns many things when one
+opens one's ears to the gossip of the _haut-ton_ of the capital."
+
+"Ha, ha!" said I, a little sarcastically, and glancing at the man's
+straw hat, and unbleached trousers and jacket; "Monsieur Menou--the
+plain and unsophisticated Monsieur Menou, also a _haut-ton_ man?"
+
+"My wife was a M----y; my grandfather was president of the Toulouse
+parliament," replied the Creole quietly, to my somewhat impertinent
+remark.
+
+I bowed. My suspicions concerning Indian blood were unfounded then.
+
+"And have my proceedings and follies really served as tea-table talk to
+the New Orleans' gossips?" said I.
+
+"Don't let that annoy you," replied Menou. "Let the world talk; and you,
+on your part, prove to it that you are a more sensible man than it
+takes you for. Will you put yourself for a while entirely under my
+guidance?"
+
+"Very willingly," said I.
+
+"And promise to abide by my advice."
+
+"I promise to do so."
+
+"Then," continued Menou, "you must let me have, to use as I think
+proper, eight out of the eleven thousand dollars which you have lying
+idle."
+
+"And Richards?" said I.
+
+"Can do without them better than you can. It is very well to be
+generous, but not to the extent of injuring yourself. Here is a receipt
+for the sum in question. I will account to you for its expenditure."
+
+And with these words he handed me the receipt. He had evidently laid a
+little plot to force me to my own good. It went decidedly against the
+grain with me to requite Richards' hospitality and friendship by
+claiming back the money I had lent him, and for which he no doubt had
+good use. At the same time, it would have been rather Quixotic to let my
+own plantation go to rack and ruin for want of the funds by which he was
+profiting; and moreover, I had given Menou my word to be guided by him;
+so I put the receipt and my romantics in my pocket, and returned to the
+house to give my adviser an order for the money.
+
+Julie and Louise scarcely seemed to observe our entrance. Both had their
+hands full--the one with cookery and domestic matters, the other with
+the ginghams and muslins, which she was rending and tearing with a
+vigour that caused the noise to be heard fifty yards off. At supper,
+however, they were as merry as ever, and there was no end to their mirth
+and liveliness. It seemed as if they had thrown off the burden of the
+day's toils, and awakened to a new and more joyous existence. The three
+Mexicans, with their gravity and grandeur, did not seem to be the least
+restraint upon the girls, who at last, however, towards eight o'clock,
+appeared to grow impatient at sitting so long still. They exchanged a
+whisper, and then, rising from table, tripped into a adjoining room.
+Presently the harmonious tones of a pianoforte were audible.
+
+"We must not linger here," said the Creole. "_Les dames nous en
+voudraient._"
+
+And we all repaired to the drawing-room, an elegant apartment, where the
+Mexican lady was already seated at the piano, while the two girls were
+only waiting partners to begin the dance. Julie took possession of her
+father, Silveira stood up with Madame Menou, Louise fell to my share;
+and a cotillon was danced with as much glee and spirit as if both
+dancers and lookers-on had been more numerous. Between dancing, music,
+and lively conversation, eleven o'clock came before we were aware of it.
+
+"_Voici notre maniere Creole_," said Menou, as he left me at my bed-room
+door. "With us every thing has its time; laughing, talking, working,
+praying, and dancing: each its appointed season. We endeavour so to
+arrange our lives that no one occupation or amusement should interfere
+with another. It is only by that means that our secluded domestic
+existence can be rendered agreeable and happy. As it is, _nous ne nous
+ennuyons jamais_. Good-night."
+
+
+CHAPTER THE THIRD.
+
+QUITE UNEXPECTED.
+
+Eight weeks had flown by like so many hours. I had become domesticated
+in the family circle of the Menous, and was getting so frugal and
+economical, that I scarcely knew what a dollar or a bank-note looked
+like. Time passed so lightly and pleasantly, and there was something so
+patriarchal and delightful in this mode of life, that it was no
+difficult matter to forget the world, with its excitements, its
+pleasures, and its cares. I, at least, rarely bestowed a thought upon
+any thing but what was passing immediately around me; whole piles of
+newspapers lay unread upon my table, and I became every day more and
+more of a backwoodsman. I rose early, slipped into my linen jacket and
+trousers, and accompanied M. Menou about his fields and cotton presses.
+The afternoon passed in looking over accounts, or in reading and
+laughing at the discussions and opinions of Colonel Stone and Major
+Noah, as set forth in the well-known papers, the _Morning Courier_ and
+_Commercial Gazette_, while the evening of each day was filled up by an
+_impromptu_ of some kind, a dance, or a merry chat.
+
+We were sitting one night at supper, when M. Menou proposed a stag-hunt
+by torchlight. I caught eagerly at the idea, and he at once gave orders
+to make the needful preparations. The two Mexicans begged to be allowed
+to accompany us; but almost before they had proffered the request, the
+lady interfered to oppose it.
+
+"Don Lop----!" she exclaimed, and then checked herself in the middle of
+the word she was about to utter. "_Te suplico_," she continued in
+Spanish, after a momentary pause, "I implore you not to go to-night."
+
+There was something inexpressibly anxious and affectionate in her manner
+and tone. Her husband begged her not to make herself uneasy, and
+promised he would not go; at the same time, it was evident that he was
+vexed not to accompany us. I assured the lady there was no danger.
+
+"No danger!" repeated she, in her sonorous Castilian. "No danger! Is
+nobody aware of the intended hunt?" said she to Menou.
+
+"Nobody," was the reply.
+
+It just then occurred to me, that during the whole period of my
+residence with the Menous, neither the Mexican nor his wife had ever
+gone out of the house and garden. This circumstance, in combination with
+the anxiety now shown by the lady, struck me forcibly, and I gazed at
+Silveira, while I vainly endeavoured to conjecture whence arose the
+mystery that evidently environed him. He was a man of about thirty years
+of age, with handsome features, a high forehead, and a pale, but not
+unhealthy complexion. The expression of his eyes particularly struck me;
+at times there flashed from them a fire, indicative of high purposes and
+strong resolution. There was a military and commanding air about him,
+which was very apparent, though he evidently did his utmost to conceal
+it; and it was this same manner which had hitherto caused me to treat
+him rather coolly, and rendered me little disposed to cultivate his
+intimacy. His companion, Don Pablo, was a tolerably insignificant
+person, who seemed to look up to Silveira and his wife with a respect
+and reverence almost amounting to idolatry. Beside him, their suite was
+composed of four attendants.
+
+"And is there really no danger?" said the Senora to Menou. The Creole
+assured her there was none. She whispered a few words to her husband,
+who kissed her hand, and repeated his request to be of our party--this
+time without any opposition on his wife's part.
+
+Supper over, we put on our shooting coats, took our guns, and mounted
+the horses that had been prepared for us. Six negroes with pitch-pans,
+and a couple of dogs, had gone on before. The clock struck ten as we set
+out. It was a dark sultry night; towards the south distant thunder was
+heard, betokening the approach of one of those storms that occur almost
+daily at that season and in that country. During the first twenty
+minutes of our ride, the atmosphere became stiflingly oppressive; then
+suddenly a strong wind rushed amongst the trees and bushes, the thunder
+drew nearer, and from time to time a flash of forked lightning
+momentarily illumined the forest. Again a flash, more vivid than the
+preceding ones, and a clap, compared to which our northern thunder would
+sound like the mere roll of a drum; the dogs began to whine, and kept as
+near to the horses as they could. We pushed onward, and were close to a
+laurel thicket, when the leading hound suddenly came to a stand, and
+pricked up his ears. We dismounted, and walked forward--the negroes
+preceding us with the pitch-pans. Some twenty pace before us we
+perceived four small stars, that glittered like diminutive
+fire-balls--they were the eyes of two stags that awaited our approach,
+in astonishment at the unusual spectacle offered to them. We took
+aim--the Creole and myself at one, two Mexicans at the other. "_Feu!_"
+cried Menou. There was the crack of the four rifles, then a crashing
+noise amongst the branches, and the clatter of hoofs, succeeded by cries
+of _Sacre!_ and Damn ye! and _Diabolo!_ and _San Jago!_ The six
+pitch-pans lay smoking and flaring on the ground; the Creole and I had
+sprung on one side, the negroes had thrown themselves on their faces in
+great terror, and the two Dons lay beside them, overthrown by the rush
+of one of the stags.
+
+"_Santa Virgen!_" shouted Don Pablo, mightily alarmed and angry;
+"_Maldito bobo, Senor don Manuel!_"
+
+And scrambling to his feet, he proceeded in desperate haste to raise his
+companion from the ground, on which he lay motionless, and apparently
+much hurt.
+
+"_Maldito sea el dia! Nuestro Libertador! Santa Anna! Ay de mi!_"
+
+"_Calla te_--hold your tongue!" said Silveira to his alarmed adherent.
+
+On the first appearance of danger, M. Menou had jumped behind a tree,
+which had afforded a sufficient shelter against the mad rush of the
+terrified stag; but his cry of warning had come too late for the young
+Mexican, who had less experience in this kind of chase, and who,
+standing full in the path of the furious beast, was knocked down, and
+run over. I pushed Pablo, who was howling and wringing his hands, on one
+side, and with Menou, proceeded to investigate the hurts which the other
+Mexican had received. His coat was torn, and both legs were bleeding,
+having been rent by the deer's antlers. Fortunately the wounds were not
+deep, or he might have had serious reason to regret the bad aim he had
+taken. We placed him on his horse, and turned towards home.
+
+It was midnight when we reached the house with the wounded man, and the
+carcass of the deer that Menou and I had shot. The sight of a white
+figure at the window of the apartment occupied by the Mexican, warned us
+that his wife was watching for his arrival. At the sound of our horses'
+feet, she came hurrying down stairs, and out of the house to meet us;
+and upon beholding her husband, pale, exhausted, and supported on his
+horse by couple of negroes, she uttered a shrill cry, and with the word
+"_Perdido!_" sank, almost fainting, on the door steps.
+
+"Gracious God!" cried a second female voice at that moment. "A
+misfortune! Is it Howard?"
+
+It was Louise, who at that moment made her appearance in her nightdress,
+breathless with terror.
+
+"_Mon Dieu_, it is only the Mexican! Thank God!" lisped she, in an
+accent of infinite joy and relief.
+
+"Thanks, dearest Louise! for those words," said I; "they make me very
+happy."
+
+I caught her in my arms, and pressed a kiss upon her lips. She struggled
+from my embrace, and, blushing deeply, hurried back into her chamber.
+
+I now followed Menou into the apartment of the Mexican, whose wife was
+hanging over him, speechless with grief and anxiety. Menou had much
+trouble to get her away from him, in order that he might examine and
+dress his hurts. I do not know where the worthy Creole had learned his
+surgery, but he was evidently no tyro in the healing art; and he cut out
+the flesh injured by the antler, washed and bandaged the wounds, with a
+dexterity that really inspired me with confidence in him. The wounds
+were not dangerous, but might easily have become so, taking into
+consideration the heat of the weather, (the thermometer stood at
+eighty-six,) and the circumstance of their having been inflicted by a
+stag's horn. In a short half hour the patient was comfortably put to
+bed, and the afflicted Donna Isabella consoled by Menou's positive
+assurance, that in a very few days her husband would be well again. She
+received this piece of comfort with such a thoroughly Roman Catholic
+uplifting of her magnificent eyes, that I could scarcely help envying
+the saints for whom that look was intended.
+
+I had held the candle for Menou during the operation; and as I put it
+down upon the table, my eyes fell upon a beautifully executed miniature
+of the Mexican set in brilliants. Beside it were lying letters addressed
+to Don Lopez di Santa Anna, Marischal de Campo; one or two had the
+superscription, Lieutenant-general. It was no other than the celebrated
+Mexican leader, the second in rank in the would-be republic, who had
+been sojourning in Monsieur Menou's house under the assumed name of
+Silveira. This discovery afforded me matter for reflection as I repaired
+to my bed-chamber; reflections, however, which were soon forced to make
+way for other thoughts of a more personally interesting nature. It was
+the graceful form of Louise that now glided forward out of the
+background of my imagination. She had watched, then, anxiously for our
+return; and the first rumour of a mishap had drawn from her lips the
+name of him for whom her heart felt most interested. During the whole
+time of my residence with the Menous, I had never once dreamed of
+falling in love with either of the sisters. There was so much activity
+and occupation in and out of the house, that I seemed to have had no
+time to indulge in sentimental reveries. Now, however, they came
+crowding upon me. It was so consolatory to an unlucky bachelor, only
+just recovering from a recent disappointment, to find himself an object
+of tender interest a lovely and innocent girl of seventeen.
+
+At breakfast, the next morning, Louise did not dare to look me in the
+face. Without distressing her, however, I managed to look at her more
+than I had ever before done; and I really wondered what I had been
+thinking about, during the preceding two months, not to have sooner
+found out her manifold charms and perfections. Her elder sister was too
+stout for my taste, altogether on too large a scale, and with too little
+of the intellectual in the expression of her features; but Louise is
+unquestionably a charming creature, slender and graceful, with a sweet
+archness in her countenance, and hands and feet that might serve for
+models. In short, I began to think seriously that all past
+disappointments would be more than compensated by the affection of such
+a woman. I must see first about setting my house in order, thought I.
+
+"Will you be so kind as to lend me your carriage to go as far as the
+river?" said I to the Creole.
+
+"With much pleasure. A mere ride, I suppose?"
+
+"No; a little more. I wish to see how things are getting on at my
+plantation."
+
+"You are going away?" exclaimed Madame Menou and Julie. Louise said
+nothing, but she raised her eyes to mine for the first time that
+morning.
+
+"It is necessary that I should do so; but, if you will allow me, I will
+pay you another visit before very long."
+
+The roses had left the cheeks of poor Louise, and I fancied I saw a tear
+glittering in her eyes. Several minutes elapsed without any body's
+speaking. At last the silence was broken by the Creole.
+
+"You seemed very happy here, I thought," said he. "Has any thing
+happened?"
+
+"Yes; something of great importance to me. I must really leave you
+immediately," was my answer.
+
+Mean time, Louise had left the room. I hurried after her, and overtook
+her before she reached her chamber.
+
+"Louise!" said I. She was weeping. "I leave you to-day."
+
+"So I heard."
+
+"In order to arrange my house."
+
+"My brother is doing that already," said she. "Why leave us?"
+
+"Because I would fain see with my own eyes if all is ready and fitting
+for the reception of my Louise. When I have done so, will you follow me
+home as my beloved wife?"
+
+For one second she looked in my face, her features lighted up with a
+beam of confiding joy, and then her gaze fell in timid confusion on the
+ground.
+
+"Take her, dear Howard!" said her father, who had followed us
+unperceived. "She is the best of daughters, and will make as good a
+wife."
+
+Louise sank into my arms. An hour later I was on my way homewards.
+
+At last, then, I was irrevocably pledged, and my bachelorship drew near
+its close. I felt that I had made a judicious choice. Louise was an
+excellent girl, sensible, prudent, active, and cheerful--uniting, in
+short, all the qualities desirable in a backwoodsman's wife. It was
+strange enough that all this should only have occurred to me within a
+few hours. I had been living two months under the same roof with her,
+and yet the idea of her becoming my wife had never entered my head till
+the preceding night.
+
+It was four in the afternoon when I reached my plantation, which I was
+very near passing without recognising it, so great was the change that
+had taken place since my last visit. The rubbish and tree-trunks that
+had then encumbered the vicinity of the house had disappeared--the
+garden had been increased in size, and surrounded by a new and elegant
+fence--a verandah, under which two negro carpenters were at work, ran
+along the front and sides of the house. As I walked up from the boat,
+young Menou came to meet me. I shook him heartily by the hand, and
+expressed my gratitude for the trouble he had taken, and my wonder at
+the astonishing progress the improvements of all kinds had made.
+
+"How have you possibly managed to effect all these miracles?" said I.
+
+"Very easily," replied Menou. "You sent us fifteen negroes; my father
+lent me ten of his. With these, and the twenty-five you had before, we
+were able to make progress. We are now putting the finishing-stroke to
+your cotton press, which was fearfully out of order."
+
+I walked with a thankful heart through the garden, and stepped into the
+verandah. The rooms that looked out upon it were all fitted up in the
+most comfortable manner. In the principal bedroom, a negro girl was
+working at the elegant musquitto curtains. Old Sybille, in a calico gown
+of the most glaring colours, her face shining with contentment, was
+brushing away some invisible dust from the furniture in the parlour.
+
+"By the by," said young Menou, opening a writing-desk, "here are several
+letters that have come for you within the last few days, and that amidst
+my various occupations I have quite forgotten to forward."
+
+I sat down and opened them. Two were from Richards, the earliest in
+date, inviting me to go and stay with him again. The more recent one
+renewed the invitation, and expressed the writer's surprise at my having
+become on a sudden so domestic a character. In a postscript he added, as
+a sort of inducement to me to visit him, that he was daily expecting a
+friend of his wife's, the beautiful Emily Warren. Not a syllable,
+however, about the eight thousand dollars, which surprised me not a
+little; for Richards was by no means a man to remain silent on a subject
+affecting his worldly interest, and I fully expected he would have felt
+and expressed some pique or resentment at my sudden withdrawal of my
+funds. But, on the contrary, the letter I had given to Menou, in which I
+requested Richards to pay over the money in question to the Creole, was
+not even alluded to.
+
+"There are matters in these letters," said I to young Menou, "which
+oblige me to return immediately to your father's house."
+
+"Indeed!" cried the young man, much astonished.
+
+"Yes," replied I. "I hear a steamboat coming down the river--I will be
+off at once."
+
+He looked at me in great surprise; Sybille shook her head. But my
+character is so impatient and impetuous, that when I have resolved on
+any thing, I can never bear to defer its execution a moment. Besides,
+there was really nothing to detain me at my plantation. The arrangements
+and improvements that I had reckoned on finding only half effected were
+complete; and every moment that now elapsed before I could welcome
+Louise as mistress of my house and heart, seemed to me worse than
+wasted. I hurried down to the river and hailed the steamer. It was the
+same that had brought me home two months previously.
+
+"Mr Howard," said the captain joyously, as I stepped on board the
+vessel, "I am right glad to see you on my deck again. Your plantation
+looks quite another thing. You are really a worker of wonders."
+
+I hardly knew how to accept this undeserved praise. One of the best
+points in our American character is the universal respect paid to
+industry and intellect. The wealthy idler who carries thousands in his
+pocket-book, may, amongst us, look in vain for the respect and flattery
+which a tithe of his riches would procure him in many other countries;
+while the less fortunate man, who makes his way and earns his living by
+hand and head work, may always reckon on the consideration of his
+fellow-citizens. On my return to Louisiana I had been thought nothing
+of. I was a drone in the hive--with money, but without skill or
+perseverance. My overseer was more looked up to than myself; but the
+recent change in the state of my plantation, attributed, however
+wrongly, to my presence, had caused a revolution in people's ideas; and
+I was now met on all sides with open hands and smiling countenances. The
+change, I must confess, was a gratifying one for me.
+
+The Menous were at breakfast the next morning, when I arrived, heated by
+my walk from the river, opposite to the parlour window. I was received
+with a cry of welcome.
+
+"So soon back! Nothing wrong, I hope?" said Menou.
+
+"Nothing," replied I dryly; "I have only forgotten something."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"My Louise," was my answer, as I seated myself beside the blushing girl.
+"On arriving at my wilderness," I continued, "I found it converted into
+so blooming a paradise, that I should really be heartbroken if it were
+to remain any longer without its Eve. To-morrow, please God, we will
+start for New Orleans, to put in requisition the service of Pere Antoine
+and the worthy rector."
+
+There was a cry of consternation from the papa and mamma.
+
+"There is nothing ready--_point de trousseau_--nothing in the world. Do
+not be so unreasonable, dear Howard."
+
+"Our Yankee damsels," replied I, laughing, "if they have only got a pair
+of shoes and a gown and a half, consider themselves perfectly ready to
+be married."
+
+"Well, let him have his way," said Menou. "We can manage, I daresay, to
+equip the bride a little better than that."
+
+"Apropos," said I to Menou, while the ladies were consulting together,
+and recovering from the flurry into which my precipitation had thrown
+them--"the eight thousand dollars? Richards says nothing about them."
+
+"It was only an experiment I tried with you," replied my future
+father-in-law, smiling. "I wished to see if you have sufficient firmness
+of character to ensure your own happiness. Had you not come victoriously
+out of the little ordeal, Louise should never have been wife of yours,
+if all the plantations on the Mississippi had called you master. As to
+the money, I advanced what was wanted. You can settle with Mr Richards
+in the way most agreeable to yourself."
+
+The next morning we set off for New Orleans--Menou and Louise, Julie,
+who was to act as bridesmaid, and myself. Madame Menou remained at home.
+I could have wished to have had young Menou as my bridesman; but his
+presence was necessary at the plantation, and we were obliged to content
+ourselves with receiving his good wishes as we passed. After a twenty
+hours' voyage we reached the capital, and took up our quarters in the
+house of a sister of Menou's.
+
+I was hurrying to find Father Antoine, when, in turning the corner of
+the cathedral, I ran bolt up against Richards. After the first greeting,
+and without giving him time to ask me questions--
+
+"Wait for me at the Merchant's Coffeehouse," said I; "in a quarter of an
+hour I will meet you there."
+
+And I left him in considerable astonishment at my desperate haste. I
+found Father Antoine and the rector, and then hurried off to keep my
+appointment.
+
+"Do you know," said I to Richards, as I dragged him through the streets,
+"that I am thinking seriously of becoming a Benedict?"
+
+"Well," said he, "you must come home with me then. Emily Warren is
+arrived. She is a charming girl, and a great friend of my wife's. You
+will be sure of Clara's good word, and I really think Emily will exactly
+suit you."
+
+"I am afraid not," replied I, as I turned into the church.
+
+Richards opened his eyes in amazement when he saw Louise, with her aunt,
+sister, and the whole of the bridal party, walking up the aisle, and
+Father Antoine standing at the altar in his robes.
+
+"What does this mean?" said he.
+
+I made no answer, but let matters explain themselves. Ten minutes after,
+Louise Menou was my wife.
+
+
+
+
+GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.{A}
+
+
+What is called _Philosophical History_ we believe to be yet in its
+infancy. It is the profound remark of Mr Finlay--profound as we
+ourselves understand it, _i.e._, in relation to this philosophical
+treatment, "That history will ever remain inexhaustible." How
+inexhaustible? Are the _facts_ of history inexhaustible? In regard to
+the _ancient_ division of history with which he is there dealing, this
+would be in no sense true; and in any case it would be a lifeless truth.
+So entirely have the mere facts of Pagan history been disinterred,
+ransacked, sifted, that except by means of some chance medal that may be
+unearthed in the illiterate East, (as of late towards Bokhara,) or by
+means of some mysterious inscription, such as those which still mock the
+learned traveller in Persia, northwards near Hamadan, (Ecbatana,) and
+southwards at Persepolis, or those which distract him amongst the
+shadowy ruins of Yucatan (Uxmal, suppose, and Palenque,)--once for all,
+barring these pure godsends, it is hardly "in the dice" that any
+downright novelty of fact should remain in reversion for this 19th
+century. The merest possibility exists, that in Armenia, or in a
+Graeco-Russian monastery on Mount Athos, or in Pompeii, &c., some authors
+hitherto +anekdotoi+ may yet be concealed; and by a channel in that
+degree improbable, it is possible that certain new facts of history may
+still reach us. But else, and failing these cryptical or subterraneous
+currents of communication, for us the record is closed. History in that
+sense is come to an end, and sealed up as by the angel in the
+Apocalypse. What then? The facts _so_ understood are but the dry bones
+of the mighty past. And the question arises here also, not less than in
+that sublimest of prophetic visions, "Can these dry bones live?" Not
+only they can live, but by an infinite variety of life. The same
+historic facts, viewed in different lights, or brought into connexion
+with other facts, according to endless diversities of permutation and
+combination, furnish grounds for such eternal successions of new
+speculations as make the facts themselves virtually new. The same Hebrew
+words are read by different sets of vowel points, and the same
+hieroglyphics are deciphered by keys everlastingly varied.
+
+To us we repeat that oftentimes it seems as though the _science_ of
+history were yet scarcely founded. There will be such a science, if at
+present there is not; and in one feature of its capacities it will
+resemble chemistry. What is so familiar to the perceptions of man as the
+common chemical agents of water, air, and the soil on which we tread?
+Yet each one of these elements is a mystery to this day; handled, used,
+tried, searched experimentally, in ten thousand ways--it is still
+unknown; fathomed by recent science down to a certain depth, it is still
+probably by its destiny unfathomable. Even to the end of days, it is
+pretty certain that the minutest particle of earth--that a dewdrop,
+scarcely distinguishable as a separate object--that the slenderest
+filament of a plant will include within itself secrets inaccessible to
+man. And yet, compared with the mystery of man himself, these physical
+worlds of mystery are but as a radix of infinity. Chemistry is in this
+view mysterious and spinosistically sublime--that it is the science of
+the latent in all things, of all things as lurking in all. Within the
+lifeless flint, within the silent pyrites, slumbers an agony of
+potential combustion. Iron is imprisoned in blood. With cold water (as
+every child is now-a-days aware) you may lash a fluid into angry
+ebullitions of heat; with hot water, as with the rod of Amram's son, you
+may freeze a fluid down to the temperature of the Sarsar wind, provided
+only that you regulate the pressure of the air. The sultry and
+dissolving fluid shall bake into a solid, the petrific fluid shall melt
+into a liquid. Heat shall freeze, frost shall thaw; and wherefore?
+Simply because old things are brought together in new modes of
+combination. And in endless instances beside we see the same Panlike
+latency of forms and powers, which gives to the external world a
+capacity of self-transformation, and of _polymorphosis_ absolutely
+inexhaustible.
+
+But the same capacity belongs to the facts of history. And we do not
+mean merely that, from subjective differences in the minds reviewing
+them, such facts assume endless varieties of interpretation and
+estimate, but that objectively, from lights still increasing in the
+science of government and of social philosophy, all the primary facts of
+history become liable continually to new theories, to new combinations,
+and to new valuations of their moral relations. We have seen some kinds
+of marble, where the veinings happened to be unusually multiplied, in
+which human faces, figures, processions, or fragments of natural scenery
+seemed absolutely illimitable, under the endless variations or
+inversions of the order, according to which they might be combined and
+grouped. Something analogous takes effect in reviewing the remote parts
+of history. Rome, for instance, has been the object of historic pens for
+twenty centuries (dating from Polybius); and yet hardly so much as
+twenty years have elapsed since Niebuhr opened upon us almost a new
+revelation, by recombining the same eternal facts, according to a
+different set of principles. The same thing may be said, though not with
+the same degree of emphasis, upon the Grecian researches of the late
+Ottfried Mueller. Egyptian history again, even at this moment, is seen
+stealing upon us through the dusky twilight in its first distinct
+lineaments. Before Young, Champollion, and the others who have followed
+on their traces in this field of history, all was outer darkness; and
+whatsoever we _do_ know or _shall_ know of Egyptian Thebes will now be
+recovered as if from the unswathing of a mummy. Not until a flight of
+three thousand years has left Thebes the Hekatompylos a dusky speck
+in the far distance, have we even _begun_ to read her annals, or to
+understand her revolutions.
+
+Another instance we have now before us of this new historic faculty for
+resuscitating the buried, and for calling back the breath to the frozen
+features of death, in Mr Finlay's work upon the Greeks as related to the
+Roman empire. He presents us with old facts, but under the purpose of
+clothing them with a new life. He rehearses ancient stories, not with
+the humble ambition of better adorning them, of more perspicuously
+narrating, or even of more forcibly pointing their moral, but of
+extracting from them some new meaning, and thus forcing them to arrange
+themselves, under some latent connexion, with other phenomena now first
+detected, as illustrations of some great principle or agency now first
+revealing its importance. Mr Finlay's style of intellect is appropriate
+to such a task; for it is subtle and Machiavelian. But there is this
+difficulty in doing justice to the novelty, and at times we may say with
+truth to the profundity of his views, that they are by necessity thrown
+out in continued successions of details, are insulated, and in one word
+_sporadic_. This follows from the very nature of his work; for it is a
+perpetual commentary on the incidents of Grecian history, from the era
+of the Roman conquest to the commencement of what Mr Finlay, in a
+peculiar sense, calls the Byzantine empire. These incidents have nowhere
+been systematically or continuously recorded; they come forward by
+casual flashes in the annals, perhaps, of some church historian, as they
+happen to connect themselves with his momentary theme; or they betray
+themselves in the embarrassments of the central government, whether at
+Rome or at Constantinople, when arguing at one time a pestilence, at
+another an insurrection, or an inroad of barbarians. It is not the fault
+of Mr Finlay, but his great disadvantage, that the affairs of Greece
+have been thus discontinuously exhibited, and that its internal changes
+of condition have been never treated except obliquely, and by men _aliud
+agentibus_. The Grecian _race_ had a primary importance on our planet;
+but the Grecian name, represented by Greece considered as a territory,
+or as the original seat of the Hellenic people, ceased to have much
+importance, in the eyes of historians, from the time when it became a
+conquered province; and it declined into absolute insignificance after
+the conquest of so many other provinces had degraded Hellas into an
+arithmetical unit, standing amongst a total amount of figures, so vast
+and so much more dazzling to the ordinary mind. Hence it was that in
+ancient times no complete history of Greece, through all her phases and
+stages, was ever attempted. The greatness of her later revolutions,
+simply as changes, would have attracted the historian; but, as changes
+associated with calamity and loss of power, they repelled his curiosity,
+and alienated his interest. It is the very necessity, therefore, of Mr
+Finlay's position, when coming into such an inheritance, that he must
+splinter his philosophy into separate individual notices; for the
+records of history furnish no grounds for more. _Spartam, quam nactus
+est, ornavit._ But this does not remedy the difficulty for ourselves, in
+attempting to give a representative view of his philosophy. General
+abstractions he had no opportunity for presenting; consequently we have
+no opportunity for valuing; and, on the other hand, single cases
+selected from a succession of hundreds would not justify any
+_representative_ criticism, more than the single brick, in the anecdote
+of Hierocles, would serve representatively to describe or to appraise
+the house.
+
+Under this difficulty as to the possible for ourselves, and the just for
+Mr Finlay, we shall adopt the following course. So far as the Greek
+people connected themselves in any splendid manner with the Roman
+empire, they did so with the eastern horn of that empire, and in point
+of time from the foundation of Constantinople as an eastern Rome in the
+fourth century, to a period not fully agreed on; but for the moment we
+will say with Mr Finlay, up to the early part of the eighth century. A
+reason given by Mr Finlay for this latter state is--that about that time
+the Grecian blood, so widely diffused in Asia, and even in Africa,
+became finally detached by the progress of Mahometanism and Mahometan
+systems of power from all further concurrence or coalition with the
+views of the Byzantine Caesar. Constantinople was from that date thrown
+back more upon its own peculiar heritage and jurisdiction, of which the
+main resources for war and peace lay in Europe and (speaking by the
+narrowest terms) in Thrace. Henceforth, therefore, for the city and
+throne of Constantine, resuming its old Grecian name of Byzantium, there
+succeeded a theatre less diffusive, a population more concentrated, a
+character of action more determinate and jealous, a style of courtly
+ceremonial more elaborate as well as more haughtily repulsive, and
+universally a system of interests, as much more definite and selfish, as
+might naturally be looked for in a nation now every where surrounded by
+new thrones gloomy with malice, and swelling with the consciousness of
+youthful power. This new and final state of the eastern Rome Mr Finlay
+denominates the Byzantine empire. Possibly this use of the term may be
+capable of justification; but more questions would arise in the
+discussion than Mr Finlay has thought it of importance to notice. And
+for the present we shall take the word _Byzantine_ in its most ordinary
+acceptation, as denoting the local empire founded by Constantine in
+Byzantium early in the fourth century, under the idea of a translation
+from the old western Rome, and overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in the
+year 1453. In the fortunes and main stages of this empire, what are the
+chief arresting phenomena, aspects, or relations, to the greatest of
+modern interests? We select by preference these.
+
+I. First, this was the earliest among the kingdoms of our planet _which
+connected itself with Christianity_. In Armenia, there had been a
+previous _state_ recognition of Christianity. But _that_ was neither
+splendid nor distinct. Whereas the Byzantine Rome built avowedly upon
+Christianity as its own basis, and consecrated its own nativity by the
+sublime act of founding the first provision ever attempted for the
+poor, considered simply as poor, (_i.e._ as objects of pity, not as
+instruments of ambition.)
+
+II. _Secondly, as the great aegis of western Christendom_, nay, the
+barrier which made it possible that any Christendom should ever exist,
+this Byzantine empire is entitled to a very different station in the
+enlightened gratitude of us western Europeans from any which it has yet
+held. We do not scruple to say--that, by comparison with the services of
+the Byzantine people to Europe, no nation on record has ever stood in
+the same relation to any other single nation, much less to a whole
+family of nations, whether as regards the opportunity and means of
+conferring benefits, or as regards the astonishing perseverance in
+supporting the succession of these benefits, or as regards the ultimate
+event of these benefits. A great wrong has been done for ages; for we
+have all been accustomed to speak of the Byzantine empire with scorn,{B}
+as chiefly known by its effeminacy; and the greater is the call for a
+fervent palinode.
+
+III. _Thirdly._ In a reflex way, as the one great danger which
+overshadowed Europe for generations, and against which the Byzantine
+empire proved the capital bulwark, Mahometanism may rank as one of the
+Byzantine aspects or counterforces. And if there is any popular error
+applying to the history of that great convulsion, as a political effort
+for revolutionizing the world, some notice of it will find a natural
+place in connexion with these present trains of speculation.
+
+Let us, therefore, have permission to throw together a few remarks on
+these three subjects--1st, on the remarkable distinction by which the
+eldest of Christian rulers proclaimed and inaugurated the Christian
+basis of his empire: 2dly, on the true but forgotten relation of this
+great empire to our modern Christendom, under which idea we comprehend
+Europe and the whole continent of America: 3dly, on the false
+pretensions of Mahometanism, whether advanced by itself or by
+inconsiderate Christian speculators on its behalf. We shall thus obtain
+this advantage, that some sort of unity will be given to our own glances
+at Mr Finlay's theme; and, at the same time, by gathering under these
+general heads any dispersed comments of Mr Finlay, whether for
+confirmation of our own views, or for any purpose of objection to his,
+we shall give to those comments also that kind of unity, by means of a
+reference to a common purpose, which we could not have given them by
+citing each independently for itself.
+
+I. First, then, as to that memorable act by which Constantinople (_i.e._
+the Eastern empire) connected herself for ever with Christianity; viz.
+the recognition of pauperism as an element in the state entitled to the
+maternal guardianship of the state. In this new principle, introduced by
+Christianity, we behold a far-seeing or proleptic wisdom, making
+provision for evils before they had arisen; for it is certain that great
+expansions of pauperism did not exist in the ancient world. A pauper
+population is a disease peculiar to the modern or Christian world.
+Various causes latent in the social systems of the ancients prevented
+such developments of surplus people. But does not this argue a
+superiority in the social arrangements of these ancients? Not at all;
+they were atrociously worse. They evaded this one morbid affection by
+means of others far more injurious to the moral advance of man. The case
+was then every where as at this day it is in Persia. A Persian
+ambassador to London or Paris might boast that, in his native Iran no
+such spectacles existed of hunger-bitten myriads as may be seen every
+where during seasons of distress in the crowded cities of Christian
+Europe. "No," would be the answer, "most certainly not; but why? The
+reason is, that your accursed form of society and government
+_intercepts_ such surplus people, does not suffer them to be born. What
+is the result? You ought, in Persia, to have three hundred millions of
+people; your vast territory is easily capacious of that number. You
+_have_--how many have you? Something less than eight millions." Think of
+this, startled reader. But, if _that_ be a good state of things, then
+any barbarous soldier who makes a wilderness, is entitled to call
+himself a great philosopher and public benefactor. This is to cure the
+headache by amputating the head. Now, the same principle of limitation
+to population _a parte ante_, though not in the same savage excess as in
+Mahometan Persia, operated upon Greece and Rome. The whole Pagan world
+escaped the evils of a redundant population by vicious repressions of it
+beforehand. But under Christianity a new state of things was destined to
+take effect. Many protections and excitements to population were laid in
+the framework of this new religion, which, by its new code of rules and
+impulses, in so many ways extended the free-agency of human beings.
+Manufacturing industry was destined first to arise on any great scale
+under Christianity. Except in Tyre and Alexandria, (see the Emperor
+Hadrian's account of this last,) there was no town or district in the
+ancient world where the populace could be said properly to work. The
+rural labourers worked a little--not much; and sailors worked a little;
+nobody else worked at all. Even slaves had little more work distributed
+amongst each ten than now settles upon one. And in many other ways, by
+protecting the principle of life, as a mysterious sanctity, Christianity
+has favoured the development of an excessive population. There it is
+that Christianity, being answerable for the mischief, is answerable for
+its redress. Therefore it is that, breeding the disease, Christianity
+breeds the cure. Extending the vast lines of poverty, Christianity it
+was that first laid down the principle of a relief for poverty.
+Constantine, the first Christian potentate, laid the first stone of the
+mighty overshadowing institution since reared in Christian lands to
+poverty, disease, orphanage, and mutilation. Christian instincts, moving
+and speaking through that Caesar, first carried out that great idea of
+Christianity. Six years was Christianity in building Constantinople, and
+in the seventh she rested from her labours, saying, "Henceforward let
+the poor man have a haven of rest for ever; a rest from his work for one
+day in seven; a rest from his anxieties by a legal and a fixed relief."
+Being legal, it could not be open to disturbances of caprice in the
+giver; being fixed, it was not open to disturbances of miscalculation in
+the receiver. Now, first, when first Christianity was installed as a
+public organ of government, (and first owned a distinct political
+responsibility,) did it become the duty of a religion which assumed, as
+it were, the _official_ tutelage of poverty, to proclaim and consecrate
+that function by some great memorial precedent. And, accordingly, in
+testimony of that obligation, the first Christian Caesar, on behalf of
+Christianity, founded the first system of relief for pauperism. It is
+true, that largesses from the public treasury, gratuitous coin, or corn
+sold at diminished rates, not to mention the _sportulae_ or stated doles
+of private Roman nobles, had been distributed amongst the indigent
+citizens of Western Rome for centuries before Constantine; but all these
+had been the selfish bounties of factious ambition or intrigue.
+
+To Christianity was reserved the inaugural act of public charity in the
+spirit of charity. We must remember that no charitable or beneficent
+institutions of any kind, grounded on disinterested kindness, existed
+amongst the Pagan Romans, and still less amongst the Pagan Greeks. Mr
+Coleridge, in one of his lay sermons, advanced the novel doctrine--that
+in the Scriptures is contained all genuine and profound statesmanship.
+Of course he must be understood to mean--in its capital principles:
+for, as to subordinate and executive rules for applying such principles,
+these, doubtless, are in part suggested by the local circumstances in
+each separate case. Now, amongst the political theories of the Bible is
+this--that pauperism is not an accident in the constitution of states,
+but an indefeasible necessity; or, in the scriptural words, that "the
+poor shall never cease out of the land." This theory, or great canon of
+social philosophy, during many centuries, drew no especial attention
+from philosophers. It passed for a truism, bearing no particular
+emphasis or meaning beyond some general purpose of sanction to the
+impulses of charity. But there is good reason to believe, that it
+slumbered, and was meant to slumber, until Christianity arising and
+moving forwards should call it into a new life, as a principle suited to
+a new order of things. Accordingly, we have seen of late that this
+scriptural dictum--"The poor shall never cease out of the land"--has
+terminated its career as a truism, (that is, as a truth, either obvious
+on one hand, or inert on the other,) and has wakened into a polemic or
+controversial life. People arose who took upon them utterly to deny this
+scriptural doctrine. Peremptorily they challenged the assertion that
+poverty must always exist. The Bible said that it was an affection of
+human society which could not be exterminated: the economists of 1800
+said that it was a foul disease, which must and should be exterminated.
+The scriptural philosophy said, that pauperism was inalienable from
+man's social condition in the same way that decay was inalienable from
+his flesh. "I shall soon see _that_," said the economist of 1800, "for
+as sure as my name is M----, I will have this poverty put down by law
+within one generation, if there's law to be had in the courts at
+Westminster." The Scriptures had left word--that, if any man should come
+to the national banquet declaring himself unable to pay his
+contribution, that man should be accounted the guest of Christianity,
+and should be privileged to sit at the table in thankful remembrance of
+what Christianity had done for man. But Mr M---- left word with all the
+servants, that, if any man should present himself under those
+circumstances, he was to be told, "The table is full"--(_his_ words, not
+ours;) "go away, good man." Go away! Mr M----? Where was he to go to?
+Whither? In what direction?--"Why, if you come to _that_," said the man
+of 1800, "to any ditch that he prefers: surely there's good choice of
+ditches for the most fastidious taste." During twenty years, viz. from
+1800 to 1820, this new philosophy, which substituted a ditch for a
+dinner, and a paving-stone for a loaf, prevailed and prospered. At one
+time it seemed likely enough to prove a snare to our own
+aristocracy--the noblest of all ages. But that peril was averted, and
+the further history of the case was this: By the year 1820, much
+discussion having passed to and fro, serious doubts had arisen in many
+quarters: scepticism had begun to arm itself against the sceptic: the
+economist of 1800 was no longer quite sure of his ground. He was now
+suspected of being fallible; and, what seemed of worse augury, he was
+beginning himself to suspect as much. To one capital blunder he was
+obliged publicly to plead guilty. What it was, we shall have occasion to
+mention immediately. Meantime it was justly thought that, in a dispute
+loaded with such prodigious practical consequences, good sense and
+prudence demanded a more extended enquiry than had yet been instituted.
+Whether poverty would ever cease from the land, might be doubted by
+those who balanced their faith in Scripture against their faith in the
+man of 1800. But this at least could not be doubted--that as yet poverty
+_had_ not ceased, nor indeed had made any sensible preparations for
+ceasing, from any land in Europe. It was a clear case, therefore, that,
+howsoever Europe might please to dream upon the matter when pauperism
+should have reached that glorious euthanasy predicted by the alchemist
+of old and the economist of 1800, for the present she must deal actively
+with her own pauperism on some avowed plan and principle, good or
+evil--gentle or harsh. Accordingly, in the train of years between 1820
+and 1830, enquiries were made of every separate state in Europe, what
+_were_ those plans and principles. For it was justly said--"As one step
+towards judging rightly of our own system, now that it has been so
+clamorously challenged for a bad system, let us learn what it is that
+other nations think upon the subject, but above all what it is that they
+_do_." The answers to our many enquiries varied considerably; and some
+amongst the most enlightened nations appeared to have adopted the good
+old plan of _laissez faire_, giving nothing from any public fund to the
+pauper, but authorizing him to levy contributions on that gracious
+allegoric lady, Private Charity, wherever he could meet her taking the
+air with her babes. This reference appeared to be the main one in reply
+to any application of the pauper; and for all the rest they referred him
+generally to the "ditch," or to his own unlimited choice of ditches,
+according to the approved method of public benevolence published in 4to
+and in 8vo by the man of 1800. But there were other and humbler states
+in Europe, whose very pettiness had brought more fully within their
+vision the whole machinery and watchwork of pauperism, as it acted and
+re-acted on the industrious poverty of the land, and on other interests,
+by means of the system adopted in relieving it. From these states came
+many interesting reports, all tending to some good purpose. But at last,
+and before the year 1830, amongst other results of more or less value,
+three capital points were established, not more decisive for the
+justification of the English system in administering national relief to
+paupers, and of all systems that reverenced the authority of Scripture,
+than they were for the overthrow of Mr M----, the man of 1800. These
+three points are worthy of being used as buoys in mapping out the true
+channels, or indicating the breakers on this difficult line of
+navigation; and we now rehearse them. They may seem plain almost to
+obviousness; but it is enough that they involve all the disputed
+questions of the case.
+
+_First_, That, in spite of the assurances from economists, no progress
+whatever had been made by England or by any state which lent any
+sanction to the hope of ever eradicating poverty from society.
+
+_Secondly_, That, in absolute contradiction of the whole hypothesis
+relied on by M---- and his brethren, in its most fundamental doctrine, a
+legal provision for poverty did _not_ act as a bounty on marriage. The
+experience of England, where the trial had been made on the largest
+scale, was decisive on this point; and the opposite experience of
+Ireland, under the opposite circumstances, was equally decisive. And
+this result had made itself so clear by 1820, that even M---- (as we have
+already noticed by anticipation) was compelled to publish a recantation
+as to this particular error, which in effect was a recantation of his
+entire theory.
+
+_Thirdly_, That, according to the concurring experience of all the most
+enlightened states of Christendom, the public suffered least, (not
+merely in molestation but in money,) pauperism benefited most, and the
+growth of pauperism was retarded most, precisely as the provision for
+the poor had been legalized as to its obligation, and fixed as to its
+amount. Left to individual discretion the burden was found to press most
+unequally; and, on the other hand, the evil itself of pauperism, whilst
+much less effectually relieved, nevertheless through the irregular
+action of this relief was much more powerfully stimulated.
+
+Such is the abstract of our latest public warfare on this great question
+through a period of nearly fifty years. And the issue is this--starting
+from the contemptuous defiance of the scriptural doctrine upon the
+necessity of making provision for poverty as an indispensable element in
+civil communities, the economy of the age has lowered its tone by
+graduated descents, in each one successively of the four last
+_decennia_. The philosophy of the day as to this point at least is at
+length in coincidence with Scripture. And thus the very extensive
+researches of this nineteenth century, as to pauperism, have re-acted
+with the effect of a full justification upon Constantine's attempt to
+connect the foundation of his empire with that new theory of
+Christianity upon the imperishableness of poverty, and upon the duties
+corresponding to it.
+
+Meantime Mr Finlay denies that Christianity had been raised by
+Constantine into the religion of the state; and others have denied that,
+in the extensive money privileges conceded to Constantinople, he
+contemplated any but political principles. As to the first point, we
+apprehend that Constantine will be found not so much to have shrunk back
+in fear from installing Christianity in the seat of supremacy, as to
+have diverged in policy from our modern _methods_ of such an
+installation. Our belief is, that according to _his_ notion of a state
+religion, he supposed himself to have conferred that distinction upon
+Christianity. With respect to the endowments and privileges of
+Constantinople, they were various; some lay in positive donations,
+others in immunities and exemptions; some again were designed to attract
+strangers, others to attract nobles from old Rome. But, with fuller
+opportunities for pursuing that discussion, we think it would be easy to
+show, that in more than one of his institutions and his decrees he had
+contemplated the special advantage of the poor as such; and that, next
+after the august distinction of having founded the first Christian
+throne, he had meant to challenge and fix the gaze of future ages upon
+this glorious pretension--that he first had executed the scriptural
+injunction to make a provision for the poor, as an order of society that
+by laws immutable should "never cease out of the land."
+
+_Secondly_, Let us advert to the value and functions of Constantinople
+as the tutelary genius of western or dawning Christianity.
+
+The history of Constantinople, or more generally of the Eastern Roman
+empire, wears a peculiar interest to the children of Christendom; and
+for two separate reasons--_first_, as being the narrow isthmus or bridge
+which connects the two continents of ancient and modern history, and
+_that_ is a philosophic interest; but, _secondly_ which in the very
+highest degree is a practical interest, as the record of our earthly
+salvation from Mahometanism. On two horns was Europe assaulted by the
+Moslems; first, last, and through the largest tract of time, on the horn
+of Constantinople; there the contest raged for more than eight hundred
+years, and by the time that the mighty bulwark fell (1453,) Vienna and
+other cities upon or near the Danube had found leisure for growing up;
+so that, if one range of Alps had slowly been surmounted, another had
+now slowly reared and embattled itself against the westward progress of
+the Crescent. On the western horn, _in_ France, but _by_ Germans, once
+for all Charles Martel had arrested the progress of the fanatical Moslem
+almost in a single battle; certainly a single generation saw the whole
+danger dispersed, inasmuch as within that space the Saracens were
+effectually forced back into their original Spanish lair. This
+demonstrates pretty forcibly the difference of the Mahometan resources
+as applied to the western and the eastern struggle. To throw the whole
+weight of that difference, a difference in the result as between eight
+centuries and thirty years, upon the mere difference of energy in German
+and Byzantine forces, as though the first did, by a rapturous fervour,
+in a few revolutions of summer what the other had protracted through
+nearly a millennium, is a representation which defeats itself by its own
+extravagance. To prove too much is more dangerous than to prove too
+little. The fact is, that vast armies and mighty nations were
+continually disposable for the war upon the city of Constantine; nations
+had time to arise in juvenile vigour, to grow old and superannuated, to
+melt away, and totally to disappear, in that long struggle on the
+Hellespont and Propontis. It was a struggle which might often intermit
+and slumber; armistices there might be, truces, or unproclaimed
+suspensions of war out of mutual exhaustion, but peace there could _not_
+be, because any resting from the duty of hatred towards those who
+reciprocally seemed to lay the foundations of their creed in a
+dishonouring of God, was impossible to aspiring human nature. Malice and
+mutual hatred, we repeat, became a duty in those circumstances. Why had
+they _begun_ to fight? Personal feuds there had been none between the
+parties. For the early caliphs did not conquer Syria and other vast
+provinces of the Roman empire, because they had a quarrel with the
+Caesars who represented Christendom; but, on the contrary, they had a
+quarrel with the Caesars because they had conquered Syria, or, at the
+most, the conquest and the feud (if not always lying in that exact
+succession as cause and effect) were joint effects from a common cause,
+which cause was imperishable as death, or the ocean, and as deep as are
+the fountains of animal life. Could the ocean be altered by a sea fight?
+or the atmosphere be tainted for ever by an earthquake? As little could
+any single reign or its events affect the feud of the Moslem and the
+Christian; a feud which could not cease unless God could change, or
+unless man (becoming careless of spiritual things) should sink to the
+level of a brute.
+
+These are considerations of great importance in weighing the value of
+the Eastern Empire. If the cause and interest of Islamism, as against
+Christianity, were undying--then we may be assured that the Moorish
+infidels of Spain did not reiterate their trans-Pyrenean expeditions
+after one generation--simply because they _could_ not. But we know that
+on the south-eastern horn of Europe they _could_, upon the plain
+argument that for many centuries they _did_. Over and above this, we are
+of opinion that the Saracens were unequal to the sort of hardships bred
+by cold climates; and there lay another repulsion for Saracens from
+France, &c., and not merely the Carlovingian sword. We children of
+Christendom show our innate superiority to the children of the Orient
+upon this scale or tariff of acclimatizing powers. We travel as wheat
+travels through all reasonable ranges of temperature; they, like rice,
+can migrate only to warm latitudes. They cannot support our cold, but we
+_can_ support the countervailing hardships of their heat. This cause
+alone would have weatherbound the Mussulmans for ever within the
+Pyrenean cloisters. Mussulmans in cold latitudes look as blue and as
+absurd as sailors on horseback. Apart from which cause, we see that the
+fine old Visigothic races in Spain found them full employment up to the
+reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, which reign first created a kingdom of
+Spain; in that reign the whole fabric of their power thawed away, and
+was confounded with forgotten things. Columbus, according to a local
+tradition, was personally present at some of the latter campaigns in
+Grenada: he saw the last of them. So that the discovery of America may
+be used as a convertible date with that of extinction for the Saracen
+power in western Europe. True that the overthrow of Constantinople had
+forerun this event by nearly half a century. But then we insist upon the
+different proportions of the struggle. Whilst in Spain a province had
+fought against a province, all Asia militant had fought against the
+eastern Roman empire. Amongst the many races whom dimly we descry in
+those shadowy hosts, tilting for ages in the vast plains of Angora, are
+seen, latterly pressing on to the van, two mighty powers, the children
+of Persia and the Ottoman family of the Turks. Upon these nations, both
+now rapidly decaying, the faith of Mahomet has ever leaned as upon her
+eldest sons; and these powers the Byzantine Caesars had to face in every
+phasis of their energy, as it revolved from perfect barbarism, through
+semi-barbarism, to that crude form of civilization which Mahometans can
+support. And through all these transmigrations of their power we must
+remember that they were under a martial training and discipline, never
+suffered to become effeminate. One set of warriors after another _did_,
+it is true, become effeminate in Persia: but upon that advantage
+opening, always another set stepped in from Torkistan or from the Imaus.
+The nation, the individuals melted away; the Moslem armies were
+immortal.
+
+Here, therefore, it is, and standing at this point of our review, that
+we complain of Mr Finlay's too facile compliance with historians far
+beneath himself. He has a fine understanding: oftentimes his
+commentaries on the past are ebullient with subtlety; and his fault
+strikes us as lying even in the excess of his sagacity applying itself
+too often to a basis of facts, quite insufficient for supporting the
+superincumbent weight of his speculations. But in this instance he
+surrenders himself too readily to the ordinary current of history. How
+would _he_ like it, if he happened to be a Turk himself, finding his
+nation thus implicitly undervalued? For clearly, in undervaluing the
+Byzantine resistance, he _does_ undervalue the Mahometan assault.
+Advantages of local situation cannot _eternally_ make good the
+deficiencies of man. If the Byzantines (being as weak as historians
+would represent them) yet for ages resisted the whole impetus of
+Mahometan Asia, then it follows, either that the Crescent was
+correspondingly weak, or that, not being weak, she must have found the
+Cross pretty strong. The _facit_ of history does not here correspond
+with the numerical items.
+
+Nothing has ever surprised us more, we will frankly own, than this
+coincidence of authors in treating the Byzantine empire as feeble and
+crazy. On the contrary, to us it is clear that some secret and
+preternatural strength it must have had, lurking where the eye of man
+did not in those days penetrate, or by what miracle did it undertake our
+universal Christian cause, fight for us all, keep the waters open from
+freezing us up, and through nine centuries prevent the ice of
+Mahometanism from closing over our heads for ever? Yet does Mr Finlay
+(p. 424) describe this empire as labouring, in A.D. 623, equally with
+Persia, under "internal weakness," and as "equally incapable of offering
+any popular or national resistance to an active or enterprising enemy."
+In this Mr Finlay does but agree with other able writers; but he and
+they should have recollected, that hardly had that very year 623
+departed, even yet the knell of its last hour was sounding upon the
+winds, when this effeminate empire had occasion to show that she could
+clothe herself with consuming terrors, as a belligerent both defensive
+and aggressive. In the absence of her great emperor, and of the main
+imperial forces, the golden capital herself, by her own resources,
+routed and persecuted into wrecks a Persian army that had come down upon
+her by stealth and a fraudulent circuit. Even at that same period, she
+advanced into Persia more than a thousand miles from her own metropolis
+in Europe, under the blazing ensigns of the cross, kicked the crown of
+Persia to and fro like a tennis-ball, upset the throne of Artaxerxes,
+countersigned haughtily the elevation of a new _Basileus_ more friendly
+to herself, and then recrossed the Tigris homewards, after having torn
+forcibly out of the heart and palpitating entrails of Persia, whatever
+trophies that idolatrous empire had formerly wrested from herself. These
+were not the acts of an effeminate kingdom. In the language of
+Wordsworth we may say--
+
+    "All power was giv'n her in the dreadful trance;
+    Infidel kings she wither'd like a flame."
+
+Indeed, no image that we remember can do justice to the first of these
+acts, except that Spanish legend of the Cid, which assures us that, long
+after the death of the mighty cavalier, when the children of those Moors
+who had fled from his face whilst living, were insulting the marble
+statue above his grave, suddenly the statue raised its right arm,
+stretched out its marble lance, and drifted the heathen dogs like snow.
+The mere sanctity of the Christian champion's sepulchre was its own
+protection; and so we must suppose, that, when the Persian hosts came by
+surprise upon Constantinople--her natural protector being absent by
+three months' march--simply the golden statues of the mighty Caesars,
+half rising on their thrones, must have caused that sudden panic which
+dissipated the danger. Hardly fifty years later, Mr Finlay well knows
+that Constantinople again stood an assault--not from a Persian hourrah,
+or tempestuous surprise, but from a vast expedition, armaments by land
+and sea, fitted out elaborately in the early noontide of Mahometan
+vigour--and that assault, also, in the presence of the caliph and the
+crescent, was gloriously discomfited. Now if, in the moment of triumph,
+some voice in the innumerable crowd had cried out, "How long shall this
+great Christian breakwater, against which are shattered into surge and
+foam all the mountainous billows of idolaters and misbelievers, stand up
+on behalf of infant Christendom?" and if from the clouds some trumpet of
+prophecy had replied, "Even yet for eight hundred years!" could any man
+have persuaded himself that such a fortress against such
+antagonists--such a monument against a millennium of fury--was to be
+classed amongst the weak things of this earth? This oriental Rome, it is
+true, equally with Persia, was liable to sudden inroads and incursions.
+But the difference was this--Persia was strongly protected in all ages
+by the wilderness on her main western frontier; if this were passed, and
+a hand-to-hand conflict succeeded, where light cavalry or fugitive
+archers could be of little value, the essential weakness of the Persian
+empire then betrayed itself. Her sovereign was assassinated, and peace
+was obtained from the condescension of the invader. But the enemies of
+Constantinople, Goths, Avars, Bulgarians, or even Persians, were strong
+only by their weakness. Being contemptible, they were neglected; being
+chased, they made no stand; and _thus_ only they escaped. They entered
+like thieves by means of darkness, and escaped like sheep by means of
+dispersion. But, if caught, they were annihilated. No; we resume our
+thesis; we close this head by reiterating our correction of history; we
+re-affirm our position--that in Eastern Rome lay the salvation of
+Western and Central Europe; in Constantinople and the Propontis lay the
+_sine-qua-non_ condition of any future Christendom. Emperor and people
+_must_ have done their duty; the result, the vast extent of generations
+surmounted, furnish the triumphant argument. Finally, indeed, they fell,
+king and people, shepherd and flock; but by that time their mission was
+fulfilled. And doubtless, as the noble Palaeologus lay on heaps of
+carnage, with his noble people, as life was ebbing away, a voice from
+heaven sounded in his ears the great words of the Hebrew prophet,
+"Behold! YOUR WORK IS DONE; your warfare is accomplished."
+
+III. Such, then, being the unmerited disparagement of the Byzantine
+government, and so great the ingratitude of later Christendom to that
+sheltering power under which themselves enjoyed the leisure of a
+thousand years for knitting and expanding into strong nations; on the
+other hand, what is to be thought of the Saracen revolutionists? Every
+where it has passed for a lawful postulate, that the Saracen conquests
+prevailed, half by the feebleness of the Roman government at
+Constantinople, and half by the preternatural energy infused into the
+Arabs by their false prophet and legislator. In either of its faces,
+this theory is falsified by a steady review of facts. With regard to the
+Saracens, Mr Finlay thinks as we do, and argues that they prevailed
+through the _local_, or sometimes the _casual_, weakness of their
+immediate enemies, and rarely through any strength of their own. We must
+remember one fatal weakness of the Imperial administration in those
+days, not due to men or to principles, but entirely to nature and the
+slow growth of scientific improvements--viz. the difficulties of
+locomotion. As respected Syria, Egypt, Cyrenaica, and so on to the most
+western provinces of Africa, the Saracens had advantages for moving
+rapidly which the Caesar had not. But is not a water movement speedier
+than a land movement, which for an army never has much exceeded fourteen
+miles a-day? Certainly it is; but in this case there were two desperate
+defects in the Imperial control over that water service. To use a fleet,
+you must have a fleet; but their whole naval interest had been starved
+by the intolerable costs of the Persian war. Immense had been the
+expenses of Heraclius, and annually decaying had been his Asiatic
+revenues. Secondly, the original position of the Arabs had been better
+than that of the emperor, in every stage of the warfare which so
+suddenly arose. In Arabia they stood nearest to Syria, in Syria nearest
+to Egypt, in Egypt nearest to Cyrenaica. What reason had there been for
+expecting a martial legislator at that moment in Arabia, who should fuse
+and sternly combine her distracted tribes? What blame, therefore, to
+Heraclius, that Syria--the first object of assault, being also by much
+the weakest part of the empire, and immediately after the close of a
+desolating war--should in four campaigns be found indefensible? We must
+remember the unexampled abruptness of the Arabian revolution. The year
+622, by its very name of Hegira, does not record a triumph but a
+humiliation. In that year, therefore, and at the very moment when
+Heraclius was entering upon his long Persian struggle, Mahomet was yet
+prostrate, and his destiny was doubtful. Eleven years after, viz. in
+633, the prophet was dead and gone; but his first successor was already
+in Syria as a conqueror. Such had been the velocity of events. The
+Persian war had then been finished by three years, but the exhaustion of
+the empire had perhaps, at that moment, reached its maximum. We are
+satisfied, that ten years' repose from this extreme state of collapse
+would have shown us another result. Even as it was, and caught at this
+enormous disadvantage, Heraclius taught the robbers to tremble, and
+would have exterminated them, if not baffled by two irremediable
+calamities, neither of them due to any act or neglect of his own. The
+first lay in the treason of his lieutenants. The governors of Damascus,
+of Aleppo, of Emesa, of Bostra, of Kinnisrin, all proved traitors. The
+root of this evil lay, probably, in the disorders following the Persian
+invasion, which had made it the perilous interest of the emperor to
+appoint great officers from amongst those who had a local influence.
+Such persons it might have been ruinous too suddenly to set aside, as,
+in the event, it proved ruinous to employ them. A dilemma of this kind,
+offering but a choice of evils, belonged to the nature of any Persian
+war; and that particular war was bequeathed to Heraclius by the
+mismanagement of his predecessors. But the second calamity was even more
+fatal; it lay in the composition of the Syrian population, and its
+original want of vital cohesion. For no purpose could this population be
+united: they formed a rope of sand. There was the distraction of
+religion, (Jacobites, Nestorians, &c.;) there was the distraction of
+races--slaves and masters, conquered and conquerors, modern intruders
+mixed, but not blended with, aboriginal mountaineers. Property became
+the one principle of choice between the two governments. Where was
+protection to be had for _that_? Barbarous as were the Arabs, they saw
+their present advantage. Often it would happen from the position of the
+armies, that they could, whilst the emperor could not, guarantee the
+instant security of land or of personal treasures; the Arabs could also
+promise, sometimes, a total immunity from taxes, very often a diminished
+scale of taxation, always a remission of arrears; none of which demands
+could be listened to by the emperor, partly on account of the public
+necessities, partly from jealousy of establishing operative precedents.
+For religion, again, protection was more easily obtained in that day
+from the Arab, who made war on Christianity, than from the Byzantine
+emperor, who was its champion. What were the different sects and
+subdivisions of Christianity to the barbarian? Monophysite, Monothelite,
+Eutychian, or Jacobite, all were to him as the scholastic disputes of
+noble and intellectual Europe to the camps of gypsies. The Arab felt
+himself to be the depository of one sublime truth, the unity of God. His
+mission therefore, was principally against idolaters. Yet even to _them_
+his policy was to sell toleration for tribute. Clearly, as Mr Finlay
+hints, this was merely a provisional moderation, meant to be laid aside
+when sufficient power was obtained; and it _was_ laid aside, in after
+ages, by many a wretch like Timour or Nadir Shah. Religion, therefore,
+and property once secured, what more had the Syrians to seek? And if to
+these advantages for the Saracens we add the fact, that a considerable
+Arab population was dispersed through Syria, who became so many
+emissaries, spies, and decoys for their countrymen, it does great honour
+to the emperor, that through so many campaigns he should at all have
+maintained his ground, which at last he resigned only under the
+despondency caused by almost universal treachery.
+
+The Saracens, therefore, had no great merit even in their earliest
+exploits; and the _impetus_ of their movement forwards, that principle
+of proselytism which carried them so strongly "ahead" through a few
+generations, was very soon brought to a stop. Mr Finlay, in our mind,
+does right to class these barbarians as "socially and politically little
+better than the Gothic, Hunnish, and Avar monarchies." But, on
+consideration, the Gothic monarchy embosomed the germs of a noble
+civilization; whereas the Saracens have never propagated great
+principles of any kind, nor attained even a momentary grandeur in their
+institutions, except where coalescing with a higher or more ancient
+civilization.
+
+Meantime, ascending from the earliest Mahometans to their prophet, what
+are we to think of _him_? Was Mahomet a great man? We think not. The
+case was thus: the Arabian tribes had long stood ready, like dogs held
+in a leash, for a start after distant game. It was not Mahomet who gave
+them that impulse. But next, what was it that had hindered the Arab
+tribes from obeying the impulse? Simply this, that they were always in
+feud with each other; so that their expeditions, beginning in harmony,
+were sure to break up in anger on the road. What they needed was, some
+one grand compressing and unifying principle, such as the Roman found in
+the destinies of his city. True; but this, you say, they found in the
+sublime principle that God was one, and had appointed them to be the
+scourges of all who denied it. Their mission was to cleanse the earth
+from Polytheism; and, as ambassadors from God, to tell the nations--"Ye
+shall have no other gods but me." That was grand; and _that_ surely they
+had from Mahomet? Perhaps so; but where did he get it? He stole it from
+the Jewish Scriptures, and from the Scriptures no less than from the
+traditions of the Christians. Assuredly, then, the first projecting
+impetus was not impressed upon Islamism by Mahomet. This lay in a
+revealed truth; and by Mahomet it was furtively translated to his own
+use from those oracles which held it in keeping. But possibly, if not
+the _principle_ of motion, yet at least the steady conservation of this
+motion was secured to Islamism by Mahomet. Granting (you will say) that
+the launch of this religion might be due to an alien inspiration, yet
+still the steady movement onwards of this religion through some
+centuries, might be due exclusively to the code of laws bequeathed by
+Mahomet in the Koran. And this has been the opinion of many European
+scholars. They fancy that Mahomet, however worldly and sensual as the
+founder of a pretended revelation, was wise in the wisdom of this world;
+and that, if ridiculous as a prophet, he was worthy of veneration as a
+statesman. He legislated well and presciently, they imagine, for the
+interests of a remote posterity. Now, upon that question let us hear Mr
+Finlay. He, when commenting upon the steady resistance offered to the
+Saracens by the African Christians of the seventh and eighth
+centuries--a resistance which terminated disastrously for both
+sides--the poor Christians being exterminated, and the Moslem invaders
+being robbed of an indigenous working population, naturally enquires
+what it was that led to so tragical a result? The Christian natives of
+those provinces were, in a political condition, little favourable to
+belligerent efforts; and there cannot be much doubt, that, with any
+wisdom or any forbearance on the part of the intruders, both parties
+might soon have settled down into a pacific compromise of their feuds.
+Instead of this, the cimeter was invoked and worshipped as the sole
+possible arbitrator; and truce there was none until the silence of
+desolation brooded over those once fertile fields. How savage was the
+fanaticism, and how blind the worldly wisdom, which could have
+co-operated to such a result! The cause must have lain in the
+unaccommodating nature of the Mahometan institutions, in the bigotry of
+the Mahometan leaders, and in the defect of expansive views on the part
+of their legislator. He had not provided even for other climates than
+that of his own sweltering sty in the Hedjas, or for manners more
+polished, or for institutions more philosophic, than those of his own
+sun-baked Ishmaelites. "The construction of the political government of
+the Saracen empire"--says Mr Finlay, (p. 462-3)--"was imperfect, and
+shows that Mahomet had neither contemplated extensive foreign conquests,
+nor devoted the energies of his powerful mind to the consideration of
+the questions of administration which would arise out of the difficult
+task of ruling a numerous and wealthy population, possessed of property,
+but deprived of civil rights." He then shows how the whole power of the
+state settled into the hands of a chief priest--systematically
+irresponsible. When, therefore, that momentary state of responsibility
+had passed away, which was created (like the state of martial law) "by
+national feelings, military companionship, and exalted enthusiasm," the
+administration of the caliphs became "far more oppressive than that of
+the Roman empire." It is in fact an insult to the majestic Romans, if we
+should place them seriously in the balance with savages like the
+Saracens. The Romans were essentially the leaders of civilization,
+according to the possibilities then existing; for their earliest usages
+and social forms involved a high civilization, whilst promising a
+higher: whereas all Moslem nations have described a petty arch of
+national civility--soon reaching its apex, and rapidly barbarizing
+backwards. This fatal gravitation towards decay and decomposition in
+Mahometan institutions, which, at this day, exhibits to the gaze of
+mankind one uniform spectacle of Mahometan ruins, all the great Moslem
+nations being already in a _Strulbrug_ state, and held erect only by the
+colossal support of Christian powers, could not, as a _reversionary_
+evil, have been healed by the Arabian prophet. His own religious
+principles would have prevented _that_, for they offer a permanent
+bounty on sensuality; so that every man who serves a Mahometan state
+faithfully and brilliantly at twenty-five, is incapacitated at
+thirty-five for any further service, by the very nature of the rewards
+which he receives from the state. Within a very few years, every public
+servant is usually emasculated by that unlimited voluptuousness which
+equally the Moslem princes and the common Prophet of all Moslems
+countenance as the proper object of human pursuit. Here is the mortal
+ulcer of Islamism, which can never cleanse itself from death and the
+odour of death. A political ulcer would or might have found restoration
+for itself; but this ulcer is higher and deeper:--it lies in the
+religion, which is incapable of reform: it is an ulcer reaching as high
+as the paradise which Islamism promises, and deep as the hell which it
+creates. We repeat, that Mahomet could not effectually have neutralized
+a poison which he himself had introduced into the circulation and
+life-blood of his Moslem economy. The false prophet was forced to reap
+as he had sown. But an evil which is certain, may be retarded; and
+ravages which tend finally to confusion, may be limited for many
+generations. Now, in the case of the African provincials which we have
+noticed, we see an original incapacity of Islamism, even in its palmy
+condition, for amalgamating with any _superior_ culture. And the
+specific action of Mahometanism in the African case, as contrasted with
+the Roman economy which it supplanted, is thus exhibited by Mr Finlay in
+a most instructive passage, where every negation on the Mahometan side
+is made to suggest the countervailing usage positively on the side of
+the Romans. O children of Romulus! how noble do you appear when thus
+fiercely contrasted with the wild boars who desolated your vineyards!
+"No local magistrates elected by the people, and no parish priests
+connected by their feelings and interests both with their superiors and
+inferiors, bound society together by common ties; and no system of legal
+administration, independent of the military and financial authorities,
+preserved the property of the people from the rapacity of the
+government."
+
+Such, we are to understand, was _not_ the Mahometan system: such _had_
+been the system of Rome. "Socially and politically," proceeds the
+passage, "the Saracen empire was little better than the Gothic, Hunnish,
+and Avar monarchies; and that it proved more durable, with almost equal
+oppression, is to be attributed to the powerful enthusiasm of Mahomet's
+religion, which tempered for some time its avarice and tyranny." The
+same sentiment is repeated still more emphatically at p. 468--"The
+political policy of the Saracens was of itself utterly barbarous; and it
+only caught a passing gleam of justice from the religious feeling of
+their prophet's doctrines."
+
+Thus far, therefore, it appears that Mahometanism is not much indebted
+to its too famous founder: it owes to him a principle, viz. the unity of
+God, which, merely through a capital blunder, it fancies peculiar to
+itself. Nothing but the grossest ignorance in Mahomet, nothing but the
+grossest non-acquaintance with Greek authors on the part of the Arabs,
+could have created or sustained the delusion current amongst that
+illiterate people--that it was themselves only who rejected Polytheism.
+Had but one amongst the personal enemies of Mahomet been acquainted with
+Greek, _there_ was an end of the new religion in the first moon of its
+existence. Once open the eyes of Arabs to the fact, that Christians had
+anticipated them in this great truth of the divine unity, and
+Mahometanism could only have ranked as a subdivision of Christianity.
+Mahomet would have ranked only as a Christian heresiarch or schismatic;
+such as Nestorius or Marcian at one time, such as Arius or Pelagius at
+another. In his character of _theologian_, therefore, Mahomet was simply
+the most memorable of blunderers, supported in his blunders by the most
+unlettered of nations. In his other character of _legislator_, we have
+seen, that already the earliest stages of Mahometan experience exposed
+decisively his ruinous imbecility. Where a rude tribe offered no
+resistance to his system, for the simple reason that their barbarism
+suggested no motive for resistance, it could be no honour to prevail.
+And where, on the other hand, a higher civilization had furnished strong
+points of repulsion to his system, it appears plainly that this
+pretended apostle of social improvement had devised or hinted no readier
+mode of conciliation than by putting to the sword all dissentients. He
+starts as a theological reformer, with a fancied defiance to the world
+which was no defiance at all, being exactly what Christians had believed
+for six centuries, and Jews for six-and-twenty. He starts as a political
+reformer, with a fancied conciliation to the world which was no
+conciliation at all, but was sure to provoke imperishable hostility
+wheresoever it had any effect at all.
+
+We have thus reviewed some of the more splendid aspects connected with
+Mr Finlay's theme; but that theme, in its entire compass, is worthy of a
+far more extended investigation than our own limits will allow, or than
+the historical curiosity of the world (misdirected here as in so many
+other cases) has hitherto demanded. The Greek race, suffering a long
+occultation under the blaze of the Roman empire, into which for a time
+it had been absorbed, but again emerging from this blaze and reassuming
+a distinct Greek agency and influence, offers a subject great by its own
+inherent attractions, and separately interesting by the unaccountable
+neglect which it has suffered. To have overlooked this subject, is one
+amongst the capital oversights of Gibbon. To have rescued it from utter
+oblivion, and to have traced an outline for its better illumination, is
+the peculiar merit of Mr Finlay. His greatest fault is to have been
+careless or slovenly in the niceties of classical and philological
+precision. His greatest praise, and a very great one indeed, is--to have
+thrown the light of an _original_ philosophic sagacity upon a neglected
+province of history, indispensable to the _arrondissement_ of Pagan
+archaeology.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+{A} _Greece under the Romans._ BY GEORGE FINLAY, K.R.G. William Blackwood
+& Sons. Edinburgh and London. 1844.
+
+{B} "_With scorn._"--This has arisen from two causes: one is the habit of
+regarding the whole Roman empire as in its "decline" from so early a
+period as that of Commodus; agreeably to which conceit, it would
+naturally follow that, during its latter stages, the Eastern empire must
+have been absolutely in its dotage. If already declining in the second
+century, then, from the tenth to the fifteenth it must have been
+paralytic and bed-ridden. The other cause may be found in the accidental
+but reasonable hostility of the Byzantine court to the first Crusaders,
+as also in the disadvantageous comparison with respect to manly virtues
+between the simplicity of these western children, and the refined
+dissimulation of the Byzantines.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+56, Number 348, by Various
+
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