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diff --git a/25066.txt b/25066.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c895478 --- /dev/null +++ b/25066.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9867 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 25066.txt or 25066.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/6/25066/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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