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diff --git a/28532.txt b/28532.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4f8408 --- /dev/null +++ b/28532.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9562 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, +No. 363, January, 1846, 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 59, No. 363, January, 1846 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 7, 2009 [EBook #28532] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1846 *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Library of Early +Journals.) + + + + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +Edinburgh + +MAGAZINE + +VOL. LIX. + +JANUARY-JUNE, 1846. + +[Illustration] + +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH; + +AND + +37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + +1846. + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + +No. CCCLXIII. JANUARY, 1846. VOL. LIX. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT, 1 + +LET NEVER CRUELTY DISHONOUR BEAUTY, 16 + +THE LAST HOURS OF A REIGN. CONCLUSION, 17 + +A CAMPAIGN IN TEXAS, 37 + +THE MOTHER AND HER DEAD CHILD, 53 + +THE GREEK AND ROMANTIC DRAMA, 54 + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. III., 73 + +THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA. PART III., 85 + +SICILIAN SKETCHES. SYRACUSIANA, 103 + +AESTHETICS OF DRESS. MILITARY COSTUME, 114 + +FROM GOETHE, 120 + +CHRISTMAS CAROL. 1845, 122 + +THE CRISIS, 124 + + * * * * * + +EDINBURGH: +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; +AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, 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. + + + + +SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT. + + +The disappearance from the legal hemisphere of so bright a star as the +late Sir William Follett, cast a gloom, not yet dissipated, over the +legal profession, and all classes of society capable of appreciating +great intellectual eminence. He died in his forty-seventh year; filling +the great office of her Majesty's Attorney-general; the head and pride +of the British Bar; a bright ornament of the senate; in the prime of +manhood, and the plenitude of his extraordinary intellectual vigour; in +the full noontide of success, just as he had reached the dazzling +pinnacle of professional and official distinction. The tones of his low +mellow voice were echoing sadly in the ears, his dignified and graceful +figure and gesture were present to the eyes, of the bench and bar--when, +at the commencement of last Michaelmas term, they re-assembled, with +recruited energies, in the ancient inns of court, for the purpose of +resuming their laborious and responsible professional exertions in +Westminster Hall. It was impossible not to think, at such a time, of Sir +William Follett, without being conscious of having sustained a grievous, +if not an irreparable, loss. Where was he whose name was so lately a +tower of strength to suitors; whose consummate logical skill--whose +wonderful resources--taxed to the uttermost those of judicial intellect, +and baffled and overthrew the strongest who could be opposed to him in +forensic warfare? Where, alas, was Sir William Follett? His eloquent +lips were stilled in death, his remains were mouldering in the +tomb--yes, almost within the very walls of that sacred structure, +hallowed with the recollections and associations of centuries, in which +his surviving brethren were assembled for worship on Sunday the 2d day +of November 1845--the commencement of the present legal year--at that +period of it when _his_ was erewhile ever the most conspicuous and +shining figure, _his_ exertions were the most interesting, the most +important, _his_ success was at once the most easy, decisive, and +dazzling. Yes, there were assembled his brethren, who, with saddened +faces and beating hearts, had attended his solemn obsequies in that very +temple where was "committed his body to the ground, earth to earth, +ashes to ashes, dust to dust," where all, including the greatest and +noblest in the land, acknowledged, humbly and mournfully, at the mouth +of his grave, _that man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth +himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather +them_! Surely these are solemnizing and instructive reflections; and +many a heart will acknowledge them to be such, amidst all the din, and +glare, and bustle of worldly affairs, in the awful presence of Him _who +turneth man to destruction, and sayeth, Come again, ye children of men_! + +Sir William Follett has now lain in his grave for six months. During +this interval, the excitement which his death created amongst those who +had been in constant intercourse with him for years, has subsided; +leaving them better able to take a calm and candid view of his +character, acquirements, and position, and form a sober estimate of the +nature and extent of his reputation while living, and the probability of +its permanently surviving him. + +When summoned from the scene of his splendid and successful exertions, +he was unquestionably the brightest ornament of the British bar. +Immediately afterwards the press teemed with tributes to his memory: +some of them characterised by great acuteness and discrimination, +several by exaggerated eulogy, and one or two by a harsh +disingenuousness amounting to misrepresentation and malevolence. Nothing +excited more astonishment among those who had thoroughly known Sir +William Follett, than the appearance of these attacks upon his memory, +and the bad taste and feeling which alone could have prompted the +perpetration of them, at a moment when the hearts of his surviving +relatives and friends were quivering with the first agonies of their +severe bereavement; when they had just lost one who had been the pride +of their family, the pillar of their hopes,--and who was universally +supposed to have left behind him not a single enemy--who had been +distinguished for his courteous, mild, and inoffensive character, and +its unblemished purity in all the relations of private life. Certain of +the strictures here alluded to, were petty, coarse, and uncandid; and +with this observation they are dismissed from further notice. Sir +William Follett had undoubtedly his shortcomings, in common with every +one of his fellow men; and, as a small set-off against his many +excellences of temper and character, one or two must be glanced at by +any one essaying to present to the public, however imperfectly, a just +account of this very eminent person. The failing in question formed the +chief subject of vituperation--_vituperation of the dead!_--by the +ungracious parties to whom brief reference has just been made; and +consists, in short, in the excessive eagerness to accumulate money, by +which it was alleged that the late Sir William Follett was +characterised. This charge is certainly not without foundation; but +while this frank admission is made, an important consideration ought to +accompany it in guiding the judgment of every person of just and +generous feeling; and will relieve the memory of the departed from much +of the discredit sought to be attached to it. + +The life of Sir William Follett appears to have been, from the first, of +frail tenure. Could he have foreseen the terrible tax upon his scanty +physical resources which would be exacted by the profession which he was +about to adopt, he would probably have abandoned his intentions, justly +conscious though he might have been of his superior mental fitness for +the Bar, and would have betaken himself to some more tranquil walk of +life, which he might have been at this moment brightly adorning. He +devoted himself, however, to the law, with intense and undivided energy; +and, at a very early period of his professional career, was compelled to +retire for a time from practice, by one of the most serious mischances +which can befall humanity--it is believed, the bursting of a bloodvessel +in the lungs. Was not this a very fearful occurrence--was it not almost +conclusive evidence of the unwise choice which he had made of a +profession requiring special strength in that organ--was it not justly +calculated to alarm him for his future safety? And yet, what was he to +have done? To have abandoned a profession for which alone he had +qualified himself by years of profound and exclusive thought and labour? +What Office would, under such circumstances, have insured the life of +young Mr Follett, who, with such a fatal flaw in his constitution, was +nevertheless following a profession which would hourly attack his most +vulnerable part? Poor Follett! who can tell the apprehensions and +agonies concerning his safety, to which he was doomed, from the moment +of his first solemn summons to the grave, on the occasion alluded to? +What had happened, he too well knew, might happen again at any moment, +and hurry him out of life, leaving, in that case, comparatively +destitute those whom he tenderly loved--for whom he was bound to +provide--his widow and children. And for the widow and children of such +a man as he knew that he had become, he felt that he ought to make a +suitable provision: that those who, after he was gone, were to bear his +distinguished name, might be enabled to occupy the position in which he +had placed them with dignity and comfort. Was such an illegitimate +source of anxiety to one so circumstanced, and capable of Sir William +Follett's superior aspirations? Was it not abundantly justified by his +splendid qualifications and expectations? Why, then, should he not toil +severely--exert himself even desperately--to provide against the direful +contingency to which his life was subject? Alas! how many ambitious, +honourable, high-minded, and fond husbands and fathers are echoing such +questions with a sigh of agony! Poor Follett! 'twas for such reasons +that he lived with an honourable economy, eschewing that extravagance +and ostentation which too often, to men in his dazzling position, prove +irresistible; it was for such reasons that he _rose up early, and went +to bed late, and ate the bread of carefulness_. Had he been alone in the +world--had he had none to provide for but himself, and yet had +manifested the same feverish eagerness to acquire and accumulate +money--had he loved money for money's sake, and accumulated it from the +love of accumulation, the case would have been totally different. He +might then have been justly despised, and characterized as being _of the +earth, earthy_--incapable of high and generous sentiments and +aspirations--sordid, grovelling, and utterly despicable. Sir William +Follett had, during twenty years of intense and self-denying toil, +succeeded in acquiring an ample fortune, which he disposed of, at his +death, justly and generously; and how many hours of exhaustion, both of +mind and body, must have been cheered, from time to time, by reflecting +upon the satisfactory provision which he was making--which he was daily +augmenting--for those who were to survive him! Who can tell how much of +the bitterness of death was assuaged by such considerations! When his +fading eyes bent their aching glances upon those who wept around his +death-bed, the retrospect of a life of labour and privation spent in +providing for their comfort, must indeed have been sweet and +consolatory! Surely this is but fair towards the distinguished dead. It +is but just towards the memory of the departed, to believe his conduct +to have been principally influenced by such considerations. All men have +many faults--most men have grave faults. Is parsimony intrinsically more +culpable than prodigality? Have not most of mankind a tendency towards +one or the other? for how few are ennobled by the ability to steer +evenly between the two! And even granting that Sir William Follett had a +_tendency_ towards the former failing, it was surely exhibited under +circumstances which warrant us in saying, that "even his failings leaned +to virtue's side." + +Connected with and immediately dependent upon this imputation upon the +late Sir William Follett, is another which cannot be overlooked. He is +charged with having made a profit of his prodigious popularity and +reputation, by discreditably and unconscientiously receiving fees from +clients for services which he well knew at the time that he could not +possibly render to them; in short, with taking briefs in cases to which +he had no reasonable hope of being able to attend. This is a very grave +accusation, and requires a deliberate and honest examination. It is a +long-established rule of English law, that barristers have no legal +means of recovering their fees, even in cases of most arduous and +successful exertion, except in the very few instances where a barrister +may consider it consistent with the dignity of his position to enter +beforehand into an express agreement with his client for the payment of +his fees[A]. A barrister's fee is regarded, in the eye of the law, as +_quiddam honorarium_; and is usually--and ought to be invariably--paid +beforehand, on the brief being delivered. A fee thus paid, a rule at the +bar forbids being returned, except under very special circumstances; and +the rule in question is a very reasonable one. As counsel have no legal +title to remuneration, however laborious their exertions, what would be +their position if they were expected or required to return their fees at +the instance of unreasonable and disappointed clients? Where ought the +line to be drawn? Who is to be the judge in such a case? A client may +have derived little or no benefit from his counsel's exertions, which +may yet have been very great; an accident, an oversight may have +intervened, and prevented his completing those exertions by attending at +the trial either at all, or during the whole of the trial; he may have +become unable to provide an efficient substitute; through the sudden +pressure of other engagements, he may be unable to bestow upon the case +the deliberate and thorough consideration which it requires--an +unexpected and formidable difficulty may prove too great for his means +of overcoming it, as might have been the case with men of superior skill +and experience;--in these and many other instances which might be put, +an angry and defeated client would rarely be without some pretext for +requiring the return of his fees, and counsel would be subject to a +pressure perfectly intolerable, most unreasonable, most unfair to +themselves, leading to results seriously prejudicial to the interests of +their clients; and a practice would be introduced entailing great evils +and inconveniences, affecting the credit and honour of both branches of +the legal profession. The rule in question rests upon the above, among +many other valid reasons, and is generally acted upon. No one, however, +can have any practical knowledge of the bar, without being aware of very +many instances of counsel disregarding that rule, and evincing a noble +disinterestedness in the matter of fees, either returning or declining +to accept them, at a severe sacrifice of time and labour, after great +anxiety and exertion have been bestowed, and successfully bestowed. The +rule in question is rigidly adhered to, subject to these exceptions by +eminent counsel, on another ground; viz. for the protection of junior +counsel, who would be subject to incessant importunities if confronted +by the examples of their seniors. Take, now, the case of a counsel who +has eclipsed most, if not every one, of his competitors, in reputation, +for the skill and success of his advocacy--who is acute, ready, +dexterous, sagacious, eloquent, and of accurate and profound legal +knowledge: that is the man whose name instantly occurs to any one +involved, or likely to be involved, in litigation--such an one must be +instantly secured--_at all events, taken from the enemy_--at any cost. +The pressure upon such a counsel's time and energies then becomes really +enormous, and all but insupportable. As it is of the last importance +either to secure his splendid services, or deprive the enemy of them, +such a counsel--and such, it need hardly be said, was Sir William +Follett--is continually made the subject of mere speculation by clients +who are content to take the _chance_ of obtaining his attendance, with +the _certainty_ of securing his absence as an opponent. When, however, +the hour of battle has arrived, and, with a compact array visible upon +the opposite side, the great captain is _not_ where it had been +hoped--or thought possible that he might have been--when, moreover, no +adequate provision has been made against such a serious +contingency--when the battle has been fought and lost, and great +interests are seriously compromised, or for ever sacrificed--_then_ the +client is apt, in the first smarting agony of defeat, to forget the +_chance_ which he had been content to run, and to persuade himself that +he had from the first calculated as a matter of _certainty_ on the great +man's attendance--and intense is that client's chagrin, and loud are his +complaints. Can it be supposed that this eminent counsel is not +sufficiently aware of the true state of the case? It is but fair to +give him credit for being under the impression, that all which is +expected from him, in many cases, is his best exertions to attend the +trial or hearing--to provide an effective substitute, if unable to +attend--and give due attention to the case at consultation. For counsel +to act otherwise, deliberately to receive a brief and fee, in a case +which he _knows_ that he cannot possibly attend, without in the first +instance fairly intimating as much to the client--to do so, in cases of +importance, and habitually--is surely most foully dishonourable, +dishonest, and cruel; and conduct which there is no pretence for +imputing to the members of the bar. It cannot, however, be denied, that +very serious misunderstandings occasionally arise on such occasions; but +there are many ways of accounting for them, without having recourse to a +supposition involving such serious imputations upon the honour of +counsel--arising out of _bona fide_ accident and mistake--the +unavoidable hurry and sudden emergencies of business--misunderstandings +between a counsel and his clerks;[B] between either or both, and the +client--and the perplexity and confusion almost necessarily attending +the movements of very eminent counsel. On such occasions every thing is +usually done which can be dictated by liberality and honour, and fees +are returned without hesitation. If, however, the case can be looked at +from another point of view--if the eager client be fairly apprised by +the clerk, that Sir ---- or Mr ---- "may not be able to attend"--or, +"there is a _chance_ of his attending"--or "he is very likely to be +elsewhere"--and, aware of the multifarious and conflicting calls upon +the time of Sir ---- or Mr ----, will be content to take his "chance," +and deliver his brief, and pay his fee; in such a case the client will +have had all which he had a right to expect,--viz. the chance, not the +certainty; there will be no pretence for alleging careless +misunderstanding or deception. + +If ever there were a member of the English bar who may be said to have +been overwhelmed by the distracting importunities of clients to secure +his services, at all hazards and at any cost, it was the late Sir +William Follett; and how he contrived to satisfy the calls upon him, to +the extent which he did, is truly wonderful. How can one head, and one +tongue, do so much, so admirably? is a question which has a thousand +times occurred to those of his brethren at the bar, who knew most of his +movements, and were least likely to form an exaggerated estimate of his +exertions. The litigant public seemed to feel that every moment of this +accomplished and distinguished advocate's waking hours was their own, +and they were restricting his sleeping hours within the very narrowest +limits. Every one would have had Sir William every where, in every +thing, at once! Whenever, during the last fifteen years of his life, +there was a cause of magnitude and difficulty, there was Sir William +Follett. What vast interests have been by turns perilled and protected, +according as Sir William Follett acted upon the offensive or defensive! +Misty and intricate claims to dormant peerages, before committees of +privileges, in the House of Lords; appeals to the High Court of +Parliament, from all the superior courts, both of law and equity, in the +United Kingdom, involving questions of the greatest possible nicety and +complexity--and that, too, in the law of Scotland, both mercantile and +conveyancing, so dissimilar to that prevailing in other parts of the +kingdom; appeals before the Privy Council, from the judicial decisions +of courts in every quarter of the globe where British possessions exist, +and administering varying systems of law, all different from that of +England; the most important cases in the courts of equity, in courts of +error, and the common law courts in _banc_; all the great cases +depending before parliamentary committees, till he entered the House of +Commons; every special jury cause of consequence in London and +Middlesex, and in any of the other counties in England, whither he went +upon special retainers; compensation cases, involving property to a very +large amount;--in all these cases, the first point was--to secure Sir +William Follett; and, for that purpose, run a desperate race with an +opponent. Every morning that Sir William Follett rose from his bed, he +had to contemplate a long series of important and pressing engagements +filling up almost every minute of his time--not knowing where or before +what tribunal he might be at any given moment of the day--and often +wholly ignorant of what might be the nature of the case he would have to +conduct, against the most able and astute opponents who could be pitted +against him, and before the greatest judicial intellects of the kingdom: +aware of the boundless confidence in his powers reposed by his clients, +the great interests entrusted to him, and the heavy pecuniary sacrifices +by which his exertions had been secured. Relying with a just confidence +on his extraordinary rapidity in mastering all kinds of cases almost as +soon as they could be brought under his notice, and also on the desire +universally manifested by both the bench and the bar to consult the +convenience and facilitate the business arrangements of one, himself so +courteous and obliging to all, and whom they knew to be entrusted at a +heavy expense to his clients, with the greatest interests involved in +litigation; relying upon these considerations, and also upon those +others which have been already alluded to, Sir William Follett +undoubtedly permitted briefs to be delivered to him, _all_ of which he +must have suspected himself to be incapable of personally attending to. +It must be owned that on many such occasions he may not--distracted with +the multiplicity of his exhausting labours--have given that full +consideration to those matters which it was his bounden duty to have +given to them; and his conduct in this respect has been justly censured +by both branches of the high and honourable profession to whom the +public entrusts such mighty interests. Still he turned away business +from his chambers which would have made the fortunes of two or three +even eminent barristers, and has been known to act with spirit and +liberality in cases where his imprudence on the score alluded to had +been attended with inconvenience and loss to his clients. Nor was he +_always_ so fortunate, as latterly, with respect to his clerks; who had, +equally with himself, a direct pecuniary interest[C] on every brief +which he accepted, and consequently a strong motive for listening with a +too favourable ear to the importunities of clients. The necessary +consequence of all this was occasionally the bitter upbraiding of Sir +William Follett's desperately disappointed and defeated clients. Still, +however, he did make most extraordinary efforts to satisfy all the +claims upon his time and energies, and at length sacrificed himself in +doing so; to a very great extent foregoing domestic and social +enjoyments--sparing himself neither by night nor by day, neither in mind +nor body. Crowded with consultations as was almost every hour of the +day not actually spent in open business in court--from the earliest +period in the morning till the latest at night--it was really amazing +that he contrived to obtain that perfect mastery of his ponderous and +intricate briefs, which secured him his repeated and splendid triumphs +in court. Till within even the last eighteen months, or two years, if +you had gone down one morning at half-past nine to Westminster, you +might have heard him opening with masterly ease, clearness, and skill, a +patent case, or some other important matter, before a special jury; and +immediately after resuming his seat, you would see him go perhaps into +an adjoining court of Nisi Prius, in which also he was engaged as +leading counsel, and where he would quickly ascertain the exact position +of the case--and effectively cross-examine or re-examine a witness, or +object to or support the admissibility of evidence;--then if you +followed his footsteps, you would find him in the Lord Chancellor's +Court, engaged in some equity case of great magnitude and difficulty. +Some time afterwards be might be seen hastening to the Privy +Council--and by about two or three o'clock at the bar of the House of +Lords, in the midst of an admirable reply in some great appeal or +peerage case. When the House broke up, Sir William Follett would doff +the full-bottomed wig in which alone Queen's counsel are allowed to +appear before the House of Lords, and, resuming his short wig, reappear +in either--or by turns in both--the Courts of Nisi Prius, where he had +left trials pending, having directed himself to be sent for if there +should arise any necessity for it. Then he would in a very few moments +calmly possess himself of the exact state of the cause, and resume his +personal conduct of it, as effectively as if he had never quitted the +Court. If he could be spared for a quarter of an hour, he would glide +out, followed by one or two counsel and attorneys, to hold one, or +perhaps two consultations, in cases fixed for the next day. On the +court's rising--perhaps about six or seven o'clock, he would go home to +swallow a hasty dinner; then hold one, two, or even three consultations +at his own house; read over--as none but he could read--some briefs; and +about eleven or twelve o'clock make his appearance in the House of +Commons, and perhaps take a leading part in some very critical +debate--listened to with uninterrupted silence, and with the admiration +of both friends and foes. The above, with the exception of taking part +in the debate of the House of Commons, was an average day's work of the +late Sir William Follett! And was it not the life of a galley-slave +chained to the oar? He had, however, chosen it, and would not quit his +seat but at the icy touch of death. Such appears to be a fair and +temperate account of the real state of the case, with reference to Sir +William Follett's great anxiety to acquire money, and his over-eagerness +in accepting briefs. Great allowances ought undoubtedly to be made for +him, on the grounds above suggested; and, with reference to the former +case, another consideration occurs, which ought to have been already +more distinctly adverted to. Sir William Follett had a right to regard +his elevation to the peerage as a matter almost of course. Had he lived +possibly only a few months longer, he would, in all probability, have +become a peer of the realm; and he ought to be given credit for an +honourable ambition to avoid the imputation of having inflicted a pauper +peerage upon the country. Frail he knew his health to be; and +doubtlessly contemplated the necessity of providing suitably for the +family whom he was to leave behind him, and which he had ennobled. But +what was involved in providing, under such circumstances, "_suitably_" +for a noble family? What ample means would have to be secured by one who +had inherited no fortune himself, but was, on the contrary, the sole +architect of his fortunes? What prodigious efforts are necessary for a +lawyer to realise, by his own individual exertions, an amount which +would produce an income of five, four, or even three thousand a-year? +And let any one of common sense, and ordinary knowledge of the world, +ask himself--whether the highest of those amounts is more than barely +sufficient, without undue economy, to provide for a dowager peeress and +a young family! That such considerations were not lost sight of by Sir +William Follett, but, on the contrary, were stimulants to his intense, +unremitting, and exhausting labours, it is easy to understand; and they +sprang out of a high, and honourable, and a legitimate ambition. But +whatever weight may be attached to these considerations--and generosity +and forbearance towards the dead will attach great weight to them--they +are no answer to much of the charge brought against the late Sir William +Follett, and which ought not to be glossed over and explained +away--that, in his excessive eagerness to accomplish his object, he was +hurried into an occasional forgetfulness of that nice and high sense of +moral principle which ought to regulate every one's conduct--especially +those in eminent positions--for the sake of illustrious example, and, in +a man's own case, with reference to the awful realities of HEREAFTER: +for a man should strive so to pass through things temporal, as not to +lose sight of things eternal. + +Let us now, however, endeavour to point out some of the excellences of +Sir William Follett's character; and perhaps the most prominent of them +was his admirable temper. Continually in collision with others, on +behalf of important interests entrusted to him, and exposed to a +thousand trials and provocations--that temper, nevertheless, scarce ever +failed him. Serene and unruffled on the most exciting occasions, his +manners were perfectly fascinating to all those who came in contact with +him. A rude or unkind expression may be said never to have fallen from +his lips towards an opponent--or, indeed, any one; towards juniors and +inferiors he was always good-natured and considerate; and towards the +judicial bench he exhibited uniformly a demeanour of dignified courtesy +and deference. He was very tenacious of his own opinions--confident in +the propriety of his view of a case--_apparently so, always_, for he +could assume a confidence though he had it not--and would persevere in +his efforts to overcome the adverse humour of judges and juries, to an +extent never exceeded; yet withal so blandly, so unassumingly, so +mildly, that he never irritated or provoked any one. His temper and +self-possession were unequalled, and approached, as nearly as possible, +to perfection. Amidst all the distracting multiplicity of his +engagements--the sudden and harassing emergencies arising incessantly +out of his prodigious practice--he preserved an urbane tranquillity +which gave him on all occasions the full possession of his extraordinary +faculties, enabled him to concentrate them instantly upon whatever was +submitted to his attention, however suddenly--and to conquer without +irritating or mortifying even the most eager and sensitive opponent. He +never suffered himself to be in a _hurry_, or _fidgeted_; however sudden +and serious the emergency which frighted others from their propriety, he +retained and exhibited complete composure; surveying his position with +lightning rapidity, and taking his measures with consummate +caution--with prompt and bold decision. His guiding energies kept +frequently half a dozen important causes all going on at once in their +proper course. He would glide in at a critical moment--paying, in his +agitated client's view, "an angel's visit"--and with smiling ease seize +advantages seen by none but himself, repair disasters appearing to +others irreparable, and with a single blow demolish the entire fabric +which in his absence had been laboriously and skilfully raised by his +opponent. No impetuosity or irritability, on the part of others, could +provoke him to retaliate, or sufficed to disturb that marvellous +equanimity of his, which enabled him the rather good-naturedly to +convert impetuosity and loss of temper in others, into an instrument of +victory for himself. When others, not similarly blessed, would, in like +manner, essay to rush to the rescue, their hurried and confused +movements served only to place them more completely prostrate before +him. The instant after the issue had been--perhaps suddenly--decided in +Sir William's favour--through some unexpected masterstroke of his--he +would turn with an arch smile to his opponent, and whisper--"How did +you come to let me do it?" If his advance were met sulkily, he would +add, with unaffected good humour, "Come, don't be angry; I dare say you +will serve me in the same way to-morrow!" Towards adverse and frequently +interrupting judges--towards petulant counsel--towards impudent, +equivocating, dishonest witnesses, Sir William Follett exhibited +unwavering calmness and self-possession; and withal a dignity of +demeanour by which he was remarkably distinguished, and which lent +importance to even the most trivial cases which could be intrusted to +his advocacy. Perhaps no man ever defeated a greater number of important +cases, by unexpected objections of the very extremest technical +character, than Sir William Follett; but he would do it with an air and +manner so courteous and imposing, as to lead the uninitiated into the +belief that there were doubtless good reasons by which such a course +having been reluctantly adopted, was morally justified. This topic +naturally leads to some observations upon the consummate skill, the +wonderful rapidity of perception, precision of movement, and unfaltering +vigilance, which characterized Sir William Follett's conduct of +business. Doubtless his own consciousness of possessing powers and +resources far beyond those of the majority of counsel opposed to him, as +evidenced in his extraordinary successes, contributed, in no small +degree, to his maintenance of that composed self-reliance, and +forbearance towards others, by which he was so peculiarly distinguished, +and which was aided by a naturally tranquil temperament. What advantage +could escape one so uniformly and surprisingly calm, vigilant, and +guarded as Sir William Follett? It might have been supposed that a man +so overwhelmed with all but incompatible professional engagements, could +not give to each case that full and undivided attention which were +requisite to secure success, especially against the ablest members of +the bar, who were constantly opposed to him. It was, however, very far +otherwise. No one ever ventured to calculate upon Sir William Follett's +overlooking a slip or failing to seize an advantage. _Totus teres atque +rotundus_ must indeed have been the case which was to withstand his +onslaughts. So accurate and extensive was his legal knowledge, so acute +his discrimination, so dexterous were all his movements, so lynx-eyed +was his vigilant attention to what was going on, that the most learned +and able of his opponents were never at their ease till after victory +had been definitively announced from the bench--from a Court of +Error--or even the House of Lords. They were necessarily on the _qui +vive_ to the very latest moment. Some short time before he was compelled +to relinquish practice, a certain counsel was engaged with him as junior +in a case before the Privy Council, which it was deemed of great moment +that Sir William Follett should be able to attend to. + +"I don't exactly know how I stand in the Queen's Bench to-morrow +morning," said he, at the consultation late over-night--"but I fear that +that long troublesome case of the ---- Railway will be brought on by +---- at the sitting of the court. I'm afraid I can't get him to put it +off--but I'll try; and if he won't, I may yet be able to _settle_ the +case before he has got far into it--for it will be very strange if all +their proceedings are right." + +On this slender chance rested the likelihood of Sir William's attendance +at the Privy Council. The next morning at ten o'clock, beheld all the +counsel on both sides ready for action. + +"You're not going to bring on the ---- case this morning, are you?" +whispered Sir William Follett, as soon as he had taken his seat, to his +opponent who was arranging his papers. + +"I am indeed, and no mistake whatever about it." + +"Can't we bring it on to-morrow, or some day next week? It would greatly +oblige me--I really have scarcely read my papers, and, besides, want to +be elsewhere." + +"I'll see what my clients say,"--and then he consulted them, and +resumed--"No--my people are peremptory." + +"Very well. Then keep your eyes wide open. I must bring you down as soon +as possible, for I want to be elsewhere." + +"Ah--I must take my chance about that"--then, turning round to an +experienced and learned junior, he whispered--"You hear what Follett +says?--Are we really all right?" + +"Oh, pho! never mind him--we are as right as possible." + +A few moments afterwards, up rose ----, and soon got into his case, and +very soon, also, to the end of it. The case had not been heard more than +half an hour, Sir William Follett at once attentively listening to his +opponent, and hastily glancing over his own papers, when he rose very +quietly, and said--"If my learned friend will pardon me, I think, my +Lord, I can save the court a very long and useless enquiry--for there is +clearly a fatal objection _in limine_ to these proceedings." + +"Let us hear what it is," said the court. + +Sir William had completely checkmated his opponent! A statutory +requisition had not been complied with; and in less than ten minutes' +time the enemy were all prostrate--their expensive and elaborate +proceedings all defeated--and that, too, permanently, unless on acceding +to the terms which Sir William Follett dictated to them, and which, it +need hardly be observed, were somewhat advantageous to his own client! + +"Really this is too bad, Follett," might have been heard whispered by +his opponent, as the next case was called in. + +"Not at all--why didn't you let it stand over as I asked you?" + +"Oh--you would have done just the same then as you have now." + +"I don't know that," replied Sir William Follett with a significant +smile. "But why won't your people be more careful?" And then turning to +his junior, said--"Now for the Privy Council!" And all this with such +provoking, easy, smiling _nonchalance_! + +Heaven forbid that any thing here said should favour the attempt to +defeat justice by technical objections; but there is, at the same time, +much vulgar error on that subject, grounded on reasons which would tend +to subvert all rules of law and legal procedure whatever. In the case +above mentioned, the legislature had thought fit to impose on applicants +for redress under the statute in question, a duty, which through haste +or negligence had been overlooked, and which Sir William Follett's +clients had a perfect right to take advantage of, as soon as his +acuteness had detected it. To return, however. No member of the bar, let +his experience and skill have been what they might, was ever opposed to +Sir William Follett without feeling, as has been already intimated, the +necessity of the greatest possible vigilance and research to encounter +his boundless resources; his dangerous subtlety and acuteness in +detecting flaws, and raising objections; his matchless art in concealing +defects in his own case; and building up, with easy grace, a +superstructure equally unsubstantial and imposing, and defeating all +attempts to assail or overthrow it. Even very strong heads would be +often at fault, conscious that they were the victim of some subtle +fallacy, which yet they could not _then and there_ detect and expose; +and by their hazy and inconsistent efforts to do so, only supplied +additional materials for the use of their astute and skilful enemy, to +whom nothing ever seemed to come amiss; who converted every thing into +ingredients of success; whom scarce any surprise or mischance could +defeat or overthrow. A very short time before he withdrew from practice, +he was engaged at Liverpool, whither he had gone upon a special +retainer, in a very intricate and important ejectment case. + +Unexpectedly he discovered, when about half-way through the case, that +his client (the plaintiff) had omitted to serve a notice upon the +defendant's attorney to produce a certain critical document, at the +contents of which it was necessary to get, in order to make out the +plaintiff's case. The objection was promptly taken by his opponent--and +to the dismay of Sir William's clients. Not so with him, however. + +"You have not given a notice to produce them, eh?" he calmly whispered +to his client, and was answered with a disturbed air in the negative; +and all the court saw that Sir William was in the very jaws of a +non-suit. + +"You ought to have done so, but it does not much signify," said he, very +quietly--"what's the name of the defendant's attorney?" and, on being +told it, that gentleman, doubtless chuckling with delight in his +anticipated triumph, was somewhat astounded by being suddenly called as +a witness by Sir William Follett; who coolly asked him to produce the +document in question--and on his refusal, with one or two artful +questions, which completely concealed his real object, elicited the fact +that he had no such document, had searched every where for it, both in +his own office, and among his clients' papers, and elsewhere, but in +vain. + +"Now, then, my lord," said Sir William Follett, "I am entitled to give +secondary evidence of its contents!" + +The Judge assented. + +Sir William extracted from his own witness all that was necessary--and +out of the nettle danger plucking the flower _safety_, won the verdict. +Every one, however, who has had opportunities of observing, can give +many instances of Sir William Follett's extraordinary tact and readiness +in encountering unexpected difficulty, and defeating an opponent by +interposing successive unthought-of obstacles. In the most desperate +emergencies, when the full tide of success was arrested by some totally +unlooked-for impediment, Sir William Follett's vast practical knowledge, +quickness of perception, unerring sagacity, and immoveable +self-possession, enabled him, without any apparent effort or uneasiness, +to remove that impediment almost as soon as it was discovered, and +conduct his case to a triumphant issue. He was, indeed, the very +perfection of a practical lawyer. Whatever he did, he did as well as +even his most exacting client could have wished--he won the battle, won +it with little apparent effort, and won it with grace and dignity of +demeanour. A gentleman felt proud of being represented by such an +advocate--who never descended into any thing approaching even the +confines of vulgarity, coarseness, or personality--who lent even to the +flimsiest case a semblance of substance and strength--whose consummate +and watchful adroitness placed weak places quite out of the sight and +reach of the shrewdest opponent, and never perilled a good case by a +single act of incaution, negligence, rashness, or supererogation. When +necessary, he would prove a case barely up to the point which would +suffice to secure a decision in his favour, and then leave it--equally +before the court, and a jury--the result afterwards showing with what +consummate judgment he had acted in running the risk--the latent +difficulties to have been afterwards encountered which he had avoided, +the collateral interests which he had shielded from danger. He possessed +that sort of intuitive sagacity which enabled him to see _safety_ at the +first instant of its existence--to be confident of having the judgment +of the court, or the verdict of the jury, when others deeply interested +and concerned in the cause imagined that they were making no way +whatever. "Now, I've knocked him," his opponent, "down"--he would say at +such a moment to his junior--"don't let him get up again! I must go off +to the House of Lords--and will come back if you want me! But mind, if +he attempt to do so or so--to put in such and such a paper, on no +account allow it; send for me, and fight till I come." He possessed, to +an extraordinary degree, the power of rapidly transferring his undivided +and undisturbed attention to every thing, great and small, which could +be brought before it. A single glance of his eye penetrated the most +obscure and perplexing parts of a case--a touch of his master-hand +disentangled apparently inextricable complexities. He could apply, with +beautiful promptitude and precision, some maxim or principle which had +not occurred to those who had devoted long and anxious attention to the +case, and which at once dissolved the difficulty. Whether acting on the +offensive or defensive, he was equally characterised by the great +qualities essential to successful advocacy; but perhaps, when acting on +the offensive, he displayed more formidable powers. He tripped up the +heels of the most wary and experienced antagonists, just when they +imagined themselves in the very act of throwing him. It was almost +useless to quote a "_case_" against him. Though the party doing so +deemed it precisely in point in his favour, and on that ground was +stopped by the court from proceeding further, Sir William Follett would +ask for the case; and rising up, after a momentary glance at it, show +that it was perfectly distinguishable from that before the court, and, +in a few minutes' time, would be interrupted by the court, with--"We +think, Mr ----, that you had better resume your argument!" If, on such +occasions, Sir William's opponent were not a ready and dextrous legal +logician, his client would wish that he had secured Sir William Follett. +His power of drawing distinctions and detecting analogies--and that, +too, on the spur of the moment--was almost unequalled. It was in vain +for an opponent to _feel_ that the suggested distinction was without a +difference--he could not _prove_ it to be so--he could not demonstrate +the fallacy which had been imposed on even a strong court by that +exquisite astuteness which, however sinister, was carried off by a +charming air of frankness and confidence in the validity of the +distinction. On such an occasion, directly the cause was over he would +turn round and say, laughingly, to his discomfited opponent, "You +haven't your wits about you this morning--why didn't you quote such and +such case?" or "say so and so?" Such things were never said in an +unpleasant manner--never truculently--never triumphantly--but simply +with a good-humoured, cheerful air of _badinage_, which, so far from +irritating you, took off the edge of vexation, and set you almost +laughing at yourself for having suffered yourself to be so completely +circumvented. + +While thus paying a just tribute to the skill and wonderful resources of +this eminent advocate, another of his great merits, which shall be +noticed, will afford an opportunity for doing justice to the junior bar, +with reference to the invaluable, and--to the public--often totally +unperceived, assistance which they afford to their leaders. Sir William +Follett was pre-eminently characterised by the rapidity with which he +availed himself of the suggestions and labours of others. A whisper--a +line or two--would suffice to suggest to him a truly admirable and +conclusive argument, which he instantly elaborated as if he had prepared +it deliberately beforehand in his chamber; and he would put the point +with infinitely greater cogency than could have been exhibited by him +who suggested it, and defend it from the assaults of his opponents and +the bench with truly admirable readiness and ingenuity. He exhibited +great judgment and discrimination, however, on these occasions. A false +or doubtful point he quietly rejected _in limine_, and would afterwards +point out to him who had suggested it, the impolicy of adopting it. Sir +William Follett, as is the case with all eminent leaders, was under very +great obligations, in his successful displays, to the learning and skill +of his juniors, and of the gentlemen who practise under the bar as +special pleaders. It is to them that is intrusted the responsible and +critical duty of preparing and advising upon pleadings, and shaping them +in the way in which they ought to be presented in court. Their +"opinions" and "arguments" are often of the greatest possible +value--often very masterly; and no one more highly estimated, or was +more frequently and largely indebted to them, than Sir William Follett; +but who could do such complete justice to them and so suddenly--as he? A +hasty glance over, in court, such an analysis of pleadings, or +affidavits, or legal documents of any kind, as has been spoken of--in a +cause to which he had been, up to that moment, entirely a +stranger--would suffice to put him in full possession of the true +bearings of the most complicated case; and his own great learning, +surpassing power of arrangement, and masterly argumentation, would do +the rest. If he were taken quite unawares in such a case, and could not +possibly procure its postponement, an instant's whisper with a junior--a +moment's glance at his papers--would make him apparently master of the +case; and, by some unexpected adroit manoeuvre, he would often +contrive to throw the labouring oar upon his opponent--and then, _from +him_, would acquire that knowledge of the facts of the case which Sir +William Follett rarely failed to turn to his own advantage, so as to +secure him success. Great as were his natural endowments, how could +incessant exercise, during twenty years' hourly conflict with the ablest +of his brethren and of the bench, fail of developing his splendid +energies to the uttermost, even up to a point of which we may conceive +as little short of perfection? The strength of his reasoning faculties +was equalled, if not exceeded, by that of his memory, which was equally +susceptible, tenacious, and ready; qualities these, which, as Dugald +Stewart has observed, are rarely united in the same person,[D] and +which, in the case of an advocate, give him immense advantages; while he +possessed that accurate practical knowledge which enabled him to detect +the minutest errors in the conduct of a cause, his comprehensive grasp +of mind enabled him to take in the whole of the greatest cause, with all +its dependencies; and while he fixed his own eye, with unwavering +steadfastness, on the object which he had in view, he could lead his +opponent and keep him far away from _his_; and address himself to every +passing humour of the judicial mind, supporting favourable, and +repelling adverse intimations, with reasons so plausible as to appear +absolutely conclusive. Whoever might forget facts, or lose the drift of +the argument, Sir William Follett never did; and when he had _the last +word_, he was almost always irresistible. He required, for the purposes +of justice, to be followed by a watchful and strong-headed judge, who +could detect the cunning fallacy, or series of fallacies, which had led +the jury quite astray from the real points--the true merits of the case; +and even such a person was often unable to remove the impression which +had been produced by the subtle and persuasive advocate whose voice had +preceded his. That voice was one indeed lovely to listen to. It was not +loud, but low and mellow, insinuating its faintest tones into the ear, +and filling it with gentle harmony. His utterance was very distinct--a +capital requisite in a speaker--and he had the art of varying his tones, +so as to sustain the attention of both judges and juries for almost any +length of time. His person and attitudes, also, were most prepossessing. +Their chief characteristics were a calmness and dignity which never +disappeared in even the most exciting moments of contest, and of +irritability, and provoking interruption. Woe, indeed, to one who +ventured to _interrupt_ him! However plausible, cogent, or even just, +might be the suggestion thrown in by his adversary, Sir William Follett +contrived to make it tell terribly against him, either harmonising it +with his own case, or showing it to be utterly inconsistent with that of +the interrupting party.--Sir William Follett, who was above the middle +size, always stood straight upright, as every one ought to do while +addressing either judge or juries. He seldom used his left hand in +speaking, but the play of his right hand was very graceful, easy, and +natural. His countenance was by no means handsome, yet of very striking +expression--decisively indicative of great intellectual power, +particularly about the forehead, which was very strongly developed. His +eyes were grey, rather small, and deep-set; but they had a power of +riveting the attention of any one whom he was addressing, particularly +in public. You felt him to be a man whom you could neither neglect nor +trifle with; who was addressing your intellect in weighty words, +fathoming your intentions, and detecting your inclinations and +prepossessions, and leading you in some given direction with gentle but +irresistible force. He would often startle you with the boldness of his +propositions, but never till he had contrived, somehow or other, to +predispose you in favour of that view of the case which he was +presenting. He had a most seductive smile; truth, candour, and +gentleness seemed to beam from it upon you; and you were convinced that +he felt perfect confidence in the goodness of his cause. He evinced a +sort of intuitive sagacity, in adapting himself to the character and +mode of thinking of those whom he addressed. If he were standing before +four judges, all of different but decided characters--and all +continually interrupting him with questions and suggestions, a close +experienced observer could detect, in full play, in this wily advocate, +the quality which has just been mentioned. He was never irritable, or +disrespectful to the bench, however trying their interruptions; but calm +determination was always accompanied with courteous deference for +judicial authority. It is believed that no one ever heard a sharp +expression fall on Sir William Follett from the bench. Foreigners coming +to our courts, have frequently expressed admiration at his tone and +bearing, as calm, graceful, and dignified, even though what he said +could not be understood by them. His language was chaste, simple, and +vigorous, but never ornate. He always came direct to the point; and the +severest critics could find no fault in his diction. If he had read +extensively, his speeches never bore witness of that fact; for he was, +perhaps, never heard to use a quotation, either in verse or +prose--except, of course, in the latter instance, books of legal +authority, treatises, and reports of cases. Of fancy, of imagination, he +appeared quite destitute. If originally possessed of any, it must for +many years have been overpowered and extinguished, by the incessant and +exclusive exercise of his memory and reasoning powers, for the purposes +of business. Yet was he capable, on great and interesting occasions, +when addressing either the full court or a jury, of riveting the +attention and exciting the emotions of his hearers. Trickery, however +compact and strong its meshes, he tore to pieces contemptuously, and +with scarce an effort; nothing could escape his penetrating eye; it +detected those faint vanishing traces of fraud, which were invisible to +all other eyes. If there be genius in advocacy, Sir William Follett was +undoubtedly a man of genius; and genius may perhaps be taken to signify +great natural powers, accidentally directed--or, a disposition of +nature, by which any one is qualified for some peculiar employment. What +intellectual qualifications and resources are not requisite to +constitute a first-rate advocate? If the Duke of Wellington has a genius +for military affairs, so had Sir William Follett for advocacy--and +genius of a very high order, as will be testified by all those before +whom, or on whose behalf, he exhibited it--alike by clients or +judges--as by opponents. If he were a very subtle sophist himself, he +was himself one on whom no sophistry could impose. It fled before the +penetrating glance of his aquiline eye. Faculties such as his must have +secured him eminence in any pursuit or walk in life to which he might +have devoted himself; particularly to the military profession, to which +it is believed he always had a strong inclination. Who can doubt that if +his lot had been placed from the first in political life, he would +quickly have become pre-eminent in the senate, and as a statesman? Who +that knew him, but would pronounce him to have been pre-eminently fit +for political life, to govern men of intellect, to deal with great +affairs and mighty interests--to detect and discomfit the adversaries of +peace and order, to vindicate the laws, and uphold the best interests of +society? All this he might have been; _sed dis aliter visum_--he devoted +himself, heart and soul, throughout life, to the labours of the bar, and +the acquisition by them of a rapid and large fortune, and official +distinction. In all these aims he must have succeeded to his heart's +content; for he was for many years the most distinguished and popular of +advocates; he became the Queen's Attorney-general, and died in the prime +of life, leaving behind him a fortune of some two hundred thousand +pounds. That great class of persons who constituted his clients, will +always remember his brilliant and successful exertions with gratitude. +His brethren who were opposed to him, heartily acknowledge the +pre-eminence of his abilities and professional acquirements; and they, +as well as the junior bar, who for years watched his brilliant +exertions, must acknowledge that the one in struggling with him, and the +other in witnessing those struggles, have witnessed an instructive +exhibition of forensic excellence--a model of advocacy. To prepare for a +contest with Sir William Follett, and to contend with him, called forth +all a man's energies, and formed a severe and salutary discipline for +the strongest. "Their antagonist was their helper: they that wrestled +with him, strengthened their nerves, and sharpened their skill: that +conflict with difficulty obliged them to an intimate acquaintance with +their object, and compelled them to consider it in all its relations, +and would not suffer them to be superficial."[E] In him they saw daily +in exercise, many of the greatest qualities of advocacy--and beheld it +triumphing over every imaginable kind end degree of obstacle end +difficulty. He showed them how to maintain the bearing of gentlemen, in +the moments of hottest exasperation and provocation which can arise in +forensic warfare. He taught them how to look on success undazzled--to +bear it with modesty of demeanour, and subordination of spirit. He +exhibited to them the inestimable value of early acquiring accurate and +extensive local knowledge--of being thoroughly imbued with the +_principles_ of jurisprudence, and habituating the mind to close and +correct reasoning. The traces of his surpassing excellence in these +matters, are now to be found nowhere but in the volumes of Law Reports, +where the essence of his innumerable masterly arguments will be found +collected and preserved by gentlemen of patient attention and learning +competent for the task, and on whose modest but valuable labours will +hereafter depend all that posterity will know of Sir William Follett. +These are the legitimate records of his intellectual triumph; as are the +prosperous circumstances in which he has left his family, _to them_ a +solid and noble testimonial of his affectionate devotion to their +interests. Their fortune was the purchase of his life's blood. The +acquisition of that fortune absorbed the whole of his time, and of his +energies; it deprived him of thousands of opportunities for relaxation +and enjoyment, and also--it must be added--for the exercise of virtues +which probably he possessed, but gave himself little or no time for +calling into action--of those virtues which elevate and adorn the +individual, while they benefit our fellow-creatures and society--for +performing the duties which God Almighty has imposed upon his creatures, +proportionately to their endowments and opportunities, himself telling +us, that _to whom much is given, of him shall much be required_. To the +young, eager, and ambitious lawyer, the contemplation of Sir William +Follett's career is fraught with instruction. It will teach him the +necessity of _moderation_, in the pursuit of the distinctions and +emoluments of his profession. By grasping at too much often every thing +is lost. Was not Sir William Follett's life one uninterrupted scene of +splendid slavery, the pressure of which at length broke him down in the +meridian of his days? Had he been able to resist the very strong +temptations by which he was assailed--temptations, too, appealing +powerfully to his love of family and offspring--a long life's evening of +tranquillity, of unspeakable enjoyment, might have rewarded a day of +great, yet not excessive, labour. He might also have devoted his +powerful talents to the public benefit, in such a way as to secure the +lasting gratitude and admiration of posterity, by remedying some great +existing defect in his country's jurisprudence, by making some solid +contribution to the safeguards of the constitution. But did he ever do +so? All his great experience, talents, and learning, might never have +existed, for any trace of them remaining in the records of his country's +constitution. What page in the statute-book attests his handiwork? And +what did he ever do to advance the interests of the profession to which +he belonged? These are questions asked with sorrowful sincerity and +reluctance, and with every disposition to make the amplest allowances +for those failings of Sir William Follett, which undoubtedly detracted +somewhat from his excellence and eminence. He was a man of modest, mild, +inoffensive character, who spoke ill of, and did harm to, no one; but, +at the same time, was not distinguished by that active and energetic +benevolence, liberality, and generosity, which secure for the memory of +their exhibitant, ardent, enduring gratitude and reverence. His +excellence was of a negative, rather than a positive kind. He did harm +to no one, when he might have done so with impunity, and was possibly +sometimes tempted to do so; but then he did not do good, at all events, +to the extent which might have been expected from him. He was, however, +by no means of a mean or selfish nature; but in his excessive, and to a +certain extent pardonable, eagerness to make what he deemed a suitable +provision for himself and his family, gave himself the appearance of +being comparatively indifferent to the interests or welfare of others. +It is, however, only fair to his memory to acknowledge, that legal +eminence is too often liable to the same imputations--that professional +pursuits have certainly a strong tendency to warp amiable and generous +natures--to keep the eye of ambition, amidst the intense fires of +rivalry and opposition, fixed exclusively upon one object--the interest +and advancement of the individual. Nothing can effectually control or +counteract this tendency, but a lively and constant sense of religious +principle; which enlarges the heart till it can _love our neighbour as +ourself_, which brightens the present with the hopes of the future, +which purifies our corrupt nature, and elevates its grovelling earthward +tendencies by the contemplation of an eternal state of being dependent +upon our conduct in this transient state of trial. Who can tell the +extent to which these and similar considerations are present to the +minds of the dying great ones of the earth, who, suddenly plucked from +amidst the dazzling scenes of successful ambition, are laid prostrate +upon the bed of death--their _pale faces turned to the wall_, with +HEREAFTER alone in view, and under an aspect equally _new_ and awful? +Let us, therefore, be wise, and be wise in time, nor haughtily disregard +the earnest voice of warning, however humble and obscure may be the +quarter whence it comes. + +Sir William Follett belonged to a respectable family in Devonshire, and +was born on the 2d December 1798. In 1814 he went to Trinity College, +Cambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1818, without any attempt to +obtain _honours_; quitting college in this latter year, and entering the +Inner Temple, he prosecuted the study of the law in the chambers of +eminent practitioners, where he continued for three years--and then +practised for about three years as a special pleader. He was called to +the bar in 1824, and went the western circuit, but for one or two years +was much disheartened by his want of success. He expressed, on one +occasion, his readiness to accept of the place of police magistrate, if +it were offered! His progress was, soon afterwards, signal, and all but +unprecedentedly rapid. He was appointed Solicitor-general in 1834, while +yet behind the bar, and in 1835 was returned for Exeter, for which place +he sate till his death. He quitted office with Sir Robert Peel in 1835, +but returned with him to it in 1841, and became Attorney-general in +1844, on the promotion of Sir Frederick Pollock to the chief seat in the +Court of Exchequer. For several years before Sir William Follett's +decease, his constitution, never of the strongest, was broken by his +incessant and severe labours; and in 1844, having been obliged to give +up practice altogether, he went to Italy at the close of the +session--having attended at the bar of the House of Lords, to lead for +the Crown in the O'Connell case. He was, however, quite unfit for the +task. His spine was then so seriously affected, that he was obliged to +sit upon a raised chair while addressing the House, the Chancellor and +the other Lords, out of great consideration for the distinguished and +enfeebled speaker, moving down to the lower end of the House, close to +the bar, in order to occasion him as little exertion and fatigue as +possible. He did not speak long, and the effort greatly exhausted him; +and it was not without difficulty, owing to something like partial +paralysis of the lower extremities, that he could walk from the House. +He returned from the Continent in March 1845, a little better than when +he had gone, and endeavoured to resume the discharge of such of his +less onerous, professional, and official duties as admitted of their +being attended to at his own house. He continued to listen to patent +cases, attended by counsel, till within a short period of his being +finally disabled; but every one saw with pain the total exhaustion under +which he was suffering. Finding himself rapidly declining, in May 1845, +he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, proffering the resignation of +his office of Attorney-general. + +He soon afterwards retired, for the advantage of some little change of +air, to the house of a relative in the Regent's Park, where he enjoyed +the soothing attentions of his family, and reverently received the +consolations of religion. The public manifested great anxiety to have +the state of his health, and the morning and evening newspapers +contained regular announcements on the subject, as in the case of +persons of the highest distinction. Her Majesty, Prince Albert, also, +with numbers of the nobility, sent daily to enquire concerning him. For +the last day, or possibly two days of his life, he became unconscious, +and slightly delirious--and expired, without apparent pain, on Saturday +afternoon, the 28th June 1845. For a long series of years, the death of +no member of the legal profession had excited a tithe of the public +concern which followed that of Sir William Follett, the +Attorney-general. The bar felt that its brightest light had been almost +suddenly extinguished. Its most gifted members, and those of the +judicial bench, heartily acknowledged the transcendence of his +professional qualifications, and the unassuming peacefulness with which +he had passed through life. Had he lived to occupy the highest judicial +seat--the woolsack--few doubted that, when relieved from the crushing +pressure of private practice, he would have displayed qualities +befitting so splendid a station, and earned a name worthy of ranking +with those of his great predecessors. + +His funeral took place on Friday, the 4th of July, at the Temple church. +He was a bencher of the Inner Temple, and his remains repose in the +vault at the south-eastern extremity of the church. For nearly two hours +before the funeral took place, the church--a chaste and splendid +structure--had been filled with members of the bar, and a few others, +all in mourning, and awaiting, in solemn silence, the commencement of +the mournful ceremony. At length the pealing of the organ announced the +arrival of the affecting moment when the body of Sir William +Follett--himself having been not very long before a worshipper in the +church--was being borne within its walls, preceded by the surpliced +choir, chanting the service, in tones which still echo in the ears of +those who heard them. All rose silently, with moistened eyes, and +beating hearts, as they beheld, slowly borne through the aisle, the +coffin which contained the prematurely dead--him whose figure, erect and +graceful in forensic robes, and dignified in gesture, had so recently +stood among them, their cheerful and gifted associate in the anxious +business of life--from whose lips, now closed for ever, had but lately +issued that rich, harmonious voice, whose tones had scarce, even then, +died away! They were bearing him to his long home, with all the solemn +pomp and circumstance which testify the reverence paid to departed +eminence: and when the coffin was placed beside the altar, at the mouth +of the vault, no language can adequately describe the affecting and +imposing scene which presented itself. The pall had been borne by the +Prime Minister, (Sir Robert Peel,) the Lord Chancellor, one of the +Secretaries of State, (Sir James Graham,) and the Vice-Chancellor of +England; and amongst those who followed, were Lord Brougham, Lord +Langdale, the Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, and many of the judges, +(almost all the courts, both of law and equity, having suspended their +sittings on account of the funeral;) while in the body of the church +were to be seen nearly all the distinguished members of the bar, who had +been, up to a very recent period, opposed to, or associated with, him +whose dust was now on the point of being committed to its kindred dust. +Nearest to the body sat the three great ministers of the Crown, who had +come to pay their tribute of respect to the remains of their gifted and +confidential adviser; and their solemn countenances told the deep +impression which the scene was making upon them, so illustrative of the +fleeting shadowiness of earthly greatness! and their reflections must +have been akin to those which--as may have occurred to them--their +own obsequies might, at some future period, excite in the +spectators--reflections such as those with which a great one, +departed,[F] closed his grandest labours. + +"Oh, eloquent, just, and mighty death! whom none could advise, thou hast +persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done: and whom all the world +hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou +hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, +cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two +narrow words--HIC JACET!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] This has been recently the subject of a decision of the Court of +Queen's Bench, in the case of _Egan_ v. _The Guardians of the Kensington +Union_, 3 Queen's Bench Reports, p. 935, note (_a_). The same rule +applies to physicians. _Veitch_ v. _Russell_, _ib._ 928. + +[B] Leading counsel, indeed all counsel much engaged in business, +necessarily place their time almost altogether at the disposal of their +clerks, whose duty it is to keep an exact record of their employer's +engagements, and see that no incompatible ones are made for him. Counsel +find quite enough to do, in adequately attending to the matters actually +put before them by their clerks, without being harassed by adjusting the +very troublesome arrangements and appointments, for time and place, +where their duties are to be performed or, at all events, doing more +than keeping a general superintendence over their arrangements thus +made. To all this must be added those innumerable contingencies in the +arrangements of the courts, and the course of business, which no one can +possibly foresee; and which often derange a whole series of +arrangements, however cautiously and prudently made, and render counsel +unable, after having carefully mastered their cases, to attend at the +trial or argument. + +[C] The clerk of a barrister has a fee on every fee of his employer, in +a long-settled proportion of 2s. 6d. on all fees under five guineas; +from, and inclusive of five guineas, up to ten guineas, 5s.; from ten +guineas, 10s., and so on for higher fees. + +[D] _Phil._ c. vi. sec. 7. + +[E] Adapted from Edmund Burke. + +[F] Sir Walter Raleigh--_History of the World_, last paragraph. + + + + +LET NEVER CRUELTY DISHONOUR BEAUTY. + +The words chosen as the subject of the following verses, form the first +line of an antiquated song, of which the remainder seems not to have +been preserved.--See Mr Dauney's "_Ancient Scotish Melodies_," p. 227. + + + "Let never Cruelty dishonour Beauty"-- + Be no such war between thy face and mind. + Heaven with each blessing sends an answering duty: + It made thee fair, and meant thee to be kind. + + Resemble not the panther's treacherous seeming, + That looks so lovely to beguile its prey; + Seek not to match the basilisk's false gleaming, + That charms the fancy only to betray. + + See the great Sun! God's best and brightest creature-- + Alike on good and ill his gifts he showers: + Look at the Earth, whose large and liberal nature + To all who court her offers fruits or flowers. + + Then, lady, lay aside that haughty scorning-- + A robe unmeet to deck a mortal frame; + Mild be thy light, and innocent as morning, + And shine on high and humble still the same. + + Bid thy good-will, in bright abundance flowing, + To all around its kindly stream impart; + Thy love the while on One alone bestowing, + The fittest found, the husband of thy heart! + + + + +THE LAST HOURS OF A REIGN. + +A TALE IN TWO PARTS.--PART II. + + +CHAPTER III. + + "A deep and mighty shadow + Across my heart is thrown, + Like a cloud on a summer meadow, + Where the thunder wind hath blown!" + + BARRY CORNWALL. + +At this period of French history, and even up to a period much later, +the bridges which crossed the Seine, and connected the two separate +parts of the city of Paris, were built over with houses, and formed +narrow streets across the stream. These houses, constructed almost +entirely of wood, the beams of which were disposed in various +directions, so as to form a sort of pattern, and ornamented with carved +window-sills and main-beams, were jammed together like figs in a cask, +and presented one gable to the confined gangway, the other to the water, +which, in many cases, their upper story overhung with a seemingly +hazardous spring outward. Towards the river, also, many were adorned +with wooden balconies, sheltered by the far-advancing angles of the +roofs; whilst beneath, upon the water, the piles of the bridge were +encumbered by many water-mills, to the incessant noise of which, habit +probably reconciled the inhabitants of the houses above. + +In an upper room in one of the houses which, after this fashion, lined +the _Pont au Change_, sat, on the evening of the day on which Philip de +la Mole had escaped from the Louvre, three persons, the listlessness of +whose attitudes showed that they were all more or less pre-occupied by +painful reflections. + +The principal personage of this group--a woman between fifty and sixty +years of age--lay back on a large wooden chair, her eyes fixed on +vacancy. Her dress was of simple dark stuff, very full upon the sleeves +and below the waist, and relieved by a small white standing collar; a +dark coif, of the fashion of the period, covered the grizzled hair, +which was drawn back from the forehead and temples, leaving fully +exposed a face, the rude features and heavy eyebrows of which gave it a +stern character. But in spite of this severity of aspect, there +naturally lurked an expression of goodness about the mouth and eyes, +which spoke of a kindliness of disposition and tenderness of heart, +combined with firmness and almost obstinacy of character. Those eyes, +however, were now vacant and haggard in expression; and that mouth was +contracted as if by some painful thought. + +By her side, upon a low stool, was seated a fair girl, whose attire was +as plain as that of the more aged woman; but that lovely form needed no +aids of the toilet to enhance its beauty. The fair brown hair brushed +off from the white brow, in the graceless mode of the day, hid nothing +of a face which had all the purity of some beautiful Madonna; although +the cheek was pale, and the lines of the physiognomy were already more +sharpened than is usual at years so young. Her head, however, was now +bent down over a large book which lay upon her knees, and from which she +appeared to have been reading aloud to the elder woman; and, as she sat, +a tear dropped into its pages, which she hastily brushed away with her +fair hand. + +The third person, who completed the group, was a young man scarcely +beyond the years of boyhood. His good-looking round face was bronzed and +ruddy with fresh colour, and his dark eyes and full mouth were +expressive of natural gaiety and vivacity. But he, too, sat leaning his +elbows upon his knees, and gazing intently, and with a look of anxiety, +upon the fair girl before him; until, as he saw the tear fall from her +eye, he turned impatiently upon his stool, and proceeded to polish, with +an animation which was not that of industry, the barrel of a gun which +lay between his knees. + +The room which formed the groundwork to the picture composed of these +three personages, was dark and gloomy, as was generally the interior of +the houses of the time; a large wardrobe of black carved wood filled a +great space of one of the walls; presses and chests of the same dark and +heavy workmanship occupied considerable portions of the rest of the +room. The low casement window, left open to admit the air of a bright +May evening, looked out upon the course of the rapid Seine, and gave a +cheering relief to the dark scene. The hazy rays from the setting sun +streamed into the room; and from below rose up the sound of the rushing +waters, and the wheels of the mills, mixed with occasional cries of men +upon the river, and the more distant murmur of the city. The scene was +one of calmness; and yet the calmness of those within that room was not +the calmness of repose and peace. + +It was the youth who first spoke. + +"Jocelyne," he said in a low tone, approaching his stool nearer to that +of the fair girl, and then continuing to polish his gun-barrel without +looking her in the face--"if you knew how it grieves me to see you thus! +You sit and droop like a bird upon the wintry branch, when I would fain +see you lift your head and chirp, as in days gone by, now that summer +begins to gladden around us." + +The maiden thus addressed looked at him with a languid smile, and then +faintly shook her head. + +"How would you have me gay, Alayn," she said softly, "when our +grandmother continues thus?" + +Alayn made a gesture of doubt, as if he would have said, that solicitude +for her grandmother was not the only cause of Jocelyne's sadness; but he +made no observation to that effect, and, nodding his head towards the +older woman, asked in a low tone-- + +"How is Dame Perrotte to-day? She did not answer my greeting on my +entrance; and during your reading from that forbidden book of Scripture, +she has uttered not a word." + +"You may speak aloud," replied Jocelyne. "When she is in this state, she +does not hear us. She is fully absorbed in her sad thoughts. I have +seldom seen her more troubled than she has been for some few days past. +One would suppose that the return of sunny summer days recalls more +fearfully to her mind that epoch of carnage and destruction at the fete +of St Bartholomew, when the heavens above were so joyous and bright, +whilst below the earth was reeking with blood, and your poor father +perished, Alayn, for his religion's sake. I have ever remarked, when the +sun shines the cheeriest, her spirit is the darkest." + +"Will she not speak to me?" enquired Alayn. + +"No," replied his cousin. "When in these deepest moods of melancholy, +she will not speak but upon the subject of those fatal days, or if her +attention be aroused by the mention of her slaughtered kindred; and +Heaven forbid that an unguarded word from me should excite so terrible a +crisis as would ensue!" + +"And she remains always thus now?" asked the youth. + +"Not always," answered Jocelyne. "There are times when she is as of old, +and speaks to me with calmness. But at these better hours she makes no +mention of the past." + +"She never talks, then, of returning to the palace?" continued Alayn, +with an evident air of satisfaction upon his round ruddy face. + +"Never," replied the girl, with an involuntary sigh. + +"And yet her foster-son, the king, has often sent for her." + +"Hush!" interrupted Jocelyne. "Let not that name strike upon her ear. +Although she hears us not, the very word might, perchance, call up +within her recollections I would were banished from her mind for ever. +The name of her nursling, whom she once loved as were she his own +mother, and he had not worn a crown, is now a sound of horror to her. +Often has she cursed him in the bitterness of her heart," she continued +in a low tone of mystery, as if fearful lest the very walls should hear +her confidence, "as the slayer of the righteous. She never can forgive +him the treacherous order given for that murderous deed of slaughter and +destruction." + +"But he protected her from all harm in that general massacre of our +party in religion, from which so few of us escaped," said Alayn. + +"She would rather have died, I verily believe," pursued the fair girl +shuddering, "than have lived to see her own son fall, so cruelly +murdered by the son of her fostering care." + +"And she never will return to him again?" enquired the young man with +another gleam of satisfaction. + +Jocelyne shook her head. + +"So much the better. So much the better," pursued Alayn stoutly. "For +then I can see you when I will, fair cousin Jocelyne, and come and sit +by your side as I do now, to continue my work with the permission of my +master the armourer, who, whatever he may say, is as good a Calvinist at +heart as ourselves, I am sure. And you will return no more with my +grandmother among those villanous popinjays about the court, who are +ever for telling you soft tales of love, and swearing that your eyes are +the brightest in creation--as, to be sure, they are; and that never such +an angel walked the earth--as, to be sure, there never did; but who mean +it not well with you, cousin Jocelyne, and would but have their will to +desert you and leave you to sorrow, and who, with all their gilded +finery, are not worth one inch of the coarse stuff of a stout-hearted +honest artisan who loves you, and would see you happy; although I say +it, who should not say it." + +Jocelyne drew up her head proudly as if about to speak; but, as her +melancholy pale hazel eyes met those of her cousin, sparkling with +animation and good-humour, she only turned herself away, whilst a bright +flush of colour overspread that cheek but a moment before so pale. + +"Why, look ye, cousin Jocelyne," continued the youth once more, after a +moment's pause; "it will out, in spite of me, all that I have got to +say. I cannot see your pale cheek and tearful eye, and hear the sigh +that ever and anon breaks so painfully from your bosom, but that, all +simple as I be, I can tell it is not only for our poor grandmother you +sorrow. Mayhap I have heard what I have heard, and seen what I have seen +besides; but never mind that. Believe me, you sorrow for those who love +you not truly as there are others who love you--you pain your heart +until you will break it, for those who play you false." + +"Alayn, I can hear no more of this! You know not what you say!" cried +the fair girl hastily; and, laying down upon the table her book, she +arose and walked away from him to lean out of the window. + +"Nay, pardon me, cousin Jocelyne," exclaimed the youth in a pained tone, +also rising and advancing towards the window. "I do but speak as I +should and must speak, being your well-wisher--I mean you well, God +knows. And the time will come when you too will know _how_ well!" + +Jocelyne turned her eyes, which were moist with tears, to her cousin; +and, stretching out her hand to him, she said, with all that romantic +fervour of the ingenuous girl which almost wears the semblance of +inspiration-- + +"Alayn, I know you love me, and that you mean it well with me. You are a +kind and sincere brother to me. But, oh! you cannot read the deep deep +feelings of the heart, or judge how little words have the power, like +the charms we read of, to heal its wounds and wrench asunder the chains +that bind it for ever and ever! The ivy, when torn from the stem to +which it clings, may wither and die, but it cannot be attached to +another trunk, however skilful the hand of the gardener who would attach +it." + +The youth took her hand, and, as she again turned to the window to hide +her increasing emotion, shook his head sadly and doubtfully; then, +returning to his stool, he took the gun-barrel between his knees with a +movement of impatience, and continued his occupation of polishing it, +although his eyes were constantly fixed askance upon the graceful form +of the girl as she leant upon the window sill. + +Presently the old woman moved uneasily in her chair, and, placing her +hands firmly upon its arms, as if about to rise from her seat, she +exclaimed aloud-- + +"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will avenge the blood of the +righteous!" + +Both Jocelyne and Alayn turned; but, before the fair girl could hurry +to her grandmother's side, she had sunk down again into her chair, +murmuring-- + +"No, no! enough of blood! enough of vengeance! God pardon him, and turn +the hearts of those who counseled him to this deed." + +"Give me my Bible, Jocelyne my girl," said again the old woman after a +pause. "It seems I have not read it for many a long hour. God forgive +me! But my poor head wanders strangely. Ah! is it you Alayn? Good-day to +you," she continued, as if she had then first become aware of the +presence of her grandson. + +Jocelyne hastily gave her grandmother the volume which she had laid down +upon the table; and whispering in her cousin's ear, as she passed, "She +has spoken, she will be better now," sat down once more by her side. + +A silence again pervaded that still room, when suddenly a noise of steps +resounded upon a wooden stair. They approached the door, upon which a +hurried knocking was now heard. Before Jocelyne, who, at the sound of +these steps, had clasped her hands before her, with an expression of +surprise and almost of alarm, had fully risen from her seat, the door +was flung open, and a man enveloped in a cloak, and with a jewelled hat +sunk low upon his brow, entered hastily. + +He closed the door, and then gazed with a rapid glance around him. + +Jocelyne had sprung up with a suppressed cry. + +"Ah! I am not mistaken," said the man advancing, and removing his hat. +"Jocelyne! Dame Perrotte! I am a fugitive, and I seek a shelter at your +hands. I could not trust myself to those who call themselves my friends; +others who might have protected me, I know not where to find, but I +bethought myself of you--of you, Jocelyne--and"---- + +"Philip! Monseigneur," stammered the astonished girl. "You--here--and a +fugitive!" + +"Do you not know me?" said the fugitive to Dame Perrotte, who had risen +from her chair, and stood staring at him as if with a return of troubled +intellect. + +"Not know you?" exclaimed the old woman rising. "I know you well, Philip +de la Mole! And is it you, the Catholic, who seek a shelter beneath the +roof of the proscribed and outlawed Huguenot?" + +"But it is in the cause of your religion that I have conspired, my good +woman, and that I am now compelled to fly," replied La Mole; "it was for +one, who, as chief of your party, would have espoused your quarrel, and +re-established your influence in the land." + +"Ay, for your master, the shallow Duke of Alencon," responded Perrotte +coldly. "False, hollow ambition all! And ye call that the cause of +religion--Mockery! Yes, I know you well, Philip de la Mole, who in the +hour of bloodshed," she continued, growing more and more excited, "could +approve the hellish deed, and who now can babble of sacrifice and +self-offering in the cause of our religion." + +"You belie me, woman," said La Mole proudly. + +"Yes, I know you, Philip de la Mole," pursued the old woman with knitted +brows and flashing eyes; "you, who, to amuse your hours of idleness, +could talk of love to a poor trusting girl, heedless how you destroyed +her peace of mind, had you but your pastime and your jest of it." + +"Grandmother!" cried Jocelyne in the bitterest distress. + +"It was he, then!" exclaimed Alayn, advancing upon the fugitive +nobleman, with the gun-barrel raised in his arm. + +"If you love me, forbear!" screamed his cousin, flinging herself before +him. + +"I had hoped to have found shelter among honest hearts, whom misfortune +should have taught pity," said the fugitive proudly, and unmoved; "and I +have erred--unjust hate, prejudice, inhospitality, are the only virtues +practised beneath this roof. I will again brave the danger, and seek +elsewhere that kindly feeling I find not here. Jocelyne, my sweet pretty +Jocelyne, farewell!" + +With these words La Mole moved towards the door. The old woman regarded +him motionless, and with the same cloud of irritation on her brow. Alayn +seemed equally inclined to prosecute his first hostile intention; but +Jocelyne sprang after the retreating nobleman and caught him by the arm. + +"Grandmother," she said, drawing herself up to her full height, and +leaning fondly against La Mole--"if any one have erred, it is I, and I +alone. It was I chose him _forth_ as the noblest, the brightest, the +best among those who glittered about the court, in which we humbly +lived. I had given him my heart ere he had deigned to cast a look upon +me. If I have loved him--if I love him still--it is because I alone have +sought it should be so." + +"Jocelyne! be still, sweet girl," said La Mole, affected, and moving +towards the door. + +"And were he our bitterest enemy," continued the excited girl, still +clinging to his arm, "he is now a proscribed fugitive--no matter +why--God sends him to us--and it is ours to save, not to condemn him." + +"But it is said, that the enemy of the righteous shall perish from the +earth," said her grandmother sternly; "it is not I condemn or kill him. +If it be the will of God that his cause of error cease, let him go forth +and die." + +"If he die, mother," exclaimed Jocelyne with energy, "I shall die too. I +have given him my heart, my life, my soul--punish me as you +will--trample me at your feet. But I love him, mother; and, if you drive +him forth to be hunted by his enemies to the death, your child will not +survive it." + +Alayn had turned away in bitterness of heart, and the old Huguenot +woman, although giving way more and more to that excitement, which, at +times, fully troubled her reason, only wrung her hands, as if moved by +the address of the agitated girl. + +"Stay! stay, Monseigneur," continued Jocelyne, as La Mole again pressed +her hand and turned to depart. "She relents--she has a kind heart; and +she would not, surely, deliver up the guest who begs shelter at her +threshold, into the hands of those who seek to capture and to kill him." + +"Let me go forth, Jocelyne! farewell!" repeated La Mole. + +"Mother!" again commenced the unhappy girl, throwing herself down to +clasp the knees of her grandmother, who, overcome by the violence of her +feelings, had sunk back again into her chair. "Mother! would your +husband, or your son, have driven even their deadliest enemy from their +door?" + +"Speak not of my son, girl; or you will drive me mad!" cried Perrotte, +clasping her hands before her face. + +Jocelyne sprang up with a look of despair, and returned to detain once +more La Mole. + +As they thus stood, and before the old woman had again stirred, or Alayn +interfered, a rumour from the street formed by the bridge, caught the +ear of the excited girl. + +"What is that?" she exclaimed, starting in alarm. + +"The agents of the Queen-mother sent in my pursuit, probably," replied +La Mole coolly, and disengaging himself from the convulsive embrace of +Jocelyne. "How they have tracked me, I know not. So be it, then. I had +hoped for the sake of others to avoid their hands; but I am prepared to +meet my fate." + +"No, no," screamed Jocelyne. "It cannot be! Mother--mother, would you +see him made a prisoner in your own house--murdered, perhaps, before +your very face!" + +Alayn moved towards the door; and the girl sprang to intercept him. + +"Would you be so base? Would you have me hate you?" cried the poor girl +in despair, to her cousin. + +Many steps were now heard ascending the lower stair. The old woman, who +trembled in every limb, stirred not from her chair; but, removing one +hand from her face, she stretched it out towards a corner of the room. + +"Ah! I understand you, mother," exclaimed Jocelyne. "That secret closet +where our books of religion are deposited, where our old priest, during +the massacre, was hid!" + +"Whilst my son perished--a victim--a martyr!" groaned the old woman, +fearfully agitated. + +"Come, come, Monseigneur," pursued the excited girl; and, in spite of +the unwillingness of La Mole to profit by a hospitality thus bestowed, +she dragged him to one corner of the room, and pushing back the spring +of one of those secret recesses then so commonly constructed in all +houses, as well of the bourgeois as the nobles, on account of the +troubles and dangers of the times, she compelled him by her entreaties +to enter a dark nook--then hastily closing the aperture, she exclaimed, +"God shield him!" and sank down into the stool by her grandmother's +side. + +"Alayn!" she said, in a low hurried tone, as the heavy steps still +mounted the stairs, "you will be silent, will you not? You will not +betray him, and see the poor girl, whom you profess to love, die at your +feet!" + +The youth shook his head with a gesture of resignation, although the +frown upon his brow showed how painful were the feelings that he +suppressed. + +"Mother!" whispered Jocelyne once more to the old woman. "Calm your +agitation--oh! let not a word, a gesture, betray our secret! Stay! I +will read to you!" And she seized the Bible, then a dangerous book to +produce thus openly before Catholic agents of the court, and took it on +her lap. + +Perrotte answered not a word, but continued to rock herself with much +agitation from side to side in her chair. + +The noise of the arquebuses of soldiery was now, in truth, heard on the +landing-place. A heavy blow was given on the panels of the door; and, +without waiting for permission to enter, a man in the military +accoutrements of the period, whose head was crowned with a high hat, +adorned with a short red feather, advanced into the room with an air +which betrayed at once a strange mixture of effrontery and hypocrisy. + +"Landry!" exclaimed together both Jocelyne and Alayn. + +"Captain Landry, at your service," said the man; "or, if you will, at +the service of her majesty the Queen-mother. Good-day, my gentle cousins +both. Good-day to you, my good aunt Perrotte. How goes it with her now? +Her head was somewhat ailing as I heard, since she had left the court." +And he touched his forehead significantly with his finger. + +"She is well!" answered Jocelyne hastily, trembling in spite of her +efforts to be calm. + +"But this is no visit of ceremony, my good friends," continued Captain +Landry, with some haughtiness of manner. "I come upon state affairs. A +criminal of rank, who has conspired against the life and person of the +king, has escaped; and we are sent in his pursuit. We have contrived to +track him of a surety to this neighbourhood; and, as I bethought me that +this same delinquent was a friend of my fair cousin Jocelyne, who, +although she has received my offers of affection with disdain, could +look upon another with more favour, I doubted not that I should find +news of him in her company. Know you of none such here, sweet cousin?" + +"I know not of whom you speak," said Jocelyne, her colour varying from +the flush of emotion to the deadly paleness of fear. + +"And you, Alayn, boy, since our fair cousin's memory is so short, can +doubtless tell me. Has no one entered here within the last half hour?" + +"No one!" answered Alayn sturdily; but he then turned and moved to the +window to hide his confusion. + +The Queen's agent shrugged his shoulders. + +"And my good aunt has had no visitors?" he resumed, advancing towards +the old woman. + +Perrotte lifted her head, and regarded the captain fixedly, and with a +look of scorn, but said not a word. + +"Search!" said the officer, turning to the soldiers, who had waited +without. + +The men entered; and in a few instants the scanty and small rooms +attached to the principal apartment were examined. The captain was +informed that no one could be found. For a moment he looked +disappointed, and paused to reflect. + +"Their trouble is evident," he murmured to himself. "He may still be +here. The reward for his capture is too great to be given up lightly; +and, besides, I hate the fellow for the love she bears him--I will leave +no stone unturned." + +"Dame Perrotte!" he said returning to the old woman, and speaking to her +in a low tone of voice--"A criminal of state has escaped from the king's +justice. In spite of the protestations of your grandchildren, I cannot +doubt that he is concealed hereabouts; and you must know where. You +will not fail, I am sure, to indicate the place of his retreat, when you +know that, as the friend of those who have proved the bitterest enemies +of your religion, he must also be your deadly enemy." + +"And is it Landry, the recreant, the apostate, the only seceder of our +family from the just cause, who speaks thus?" said the old woman lifting +her head with a haggard expression. + +"The necessary policy of the times," whispered the captain, sitting down +on the stool by her side, and approaching himself confidentially nearer, +"has compelled me, like many others, to be that in seeming which we are +not in heart. Has not our chief, Henry of Navarre, yielded also to the +pressure of the circumstances in which he lives? Judge me not so +harshly, good aunt. But this criminal--he is one of those who have +hunted and destroyed, who have cried--'Down with them; down with the +Huguenots--pursue and kill;' and you would withdraw him from the +punishment he merits?" + +"He! he! Was it, so?" muttered Perrotte, with eyes staring at the +vacancy before her. + +"Do you not fear to pass for the accomplice of his crimes?" continued +Captain Landry in her ear. "Know you not that he has attainted the life +of your nursling by deeds of sorcery, and that Charles IX., our king, +now lies upon his death-bed." + +"Who speaks of Charles?" exclaimed the old woman with increasing +wildness and excitement. "Charles and death! Yes, they go hand in hand!" + +"Landry! You shall not torture our poor mother thus," cried Jocelyne +springing towards them, in order to interrupt a conversation which she +had been witnessing in agony, although she could not hear it, and the +effect of which upon her grandmother's unsettled mind became every +moment more visible. + +"Fair cousin, with your leave!" replied the captain. "I am bound to do +the duties of my office. I shall be grieved to use constraint." And, +waving his hand to her to withdraw, he made a sign to the soldiers to +approach both Jocelyne and Alayn, and prevent their interference. + +Jocelyne wrung her hands. + +"Do you not fear the reproaches of your murdered son?" continued Captain +Landry, turning to Perrotte, with an expression of perfidious hypocrisy +in his eyes, and again pouring his words lowly, but distinctly, into her +ear. "Do you not fear that he should rise from his tomb, and, showing +the bloody wounds of that fatal night, cry for vengeance on his +murderers, and curse the weakness of that mother who would screen and +shelter them? Do you not fear that Heaven should condemn you as a friend +to the destroyers of the righteous? Think on your slaughtered kindred, +woman!" + +"Mercy! mercy! my son!" cried the old woman, springing up with her hands +outstretched, as if to repel a spectre. "Oh! hide that streaming blood! +Look not so angry on me! Blood shall have blood, thou say'st; so be it. +Vengeance is the Lord's! and He shall avenge his people!" + +"Where is he?" enquired Landry, also rising, and watching her every +movement. + +"There! there!" exclaimed the excited woman, pointing to the corner of +the room. + +In spite of the attempt of Jocelyne, who was now restrained by the +soldiers, to interrupt him, Captain Landry walked to the corner +indicated, and after a few attempts succeeded in discovering the secret +of the concealed recess. + +"Count Philip de la Mole, you are my prisoner, under warrant of his +majesty the King, and by order of the Queen-mother," he said, as the +young nobleman appeared to view. + +Jocelyne uttered a cry of despair. + +"Conduct me where you are bidden, sir," said La Mole, offering his +sword. "My sweet Jocelyne, farewell!--your kindly interest in my fate I +shall never forget. But we shall meet again. Fear nothing for me; I will +prove my innocence." + +The unhappy girl fell at the feet of the captured nobleman, and wetted +his outstretched hand with her tears, as she pressed it to her lips. + +"My strict orders," said Captain Landry, "were to arrest all those who +should be convicted of harbouring the criminal. Forget not, then, +cousin Jocelyne, that I spare you so hard a lot. But my duty compels me +to adopt other measures. Come, sir!" + +When Philip de la Mole had been conducted from the room by the agents of +the Queen-mother, Jocelyne turned to her grandmother, without rising +from the ground, and exclaimed in the bitterest despair-- + +"Mother--mother--you have killed me!" + +"Who spoke of Charles? Who said he lay upon his death-bed?" cried +Perrotte, walking up and down with the uncertain step of the deranged of +mind, and unheeding her unhappy grandchild; "Charles dying! and I shall +see him no more--shall he die without a warning word from her who loved +and cherished him so long--die without repentance? What was that voice +that tortured my very soul? Who said he was about to die, and that I +should see him no more?" + +Jocelyne sprung up from the ground, as if a sudden thought had crossed +her mind. + +"Yes, mother, yes," she cried, "the king is dying. Come to him. See him +once more. He will hear your words upon his death-bed, and extend his +pardon to the innocent--for Philip de la Mole is innocent, my mother. He +will save him who is unjustly condemned; and you will save his repentant +soul. Come, mother, come--come," she continued, as if speaking to a +child, "the king is waiting for you!" + +"Charlot--my nursling--dying!" murmured the old woman--"Yes--let us go." + +"Alayn will accompany us," said Jocelyne, turning to the youth, who +stood at the window unhappy and confused. + +Without waiting for any addition to their dress, the eager girl seized +her grandmother's hand, and led her to the door. + +When it was opened, two soldiers appeared upon the threshold, stationed +to prevent all egress of the inhabitants; and one of them, placing his +arquebuse across the door-stall, cried, in a rude voice-- + +"_On ne passe pas._" + +The two women drew back in alarm. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Sweet Isabel, take my part; + Lend me your knees, and all my life to come + I'll lend you all my life to do you service." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + "Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say." + + IDEM. + +Again the scene changes to the palace of the Louvre, where so many dark +intrigues surrounded the rich chamber of the dying king; where, instead +of the sympathy of friends, and the tears of relations, jarring +ambition, and rivalry, and hatred, between brethren and kindred, between +mother and children, escorted him on his passage to the tomb, and +darkened the _last hours of his reign_. Such might have been supposed by +a moralist to be the punishment, inflicted, even upon this earth, on +him, who, if he did not instigate, ordained and prosecuted the horrible +massacre of St Bartholomew. + +The state of the miserable Charles grew hourly worse, and he rapidly +approached his last moments. None knew better than his heartless mother, +as she had herself admitted, that he _must die_; but yet, with so much +artifice and intrigue did she envelope in mystery his lost condition, +that, even in the Palace of the Louvre, his own nearest relations were +ignorant how near approached the hour, which, by leaving the crown as +heirloom to a successor far away in a distant country, opened a field to +the ambitious designs of so many struggling parties in the state. + +Unconscious, as many others, of the rapid advance of that fatal event, +sat in her chamber Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, the sister of +the dying king. Her beautiful head was reclined languidly against the +tapestry of the wall, the dark colours of which formed an admirable +background to that brilliant and bejewelled portrait. A lute, of the +fashion of the day, lay upon her lap; music, dresses, scraps of poetry +in her own handwriting, caskets with jewellery, manuscripts, and +illuminated volumes, were littered in various parts of the room. A +handsome spaniel slumbered at her feet; whilst two of her ladies sat on +chests at a respectful distance, occupied in embroidery. A look of soft +pensiveness pervaded the delicate and highly expressive features of the +young Queen; but her thoughts were not bent, at that moment, either on +her suffering brother, or on those ambitious views for her husband, +which, spite of her little affection for him, she entertained, partly +out of a sort of friendship for the man she esteemed, although her hand +had been so unwillingly bestowed upon him; partly out of that innate +ambition and love of intrigue, which formed, more or less one ingredient +in the character of all the children of the crafty Catherine de Medicis. +No! they rambled unrestrained upon the souvenir of an object of woman's +preference and princess's caprice, who for some time past had no more +crossed her path. It was on that account her brow was clouded, and that +a trait of sadness shaded her smiling mouth. + +As she still lay thus languidly, one of the ladies was called by an +officer from the room, and shortly returned to announce that there was a +young girl without, who besought, with earnest supplication, to see her +Majesty. + +Although astonished at this request, Margaret, eager for any subject of +passing occupation that might enliven, even for a moment, an hour's +ennui, desired that she might be admitted; and shortly after a simply +dressed girl, whose sunken head could not conceal her exquisite beauty, +was ushered in. Her step as ill-assured and trembling; her face was +deadly pale. + +"What would you, maiden, with the Queen of Navarre?" said Margaret +kindly. "How came you here?" + +The girl raised her head, but still struggled with her emotion before +she could speak. + +"Ah! I remember me," pursued the princess with a smile. "You are the +pretty Jocelyne, the fair grand-daughter of my brother Charles's +favourite old nurse, Dame Perrotte; you are she of whom all our gallants +spake with so much praise, to the great detriment and neglect of all our +ladies of the court. Nay, blush not--or rather blush--blush, it becomes +your pale face well, my dainty one. But I thought that you had left the +court with Dame Perrotte, the sturdy Huguenot, ever since. Oh yes! I +recall it all now," she continued, checking herself with a sort of +shudder. "But what brings you hither? Speak. Have you any favour to ask +that the Queen of Navarre can grant?" + +"I would speak with you, madam, and alone, upon a matter of urgency and +importance," stammered Jocelyne. + +The thought, that as the fair girl before her belonged to a Huguenot +family, she might have been used by the Calvinist party as a secret +agent to convey her some intelligence connected with the various plots +ripe at that period to place Henry of Navarre in a post of influence +about the crown, if not upon the throne, crossed the mind of Margaret, +and she gave instant orders that her ladies should retire. To her +surprise, as soon as they were left alone, the lovely girl threw herself +sobbing at her feet. + +"Save him! save him!" cried Jocelyne, with outstretched arms. "You have +influence--you can approach the king--you can save him if you will. And +you will save him--will you not?" + +"Of whom do you speak, my pretty maiden?" said the princess in surprise. + +"Of Monseigneur the Count Philip de la Mole!" sobbed Jocelyne. + +"Philip de la Mole!" exclaimed Margaret aghast. "What ails him, girl? +You bid me save him--Why? What mean you?" + +"Oh! madam, know you not," pursued the sobbing girl, "that he has been +arrested for treason--for a conspiracy against the life of the king? +that he is at this moment a prisoner, and that his life is threatened?" + +"La Mole! arrested! accused of attempting the life of Charles!" cried +the Queen of Navarre in the highest agitation. "And I knew naught of +this? Is it true? How did you learn the story? Do you come from him? +Speak, girl, speak, I say!" + +"He was arrested, madam, in our very house," stammered Jocelyne, +wringing her hands. "He had sought a refuge there--and he there lay +concealed. But, alas! my poor grandmother, her wits are at times +unsettled. Oh! she knew not what she did. Believe me she did not know. A +treacherous villain worked upon her wavering mind--she betrayed him. +They took him from the room a prisoner. I would have led my grandmother +to seek his pardon at the feet of the king, who loved her so well that +he would refuse her nothing; but soldiers guarded our doors; they would +not let us pass. Then I bethought myself of the window. Our house is on +the bridge, and looks upon the river. Below was a mill and the miller's +boat. He is a good man, and kind of heart. I knew that he would row me +to the shore. Alayn, my cousin, would have prevented me; but I would not +hear him. What was the rushing stream, or the whirling mill-wheel to me? +I saw not danger when I thought I could save the noble Count." + +"Brave girl! brave girl!" interrupted Margaret, in palpitating +excitement. + +"There were beams and posts that descended to the water's edge," pursued +Jocelyne, her eyes sparkling and her cheek now flushed with the +animation of her tale. "Alayn aided me, although unwillingly, with cord +and linen. I reached the mill--the boat. The miller rowed me to the +shore. I knew I could not approach the king; but I bethought me of you, +madam--for they say--they say, you love him well." At these words +Jocelyne hesitated, with a mixture of feelings, in which bashful +timidity struggled with her jealousy of the great lady before whom she +knelt. + +"Pursue, girl, pursue," said Margaret, an instantaneous blush again +colouring that cheek, from which alarm had driven all colour. + +"Yes; and I knew that you would save him," continued the excited girl, +stretching out her hands in anguish. "He is your own brother--he--the +king, the dispenser of life and death; and he will listen to you. And +you will save the Count, will you not?" + +"Yes--yes, girl! I will do all I can!" said the princess walking up and +down in agitation. "Rise, rise--your tale is confused. I know not what +all this may mean; but the truth is there. He is a prisoner! Oh, La +Mole! La Mole! Whether has your imprudence driven you? And were it for +me that he has done thus. Yes--yes I will to my brother Charles--I will +learn all--supplicate--save him!" + +With these words, half murmured to herself, half addressed to Jocelyne, +the Queen of Navarre paced her room. Then making another sign to the +unhappy girl to rise and remain, she took a whistle lying on a table, +and whistled to call those without. + +The hangings of the door were parted. But instead of one of her +attendant ladies, it was the calm imposing form of Catherine de Medicis +that entered the apartment. + +Margaret started back as if she had seen a spectre. + +"My mother!" burst involuntarily from her lips in a tone of alarm; for +she divined, by rapid instinct, that such a visit could bode naught but +evil. + +The Queen-mother cast a searching glance over the two agitated females, +and smiled as if, with that quickness of intelligence which +characterised her cunning mind, she had discovered at once the meaning +of the scene before her. With an imperious wave of the hand she +signified her desire that the damsel should leave the room, since she +would speak with her daughter. In spite of her agitation and distress, +Margaret of Valois, with that implicit obedience to her mother's will +which, in common with all the children of Catherine de Medicis, (except +the unhappy Charles in the latter years of his hardly wrought and dearly +paid emancipation from her authority,) she never ventured to refuse. She +bid Jocelyne leave them; and the fair girl retired with trembling steps +and sinking heart. The apparition of the Queen-mother had appalled her. + +Catherine motioned to her daughter to be seated on a low stool, and +taking herself a high-backed chair, smiled with her usual bland and +treacherous smile. + +"You seem agitated, Margaret, _ma mie_," commenced the Queen-mother, +after a due pause. "I have come to condole and sympathise with you in +your distress. Much as I may have blamed your misplaced and unbecoming +attachment to an obscure courtier, almost an adventurer in this palace, +I cannot but feel that you must suffer from the discovery of the utter +baseness of this man. Look not thus surprised. I see you have already +learned his arrest--your whole manner betrays it." + +"You speak of ----," stammered Margaret, trembling. + +"I speak of Philip de la Mole," said the Queen coldly. + +"It is true, then?" pursued her daughter. "He is arrested on a charge of +treason. Oh, no! It cannot be! He is innocent!" + +"He is guilty!" said Catherine coldly. "I have evidence the most +incontrovertible, that he has conspired against the life of the king, +your brother, by the foulest acts of sorcery. A wax figure, fashioned as +a king, pierced to the heart by his very hand, has been laid before me. +Your brother's illness, his mortal pains, his malady so +incomprehensible, all declare that the hellish deed has but too much +succeeded up to this hour." + +Margaret shook her head with a smile of contempt and doubt. + +"But for what purpose was designed this murderous act?" pursued the +Queen-mother. "In despite of the rights of Henry of Anjou, to place his +master, your brother, the Duke of Alencon, upon the throne upon the +death of Charles. We have every proof that so it was." + +"For Alencon!" stammered the princess. + +"It was for him," continued Catherine, unheeding this interruption, but +with an increasing smile of satisfaction, "that these treasonable plots +were designed, and partly executed. The ambitious favourite thought, by +his master's hand, to rule the destinies of France. But the traitor will +now reap the fruits of his black treachery." + +"For Alencon!" repeated Margaret in a tone of regret. + +"Doubt not that I sympathise in all your sorrow at this discovery, my +child," resumed the Queen-mother. "Bitterly indeed must you feel how the +base traitor has betrayed and forgotten the woman who loved him so +fondly, so imprudently." + +"For Alencon!" again muttered Margaret with sunken head. + +"Be this the punishment of your folly, and its reparation," pursued +Catherine, after a pause. "Long ago should you have ceased to cherish an +attachment for one so unworthy. But you have too soft a heart, Margaret, +my girl; you are too kind. I wonder and admire the sacrifice of your own +feelings, and the woman's weakness with which you could hear and +compassionate the supplications of his mistress." + +"Madam!" said the princess lifting her head in surprise. + +"But even now I saw her at your feet," continued her mother, with a +slight sneer, "begging you to intercede to obtain his pardon." + +"His mistress! speak you of La Mole, madam?" exclaimed Margaret. + +"What! you knew not, child, what all the court can tell you," replied +Catherine, "that of this chit-faced grandchild of that old Huguenot, +whom Charles so favoured, Philip de la Mole had made his light o' love? +Ay, so it was. It was the talk and scandal of the palace. Where was he +discovered on his arrest? In the girl's chamber, as I hear. And now she +dares to come and tear her hair, and whine out for mercy for her +paramour, at your feet--at yours! Effrontery could go no further!" + +"Philip! could he be so base?" murmured Margaret to herself. "But +yes--her tears--her agony! Oh! it is true! And he must love her well, +that she should thus, at the hazard of her life"---- + +The Queen-mother smiled with satisfaction, as she saw that mistrust had +entered Margaret's mind; but to make her purpose sure, she remained +long, to comfort and console her daughter, as she said, with words of +false sympathy, and hypocritical advice. + +When at last she saw Margaret thus convinced of La Mole's utter +unworthiness, and knew that injured pride and offended dignity had +usurped in her heart the place, where, so shortly before, love alone had +throned, Catherine de Medicis rose and retired. + +Margaret did not weep. She was one lightly moved by the more violent as +the tenderer feelings of a woman's heart, and she was proud. She sat +still, unmoved, with her hands clenched before her, when a slight +movement in the apartment startled her. Upon raising her head she saw +Jocelyne before her. + +"You here, my mistress?" she exclaimed in anger. + +"They would have bid me begone," said Jocelyne timidly; "but I concealed +myself; and when her majesty the Queen-mother had gone forth, I returned +unperceived." + +"And you again dare to affront my presence?" said Margaret rising. "This +is unheard of insolence." + +"Alas, madam!" replied Jocelyne trembling, "I did but seek a last +assurance that you would save him." + +"Away with you, mistress," continued the princess, her eyes flashing +with anger. "La Mole is but a traitor, as are men all. Let him meet his +deserts. But I wonder at myself that I should bandy words with you. Go +to your lover, girl, and comfort him as best you may." + +"My lover! he!" murmured Jocelyne; "alas! he never loved me!" + +Overwhelmed with the rude reception she had so unexpectedly received +from the princess, who, but a short time before, had listened to her +with so much eager interest, the poor girl moved with unsteady step +towards the door. + +"He loved you not, say you?" burst forth Margaret as to recall her. +"Speak! He loved you not--this--young Count?" + +"Madam," said Jocelyne, turning her head, but with downcast eyes, "in +this dreadful moment, when he lies a prisoner, his life in danger, I can +avow, what I could scarcely dare avow even to myself, that I loved him +with a passionate and unrequited love. I loved him with an eager and +devoted affection, although his heart was not mine--poor simple +uncourtly girl as I am--although it was another's. He too loved, I +know--but it was a great and noble lady, more worthy of him than was I. +Pardon me, madam, if I dared to think she loved him too." + +"Come hither, maiden, once again," said the princess in agitation. "He +loved another, you say--this Count de la Mole--and who was she?" + +"Madam," replied Jocelyne in embarrassment, "I have already craved your +pardon that I should have ventured even to surmise it!" + +"Ah!" sighed forth Margaret with a gleam of satisfaction in her face. +"Come back, my girl, come back!" she resumed. "I have treated you +harshly. I knew not what I did. Hear me--this Count has proved a traitor +to his king; perhaps, I may fancy, a traitor to others also; he has +conspired to turn away the rightful succession of the crown. But I +believe him not guilty of all the black arts of which he is accused. I +would save him from the unhappy consequences of his error, if I could. +But what can I do? My mother is fearfully incensed against him!" + +"Oh, madam, you have access to the king!" cried Jocelyne imploringly. +"He is your brother--and the power to save or to destroy is his. He will +not refuse you, if you entreat his pardon and mercy for the Count." + +Margaret shook her head doubtfully. + +"Alas!" she said, with a look of distress, "other influences are at work +which mine cannot resist. I knew not all--but now I tremble." + +Jocelyne still entreated, in all the agony of despair; and the young +Princess, again calling to her ladies, and learning that the +Queen-mother had returned to her own apartment, at last departed from +her chamber, bidding her fair suppliant await her return. + +Long, eternally long, appeared those minutes, as the unhappy girl still +waited for that return which she imagined was to bring her the news of +life or death. To calm the agitation of her mind, she prayed. But her +thoughts were far too disturbed for prayer; and the prayer brought her +no comfort. + +At length the Queen of Navarre came back to her apartment--as Jocelyne +looked in her face, she could scarcely repress a scream; that face was +one of sorrow, and disappointment--the poor girl trembled in every limb, +and did not dare to speak. + +"I have done all I could," said Margaret--"His door was obstinately +closed to me--I could not see him--it was she--it was my mother, who has +done this. I know it well." + +"What is to be done? whether turn for help?" cried Jocelyne in dispair. +"Oh! would that I could lay down my life to save his." + +"Noble girl!" exclaimed the princess. "Thus devoted, whilst he loves +another! How far more generous than was I; ay, I believe thee--couldst +thou lay down thy life for him, thou wouldst do it." + +"And is there no hope of seeking pardon at his hands?" resumed the +afflicted girl. + +"In time, perhaps--at another opportunity," replied Margaret; "but now +my mother's influence triumphs." + +"Another opportunity!" sobbed Jocelyne. "In time! Alas! such words are +words of mockery--the king is dying--at his death the Queen-mother will +command; and what have we then to hope?" + +"Dying? the king--my brother!" exclaimed the Queen of Navarre--you rave, +girl! he is ill--I know, but"---- + +"Know you not, madam," interrupted Jocelyne, "what all the city of Paris +knows--that the king cannot live long--not many hours, perhaps--that he +lies upon his death-bed?" + +"Charles--dying! And my mother has concealed it from me!" cried +Margaret. "I see through all her designs! she would keep us from his +presence, that he bestow not upon my husband, whom he loves, the reins +of power at his death. Charles--dying! Then there lies our only hope. If +he die, let Henry of Navarre be Regent--he will listen to my prayer--and +La Mole is saved. Yes, there lies the only chance. I will to my husband. +We may have still time to effect our purpose, and secure the Regency, in +these few _last hours of the reign_." + + +CHAPTER V. + + "O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye; + The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd; + And all the shrouds, wherewith my life should sail, + Are turned to one thread, one little hair; + My heart hath one poor string to stay it by-- + + * * * + + "All this thou see'st is but a clod, + And module of confounded royalty." + + * * * + + "But now a king--now thus-- + This was now a king, and now is clay." + + SHAKSPEARE. + +The miserable king lay, indeed, upon his bed of death. He had refused to +quit the room which he usually occupied, all encumbered as it was with +his favourite hounds, his hunting accoutrements, and these horns, the +winding of which had been his favourite amusement, and had contributed +so powerfully to affect his lungs, and undermine his constitution. A +sort of couch had been prepared for him of mattresses and cushions upon +the floor; and upon that rude bed was the emaciated form of the dying +monarch extended. To his customary attacks of blood-spitting, had +succeeded a strange, and, until then, unknown symptom of malady, from +which the very physicians recoiled with horror. Drops of red moisture, +which bore all the appearance of blood, had burst, like perspiration, +from the pores of the body; and there were moments when the wretched man +writhed on his couch in the double anguish of body and mind, that, in +spite of the efforts of the physicians to remove this extraordinary +appearance, he might have been thought to be bathed in gore. + +It was indeed an agony, and a bloody sweat! + +The physicians had long since declared that there was no hope. In one of +those fitful bursts of anger, in which Charles from time to time +indulged, even in his state of exhaustion and in his dying moments, he +had desired to be left by his doctors and attendants, and he slumbered +his last slumber in this world, before closing his eyes for ever in the +great sleep of death, to wake upon another. One person alone sat by the +side of his couch; and that person was one, whom the incessant +intriguing efforts of his mother would have taught him was his +bitterest enemy. + +That ivory paleness which had been so characteristic a trait of Charles, +and had added at once to the melancholy and majesty of his face, was now +of a yellow waxen colour, which might be said to increase from minute to +minute in lividness of hue. His large nose stood frightfully prominent +from those hollow sunken cheeks; his lips, in life, red almost to +bleeding, were now ashy pale. Beneath his thin lids, the eyeballs, +sunken into the deep cavities of his eyes, might be seen to roll and +palpitate; whilst from his open and distorted mouth burst forth, even in +his troubled sleep, moans, and then words of anguish. + +The man who sat by his side, listened with varying feelings. Sometimes +he started back with a movement of horror; sometimes he again bent +forward in compassion, and with a kerchief lightly wiped away that +fearful perspiration which burst from the hollow temples of the young +man. The aspect of this personage was noble; his forehead was bold; his +nose formed with that eagle curve which seems fashioned for command. The +expression of his grey eyes denoted both resolution and wariness; whilst +a general look of good temper and openness, which amounted almost to +_insouciance_, pervaded the whole face. He was clothed in black. It was +Henry of Navarre, the ill-used and betrayed victim of Catherine's +policy. + +During the whole reign of Charles IX., the Queen-mother had used every +effort to instil into his mind suspicions of the loyalty of the man, +who, were the Valois to die childless, would be heir to the throne of +France; and whom the decrees of Providence finally led, through the +wiles and plots set to snare his liberty and his life, and in the midst +of the clashing of contending parties, to rule the destinies of the +country, as Henry the Fourth. Henry of Navarre, whom the artifice and +calumny of a Medicis had done their best to separate and estrange from +his king and brother-in-law during life, was now the only attendant upon +his last moments--the only friend to press his dying hand and close his +eyes. By a last exercise of his authority, Charles had declared that it +was his will that Henry of Navarre, and he alone, should be permitted to +approach his couch, and receive his last instructions; and in spite of +all the manoeuvres of the crafty Catherine, who no longer ventured +openly to oppose her son's commands, the two princes were united in this +supreme and awful hour. + +And now Henry of Navarre sat and watched his dying relation with +oppressed and anxious heart, aware that, were the king to die without +providing for his safety by a last exercise of his power, his liberty, +and even his life, would be in danger from the manoeuvres of the +revengeful Catherine; that his only chance of escape was in flight +before the death of the expiring king; and yet, too noble and generous +to leave the man who, at such a time, had called him to his side, he sat +and watched. + +Presently the king rolled convulsively upon his couch; his parted lips +quivered horribly; and with a mutter, which increased at last into a +distinct and piercing scream, he let fall the words-- + +"Away--away--torment me not! Why do you haunt me thus? Fire--fire! +Kill--kill! No--spare them--spare them, and spare me a hopeless misery. +Ah! they fly--they bleed--they fall. And the poor old Admiral--his grey +heirs are dabbled with blood. Away--away--it was not I--not I! Ah!"---- + +With a sudden start of horror, the king lifted his head from his pillow, +and for a time gazed with staring and glassy eyes, as if the hideous +vision which had tortured his sleep were still before him. Then with a +bitter groan, he again fell back upon his couch. Again he raised his +head, and, looking upon Henry, said, with a faint and plaintive voice, +that contrasted strangely with these brusque and harsh tones which were +natural to him, + +"Why do they ever pursue me thus--those Huguenots, who perished with the +Admiral? It was not I--it was my mother who was the cause of all. And +yet, I myself, arquebuse in hand, I hunted them to the death. Oh! but my +remorse has been long and bitter, Henry. What I have suffered none on +earth can tell. Since that fatal night, I have never enjoyed a moment's +peace of mind. Do kings ever enjoy peace of mind, Henry? Oh, be glad +that thou art not a reigning king! Peace of mind is not for them. If +there be a purgatory, Henry, in another world, I have already endured +all its tortures on this earth. Is not remorse the worst purgatory? +ay--the most damning hell. But why, then, do they pursue me thus in +hideous visions still?" + +The wretched king buried his head in his pillow. + +"Strive to be calm," said Henry of Navarre, bending over him to lift up +his head, and arrange his cushions. "Those visions will leave you." + +"Yes! in the grave--perhaps!" replied Charles, again looking up with a +shudder. + +"Let us hope better things," continued Henry. "With more tranquillity of +mind, you will regain your strength, and"---- + +"No--all is past," murmured the king. "I feel that I am dying. Know you +not that there is one accused of practising sorcery upon me. Folly! +madness! An evil deed _has_ been practised upon me. Yes--the thought +will not leave me. I would drive it away, but it still rankles in my +heart. Evil _has_ been done me, but not by sorcery. And yet the sorcerer +must die. The world must believe that it was he who worked my death; but +it was another. Come here, Henry; bend your ear to me, for I can no +longer rise. Wouldst thou know who it was?" + +A noise in the further part of the room startled the young King of +Navarre at this moment, and he turned his head. The only living creature +present was the favourite green ape of the king, that sat and grinned +and moaned, as if in mockery of his dying master. + +"Come nearer, Henry," pursued the king, "for I would speak that to thee, +that not the very walls may hear. Know you what has caused my death--who +has been my murderer?" + +Henry bent his head over the dying man, more to satisfy a caprice of the +sufferer, than in the expectation of any serious revelation; and, as +Charles whispered in his ear, he started back in horror. + +"Oh, sire, think not so! Drive away so miserable a suspicion!" he said. +"It were too horrible. It is impossible!" + +"Impossible!" repeated the king, with a faint ironical laugh. "To some +hearts all things are possible." + +"You had a mother once," continued Charles, after a painful pause. "But +she was good and kind; and she is dead. Know you how she died?--Mine +still lives--and now it is I who die." + +"Speak not thus, I entreat you, sire!" interrupted Henry. "This is +horrible!" + +"Horrible! is it not?" repeated the wretched king with the same +harrowing laugh. "Henry! trust not yourself to the tender mercies of my +mother!" + +Again the same strange noise struck upon the ear of Henry of Navarre. + +"Nor shall my people, my poor suffering people, be trusted to her care," +continued the king with more energy. "Henry, thou art the only one, in +this my palace of the Louvre, who loves me. In spite of all that has +been said and done, thou alone hast left me in repose, hast never +troubled my last days by conspiracies against my crown, and against my +life--ay, my life! Brother has been set against Brother in bitter +hatred. Thou alone hast not hated me, Henry. Thou alone, in spite of all +the wrongs I have done thee--thou hast loved me. To thee I commend my +poor patient wife--to thee I commend my people!" + +"But, sire, should it please Heaven to take you from us--and may you +live long, I pray"--resumed Henry of Navarre, whilst the king shook his +head--"it will be your mother who will claim the regency, until the +return from Poland of your brother, Henry of Anjou. It will be hers +probably to command!" + +"When I bid you not trust yourself to her tender mercies," replied +Charles, "think not I spoke as a child. My life is ebbing fast, I know, +but my mind is clear. Give me that paper!" He pointed to a paper laid +upon a table close by his side. "This is my last and binding command, +which I shall now sign with my own hand," he continued, as Henry brought +him the desired paper, and laid it upon his couch. "This declares, that, +by my last will, I appoint you as Regent of this realm until the return +of the King of Poland. The name is still in blank; for I would not that +those who drew it up should know my purpose, and bring my mother +clamouring to my side, to thwart my last wish by her reproaches. Give me +a pen, Henry. Now, support me--so--in your arms. Where is now the paper? +My sight is troubled; but I shall find strength to see and strength to +trace that name." + +Raised up in the arms of the King of Navarre, Charles took the pen +placed in his hand, and laid it on the paper. + +"When you are regent, Henry," he paused to say, "remove my mother from +your court. It is I who bid you do it. She would hate you with a mortal +hatred; for power is her only aim in this world, and for that she would +forfeit her salvation in the next. Not a moment would your life be in +safety. She would poison you, as she has poisoned her miserable son." + +"Sire! retract those words!" said a voice close by the dying king. + +Before the couch of her son stood Catherine de Medicis. Her face was +cold and passionless as ever, although her dark eyes gleamed with +unusual fire, and her pallid face was still more pale. + +"What would you have with me, madam?" said Charles, shuddering, as she +approached. "Have I not desired to be alone with my good brother Henry +upon affairs of state?" + +"Retract those words, sire!" pursued his mother, unheeding him. "You +have brought against me the most awful accusation that malice can lay to +the charge of a human being. Would you leave this world, if so it please +the saints above, with so hideous a lie upon your lips? Sire! retract +those words!" + +"Leave me, woman! Leave me to die in peace!" said Charles, with an +effort of energy, struggling with his weakness and the violence of his +emotions. "Be you guilty of this deed, or be you not, may Heaven forgive +you your misdeeds, as I pray it may forgive me mine." + +"My son! my son!" cried Catherine, kneeling down by his side, whilst the +tears, which were ever ready at her command, and might now have been +natural tears of rage, rolled down her cheeks, "I cannot leave you thus, +a victim to the most horrible suspicion. I may have erred against you, +but it has been unconsciously. I have ever sought your honour and your +glory, perhaps by means you now condemn; but I have acted, like a weak, +fallible mortal, for the best. No--no--you really cannot entertain +thoughts so terrible. It cannot be. This is the suggestion of my +enemies--and my enemies are yours, my son." And, as she said these +words, Catherine darted a cold, sharp look of rage at Henry of Navarre, +who had risen, and now remained an unwilling spectator of so terrible a +scene--a scene of the most fearful passions of the human heart between +mother and son, and upon the bed of death. "No--no--you will retract +your words. You will say you did not entertain that frightful thought." + +As the Queen-mother spoke, her eyes were fixed upon the paper, which was +to consign the regency to Henry of Navarre; and, in spite of the +animation with which she addressed her son, it was evident that upon +that paper her chief thoughts were directed. + +"Madam!" said Charles faintly, raising himself with difficulty on one +elbow, and struggling with internal pain--"you have received my last +words of pardon. Let my last moments be undisturbed." + +"Charles, Charles!" exclaimed his mother, wringing her hands. "Let me +remove these horrible ideas from your mind. What shall I say? What shall +I do? Can a son think thus of a mother who has ever loved him? Oh, +no!--it is impossible. Your mind wandered. You did not think it." + +"Enough, madam!--enough!" replied the King. "It was the passing fancy of +a wandering brain, if you will have it so. It is gone now. I think of it +no more. Now leave me." + +"But, my son," persisted Catherine, "I have such secrets to reveal to +you, as you alone may hear. They are necessary to the safety of the +state--necessary to the salvation of your soul hereafter. I cannot, must +not, leave you. It is my bounded duty to remain." + +"The time is past, madam," gasped her son, "when I can listen to such +matters. My moments are counted--and I have that to do that can brook no +delay." + +Catherine sprung up with a feeling of despair, and turned away for a +moment. + +"It is near noon," she muttered to herself. "And it was to be at noon, +said the astrologer. Oh! a few minutes--but a few minutes"---- + +"My son," she continued aloud, again approaching the bed of the king, +and having recourse once more to that importunity, which, in the latter +days of his reign, was the only weapon with which she could contrive to +work upon the mind of Charles, "but I have that to reveal which deeply +affects the honour of our family. Would you that other ears should +listen to our shame?" + +"Aye, ever shame--ever blood--ever remorse!" murmured Charles, turning +his head upon his pillow. + +"Would you refuse the last request of her who is, after all, your +mother?" exclaimed Catherine, with the well acted accent of extreme +despair. + +The king uttered not a word. + +"Leave us, sir," said the Queen-mother, with an imperious sign of her +hand to Henry of Navarre, upon seeing these symptoms of the wavering +resolution of her son. + +The young prince remained unmoved, to await the will of the dying king. + +"Leave us, Henry," said the Monarch; "you will return to me anon. This +is her last request--these are her last words. When she is gone, let me +see you instantly." + +Henry of Navarre shook his head with a look of mournful resignation, and +then bowed and left the apartment. + +"Now speak, madam," said the king, "and quickly. What would you reveal +to me?" + +"That Henry of Navarre conspires against your throne," commenced +Catherine, rapidly; "that he has been proved to be in connexion with +that sorcerer who has aimed at your life; that the chiefs of the +accursed Huguenot party are concealed in Paris, awaiting but your death +to place the crown upon his brow; that he also looks to this event to +abjure once more the true Catholic faith, and return into the bosom of +heresy; that by giving power into his hands, you endanger the safety of +the state; that by committing the rule of the country to a Heretic and a +Seceder, you endanger the safety of your own soul; that, by such a step, +the honour of our House will be eternally lost; that in all the +countries of Catholic Christendom, we shall be pointed at with the +finger of scorn and shame." + +"Madam, you have deceived me with words of equivocation to gain my ear," +replied the king, mustering all the strength that still remained to him, +"and you deceive me now." + +"I deceive you not, my son," pursued Catherine, eagerly. "Each word that +I pronounce is God's own truth. Could you then confide into the power of +a base and lying Heretic, one who seeks your death, but to grasp himself +the Crown, the government of a Catholic and a Christian country? Hear +you not already the anathema of our holy father, the Pope, that curses +even in the tomb that soul lost by a step so rash? See you not already +our blessed Virgin, and all the saints of Heaven, turn from you their +glorious faces, and refuse to look on one who has despised them, and set +them at nought by a deed so unholy? Feel you not already the torture of +that punishment to which the Heretic, and the aider and abettor of the +Heretic, are eternally condemned? Have I deceived you when I said that +you endanger the welfare of your own immortal soul?" + +"But you err, madam," said her miserable son, shuddering at the picture +thus placed before him, to work upon his mind in these last moments. +"Henry is become a good and fervent Catholic." + +"All is ready for his abjuration at the moment of your death," continued +the Queen-mother. "To resume a powerful party among the Huguenots, he +will renounce our religion. My son--my son--pause, reflect, before you +thus sacrifice your own salvation, and throw your unhappy country +beneath the Papal ban." + +"Heaven aid me!" cried the miserable Charles. "On all sides darkness and +despair, in this world and the next." + +"Heaven shall aid you, my son," pursued his wily mother, "if you but +trust the guidance of your kingdom to such hands as shall maintain it in +the true religion. The paper that resigns your country to the hands of a +regent, lies, I see, before you. Can you hesitate? Can you a moment +doubt? Whose name should fill that space, where but just now you would +have written the traitorous name of Henry of Navarre?" + +"God guide my unhappy France!" sighed the king, turning his face away +and closing his eyes. "In His hands I leave it." + +Catherine smiled with a look of scorn, and then picking up the pen, +which had fallen by the bedside, calmly fetched some ink from the table, +and attempted to place the pen in her son's hand. + +Before her purpose could be fulfilled, a noise was heard in the outer +room. The voice of a woman clamoured loudly for admittance. Charles +heard that voice, opened his eyes, and attempted to raise his head. + +"Ah, it is she!" he cried, with choking voice. "At last!--at last! Let +her come in." + +Catherine de Medicis rose, for the purpose, probably, of opposing the +order of her son; but before she could reach the door, an old woman, +simply attired, and of a strange appearance and expression, had entered +the room. + +"What means this intrusion, and at such a moment?" exclaimed the +Queen-mother. + +"Perrotte!" stammered Charles. "Ah! thou art come at last to console and +to forgive me." + +Catherine clenched her teeth tightly together with rage; but she no +longer attempted to oppose the entrance of the old woman. + +The old Huguenot nurse advanced with solemn step into the room, and with +a stern and troubled brow; but, on a sudden, a host of recollections +seemed to crowd upon her mind at the sight of that emaciated form, and, +hurrying to the side of the king, she flung herself down upon the couch +and sobbed bitterly. + +"Perrotte--my darling old Perrotte!" sobbed forth the dying king. "Art +thou come then at last to thy poor nursling? Thou wast a mother to me, +and yet thou couldst desert thy poor boy; but he deserved his lot. +Perrotte! Perrotte! Thou knowest not what I have suffered since thou +hast left me." + +"My son," said Catherine, advancing, "is this a moment to bestow your +tenderness upon a miserable woman like this? Greet her if you will, but +bid her leave us." + +"She was a mother to me--she"----continued Charles unheeding her, and, +drawing forth his emaciated hand from beneath the coverlid, he held it +forth towards the old woman, who lay stretched across his feet. + +"Charlot," said the old woman, raising up her head with a haggard look, +"they told me that thou wast dying; and I forgot all--all that thou hast +done of evil--to see thee once more--to hear the words of repentance +from thy own lips--to console and guide. They would have opposed my +coming. They had placed guards about my door; but my Jocelyne, my +grandchild, found means to lure them from their post, and I escaped +them. I had promised her--what had I promised her? Oh, my poor Charlot! +my brain wanders strangely at times. No matter. Here, in your palace of +the Louvre, too, they would have shut the doors to me; but they knew you +loved me, Charlot, and they dared not refuse my supplications. Oh my +boy, my boy, that I should see you thus!" + +"Perrotte! hast thou forgiven me?" said the king with a violent effort, +for his breath was now fast failing him. His mother watched the scene +with folded arms and haughty mien. Each ebbing of the breath brought her +nearer to her much-desired power. + +"Hast thou forgiven me?" sobbed the king. + +"May God forgive the injuries thou hast done to others, as I now forgive +thee on thy bed of suffering, those thou hast done to mine," said the +old woman solemnly; and rising from her recumbent position, she advanced +to the head of the couch, and took the dying man in her arms, as it were +an infant she clasped to her bosom. + +"And how can I repay thee, mother?" said Charles to his nurse; "speak +quickly, for my moments are but few!" + +"By thy repentance, my poor son," replied the Huguenot woman earnestly. +"There is still time to repair thy errors. If thy remorse has reconciled +thee to thy God, let thy last act reconcile thee to thy injured +fellow-creatures. Ay! it is of that I would have spoken. That was my +promise. Let thy last act of government as King, depute thy power into +the hands of him who alone can pacify the unhappy religious discords of +thy state, and thus thou mayst still save the life of the innocent and +unjustly condemned." + +"Woman! do you dare even in my presence?" said Catherine advancing. + +"Silence, madam. I have heard you," interrupted her son: "let me now +hear her who has been my real mother." + +"My son, can you listen to the vile insinuations of an accursed heretic? +Think on your soul," cried Catherine. + +"Yea, think on thy soul, my son," said Perrotte solemnly, "and earn its +salvation by thy repentance." + +"Let that woman be dragged from our presence, who thus dares to utter +treason and blasphemy in our face," exclaimed the Queen-mother, +forgetting her forbearance in her wrath. + +"My son, my son! Let peace and pardon await thee," urged the old +Huguenot nurse, her face growing more wild with the excitement of the +moment. + +"Madam," said Charles faintly to the Queen-mother, "would you shorten +the few moments still accorded to me of life? Perrotte, give me that +pen, guide my hand to that paper. Quickly, as thou lovedst me, woman!" + +"Never," exclaimed Catherine, violently grasping the arm of her dying +son, as it approached the paper. + +Charles raised his head to speak to her; but his emotions were too +violent for his feeble frame. His lips quivered; the blood rose to his +mouth, and choked his utterance. He fell back on his pillow, whilst a +hollow rattling sounded in his throat; the pen remained between his +powerless fingers. + +"Ah! he is no more! he is dead!" screamed the nurse in despair, and she +flung herself upon the bed. + +"No--no," said the Queen-mother to herself. "There is still life. My +son! Son," she continued aloud, "give me thy hand. If thou wilt sign +that paper--be it signed." And grasping his hand, she conducted it to +the place of signature on the paper. Mechanically the fingers followed +the impulse she bestowed upon them. But four letters only of the name of +Charles had been traced, when Catherine uttered a fearful scream. A +rough hand had grasped her own, and lacerated its skin. The first +thought of her superstitious mind was, that the arch-fiend himself had +risen up in bodily form before her. On to the bed had sprung the ape; +with a movement of detestation to the Queen-mother, which the animal had +always evinced, when she approached its master; it bit the hand that +held that of the dying king. + +Catherine drew back with another cry, but after a moment she again +advanced her hand to grasp that of her son. When she took it within her +own it was utterly motionless; but, nothing daunted in her purpose, she +again fixed the pen between the dead fingers, and thus guiding them, +contrived to trace the three remaining letters, regardless of the stream +of blood, which, trickling from her wounded hand, besmeared that fatal +signature. Then letting fall the dead man's hand, she wrote her own name +firmly into the blank space. + +The Huguenot woman, aroused by her scream, had gazed upon the daring +deed with horror. + +For a moment not a sound was heard. + +On one side of the corpse knelt the nurse, who had loved so well that +erring man. On the other stood the Queen-mother, trembling in spite of +her cold and dauntless nature. At the bed's head sat the hideous ape, +grinning a fearful grin, as it were the evil spirit that had arisen to +claim the lost soul of him who had thus passed away. + +"Charles the King is dead," exclaimed the Queen-mother, "and Catherine +de Medicis is Regent of the Realm!" + +"It is false! That signature is a forgery," cried Perrotte, starting up, +her eyes staring before her with all the expression of the deranged in +mind. "I saw it done. To the world I will proclaim that--that Catherine +de Medicis is a false Queen, and a usurping Regent." + +Catherine smiled a smile of scorn; and advancing to the door of the +outer room, she flung it open with the words. + +"The King is dead!" + +"The King, is dead!" was repeated along the corridors of the Louvre. + +A pause ensued. + +"The King is dead! Long live the King, Henry the Third of France!" again +said Catherine. + +"Long live the King!" was once more shouted from mouth to mouth. + +"Gentlemen, his Majesty has been pleased, before his death, to sign a +warrant appointing his mother Regent of France," announced Catherine +once more to those assembled without. + +"Long live the Queen Regent," was the cry which announced to many an +anxious heart of the various parties in the State, that the reign of the +dreaded Queen-mother had commenced. + +"Let some of those without advance and seize that woman!" was the first +order of the Regent. "Heed not her words! She is mad!" + +Catherine of Medicis spoke with greater truth than she herself believed. +The shock of that scene of death, and strife, and evil passions, had +again turned the old woman's brain. + + +CONCLUSION. + +One of the first acts of the Regency of Catherine de Medicis, was to +give directions for the hastening the trial of La Mole, upon the charge +of sorcery against the life of the late King. Although, with the Regency +in her power, and in daily expectation of the return from Poland of her +favourite son, whose weak and pliant mind she was aware she could bend +to her own will in every thing, and thus have the whole power of the +government within her own grasp, yet she still pursued her vengeance +against the man who, in conspiring to place another of her sons upon the +throne, had thwarted her designs. The wax figure formed by Ruggieri, who +himself was fully screened by the Queen-mother, was made to form a +prominent feature in this celebrated trial; and it is well known that +the unfortunate La Mole fell a victim to an ambition, which, in the +confused and distracted state of affairs at the time, could scarcely +have been looked upon as a crime. + +Among those who thronged to witness his execution was one, whose thread +of life was nearly torn asunder by the blow of that axe which severed +the beloved head from the trunk. Poor Jocelyne only recovered from the +state of insensibility into which she fell, to linger on a few months of +a wretched existence, during which she never spoke. Her heart was +broken. The King's nurse was conveyed by the order of the Queen Regent +to a place of security; but as soon as it was known that her senses were +really lost, she was allowed to be taken back to her own home. +Jocelyne's only thought for the living before her own death, was +concentrated in her grandmother; when her bright spirit fled, it was +Alayn who performed the mournful task of care for the welfare of the +miserable old woman. + +Henry of Anjou returned from Poland to claim his Crown; and, as Henry +the Third of France, he filled the country with the scandals of that +folly, licentiousness, and weakness of mind, which were fostered by his +mother, Catherine de Medicis, in order to retain the power she coveted, +completely within her own grasp. + +Upon the assumption of the Regency, Henry of Navarre contrived to fly, +in spite of the plans laid to entrap him by the Queen-mother, to his own +country; his wife Margaret accompanied him to his solitude; and paid the +penalty of her lightness of conduct at the court of France, in sorrow +and ennui. + +Despised and rejected by all parties, the weak Duke of Alencon, after a +vain and abortive attempt to raise himself into a position of greater +distinction, as the husband of Elizabeth of England, in whose eyes he +found no grace or favour, died early, unlamented, and speedily +forgotten. + + + + +A CAMPAIGN IN TEXAS.[G] + + +"A meeting of citizens"--so ran the announcement that, on the morning of +the 11th October 1835, was seen posted, in letters a foot high, at the +corner of every street in New Orleans--"a meeting of citizens this +evening, at eight o'clock, in the Arcade Coffeehouse. It concerns the +freedom and sovereignty of a people in whose veins the blood of the +Anglo-Saxon flows. Texas, the prairie-land, has risen in arms against +the tyrant Santa Anna, and the greedy despotism of the Romish +priesthood, and implores the assistance of the citizens of the Union. We +have therefore convoked an assembly of the inhabitants of this city, and +trust to see it numerously attended. + + "_The Committee for Texas._" + +The extensive and fertile province of Texas had, up to the period of +Mexico's separation from Spain, been utterly neglected. Situated at the +north-eastern extremity of the vast Mexican empire, and exposed to the +incursions of the Comanches, and other warlike tribes, it contained but +a scanty population of six thousand souls, who, for safety's sake, +collected together in a few towns, and fortified mission-houses, and +even there were compelled to purchase security by tribute to the +Indians. It was but a very short time before the outbreak of the Mexican +revolution, that the Spaniards began to turn their attention to Texas, +and to encourage emigration from the United States. The rich soil, the +abundance of game, the excellence of the climate, were irresistible +inducements; and soon hundreds of hardy backwoodsmen crossed the Sabine, +with their families and worldly goods, and commenced the work of +colonization. Between the iron-fisted Yankees and the indolent cowardly +Mexicans, the Indian marauders speedily discovered the difference; +instead of tribute and unlimited submission, they were now received with +rifle-bullets and stern resistance; gradually they ceased their +aggressions, and Texas became comparatively a secure residence. + +The Mexican revolution broke out and triumphed, and at first the policy +of the new government was favourable to the Americans in Texas, whose +numbers each day increased. But after a time several laws, odious and +onerous to the settlers, were passed; and various disputes and partial +combats with the Mexican garrisons occurred. When Santa Anna put himself +at the head of the liberal party in Mexico, the Texians gladly raised +his banner; but they soon discovered that the change was to prove of +little advantage to them. Santa Anna's government showed a greater +jealousy of the American settlers than any previous one had done; their +prayer, that the province they had colonized might be erected into a +state of the Mexican union, was utterly disregarded, and its bearer, +Stephen F. Austin, detained in prison at Mexico; various citizens were +causelessly arrested, and numerous other acts of injustice committed. At +last, in the summer of 1835, Austin procured his release, and returned +to Texas, where he was joyfully received by the aggrieved colonists. +Presently arrived large bodies of troops, under the Mexican general, +Cos, destined to strengthen the Texian garrisons; and at the same time +came a number of ordinances, as ridiculous as they were unjust. One of +these ordered the Texians to give up their arms, only retaining one gun +for every five plantations; another forbade the building of churches. +The tyranny of such edicts, and the positive cruelty of the first-named, +in a country surrounded by tribes of Indian robbers, are too evident to +require comment. The Texians, although they were but twenty-seven +thousand against eight millions, at once resolved to resist; and to do +so with greater effect, they sent deputies to the United States, to +crave assistance in the struggle about to commence. + +The summons of the Texian committee of New Orleans to their +fellow-citizens was enthusiastically responded to. At the appointed +hour, the immense Arcade Coffeehouse was thronged to the roof, speeches +in favour of Texian liberty were made and applauded to the echo; and two +lists were opened--one for subscriptions, the other for the names of +those who were willing to lend the aid of their arms to their oppressed +fellow-countrymen. Before the meeting separated, ten thousand dollars +were subscribed, and on the following afternoon, the steamer Washita +ascended the Mississippi with the first company of volunteers. These had +ransacked the tailors' shops for grey clothing, such being the colour +best suited to the prairie, and thence they received the name of "The +Greys;" their arms were rifles, pistols, and the far-famed bowie-knife. +The day after their departure, a second company of Greys set sail, but +went round by sea to the Texian coast; and the third instalment of these +ready volunteers was the company of Tampico Blues, who took ship for the +port of Tampico. The three companies consisted of Americans, English, +French, and several Germans. Six of the latter nation were to be found +in the ranks of the Greys; and one of them, a Prussian, of the name of +Ehrenberg, who appears to have been for some time an inhabitant of the +United States, and to be well acquainted with the country, its people, +their language and peculiarities, survived, in one instance by a seeming +miracle, the many desperate fights and bloody massacres that occurred +during the short but severe conflict for Texian independence, in which +nearly the whole of his comrades were slain. He has recently published +an account of the campaign; and his narrative, highly characteristic and +circumstantial, derives a peculiar interest from his details of the +defeats suffered by the Texians, before they could succeed in shaking +off the Mexican yoke. Of their victories, and especially of the crowning +one at San Jacinto, various accounts have already appeared; but the +history of their reverses, although not less interesting, is far less +known; for the simple reason, that the Mexicans gave no quarter to those +whom they styled rebels, and that the defeat of a body of Texians was +almost invariably followed by its extermination. + +Great was the enthusiasm, and joyful the welcome, with which the Texian +colonists received the first company of volunteers, when, under the +command of Captain Breece, they landed from their steamboat upon the +southern bank of the river Sabine. No sooner had they set foot on shore, +than a flag of blue silk, embroidered with the words, "To the first +company of Texian volunteers from New Orleans," was presented to them in +the name of the women of Texas; the qualification of Texian citizens was +conferred upon them; every house was placed at their disposal for +quarters; and banquets innumerable were prepared in their honour. But +the moment was critical--time was too precious to be expended in feasts +and merry-making, and they pressed onwards. A two days' march brought +them to San Augustin, two more to Nacoydoches, and thence, after a short +pause, they set out on their journey of five hundred miles to St +Antonio, where they expected first to burn powder. Nor were they +deceived in their expectations. They found the Texian militia encamped +before the town, which, as well as its adjacent fort of the Alamo, was +held by the Mexicans, the Texians were besieging it in the best manner +their imperfect means and small numbers would permit. An amusing account +is given by Mr Ehrenberg of the camp and proceedings of the besieging +force:-- + +We had arrived late in the night, and at sunrise a spectacle offered +itself to us, totally different from any thing we had ever before +beheld. To our left flowed the river St Antonio, which, although it +rises but a few miles from the town of the same name, is already, on +reaching the latter, six or eight feet deep, and eighteen or twenty +yards broad. It here describes a curve, enclosing a sort of promontory +or peninsula, at the commencement of which, upstream, the Texian camp +was pitched. At the opposite or lower extremity, but also on the right +bank of the river, was the ancient town of St Antonio, hidden from the +camp by the thick wood that fringes the banks of all Texian streams. +Between us and the town was a maize-field, a mile long, and at that time +lying fallow; opposite to the field, on the left bank, and only +separated from the town by the river, stood the Alamo, the principal +fortress of the province of Texas. The camp itself extended over a space +half a mile in length, surrounded by maize-fields and prairie, the +latter sprinkled with muskeet thickets, and with groups of gigantic +cactuses; in the high grass between which the horses and oxen of our +troops were peaceably grazing. On entering the adjacent fields, the air +was instantly darkened by millions of blackbirds, which rose like a +cloud from the ground, described a few circles, and then again settled, +to seek their food upon the earth. In one field, which had been used as +a place of slaughter for the cattle, whole troops of vultures, of +various kinds, were stalling about amongst the offal, or sitting, with +open beaks and wings outspread, upon the dry branches of the +neighbouring pecan-trees, warming themselves in the sunbeams, no bad +type of the Mexicans; whilst here and there, a solitary wolf or prairie +dog prowled amongst the heads, hides, and entrails of the slaughtered +beasts, taking his breakfast as deliberately as his human neighbours. +The _reveille_ had sounded, and the morning gun been fired from the +Alamo, when presently the drum beat to summon the various companies to +roll-call; and the men were seen emerging from their tents and huts. It +will give some idea of the internal organization of the Texian army, if +I record the proceedings of the company that lay opposite to us, the +soldiers composing which were disturbed by the tap of the drum in the +agreeable occupation of cooking their breakfast. This consisted of +pieces of beef, which they roasted at the fire on small wooden spits. +Soon a row of these warriors, some only half-dressed, stood before the +sergeant, who, with the roll of the company in his hand, was waiting +their appearance; they were without their rifles, instead of which, most +of them carried a bowie-knife in one hand, and a skewer, transfixing a +lump of smoking meat, in the other. Several did not think proper to obey +the summons at all, their roast not being yet in a state that permitted +them to leave it. At last the sergeant began to call the names, which +were answered to alternately from the ranks or from some neighbouring +fire, and once a sleepy "here!" proceeding from under the canvass of a +tent, caused a hearty laugh amongst the men, and made the sergeant look +sulky, although he passed it over as if it were no unusual occurrence. +When all the names had been called, he had no occasion to dismiss his +men, for each of them, after answering, had returned to the fire and his +breakfast. + +We Greys, particularly the Europeans, looked at each other, greatly +amused by this specimen of Texian military discipline. We ourselves, it +is true, up to this time, had never even had the roll called, but had +been accustomed, as soon as the _reveille_ sounded, to get our +breakfast, and then set forward in a body, or by twos and threes, +trotting, walking, or galloping, as best pleased us. Only in one respect +were we very particular; namely, that the quartermaster and two or three +men, should start an hour before us, to warn the inhabitants of our +approach, and get food and quarters ready for our arrival. If we did not +find every thing prepared, and that it was the quarter-master's fault, +he was reduced to the ranks, as were also any of the other officers who +misbehaved themselves. I must observe, however, that we were never +obliged to break either of our captains; for both Breece of ours, and +Captain Cook of the other company of Greys, made themselves invariably +beloved and respected. Cook has since risen to the rank of +major-general, and is, or was the other day, quartermaster-general of +the republic of Texas. + +Towards nine o'clock, a party crossed the field between our camp and the +town, to reinforce a small redoubt erected by Cook's Greys, and provided +with two cannon, which were continually thundering against the Alamo, +and from time to time knocking down a fragment of wall. The whole +affair seemed like a party of pleasure, and every telling shot was +hailed with shouts of applause. Meanwhile, the enemy were not idle, but +kept up a fire from eight or nine pieces, directed against the redoubt, +the balls and canister ploughing up the ground in every direction, and +driving clouds of dust towards the camp. It was no joke to get over the +six or eight hundred yards that intervened between the latter and the +redoubt, for there was scarcely any cover, and the Mexican artillery was +far better served than ours. Nevertheless, the desire to obtain a full +view of the Alamo, which, from the redoubt, presented an imposing +appearance, induced eight men, including myself, to take a start across +the field. It seemed as if the enemy had pointed at us every gun in the +fort; the bullets fell around us like hail, and for a moment the +blasting tempest compelled us to take refuge behind a pecan-tree. Here +we stared at each other, and laughed heartily at the absurd figure we +cut, standing, eight men deep, behind a nut-tree, whilst our comrades, +both in the camp and the redoubt, shouted with laughter at every +discharge that rattled amongst the branches over our heads. + +"This is what you call making war," said one of our party, Thomas Camp +by name. + +"And that," said another, as a whole swarm of iron musquitos buzzed by +him, "is what we Americans call variations on Yankee Doodle." + +Just then there was a tremendous crash amongst the branches, and we +dashed out from our cover, and across to the redoubt, only just in time; +for the next moment the ground on which we had been standing was strewn +with the heavy boughs of the pecan-tree. + +All was life and bustle in the little redoubt; the men were standing +round the guns, talking and joking, and taking it by turns to have a +shot at the old walls. Before firing, each man was compelled to name his +mark, and say what part of the Alamo he meant to demolish, and then bets +were made as to his success or failure. + +"A hundred rifle-bullets to twenty," cried one man, "that I hit between +the third and fourth window of the barracks." + +"Done!" cried half a dozen voices. The shot was fired, and the clumsy +artilleryman had to cast bullets all next day. + +"My pistols--the best in camp, by the by"--exclaimed another aspirant, +"against the worst in the redoubt." + +"Well, sir, I reckon I may venture," said a hard-featured backwoodsman +in a green hunting-shirt, whose pistols, if not quite so good as those +wagered, were at any rate the next best. Away flew the ball, and the +pistols of the unlucky marksman were transferred to Green-shirt, who +generously drew forth his own, and handed them to the loser. + +"Well, comrade, s'pose I must give you yer revenge. If I don't hit, +you'll have your pistols back again." + +The cannon was reloaded, and the backwoodsman squinted along it, as if +it had been his own rifle, his features twisted up into a mathematical +calculation, and his right hand describing in the air all manner of +geometrical figures. At last he was ready; one more squint along the +gun, the match was applied, and the explosion took place. The rattle of +the stones warned us that the ball had taken effect. When the smoke +cleared away, we looked in vain for the third and fourth windows, and a +tremendous hurra burst forth for old Deaf Smith, as he was called, for +the bravest Texian who ever hunted across a prairie, and who +subsequently, with a small corps of observation, did such good service +on the Mexican frontier between Nueces and the Rio Grande. + +The restless and impetuous Yankee volunteers were not long in finding +opportunities of distinction. Some Mexican sharpshooters having come +down to the opposite side of the river, whence they fired into the +redoubt, were repelled by a handful of the Greys, who then, carried away +by their enthusiasm, drove in the enemy's outposts, and entered the +suburbs of the town. They got too far, and were in imminent risk of +being overpowered by superior numbers, when Deaf Smith came to their +rescue with a party of their comrades. Several days passed away in +skirmishing, without any decisive assault being made upon the town or +fort. The majority of the men were for attacking; but some of the +leaders opposed it, and wished to retire into winter quarters in rear of +the Guadalupe river, wait for further reinforcements from the States, +and then, in the spring, again advance, and carry St Antonio by a _coup +de main_. To an army, in whose ranks subordination and discipline were +scarcely known, and where every man thought his opinion as worthy to be +listened to as that of the general, a difference of opinion was +destruction. The Texian militia, disgusted with their leader, Burleson, +retreated in straggling parties across the Guadalupe; about four hundred +men, consisting chiefly of the volunteers from New Orleans and the +Mississippi, remained behind, besieging St Antonio, of which the +garrison was nearly two thousand strong. The four hundred melted away, +little by little, to two hundred and ten; but these held good, and +resolved to attack the town. They did so, and took it, house by house, +with small loss to themselves, and a heavy one to the Mexicans. On the +sixth day, the garrison of the Alamo, which was commanded by General +Cos, and which the deadly Texian rifles had reduced to little more than +half its original numbers, capitulated. After laying down their arms, +they were allowed to retire beyond the Rio Grande. Forty-eight pieces of +cannon, four thousand muskets, and a quantity of military stores, fell +into the hands of the Texians, whose total loss amounted to six men +dead, and twenty-nine wounded. + +After two or three weeks' sojourn at St Antonio, it was determined to +advance upon Matamoras; and on the 30th December the volunteers set out, +leaving a small detachment to garrison the Alamo. The advancing column +was commanded by Colonel Johnson; but its real leader, although he +declined accepting a definite command, was Colonel Grant, a Scotchman, +who had formerly held a commission in a Highland regiment, but had now +been for many years resident in Mexico. On reaching the little fort of +Goliad, near the town of La Bahia, which had a short time previously +been taken by a few Texians under Demmit, they halted, intending to wait +for reinforcements. A company of Kentuckians, and some other small +parties, joined them, making up their strength to about six hundred men; +but they were still obliged to wait for ammunition, and as the troops +began to get impatient, their leaders marched them to Refugio, a small +town and ruinous fort, about thirty miles further on. Here, in the +latter days of January 1836, General Houston, commander-in-chief of the +Texian forces, suddenly and unexpectedly appeared amongst them. He +assembled the troops, harangued them, and deprecated the proposed +expedition to Matamoras as useless, that town being without the proposed +limits of the republic. Nevertheless, so great was the impatience of +inaction, that two detachments, together about seventy men, marched by +different roads towards the Rio Grande, under command of Grant and +Johnson. Their example might probably have been followed by others, had +not the arrival of some strong reinforcements from the United States +caused various changes in the plan of campaign. The fresh troops +consisted of Colonel Fanning's free corps, the Georgia battalion under +Major Ward, and the Red Rovers, from Alabama, under Doctor Shackleford. +Fanning's and Ward's men, and the Greys, retired to Goliad, and set +actively to work to improve and strengthen the fortifications; whilst +Colonel Grant, whose chief failing appears to have been over-confidence, +continued with a handful of followers his advance to the Rio Grande, +promising at least to bring back a supply of horses for the use of the +army. + +On the 5th of March, the garrison of Goliad received intelligence of the +declaration of Texian independence, and of the appointment of a +government, with Burnet as president, and Lorenzo de Zavala, a Mexican, +as vice-president. At the same time, came orders from General Houston to +destroy the forts of Goliad and the Alamo, and retreat immediately +behind the Guadalupe. Santa Anna, with twelve thousand men, was +advancing, by rapid marches, towards Texas. The order reached the Alamo +too late, for the little garrison of a hundred and eighty men was +already hemmed in, on all sides, by several thousand Mexicans, and had +sent messengers, imploring assistance, to Fanning at Goliad, and to +Houston, who was then stationed with five hundred militia at Gonzales, +high up on the Guadalupe. A second despatch from General Houston gave +Fanning the option of retiring behind the Guadalupe; or, if his men +wished it, of marching to the relief of the Alamo, in which latter case +he was to join Houston and his troops at Seguin's Rancho, about forty +miles from St Antonio. Fanning, however, who, although a man of +brilliant and distinguished courage, seems to have been an undecided and +wrongheaded officer, did neither, but preferred to wait for the enemy +within the walls of Goliad. In vain did a majority of his men, and +especially the Greys, urge him to march to the rescue of their comrades; +he positively refused to do so, although each day witnessed the arrival +of fresh couriers from St Antonio, imploring succour. + +One morning three men belonging to the small detachment which, under +Colonel Grant, had gone upon the mad expedition to the Rio Grande, +arrived at Goliad with news of the destruction of their companions. Only +thirty in number, they had collected four hundred fine horses, and were +driving them northward to rejoin their friends, when, in a narrow pass +between thickets, they were suddenly surrounded by several hundred of +the enemy's lancers, whose attack, however, seemed directed rather +against the horses than the escort. Grant, whose courage was blind, and +who had already witnessed many instances of the almost incredible +poltroonery of those half-Indians, drew his sword, and charged the +Mexicans, who were at least ten times his strength. A discharge of +rifles and pistols stretched scores of the lancers upon the ground; but +that discharge made, there was no time to reload, and the Texians had to +defend themselves as best they might, with their bowie-knives and +rifle-buts, against the lances of the foe, with the certainty that any +of them who fell wounded from their saddles, would instantly be crushed +and mangled under the feet of the wild horses, which, terrified by the +firing and conflict, tore madly about the narrow field. Each moment the +numbers of the Texians diminished, one after the other disappeared, +transfixed by the lances, trampled by the hoofs. Colonel Grant and three +men--those who brought the news to Goliad--had reached the outskirt of +the _melee_, and might at once have taken to flight; but Grant perceived +some others of his men still fighting heroically amongst the mass of +Mexicans, and once more he charged in to rescue them. Every thing gave +way before him, his broadsword whistled around him, and man after man +fell beneath its stroke. His three followers having reloaded, were +rushing forward to his support, when suddenly the fatal lasso flew +through the air, its coils surrounded the body of the gallant Scot, and +the next instant he lay upon the ground beneath the feet of the foaming +and furious horses. In horrorstruck silence, the three survivors turned +their horses' heads north-east, and fled from the scene of slaughter. + +Besides this disaster, numerous detachments of Texians were cut off by +the Mexicans, who now swarmed over the southern part of the province. +Colonel Johnson and his party were surprised in the town of San Patricio +and cut to pieces, Johnson and four of his followers being all that +escaped. Thirty men under Captain King, who had been sent by Fanning to +escort some settlers on their way northwards, were attacked by +overpowering numbers, and, after a most desperate defence, utterly +exterminated. The Georgia battalion under Major Ward, which had marched +from Goliad to the assistance of King and his party, fell in with a +large body of Mexican cavalry and infantry, and although, during the +darkness, they managed to escape, they lost their way in the prairie, +were unable to return to Goliad, and subsequently, as will hereafter be +seen, fell into the hands of the enemy. The Alamo itself was taken, not +a man surviving of the one hundred and eighty who had so valiantly +defended it. On the other hand, we have Mr Ehrenberg's assurance that +its capture cost Santa Anna two thousand two hundred men. In the ranks +of the besieging army were between two and three thousand convicts, who, +on all occasions, were put in the post of danger. At the attack on the +Alamo they were promised a free pardon if they took the place. +Nevertheless, they advanced reluctantly enough to the attack, and twice, +when they saw their ranks mown down by the fire of the Texians, they +turned to fly, but each time they were driven back to the charge by the +bayonets and artillery of their countrymen. At last, when the greater +part of these unfortunates had fallen, Santa Anna caused his fresh +troops to advance, and the place was taken. The two last of the garrison +fell by the Mexican bullets as they were rushing, torch in hand, to fire +the powder magazine. The fall of the Alamo was announced to Colonel +Fanning in a letter from Houston. + +"The next point of the enemy's operations," said the old general, "will +be Goliad, and let the garrison reflect on the immensity of the force +that within a very few days will surround its walls. I conjure them to +make a speedy retreat, and to join the militia behind the Guadalupe. +Only by a concentration of our forces can we hope to achieve any thing; +and if Goliad is besieged, it will be impossible for me to succour it, +or to stake the fate of the republic upon a battle in the prairie, where +the ground is so unfavourable to our troops. Once more, therefore, +Colonel Fanning--in rear of the Guadalupe!" + +At last, but unfortunately too late, Fanning decided to obey the orders +of his general. The affairs of the republic of Texas were indeed in a +most critical and unfavourable state. St Antonio taken, the army of +volunteers nearly annihilated, eight or ten thousand Mexican troops in +the country, for the garrison of Goliad no chance of relief in case of a +siege, and, moreover, a scanty store of provisions. These were the +weighty grounds which finally induced Fanning to evacuate and destroy +Goliad. The history of the retreat will be best given in a condensed +translation of the interesting narrative now before us. + +On the 18th April 1836, says Mr Ehrenberg, at eight in the morning, we +commenced our retreat from the demolished and still burning fort of +Goliad. The fortifications, at which we had all worked with so much +zeal, a heap of dried beef, to prepare which nearly seven hundred oxen +had been slaughtered, and the remainder of our wheat and maize flour, +had been set on fire, and were sending up black columns of smoke towards +the clouded heavens. Nothing was to be seen of the enemy, although their +scouts had for some days previously been observed in the west, towards +St Antonio. All the artillery, with the exception of two long +four-pounders and a couple of mortars, were spiked and left behind us. +But the number of store and ammunition waggons with which we started was +too great, and our means of drawing them inadequate, so that, before we +had gone half a mile, our track was marked by objects of various kinds +scattered about the road, and several carts had broken down or been left +behind. At a mile from Goliad, on the picturesque banks of the St +Antonio, the remainder of the baggage was abandoned or hastily thrown +into the river, chests full of cartridges, the soldiers' effects, every +thing, in short, was committed to the transparent waters; and having +harnessed the oxen and draught horses to the artillery and to two +ammunition waggons, we slowly continued the march, our foes still +remaining invisible. + +Our road lay through one of those enchanting landscapes, composed of +small prairies, intersected by strips of oak and underwood. On all sides +droves of oxen were feeding in the high grass, herds of wild-eyed deer +gazed wonderingly at the army that thus intruded upon the solitary +prairies of the west, and troops of horses dashed madly away upon our +approach, the thunder of their hoofs continuing to be audible long after +their disappearance. At eight miles from Goliad begins an extensive and +treeless prairie, known as the Nine-mile Prairie; and across this, +towards three in the afternoon, we had advanced about four or five +miles. Myself and some of my comrades, who acted as rearguard, were +about two miles behind, and had received orders to keep a sharp eye +upon the forest, which lay at a considerable distance to our left; but +as up to this time no signs of an enemy had been visible, we were riding +along in full security, when, upon casually turning our heads, we +perceived, about four miles off, at the edge of the wood, a something +that resembled a man on horseback. But as the thing, whatever it was, +did not appear to move, we decided that it must be a tree or some other +inanimate object, and we rode on without taking further notice. We +proceeded in this way for about a quarter of an hour, and then, the main +body being only about a quarter of a mile before us, marching at a +snail's pace, we halted to rest a little, and let our horses feed. Now, +for the first time, as we gazed out over the seemingly boundless +prairie, we perceived in our rear, and close to the wood, a long black +line. At first we took it to be a herd of oxen which the settlers were +driving eastward, to rescue them from the Mexicans; but the dark mass +drew rapidly nearer, became each moment more plainly discernible, and +soon we could no longer doubt that a strong body of Mexican cavalry was +following us at full gallop. We sprang upon our horses, and, at the top +of their speed, hurried after our friends, to warn them of the +approaching danger. Its intimation was received with a loud hurra; all +was made ready for the fight, a square was formed, and in this manner we +marched on, as fast as possible certainly, but that was slowly enough. +Fanning, our commander, was unquestionably a brave and daring soldier, +but unfortunately he was by no means fitted for the post he held, or +indeed for any undivided command. As a proof of this, instead of +endeavouring to reach the nearest wood, hardly a mile off, and sheltered +in which our Texian and American riflemen would have been found +invincible, he resolved to give battle upon the open and unfavourable +ground that we now occupied. + +The Mexicans came up at a furious gallop to a distance of five or six +hundred paces, and thence gave us a volley from their carbines, of which +we took no notice, seeing that the bullets flew at a respectful height +above our heads, or else fell whistling upon the earth before us, +without even raising the dust. One only of the harmless things passed +between me and my right hand man, and tore off part of the cap of my +friend, Thomas Camp, who, after myself, was the youngest man in the +army. We remained perfectly quiet, and waited for the enemy to come +nearer, which he did, firing volley after volley. Our artillery +officers, for the most part Poles, tall, handsome men, calmly waited the +opportune moment to return the fire. It came; the ranks opened, and the +artillery vomited death and destruction amongst the Mexicans, whose +ill-broken horses recoiled in dismay and confusion from the flash and +thunders of the guns. The effect of our fire was frightful, steeds and +riders lay convulsed and dying upon the ground, and for a time the +advance of the enemy was checked. We profited by this to continue our +retreat, but had marched a very short distance before we were again +threatened with a charge, and Fanning commanded a halt. It was pointed +out to him that another body of the enemy was advancing upon our left, +to cut us off from the wood, and that those who had already attacked us +were merely sent to divert our attention whilst the manoeuvre was +executed. But Fanning either did not see the danger, or he was vexed +that another should be more quicksighted than himself, for he would not +retract his order. At last, after much vain discussion, and after +representing to him how necessary it was to gain the wood, the Greys +declared that they would march thither alone. But it was too late. The +enemy had already cut us off from it, and there was nothing left but to +fight our way through them, or give battle where we stood. Fanning was +for the latter course; and before the captains, who had formed a council +of war, could come to a decision, the Mexican trumpets sounded the +charge, and with shout and shot the cavalry bore down upon us, their +wild cries, intended to frighten us, contrasting oddly with the silence +and phlegm of our people, who stood waiting the opportunity to make the +best use of their rifles. Again and again our artillery played havoc +amongst the enemy, who, finding his cavalry so unsuccessful in its +assaults, now brought up the infantry, in order to make a combined +attack on all sides at once. Besides the Mexicans three hundred of their +Indian allies, Lipans and Caranchuas, approached us on the left, +stealing through the long grass, and, contemptible themselves, but +formidable by their position, wounded several of our people almost +before we perceived their proximity. A few discharges of canister soon +rid us of these troublesome assailants. + +Meanwhile the hostile infantry, who had now joined the cavalry, slowly +advanced, keeping up a constant but irregular fire, which we replied to +with our rifles. In a very short time we were surrounded by so dense a +smoke that we were often compelled to pause and advance a little towards +the enemy, before we could distinguish an object at which to aim. The +whole prairie was covered with clouds of smoke, through which were seen +the rapid flashes of the musketry, accompanied by the thunder of the +artillery, the sharp clear crack of our rifles, and the occasional blare +of the Mexican trumpets, encouraging to the fight. At that moment, I +believe there was not a coward in the field; in the midst of such a +tumult there was no time to think of self. We rushed on to meet the +advancing foe, and many of us found ourselves standing firing in the +very middle of his ranks. I myself was one of these. In the smoke and +confusion I had got too far forward, and was too busy loading and +firing, to perceive that I was in the midst of the Mexicans. As soon as +I discovered my mistake, I hurried back to our own position, in all the +greater haste, because the touchhole of my rifle had got stopped. + +But things went badly with us; many of our people were killed, more, +severely wounded; all our artillerymen, with the exception of one Pole, +had fallen, and formed a wall of dead bodies round the guns; the +battlefield was covered with dead and dying men and horses, with rifles +and other weapons. Fanning himself had been thrice wounded. The third +bullet had gone through two coats and through the pocket of his +overalls, in which he had a silk handkerchief, and had entered the +flesh, but, strange to say, without cutting through all the folds of the +silk; so that when he drew out the handkerchief, the ball fell out of +it, and he then for the first time felt the pain of the wound. + +It was between five and six o'clock. In vain had the cavalry endeavoured +to bring their horses against our ranks; each attempt had been rendered +fruitless by the steady fire of our artillery and rifles, and at last +they were obliged to retreat. The infantry also retired without waiting +for orders, and our guns, which were now served by the Greys, sent a +last greeting after them. Seven hundred Mexicans lay dead upon the +field; but we also had lost a fifth part of our men, more than had ever +fallen on the side of the Texians in any contest since the war began, +always excepting the massacre at the Alamo. The enemy still kept near +us, apparently disposed to wait till the next day, and then renew their +attacks. Night came on, but brought us no repose; a fine rain began to +fall, and spoiled the few rifles that were still in serviceable order. +Each moment we expected an assault from the Mexicans, who had divided +themselves into three detachments, of which one was posted in the +direction of Goliad, another upon the road to Victoria, which was our +road, and the third upon our left, equidistant from the other two, so as +to form a triangle. Their signals showed us their position through the +darkness. We saw that it was impossible to retreat unperceived and that +our only plan was to spike the guns, abandon the wounded and artillery, +put our rifles in as good order as might be, and cut our way through +that body of Mexicans which held the road to Victoria. Once in the wood, +we were safe, and all Santa Anna's regiments would have been +insufficient to dislodge us. The Greys were of opinion that it was +better to sacrifice a part than the whole, and to abandon the wounded, +rather than place ourselves at the mercy of a foe in whose honour and +humanity no trust could be reposed. But Fanning was of a different +opinion. Whether his wounds--none of them, it is true, very severe--and +the groans and complaints of the dying, had rendered him irresolute, +and shaken his well-tried courage, or whether it was the hope that our +vanguard, which had reached the wood before the Mexicans surrounded us, +would return with a reinforcement from Victoria, only ten miles distant, +and where, as it was falsely reported, six hundred militiamen were +stationed, I cannot say; but he remained obstinate, and we vainly +implored him to take advantage of the pitch-dark night, and retreat to +the wood. He insisted upon waiting till eight o'clock the next morning, +and if no assistance came to us by that time, we could cut our way, he +said, in open day, through the ranks of our contemptible foe, and if we +did not conquer, we could at least bravely die. + +"Give way to my wishes, comrades," said he; "listen to the groans of our +wounded brethren, whose lives may yet be saved by medical skill. Will +the New Orleans' Greys, the first company who shouldered the rifle for +Texian liberty, abandon their unfortunate comrades to a cruel death at +the hands of our barbarous foes? Once more, friends, I implore you, wait +till daybreak, and if no help is then at hand, it shall be as you +please, and I will follow you." + +In order to unstiffen my limbs, which were numbed by the wet and cold, I +walked to and fro in our little camp, gazing out into the darkness. Not +a star was visible, the night was gloomy and dismal, well calculated to +crush all hope in our hearts. I stepped out of the encampment, and +walked in the direction of the enemy. From time to time dark figures +glided swiftly by within a short distance of me. They were the Indians, +carrying away the bodies of the dead Mexicans, in order to conceal from +us the extent of their loss. For hours I mournfully wandered about, and +day was breaking when I returned to the camp. All were already astir. In +silent expectation, we strained our eyes in the direction of the +neighbouring wood, hoping each moment to see our friends burst out from +its shelter; but as the light became stronger, all our hopes fled, and +our previous doubts as to whether there really were any troops at +Victoria, became confirmed. The Mexican artillery had come up during the +night, and now appeared stationed with the detachment which cut us off +from the wood. + +It was seven o'clock; we had given up all hopes of succour, and had +assembled together to deliberate on the best mode of attacking the +Mexicans, when their artillery suddenly bellowed forth a morning +salutation, and the balls came roaring over and around us. These +messengers hastened our decision, and we resolved at once to attack the +troops upon the road with rifle and bowie-knife, and at all hazards and +any loss to gain the wood. All were ready; even the wounded, those at +least who were able to stand, made ready to accompany us, determined to +die fighting, rather than be unresistingly butchered. Suddenly, and at +the very moment that we were about to advance, the white flag, the +symbol of peace, was raised upon the side of the Mexicans. Mistrusting +their intentions, however, we were going to press forward, when +Fanning's command checked us. He had conceived hopes of rescuing himself +and his comrades, by means of an honourable capitulation, from the +perilous position into which he could not but feel that his own +obstinacy had brought them. + +Three of the enemy's officers now approached our camp, two of them +Mexican cavalry-men, the third a German who had got into favour with +Santa Anna, and had risen to be colonel of artillery. He was, if I am +not mistaken, a native of Mayence, and originally a carpenter, but +having some talent for mathematics and architecture, he had entered the +service of an English mining company, and been sent to Mexico. There +Santa Anna employed him to build his well-known country-house of Mango +do Clavo, and conceiving, from the manner in which the work was +executed, a high opinion of the talent of the builder, he gave him a +commission in the engineers, and in time made him colonel of artillery. +This man, whose name was Holzinger, was the only one who spoke English +of the three officers who came with the flag of truce; and as he spoke +it very badly, a great deal of our conference took place in German, and +was then retranslated into Spanish. After a long discussion, Fanning +agreed to the following conditions: namely, that we should deliver up +our arms, that our private property should be respected, and we +ourselves sent to Corpano or Matamora, there to embark for New Orleans. +So long as we were prisoners of war, we were to receive the same rations +as the Mexican soldiers. On the other hand, we gave our word of honour +not again to bear arms against the existing government of Mexico. + +Whilst the three officers returned to General Urrea, who commanded the +Mexican army, to procure the ratification of these conditions, we, the +volunteers from New Orleans and Mobile, surrounded Fanning, highly +dissatisfied at the course that had been adopted. "What!" was the cry, +"is this the way that Fanning keeps his promise--this his boasted +courage? Has he forgotten the fate of our brothers, massacred at St +Antonio? Does he not yet know our treacherous foes? In the Mexican +tongue, to capitulate, means to die. Let us die then, but fighting for +Texas and for liberty; and let the blood of hundreds of Mexicans mingle +with our own. Perhaps, even though they be ten times as numerous, we may +succeed in breaking through their ranks. Think of St Antonio, where we +were two hundred and ten against two thousand, and yet we conquered. Why +not again risk the combat?" But all our expostulations and reproaches +were in vain. The majority were for a surrender, and we were compelled +to give way and deliver up our weapons. Some of the Greys strode +sullenly up and down the camp, casting furious glances at Fanning and +those who had voted for the capitulation; others sat motionless, their +eyes fixed upon the ground, envying the fate of those who had fallen in +the fight. Despair was legibly written on the faces of many who but too +well foresaw our fate. One man in particular, an American, of the name +of Johnson, exhibited the most ungovernable fury. He sat grinding his +teeth, and stamping upon the ground, and puffing forth volumes of smoke +from his cigar, whilst he meditated, as presently appeared, a frightful +plan of vengeance. + +Stimulated by curiosity, a number of Mexicans now strolled over to our +camp, and gazed shyly at the gloomy grey marksmen, as if they still +feared them, even though unarmed. The beauty of the rifles which our +people had given up, was also a subject of great wonder and admiration; +and soon the camp became crowded with unwelcome visitors--their joy and +astonishment at their triumph, contrasting with the despair and +despondency of the prisoners. Suddenly a broad bright flame flashed +though the morning fog, a tremendous explosion followed, and then all +was again still, and the prairie strewn with wounded men. A cloud of +smoke was crushed down by the heavy atmosphere upon the dark green +plain; the horses of the Mexican officers reared wildly in the air, or, +with bristling mane and streaming tail, galloped furiously away with +their half-deafened riders. Numbers of persons had been thrown down by +the shock, others had flung themselves upon the ground in consternation, +and some moments elapsed before the cause of the explosion was +ascertained. The powder magazine had disappeared--all but a small part +of the carriage, around which lay a number of wounded, and, at about +fifteen paces from it, a black object, in which the form of a human +being was scarcely recognisable, but which was still living, although +unable to speak. Coal-black as a negro, and frightfully disfigured, it +was impossible to distinguish the features of this unhappy wretch. +Inquiry was made, the roll was called, and Johnson was found missing. +Nobody had observed his proceedings, and the explosion may have been the +result of an accident; but we entertained little doubt that he had +formed a deliberate plan to kill himself and as many Mexicans as he +could, and had chosen what he considered a favourable moment to set fire +to the ammunition-waggon. As it happened, the cover was not fastened +down, so that the principal force of the powder went upwards, and his +terrible project was rendered in a great measure abortive. + +Scarcely had the confusion caused by this incident subsided, and the +fury of our foes been appeased, when the alarm was sounded in the +opposite camp, and the Mexicans ran to their arms. The cause of this was +soon explained. In the wood, which, could we have reached it, would have +been our salvation, appeared our faithful vanguard, accompanied by all +the militia they had been able to collect in so short a time--the whole +commanded by Colonel Horton. False indeed had been the report, that six +or eight hundred men were stationed at Victoria; including our vanguard, +the gallant fellows who thus came to our assistance were but sixty in +number. + +"With what horror," said the brave Horton, subsequently, "did we +perceive that we had arrived too late! We stood thunderstruck and +uncertain what to do, when we were suddenly roused from our bewilderment +by the sound of the Mexican trumpets. There was no time to lose, and our +minds were speedily made up. Although Fanning had so far forgotten his +duty as to surrender, ours was to save ourselves, for the sake of the +republic. Now, more than ever, since all the volunteers were either +killed or prisoners, had Texas need of our arms and rifles. We turned +our horses, and galloped back to Victoria, whence we marched to join +Houston at Gonzales." + +The Mexicans lost no time in pursuing Horton and his people, but without +success. The fugitives reached the thickly-wooded banks of the +Guadalupe, and disappeared amongst intricacies through which the foe did +not dare to follow them. Had the reinforcement arrived one half hour +sooner, the bloody tragedy soon to be enacted would never have taken +place. + +The unfortunate Texian prisoners were now marched back to Goliad, and +shut up in the church, which was thereby so crowded that scarcely a +fourth of them were able to sit or crouch upon the ground. Luckily the +interior of the building was thirty-five to forty feet high, or they +would inevitably have been suffocated. Here they remained all night, +parched with thirst; and it was not till eight in the morning that six +of their number were permitted to fetch water from the river. In the +evening they were again allowed water, but for two nights and days no +other refreshment passed their lips. Strong pickets of troops, and guns +loaded with grape, were stationed round their prison, ready to massacre +them in case of an outbreak which it seemed the intention of the +Mexicans to provoke. At last, on the evening of the second day, six +ounces of raw beef were distributed to each man. This they had no means +of cooking, save at two small fires, which they made of the wood-work of +the church; and as the heat caused by these was unendurable to the +closely packed multitude, the majority devoured their scanty ration raw. +One more night was passed in this wretched state, and then the prisoners +were removed to an open court within the walls of the fortress. This was +a great improvement of their situation, but all that day no rations were +given to them, and they began to buy food of the soldiers, giving for it +what money they possessed; and when that was all gone, bartering their +clothes, even to their shirts and trousers. So enormous, however, were +the prices charged by the Mexicans, Mr Ehrenberg tells us, that one +hungry man could easily eat at a meal ten dollars' worth of _tortillas_ +or maize-cakes. Not satisfied with this mode of extortion, the Mexican +soldiers, who are born thieves, were constantly on the look-out to rob +the unhappy prisoners of whatever clothing or property they had left. + +On the fourth morning, three quarters of a pound of beef were given to +each man; and whilst they were engaged in roasting it, there appeared to +their great surprise a hundred and twenty fresh prisoners, being Major +Ward's detachment, which had lost its way in the prairie, and, after +wandering about for eight days, had heard of Fanning's capitulation, and +surrendered on the same terms. Twenty-six of them, carpenters by trade, +had been detained at Victoria by order of Colonel Holzinger, to assist +in building bridges for the transport of the artillery across the river. +On the seventh day came a hundred more prisoners, who had just landed at +Copano from New York, under command of Colonel Miller, and had been +captured by the Mexican cavalry. The rations were still scanty, and +given but at long intervals; and the starving Texians continued their +system of barter, urged to it by the pangs of hunger, and by the Mexican +soldiers, who told them that they were to be shot in a day or two, and +might as well part with whatever they had left, in order to render their +last hours more endurable. This cruel assurance, however, the prisoners +did not believe. They were sanguine of a speedy return to the States, +and impatiently waited the arrival of an order for their shipment from +Santa Anna, who was then at St Antonio, and to whom news of the +capitulation had been sent. General Urrea had marched from Goliad +immediately after their surrender, only leaving sufficient troops to +guard them, and had crossed the Guadalupe without opposition. Santa +Anna's order at last came, but its purport was far different from the +anticipated one. We resume our extracts from Mr Ehrenberg's narrative:-- + +The eighth morning of our captivity dawned, and so great were our +sufferings, that we had resolved, if some change were not made in our +condition, to free ourselves by force, or die in the attempt, when a +rumour spread that a courier from Santa Anna had arrived during the +night. This inspired us with fresh hopes, and we trusted that the hour +of our deliverance at last approached. At eight o'clock in the morning +an officer entered our place of confinement, carrying Santa Anna's order +in his hand, of the contents of which, however, he told us nothing, +except that we were immediately to march away from Goliad. Whether we +were to go to Copano or Matamoras, we were not informed. We saw several +pieces of cannon standing pointed against our enclosure, the +artillerymen standing by them with lighted matches, and near them was +drawn up a battalion of infantry, in parade uniform, but coarse and +ragged enough. The infantry had no knapsacks or baggage of any kind; but +at the time I do not believe that one of us remarked the circumstance, +as the Mexican soldiers in general carry little or nothing. For our +part, we required but a very short time to get ready for the march, and +in a few minutes we were all drawn up, two deep, with the exception of +Colonel Miller's detachment, which was quartered outside the fort. +Fanning and the other wounded men, the doctor, his assistants, and the +interpreters, were also absent. They were to be sent later to New +Orleans, it was believed, by a nearer road. + +After the names had been called over, the order to march was given, and +we filed out through the gate of the fortress, the Greys taking the +lead. Outside the gate we were received by two detachments of Mexican +infantry, who marched along on either side of us, in the same order as +ourselves. We were about four hundred in number, and the enemy about +seven hundred, not including the cavalry, of which numerous small groups +were scattered about the prairie. We marched on in silence, not however, +in the direction we had anticipated, but along the road to Victoria. +This surprised us; but upon reflection we concluded that they were +conducting us to some eastern port, thence to be shipped to New Orleans, +which, upon the whole, was perhaps the best and shortest plan. There was +something, however, in the profound silence of the Mexicali soldiers, +who are usually unceasing chatterers, that inspired me with a feeling of +uneasiness and anxiety. It was like a funeral march, and truly might it +so be called. Presently I turned my head to see if Miller's people had +joined, and were marching with us. But, to my extreme astonishment, +neither they nor Fanning's men, nor the Georgia battalion, were to be +seen. They had separated us without our observing it, and the detachment +with which I was marching consisted only of the Greys and a few Texian +colonists. Glancing at the escort, their full dress uniform and the +absence of all baggage, now for the first time struck me. I thought of +the bloody scenes that had occurred at Tampico, San Patricio, and the +Alamo, of the false and cruel character of those in whose power we were, +and I was seized with a presentiment of evil. For a moment I was about +to communicate my apprehensions to my comrades; but hope, which never +dies, again caused me to take a more cheering view of our situation. +Nevertheless, in order to be prepared for the worst, and, in case of +need, to be unencumbered in my movements, I watched my opportunity, and +threw away amongst the grass of the prairie a bundle containing the few +things that the thievish Mexicans had allowed me to retain. + +A quarter of an hour had elapsed since our departure from the fort, when +suddenly the command was given in Spanish to wheel to the left, leaving +the road; and, as we did not understand the order, the officer himself +went in front to show us the way, and my companions followed without +taking any particular notice of the change of direction. To our left ran +a muskeet hedge, five or six feet in height, at right angles with the +river St Antonio, which flowed at about a thousand paces from us, +between banks thirty or forty feet high, and of which banks the one on +the nearer side of the river rose nearly perpendicularly out of the +water. We were marched along the side of the hedge towards the stream, +and suddenly the thought flashed across us, "Why are they taking us in +this direction?" The appearance of a number of lancers, cantering about +in the fields on our right, also startled us; and just then the +foot-soldiers, who had been marching between us and the hedge, changed +their places, and joined those of their comrades who guarded us on the +other hand. Before we could divine the meaning of this manoeuvre, the +word was given to halt. It came like a sentence of death; for at the +same moment that it was uttered, the sound of a volley of musketry +echoed across the prairie. We thought of our comrades and of our own +probable fate. + +"Kneel down!" now burst in harsh accents from the lips of the Mexican +commander. + +No one stirred. Few of us understood the order, and those who did would +not obey. The Mexican soldiers, who stood at about three paces from us, +levelled their muskets at our breasts. Even then we could hardly believe +that they meant to shoot us; for if we had, we should assuredly have +rushed forward in our desperation, and, weaponless though we were, some +of our murderers would have met their death at our hands. Only one of +our number was well acquainted with Spanish, and even he seemed as if he +could not comprehend the order that had been given. He stared at the +commanding-officer as if awaiting its repetition, and we stared at him, +ready, at the first word he should utter, to spring upon the soldiers. +But he seemed to be, as most of us were, impressed with the belief that +the demonstration was merely a menace, used to induce us to enter the +Mexican service. With threatening gesture and drawn sword, the chief of +the assassins again ejaculated the command to kneel down. The sound of a +second volley, from a different direction with the first, just then +reached our ears, and was followed by a confused cry, as if those at +whom it had been aimed, had not all been immediately killed. Our +comrade, the one who understood Spanish, started from his momentary +lethargy and boldly addressed us. + +"Comrades," cried he, "you hear that report, that cry! There is no hope +for us--our last hour is come! Therefore, comrades--!" + +A terrible explosion interrupted him--and then all was still. A thick +cloud of smoke was wreathing and curling towards the St Antonio. The +blood of our lieutenant was on my clothes, and around me lay my friends, +convulsed by the last agony. I saw nothing more. Unhurt myself, I sprang +up, and, concealed by the thick smoke, fled along the side of the hedge +in the direction of the river, the noise of the water for my guide. +Suddenly a blow from a heavy sabre fell upon my head, and from out of +the smoke emerged the form of a little Mexican lieutenant. He aimed a +second blow at me, which I parried with my left arm. I had nothing to +risk, but every thing to gain. It was life or death. Behind me a +thousand bayonets, before me the almost powerless sword of a coward. I +rushed upon him, and with true Mexican valour, he fled from an unarmed +man. On I went, the river rolled at my feet, the soldiers were shouting +and yelling behind. "Texas for ever!" cried I, and, without a moment's +hesitation, plunged into the water. The bullets whistled round me as I +swam slowly and wearily to the other side, but none wounded me. Our poor +dog, who had been with us all through the campaign, and had jumped into +the river with me, fell a last sacrifice to Mexican cruelty. He had +reached the middle of the stream, when a ball struck him, and he +disappeared. + +Whilst these horrible scenes were occurring in the prairie, Colonel +Fanning and his wounded companions were shot and bayoneted at Goliad, +only Doctor Thackleford and a few hospital aids having their lives +spared, in order that they might attend on the wounded Mexicans. Besides +Mr Ehrenberg, but three of the prisoners at Goliad ultimately escaped +the slaughter. + +Having crossed the St Antonio, Mr Ehrenberg struck into the high grass +and thickets, which concealed him from the pursuit of the Mexicans, and +wandered through the prairie, guiding himself, as best he might, by sun +and stars, and striving to reach the river Brazos. He lost his way, and +went through a variety of striking adventures, which, with some +characteristic sketches of Texian life and habits, of General Sam +Houston and Santa Anna, and a spirited account of the battle of St +Jacinto, at which, however, he himself was not present, fill up the +remainder of his book. Of one scene, between Houston and his army, we +will make a final extract:-- + +It was the latter end of March, and the army of Texian militia, under +Houston, which had increased to about thirteen hundred men, was +assembled on the banks of the Colorado river. One messenger after +another had arrived, bringing news that had converted them into perfect +cannibals, thirsting after Mexican blood. The murder of Grant and his +horsemen, that of Johnson and King with their detachments; the +unaccountable disappearance of Ward, who was wandering about in the +prairie; and finally, Horton's report of the capture of the unfortunate +Fanning; all these calamities, in conjunction with the fall of the +Alamo, had raised the fury of the backwoodsmen to such a pitch, that +they were neither to hold nor bind, and nobody but Sam Houston would +have been able to curb them. + +The old general sat upon a heap of saddles; and in a circle round a +large fire, sat or stood, leaning upon their rifles, the captains of the +militia. The whole group was surrounded by a grumbling crowd of +backwoodsmen. The dark fiery eyes of the officers, nearly all tall +powerful figures, glanced alternately at the flames and at old Sam, who +was the only calm person present. Slowly taking a small knife from his +waistcoat pocket, he opened it, produced a huge piece of Cavendish, cut +off a quid, shoved it between his upper lip and front teeth, and handed +the tobacco to his nearest neighbour. This was a gigantic captain, the +upper part of whose body was clothed in an Indian hunting-coat, his head +covered with what had once been a fine beaver hat, but of which the +broad brim now flapped down over his ears, whilst his strong muscular +legs were wrapped from knee to ankle in thick crimson flannel, a +precaution against the thorns of the muskeet-trees not unfrequently +adopted in the west. His bullet-pouch was made out of the head of a +leopard, in which eyes of red cloth had been inserted, bringing out, by +contrast, the beauty of the skin, and was suspended from a strap of +brown untanned deer-hide. With an expression of great bitterness, the +backwoodsman handed the tobacco to the man next to him, and it passed on +from hand to hand, untasted by any one--a sign of uncommon excitement +amongst the persons there assembled. When the despised Cavendish had +gone round, the old general stuck it in his pocket again, and continued +the conference, at the same time whittling a stick with perfect coolness +and unconcern. + +"Yes," said he, "I tell you that our affairs look rather ticklish--can't +deny it--but that is the only thing that will bring the people to their +senses. Santa Anna may destroy the colonies, but it won't be Sam +Houston's fault. Instead of at once assembling, the militia stop at home +with their wives--quite comfortable in the chimney-corner--think that a +handful of volunteers can whip ten thousand of these half-bloods. Quite +mistaken, gentlemen--quite mistaken. You see it now--the brave fellows +are gone--a scandal it is for us--and the enemy is at our heels. Instead +of seeing four or five thousand of our people here, there are thirteen +hundred--the others are minding the shop--making journeys to the Sabine. +Can't help it, comrades, must retire to the Brazos, into the +forests--must be off, and that at once." + +"Stop, general, that ain't sense," cried a man, with a cap made out of a +wild-cat's skin; "not a step backwards--the enemy must soon come, and +then we'll whip 'em so glorious, that it will be a pleasure to see it; +the miserable vampires that they are!" + +"A fight! a fight!" shouted the surrounding throng. "For Texas, now or +never!" + +"Sam Houston is not of that opinion, my fine fellows," answered the +general, "and it is not his will to fight. Sam will not risk the fate of +the republic in a single foolhardy battle. The broad woods of the Brazos +shall do us good service. Though you are brave, and willing to risk your +lives, it would be small benefit to the country if you lost them. No, my +boys, we'll give it to the vermin, never fear, they shall have it, as +sure as Sam Houston stands in his own shoes." + +"It's impossible for us to go back, General," cried another speaker; +"can't be--must at 'em! What, General, our richest plantations lie +between the Colorado and the Brazos, and are we to abandon them to these +thieves? Old Austin[H] would rise out of his grave if he heard the +footsteps of the murderers upon the prairie. No, General--must be at +them--must conquer or die!" + +"Must conquer or die!" was echoed through the crowd; but the old general +sat whittling away, as cool as a cucumber, and seemed determined that +the next victory he gained should be in his own camp. + +"Boys," said he--and he stood up, took another quid, shut his knife, and +continued--"Boys, you want to fight--very praiseworthy indeed--your +courage is certainly very praiseworthy;--but suppose the enemy brings +artillery with him, can you, will you, take the responsibility of giving +battle before our tardy fellow-citizens come up to reinforce us? How +will you answer it to your consciences, if the republic falls back under +the Mexican yoke, because an undisciplined mob would not wait the +favourable moment for a fight? No, no, citizens--we must retire to the +Brazos, where our rifles will give us the advantage; whilst here we +should have to charge the enemy, who is five times our strength, in the +open prairie. Don't doubt your courage, as you call it--though it's only +foolhardiness--but I represent the republic, and am answerable to the +whole people for what I do. Can't allow you to fight here. Once more I +summon you to follow me to San Felipe and all who wish well to Texas +will be ready in an hour's time. Every moment we may expect to see the +enemy on the other side of the river. Once more then--to the banks of +the Brazos!" + +The old general walked off to his tent, and the crowd betook themselves +to their fires, murmuring and discontented, and put their rifles in +order. But in an hour and a half, the Texian army left their camp on the +Colorado. Sam Houston had prevailed, and the next evening he and his men +reached San Felipe, and, without pausing there, marched up the river. On +the 30th March the first squadron of the enemy showed itself near San +Felipe. The inhabitants abandoned their well-stored shops and houses, +set fire to them with their own hands, and fled across the river. The +Mexicans entered the town, and their rage was boundless when, instead of +a rich booty, they found heaps of ashes. Houston had now vanished, and +his foes could nowhere trace him, till he suddenly, and of his own +accord, reappeared upon the scene, and fell on them like a thunderbolt, +amply refuting the false and base charge brought against him by his +enemies, that he had retreated through cowardice. But to this day, it +is a riddle to me how he managed to reduce to obedience the unruly +spirits he commanded, and to induce them to retreat across the Brazos to +Buffalo Bayou. Of one thing I am certain--only Sam Houston could have +done it; no other man in the republic. + +Mr Ehrenberg escaped from all his perils in time to share the rejoicings +of the Texians at the final evacuation of the country by the Mexican +army. And certainly they had cause for exultation, not only at being rid +of their cruel and semi-barbarous oppressors, but in the persevering +gallantry they had displayed throughout the whole campaign, during which +many errors were committed and many lives uselessly sacrificed, but of +which the close was nevertheless so glorious to those engaged in it. +Unskilled in military tactics, without discipline or resources, the +stubborn courage of a handful of American backwoodsmen proved an +overmatch for Santa Anna and his hosts, and the fairest and freshest +leaf of the Mexican cactus was rent from the parent stem, never to be +reunited.[I] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[G] _Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas._ Von H. EHRENBERG. +Leipzig: 1845. + +[H] The founder of the American colonies in Texas, and father of Stephen +F. Austin. + +[I] The arms of Mexico are a cactus, with as many leaves as there are +states of the republic. + + + + +THE MOTHER AND HER DEAD CHILD. + + + With ceaseless sorrow, uncontroll'd, + The mother mourn'd her lot; + She wept, and would not be consoled, + Because her child was not. + + She gazed upon its nursery floor, + But there it did not play; + The toys it loved, the clothes it wore, + All void and vacant lay. + + Her house, her heart, were dark and drear, + Without their wonted light; + The little star had left its sphere, + That there had shone so bright. + + Her tears, at each returning thought, + Fell like the frequent rain; + Time on its wings no healing brought, + And wisdom spoke in vain. + + Even in the middle hour of night + She sought no soft relief, + But, by her taper's misty light, + Sate nourishing her grief. + + 'Twas then a sight of solemn awe, + Rose near her like a cloud; + The image of her child she saw, + Wrapp'd in its little shroud. + + It sate within its favourite chair, + It sate and seem'd to sigh, + And turn'd upon its mother there + A meek imploring eye. + + "O child! what brings that breathless form + Back from its place of rest? + For well I know no life can warm + Again that livid breast. + + "The grave is now your bed, my child-- + Go slumber there in peace." + "I cannot go," it answer'd mild, + "Until your sorrow cease. + + "I've tried to rest in that dark bed, + But rest I cannot get, + For always with the tears you shed, + My winding-sheet is wet. + + "The drops, dear mother, trickle still + Into my coffin deep; + It feels so comfortless and chill + I cannot go to sleep." + + "O child those words, that touching look, + My fortitude restore; + I feel and own the blest rebuke, + And weep my loss no more." + + She spoke, and dried her tears the while; + And as her passion fell, + The vision wore an angel smile, + And look'd a fond farewell. + + + + +THE GREEK AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. + + +The Drama, in its higher branches, is perhaps the greatest effort of +human genius. It requires for its successful cultivation, a combination +of qualities beyond what is necessary in any other department of +composition. A profound and practical acquaintance with human nature in +all its phases, and the human heart in all its changes, is the first +requisite of the Dramatic Poet. The power of condensed expression--the +faculty of giving vent to "thoughts that breathe in words that +burn"--the art of painting, by a line, an epithet, an expression, the +inmost and most intense feelings of the heart, is equally indispensable. +The skill of the novelist in arranging the incidents of the piece so as +to keep the attention of the spectators erect, and their interest +undiminished, is not less necessary. How requisite a knowledge of the +peculiar art called "stage effect," is to the success of dramatic pieces +on the theatre, may be judged of by the well-known failures in actual +representation of many striking pieces by our greatest tragic writers, +especially Miss Baillie and Lord Byron. The eloquence of the orator, the +power of wielding at will the emotions and passions of the heart, of +rousing alternately the glow of the generous, and the warmth of the +tender affections, is not less indispensable. The great dramatic poet +must add to this rare assemblage, a thorough acquaintance with the +characters and ideas of former times: with the lore of the historian, he +must embody in his imaginary characters the incidents of actual event; +with the fervour of the poet, portray the transactions and thoughts of +past times; with the eye of the painter, arrange his scenery, dresses, +and localities, so as to produce the strongest possible impression of +reality on the mind of the spectator. Unite, in imagination, all the +greatest and most varied efforts of the human mind--the fire of the poet +and the learning of the historian, the conceptions of the painter and +the persuasion of the orator, the skill of the novelist and the depth of +the philosopher, and you will only form a great tragedian. Ordinary +observers often express surprise, that dramatic genius, especially in +these times, is rare; let the combination of qualities essential for its +higher flights be considered, and perhaps the wonder will rather be, +that it has been so frequent in the world. + +It is a sense of this extraordinary combination of power necessary to +the formation of a great dramatic poet, which has rendered the +masterpieces of this art so general an object of devout admiration, to +men of the greatest genius who have ever appeared upon earth. Euripides +wept when he heard a tragedy of Sophocles recited at the Isthmian games; +he mourned, but his own subsequent greatness proved without reason, the +apparent impossibility of rivalling his inimitable predecessor. Milton, +blind and poor, found a solace for all the crosses of life in listening, +in old age, to the verses of Euripides. Napoleon, at St Helena, forgot +the empire of the world, on hearing, in the long evenings, the +masterpieces of Corneille read aloud. Stratford-on-Avon does not contain +the remains of mere English genius, it is the place of pilgrimage to the +entire human race. The names of persons of all nations are to be found, +as on the summit of the Pyramids, encircled on the walls of Shakspeare's +house; his grave is the common resort of the generous and the +enthusiastic of all ages, and countries, ad times. All feel they can + + "Rival all but Shakspeare's name below." + +If the combination of qualities necessary to form a first-rate dramatic +poet is thus rare, hardly less wonderful is the effort of genius to +sustain the character of a great actor. The mind of the performer must +be sympathetic with that of the author; it must be cast in the same +mould with the original conceiver of the piece. To form an adequate and +correct conception of the proper representation of the leading +characters in the masterpieces of Sophocles, Shakspeare, or Schiller, +requires a mind of the same cast as that of those poets themselves. The +performer must throw himself, as it were, into the mind of the author; +identify himself with the piece to be represented; conceive the +character in reality, as the poet had portrayed it in words, and then +convey by acting this _second conception_ to the spectators. By this +double distillation of thought through the soul of genius, a finer and +more perfect creation is sometimes formed, than the efforts of any +single mind, how great soever, could have originally conceived. It may +well be doubted whether Shakspeare's conception of Lady Macbeth or +Desdemona was more perfect than Mrs Siddons's personation of them; or +whether the grandeur of Cato or Coriolanus, as they existed in the +original mind of Addison, or the patriarch of the English stage, +equalled Kemble's inimitable performances of these characters. Beautiful +as were the visions of Juliet and Rosalind which floated before the mind +of the Bard of Avon, it may be doubted if they excelled Miss Helen +Faucit's exquisite representation of those characters. The actor or +actress brings to the illustration of the great efforts of dramatic +genius, qualities of a different sort, _in addition_ to those which at +first pervaded the mind of the author, but not less essential to the +felicitous realization of his conception. Physical beauty, the magic of +voice, look, and manner, the play of countenance, the step of grace, the +witchery of love, the accents of despair, combine with the power of +language to add a tenfold attraction to the creations of fancy. All the +arts seem, in such representations, to combine their efforts to entrance +the mind, every avenue to the heart is at once flooded with the highest +and most refined enjoyment; the noblest, the most elevated feelings:-- + + "The youngest of the sister arts, + Where all their beauty blends! + For ill can poetry express + Full many a tone of thought sublime; + And painting, mute and motionless, + Steals but a glance of time. + But by the mighty actor brought, + Illusion's perfect triumphs come-- + Verse ceases to be airy thought, + And sculpture to be dumb." + +That an art so noble as that of dramatic poetry, ennobled by such +genius, associated with such recollections, so lofty in its purpose, so +irresistible in its effects, should have fallen into comparative decline +in this country in the brightest era of its literary, philosophical, and +political achievements, is one of those singular and melancholy +circumstances of which it seems impossible at first sight to give any +explanation. Since the deep foundations of the English mind were stirred +by the Reformation, what an astonishing succession of great men in every +branch of human thought have illustrated the annals of England! The +divine conceptions of Milton, the luxuriant fervour of Thomson, the vast +discoveries of Newton, the deep wisdom of Bacon, the burning thoughts of +Gray, the masculine intellect of Johnson, the exquisite polish of Pope, +the lyric fire of Campbell, the graphic powers of Scott, the glowing +eloquence of Burke, the admirable conceptions of Reynolds, the profound +sagacity of Hume, the pictured page of Gibbon, demonstrate how mighty +and varied have been the triumphs of the human mind in these islands, in +every branch of poetry, literature, and philosophy. Yet, strange to say, +during two centuries thus marvellously illustrated by genius, intellect, +and capacity in other departments of human exertion, there has not been +a single great dramatic poet. Shakspeare still stands alone in solitary +and unapproachable grandeur, to sustain, by his single arm, the tragic +reputation of his country. Authors of passing or local celebrity have +arisen: Otway has put forth some fine conceptions, and composed one +admirable tragedy; Sheridan sketched some brilliant satires; Miss +Baillie delineated the passions with epic power; and genius of the +highest order in our times, that of Byron and Bulwer, has endeavoured +to revive the tragic muse in these islands. But the first declared that +he wrote his dramatic pieces with no design whatever to their +representation, but merely as a vehicle of noble sentiments in dialogue +of verse; and the second is too successful as a novelist to put forth +his strength in dramatic poetry, or train his mind in the school +necessary for success in that most difficult art. The English drama, in +the estimation of the world, and in its just estimation, still stands on +Shakspeare, and he flourished nearly three hundred years ago! + +It was not thus in other countries, or in former times. Homer was the +first, and still is one of the greatest, of dramatic poets; the _Iliad_ +is a tragedy arranged in the garb of an epic poem. AEschylus borrowed, +Prometheus-like, the divine fire, and embodied the energy of Dante and +the soul of Milton in his sublime tragedies. Sophocles and Euripides +were contemporary with Pericles and Phidias; the same age witnessed the +_Clouds_ of Aristophanes, the death of Socrates, and the history of +Thucydides. The warlike and savage genius of the Romans made them prefer +the excitement of the amphitheatre to the entrancement of the theatre; +but the comedies of Plautus and Terence remain durable monuments, that +the genius of dramatic poetry among them advanced abreast of the epic or +lyric muse. The names of Alfieri, Metastasio, and Goldoni, demonstrate +that modern Italy has successfully cultivated the dramatic as well as +the epic muse; the tragedies of the first are worthy the country of +Tasso, the operas of the second rival the charms of Petrarch. In the +Spanish peninsula, Lope de Vega and Calderon have astonished the world +by the variety and prodigality of their conceptions;[J] and fully +vindicated the title of the Castilians to place their dramatic writers +on a level with their great epic poets. + +Need it be told that France stands pre-eminent in dramatic excellence; +that Corneille, Racine, and Moliere, were contemporaries of Bossuet, +Massillon, and Boileau; that the tragedies of Voltaire were the highest +effort of his vast and varied genius? Germany, albeit the last-born in +the literary family of Europe, has already vindicated its title to a +foremost place in this noble branch of composition; for Lessing has few +modern rivals in the perception of dramatic excellence, and Schiller +none in the magnificent historic mirror which he has placed on the stage +of the Fatherland. How, then, has it happened, that when, in all other +nations which have risen to greatness in the world, the genius of +dramatic poetry has kept pace with its eminence in all other respects, +in England alone the case is the reverse; and the nation which has +surpassed all others in the highest branches of poetry, eloquence, and +history, is still obliged to recur to the patriarch of a comparatively +barbarous age for a parallel to the great dramatic writers of other +states? + +The worshippers of Shakspeare tell us, that this has been owing to his +very greatness; that he was so much above other men as to defy +competition and extinguish rivalry; and that genius, in despair of ever +equalling his vast and varied conceptions, has turned aside into other +channels where the avenue to the highest distinction was not blocked up +by the giant of former days. But a little reflection must be sufficient +to convince every candid inquirer, that this consideration not only does +not explain the difficulty but augments it. Genius is never extinguished +by genius; on the contrary, it is created by it. The divine flame passes +from one mind to another similarly constituted. Thence the clusters of +great men who, at intervals, have appeared simultaneously and close to +each other in the world, and the long intervening periods of mediocrity +or imitation. Did the immortal genius of Dante destroy subsequent poetic +excellence in Italy? Let Tasso, Ariosto, Metastasio, and Alfieri, +answer. Homer did not extinguish AEschylus--he created him. Greek +tragedy is little more than the events following the siege of Troy +dramatised. The greatness of Sophocles did not crush the rising genius +of Euripides--on the contrary, it called it forth; and these two great +masters of the dramatic muse thrice contended with each other for the +prize awarded by the Athenians to dramatic excellence.[K] The great +Corneille did not annihilate rivalry in the dramatic genius of +France--on the contrary, he produced it; his immortal tragedies were +immediately succeeded by the tenderness of Racine, the wit of Moliere, +the versatility of Voltaire. Lessing in Germany was soon outstripped by +the vast mind of Schiller. Michael Angelo, vast as his genius was, did +not distance all competitors in Italy; he was speedily followed and +excelled by Raphael; and when the boy Correggio saw Raphael's pictures, +he said--"I, too, am a painter." Did the transcendent greatness of Burke +close in despair the eloquent lips of Pitt and Fox; or the mighty genius +of Scott quench the rising star of Byron? We repeat it--genius is never +extinguished by genius; it is created by it. + +But if the state of dramatic poetry in Great Britain since the time of +Shakspeare affords matter of surprise, the late history and present +state of the drama, as it appears on the stage, afford subject of wonder +and regret. We are continually speaking of the lights of the age, of the +vast spread of popular information, of the march of intellect, and the +superiority of this generation in intelligence and refinement over all +that have gone before it. Go into any of the theatres of London at this +moment, and consider what evidence they afford of this boasted advance +and superiority. Time was when the versatile powers of Garrick enchanted +the audience; and exhibited alternately the perfection of the comic and +the dignity of the tragic muse. Mrs Siddons, supreme in greatness, has +trod those boards; Kemble, the "last of all the Romans," has, in +comparatively recent times, bade them farewell. Miss O'Neil, with +inferior soul, but equal physical powers; Kean, with the energy, but +unhappily the weaknesses of genius, kept up the elevation of the stage. +Talent, and that too of a very high class, genius of the most exalted +kind, are not awanting to support the long line of British theatric +greatness; the names of Charles Kean, Fanny Kemble, and Helen Faucit are +sufficient to prove, that if the stage is in a state of decrepitude, the +fault lies much more with the authors or the public, than with the +performers.[L] But all is unavailing. Despite the most persevering and +laudable efforts to restore the dignity of the theatre, and revive the +sway of the legitimate drama, in which Mr Macready has so long borne so +conspicuous a part, Tragedy in the metropolis is almost banished from +the stage. It has been supplanted by the melodrama, dancing, and +singing. It has been driven off the field by _Timour the Tartar_. +Drury-Lane, sanctified by so many noble recollections, has become an +English opera-house. Covent-Garden is devoted to concerts, and hears the +tragic muse no more. Even in the minor theatres, where tragedy is +sometimes attempted, it can only be relied on for transient popularity. +Its restoration was attempted at the Princess's Theatre in Oxford +Street, but apparently with no remarkable success; and the tragedies of +_Othello_ and _Hamlet_, supported by the talent of Macready, required to +be eked out by Mrs Candle's _Curtain Lectures_. We are no strangers to +the talent displayed at many of the minor theatres both by the authors +and performers; and we are well aware that the varied population of +every great metropolis requires several such places of amusement. What +we complain of is, that they engross every thing; that tragedy and the +legitimate drama are nearly banished from the stage in all but the +provincial cities, where, of course, it never can rise to the highest +eminence. + +All the world are conscious of the reality of this change, and many +different explanations have been attempted of it. It is said that modern +manners are inconsistent with frequenting the theatre: that the late +hours of dinners preclude the higher classes from going to it; that the +ladies' dresses are soiled by the seats in the boxes, before going to +balls. The austerity of principle, in the strictly religious portion of +the community, is justly considered as a great bar to dramatic success; +as it keeps from the theatre a large part of society, which, from the +integrity and purity of its principles, would, if it frequented such +places of amusement, be more likely than any other to counteract its +downward tendency. The hideous mass of profligacy which in London, in +the absence of the better classes of society, has seized upon the +principal theatres as its natural prey, is loudly complained of by the +heads of families; and the audience is, in consequence, too often turned +into little more than strangers, or young men in quest of dissipation, +and ladies of easy virtue in quest of gain. The spread of reading, and +vast addition to the amount of talent devoted to the composition of +novels and romances, is another cause generally considered as mainly +instrumental in producing the neglect of the theatre. Sir Walter Scott, +it is said, has brought the drama to our fireside: we draw in our +easy-chairs when the winds of winter are howling around us, and cease to +long for _Hamlet_ in reading the _Bride of Lammermoor_. There is some +reality in all these causes assigned for the decline of the legitimate +drama in this country; they are the truth, but they are not the whole +truth. A very little consideration will at once show, that it is not to +any or all of these causes, that the decline of the higher branches of +this noble art in Great Britain is to be ascribed. + +Modern manners, late dinners, ball-dresses, and the Houses of +Parliament, are doubtless serious obstacles to the higher classes of the +nobility and gentry frequently attending the theatre; but the example of +the Opera-house, which is crowded night after night with the elite of +that very class, is sufficient to demonstrate, that all these +difficulties can be got over, when people of fashion make up their minds +to go to a place of amusement, even where not one in ten understand the +language in which the piece is composed. The strictness of +principle--mistaken, as we deem it, and hurtful in its effects--which +keeps away a large and important portion of the middle and most +respectable portion of the community, at all times, and in all places, +from the theatre, is without doubt a very serious impediment to dramatic +success, and in nothing so much so, as in throwing the patronage and +direction of its performance into the hands of a less scrupulous part of +society. But these strict principles, ever since the Great Rebellion, +have pervaded a considerable portion of British society; and yet how +nobly was the stage supported during the eighteenth and the commencement +of the nineteenth century, in the days of Garrick, Siddons, and Kemble! +The great number of theatres which are nightly open in the metropolis, +and rapidly increasing in all the principal cities of the kingdom, +demonstrates, that the play-going portion of the community is +sufficiently numerous to support the stage, generally in respectability, +at times in splendour. Without doubt, the licentiousness of the saloons +of the great theatres in London is a most serious evil, and it well +deserves the consideration of Government, whether some means should not +be taken for its correction; but is the Opera-house so very pure in its +purlieus? and are the habitual admirers of the ballet likely to be +corrupted by occasionally seeing Othello and Juliet? The prevailing, and +in fact universal, passion for reading novels at home, unquestionably +affords an inexhaustible fund of domestic amusement; but does experience +prove that the imagination once kindled, the heart once touched, are +willing to stop short in the quest of excitement--to be satisfied with +imperfect gratification? Novel-reading is as common on the Continent as +in this country; but still the legitimate drama exhibits no such +appearances of decrepitude in its Capitals. The masterpieces of +Corneille and Racine are still constantly performed to crowded houses at +Paris; the theatres of Italy resound with the melody of Metastasio, the +dignity of Alfieri; and singing and the melodrama have nowhere banished +Schiller's tragedies from the boards of Vienna and Berlin. + +We have said, that while we appreciate the motives, and respect the +principles, which prevent so large a portion of the middle class of +society from frequenting the theatre, we lament their determination, and +regard it as an evil even greater to the morality than it is to the +genius of the nation. In truth, it is founded on a mistaken view of the +principles which influence human nature; and it would be well if +moralists, and the friends of mankind, would reconsider the subject, +before, in this country at least, it is too late. The love of the drama +is founded on the deepest, the most universal, the noblest principles of +our nature. It exists, and ever will exist. For good or for evil, its +influence is immovable. We cannot extirpate, or even tangibly abridge +its sway; the art of AEschylus and Shakspeare, of Sophocles and Racine, +of Euripides and Schiller, is not to be extinguished by the reputable +but contracted ideas of a limited portion of society. God has not made +it sweeter to weep with those who weep, than to rejoice with those who +rejoice, for no purpose. Look at the Arabs, as they cluster round the +story-teller who charms the groups of Yemen, or the knots of delighted +faces which surround the Polchinello of Naples, and you will see how +universal is the passions in mankind for theatrical representations. But +though we cannot eradicate the desire for this gratification, we may +degrade its tendency, and corrupt its effects. We may substitute +stimulants to the senses for elevation to the principle, or softening of +the heart. By abandoning its direction to the most volatile and +licentious of the community, we may render it an instrument of evil +instead of good, and pervert the powers of genius, the magic of art, the +fascinations of beauty, to the destruction instead of the elevation of +the human soul. + +It is for this reason that we lament, as a serious social and national +evil, the long interregnum in dramatic excellence in our writers, and +the woful degradation in the direction of dramatic representations at +our metropolitan theatres. Immense is the influence of lofty and +ennobling dramatic pieces when supported by able and impassioned actors. +As deleterious is the sway of questionable or immoral pieces when decked +out in the meretricious garb of fancy, or aided by the transient +attractions of beauty. Who can tell how much the heart-stirring appeals +of Shakspeare have done to string to lofty purposes the British heart; +how powerfully the dignified sentiments of Corneille have contributed to +sustain the heroic portions of the French character? "C'est +l'imagination," said Napoleon, "qui domine le monde." The drama has one +immense advantage over the pulpit or the professor's chair: it +fascinates while it instructs--it allures while it elevates. It thus +extends its influence over a wide and important circle, upon whom +didactic precepts will never have any influence. Without doubt, the +strong and deep foundations of public morality must be laid in religious +and moral instruction; if they are wanting, the social edifice, how fair +soever to appearance, is built on a bed of sand. But fully admitting +this--devoutly looking to our national Establishment for the formation +of public principle--to our schools and colleges for the training of the +national intellect--the experienced observer, aware of the sway of +active principles over the human soul, will not neglect the subordinate +but still powerful aid to be derived, in the great work of elevating and +ennobling society, from the emotions which may be awakened at the +theatre--the enthusiasm so often excited by tragic excellence. The thing +to be dreaded with the great bulk of the spectators--that is, by far the +largest portion of mankind--is not their avowed infidelity and their +open wickedness; it is the sway of the degrading or selfish passions +which is chiefly dangerous. The thing to be feared is, not that they +will say there is no God, but that they will live altogether without +God in the world. How important, then, that genius should be called in +here to the aid of virtue, and the fascinations of the highest species +of excellence employed to elevate, where so many causes exist to degrade +the soul! + + "Cosi all egro fanciul' porgiamo aspersi, + Di soave licor gli orli del Vaso; + Succhi amari, ingannato intanto ei beve, + Et dall' inganno suo vita riceve." + +The elevating influence of the noble sentiments with which the higher +dramatic works abound, is more loudly called for in this than it has +been in any former period of British history. We are no longer in the +age of enthusiasm. The days of chivalry have gone by--and gone by, it is +feared, never to return. We are in the age of commerce and the +mechanical arts. Material appliances, creature comforts,--stimulants to +the senses--now form the great moving power of society. Gain is every +where sought after with the utmost avidity; but it is sought not for any +lofty object, but on account of the substantial physical comforts with +which the possession of riches is attended. Sensuality, disguised under +the veil of elegance, refinement, and accomplishment, is making rapid +strides amongst us. It does so in all old, wealthy, and long-established +communities; it is the well-known and oft-described premonitory symptom +of national decline. We can scarce venture to hope, we should find in +the British empire at this period the enthusiasm which manned the +ramparts of Sarragossa, the patriotism which fired the torches of +Moscow. We should find united, too generally it is to be feared, at +least in a considerable portion, the timidity and selfishness which +signed the capitulation of Venice. How important, then, to gain +possession of so mighty a lever for moving the general mind, and +counteracting the selfishness which is degrading society, as the +enthusiasm of the theatre affords; and instead of permitting it to fall +into the hands of vice, to become the handmaid of licentiousness, to +turn its vast powers to the rousing of elevated sentiments, the +strengthening of virtuous resolutions, the nourishing of generous +emotions! Whoever succeeds in this, whether author, actor, or actress, +is a friend to the best interests of humanity, and is to be ranked with +the benefactors of the human race. + +Nor be it said that the theatre has been now irrevocably turned, in this +country, to frivolous or contemptible representations, or that dancing +and singing have for ever banished the tragic muse from the stage. +Facts--well known and universally acknowledged facts, prove the reverse. +How strong soever the desire for excitement or physical enjoyment may +be, the passion for heart-stirring incident, the _besoin_ of strong +emotions, the thirst for tragic event, is still stronger. Look at the +Parisian stage--what a concatenation of murders, suicides, +conflagrations, massacres, and horrors of every description, have there +grown up with the spread of the romantic drama in the lesser theatres! +That shows how strong is the passion for tragic excitement in highly +civilized and long corrupt society. Enter any of our courts of law, when +any trial for murder or any other serious crime is going +forward--observe how unwearied is the attention of all classes, and +_especially the lowest_; with what patience they will sit for days and +nights together, to watch the proceedings; mark the deathlike silence +which pervades the hall, when any important part of the evidence is +delivered, or the verdict of the jury is returned. Observe the mighty +throng which attends a public execution. The writer once was present, +when an hundred and fifty thousand persons assembled in one spot to +witness the expiation of their guilt by two murderers on the +scaffold.[M] When the mournful procession set out for the place of +punishment, four miles distant, not a sound was to be heard from the +innumerable spectators who lined the streets; the clang of the horses' +hoofs on the pavement was audible among two hundred thousand persons. +When it returned with the dead bodies, the clang of voices, the pent-up +emotion, burst forth in so mighty a shout, that the discharge of +artillery would hardly have been heard in the throng. The anxiety, +sometimes amounting almost to frenzy, to get a sight of the convicted +murderer, to be present at the condemned sermon, to see his last agonies +on the scaffold, to examine the scenes of his crime, even to obtain a +lock of his hair or a piece of his garments, is another proof of the +disordered and often extravagant desires which the longing for strong +and tragic excitement will produce in a large portion of society. Rely +upon it, deep emotion, if rightly managed and properly directed, is more +attractive than either amusement or licentiousness. Suffering exacts a +far deeper sympathy than joy; the generous, for the time at least, +overpower the selfish feelings. Let but the tragic muse be restored to +her appropriate position on the stage, and supported by the requisite +ability in the author and performers, and she will extinguish rivalry, +and bear down opposition. + +We have said that the tragic muse will do this, "if supported by the +requisite ability in the _authors_ and performers." We have said this +advisedly; for we belong to the former class, and we have no complaint +to make of want of ability on the stage. On the contrary, talent and +genius, of the most elevated kind, are to be found upon it. The fault +lies with our own profession, or rather with that portion of it who +cultivate dramatic composition. The origin of the evil is to be found, +the remote cause of the present degraded condition of the stage, is to +be found in--strike but hear--IN SHAKSPEARE! + +The most devoted worshipper of the genius of the Bard of Avon, the most +enthusiastic admirer of the profound knowledge of the human heart, and +unequalled force of expression which he possessed, cannot exceed +ourselves in the deep admiration which we entertain for his transcendent +excellences. On the contrary, it is those very excellences which have +done the mischief; it is they which have misled subsequent dramatic +writers in this country, and occasioned the constant failures by which +his imitators have been distinguished. It is not surprising that it is +so. Shakspeare was supremely great; but he was so, not in consequence of +his dramatic principles, but in spite of them. He fired his arrow +further than mortal man has yet done; but he fired it not altogether in +the right direction, and no one since has been able to draw the bow of +Ulysses. + +There is no one who has not heard of the famous dramatic unities, and +the long-continued controversy which has been maintained between the +admirers of the Greek drama, founded on their strict observance, and the +followers of Shakspeare, who set them at defiance. In this, as in other +disputes, probably neither party will ever convince the other; and the +only effect of the contention is to fix each more immovably in its own +opinion. But, waiving at present the abstract question, which of the two +systems is in itself preferable, or essential to dramatic success, there +is a practical consideration of deep interest to society, with which we +are all concerned and the result of which throws no small light on the +theoretical principle. It is this. Placing the creators of the two +systems--AEschylus and Shakspeare--on a par; conceding to the author of +_Hamlet_ an equal place with that of the composer of the _Prometheus +Vinctus_; which of the two systems has had most success in the world; +has longest preserved its sway over the human mind; has best withstood +the causes of corruption inherent in all earthly change? + +What a noble set of followers have, in all ages, graced the banners of +the Athenian bard! Sophocles, Aristophanes, Menander, and Euripides, in +Greece; Terence and Plautus in Rome; Metastasio, Goldoni, and Alfieri in +Italy; Corneille, Racine, Moliere, and Voltaire in France; Schiller,[N] +in himself a host, in Germany--contribute the brightest stars in the +immortal band. Their merits may be unequal, their talent various, their +pieces sometimes uninteresting; but, taken as a whole, their works +exhibit the greatest efforts of human genius. What has the Romantic +school to exhibit, after its inimitable founder, as a set-off to this +long line of greatness? The ephemeral and now forgotten lights of the +British stage--the blasting indecencies of Beaumont and Fletcher; the +vigorous ribaldry of Dryden; the shocking extravagances of the recent +French and Spanish stage; the _Tour de Nesle_, and other elevating +pieces, which adorn the modern Parisian theatre, and train to virtuous +and generous feeling the present youth of France. Shakspeare himself, +with all his transcendent excellences, is unable to keep his ground on +the British stage. Like all great men, whom accident or error has +embarked in a wrong course, he has been passed by a host of followers, +who, unable to imitate his beauties, have copied only his defects, till +they have fairly banished the legitimate tragic drama from the London +stage. If the precept of Scripture be true--"By their fruits shall ye +know them"--the palm must be unquestionably awarded to the old Grecian +school. + +If the different principles on which the two great schools of the drama +proceed are considered, it will not appear surprising that this result +has taken place. + +The Greek drama embraced a very limited number of stories and events, +and they were all thoroughly known to every audience in the country. The +incidents and tragic occurrences so wonderfully illustrated by the +genius of their tragic poets, are almost all to be found sketched out in +the _Odyssey_ of Homer, or in the successive disasters of the fated race +of Oedipus. The sacrifice of Iphigenia to procure fair gales when +setting out for Troy, the foundation of the exquisite tragedy by +Euripides of _Iphigenia in Aulis_; the subsequent meeting of her with +her brothers, the basis of _Iphigenia in Tauris_, by the same poet; the +murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and her adulterous lover; the +revenge of Electra and Orestes, who put their mother and her lover to +death; the subsequent remorse and woful fate of the avenging brother and +sister--form so many tragedies, which for centuries entranced the +Athenian audience. The sorrows of Andromache, when torn from her home +after the death of Hector and sack of Troy, and subjected to the +jealousy of the daughter of Menelaus; the deep woes of Hecuba, who saw +in one day her daughter sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles, and the +corpse of her son washed ashore, after having been perfidiously murdered +by his Thracian host, as they appeared in the thrilling verses of +Euripides--were all previously well known to the Grecian audience. If to +these we add the multiplied disasters of the line of Oedipus; the +despair of that unhappy man at his incestuous marriage with Jocasta; his +subsequent sorrow when an exile, poor and bowed down by misfortune; the +dreadful fate which befell his sons when they fell by each others' hands +before the walls of Thebes; and the heroic self-sacrifice of Antigone to +procure the rites of sepulture for her beloved and innocent brother--we +shall find we have embraced nearly the whole dramas which exercised the +genius of AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. + +It resulted from this limited number of incidents in the Greek drama, +and the thorough acquaintance of the audience, in every instance, with +the characters, the incidents, and the _denouement_ of the piece, that +the grand object of the poet was to work up a particular part of the +story to the highest perfection, rather than, to an audience +unacquainted with any part of it, to unfold the whole. It was that which +created the difference between it and the Romantic drama of modern +times. There was no use in attempting to tell the story, for that was +already known to all the audience. It would have been like telling the +story of Wallace, or Queen Mary, or Robert Bruce, to a Scottish +assembly. Genius was to be displayed; effect was to be produced, not by +unfolding new and unknown incidents, but working up to the highest +degree those already known. Hence the peculiar character of the Greek +drama; hence the astonishing and unequalled perfection to which it was +brought. The world has never seen, perhaps it will never again see, any +thing so exquisite as the masterpieces of Sophocles and Euripides--any +thing so sublime as some of AEschylus. All subsequent ages have concurred +in this opinion. All nations have united in it. The moderns and the +ancients, differing in so many other points, are at one in this +particular. There is as little diversity of opinion on the subject, as +in the admiration of the sculpture of Phidias, the verses of Virgil, or +the paintings of Raphael. + +It was by the strict observance of the unities, and the necessity to +which it exposed the poet of supplying, by his own genius and taste, all +adventitious aids derived from change of scene, splendour of decoration, +and novelty of story, that this astonishing perfection was attained. +Force of language, grandeur of thought, pathos of feeling, were all in +all. The dramatist was compelled to rest on these, and these alone. If +he did not succeed in them, he was lost. The audience, composed of the +most refined and enlightened citizens that then existed in the world, +went to the theatre, expecting not to be interested or surprised by the +unravelling of a new and intricate story, but to be fascinated by the +force of expression and pathos of feeling, with which a mournful +catastrophe already known was told. To attain this object, the dramatic +writers of antiquity selected that period in an interesting and tragic +story, when its incidents were approaching their crisis, when the +_denouement_ for good or for evil took place; and they represented that +at full length, and in all its detail to the spectators. The previous +incidents which had brought matters up to this point, were narrated in +the course of the dialogue in the earlier scenes; the closing +catastrophe, often too terrible to be represented on the stage, was +described by some of the characters who had witnessed it. But the +intervening period, the events and thoughts which succeeded the past, +and preceded the future, were painted in their fullest detail, and with +all the force and finishing of which the artist was capable. Nothing +resembles the structure of a tragedy of antiquity so much as a modern +trial for murder; and in the undying interest which such a proceeding +invariably excites in all countries and all ages, we may see the deep +foundation laid in human nature for the influence of that species of +dramatic composition. As in the Greek drama, the witnesses tell the +preceding story, and explain the previous crimes or events by which +matters have been brought to the present stage, when life or death +depends upon the issue of the proceedings. The trial itself takes up +these proceedings at the decisive point, and, with strict regard to +unity of time and place, exhibits their aims and issue to the mind of +the spectators. If the execution of the criminal were immediately to +follow the verdict of the jury, and some persons were, when the +spectators were still sitting in the hall thrilling with the interest +they had felt, to come in, and relate the demeanour and last words of +the unhappy being on the scaffold, that would be a Greek drama complete. + +As the field of dramatic representation was thus limited on the stage of +antiquity, the whole genius and powers of the poet were bent to +concentrating on that narrow space all the powers and beauties of which +his art was susceptible. Nothing was omitted which could either elevate, +interest, entrance, or melt the heart of the audience. It is a common +opinion in modern times with persons not acquainted in the originals +with the Greek tragedy, that it was couched in a stately measured tone, +wholly different from nature, and more akin to the pompous and sonorous +verses of the French theatre. There never was a greater mistake. If it +is characterized by any peculiarity more than another, it is the brevity +and condensation of the language, the energy of the expressions, and the +force with which the most vehement passions, and strongest emotions of +the heart are conveyed in the simplest words. So brief is the +expression, so frequent the breaks and interjections, that the rhythm +and verse are frequently, and for a long period, forgotten. Euripides +alone, who had great rhetorical powers, sometimes indulges in the +lengthened disquisitions, the _arguments in verse_, which exhibit so +admirable a view of all that can be urged on a particular subject, and +which have been so frequently imitated by Corneille and Racine. But even +he, when he comes to the impassioned or pathetic scenes, as in the +_Medea_, the _Iphigenia in Aulis_, and _Hecuba_, is as brief and +energetic in his expression as Shakspeare himself. Simplicity of +language, energy of thought, and force of passion, are the grand +characteristics of the Greek drama, as they were of the Greek oratory, +and their combination constituted the excellence of both. The fire of +the poet, the reach of imagination, was reserved for the chorus, which +frequently exhibited the most sublime specimens of lyric poetry, +rivalling the loftiest strains of the Pindaric muse. Thus the audience, +in a short piece, in which the plot was rapidly urged forward, and the +interest was never allowed for a moment to flag, were presented +alternately with the force of Demosthenes' declamation, the pathos of +Sophocles' expressions, and the fire of Pindar's poetry. It was as if +the finest scenes of Shakspeare's tragedies were thrown together with no +other interjections but the eloquence of Burke in the dialogue, and +lyric poetry on a level with Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," Gray's +"Bard," or Campbell's "Last Man," in the chorus. Is it surprising that +tragedies, exhibiting such a combination, worked out by the most perfect +masters of the human heart, should have entranced every subsequent age? + +Though one scene only was presented in each tragedy on the Greek stage, +so that unity of place was effectually observed, yet unity of _time_ was +by no means so strictly attended to; so that the poet was far from being +so fettered in this respect as is commonly imagined. Every scholar knows +that a very considerable time, sometimes some hours, or half a day, were +supposed to be consumed in the few minutes that the strophe and +antistrophe of the chorus were in course of being chanted. For instance, +in the _Antigone_ of Sophocles, during the time that one of the chorus +is reciting a few verses, the heroic sister has found out the body of +her beloved brother, and, in violation of the command of Creon, bestowed +on it the rites of sepulture. In the _Hecuba_ of Euripides, in the brief +space occupied by a chorus, her daughter Polyxine is led to the tomb of +Achilles by Ulysses, and sacrificed there, in presence of the whole +Greek army, to procure favourable gales for the return of the troops +from Troy. In the _Electra_ of the same author, during the strophes of +one chorus, Orestes and Electra effect the death of the husband of +Clytemnestra; during another, murder their unhappy mother herself. In +the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides, the duel between the two sons of +Jocasta, their mutual slaughter, and the self-immolation of that fated +mother on the body of her beloved son Polynices, take place while the +chorus were reciting a few verses, and are described when the actors +return on the stage. In truth, it is often in the tragic events which +thus take place behind the scenes during the chorus, but in close +connexion with what had just before been exhibited on the boards, that a +material part of the interest of the piece consists, and the art of the +poet is shown. The interest is never allowed for a moment to flag; it is +wrought up first by the anticipation of the catastrophe, then by its +description; and the intervening period, when it was actually going +forward, is filled up by the recital of sublime lyric poetry, at once +causing the stop of time to be forgotten, affording a brief respite to +the overwrought feelings, and yet keeping up the enthusiastic and +elevated state of mind in the audience. + +It is impossible to conceive a more perfect drama than the _Antigone_ of +Sophocles. The subject, the characters, the moral tone of the piece, are +as perfect as its execution is masterly and felicitous. It possesses, +what is not frequent in Greek tragedy, the interest arising from +elevated moral feeling and heroic courage devoted to noble purposes. The +steady perseverance of Antigone in her noble resolution to perform the +last rites to her dead brother, in defiance of the cruel threats of +Creon; the courage with which she does discharge those mournful duties; +the rage of the tyrant at the violation of his commands; the momentary +reappearance of the woman in Antigone, when she thinks of her betrothed, +and contemplates her dreadful fate, to be shut up in a living tomb in +the rock; the despair of Haemon, who kills himself on the body of his +beloved; the silent despair of his mother, which, unable to find words +for its expression, leads to her self-immolation--the last victim of the +curses bestowed on the race of Oedipus; are all portrayed with +inimitable force and pathos. Simplicity of expression, depth of feeling, +resolution of mind, are its great characteristics, as they are of all +the works of Sophocles. It has been revived with signal success in +recent times. If a translation could be made, which should render into +English the force and beauty of the original language, the mingled +energy and delicacy of Sophocles's conception, we should, indeed, have a +perfect idea of the magic of the Greek drama. Such a translation is not +beyond the bounds of possibility; the English language is capable of it, +and could, in the hands of a master, render back a faithful image of the +brevity and power of the Greek. But that master must be a Sophocles, or +a Shakspeare; and ages will probably elapse before the world produce +either the one or the other. + +The _Prometheus Vinctus_ of AEschylus is not properly a drama; at least, +it has so little of the peculiar interest belonging to that species of +poetry, that it can hardly be called such. Nevertheless, it is perhaps +the most sublime composition that ever came from the thoughts of +uninspired man. It is meant to portray the heroic devotion, the +undaunted courage of Prometheus--the friend of man, the assuager of his +sufferings, the aider of his enterprises--who was chained to a rock, +exposed to the burning heats of summer, the shivering frosts of winter, +by Jupiter, for having stolen fire--the parent of art, the spring of +enterprise, the source of improvement--from heaven, to give it to the +human race. From the expressions he uses on the ultimate results of that +inestimable gift, one would almost suppose he had a prophetic +anticipation of the marvels of Steam. The opening scene, where +Prometheus is chained to a rock in Scythia, by Vulcan, in presence of +"Force and Strength," the agents of Jupiter's commands; and the closing +one, where he remains firm and unshaken amidst the wrath of the +elements, the upheaving of the ocean, and the lightnings of heaven +hurled at his devoted head, are of unrivalled sublimity. They literally +realize the idea of the poet-- + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae." + +The _Prometheus Vinctus_ is the _Inferno_ of Dante dramatised; but it is +fraught with a nobler moral. It does not portray the sufferings of sin +for past guilt; it exhibits the heroism of virtue under present +injustice. It paints the triumph of devoted benevolence, sustained by +unconquerable will, over the oppression of physical force, the tyranny +of resistless power. It exhibits the charity of the Saviour in the +_Paradise Regained_, united to the indomitable spirit of Satan, who is +chained on the burning lake, in _Paradise Lost_. It is the prophetical +wail of humanity, so often doomed to suffer in the best of causes from +external injustice. + +The _Iphigenia in Aulis_ is the most perfect of all the tragedies of +Euripides, and the best adapted for modern representation. The +well-known story of the daughter of the King of Men being devoted to +sacrifice, to appease the angry deities, and procure favourable gales +for the fleet on the way to Troy, and of the agony of her parents under +the infliction, is developed with all the pathos and eloquence of which +that great master of the tragic art was capable. Nothing can exceed the +progressive interest which the character of Iphigenia excites. At first, +horrorstruck, and shrinking with the timidity of her sex from the axe of +the priest, she gradually rises when her fate appears inevitable, and at +length devotes herself for her country with a woman's devotion, and more +than a man's fortitude. In the French plays on the same subject, a love +episode is introduced between her and Achilles; but the simplicity of +the Greek original appears preferable, in which she had no previous +acquaintance with the son of Peleus, and he is interested in her fate, +and strives to avert it, only from finding that his name, as her +betrothed, had, without his knowledge, been used by Agamemnon to induce +Clytemnestra to bring her to the Grecian camp. Doubtless, the tenderness +of Racine in the love-scenes between her and Achilles, is inimitable; +but the simplicity of the Greek original, where grief on her parents' +part for her loss, and her own heroic self-sacrifice on the altar of +patriotic duty, are undisturbed by any other emotion, is yet more +touching, and far more agreeable to ancient manners, where love on the +woman's part, previous to marriage, was, as now in the East, almost +unknown. + +In these great masterpieces of ancient art, the unity of emotions is +strictly preserved; and it is that, joined to the lofty moral tone +preserved through the drama, which constitutes their unequalled charm. +This, however, is not always the case in the Greek tragedies. They are +not insensible to the effect of a high moral tone, or the development of +poetical justice; but they did not regard either as the principal +object, or even a material part, of dramatic composition. To delineate +the play of the passions was their great object: Aristotle says +expressly that was the end of tragedy. To that object they devoted all +their powers; they succeeded in laying bare the human heart in its most +agonized moments, and in its inmost recesses, with terrible fidelity. In +this way, they frequently represented it as torn by a double distress, +each prompting to atrocious actions; as in the _Medea_ of Euripides, +where the unhappy wife of Jason distracted by jealousy at the desertion +and second marriage of her husband, destroys her own children in the +fury of her vengeance against him; or the _Hecuba_ of the same author, +where the discrowned and captive widow of Priam, doomed in one day to +see her daughter sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles, and the dead body +of her son washed ashore by the waves, takes a terrible vengeance on his +murderer, by putting his children to death, and turning him, after his +eyes have been put out, to beg his way through the world. The Greeks +seem to have been deeply impressed with the evils, vicissitudes, and +sufferings of life. No word occurs so frequently in their dramas as +_evils_, ([Greek: kaka].) In witnessing the delineation of its miseries +on the stage, they seem to have held somewhat of the same stern pleasure +which the North American Indians have in beholding the prolonged torture +inflicted on a condemned captive at the stake. Every one felt a thrill +of interest at beholding how another could bear a series of reverses and +sufferings, which might any day be his own. + +Notwithstanding all our admiration for the Greek tragedies, and firmly +believing that they are framed on the true principle of dramatic +composition--the neglect of which has occasioned its long-continued +decline in this country--we are yet far from thinking them perfect. The +age of the world, the peculiarities of ancient manners, rendered it +impossible it should be so. We could conceive dramas more perfect and +varied than any even of the masterpieces of Sophocles or Euripides. We +are persuaded the world will yet see them outdone; though they will be +outdone only by those who follow out their principles. But there are +three particulars, in which, in modern times, themes of surpassing +interest and importance are opened to the dramatic poet, which were of +necessity unknown to the writers of antiquity; and it is by blending the +skilful use of these with the simplicity and pathos of the Greek +originals, that the highest perfection of this noble art is to be +attained. + +In the first place, the Greeks had no idea whatever of a system of +divine superintendence, or moral retribution, in this world. On the +contrary their ideas were just the reverse. FATE, superior to the +decrees of Jove himself, was the supreme power which they discerned in +all the changes of time; and it was the crushing of a human soul beneath +its chariot-wheels that they principally delighted to portray. The +omnipotence of Fate, in their opinion, was more shown in the destruction +than the rewards of the good. Success in life they were willing enough +to ascribe to the able conduct of the persons concerned; they only +began, like the French, to speak about destiny when they were +unfortunate. Their ignorance of the fundamental principles of religion, +familiar to every peasant in Europe, shines forth in every page of +Sophocles and Euripides. The noblest tragedy of AEschylus, the +_Prometheus Vinctus_, is intended to portray the highest divine +benevolence overpowered by supreme power, and eternally suffering under +eternal injustice. The frequent overthrow of virtue by wickedness, of +innocence by fraud, of gentleness by violence, in this world, seems to +have produced an indelible impression on their minds. They not only had +no confidence in the divine justice, or the ultimate triumph of virtue +over vice, but they had the reverse. They had a mournful conviction that +innocence in this vale of tears was everlastingly doomed to suffering; +that vice would eternally prove triumphant; and that it was in inward +strength and resolution that the only refuge for oppressed virtue was to +be found. Their greatest philosophers thought the same. Their tragedies +were dramatised Stoicism. Grandeur of character, force of mind, the +indomitable will, might be portrayed to perfection under such a belief; +but the mild graces, the confidence in God, the resignation to his will, +breathed into the human heart by the Gospel, were unknown. What a volume +of thoughts and sentiments, of virtues and graces, were wanting in a +world to which faith, hope, and charity were unknown! A dramatic Raphael +was impossible in antiquity; it was the spirit of the Redeemer which +inspired his _Holy Families_. Their morality, accordingly, is of a +sterner cast than any thing with which we are acquainted in modern +times. They were full of admiration of the qualities which formed the +patriot and the hero, and have portrayed them to perfection in their +dramas; but they were ignorant of that more heavenly disposition of +mind, which + + "sits a blooming bride, + By valour's arm'd and awful side." + +They perceived the tendency of firm and unbending virtue to elevate the +soul above all that is earthly; but they knew not, in the sublime +language of Milton, + + "That if virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her." + +As a necessary consequence of this, the dramas of antiquity were +destitute of those feelings of PIETY, which form so important a part in +the most elevated characters of modern Europe. The ancients carried mere +human virtue to the very highest point; in their poetry, their +tragedies, their philosophy, they represented man resting on himself +alone in the noblest aspect. But they were ignorant of God; they had no +correct ideas of Heaven. The devotion to the divine will, the +forgetfulness of self, the reliance on Supreme protection to innocence, +the appeal to the Almighty, and the judgment of another world against +the injustice of this, which runs through the most exalted conceptions +of modern times, were to them unknown. Their ideas of the celestial +beings were entirely drawn from human models: Olympus was peopled by +gods and goddesses animated by passions, divided by jealousies, +stimulated by desires entirely akin to those which are felt in this +world. The shades below were a dark and gloomy region, the entrance to +which was placed in the jaws of Vesuvius, or the dreary expanse of the +Cimmerian Bosphorus, through which the cries of the damned in Tartarus +incessantly resounded; and where even the blessed spirits in Elysium +were continually regretting the joys and excitement of the upper world. +Dante, in his _Inferno_, has painted to the life their prevailing ideas +of futurity; the next world to them contained nothing but successive +circles of Malebolge. Homer has expressed their feeling in a line, when +he makes Achilles, in Elysium, say to Ulysses, on his descent to the +infernal regions, that he would rather command the Grecian army one day, +than dwell where he was through an infinity of ages. Compare this with +the ideas of the Crusaders in modern Europe; with the death of the +chivalric Bayard, when, mortally wounded, seated on the ground, with his +eyes fixed on the cross of his sword, he said to the victorious +Constable de Bourbon, "Pity not me--pity those who fight against their +king, their country, and their oath!" + +Lastly, the passion of love, as it is understood and felt in modern +times, was unknown in antiquity; and to those who reflect how important +a part it bears in the romances and plays of Europe, this will probably +appear like performing Hamlet with the character of the Prince of +Denmark omitted on the occasion. It was impossible they could have it, +because their manners were much more Oriental than European; and young +persons of opposites sexes rarely, if ever, met before marriage. They +had a perfect idea of the mutual affection which arises after marriage; +the tenderness of Hector and Andromache never has been surpassed in any +tongue. With the passions of the harem they were perfectly familiar, and +the dreadful pangs of jealousy never have been painted with more +consummate ability, or more thorough knowledge of human nature. +Euripides, in particular, has delineated the terrible effects of that +passion with a master's hand; witness the raving of Medea at the +desertion of Jason; the fury of Hermione at the captive Andromache. Love +also, as it arises now in an Eastern seraglio, was not unknown to them; +the passion of Phaedra for Hippolytus, as painted by Euripides, is a +proof of it. But the love they thus conceived, had scarce any +resemblance to the passion of the same name, which has risen up with the +general intercourse of the sexes, and chivalrous manners of modern +Europe. It is represented rather as a fever, as a fit of insanity, than +any thing else; and is usually held forth as the withering blast +inflicted by an offended deity, or the mania bequeathed as an +inheritance on an accursed race. The refined and ennobling passion, so +well-known and exquisitely described by the great masters of the human +heart in modern times, that of Othello for Desdemona, of Tancrede for +Clorinda, of Corinne for Oswald, was unknown in antiquity. Even the +passions described by Ovid, which arose amidst the freer manners of the +Roman patricians, had little resemblance to the refined sentiments, the +bequest of the age of chivalry; the one was founded on the subjugation +of mind by the senses, the other on the oblivion of the senses in the +mind. What a vast addition to the range and interest of the drama has +the refining and spiritualizing of this master-passion of the human +breast, by the influence of Christianity, and the institutions of +chivalry, made; and how inexcusable does it render modern genius, if, +with such an additional chord to touch in the human heart, it has never +yet rivalled the great models of antiquity! + +And has modern genius not yet equalled the masterpieces of the drama in +ancient Greece? We answer, decidedly not--either on the Continent or +this country--any more than modern sculpture has rivalled the +perfections of Grecian statuary. Neither in the old French and Italian +school, which followed the ancient models, nor in the Romantic school in +which old England and young France proposed to rival it, has any thing +approaching to the interest and pathos of the Athenian dramatists been +produced. It is not difficult to see what have been the causes of this +inferiority, and they seem to have been these. + +The regular drama of France was addressed, entirely and exclusively, to +the court, the noble, and the highly educated classes. It was nothing +more than an extension of the theatres of Versailles. The opinion of +Louis XIV., his ministers or mistresses, of the Duke of Orleans, and a +few leading nobles of Louvois, and one or two statesmen, were all in +all. The approbation of the king stamped a tragedy in public opinion, as +his dancing with her stamped the estimation of a new court beauty. The +voice and feelings of the middle or lower ranks of society had no more +to say on the subject than they had in the formation of court dresses, +or the etiquette of the _Oeil de Boeuf_. They took their opinions +from that of the magnates of the land, as milliners and tailors now do +from the dresses of London and Paris. Rank and fashion were paramount in +literature, as they are still in manner, dancing, and etiquette. It was +impossible that the drama, addressed to, and having its success +dependent on, the approbation of such an audience, could faithfully +paint the human heart. The stately dances and haughty seigneurs of +Versailles, would have been shocked with the vehement bursts of passion, +the pathetic traits of nature, the undisguised expression of feeling, +which appeared in Euripides and Sophocles, and entranced the mixed and +more natural audience of Athens. It would have appeared vulgar and +painful; it revealed what it was the great object of art and education +to conceal. The stately Alexandrine verses, the sonorous periods, the +dignified and truly noble thoughts, which so strongly characterize the +French tragedies, arose naturally, and perhaps unavoidably, from the +habits and tastes of the exclusive aristocratic circle to which they +were addressed. In addition to this, the audience were all highly +educated; at least according to the ideas and habits of the times. +Classical images were those which recalled the most pleasing +associations in every mind; classical events awakened the emotions most +likely to prove generally attractive. The ancient models were before +every mind, from the effect of early and universal education. Classical +allusions and subjects were as unavoidable, as they now are in the prize +poems of Oxford or Cambridge. Thus, the drama of Athens naturally was +assumed as the model of modern imitation; but on it was ingrafted, not +the vehemence and nature of the Greek originals, addressed to all +mankind, but the measured march of heroic versification, intended for a +narrow and dignified feudal circle. + +Making allowance for this peculiarity, and considering the drama as, +from this cause, diverted from its real object and highest flight, it is +impossible to conceive any thing more perfect than the masterpieces of +the French stage. Corneille was their greatest composer; he had most +original genius, and was least fettered by artificial rules. He was the +AEschylus of the French theatre. Voltaire said, that the king's ministers +should be compelled to attend the performance of his finest pieces, to +acquire the knowledge of human nature, and statesmanlike views requisite +for the government of man. Napoleon said, if Corneille had lived in his +time, he would have made him a counsellor of state; for he alone, of all +writers, felt the overpowering importance of state necessity. The great +Conde wept at the generosity of sentiment portrayed in his +_Britannicus_. It is impossible to conceive any thing more dignified and +elevated, more calculated to rouse the generous and lofty feelings, to +nourish that forgetfulness of self and devotion to others, which is the +foundation of every thing great and good in this world, than his finest +tragedies. They are, however, very unequal. _Cinna_, _Les Horaces_, the +_Cid_, and _Rodogune_, are his masterpieces; it is they which have won +for him, by the consent of all nations, the surname of "le Grand +Corneille." But still it is not nature which is generally represented in +his tragedies. It is an ideal nature, seven foot high, clad in +impenetrable panoply, steeled against the weaknesses, as above the +littlenesses of humanity. Persons of a romantic, lofty tone of mind, +will to the end of the world be fascinated by his pages; heroic +resolutions, great deeds, will ever be prompted by his sentiments. But +they are above the standard of common life. They evince a deep knowledge +of human nature, but of human nature in noble and heroic bosoms +only--and that is widely different from what it obtains with ordinary +men. Hence his pieces are little adapted for general representation; and +certainly, even the best translations of them never could succeed in +this country. + +Racine is a more general favourite than Corneille, because he paints +feelings more commonly experienced; but he wants his great and heroic +sentiments. No one ever thought of calling him the Great. Less deeply +embued with the lofty spirit of chivalry, less romantic in his +structure, less commanding in his ideas, he is more polished, more +equal, and has a greater command of the pathetic. He is to Corneille +what Virgil was to Homer, what Raphael to Michael Angelo. The anguish of +the human heart was what he chiefly loved to represent, because he felt +that there he excelled; and hence his tragedies are chiefly formed on +the Greek model, and on the subjects already treated by Sophocles and +Euripides. Agamemnon, Achilles, Alcestes, Orestes, Clytemnestra, +Iphigenia, Oedipus, Hermione, Jocasta, Antigone, reappear on his +pages, as in those of the masters of the Greek drama. But they reappear +in a modern dress. They are very different from the inimitable +simplicity of the originals. The refinements, conceits, extravagant +flattery, politeness, and stately manners of the Grand Monarque, shine +through every line. Achilles makes love to Iphigenia as if she were in +the marbled gardens of Versailles; the passion of Phedre for Hippolyte, +is the refined effusion of modern delicacy, not the burning fever and +maniac delirium of Phaedra in Euripides. His Greek heroes and heroines +address each other as if they were in the _Oeil de Boeuf_; it is +"monsieur" and "madame" at every step. Under classical names, and with +the scene laid in distant lands, it is still the ancient _regime_ of +France which is portrayed in all his pieces--it is the passions and +distresses of an old and highly civilized society which are depicted. +Even _Athalie_, his masterpiece, has none of the ancient Jewish spirit +in it; it is the modern priesthood which is represented as resisting +oppression in the temple of Jerusalem. But the beauty of language, the +melody of versification, the delicacy of sentiments, the frequent +touches of the pathetic which his writings exhibit, will for ever secure +him a high place in the opinion of men; and justify the saying of +Voltaire, that whoever would acquire a pure and elegant French style, +must have the _Petit Careme_ of Massillon, and _Athalie_ of Racine, +constantly lying on his writing table. + +Voltaire, though he adhered, in part at least, to the old subjects in +his tragedies, is far more various and discursive in his mode of +treating them. The prodigious fecundity of the author of a hundred +volumes, the varied acquisitions of the philosopher, the historian, the +satirist, the moralist, give diversity to his subjects, and an endless +variety to his ideas. He possessed, as it were, a polyglot mind; he +threw himself into the feelings and passions of every country and every +age, and brought out in his dramas part at least of the inexhaustible +store of human thoughts and events which have from the beginning of time +agitated the human race. The East, with its sultans, its harems, its +sultanas, and its jealousies, strongly arrested his imagination, and +furnished the subjects of some of his finest pieces; witness _Mahomet_, +_Bajazet_, _Tamerlane_, and _Zaire_. For this reason his tragedies are +more general favourites now than either those of Corneille or Racine; +you will see the audience in the parterre of the Theatre Francais +repeating whole speeches from _Brutus_, _Alzire_, or _Le Fanatisme_, +after the performer on the stage. They have sunk deeper into the general +mind than any of their predecessors; more of their lines have become +household expressions, as is the case with Shakspeare, Gray, and +Campbell in England, than those of any other author in the French +language. Voltaire, too, was strongly impressed with the necessity of +keeping up the interest of his piece from first to last; he drives on +the story with an untiring hand, and even before the final catastrophe, +contrives to produce a passing excitement at every step, by subordinate +and yet important events. What he constantly complains of in his +admirable commentaries on Corneille is, that, in his inferior pieces at +least, that great master lets the story flag, the interest die away, and +that, trusting to the fascination of his language, the power of his +thoughts, he neglects the important matters of dramatic power and stage +effect. His perfect knowledge of both these important auxiliaries of his +art, is not the least of Voltaire's many excellences; and has secured +for him, to all appearance permanently, if not the first, unquestionably +the most popular place in the French theatre. But still his dramas do +not represent nature. They are noble pieces of rhetoric put into rhyme. +They are the ablest possible debate arrayed in the pomp of Alexandrine +verse. But they do not touch the heart like a few words in Sophocles, +Euripides, or Shakspeare. + +Metastasio was fettered by a double set of rules; for he was compelled +to attend at once to the dramatic unities of Aristotle, and the musical +restraints of the opera. It was no common genius which, amidst such +difficulties, could produce a series of dramas which should not merely +charm the world, when arrayed in the enchanted garb of the opera, with +all the attractions of music and scenery, but form a perpetual subject +of pleasing study to the recluse, far from the pomp and magnificence of +theatric representation. It is impossible to imagine any thing more +attractive than his dramas, considered as visionary pieces. Formed on +the events of the ancient world, he depicts, under the name of +Alexander, Titus, Dido, Regulus, Caesar, and Cleopatra, ideal beings +having about as much resemblance to real mortals as the nymphs of the +ballet have to ordinary women, or the recitative of Mozart to the +natural human voice. But still they are very charming. If they are not a +feature of this world, they are a vision of something above it; of a +scene in which the littlenesses and selfishness of mortality are +forgotten; in which virtue is generally in the end triumphant; in which +honour in women proves victorious over love, and fortitude in men +obtains the mastery of fortune. Generosity and magnanimity beyond what +could have been even conceived, often furnishes the _denouement_ of the +piece, and extricates the characters from apparently insurmountable +difficulties. There can be no doubt this is not human life: Alexander +the Great, Dido, Regulus, are not of every day's occurrence. But the +total departure of such representations from the standard of reality, +appears less reprehensible in the opera than the ordinary theatre, +because the singing and recitative at any rate remove it from off the +pale of mortality. We take up one of his dramas as we go to the opera, +not to see any picture of actual existence, or any thing which shall +recall the experienced feelings of the human heart, but to be charmed by +a fairy tale, which, if it does not paint the stern realities of life, +at least charms by its imagination. + +The more impassioned mind and vehement passions of Alfieri disdained +those trammels by which the French and Italian stages had so long been +fettered. Gifted by nature with an ardent imagination, impetuous +feelings, deep and lasting emotions, he early saw that the modern drama, +founded on, and fettered by, the strict observance of the Greek unities, +and yet discarding its broken and rapid diction, its profound knowledge +of the human heart, its vehement expression of passion, had departed far +from the real object of the art, and could not be brought back to it but +by a total change of system. He has himself told us, in his most +interesting life, that when he read the tragedies of Racine and +Corneille, the book fell from his hands. They conveyed no idea whatever +of reality; they had no resemblance to the ardent feelings which he felt +burning in his own breast. Anxiously seeking vent for passions too +fierce to be controlled, he found it in the study of the Greek drama. +The wrath of Medea, the heroism of Antigone, the woes of Andromache, the +love of Phaedra, found a responsive echo in his bosom; they combined +every thing he could desire, they represented every thing that he felt. +He saw what Tragedy had been--what it ought to be. His taste was +immediately formed on the true model. When he came to write tragedies +himself, he composed them on the plan of Sophocles. He did more. He made +the language as brief, the voice of passion as powerful, the plot as +simple; but he brought even fewer characters on the stage. He trusted +entirely to the force of passion the wail of suffering, the accents of +despair. Immense was the effect of this recurrence to unsophisticated +feeling, in a luxurious and effeminate society. It was like the burst of +admiration with which the picture of the human heart was at the same +time hailed in France, drawn by the magic hand of Rousseau; or, in the +next age, the fierce passions of the melodramatic corsairs of Byron were +received in the artificial circles of London society. Nature was +something new; they had never heard her voice before. + +Had Alfieri, with this ardent mind and clear perception of the true end +of the drama, been endowed with that _general_ knowledge of the human +heart, and of human character in all its bearings, which the Greek +dramatists possessed he would have formed the greatest tragedian of +modern continental Europe. But in these vital particulars he was very +deficient. His position in society, character, and habits, precluded him +from acquiring it. The dissipated, heartless nobleman, who flew from one +devoted passion to another, without the slightest compunction as to +their effects on the objects of his adoration; who fought Lord Ligonier +in the Park, in pursuance of an intrigue with his lady; and stole from +the Pretender his queen, when age and dissipation had wellnigh brought +him to the grave; who traversed, post-haste, France and Italy with +fourteen blood-horses, which he wore out in his impetuous course, was +not likely either to feel the full force of the generous, or paint the +_real_ features of the selfish passion. He did not mingle with the +ordinary world on a footing of _equality_. This it is which ever makes +aristocratic and high-bred authors ignorant of the one thing needful in +history or the drama--a knowledge of human nature. No man ever learned +that, who had not been practically brought into collision with men in +all ranks, from the highest to the lowest. Hence his characters are +almost all overdrawn. Vice and virtue are exhibited in too undisguised +colours; the malignity of the wicked is laid too bare to the reader. He +makes the depraved _admit they are bad, but yet persevere in their +crimes_; a certain proof that he did not know the human heart. He knew +it better who said, "The heart _is deceitful above all things_, and +desperately wicked." Napoleon knew it better when he said to Talma, +after seeing his representation of Nero in _Britannicus_--"You are quite +wrong in your idea of Nero; you should _conceal the tyrant_. No man +admits he was guilty either to himself or others." Alfieri himself is a +proof of it: he recounts, in his life, many criminal acts he committed, +but never with the slightest allusion to their having been wrong. He +admitted, later in life, that he had been ignorant of human nature in +the great body of mankind; for he said, on recounting the horrors of the +10th August, which he had witnessed at Paris--"Je connais bien les +grands, _mais je ne connais pas les petits_." + +It is hard to say whether Schiller belongs to the Greek or Romantic +school in the drama. His subjects are in great part chosen from the +latter class: he changes the scene, and did not hold himself bound by +the rules of Aristotle. But in his mode of treating these subjects, he +approaches more nearly to the tragedians of antiquity. He utterly +discarded the limited range of subjects, and measured pomp of the French +drama; he felt that the world had grown old since the days of Euripides, +and that it was time for tragedy to embrace a wider range of subjects +than the family disasters which followed the return of the Greeks from +the siege of Troy. He knew that it was not in stately rhyme or measured +cadences, that passion finds vent from the human breast. He was +essentially historical in his ideas. The past with its vast changes and +endless variety of events, lay open before him. And he availed himself +of all its riches. He is unequalled in the ability with which he threw +himself into his subject, identified himself, not merely with the +characters, but the periods in which they arose, and brought before the +mind of the spectators the ideas, interests, passions, and incidents, +the collision of which produced the catastrophe which formed the +immediate subject of his piece. The best informed English or Scottish +historians will have something to learn on the history of Queen Mary, +from the incomparable summary of arguments for and against her detention +in captivity by Queen Elizabeth, in the two first acts of his noble +tragedy of _Mary Stuart_. The learned Spaniard will find himself +transported to the palace of the Escurial, and the frightful tragedies +of its bigoted court, in his terrible tragedy of _Don Carlos_. Schiller +rivals Shakspeare himself in the energy with which, by a word or an +epithet, he paints the fiercest or tenderest passions of the heart: +witness the devoted love of Thekla for Max in _Wallenstein_; or the +furious jealousy of the Queen in _Don Carlos_. He has not the grotesque +of Shakspeare; we do not see in his tragedies that mixture of the +burlesque and the sublime which is so common in the Bard of Avon, and +is not infrequent with the greatest minds, who play, as it were, with +the thunderbolts, and love to show how they can master them. Hence, in +reading at least, his dramas produce a more uniform and unbroken +impression than those of the great Englishman, and will, with foreign +nations, command a more general admiration. But the great charm in +Schiller is the romantic turn of mind, the noble elevation of sentiment, +the truly heroic spirit, with which his tragedies abound. In reading +them, we feel that a new intellectual soil has been turned up in the +Fatherland; the human soul, in its pristine purity and beauty, comes +forth from beneath his hand; it reappears like the exquisite remains of +Grecian statuary, which, buried for ages in superincumbent ruins, emerge +pure and unstained in virgin snow, when a renewal of cultivation has +again exposed them to the light. If he were equally great at all times, +he would have been the most perfect dramatist of modern times. But he is +far from being so. At times he is tedious; often dull; it is his great +scenes, such as the last sacrament of Queen Mary, which have gained for +him his colossal reputation, and produce an indelible impression on the +mind of his reader. + +We have exhausted, perhaps exceeded, our limits and we have only got +through half our subject. A noble theme remains: Shakspeare, with the +Romantic drama, will be treated in the Number which is to follow; and +the causes considered which have brought the school, created by such a +master, into the state of comparative mediocrity in which, with some +brilliant exceptions, it is now placed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[J] The first wrote _eighteen hundred_ plays, the variety in the plots +of which is so prodigious, that they are the great quarry from which +almost all subsequent dramatic writers have borrowed the elements of +their theatrical pieces. + +[K] Euripides was fifteen years younger than Sophocles--the latter being +born in the year 495 B.C., the former in 480; and they thrice contended +for the prize at the public games of Greece. + +[L] Miss Cushman's Lady Macbeth is a performance of the very highest +merit, and proves that the genius of the stage is capable of being +matured in transatlantic climes. + +[M] At the execution of Doolan and another, for a combination murder +near Glasgow, on May 13th, 1842. + +[N] Schiller's dramas are of the modern kind, and the unities are not +strictly observed; but his finer pieces belong more nearly to the +Grecian than the Romantic school. + + + + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. + + +NO. III. + +MR W. WELLINGTON HURST. + +It would probably puzzle Mr William Wellington Hurst, as much as any +man, to find out on what grounds I placed him on the list of my College +friends; for certainly our intimacy was hardly sufficient to warrant +such a liberty; and he was one of those happy individuals who would +never have suspected that it could be out of gratitude for much +amusement afforded me by sundry of his sayings and doings. But so it is; +and it happens, that while the images of many others of my +companions--very worthy good sort of fellows, whom I saw more or less of +nearly every day--have vanished from my memory, or only flit across +occasionally, like shadows, the full-length figure of Mr W. Wellington +Hurst, exactly as he turned out, after a satisfactory toilet, in the +patent boots and scarf of many colours, stands fixed there like a +daguerreotype--more faithful than flattering. + +My first introduction to him was by running him down in a skiff, when I +was steering the College eight--not less to his astonishment than our +own gratification. It is perfectly allowable, by the laws of the river, +if, after due notice, these small craft fail to get out of your way; but +it is not very easy to effect. However, in this instance, we went clean +over him, very neatly indeed. The men helped him into our boat, just as +his own sunk from under him; and he accepted a seat by my side in the +stern-sheets, with many apologies for being so wet, appearing +considerably impressed with a sense of my importance, and still more of +my politeness. When we reached Sandford, I prescribed a stiff tumbler of +hot brandy and water, and advised him to run all the way home, to warm +himself, and avoid catching cold; and, from that time, I believe he +always looked upon me as a benefactor. The claim, on my part, certainly +rested on a very small foundation originally; it was strengthened +afterwards by a less questionable act of patronage. Like many other +under-graduates of every man's acquaintance, Hurst laboured under the +delusion, that holding two sets of reins in a very confused manner, and +flourishing a long whip, was driving; and that to get twenty miles out +of Oxford in a "team," without an upset, or an imposition from the +proctor, was an _opus operatum_ of the highest possible merit. To do him +justice, he laboured diligently in the only exercise which he seemed to +consider strictly academical--he spent an hour every morning, standing +upon a chair, "catching flies," as he called it, and occasionally +flicking his scout with a tandem whip, and practised incessantly upon +tin horns of all lengths, with more zeal than melody, until he got the +erysipelas in his lower lip, and a hint of rustication from the tutors. +Yet he was more ambitious than successful. His reputation on the road +grew worse and worse every day. He had a knack of shaving turnpike +gates, and cutting round corners on one wheel, and getting his horses +into every possible figure but a straight line, which made every mile +got over without an accident almost a miracle. At last, after taking a +four-in-hand over a narrow bridge, at the bottom of a hill, pretty much +in the Olympic fashion--all four abreast--men got rather shy of any +expeditions of the kind in his company. There was little credit in it, +and a good deal of danger. First, he was reduced to soliciting the +company of freshmen, who were flattered by any proposal that sounded +_fast_. But they, too, grew shy, after one or two ventures; and poor +Hurst soon found a difficulty in getting a companion at all. He was a +liberal fellow enough, and not pushed for a guinea when his darling +science was concerned: so he used to offer to "sport the train" himself; +but even when he condescended to the additional self-devotion of +standing a dinner and champagne, he found that the closest calculators +among his sporting acquaintance had as much regard for their necks as +their pockets. + +To this inglorious position was his fame as a charioteer reduced, when +Horace Leicester and myself, early in his third term, had determined +somewhat suddenly to go to see a steeple-chase about twelve miles off, +where Leicester had some attraction beside the horses, in the shape of a +pretty cousin; (_two_, he told me, and bribed me with the promise of an +introduction to "the other," but she did not answer to sample at all.) +We had engaged a very nice mare and stanhope, which we knew we could +depend upon, when, the day before the race, the chestnut was declared +lame, and not a presentable four-legged animal was to be hired in +Oxford. Hurst had engaged his favourite pair of greys (which would +really go very well with any other driver) a week beforehand, but had +been canvassing the last batch of freshmen in vain for an occupant of +the vacant seat. A huge red-headed north-country man, who had never seen +a tandem in his life, but who, as far as pluck went, would have ridden +postilion to Medea's dragons, was listening with some apparent +indecision to Hurst's eloquence upon the delights of driving, just as we +came up after a last unsuccessful search through the livery stables; and +the pair were proceeding out of college arm in arm, probably to look at +the greys, when Leicester, to my amusement, stepped up with--"Hurst, +who's going with you to B----?" + +"I--why, I hardly know yet; I think Sands here will, if"---- + +"I'll go with you then, if you like; and if you've got a cart, Hawthorne +can come too, and it will be very jolly." + +If the university had announced their intention of creating him a B.A. +by diploma, without examination, Hurst could hardly have looked more +surprised and delighted. Leicester, it should be borne in mind, was one +of the most popular men in the college--a sort of _arbiter elegantiarum_ +in the best set. Hurst knew very little of him, but was no doubt highly +flattered by his proposal. From coaxing freshmen to come out by the +bribe of paying all expenses, to driving to B---- steeple-chase side by +side with Horace, (my modesty forbids me to include myself,) was a step +at once from the ridiculous to the sublime of tandemizing. For this +advancement in life, he always, I fancy, considered himself indebted to +me, as I had originally introduced him to Leicester's acquaintance; and +when we both accepted an invitation, which he delivered himself of with +some hesitation, to breakfast in his rooms on the morning of the +expedition, his joy and gratitude appeared to know no bounds. It is not +usual, be it remembered, for a junior man in college to ask a senior to +a party from whom he has never received an invitation himself; but +hunting and tandem-driving are apt occasionally to set ordinary +etiquette at defiance. "Don't ask a lot of men, that's all--there's a +good fellow," said Horace, whose good-natured smile, and off-hand and +really winning manner, enabled him to carry off, occasionally, a degree +of impudence which would not have been tolerated from others--"I hate a +large formal breakfast party of all things; it disgusts me to see a +score of men jostling each other over tough beefsteaks." + +"I asked Sands yesterday," apologised Hurst. "I thought perhaps he would +come out with me; but I dare say I can put him off, if"---- + +"Oh! on no account whatever; you mean the carroty freshman I saw you +with just now? Have him by all means; it will be quite refreshing to +meet any man so regularly green. So there will be just four of us; eight +o'clock, I suppose? it won't do to be much later." + +And Horace walked off, having thus arranged matters to his own +satisfaction and his host's. I was an interested party in the business, +however, and had my own terms to make. "You've disposed of me rather +coolly," said I; "you don't surely imagine, that at my time of life I'm +going to trust my neck to that fellow's furious driving?" + +"Make your mind easy, Frank; William Wellington sha'n't finger a +riband." + +"Nonsense, Leicester; you can't treat a man in that kind of way--not to +let him drive his own team. Hurst _is_ a bit of an ass, certainly; but +you can't with any decency first ask a man for a seat, and then refuse +to give him up the reins." + +"Am I in the habit, sir, of doing things in the very rude and +ungentlemanly style you insinuate?" And Horace looked at me with mock +dignity for a second or two, and then burst into a laugh. "Leave it to +me, Hawthorne, and I'll manage it to the satisfaction of all parties: +I'll manage that Hurst shall have a capital day's fun, and your valuable +neck shall be as safe as if you were tried by a Welsh jury." + +With this indefinite assurance I was obliged to be content; and +accordingly, at half-past eight the next morning, after a very correct +breakfast, we mounted the tandem-cart at the college back-gates, got the +leader hitched on, as usual, a mile out of the city, for fear of +proctors, and were bowling merrily along, in the slight frost of an +autumn morning, towards B----. Leicester took the driving first, by +Hurst's special request, after one or two polite but faint refusals, the +latter sitting by his side; while I occupied, for the present, the queer +little box which in those days was stuck on behind, (the more modern +carts, which hold four, are an improvement introduced into the +University since my driving days.) With wonderful gravity and importance +did Leicester commence his lectures on the whip to his admiring +companion: I almost think he began in the approved style, with a slight +allusion to the Roman _biga_, and deduced the progress of the noble +science from Ericthonius down to "Peyton and Ward." I have a lively +recollection of a comparison between Automedon of the Homeric times, and +"Black Will" of Oxford celebrity--the latter being decided as only +likely to be less immortal, because there was no Homer among the +contemporary under-graduates. A good deal was lost to me, no doubt, from +my position behind; but Hurst seemed to suck it all in with every +disposition to be edified. From the history of his subject, Horace +proceeded, in due course, to the theory, from theory to facts, from +facts to illustrations. In the practical department, Horace, I suspect, +like many other lecturers, was on his weakest ground; for his own +driving partook of the under-graduate character. + +"You throw the lash out so--you see--and bring it back sharp, so--no, +not _so_ exactly--so--hang the thing, I can't do it now; but that's the +principle, you understand--and then you take up your double thong, +so--pshaw, I did it very well just now--to put it into the wheeler, +so--ah, I missed it then, but that's the way to do it." + +He put me considerably in mind of a certain professor of chemistry, +whose lectures on light and heat I once was rash enough to attend, who, +after a long dry disquisition which had nearly put us all to sleep, used +to arouse our attention to the "beautiful effects" produced by certain +combinations, which he would proceed to illustrate, as he said, by a +"little experiment." But, somehow or other, these little experiments +always, or nearly always, failed: and after the room had been darkened, +perhaps, for five minutes or so, in order to give the exhibition full +effect, the result would be, a _fizz_ or two, a faint blue light, and a +stink, varying according to circumstances, but always abominable. "It's +very odd, John," the discomfited operator used to exclaim to his +assistant; "very odd; and we succeeded so well this morning, too: it's +most unaccountable: I'm really very sorry, gentlemen, but I can assure +you, this very same experiment we tried to-day with the most beautiful +result; didn't we, John?" "We did, sir," was John's invariably dutiful +reply: and so the audience took John's word for it, and the experiment +was considered to have been, virtually, successful. + +So we rattled on to the ground: Leicester occasionally putting the reins +into his companion's hand, teaching him to perform some impossible +movement with his third finger, and directing his attention to +non-existent flies, which he professed to remove from the leader, out of +sheer compassion, with the point of the whip. + +"You are sure you wouldn't like to take the reins now? Well, you'll +drive home then, of course? Hawthorne, will you try your hand now? +Hurst's going to take up the tooling when we come back." + +"No, thank you," said I; "I won't interfere with either of your +performances."--"And if Hurst does drive home," was my mental +determination, expressed to Leicester as far as a nod can do it, "I'll +walk." + +There was no difficulty in finding out the localities: the field in +which the winning-flag was fixed was not far from the turnpike road, and +conspicuous enough by the crowd already collected. Of course, pretty +nearly all the sporting characters among the gownsmen were there, the +distance from the University being so trifling. Mounted on that seedy +description of animal peculiar to Oxford livery-stables, which can never +by any possibility be mistaken for any thing but a hired affair, but +will generally go all day, and scramble through almost any thing; with +showily mounted jockey-whips in their hands, bad cigars (at two guineas +a-pound) in their mouths, bright blue scarfs, or something equivalent, +round their necks--their neat white cords and tops (things which they +_do_ turn out well in Oxford) being the only really sportsmanlike +article about them; flattering themselves they looked exceedingly +knowing, and, in nine cases out of ten, being deceived therein most +lamentably; clustered together in groups of four or five, discussing the +merits of the horses, or listening, as to an oracle, to the opinion of +some Oxford horse-dealer, delivered with insolent familiarity--here were +the men who drunk out of a fox's head, and recounted imaginary runs with +the Heythrop. Happy was he amongst them, and a positive hero for the +day, who could boast a speaking acquaintance with any of those anomalous +individuals, at present enshrouded in great-coats, but soon to appear in +all the varieties of jockey costume, known by the style and title of +"gentlemen riders;" who could point out, confidentially, to his admiring +companions, "Jack B----," and "Little M----," and announce, from +authority, how many ounces under weight one was this morning, and how +many blankets were put upon the other the night before, to enable him to +come to the scales at all. Here and there, more plainly dressed, moving +about quickly on their own thorough-breds, or talking to some +neighbouring squire who knew the ground, were the few really +sporting-men belonging to the university; who kept hunters in Oxford, +simply because they were used to keep them at home, and had been brought +up to look upon fox-hunting as their future vocation. Lolling on their +saddles, probably voting it all a bore, were two or three tufts, and +their "tail;" and stuck into all sorts of vehicles, lawful and unlawful, +buggies, drags, and tandems, were that ignoble herd, who, like myself, +had come to the steeple-chase, just because it was the most convenient +idleness at hand, and because other men were going. There were all sorts +of people there besides, of course: carriages of all grades of +pretension, containing pretty bonnets and ugly faces, in the usual +proportion; "all the beauty and fashion of the neighbourhood," +nevertheless, as the county paper assured us; and as I may venture to +add, from personal observation, a very fair share of its +disrespectability and blackguardism besides. + +After wandering for a short time among these various groups, Leicester +halted us at last in front of one of those old-fashioned +respectable-looking barouches, which one now so seldom sees, in which +were seated a party, who turned out to consist of an uncle and aunt, and +the pair of cousins before alluded to. Hurst and I were duly introduced; +a ceremony which, for my own part, I could have very readily excused, +when I discovered that the only pair of eyes in the party worth +mentioning bestowed their glances almost exclusively on Horace, and any +attempt at cutting into the conversation in that quarter was as +hopeless, apparently, as ungracious. Our friend's taste in the article +of cousins was undeniably correct; Flora Leicester was a most desirable +person to have for a cousin; very pretty, very good-humoured, and (I am +sure she was, though I pretend to no experience of the fact) very +affectionate. If one could have put in any claim of kindred, even in the +third or fourth degree, it would have been a case in which to stickle +hard for the full privileges of relationship. As matters stood, it was +trying to the sensibilities of us unfortunate bystanders, whose cousins +were either ugly or at a distance; for the rest of our new acquaintances +were not interesting. The younger sister was shy and insipid; the squire +like ninety-nine squires in every hundred; and the lady-mother in a +perpetual state of real or affected nervous agitation, to which her own +family were happily insensible, but which taxed a stranger's polite +sympathies pretty heavily. Though constantly in the habit, as she +assured me, of accompanying her husband to run courses, and enjoying the +sport, she was always on the look-out for an accident, and was always +having, as she said, narrow escapes; some indeed so very narrow, that, +according to her own account, they ought _to have had, by every rule of +probability, fatal terminations_. In fact, her tone might have led one +to believe that she looked upon herself as an ill-used woman, in getting +off so easily--at least she was exceedingly angry when the younger +daughter ventured to remark, _en pendant_ to one of her most thrilling +adventures, that "there was no great danger of an upset when the wheel +stuck fast." Not content with putting her head out of the carriage every +five minutes, to see if her own well-trained bays were standing quiet, +as they always did, there was not a restive horse or awkward rider on +the ground but attracted the good lady's ever watchful sense of danger. +"He'll be thrown! I'm sure he will! foolish man, why don't he get off!" +"Oh, oh! there they go! they're off, those horrid horses! they'll never +stop 'em!" Such were the interjections, accompanied with extraordinary +shudderings and drawings of the breath, with which Mrs John Leicester, +her eyes fixed on some distant point, occasionally broke in upon the +general conversation, sometimes with a vehemence that startled even her +nephew and eldest daughter, though, to do them justice, they paid very +little attention to any of us. + +Just as I was meditating something desperate, in order to relieve myself +from the office of soother-general of Mrs Leicester's imaginary terrors, +and to bring Flora's sunny face once more within my line of vision, (she +had been turning the back of her bonnet upon me perseveringly for the +last ten minutes,) a general commotion gave us notice that the horses +were started, and the race begun. The hill on which we were stationed +was close to the winning-post, and commanded a view of pretty nearly the +whole ground from the start. The race, as, I suppose, pretty nearly like +other steeple-chases, and there is the less need for me to describe it, +because a very full and particular account appeared in the _Bell's Life_ +next ensuing. The principal impressions which remain on my mind, are of +a very smart gentleman in black and crimson, mounted on a very powerful +bay, who seemed as if he had been taking it easy, who came in first, and +after having been sufficiently admired by an innocent public, myself +among the number, as the winner, turned out to have gone on the right +hand instead of the left, of some flag or other, and to have lost the +race accordingly; and of a very dirty-looking person, who arrived some +minute or two afterwards without a cap, whose jacket was green and his +horse grey, so far as the mud left any colour visible, and who, to the +great disappointment, of the ladies especially, turned out to be the +real hero after all. + +We had made arrangements to have an independent beefsteak together after +the race, in preference to joining the sporting ordinary announced as +usual on such occasions; but the squire insisted on Leicester bringing +us both to dine with his party at five. After a few modest and +conscientious scruples on my part, at intruding on the hospitality of +comparative strangers, and a strong private remonstrance from Hurst, on +the impropriety of sitting down to dinner with ladies in a surtout and +white cords, we accepted the invitation, and betook ourselves to kill +the intervening hour or so as we best could. + +"Well, Horace," said I, as Hurst went off to make his apology for a +toilet--"how are you going to settle about the driving home?" + +"Oh! never fear; I'll manage it: I have just seen Miller and Fane; +they've got a drag over here, and there's lots of room inside; so +they've promised to take Hurst home with them, if we can only manage to +leave him behind: they are going to dine here, and are sure not to go +home till late; and we must be off early, you know, because I have some +men coming to supper; so we'll leave our friend behind, somehow or +other. A painful necessity, I admit; but it must be done, even if I have +to lock him up in the stable." + +Leicester seemed to have more confidence in his own resources than I +had; but he was in too great a state of excitement to listen to any +demurrers of mine on the point, and hurried us off to join his friends. +Ushered into the drawing-room A. 1. of the Saracen's Head, we found _la +bella_ Flora awaiting us alone, the rest of the family being not as yet +visible. There was not the slightest necessity for enquiring whether she +felt fatigued, for she was looking even more lovely than in the morning; +or whether she had been amused or not, for if the steeple-chase had not +delighted her, something else had, for there was a radiant smile on her +face which could not be mistaken. Hurst was cut short rather abruptly in +a speech which appeared tending towards a compliment, by Leicester's +enquiring--"My good fellow, have you seen the horses fed?" + +"No, upon my word," said Hurst, "I"---- + +"Well, I have then; but I wish you would just step across the yard, and +see if that stupid ostler has rubbed them dry, as I told him. You +understand those things, I know, Hurst--the fellows won't humbug you +very easily; as to Hawthorne, I wouldn't trust him to see to any thing +of the sort. Flora here knows more about a horse than he does." + +Any compliment to Hurst's acuteness in the matter of horse-flesh was +sure to have its effect, and he walked off with an air of some +importance to discharge his commission. + +"Now then," said Horace eagerly, "we have got rid of him for ten +minutes, which was all I wanted; if you please, Flora dear, we must have +your cleverness to help us in a little difficulty." + +"Indeed!" said Miss Leicester, colouring a little, as her cousin, in his +eagerness, seized her hand in both of his--"what scrape have you got +into now, Horace, and how can I possibly help you?" + +"Oh, I want you to hit upon some plan for keeping that fellow Hurst here +after we are gone." + +"Upon my word!" + +"Stay; you don't know what I mean. I'll tell you why--if he drives home +to Oxford, he'll infallibly upset us; and drive he must if he goes home +with us, because, in fact, the team is his, and I drove them all the way +here." + +"Then why, in the multitude of absurdities (which you Oxonians +perpetrate)--I beg your pardon, Mr Hawthorne--but why need you have come +out in a tandem at all, with a man who can't drive?" + +"Simply, Flora, because I had no other way of coming at all." + +"It was very absurd in us, Miss Leicester, I allow," said I, "but you +know what an attraction a steeple chase is, to your cousin especially; +and after having made up his mind to come--altogether, you see, it would +have been a disappointment"--(to all parties, I had a mind to add, but I +thought the balance was on my side without it.) + +"After all," said Horace, "I shouldn't care a straw to run the chance, +as far as I am concerned. I dare say the horses will go home straight +enough, if he'll only let them: or if he wouldn't, I shouldn't mind +knocking him off the box at once--by accident; but Frank here is rather +particular, and I promised him I would not let Hurst drive. I thought +once, if we had dined by ourselves, of persuading him he was drunk, and +sending him home in a fly; but I am afraid, as matters stand, that plea +is hardly practicable." + +"Could I persuade him to let you or Mr Hawthorne drive, do you think?" + +Horace looked at her as if he thought, as I dare say he did, that his +cousin Flora could, if she were so minded, persuade a man to do any +thing; so I was compelled, somewhat at the expense of my reputation for +gallantry, to assure them both, that if Ulysses of old, among his +various arts and accomplishments, had piqued himself upon his +tandem-driving, his vanity would have stopped his ears effectually, and +the Syren might have sung herself hoarse before he would have given up +the reins. + +"I'll give the boots half-a-crown to steal his hat," said Horace, "and +start while he is looking for it." + +"Stay," said his cousin; "I dare say it may be managed." But I thought +she looked disappointed. "Did you know we were all going to the +B----theatre to-night?" + +"No! really! what fun?" + +"No fun for you; for you must start early, as you said just now. The +owners of the horses here patronise a play, and they have made papa +promise to go, and so we must, I suppose, and"---- + +"Oh! we'll all go, of course," said Horace, decidedly.--"You'll stay and +go, won't you, Hawthorne?" + +"You forget your supper party," said I. + +"Oh! hang it, they'll take care of themselves, so long as the supper's +there; they wont miss me much." + +"Didn't I hear something of your being confined to college after nine?" + +"Ah, yes; I believe I am--but it won't matter much for once; I'll call +on the dean to-morrow, and explain." + +"No, no, Horace, that won't do; you and Mr Hawthorne must go home like +good boys," said Flora, with a smile only half as merry as usual, "and +Mary and I will persuade Mr Hurst to stay and go to the theatre with +us." + +"Oh! confound it!"--Horace began. + +"Hush! here comes papa; remember this is my arrangement; you ought to be +very much obliged, instead of beginning to swear in that way; I'm sure +Mr Hawthorne is very grateful to me for taking so much interest in the +question of his breaking his neck, if you are not. Oh! papa," she +continued, "do you know that we shall lose all our beaux to-night; they +have some horrid supper party to go back to, and we shall have to go to +the play ourselves!" + +Most of the Squire's sympathies were at this moment absorbed in the fact +that dinner was already four minutes late, so that he had less to spare +for his daughter's disappointment than Mrs Leicester, who on her arrival +took up the lamentation with all her heart. She attacked her nephew at +once upon the subject, whose replies were at first wavering and +evasive, till he caught Flora's eye, and then he answered with a dogged +sort of resolution, exceedingly amusing to me who understood his +position, and at last got quite cross with his aunt for persisting in +her entreaties. I declared, for my part, that I was dependent on +Horace's movements; that, if I could possibly have anticipated the +delightful evening which had been arranged for us, every other +arrangement should have given way, &c. &c.; when Hurst's reappearance +turned the whole force of Mrs Leicester's persuasions upon him, backed, +too, as she was by both her daughters. "Won't _you_ stay, Mr Hurst? Must +you go too? Will you be so shabby as to leave us?" How could any man +stand it? William Wellington Hurst could not, it was very plain. At +first he looked astonished; wondered why on earth we couldn't all stay; +then protested he couldn't think of letting us go home by ourselves; a +piece of self-devotion which we at once desired might not be thought of; +then hesitated--he was meditating, no doubt, on the delight of +driving--how was he to get home? the inglorious occupant of the inside +of a drag; or the solitary tenant of a fly, (though I suggested he might +drive that if he pleased;) Couldn't Leicester go home, and I and he +follow together? I put in a decided negative; he looked from Mrs +Leicester's anxious face to Flora's, and surrendered at discretion. We +were to start at eight precisely in the tandem, and Miller and his +party, who were sure to wait for the fly, were to pick up Mr Wellington +Hurst as a supernumerary passenger at some hour unknown. And so we went +to dinner. Mrs Leicester marched off in triumph with her new capture, as +if fearful he might give her the slip after all, and committed Flora to +my custody. I was charitable enough, however, in consideration of all +circumstances, to give up my right of sitting next to her to Horace, and +established myself on the other side of the table, between Mrs Leicester +and her younger daughter; and a hard post I had of it. Mary would not +talk at all, and her mamma would do nothing else; and she was one of +those pertinacious talkers, too, who, not content with running on +themselves, and leaving you to put in an occasional interjection, +inflict upon you a cross-examination in its severest form, and insist +upon a definite and rational answer to every question. However, availing +myself of those legitimate qualifications of a witness, an unlimited +amount of impudence, and a determination not to criminate myself, I got +on pretty tolerably. Who did I think her daughter Flora like? I took the +opportunity of diligently examining that young lady's features for about +four minutes--not in the least to her confusion, for she scarcely +honoured me with a glance the whole time--and then declared the +resemblance to mamma quite startling. Mary? Oh, her father's eyes +decidedly; upon which the squire, whose pet she appeared to be--I +suppose it was the contrast between her quietness and Mrs Leicester's +incessant fidgeting that was so delightful--laughed, and took wine with +me. Then she took up the subject of my private tastes and habits. Was I +fond of riding? Yes. Driving? Pretty well. Reading? Very. Then she +considerately hoped that I did not read much by candle-light--above all +by an oil-lamp--it was very injurious. I assured her that I would be +cautious for the future. Then she offered me a receipt for eye-water, in +case I suffered from weakness arising from over-exertion of those +organs--declined, with thanks. Hoped I did not read above twelve hours +a-day: some young men, she had heard, read sixteen, which she considered +as really inconsistent with a due regard to health. I assured her that +our sentiments on that point perfectly coincided, and that I had no +tendency to excesses of that kind. At last she began to institute +inquiries about certain under-graduates with whose families she was +acquainted; and the two or three names which I recognised being hunting +men, I referred her to Hurst as quite _au fait_ in the sporting circles +of Oxford, and succeeded in hooking them into a conversation which +effectually relieved me. + +Leicester, as I could overhear, had been still rather rebellious against +going home before the play was over, and was insisting that his being in +college by nine was not really material; nor did he appear over-pleased, +when, in answer to an appeal from Flora, I said plainly, that the +consequences of his "knocking in" late, when under sentence of strict +confinement to the regular hour, might not be pleasant--a fact, however, +which he himself, though with a very bad grace, was compelled to admit. + +At last the time arrived for our party to separate: Horace and I to +return to Oxford, and the others to adjourn to see _Richard the Third_ +performed at the B---- theatre, under the distinguished patronage of the +members of the H---- Hunt. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and as +Hurst accompanied us to the stable-yard to "start us," as he +complacently phrased it, it was clear that he was suffering, like a +great many unfortunate individuals in public and private life, under an +overweening sense of his own importance. "You'll have an uncommon +pleasant drive of it; upon my word you will," he remarked; "it wouldn't +do for me to say I would not stay, you know, as Miss Leicester--Mrs +Leicester, that is--seemed to make such a point of it; but really"---- + +"Oh, come, Hurst," said I, "don't pretend to say you've made any +sacrifice in the matter, I know you are quite delighted; I'm sure I +should have liked to stay of all things, only it would have been uncivil +to our friend here to send him home by himself from his own party." + +"Oh! hang it, I don't mean to call it a sacrifice; I have no doubt I +shall have a very pleasant evening; only I wish we could all have +stayed, and driven home together afterwards." + +"You may keep Hawthorne with you now, if you like," said Horace, who was +not in the best of tempers; "I can take the horses home myself." + +"No, no, that would be hardly fair," said I. + +"Oh! no--off with you both," said Hurst; "stay, Leicester, you'll find +the grey go more pleasantly if you drive him from the cheek; I'll alter +it in a second." + +"Have the goodness just to let them alone, my good fellow; as I'm to +drive, I prefer putting them my own way, if you have no objection." + +"Well, as you please; good-night." + +"Miller's coming to my rooms when he gets home; if you like to look in +with him, you'll find some supper, I dare say." + +Horace continued rather sulky for the first few miles, and only opened +to anathematize, briefly but comprehensively, steeple-chases, tandems, +deans and tutors, and "fellows like Hurst." I thought it best to let him +cool down a little; so, after this ebullition, we rattled on in silence +as long as his first cigar lasted. + +"Come," said I, as I gave him a light, "we got rid of our friend's +company pretty cleverly, thanks to your cousin." + +"Ay, I told you I'd take care of that; ha! ha! poor Hurst! he little +bargained, when he ordered his team, how precious little driving he was +to get out of it; a strong instance of the vanity of human expectations. +I wish him joy of it, stuck up in an old barn, as I suppose he is by +this time, gaping at a set of strolling players; how Flora will laugh at +him! I really shouldn't wonder if she were to tell him, before the +evening is over, how nicely he has been humbugged, just for the fun of +it!" + +"At all events," said I, "I think we must have a laugh at him to-night +when he comes home; though he's such a good-tempered fellow, it's rather +a shame, too." + +It was very plain, however, that it was not quite such a good joke to +Master Horace himself as he was trying to make out; and that, in point +of fact, he would have considerably preferred being seated, as Hurst +probably was at that moment, by his pretty cousin's side in the B---- +theatre, wherever and whatever that might chance to be, (even with the +full expectation of being laughed at afterwards,) to holding the reins +of the best team that ever was turned out of Oxford. + +We reached Oxford just in time to hear the first stroke of "Old Tom." By +the time I joined Leicester in his rooms, supper was ready, and most of +the party assembled. The sport of the day was duly discussed; those who +knew least about such matters being proportionately the most noisy and +positive in giving their opinions. One young hero of eighteen, fresh +from Winchester, in all the importance of a probationary Fellow, +explained for our benefit, by the help of the forks and salt-cellars, +the line which the horses undoubtedly ought to have taken, and which +they did not take; until one of his old schoolfellows, who was present, +was provoked to treat us to an anecdote of the young gentleman's first +appearance in the hunting-field--no longer ago than the last term--when +he mistook the little rough Scotch terrier that always accompanied +----'s pack for the fox, and tally-ho'd him so lustily as to draw upon +himself sundry very energetic, but not very complimentary, remarks from +the well-known master of the hounds. By degrees Leicester recovered his +usual good-humour; and supper passed over, and several songs had been +sung with the usual amount of applause, (except one very sentimental one +which had no chorus,) and we had got pretty deep into punch and +politics, without Hurst's name having once been mentioned by either of +us. A knock at the oak, and in walked Fane. + +"So you're come back at last?" said Horace. "Sit down, if you can find +room. Allow me to introduce your left-hand neighbour--Powell of Merton, +Fane, one of our brightest ornaments; quite the _spes gregis_ we +consider him; passed his little-go, and started a pink only last week; +give him a glass of punch. Perhaps you are not aware we've been drinking +your health. But, by the way, Fane, where's our friend Wellington?" + +"Who?" said Fane; "what on earth are you talking about?" + +"Wellington Hurst; didn't you bring him home with you?" + +"Certainly not; didn't _you_ bring him home?" + +"No; Miller promised me he should have a seat inside your drag, because +we could not wait for him; did you stay to the play?" + +"Yes, and capital fun it was; by the way, the last time I saw your +friend Hurst was mounted up in a red baise place that was railed off for +the patrons and patronesses, as they called them; there he was in the +front row, doing the civil to a very odd-looking old dowager in bright +blue velvet, with a neck like an ostrich." + +"Thank you," said Leicester, "that's my aunt." + +"Well, on that ground, we'll drink her health," said Fane, whose +coolness was proverbial. "There was Hurst, however, sitting between her +and an uncommonly pretty girl, with dark hair and eyes, dressed in--let +me see"-- + +"Never mind; it was one of my cousins, I suppose," interposed Horace, +who was engaged in lighting a cigar at the candle, apparently with more +zeal than success. + +"Well, we'll drink _her_ health for her own sake, if you have no +particular objection. I've no doubt the rest of the company will take my +word for her being the prettiest girl on the ground to-day; Hurst would +second me if he were here, for I never saw a man making love more +decidedly in my life." + +"Stuff!" said Horace, pitching his cigar into the fire; "pass that +punch." + +"What jealous, Leicester?" said two or three of the party--"preserved +ground, eh?" + +"Not at all, not at all," said Horace, trying with a very bad grace to +laugh off his evident annoyance; "at all events, I don't consider Hurst +a very formidable poacher; but what I want to know is, how he didn't +come home with Miller and your party?" + +"Miller said he was coming up directly, so you can ask him; I really +heard nothing of it. Hark, there are steps coming up the staircase now." + +It proved to be Miller himself, followed by the under-porter, a +good-tempered fellow, who was the factotum of the under-graduates at +late hours, when the ordinary staff of servants had left college for the +night. + +"How are you, Leicester?" said he, as he walked straight to the little +pantry, or "scouts' room," immediately opposite the door, which forms +part of the usual suite of college apartments; "come here, Bob." + +"Where's Hurst?" was Horace's impatient query. + +"Wait a bit," replied Miller from inside, where he was rattling the +plates in the course of investigating the remains of the supper--he was +not the man to go to bed supperless after a twelve miles' drive. "Here, +Bob," he continued, as he emerged at last with a cold fowl--"take this +fellow down with you, and grill him in no time; here's a lump of +butter--and Harvey's sauce--and--where do you keep the pickled +mushrooms, Leicester? here they are--make a little gravy; and here, +Bob--it's a cold night--here's a glass of wine; now you'll drink Mr +Leicester's health, and vanish." + +Bob drank the toast audibly, floored his tumbler of port at two gulps, +and departed. + +"Now," said Horace, "do just tell me--what _is_ become of Hurst? how +didn't you bring him home?" + +"Confound it!" said Miller, as he looked into all the jugs--"no whiskey +punch?" + +"Oh, really I forgot it; here's bishop, and that brandy punch is very +good. But how didn't he come home with you?" + +"Forgot it!" soliloquized Miller pathetically. + +"Forgot it? how the deuce came you to forget it? and how will he come +now?" rejoined Horace. + +"How came _you_ to forget it? I was talking about the whiskey punch," +said Miller, as we all roared with laughter. "I couldn't bring Hurst, +you know, if he wouldn't come. He left the playhouse even before we did, +with some ladies--and we came away before it was over--so I sent up to +tell him we were going to start in ten minutes, and had a place for him; +and the Boots came down and said they had just had supper in, and the +gentleman could not possibly come just yet. Well, I sent up again, just +as we were ready harnessed, and then he threatened to kick Boots down +stairs." + +"What a puppy!" said Horace. + +"I don't quite agree with you there: I don't pretend to much sentiment +myself, as you are all aware; but with a lady _and_ a supper in the +case, I should feel perfectly justified in kicking down stairs any Boots +that ever wore shoes, if he hinted at my moving prematurely." + +Miller's unusual enthusiasm amused us all except Horace. "Gad," said he, +at last, "I hope he won't be able to get home to-night at all!" In this +friendly wish he was doomed to be disappointed. It was now verging +towards twelve o'clock; the out-college members of the party had all +taken their leave; Miller and Fane, having finished their grilled +chicken at a little table in the corner, had now drawn round the fire +with the three or four of us who remained, and there was a debate as to +the expediency of brewing more punch, when we heard a running step in +the Quadrangle, which presently began to ascend the staircase in company +with a not very melodious voice, warbling in a style which bespoke the +owner's high state of satisfaction. + +"Hush! That's Hurst to a certainty!" + + "Queen of my soul, whose starlike eyes + Are all the light I seek"-- + +(Here came an audible stumble, as if our friend were beginning his way +down again involuntarily by half-a-dozen steps at a time.) "Hallo! +Leicester! just lend us a candle, will you? The lamp is gone out, and +it's as dark as pitch; I've dropped my hat." + +"Open the door, somebody," said Horace; and Hurst was admitted He looked +rather confused at first, certainly; for the sudden transition from +outer darkness into a small room lighted by a dozen wax-candles made him +blink, and our first greeting consisting of "ha-ha's" in different keys, +was perhaps somewhat embarrassing; but he recovered himself in a second. + +"Well," said he, "how are you all? glad you got home safe, Hawthorne; +hope I didn't keep you waiting, Miller; you got the start of me, all of +you, coming home; but really I spent an uncommon jolly evening." + +"Glad to hear it," said Leicester, with a wink to us. + +"Yes;--'pon my life; I don't know when I ever spent so pleasant a one;" +and, with a sort of chuckle to himself, Hurst filled a glass of punch. + +"What did you think of _Richard the Third_?" said I. + +"Oh! hang the play! there might have been six Richards in the field for +all I can say: I was better engaged." + +"Ay," said Fane, "I rather fancy you were." + +"We had a very pleasant drive home," said I, willing to effect a +diversion in favour of Leicester, who was puffing desperately at his +cigar in a savage kind of silence;--"and a capital supper afterwards; I +wish you had been with us." + +"And I had a very jolly drive too: I got a gig, and galloped nearly all +the way; and a very good supper, too, before I started; but I won't +return your compliment; we were a very snug party without you. Upon my +word, Leicester, your eldest cousin is one of the very nicest girls I +ever met: the sort of person you get acquainted with at once, and so +very lively and good-humoured--no nonsense about her." + +"I'll make a point of letting her know your good opinion," replied +Horace, in a tone conveying pretty plainly a rebuke of such presumption. +But it was lost upon Hurst. + +"Probably you need not trouble yourself," said Fane; "I dare say he has +let her know it himself already." + +"No--really no"--said Hurst, as if deprecating any thing so decided; +"but Miss Leicester _is_ a _very_ nice girl; clever, I should say, +decidedly; there's a shade of one can hardly call it rusticity--about +her manner; but I like it, myself--I like it." + +"Do you?"--said Horace, very drily. + +"Oh! a season in London would take all that off." And Hurst began to +quaver again-- + + "Queen of my soul, whose"-- + +"I'll tell you what," said Horace, rising, and standing with his back to +the fire, with his hands under his coat-tails--"You may not be aware of +it, but you're rather drunk, Hurst." + +"Drunk!" said Hurst; "no, that's quite a mistake; three glasses, I think +it was, of champagne at supper; and you men have sat here drinking punch +all the evening; if any body's drunk, it's not me." + +Hurst's usually modest demeanour was certainly so very much altered as +to justify, in some measure, Leicester's supposition; but I really +believe Flora Leicester's bright eyes had more to answer for in that +matter than the champagne, whether the said three glasses were more or +less. + +However, as Horace's temper was evidently not improving, Miller, Fane, +and myself wished him good-night, and Hurst came with us. We got him +into Fane's rooms and then extracted from him a full history of the +adventures of that delightful evening, to our infinite amusement, and +apparently to his own immense satisfaction. It was evident that Miss +Flora Leicester had made an impression, of which I do not give that +young lady credit for being in the least unconscious. + +The impression, however, like many others of its kind, soon wore off, I +fancy; for the next time I saw Mr Wellington Hurst, he had returned to +his usual frame of mind, and appeared quite modest and deferential; but +it will not perhaps surprise my readers any more than it did myself, +that Horace was never fond of referring to our drive to the +steeple-chase at B----, and did not appear to appreciate, as keenly as +before, the trick we had played Hurst in leaving him behind; while all +the after-reminiscences of the latter bore reference, whenever it was +possible, to his favourite date--"That day when you and I and Leicester +had that team to B---- together." + + + + +THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA. + +PART III. + + "Como un pobre condenado + Agui vivo entre cadenas, + A mi xabega amarrado, + Tendido en esta carena." + + _Cancion Andatuza._ + + +In one of the wildest and most secluded of the valleys formed by the +sierra of Urbasa and its contiguous ranges, stands a small cluster of +houses, differing in few respects from the nine or ten hundred villages +and hamlets scattered over the fertile vales and rugged hills of +Navarre, but of which, nevertheless, a brief description may not be +without interest. The village in question is composed of some five-score +houses, for the most part the habitations of peasants, who earn their +living by labour in the fields of the neighbouring proprietors, or, many +of them, by the cultivation of small portions of land belonging to +themselves. Nothing can be more uniform than the arrangement and +construction of Navarrese houses of this class, which are well adapted +to the wants and tastes of the race of men who inhabit them, and to the +extremes of heat and cold for which the climate of that part of Spain is +remarkable. The walls are generally of stone, of which the neighbouring +mountains yield an abundant supply; glass windows are rare, and replaced +by wooden shutters; the door, usually of oak, and of great solidity, is +hung in a low archway of granite blocks. The entrance is into a small +clay-floored room or vestibule, answering a variety of purposes. Here +are seen implements of agriculture--sometimes a plough, or the heavy +iron prongs with which the Basques and Navarrese are accustomed +laboriously to turn up the ground in places too steep for the use of +oxen; mules or ponies stand tethered here, waiting their turn of duty in +the fields, or on the road; and here sacks of vegetables and piles of +straw or maize-ears are temporarily deposited, till they can be placed +in the granary, usually in the upper part of the house. At the further +end, or on one side of this vestibule, a door opens into the stable or +cowshed, and on the other side is the kitchen, which the family +habitually occupy. An immense arched chimney projects far into the +last-named apartment, and under it is a stone hearth, slightly raised +above the tiled floor. Around, and upon this tiled hearth, during the +long winter evenings, the peasant and his family establish themselves; +the room is lighted by a glimmering oil-lamp, and, more effectually, by +the bright wood-fire, which crackles and sparkles as the rain-drops or +snow-flakes occasionally fall through the aperture of the chimney. The +men smoke and talk, and repose themselves after the fatigues of the day; +the women spin and attend to the pots of coarse red earth, in which +various preparations of pork, eggs, or salt-fish, with beans and +_garbanzos_, (a sort of large pea of excellent flavour,) the whole +plentifully seasoned with oil and red pepper, stew and simmer upon the +embers. Above stairs are the sleeping and store rooms, the divisions +between which often consist of slight walls of reeds, plastered over and +whitewashed. + +Besides the humble dwellings above described, many of these mountain +villages contain two or three houses of larger size and greater +pretension, belonging to hidalgos or country gentlemen, who own estates +in the neighbourhood. Independently of their superior dimensions, glass +in the windows, painted doors and shutters, and the arms of the family +carved in stone above the entrance, perhaps a few valuable pictures by +the old Spanish masters, decorating the walls of the apartments, +distinguish these more aristocratic mansions, which, although spacious, +and of dignified aspect, frequently afford little more real comfort +than the cottages above which they tower. + +It was early on an August morning, about a fortnight subsequently to the +rescue of Count Villabuena, that a man in an officer's uniform, and who, +to judge from the stripe of gold-lace on his coat cuff, held the rank of +major, knocked at the door of a house of the description last referred +to. The applicant for admission was about forty years of age, of middle +stature, broad-shouldered and powerful, and his countenance, the +features of which were regular, might have been called handsome but for +a peculiarly lowering and sullen expression. Apparently he had just come +off a journey; his boots and dress were covered with dust, his face was +unshaven, and he had the heated, jaded look of a man who has passed in +the saddle the hours usually allotted to repose. + +"Is Count Villabuena quartered here?" said he to the servant who opened +the door. + +"He is, Senor Comandante," replied the man. + +The stranger entered the house, and was ushered into a large apartment +on the first floor. He had waited there but a few minutes, when the door +of an adjoining chamber opened, and Count Villabuena, wrapped in a +morning-gown, and seemingly just out of bed, made his appearance. + +"Don Baltasar!" exclaimed the Count, in a tone of some surprise, on +beholding his early visitor. + +"As you see, cousin," replied the new-comer; "and glad enough, I assure +you, to be at the end of his ride, although the bearer of no very +welcome news." + +"Whence come you?" said the Count, "and what are the news you bring?" + +"From Pampeluna, or at least from as near to it as I could venture. The +news I bring are bad enough. Yesterday morning, at this hour, Juan +Orrio, and the four other officers who were taken in the skirmish near +Echauri, were shot to death on the glacis of Pampeluna." + +"Bad news indeed!" said the Count, starting, in visible perturbation, +from the chair on which he had seated himself. "Most unfortunate, just +at this time." + +"At this or at any other time it would hardly be welcome intelligence to +the general," observed Don Baltasar. "Orrio was one of the first who +joined him after he took command of the king's army, and he greatly +valued him both as a friend and an officer." + +"True," replied Villabuena; "but at this moment I have especial reasons +for regretting his death. Have you communicated it to Zumalacarregui?" + +"Not yet. I have been to his quarters; he rode out at daybreak, and has +not returned. My horse is dead beat, and as the direction the general +took is not exactly known, I think it better to wait his coming than to +follow him. Meanwhile, cousin, a cup of chocolate will be no unwelcome +refreshment after the night's march." + +Villabuena rang a hand-bell that lay upon the table, and gave his orders +to the servant who answered the summons. Some smoking chocolate and +other refreshments, and a small brazen cup containing embers for +lighting cigars, were brought in, and the Major applied himself +vigorously to the discussion of his breakfast. + +Major Baltasar de Villabuena, that distant relative of the Count to whom +reference has been already made as the intended husband of his daughter, +was a soldier of fortune who had entered the army at an early age, and +at the outbreak of the Carlist insurrection was captain in a regiment of +the line. He might have risen higher during his twenty years' service, +but for his dogged and unpleasant temper, which ever stood in the way of +his advancement. The death of the Count's sons, although it constituted +him heir to the Villabuena property, made but little real difference in +his prospects. The Count was only twelve or fifteen years older than +himself, and likely to live nearly as long. The cousins had not met for +many years, and had never been on intimate or even friendly terms; and +it was therefore with joyful surprise, that, a few days after the +commencement of the war, Don Baltasar received a letter from the Count, +expressing a wish to see and know more of the man who was to inherit his +title and estates. The letter informed him of what he already knew, that +the Count had espoused the cause of Charles V.; and it further urged him +to throw up his commission in the army of the usurping government, and +to hasten to join his kinsman, who would receive him with open arms. +Some vague hints concerning a nearer alliance between them, were more +than was wanting to raise Don Baltasar's hopes to the highest pitch, and +to induce him instantly to accept the Count's propositions. He at once +resigned his commission and joined the Carlists, by whom he was made +heartily welcome; for men of military experience were then scarce +amongst them. Don Baltasar was a bold and efficient officer, and the +opportunity was favourable for exhibiting his qualities. The Count was +at first much pleased with him; and soon afterwards, when the Carlists +were temporarily dispersed, and the insurrection was seemingly at an +end, Major Villabuena accompanied his cousin to France, and was +presented to Rita as her intended husband. But his unpolished manners +and brutal abruptness made a most unfavourable impression upon the lady, +who did not attempt to conceal her repugnance to her new suitor. The +Count himself, who, amidst the bustle and activity of the life he had +recently led, had overlooked or not discovered many of his kinsman's bad +qualities, was now not slow in finding them out; and although the +proposed marriage was of his own planning, he began almost to +congratulate himself on his prudence in having made the promise of his +daughter's hand contingent on her encouragement of her cousin's +addresses. That encouragement there appeared little probability of +Baltasar's obtaining. The gallant major, however, who entertained an +abundantly good opinion of his own merits, instead of attributing the +young lady's dislike to any faults or deficiencies of his own, laid it +at the door of her attachment to Herrera, of which he had heard +something from the Count; and he vowed to himself, that if ever he had +the opportunity, he would remove that obstacle from his path, and make +short work of it with the beardless boy who stood between him and the +accomplishment of his wishes. + +Whilst the Major satisfied the keen appetite which his night-ride had +given him, Count Villabuena restlessly paced the room, his features +wearing an expression of anxiety and annoyance. + +"You take this news much to heart, Count," said Baltasar. "I knew not +that Orrio or any other of the sufferers was your friend." + +"None of them were particularly my friends," replied the Count; "nor +does my regret for their fate exceed that which I should feel for any +other brave and unfortunate men who might lose their lives in the +service of his majesty. But their death at this precise conjuncture is +most unfortunate. You have heard me speak of Luis Herrera?" + +"Herrera!" repeated Baltasar, with affected unconcern; "is not that the +name of your former protege, the love-stricken swain who ventured to +aspire to the hand of your fair daughter?" + +"The same," replied the Count, gravely. + +"He is with the enemy," said Baltasar; "holds a commission in a cavalry +regiment now in our front. I trust to fall in with him some day, and to +exchange a sabre-cut in honour of the bright eyes of my charming +cousin." + +"He would find you employment if you did," replied the Count. "He is a +brave lad and a skilful soldier. But at present there is small chance of +your meeting him, at least with a sword in his hand. He was taken +prisoner a few days ago, and is now in this village." + +"Ha!" exclaimed Baltasar, his dark deep-set eyes emitting a gleam of +satisfaction. "And what does Zumalacarregui propose to do with him?" + +"Up to yesterday, I trusted to procure his release. The general seemed +half inclined to grant it, as well as that of the other captive +officers, if they would take an oath not to bear arms against the king. +A few of them had agreed to give the required pledge; and although the +others, including Herrera, obstinately refused, I was not without hopes +of overcoming their repugnance. But last evening news came of the +excesses that Rodil's division has been committing in Biscay, burning +houses, ill-treating the peasantry, and refusing quarter to prisoners. +This greatly exasperated the general, and he talked of recommencing the +system of reprisals, which, since the removal of Quesada from the +command of the Christino forces, has been in some degree abandoned." + +"You are particularly interested, then, in the fate of this Herrera?" +said Baltasar, with a searching glance at the Count. + +"I am so for various reasons. His father and myself, although of +different political creeds, were old friends; the son was long an inmate +of my house, and I at one time thought of him as my future son-in-law. +If he has taken up arms against his rightful sovereign, it is from a +mistaken sense of duty, and not, as many have done, with a view to +personal gain and advantage. Moreover, during my recent short captivity, +of which you have probably heard, he twice saved my life; once at great +risk and with positive detriment to himself." + +"Numerous and sufficing motives," said Baltasar, with a slight sneer. + +"Undoubtedly they are," replied the Count; "and you now see why I regret +your arrival and the intelligence you bring. The general's indignation +at the slaughter of Orrio and his companions will place the lives of +Herrera and the other prisoners in great jeopardy." + +"I am sorry," said Baltasar, in a tone which belied his professed +concern, "that my arrival should interfere with your plans, and endanger +the life of your friend." + +"I can scarcely believe in your regrets, cousin," replied the Count, "or +that you will grieve for the death of one whom you regard as rival. But +again I tell you that Herrera can never be the husband of my daughter; +and although you have the impression that he is now one of the chief +obstacles to your success with Rita, time cannot fail to obliterate her +childish attachment. Be sure that you will do more towards winning her +favour by acting generously in the present circumstances, than if you +were to take this opportunity of compassing Herrera's death." + +"I do not understand you, Count," said Baltasar. "You talk as if the +young man's life or death were in my hands. I bring intelligence which +it is my duty to convey to the general as speedily as possible, and I am +no way responsible for the consequences. I cannot believe that you would +have me forget my duty, and suppress news of this importance." + +"Certainly not," answered the Count; "but much depends on the way in +which such things are told. Moreover, the general talked yesterday of +calling a council of war, to deliberate and decide on the fate of these +prisoners. Should he do so, you will be a member of it; and if you wish +to serve me, you will give your vote on the side of mercy." + +What reply Don Baltasar would have made to this request, must remain +unknown; for, before he had time to speak, the conversation was +interrupted by a knock at the door of the apartment, and one of +Zumalacarregui's aides-de-camp entered the room. + +"The general has returned from his ride, Major Villabuena," said the +officer; "he has heard of your arrival, and is impatient to see you." + +"I am ready to accompany you to him," said Baltasar, by no means sorry +to break off his dialogue with the Count. + +"General Zumalacarregui also requests your presence, Senor Conde," said +the aide-de-camp. + +"I will shortly wait upon him," replied Villabuena. + +The two officers left the house, and the Count re-entered his sleeping +apartment to complete his toilet. + +On reaching Zumalacarregui's quarters, Major Villabuena found the +Carlist chief seated at a table, upon which were writing-materials, two +or three maps, and some open letters. Several aides-de-camp, superior +officers, and influential partisans of Don Carlos, stood near him, +walked up and down the room, or lounged at the windows that looked out +upon the winding, irregular street of the village. In the court-yard of +the house, a picket of lancers sat or stood near their horses, which +were saddled and bridled, and ready to turn out at a moment's notice; a +sentry paced up and down in front of the door, and on the highest points +of some hills which rose behind the village, videttes were seen +stationed. Although there were more than a dozen persons assembled in +the apartment, scarcely a word was uttered; or if a remark was +interchanged, it was in a low whisper. Zumalacarregui himself sat silent +and thoughtful, his brow knit, his eyes fixed upon the papers before +him. The substance of the intelligence brought by Don Baltasar had +already reached him through some officers, to whom the Major had +communicated it on his first arrival at the general's quarters; and +Zumalacarregui waited in a state of painful anxiety to hear its +confirmation and further details. He foresaw that extreme measures would +be necessary to put an end to the system adopted by the Christinos, of +treating the prisoners they made as rebels and malefactors, instead of +granting them the quarter and fair usage commonly enjoyed by prisoners +of war; but although Zumalacarregui had been compelled, by the +necessities of his position, to many acts of severity and apparent +cruelty, his nature was in reality humane, and the shedding of human +blood abhorrent to him. It was, therefore, with some difficulty that he +resolved upon a course, the adoption of which he felt to be +indispensable to the advancement of the cause he defended. + +Don Baltasar made his report. Two days previously, he said, whilst +reconnoitring with a handful of men in the neighbourhood of Pampeluna, +and observing the movements of the garrison, he was informed that an +execution of Carlist prisoners was to take place in that city on the +following morning. He sent a peasant to ascertain the truth of this +rumour. By some accident the man was detained all night in the fortress, +and in the morning he had the opportunity of witnessing the death of +Captain Orrio and four other officers, who were shot upon the glacis, in +presence of the assembled garrison. This was the substance of the +Major's report, to which Zumalacarregui listened with the fixed and +profound attention that he was accustomed to give to all who addressed +him. But not contented with relating the bare facts of the case, Don +Baltasar, either unmindful of his cousin's wishes, or desirous, for +reasons of his own, to produce an effect as unfavourable as possible to +the Christino prisoners, did all he could to place the cruelties +exercised on the unfortunate Carlists in the strongest possible light. + +"Your Excellency will doubtless grieve for the loss of these brave and +devoted officers," said he, as he concluded his report; "but to them +their death was a boon and a release. The information brought by our +spies concerning the cruelty with which they were treated, exceeds +belief. Crowded into loathsome dungeons, deprived of the commonest +necessaries of life, fed on mouldy bread and putrid water, and +overwhelmed with blows if they ventured to expostulate--such were the +tender mercies shown by the agents of Christina to the unhappy Orrio and +his gallant companions. Although their imprisonment was but of three +weeks' duration, I am informed that they were so weakened and emaciated +as scarcely to be able to walk to the place of execution, which they +reached amidst the jeers and insults of their escort." + +There was a movement of horror and indignation amongst the listeners. + +"The savages!" muttered Zumalacarregui. "And how did they meet their +death?" + +"Like heroes. Their last look was a defiance to their enemies, their +last words a _viva_ for the king. It is said that the Christinos offered +them their lives if they would renounce Charles V. and take up arms for +Isabel, but to a man they refused the offer." + +"Truly," said Zumalacarregui, "the cause must be good and righteous that +finds such noble defenders. Have you heard aught of the prisoners at +Tafalla, Major Villabuena?" + +"They are still detained there," said the Major, "but it is said that +orders for their execution are daily expected." + +"By whom is it said, or is it merely a supposition of your own?" said a +voice behind Don Baltasar. + +The Major turned, and met the stern gaze of the Count, who had entered +the room unobserved by him. Baltasar looked confused, and faltered in +his reply. He had heard it--it was generally believed, he said. + +"Such reports are easily circulated, or invented by those who find an +interest in their fabrication," said the Count. "I trust that General +Zumalacarregui will not place implicit faith in them, or allow them to +influence his decision with regard to the unfortunate Christino +officers." + +"Certainly not," returned Zumalacarregui; "but the undoubted facts that +have yesterday and to-day come to my knowledge, render any additional +atrocity on the part of our enemies unnecessary. The volley that they +fired yesterday on the glacis of Pampeluna, was the death-knell of their +own friends. Count Villabuena, the prisoners must die." + +A hum of approbation ran through the assembly. + +"With such opponents as ours," said Zumalacarregui, "humanity becomes +weakness. Captain Solano, let the prisoners be placed in capilla, and +order a firing-party for to-morrow noon." + +The officer addressed left the room to fulfil the commands he had +received; and Zumalacarregui, as if desirous to get rid of a painful +subject, called Count Villabuena and some of his officers around him, +and began discussing with them a proposed plan of operations against the +division of one of the generals whom Rodil had left to follow up the +Carlist chief during his own absence in Biscay. + +In the apartment in which the interview between the Conde de Villabuena +and his cousin had taken place, and within a few hours after the scene +in Zumalacarregui's quarters, the Count was seated alone, revolving in +his mind various schemes for the rescue of Luis Herrera from his +imminent peril. To rescue him, even at risk or sacrifice to himself, the +Count was fully resolved; but the difficulty was, to devise a plan +offering a reasonable chance of success. An appeal to Zumalacarregui +would, he well knew, be worse than useless. The general had decided on +the death of the prisoners from a conviction of its justice and utility; +and, had his own brother been amongst them, no exception would have been +made in his favour. The Count, therefore, found reason to rejoice at +having said nothing to Zumalacarregui of the interest he felt in Herrera +personally, and at having based his intercession in behalf of the +prisoners on the general ground of humanity. A contrary course would +greatly have increased the danger of the plans he was now forming. Since +there was no hope of obtaining Herrera's pardon, he was determined to +accomplish his escape. How to do this was a difficulty, out of which he +did not yet clearly see his way. The village was small, and crowded with +Carlist soldiers; the prisoners were strictly guarded; and even should +he succeed in setting Herrera at liberty, it would be no easy matter to +get him conveyed in safety to any post or garrison of the Christinos, +the nearest of which was several leagues distant, whilst the road to it +lay through a wild and difficult country, entirely unknown to Luis, and +containing a population devoted to Don Carlos. + +It was three in the afternoon. Count Villabuena leaned over the balcony +of his apartment, and gazed musingly into the street of the little +village. The scene that offered itself to him was one that at any other +moment might have fixed his attention, although he was now too much +pre-occupied to notice its picturesque details. The rays of the August +sun fell in a broad flood of light upon the scattered houses of the +hamlet, making the flint and granite of their walls to glitter again; +the glare being only here and there relieved by a scanty patch of +shadow, thrown by some projecting wall, or by the thick foliage of a +tree. The presence of the Carlist troops caused an unusual degree of +bustle and animation in the village. Many of the houses had for the time +been converted into shops and taverns; in the former, tobacco, fruit, +sardines, and other soldier's luxuries, were exposed for sale on a +board in front of the window; whilst in the latter, huge pig-skins, of +black and greasy exterior, poured forth a dark stream of wine, having at +least as much flavour of the tar with which the interior of its leathern +receptacle was besmeared, as of the grape from which the generous liquid +had been originally pressed. Through the open windows of various houses, +glimpses were to be caught of the blue caps, strongly marked +countenances, and fierce mustaches of the Carlist soldiers; their +strangely-sounding Basque oaths and ejaculations mingling with the clack +of the castanets and monotonous thrum of the tambourine, as they +followed the sunburnt peasant girls through the mazes of the Zorcico, +and other national dances. Hanging over the window-sills, or suspended +from nails in the wall, were the belts, which the soldiers had profited +by the day's halt--no very frequent occurrence with them--to clean and +pipeclay, and then had hung to dry in the sun. Here, just within the +open door of a stable, were men polishing their musket-barrels, or +repairing their accoutrements; in another place a group, more idly +disposed, had collected in some shady nook, and were playing at cards or +morra; whilst others, wrapped in their grey capotes, their heads resting +upon a knapsack or doorstep, indulged in the sound and unbroken slumber +which their usually restless and dangerous existence allowed them but +scanty opportunity of enjoying. + +The house occupied by Count Villabuena was nearly in the centre of one +of the irregular lines of detached buildings that formed the village. +About eighty yards further off, on the opposite side of the road, from +which they receded, and were partially screened by some barns and a +plantation of fruit-trees, there stood two houses united under one roof. +They were of the description usually inhabited by peasants of the richer +sort, and consisted of a ground floor, an upper story, and above that a +sort of garret under the tiles, which might serve as the abode of +pigeons, or perhaps, in case of need, afford sleeping quarters for a +farm-servant. In one of these houses, in which a number of soldiers were +billeted, a guard-room had been established, and in the other, before +the door and beneath the side-windows of which sentries were stationed, +the prisoners were confined. They had been brought to this village +immediately after their capture, as to a place of security, and one +little likely to be visited by any Christino column. Zumalacarregui had +accompanied them thither, but had marched away on the following day, +leaving only a few wounded men and a company behind him. He had now +again returned, to give his troops a day or two's repose, after some +harassing marches and rapid movements. Count Villabuena had accompanied +the general upon this last expedition, but not without previously +ascertaining that Herrera was well cared for, and that the wound in his +arm, which was by no means a severe one, was attended to by a competent +surgeon. The prisoners were lodged in a room upon the upper floor, with +the exception of Herrera, to whom, in consideration of his suffering +state, was allotted a small chamber near the apartment of his comrades, +the side window of which overlooked the open country. This casement, +which was about fifteen feet from the ground, was guarded by a sentry, +who had orders to fire upon the prisoners at the first indication of an +attempt to escape. + +Whilst the Conde de Villabuena gazed on the temporary prison, of which +he commanded a view from his balcony, and meditated how he should +overcome the almost insuperable difficulties that opposed themselves to +Herrera's rescue, there emerged from the door of the guard-room a man, +whose gait and figure the Count thought he knew, although he was too far +distant to discern his features. This man was in a sort of half-uniform; +a blue jacket decorated with three rows of metal buttons, coarse linen +trousers, and on his head the customary woollen boina. From underneath +the latter appeared a white linen bandage, none of the cleanest, and +considerably stained with blood. His face was pale and thin, and the +Count conjectured him to be a wounded man, recently out of hospital. +The person who had thus attracted Villabuena's notice, turned into the +street, and keeping on the shady side, either from disliking the heat, +or out of regard to his recently bleached complexion, walked slowly +along till he arrived near the Count's window; then looking up, he +brought his hand to his cap, and saluted. As he did so, the Count +recognised the well-known features of Paco the muleteer. + +The surprise felt by the Count at the reappearance of this man, whom he +fully believed to have been killed when he himself was rescued from the +Christinos by Zumalacarregui, was succeeded by a joyful foreboding. By +the aid of Paco, with whose sagacity and courage he was well acquainted, +who had been at a former period in his service, and whom he knew to be +entirely devoted to him, he felt at once that he should be able to +accomplish the escape of Herrera. Giving but one glance around to see +that he was not observed, he made a sign to the muleteer to come up to +him. Paco obeyed, and in another moment entered the apartment. + +"I thought you were in your grave, Paco," said Villabuena, "and so did +we all. I myself saw you lying in the dust of the road, with a sabre-cut +on your head that would have killed an ox." + +"It was not so bad as it looked," replied the Navarrese. "Nothing like a +close-woven boina for turning a sabre edge. Pepe Velasquez is a hard +hitter, and if I had worn one of their pasteboard shakos, my head would +have been split in two like a ripe tomata. But as it was, the blow +glanced sideways, and only shaved off a bit of the scalp, though it left +me senseless, and as like dead as night be. After the troops and your +senoria had marched away, and just as life was returning, some peasants +found me. They took me home and doctored me, and three days ago I was +well enough to crawl hither. I am getting strong and hearty, and shall +soon be in the saddle again." + +"So much the better," replied the Count. "We want all the men we can +muster, and especially brave fellows like yourself. Meanwhile, what are +you doing, and where are you quartered?" + +"In the house of Jose Urriola, here the guard-room is. My duty is to +take the prisoners their rations, and clean out their room. Poor Don +Luis, as your senoria doubtlessly knows, is amongst them." + +"I do know it, and it is concerning him that I wish to speak to you. +Paco, I know I can depend on you." + +"You can, your senoria," replied the muleteer. "Do you think I have +forgotten all your honour's kindness, how you got me out of the scrape +about the smuggling?" + +"Or the one about thrashing the alguazils," returned the Count, with a +smile. + +"Ah, your senoria was always very good to me," said Paco; "and I am not +the man to forget it." + +"You have an opportunity of showing your gratitude," said the Count. +"Have you heard that the prisoners are to be shot to-morrow?" + +Paco started. + +"And Don Luis with them?" + +The Count nodded affirmatively. + +"It will be the death of Dona Rita," exclaimed Paco with blunt passion. +"Speak to the general--you can do it. He will not refuse Senor Herrera's +life, if you ask it." + +"You are mistaken," said Villabuena; "in that quarter there is no hope. +The only chance for Don Luis is his escape, before to-morrow morning." + +Paco shook his head, and remained for a moment silent. The Count +observed him attentively. + +"It is difficult," said the muleteer, "and dangerous." + +"Difficulties may be overcome; for the danger, you shall be amply +recompensed," said the Count, anxiously. + +"I want no recompense, senor," cried the Navarrese, with one of those +bursts of free and manly independence that characterise his countrymen. +"I will do it for you if it cost me my life. + +"But how is the escape to be accomplished?" said the Count. "Does any +plan occur to you?" + +"I could do it," said Paco, "had I been ten days longer off the +doctor's list. But I am still weak; and even if I got Don Luis out of +his prison, I should be unable to accompany him till he is out of +danger. I take it he will want a guide. I must have some one to help me, +Senor Conde." + +"That increases the danger to all of us," said the Count. "Whom can we +trust?" + +"I can find some one," said Paco, after a moment's reflection, "who will +be safe and silent, if well paid." + +The Count opened a writing-desk, and produced several gold ounces. + +"A dozen of those will be sufficient," said Paco; "perhaps fewer. I will +do it as cheap as it can be done; for I suppose the _pesetas_ are not +more plentiful with your senoria than with most of Charles V.'s +followers. But it will not do to bargain too closely for a man's life." + +"Nor do I mean to do so," said the Count. "Here is the sum you name, and +something over. Who is your man?" + +"Your senoria has heard of Romany Jaime, the gipsy _esquilador?_" + +The Count made a movement of surprise. + +"He is one of our spies; devoted to the general. You cannot think of +trusting him?" + +"He is devoted to any body who pays him," returned Paco. "I knew him +well in former days, when I went to buy mules in the mountains of +Arragon. An arch rogue is Master Jaime, who will do any thing for gold. +I daresay he serves the general honestly, being well paid; but he will +look upon our job as a godsend, and jump at the chance." + +"I doubt the plan," said the Count. "I am bent upon saving Herrera, and +have made up my mind to some risk; but this appears too great." + +"And what need your senoria know about the matter at all?" said the +ready-witted Paco. "No one has seen me here; or, if any one has, nothing +will be thought of it. The money was given me by the prisoner--I arrange +the matter with Jaime, and to-morrow morning, when the escape is +discovered, who is to tax you with a share in it?" + +"'Tis well," said the Count--"I leave all to you; and the more +willingly, as my further interference might rather excite suspicion than +prove of service. If you want money or advice, come to me. I shall +remain here the whole evening." + +Upon leaving the Count's quarters, Paco lounged carelessly down the +street, with that listless think-of-nothing sort of air, which is one of +the characteristics of the Spanish soldier, till he arrived opposite to +a narrow passage between two houses, at the extremity of which was a +stile, and beyond it a green field, and the foliage of trees. Turning +down this lane, he entered the field, and crossed it in a diagonal +direction, till he reached its further corner. Here, on the skirt of a +coppice, and under the shade of some large chestnut-trees, a group was +assembled, and a scene presented itself, that might be sought for in +vain in any country but Spain. Above a wood-fire, which burned black and +smouldering in the strong daylight, a large iron kettle was suspended, +emitting an odour that would infallibly have turned the stomachs of more +squeamish or less hungry persons than those for whom its contents were +destined. It would have required an expert chemist to analyse the +ingredients of this caldron, of which the attendant Hecate was a +barefooted, grimy-visaged drummer-boy, who, having been temporarily +promoted to the office of cook, hung with watering lips, and eyes +blinking from the effect of the wood smoke, over the precious stew +entrusted to his care. This he occasionally stirred with a drumstick, +the end of which he immediately afterwards transferred to his mouth, +provoking a catalogue of grimaces that the heat of the boiling mess and +its savoury flavour had probably an equal share in producing. Another +juvenile performer on the sheepskin was squatted upon his haunches on +the opposite side of the fire, acting as a check upon any excess of +voracity on the part of his comrade, whilst he diligently employed his +dirty digits and a rusty knife in peeling and slicing a large pumpkin, +of which the fragments, so soon as they were in a fitting state, were +plunged into the pot. A quantity of onion skins and tomata stalks, some +rusty bacon rind, the skin of a lean rabbit, and some feathers that +might have belonged either to a crow or a chicken, bestrewed the ground, +affording intelligible hints as to a few of the heterogeneous materials +already committed to the huge bowels of the kettle. + +At a short distance from the fire, and so placed as to be out of the +current of smoke, a score of soldiers sprawled upon the grass, intent +upon the proceedings of a person who sat in the centre of the circle +they formed. This was a man whose complexion, dark as that of a Moor, +caused even the sunburnt countenance of his neighbours to appear fair by +the comparison. His eyes were deep-set and of a dead coal-black; and +around them, as well as at the corners of his large mouth, which, at +times, displayed a double row of sharp teeth of ivory whiteness, were +certain lines and wrinkles that gave to his physiognomy an expression in +the highest degree repulsive. Deceit, low cunning, and greed of gain, +were legibly written upon this unprepossessing countenance; whose wild +character was completed by a profusion of coarse dark hair, that hung or +rather stuck out in black elf-locks around the receding forehead and +tawny sunken cheeks. The dress of this man was in unison with his +aspect. He wore a greasy velveteen jacket, loose trousers of the same +stuff, and his feet were shod with _abarcas_--a kind of sandal in common +use in some parts of Navarre and Biscay, composed of a flat piece of +tanned pig's hide, secured across the instep by thongs. A leathern +wallet lay upon the ground beside him, and near it were scattered sundry +pairs of shears and scissors, used to clip mules and other animals. The +_esquilador_, or shearer--for such was the profession of the individual +just described--had found a subject for the exercise of his art in a +large white dog of the poodle species, who, with a most exemplary +patience, the result probably of a frequent repetition of the same +process, lay upon his back between the operator's knees, all four legs +in the air, exposing his ribs and belly to the scissors that were +rapidly divesting them of their thick fleece. The operation seemed to +excite intense interest amongst the surrounding soldiers, who followed +with their eyes each clip of the shears and movement of the esquilador's +agile fingers, and occasionally encouraged the patient, their constant +companion and playmate both in quarters and the field, by expressions of +sympathy and affection. The arrival of Paco, who established himself +behind the esquilador, in a gap of the circle, was insufficient to +distract their attention from the important and all-absorbing interest +of the dog-shearing. + +"_Pobre Granuka!_" cried one of the lookers-on, patting the dog's head, +which lay back over the esquilador's knee; "how quiet he is! what a +sensible animal! How fares it, Granuka?--how is it with you?" + +The dog replied by a blinking of his eyes, and by passing his tongue +over his black snout, to this kind inquiry concerning his state of +personal comfort. + +"_Mira! que entendido!_" cried the gratified soldier; "he understands +every word. Come, gitano--have you nearly done? The poor dog's weary of +lying on his back." + +The last trimming was given to the patient, and the liberated animal +jumped up and raced round the circle, as if anxious to show his friends +how greatly he was improved by the process he had undergone. His face +and the hinder half of his body were closely clipped, his shoulders and +forelegs remaining covered with a fell of woolly hair; whilst at the end +of his tail, the cunning artist had left, by express desire of the +soldiers, a large tuft, not unlike a miniature mop, which Granuka +brandished in triumph above his clean-shaven flanks. + +"_Que hermoso!_" screamed one of the delighted soldiers, catching +Granuka in his arms, kissing his muzzle, and then pitching him down with +a violence that would have broken the bones of any but a regimental dog. + +"Attention, Granuka!" cried another of the quadruped's numerous masters, +dropping on his knees before the dog, and uplifting his finger to give +force to the command. At the word, Granuka bounced down upon his hinder +end, and assumed an aspect of profound gravity. + +"A _viva_ for the _nina_ Isabel," said his instructor. + +Granuka stretched out his paws before him, laid his nose upon them, and +winked with his eyes as if he were composing himself to sleep. + +"Won't you?" said the soldier. "Well, then, a _viva_ for the _puta_ +Christina." + +This time the eyes were closed entirely, and the animal gave a +dissatisfied growl. + +"A _viva_ for the king!" was the next command. + +The dog jumped briskly up, gave a little spring into the air, and +uttered three short, quick barks, which were echoed by shouts of +laughter from the soldiers. Having done this, he again sat down, grave +and composed. + +"Once more," said his instructor, "and a good one, Granuka. _Viva el Tio +Zumalacarregui!_" + +This time the dog seemed to have lost his senses, or to have been bitten +by a tarantula. He jumped off the ground half-a-dozen times to thrice +his own height, giving a succession of little joyous yelps that +resembled a human cachinnation far more than any sounds of canine origin +or utterance. Then, as if delighted at his own performances, he dashed +out of the circle, and began tearing about the field, his tail in the +air, yelling like mad. The soldiers doubled themselves up, and rolled +upon the grass in convulsions of merriment. As ill-luck would have it, +however, Granuka, in one of his frolicsome gyrations, in the performance +of which the curve described was larger than in the preceding ones, came +within sight and scent of the _al fresco_ kitchen, and that at the +precise moment when the cook, either conceiving his olla to be +sufficiently stewed, or desirous to ascertain its progress by actual +inspection, had fished out by the claw one of the anomalous-looking +bipeds whose feathers bestrewed the ground, and had placed it upon the +reversed lid of the camp-kettle. Granuka, either unusually hungry, or +imagining that the savoury morsel had been prepared expressly as a +reward for his patience and docility under his recent trials, made a +dart at the bird, caught it up in his mouth, and with lowered tail, but +redoubled speed, scampered towards the houses. + +"_Maldito perro! Ladron!_" roared the cook, hurling his drumstick after +the thief, abandoning his kitchen, and starting off in pursuit, followed +by the soldiers, who had witnessed the nefarious transaction, and whose +shouts of laughter were suddenly changed into cries of indignation. The +stolen bird was of itself hot enough to have made any common dog glad to +drop it; but Granuka was an uncommon dog, an old campaigner, whose gums +were fire-proof; and the idea of relinquishing his prize never entered +his head. Presently he reached the stile at the end of the field, darted +under it and disappeared, followed by cooks and soldiers, swearing and +laughing, abusing the dog, and tripping up one an other. In less than a +half minute from the commission of the theft, Paco and the esquilador +were the only persons remaining in the field. + +So soon as this was the case, Paco abandoned his position in rear of the +gipsy, and came round to his front. The dog-shearer had slung his wallet +over his shoulder, and was replacing in it his scissors and the other +implements of his craft. + +"Good-day, Jaime," said Paco. + +The gipsy glanced at the muleteer from under his projecting eyebrows, +and nodded a surly recognition. + +"Will you come with me to clip a mule?" said Paco. + +"I have no time," replied the esquilador. "The heat of the day is past, +and I must be moving. I have ten leagues to do between this and +morning." + +"A quartillo of wine will be no bad preparation for the journey," said +the muleteer; "and I will readily bestow one in memory of the spavined +mule which you tried to palm upon me, but could not, now some three +years past." + +The gipsy gave another of his furtive and peculiar glances, accompanied +by a slight grin. + +"Thanks for your offer," said he, "but I tell you again I have no time +either to drink or shear. I must be gone before those mad fellows +return, and detain me by some new prank." + +The noisy chatter and laughter of the soldiers was heard as he spoke. +The dog had got clear off, and they were returning to the kettle to +devour what was left there. The gipsy turned to go, when Paco put his +hand into his pocket, and on again drawing it forth, a comely golden +ounce, with the coarse features of Ferdinand VII. stamped in strong +relief on its bright yellow surface, lay upon the palm. The eyes of the +esquilador sparkled at the sight, and he extended his hand as if to +clutch the coin. Paco closed his fingers. + +"Gently, friend Jaime," said he; "nothing for nothing is a good motto to +grow rich upon. This shining _onca_, and more of the same sort, may be +yours when you have done service for them." + +"And what do you require of me?" said the gipsy, with a quick eagerness +that contrasted strongly with his previous apathetic indifference. + +"I will tell you," said Paco, "but in some more private place than +this." + +"Let us be gone," said the gipsy. + +And as the first of the soldiers re-entered the field, the two men +passed through a gap in the hedge that bounded it, and were lost to view +in the adjacent thicket. + +It was about an hour after sunset, and contrary to what is usual at that +season and in that country, the night was dark and cloudy. A slight mist +rose from the fields surrounding the village, and a fine rain began to +fall. In the guard-room adjoining the house in which Luis Herrera was +prisoner, the soldiers on duty were assembled round a rickety table, on +which a large coarse tallow candle, stuck in a bottle, flared and +guttered, and emitted an odour even more powerful than that of the +tobacco smoke with which the room was filled. The air was heavy, the +heat oppressive, and both the house-door and that of the guard-room, +which was at right angles to it, just within the passage, were left +open. Whilst some few of the men, their arms crossed upon the table, and +their heads laid upon them, dozed away the time till their turn for +going on sentry should arrive, the sergeant and the remainder of the +guard, including a young recruit who had only two days before deserted +from the Christinos and been incorporated in a Carlist battalion, +consumed successive measures of wine, to be paid for by those who were +least successful in a trial of skill that was going on amongst them. +This consisted in drinking _de alto_, as it is called--literally, from a +height, and was accomplished by holding a small narrow-necked bottle at +arm's length above the head, and allowing the wine to flow in a thin +stream into the mouth. In this feat of address the new recruit, whose +name was Perrico, was so successful as to excite the envy of his less +dexterous rivals. + +"Pshaw!" said the sergeant, who, in a clumsily executed attempt, had +inundated his chin and mustache with the purple liquid--"Pshaw!" said +he, on seeing the deserter raise his bottle in the air and allow its +contents to trickle steadily and noiselessly down his expanded gullet; +"Perrico beats us all." + +"No wonder," said a soldier, "he is from the country where Grenache and +Tinto are more plentiful than water, and where nobody drinks in any +other way, or ever puts a glass to his lips. He is a Catalan." + +"An Arragonese," hastily interrupted Perrico, eager to vindicate himself +from belonging to a province which the rough manners and harsh dialect +of its inhabitants cause generally to be held in small estimation +throughout the rest of Spain. "An Arragonese, from the _siempre heroica_ +Sarragossa." + +"It's all one," said the sergeant, with a horse-laugh, "all of the +_corona de Aragon_, as the Catalans say when they are ashamed of their +country. But what induced you, Don Perrico, being from Sarragossa, where +they are all as revolutionary as Riego, to leave the service of the +Neapolitan woman and come over to Charles V.?" + +"Many things," answered the deserter. "In the first place, I am of a +thirsty family. My father kept a wine-shop and my mother was a +cantiniera, and both drank as much as they sold. I inherited an +unfortunate addiction to the wine-skin, which upon several occasions has +brought me into trouble and the black-hole. The latter did not please +me, and I resolved to try whether I should not find better treatment in +the service of King Charles." + +"Not if you have brought your thirst with you," answered the sergeant. +"Zumalacarregui does not joke in matters of discipline; so, if your +thirst troubles you here, I advise you to quench it at the pump. But +that will be the easier, as neither wine nor money are likely to be +over-abundant with us." + +At this moment, and before Perrico could reply to the sergeant's +warning, the sentry in front of the house suspended his walk and uttered +a sharp "Quien vive?" + +"Carlos Quinto," was the reply. + +Another password was exchanged, and then a step was audible in the +passage, and the bandaged head and pale face of Paco appeared at the +door of the guard-room. The muleteer was received with a cry of welcome +from the soldiers. + +"Hurra!" cried the sergeant, "here is your match, Perrico. No Catalan or +Arragonese, but jolly Navarro. A week's pay to a wet cartridge, he +empties this bottle _de alto_ without spilling a drop." + +And he held out one of the small bottles before mentioned, which +contained something like an English pint. Paco took it, raised it as +high as he could in the air, and gradually depressing the neck, the wine +poured out in a slender and continuous stream, which the muleteer, his +head thrown back, caught in his mouth. The bottle was emptied without a +single drop being spilt, or a stain appearing on the face of the +drinker. + +"Bravo, Paco!" cried the soldiers. + +"Could not be better," said Perrico. + +"You are making a jolly guard of it," said Paco. "Wine seems as common +as ditch-water amongst you. Who pays the shot?" + +"I!" cried the sergeant, clapping his hand on his pocket, which gave +forth a sound most harmoniously metallic. "I have inherited, friend +Paco; and, if you like to sit down with us, you shall drink yourself +blind without its costing on an _ochavo_." + +"'Twould hardly suit my broken head," returned the muleteer. "But from +whom have you inherited? From the dead or the living?" + +"The living to be sure," replied the sergeant, laughing. "From a fat +Christino alcalde, with whom I fell in the other morning upon the +Salvatierra road. His saddle-bags were worth the rummaging." + +"I can't drink myself," said Paco; "but let me take out a glass to poor +Blas, who is walking up and down, listening to the jingle of the +bottles, as tantalized as a mule at the door of a corn-store." + +"Against the regulations," said the sergeant. "Wait till he comes off +sentry, and he shall have a skin-full." + +"Pooh!" said Paco, "cup of wine will break no bones, on sentry or off." + +And taking advantage of the excellent humour in which his potations had +put the non-commissioned officer, he filled a large earthen mug with +wine, and left the room. + +The sentinel was leaning against the house-wall, his coat-skirt wrapped +round the lock of his musket to protect it from the drizzling rain, and +looking as if he would gladly have exchanged his solitary guard for a +share in the revels of his comrades, when Paco came out, the cup of wine +in his hand, and whistling in a loud key a popular Basque melody. The +soldier took the welcome beverage from the muleteer, unsuspicious of any +other than a friendly motive on the part of Paco, raised it to his lips, +and drank it slowly off, as if to make the pleasure of the draught as +long as possible. Thus engaged, he did not observe a man lurking in the +shadow of an opposite barn, and who, taking advantage of the sentinel's +momentary inattention, and of the position of Paco, who stood so as to +mask his movements from the soldier, glided across the street, darted +into the house, and, passing unseen and unheard before the open door of +the guard-room, nimbly and noiselessly ascended the stairs. + +The sentinel drained the cup to the last drop, returned it to Paco, gave +a deep sigh of satisfaction, and began marching briskly up and down. +Paco re-entered the guard room, and placed the cup upon the table. + +The wine was beginning to make visible inroads on the sobriety of some +of the soldiers, and the propriety of putting an end to the debauch +occurred to the non-commissioned officer. + +"Come, boys," cried he, "knock off from drinking, or you'll hardly go +through your facings, if required." + +"Only one glass more, sergeant," cried Perrico. "There is still a +pleasant tinkle in the _borracha_." + +And he shook the large leathern bottle which held the supply of wine. + +"Only one more, then," said the sergeant, unable to resist the +temptation, and holding out his glass. Perrico filled it to the brim, +and afterwards did the same for three soldiers who still kept their +places at the table, the others having composed themselves to sleep upon +the benches round the room. For himself, however, as Paco, who stood +behind him, had opportunity of observing, the deserter poured out little +or nothing, though he kept the cup at his lips as long as if he were +drinking an equal share with his comrades. + +"Now," said the sergeant, thumping his glass upon the table, "not +another drop. And you, Master Perrico, though your father did keep a +wine-shop, and your mother carry the brandy-keg, let me advise you to +put your head under the fountain, and then lie down and sleep till your +turn for sentry. It will come in an hour or two." + +"And where shall I be posted?" hiccuped Perrico, who, to all appearance, +began to feel the effects of the strong Navarrese wine. + +"Under the prisoners' window," was the reply, "where you will need to +keep a bright look-out. I would not be in your jacket for a colonel's +commission if they were to escape during your guard. To-morrow's +firing-party would make a target of you." + +"No fear," replied the young man. "I could drink another _azumbre_ and +be none the worse for it." + +"_Fanfarron!_" said the sergeant; "you talk big enough for an +Andalusian, instead of an Arragonese." + +And so saying, the worthy sergeant walked to the door of the house to +cool his own temples, which he felt were somewhat of the hottest, in the +night air. Paco wished him good-night; and lighting a long thin taper, +composed of tow dipped in rosin, at the guard-room candle, ascended the +stairs to his own dormitory. + +The room, or rather kennel, appropriated to the lodging of the muleteer, +was a triangular garret already described, formed by the ceiling of the +upper story and the roof of the house, which rose in an obtuse angle +above it. Its greatest elevation was about six feet, and that only in +the centre, whence the tiles slanted downwards on either side to the +beams by which the floor was supported. The entrance was by a +step-ladder, and through a trap-door, against which, when he reached it, +Paco gave two very slight but peculiar taps. Thereupon a bolt was +cautiously withdrawn, and the trap raised; the muleteer completed the +ascent of the steps, entered the loft, and found himself face to face +with Jaime the gipsy. + +"Did no one see you?" said Paco, in a cautious whisper. + +"No one," replied the esquilador, reseating himself upon Paco's bed, +from which he had risen to give admittance to the muleteer. The bed +consisted of a wooden _catre_, or frame, supporting a large square bag +of the coarsest sackcloth, half full of dried maize-leaves, and having a +rent in the centre, through which to introduce the arm, and shake up the +contents. The only other furniture of the room was a chair with a broken +back. On the floor lay the gipsy's wallet, and his abarcas, which he had +taken off to avoid noise during his clandestine entrance into the house. +The gipsy himself was busy tying slip-knot at the end of a stout rope +about seven or eight yards long. Another piece of cord, of similar +length and thickness, lay beside him, having much the appearance of a +halter, owing to the noose already made at one of its extremities. The +tiles and rafters covering the room were green with damp, and, through +various small apertures, allowed the wind and even the rain to enter +with a facility which would have rendered the abode untenable for a +human inhabitant during any but the summer season. In one of the slopes +of the roof was an opening in the tiles, at about four feet from the +floor, closed by a wooden door, and large enough to give egress to a +man. To this opening Paco now pointed. + +"Through there," said he. + +The gipsy nodded. + +"The roof is strong," continued Paco, "and will bear us well. We creep +along the top till we get to the chimney at the further end, just above +the window of the prisoner's room. I have explained to you what is then +to be done." + +"It is hazardous," said the gipsy. "If a tile slips under our feet, or +the sentries catch sight of us, we shall be picked off the house-top +like sparrows." + +"Perfectly true," said Paco; "but the tiles will not slip, and the night +is too dark for the sentries to see us. Besides, friend Jaime, ten +ounces are not to be earned by saying paternosters, or without risk." + +"Risk enough already," grumbled the gipsy. "At this hour I ought to be +five leagues away, and if he, on whose service I was bound, finds out +that I have tarried, no tree in the sierra will be too high to hang me +on." + +"You must hope that he will not find it out," said Paco, coolly. + +"Did you give the prisoner a hint of our plan?" enquired the gitano. + +"I was unable. I visit him but once a-day, to take him his rations, and +that at noon. Since I arranged this plan, I endeavoured to get +admittance to him, but was repulsed by the sentry. To have insisted +would have excited suspicion. He knows, however, that he is to be shot +to-morrow, and is not likely to be asleep." + +Just then the deep sonorous bell of the neighbouring church-clock struck +the hour. The two men listened, and counted ten strokes. + +"Is it time?" said the gipsy, who had completed the noose upon the +second rope. + +"Not yet," replied Paco; "let another hour strike. Till then, not +another word." + +The muleteer extinguished the light and seated himself down upon the +broken chair; the gipsy stretched himself upon the bed, and all was +silent and dark in the garret. Gradually, the slight murmuring sounds +which still issued from various houses of the little village became +hushed, as the inmates betook themselves to rest; and Paco, who waited +with anxious impatience till the moment for action should arrive, heard +nothing but the heavy breathing of the esquilador, who had sunk into a +restless slumber. Half-past ten was tolled; the challenging of the +sentries was heard as they were visited by the rounds; and then soon +afterwards came the long-drawn admonition of "_Sentinela alerta!_" from +the main guard, replied to in sharp quick tones by the "_Aleria esta_" +of the sentries. At length eleven struck, and when the reverberation of +the last stroke had died away, Paco rose from his chair, and shook his +companion from his sleep. + +"It is time," said he. + +The gipsy started up. + +"The money?" was his first question. + +Paco placed a small bag in the esquilador's hand, which closed eagerly +upon it. + +"I promised you ten ounces," said the muleteer, "and you have them +there. When you bring me a line in the handwriting of the prisoner, +dated from a Christino town, you shall receive a like sum. But beware of +playing false, gitano. Others, more powerful than myself, are concerned +in this affair, and will know how to punish treachery." + +The gipsy made no reply, but feeling for his wallet, put his sandals and +one of the ropes into it, and fastened it on his shoulders. Paco slipped +off his shoes, twisted the other rope round his body, and opening the +door in the tiles, in an instant was on the top of the house. The +esquilador followed. Upon their hands and feet the two men ascended the +gradual slope of the roof till they reached the ridge in its centre, +upon which they got astride, and worked themselves slowly and silently +along towards that end of the building in which Herrera was confined. +Owing to the profound darkness, and to the extreme caution with which +Paco, who led the way, proceeded, their progress was very gradual, and +at last an actual stop was put to it by a small but solidly-built stone +chimney which rose out of the summit, and within a foot of the extremity +of the house. Paco untwisted the rope from round his body and handed it +to the gipsy, retaining one end in his hand. The esquilador fixed the +noose about his middle, and altering his position, passed Paco, +scrambled round the chimney, and seated himself on the verge of the +roof, his legs dangling over. Paco gave a turn of the rope round the +chimney, and then leaning forward from behind it, put his mouth to the +gipsy's ear, and spoke in one of those suppressed whispers which seem +scarcely to pass the lips of the speaker. + +"Remember," said he, "ten ounces, or"---- + +A significant motion of his hand round his throat, completed the +sentence in a manner doubtless comprehensible enough to the esquilador. +The latter now turned himself about, and supported himself with his +breast and arms upon the roof, his legs and the lower part of his body +hanging against the side wall of the house. Paco kept his seat behind +the chimney, astride as before, and gathering up the rope, held it +firmly. Gradually the gipsy slid down; his breast was off the roof, then +his arms, and he merely hung on by his hands. His hold was then +transferred to the rope above his head, of which one end was round his +waist and the other in the hands of Paco. All this was effected with a +caution and absence of noise truly extraordinary, and proving wonderful +coolness and habit of danger on the part of the two actors in the +strange scene. As the gipsy hung suspended in the air, Paco began +gradually paying out the rope, inch by inch. This process, owing to the +light weight of the gipsy, and to the check given to the running of the +cord by the chimney round which it was turned, he was enabled without +difficulty to accomplish and regulate. In a brief space of time a +sensible diminution of the strain warned him that the gitano had found +some additional means of support. For the space of about three minutes +Paco sat still, holding the rope firmly, but giving out no more of it; +then pulling towards him, he found it come to his hand without +opposition. He drew it all in, again twisted it about his body, and +lying down upon his belly, put his head over the edge of the tiles to +see what was passing beneath. All was quiet; no light was visible from +the window of Herrera's room, which was at about a dozen feet below him. +The mist and thick darkness prevented any view of the sentry; but he +could hear the sound of his footsteps, and the burden of the royalist +ditty which he was churming between his teeth. + +Whilst all this took place, Luis Herrera, unsuspicious of the efforts +that were making for his rescue, sat alone in his room, which was dimly +lighted by an ill-trimmed lamp. Twelve hours had elapsed since he had +been informed of the fate that awaited him; in twelve more his race +would be run, and he should bid adieu to life, with its hopes and cares, +its many deceptions and scanty joys. A priest, who had come to give him +spiritual consolation in his last hours, had left him at sundown, +promising to return the next morning; and since his departure Herrera +had remained sitting in one place, nearly in one posture, thoughtful and +pre-occupied, but neither grieving at nor flinching from the death which +was to snatch him from a world whereof he had short but sad experience. +Alone, and almost friendless, his affections blighted and hopes ruined, +and his country in a state of civil war--all concurred to make Herrera +regard his approaching death with indifference. Life, which, by a +strange contradiction, seems prized the more as its value diminishes, +and clung to with far greater eagerness by the old than the young had +for him few attractions remaining. Once, and only once, a shade of +sadness crept over his features, and he gave utterance to a deep sigh, +almost a sob, of regret, as he drew from his breast a small locket +containing a tress of golden hair. It was a gift of Rita's in their +happy days, before they knew sorrow or foresaw the possibility of a +separation; and from this token, even when Herrera voluntarily renounced +his claim to her hand, and bade her farewell for ever, he had not had +courage to part. By a strong effort, he now repressed the emotion which +its sight, and the recollections it called up, had occasioned him, and +he became calm and collected as before. Drawing a table towards him, he +made use of writing-materials, which he had asked for and obtained, to +commence a long letter to Mariano Torres. This his confessor had +promised should be conveyed to his friend. + +He had written but a few lines, when a slight sound at the room window +roused his attention. The noise was too trifling to be much heeded; it +might have been a passing owl or bat flapping its wing against the +wooden shutter. Herrera resumed his writing. A few moments elapsed, and +the noise was again heard. This time it was a distinct tapping upon the +shutter, very low and cautious, but repeated with a degree of regularity +that argued, on the part of the person making it, a desire of attracting +his attention. Herrera rose from his seat, and obeying a sort of +instinct or impulse, for which he would himself have had trouble to +account, masked the lamp behind a piece of furniture, and hastening to +the window, which opened inwards, cautiously unlatched it. A man, whose +features were unknown to him, was supporting himself on the ledge +outside, his legs gathered under him, and nearly the whole of his thin +flexible body coiled up within the deep embrasure of the window. Putting +his finger to his lips, to enjoin silence, he severed, by one blow of a +keen knife, a cord that encircled his waist, and then springing lightly +and actively into the room, closed the shutter, since the opening of +which, so rapid had been his movements, not ten seconds had elapsed. + +Although the motive of this strange intrusion was entirely unknown to +him, Herrera at once inferred that it boded good rather than evil. He +was not long left in doubt. The esquilador pointed to Herrera's wounded +arm, the sleeve of which was still cut open, although the wound was +healed, and the limb had regained its strength. + +"Have you full use of that?" said he. + +"I have," replied Herrera. "But what is your errand here?" + +"To save you," answered the gipsy. "There is no time for words. We must +be doing." + +And making a sign to Herrera to assist him, he caught hold of one end of +the heavy old-fashioned bedstead, which had been allotted to the use of +the wounded prisoner, and with the utmost caution to avoid noise, lifted +it from the ground and brought it close to the window. Then, taking a +rope from his wallet, he fastened it to one of the bed-posts. Herrera +began to understand. + +"And my companions," said he. "They also must be saved. My room door is +locked, but the next window is that of their apartment." + +"It is impossible," said the gipsy. "_You_ may be saved, perhaps; but to +attempt the rescue of more would be destruction. Look here." + +The gipsy extinguished the lamp and, stepping upon the bed, reopened the +shutter, and drew Herrera towards him. + +"Listen," said he, in a low whisper. + +The tread of the sentry was heard, and at that moment, the glare of a +lantern fell upon the trees, bordering a field opposite the window. +Beyond that field the ground was broken and uneven, covered with tall +bushes, fern, and masses of rock, and sloping upwards towards the +neighbouring hills. The light drew nearer; the sentry challenged. It was +the relief. Their heads in the embrasure of the window, Herrera and the +gipsy could hear every word that passed. The man going off sentry gave +over his instructions to his successor. They were few and short. The +principal was, to fire upon any one of the prisoners who should so much +as show himself at a window. + +By the light of the lantern which the corporal carried, Paco, who was +still peering over the edge of the roof, distinguished the features of +the new sentry. They were those of Perrico the Christino deserter. The +relief marched away, the sentinel shouldered his musket, and walked +slowly up to the further end of his post. + +"Now then," said the gipsy to Herrera, "fix the rope round your waist. +We will let him pass once more, and when he again turns his back, I will +lower you. I shall be on the ground nearly as quickly as yourself, and +then keep close to me. Take this, it may be useful." + +And he handed him a formidable clasp-knife, of which the curved and +sharp-pointed blade was fitted into a strong horn handle. With some +repugnance, but aware of the possible necessity he might find for it, +Herrera took the weapon. The rope was round his waist, and, with his +hands upon the embrasure of the window, he only waited to spring out for +a signal from the gipsy, who was watching, as well as the obscurity +would permit, the movements of the soldier. The night was growing +lighter, the wind had risen and swept away the mist from the fields, +overhead the clouds had broken, and stars were visible, sparkling in +their setting of dark blue enamel. + +"Now!" said the gipsy, who held the slack of the rope gathered up in his +hands. "No, stop!" cried he, in a sharp whisper, checking Herrera, who +was about to jump out, and drawing hastily back. "Hell and the devil! +What is he about?" + +The window of the room was nearly at the extremity of the sentinel's +post, so that, during one period of his walk, the soldier's back, owing +to the slow pace at which he marched up and down, was turned for a full +minute. It was upon this brief space of time that the gipsy had +calculated for accomplishing his own descent and that of his companion. +He had allowed the soldier to proceed twice along the whole length of +his post, meaning to avail himself of the third turn he should take. But +to his surprise and perplexity, when the man passed for the third time, +he left his usual track, moved some twenty paces backwards from the +house, and gazed up at Herrera's window. Apparently he could distinguish +nothing; for, after remaining a few moments stationary, he again +approached the wall of the house, looked cautiously around him, and, +giving three low distinct coughs, continued his walk. Without pausing to +consider the meaning of this strange proceeding, the esquilador caught +Herrera's arm. + +"Out with you," said he, "and quickly!" + +Herrera darted through the window, hung on for one instant by the edge, +and let himself go--the gipsy, with a degree of strength that could +hardly have been anticipated in one so slightly built, holding the rope +firmly, and lowering him steadily and rapidly. The moment that his feet +touched the ground, the gipsy sprang out of the window, and, grasping +the rope, began descending by the aid of his hands and feet, with the +agility of a monkey or a sailor boy. Before he was half-way down, +however, the sentinel, who had reached the end of his walk, began +retracing his steps. Hererra's heart beat quick. Hastily cutting the +noose from round his waist, he pressed himself against the wall and +stood motionless, scarcely venturing to breathe. The sentinel +approached. Dark though it was, it seemed impossible that he did not +already perceive what was passing. Gliding along close to the wall, +Herrera prepared to spring upon him at the first sound uttered, or +dangerous movement made by him. The soldier drew nearer, paused, let the +but of his musket fall gently to the ground, and clasped his hands over +the muzzle. Herrera made a bound forward, and clutching his throat, +placed the point of his knife against his breast. + +"One word," said he, "and I strike!" + +"At the heart of your best friend," replied the soldier, in a voice of +which the well-known accents thrilled Hererra's blood. + +"Mariano!" he exclaimed. + +"Himself," replied Mariano Torres. + +Just then the gipsy, who had reached the ground, sprang upon the +disguised Christino, and made a furious blow at him with his knife. +Torres raised his arm, and the blade passed through the loose sleeve of +his capote. Herrera hastened to interfere. + +"'Tis a friend," said he. + +The gipsy made a step backwards, in distrust and uncertainty. + +"I tell you it is a friend," repeated Herrera--"a comrade of my own, who +has come to aid my escape. And now that you have rescued me, act as our +guide to the nearest Christino post, and your reward shall be ample." + +The mention of reward seemed at once to remove the doubts and suspicions +of the esquilador. Returning to the rope which dangled from the window, +he cut it as high up as he could reach. + +"They may perhaps miss the sentry and not the prisoner," said he. + +At that moment a dark form turned the corner of the house. + +"Who goes there?" exclaimed a voice. + +"This way," cried the gipsy, and springing across the road, he dashed +down a bank, and with long and rapid strides hurried across the fields. + +"Who goes there?" repeated the deep hoarse tones of Major Villabuena +"Sentry, where are you? Guard, turn out!" + +The flash and report of Mariano's musket, which he had left leaning +against the wall, and which Don Baltasar found and fired, followed the +words of alarm. The bullet whistled over the heads of the fugitives. In +another instant all was noise and confusion in the village. The rattle +of the drum was heard, lights appeared at the windows, and the clatter +of arms and tramp of man and horse reached the ears of Herrera and his +companions. Soon they heard a small party of cavalry gallop down a road +which ran parallel to the course they were taking. But in the darkness, +and in that wild and mountainous region, pursuit was vain, especially +when one so well skilled as the gipsy in the various paths and passes +directed the flight. In less than half an hour, the three fugitives were +out of sight and sound of the village and their pursuers. + +After six hours' march, kept up without a moment's halt, over hill and +dale, through forest and ravine, the intricacies of which were threaded +by their experienced guide with as much facility as if it had been +noonday instead of dark night, Herrera and Torres paused at sunrise upon +the crest of a small eminence, whence they commanded a view of an +extensive plain. On their right front, and at the distance of a mile, +lay a town, composed of dark buildings of quaint and ancient +architecture, surrounded by walls and a moat, and on the battlements of +which sentries were stationed; whilst from the church tower the Spanish +colours, the gaudy red and gold, flaunted their folds in the morning +breeze. + +"What place is that?" said Torres to the guide. + +"It is the Christino town of Salvatierra," replied the gipsy, turning +into a path that led directly to the gate of the fortress. + + + + +SICILIAN SKETCHES. + +SYRACUSIANA. + +FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA. + + +After three hours' steaming from Catania, we were in the harbour of +Syracuse; but it was at two in the morning, and we could not go ashore. +A little scuttling takes place overhead while the Mongibello litters her +two hundred and forty horses for the night; and, when this is +accomplished, all is silent, and we sleep in the moonlit mirror. In two +hours more the last star had dropped out of its place; and in another, +rosy morn found us all in activity, and on deck, examining a most +unprepossessing _paysage_, and contemplating, for many a league, the +wretched coast road which must have been our doom if we had _not_ come +by sea--so, for once, we had chosen well! Our alternative would have +consisted in two days' swinging in a _lettiga_, in facing malaria in the +fields, with nothing but famine and fever-stricken hamlets to halt at, +and even these at long intervals. There were, to be sure, places enough +of ancient _name_, in D'Anville's Geography, along the coast, but +nothing _beyond_ the name itself. This is so exactly the case, that even +with the beautiful and authentic money of _Leontium_ before us, we did +not land at _Lentini_! There is nothing so utterly confounding as the +contemplation of _money_, every piece of which is a _gem_, on spots +where no imagination can conceive the city that coined it. We are not +long before we begin to cater for new disappointment, in the desire to +be conducted without delay to the fountain of _Arethusa_. Accordingly, a +quarter of a mile's distance from our locanda, under the rampart of the +old _Ortygia_, and in the most uncleanly suburb of modern Syracuse, the +far-famed spring is pointed out to our incredulity; and we are at once +booked with the many who, having got up a suitable provision of +enthusiasm to be exploded on the spot, are obliged to carry it away with +them. A vile, _soapy washing-tank_ is Arethusa, occupied by half-naked, +noisy laundresses, thumping away with wooden bats at brown-looking +linen, or depositing the wet load that had been belaboured and rinsed on +the bank, gabbling, as they work, like the very _Adonizousoe_ of +Theocritus, (himself, as he informs us, a native of Syracuse.) A man lay +sleeping with his dog beside him; a number of mahogany-coloured +children, quite naked, were sprawling on the parapet-wall, covered with +flies, but fast asleep! A poor bird, a descendant of the [Greek: Adones +Sikelikai], a nightingale of the soil, _with his eyes put out, that he +might not know day from night, and so sing unconsciously, sang to us as +we passed_! But the affair was destined, in a single moment, to become +ludicrous as well as disappointing. Our guide, Jack Robertson, (so named +by an English man-of-war's crew that had, as he said, kidnapped him +during the war,) quite mistaking the _nature_ of our disappointment, +said, consolingly, "You come _dis_ way, sir; down here I show you _more +gals' feet, wash more clothes_;" on which intimation we certainly +followed him down a few steps, when, pushing back a wooden door, we +entered at once into a large roofed washing-house, along the floor of +which still ran the sadly humiliated Arethusa! We praised the beauty of +the young washerwomen, and departed--Jack Robertson having considerably +more to say on the subject than would interest the reader to know; and +which, in fact, we could not tell, without violating what was evidently +imparted in confidence. + + +JACK ROBERTSON AND THE PROFESSOR OF ELOQUENCE. + +Under the guidance of the aforesaid Jack Robertson, we had visited two +rival collections of coins, the property of two priests, and certainly +the finest we had seen in Sicily. Those of _Syracuse_ in silver, of the +_first_ or largest module, (_medaglioni_ as they are technically +called,) are for size and finish deservedly reputed the most beautiful +of ancient coins; and of these we saw a full score in each collection. +We might indeed have purchased, as well as admired, but were deterred by +the price asked, which, for one perfect specimen, was from 45 to 50 +crowns, (L7 or L8 sterling.) These coins are among the largest extant. +On one side, the head of Arethusa is a perfect gem in silver, (the +_hair_ especially, treated in a way that we have never seen elsewhere;) +on the other, is a _quadriga_. One of these ecclesiastics dealt like any +other dealer. The other consulted the dignity of the church, and +employed a lay brother to impose upon strangers who buy in haste to +repent at leisure; for even among the picked, select, and _winnowed_ +coins of the man who knows what he is about, there are always false +ones. Having shown that we are _au fait_ both as to the _thing_ and the +market-price--that we had read Myounet, and were acquainted with the +sharp eyes of _de Dominicis_ at Rome, we pass immediately for an English +_dealer_; and suspicion becomes conviction, when, taking up a gold +Philip, we remark that "all trades must live," and that our price must +depend upon his "_quanto per il Filippo_?" "You will not scruple, +I suppose, to pay forty-seven dollars!" "Thirty-seven is +plenty."--"_Pocket Philip._" "Sir," said we to our employe as we went +home, "you are a _rogue_ to have brought us to that cheating priest." +"Not so, sir," said the Siculo-Inglese Jack Robertson, "they tell here +priest _not_ cheat, always deal _square_--have that character indeed, +sir;" and he proceeded to conduct us to another priest-collector, who, +in this instance, had gone out to dine with a friend. Jack, however, +said he would soon bring him back, dined or undined; and in ten minutes +he returned in high spirits at his success. "Always trust _me_, sir! Me +no fool, sir! As soon as I see him, sir, I say, you got _coins?_ He say +'_yes_.' Den you show what you got _directly_ to English gentlemen. 'No, +I won't,' he tell me--'I take my dinner here wid my friends, and after +dat I come see English gentlemen.'" Rather a cool thing we thought for a +_dealer_ to keep his customers waiting; but, whenever one wants any +thing, one can always afford to wait a little, and Jack informed us that +he had learned from the padre's servant that his master always dines in +a quarter of an hour. The quarter of an hour up, we send again, but our +messenger comes back empty-handed. "Well, where is your friend?" "He no +friend of mine, sir! He very angry! Not my fault, sir," "Angry? what is +he angry about?" "Because I say to him only this, sir--'_Other_ priest +ask gentleman _too much_--hope you not _very dear too_, sir;' to which +he say, '_You damn fool_, I don't sell coins!' _Den_ I beg his pardon, +and he ask me sharply, '_Who_ say I sell coins?' 'Sir,' I say, 'all the +whole world say so.' Den he say, '_D--n all the whole world_; and when +any body tell you this again, say Abate _Rizzi_ call him a d----d fool, +and say he may go to h-ll!!!'" "Abate Rizzi!! why, that is the +_Professor of Eloquence_ to whom we were to be introduced yesterday." +"Yes, sir," says Jack, "and here he comes," glancing up the street. We +now see a personage, whose staid deportment and gait declare him to be +much beyond the age when it may be thought allowable to swear. "You +rascal, you have been telling us a lie; that gentleman could never have +said, damn the whole world." "He did not speak it in _English, sir_." +"Not speak it in English? why, what did he say?" "Sir, he say, '_Cazzo! +questa e una minchioneria!_' that means 'damn fool,' sir,--'_dettia +tutti d' andare al diavolo_,' that be the same as tell every body go to +h-ll!!" (the translation in this case we thought not _so_ bad;) we had +not, however, time to discuss the matter, for the Professor of +Eloquence, who had indulged our servant _pro re nata_ with so very +unusual a specimen of his art, was at our elbow. We saluted him +courteously, but offended dignity was apparent in a grave face of +considerable _church_ power; we therefore subjoined to the ordinary +salutation much regret at the awkwardness of our guide, and apologised +for intruding on his repose; which apologies, and further explanations, +immediately changed the current in our favour. Jack, too, regretted he +had been so indiscreet as to be misled by _current reports_; but _this_ +was to rouse the calmed resentment into a new explosion. "_Who_," he +demanded, in very Demosthenic accents--"_who_ had dared to affirm that +he had ever sold a coin?" We went in, saw his very beautiful collection, +the Professor himself doing the honours with so much obligingness, that +we left him convinced that he neither sold coin nor dispensed anathemas. + + +EAR OF DIONYSIUS. + + "Lautumias Syracusanas omnes audistis; plerique nostis. Opus + est ingens magnificum regumac tyrannorum. Totum est ex saxo in + mirandam altitudenem depresso, et multorum operis penitus + exciso. Nihil tam clausum ad exitus, nihil tam septum undique, + nihil tam tutum ad custodias, nec fieri nec cogitari potest." + +Half an hour's shaking in a _lettiga_ brings us without a stumble, by +the old forum of Syracuse, to the Ear of Dionysius, and those other +stone quarries so well described in the above passage from Cicero _in +Verrem_. We alight at the embouchure of these most striking excavations, +and, descending a very steep short hill, wind through a small garden of +exquisite vegetation, and are in the first _lautumia_ of the series. +Here, deeply embayed in a colossal cave, we behold the marks of the +ancient pick-axe, and the niches, as it were, in which the labourers sat +while they chiselled out the extraordinary work, fresh as if they had +been done yesterday! Shapeless and half-fashioned masses, _ebauches_ of +columns for temples which never came into the possession of capitals, or +the support of entablatures--unborn Dorics of the Greek portfolios are +here. The sun striking obliquely from the mouth into the interior of the +cavern, made the green vegetation all hoary in the slanting light. Fires +in dark caverns are favourite subjects with some painters. We admire +them not, but we would have liked to take a sketch of one here for the +sake of poor Nicias and his fellow captives. A party of men is collected +round a caldron with a fire blazing beneath it; another group is seated +at a long table eating; some feed the immense boiler with new supplies +from a heap of dirty-looking earth-stained _salt_. Others test the +quality from time to time of that which has been purged and +crystallized. It was the native nitre of the country on which they were +occupied, and the test was its deflagration. In passing out of the +_first_ of the line of quarried caverns to go to the _Ear_, which is the +last, we are struck with the beauty of the garden into which it opens, +which is found in possession of many unfrequent flowers and plants, such +as had not prospered even here, but for the singularly sheltered +disposition of the spot. Against the wall there grew a magnificent +_Smilax sarsaparilla_ in full maturity. A decoction of the twigs of that +tree cured the gardener, as he assured us, of an obstinate pain in both +shoulders that no other medicine would touch; which testimony in its +favour made us look with an added interest on the cordate leaf, and +small white verbena-looking flower, of certainly the first, and in all +probability the last, _Smilax sarsa_ we should ever see _growing_. We +cut off from the main stem an arm about the thickness of an +ordinary-sized bamboo, and, like it, knotted, for a souvenir of the +place and the plant. In this same garden the tea-plant thrived; the +proprietor, Count S----, makes an annual _racolte_ of its leaves, which +he keeps for his own teapot. Another curiosity is the _Celtis australis_ +or _favaragio_, a tree that bears fruit of the size of a pea, with a +stone kernel; a trumpet-flower of spotless white, belonging to the +_Datura arborea_, measured a whole foot and a half from lip to stalk! +But it were vain to dwell on the novelties of a garden which is _all_ +novelty to an English eye, and full of variety to the Italian himself; a +garden equally unique in its position and productions. The _Ear_ is +probably the most wonderful acoustic contrivance in existence; and that +it was the work of studious design, is proved by a _second_ one +_commenced_ in a neighbouring quarry--commenced, but not further +prosecuted, evidently because it would not answer, from the soft, chalky +material of the wall on one side. Its _external_ shape of the conch is +that of the ass's ear. The aperture, through which the light now enters +from its further end, and from a height of one hundred and twenty feet, +was till lately not known to exist; it not being supposed that the _Ear_ +had any _meatus internus_ corresponding with the _external one_. The +accidental removal of a quantity of loose stones from above, revealed a +narrow passage of from twenty to thirty feet in length, and opening +directly into the cave. This internal opening is situated almost +immediately over the amphitheatre, one hundred and twenty feet above the +_floor_ of the cavern, and (measuring in a plane) is one hundred and +eighty feet from the external opening. + +Having rent paper, which made an incredible noise, and let off a +Waterloo cracker, which reverberated along the walls like thunder, and +done other deeds of the same kind below, we ascended, and walking over +the _back_ of the cavern, presently came upon the passage which leads to +its _inner_ opening; and there, leaning over a parapet wall, (in doing +which we almost exclude the feeble light that penetrates into the cavern +from behind,) we are startled by a very audible but faint whisper, which +comes from our friend below, asking us to declare our present +sensations. We reply in the same faint whisper; and are immediately +apprised of its safe arrival by _another_. One hundred and eighty feet +separate the parties. In the stillness of that half-lit cavern, not only +were our faintest whisperings conveyed, but we could hear each other +breathe! This was a place to come and see! + + +SANTA LUCIA AND THE CAPUCIN CONVENT, &c. + +Some Franciscans told us that Saint Lucia was stabbed close to a granite +column, in a subterranean chapel in their church, in the _fourth +century_, and _under Nero_!--so ignorant are these men even about what +it concerns them to know. They show a silver image, which a dozen men +can, they assure us, scarcely lift. The body of the saint is not, +however, here, but at Venice. "No; we have but one rib and a thumb," +said the padre! "but we have two very handsome _dresses_ which she +wore--one red, the other blue." Cast-off clothes, then, will do for +relics! In returning to the church, they tell us of a blind old general +who came hither on purpose to obtain the intercession of: Santa Lucia, +(who had her own eyes put out,) to remove this calamity; with success of +course, for they never record failures in church _clinique_. "Do you +believe the cure?" we ventured to ask. "Why not? il miracolo e +_autenticato_." "No!" said his companion, "_autorizzato_! The +distinction is, that the church _authorizes_ the declaration of some +lies as miraculous, but declines to make herself responsible for the +reality of others!" Round the Capucian church certain stanzas are +written, under what are called the fourteen _stazioni_ or stations of +the cross, (places where our Saviour is supposed to have halted, or +fainted under his load, on his way to Calvary.) Stanzas we were at first +profane enough to attribute to Metastasio, but afterwards found that it +was only the _metastasis_ of his metre adapted to the use of the church. +They are much better than most of our sacred poetry, as it is strangely +miscalled, which is frequently neither poetry nor common sense:-- + + "Il sol si oscura, + E in fin la terra + Il sen disserra + Per grand dolor; + Morto e il Signore! + O Peccatore, + Se tu non piangi, + Sei senza cuor! + + "Deh, madre mia, + Con quant' afflitto, + Piangendo, al Petto, + Stringi Gesu! + Io, l'ho fer ito, + Ma son pentito-- + Non piu peccati, + Non piu, non piu! + + "Dal tuo sepolcro, + Non vo partire, + Senza morire, + Ma qui staro; + Finche 'l dolore + M'uccida il core, + L'alma piangendo + Qui spirero!" &c. &c. + +The Capucins live on a hill in the only good air in the vicinity of +Syracuse; in their precincts we found ourselves fairly attacked on +_Luther's_ quarrel, and expected to take up cudgels ecclesiastic on that +worn-out controversy--one of our Capucins vaunting himself ready and +able to bleed for the _truth_. Liberal ideas are not common in the +cloister. "You aver," said he, "that Roman Catholics may be in a way of +salvation; we by no means return the compliment--but as both Lutherans +and Calvinists agree in believing thus charitably of _us_, and not of +one another, it seems a pretty strong argument in our favour." With such +high subjects did our apparently very much in earnest friends entertain +us, in a garden planted amidst those quarried prisons of the captive +Athenians. A man attempted to-day to put off some bad coins upon us, +which we recollected to have had offered to us by another hand--still we +only hinted that they were forgeries, and declined purchasing. While +this was in progress, another person came up properly introduced, with +an _enlarged spleen_, which was _certainly_ authentic. We tell him that +such indurations of viscera require a _very long time_ indeed for +removal: and that malaria is their origin This convent possesses one of +those revolting vaults, which dry up and preserve the corpse in the form +of mummy; a huge trap-door flapped its wooden wings, and gave us +admission into a large subterranean apartment, wherein we presently +stood in the midst of defunct brethren arranged along the walls, as if +they stood in chapel at their devotions! On the floor thirty or forty +light boxes looked like orange chests, with custom-house hieroglyphics +on their lids; but they were marked with proper and even high-sounding +names, and were in fact the coffins of barons, counts, and prelates, +transported here to have the _benefit of the air_, and there accordingly +they lay unburied, to profit by the antiseptic qualities of the soil. We +looked at a baron or two, and saw something like a huge caterpillar +beginning to change into a chrysalis; a grub mummy dressed out in old +Catanian silk, and so enveloped in cobwebs, that you could with +difficulty make out the central nucleus of shrivelled humanity. +"_Questo_," said our cowled conductor, "e il Barone Avellina, morto di +cholera, anno aetatis fifty-six; he loved our order! here is another +equally good-looking personage," said he, exposing a corrugated face and +dark hair, frightfully at variance with a blue silk handkerchief, and +all the funeral gear of twenty years ago. This was another victim to +that awful visitation; his feet and hands were covered with faded herbs, +rosemary, and lavender; first placed in the coffin at the time of his +decease, and renewed every year by friends, when the cobwebs of the year +preceding are brushed away. One elder, the pride of the collection, had +lain in his court-suit for nearly a hundred years, the aforesaid +aromatics having kept off the moths all this time. The room felt dry, +and, except for the _company_, what one calls _comfortable_. +Knee-buckles and shoe-buckles, and steel-hilted swords, do not rust +here, and white cravats and embroidered waistcoats might almost return +to the world! The Capucins themselves are disposed in niches, and each +has a text from Scripture over his cowl. "Do you _prepare_ these +mummies?" we enquire "_Nienti preparati, signor!_ We only lay them to +dry in yonder room over a sink, and when they have lain four months, we +take them out and complete the process in another room, where the sun +comes; after which we dress them and place them here." These Capucins, +they tell us, are the strictest of all sects of Franciscans. From the +sights of the mummy chamber, we see at least that they are not idle, and +must always have a job on hand. Females, if _not_ Catholic, are here +admitted to see the grounds, and they offer wine and bread for our +refreshment, which we, thinking of their _wallets_, decline on the plea +of _anorexia_. Near the Capucins is the Church of _San Giovanni_, a +singularly wild spot, in the midst of bad air, and within reach of the +Ear of Dionysius. We descend with a fellow filthier than the filthiest +Capucin, calling himself a hermit, to guide us in the vast catacombs +over which the hermitage stands. It was a trial to follow him--the rank +woollen dress, uncleansed till it falls to pieces, diffuses an odour +which, in such confined passages, is particularly unpleasant. +Cleanliness, says an English proverb, is next to godliness; but, in +cowled society, it assuredly forms no part of it. Catacombs, in general, +are called interesting--we never saw one in which we did not pay heavy +penalty for gratifying curiosity. Those of Syracuse are vast indeed; +spacious arcaded streets intersect each other in all directions, and +your walk throughout lies between lengthening files of niches, cut into +the walls for coffins, tier above tier, like berths in a steamboat, +conducting here and there into a circular apartment, with a cupola and a +central aperture, looking out upon the wild moor above. + + +SHARKS, FIREFLIES, &c. + +We form to-day the acquaintance of an intelligent medical practitioner +and collector in natural history, from whom we learn that there are +eight different species of dog-fish (_Squalus_) along the Syracusan +coast. This animal, to the popular fame of whose injurious exploits we +had hitherto yielded unabated confidence, appears fully to justify his +West Indian character. An "ancient mariner" told us, that full forty +miles from Syracuse, a shark, which had been following him for a long +time, thrust his head suddenly out of the water, and made a snap at him; +and if the boat had not been a _thunny_ boat, high in the sides, there +is no saying how much of him might have been extant! A pair of trousers +drying in the sun over the side of the boat should have small attraction +for a shark, but he _took_ them on _speculation_. At one of the +principal thunny fisheries near Catania, the fishermen have fixed upon +poles, like English kites on a barn-door, _pour encourager les autres_, +two immense sharks' heads as trophies--the jaws at full gape, exhibiting +four sets of teeth as sharp as harrows, and as white and polished as +ivory. They always wish to decline any dealings with this formidable +foe, though his flesh is in repute in the market, and he weighs from two +thousand five hundred to four thousand pounds. But Syracuse has no +reason to complain of scarcity, or to eat shark's flesh from necessity; +most of the _Scomber_ family,--the _alatorya_, the _palamida_, and a +fine gray-coloured fellow which the fishermen call _serra_, frequent her +coast; then there is the _Cefalo_--the ancient _mugilis_, our gray +mullet--and the sea-pike, _Lucedimare_, whose teeth and size might well +constitute him lieutenant to the dog-fish,--all these came to table +during our stay; but we did not meet with one very superior fish known +to the ancients as the _Lupus_, (_labrax_ of the Greeks,) which abounds +when in season, and is known in every comfortable _menage_ along the +Sicilian coast; his Linnaean name is _sparus_. On the shore are to be +picked up occasionally two small kinds of shells _peculiar_ to Sicily, +of which our intelligent acquaintance is so obliging as to give us +specimens. We never saw or heard of a firefly in Sicily. Professor Costa +of Naples, though he doubted the fact of there being none, had never +seen any in his frequent entomological trips to that island. This +beautiful insect, so common about Florence and Rome, and in central +Italy, is extremely rare about Naples; nor does this seem to be from +their disliking the sea, for we never saw so _many_ as at _Pesaro_, on +the Adriatic;--no insect, then, is more _volage_, or uncertain as to +place, than the firefly. The only poisonous _reptile_ of Sicily is the +_viper_, of which there seem to be several varieties. A beautiful blue +thrush (_Turdus cyaneus_), a great _talker_, much prized, and +_high-priced_ too, when he has been taught to speak, is found in the +rocky clefts about Syracuse. The heat and brilliancy of the sunshine +render it extremely difficult, we are told, to preserve collections in +natural history. All the water drunk here is _rain water_. The butter, +fruit, and vegetables of Syracuse are, in the month of May at least, +bad, very bad; but its _Muscat_ wine, its _Hybla_ honey, and its fish, +are all of superior quality. + +The honey of that hill needs not our praise, + + ----"quae nectareis vocat ad certamen + Hymetton, + Audax Hybla, favis." + +For ourselves, after tasting the confection of the Attic as well as of +the Sicilian bee, we know not which is the greater artist, or which +operates on the finer material; but the _best_ honey in Europe, in our +opinion, comes from the apiaries of Narbonne. + + +A CONSULTATION. + +We had given advice, and were preparing to go, when another candidate +comes forward, and, with suitable gesticulation, _so_ placed his hands +that we could not help saying, "Liver, eh?" "_Eccelenza_, si!" "Dopo una +febbre?" "_Illustrissimo_, si!"--Folk now beginning to wink approvingly +at our sagacity, we were looking exceeding grave, when a pair of +Sicilian eyes set in a female head put us quite out by evidently taking +us for a conjurer, and so setting at once our ethics, our pathology, and +our Italian dictionary at fault. Still the surgeon congratulates the +room on the "_lumi_" brought to it by the strange doctor, approves of +the prescription, and corroborates our opinion that the "Signore _Don +Jacomo_" _Somebody_ was the incontestable possessor of a "_flogose +chronica del fegato!_" We now said we must go; and _two_ children ran +for our hat, the man with the liver kisses our hand, others seize our +coat-skirts, and the guide, Jack Robertson, carries the mace and leads +the way, and puts himself at the head of the procession homewards; and +glad were we to escape the embarrassment of curtsies and courtesies, to +which we are unused, and far too extravagant ones to admit of reply. +Come! the best of fees is a poor man's gratitude; but from poor or +rich, at home or abroad, it is seldom that medical men walk off so +magnificently. + + +EXCURSION TO EPIPOLAE. + +The country about Syracuse is neither grand nor beautiful; but the +ground is _classic ground_, and Sicily has not been brought within the +reach of an intercourse which, while it polishes and confers substantial +benefits, removes the sacred rust of antiquity. The Hybla hills, as +hills, are not equal to the Surrey hills as one sees then from one's +window at Kensington; but Hybla is Hybla, and here we eat the honey and +sip the wine of the soil. Yonder plain before our breakfast-table is +plain enough, and promises little; but that small insignificant stream +is the _Anapus_, those columns belonged to a temple of Jupiter, that +white tower, five miles off, marks _Epipolae_, the snow-capped Etna is +the background of the picture, and the bay at our feet once bore that +Athenian navy which left the Piraeus to make as great a mistake as we did +in our American war. We rowed across that bay to the mouth of the +Anapus, and penetrated up the stream to the paper manufactory, from real +papyrus, on its banks. The vestiges of a temple of Diana, converted into +a monastery, and the nearly perfect remains of that amphitheatre which +Cicero pronounced the largest in the world, are not to be seen in every +morning's walk! Of Archimedes, without being able to fix his proper tomb +among so many, the _name_ here is enough. One ought to be able to +conjure with it; the genius that concentrated the sun of Syracuse on the +hostile anchorage, was of no common measure. We spent our day on a visit +of the deepest interest, up at _Epipolae_ (_i.e._, the position _on or +over the city_, as Thucydides expresses it,) the acropolis, in fact, of +Syracuse, and at about the same distance from the town itself as Athens +is from Piraeus. In order to do this commodiously, we allowed ourselves +to be suspended between two mules in a very narrow watchman's box, +_lettiga_, (the ancient _lectiga_, you will say--no: here there is +nothing for it but an erect spine.) The see-saw motion is unpleasant as +well as unusual; the mules, though docile, have not the _savoir faire_ +of a couple of Dublin or Edinburgh chairmen. You must sit _quite_ in the +middle, or run the perpetual chance of capsizing. A little alarming, +also, is it to look out on the stone-strewn furrow, over which the mules +carry you safely enough; and when you have become reconciled to the +oscillation, and have learned to trim the boat in which you have +embarked, it is long before your ear becomes accustomed to the stunning +sound of a hundred little bells fastened to the mules' heads. "_Do_ take +them off," said we, after half an hour's impatience; "do, pray, remove +these infernal bells!" "And does the signor imagine that _any_ mule +would go without falling asleep, or lying down, were it not for the +bells?" We arrived safe and stunned, in about an hour and a half, at the +foot of a tower of no Roman or Sicilian growth, but a bastard +construction upon the ancient foundations of Epipolae. We saw, however, +some fine remains of a wall, which might have been called Cyclopian, but +that the blocks which composed it were of _one_ size. Our guide, a +mason, and, of course, an amateur of walls, insists upon our calling +this a _capo d'opera_, as, no doubt, it is. On the spot itself there is +nothing antique to see; but the drive or ride is one of the most +remarkable in all the world! It takes you over from four to five miles +of a rocky table-land, by a very gradual ascent, abounding with +indelible traces of human frequentation, else long forgotten. The deep +channelling of those wheels is still extant that had transported million +tons of stone out of those interminable lines of quarries, to raise +buildings of such grandeur as to give occasion to Cicero to say, that he +had "seen nothing so imposing as the ancient port and walls of +Syracuse!" The scene is altogether wild and peculiar; you pass for miles +amidst excavated rock, and on the flagstones of ancient pavement, +between the _commissures_ of which wild-flowers, principally of the +_thistle_ kind, spring up into vigorous life, and look as if they grew +out of the very stone itself. The small conduit-pipe of an underground +aqueduct still serves to carry from the same sources the same water; but +the people who used it are gone. In the wildest parts of the way, the +large flat stones, that formed a continuous road, serve for +_barn-floors_--or rather _threshing_-floors that require _no barns_--on +which long-horned cattle tread out, without any chance of bad weather to +injure, the golden grain of the Sicilian harvest. Here lives the +blue-breasted _hermit bird_ in unmolested solitude; and, careless of +solitude, the _Passer solitarius_ utters her small twitter in the +hollows--a few goats browse amongst the scanty thistles, and one or two +dogs protect them. Snakes, hatched in vast number under the warm stones, +show you their progress, by the motion they impart to the thin light +grass; and an endless variety of new lizards present themselves in a +soil not untenanted, though barren. From a plain, justly called Bel +Veduta, we see _Catania_ and _Lentini_, (Leontium,) famous once for its +coinage, infamous now for its malaria. A little bay bears the great name +of _Thapsus_; and, opposite, a small mass of nearly undistinguishable +houses, the ambitious distinction of _Port Augusta_. + +We have seen our sights, and are returned, and waiting to go on shore. +Our paddle-wheels are once more at rest in the harbour of Messina! They +have let down the windows of the long room on deck, in which we had +taken shelter from the vermin below, and wake we must, though it is not +five o'clock. The sun breaks cover to-day, magnificently, behind +Messina; but the Health-office having no inducement to open its eyes +prematurely, will not, for some time, send its delegates on board, to +announce our liberty to land. We have nothing for it but to look over +the boat, or study haggard faces reflected in the unflattering mirror of +a beautiful sea. The hauling about of things on deck is always pleasant, +as a signal of voyage over! The sun still shines full upon the long row +of houses on the quay--fishing boats are entering with abundance of +fresh fish for our dinner, and shoals of silvery sardines, untaken, are +leaping out of the water near our prow, to escape from a large body of +mackerel which is pursuing them. The authorities are coming! We don't +want any cards to hotels, but cram a dozen into our pockets, and ask if +there are any more here? We are sorry to take a new guide. Jack +Robertson has spoiled us for some time. When he pocketed our +supplementary piece, as we were coming off, he told us, "haud sine +lacrymis," it should buy a linen shirt for his youngest child. "I good +Christian, sir, I no tell you lie, sir! I love my children, upon my +word! When they go to bed, my wife not able to attend them, sir! They +cry, father. I say, yes! _Bread_, says little Bill--I get up; give him +some bread. Mary say, _water_, and I get up for water six times every +night!--no story, sir!" "How many hours do you work?" "When sun get up, +sir, till it be mid-day; I go see childer till three, den work hard at +BUILD WALL till sun go down; den I go home. I wish I could speak English +better; but you understand me, sir." We rowed off with many _vivas_, and +this poor mason's "hopes" that we "might _find all square at home_." At +home! Oh, that we had a home!!--an unassuming wife--placens et tacens +uxor; an unpretending house, with a comfortable guest-chamber; and no +noiseless nursery, _unfendered_ and uncared for! But the bells of +Messina, all let loose together, interrupt our pleasing reverie, and our +friends, who have been hovering round us in a boat, are now permitted to +approach, and to land with us at our hotel. 'Tis our last day!--in the +evening, we go to hear Sicilian vespers for the last time; and the next +day we are off for Naples! + + +ADDIO! SICILIA! + +On deck!--off!--Stromboli is already veiling himself in the rapidly +encroaching shades of darkness, and it is time to say good-night to +this fair night, and to go to our cabin. Beautiful Sicily! may this +_not_ be our final leave-taking! We found no poetry below, and in a +short time are driven back from the cabin by its complicated nuisances, +to moonlight contemplation, and catching cold. An hour elapses--a town +not to be forgotten by the Neapolitans is just ahead. The moon shines +brightly on its high-perched castle, and we have scarce stopped the +paddles, when our deck is invaded by a new freightage of passengers, +already far too many. Twenty boats full of noise and animation, with all +the exaggeration that attends both in these latitudes; every pair of +oars fighting for a fare, and knocking one another over board in +contention for passenger or parcel destined to land at Pizzo. They ship +about with the wildness and alacrity of South-Sea islanders; some are +all but naked, and every quarrel is conducted in such a Calabrian +brogue, that the very men of Messina profess not to understand them, and +to treat them as savages rather than as countrymen. The small fort in +front was disgraced by the nocturnal trial and prompt execution of the +unfortunate Murat. It is long ago; but of these noisy disputants for the +things to be landed, some probably had been eyewitnesses of the last +bloody act of a blood-stained throne. A poor sick horse, confined in his +narrow crib on deck, blinks at the moonlight, and can neither sleep nor +eat his corn; he drops his lower lip, and presents an appearance of more +physical suffering than we should have thought could have been +recognized in face of quadruped; but pain traces stronger lines, and +understands the anatomy of expression better than pleasure. We wished to +land for half an hour, but this being impossible, _addio Pizzo!_ Our +vessel is quickly off, and our Cyclopean stokers are already mopping off +their black sweat in the dreadful glare of the engine-room. Some cages, +full of canaries and parrots, just become our fellow-passengers, are all +in a fluster at the screaming and bustle to which they are unused, and a +large cargo of turkeys, with fettered legs, and fowls that can only flap +their wings, do so in despair at the treatment threatened them by the +dogs on deck--second and third class passengers are fighting for +prerogatives in misery, amidst the clatter of unclean plates, and the +remains of the supper of the fore-cabin. The space for walking, is +encumbered with coils of cordage, and the empty water-barrels are all +taken possession of for seats. Bad tobacco, even among the _elite_, and +garlic every where, drive us to the fore-deck, or to the neutral ground +between it and ours. A passage, which promised fair when we started, +begins, now that we are half over, to look suspicious; and a preliminary +lurch or two, as the breeze freshens, converts many from an opinion they +had begun to _promulgate_, that the steamer on the Mediterranean +afforded, _on the whole_, the most eligible mode of traversing space. We +looked at each other piteously enough, on seeing that we were fast going +to face a magnificent specimen of a wave, of which our piston was +determined to try the valour, and if possible abate the confidence. When +Greek meets Greek, said we, as we dashed through it, and gave a warning +to old Neptune to take care of his interests below! Other huge parcels +of water hit us obliquely, or come down upon us with a swoop like a +falchion; steam hisses, and chimney gets red-hot; but though the vessel +yields not, there be those on board who _do_: an Anglo-Sicilian pleasure +party is quenched in twenty blanched faces at once; conversation is +over, women retire, and the deck is deserted. Against such _ups and +downs as these_, the very philosophy of the Stoics were powerless!--even +thou, O moon! seemest a _little_ disconcerted, and hast withdrawn thy +_pale_ face from thy whilom plate-glass, _the Mediterranean_, so often, +for weeks together, like the inland lake of the north, + + "Thy _mirror_! to inform + Thee, if the dark and arrowy storm + The forest boughs that brake, + Require thy slender silvery hand, to still + Thy ruffled wreath of _lily_ and jonquil!" + + _Pindemonte._ + +Whew!--wind gets up, and takes part with wave, and all against us--never +mind!-- + + "Hurrah! for the marvels of steam, + As thus through the waters we roam; + For pistons that smite, oh! for funnels that gleam, + And to carry us safe through the _foam_." + +Whew, whew!--but greater divinities than Neptune are abroad +to-night!--What! expect our _black_ chimney to show the _white_ feather! +Pooh! pooh! old _Eunosigaeus_, what are thy _white horses_ to the +invisible hoofs of two hundred and forty coal-black steeds stamping in +the hold? We had, however, a sharp seven-hours' tussle for it; at the +end of which, the buffeted Mongibello came bounding into the harbour, +and swirled round in the face of Vesuvius, who was smoking his cigar as +quietly as ever! + +We have tried several Mediterranean steamers, and our report of all is +much the same--bad is the best! A sea passage any where, to be +comfortable, depends _solely_ on the smoothness of the water; if this be +rough, what care you for mahogany, rosewood, and plate-glass? Whether +the cabin where you are to be sick, and to hear others groan, has its +Scotts, its Byrons, and its Moores, under a convex mirror; its rows of +curtained births, and horse-hair sofas, and its long line of polished, +well articulated tables? Whether the smell of empyreumatised grease be +wafted to the nostrils by a _Maudsley_ or a _Bell_? Whether the captain +have his _ears bored_, or be an Englishman? Your brass nails and +varnished _buffets_ are very well _in dock_, when the vessel has _stank_ +off her last voyage, and lies clean washed, like that other _syren_ of +the opposite coast, who coaxed Ulysses and his men, some years ago--not, +indeed, to _come on board_, but the contrary. But when her deck is all +soot and nastiness, when she has quartered her vermin on her passengers, +and goes gurgling along, as if _she had an Empyema under her pleura +costalis_; when she _pitches into_ the waves, as if to _punish_ them, +and tramples on their crests, as if to crush them under her keel, why +all the brass you want is "AES TRIPLEX;" and there is no _varnish_ in the +world that will enable _you_ to put _a good face on it_. A few heaves +more, such as those of our present imagining, and brandy and water, +bottled porter, and _bottled philosophy_, are uncorked in vain! + +As to particular steamers, the Castor since he lost his twin-brother, +who was run down off _Capo D'Anzo_ (he forgot, we suppose, to invoke +Fortune "_gratum quae regit Antium_"), has become quite negligent of +toilette, and incredulous about the powers of soap and sand. The bugs in +only _one_ of her beds would defy _Bonnycastle!_ Fast enough, however, +goes the Castor! Orestes, pursued by the furies, never rushed more +impetuously on than does this child of Leda, with all his vermin in the +locker. Of Virgil in the water, we have no experience, but they say his +_prosody_ is perfect, and his _quantity_ (of accommodation) blameless. +The Dante under paddles is unknown to us; but the poem which his +customers read oftenest on board is doubtless the _Purgatory_. The +captain of the Palermo, an obliging man, _with ear-rings_, and speaking +Siculo-English, does his job in nineteen hours; and giving you one +execrable meal, gives you more than enough. This vessel (blessed +privilege!) carries some of the Teffin family (Mr Teffin, our readers +know, was _bug-destroyer to the king_), and _is said_ to have no bugs. +As to the two floating volcanoes, Vesuvius and Mongibello, we had heard +much against the Neapolitan _crater_ (_cabin they_ call it), and, after +due preparation, we precipitated ourselves into the latter, which +placards her two hundred and fifty horse-power. The engineer, however, +if you acquire his confidence, reduces the team considerably, taking off +at least one-fifth. Horse-power is, after all, we fear, an appeal to the +imagination! How do you measure horse-power? and what horses? Calabrian +nags? Arab stallions? Dutch mares? or English drays? or perhaps you mean +_sea-horses?_ That every vessel has a great _rocking-horse power_ we +know by sad experience, and are come to read one hundred and fifty, two +hundred, &c., with great tranquillity, being convinced that when the +translation from horse-power into paddle-power is effected, you obtain +no corresponding result. + + + + +AESTHETICS OF DRESS. + + +MILITARY COSTUME. + +Military dress is almost as difficult and dangerous a thing to deal with +as ladies' attire; as various in its hues and forms, as fanciful in its +conceits, as changeable in its fashions, and as touchy in the temper of +its wearers. To pull a guardsman by his coat-tail would be as +unpardonable an offence as to tread on a lady's skirt; and to offer an +opinion upon a lancer's cap might be considered as impertinent as to +criticise a lady's bonnet. Having, however, been bold enough to commit +offences of the latter description, we will now venture to brave the +wrath of the whole of Her Majesty's forces, horse, foot, and artillery, +while we read those gallant gentlemen a lecture on their costume; and we +will even add into the bargain that other most honourable and equally +useful branch of the public force "the mariners of England;"--as for +"the force," the police, truly we eschew them and their deeds. They are +a perverse, stiff-necked race, who wear two abominations, round hats and +short coats, and they have a villanous propensity of following you home +from your club of an evening, and inveigling you every now and then to +Bow Street, thrusting a broken knocker or two into your pocket as you go +along, and then pestering your bewildered memory with all sorts of +nocturnal misdemeanors; truly they are a race of noxious vermin; pretty +well, perhaps, for the protection of the swinish multitude; but for us +gentlemen, why, they "come betwixt the wind and our nobility," and their +remembrance stinks in our nostrils! One thing only we know in their +favour,--they dress all in one colour; their blueness alone makes them +sufferable in this nineteenth century of ours, and whenever they depart +from this great principle of aesthetic unity, we will bring in a bill for +their suppression. + +Now, if there be any thing more self-evident than the ante-Noachian +problem that "two and two make four," it is this axiom, the verity of +which was demonstrated long before Achilles behaved in so +ungentlemanlike a manner to Hector, when he took him that dirty drive +round Troy, viz., that utility for purposes of service is the very +essence and spirit of military costume. The finest dressed army in the +world had better be in plain clothes, if the excellence of their +clothing depends only upon its ornament; while, on the contrary, the +plainest and most rudely equipped corps will come out of campaign with +excellent military effect and appearance, provided only that their +clothing has been suited to their service. "My dear fellow," said an old +moustache to us one day on the Place du Carrousel, "give me 20,000 men +who have served in nothing but blouses and blue caps, and I'll make you +ten times as fine a line as all that mob of national guards there in +their new uniforms." And he was right; in military matters it is the man +that produces the real effect, as to appearance, upon the long run; and +the practised eye of the old campaigner would prefer a Waterloo man in a +smock-frock to any flunkey you could pick out, even though he were +dressed up as fine as Lady L----'s favourite chasseur. We assert, then, +that a scrupulous attention to the nature of the service should form the +basis and the starting point of all discussions as to military costume; +but we will not go so far as to say that ornament is inadmissible or +unnecessary for military men. On the contrary, we know that the +adornment of the person has been attended to by the bravest men in all +ages and in all armies; and we know further, that it does produce a +powerful effect on the _morale_ of a corps. We intend to advocate the +use of frequent but consistent ornament for our soldiers, but we do not +wish to turn then into mere paraders. Use first and before every thing, +in this case at least--ornament next and entirely subsidiary to it; keep +to this rule, and you shall see an army turned out into the field +better than most that pass muster now-a-days. + +It is of no use going into that diffuse subject--that _vexatissima +quaestio_--of how far the military dress of ancient days accorded with +the wants and uses of the service; the reader may go and look into that +dusty little volume of _Vegetius de Re Militari_, if he is fond of +dabbling in military antiquities; or he may consult our learned old +friend, Captain Grose of facetious memory; or still better, let him be +off to Goderich Court, and ask the porter to admit him to a sight of the +finest collection of armour in the world. We are not going to dive into +these matters; we will rather say roundly, that ever since armour came +to be disused, we think military men have gone clean daft in equipping +themselves. Only look at the uniforms of the campaigns of the Grand +Monarque or William of Orange; see what inconvenient coats those +glorious fellows that won Blenheim and Ramilies wore; recollect the +absurd turn-out of Charles XII., and even of Frederick the Great. +Convenience and comfort seem to have been totally out of the question in +those days--not that they made the men worse soldiers--they all fought +admirably--but we question whether their fatigues would not have been +less, and their health sounder, had they been clad and equipped in a +sensible manner. Oh, the powder, and the pigtails, and the broad cuffs, +and the Ramilies cock, and the sword tucked through the coat-tail! +Glories of glorious times, ye are gone for ever! But so, too, are the +tactics of your wearers; all is changed; another Caesar has swept you all +off the field; and even the famous uniforms of the French empire, so +brilliant,--but at times so absurd,--even they have been altered. They +have had their day, and most of them are fit now only for fancy-balls +and old-clothes' shops. Nothing is so short-lived as a good uniform; it +varies with the taste of a commander-in-chief, or a commander-in-chief's +toady; or the fancy of some royal favourite. It's like the wind in the +Mediterranean; you never know what is coming upon you till you are in +the midst of it; and so it is with your uniform. Get a new one, and the +probability is that you will not show it on parade half-a-dozen times +before a new regulation is out, and then more work for the tailors. Be +it so, then; military costume, like all other kinds, is doomed to +change; let us aim only at keeping its vagaries within something like +the limits of common sense. + +The infantry of our own army--the successors of those noble fellows that +walked across Spain--have no better covering for their backs than the +scanty and useless coatee; in this they parade, and in this they are +supposed to fight. Behind, two little timid-looking skirts descend any +thing but gracefully; they are too small to have any grace in them; and +a pair of sham cotton epaulettes, or large unmeaning wings, are +supposed, by a pleasing fiction of the military tailors, to adorn their +shoulders. Now, this garment, we contend, is neither ornamental nor +graceful: were it cut down into the common jacket, it would be better; +were the excrescences at the shoulders removed, it would be more seemly; +it has no warmth in it, and offers little or no protection against the +rain. No soldier, who has been reduced to his coatee in a campaign, but +must have sighed after his original smock-frock, or any other outer +covering that had at least some pretensions to being useful. Since, +however, the idea of defending the body of the foot-soldier by steel or +leather is given up, the two things requisite in a serviceable coat are +warmth and convenience. No coatee nor jacket can be warm enough for the +British service, exposed as the men are to all varieties of climate; and +infinitely more to cold and wet than to sunshine. In India, and in some +of the colonies, a lighter kind of clothing may be indeed necessary; but +for the common use of the army, a coat is wanted that shall be a +protection against wet and cold, and yet not inconvenient to the +wearer--making him comfortable, in fact, while it allows him free use of +all his limbs and muscles. For the heavy infantry, therefore, we would +propose such a coat as we have before recommended for all civilians; +nothing more nor less than a frock-coat, coming down half way along the +thighs, and close buttoned above to the chin. Every body knows that +this is the most comfortable thing he can put on for all kinds of wear; +and the evolutions of a good infantry soldier can be perfectly well gone +through by whoever wears it. The shoulders, if they require external +ornament, should have something that is really useful at the same time; +not merely tinsel or cotton lace; and, therefore, it should be the +adaptation of a thick woollen pad, ornamented with metal or coloured +lace, calculated to take off the pressure of the musket and of the +knapsack-straps from the bones of the neck and arm. Whoever has carried +a musket twelve or fourteen hours continuously, and has had his pack on +at the same time, well knows how comfortable and how really useful such +an addition to his dress would have been. The coat should be furnished +with two small pockets in front, just to hold a knife, some money, and +things of that kind; and they should be close to the circle of pressure +at the waist. + +The appearance of a close-buttoned coat of this kind, not caricatured +about the shoulders, is manly and dignified; it proclaims its usefulness +at the first glance; and, whatever be its colour, will form a handsome +uniform. The cross-belts should be done away with--being at once ugly, +expensive, and inconvenient--a plain broad strap, white or black, as you +please, should gird the waist up well; and the cartouche-box, which +could be made to slide upon it, might be worn, while out of battle, +behind; but, in actual engagement, in front. The bayonet (which might +advantageously be lengthened, and made to approximate rather more to the +nature of a sword, or a long knife, than it does now) should always have +its sheath fixed to the belt, at the left side. + +The soldier would in this way have his habiliments warmer, his +equipments tighter and more simple, and his appearance in line or on +guard, highly improved. Only think of how you would dress yourself if +you were going out deer-stalking, and you will come to something of this +kind--barring the pockets of your shooting-coat, which are certainly +inadmissible, from motives of military neatness and discipline; and +barring, too, the buttoning up to the chin, which, on the mountain's +side, you had perhaps rather dispense with; but which the soldier must +adhere to, if he would keep up the essential degree of stiffness and +smartness of dress. Coats of this kind, and equipments of this nature, +are worn by the Prussian and French infantry--two good authorities in +military matters; they have been tried on our police force; something of +the sort has been used for clothing the pensioners; and we venture to +predict, that, in a few years, a dress upon these principles will become +universal in the British service. + +Should a man have a cloak or a great-coat?--It should be a compound of +both--a small cloak with sleeves; and it might be worn either rolled up, +as at present, on the top of the kit; or else, as some of the French +troops wear it--both conveniently and gracefully--made up into a long +thin roll, going over the left shoulder, and with the ends strapped +together upon the right hip. The Scotch regiments would wear their +plaids most effectively in this fashion; and it is a good guise to +adopt, whether you are on the rough lands of Spain, or in the thick +woods of America. A warm coat and a blanket are two of the soldier's +dearest friends in winter and have kept many a man out of hospital. + +The light-infantry man--and there ought to be more distinction made in +the uniforms than there is--might wear a long jacket, descending below +the hips, instead of a frock-coat: his cloak, too, should be lighter: +and, in fact, his whole equipments constructed for quick and active +service. So should be the rifleman's clothing and arms; everything +should be designed to serve the one end had in view--the real use and +intent of that particular arm, whatever it might be; and, if so, then +let the officers of the rifles leave off their long trailing +sabres--fitter for a light dragoon than for one who is supposed to be +hopping about, like a Will o' the Wisp, in swampy brakes; or creeping, +like a serpent, through rushes and long grass. Their present swords are +good for nothing but to trip them up in their movements, or to give them +the pleasure of holding the sheath in one hand, and the blade in the +other. + +For the leg-clothing of our men, give us the trouser, and let us keep +to it; we do not indeed seem likely to change it; yet, who can tell? +Just as the civilian seems to have decided upon this happy invention, as +the most useful and comfortable thing he ever donned, so will all +military men agree in its praises. It is not so good for parade +purposes, as the light pantaloon and gaiter, in as much as it conceals +defects of limbs; but, on the long run, it is far to be preferred; it +lasts better, keeps cleaner, and does more comfortable service to its +wearer, than any thing else. One point not sufficiently attended to by +our military authorities, and yet which affects the health of the men, +is, that their trousers, whether in parade or for service, whether for +winter or for summer use, should be made of such a woollen fabric as +will allow of frequent washing. It is impossible for the cleanliness of +the soldier to be sufficiently kept up without this; and the material +now used for plaids of various kinds, or the common blanketing for +sailors' clothes, might be easily modified, so as to be suitable for +this purpose. Linen trousers are indispensable for foreign service of +some kinds; but for summer clothing at home, a light white blanketing, +which has the curious faults of being cool in warm weather, and warm in +cold, is the proper substitute; our men often get sudden chills in +summer evenings, which send then to the fever ward, and the cause is +mainly attributable to undue exposure in insufficient clothing. To +complete the lower portions of the soldier's dress, let him wear either +the shoe and gaiter, or the low boot; either is good, there is hardly a +choice--comfort preponderates in favour of the gaiters--ornament in that +of the boot. + +And now for the head-gear of the British Achilles: a touching and a +troublesome subject, which has bothered all heads, from those of the +humble wearer up to the field-marshal, who is content under the +shadow--not of his laurels--but his plumes--to design any kind of +uncomfortable and ugly thing that strikes his imagination, and to clap +it on the cranium of steady veteran and raw recruit. Truly we have been +most unfortunate, aesthetically speaking, in our military caps; and, to +go no further back than Peninsular recollections,--from the +conico-cylindrical cap of Vimiera to the funny little thing with a flap +up in front of Vittoria and Waterloo, down through the inverted +cone-shaped shako of recent days--until we have come to the very bathos +of all chapellerie that now disgraces the heads of too many among our +infantry regiments--all has been bad. Never, since the day when men +first armed their heads for the fight, has there been seen such a +paltry, ugly, useless, bastard kind of a thing as the last cap turned +out for the British army. With its poke before and behind, its conical +top and low elevation, it is a degraded cross between a Germano-Tyrolese +cap and a policeman's hat--a bad mixture of both. May it be sent back to +Germany, where the idea came from, and may it be stuffed into a barrel +of sour-crout, not to come out till it is thoroughly rotted. + +There is only this choice for the useful and graceful covering of the +foot-soldier's head; either the small slouched hat of the old Spanish +infantry--a hat very liable to be turned into something slovenly and +dirty--or the foraging cap of our undress--a covering most comfortable, +but not quite strong enough for campaigning use, as well as for parade; +or the helmet of antique form, shaped, that is to say, in some +conformity with the make of the head, and more or less ornamented with +crest and plume. We incline on the whole to the latter, and for two +reasons: it is not so liable to get altered in shape by service as the +others; it will wear well for a longer time; it is more useful in melees +and against cavalry; and it is the most becoming of any. In Prussia it +has lately been adopted with great success; and the appearance of the +infantry there is now warlike and graceful in the highest degree. The +helmet need not be made of metal; boiled leather is the proper +material--ventilation and lightness can be easily provided for in it, +and any degree of ornament may be superadded--crest or feathers, each is +becoming. + +For Eastern service something lighter than this is of course +necessary--a cap or a broad hat might easily be adopted there; and for +American service another description of covering is also most essential +to the health and comfort of the soldier. We mean the close-fitting and +well-formed fur cap, which can protect the head, neck, and cheeks of the +wearer from the extraordinary rigour of a Canadian winter. The cap worn +by our guards when last on service in these regions, was at once +comfortable, useful, and handsome. + +For the cavalry, where ornament seems to be required much more than +amongst the infantry--for they fancy themselves, if indeed they are not, +the top sawyers in all matters of service--the head-dress must be not +only useful, but can hardly be made too ornamental, within the limits of +good taste. And here allow us to say that the infantry shako and the +great grenadier's cap are perfectly absurd and misplaced; the one will +never give a man any chance against a sabre-cut, and the other is fit +only to tumble off within the first two minutes of a charge. In heavy +cavalry nothing but the helmet, richly plumed and crested, should be +allowed; constructed either of leather or metal, yellow brass or silvery +steel, and adorned sometimes with skins, sometimes with graven plates. +The handsomest helmet worn by any regiment in Europe, is that of the old +_gardes du corps_ of Charles X., the same as that now worn by the +_gardes municipaux a cheval_ in Paris; a metal helm with leopard-skin +visir; a lofty crest, with a horse-tail streaming down the back, and a +high red and white feather rising from the left side. Beauty of natural +form, the sharp contrast of flowing lines between the feather and the +tailed crest, and the general brilliancy of colour, render this by far +the most effective head-dress for cavalry which we have ever seen. Our +helmets in England, for the dragoon guards, are too heavy, too +theatrical; there is no life and spirit in them. + +In light cavalry of all kinds, except lancers, the fur cap, lately +re-introduced into the British army, is the most useful and most +suitable covering; it is at once comfortable and becoming; its form is +warlike and harmonious; its colour rich; and it admits of as much or as +little ornament as you please to put upon it. Without a feather it is +good, with one it is better; guard-bands add to its appearance without +troubling the wearer; and it has the merit of lasting to look well +longer than any other kind of cap whatever. In the lancers they should +always preserve that national cap which tells us of the origin of this +arm, and which is an ingenious and elegant adaptation of the strength of +the helmet to the lightness of the shako; it is beautiful and graceful +as the lance itself; we have nothing to say of it but what is in its +favour. + +Heavy cavalry, in our opinion, ought to wear the cuirass; this is the +only relic of ancient defence which we are advocates for keeping up, and +we do so upon the score of utility. It is rather heavy for the men, but +only so because they are not accustomed to wear it in a judicious +manner; it is of real service to the arm in question, and is the +greatest ornament that a soldier can put on. It is true that our heavy +cavalry did all their gallant deeds without it, and may do so over +again; still it can do no harm, and may be of much use to a brigade of +decidedly heavy cavalry; the helmet and the cuirass should always go +together, neither without the other, as we see it often now, forming an +absurd anomaly. The coat of the cavalry should be long, like the +frock-coat for the heavy regiments; short, like the lengthened jacket of +the light infantry, for the corresponding branch of the mounted +soldiers; and the lancers should all wear the Andalusian or Hungarian +jacket. While these may be ornamented with all the fancies of lace, +embroidery, and buttons, the dress of the cuirassiers should be severely +plain and simple. Epaulettes here, if worn, should be mere enrichments +of the top of the sleeve; no weight has to be carried on the horseman's +shoulder, and therefore our metal plates now stuck upon them are +useless. The belt of the cartouche-box, if needed, can be confined on +the shoulder by other means; and this, as well as the waist-belt for the +sabre, should be broad and serviceable, fit for the roughest use. + +To complete the clothing of our brave cavaliers, we would urge that +wherever the helmet and cuirass are used, there the long boot should be +adopted, were it only for harmony of purpose, to say nothing of means +of defence. They need not be stiff, unwieldy, and so-called sword-proof +boots, like those of the Life-guards, but equally high and much more +flexible; they would cost a good deal of money at the first mounting of +a regiment, but they would last for a long time by merely renewing their +feet, and they would be both serviceable and comfortable to the men. Let +all other regiments adhere as at present to their trousers--they can +hardly do better; though, if any smart hussar corps wanted to show off +their well-turned limbs to the ladies on a review day, they might sport +tight pantaloons and Hessian boots as of old, _pace nostra_. + +One important subject, as connected with military dress, is that of +national distinctions of costume; for whatever tends to remind men of +their common country, whatever tends to mark them out as a band of +brothers in arms, coming from the same homes, and bound to stand by each +other in their noble calling--this is worthy of the attention of the +skilful leader. In our own country, we have admirable opportunities of +turning the strong love of local distinction and ancient glory to good +account; for while we consider the brilliant scarlet of our uniforms to +be distinctive of English arms, we have the glorious old plaids of +Scotland, any one of which is enough to stir up the heart of the +hardiest mountaineer, when he meets his brethren in the field. We are of +opinion, then, that as a point of military discipline, as well as of +aesthetical correctness, all English regiments--properly so +called--should adhere to their red uniforms, varied with subsidiary +ornaments, or other distinctions, to mark separate regiments and corps. +Those from Scotland should all wear the plaids, so as to let them +predominate in their habiliments--of course, we would send those stupid +plumed caps to the right-about, and adopt the Scotch bonnet; but the +plaid of each clan should find its place in the British army; and those +noble distinctions of old feudal manners should never be done away with. +The Irish regiments ought also to have their distinguishing colours; and +as green seems to be the poetical tint of the Emerald Isle, there is no +sound objection to the adoption of that hue for the base of the Irish +uniform. Irish soldiers will fight like devils in any uniform, or in no +uniform at all, as has been seen on many a gory field; but if the use of +green can awaken one thought of national glory--one kindly recollection +of "dear Erin" in their hearts--then let the gallant spirits from the +western isle lead their headlong charges in the tint that haunts their +imagination. Do we want them to have some red about their coats?--they +are always willing to dye them with their best blood. And even the +Taffies--the quiet, sedate Taffies--for "she is good soldier, Got tam, +when her blood is up"--why should not they have some national uniform, +to remind them of the blue tints of their native mountains and deep +vales? Children of the mist and the wild heath, the natural rock, and +the lonely lake--the glare of our Saxon red is too brilliant for them; +let them wrap their sinewy limbs and fiery hearts in pale blue, and +grey, and white--and so let them enter the bloody lists, where they will +hold their ground by the side of the three other nations, and bear away +their share of military glory. + +A few words on the navy, and we have done--and only a few words; for we +have nothing to say, but to give unqualified praise. In the habiliments +of our jolly tras--God bless 'em!--utility is every thing, ornament +nothing. They are clad just as they should be; and yet, on gala days, +they know how to make themselves as coquettish as any girl on Portsmouth +Downs. There is no greater dandy in the world, in his peculiar way, than +your regular man-of-war's man. The short jacket, and the loose trousers, +and the neat pumps, and the trim little hat, and the checked shirt, and +the black riband round his neck--he is quite irresistible among the +fairer portion of the creation. Or in a stormy night, with his pilot +coat on, at the lonely helm, and his northwester pulled close over his +ears, and his steady, unflinching eye, and his warm, lion-like heart +within--the true sailor is one of the noblest specimens of man. He that +is fierce as a bull, and yet tender-hearted like a young child--the +greatest blasphemer on earth, and yet the most religious, or even the +most superstitious, of men--he is not to be tied down by the rules of +aesthetics, like a land-crab. His home is on the sea, as somebody has +said or sung; he has nobody there to see him but himself, (if we may be +excused the bull.) What does he care for dress? Only look at him +standing by his gun, when broadside after broadside is pouring into the +timbers of some sanguinary Yankee or blustering Frenchman. What is his +uniform then? Let them declare who have seen that most awful of human +sights, a great battle at sea; but let them not whisper it in ears +feminine or polite. + +To the officers, we will only add a word--let them eschew all hats and +short coats, and keep to their caps and frocks. This is their proper +dress. Let them keep themselves warm, comfortable, and ever ready for +service. Never let them face their coats with red again. The old blue +and white against all the world, say we! And let the soldiers take a +leaf out of the sailors' books, and remember that utility, though +accompanied by plainness, is far more consonant to the laws of aesthetics +than unmeaning ornament or erroneous form. + + + + +GOETHE TO HIS ROMAN LOVE. + +ATTEMPTED IN THE ORIGINAL METRE. + + + Lass dich, Geliebte, nicht reu'n dass du mich so schnell dich ergeben! + Glaub'es, ich denke nicht frech, denke nicht niedrig von dir. + Vielfach wirkten die Pfeile des Amor; einige ritzen, + Und vom schleichenden Gift kranket auf Jahre des Herz, + Aber machtig befiedert, mit frisch geschliffener Scharfe, + Dringen die andern ins Mark, zunden behende das Blut. + In der Heroischen Zeit, da Gotten und Gottinnen liebten, + Folgte Begierde dem Blick, folgte Genuss der Begier. + Glau'bst du er habe sich lange die Gottiun der Liebe besonnen, + Als in Idaeischen Hain einst ihr Anchises befiel? + Hatte Luna gesaeumt den schonen Schlaefer zu kuessen,-- + O, so hatt' ihm geschwind, neidend, Aurora geweckt! + Hero erblickte Leander am lauten Fest, und behende + Stuerzte der Liebende sich heiss in die nachtliche Fluth. + Rhea Sylvia wandelt, die fuerstliche Jungfrau, der Tiber + Wasser zu schopfen, hinab--und sie ergreifet der Gott. + So erzengte die Sohne sich Mars! Die zwillinge tranket + Eine Wolfin, und Rom nennt sich die Fuerstin der Welt. + + Rue it not, dear, that so swiftly thy tenderness yielded thee to me-- + Dream not again that I think lightly or lowly of thee. + Divers the arrows of Love: from some that but graze on the surface, + Softly the poison is shed, slowly to sicken the heart; + Others, triumphantly feather'd, and pointed with exquisite mischief, + Rush to the mark, and the glow quivers at once in the blood. + In the heroical time when to Love the Deities yielded, + Follow'd desire on a glance, follow'd enjoyment desire. + Deem'st thou the parley was long when Anchises had pleased Aphrodite, + Catching her eye as she roved deep in the woodlands of Ide? + Or that if Luna had paused about wooing her beautiful Sleeper, + Jealous Aurora's approach would not have startled the boy? + Hero had glanced on Leander but once at the Festival--instant + Plunges the passionate youth into the night-mantled wave. + Rhea in maidenly glee caroll'd down with her urn to the Tiber-- + But in a moment she sank mute on the breast of the God: + Hence the illustrious Twins that were nursed in the den of the She-wolf; + Worthy of Mars were the boys:--Rome was the Queen of the World. + + P.M. + + +EPIGRAMS. + +ANACREON'S GRAVE. + + + Wo die Rose hier blueht, wo Reben um Lorbeer sich schlingen + Wo das Turtelchen lockt, wo sich das Grillchen ergezt, + Welch ein grab est hier, das alle Goetter mit Leben + Schoen bepflanzt und geziert? Es ist Anacreons Ruh. + Fruehling, Sommer und Herbst genoss der glueckliche Dichter, + Vor dem Winter hat ihn endlich der huegel geschuetzt. + + Here where the Rose is in bloom, the Vine and the Laurel entwining-- + Here where the Turtle invites--here where the Grasshopper springs, + Whose is this grave in the midst, which the Gods with life and with beauty + Thus have circled and decked?--This is Anacreon's Tomb. + Spring, and Summer, and Autumn, the joyous spirit had tasted, + And from the Winter he hides under this hillock of green. + + +THE WARNING. + + + Wecke den Amor nicht auf! Noch schaeft der liebliche Knabe + Geh! vollbring dein Geshaeft, wie es der Tag dir gebeut! + So der Zeit bedienet sich klug die sorgliche Mutter, + Wenn ihr Knaebchen entschlaeft, denn es erwacht nur zu bald. + + Waken not Love from his sleep! The boy lies buried in slumber; + Go, and, while leisure is left, finish the task of to-day; + Even as a diligent mother, who, seizing the hour as it passes, + Works while her child is asleep--knowing he'll waken too soon. + + +THE SWISS ALP. + + War doch gestern dein haupt noch so braun wie die Locke der Lieben, + Deren holdes Gebild still aus der Ferne mir winkt; + Silbergrau bezeichzet dir fruh der Schnee nun die Gipfel, + Der sich im sturmender nacht, dir um den Scheitel ergoss. + Jugend, ach, ist dem Alter so nah, durch's Leben verbunden + Wie ein beweglicher Traum Gestern und Heute verband. + + Yesterday's eve were thy peaks still dark as the locks of my loved one, + When from a distance she looks fair and serene upon me; + But, with a mantle of snow, at morn those summits were silver'd, + Which the chill fingers of night sudden had spread on thy brow. + Ah! how swiftly in life may youth and old age be united-- + Even as the flight of a dream yesterday link'd with to-day. + + +NORTH AND SOUTH. + + Glanzen sah ich das Meer, und blinken die liebliche Welle + Frisch mit gunstigem Wind zogen die Segel dahin. + Keine sehnsucht fuehlte mein Herz; es wendete rueckwaerts + Nach dem Schnee des Gebirgs, bald sich der schmachtende Blick. + Suedwaerts liegen der Schaetze wie viel! Doch einer im Norden + Zieht, ein grosser Magnet, unwiderstehlich zurueck. + + Glitter'd the ocean around, in light the billows were breaking, + Freshly, with favouring winds, glided our sails o'er the sea. + Yet for the land of beauty I felt no longing; in sadness + Backward my glances still turn'd towards the region of snow. + Southward how many a treasure invites! but _one_, like the Magnet, + Stronger than all, to the North draws me resistlessly back. + + + + +CHRISTMAS CAROL, 1845. + +TUNE.--"_Packington's Pound._" + + + I. + + "The intrigues of this month shall we e'er comprehend? + Will the Dons, when the Parliament meets, give a clue? + Will one Tory among them speak out like a friend, + On the WHY and BECAUSE of this famous to-do? + Is it really the case + That the Whigs are in place, + Because Peel, when his colleagues assembled, appall'd them + By a cool proposition, + To toss to perdition, + Both the faith and the force that in office install'd them." + + II. + + Thus groan'd out a grumbler, all sulky and sour, + But for Christopher's temper such trash was too much; + And it soon made the malecontent quiver and cower, + When he saw preparations for handling the Crutch. + "Lay your croaking aside," + The old gentleman cried, + "Or I'll make you eat up each ungenerous word: + Not our deadliest foe, + Such injustice should know, + And far less shall a friend be convicted unheard. + + III. + + "Come read here their Mottoes extracted from Burke + For the Commoners,--here for the Peerage from Lodge; + Say, can these be consistent with pitiful work, + On a par with some Whiggish O'Connellite dodge? + Though at present a cloud + May the mystery shroud, + Till secrecy's seal from their lips be removed; + When the truth shall appear, + It will all become clear, + And the words here inscribed shall again be approved. + + IV. + + "Ne'er believe that Peel's noble INDUSTRIA Plann'd + Aught design'd of its honours his fame to despoil, + Aught but JUSTICE to INDUSTRY, JUSTICE to Land, + To the loom and the ploughshare, the sea and the soil. + His hand will still hold + Straight, steady, and bold, + The scales where our wealth and our welfare are weigh'd: + Still though tempests may blow, + And cross currents may flow, + He will steer our good ship till at anchor she's laid." + + V. + + "But surely that terrible leader of Walter's + Was not utterly void of foundation in fact. + Was the Cabinet really not full of defaulters, + And resolved for a time on that ruinous act?" + "Cease, blockhead, to babble + Your ganderlike gable: + Could Repeal e'er be REASON CONTENTS ME with Graham, + Could the NE NIMIUM + Of good Gordon succumb, + Or the Stanley's SANS CHANGER be changed into shame? + + VI. + + "With AVITO HONORE would Wortley turn tail, + To his PRAESTO ET PERSTO is Binning untrue? + Could the SPERNO TIMERE of Somerset quail, + Or a Ripon with treachery blot FOY EST TOUT? + Could the princely Buccleuch + Stoop the star-spangled blue + Of his Bellenden banner when Leaguers came on? + Proved the Lion a jest + On great Wellington's crest? + Did his VIRTUS exude at the shriek of Lord John? + + VII. + + "Arthur falter'd?--I'll swallow such inpudent flams + When the ears of the sow yield us purses of silk; + When there's no Devil's Dust in the Cotton Lord's shams, + And the truck-master's pail holds unmystified milk. + Not a Tory, I swear, + Will be forced to declare + In the face of the Nation's assembled Senatus. + That from duty he shrunk, + Or once felt in a funck + About Cobden, and Bright, and some rotten potatoes! + + VIII. + + "We shall see them again, even now or erelong, + Upon Wisdom and Equity taking their stand, + Calm, able, and upright, harmonious, and strong, + In peace and prosperity ruling the land. + Firm, faithful, and free? + What they say they will do-- + No Right unprotected, no Wrong unredress'd; + While writers of Letters + And all their abettors + Stand in swaggering impotence caught and confess'd." + + + + +THE CRISIS. + + +The announcement that the Peel Ministry had resigned was received by us, +as we believe it was by the nation at large, with feelings of sincere +and solemn regret. We do not know that any Cabinet has existed within +our memory whose retirement was wished for by so few, and deprecated by +so many among all classes of men. We have doubted the policy of some of +its measures, and more than doubted the propriety of others. But we have +never ceased to respect the energy, the ability, and the honesty of the +great men composing it; and have always felt that in those points on +which we could not agree with them, they were entitled to a generous +forbearance, due to their responsible and arduous position, as the +ministers who have most strenuously and most successfully endeavoured to +solve the problem, how the government is to be carried on under the +Reform Bill. The disappointment of some expectations among a powerful +and prominent part of their supporters had diminished the enthusiasm, +and divided the feelings, of the party who mainly contributed to bring +them into power. But, on the other hand, it should not be forgotten, +that they equally disappointed the adverse expectations, and ultimately +gained the confidence of a large, and not unimportant, portion of the +country, who for years had been taught to believe, that the accession of +Conservatives to power would commence a new era of warfare, oppression, +profusion, and corruption. Let us look fairly at some of the practical +and palpable facts of the case--at some of the most conspicuous features +of public affairs, during their administration. AGRICULTURE has +flourished, and agricultural improvement has advanced in an +unprecedented degree. COMMERCE has plumed her wings anew, and added +other regions to her domain. PUBLIC CREDIT has been supported and +advanced, and the revenue raised from an alarming and increasing +depression. PEACE has been universally maintained abroad, and agitation +rendered powerless and contemptible at home. The POOR have been +contented and employed, and not a murmur has been heard against the +authority of the Crown, or the principles of the Constitution. These +unmistakable results have been felt by all men, and all have confessed, +in their hearts, that however they may have been offended with minor +blemishes--whether by the short-coming, or by the excess of ministerial +liberality,--the great purposes of government have been achieved by the +ministry now dissolved, and they will frankly acknowledge with +ourselves, that we shall not soon look upon its like again. + +We know nothing of the causes that have led to this memorable and +momentous event, except that apparently differences of opinion prevailed +among the members of the Ministry in reference to the corn-laws. We +shall not believe, until we hear it from their own lips, that any +portion of the Cabinet have advocated any scheme fraught with danger and +injustice to the best interests of the country: nor shall we indulge in +any conjecture as to the real nature of the policy that may have been +under discussion, where conjecture must be so vague, and where it must +so soon give place to authentic information. We shall merely say, that +any measure calculated to place agriculture and industry generally, in a +disadvantageous and defenceless position, must have met with our +unfactious, but firm, opposition. If ever the day should come, when +protection, by common consent, were to be withdrawn, truth compels us to +declare, that there is no one by whose hand we should desire to see that +painful and dangerous operation performed so much as Sir Robert +Peel;--not because we should be insensible to all the awkward and +painful embarrassments of such a change of course; but simply, because +we are bound to say, that there is no other man of whose knowledge, +skill, and sagacity we have the same opinion. By none we think could the +fall be so much broken, or the transition made so smooth, or so little +injurious. Certain it is, that a measure of total and immediate +abolition _from the Whigs, incompetent and incapable as they have been +proved_, would be a calamity of which the magnitude can scarcely be +estimated by the most gloomy imagination. We are far, however, from +contemplating the necessity or possibility of such a policy from any +Ministry whatever. + +We take our stand upon the principle of protection to national +agriculture and industry, in the existing and peculiar circumstances of +the country. We do not love restrictions for their own sake, or desire +any protection by which nothing is to be protected. But we think that +protection is demanded by the exigencies of the whole community, and to +that extent and on that ground we advocate its preservation for the +general good. We shall not enquire at present how far the amount or the +form of that protection may be modified. That may no doubt be a varying +question, of which the discussion is to be controlled only by the grave +consideration that its too frequent agitation is a great evil, as +inevitably unsettling important rights and arrangements. But if it be +thought that the rapid progress of events in this railway age admits or +requires a relaxation or re-construction of existing restrictions, we +are prepared candidly to consider any specific plan that may be tabled, +and to weigh deliberately the amount and kind of protection that may now +be necessary to preserve our _status quo_, having regard to the +facilities of transit, the discoveries of science, the progress of +improvement, the increase of population, the abundance of money, and any +other elements which may be alleged as to a certain extent emerging +since the last adjustment of the scale, and having special regard also +to _any alteration in the distribution of taxation_ which may accompany +the proposal for such change. We do not see our way to such a change. We +do not recognise its necessity; but we think it unbecoming the position +occupied by those who concur in our principles to offer a blind or +bigoted resistance to any discussion of a practical matter, which must +always depend greatly on surrounding circumstances and complex +calculations. Far less shall we here enquire whether the time is soon or +is ever to arrive when all protection is to cease. In politics, as in +other things, the absolute words of "always" or "never" are rarely to be +spoken. It is sufficient for us to say, that the period when such a +revolution ought to take place has not as yet been presented to our +minds as an object of present and practical contemplation. + +Let us unite, then, in support of these national principles with a calm, +candid, and temperate firmness, demanding a just and fair protection, +_so far_ and _so long_ as it is needed to keep our soil in cultivation, +and to foster those improvements, which cannot be carried on without the +prospect of a due return, and by means of which alone, _if ever_, the +necessity of protection may be superseded, or its amount diminished. Let +us oppose any rash or undue alteration, from whatever quarter it may +come; but, above all, let us resist to the uttermost the attempts of +selfish Leaguers and the more reckless portion of the Whigs, whose +interested or unprincipled policy would overlook all those large and +deep-seated considerations, which in every view require so much +management, and such nice computation, before any thing can be done in +so momentous a matter as the _providing permanently for a nation's +food_, and the development of a nation's resources with a due regard to +those various interests which seem often to be conflicting, but which, +in a just point of perspective, are ultimately identical. + +Our pain in contemplating the loss of one ministry, is not alleviated by +our anticipation of the ministry that is expected to succeed. The rash +and presumptuous man who has been called to take office, does not +possess, and his character, so far as hitherto known, is not calculated +to command, the confidence of the British nation. We could not look back +upon the crude projects and unscrupulous practices by which the last +Whig ministry disgraced their office and endangered their country, +without a feeling of the deepest alarm--if we believed it possible that +a repetition of them would now be tolerated. What is to be the character +and course of our new rulers? Independently of the corn-laws, what is +to be their policy as to Ireland, as to foreign affairs, as to domestic +finance? Is the Popish Church to be endowed in the sister kingdom? or is +the Protestant Establishment to be overthrown? Is repeal to be openly +patronized, or only covertly connived at? Is Lord Palmerston to be let +loose on our relations with other powers, and to embroil us, before six +months are over, in a quarrel with France and a war with America? Is our +revenue to be supported to the level of our expenditure, or is a growing +deficiency to be permitted to accumulate, till our credit is crippled, +and our character branded with almost Pensylvanian notoriety? Is the +country prepared for such enormities as these, or for the risk of their +being attempted? We hope not: we think not. We feel assured that the +very contemplation of their possibility, would make the nation rise in a +mass, and eject the imbecile impostors who have already been so +patiently tried, and so miserably found wanting. + +Then, as to the corn-laws, is the new minister to adhere to his last +manifesto, or has he used it merely as a lever for opposition purposes, +to be laid aside, like some implement of housebreaking, when an entry +into the premises has been effected? That attempt will scarcely be +tolerated by his own supporters. Then how is he to carry his measure? +With the present House of Commons, he cannot hope to do so, nor can he +entertain that anticipation from any dissolution, except one carried on +under such circumstances of unprincipled agitation, _as would convulse +the country, and prove fatal to commercial credit and prosperity_. + +But suppose he had the power, how would he use it? Would his measure be +such as would immediately throw any considerable portion of land out of +cultivation? That seems to be the hinging point of this corn-law +question; and it is one on which the "total and immediate" men are more +evasive, _in public discussion_, than on any other, though privately +such of them as understand the subject, are fully aware of its bearings. +If the proposed scheme would _not_ attain or involve the result of +throwing inferior soils out of culture, what good would it do to the +League and their friends? For, strange to say, when the matter is probed +to the bottom, the battle for which the League are truly fighting is +directed to _the great national end of laying waste inferior land_. It +is only by lowering rents and prices that they expect benefit, yet it is +as clear as day that rents are dependent on the comparative value of the +highest and lowest grades of the land in tillage; and if prices fall, +those lands that barely pay at the present rates must cease to be +cultivated. Read any of the more open and outspoken repealers. Take up +the little tales of Miss Martineau, one of the most able and honest of +her sect, and see how completely the object is to get rid of the expense +attending the cultivation of inferior land. If that object is not +attained by total and immediate repeal the whole discussion is a +delusion. But if Lord John's proposed measures _will_ throw lands out of +cultivation, to a large extent, what provision is to be made to avert +the inevitable evils that must ensue? How is the surplus population to +be supported that will thus be thrown loose on the market of labour? How +are the burdens to be provided for that the land thus disabled has +hitherto borne? Are the imposts on agriculture to increase while its +returns are to diminish? or is the old Whig expedient to be resorted to, +of raising that very tax which they have resisted and denounced? Are all +customs-duties to be abolished, and is the deficiency to be supplied by +having the property-tax aggravated to whatever multiple the account may +require? What safeguards or palliatives are to be devised to prevent the +PANIC likely to ensue from so vast and so sudden a revolution; in which, +under the instant diminution of rents and precariousness of prices, +every mortgagee will be driven in desperation to recur upon his debtor, +and every landlord upon his tenant; while the whole landed interest, +high and low, though chiefly, no doubt, the middle and smaller +proprietors and tenants, will be compelled to curtail their expenses to +the lowest sum, and those who have already but a narrow margin of +surplus, be reduced to beggary and ruin. + +But would this confusion and distress affect the landed interest alone? +No; the same alarm which involved that interest in ruin, would soon +extend to manufactures, by striking at their foundation, CREDIT. +Already, from a singular and unhappy combination of causes, a period of +restricted circulation and of high interest for money, has begun to +follow on one of unlimited accommodation: distrust seems ready to take +the place of confidence: gigantic schemes in progress are paralysed or +threatened with abandonment: the country appears to be trembling on the +brink of one of those commercial crises which from time to time, and +unavoidably, arise out of the spirit of speculation. Let but this +additional element of confusion--the distress of the agricultural +classes, _and all that depend upon them_--be thrown into the already +wavering scale, and who can pretend to estimate the amount of ruin which +a week may produce? The paradise of free-trade in corn may indeed be +obtained, but it will be reached through the purgatory of a general +bankruptcy. + +But is free-trade to be confined to corn? Are the agriculturists alone +to be deprived of protection, the manufacturing interests retaining the +advantage of those protecting duties which exclude the competition of +foreign markets? That is plainly impracticable. The silk, the wool, the +iron, the manufactures of the Continent--the "main articles of _food and +clothing_," according to Lord John Russell's letter--are also to be +admitted into our markets at rates with which native industry cannot +contend. Is this likely to raise wages, or to keep them as they are? +Will it better the condition of the working classes? Or is the condition +even of the higher classes in the mercantile circles to be made more +comfortable by that immediate increase of the income-tax, which must be +imposed, to balance the loss of revenue arising from the deficiency of +our customs, if national faith is to be preserved, or the government of +the country conducted. In every view of the case, and to every interest +in the state, we believe that absolute free-trade, such as appears to be +contemplated by the late leader of the Whigs, would be fraught with +ruin. The letting loose of such a storm upon the State, _with the hand +of Lord John Russell to hold the helm_, is a contingency from which we +believe the very boldest will draw back. + +But we feel no apprehension of such a result. There is now no democracy +to be fooled into a new excitement in favour of a Whig ministry, or to +be cheated by a cry of cheap bread, counteracted as it must be by the +contemplation of lower wages, and an increased competition in the +labour-market. The middle classes, again, and all who have any thing to +lose, are too wise to hazard the prosperity of the last four years, by +supporting the men to whose ejection from office that prosperity is +attributable. + +We should, at the same time, act with a want of candour and frankness +towards our agricultural friends, if we did not direct their attention +to another aspect of the case. If it be true, contrary to our own hopes +and convictions, that repeal is inevitable, _every thing depends_ on the +TIME and MANNER of effecting it. There is a inestimable value attending +every year of continued protection that can yet be gained. Even a +comparatively short period might be of infinite importance in completing +those great improvements now in progress, which will raise the available +fertility of so large a portion of our soil, but which must instantly +stop, if protection be suddenly withdrawn. It is not in our power to see +far into futurity, but every delay is precious, as enabling us better to +meet the demands of public necessity, and to stand a competition with +foreign soils, if that competition must ultimately be entered upon +without legislative aid. How infinite, too, the difference of any change +produced WITH A PANIC, and WITHOUT ONE! There may be various +arrangements, moreover, which, if boldly and equitably made, might +possibly go to place our protection on a footing nearly as firm, and not +so likely to be assailed. On all this, however, we suspend our judgment +for the present, remarking merely that we are not prepared to quit our +present amount and plan of protection without DEMONSTRATION that we +cannot fairly or prudently retain it. + +In the meantime let us hope and struggle for the best, for the +maintenance either of the present law, or of a scale substantially +equivalent. If that fails us, let us aim at the _next best_ arrangement; +and by a firm and temperate course, we need not at least despair of +averting that overwhelming confusion and wide destruction of property +that would inevitably follow from the nostrums of desperate and +designing men, devised and conducted with an equal absence of wisdom and +of honesty. + +A single word of earnest admonition in conclusion. The next few months +or weeks must decide one important practical question, which we think +has been unfolding itself silently before the minds of considerate men +for the last few years, and which, whether they will or no, men of all +opinions must weigh well, with the deliberation due to their own safety +and self-interest, and with that freedom from personal pique or party +spirit which the emergency demands. We are far from pinning our faith to +individual characters, or thinking that the welfare of the state can be +wrapped up in the fortunes or progress of a single mind. But still the +question will recur, whether, in the existing state of the country, and +when all circumstances are balanced together, Sir Robert Peel is not the +statesman of the day, as being at once the _most Conservative_ and the +_most Liberal_ minister whom the opposite and conflicting forces in +operation in this great country are likely to suffer or submit to. He +may not be so tenacious of certain points as some would wish, or so +lavish of concession as may be wished by others. But we speak of him on +the one hand as witnesses to the fact, that his past measures, though +calculated to excite apprehension, have been found, _by experience_, to +carry with them no detriment to agriculture, or to any other great +interest in the country; and, on the other hand, in the confident +anticipation that nothing has recently occurred in his proposed course, +that will not, in due time, be fully and satisfactorily explained. With +these views of Sir Robert Peel's conduct, we cannot avoid asking, +whether when we take him all in all, and appeal to the standard of +practical good sense and prudence which wisdom will alone employ in such +a momentous discussion, there is any other man now in the field, or +likely to appear, to whom all parties can look so confidently, as an +equitable and safe arbitrator of our national differences? If there is +such a man, let him be pointed out. Sure we are that it is _not_ Lord +John Russell. + +We had written thus far, in the belief that the Whigs, though after some +coy, reluctant, amorous delay, would succeed in forming a sort of +government--a task which we were sure Lord John Russell would attempt. +That result seems now more than doubtful, and we close this article in +the anticipation that a Conservative cabinet may possibly be again in +power, before these pages meet the eyes of our readers. We rejoice at +the prospect, and the country will rejoice. _Good measures from good +men_ is the best consummation of political well-doing, as it is certain +that _dangerous measures from dangerous and desperate men_, is the most +fearful political evil. In any view our friends have a plain course. It +is, to adhere to their principles with a firm, yet prudent, +determination of purpose--to hope and believe the best of their leaders +and party--and to await patiently, and receive candidly, the elucidation +of those things that have hitherto been a mystery; and, as to which, as +it was impossible to make any explanations, so it was unjust to +pronounce a decision. We earnestly pray that, whether in power or in +opposition, the meeting of Parliament will see among our great +Conservative statesmen, and their followers throughout the country, +including the new adherents whom the rashness and recklessness of our +opponents have necessarily gained for us, that solid union of opinion +and vigorous co-operation of action, on safe and sound principles of +legislation, which can alone terminate the CRISIS and avert its +recurrence. + + * * * * * + +_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne & Hughes, Paul's Work._ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +59, No. 363, January, 1846, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1846 *** + +***** This file should be named 28532.txt or 28532.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/3/28532/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. 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